waiting to exhale

"Hey GRACE, it's been a minute since you've typed us to sleep with one of your weekend recaps"

It has, hasn't it?

Let's rectify that.

Right now.

SO, for the past four weeks Simon has been on night float which I've previously explained is pure hell. Now that it's over I can dust off my rosy spectacles and type things like, "but we make it through" and "we can do difficult things" but there were many evenings of trying to put the kids to bed while Phoebe screamed + screamed and I thought of the next night and the night after that and the night after that and I become more than a little dramatically despondent. God bless Simon's incoming text messages.

But, it's over. And aside from his residency call weekends we only have one more month to endure and then NO MORE. Seriously. Simon won't ever spend the night in a hospital again. Praise the fellowship + real job gods. Glory, we're coming for you.

Why did I tell that backstory? I don't know.

Oh, I guess I'm offering a bit of an explanation as to why the blog may have taken a turn for the worse slash suckville this past month because I like to blog in realtime but I thought best not to in case some bizarre predator was waiting down the road waiting to pounce on night float (HIGHLY unlikely but you know me and my imagination). Anyway, I'm back to mediocreville. Yay.

Here's how the weekend went down ...

Simon and I hit up Six Flags for my birthday ...

We were trying to get a photo with the clouds (they were cool - it was Simon's idea) but obviously ... fail. Simon kept telling me to stop looking like a giraffe. Or was it an ostrich? Either/or. Sorry! Love, Girace

I rode all but one of the (MANY) rollercoasters with my eyes closed and I almost lost my sunglasses (that I bought that morning in case I lost them) on the Batman coaster of doom.

I thought the swings that hoist you up to 23 stories high looked nice and tame but I closed my eyes and said many speed novenas during that ride too. I thought I was more of a (safe) thrill seeker but ... I guess not. Just old.

Also, this was the very first July 25th EVER that I needed a sweater in the afternoon. Where did this summer weather come from? It's incredible slash makes me VERY nervous about another bleeping polar vortex situation this winter that seems well on it's way to starting promptly on the first of September. But summer heat trumps freezing winter weather always and forever. Bring ON the Florida sizzle, seriously.

Also - Simon's sisters came to visit ...

The kids love seeing their aunts and the girls were so kind and generous and babysat the brood while we went out and about one night and dined on fancy things like fried green tomatoes and eco-friendly (Simon got a KICK of of that) vodka and chambord and pineapple juice. I want another one. Or three.

Visitor-of-the-century (really! Simon's talked about making her a plaque or a trophy - engraved with those exact words), Caitlin came (for work but made time for us!) and let us make ourselves comfy at her hotel pool.

The boys -- hated. They just stuck to lego playing the game room. Amphibians they are not. Julia made a friend named Miracle (I still can't decide if Simon is telling me the truth or not) while she LOVED walking (not swimming) around the shallow end of the indoor pool. I found a suit at Target that I couldn't resist for Phoebe (we do have a family reunion next week - she will totally rock it there, too) and thought it might be a little big seeing as how she is 3 months young and the smallest size they had was 9 months but no.

It fit like glove.

And she had a blast.

Allow me to allow you to share in her joy ...

The alternative would've been screaming + crying + general hate so three cheers for unenthused fourth borns.

And I think that about covers it.

You want another one next week? Every d'tail of the family reunion?

You got it!
You got it ALL.