The kids have this week off, but my husband is staying home with them.
He goes back to work next Monday, at a law publishing company in Eagan, Minnesota. It's way below his skill level, and his previous pay, but he's tired of being unemployed, and maybe he'll be able to apply for other positions in the company once he gets there.
My in-laws are also visiting this week. They arrived two days ago on Sunday. They were scheduled to come Saturday, I wished that they wouldn't, and then my sister-in-law had a miscarriage and they stayed behind to spend more time with her. So, be careful what you wish for.
They brought with them a super-sized, re-used pickle or mayonaise jar full of Booja, a soup people make in Wisconsin. We ate it for lunch. My father in law then asked my husband specifically where his new job is located so we could pull out a map and he could instruct my husband what will be the best shortest route to drive to and from work, even though my father in law doesn't even live here or know the high-traffic routes.
Yesterday I came back to work, and my husband, father in law and mother in law painted our entire kitchen and dining room light blue. It really looks nice. I didn't appreciate how grimy the old white paint had got until it got new paint.
At Girl Scouts recently, my 11 year old daughter got to take apart a toaster and an alarm clock, using a screw driver. Now she wants to take everything apart! My husband recently arranged a broken VCR for them to both take apart as a daddy daughter project.
My 6 year old son has become obsessed with two toy stuffed dogs, one white and one brown, that we've had for quite a while. He takes them both to bed with him, makes them talk to each other, and brings them everywhere with him. Last week I even cought him with the white one in his school back pack.

I got to attend my first Sons Of Norway lodge meeting, in Anoka, Minnesota, about a week ago! Really, everyone there seeme to be over 60 years old. They announced some names, and handed out some kind of certificates for miles walked, run or ski'ed, to keep everyone active. They held a brief memorial service for 4 lodge members who had died in the last year. Then they had a nordic accordian player play for about 1/2 hour, play instrumentals, sing-alongs that I'd never heard and didn't know any of the words, but plenty of other people did, and told Ole and Lena jokes. It was a little like the entertainment one would expect in a nursing home lobby...except I love stuf like that so I can't wait to go back. Someone told me that someone is trying to start a SoN lodge in a neighborhood a lot closer to my home, so I'll have to see if that happens, that would be nice. Anoka is pretty far!

I'll be sorry to see my husband go back to work next week, in some ways.
He's been driving me to work at 5:45 am while the kids sleep in, then getting the kids up and taking them to school. He's been picking the kids up after school at 3:20, then picking me up. We're all home before 4:00 pm and then we can just do what ever we want. We can have dinner early. We have plenty of time to spend together, and if one of us has an evening meeting, we don't have to rush to get them there.

If he starts coming home after 6:00 pm or later again, we'll eat dinner later. If he has Lions club or I have Sons of Norway or teach ESL that night, or if our daughter has Scouts or church, we'll have to rush! I always hated that and I'll hate it again.

I walk on the stair climber machine, or sometimes ride the excersize bike , or a combination for about 1/2 hour most work days, during lunch. Still 138 pounds. Grr. Yesterday I went through my closet to find nice suits from a job I had 7 1/2 years ago, and very few of them still fit. I needed them because I speak to a few groups of customers twice this week, and I have to dress nice for it.

Last Saturday I showed up at my friend's house for a party that is in fact NEXT Saturday . She was kind to make me some tea anyway.
Yesterday, Monday, I showed up to work dressed in one of my few remianing suits that still fit. And even then I felt like a stuffed sausage in it. And then remembered I wasn't even scheduled to speak until today!
I don't know why I bother to carry a Franklin Day Planner. I never check it.

I almost set my own jacket on fire one day last week. My 6 year old son handed me a nine volt battery he found on the floor of our car. I have no idea what it fell out of. Anyway I put it in my jacket pocket with the assorted change that was already in there, and I forgot about it. The next morning, my husband was driving me to work, and my stomach started burning! It was so hot. When I stuck my hand in my jacket pocket to see what felt like a hot potato, it burnt my hand! I had to wait until we arrived at my office parking lot , put on a winter mitten one of my kids had left on the floor of the car, just to empty out my pocket until the red hot battery fell out! I guess a copper penny had laid across both the diodes at the end of the battery and created an electrical circuit in my own jacket pocket!

My husband has been offered a new job, and he accepted it. It pays less than his last one, but he's tired of being unemployed, and it gets his foot in the door of a really well respected local law publishing company! Our kids have school this week. They have spring vacation next week, and he's going to stay with them. Then, the week after that he goes back to work at his new job!

Work still only fun because of my friend sitting next to me. Otherwise the new company that bought us hasn't done JACK to improve anything around here.