Daddy's Stay-cation

This past week Josh was home alll week on a stay-cation!  He gets a lot of vacation days at J&J and for the past two years he had big events to use them up (2009: our wedding and honeymoon; 2010: Africa trip).  So this year he decided to use them up by sticking around the house.  Let me tell you, it was probably more relaxing than an actual vacation!!  Here's a summary of what we did each day:

SUNDAY: We went to church, although I basically just babysat Clark at church.  He was still feeling sick so I didn't want to put him in the nursery.  Josh was observing a Sunday school class (he's teaching it in a couple weeks) so I stayed in there for a while and Clark fell asleep.  He woke up about thirty minutes later and the class was nearly finished so I just packed him up and took him home because he was being really loud.  In the afternoon Josh got a text form one of his groomsmen in his wedding, Joe.  Joe recently got engaged to his long-time (like eight years!!!) girlfriend, Shannon and we hadn't seen them since.  As it turned out they wanted to meet Clark and we wanted to see her ring so we invited them to come over!  Three hours later (and lots of cleaning...) they arrived.  Unfortunately the hardwood was still wet!!  I hope they didn't notice....And they requested to watch the rest of the Eagles' game..up in the loft..which is where I was stock-piling a bunch of Clark's toys and clothes during the cleaning haha  So it was a humbling experience! hahah Anyway we had a great time with them.  Her ring is beautiful!!  I showed her my wedding planner book and wedding album so she could get an idea of how the wedding was planned.  I should have had my Mom over--we talked wedding for their whole visit!!! :)  They stayed for dinner (meatball sandwiches...sound familiar anyone?! :).  Then they left around 7pm.

MONDAY:  We polished up my car and posted it for sale on Craig's List.  We're asking $7,775 if anyone is interested!! :)  Then we had Mom-mom and Pop-pop over for dinner.  They arrived a little earlier and hung out with Clark before dinner.  Then Josh grilled rosemary chicken, and I baked potatoes and green beans.  We finished up with an apple pie I made for dessert!  It was great to see them, I'm so glad that they came!!

TUESDAY: Tuesday morning was a "Mom's Together" event through our church.  I overslept (HOW?!?!?) and arrived twenty-five minutes late.  I was super bummed because I was looking forward to it for MONTHS then to miss almost a full half hour!!  They were still eating breakfast when I arrived. The topic was leading your children to Christ.  The speaker was my Aunt Verna who has EIGHT children, so I'd say she was highly qualified to speak!  And they are all Christian children, so another qualification I think haha  It was a great time and I was sad to leave when it was over.  Tuesday afternoon I straightened up the house because we were hosting small group in the evening.  We also got to go out to lunch while Grandma and Grandpa watched Clark!!  A little date :)  Very fun!!  After lunch we stopped by Farmer Brown's, which is closing next week.  I spent about $50 at Country Porch Primitives, which is an adjoining gift store, which is also shutting down and everything was 50% off.  Lots of beautiful Christmas decorations!!!  Small group went well at night!  Clark had a little trouble staying asleep but Josh and I tag-teamed so we each got to see some of the video.  (We are watching a DVD series on Shepherding a Child's Heart.)

WEDNESDAY: Wednesday morning we called up Mimi to see if she could watch Clark while Josh and I test-drove cars.  She was up for it!  So after lunch she came over and we headed up to Piazza Honda in Limerick.  It was a rainy day so we figured it wouldn't be busy.  And it wasn't!  We test-drove a Honda CR-V.  We were hoping to get a 2011 model for a steal since the 2012 models would be out and they would want to get rid of their 2011 inventory.  WELL as it turns out, Honda is a Japanese company and there was a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan this year (don't know if you heard about that...) so their 2012 production is about three months behind.  The 2012 models won't be coming out until January!  So that pretty much foiled our plan.  We really like CR-Vs though so we'll see what happens.  Wednesday night was rainy and cold so we stayed indoors (like Clark would want to go out anyway haha) and had a relaxing evening.

THURSDAY: In the morning I had a dentist appointment (GAAAAHHHHH).  Actually it wasn't too bad.  Last time I was there I was nine months pregnant and my dental hygienist was eight months pregnant!!  So we had a lot to talk about.  She had a little girl named Whitney (super cute) and I brought pictures along to show her Clark.  hahaha we are best friends every six months for about an hour. hahaha  Thursday night was the Elverson Halloween Parade!  We bundled Clark up underneath his Jack-O-Lantern costume and headed out into the cold!  It was a fun parade.  Clark didn't enjoy it very much (he was overtired and crying a lot).  But thanks to Pops holding him inside the SEL office, I got to enjoy much of the parade!  We walked down to the Mountz's house to say hi to Aunt Kim and Uncle Jon.  The parade ended while we were there so we walked back over to Mimi and Pops' house and headed home.  The traffic wasn't bad at all.

FRIDAY: Friday we thought we may be visiting Mom-mom and Pop-pop Moffit at Brittany but instead we're going on Monday.  I don't really remember what we did on Friday....

SATURDAY: Saturday was a big day!  We went to Mackenzie and Annie's birthday party in the morning!  It was very very fun!  Clark did great, he even took a little nap on Aunt Amy and Uncle Ryan's bed! :)  It was so great catching up with Amy and Abby.  Our kids are so close in age, we just have tons to talk about!!  And Clark loves watching all the other kids play.  He was in the exersaucer for a long time too.  After the birthday party Josh took Clark home and I drove over to a baby shower for my friend Ashley.  She is having a girl around Thanksgiving.  Be praying for a safe delivery!!  It was a beautiful shower and it was great to catch-up with Ashley.

SUNDAY:  Yesterday we were heavily involved at church and I was just praying that Clark would be okay in the nursery.  Before he got sick, I had spent most Sundays in the nursery because he would just wail and wail.  Well the Lord worked everything out!  He woke up early that day (usual) so we were able to get to church in time to practice.  He sat nicely in his carseat while we practiced then Aunt Kim whisked him off to nursery where he sat nicely while Josh and I helped lead worship!  I went in after to nurse him, then came back in for the sermon.  He fell asleep during second service but woke up right when we picked him up to go home!  Thank you Lord!!  Sunday night was a special communion service so we took him along and hoped for the best.  Again he did great!!  He was very tired and wailing on the way home, but then he went down for the night very well.

And that's it!!  We had a great stay-cation together.  I will miss having him home during the day!!