This week I am, more or less, flying solo. I will be on my own to feed, clothe, bathe, play with, transport, entertain and put to bed the children. I am looking at this as a test. A test of my parenting abilities as well as my patience. I'm sure I'll pass the parenting test, the patience test I'm not as sure about.
Shawn has gone out of town on a business trip. One would think there's no travel involved in automotive service, but one would be wrong - at least when it comes to Volvo techs. Shawn has been participating in Vista training/testing. I cannot remember what Vista stands for, but when Shawn first got hired at Volvo, they sent him for a week-long training seminar up in Rockly, New Jersey. He's gone back several times since then for continuing education and was recently invited to participate in the annual technician competition. Thus far, he's done really well. He is 1 of 48 techs across the country that made it to the finals! I'm very proud of him! The top ranked 19 techs win a free trip to Sweden to go to the Volvo Plant. As much as I wish him luck and hope he comes in number 1, I am going to miss the crap out of him while he's gone.
What's quite entertaining to me is that there is a dress code for some of the week's events. Shawn came home with an itinerary and a horrified look asking me what 'business casual' meant. Then he pointed out the part about the awards banquet where a jacket and tie are required. Shawn didn't even wear a tie to our wedding and doesn't own a suit. We purchased Shawn's first adult suit this past weekend. He looks great in it! I'm quite jealous that I will not be on his arm when he goes to this banquet. He left at about noon today and I was missing him by 12:15. There's a reception for all the competitors this evening. Then 2 days of testing before the awards banquet Thursday night. He won't be home until midnight or later on Thursday.
I planned a menu of simple to cook meals, did all the laundry and cleaned up as much as possible, so I'll only really have the bare minimum to do while home alone with the boys. I'm not worried about any of the week's tasks except for putting the boys to bed and being the only one to get up with Evan in the middle of the night. I will admit, I'm also a bit paranoid about being the only adult in the house. I'm jumpy when Shawn's here - in the last 3 hours I almost called the police on the Verizon guy who was sitting in a van outside for an extremely long time, took a Snapple bottle with me as a weapon to check out the noise in the playroom and jumped out of my skin when the wind blew the bedroom door shut upstairs. I cannot imagine how bad I'm going to be tonight after the kids go to bed.
Evan's too little to really know what's going on. I'm sure he'll notice that daddy's not here tonight, but telling him ahead of time means nothing to him. Nick, on the other hand, seems terrified of being home with only mommy. To make things more normal for him, Shawn took one of the 2 copies of 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' with him so he can read it to Nick over the phone tonight. Nick can flip through the copy here while Shawn reads from the other copy. I'm sure that after being allowed to stay up late tonight so I can get Evan to bed, he'll be more willing to enjoy parts of our special week together and less likely to freak out about Daddy being out of town.
It's been 3 hours since Shawn left, the boys are in school and I'm sitting on the couch missing Shawn already. I will be going to get the kids from school in about 2 hours and will then be too busy to miss him. In the mean time, I'm trying my best to enjoy the peace and quite of my empty house.
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