Monday, August 18, 2008

Return with Honor Exhaustion

Well, since I'm blogging, I'm sure that you can tell that we survived the weekend. And it was a god weekend, really.

Friday, we dropped Michael off at his carpool-place. Then we jetted home where the kidlets ate breakfast and watched a movie while I ran around loading all the stuff that I packed/was packing into the car and did some last minute chores (little things -- dishes, cleaning the catbox, laundry ... stuff so the house won't stink). Then, we got loaded up a few hours later so I could drop some letters by for a couple of gals that I visit teach.

After dropping off the first letter, the munchkin brigade decided that a mutiny would be a good idea. A mutiny of tantrums, that is.

And it wasn't a good idea. I got them loaded back in the car. Even as Bucket kept declaring, "I no wanna see Daddy. I wanna go in house." (Meaning that she didn't want to go into the van, even if it meant she could go see Michael. She would rather go inside the door we had knocked on ... of a nice sister who works nights and is SLEEPING. ... Not an option.) And we stopped by the other gal's place. AND JUST CAUGHT HER ... so, hey! I've got a face to match with the name. (And who says that miracles don't happen?!?) THEN we got loaded up in the van again, Bucket took a nap, Bruise pointed out cars and motorcycles and trains and such ... a car of boys waved at me (kinda weirded me out), and we got safely to Michael's office where we visited with his boss and a few coworkers.
Then we went to Trader Joe's and shopped at Borders ... where I was a complete bargain huntress.

I got my mom a card and some trinkets for inside the card (her birthday's tomorrow), a church bag (I wanted a new one. I got it for $6 when it would normally be around $18), a book (only one more in the series to buy. And, really, do me a favor -- Buy Shanna Swendson's books, especially the sequels in her Enchanted, Inc. series. Maybe then her publishers will let her write the fifth one. They're totally awesome!). AND I got three DVDs. Here, let me brag illustrate my shopping maven skillz:
  • Signs - Normally $12.99. I got it for $7.99 ($5 savings)
  • Clueless - Normally $12.99. Got it for $5.99 ($7 savings)
  • Lars and the Real Girl - Normally $27.99. Snatched it up for $7.99 (Yes, really. I totally scored a savings of $20! No, you don't need to bow. Oh, stop. Flattery will get you everywhere. I mean nowhere!)
But, yes! I was amazing! I know!
(And also, Lars and the Real Girl? Crazy premise. You'll read it and be all, "Um ... Special movie, huh, Allanna?" ... but SERIOUSLY, it's about the most darling show. It's sweeter than Juno! And I really liked Juno!)
(Seriously!! Michael isn't a big fan of buying most shows on DVD. ... If it were up to me, we'd have LOTS more shows [Still NEED to buy Never Been Kissed], but Michael was actually in favor of buying this one. So, really, it's supergood.)

But, yeah, so we got loaded back in the van (Bucket and Bruise didn't throw tantrums because they knew we were going to see Nana!! (my dad's mom).)
And the drive down was pretty uneventful. We got to see my Nana, chat, Michael took a nap (it's Pop-pop's chair. Seriously. It's the sleepingest chair you'll ever encounter.), the kidlets played and read with Nana, we ate (Family tradition. Almost the first question when you visit family is, "Have you eaten?" ... probably explains why I should drop another 20 lbs. Sad, but true.), we chatted more, changed diapers ... and headed to my Dad's.

Again, absence of tantrums. "I go see Gan-pa!!" was the excited exclamation. Phew!

Now, Bruise surprised me quite a bit when we drove in. My Dad opened the door when we drove in and Bruise pipes up, "Hi, Grandpa!" ... Usually the kidlets don't know what to call my dad. It made him (my dad) feel pretty special. Yay!
We had some sandwiches and chatted and drank juice (the kids LOVE drinking juice) and the kidlets watched cartoons (Bruise especially enjoyed vintage Scooby-Doo. That's my boy).

And I taught L (my dad's girlfriend) how to lock/unlock the ice dispenser on the fridge. (Bruise had figured out how to use it. He grabbed his glass and all! Too clever, that boy.

