AGAIN -- Another blog in which I catch up

Sooooooooo ... when I last blogged, I told you about my poor, poor sliced finger.
It's almost all healed. Just needs to build up a few more layers of skin at the site and it'll be all good.

What else have we done since the kids finished swim lessons ... Well, here's a list:

• We went to my cousin's wedding. Yes, my sweet Sarah is married. ... And while that's all well and good, I'm secretly a little EXTRA-thrilled since I'm now cousin-in-law to a guy I know from high school. And he's just as nice as ever. ^_^ (My mom's thrilled, too. We like Chad. ^_^)
• The kids got to spend a week down with grandparents. They went to church with Mom and C, swam in the pool and played, spent a night with Dad and L (where they played in THEIR pool), went to the coast, went to Wildlife Safari, saw Cars 2, got Slurpees on 7/11 ... and we picked them up Friday to bring them home for a night before ...
• We went camping. Along the coast, out of North Bend. This is the first time that we've been camping as a whole family. Bucket was pretty thrilled. (She's been jealous when Michael's taken Bruise to the father-and-son campouts and she has to stick around with me. Even though I try and do some fun girl-time with her. ^_^) And, really, it did go well ... even if it started to rain.
• While the kids were gone, I mostly slept in. Did my volunteering at the library. Made some phone calls. Read a few books. Watched some DVDs. Cleaned the house a bit. And, on Thursday, Michael and I went to the coast. We went up to Tillamook, toured the cheese factory ... then made our way back down. Stopped in Lincoln City and bought some books (Paper Towns, Before Green Gables, Chalice [Robin McKinley], Coronets and Steel [Sherwood Smith], and Eats, Shoots & Leaves ... in case you were WILDLY curious). Also, in all this driving, Michael and I made it through reading Catching Fire [book 2 of The Hunger Games] together. Now, we're reading Mockingjay as we drive places.
• While at the coast with the kids, we went to the Newport Aquarium, Yaquina Head (not the lighthouse, the kiddos are still too short ... but we went through the little museum and down along the beach there, with all the cobblestones. They DO make a really singular sound as the tide recedes. We also stopped by Cape Perpetua, Shore Acres, and (on the way home) Heceta Head Lighthouse (before it's closed for repairs.) ... As an aside, the Pacific Coast Passport was a seriously good idea. We only got the 5-day pass ($10) and got more than our money's worth out of it. (Yaquina Head = $7, Shore Acres = $5 ... I didn't even look to see how much Heceta Head or Cape Perpetua cost ... and we went to all those places.)
• We were also supposed to go to a family reunion (my dad's side) ... but, even after looking for considerably longer than 30 minutes ... we just couldn't find it. So we just went straight to Shore Acres, since we were around Coos Bay anyways. Ugh.
  At least, I didn't have to feel too bad. It was disappointing, to be sure. BUT!! Nana and Uncle Steve were ready to go ... and Cousin D NEVER SHOWED UP TO TAKE THEM. So Nana took her Jell-O Salad down to my dad's to share. No, my dad wasn't going, either.*sigh*
• When we got back, we just had to be ready for the kids' swim lessons (another round. Third time's the charm, right? RIGHT?? :P) on (last) Monday. And they'll finish up tomorrow.
• I missed volunteering last week ... even thought my mom WAS up ... since I was kinda sick. But I'm feeling a lot better now. Phew. I made it to volunteering yesterday, even though my mom is sick. ... The kiddos got to go up to Mom and Dad C's to play. I think they had a BLAST. Bruise fell asleep during bedtime-story last night. And Bucket slept in until AFTER 7 this morning. Tired girl.
• We made it to the Pioneer Day Picnic/Potluck/Party on Saturday. It was nice to see so many of our friends in the Stake (since we don't always get to see them every Sunday, being in different wards and all).
• I taught Relief Society (women's group at church) on Sunday. I think it went well. I was filling in for another sister (lady) who was recuperating from surgery. Please pray that she gets better SOON. Teaching is a little stressful for me. But this time, it was much better. There was a lot of discussion. Even though I got verklempt so much. (Hey, I LOVE the temple. It's a topic close to my heart.)

I THINK that's most of what we've been doing this month, since I sliced my finger, anyways.

In other news, my pictures of fireworks do show improvement over last year's. ^_^ That's always nice.
Now I need to get them all transferred off the memory cards (along with pictures of the coast trips and camping and Shore Acres and swim lessons ... Oy.) to the external HD. 

So, yeah. I think that's enough damage for one blog post.