and then it was next saturday

Whoa.  How did this happen?  Just a minute ago I was back from hot, humid, but still interesting Omaha, back to my gardens and Jack and Jr and bonus! the Californians had joined us here while I was away.

And now, now it's a week later.  They left early this morning.  Yes, there has been weeping--at least from my eyes.

But.  What a week it's been.  Perhaps that should have ended with ! 

This wasn't the usual visit though.  See, I had to go to work every day until Friday.  Sucks, right?  There are little girl voices in my house and I'm not there?  What planet is this?

But.  They had people to see besides me (seriously?  how can this be, right?)  So they came back here to home base as it were each evening, sometimes earlier, sometimes later, but each night I got kisses and hugs and tales of the day's activities before bed.

And Thursday, we had a sleepover.  All of the cousins came together and all but one stayed through the entire night.  And the one who went home before breakfast stayed quite late before she needed to go home with her daddy who was also here assembling a model aircraft, which is the latest hobby around these parts for the menfolk--model airplane building and flying.  Or crashing and repairing and flying.  

Yesterday, the morn after the sleepover began with pancakes and marshmallow mateys.  There was playing pretend and playing computer games and much playing inside and outside.  There was nearly no sadness but much sharing and giggling and probably large consumptions of orange soda and root beer and cheetos and doritos and perhaps ginormous marshmallows and/or oreos.  We also had grapes to try to include some nutritional content in the menu.  Some may have even eaten pb&j sandwiches and shepherd's pie at some point during the day or night yesterday.  Of course, there was swimming in the cold pool and splashing in the hot tub.  And I think I remember viewings of that Nemo movie, a couple of golden oldies from Sesame Street, and maybe even a few episodes of Dora or Diego or both.  The locals bid farewell to the Californians without too many tears and later, the day ended with all three of the Californians snuggled together on my lap in my big rocker recliner as one by one, they either dropped off to sleep or appeared ready to do so, at which point, their parents gathered them up and carefully plopped them into their beds for the night.

See, this is what's been happening around here:

 Hair a'flyin'

 See the signs of cheetos and orange soda and oreos?

 This amazing girl not only has three kids, is growing another (eek! a boy!) but she also sewed, no, created and sewed this pretty dang cute maternity swimsuit.  Yes, we can all agree that deserves an AWESOME!!!

 They always want to get into the cold pool...

 He loves his pool.  As does Jo--it's a great place to toss her ball...

 But they're usually pretty quick to get out of the cold water...

 And into the hot tub...

 

Not him...he loves his pool.

 This is a shot of the airplane building area...in the dining room...it may appear blurry, but it's actually because of all of the thinking and analyzing and crafting going on...hard to capture...

 Also this week, we started a new effort to get Oscar to stop being such a "BOY" cat.  The vet suggested we get several additional kitty litter boxes and a cat treehouse/condo, which we did.  She said we need to make a place that Oscar and the girl cats can consider as their sanctuary, a place where Gusgus can't terrorize them...apparently Oscar's been feeling anxious.  The vet also suggested we get a cat pheromone dispenser, she swears by them, says her cats are more content, less argumentative and less BOY cats since she got one.  So we got one of those too.

I don't know, what do you think?  Does he seem less stressed?

 In what I consider to be a stroke of genius, I planned a vacation for Jack, Jr, and me to Glacier National Park that we are leaving for this afternoon.  What better way to recover from the absence of little girl sounds than by heading to what I hear is the most beautiful place in America?  And, bonus, we will be spending a couple of days in Canada...eh...

So off we go, up north later today.  

And when we return, this will note from Janey will still be on the whiteboard.