Meanwhile, Back at the Homestead...

Reentry.

That's where I am today.

Our family returned last night from a week-long vacation in Michigan and I'm staring at unpacked suitcases that are kindly hiding the dirty laundry that lurks inside of them, and I'm wondering where to begin.

As is my usual post-vacation mojo, procrastination followed by avoidance and a nice long nap are on the agenda for today.

My children slept until after 8:00 this morning. Which means my typical early risers were gloriously exhausted from a week of swimming, the beach, board games, late nights, ice cream cones, sand dune climbing, and the daily back and forth of trying to determine if they should jump off the second story balcony inside our vacation condo to the sofa below.

They (miraculously) resisted. I can breathe, again.

We traveled 32 hours in the car this last week. 16 hours up to Northern Michigan. 16 hours back. Lest you think I'm delusional and life is all rainbows and unicorns and the rose-colored glasses through which I view most of life turned a rosier shade of rose this week, 32 hours is looooooong. It's tough. And, we weren't all smiles and sing-a-long slap-happy all the way up and back.

But, what is that they say?

"Why aren't we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that."

They being Clark Griswold. I would know. I'm married to him.

And, our boys are incredibly seasoned travelers and they make the best of every road trip we take. We're so proud of them for that.

I am actually feeling like blogging, again. Someone zapped every bit of my desire to even crack open my computer these last 6 weeks or so.

Someone really little. But, someone we all love to pieces.

Thank you for your kind Facebook wishes and comments and texts. We are so delighted and thankful to be welcoming another little one into our family.

While we were driving up to Michigan, the boys began a serious conversation about the name of their new brother or sister. My facebook status last Monday:

The boys are discussing names for their new brother or sister. So far we have Gandalf, Mary Poppins, Sushi, and Butt-Butt. I can safely say we haven't found it yet.

Butt-Butt was the overwhelming favorite amongst the Facebook folk - which says more about my friends than it does about my boys {ahem - weirdos!}.

As for the gender, I can't tell you how many text messages I've received asking me if we will PLEEEEEEASE, OH PLEEEEEEEASE find out the gender ahead of time. I like the surprise. Jason wants to find out. We'll go a few rounds and see where we land. We will probably be surprised. Because Jason is awesome like that.

We've got quite the interesting situation with the boys.

Jack is dead set on a new brother. Dead set. In his words, "NO GIRLS! Boys rule this house." (Touché.)

Little Max is desperate for a sister. "If it's a boy baby, I'm throwing it in the trash", he announced last week. (My oldest brother, upon seeing my older sister for the first time declared, "When she's bigger, I'm throwing her in the Big Coal River." I'm happy to report - he grew to love her. But clearly, disgruntled sibling disposal of new babies is in the family genes. Lord, help us.)

Lincoln just wants to make sure we name him/her Mickey or Minnie. With back-up names Donald and Daisy - you know, in case we continue to adamantly reject his first choices.

As I mentioned, we've got a host of scenarios to manage and for now, we're laughing our way through them as we watch the boys process the news of our new baby.

I'm happy to report that all three of them (Whit being clueless) are so excited, and they love to tell strangers things like, "My mom has a new baby in her belly. And, sometimes she makes noises like she's gonna throw up but then she doesn't cause it's just a noise and nothing comes out."

This is the glamorous life I lead.

So, for today - back to real life at home. A large trip to the grocery store. After a week of fast food on the go, we all need to eat "through one nice green leaf."

All the while basking in the memories of another fun-filled vacation together.

Now, where is my bed, er - the washer?