I need a break from my vacation!

So there might be a little something wrong with the fact that I was anxious to go back to work after taking a vacation week last week. I wanted to go back to work so I could relax a little!!!

Friday, Sept 4th was my birthday. I'm not that big on my birthday, so it wasn't a huge deal, but the ladies at work all made me goodies and gave me cards. They even made waffles for lunch for me, but I got stuck in a meeting and basically missed my lunch party. I finished my day and then headed out of there for a week off.

That night, Tony, Hannah and I went to the Indians game. We had really good seats (for free) and Hannah was a little more into the experience than last year. Although she didn't pay much attention to the game, she did seem to have fun. Tony had her all talked into wanting cotton candy, which I wasn't sure was going to be a good idea, but when the cotton candy guy walked by, I wanted to get her a bag - a SIX DOLLAR BAG. So I handed the guy a $20 and then he asked me if I had change for a $5. So then I handed him five singles. He gave me back my $14 in change from my $20 and walked away. I was sort of stumped for some reason because I didn't think that was right, but I was so confused by how the whole transaction took place for some reason that I just sort of looked stupidly at Tony saying I think he still owes me $5. So after I explained what happened, I told Tony yeah, he didn't give me the five when I gave him the five singles. So Tony went up after the guy to get our $5 back. When he came back, Hannah we opened the bag of cotton candy and it only took Hannah one bite to say she didn't like it! Oh, great - the $6 fiasco and she didn't even like it! As if that weren't bad enough, but who then walked by but the guy who sold the cotton candy on a stick for THREE DOLLARS!!!!!!!! Ah, the joys of going to the ballpark! So anyway, we made it for about 6 innings and then headed home. I totally suck that I didn't have a camera for any part of this day! Oh, well!
Then Saturday, I took Hannah to my mom's and hit up on the second hand stores that I get a lot of her clothes. I realized recently that she doesn't have any fall clothes other than some things that may still fit her from last winter/spring. I got quite a bit of stuff for about $100 - I think about 22 different things. Love getting things for an average price of $3.50-$4.00 and mostly all name brand stuff to boot!

Our poker league started again that Saturday, so we headed over to play. Both Tony and I made it when we merged tables from 3 to 2, but neither one of us lasted all that long in those seats. Oh, well, it was the first tournament, so hopefully we'll get a win or two in throughout the year. Tony was up for going out so we headed to the bar after for some appetizers and drinks - I really lived it up with a root beer! Go figure that I'm not much of a drinker ever, but for some crazy reason, now that I'm pregnant, every glass of wine, bottle of beer or fruity drink looks SO good!! I'm sure I could care less next summer when I can drink againl!

Sunday, we headed back over to my mom's to celebrate mine & Randy's birthday. We had dinner and hung out for a while. I took some pictures of them on the golf course

Then they played outside. Hannah's getting better about playing a little rougher - and actually had a lot of fun having the exercise ball thrown at her to make her fall. She kept asking for more, even after this one:

So I'm loving Craigslist! I posted our old mattress on there about a month ago and that sold in a day. Kinda gross to me to buy a used mattress, but I had one to sell and someone wanted to buy it, so fine by me! Then I posted our desk on there Monday afternoon and it was sold within an hour! For asking price too! I'm going to post some more stuff when I get a chance to do it.

We went to some friend's house for a cookout Monday afternoon and then Tony and I started to clean out Hannah's new room that evening.

Tuesday, Hannah and I did a lot of running around. I got my new bookclub book from the library - The Next Thing On My List. We got her paint for her new bedroom and lots of other stuff and then headed home. I finished cleaning out her room which turned into cleaning out our closets - much overdue task. We had like 5 bags of garbage and 3 bags of clothes to give away. I was tired by the time the room was empty so I hung out and started to read my book until I fell asleep.

Wednesday morning, I was up early and washed down all the woodwork in the room and taped off where I was painting the two colors. I had to take a break around noon to get a shower and go into work. One of the crappy parts of being a manager is that you not only have to go into work on your vacation week, but you have to do it because you have to let someone go from their job due to cut-backs. That's awful! I felt terrible letting one of my admin go, but unfortunately, that's business and she didn't make the cut. Totally crappy though - I sure hope she'll be OK - I really like the lady and it's just too bad things happened the way they did. I came back home and Hannah and I had dinner while Tony golfed and then she and I played outside until her bedtime. I read some more of my book. After Hannah went to bed, I got the bottom part of the walls painted green. I liked how it looked.

