Quick Getaway

Here is why I am a terrible person: while my sister was in town for a whole week, I took advantage of the opportunity for free babysitting, and G and I left Shae (and my fancy camera) with her for a few hours so we could quick sneak out and see "Harry Potter." And the part I feel worst about? Is that I couldn't bring myself to try to stretch the outing into dinner and a movie. It was Black Friday, people. There are crazies out there. But we needed a small break from all the family togetherness, because COME ON. These kids are go-go-go all the time, as small children are wont to be.

Evidently there was some vitally important yardwork that needed to get done at my parents' house. Meanwhile, I think I might have a yard under the piles of leaves in the front and back of the house. The only kind of domestic business that got done at my place over the course of our time off was a thorough bathroom cleaning, complete with new shower curtain liners and new thumbtacks holding the wallpaper to the sheetrock. And my husband did that while I was at my other sister's baby shower on Saturday. (I didn't even bring him home a piece of cake!)

And in between all the running around and bubble-mowing and wagoneering and whatever the hell else the kids were doing, they still found time to go get their picture taken with Santa (which I will post later, as soon as I either scan the pics or get the digital file from my sister) and managed to pose for outdoor magic-hour soft-lighting glamour shots, which -- let's face it, they're better than mine. That camera is made of magic, for serious.

Now Joey is back in Chicago and we won't see him in person again until sometime around Christmas, which is a bummer, because that kid has the most perfect head ever, totally blonde and soft and smells-good and melonious (a word I made up, meaning "like a melon"). Shae is distraught and she didn't want to go to school today -- she blamed it on the cold (only 25°F this morning, brrr!), but I know it's because she's bummed that her partner in crime is on the lam.

Me? I'm hoping for another quick getaway soon, but this time I'm going to the library or something, because after six days of nonstop shenanigans, I could really use a nap.