Urgent

So, if any of you are McDonald's fans, my son has been collecting the Transformer toys from his Happy Meals in recent weeks. It is completely taking over his (and my) life. Anyway, we made yet another trip today to get the last one he needs to complete the collection: Lugnut (shown above) only to be told that today is the last day of the promotion and ~gasp~ they are out of Lugnuts. So if any of you have an extra, we would happily pay the shipping AND throw in an Optimus Prime to boot (we have an extra). Let me know. Otherwise, I may not get ANY peace for the next few days...

Our latest happenings...

With the arrival of Hurricane Dolly, we are staying home for the next day or two. We had major thunderstorms during the night and everything will be wet for the next few days, so I have a (lame) excuse to stay home and putter around. So it's 9:53 am and I'm feeling pretty good about my day so far: I've showered, the kids are all fed and dressed, the dishwasher is running, the washer and dryer are also running and everyone is occupied enough for me to post. Hooray!
So, yesterday was a big day. We had painters come to paint our office and entry way. We've never hired someone to paint before - we've always done it ourselves, but with these high ceilings, I was pretty sure we needed to call in a professional. And it was awesome! Here's a picture of the entry way on Monday night. (See the pretty dining room through the archway? Last summer's project...)
And here it is this morning! We still have a lot of work to do, mostly in the office. But it's really exciting to finally have the painting done. I've been waiting over 2 years to do this. And I was very nervous about the color - mostly because it's a little bit darker than I would've normally chosen but I love the way it turned out. Hannah and I had to run to Home Depot last night at 8:00 too because the color we picked for the art niche looked exactly the same as the main color and I really wanted a contrast, but we found something else I liked (Hannah was a GREAT helper) and I really like the way that turned out as well.
We also got our new sofa table delivered yesterday. I'm still not completely decided about the "stuff" on it but it's another thing I've been waiting a long time for. So yesterday was almost as good as Christmas for me (maybe even better...) and now I've got to go start putting things back in their places. Hooray for the hurricane.

We're FINALLY back...

Fortunately, we're home safe and sound from our long trip to Utah. We had a blast!
Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera cord on the trip so I couldn't upload pictures and thus the five week interval from my last blog post.
Fortunately, the computer is working great after an 8 day stay at our local Best Buy.
Unfortunately, it had over 70 viruses on it when we got home and we had just paid $200 for our anti-virus software. (We are currently seeking a refund).
Fortunately, I have lots of pictures on the camera and ideas for posts.
Unfortunately, I also have over 1300 emails that I need to read and/or delete. It's gonna take HOURS! 5 weeks with no computer is a pain!

Anyway, I'm glad to be back and settling into our summer routine. The carpet cleaners were here today and tomorrow, we're finally getting our entry way and office painted. I can't wait. Hopefully, I'll get through some of those emails so I'll have time to post some pictures...

Travel tips???

Saturday, 4 p.m.

3 kids

1 adult

3 hour flight to SLC

6 movies (on my ipod)

countless fruit snacks

100's of nylon finger weaving rings (for Hannah)

Any other ideas?

Maybe "benadryl" in case the baby freaks out?

Flying without my husband always seems like a good idea when I'm making the reservation

but now,

ugh.

what was I thinking?

I can't wait until the flight is over and we're finally THERE.

Can't wait to see everybody!

Date night

Last Friday night, CJ and I got a babysitter and headed out. We had dinner at Olive Garden and then stopped by the local movie theater. We had missed all the 7:00 shows so we went for a long walk through a nice neighborhood. The weather was perfect and it was so nice to talk without ANY interruptions. On the way home, we stopped at Hollywood Video to rent a movie but couldn't find anything we were that interested in. But then we came across this:

I had never seen this show, but I'd heard a lot about it from my sister Emily and her husband Dave. Anyway, we stayed up WAY too late watching the first few episodes and laughing - alot. Although I have to admit, watching Jason Bateman play a dad makes me feel really old. I just returned it and now I have to rent the rest of the first season, and the 2 DVD's of the following 2 seasons. Anyway, I've decided this is my favorite way to watch TV. One episode right after another with no break (or writer's strike) in between. Someday, I may even talk myself into watching "Lost" - as long as I can do it this way.

End of first grade

Okay, okay, I'm feeling a little bit guilty about my last post. Hannah's award ceremony really was a little bit fun. I just wrote that post in the HEAT of the moment (literally, it was 97 in Houston that day which set a record and I was hot all day!) Hannah earned several awards and I was very proud of her and her hard work. She made the A Honor Roll meaning she earning only A's all year long and she also earned the award for art in her grade. She was really excited and happy and I'm so glad we could be there to support her.

So last night was her talent show and instead of being crabby about how busy the day was or how late we got home (and I won't bore you with the details of how I dropped a huge glass of grape juice in my entry-way while we were on our way out the door and it splashed everywhere and ruined our carpet and stained the paint on our walls. All I'll say about that is that it's a good thing it was my own fault because if one of my kids had done it, I might've seriously hurt him/her), I wanted to share her performance so you could see what a talented and cute little girl we have.

Congratulations on all your accomplishments during first grade Hannah! We love you and we're so proud of you!

Note to Self

8:00 am appointments in which 3 kids have to be up, dressed, fed and dragged along to are not much fun for anyone. In the future:

• try scheduling things a tiny bit later in the day
• get a babysitter

Also, award ceremonies for 1st graders are really fun for the first grader and for no one else. Especially 18-month olds.