Thursday morning, I had my prenatal checkup. Hannah went with us and was excited to hear the baby's heartbeat. I got my order for an ultrasound in a couple weeks and as we left, Hannah wanted to know why the baby didn't talk. She was evidently a little confused about what she was going to be hearing of her baby! We all went to breakfast and then I had to go to the airport to get fingerprinted for an airport security badge for work (more work on my vacation - I have a real problem with this). Hannah and I headed back home and I realized I'd better make some serious progress on this room since my vacation time was winding down. I started painting the pink on top. As I painted and started rolling, I realized how glad I was that I didn't do it in all pink - it's pretty much bubble gum (or pepto) on the walls. I liked it though and it was becoming perfect for Hannah. Here's how it looked with the two main colors (and tape still on)

I stopped painting to get ready for dinner. My dad & Julia came up to go to dinner for my birthday. We went to the Mexican place here in town which was very good as usual. I induldged in strawberry margarita (virgin of course), but that sure hit the spot! Hannah happened to really like it too!!!

Friday morning, I made breakfast for Hannah and I since it was our last week day of vacation together. Tony came home early and took Hannah out with him for a while so I could finish the room. I had to sponge the "chair rail" where the two colors met. I practiced on a piece of paper and it looked good, but it wasn't so easy on the walls. After several attempts I finally got it to look OK and I went around the room. It got progressively better and when it was finished, I liked it! It is such a perfect girly room for Hannah!!!

We just stayed home Friday night. The people that bought the desk came to pick it up and we ran to the store for a few things. Tony and I sat outside for the night with fire in our firepit. I made some more strawberry margaritas which were so yummy. We probably won't have too many more opportunities for a fire this summer, so it was nice to sit out there.

Saturday morning, I couldn't stand my dirty house any longer! I had looked past it all week, but the filth on the kitchen floor got the best of me and I had to clean! I got that done and everything else in the house cleaned up and then it was time to finish Hannah's room. I installed the closet shelving & new light fixture and switch. Tony helped put the closet door back on and I cleaned everything up and it was DONE!!!

I started bringing up some of her toys that will now reside in her room and of course, now she wants to play with everything! Her furniture gets delivered next Saturday. We still have to buy her mattress and I have to make a curtain and get the detail stuff to decorate the room, but it's almost totally done and I love it!!!!! So does she so far! She'll be so excited when her furniture comes and she can start living in her new big girl room!

I was pretty much ready to crash after all this. I layed on the couch for a little and was relieved when no one felt like going out to dinner, so we ordered in. Tony left to go watch the OSU game and Hannah and I just hung out. I actually finished reading my book. I'm not sure if it was that great or just an easy read, but I have never finished a book in three sittings!

Sunday, we got up and got ready and spent the day at my dad's. He had a cookout for his neighborhood people because he's running for a council seat for their township. It was good and a lot of food and Hannah had fun too! I'm not sure who had more fun when she was riding around on one of "Grandpa Tractor's" tractors?? I think it may have been Grandpa!!! He's been waiting a long time for her to warm up to the idea and she loved it!!!

Ok, so now do you see why going back to work today was easier? Whew! And it was even gymnastics night again tonight too! Now that it's past 10:00, I'm about to crash. I've also remembered why it's better to stay more current on these blog posts rather than to wait almost 2 weeks - they're long!!!

Good night!

The Flower Girl at the Wedding

I'm still here - everything is going well. I've just been really busy for the last week.

Last Wednesday, Hannah and I went to dinner with some of the ladies from work. She loved going to dinner "with the girls" and they loved seeing her. It's so nice when I get such confirmation that she is just such a good little girl! She also loved that Cindy brought her some coloring and sticker books and markers!!

Thursday, I had book club. We went to dinner at Long Horn and had a good discussion about our book The Wednesday Sisters which I liked real well. I guess I didn't read it with quite the perspective that the discussion was around, but none-the-less, we had a good review. Then we got into a political debate - that's never good!!! But really, that went fine too. We decided on a new book and a meeting place for next month and we'll figure out which world crisis to solve at a later date!!!!

