The post that lasted days

Did you miss me? Huh? Did you? Yeah, I thought so. A whole week without blogging - that is a record for me. I am going to try and wrap this up in one post, but it may become several to get all the pictures in. But we will see. The pictures are random shots from this past weekend - just in case you were curious.

Let's see - where did I leave off? Ah yes - the week of endless spring activities. Tuesday was T-ball. Arlington is getting pretty good at T-ball. She is hitting the ball on a consistent basis without the T, which is good. And she seems to really be enjoying it. I have a feeling that softball may be something she does next year, but we will see. Tuesday the babies and I were at T-ball because Mat was in Boston. The kids did fine. It was our first game in a neighboring town, and I got a little lost on the way (Mat had my friend GPS, so go figure). So we were a little late. AND...I forgot her glove. Luckily they had an extra. The babies were good - we took a blanket (no stands at this field) and camped out. I got a couple of comments about how impressed people were that the little ones stayed on the blanket the whole 1 1/2 hours. The just didn't realize that threats snacks go a long way.


Wednesday was another fun day for the Pletcher household. I was gone this evening, so Mat had to take Arlington and the little ones to swimming. The little ones were good there too - enjoyed watching the swimming. Arlington is doing well in swimming - diving in, swimming without help, etc. Starting to remember a little more each week that she is a Florida girl, and Florida girls can swim. Not that we love Florida or anything. Just wanted to clear that up for anyone who may have thought we had a change of heart. We haven't. Florida is still the stinkiest state in the country.


Anyway, Wednesday was incoming Kindergarten orientation for my school where I work. I had to stay and do my part as the nurse and talk about healthy eating, turn in your physical form, the nurse is not if your kid needs a break, I am not a free clinic...... Just kidding. I only talked about the first two and about 5 other valid points. But the break and clinic thing.....people actually believe that about my job, so I should have said something.....

I didn't get home until about 8pm from that. But I did get a free dinner out of it. Treat from my principal. That was good.


Thursday was T-ball. Again. And it was a bit chilly and really windy. I was alone with the kids tonight becuase Mat had a dinner meeting. By Thursday, Mat and I had only crossed paths for about 1 hour in the evenings before having to go to bed. Thursday's T-ball field was local and I was glad because it meant getting home a little earlier. By Thursday the little ones had really had it with being good at all of this running around. They were good at T-ball, but they weren't interested in sitting and watching the game. So we stood by the fence and they played a little game running back and forth. It was fine. I was tired of it too.


Thursday night after the kiddies were in bed, Mat and I started to pack for our weekend. We weren't going to be gone long, but still. 8pm after a long, tiring week having to now pack - it wasn't fun. But it didn't take long.

Friday after work, we left and drove to PA. The trip went about the smoothest ever. We made it in 9 hours, and that was 1 hour stop for eating/bathroom breaks and 1 hour for traffic. So not bad! We usually take 10-12 hours because we hit so much traffic. But the kids did awesome on the trip. I do have good travelers. Finley is usually the worst, but she did great. We did give in and buy a DVD player to take along with us, and we used it for part of the trip. But it helped pass some time. We were in Pennsylvania by midnight and went right to bed. The kids slept in the car for several hours, and just fell right into bed when we got there.


Saturday Mat and the kids spent the day with his family. Mat's dad looks great. He is doing great, and says he feels really good. He was up the whole time we were there - just taking little breaks during the day to lay down and relax. But he is exercising and getting his strength back. He has another appointment in a few weeks to hope to clear him to get back to "normal" and start driving and getting out more. We were glad to see him and Mat's mom (and Mat's brother and aunt and grandma). We don't get home much, so this was a nice visit. And we didn't do anything but relax and enjoy each other's company.

On Saturday I spent the day with my parents. I went down to their house alone while Mat stayed with the kids. I never get to do that anymore, so it was really nice. Just as a recap - Mat and I met in high school, so our parents live in the same town. We started the day eating breakfast at my favorite home town restaurant. Then we went to the town's geranium festival. Then we hit 3 more greenhouses to get plants and flowers to plant at my parents house (and a few for me to bring home). We went back to the festival for lunch and then home to plant that afternoon. That evening we went to dinner at another favorite home town restaurant, and then I headed back to Mat's parent's house. It was a fun day, and very relaxing.

Sunday we spent the day with Mat's family just at the house. It was another warm, sunny day, so we spent most of it outdoors.

The kids had a blast. They love visiting their grandparents. Finley is a "gramma's girl" and Arlington loves Mat's parent's dog, Lucky. The played bubbles.


Arlington swam in the creek.

And swam in the creek - REALLY. Such a weirdo.


Mat's mom tried to teach them to play crocet.



Got piggy back rides from Uncle Zac.



Played with a magnifying glass.



The heat and humidity even curled Finley's hair! (don't mind her face being wet!)


Fun all around. Arlington's "funny" for the weekend was that she and Mat were blowing the white dandilions around. Mat blew one in Arlington's direction just as she opened her mouth. A lot of dandilion got into her mouth. After she spit it all out, Mat asked her:
"How did dandilion taste?"
Arlington: it tasted like stuffed animal.

Monday we started our long drive back home. This time it took around 10 hours because we just hit a little more traffic and we had to make an unexpected stop to pick up our car from a friends house. We didn't get home until after 6pm, and we were really, really tired. The kids did great on the trip back, though. It was a pretty peaceful trip for the most part - just long. We unloaded, ate some dinner, and went to bed early.


This morning was back to work and school for all of us. It was a really busy day at work for me today. The kids got into mischeif over the long weekend, so I eased a lot of poison ivy and bug bites, and I removed three ticks. Fun times, fun times. Plus, I had three meetings. I saw well over 50 kids today. I think they missed me.



Tonight was T-ball. Again. Mat was at a dinner meeting, so I took the kids with me again. By the way -Mat's dinner meetings? If you remember - he is in the process of hiring a lot of new people, so this is part of it. He says it actually isn't that much fun - trying to make dinner conversation with strangers. I still told him I would trade places with him. Tonights T-ball game was a little on the long side plus it was only in the 50s. We were glad to get home. Mat got home in time to help with bath time and bed time (yay!).

Now we are sitting around watching a movie and enjoying seeing each other for more than a few minutes. The rest of the week is busy, but not as bad as last week.

So I made it one post. I hope you are still awake. I will see you Saturday!! Here are a few more pictures to enjoy!