Week in Review (a long one...)

The last week (10 days, really) has been crazy. I auditioned for a job that was supposed to film last weekend. But then it got moved to Monday and Tuesday, which wouldn't work so well with the kids. The casting directors were supposed to decide by Friday who they would hire. I didn't hear anything so I was relieved, but disappointed at the same time. On Saturday afternoon we had a lovely time washing the car as a family. Lucas was a big help washing the places that had already been rinsed. Then he enjoyed "bamming" dirt clods with a hammer. We're lucky he didn't seriously "bam" himself. I went inside at one point with Evan. I checked the computer to discover that I had indeed gotten the part. I immediately started crying. Yes crying. I went outside and said, "Baby, I got that part... and I'm crying." Ben congratulated me and assured me that my children would live through a day without me.
Saturday night I went with some friends for my Mother's Day facial. It was heavenly. And my skin seriously looks better. I got home that night to discover that Ben had a horrible evening with the boys. Evan cried the whole time and Lucas was insane due to exhaustion. This didn't give me much optimism for Monday and Tuesday.
Sunday afternoon I continued to cry like a crazy person - seriously crazy. Like baby blues crazy. I couldn't find anyone to watch my kids and the firm hadn't gotten back to me about what time or location to for the next day. Finally at 9:00 I had all the info. I managed to get Andrea to watch the boys for the Monday morning, then Ben came home for the afternoon. And Vanessa was down for Tuesday.
Monday I was up at 5:00 with Evan. I never really went back to sleep. Ben headed to Andrea's with the boys at 7:30, I headed to Buda at 7:40... I was late. I got lost and got to the set a little late. They were filming 4 different spots so it was completely insane. We filmed in a couple of model homes. There was cardboard all over the floor, crew everywhere, hair and makeup in the garage, and important looking people walking around with walkie talkies. Everyone there as cooler than me, too. Ya know, the kind of guys that can get away with wearing denim capris, black Converse, a black hoodie, with a scarf and a beanie, and look totally normal. Well, that was just one guy, most of the other ones just wore normal black clothes, but had bizarre facial hair of some sort.
Anyhow, I was whisked into hair and makeup. got a quick manicure and then ran upstairs to start filming. The boy playing my son was a cute kid, named Andrew, who did a great job. We worked hard all morning. Poor Andrew was asking me what time it was starting at 11:30 and lunch wasn't until 2:30.
After a long day of shooting, waiting, pumping in my car (model homes don't have doors on the bathrooms), shooting, and waiting some more, I left at about 8:30. I was done! Then the girl came running after me remembering that I did indeed have more to shoot the next day.
Tuesday I didn't go in until 3:30. I dropped my kids off with Vanessa and headed to a hotel for this shoot. I went to hair and makeup, got a little manicure, addressed some baby announcements, and waited and waited. Finally at 5:30 we started shooting. I got to drive a car for this part. Today I had two kids who had to pretend to fight. (See, this was so easy for me - I just had to be a ticked off mom the whole time!). The kids were both ultra-impressed by the Ford Flex we drove, mostly because you can change the color of lights in the cup holders.
After our drive we headed inside. The kids started to change when someone came running after us because we had to do still shots also, so we went out again. I think I headed home at 7:30 that day.
I had a lot of fun on my little adventure. Going into it, I thought I would never do it again, but I learned that babies do survive a day without their mothers. Plus, it's fun to get out and do something for a day or two! To have people tell you you're doing a good job and get a sense of accomplishment. It's not that my boys don't appreciate me, because they do. It's just nice to have a reminder that you are someone besides a cook, cleaner, feeder, and disciplinarian sometimes. That said, I was soooo excited to get to stay home on Thursday and make cookies with Lucas. I wanted to do it Wednesday, but I had another audition... didn't get that gig.
That brings us to Friday. I don't remember a thing about Friday, so it must have been an ok day. I think Lucas messed up his train table, which has been an everyday occurrence, but that's ok.
Saturday Ben worked his bum off aerating the yard. He took Lucas on some errands with him. Lucas was rewarded with M&M's at one point. When asked if he would share with Ben, Lucas said, "I like to share, Dad, but I like to share with myself." Me too, Lucas. Me too.

Perhaps the biggest news of all is that Lucas is officially potty trained! It's been a long time coming. A loooong time. But now he's a total stud. No more fears, no more accidents. We still have to get the nighttime stuff down, but heck, as long as I'm not changing two kids' diapers anymore, I'm a happy camper!

In other Lucas news, he has discovered the wealth of kid's games on the interweb. He loves them. He'll spend hours on the computer if we let him... I try not to, but sometimes when your baby wants to be awake in the middle of the night, computer games seem pretty good. They're educational after all!

Evan is still cute as ever. He's so happy and sweet and big. I love him. We need to work on getting more cute pictures of him. His smiles make my heart happy, except when it's the middle of the night and he's supposed to be asleep. Then I get a little irritated, but he's still cute.

This last picture of Lucas is from today. We went to the park and all the kids ended up searching for rocks in the bark. Lucas collected all the rocks in his pockets, then displayed them when we got home.