Wow, I can't remember the last day I had a whole day off to myself. I LOVED it! I'm so sad that it's almost over now, but man am I glad I had one! Thank you, Trey, for your brilliant idea! I love you! Thanks to my in-laws, too, for watching the kids. Without you, there would be no day off!

I started it off by doing exactly what I was told to do. Julia told me to sleep till noon, so I did. I really didn't think I'd be able to, since I'm in the habit of waking up at 8:30 now. However, I held myself up as long as possible last night, and found no trouble at all sleeping until 11:30. After that, though, it was a struggle, but I pushed on and went back to my dream about partying with teenagers and playing on a baseball team (who knows!).

Once I got up, I watched tv. Now, this doesn't seem like a big deal to most of you. However, it was so wonderful to me, b/c it was the first time in a very long time that I got to sit down and watch an entire program w/o interruption. I watched. I enjoyed. I understood what was going on in the show. Great, just great!

Unfortunately, I had to run errands today, too. I got the alignment on the van fixed, but that was even great, b/c I got to sit in the waiting room for an hour all by myself, and just sit there and enjoy the peace. Plus, the guy who took my car was so nice to talk to, and the Mitsubishi place I bought the van from payed for it!

After that, I went to Barnes and Noble and read books on how to discipline your strong-willed child. I used to read books on just plain children, but now I've moved up to the ones about defiant children. I read an entire book called Try and Make Me! by Ray Levy, and I learned a lot of things. Earlier today I talked to my mom on the phone, and nearly broke down. I pretty much felt like the only possible thing I can do now to get TJ straight is to spank him, even though I'm still dead-set against it. I really don't want to, and I'm hoping that the stuff I found in this book, along with a renewed motivation to fix things around here will help, and I'll be able to avoid it altogether. I feel like if I do end up spanking him, I'll be seen as a big quitter, especially after my vehement arguments against it. We'll see. Anyway, back to my day. I know it must seem silly to go and read books about kids on your day off, but it was sooooo nice just to be able to sit and read a book w/o anyone running off or bothering me. I never wanted to leave...but the hunger and my back hurting made me!

Last, I went to The Olive Garden. Trey hates to eat there, and I really didn't want to cook something just for me. I figured, "Why not!" After all, what's better than being able to sit down to a meal and actually eating it w/o distractions, feeding your children, making them sit down, etc.? It was great! Of course, while I was there I mapped out my new daily schedule that will hopefully work, if I hopefully will stick to it. It was nice, though, b/c I was able to actually think and have complete thoughts, w/o having to stop every ten seconds to correct a child or pick it up. Ahhhh. Oh, and get this...in the table next to me was a woman who was also out on a night off, and eating all by herself! Cool, huh!

Now I'm at home, playing on the internet and waiting for Trey to get here so I can go get my cheerin'. It's funny that even though I'm so glad to be away from them for a little while, I still miss them so much and can't wait to see them again. Today while I was at Barnes and Noble, a little baby girl started crying, and I almost jumped up and grabbed her to hug her! (I'm sure that would have really freaked the dad out!) I've decided that Trey and I need to work it out so that each one of us gets a day like this at least once a month, even if it's just for the majority of the day and one of us takes the kids somewhere else for a while. It was so therapeutic and necessary. I sure do love Trey and his wonderful ideas! Have a great day! I'll see you soon!