I took a vacation day Friday. I had to get us all packed and do laundry and clean up the house before we left for Columbus. We hit the road around 2:30 and made good time just until we got close to downtown, but still made it there in plenty of time. We checked into the hotel. We met up with my sister & Will who were here from Florida. She loved that she could get Hannah all wound up and it made me totally crazy that she was so hyper! I guess that's an advantage of being the Aunt!!! We got changed and headed to rehearsal with my Aunt & Uncle. Hannah was loving the taxi rides!!! I thought they were rather gross, but she thought it was great. Rehearsal went well and Hannah did just what she was supposed to do, but I wondered how she'd do with a room full of people looking at her. Then we took another taxi ride to dinner. That went well and was very good, but it was getting late, so we called for another cab and went back to the hotel. Everyone was there, but Hannah needed to go to bed (well, I did too), so she and I went to our room and went to bed. Tony decided to stay out all night and rolled in around 2:30!

We got up early Saturday and had breakfast. I painted mine & Hannah's nails and then she and I took a little nap. I knew I had to fit that in or she'd never make it through the night. When she got up, I took her to get her hair done - in another taxi ride. The girl did a nice job and Hannah loved getting her hair done at the beauty shop. I do have to say though, other than the experience, I'm not so sure it was worth $52!!! She did exactly what I had planned to do myself, but I was too afraid of it not working out and then getting frustrated that it didn't look right, so I just figured I'd have it done. She loved it though and it did look good! I was glad that the thing I made for her worked out so well - I really didn't think I liked it, but it ended up working perfectly!

We got back to the hotel and I started to get ready. Tony got Hannah all dressed and ready and the two of them headed over to the hall. I went a little bit later with everyone else. We took lots of pictures and the day was just perfect. Hannah was so excited and happy!!!

These are my two favorite of her:

Here are a couple of us:

My sister and I:

Courtney, the Bride - she was beautiful!

Bo & Courtney - isn't the skyline great?!

And some of them with Hannah:

The ceremony went well. Hannah did a great job coming down the aisle dropping her petals along the way! She wasn't scared one bit! She got to the end of the aisle and still had a load of petals left, so she stayed up there until she had sprinkled them all!!!

My pictures of the ceremony aren't that great since the room had floor to ceiling windows - I couldn't get the right setting on my camera.

Then we had a cocktail hour and then the reception started. Hannah had an absolute BLAST! She danced (ran) around that dancefloor for about 2 hours. She was too busy to dance with anyone.

One of the ring bearers was chasing her for a while, but then another little boy caught sight of her and was just smitten with her!!! He chased her and his grandma was determined to set them up!! They did get a little dance in, but Hannah perferred to just run around and have him chase her!

She hit the wall around 10:30, which was pretty good. We called for the shuttle and headed to bed. It was a great wedding and a really fun day!

We got up for breakfast Sunday and bid Bo & Courtney farewell to their honyemoon.

Then we packed up and headed home. I was exhausted!

Yesterday, Hannah started her gymnastics class again. It went OK, but there is a CRAZY boy in her class and his sister isn't that much calmer! I sure hope the two of them start getting the hang of waiting their turn and listening or their mom better pull them out!!! The were a bit disruptive, but it was the first night, so maybe they were just excited!!! I was alseep by 9:00 last night! It's been hard going non-stop for days!

On the pregnancy front - all is going well again. I feel the baby moving quite a bit. I'm getting quite a belly now and starting to need my maternity clothes again. I've been more careful about lifting things and taking it easy. I'll be 16 weeks this Friday. Here I am a week ago.

Lot's of Nothing

I guess it's right in line with Seinfeld or something, but there's not all that much to blog about these days, which is part of the reason for the lack of, but the other part is sort of a busy/lazy thing. Too busy doing stuff and too lazy when I'm not doing something to bother with blogging, I guess.

So let's see....since the last post, we're all adjusting to life in our house without Roman. Cody's been sad and mopes around a lot. Hannah asks why Roman had to go to Heaven a lot, but asks Jesus to take care of him each night at prayer time (on her own). Tony misses him and so do I. We got a surprise from the vet's office a few days after he was put down. They had made a plaster plate of his pawprint. That opened up the flood gates again when it came, but we're so, so very glad to have it! I made a shadow box with the plate, his collar and his picture. Tony doesn't like the letters, so I'm still searching for new ones, which for some odd reason isn't that easy to find the right size not-sparkly kind of letters....and besides, the numbers need to be fixed since one of the 9's is really an upside down 6. But anyway, here it is.....you get the drift. It's a nice memorial for us to remember him by.

I acutally really like my new book from Book Club for this month. We're reading The Wednesday Sisters. I got it last Tuesday and I'm about half done, which is really good for me since I don't like to read. I like the story so far, so it's a pretty easy book to get through. So much better than the first 4 dreadful chapters of The Sportswriter!!!

