It's good to be home

My daughters wedding was beautiful, although it went way to quickly. They got married on a ship at the Port of Miami, with a short reception following and then we all had to get off the ship so that the ship could set sail. She was gorgeous and they both glowed with happiness. I had people taking pictures for me since I was unable to, but many of them did not turn out. I am hoping that one of my other daughter's got some good pictures on their camera's. In the mean time, I share with you the only picture I have with all my children and grandchildren and one with my three daughters and one of my husband and myself. Hopefully, I will have better pictures to share with you all in the near future.


We arrived home last night, with two very tired little people and exhausted ourselves. After being gone for over two weeks it will take time to adjust to being home once again. There is a big temperature difference between here in Minnesota and Florida. Every day was hot and humid and add in my constant hot flashes and you have one hot woman! We spent much of our days in the pool or ocean which the little people loved. We left on Monday, when it was in the 80's and humid and came home last night to it being in the 30's here.

As much as I loved my time with all of my children and grandchildren, it was a lot of work being away from home. I came to realize a couple of days into our so called "vacation" that this was not really a vacation for me. Instead it was just changing locations of my daily work of caring for little ones, cooking, cleaning and laundry. In a big sense it was more work because the home we rented for the ten days was someone else's nice home and not our own home, which is child proof and set up for daily living with children in mind.

New rules and boundaries had to be learned and it's not always the funnest job being the "enforcer" of all these things. Also take into fact that we were already dealing with behavior issues due to evils visit the five days before leaving on our trip, and let me tell you, these things don't mix very well. We had some trying days, to say the least, and quite honestly it affected my time with my own children. I hate this fact and the reality of my life right now, is hard to swallow sometimes. They all tried to help but there is only so much other people can do and when it come right down to it, the responsibility falls on me.

Since little lady hurt her leg at the start of our "vacation", she had to be carried everywhere, which although she is only 27 lbs., got heavy after carrying her around after awhile. Little lady has formed a strong attachment to me and would cry, whine and scream for me constantly. This wore not only on me but everyone else as well. We will deal with this issue in the days and weeks ahead and look forward to getting back to "normal" life once again.

On the bright side, I did have a wonderful time being with all my children and grandchildren and husband. Every moment I had with each of them is pasted in my memory. The time went too quickly and there was not enough time to do all the things we wanted to do together. In spite of the chaos and the things mentioned above, we shared much laughter and made great memories together. Now, we have each gone back to our places in this world, and my heart aches as I wonder when I will see them each again. From the second I hugged them goodbye, I started missing them all over again.

I have many things to share with you in the days and weeks ahead...things I have been learning on this journey...things that have happened that are teaching me lessons and giving me growing pains. It's good to be back...I have missed each one of you...it will take me time to catch up on your blogs as I get settled back into daily life around here but I promise I will stop by and visit soon.