Normal.

I'm up in the middle of the night with excruciating pain in my left ear. Oh my gosh...i don't think I've ever experienced any thing quite like this! The whole side of my head is throbbing. Ear infection?? I don't know, but I'm waiting for the pain meds to kick in so I can maybe sleep. Then I guess I need to go see the dr. in the morning. Blah.
Anyway.....besides that, we had a great weekend. Dare I say it was "normal"? What is normal anyway? Well for us, the last 3 or 4 years, our normal has been much different that what I imagine other families are like. Our normal has been: Daddy gone all weekend and mommy and kids at home doing pretty much nothing. All that has been basically because of the ranch. The business required so much of Pete's time, that he just wasn't here. Sure, we'd go up there with him occasionally, but most of the time not. I got very used to being alone Friday and Saturday nights. Sitting up by myself, crafting or watching movies or both. I know it might seem bad to say, but I got very used to him not being here. I got used to being alone.
So a couple of weeks ago, Pete decided he'd had enough. There were several events that sort of led up to it. Not only did the ranch take up a lot of his time, but it was extremely stressful for him too. The maintenance alone, would drive someone insane. (he was working a regular job 4 days a week and then doing the ranch the other 3) One good thing would happen, and then 10 bad things would follow it. It just wasn't working. It wasn't working for him, and it certainly wasn't working for our family. In order to make it work the way he thought it should be, he basically would have had to let his family go. AND HE WASN'T/ISN'T WILLING TO DO THAT. Thank God. And so.....that part of our life is basically over. It's sort of sad. Especially after all the blood, sweat and tears that went into building the place.....and the memories that were created there for our family. But it's sort of a relief too. I know it's a big weight off his shoulders. But it's still been a little hard for him to completely let it go. I should mention that he's still running a business. He's still a hunting guide and that will still occupy some of his time, but we won't be dealing with that ranch anymore and so it's kind of a win-win for him. He still gets to do what he loves, it just won't be quite as stressful and it definitely won't take up nearly as much time. I'd say that's win-win for all of us :)
Anyway, so back to "normal"..... This weekend was not anything like the normal we were used to. But it was normal in the sense that we did normal things. And it was great. Friday night Pete and I had a date! Which, i don't think we've done in years. Probably not since Megan was born. Really. We went to Olive Garden for dinner and then to the movies. Saw Avitar and it was better than I expected. AND we were out till 11pm! OMG! It was like we were kids again! ha! Saturday Pete met a friend for breakfast and ran some errands in the morning and in the afternoon we were all home, with a house full of kids (nieces were here) and we just played. Normal! AND THEN we all went out to dinner again and went to the mall (I never go to the mall!) to buy me a new set of knives for Valentines day. Probably not so normal, but we were all together as a family, hanging out.....together! AND THEN Sunday we all got up and went to church. Together! Sunday afternoon, my mom came down and spent the night with us. Not normal, but still awesome :)
So, it felt good to just be home and be together. The eating out {and may i just interject that I didn't cheat once on my diet and skipped the movie popcorn!} and movies isn't really necessary, but was a nice bonus! I'm hoping for more of these "normal" weekends to come. :)
And now I better be off to bed. It seems the pain meds have kicked in and I better get some sleep before my ear is throbbing again!