Gone

My husband left me this weekend.

Let that sit there and marinate for a little bit.

Thankfully, he only left me for the weekend and then returned in time to kiss his babies goodnight Sunday evening.  And sadly, when he left Friday afternoon for a weekend of male bonding with his college buddies, it seemed as though our cable left with him.  I didn’t realize the state of affairs until several hours after he was gone, otherwise, I may have called and begged him to come back.  Thankfully, we don’t really rely on the tv too terribly much from Friday night to Saturday evening – but I’ll be really honest, I kinda felt like I was “roughing” it, living off the grid and taking a walk on the wild side without being able to turn on the tv to see what the weather was.  I lived in a constant state of fear that the kids might rebel against me and I wouldn’t have any calming episodes of “Little House on the Prairie” to get them back in their happy places.

We made it just fine though, really not missing it at all.

Friday afternoon, early evening the kids did a little dressing up to go and visit the neighbors closest to us.  I would hardly refer to this as trick or treating, it was more like going over to say hello and show some of the neighbors that we don’t see as often how big the kids have grown since last year.  They did manage to bring home an incredible amount of candy though for only visiting 5 families.  It happened to be incredibly cold (we had frost the next morning!) and I think most of the ‘hood figured that trick or treating in below freezing temperatures wouldn’t be very popular, so best to give out bowlfuls at a time.

My children usually wear somewhat themed costumes.  Not always, but if I can wing it, I try to go for something cohesive.  This year my children rifled through their many costumes and came up with this:

M-A-L-A-R-I-A…diseases never looked so cute!

Can you guess their theme?

This is how I imagine Matilda as an adult…just sitting with a pumpkin on mom’s front porch ready to head off to work

He was very concerned that he was missing a probiscus – something he learned about during his time at the Botanical Gardens and enjoys talking about now

She would roar at you

Probably not, but I was pretty excited about it. They are malaria!  Reese is the little mosquito that infects people.  Lila is a lion, representing Africa, where malaria is more common.  And Mattie Belle is the missionary doctor!  And these were all costumes that we have just lying around our house – the scrubs are actually Reese’s pajamas….the even say “Dr. Baughman” on them.

After visiting our neighbors, we headed over to our Nelson’s house for some of Ms Sara’s Famous Cheesy Vegetable Soup and bible trivia.  The soup lived up to its reputation but I kinda have to hang my head in shame at my children’s biblical knowledge.  For the most part, they were on the right track, but with every answer they gave there was just a little something off.  For example, when asked the question of which river in Egypt did pharaoh throw all the baby boys in, the kiddos answered with “The Nylon River”.  Close kids, close…..but sadly, so very off.

We will be practicing our bible trivia nightly from now on.

Hopefully, everyone learned a little something.  And if nothing else, the girls got some much enjoyed cuddle time with “auntie” Sara.

How Many Nelman ladies can you fit in one chair? I bet there could have been at least one more:)

Sabbath morning, I wish I could say that everything went awesome and we arrived promptly at church, maybe even with time to spare.  At least I can say that we did eventually arrive at church.  And all Baughmans were able to stay in the service, which isn’t something that can always be said – that might explain my children’s funky bible knowledge.  While kids #2 and #3 and I were waiting for Mattie, who was practicing in Children’s Choir after church, I asked if they wanted to take a picture to sent to Daddy to wish his a Happy Sabbath.  These are their pictures:

Festive Fall Socks

Reese just wanted Dad to see his socks

And I told Lila to say “Cheese” and this is what happened.  This is the tamest one, they seemed to only get rapidly more graphic and disturbing the more I took.  I’m sure it really left him feeling loved and wanting to rush right back to us.

Be careful, your face might stay that way, Lila

Sunday, Reese had his first basketball practice.  We really could have used our patriarch for this activity.  We missed him all weekend, but I couldn’t hand;e it pretty good….until this.  I know nothing about basketball and the boy seemed to have a lot of questions that I really wasn’t any help for.  I wasn’t even too sure about how I should dress him to such a thing.  “Just dress me like Daddy”, was Reese’s request.  I did my best and thankfully, the PreK-K crew at the Jewish Community Center isn’t very discerning.  He sported a SEC team shirt and those swooshy, loud nylon (the fabric, not the river) warm-up pants….oh and athletic shoes that weren’t just casual sneakers.  I think he looked the part.  He was also thrilled that they didn’t actually play a real game because he had been a little concerned about not knowing A) who was on his team and 2) any of the actual rules.  When asked later if he liked it and had fun, his response was, “Yes, I will go back.”  Well good Reese, because it’s already paid for and like it or not, you were going back next time, anyway.  But I’m glad he had fun just the same.

There was some standing near cones going on

And Dribbling

Our next event was to head to our little friend’s 3rd birthday.  I wish I could say the highlight of that event was the adorable little outfit the birthday girl was wearing.  Or maybe the precious little cake that had crafted just for her.  The delicious chicken salad sandwiches that I eat only once a year, at her birthday parties.  Even the birthday girl herself would have been a fantastic, stand-out of the event.  Instead, the moment that will stay with me forever is that in the last few moments that we were there, Mattie Belle managed to chip her tooth.  Thankfully, her teeth are still rather crooked so you couldn’t really see the corner missing from her left front ADULT…PERMANANT…NOT GOING TO GET A NEW ONE  front tooth.  Thankfully, she chipped it at her dentist’s house and her dentist was right there to relieve her mother that it was going to be no big deal.  It was that moment that kinda made me feel like maybe Brandon shouldn’t leave me alone anymore.  I do plenty on my own and usually handle things just fine.  I’ve taken the kids on planes across the country by myself, driven with 3 – one of those still nursing – on a 7 hour drive.  I took them to a NASCAR event even for Pete’s sake…..but maybe this weekend had been too much?

And back to that cable and internet being out….we had managed just fine all weekend…really didn’t even miss it….until Sunday night.  When the boy and I were huddled together watching the numbers move back and forth in the last few moments, the last explosive moments of a very critical NASCAR race…watching this on my phone no less, I thought the boy was going to lose it.  “Mattie’s tooth is broken, we can’t see the race….Daddy needs to be home now!”

One can only handle so much.

And thankfully, the race ended with a victory by our guy and OUR GUY came through the front door at about the same time.

Welcome home….and don’t leave us again….at least, if you do don’t take the cable.

*On a side note, Mattie’s tooth has been repaired.  I am setting up a pool where we can take/ make bets on how long it will be before she knocks her “fix” out.  We are thinking of having a celebratory event for every year that it stays connected to her tooth.  I give it 4 months before we are back at Christal’s office again.  The polls are now open, exercise your right to vote.

 

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