cocooning

What a nice week I've had!
The kids' babysitter is on vacation so I stayed home all week. I leave for Cold Lake tomorrow, so the extra play-time with them was well enjoyed.

It's been simply me and Q and E cocooning all week. We did Water Country together, went to the movies, went out for lunch several times, spent an afternoon at the Air and Space museum, and topped it off with a carousel ride and ice cream. We've watched TV together at night and tried a few board games. They are making me dinner tonight for my birthday, and made a wonderful and perfect homemade triple-chocolate fudge birthday cake with chocolate chip icing for dessert. As for the dinner, it's stir-fry and baked potatoes and smells fantastic...very possibly the best thing I've ever smelled...largely because it is nearly 8 pm.) I'm having to keep DH on a tight reign so he doesn't blow from the food deprivation, but he is controlling himself well.) The kids are so proud of themselves and I feel very pampered.


Speaking of my trip, this part of ARCTAS (based out of Cold Lake Alberta, Canada) is focused on the impact of biomass burning emissions on the Arctic. So far, it's been a lucrative campaign - fires are quite active and it's been fairly easy for the aircraft to find them and follow the plumes to get measurements of the chemical evolution. I'm not nearly as excited about the trip out there this time as I was for the spring portion in Fairbanks.

May be I'm not prepared for barracks living or cafeteria food (poor, poor me, eh?).

Mostly, I'm not done cocooning with my "babies", I think. I'm in mom mode and not ready to shift focus.