Wow, was this past weekend action packed. I think my head is still spinning.  Friday, the kids and I headed to Chattanooga with the band for their benefit concert for Extreme Home Makeover.  The band did awesome and there was a great crowd that brought cans of food for the Chattanooga food bank.   I think most of the crowd ordered the pre-sale CD and that is a great indicator of how much they enjoyed it.....and the kids enjoyed themselves.  Well, James enjoyed himself and Eliza slept through it.  It had been a long day with no nap.  They had a sing language interpretation team there for their deaf crowd and that was super fun for me since I know sign.  We became instant friends.  Sign language is actually a little bit emotional for me still because of Brooke.  I haven't gotten much practice with it in the last years since she lost control of her arms and since she passed I have pretty much pushed sign out of my head.  It just hurts too much.  But every time I get around those who sign, it all comes back to me, especially the desire to do it.  Friday night was also the first time I had seen "Give you Peace" signed and that is the song written for her.  It was very cool.

After the show we got to go to the Extreme Home Makeover home site.  This was really neat.  We were ushered into the VIP tent where we got hard hats and were shuttled to the site.  It was 1130 at night and there must have been a 100 people working.  I knew it was a BIG production but to see it first hand was very cool.  We ended up at the hotel at 130 am and ate McDonald's that Cami and Josh picked up for us and got the bed about 2.  The kids had never stayed up this late before and held up very well. 

 The next morning we headed to the Tennessee Aquarium.  J103 is the Christian Rock station in Chattanooga and were very gracious to us.  They put us up in the hotel and gave us the aquarium tickets.  We had a lot of fun.  James enjoyed the aquarium immensely.  Petting the sting rays and baby sharks were his favorite.  Eliza, on the other hand, was miserable.  Just not enough sleep and no nap again on Saturday were enough to tip her over the edge.  Bless her heart, she was good under the circumstances.  But it honestly, it stressed me out.  I just wanted her to go to sleep in the stroller and she just wouldn't.  I ended up carrying her most of the day.  Good news is she LOVES Shannon and let him carry her a lot. He was a great help to me this weekend. Plus I had to work Saturday night and half way through the day on Saturday, I was tired and was ready to go home, but we hadn't petted sharks yet and persevered for James' sake.  Over all, it was great fun and it was so nice to be able to hang out with the whole crew.

We got home about 6pm on Saturday and I got the kids to bed at 7 and laid down myself until 9pm.  I went to work at 11pm and was able to sleep/rest until 3 am.  Our call room or sleep room is in the middle of a labor and delivery floor.  So although we can sleep when there are no surgeries going on, it is very loud and difficult to sleep.  We also share a wall with the nurse's break room so that doesn't help either.  At 3 am I got a call with an emergency needing help in the ER.  That kept me busy til 6 am and other surgeries until 3pm  when I was able to go home.  Last night we ordered Pizza and I went to bed at 8pm.  And today I am back at work until Friday.  I feel like I have lived 2 whole lives in the last 3 days.  But would I do it all again?.....probably.   One day at a time.