Well, I am mid volleyball season and barely have time to breathe, yet here I am typing when I should be practice planning/laundry folding/picking up toys/ wiping down dirt/ starting another load...you get the point.  Nothing like the anything-but-that frame of mind.

Wayne has headed out for his third week away.  I've been mum up to this point, not wanting to whine, nor wanting to let the world know that we females are alone with only a drooly lab to protect us.  Well, the cats too, though I'm not counting on them to help in any strategic defense.  I will warn you that I sleep with a knife nearby and my Mama Bear instincts are ferocious.  Anyhow, Wayne is in Jersey for 4-6(looks like 6 right now) weeks for training.  We both work in glass manufacturing, specifically scientific lab ware.  It's cool in a How It's Made kind of way but can be monotonous.  Opportunities to travel are very far and few between so it's great that he has this opportunity.

Not so great is that it is smack in the heart of my season, a time when typically I'm the one whose gone all the time and he feels like a single parent.  Now we both are gone and Gran and Pop are picking up the slack with some help from Aunt Tia.  Mon-Wed, almost the entire 72 hours is like a mad rush of mixed responsibilities.  Thursday and Fridays are my days off so I catch a little break there.  He gets to come home on Thursday nights arriving around 9ish and heads out early Sunday afternoon.

There are good things....hold on while I try to remember what they are...well, the girls do s.kype with him every night, a few times a night.  That has been great so they can stay connected.  Plus, we seem to put a greater effort into family time on the weekends since he is not with us the rest of the time.  And it makes Thursdays a really happy day.

All you single parents out there, I don't know how you do it and not fall over from exhaustion.  I can do it, as we all know, you do what you have to do.  But doing it alone isn't as much fun.  And Willa came down with a fever this weekend that will hopefully not, but likely will, spread to the other 2.  I got my flu shot early this year( for those of you who remember, I had the flu(swine) last year during sectional finals).  And promptly after that, started feeling the onset of a cold.  I usually pick one up once a season, but truly feel like I do not have time for it this year.

We are so busy that I really have little time to bust out the camera.   So here are some pics from our recent past that haven't had any mention as yet...

Elizabeth and Ben Leman, our dear cousins from Virginia, came up for a brief visit to take some furniture back with Elizabeth who will be living off-campus this year.  Whatever the reason, we were happy to see them:)

We went to a good friends 2 yr. old birthday party where these cupcakes were served in leu of cake.  How cool are they?!?!

And I snapped this lovely pic of my eldest lovely there too.  Something about the lighting and her simple smile makes me love, love, love it.  She's looking a little less little girl by the day, though still able to fit into her sneakers she wore last Fall, but they're tight:)