Last week, we took Hannah to the county fair. I only took one picture. Guess I wasn't in the mood for picture taking. Maybe it was because we got to hear and see some kid puking all over the place after a ride....yeah, sort of ruined the the fun of the fair. And the worst part was his mom hardly reacted. She took her good old time cleaning him off - only shaking a water bottle all over him. It was so gross, he had puke literally hanging from his eyelashes and she didn't wipe it off for at least 4-5 minutes. Poor thing! So yeah, the fair was fine, but I'm glad we went on 1/2 price wristband day for kids!!!

I had my 13 week prenatal visit last Thursday. I've only gained 4 pounds so far and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. That was great! Pretty simple visit.

Saturday, we went to gymnastics and then to a few furniture stores to get Hannah's new bedroom furniture when she moves into the spare bedroom. We went to 3 stores and then found something that we all seemed to like. It's a loft bed. One side of the bottom part is a bookshelf & drawers and the other side is a desk. I love it and it will be a great use of space for us (since that's not plentiful in our house), but I'm having a little bit of a hard time getting used to the idea that her bed will be 4 foot high up. It's plenty safe, there's really no way to fall out of bed, unless she jumps off, which luckily, she's not that daring. But I feel sad because I feel like I can't tuck her into bed the same way I do now at night. And I think changing the bed may be a bit of a pain too, but other than that, I think I will like it. We also got her a chest of drawers. I guess her toy box will make it's way to her room, despite my objection to it, but our limited space says that makes sense. We chose a natural color wood so I hope she'll grow with the furniture for a while, especially the desk side of it! Here's a picture, but we obviously aren't getting the bed on the bottom - that will all just be open space to play or store stuff in. That's the chest we ordered also in the picture.

I also found bedding for her which I didn't want to spend much money on since you will hardly see it now. I found a quilt at Burlington for $40 so we're definitely going with pink and green for her room. I'll find a lighter shade of pink from the blanket for her walls and we'll go from there. Here's the quilt:

Then I guess the only other update is our pregnancy scare from yesterday. Around 1:00 in the morning Sunday night, I woke up because I actually thought I had wet the bed. I was more embarassed than anything, so I ran to the bathroom to pee. Well, after I was done, I realized I was bleeding. I woke Tony up since I didn't know what to do. He asked if we should go to the emergency room and since I didn't have any kind of cramping, I didn't think that was necessary and told him that I'd wait for the morning to call the doctor unless it got worse. We made it through the night- sleeplessly, but in the morning, I was still bleeding. I didn't go into work, but called the doctor at 8:00. She told me to go to the hospital, which then scared me. I wasn't expecting that. So Tony took me to the hospital and we checked into labor and delivery and they started checking me out. The did an internal exam and found the uterus & cervix seemed fine, but there was definitly bleeding. I had to get a catheter - yeah, that part sucked - well it all sort of did, but that really sucked, they drew some blood and then wheeled me down for an ultrasound. The tech reminded me that she couldn't tell me anything and just as she was starting I asked if she could tell me if there was a heartbeat and she said no. So she did her thing and we could clearly see the baby, but it didn't seem to be moving at all. After she took a ton of pictures, she measured heartbeat and all we saw were a bunch of perfectly straight lines across the screen - my heart sunk. Then she zoned in on part of it and in a few minutes, she said, "heartbeat is 158".....I was so relieved! Then you could see the baby flopping all around all over the place! She said it was very active for this stage....no wonder I felt him/her moving at 11-1/2 weeks!!!! So then we went back up to my room and waited for over an hour for them to tell us that everything on the ultrasound looked normal and OK. I had to get a Rhogam shot because there had been the bleeding, but then they discharged me after that. I went home to rest for the rest of the day. I did go back to work today, but walk real gingerly and sort of have some pressure in my abdomen and still have a little bleeding. I go see the doctor tomorrow morning at 8:00. I imagine that everything is going to be OK, but I definitely have to start taking it a bit easier and not over-do things, which will be very difficult for me. Thank goodness Tony's going to be watching me like a hawk, but I feel so helpless too because he doesn't let me do anything even when I can. But we'll see what the doctor says and I'll follow her directions! I was glad to get an ultrasound that I wanted, but not like that!! And really, now that I already feel the baby and have heard the heartbeat, I was OK with waiting until 20 weeks.

So that's about it....I'll try to start blogging better lately. You know it's bad when your husband asks when you're going to put an update on!!!

