let's play catch up

well, it's been a busy week. Here's a little recap...

Last Wednesday night our car broke down at church. The kids and I got a ride back home from a friend at church, while Steve stayed to figure out what happened, get the car towed, etc. And just as we rounded the corner near our house, I realized that Steve and Colin have the house keys. And I only ever use the garage door opener, which happens to still be in the broken down car at church. SO...we headed over to the neighbors and confess that 'we are locked out of the house for the second time in two weeks', and 'could we please ruin your evening together and hang out here and beg for food and drinks and play loudly and almost wake your sleeping children?'

and of course they let us. til almost 11. and this is AFTER helping us haul a fridge into the house not too long ago and many other "needy neighbor" moments. They are good friends. :)

So we got the car fixed. It was expensive. gr.

I also had my Creative Memories National Scrapbook Day weekend. It was the very first time I did my own event, and it was so fun. I felt a little like a maniac trying to get the church set up and the food prepared and such all on Friday morning. I'm quite thankful for the many people who helped me keep my sanity and get stuff done. And I just have to mention that it was really good food. I'll never shop at Don's Food Center again, unless I win the lottery, but it was good food. :) You forget about things like the cost of food at a local grocery store when you've been out of town for....lots of of years.

The rest of the weekend was well spent with family. Magical salads at Smits dinner, Pizza Ranch (where I had the pleasant surprise of running into Steph), Ticket to Ride (why do I always lose every game I play?), and naps. :) And sometime during that weekend, Lillian picked up the phrase "GEE!" She uses it about 7 times a day now. It cracks me up.

Monday we were supposed to go to the duck pond to feed the ducks the old bread we were saving for them. But it rained. So instead we went to some friends' house for supper, and hit the duck pond the next day. ("Gee! Look at those ducks! They're coming right over by us!") I even managed to get a picture of everyone before my camera died. (you'll have to look very closely to see me...)



And now we're suddenly back at Thursday. Tulip Festival is coming soon, which means a couple of things. First of all, I don't have much time to train for the 5k. That whole "because it's on my blog" thing didn't work. But last night I ran a mile. And I survived. It took a long time, but I didn't stop til I hit a mile. :) Rachel, here's hoping that my 5k pace matches your 10k pace. we'll see... It also means that I have a couple sewing projects to complete in a short amount of time. I have to 'shrink' two girl costumes, and 'grow' a boy's costume. I'm also hoping to make a new lining for the buggy I want to use this year... man, my mom was talented.

Before we tried on Dutch costumes this weekend, my aunt Karen brought over a little surprise for Lillian. This is the dress that Karen's daughter Lea wore in my mom and dad's wedding 30-something years ago. It was a smaller version of my moms, and it was so beautiful. I hunted til I found the old wedding album to show Lillian. As I flipped through that book, I felt like I was 8 again, savoring the smell of the old photographs, gazing at my beautiful mother, grinning at my young father, and knowing they had something special. I used to LOVE looking through that book. Lillian doesn't really get the significance of that dress, but it was so meaningful to see her in it. My mom would have loved it.













In other news...Brielle is almost crawling. She can do like one 'crawl' at a time. I'm doomed. :) But Josiah apparently got ahold of my camera at dance class on monday and took a few pictures of Brielle crawling.

and then one of Lillian's class....


And along with his new photography skills, he is almost completely potty trained! He goes "huge" poopoos in the toilet, and his diaper is almost always dry! yay! And he's still sweet as ever. The other day when the neighbor was taking him to go potty, and she asked him if he knew what to do, he said "yep! I jsut push my penis down! .....I love my mom." little sweetie. :)

And...besides learning new words like 'gee', Lillian also whips out some math every once in a while. just simple adding and subtracting, but jeepers, I had 2nd graders who couldn't do that when I was teaching. She's a smarty pants. :) I'll stop bragging on my adorable amazing wonderful sweet beautiful children now. ;)

Alright, I'm done recapping. Not a very "fun" post, but lots of things worth remembering. :)