A Refreshed and Rejuvenated Mom

I am a new woman! This weekend, we went up north to a cabin with two other couples and NO KIDS. It was our first time leaving Kaylin and my mom's first time having both kids for more than a few hours. Everyone did well, Ryan didn't even seem to miss us (He just confidently said, "Mommy and Daddy will be home on Sunday after my nap," in a "So what's the big deal?" tone.) and I don't think Kaylin knew we were gone until we returned home. She was so excited to see us; you could see the little lightbulb go off like, "There you are!!! I knew something was missing around here!"

So here's the crazy thing: I had looked forward to this weekend for months and I spent hours planning and packing what I would bring with me to scrapbook. For me, scrapbooking is therapeutic and that's how I wanted to relax on my weekend off. Then, the week before the trip, my allergies started acting up. That turned into a sinus infection, which lead to a sore throat, which resulted in 3 days of laryngitis. Thursday was day 1 and Friday we left for our trip.

Not being able to speak was torture! We carpooled with our friends for 2 hours to get to the cabin and the pressure from the supressed laughter made me tear up the whole time. My lack of voice didn't stop everyone from cracking jokes and having a good time. In fact, Mike suddenly came out of his shell and had everyone roaring. I went through a dozen tissues or more because I was silently laughing so hard, I was crying. It was like my body had to get the energy out SOMEhow. I just sat in the back of the van, whispering to my interpretter - a mute.

The weekend was perfect - we went on long walks in the woods every day, napped whenever we felt like it, read magazines, played games, watched movies and scrapbooked for hours on end. The guys played basketball, played some strategy games and watched 6-8 manly movies like Braveheart, Tombstone and We Were Soldiers. It was the most relaxed I've been in years. I feel so refreshed...I'm a new woman and a better mom than when I left last week!