Back from Florida. We all had a really good time. My in-laws rented a four story house, and DH and I had a bedroom on the top floor, with the boys one floor beneath us. DH's two brothers each have 3 kids, but they are much younger than our kids, so those families were up at the crack of dawn each morning with their babies. DH and I slept late each morning, never hearing a thing....we loved our room at the top of the house! One of the local stations where we were had "Rockford Files" on at 5:00 each day, so that was must see tv for me while we were there. It's the little things, you know?

I have to say that I would have been happy to head for home on Thursday....I had kind of reached my limit on the communal living at that point, but we made it through and left about noon on Saturday....stayed Saturday night with DH's cousin in Birmingham....and then drove all the way home on Sunday.

I had total PMS for the first half of the week when we were there....of course, that is when the entire family decided to throw me an *early* 40th bday party, complete with all of them (even my boys!) dressing in all black for dinner and giving me Depends, metamucil, tweezers......you get the picture. I HATED IT! I was gritting my teeth and putting up such a good front (DH assured me that no one could tell....) but I just had *no* sense of humor about it at all. I felt fat and old (the only female there, except my mil, without a baby/toddler) and honestly, when we went to bed that night, I laid there and had a good cry. Of course, a couple of days later, I felt much better about life in general and would have handled the "celebration" much more easily. I'll tell you what....I don't have horrible physical PMS symptoms, but the emotional ones have certainly gotten more intense over the past couple of years. Yikes! One funny thing....one of my BILs ended up asking me for the metamucil wafers that I had gotten because he was having a little trouble :> . I was glad to help him out!

Now we are back and I have been going over to school to work every morning this week. I found out this week that the language arts teachers scheduled a field trip to take the 7th graders to see "A Christmas Carol" on the same day as my Christmas concert, meaning that I won't see my kids in class the day of their concert.....not ideal. I don't know which was scheduled first, my concert or the field trip (but I have to turn in all of my concert dates for the following year in March......) but I wish someone had given a heads up about this before they got scheduled on the same day. I will be letting appropriate people know..... I can already feel my stress level ratcheting back up, and I hate it! I have to take the boys to their school today at 4 to turn in all their forms, etc. I can't believe that summer is over! WAAAAAAH!

Our anniversary is Monday, which is also my first day of school. I don't know if we are doing anything special or not, or when we will find time! DH and I had some good conversations, though, on our trip, so I am feeling good about our marriage right now. I think he is hearing me about how much time he spends at work, and he is going to try to end his clinc earlier some days so he can get home sooner. After (almost) 18 years, I can honestly say that I still light up when he walks into a room, and there is no one I would rather spend time with. Whether that is a sign that our relationship is healthy or just the reality of having and OB/Gyn husband who works a lot, I can't say! [/QUOTE]