Vacay and Teachers

Tom and I took a quick vacay to Arizona last week. One of his best friends got married down there and Tom was in the wedding. It was a lot of work leaving the kiddos behind, and a lot of work that our moms endured for us too. We decided it would be best to split up the three boys - the two older together and Leo on his own. Three is just a lot for 5 days, especially when you have preschool and a baby thrown in the mix. Everything went great. No one got sick or hurt. The weather cooperated. Bailey was put in a kennel. All was peaceful. I don't think I really started to relax until sometime on Thursday. I enjoyed the quiet and the uninterrupted sleep. And the meals out with no kids. And the adult interaction. But then Friday morning came and the news of the shooting got out. And my heart sank and I got a lump in my throat. And suddenly the only place I wanted to be was on my couch with my boys surrounding me.  I had to turn off the tv. I had to stop reading my news apps on my phone. I just couldn't go there. The few times I did really think about it, I started sobbing and I just couldn't do that. Not while I was away from my babies. My almost 5 year old. It breaks my heart. I can't help but see my children, or my friends children, in all of the victims pictures. What if. What if. Those poor, poor children. Those teachers. The parents. How are they going to recover from this? My heart is so heavy.

I love teachers, I mean I almost became one :-) But I love teachers even more now. Teachers love our children, they really do. Unless of course your kid is that kid. ha, just kidding. Teachers are so important in our children's lives. Think about it. I bet you can name every single one of your teachers - at least all the way up to jr high school when you started to have way too many. But even at that - I bet you could still name a handful of high school ones. We remember the ones we loved, the ones we didn't love so much. But they impacted us in so many wonderful, wonderful ways. Teachers, good and bad, love our children and impact our children's lives. And sometimes, as proven on Friday, they even save our children's lives.

Back to my intention of this post - our vacation....I took all of 3 pictures on this trip. HA! Pathetic. And not one of them is of me and Tom. I tried really hard to have my phone away the majority of the vacation. And I didn't even bring my nice camera with me. Tom got in a few rounds of golf. I enjoyed the spa one morning. And it was just a really great time hanging out with old friends who we don't get to see that much, especially sans children! But needless to say, I was ready to get home and see the kiddos. Jack gave me the biggest hug ever when we got home and I just missed him so much. And Finn, although he was too into the iPad when we walked through the door to even look at us, when I made my way over to him - he said MOMMY! MOMMY! I missed you so much!

It's great to get away. It was a much needed vacation for us. But it's so nice to be back and to get to hug my boys.

Tomorrow starts the Christmas festivities with Jack's preschool christmas program. He will have another one on Thursday with the younger kids and then let the Christmas gift giving begin! I'll try to take some video of the songs tomorrow. Should definitely be interesting.