This and That

When I started this blog 4 and a half months ago, I was anticipating the work stories would be replaced with the stories of how crazy the kids are driving me. Surprisingly, that hasn't happened. Oh, I won't say there aren't moments, days even, that are trying. Just the other day I screamed at Abby and slammed her door. I haven't done that in a long time, and I'm still not even sure if she deserved it or not. But even on the days when Dave is travelling, the mornings start, they turn into afternoons, and into evenings and into bedtimes so quickly. I can't bring myself to think of the winter, or the days when Max starts being harder to get down for naps. Those days will come and will take care of themselves, somehow, someway!


Anyway, Mom sent me this picture of a tree that fell down at their house. How very, very lucky that it didn't hit the house, didn't hit much of the shed, and didn't even hit their little canopy here. Wow. See that blue swing there, behind the canopy leg? Below is Max in that same swing. Thank God no kids were in it, and that no one was around in general.

Abby and I headed down to Nicole's house west of Chicago this weekend for a girls' weekend. Abby lost a tooth of Friday night, but unfortunately not one of the ones she's getting pulled this week. Between the dentist and the tooth fairy, I'm broke! Oh well. Then, while I got a massage on Saturday, Nicole graciously took Abby to the DuPage County Children's Museum. I think they both had a good time.






On Sunday, my friend Stacy brought her 11-month old twins to visit, and it's the first time I got to meet them. Meghan is crawling everywhere, and Jack likes to watch, but will crawl when his sister finds something interesting to look at. Abby was certainly interesting!

Jack was fascinated with Jeb the cat (especially his tail).

Here I am with Jack... Check out my multi-colored fingernail polish. Doing nails was part of the girls' weekend. You should see my toes!

How cute is she??

Jack and Meghan also have big sister Katherine watching over them from heaven. With Jack and Meghan's year birthday coming up, I'm sure Stacy and John are both happy to celebrate with the "babies" while also missing Katherine very much. I'll be thinking of them often.

And here's Abby with Jeb... she sat and petted and brushed him forever. Who would have thought? Except when she was eating Cheez-Its. Then Nicole had to lock Jeb in the kitchen. Which is still better treatment than Charlie and Annabelle, the Golden Retrievers, got. They were relegated to the backyard and basement. There's no way Abby would have been able to deal with them!

And, thanks to Nicole, Max looked like this tonight. She was so nice and bought Abby paint from the Children's Museum!


And here's my driveway. Any bets on how much Dave will FREAK OUT when he realizes it's not really coming off? At least, I couldn't get it off. It wouldn't be so bad if this were the first incident of the week, but considering I closed the garage door on his car (again) on Sunday, I'm not anticipating a good homecoming this week. (And to my credit... the garage door has a sensor, but still comes down on the car. Seriously! Plus, Dave hung balls from the ceiling so I know how far to pull up. But apparently the kids played with it and now it's too low. Then it shouldn't be there! It's totally not my fault.)

And, I don't know what that shadow is in the bottom corner of the picture above, but I promise it's not my wine bottle, no matter how much it may look like it!

But the kids did have fun.

And created some nice masterpieces.

Then they went in, took showers, and while I was trying to clean the driveway, they dressed Max up as Buzz Lightyear.

Never a dull moment around here!!