Rick was out of town on a business trip for 51 hours and 20 minutes last week. That was approximately 51 hours too long for my taste.

I would like to say I missed him because we are still essentially newlyweds and I just… well…missed him.

But the truth is, all the kids were home and, frankly, I was overwhelmed by them. Five kids, one adult… that’s a ratio that makes a parent want to run screaming out into the snow.

Of course, it didn’t help that I also decided to schedule Jack’s “friend” birthday party for Friday night before Rick got back into town. Thus, adding another four kids to the Friday evening mix. And not just any four kids: four eleven year old boys!

I always do this: bite off just slightly more than I can chew, thinking that I am Super Mom and, surely, I can handle this. When, in actuality, on the inside I feel like I am little more than an eleven year old myself, learning as I go along.

The plan was to pick up the boys from school, take them to the new Dave and Buster’s at Polaris, let them play those silly games until I could no longer take the buzzing, sirens, gunfire and screams, take them back to my house for pizza and cake, and have their parents pick them up by 8. Just in time for me to leave to pick up Rick at the airport.

Of course, I didn’t have a backup plan. So when the snow started to fall, I ignored it. And then the phone calls began to come in. Concerned parents…was I really still going to have Jack’s party in the midst of the worst snow storm we’ve had all season?

Those parents just don’t understand. I have four birthdays to celebrate in two weekends this month. Everything has to go according to a schedule or it isn’t going to happen. Besides, I had just spent SIX hours on the birthday cake! (my next blog) There was no way I was going to cancel.

I appeased the parents by promising to bring all the boys home myself so they didn’t have to go back out in the storm.

And so began my evening: white knuckles on steering wheel from work to school, to home (to drop of Grace), to Polaris, to home, to pick up pizza, to home, and finally back out into the snow to drop off all four boys in three different neighborhoods.

I was in the driveway of the last boy when Rick called to say he was on the ground in Columbus. I told him he was just going to have to wait. So much for missing him!