A Whirlwind of busyness has been the jist of my existence for the past few days. I finally got my littlest one on the plane this morning after a 4:55 a.m. wake-up bell. She is off to spend the next five weeks with her favorite Auntie and Uncle and her two cousins in sunny Florida. She finally gets to meet her newest cousin who was born last November. She has been so excited about this trip since we bought the ticket for her over a month ago. Each of the kids has gone away four of the last five years and I cannot tell you how wonderful it is knowing the bonds they have with their extended family. Something that makes me smile and gives me warm fuzzies every time I think about it! My sister is my only sibling and knowing that my kids have such an amazing bond and super relationship with her just makes me burst with happiness. That is something I knew I wanted for my kids long before I even had kiddos and something I thank God for every day. My son will be home with me this year (his turn to stay home but not by my choice) since he is involved in strengthening/conditioning and football camps all summer. It'll be the first summer since the summer five years ago when I met my dad in Kansas to take the kids for three weeks which turned into five weeks while my divorce was supposed to have been settled and finalized, that I will be working from home and feeling the emptiness that comes along with her not being here. My oldest is my buddy and he enjoys hanging out with me so at least I'll have some company while my heart has a lonely spot in it.

On another note, the frenzy of trying to get my little one ready to be gone for five weeks has been intertwined with my trip to San Antonio. I had to get my son ready to spend the rest of the week with one of his friends because Eric is taking me to San Antonio and we leave in the wee hours of the morning. This will be my first trip to San Antonio and I am so looking forward to getting away and just relaxing. This will be our first couples trip and I cannot tell you how excited I am. I'll probably be sitting in the car all ready to go and as we are pulling out of the driveway I will have to ask him to pinch me to be sure I'm not dreaming. I know it sounds silly but for someone who has really been kept in the dark for so long it's really fun experiencing all the things I never got to do in my previous marriage. We are staying at this mighty-fine place on the Riverwalk. It looks amazing and it sounds amazing and hopefully will be just as amazing in person as it is on the web and speaking to those who work there. They are so kind and helpful on the phone. I'll give you the scoop when I return. Speaking of when I get back, I've got tons of wedding preparations to take care of. I can't believe that it will be only eight weeks until the wedding. We don't even have a honeymoon spot picked out yet. Yikes!

With all the goings on around here there has been no art recently, there just hasn't been time. I even have had a hard time keeping up with the blogs I I try to keep up with the past couple weeks and my workout time has been down to a very bare minimum. After the trip I'll have to get back into the swing of things! Cheer-i-o!