So we’ve never left the kids overnight – ever. Um, yeah. So now we have 🙂

When your sister gives you her complimentary room at a lovely hotel and offers to take off work to watch your four boys for 24 hours for your 20th Anniversary – you don’t say no. Sisters don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

It’s an understatement to say that it’s hard getting away from home. Our boys are high-need, high-strung, and high-energy. In my house there is A LOT to think about – from medication to weird dietary issues and the quirky stuff that our kids do (you know, like the one that likes to sleep in the kitchen on a couch). There is also the general sense as a caregiver of being totally outnumbered and overcome with their constant needs. CON. STANT. (My sister not only survived, but thrived!)

I was not excited to go. Not because my sister’s offer wasn’t generous or because I dislike Dennis. Like I said, there was so much to think about and I honestly wondered what Dennis and I would talk about. Our super-power is double teaming this herd of boys like a well-oiled machine. Our strength lies in our ability to go and go and go. Our gift is tireless domesticity. We are not accustomed to partying on our own and away from home 😉

So with the roof leaking and the basement beginning to flood in the middle of a torrential rainstorm, we left for Atlantic City (Not kidding). We laughed, we played slot machines, ate fabulous food and did not miss our children. In the morning, our hotel room toilet flooded our bathroom with toilet water and fluffy white bubbles (no, I don’t know why, but it was our whole wing of the hotel) and we moved rooms and I eventually developed a very bad case of food poisoning that made driving home REALLY hard. We ARE The Costello’s and this how things often work for us 🙂

But, 24 hours were, in fact, very nice. I learned that Dennis and I probably do not get out a smidgen of the amount of time we should. I found out that we can laugh and talk about things other than our children. I found out that when you are not home and you cannot clean and pick stuff up, do laundry and cook for 16 hours straight. I learned that you can go through $100 in penny slots machines rather quickly.

Sadly, it already seems like a blur in the rear view mirror of life. Can I make a u-turn?