Where this week went

This week just flew by. The big kids were away part of the week--Ruth, sewing with her Mimi and the boys at the ranch with Grandpa--so, of course, I delusionally thought I would get a lot of things done. But, it was quiet, so I'm not complaining! Ruth made a skirt, a shirt, a pair of shorts and a dress during her time with Mimi. And the boys had more adventures than I can possibly list, which included riding around in the backhoe, running off in some ditches, Weston driving the pickup all by himself, searching for wildlife and Weston losing another tooth. Meanwhile, Jeff and Clay and I were here, doing fun things like waiting for the dishwasher repair guy, running errands, reading the first two "Hunger Games" books, working, taking Clay in for vaccines, eating out, doing some party planning and enjoying the quiet. Then, on Thursday and Friday, Ruth took her end-of-year SAT-10 test in Austin. While she was testing, Jeff and Clay and I really took advantage of our day in the big city by bouncing around between auto shops, taking care of some of the van's needs. When Ruth finished up, we took her ice skating to celebrate a reading goal she just met. Then, we picked up the world's greatest pizza from Mangia and headed out to Lake Buchanan to pick up the big boys. On Friday, our time in Austin was spent at Chik-fil-A, where we had a surprise run-in with friends from Marble Falls and the boys had fun playing on the playscape. We then met up with Jeff's parents for lunch, before picking Ruth up. Then, the caravan of two trucks, each pulling a trailer, set off for Lake Conroe. Our ultimate destination was Cleveland, to help unload a barn for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, who are getting ready to sell their house. But we spent the night at Lake Conroe, where the kids played in the pool at the hotel and we had a wonderful dinner at Pueblo Viejo. We spent most of the day on Saturday loading up the trucks and trailers. Some other fun of the day included the kids playing in the pool, me getting stung by a wasp, Jeff and his dad concocting a way to load a crazy-heavy concrete culvert and the dispensing of a a great deal of treasures from the barn. Finally, our caravan--now consisting of three loaded pickups and two weighed down trailers--made our way home, stopping to eat at Lake Conroe at a super-fun place called Papa's on the Lake, and again in College Station to exchange one freezer for another. It was late when we got in, and we all just fell right into bed. Today, we unloaded trucks and trailers and enjoyed visiting with Jeff's parents and with our sister-in-law. So, that's where our week went. I'm kind of tired just thinking about it.