Good Days and Bad Days

Friday was a great day.  It was the kind of day where I just love everything about my life.  It started with all 3 of my children getting themselves dressed.  I know it seems like a small thing, but it is often a fight in our house to get Anna to take off her pajamas.  And, Kara still usually requires some assistance.  So, to see them all come out of their bedrooms fully clothed made for the start of a great day.

Then, it was time for a trip to WalMart.  The kids wanted to play Star Wars, so we pretended the van was a spaceship heading to Planet WalMart.  We would open the sun roof to send R2D2 out to make repairs whenever an enemy blast hit us.  Occassionally, we would veer into an asteroid field (rumble strips).  We also had to take an alternate route when a destroyer got to close.  Fortunately, we were able to avoid the evil empire and made it to Planet WalMart (PW) safely.  While in PW, the kids continued to call me Queen Amydala.  Kara was Luke, Anna was Princess Leia, and Jack was Han Solo.  We got some pretty nice looks.  I also got asked twice if Anna and Kara were twins.  For some reason, that always amuses me.

After PW, we headed home for lunch.  After lunch, the kids proceeded to play both outside and then in for almost 2 hours, WITHOUT A SINGLE ARGUMENT!!!  Twice kids were crying, but both times it was because someone was hurt and it wasn't because of their siblings!  Monumental.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful.  Saturday, we had a great morning/afternoon.  We went to the Potomac Mills Mall and made our first trip to Ikea.  Everyone was (reasonably) well-behaved.  Unfortunately, on the drive home we received a phone call that Thomas' Grandmother, who he is very close to, was not doing so well.  She was not eating or drinking and was only receiving "comfort care."  We quickly came home and began making arrangements for him to fly to Nevada. 

Unfortunately, Anna has been very upset by the news.  She is very scared of dying and was extremely upset that Thomas was going away without her.  He has promised to tell Great-Grandma goodbye for her and to call often.  I am sorry that I cannot be there with Thomas and his family.  I loved his Grandmother and would like to have gone, but it just didn't make sense for us all to travel.  The kids are too young to expect them to know how to behave in this kind of situation.  For the millionith time, I wish we lived closer to family so that we'd have someone to leave the kids with in these emergency situations.  Fortunately, they are rare. 

Writing this is sad.  After our fun on Friday, I knew I wanted to write about it and memorialize the happy memory, but I can't write the good without acknowleding that something bad also happened this week.  I hope our kids always know how much we love them and how our decisions are always based on what we believe is best for our family.  We have a  lot to be thankful for: the health of children, the fact that Thomas was able to drop everything and fly to Nevada on a moment's notice (i.e. a supportive employer), and the love we have in our family.