Back to Reality!!

Well, I am back from a great weekend getaway with my husband. We left or should I say we escaped Friday evening for our first weekend away without the kids since Max was born. Family members offered to watch the kids as long as we promised that I wouldn't come back pregnant. All I hear is how well behaved my kids are and how much fun they are but yet many are almost willing to pay to have me get my reproductive organs ripped out. Well, with that promise made Stephen and I had only one goal and that was to complete all holiday shopping on this 48 hour repreave!! We hit the outlets in Pennsylvania. Stephen made sure we were the first ones there, literally, the first ones there. I told him I was going to sleep in. While I was trying to sleep at 5am, he was showering, then fidgeting, walking the halls, checking out everything and doing a dry run of the 1 block trip to the outlets. Well we were there for the opening and Stephen did well. He looked for items and was really trying to be a help until I finally told him he can go to a fun store since he behaved so well. He would check back in every 20 minutes, carry my bags to the car and when he got really antsy he would move the car to the next strategic spot. After 2 hours and $1000.00 later we realized we only bought things for our kids, which on the way there we said our kids didn't need a thing. We left the outlets, hit Macy's in NJ (yes 30 minutes away) and Stephen was a trooper especially when he found clearance racks and actually looked thru them until I explained that the kids really didn't need summer clothes at this moment (mind you that my husband has not been to a store other than Lowes or Costco in years). I quote "during these times we should really watch what we are spending", in agreement we finished and only bought the necessities and finished all 36 people on our list and filled the trunk and back seat. As we spoke about saving money and waiting for some of the Dec. 1st sales we pass a large billboard for a FIREWORKS warehouse. 30 minutes off I-80 and into some hillbillie town we find a trailer and a warehouse. My husband looked like a 5 year old in a toy store. So much for saving money, he only wanted to stop for sparklers since my kids love them so much, but then I overhear questions regarding more bang or more color and my husbands response being more bang. A couple of hundred dollars later, we have sparklers for the kids and enough explosives for a nice size show, which I have been informed will be entertainment after Christmas dinner. Sorry, neighbors! Well, we are home and no matter how much my husband and I couldn't wait for some alone time, there was nothing better than walking thru that door and having the kids run to us for a hug! That's what its all about and now I know why I bought them everything they wanted and everything my husband wanted but used them as the excuse for the purchase!