Says the guy in Arizona

Nate has been traveling for three weeks. And while that thought leaves me to believe that I'd spend some space on this post lamenting about how hard it's been, how the kids have been driving me crazy and how much I give credit to single parents,there's really no need. Certainly the latter of those statements is true. But, in all honesty, it's been a great three weeks.

Now - I've had help. Uncle Mike made sure to check-in regularly and took the kids up to my parents house for a weekend to give me a break. Our neighbor Kim (best. neighbor.ever.) stepped in a few times to save the day (and my sanity) and when it seemed like everything was falling apart - Lindsey got bronchiolitis on top of her double ear infection and I had a double eye infection that left me nearly blind - my mom came to the rescue and made sure we all survived.


But beyond the outside help, the three of us banded together to make the most of it. We made new traditions, like story time in Lindsey's room, where we all cuddle on the rocker, under Ryan's Eagles blanket, and read stories together. We make bath time last a little longer (and maybe let it get a little wetter). We play pretend in the basement kitchen. We have tickle time on our bed. We have a dance party on Ryan's bed. We color. We laugh. A lot.

Another thing that made it easier? We had Skype this time around. Lindsey got so attached to seeing daddy on Skype, she would start frantically saying "Da da da da" and start blowing kisses any time I had a communication device (cell phone, house phone, laptop) in my hand. He joined us for breakfast sometimes and dinner other times.It's amazing how much easier it is when you can just see the person you're missing.

It's also amazing how you can miss someone so much, yet they still have the ability to annoy you - from thousands of miles away. "Says the guy in Arizona" became the go-to phrase since Nate left. It started with the first of four or five (I've lost count) snow storms we've had since he left. "It doesn't look that bad on the radar," says the guy in Arizona. "Just go out and shovel now before the kids wake up and you should be fine," says the guy in Arizona. "You'll have a day off with the kids," says the guy in Arizona.

It's safe to say that, while it's been a good three weeks and we all survived without (major) incident, we'll be happy when the guy from Arizona comes back home (tomorrow!).
 
In the meantime, the last of the four or five snow storms we had was the mother of them all, dumping about a foot of snow (and rain and sleet) on us in a day. And, though there is only one of me and two of them, I managed to keep them still long enough to get one good shot in the snow.

 

 Proof that we got nearly a foot of snow - Ryan's snow meter :)