Monday is my day to get things done.  By that I mean that unless it is a holiday (Bank Holiday) which happens a lot (February is always a pain....) then the older two are in school, Mac is in pre-school and Rory is at 'Mothers Day Out'.  This is the feeling I will have when they are all in school perhaps.  I try to do something for me along with all the errands that are just way easier to do without any children.  Today the thing for me was.... erm, well the nearest I can class anything as for me was getting the oil changed on the car.  Yes, I know, exciting stuff hey?  I didn't even do a Drive through Starbucks today for goodness sakes!  I did a drive through ATM though - maybe that counts.  But I have left my book at the garage so I need to go back there soon to pick that up before I start getting the children etc.

So I was doing pretty good....dropped kids off, oil changed, bought lighbulbs, Post Office (only 2 in line for a Monday morning and got all the Christmas cards sent for overseas), returned clothes to Old Navy.  Stopped at the Supermarket and got just a few things for dinner tonight.  It was in a shady part of town and I parked next to a strange looking car where the driver was still at the wheel - thought she was maybe waiting for the other half of her robbing gang - it was that sort of feel.  So I just got the bare essentials and then left.  Then I just thought I would pop to the book shop for a few bits and bobs.  I have done most of my Christmas shopping, got a few things to still pick up for Hubby's birthday.  There wasn't much I needed.

Perhaps at this stage I should link you to this:

http://www.gmc.com/yukon/denali/index.jsp

Which is the car that I drive except mine is not half as clean as this one.  But the gist of it is it has a huge boot/trunk.  Huge.

So up until now I had 2 bags of groceries and a folded up stroller.  Book shop adds another bag of books - mainly pressies but erm a few for me.  Which I need like a hole in the head.  Then go to Toys R US.  Do quite well - get 2 of the 3 things I 'need' for Rory and one of the things for Mac.  Get out of their quite quickly but another 2 huges bags (but less than 80 bucks).  Then see another bookshop that stocks 'Paperchase ' products which are hard to find here and remind me of home... went in looking for a small present and came out with 3 things for myself but no present.. another bag in the trunk.  Then my last stop was here:

http://www.worldmarket.com/home.jsp

Which is always A DANGEROUS store for me as it  sells quite a few British foods and I don't go here to often.... Well it IS coming up to Christmas and quite a few of the purchases were presents (she says as she folds up the Bounty wrapper).  But $267 later and 6 bags (I thought I was going to have to load it into 2 carts/trolleys) and the boot/trunk was full.  It was one of those 'don't take any sharp corners' drives home.  And when I got in the garage it was a slowly open the rear door and get ready to catch any falling items.  But I only popped out for a few things.  Honest.  Now need to go and hide the pressies before driving back to retrieve my book - still have 90 pgs to finish before Wed but am totally into it now so will be a breeze.

Check bacl later for my update on childless weekend away.....Still getting over it (in a good way) and it was actually only 27 hrs so not sure if that makes it a full weekend.

On the journey home from school this evening ...

Paddy: 'Thanks for the great snack today mum'

They have to take in a snack for their break/recess and today I had given him this new Mexican type cookie I found at the store yesterday.

Paddy:' The girls loved it too, it made me a babe magnet!'

Me: 'Oh really, what's a babe magnet then?'

Paddy: 'Oh, a boy that the girls trail around after - they were waiting for crumbs from the cookie.'

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Should you even know the phrase 'babe magnet' when you are just 7?

Then at home, again, Paddy came out with something....

Paddy: 'Today we learnt all about cemetary at school'

Me - thinking 'oh no, not another school trip to a graveyard. I hope they aren't going to brainwash them too much on spirits etc and that they at least explained it in an age appropriate manner. Say ' Oh yes, what did you learn?

Paddy: 'That it is something that has 2 sides that are even and equal, and when you draw a line in it it's called the line of symmetry...'

Honestly, these kids and their yankified British accents.

This blog has a counter so I can see how many readers there are. My other blog doesn't.... so I really don;t know how popular I am.

