Time flies

My brother and his family have been here for almost 3 weeks already which means they only have one more short week left :( I knew their time here was going to fly by but geez, it REALLY flew by. I have tried to spend as much time with them as possible which is great but more is always better and I know with one week just won't be enough. I got back from a work trip yesterday and I leave again on Tuesday for 3 more days. I am taking Friday off from work and I hope to spend their last full day in CA with them. I babysat the kids for them overnight last weekend and had them all day on Monday. I realized that as good as they were, they are exhausting! Having two kids in diapers is not only a mess but a ton work. Up the stairs, down the stairs, up the stairs, down the stairs.... in the DVD's, throw the DVD's.... in the bookshelf, throw the books.... up the stairs, down the stairs... feed them, change the diaper...cry instead of napping... My brother and Jill have their hands full!

My travel will continue at least through the beginning of October before there is much of a break but the good news is I'm racking up the frequent flyer miles and have already earned a few free flights. Hopefully Brett and I can plan somewhere good to go :) We didn't take a 'real' vacation this year so we are both looking forward to heading off to a tropical place as soon as possible. The bad news with all of this travel is that I'm exhausted when I get home. I don't want to clean the house, cook dinner, go out, talk on the phone, check personal emails or do anything that requires much thought. Last year during my travel 'season' we hired a housekeeper to help out and I'm thinking it's time to hire another one. I've had a few referrals, which I prefer, but they tend to not want to venture into my neck of the woods and charge more if they do. If anyone has GOOD house cleaners in my area please let me know :)

In other news, I won't be getting my car repaired on Monday as originally planned. For those of you that don't know, I was rear ended almost 3 weeks ago by a young kid who wasn't paying attention as we came to a red light. He slowed down but failed to stop. The damage isn't bad and no one was hurt but I would like my car fixed as soon as possible. The kid's parents had AAA and apparently they haven't confirmed their side of the story with their insurance yet which means at this point my deductible would have to be paid by us and not them. Brett talked to our insurance yesterday and we have to give them one more week before pursuing 'other' action, whatever that means. As much as I hate looking at my rear bumper all banged up, I don't want to pay the $500 deductible and then mess with getting the money back after everything is settled. We have pushed out the repair until after Labor Day but with my travel schedule the way it is it's going to be a pain in the ass to schedule the repair.