My wife has left me . . .

. . . OK, its just for a few days while she is away "working" at CHA. what is CHA one might ask? Its a trade show for craft companies. Amy has recently been hired on as a product designer for one of the many scrapbook companies. Its a really sweet gig and I'm excited for her . . . really. It means however that she gets to go to the trade show in Las Vegas. It also means I am a scrapbook widow for the next few days. What it boils down to is that I get to be a single dad of five kids for a while. I should say here that I have never been one to say or think that what my wife does is "easy" I do however look forward to the opportunity to see how my better half lives. So I am going to make a blog entry every day for the next few about my single fatherhood experience.

I'll start with today as day one.

Captains log date 1.29.2006

We woke up at 0530 this morning to get the cadets up and ready to take the admiral to the airport. Did you know there is a 5:30 in the morning? We proceeded with the established plan that mom worked out the day the admiral knew she was "goin' to Vegas, Baby!" cadets were awoken, fed, dressed, and packed into the transport van which had already been started and defrosted by the captain. The drive was uneventful as the cadets listened to music and the admiral slept (did I mention that we got up at 5:30? . . . A.M.? ) We dropped her off at the airport by 0730 and drove home again. We got home at 0830 just in time to get the cadets dressed and ready for church that starts at 0900. We actually got there a little early. Again because of careful logistical planning by the admiral. Church has rarely been as interesting. Its one thing to try to keep five cadets quiet and reverent for an hour and ten minutes. Its quite another to do that and sing in the choir, write a talk for my eleven year old for primary (that I totally forgot about until halfway into the meeting), as well as keep a constant stream of froot loops going into a16 month- old mouth. By the way, she didn't want me to leave her to go sing with the choir, so . . . I held her and sang. Then I proceeded to teach not one, but two lessons while holding her while she led a completely normal day of eating sleeping and stretching the captain's face as far as the skin would go without ripping. Then it was home again. (the captain decided to not attend choir practice today, does that make him a bad person?) Everbody napped but the captain who needed some me time where it was real quiet. The cadets were well behaved so they got lunch in the mess hall at around 1400 and spaghetti for dinner at1800. They watched movies, ate popcorn, and enjoyed some ice cream before going off to bed at 2000. At this point the captain read the cadets a story, helped them say their prayers, and tucked them in. We didn't get a whole lot accomplished, but we didn't sink the ship. Its still sailing although there is . . . more to follow.