I also made the best drink: Pour a glass of lemonade with LOTS of crushed ice. Then pour some cran-raspberry juice in there. Swirl the glass around (I'm too lazy to get a spoon). Yummers!
Seriously, who needs alcohol to make a delicioso drink? (Answer: Nobody. That's who. Just keepin' it real, here. ... Especially since my children kept stealing sips of it. It was just THAT good.)

Then we went to my mom's.
(Confession out of the blue: I keep referring to my mom and stepdad's home as "my folks' place." And, um, I did it in front of my dad. Oops.)
The kidlets love to play at my mom's. She's got lots of kids' books, a collection of toys, the piano, a plethora of Disney movies ... and a garden (so Bucket can water the plants. And we can scream at Bruise not to step on the plants. ... It's not like that's one of the reasons to have the garden ... but it is one of the direct effects. Confession: I scream the loudest). And there are the dogs and some cats ... It's very fun for the kidlets. ... And Mom keeps scanning yard sales and such for more fun things for the kiddos. No wonder they LOVE going to see Mutti and Poppi. ^_^

Saturday, we actually got a little more sleep than I had expected (the kiddos slept REALLY well. I was shocked!) and hung around the house ... mostly watching HGTV (oh, if I had cable ... that'd be one of the channels I'd watch far too much!). Mom and I took the kidlets around the yard. We picked up the ripe apples that had fallen (Mom makes applesauce. It's good enough to stop tantrums. ^_^), saw the doggies (Bruise and Bucket got the help spray the naughty doggies. ^_^), and went into the garden to help pick zucchini, tomatoes and basil.
That evening, we went further south to my friend Jessica's baby shower. (Jessica, Terra, and I were near inseparable at church. Total mischief-makers, really. Lots of slumber parties, talking about boys, passing notes in Seminary! Oh, we had SUCH fun!)

But Jessima, as we call her, is due next month. And I hadn't seen her since her wedding over a year ago. She's so cute being all preggernated! (one of the topics at the shower was how HUGE I was when they saw me at my baby shower. Yes, I was large. Carrying twins does that. *wry grin* To say that I was the size of a small seagoing vessel? Not much of an understatement. :P)

I won a couple of shower games. Mom and I tied for first on the game where you write the names of baby animals. (We both missed that a baby eel is an 'elver.' Who knew? ... I mean I knew I had read it somewhere ... but I could NOT, for the life of me, recall it!). I also won on the word scramble. I didn't think that I could have won. I missed SIX of them!! The people who got next closest both got 16 ... Terra being one of them. Terra, who was SURE that she would totally suck at it. (Terra who has some fun pictures of me on her camera. Since she left it unattended a couple times. One, she knew about right off. And it's going on her iPhone. And she's declared that she'll show it to EVERYONE at her job. ... the other one? Well, I don't know if she knows about it yet. But she didn't by the time I had to leave. Heh heh heh.)
(It's fun to make faces and take your own picture on your best friends' cameras. Especially when they're not watching. Heh heh heh.)

Then we jetted back home. Michael had an early-morning meeting ... like butt crack of dawn early. *sigh* And I was subbing in the Beehives (the 12-13 year-old girls) class, so it's not like we could skip or anything.
And my lesson went well. The girls like me. (As well they should. Since I'm their camp director AND the YW secretary. And I say things like "sucktastic" and they think my handwriting is loopy and cute. And they're all fun, sweet girls ... so it's really great that I like them, too. ^_^

Then we missed visiting teaching. The gal that my companion and I were going to visit with wasn't at church. *sad face*
But I got visit taught. I have excellent visiting teachers. I love them. They're seriously made of awesome. And it's always fun when they come to see me.

But, I really should finish doing some more work on the calendar for next month (for Young Women's) and make sure that we have a playdate today. (Poor Jenny. I don't know how she's surviving without a computer. I think I would DIE.)

And, at Jessima's shower, Keri told me that my blog's entertaining. Awww! You're too sweet. And you know that flattery gets you everywhere. ^_^ (You should check out hers. LOTS of cute baby pictures. She's there in the blogroll. She can vouch that Terra, Jess, and I were never really on-task in Seminary. ^_^)

Oh ... also, Bruise thinks that it's amazingly fun when the van drives over the bumpy strips on the side of the highway. "Whoooooooa!!" is what he always says.

Also, the kidlets handle thunder very well. Yay!

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