So Much for EVERY DAY in May!!!

Okay...I know I have been HORRIBLE! I've missed FOUR days posting! In my defense, though, I did go into this with the realization that I might not be able to post every single day, but that I would do as close to every day as I could.

So, let me explain my absence....
Thursday, well, I'm not sure what happened to Thursday! Now I remember...I went to work and that evening was spent trying to get Doug's new loft bed bolted together so it wouldn't come tumbling down when he climbed up in it...and racing around trying to get my house clean (it had gotten REALLY out of hand!). Friday was spend working on the loft bed (rather involved...took three trips to buy hardware to safety-tize it!), more cleaning, and packing. After Doug's soccer practice Friday evening, Mom and Dad C came over and spent the night at our house with the kids. They took Doug to his soccer game Saturday morning (which his team won 9-5!...they are STILL undefeated!!!), then Mom and Dad C took the grandkids (our kids, that is) back to Willard where Grant's sister and our brother-in-law helped Mom and Dad C take care of the gang the remainder of the weekend. Where were Grant and I? Well...we left Bolivar for Springfield Friday evening. We bummed around Springfield some, and ate at a Thai restaraunt, then we headed on down to Branson West and spent the night in the Lakeview Inn. That was the first time we have ever slept in a king-sized bed. I didn't like it. It just felt weird all night...not nice and cozy like I am used to...way too big. I just assumed Grant agreed until he mentioned the next morning to our brother-in-law how nice a king sized bed had been. Seems he finally felt like he had enough room! Seems he thinks I hog most of the bed. I don't...it is just that I am a snuggler so I wind up near him and it isn't my fault if he starts out too close to his edge of the bed at night! What I hated about the king sized bed is that it felt like I had to migrate way too far to get over to his side of the bed!

Saturday, we bummed around SDC, then, around 2:00 we checked into our room at the Bradford Inn Bed and Breakfast. Later, we headed over to the Branson Landing. Believe it or not, as often as we have gone to Branson, we had never before visited the Landing. It was fun exploring it for the first time. We ate supper at Joe's Crab Shack and left the Landing just as a storm was whipping up and the tornado sirens were beginning to wail. I did a bit of shopping at WalMart, and then we headed back to our beautiful, secluded room at the Bradford Inn. We LOVED the room...had a private outside staircase leading up to nothing but our room which was all the way at the end of the Cape-cod-like building. We had five windows across three walls...all looking out at tree-top level. No one could see into our windows, short of walking up the private staircase (which no one did!)...so, we could keep our blinds wide open and enjoy seeing the green of the swaying trees. It was so quiet that it felt like there wasn't anyone else for miles around. And the bed was the most comfortable I have ever slept in...and it was a reasonable QUEEN sized, not king sized (sorry Grant!). There was a large jacuzzi in the bay window of the room and an oversized leather chair and ottoman that were amazingly comfortable. That room was so relaxing. Our whole weekend was relaxing! We didn't come back to Willard to claim our children until 5:00pm Sunday evening.

Anyway, we had an excellent seventeenth anniversay get-away! (Our seventeenth anniversary was on Mother's Day this year.) We would love to make it a tradition, spending our anniversaries at the Bradford Inn in the Eaves Room! ...who knows...might be do-able...Mom and Dad C and Jan and Eric held up surprisingly BETTER than the three kids did! The adults were still looking perky when we got back from our trip, but the three kids were looking worn out. (What a shocker! I would have bet my bottom dollar that it would have been the OTHER way around!) And, all three kids fell asleep on the short ride from Willard back to Bolivar. (And my kids are NOT car sleepers...never have been.) But, Sunday evening all three of them were so dead asleep on the ride back home that they had those hideous positions that look like sheer torture, with their mouths hung wide open! I have NO IDEA what Jan, Eric, and the grandparents did to drain our kids like that...I need to find out so I can start enjoying a little of the quiet, subdued sanity that was happening in THEIR house when we arrived to reclaim our normally wild children!