Weekend so far, holiday parties + wondering something….

Asher is off in Iowa, as mentioned previously. My weekend started Friday afternoon with helping to get him packed up and to the high school to leave by 4 p.m. It was a group of I think around 34 kids: 30 teenaged girls and 4 boys. Haha. Poor boys! They are very outnumbered. (It’s high school boys swim season, so most of the 13+ aged boys are in high school and not swimming club right now, hence the low number of boys.)

They went in two of these rented 15 passenger vans, plus another regular minivan. It was a 5 hour drive! I hope for the sake of the dad driving (a parent chaperone) that the kids weren’t too loud and obnoxious on the drive to Des Moines. lol.

Side note: I spent my drive home wondering if perhaps I am a bad parent. Ha. Hear me out.

So this meet, it was listed as a “team travel meet”. It specifically said that the kids would travel with the team, and stay in hotel rooms as a team, etc. i.e parents didn’t need to go.

At the drop off, I learned that this one set of parents (NOT chaperones for the trip) was driving separately to Iowa, also staying at the hotel (but not with their kids, of course, because it was required that the kids stay with their teammates). Both of this family’s 2 kids are on the team. When I heard they were going to Iowa, I was a little confused- like, why would they want to drive 5 hours and spend the whole weekend at the meet, if the kids are already being taken care of with the team?? I asked the mom why they were going, and she said, “Oh, just to watch the kids swim. Nothing better to do!”

And then I immediately felt like maybe there is something wrong with me, because I feel like if I had the opportunity for BOTH of my kids to be away for the whole weekend, the last thing I would do would be to unnecessarily follow them and tie up my whole weekend at yet another swim meet! Seriously, I would have been elated to have an empty, quiet house, with just my husband, for 2 1/2 days.

I also can’t relate to saying that I have “nothing better to do” on the weekend of December 3-5, with Christmas in 3 weeks. I can think of approximately 4,267 other things that I could/should do this weekend, off the top of my head.

Hmm. I mean, obviously to each their own! They are welcome to attend any swim meets that they would like, and it’s their life and their family. I’m not judging their decision. It just made me wonder….. am I jerk or something for having NO desire to do that?? I love my kids to death, but I gotta be honest, a weekend with an empty house just sounds too good to pass up. (But again, maybe that is just my cold-hearted mom self talking. lol)

Anyway, as they all trekked off to Iowa, I went home and did a ~25 minute stretching video in my office by the light of my newly hung twinkle lights:

Then I went for a 20 minute walk in the dark before Ivan got home.

Saturday morning was also kind of dreamy. Ethan had to work in the morning, and Ivan was going in to work for a little bit, too. I ended up with the house ALL to myself. I spent a long time just puttering around, doing some dishes and cleaning out the fridge and finally washing and putting away the tablecloths from Thanksgiving, etc. I also kept an eye on the US vs Netherlands World Cup, which not surprisingly, did not go in our favor.

They ended up losing 1-3. It was 1-2 at one point, and their hopes were rekindled…. but then the Dutch scored that 3rd goal, and it was pretty much all over then.

Argentina played Australia after that, which was also a good game. I cleaned out my email while that played in the background, too.

Ethan had basketball at 2 and Ivan took him to that. I ended up staying home because we had my Division of Transplantation holiday party last night and I had a few things to do and wanted to start getting ready.

I ran over to Walgreens to buy some of my FAVORITE Impress nails to do a quick manicure. THESE ARE SO AMAZING. Honestly, they are so good. I don’t think I’ll ever get my nails done in a salon again. (Not that I do that often, anyway. My standard everyday “look” for my nails is super duper short, no polish, probably a hang nail or two and scraggly looking cuticles….sigh).

These press on nails are cheap (they used to be $5.99, but like everything, they’ve increased in price- I believe they are ~$8.99 at Walgreens now). But they are WAY cheaper than a real manicure, and I actually prefer the look of them much more than a gloppy salon gel manicure anyway. (I haven’t had the best luck with those! Every time I get my nails done in a salon I feel horrified by the price, and only marginally pleased with the results.)

Since I play the piano, I can’t stand having long nails at all (even the ones I buy, which are the “short” version feel pretty long to me). So these are perfect, because I can stick them on, enjoy them temporarily, and then I just take them off a few days later, or after the vacation, or whatever. They last easily a full week without any issues. If I paid salon prices for a set of nails, I’d feel forced to leave them on much longer. And a simple painted manicure never seems to work for me- not sure why, but every time I end up with chipped nails in like, a day. These press on nails never, ever chip. They look perfect the whole time I have them on, up to a week or more.

Okay, I’m totally blabbing on here, and this is getting very long. Long story short- we went to the Division of Transplantation holiday party downtown. It was okay. Only a couple people from my current department were there, so it was a little “meh”. Lots of the surgeons and medical directors etc were roaming around, but besides a smile and a brief “hello”, I do not really have close relationships with them to sit and chit chat. The bright spot in the night was reconnecting with a handful of nurses I used to work with on the inpatient unit. That was great!

We stayed for a couple hours, and then left and stopped for another drink at a cozy Irish pub close to home. That place always decorates nicely for Christmas. We sat at the bar and had a glass of wine and ended up ordering some cheese curds, because why not eat deep fried cheese at 9 pm.

We went home by around 10 pm and turned on the TV, and like the very exciting folks that we are, we both fell asleep on the floor in front of the fireplace until midnight. Ethan apparently put himself to bed at some point in there. hahaha.

Today is a wide open day. Hoping to get to the GYM as I’m going to start the new monthly strength program this week for December. Also need to make a dent in some more Christmas shopping!!

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for my press on nails. Such a great option!