Dolly here

Moriah asked me to step in and let you know that this fab blog of hers might be a little quiet for a while. She is in the midst of switching internet carriers and dealing with a crippled Madeline. Don’t worry, Madeline will be okay. There was some sort of incident involving Madeline’s foot and a piece of glass. No stitches thankfully. But you can imagine how hard it is to keep an active 5 year old off her foot until it heals. Fun times I’m sure.

Hopefully ya’ll are enjoying your summer a bit more than Moriah is at the moment. I’m sure she’ll be back soon with heaps of stories and pictures to entertain us with, as always.

DPP Day 20: Visiting Friends

My friend Sarah had her [over 9 pound] baby boy yesterday and was released from the hospital today. Arianna and I were able to sneak over late this afternoon for a good visit.

Still posting with the December Photo Project.

DPP Day 12: Hot Chocolating

Posted in conjunction with the December Photo Project.

Turning out to be a loverly weekend (and I don’t mean the weather)

(Just popping in for a quick update on this gray Saturday morning.)

Thursday was much better than Wednesday, and yesterday was better still.

As in, I needed yesterday.

Drew got picked up for school in the morning and I hightailed it back to bed. It was so worth the girls getting into the pink cupcake sprinkles. A little sugar never hurt anyone, right?

I watch my friend Nicky’s three boys on Fridays for her music class and it was a much calmer time than last week. They sat at the lunch table for at least an hour. (Dumbo makes for very slow eaters, apparently.)

And then as soon as the kids were down for a nap, I *got* to run errands all by myself since Andy had the day off. I wandered calmly through Hobby Lobby even though I felt like dancing and singing just from the sheer fact that after such a long week I was finally out by myself at one VERY FUN STORE. (Post soon coming on my latest project, which turned out hilariously cute.)

I even made it back in time to stop at our branch library before they closed for the weekend, and picked up my next book. (Finally finished all of the six current Outlander books, around 1,000 pages each. I don’t believe the seventh has been released yet. And when it is, all bets are off.)

AND THEN my sisters came over and Andy and I left for a dinner date. (Mexican.) I ordered off the kids’ menu in a sudden flash of genius. I mean, it’s not like my stomach had room for a whole dinner after all those chips n’ salsa and sweet tea AND a live baby growing in there, ya know? Plus, hello, way cheaper.

After the kids were in bed (meaning after multiple potty trips and cups of water were served), I started on my project, which I will get my trusty little model to try on and post pictures of on Monday.

See? I told you I needed yesterday.

My Big Kindergart’ner

Let the carpooling begin!

30 weeks

Alternate Title: This is Getting Old

By request.

(Also, I know it looks like my (cropped) pants have white chalky stuff on them, it’s really my filthy mirror. I’ll get on that.  Later.)

Oh, um, hi.

We had a great 4th; hope you did, too!

My mom comes tomorrow and then she and the kids and I are driving back to her house (a 2 day trip) for a little vacation.* Andy gets to come later on and will help me drive back. I’m not exactly looking forward to the drive but we’ll make it as fun and painless as we can.

Unfortunately I stayed up way too late last night watching a movie that needed to be returned today and then got up way too early to get to my midwife appointment by 9:30. I’ve been walking around in a semi-fog all day long. And I’m sure with all that needs to be done, tomorrow isn’t going to be much better.

At least I’ll have my mom here to help.

Sorry in advance for the sporadic posting that will be the next few days. I should be wireless though, so I’ll let you know if anything entertaining or newsworthy happens.

(*I chose next week because it’s the week of my parents’ church’s VBS.)

(Yes, I did.)

I did it!!

This Thanksgiving was the first time Andy and I were not with either set of parents and therefore were forced to roast our own turkey.

Pretty good for being married six and a half years.

We tag-teamed it and the meal turned out pretty darn good (if I do say so myself). It was downright convenient having my sisters around to help and all the prep work went so fast. If I had had to cook everything by myself, we would have eaten at least two hours later.

(And we ate two hours late as it was.)

Other than eating exorbitant amounts of food, we played games and watched movies. A good holiday, I’d say.

Yesterday, yes, I went shopping. I’m a bargain-hunter, what else can I say? Really I only went to pick up what I’d put on hold at Gymboree on Wednesday morning (via phone). Yes, I realize that’s cheating. No, I do not care.

(I very rarely shop there because it’s so expensive (and let’s face it, kids have a habit of ruining clothes), but these two holiday dresses were already marked down in addition to the Black Friday discount and besides that, they were calling my name.)

We also had to make a stop at the Hairbow Man’s stand. I’m talking about the essentials here.

Last night the girls graciously put my kids to bed so Andy and I could go have a coffee date. I finally got to try Starbucks’ Salted Caramel Signature Hot Chocolate and it’s as good as they say. Very unusual, but in a good way.

I stayed up very late last night cleaning up the holiday aftermath and putting my house back together. (Tell me, how does a place get so completely dirty in less than 48-hours?!)

Now I’m off to enjoy the rest of my mostly-quiet Saturday. Y’all have a great weekend!

It could be a lot worse

For one thing, we’re moving back into our own house. I know where everything goes.

It’s a lot smaller than our space here. I know I have to downsize.

The kitchen is a lot bigger there. Yay.

Our downstairs ceiling here is too low for our china cabinet, so it was never unpacked. All our china and the like is still packed away neatly in boxes.

Our winter clothes and coats are already packed away, too. Yay.

And, I’ve already gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I’m not starting from ground zero.

Car Safety

This totally convinced me.

On my table

Thank you, Aldi, for $4 Easter Lilies.

And they smell as good as they look.

Aha!

A couple of mornings ago we spent a ridiculous amount of time searching the house for Drew’s backpack full of his beloved cars. I knew he had hung the bag on the back of his chair at dinner the night before, and I knew he hadn’t played outside after that. So they had to be in the house.

At one point he started to get a little frantic and said, referring to his gray and favorite car, “but the red car is its friend!!”

The cars are friends.

And they, collectively, are his friends.

Aha! Got it.

Now I understand the mild possessive obsession with his matchbox cars (and ‘mild obsession’ may be a bit of an understatement).

And it’s no wonder he views the cars en persona, what with the obscene number of times he’s seen Disney/Pixar’s Cars and all.

A Parade of Updated Pictures

For my friends far, far away.

How does one come by such hair?

My New Theme-Song

While I’m on the subject of Cute Shoes…

I found these at Payless, of all places. (for $12!)

They’re much easier to walk in, bytheway.

oh my word

Drew’s been walking around the past two days saying “oh my WORD!” … “oh my worrrrrrrrrrrd.”

Wonder where he picked it up.

No idea whatsoever.

Love the UPS man

Look what he brought today.

Oh I was so excited. And then I spent all afternoon hemming capri pants that looked more like floods. Perhaps they would have been capris on my 6′1″ cousin but… not on me.

Hello Old Friends!

So I feel the need to record my life. Somewhere. Like, “dear diary,” but not. Besides, I hate my handwriting and it changes with my mood.

And since we’re only one month into this new stage of life, what better time to start something new? Just don’t be expecting anything profound because, after all, I spend my days talking to a three-year-old.