Let's hear it for me....I actually went on a trip by myself to visit friends in Austin, TX. That is practically unheard of (but not the only time...there are a few other weekends probably named on one hand) and I desperately tried to store up sleep like a squirrel.

Our friends Hilary and Gary gave me a standby pass to visit anytime I wanted back in June. I waited until the pass was about to expire before using it, but I did make it to the Lone Star State. Hilary and Gary have a beautiful new home and we spent much of our time relaxing with friends, eating and playing games and puzzles. Heck, if I owned a home like that, I would probably not leave it very often at all! (although I will be honest-after Hilary described the large scorpions they had, I was sufficiently creeped out.)

Here is Hilary (l) with her sister-in-law, who was also visiting them.

Hilary and Nora were my very first Arizona friends and colleagues and made life so much easier when we moved from NY to AZ. Hilary was also my first yoga teacher as well. We gravitate to shopping, beading, crafting and yapping about work. They have both been very generous friends and I really do miss their presence in my AZ life-but I am so proud and happy for the lives they are creating in TX. I don't think I could ever live in Texas (I think I have tooo much Yankee blood in my veins) but I hope to continue visiting often. Nora-thank you for the new J.K. Rowling book-nice reading material for the airplane!

Another bonus highlight of my trip was seeing Jesse and Tew-who drove up/down/sideways to see me on Saturday and spend the day talking. They just continue to astonish me with their accomplishments....photography, surgery rounds, overseas trips, computer business, lowering gas prices and specky new Hondas, so over the Pottery Barn, crazy on call schedules....I love hearing about all of it and I adore and admire them so much-I even got weepy when they left! I spent a lot of time thinking how truly honored I feel to have all of these incredible friends in my life.

The only down side of the trip was not being able to get a standby flight home on Sunday night...meaning I had to miss a day of work on Monday (not sooo bad or so I thought) so I flew home on Monday afternoon on a delayed flight.

And the price for having to take the day off.....I now have to write a research paper to make up for the 6 hours of staff development that I missed. UGH.

Other than that, I haven't felt like writing much this week due to the enormous stress we are feeling about getting Connor to preschool next week-yeah, that's not all figured out yet, all we have is that he starts Monday-but it looks like Tom and I are going to have to do a lot of creative driving for the next few months to get him home from school to daycare. I cannot afford to put Ian in a decent preschool AND Connor into daycare due to transportation issues-so the choice is either to put Ian in a crappy preschool all day and cut out all of his extra stuff. The decent preschools are A) also expensive or affordable but during our work times B) don't have after care or we cannot afford it C) aren't convenient to our work location and D) the timing and location are completely different from Connor's school. AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

Tom and I didn't go to preschool as kids but we both had someone at home watching and teaching us and we both were fine. We cannot provide that for our boys. Ian is happy at daycare, but he is also very bored. We aren't the only parents who deal with this-but it is honestly so frustrating that I want to cry every stupid time I think about it. He is so smart that I feel like I have to do something for him. Adding to that, this is also Connor's last week of therapy, so we are saying goodbye to the wonderful people who have been in our home every week.

I'd like to morph into a separate work person and a home person so I can cover all of my bases simultaneously...has anyone come up with that yet?? Until then, I think you will probably not hear much from me this week until I come up with a solution.