On Friday night, I went to book club, not because I read the book (or even knew the title) but because the theme was Pajama Party and they were serving free food & wine. Honestly, I’d go to any event that encouraged me to wear loose elastic pants while stuffing my face.

We started the evening by rehashing birth stories, discussing how the role of Alpha differs between the domesticated dog and the wild wolf, and seeing how many people we could comfortably fit in her new shower. You know, book club stuff.

Six. The answer was six.

Eventually, the hostess insisted that we talk about the book.  “Umm, that’s not why I came.”

From over my cookie crunching, I heard that The Healing by Jonathan Odell was set in the pre-Civil War South during some very difficult times- plagues, slavery, child-loss, you name it.  And as the ladies discussed the story line and internalized the characters’ struggles, something interesting happened…they began to open up and share their own painful memories from growing up in post-Civil War, upper-middle class suburbia.

It. Was. Beautiful.

Afterwards, we took turns doing “Trust Falls”. Stacey no longer trusts me.

Saturday was filled with a bunch of randomness.

We ate lunch at a microbrew pub. Then we test drove a Mercedes-Benz because it was a warm and luxurious spot to digest our pork nachos while sightseeing.

After pulling a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” on the salesman, we headed to Costco where I saw this rug.

I just had to have it for my basement redesign project that I recently started…several months ago.

Brian – Stop looking at it, we don’t need an area rug.

Me – Ok.

*Brian walks away*

Collin –  Ok??? You’re really not going to buy it?

Me – Not today, young grasshopper. I’ll come back tomorrow.

Collin – But won’t he be mad when you bring it home tomorrow?

Me – Yes, but it’ll already be in our house, and a “resigned to it” mad doesn’t last nearly as long as an “under protest” mad”.

*I catch a fly with my bare hands and whisper “wax on, wax off”

After Costco, Ana and I headed to another moon bounce birthday party. I swear, I think we’ve been to 32 of them in the last year, and we have another one next weekend. Oh, and guess where Ana wants to have her next birthday party? Thaaaat’s right! shoot me.

On Sunday, Collin, Ana, and I went back to Costco to buy my new area rug. It wasn’t util we loaded it in the car that I realized it was the BEST PURCHASE EVER! Here’s why: It’s 7 feet long, so I was forced to lay it down the middle of my SUV, from the trunk to the front seats, effectively separating my children for the duration of the ride. They couldn’t even see each other! A single tear of joy rolled down my cheek as I listened to Enya swirling in the eerie silence.

Then I spent the rest of the day working on my basement re-do, as it’s currently a “re-don’t”.

Hopefully, I’ll have some fancy “after” pictures for you by next week- but I think we both know anything’s gotta look better than this.

How was your weekend?