Helping my sister out

Let me begin with, I love my sister.  She has been going through a bit of a rough patch over the past few years, which ultimately caused her to move back up to Michigan to my parents with her four children.  Not easy.  She had to get a job which involves her not being home when the kids get home from school, so my parents watch them during that time.  My parents wanted to visit my brother, Jon, and his wife Megan and their new little son, Daniel in Kansas for a week.  Which caused a dilemma of what Holly's kids were going to do while they were gone.  She asked if we could help watch them and that wasn't a big deal at all.  We were more than happy to help out.  However, the week didn't go nearly as we had envisioned.

Dude riding on the same fire truck that my brother LOVED as a kid

Norah ripped Gaetan's pants in a major way

The plan was that we were going to stay at Mom and Dad's for the week (since they were going to be gone and we weren't driving back and forth each day) and they were going to leave on Tuesday, which meant that we didn't have to be there until Tuesday afternoon before Justus (her oldest) got home.  However, as stated in a previous post we got snowed in there Sunday to Monday in which they had a snow day, and it was looking like they were going to have one on Tuesday as well.  So Monday Dad and I tried to pick the best time of day go back to Kalamazoo and grab all the stuff that we were going to need for the week.  And boy, am I glad that he drove because it was SO WINDY you couldn't see the person in front of you.  So, we stayed there again Monday night because I knew that we were going to be watching her kids all day Tuesday, instead of just after school.  

I was right.  Holly headed off to work in the morning and Mom and Dad took off sometime late morning.  That meant that Gaetan and I were now responsible for watching SEVEN kids.... We needed to go grocery shopping because Mom and Dad didn't stock up before they left and Gaetan needed to work on his comprehensive paper so I was going to take all of them to the store with me, until I realized that our mini-van wasn't big enough for all the people... which is insane.  So, I learned something right then and there... I had an upper limit on how many kids I could handle.  I always joke that I would adopt the world, but if you have to take more than one vehicle to the grocery store because your crew doesn't fit in one?  That's to many.  The boys ended up staying home and playing the Wii while Gaetan worked and I took the girls to the store.  That part wasn't so bad because I'm used to having 3.  However, the bad weather had seemed to make people out and about stupid and even worse in the store.  Needless to say by the time I got home and unloaded the groceries I was pretty fried.  Gaetan volunteered to take the older boys out to a movie (less to watch) and also because they had been asking him for about a month now to go see the second Hobbit movie.  So, pretty much as soon as I had a semi grasp on the situation they left to catch their movie and grab some lunch.  ::whew::

The rest of the week wasn't so bad because they had school so it just our kids in the morning time... and after having all the kids having just ours seemed like a dream.  While we were there I cooked and cleaned up after everybody, which is no small thing!  They would leave early in the morning for school but leave everything they had out for breakfast, which sure, I suppose i could leave it out all day and have her clean it up when she got home, but then it would be out all day and in my way.  I would make them snack after school and then dinner and then clean up after all that.  I seriously think that i would run the dishwasher about three times a day!  Needless to say I was exhausted after that week.  And poor Gaetan had to get work done for his comprehensive amongst all this crazy.  

Sweet girly

Having a funny photo shoot in the morning

I think this sums these two up in one shot

Yup, she's not wearing pants... typical

It seemed so quiet in the morning with just our kids.  And yes, she is wearing an oven mitt on her foot

Weeks like this make me even more thankful for the family and situation that I am in.  I'm really glad that we could help my sister out and even though her situation sucks and that's why she's back, I'm glad that she stood up for herself and did what was best for her children.  That week opened my eyes to a lot of things and also helped solidify some truths I already knew.  It was also really good to come home and be in our own space.

JVG