Finally, an update!

Why oh why is it so hard to find a moment to update!!!

Fun things...

We went up to OMSI for teacher's night last week. Once a year, teachers get into OMSI with their guests and EVERYTHING is free. If we were to pay for all we got to do, we would have spent over 60 dollars. We went on the submarine, watched an IMAX movie, and played around in the Discovery area. We didn't quite have time to do the planetarium (maybe next time). It was fun to take a picnic dinner and do something "out of the ordinary". We have meant to go several times and will for sure make this a yearly tradition!

We had some beautiful sunny days last week and the children and I walked down to the library (probably a mile and a half, round trip). They are SO INTO BOOKS! I love it!!! Sawyer is a regular little book worm, and Jubilee is starting to have the patience to sit still and listen (and "read" aloud to herself).

We celebrated Phil's 35th birthday both on Thursday (the actual day) and on Saturday. We had nice dinner here at our house with just our family on Thursday and then the two of us went to a movie on Saturday while my parents watched all three little ones. We had a yummy salmon dinner that night!

At Phil's insistence, I have been instructed to "get out of the house alone" on occasion. One of the great challenges of being a mom, I have found, is not getting an opportunity to do some of the things that I greatly enjoy - having a creative outlet. I used to "express" myself by wearing fun and funky clothes and I LOVED Goodwill shopping for bargains. I love photography, writing, and art (not very good at it but I like it just the same). There doesn't seem to be time in the day to shower regularly let alone be creative. Being a teacher allowed me to create in a classroom environment and I took art classes and did hobbies on the side. So anyway, Phil is instructing me to "refuel" a little every week. On Friday, I went to the library for about 45 minutes and sat in a quiet corner and did a couple of pastel sketches. It was so relaxing and quiet!! On Sunday, I went to the Goodwill and intentionally bought some things that were fun instead of the "functional Mommy sweatpant type outfits".

Some friends of ours had their freezer go belly up. They had purchased part of a cow and had a ton of meat thaw out. We got about 15 pounds of hamburger meat that we cooked up and froze (8 qt bags worth) and 5-6 packages of steaks. I have them soaking in a marinade as we speak. I am going to cook them and freeze pieces to use for stews, chilis, soups, etc..

Not so fun things...

When 13 month old babies stay awake for most of the night. YAWN YAWN YAWN!

When Monday is messy house clean up day!

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