1. we came home to a dead rat in the garage. !! the whole house smells. for an hour the litigator and the boys labored to find it, clean it up, and try to deodorize. that man is a hero. he hates dead animals. i cleaned up all the luggage and food and everything i could think of while they worked to say thank you.

2. this morning the bottle of laundry detergent got knocked over. for about 3 hours it gently flowed clear detergent all over the laundry room floor, soaking the 'home from a trip' piles arranged there. a NIGHTMARE to clean up. it's still not finished.

3. made minestrone soup & french bread (because IT RAINED today). b helped me make brownies for dad from this new recipe i've liked. i must not have been paying attention when he measured cause something went wrong. they're like fudge in bar form, not really brownies. it didn't help that he added a sizeable portion of semi sweet, dark and white chocolate chips. sorry, higbys!

4. i made the kids clean, a serious clean today. welcome home! your life of leisure, eating out and pools is over! i even taught A how to mop and B how to scrub the tub. how is it that a 10 year old does not know this yet? i was totally cleaning the bathrooms (and after my brothers, we all know what that means) by myself before i was 9! i distinctly remember how fun it was to flood the floor and watch the water go down the drain (which was in the center of the floor) in our german bathroom. hmm.

5. on our trip i shared a bed with little L. we left our porta crib at mom and dad's after camping since *we never use it*. i was so tired from waking up every hour or so when he did, and so uncomfortable from the flopping and rolling of that wiggly body. but when i put him in his little bed tonight i felt a little wistful that he wouldn't be talking to me about his animals while he fell asleep or waking me up at 6:30 by laying his head on my face and patting my cheeks.