Back to Reality

I've got dreams on the brain. Dreams and - given this past week - waking up from them.

We went to see Inception last night. Loved it. Layered plot, stunning (yet somehow unobtrusive) special effects, and enough cheekbones/three-piece suit prettiness from some of my favourite actors to elicit significant swoonage.

(Aside: Movies in the theatre really aren't my best. I go for the ones that require big screen viewing, but I spend most of the movie tense that someone around me will start talking or crunching their popcorn loudly during crucial scenes [oh, The Husband. I am so looking at you] or will laugh too loudly at a not-so-funny joke.

Yesterday there was this hissssssssing noise in my left ear that I initially blamed on a crackly speaker until I realized that the guy one seat over had some sort of medical device in a backpack that was running. So I grumpily acceded his constant need for some sort of life-saving potion, and settled back into my seat with my hand cupped over my left ear to block the sound waves from that direction.

[Still, though. He COULD have sat on the aisle. If I had a hissing medical device that needed to accompany me to a movie, I'd like to think I'd be careful about putting it next to someone who paid a bazillion dollars to be there and is looking at me and my friends suspiciously trying to ascertain whether our boisterous joking will end after the previews as she tries to consume her weight in popcorn.])

Anyway, the reason I'm even able to go to the theatre as opposed to my personal viewing palace (i.e., my basement) is because my Littlekins are rocking it up with their grandparents this week and next. We've called them a couple of times and they are all giggly and breathless and wild and falling over each other trying to be the first to report on the day's events. The Boy keeps calling me "Grandma" and then starts laughing at himself and has to start his sentence over.

Having no kids this week was definitely a good thing, as it helped make that dreams-to-reality transition from vacation to work a smidgen easier. Not easy, of course. This was one of my worst "back-to-work" weeks ever, I'll admit. Chicago with the kids was so much fun, and then Vegas with my hubby and some BFFs was so very, very good.

It also doesn't help that I got back to a pile of "back-to-school" letters and notifications or that the mornings are dark and crisp. You can feel fall in the air. Usually this gets me excited, but I'm just not ready for summer to be over yet. The past three months have flown by so much faster than any other summer, and it feels like we just got started.

But I've got one more week, I guess. I suppose this is that last few minutes of a dream, where you know it's a dream, and you know the alarm will go off, and there's something niggling at you about a deadline at work that you'd been successfully ignoring until now, but until then you are going to squeeze your eyes tight and try to stay out of reality for just one more minute.

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One Down, One To Go

And one night at Hotel PM in between.

Got back from our family vacation yesterday. We had a FAB-yoo-luss time - hit a water park and then a theme park on our way and then spent three days touring downtown Chicago, maxing out The Boy's museum-attending abilities along the way.

Strolling Michigan Ave. and chowing down on loot from the Hershey Store.

Astonishing - the thickness of the deep dish pizza. More astonishing - the kids each ate TWO pieces (and pronounced the Super Vegi to be "totally awesome" - broccoli and all).

Playing in the colour room at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Standing on a glass floor 103 stories above the city. (Heh - The Husband can't get on it. His brain goes into self-defense mode and he literally can't move his feet over the edge.)

Eating at Ed's.

Splashing in Millenium Park.

Lost in legs.

Family portrait a la Bean

Getting ready to ride

Post-ride soakage

Fortunately, it was a very hot day. It only took us 2 hours to dry off.

Water is so much more fun when you are actually wearing your bathing suit.

In short, a good time was had by all. The Husband gets a Big Star embossed with real 24-karat gold foil for his hard work in planning our itinerary/booking hotels/finding astonishingly good local breakfast places/saving us $130 and a massive traffic headache by figuring out a way for us to leave our car at a park and ride and take the train into the city.

The kids get similar stars for being extremely well-behaved on very little sleep and with very tired legs from walking miles each day. .

And I get a big gold star, too. Just because.

Last night we stayed in our own beds enroute from Chicago to Manitoba, where we will drop off our kids for two fun-filled weeks at "Grandma's Farm" later today. Then it's back home for the two grown-ups via a super fantabulous weekend in Las Vegas with some BFFs.

Onward and upward - off to pack the two loads of laundry I did last night back into the suitcases and head off for round two.

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Only 95 Hours and 8 Minutes To Go

Confession time: I have gone into my Outlook calendar at work at least twice each day for the past two weeks for the sole purpose of setting it to week-at-a-glance view and looking at next week.

Why next week?

Because August 16-23 just so happens to be all in purple.

Why in purple?

Because purple = out of office.

