Without my better half

 So these are all pictures from earlier this month.  We got Busch Gardens tickets and tried out the new Falcon's fury!  It is an amazing ride that takes you up 328 feet.  Flips you on your stomach so to speak so you are staring at the ground, and then drops you.  Just as you near the bottom it swings you back out so you are sitting up again. 

 Fun Life Hack- peel an orange so the pith is still connected in the middle.  Fill with any kind of veggie oil (we used olive) make sure to wet the pith with the oil.  Then light it on fire.  They actually burn for quite a while. 

 Another project a friend of mine had done with her kiddos.  You take a cup- has to be #6 I think it is (think red solo cup, but ours were not name brand).  Write on it- the bottom of the cup will be what shows the most.  The sides will end up squishing so to speak....

 Preheat the oven to 275F (Yes I was doing this at 10pm experimenting... because if it went wrong I wouldn't have done it with kids. 

 Imagine a clean oven door- not this one because well you know that is just not on my radar most of the time.  Being real! 

 It literally all of a sudden "drops" and when they become almost totally flat as a pancake- I think ours took maybe 4-5 minutes (this may vary a little)- you take them out of the oven and you can flatten even more with an oven mitt. 

 Tada! 

 LOOK!!! I DID A CRAFT WITH THE KIDS!!!  Write this down in the record books!!! 

 The boys putting together our second shoe cabinet from IKEA.  Our last shoe cabinets final bit the dust after 11 years!!!  Which I happen to think is pretty good.  Actually if we could have found one more part- we could have just repaired them.  IKEA does have spare parts to furniture- so it is always worth asking even if it is an older product! 

 Michael looking especially cute!!!  I can't believe he turns 5 next week!  How is that even possible?  STOP GROWING! 

 Kiddos playing candy story.  And if you play candy store you have to dress up.

Good thing their smiles are cute they wanted to charge me $14 dollars for some candy.  :)

So Jason left this past Monday... and can I just say I have a whole new respect for single moms, or those whose husbands have to be gone for extended times for work.  I am not good at being on my own.  I pretty much stink at it because I am an extreme extrovert (henceforth the 9 kids)!  Today depression hit... and it stinks.  I know he will be home, but I just don't like not being with him.  This is the longest I think we have been apart since his grandmother died after we were first married (and I didn't have any kiddos then). 

I know this is a trip that he needed.  He is gone back to England for 9 days to visit family and hang out.  There were some specific things he wanted to do.  Managing the cost of a trip like this for all of us is hard- would take a while to save up for.  Going with him seems like it just isn't an option because of the obvious.  Who wants 9 kiddos for 9 days? ;)

It's not the kiddos they have actually been fine.  Well, you know....  It is just me not being good at being alone.  I don't sleep well at all- even with being tired and having oils (which hello I didn't even try until last night).  I feel easily defeated and then this crazy weather. 

Now you have permission to laugh because as I am writing this I am chuckling at myself.  I mean come on I was born and raised in Iowa (30 years) for goodness sake!  We cancelled our trip to go to Busch because it was too cold yesterday.  Ridiculous for Florida!  The start of the day it was in the high 20's low 30's.  I couldn't bear the thought of riding a roller coaster and having the wind be that cold.  So we stayed home which sent me on this pathetic place of sadness. 

122 hours and counting..... please hurry up!!!  I can't stand it!!!  Next Wednesday better hurry up!!!