i. appreciate. you.

i. appreciate. you.

three little words that are so very important, but are often left unsaid.

when my hubby left for florida last week to visit his grandparents, i knew i'd miss him....but i guess i didn't know just how much.

i mean really, i am the one who takes care of kids, the house, etc. i get the kids dressed in the mornings.  i feed them.  i play with them.  i clean up their messes.  i bathe them.  i get their jammies on.  i help brush their teeth.  i read them bedtime stories.  and i get them to bed.  and then it starts all over again when the sun comes up.  so it didn't seem like it would affect our normal routine too much to have him out of town for a few days. 

but it did.  and after 6 days...my perspective has changed a little.  although i am the one carrying out the majority of the daily tasks in our household, he is doing SO much more just by being there as my support. 

everyday tasks are made so much easier just by having him there.

having him there to keep the boys occupied while i fix dinner (or in the more often occurring instances, while the water is boiling over on the stove, the timer is beeping at me, and the chicken is on fire on the grill!)  i swear i can cook....but without hugh around to keep the boys from hanging on my legs, the later typically occurs. 

having him there to wrestle with these wild monkeys in the family room, while i uninterruptedly load the dishwasher without the "help" of 4 tiny hands.  :)

having him there while i quickly hop in the shower, after lazily deciding to sleep in and not get a shower in before the house awakes.. 

i have found this one out the hard way, after finding little liam standing on a chair at the kitchen counter, stabbing apples with parring knives from the knife block one morning.  eek.  needless to say, our knife block now sits on the floor of the pantry with a child-lock on the door. 

and this week i found this after a QUICK <5 minute shower....

cracking eggs on the kitchen floor.  hey - at least he got himself a bowl. 

besides the egg incident (which was actually pretty cute and so very hard not to laugh at) the boys were actually really well behaved and sweet for me while daddy was out of town.  they played better than usual during the day, and snuggled into bed without much trouble each night. 

the house was eerily quiet after 8:30 pm this last week.  i didn't know what to do with all this time to myself.  i could watch what i wanted to watch on tv, read a book, and go to bed whenever i pleased.  and i have to admit, i thoroughly enjoyed the first 2 nights of this "me" time.  i watched girly movies, stayed up late working on sewing projects, and even took a bath one night. 

but on the third night....i was lonely.  i missed hearing about hugh's day at work (however uninteresting it really was to me).  i missed being "forced" to compromise and watch the ridiculous shows hugh dvrs each week on the history & discovery channel (although there are a few i secretly enjoy...shhh).  and i missed snuggling up in bed with him....even when there's a sneaky little boy who climbs in between us at 3 am. 

so last night when i drove to the airport at 11:00 pm to pick him up....i was totally ready for him to be home. 

the boys both fell asleep on the couch at 5 pm last night after an afternoon of swimming at the y.  typically i would do everything in my power to keep them awake; knowing that if i didn't, they would be up until midnight.  but i let it go.  they hadn't seen daddy in 6 days and were so excited to see him. 

so i let them take a nap...at 5 pm.  and although i am CERTAIN i am going to regret it today around 3 o'clock when they are super crabby and exhausted ---it was totally worth it to see their excitement as we drove to the airport in their jammies WAY past their bedtime to pick up daddy. 



i am constantly reminding my boys to say "thank you".  the "what do you say?"s in our house are recurring. 

but how often am i leading by example -- and saying "thank you" myself?  not. often. enough.

so --thank you, babe.  i am so very grateful for everything that you do for the boys and me.  and although it may seem to at times, it does not go unnoticed.  i love you.  and....

i. appreciate. you.  :)