Long Time, No Type

Yes, I officially suck at this blogging thing lately. I have been super busy these past couple of months. In fact, I somehow missed two whole weeks in February because of the hectic routines.

Here's what we've been up to these days.

Early February - Hosted a Super Bowl party at our house for church. About 9 members opened their homes, so it wasn't like every church member was over here. Still...lots of stress, cleaning, stashing clutter, etc.

The rest of February was a blur of social events, birthday parties, marathon training, and school (for Mike). Our friends had a Murder Mystery Party at their house and that was tons of fun. I've never done that before, but it was neat. We've been going to small group(s) on Tuesday (the whole family) and Wednesday (Mike with some men). We're starting a 10 week series soon about getting your life on target...having more freedom in your life, etc.

Andrew turned 4 on Saturday (March 3rd). We had a neighborhood birthday party for him. It was nuts. We ended up with at least 60 people at our house (at least 27 of them were kids). Bounce house in the backyard (15' by 27'), food all prepared by ME (I am so proud). Natalie started getting sick the night before Andrew's party, but we chalked it up to teething. Mike took her to the Dr. on Monday evening and she has two ear infections. Today- Tuesday - I went to the doctor and have strep throat AND the flu. LOOOVELY.

Our washing machine died over a week ago and I tried to fix it myself. (There are lots of nifty appliance repair sites out there these days). Well, after some Dad-like frustration, tool throwing, and cussing, I gave up and called the repairman. Good thing because he discovered it was a bad motherboard. Yeah, like I could have figured that one out. Sheesh. The part is $350, and that's not including labor. Needless to say, we're in the market for a new washing machine. Our old one was only 6 years old, but I guess they suck like that these days. We're getting one on Thursday because Home Depot is having a better sale then. Thank God for great neighbors who let you use their washer and dryer!

I am now the official Leader of the Dream Team at church. It's the team that plans all of the events. I had been heading it up unofficially for awhile, but they finally asked me if I would make the commitment. Here we go. We're in high gear with planning our Mega Sports Camp--our version of Vacation Bible School. We had 400 kids attend last year. It was pure madness! We met for the first time last night (while I was coming down with the plague) and we hashed out a bunch of stuff.

Let's see, what else? Alie is walking. It took her awhile, but in the past week or so, she has FINALLY discovered the joy of two extremity mobility. I thought it would never happen.

Andrew is our typical Andrew. He loves his preschool, and his personality is just blossoming as a result. He's a little more jovial there than I think he should be though. His preschool teacher describes him best when she says that she "loves his spirit". The Mom translator interprets this (correctly) as "he loves to have fun and doesn't follow directions very well. He's the class clown." He is free-spirited, but he is obedient for the most part. He loves routine, but doesn't like to color within the lines if you know what I mean. He has good manners and speaks like a little adult: "well, actually", "um, excuse me, but can you tell me where I can find the restroom?", "oh yes, alright", "why sure", "of course". It's a hoot.

And then there are those other times...the 10% of the time we don't talk about. I guess every child has their moment, but we are trying to work with him on his frustration issues.

That's about it for me. I am beat. It's 8pm and I need to shower and curl up in bed. Mike's at school tonight until late and the kids are already asleep. I am taking my sick momma self and calling it a night.