Heartbreaking Loss

We've had a very sad few days at our house this week.

Monday, we had to say good-bye to our buddy, Roman.

It had been inevitable over the past couple of months that our days with him were winding down. He had arthritis (or maybe even bone cancer) so bad that it was becoming really difficult for him to get around. Standing up, sitting down and walking were becoming such a struggle, although he never complained or cried. Each day and week were getting progressively harder on him and last Friday, Tony made the decision that it was time. He made an appointment for Monday morning at 11:30. We had the weekend to spend with him, knowing we were down to a couple of days. That was good, but it made us REALLY dread Monday coming. I went into work Monday and then came home around 10:30. It was such a tough morning.

Leaving the house with him was probably half of the battle. It was so hard to walk him out the door, put him in the car and know where we were going. We spent about a half hour in a room with him waiting, which was nice quality time, but also so very sad. The vet was so caring and sympathetic. They gave us as much time as we needed with him. Both Tony and I layed on the floor with him as they gave him something to first make him go to sleep. He did, very peacefully. After we spent a little more time with him, they came back in and gave him the final shot and within a couple of minutes, he was gone.

It was gut-wrenching to go through this and to leave the vet with just his collar and leash. Sometimes I wonder why we put ourselves through this - it's just about the worse thing to have to do. We had one more very difficult task for the day, which was to tell Hannah. We brought her home from daycare and sat her on the couch to have a talk. I asked her if she remembered how Roman's legs weren't working so good and he was feeling hurt all the time. She said yes, then I said, "well, today his legs stopped working and he went to Heaven to be with Jesus". The second I said that, she burried her face in the couch and started sobbing. All three of us were crying so hard - it lasted for a good 10-15 minutes. She asked to go to her bed and after a little while, I went up to check on her and she just kept saying, "my Roman buddy". Later she said she didn't want to share her dog with anyone else in heaven and asked if he'd be coming back in a few days. I had to explain that once he goes to heaven, he doesn't come back to live at our house. It was so, so sad. That night, it was just very empty at the house.

Tuesday was also hard and it became clear that this is now affecting Cody too. He's so depressed that he just layed his head down as we left in the morning without making a sound. Usually he barks and runs around like a mad-dog. He was like glue to us all evening. Today, he seemed sad too. As I was looking through pictures tonight, I found so many of Roman and Cody laying together. I sort of forgot just how close they really were to each other. No wonder he's so sad - he's never been without Roman.

It's going to take us all some time to figure out what the new normal is around our house. Hannah asks questions so far every day and tells Jesus to take care of her Roman Buddy each night when she says her prayers.

Here's a few pictures of our beloved buddy:

Spring of 2005 - he loved to lay in the grass and feel the sun. He seemed so big back then, compared to more recently.

He loved to lay on our bed to cuddle - Cody's actually on the other side making a daddy sandwich!

Here they are laying on our bed again together. If you can see closely, Roman has his "baby" in front of him. He carried that thing for probably 2-3 years!!! I stitched and sewed it back together a million times before it finally was just about shreds! He was so gentle, loving and kind!

Here he is laying on "his bed" looking out his window - this was his favorite spot!

He used to sit in Hannah's room before she was born - he was her protector from the beginning!

Here they are after an afternoon picnic last summer

And she had a tea party with him a few months ago

This was from just a couple of weeks ago when he was outside with Hannah and I in the sun and pool.

And this was from this past Monday morning....his last day in the grass and sun....I'm so glad he doesn't hurt anymore though. I'm sure he's being a loving buddy to lots of lucky people in heaven now.

Thank you Roman, for the many years of joy you brought to our family....we'll miss you!!!!

I'm back again

Ok, so I've been a terrible blogger - I know. But I DO have a good excuse!

As most of you already know (at least the blog readers that I know - not sure how many lurkers I may have?) I am pregnant again! I'm now 11 weeks. It was a rough first 9 weeks or so, at least compared to my first pregnancy, which was a cinch. This time, I was nauseous every day and pretty cranky and just didn't feel like myself. Luckily, all of that seems to be getting better, I'm still just pretty tired. The being tired could also have to do with our crazy busy schedules lately also.

So this is how we told everyone that we were pregnant again!

Hannah is pretty excited about being a big sister. She has informed me that she will be taking care of this baby by herself (what a relief!!!) although I will get to change the poopy diapers (gee, how thoughtful!!) My due date is February 19th and I'm actually hoping it doesn't come early (crazy, huh?) because it's already so close to Hannah's birthday on January 30th. I would like to space them out a little bit more, but I have a feeling, that's not really up to me!!!

