We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Fact: I have NEVER left my babies for longer than a few hours at a time.

Fact: Currently, I am in Williston, North Dakota, 1,800 miles away from my babies – day 2 of a five day trip.

Why? 

Let me start from the beginning with a ‘long story short’ explanation. Bobby manages the manufacturing branch of his family’s business. Ok, so how does that bring me to Williston, ND? Well, Williston is currently experiencing an oil boom and is in need of the services my husband’s company provides. It was brought to my attention about two months ago that we may have to soon move our little family cross country – to be more exact…50 miles away from the Gulf of Mexico to 50 miles from the Canadian border!, in order for him to expand the company to do more work in Williston. YIKES! A business trip was planned and I tagged along so I can see the “new digs” – basically so that I could determine the appropriate level of anxiety and panic about uprooting our family. Long story short again, a conversation or two was has and as it turns out…WE DON’T HAVE TO MOVE AFTERALL!!! [not for the foreseeable future at least] YAY, a thousand times!!! It looks like all the business can and will be done from my home sweet hometown of Houma, Louisiana.

I am stoked about not moving here [more than words and all the exclamation points could ever express] but unfortunately I am still stuck here for three more days while Bobby works out more business details. I miss my babies terribly. For me, there is something VERY unnatural about a full-time mom leaving her babies EVER! They are my routine. They are my entire day. They are my entire world! I don’t know what a day looks like without them. I do now, but two days ago when I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of leaving them, I was having mini panic attacks left and right. They are staying with my parents and [as it should be] are being spoiled to tears by them and having a grand ol’ time. All the while, I’m here in a rather toasty hotel room wondering ‘what the hell do I do with myself NOW?!’ I haven’t had this much free time since…gosh…probably since I was 15, before I got my first real job in the mall! I am on a vacation from my job in a hole in the wall tall town that just experienced a mini blizzard [in my definition at least]. humpf!

You can’t see it, but in this photo the winds were gusting up to 30 mph AND this was taken right when the snow started to fall. As I type this now, six hours later, that parking lot and those cars are covered in a white blanket of snow. It is currently 9 degrees outside and there’s more snow on the ground than I think I could ever be comfortable with being as it is currently in the 70’s back home. That’s what I’m used to. The last time I saw snow was in 2006. It snowed for 30 minutes and melted the second it touched the ground. I actually thought the snow would be pleasant, like a winter wonderland where snowmen live. That’s no winter wonderland, folks! I don’t want to be out in that. So hotel room it is….good thing I bought my mom and dad a webcam before we left!

We’ve skyped three times and I’ve cried every time. We blew kisses! Sha! As much as I appreciate not changing 8-10 diapers a day and having uninterrupted time to think, blog, and waste mindless hours cruising the interwebs, I would still much rather be home with them. What I wouldn’t give to clean his snotty little nose right now and what I wouldn’t give to clean up one of her diaper blowouts. Ok…now that I put that into words. Let me just say…I’m no Mommy Martyr. The quiet is nice and the time to relax is equally nice. But it’s no picnic either. It’s a struggle to say the least. How do you relax when you have the sinking feeling that you forgot something? It has also been really nice to spend more quality time with Bobby. It’s always comforting to know that when you take babies out of our busy equation and we are able to really stop, talk and cuddle and smooch, we snap right back to where we were before the babies brightened our world. He’s like…my boyfriend again! After all these years, we still really do like each other. <3