when grandma comes to town

i alluded to this instagram but my mother came to my rescue last week. justin travels a lot with work and he had a particular 3 week stretch of coming and going but mostly going that i needed help with. it came right as i was changing my depression medicine. the perfect storm. i called my mom and begged her to come help me out. despite her having two back to back trips planned in november. oh well! who wouldn't want to come hang out with me and be my personal au pair for no money? get in line people!




we had a ton of fun- well, i had a lot of fun; getting out and doing all the things i want to do but never can. my mom got in on monday afternoon and the kids were giddy with excitement. as was their mama! the first thing landon had grandma shell do was help him with some legos he got from his birthday. we had a nice family dinner then justin and i snuck out for a date!! we didn't do anything special: ice cream, goodwill, and target. well, target is pretty special. it had been so long and it was on a monday night! like young people!

our sad nevada leaf pile

tuesday morning i left the baby with grandma and porter and i headed to class and the grocery store. then i dropped off porter and the groceries then headed to landon's school to volunteer. i have to hit 30 hours a year and i've got more then half done already. i just like to go and see what he's up to and see how he interacts with his friends. luckily, his school is pretty awesome at letting parents come and go. i came for lunch and recess, then took landon out early for a trip to boulder city.

my brother and nephew recently moved there and bought a house. my mom coming was a perfect opportunity to visit. he bought a fixer upper like us and he's got his hands full, just like us! we played at the park, got slurpees, and had an early dinner together. it was quite miserable with all three kids but i'm glad i got to see my family. i'm the only one left in vegas now. how sad. that night i had a church meeting and i didn't have to drag along my cranky, tired kids! what a luxery!

getting too big for my back seat

wednesday i went to the gym and got to hit a class i normally can't go to because of griffin's nap. then i dropped off some invitations for my birthday party. i mean, hogwart's delivered some owls late this year. i am so excited! i picked up landon and his friends from school then we went to baseball practice that night. thursday i went to the temple with my friend holly after i dropped off the kids at school. i haven't quite gone once a month this year but i'm not doing too bad. afterward i tried on some bridesmaids dresses [my oldest BF is getting married in march] and got some lunch. all without kids! can you imagine?! sadly none of the dresses quite worked out. that night we had baseball again and it was a terrible, no good night. porter had sicky poo in his undies, griffin and porter bought threw up on me, and i was covered in both.

he told me he found money
it was a clothing tag

friday i stayed at home while griffin napped and got some stuff done. my mom took porter to his sports class then we went to lunch together at raising cane's. yum! that night justin got home and we went out on ANOTHER DATE!!! and stayed out until midnight like young folks! we had some me

xican food with the irelanders, cleaned the church with them and played some basketball/dodgeball, then watched youtube clips while the boys booked trains for their trip to south america.

my mom sadly left saturday morning to a lot of tears [mostly mine]. she has remarked several times that i didn't her as much as i needed a babysitter. which is true. but it's hard to eat dinner alone. it's hard to take care of three kids 24/7 without any help. it's hard not to go on a date with your husband or go to the store alone. i got so much done and i had so much freedom. my friend remarked that she hadn't seen me that happy in a long time! there was plenty of truth in that statement.

a few weeks ago i saw a sign at deseret book that i quickly bought for my mom.

home is where your mom is.

i started bawling right there and then. my mom doesn't love being far away from her kids and grandkids. she doesn't love living in a garage. but it's where she's at right now. i don't love being away from my family. i don't love having a home base. but it's where i'm at right now. and no matter where my mom goes, my home will always be.