Welcome Home, Greg!

So, the case of the missing cheese was just the tip of the iceberg this week. I don't know how my kids know when I am at my wits end, but they enjoy exploiting the fact. A few highlights of the past week without Greg include:
Monday: A futile hunt for the missing cheese, and a halfhearted attempt at cleaning/laundry.
Tuesday: The girls decided to play Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Rachel got diarrhea and desperately needed a bath in the morning, and while I was with her, the rest of the girls decided to make themselves breakfast. They climbed up on a bar stool and pulled out our giant Costco box of instant oatmeal, unloaded the dishwasher of every dish capable of holding liquid, including 8 bowls, 4 serving bowls, 11 glasses, 3 measuring cups, 4 tupperware containers and 19 paper cups, and emptied the entire box (minus three little packages) of oatmeal into the various containers. They then proceeded to fill each of the bowls to the top with water, and carried them throughout the house, sloshing the contents of each one as they went along. By the time I came downstairs, the entire main floor was covered with dried out, sticky oatmeal and it took me until late in the afternoon to get it cleaned up.
Wednesday: Rachel still had "the runs" and was not feeling too hot in the morning, so I spent some time trying to make her feel better. I thought the girls were behaving themselves until a neighbor called to see if she could come over. She has a one-year-old daughter, and only one car at the moment, so she was feeling a little cabin-feverish. I told her to come on over, and we could all play in the back yard together. Well, when she came over, Rachel had just had another "blow-out" diaper, so I told her to just go on out back and I would be right there. When I came to the back yard it looked like a natural disaster had struck. Apparently, the girls found a bag of trail mix. Well, I have the rule that you have to "take a handful, eat a handful" not just pick out the M&M's, but I guess the girls decided that it was just easier to "take a handful, eat the M&M's, and throw the nuts and raisins on the back porch. There was also a box of Capri Sun wrappers, and some random fruit snack wrappers that the girls decided to "hide" from me out there. In short, it looked a bit like the garbage dump--not to mention the fact that the lawn hadn't been mowed for a week and a half, so we were growing a forest of miniature aspen trees across the yard. I have to say I was quite embarassed, and the girls proved to be their less-than-angelic selves for the remainder of my friend's visit. They dipped sidewalk chalk in water and painted themselves with it, climbed around the yard like little Tarzan children, and basically paid no attention to any instructions I gave. Somehow, I doubt that I will be seeing much of this neighbor again--what do you think?
On the bright side, however, Greg's mom called and invited us all over for the afternoon. She took the girls while I went shopping and I was able to get some bananas and other BRAT diet staples for Rachel, and then she fed us dinner. I also FOUND THE CHEESE under the seat of the car when I went over. It wasn't edible, but at least it wasn't moldy, so I consider that to be a success. It was a WONDERFUL night!
Thursday: Thursday nights are set aside for Young Women's Activities, and this week was no exception. The schedule called for the combined YW activity to be held at our house this week, where we were supposed to be watching a movie outside in our backyard. Well, the house by this point in the week had seen better days, so I thought I would take a little time to mop the kitchen floor and scrub some toilets before the young women arrived. While I was mopping the floor, the phone rang, so I decided to walk upstairs while talking on the phone to make sure the girls weren't in trouble. It was a good thing I did. When I got to the top of the stairs I saw every towel, blanket, sheet, pillow, etc. that was supposed to be in my linen closet strewn down the hall. Sarah smelled to high-heaven of Vicks Vapo-Rub, Ellie was sucking down a packet of Emergen-C (vitamin C supplement) and Rachel had been taken out of her crib (she was supposed to be napping) and was happily sucking on an Alka-Seltzer. Yes, I got to call 1-800-222-1222 yet again. I told them that I didn't know how much she had eaten, but I was fairly certain it was less than one tablet. They told me to keep an eye on her, not let her nap, and to call back if she started throwing up.
Fortunately, she didn't throw up, but I will say that keeping a baby up during naptime and trying to get things cleaned up was not my favorite way to spend the afternoon.
The girls were pretty well behaved after their foray into the medicine cabinet, but I was more than happy to inform them that when
1-Grandpa Welling called to say that the pool was nice and warm that they couldn't go,
2-Aunt Heather called to see if we wanted to go to Tracy Aviary that they couldn't go and
3-The neighbors called to see if the girls wanted to play water games in their back yard that they couldn't go because we had to stay close to home in case Rachel threw up.

Well, the girls stayed up past 11:00 on Thursday (I knew they would) because of the movie, but they still woke up at what Greg likes to call the "butt-crack" of dawn. They were less than sweet spirited on Friday morning, but knowing that the day would bring their daddy home kept their spirits higher than they had been during the week.
A bout of rain spoiled our plans to go to the zoo, but the girls were just as pleased to see Greg, and I will agree. It has been a wonderful 24 hours having him home.