Either there is a technical hitch or I am having lots of reader the past few days.  Are you a lurker?  Beginning to feel flattered...unless it is a technical hitch of course  

Ah well

So tonight as I was getting the kids ready for bed, hubby called that our next door neighbours were maybe having a bonfire.  These are the neighbours who have not said hello to us as long as we've been here (3 1/2 years) - who see us wave and look the other way, who have grandchildren similar ages to our children and still cannot smile at my kids - you get the idea.  Well here we are not even allowed to hang out washing to dry on as line (you get fined) so I was pretty sure that a bonfire would be a no no.  So I looked from our bedroom balcony (sounds posher than it is) and saw quite a large bonfire..right next to their stucco/shingle roof gazebo - only about 20 ft from our fence.  Where there are lots of shrubs and trees - very dry = perfect burning conditions.  We swiftly decided this was no organised fire.  Hubby went round to knock on their front door to see if they were aware of said fire whilst I dialed 911.  Not for the first time in my life.

Dispatch put me through to the fire station and they sent out 2 trucks whilst I was on the line.  I could hear the sirens getting closer as I gave them more information.  From my vantage point I could not see if their gazebo had actually caught light - and I was not sure if the gazebo had a BBQ inside - or a gas tank.  The fire trucks were here within 2 minutes (good to know for future reference) and Mac, Bee, Paddy and myself had a good view of the reflective stripes on the firefighters' uniforms (it was quite dark by this stage), their unwinding the hoses and spraying down the flames.  It was quite impressive.  Took them way longer to put all the equipment back on the truck than it did to get it all out.

Neighbours were not home as it turns out.  When they get back from whereever they are I wonder if they will bring themselves to say hello to us now - maybe even a thanks?  We'll see.

Oh and Paddy is very excited that he will be able to write about all this in his daily journal at school tomorrow!

So Saturday saw us leaving all four children behind to go away - a day and night by ourselves - the first in about 10 years unless you count trips to the hospital to have the actual children themselves.  Anyhow, our most trusted babysitter was watching the children and we were off.

We were booked in at a hotel just over an hour away in Colorado Springs.

http://www.broadmoor.com/

We got there quite early and we had a beautiful suite as they upgraded us for free.  We had been here before but had never actually stayed over.  We were booked to have some photos taken on their grounds so had to make ourselves look quite presentable..which was easier said than done as I had the most dreadful cold and could have dressed up as Rudolph.  The grounds of the Broadmoor are really magnificent - there is also a golf course there which was popular (although not so much with us).  Photos were taken...came out quite well actually and then we explored the stores on the site and went for lunch.  All kid free.  It was quite surreal and very very relaxed. 

An afternoon together before we had to start getting tarted up ready for the Christmas do.  It was black tie - quite swish and I wore a new dress that I really hadn't put that much thought into.  It was new but not over the top.  We all met with the others of the group and then we took buses to the venue about 5 miles away - saw some lovely Christmas lights on the way which I think were peoples' actual houses - but very OTT. 

The theme of the party was 1940s and some people were dressed to the nines.....Army costumes, fancy dresses whilst others were just in evening wear - really snazzy dresses more Oscar worthy than a Chrisrmas party.  There was quite a bit of sticky tape involved in keeping some of those boobs in place I can tell you.  I felt quite under dressed although not as much as a woman who looked like she was on her way to a photocopy room rather than a party whilst her husband was in white DJ...strange mix.

There was an excellent band but they played between each course which made it rather a long meal to say the least......We were sitting with some good friends of ours.  He is in business and the wife is also a stay at home mum and we have funny conversations about life with businessmen.  She very much understands where I am at and I enjoy spending time with her.  We were joking about their business trips and being left at home with security systems 'securing us'  - she was saying that her husband has had to let so many people go recently she is convinced that one of them will track them down to their house and get them,  it was sort of tongue in cheek but unfortunately there is always the risk......

But it was a great evening, brilliant food and drink.  Christmas trees all over the place but at least it was actually December which made it feel realistic at least.

