while my boys are in Texas...

On Monday morning (in the wee hours) I dropped all three of my boys off at the airport so they could catch a flight to Texas. I watched them until they quickly disappeared in security, got back in the car and completely and totally lost it. I cried so hard that I missed my exit towards home and had to drive an extra 10 miles in the wrong direction because of the little detour.

I had to laugh at myself later because I have no idea where that came from. Since Cooper has been born (over a year ago) I have not been at the house by myself for more than a couple of hours...and even the times where I had an hour to two by myself was a rarity. I think I have gotten so used to having a chaotic household that I don't know quite what to do with myself when I am home alone. Well, at least for the first few hours anyway....  ;)

Clay, Cooper and Parker at the airport in Texas - November 2011

1st trip for Clay to take both boys on a trip by himself

The funny thing is that I am a very independent person; I always have been. Parker comes along and shocker...I'm thrown for a loop. It didn't take too long for me to work that out though. I wouldn't give anything for our precious boys and the "busyness" that they have brought to and continue to bring to our lives.

Fast-forward to Wednesday...I'm good. ;)
Time to start crossing off things from the bucket list.
#1 Enjoy a plate of strawberries

...chocolate covered. :)

No worries about me. I'm good. Boys are having a blast. I'm enjoying a few "date nights" with myself. It's great. ;)

Tonight I went to see "Breaking Dawn" at the movies. Now, exactly 3 weeks ago I would have scoffed at anyone who mentioned this film to me; my sister-in-laws have been trying to convince me to read the books and check out the movies for over a year now. Every time they mentioned it I would shake my head and respond, "A love story about vampires and werewolves? Yeah right." Almost 3 weeks ago, Twilight came on television. Now, I don't watch a lot of television but I decided to give the movie 10 minutes to check it out and see why so many people thought this was a "must-see." Within 7 minutes, I was shooing my husband and 3 year old away from the room. I was glued to the t.v. for the rest of evening and have been only slightly obsessed ever since. Monday evening, I went and checked out the first three videos in the saga and have played them over and over in the background every single night while I've been doing random things around the house after getting home from work. Aaaahhh. Love it. It's like a modern day Romeo and Juliet..sort of.

It just happen to work out that the 4th part of the saga was coming out in the theaters while my boys were out of town. Tonight, I think the guy at the ticket desk at Regal Cinemas thought I was crazy when he handed me my ticket and I looked at him and asked, "Is this for one person?" What happened to the little red single ticket stubs you used to get? Or the little bitty individual ticket stubs that 5 years ago just had the name of the title of the movie you were going to see? Tonight, I got this credit card sized (if not larger) ticket plus some other slip that I was to show to the attendant. Then I sat down right in the middle of the theater with my popcorn and coke and watched the previews for when the screen popped up to "silence your phone"... and then came the message.... "No texting allowed." That's when I realized how old I was getting.

I think it was at that point when my mind went back to my Jr High days. The movie theater experience in my hometown was a little different experience than this. Not in a bad way...just different. I couldn't help but smile as I sat there and had flashbacks of my Saturday evenings at the movie theater. Simple ticket stubs, sticky floors that literally stuck to your shoes, bouncy seats (due to age), theater building right next door to the Pizza Hut and McDonalds...and usually you knew 3/4 of the people in there. There was no pre-entertainment commercials...the lights would dim, the previews would come on and the movie would start. There was typically a 5-10 min silent period where one would enter, take their seats and nothing was playing on the screen...it was at this time all the jr highers and highschoolers would goof off and check the room to see who was there on this particular evening. Who was on a date with who, what group of girls were having a girls night...so fun thinking back on all of that.

Funny thing..about the time all of this was running through my head...when I was reminiscing about my youth, the preview for "Titanic" came on. Who knew it was coming back to theaters? I couldn't help it; I had to laugh because it was this movie that I went to see twice...and both times I was asked to leave because I was crying so hard. True story.

Some things never change. Within 15 minutes of Breaking Dawn starting, I had tissues in my hand and was sniffling...was it from the movie itself or the fact that I was having a girls night all to myself...who knows? Either way, it was fun. Ashee, please don't forget my books at Christmas. I have some reading to catch up on this December. :)

Time to head to bed. I have quite a few more things to cross of my bucket list before Sunday, so I'd better get my beauty sleep tonight. ;) I can't believe I've just stayed up this late...