Spring Break, and Cheez-Its, and Bears, Oh My!

Something terrible just happened. I was left unsupervised for the evening and my old nemesis, the Cheez-It, got the better of me once again. I want to scream...both from anger at my weakness and because they happened to be Pepper Jack Cheez-Its and my mouth is on fire. Oh, the cheese cracker used to kick my tail constantly in college. Many people battle the bulge brought on my midnight pizza. Oh, no. For me, it was an entire box of cheese crackers. Darn it. The problem is, at 34, the old metabolism isn't quite the same as it was at 20. I can try to make myself feel better by telling little old me that I'll exercise twice as hard tomorrow, but I know me too well to believe myself. I'll wake up with a Cheez-It hangover, kicking myself for the fact that I'll have to try and deny myself more calories tomorrow.

Okay, I get the fact that you don't care about my metabolism or calorie intake at all, so we'll move on. So, I was Solo Mommy tonight at a friend's house. As the kids and I made our early exit into the dark, frog-filled night, I had to put on my brave face that I wear when Chris isn't with us. Our friends live in the dark, lonely woods of the middle of nowhere, so it was pretty dark and...well, woodsy as we headed to the van. Naturally, Jack was scared half to death...of bears! You see, apparently his little friend who lives there has been hearing bears at night lately. I'll thank her later for sharing that information. I reassured him that there were no bears around, I didn't think, and told him to get in so we could go.

After everyone gets buckled up, we start to drive forward to turn around when we hear this loud, scraping, scratching noise. "I'm scared!" Jack screamed. Rolling my eyes, I tried to drive forward again. "Mommy! I'm scared!" Me: "Jack, why in the world are you scared now?" Jack: "It sounds just like a bear! It's after us!" Or it could be a big limb hung under our car. Limb...bear...I can see how you'd confuse those.

I don't know where he gets his scaredy-catness. Certainly not from me. I would never make my dad drive all the way to my house when Chris wasn't home because I heard a noise and was afraid to go upstairs. I can't imagine why Jack is afraid of his own shadow. Or limbs under cars.

Thankfully, we escaped the ferocious limb and lived to tell about it. That was a close one.

Spring break is drawing to a close. We didn't do anything superfantabulous, but we did spend a little time at our lake house (which just happens to be owned and occupied by Chris's parents). My kids are pretty much the luckiest kids on the planet. They have the four best grandparents ever, and one set of them happens to live at the lake. The kids are spoiled rotten. It's no wonder they sink into a small depression when it's time to come home. Hmmm...staying at the lake with spoiling grandparents, snacks and sodas, and a huge yard to play in or coming home to a Nazi-ish mom who makes you clean up constantly and only feeds you homemade crackers and fruit. (Hey, I can't let them eat junk like Cheez-Its all day, can I? See what a good mom I am? I'm taking one for the team and saving them from the junk food!)

Here are a few pics from break time at Grandma and Grandpa's:

Looks like fun, huh? Now it's back to reality. :)