I can't remember ever wanting lusting after needing a vacation this bad. Not quite sure why, although my guess is that there is both carrot and stick involved here.

The stick is the crazy of the past month. The Husband's been gone almost as much as he's been here, and it's been a whirlwind. Actually, if I stop and think about it, I'd say that we've been in a whirlwind since last September. In some ways, I blame the school system (hello, Homework!), but I also blame myself (hello, trying to do too much with too little!). I'm working towards changing that, but that is another post for another day.

The carrot is the anticipation of a really fantastic time with my family. I have amazing memories of last year's trip. It's not just the golden glow of selective recollections of only the good times. I distinctly remember thinking, "wow, I have never been this relaxed on a family vacation before."

As the kids get older, certain things become so very much easier. (Certain things become so very much harder, but that, too, is another post for another day.) My kids are a heckuva lot of fun to be around, and that just gets better every day. They're always making me laugh.

Even better, they're old enough to be trusted to know where the limits are and stay within them (well, most of the time). I can actually look up at the scenery when we're out and about, rather than always keeping my head bent downwards to ensure I keep little ones about to take off always within reach. They're excited by what we show them and actively contribute to our enjoyment level.

Altogether, it's a mighty cocktail that leads to much clockwatching and impatient foot-tapping even as I pale a bit when I see the list of things to do before we go. But at least I'm not The Husband. He's on part 32 of 473 of the "let's change the brakes on one car and the shocks on the other one and maybe I'll do your headlight, too, just for the fun of it."

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Whoops! There Went July...

You know how in the old-school movies when they want to show time passing, they focus in on one of these page-a-day calendars and one page peels off and then another and then another and then another, going faster and faster and faster until it's just a blur and soon you can't even see the individual days flying off and one month appears only to be immediately replaced by the next one?

Yeah.

July was supposed to be a quieter month for us. The only things on the calendar were a couple of soccer games and a few piano lessons. With the kids in their summer program and me not needing to race home to meet the school bus, my days were going to much looser, with time to bike and take leisurely lunch breaks strolling through the farmer's market. No homework and longer daylight would mean lingering over supper and lots of time to play outside.

Again...yeah.

The big wrench in the gears (or "spanner in the works" as they say across the pond - one of my new favourite sayings) was The Husband's unexpected and rather intense travel schedule. I'd say that the Holiday Inn and I are about even-steven right now for who gets him at night. He left last Sunday on his most recent jaunt, thinking maybe Wednesday he'd be back.

Yeah.

(I've learned not to hold my breath, even when an actual return ticket is booked. Right now we're targeting tomorrow night, but don't think I don't have a kids movie and popcorn up my sleeve just in case.)

We've also been trying to fit in various appointments. Which? I think I won't do anymore. I think I'll just bury my head in the sand and not go to anything health or dental related, since this is the thanks I get:

- Routine doctor's appointment = "Hmm, his heart murmur that I said was nothing last time? Well, I can really hear it now. Here's the number for a pediatric cardiologist. Oh, and his lungs are functioning at 70% capacity. If you don't step up the Flovent, he will have this forever."

- Routine orthodontic consultation = "We're looking at an 18-month treatment course for phase 1 that will include the expander, the head gear, and the braces. Of course, there will be another round of braces for phase 2 when he's 14, but we'll talk about that later."

Seriously - head gear?! I didn't know they even did that anymore. Also, from today's follow-up appointment: "I'm going to request that we extract those two baby teeth. But only in the fall, so don't worry about it for now."

(And yes, I've also heard the words "already surpassed his lifetime orthodontic maximum." But, hey, at least we have dental insurance - otherwise he'd be shoeless on the first day of school.)

Of course, since I'm single-mom-ing it and working full-time/feeding children/dropping off/picking up/driving to the orthodontist/enforcing piano practicing/doing laundry/cleaning juuuuust enough to keep Family Services at bay tends to be a tad time-consuming, my running has fallen totally by the wayside. Sigh - I was really hoping to keep it up. But I'll get back into it...sometime.

BUT! We aren't just busy because of stupid things. We're busy because of awesome things, too!

We had some great Canadian visitors this past weekend, and they gave us an excuse to go to the zoo and to the children's museum. The museum has a special Wizard of Oz exhibit this summer, so I'll give you one guess as to who was skipping and vibrating with excitement when she got her admission sticker.

(Hint: Not anyone under 30.)

Riding away with Toto - she looks just like Miss Gulch, doesn't she?

Hanging out in the rooftop garden.

Apparently I ordered Stir-Fry with Croissants.

Somewhere Over Under the Rainbow

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