Can I slow down now?

It has been non-stop going for the past I don't know how long... 2 weekends ago was the birthday/homecoming insanity.

This past weekend was Confirmation insanity... Nothing like seeing how dysfunctional the rest of your family is to get a glimpse of how normal you really are.

It started out that it was StupidX's weekend with the kids. He picked them up on Friday, as usual on his weekends. Nikki informed him that she wanted to come home on Saturday night so that she could just get dressed at home instead of having to take all her clothes/hair accessories/makeup and stuff over there. He agreed that was a good idea and said he would bring her home Saturday evening.

So, Saturday, Hubby and I are just finishing up dinner and the dog goes running to look out the front window... then you can see her watching someone come up the sidewalk on to the porch. The lack of insane barking and jumping at the window let me know it was someone she knew... The door opened and in came Nikki... with Kyle right behind her. I was a little surprised to see them both. After a very brief Q&A session, Kyle was also home because they weren't sure they would be at Church the next day... Um... WTF?!?! This is his daughter's confirmation. The day that she stands up and proclaims her faith. The day that she takes her faith in her own hands. And he's not sure he's going to make it?!?! UGH!

Well, Sunday morning, we headed off, picked up Kay's boyfriend, J. and headed to Church. Dropped everyone off, then headed to the grocery store like we always do. While wandering the aisles, my phone rings and Nikki is panicked because they want to do the pictures RIGHT NOW and where are we and when will we be back. We headed to the check out, paid, and tossed the groceries in the car. Got back to church with a few minutes to spare. Got our pictures, and while we were waiting for her Confirmation teachers to show up, in walked StupidX, Wifeypoop and her daughter. We chatted a bit, then headed up to the church. Our family pretty much filled a pew end to end... I was saving a few seats for the X and his Thing and her child. They sat about 3 rows behind us. I showed him the saved seats, but they declined. Before the service even got really going, Wifeypoop left. Yep, got up and walked out. Not sure why, but she just left. Well the reason was that she wasn't feeling good... big surprise. She never does when it involves the whole family.

Service was beautiful, Nikki was beautiful and I was so very proud of her.

X had to leave a few minutes early to pick up the cake, and then we all headed back to my house. X showed up, alone. Said that WP was not feeling well, and decided to stay home. No biggie. As it turned out, he only stayed for about an hour...

Anyway, the rest of the day was great, and she had a good time.

I was exhausted. A house full of people will do that...

Coming home and waking the dead...

So, this weekend was a whirlwind of activity.

It was Homecoming weekend for the girls which meant a football game and a dance. Kyle and I were planning on going to the game on Friday night, but we decided against it. Kyle had just picked up all the parts to his Halloween costume and was really wanting to play with the voice changer thingy. I'm glad we didn't go... it ended up being chilly, and windy and worst of all rainy. Poor Nikki came home looking like a wet cat. Kay bailed on the game and her and some friends walked to the Haunted House. I don't blame them, although I would have walked anywhere else besides there since I don't do haunted houses... I'm a wimp.

Saturday was the dance. I couldn't believe how beautiful they looked. I also couldn't help getting a little teary... this is Kay's last high school homecoming and Nikki's first. Nikki was a little nervous since it was a semi-formal, and she's never been to a dance like that. She didn't have a date, but she decided early on that she really didn't want one because she didn't want to have to deal with the drama of a guy at the dance. She instead went with a group of friends, and they had a great time. After the dance they went bowling. She said that was almost more fun than the dance. She told me that there were lots of people not sure what to think when a group of about 6 teens all dressed in thier dance clothes shows up to go bowling.

Kay went with her current boyfriend, James. They met up with some of her friends first. She went with one of her best friends, Heather and her boyfriend, Aaron. Kay's ex-boyfriend, Tony and his new girlfriend, Monica. They met up with some of her other friends at the dance. She stayed at the dance the whole time then they went out to eat afterward.

Both reported having a great time, and Nikki said that once she got there, she wasn't nervous anymore.

Yesterday was Kyle's bday party... wow. I must be insane. I had 14 kids in my house, all 10 and under. I'm so thankful that the weather was so nice, because I sent them all out to play. They played tag outside for a while, then they came in to make TP mummies, then back out side for team Simon Says and some relay races. Back inside for cupcakes, ice cream and presents and then time to go home. It was a lot of fun... we made mummy hotdogs (hotdogs with refrigerator dough breadsticks wrapped around them), mummy pizzas (english muffins with pizza sauce and string cheese with olive eyes) and some Alien salad (fusili pasta, spanish olives, diced tomatoes, italian dressing). The biggest food hit was the punch... well not really the punch, but the presentation of the punch. (In my find of the year, my $1.50 punch bowl from Goodwill!) I had lemon-lime punch (it was green) and the night before the party, I filled a rubber glove with water and red food coloring. Put that in the freezer to get it good and solid. When the party started, I poured the punch, and ripped the rubber glove off the ice hand and floated it in the punch. It was great. One of Ky's friends said that it was "the most funnest birthday party ever!" Coming from an 8 year old, I would say that's a great compliment.

I guess just letting the kids be kids was the best part.

By the time everyone was gone and I had gotten my house back to normal, I was exhausted! I sat down with a tall glass of iced tea, the cat curled up on my lap and just vegged for about 20 minutes. I listened to the quiet. It was wonderful.

Pictures will be up soon...

This was fun...

I'm in! I'm in! I'm in!

I got my invite to Ravelry today! Woo Hoo! I've already been checking out some yarn that I have to see what others are doing with it...

It's so overwhelming though... I'll need to sit down this weekend with a few hours to really play with it.

It might help me to keep track of what I have and what I want... yeah, I think the what I want might be a bit out of control, but we'll see...

You can look me up if you're a member... I don't have anything on there yet, but give me time!

I'm KarenLG... Original, huh?