Sunday saw us have breakfast in bed and then a trip to the spa where we had a couples' massage which was rather lush and again sheer decadence (?) - a real treat.  More walking around the grounds before we left on our trip home.  We were only gone 26 hours in the end but had a brilliant break.  It felt far longer than that actually  - we even stopped for lunch on the way home.

The kids were pleased to see us and had enjoyed their 'sleepover' with the babysitter.....And she seemed quite calm about them all so who knows - maybe we will do it again.

Only 3 Christmas parties to go then.....

Tomorrow is my 37th (aaarh) birthday.  I am now old enough (or maybe read 'so old') that this gives me no excitement whatsoever.  I do not expect surprises and I am sure it will just be another ordinary day.  Is it normal, do you think, to feel so ambivalent towards this day? 

 It is always bitter sweet regardless because of the whole adoption thing.  Does the day even trigger a memory for her?  Or does it just pass on by without even remembering that she gave birth that day?  I just cannot get my head around it - probably even more so because I have 4 healthy children and the days of their births will always have such significance to me.

Anyhow, we are going up to the mountains tomorrow night as skiing starts in earnest.  I have had the cleaners in so I hope I don't spend the weekend having to dust and change beds etc.  There has been some more snow so the conditions should be good.

Fingers crossed Mac is in the right frame of mind for the magic carpet )

So yesterday I picked all the kids up from school and then we drove straight up here to the mountains.  There is quite a rush of people driving out here on a Friday (and back down on SaturdayandSunday nights)- the traffic is notoriously bad and add to that snow conditions ... well you can imagine perhaps.

Last night what should have been a 75 minute drive took over 2 hours which given the conditions was actually quite good.  It was light snow about halfway here and you could see from the surroundings that they had been having quite a bit...the tree branches were becoming more and more snow packed and even the snow accumulation on the cars told a tale.  The trees on the mountains side looked just like the fake Christmas trees you can buy - the ones with a hint of snow on the pine needles - except we were driving past the real deal.

I am usually fine driving in the snow but last night was very icy too.  It was really slow going  and the stopping and starting on the ice was the tricky bit.  There were chains on all the lorries - or rather that is what all the digital signs were telling them to do but there are always some that think they will be all right and then they skid and basically get stuck blocking one or two lanes.  They get a fine of about 300 dollars but to be honest it is not enough to make them actually pull over and chain up.  I saw a few cars literally skid off the road - one was just 2 cars ahead of us.  He didn't look injured but he did look stuck (it was a Jeep).  Also saw a Subaru in the snow stuck in the dip between the east/west bound traffic.  They are normally quite good in the snow.  It made me quite nervous.  To give you an idea, where we are they had 9 inches over night....good for skiing though.

By the time we got up here -and as I hadn't been in the house since September there was very little food here so we did drive through McDonalds.  What, you don't do that on your birthday?  Ah well.  And as we picked up the food and drove out in the heavy snow, that was where we skidded - where the brakes did at least lock but the car kept going.  Luckily they had only ploughed a car width through there so we slipped and slided but only into the snow bank...although very close to a Stop sign.  I relayed the journey to Hubby who was still at work in the City and by his pregnant pauses I could just tell he was thinking 'ah yes, you were sliding as you drive like a girl and don't think about the right way to drive through snow.'  But you know what - 3 hours later as he made his way up here he also went and did drive through and skidded in the same spot!  He agreed the irony that we both did fine with bad weather on I-70 but lost control at McDonalds....oh the shame of it!!!

Anyway there are really beautiful views around.  It is still dark(Mac got up way too early) but you can see the headlights of the snow Cats on the mountains grooming the runs.  I bet today will be busy.

The kids' skis are in the car ready to drop them off for Kroozers (weekly ski club) but  for the life of me I cannot find their new ski socks and long johns that I had asked hubby to bring up here last trip.  Searched all over and they are not around but luckily I still had last years' gear here so they will be ok.

I forgot my camera ...ah so no snaps of the snow today.  But I remembered all the kids and everything else so I won't beat myself up about it...seems your memory fails you once you're 37!!

www.snow.com