you know it was a long, husband-less week when a trip to Wal-Mart was exciting

(Note: the picture on the right is from a year ago tomorrow. Aw! I loved that little sweater with ears. He was just 4 months old here and check out the sitting skills. Now a year later - at 16 months - he is walking all over the place like a big boy. Sniff. Sniff.)

So last week Mark was in Orlando - the Disneyworld "Swan" hotel, to be exact. It was his annual manager's conference, and while I was home wiping noses and eating macaroni and cheese with my three children, he was enjoying dinners of lobster and steak while listening to Mitch Albom, John Grisham, and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Hmmm. Something about that doesn't seem quite fair, huh? But really, I'm not bitter. Really.

I was so glad to pick him up on Friday. It was a long week, but amazingly, we survived. And the house stayed clean (coincidence? I think not) and I took the boys to do fun things - ALL BY MYSELF LIKE A BIG GIRL! This was a big feat for me. Don't get me wrong - I would hate it if he traveled all of the time - but I have to admit that despite the exhaustion, I was pretty damn proud of myself that I was able to get 4 of us up, bathed, and out of the house by 8:45 every morning.

Tomorrow is Gray's ear surgery. He'll be under general anesthesia and cannot eat or drink anything after midnight tonight. I have to admit that that is probably what I'm most nervous about. We've promised him popsicles after the procedure, so I'm hoping he can hold off without a massive meltdown before then. The kid, well, lets just say he enjoys an early morning bowl of Frosted Flakes as much as the next guy.

I'll post an update of how his surgery went. And I'm still holding out hope that they'll save the wax for me.