Whew! What a week! (ok, 2 weeks)

Ok, I haven't been on, and I feel like I am totally failing on my goal to blog at least 4 days a week... aw well, all you can do is move forward!

A funny story that I HAVE to write down so I will remember it for always.

A few days ago, ok, maybe it was more than a few days ago, I think it was actually last week sometime, well, it would have had to be the beginning of the week because we were gone from Tuesday till Friday ( more about that later ;) anyway, " a few days ago"... I was sitting in the livingroom with Beans, watching some TV, Handsome Hubby had gotten up to check on the woodstove.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see something scamper across my floor! It ran from the schoolroom door and scampered towards the basement steps. Then I lost sight of it. * sidenote-I can't STAND mice, those stupid little things can make me scream and jump on the nearest elevated surface! -"EEKK!!!!" the word explodes out of my mouth as my feet are instantly pulled off the floor and onto the couch, and I gather my blanket and flip it onto the couch, out of harms way, because we ALL know that mice can cause ALOT of harm! ... I look at Beans, "DID YOU SEE THAT?!?!" ~Beans exclaims, "WHAT was THAT?!?!" Icontemplate my next move, what am I to do?! I can NOT look like a total and complete wimp to my oldest daughter, I can NOT let a little creature get the best of me and have me cowering on the couch! So. ~I very slowly put my feet back on the floor, very slowly stand up, and VERY slowly creep over to the end of the couch, I peek around the corner of the couch to see if anything was moving by the basement steps, ( by the way, all the lights are off, there is only one lamp on in the livingroom and the glow from the tv somewhat illuminates the room, but really, only sends deep shadows, so I can be more creeped out ). Then all of a sudden I see this little ball of fur scamper full speed into the porch, so I SCREAM and jump around like a woman posessed!!! There goes the idea of me trying to show Beans that I am not a total wimp, and that I am NOT scared of the harmless little creature. Then I realize that Handsome Hubby and Beans are not frantically looking for the nasty litle creature that puts such fear in my heart, they are not trying to protect me from said creature, nope, I look at them and see that they are doubled over with laughter, really, they are laughing so hard they have tears running down their cheeks. "I DON'T SEE WHAT IS SO FUNNY!" I yell at them.

Then I notice that Handsome Hubby is holding this little ball of fur in his one hand, what I thought was a little ball of fur, and a fishing reel in the other hand... as all the details filtered thru my terrified mind, I see that, IF I had been paying attention I would have noticed Beans trying to smoother her giggles as I am urgently asking her "DID YOU SEE THAT?!"and pulling my feet onto the couch, and it occured to me that with all my screaming, Handsome Hubby didn't come running to protect his precious wife, as something must have been drastically WRONG for her to be screaming like that! hmmm, then I think to earlier in the evening when...

as I was finishing up Alexis' shawl, tucking in all the tails and trimming them, Handsome Hubby was gathering the loose strands of yarn (what would become the "ball of fur" ) and kinda just twirling them around in his hand, throwing them up in the air, catching them, twirling them some more... I didn't think anything of it, and continued to work on what I was doing with Alexis' shawl. Then he wandered downstairs and was rummaging around in the storeroom, he came back empty handed ( so I thought ), but had a smirk on his face. He called Beans into the porch, then she (nonchalantly) wandered into the schoolroom, paused, turned around and came back and sat down on the other couch... yep, it all became clear to me. He had gone downstairs and took apart one of his fishing poles, he coerced our oldest daughter to help him out with his evil plan and she gladly complied, no, she gladly became his accomplice, his accomplce to help him carry out this evil plan that he had been cooking up for 3 hrs!!! Both of them need to be punished. It will happen, when they least expect it... BBAAAMM!! I will have my vengence!!
* cue the creepy music and evil laughter* Someday, when they least expect it, I WILL get back at them!!

~ OK , I hope you got a laugh out of that, now I ca look back at it and I cannot keep the laughter bottled up, but don't tell THEM that~ I am still waiting for the perfect time to carryout my vengence.

On to other things, we were able to get away for 4 days and head up to Duluth with the Brat Pack!! That was the one thing all of them had asked for for Christmas. As they didn't get any gifts under the tree, we had decided that we would DO something with them for their Christmas gift. I got ahold of one of our friends, (she works at a hotel) and asked her if we could get a FF discount, so we texted back and forth for a couple days, getting all the details ironed out and reservations made. Then Beans ( she figured it out when I was texting said friend) anyways, Beans helped me get the BP's bag packed, the swim bag packed, and the truck loaded up the night before. Then in the morning she helped me pack up a lunch and snacks for the week. We told the other kids that we were headng to St Cloud for the day, as we got closer to St Cloud, we couldn't keep it quiet any longer and told all of the kids where we were REALLY going, after the cheering and excitement wore off a little bit, we realized that Baby Sister was quietly crying in the back. When asked what was wrong, she answered, "I don't have my Monkey!!!!" :'( Of course, Beans, being the AMAZING big sister that she is, had thought ahead and had smuggled Monkey out of Baby Sister's bed and into the back of the truck while Baby Sister was in the bathroom :) Disaster averted! I LOVE MY BEANS!!! We enjoyed our 4 days away. Hiked Gooseberry Falls ( if you haven't seen the North Shore in the winter, you don't know what you are missing! ), drove along the North Shore, stopped and picniked on some rocks along the shores of Lake Superior. The BP spent the evenings playing in the hotel pool. Handsome Hubby and I enjoyed quiet nights sitting on the couch, gazing at the beautiful lake and talking till 2 in the morning.
It is always great to get away for a few days, especially during the long MN winter, but it is also nice when you get back home and the kids can spread out more. After 7 people crammed in 1 hotel room, we tend to appreciate our little house even more.

So that is some of what we have been up to in the last couple weeks, I need to finish getting my cinnamon rolls prepped for breakfast tomorrow, and get my baking dishes washed so Blue Eyes doesn't get upset with me in the morning, which she would if she saw her clean kitchen destroyed and a mountain of dishes waiting for her.