We ran away. Far, far away.

Last night was the culmination of the last few weeks of December. You may have noticed that my stress level has been... a little high. I will not be writing about that. Not because I don't want to share the details with you my faithful blog readers. No, not because I'm shy. I don't want to write about it because years from now, when I go back and read the book I'm going to make out of all of these posts, I don't WANT to remember how tough it's been. I am banking that by then I will have completely blocked these rough memories from my mind, and it will be as though they never happened.

So by yesterday afternoon, I called Brenna, and planned to leave for the night. I invited Tyler along, and told him if he didn't want to come, he could just sit and relax in the garage for a few hours while Brenna had the kids. Faced with those options, he came with me.

When Brenna asked how long we'd be gone, I replied, "I don't know, but I am for sure not coming home until I get the "all clear" from you that they are all in bed. Sleeping." Being the sweet girl she is, she called around 8:30pm to tell me that indeed, they were all asleep and I could come home whenever I wanted. Bless her.

So Tyler and I bolted from the house at 5:30. The boys were fed and exhausted (that happens when you are two and three years old, and you don't take a nap like you should.) Tyler and I pulled out of the driveway and never looked back. We desperately needed a night away. We started by crashing Tanya and Jason's date night at Black Forrest (or whatever they are calling it now.) We had drinks and appies, and my ice cold diet pepsi never tasted so good. Then, it was off to Bellingham to run a few errands and then go for dinner. I know! We were livin' it up!

By this time we had managed to tell each other a few things that we had neglected to tell each other with all of the chaos of the day. Here's a summary:

• Wayne and Weston managed to find three screw drivers, and were sitting on the living room floor, surrounded by battery operated toys, unscrewing all of the battery compartments.
  
• Weston got into Tyler's change that he rolls and turns into cash. Now, $100 in quarters are missing.
• Wayne has REPEATEDLY gotten himself in trouble by fighting with Weston, and Weston keeps getting in trouble for fighting with Wayne. When either one gets placed on the "naughty step" for being mean to the other, the other feels so sorry for him that they both sit together on the step.

Once in Bellingham, we hit Walmart and Macy's, then went to the Olive Garden for dinner. Then to Target, and we were home by 10pm! What a late night. We were so tired, we could hardly drive. I'm not kidding. As exhausted as I was, I was oddly refreshed. I have new perspective. They can only drive me crazy if I let them. How's that for wisdom! :-)