So we're getting excited now that things seem to be getting better and I'm progressing along. For now, despite Tony's complete objection, we think we're going to wait until the baby is born to find out the gender.....we'll see if an ultrasound in October changes our mind or not. I'm not sure why I want to wait, other than this is our last chance for this sort of surprise of a lifetime. I think it'll be fun to not know and pick a boy's name and a girl's name (which we're working on now). And to be honest, this goes against everything about my personality (must have a plan), but hey, I think it'll be fun and give us something to look forward to the second half of the pregnancy.

The one big bummer so far, other than not feeling well, is that I had to switch doctors and I'm not very fond of my new doctor. She's just a different personality and I really liked my old doctor. I got really mad at her at my 9-week visit when she didn't order an ultrasound. I had one with Hannah at 9 weeks where we got to see her heartbeat for the first time and her little arm and leg buds.....I so wanted that again. But Mrs. New Doctor said there was no need to do one, so instead, I left mad and had a rotten rest of the day - one of the other pleasures of these first 10 weeks (one little thing wrecking my day - yeah, I've been fun!!!) Tony's been GREAT! He's learned to just stay away from me and let me be, very understanding that I didn't feel good and trying to just get through it the best we can. I think it's getting better.....wonder what he thinks???

So anyway, that's the big news.

And an update on the other happenings for us lately - SUPER busy! Like, really, stuff all week long! No wonder I'm exhausted all the time!

Last weekend, we took Hannah to our little fair here in town. She had fun riding the rides most of the time. She must have super sensitive hearing because she has always hated loud noises. She walked into the fair holding her ears and actually rode a couple rides that way!

But then she also had lots of fun riding other rides too.

Then last Saturday, we drove down to Columbus for Bo & Courtney's wedding shower.

That was a nice time, but a long day. We're looking forward to the wedding now at the end of the month. Hannah's all set too. Everyone liked her dress just the way it is and didn't think I needed to have it altered at all, which is great. And I totally lucked out with shoes! I was so worried where I was going to find her a pair of ivory sandals at this point in the summer (now that we're surrounded by back to school stuff already everywhere). I went into Kohl's last week to get their gift and just happened to walk around the shoe section. I found a pair of pearly looking Carters sandals that I thought would work perfectly on clearance for 10 bucks! The only problem was that they had size 7 and size 9 and yes, I needed an 8. I knew the 9 would be too big and I thought I could get away with the 7 since they were open toe. I tried them on her after work and they would have fit, but she's got a wide foot and the straps were too tight across her foot. I freaked at the thought of my bargain not working out. I started calling all the Kohl's around and the third store had an 8!!! WOW - couldn't believe my luck, so I ran out there and picked them up and they worked perfectly! So anyway, the only dilemma left is what to do with her hair. My sister and I were talking the other day and we think we came up with a way to do it and get it done in the timeframe we have to work with. I'm sure it'll work out just fine!

Last Sunday, we hung out at home. Tony changed the air filters in our cars. He was so proud of himself for doing something "mechanical"!! And, he even got his hands dirty!!! Dad, aren't you proud?!!?

This past week flew by since we were so busy. Wednesday was my dad's 61st birthday!!! We met Dad & Julia for dinner, which was great. Thursday I had book club. Consensus among all of us was that our first book was awful! We read "The Sportswriter"....well, only 2 people actually read the whole book. One skipped the entire middle and read the ending. I got to chapter 4 and Laura didn't get past page 8! Yeah, not one I'd recommend, although I have a very gently used copy if anyone would like to borrow - or keep - it! Thank goodness our book club is really just an excuse to get out once a month! At least dinner was good! We've dubbed our book club "reading optional"!!! Right up my alley!

Yesterday, we went to Tony's sister's house for Kendal's 14th birthday party. Cannot believe she's 14! Totally crazy! She's going to be a freshman in High School this year. Oh, boy!

Today was a much needed free day. Hannah had gymnastics in the morning. We came home and ate lunch and then took a nap. Loved it! We hung out in the yard for a while. Tony washed his car. And then we went to dinner. It was a great, nothing-to-do day!

Tomorrow, we have to go out to my mom's for dinner. They've got family in town to visit with, so we'll probably be there all evening.

And that's it! There you have it....my big announcement and the update to the past couple of weeks of our busy life! I love my busy, yet simple life - we're so blessed!!!