Whew!

This past weekend was beyond scattered and crazy. In an attempt to cap it for you, I'm sure I'll fail to communicate that to you, and it will sound like it was simple, relaxing and fun. It was fun, (parts) were relaxing...but honestly, I don't feel like I began to recover from it until today...


We had some friends from college over Friday night for games. With six kids four and under in the house, one game was played for about 5 minutes... but it was fun, nonetheless. Then, Jim and I had a date night, which consisted of watching the new episode of The Office, and an episode of Monk. All of which was watched while eating extra snacks left behind after the friends left. The Office was so good, I asked Jim if we could watch it twice. He complied. Mostly, I just wanted to see Jim pull that ring out of his pocket again. Ah, good TV.


Saturday we went to my parents house for a loud and crazy day with my side of the family tree. We ended up bringing back two PUPPIES with us for our good friends in Rapid City, one for them, one for her parents. (My parents raise West Highland White Terriers). So, we arrived at their house with four ankle-biters of our own, and headed home with six. (Bebo and Bacon don't ankle-bite...)


We got home just in time for the girls to catch a quick nap before Jim's parents got here, all a part of a secret plan to whisk the ladies away for the weekend to give Mom and Dad a break (well, Mom, Dad, and Hudson). Really, I just traded the craziness of three girls for the craziness of two puppies I had to constantly monitor (Our friends made a plan to meet us halfway on Monday to get the puppies). But, gosh, they were so stinkin' cute, we gladly took on the challenge. It was busy, but fun.


We barely got the girls out the door, when the Welcome Lady came with a gigantic binder of coupons and information about Sioux Falls. She was really, really sweet (sweet enough that we forgave her for showing up at 6:00 on a Saturday night, just as our date time would begin.) She was here forever, but she came bearing free stuff and coupons, so it was cool. Oh, she was so nice. And, it turns out her daughter went to school with one of Jim's bosses (VP of his company). She offered up top secret info about his nickname in high school. That was fun.

It was now 7:00, our day had already been insane, and we were hungry. Hudson would want to be in bed by 8:00, so we couldn't go out. Jim used one of our handy new restaurant menus and coupons to order take out from a new Mexican restaurant on Minnesota. It was awesome. I can't remember the name, but you should find it and go there if you live here. Oh, and make a note to yourself to eat at Food and Fermentation on Phillips Ave sometime too. We ate there a couple of weeks ago- go soon, go excited, go without kids.

Sunday morning we tried out a new church (we're between two that we know well, but hadn't gone to one of them yet. It's easier to go without kids.) It was an awesome church. They both are. Decision made harder. Darn it. We were too late for first service, too early for second, so we stopped at HyVee for coffee and I fed H. We grabbed excellent pastries from the bakery, then sat in the Starbucks that is in the store. It had an excellent barista. I had a caramel pecan roll that was so good. Jim had his choice of 50 lovely kinds of tasty doughnuts, etc in a vast array of colors and fillings and what does he pick? Two plain chocolate doughnuts. It was between that and the kind covered in sugar. Honestly. And you know what his favorite ice cream is? Vanilla. Honestly. I can't get enough stuff inside my ice cream, he loves vanilla. That's the difference between us. But I digress.

So yeah, church was great. We even walked out with a free stainless steel coffee mug. Woot! As we entered the building, I swore I'd been there before, but then it was a school, not a church. I entered the sanctuary, and my feelings were confirmed. I had been there before, in 2003. I was pregnant with Grace, and went with several girlfriends to see Elisabeth Elliot. We got there, sat down, it started, and they informed us that she couldn't make it because her husband was sick. So, there we were. Did they cancel? OH NO. They subjected us to TWO HOURS of "entertainment" from a travelling christian family singing group. Oh please. There I was, eight months pregnant, with what I now know to be preeclamptic legs the size of manatees, sitting on metal bleachers, trapped squeezed in at the top with no way down in a hot room packed floor to ceiling in anticipation of the absent Mrs. Elliot Gren. I can tell you now, after FOUR pregnancies, this one experience takes the cake by a MILE for worst pregnancy experience, ever. No kidding. (Labor and delivery excluded, of course.) Oh, but I digress. So I sat through the service, thinking of this not even funny in retrospect a little bit (OK, maybe a little bit) experience almost the whole time.

After church we took a long way home and saw some parts of the city neither of us knew very well. We saw a sign for a library and realized that we were in the area of town that Jim had designed a library for a couple of years ago. Lo and behold we found it, and it was the one. I'm totally bringing the girls there...sometime. I think they'd love to go inside and know their dad "made" that building on the 'puter. We had a lazy afternoon. Scratch that. I had a lazy afternoon leafing through Pottery Barn catalogs and Jim took a 15 mile bike ride around the city. I picked him up a few hours later at Falls Park and we had another date- this time to the mall to find him some new shirts for work (he doesn't have a company shirt on every day anymore!). Then we grabbed some pizza at Cici's, per Jim's request. Cici's pizza isn't good, but it's cheap, and I love the cherry tomatoes on the salad bar. It was a good experience. While I was waiting to refill my soda a mom was filling up her daughter's cup. The daughter wanted Mountain Dew. The mom adamantly disagreed over and over saying she couldn't have it because it had caffeine, so she had to pick between Root Beer or Sprite. This went on FOREVER. The mom finally "won" and gave the girl Root Beer. Barq's Root Beer. Which, I believe, has caffeine. I chuckled to myself as I finally filled up my cup.


Monday Jim went back to work and I met my friends in the middle of nowhere to do the puppy drop off. It was great to see them. Then the girls came back Monday night- tired, but with happy memories.

I can't believe I just told you all of that. Talk about a long post- I've got a good start on the next great American novel. OK, great, maybe not. A novel, yes. In fact, if you have read through this entire post (be honest now! And, I don't blame you if you didn't!) I want to give you a prize. You deserve it. The first person to read all of this and comment will get a $10 gift certificate to Amazon, to get yourself a real book. I mean it. I'd love to gift you. Just to make it fun, enter the code word "Amazon" in your comment. (I know, so original. And so ridiculous to have a code word.) Let's see if anyone gets here...


Thanks for checking up on us from time to time, everyone! We love sharing our everydays with you!