I was tempted to name this post “The Odyssey, Part III”, but “How boring!”, I thought, so I choose “Back Home”–a lot more fun. I’m being sarcastic, in case you haven’t noticed, but my mind is not working very well this morning, even though last night was the first time I got 8 hours of sleep, not uninterrupted because Chubbers woke up at 2:30, and I remember thinking, “And I’ve been just going to bed at this time every night! Crazy!” I’m a night owl, and so is Jeff. I love staying up drinking mate, and reading, and taking care of things that are better done with the kids sleeping, such as, cleaning, folding laundry, unpacking. Yes, I unpacked everything already, and it’s such a relief! Please, next time you know I’m going shopping, remind me that, thanks goodness, my kids have way more clothes and toys that they can already wear or play with. Remind me of this if I’m going shopping for either clothes or toys. Books are a different story. We brought a lot with us, and I had a couple waiting for me here at home. Also, the new issue of Mothering Magazine was here, and believe it or not, I’m so immersed reading “Becoming the Parent you Want to Be”, that I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.
Going back to the trip, it was long (not the flight, that was only 3 long hours), especially the drive to St. Louis, considering that the car is our smaller, and we had all four kids, 4 bursting pieces of luggage, several totes that I smuggled into the car seat bags (car seats were free on that airline), and the stroller. The stroller we had to strap to the car roof. We must have not secured it well, because 2 minutes into the freeway it flapped, and we had to stop to fix it. Have you ever stopped on the freeway side (for the life of me, I can’t recall how that area is called, sorry)? the trucks went so fast, whistling their thunder inches from my beloved Jeff, and I saw him ran over in my mind. I was shaking went I went back to the car. Picturing life without him made me cry. “How do i tell your mom?!” I asked him. He just said, “Let’s be happy, OK?” And I tried, but I was really sad about leaving him. He got a companion ticket and went all the way up to the airplane gate with me. “How did I ever do this by myself, on my way here?” I kept thinking.
The flight was OK, long in the sense that none of the kids slept, and I was so tired! My older two were sitting right in front of me, and I could hear them telling this lady who sat by them all about our lives, our trip, their dad, the dogs, the house. At the end I overheard Swan say, “How I wish you could see our yard! It’s so beautiful!”
Our yard is indeed beautiful. The plants are terribly overgrown, blocking our view from the front door, but there are flowers everywhere, and we have a family of hummingbirds who fly around my children while they play.
The children ran all over the house, playing with their toys, laying on their beds, babying the dogs. The dogs were dirty, filthy, smelly, disgusting. Dandi even had chewing gum stuck on her coat. On Monday I called the groomer, and they had a two week waiting list, but i explained the situation, and they took them in yesterday. Now, they smell good, and are so pretty! Both of them, even Coco loco.
I promised Jeff I would post pictures of the house so he can see it in full bloom, but I’ll do that later today or tomorrow.
For now, I’ll just link this test that I saw over at Beck’s website. See Jeff? You have a pretty good wife! Take the test and let me know what score you got? OK?

	116 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!