Since you've been gone...

I thought it only appropriate to throw out a KClarkson song as the title. I'm getting used to her presence in my life lately. Of course, by that I meant "Since I've been gone."

So, last Saturday  morning, in the wee small hours of the morning (you know- 8:30ish), I left to go for a six day stint sitting on babies. I had every intention of blogging every day, but it became quite clear that the absence of the interwebs and the presence of a new book in my never ending series (oh yeah- and the three boys I was sitting on) that blogging would not happen.

Worry not. I was also working on documenting my week all "Week in the Life"-ish, and so I took over 100 photos. Not exaggerating.

I thought I'd entertain you with a few little tidbits of my life this past week, and even throw down a few pictures.

Without further ado, this week I ...

... parented an 8 year old, an 11 year old, and a 16 year old.
... signed all of their report cards.
... parked in their garage and not hit the oldest's car, the basketball pole, or the house. The grass on the side of the driveway- not so lucky.
... granted permission to go in the hot tub, have friends over, and sleep on the pull out couch on Saturday night. 
... broke up a fight over the cooking of a frozen pizza.
... broke up a fight over the cooking of macaroni and cheese and hot dogs.
... made hot dogtopuses to rest on the macaroni and cheese. It was unappreciated.

 ... slept in a bed that folded down out of the wall in the office.  The first two nights, I didn't get much sleep at all. After that, exhaustion set in and I slept pretty soundly.
... got scared witless as one of the boys came down early and walked around the corner of a very quiet house and said good morning. 
... broke up a kicking fight in the corner booth of the McDonald's on Sunday morning.
... broke up a fist fight in the serving line of Dickey's on a Wednesday night. Kids eat free there every Sunday and Wednesday, so the management was not surprised in the slightest when the first punches were thrown.
... stood in the line of the Dickeys barbecue and hissed through clenched teeth something to the effect that if the kicking and hitting didn't stop immediately, no one would be partaking in the free ice cream.
... attended two baseball games.
... listened to a song that I hate over and over again for the sake of the kids in the car that wanted to hear it. (The Wanted- I don't want you).
... discovered that I really do like Carly Rae Jepson's "Call Me Maybe". And I'm not ashamed to admit it.
... accidentally left the back door, allowing the dogs to bolt, minutes before we needed to leave for school. It was me. I let the dogs out. 
... got prepared to go to battle with another teacher over excessive homework.
... saw Chimpanzee. It was narrated by both Tim Allen and Hayley, the two year old behind me in the theater. That was cute. For the first 45 minutes. Then it was just old. 
... saw a preview for the next Pixar movie. Set in Scotland. The same place as my book obsession. I got entirely too excited in the movie theater. In related news, I sent a text and tried to spell "very" in the Scottish way of "verra". The result was "verry" with an autocorrect of "berry". This is becoming a problem. 
... read over 650 pages of Voyager, including an entire chapter in line waiting for my Starbucks on the morning after I was done babysitting and desperately craving the nectar of the gods.
...texted the oldest back and forth, granting permission for various things throughout the week.
... watched an inappropriate amount of Disney Channel. In HD. But still the Disney Channel.
... got sucked into an episode of "River Monsters" with the oldest, while he was up killing time before his bed time.

...fully parented three boys for six days.

Lord I'm exhausted.