Road trip: 10/11/12

My day began at 2:46 am. I stumbled into the bathroom like a zombie, answered natures call, and stumbled back into bed still half asleep. Eight minutes later Cecelia found my bed in the dark and helped herself to my pillow and blankets. Usually, when this happens, I go right back to sleep, but the night of 10/11/12 my poor brain couldn't stop thinking about what I needed to do before the kids and I headed to Spokane, WA for the annual Fatima Conference at Mt. St. Michael's Church. According to the website the conference is:

"A gathering of Traditional Catholics from around the country for five days of Latin Masses, spiritual exercises, inspiring lectures and sermons, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest."

I could only attend from Friday thru Sunday, but I looked forward to getting away and attending to my spiritual needs. My mother-in-law lives in Spokane and was more than happy to have the kids with her during the day, and even offered to allow all of us to stay at her house. After an hour of thinking...not voluntarily, about everything I needed to accomplish before our departure, fed up and tired, I got up and wrote down what I felt was most important:

• put chicken in freezer
• get oil change
• laundry
• hotel room
• fruit
• put in new headlight
• lunch duty at school
• computer with cord

This was what was written on my list. Really!? I can see putting in a new headlight, but everything else definitely could have waited until morning. I went back to bed and fell right to sleep, only to wake to my 5:45 am alarm an instant later. After pressing snooze literally six times I must have finally turned it off...thinking I would get up. However, in my sleep deprived state, I fell fast asleep only to wake up an HOUR later after dreaming that my alarm was going off (even though it didn't).

No need to go into the doldrums of my busy day, but we ended up leaving at 3:45, an hour and a half later than I planned. It was a long five hours, but the setting sun enhanced the fall scenery all around us. From the golden aspens and the rocky peaks of Snoqualmie Pass, to the violet and rose background to the Columbia River Gorge, I appreciated everything I saw. We were amazed at the vast wasteland of charred acres that still smoldered with smoky hot spots from this summers wildfires. Much sooner than I anticipated darkness surrounded us. By seven o'clock, the sky was black and the stars arrived.

It wasn't all poetic. Twice we had to pull over at the most inconvenient places so several kids could use the "restroom". There are stretches of I-90 where all you see is dry brown brushy acreage...for quite sometime, no rest stops, no gas stations. Darkness became our friend at these times.

I answered the question, "How much longer?" twenty-three times, we sang about 99 Bottles of Beer...the whole song, and we repeated the song "Down to the River" seven times...in a row. The best was when Cecelia told me most profoundly, "If God is big...then God is big." So smart, that girl.

The worst was when another child told me, "Um....um.....what if.....if..if, um, the star, the stars, stars...what if the stars...um....what if......what if the stars, um... ...." I gave up at this point. It's not that this kid's a stutterer, he just doesn't think about what he wants to say, and demands everyone's attention as he tries to think of something to say. It is a painful thing to try to hang onto someone's words when they are going nowhere.

Once at the hotel where we plan on staying one night, a serious round of jumping from one bed to the other began. This is only allowed at hotels :)

As for now, I am "the best mom in the world" for letting the four of them (Sam is hunting with his uncle and cousins) eat candy, and jump on beds and watch TV while I type on the 'puter. If that's all it takes....!


Sweet Dreams,

Gina