To fairly document this journey, I must share some of it’s challenges.  Hotel living with both boys and dogs while Mike is out of town is not peachy keen.  I feel I have a hard shell and will admit it cracked and cracked again this past week and tears were shed.  Here is snapshot of one day last week.

12:30 am – I was woken by the dogs who needed to use the bathroom.  Across the parking lot from our room is a hill with an open field, quite convenient for having a dog or two that need to do large business multiple times a day.  Well, at 12:30am I was half-awake and took the dogs out to do what I hoped was a quick deed.  And then the shit hit the fan, literally.  Mosley saw a rabbit, squirrel or some scurrying animal and took off up the dark, poop all-over-the-place hill at full speed.  I am in my pajamas, braless with no contacts or glasses on and in flipflops, and suddenly I am in pursuit in the pitch black.  No telling what I stepped on or in. And then I was hurdling through the tall brush after the dog  trying to get him back before he gets close to the busy road or heaven forbid through the fence to the freeway.  After what seemed like forever, but was probably less than a minute, he was captured and back on leash.  Back in the room I stripped down for a dog and mommy post frenzy tick-check.   Because where there are brush and bunnies, there are ticks and boy do they like our dogs!

3:00am – woken to a kid in my bed who had an accident in the hotel bed.  Normally I wouldn’t out my kid like this as it’s very rare this happens anymore, but part of my crazy day.

5:00am – my phone starts dinging like crazy with Facebook posts of everyone wishing me a happy bday.  This is fantastic by the way and it helped me get through the day, just wish it didn’t start at 5am after being up all night.  (Oh, did I mention this was on my birthday.)

7:00am – overly tired child has a full meltdown, doesn’t want to get ready for school, get out of bed and starts a full whining frenzy, absolutely refusing to say happy birthday to me, wanting to be carried and fed breakfast like a baby.

8:00am – school drop off  and a bit of sanity is restored.

10:00am – doing laundry at the local coin-op laundromat.  Sadly, one of the most peaceful parts of my day.

3:00pm – post school playtime at the park is ended early after dear son is reprimanded for throwing rocks at little kids

4pm-7pm – tired mommy and boys endure endless fighting

7:00pm – Horsie  is no where to be found and we have a very upset little boy who cries himself to sleep and a mommy who drinks wine.

This was my birthday and a possible end to sanity.  I can post about this now, a week later as my husband is back in town and I’ve had a chance to seriously pamper myself all day with some therapeutic shopping, followed by massage and LNO.   I’m not posting this for a pity party, but for the perspective on what challenges moving and in-transit hotel living entails.  It’s all part of the journey, so we must endure the bad parts to be able to enjoy the good.