Wednesday. Beth is back. Tonight was Kids Klub, and she made it back to town just as it was wrapping up, so she waited for me to get back with the van. This week has been good. Everyone seems really impressed that I can take care of my own kids, which strikes me as odd, but I’m told most of Beth’s friends wouldn’t ever be able to just leave the kids with the husband. Anyway, last Saturday was a birthday party for Landen, one of Alex’s friends from preschool, at the bowling alley. He was so excited about that, talking about it all week. It was a good time and the kids liked it a lot, but there were too many kids for the lanes so they all had to wait too long to get a turn. Alex got really antsy between turns, and Missy just clung to me most of the time and didn’t want to bowl any more by the 7th frame. But there was cake and ice cream and red punch, and a goody bag for all the kids, and Alex had a good time. Afterwards, I was supposed to have Katie over and get a free evening, but Alex was feverish in the afternoon so I cancelled. He had a good fever, and just crawled into a chair and lay there, but a while after some Tylenol he was fine, and the fever never came back. I had been afraid that he would be sick the whole time Beth was gone. I took the kids to church with me Sunday, which again impressed everyone (amazing), and we went out to lunch afterwards with the Bells to the pizza place. I took them to movie night as well. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Renee was helping out: she came to the house at 7:00 am each day, got the kids up and ready for preschool, dropped them off, picked them up, and took them to her house until I got off work. She even made dinner for us one night. Now THAT was amazing, that she would do all that for us. I even managed to lock myself out of the house one day at lunch and she ran over here with all the kids (hers too) to let me back in. I got everyone to Kids Klub tonight, and Beth was back by the end.