Unexpected

No I'm not pregnant. But I did want to give a shout out to the (older) man in my life for enabling one of the best weekends I've had in ages and it was all so unexpected.

1. Happy Hour at Chevy's with the girls, Robby and Ry

Yummy, cheap (we got out for $11), and fun because they give the kids tortilla dough to play with and we had good company with my sisters.

2. Shopping sans kids

After our happy hour with the girls, out of the blue, Ryan offered to watch the kids so I could go do whatever I wanted. Whatever I wanted .... I seriously had to think for a few minutes because usually free moments are filled with calls to insurance, emptying the dishwasher, or vacuumming my stairs,and those are definitely not things I want to do. Well those moments of pondering how I would spend that free time led me to one thought: I love to shop. When I hear someone say, "I don't like shopping" I just feel sad. But I don't love shopping with kids. It's not fun and not rewarding at all. I have abandoned ship and left full carts in the middle of grocery stores before. I don't even attempt clothes shopping unless they show movies, or have a built-in babysitter, or they're both sleeping in the cart which doesn't ever happen and that's why I never go.

So I went shopping with Audrey at Nordstrom Rack (not kid friendly in any way), found some killer deals and made Audrey stay until we were the last customers, not a moment was wasted.

3. Grammy babysits

Ryan's mother watched Kate for several hours and allowed Ryan and I some much needed cleaning time. Not exciting, but needed. We have almost cleared our house of all junk, although Ryan may not agree as he labeled half of Kate's toys as junk. It felt good.

4. Bill Cosby

We got a surprise call from Ryan's mother saying she had an extra ticket to see Bill Cosby in a stand-up show. Um, maybe second to shopping on my list of things I love is Bill Cosby. Okay that's a stretch, but I really do have a deep and abiding love for the Cosby show, I crack up every time I watch it. And I got to see him, live!

It was painful. By that I mean I was in pain from laughing so hard. I cried and doubled over, slapped my leg, threw my head back, all of those uncontrollable gestures that come when something is truly funny. I got to see his "at the dentist routine." It was the best.

5. Family Dinner

Yogurt marinated chicken and veggie kabobs, bacon and red onion potato salad, strawberry spinach salad, tres leches, and gougeres (french rolls to die for). I think every world culture was represented with our dinner menu and it was delish.

Thank you in every way to my husband for his generous donation of time and love to our kids. I felt so rejuvenated and loved as well. Thanks to Karen for all her kindness and generosity as well. And thanks to Audrey for sticking it out to fill a shopping desire long-abated.

I had to laugh when my brother asked Ryan how his weekend was and he said it seemed kind of long...