Back to the Grind

Today is the start of the winter swim season. No more free evenings for me. Ben has practice everynight but Fridays. He also has practice on Saturday mornings. He is actually looking forward to it, so I suppose that is good.

The weekend was really eventful. Saturday I gathered the boys up and headed off to meet my sister at her hairdressers. I kidnapped my nephew and went to my brother's house. We visited while the boys played and then went for lunch. The nephew (I'll refer to him as C) was so tired that he put his head down on the table to nap! C is 2 1/2. My boys at 2 1/2 would rather have done anything than to take a nap in a public place so this is not something I am overly used to. So I gather up all three boys and headed to my aunts where we were all to gather that evening. They were supposed to look at pictures from my Grandma's house and decide which to keep, to get rid of and all that.

The evening went pretty quick and the boys were exhausted. Sunday was the family reunion. We got to the park and the first person the boys saw was Rachel (my first cousin). The boys refer to her as "my Rachel". She took Nate to play at the park while we waited for all to show up. The reunion was fairly small this year, only about 30 people showed. In fact, my parents actually won for having the biggest family present! This never happens because my Great Aunt Opal has four kids, all of whom have kids who have kids and most of whom typically come to the reunion. Lunch was fabulous. Later that afternoon we went to my other Great Aunt's house.

I had to put C down for a nap because mom and dad have no control. My sister was trying to put him to sleep by having him sit on her lap in front of the tv with my boys and their older cousin playing in the same room. He, of course, kept getting off her lap and coming in where we (and his dad) were playing cards. So finally, I got fed up and said "Go to the bed, you are taking a nap". He walked so dejectedly to the bedroom and climbed on the bed. He went right to sleep. Boy was my sister pissed. She hates it that he listens to me and keeps asking why he listens to me. I always say "it's because I am mean". I figure that is better (and I mean better for me, I don't need the drama of what saying the truth would mean) than saying she doesn't consistently punish his misbehavior. Normally daddy has to take care of all of this, but he should have some time off so I did it. I hate not getting to always be the spoiler, but I am not about to spend time with a misbehaving brat.

To top the evening off, I was playing pinocchle which ordinarily I love to play, but I was playing with my cousin, Joy. When we are partners, we lose. No ifs, ands, or buts. We won one game out of nine. The rest they slaughtered us. I think I must be a glutton for punishment for taking that much abuse without asking to switch up partners or something.

Tomorrow -- The great closet cleanout.