Early

Well, here it is at 4:53 a.m. and I am seriously hankering for a donut and some coffee, thanks to a facebook status update from Bankok. I see some of my other friends are also awake. Robb is off for his last book-buying trip to the sunny and exotic land of ....New Jersey. Fortunately this is a short trip and he'll be back very soon.

We had quite a weekend. On Friday, I was anxious to go hit the garage sale circuit and restock my Etsy store. I'm actually getting close to having everything I've got out there in the cave of wonders listed. It's going to be interesting to see how business fairs for the summer. While we don't exactly count on it for the budget, it does pay for the little extras like broken weedwackers, cameras and dvr's. Add to the that list cell phones (Robb's conked out on Saturday) and of course, the long, long battle with our lawnmower.

But it rained. No it poured. It was actually more of a monsoon situation. So we came home and put on our pajamas and "curdled up" for the afternoon. Eventually, the sun came back out and we had some homemade pizza for supper. Robb noticed that the Drive In was playing UP and Hannah Montana...so we herded the kids into the car and wouldn't tell them where we were going. Armed with a box of icecream sandwiches, the wrong size batteries for the cd player, and an appalling lack of bug spray, we pulled into the gravel drive, whereupon we were informed by Charleigh that we were "ROCKSTARS!" and by Mattie, "THE BEST PARENTS EVER!" Vin agreed to put up with Hannah Montana for the sake of UP.

The Drive In is awesome, btw. For one super cheap cover price per car, you get two movies that aren't completely ancient. Unlike the cheeseball commercials they play for Coke and other concession stand favorites, straight out of the 60s, 70s and 80s. It's a dive, but we love it.

UP was precious. I couldn't really begin to tell you how great it was. Great family fun with no cringe factor whatsoever.

I confess that that was also the first time I had sat through anything Hannah Montana and I was positively surprised that there wasn't anything in it that I hated for my girls to see. (Vin was out like a light by that time). I'm not about to run out and buy any of the disgustingly over-marketed Hannah Montana stuff, but I didn't mind my 9 year old watching a movie about a girl with a good daddy-relationship, country roots, and an adequate sense of humor.

Mental note: take jumper cables and bug spray to the Drive In next time. A dead battery and malaria can really take the fun out of a good movie night.

On Saturday morning, we dragged out of bed a little too early. I thought I might just go to the estate sales I missed the day before, as well as take my flower pots over to Barbara's Gardens. But we decided to make a family day of it, and Robb threw together some great car snacks and we grabbed one of the kids books on CD. They are all big enough now to get in and out of the car unassisted and it makes for a fun time, treasure hunting. Mom of course, it WORKING, but that doesn't stop us from having a good time. With the proceeds from the flower pots, I was able to get a nice re-stock for the store as well as a good big pile of mosaic supplies. And when we found slushies at one sale later in the day when the kids were getting bored, we were again told that we are the "BEST PARENTS EVER!" Not too shabby, eh?

A bathroom break at Gulley Park led to wading in the creek, which for Vin, led to "slipping" in the creek and being soaked. Not the best thing for a guy who's been battling an ear infection and just generally not feeling good for two weeks now. He's had one course of antibiotics already and thought we were doing better, but his ears are tender to the touch and we are headed to the real doctor today....not the drive-through-clinic at Walmart.

And then we wended our way home to get chores done, make some grilled chicken for supper, have Saturday night baths, and get ready for a good day at Vintage. Which we had, followed by a potluck meeting, and a drowsy afternoon reading the paper and catching up on blogs and getting organized for the week. It will be a busy one....
but it was good to have a recharging weekend as a family.

Robb mentioned that he had seen a Business Week article listing the top cities for families and Springdale was on the list. I can see why.