Day #66 (Saturday), Day #67 (Sunday), and Day #68 (Monday)

It's been a LONG weekend and, go figure, I didn't have time to post an update. Oh well...

Saturday morning was spent with Amelia, getting blood work done. Lucky for us, unlike the nurses on Friday, the one there Saturday was able to get all the samples necessary with ONE needle and in less than 5 minutes. Of course, Amelia was terrified going in but, when she saw how quickly we were able to be "in and out", was easier to console at the end.

The rest of the morning was spent getting Julia & Frankie ready for their church "camp in" (all the teens of our church were getting together to camp in the church, as a kind of retreat and to help them get ready for another year of Sunday school.) And we, also, had football and it was our friends' son, Billy's 5th birthday party. Maura did an awesome job cheering and, as soon as we were done with football, Patrick drove Julia & Frankie off to their "camp in" and I was off to Billy's birthday party with Maura & Amelia. The party was very fun, even if I had to watch both Notre Dame and Ohio State University lose. :(

Sunday was dominated by East Shore UU Church. First, Patrick was "greeting" (working the front door and welcoming everyone who came in), so we had to be there early (like 10:00am ish.) Then, after the service, Membership Committee had a "welcome back" pizza luncheon for the members and, since Patrick's a member, we had to stay for that. Then, Julia & Frankie had OWL (Our Whole Lives) class and *that* didn't end until after 2:00pm. After going home for a bit, I had to return back to East Shore for the monthly board meeting at 6:00pm. As it was my turn to supply appetizers/snacks, I had to be there early (5:45) to set up and, of course, I forgot that I was supposed to bring food, so I had to run out around 4:30 and pick up stuff. When I came home at 9:00pm, I couldn't wait to crash in bed so, naturally, nothing Martha-esque was done this weekend. :(

Today was an easier day than expected. After getting all the kids off to school (even if Amelia did throw a temper tantrum when getting dropped off at school), I ran a couple of errands and was able to relax a bit. After picking her up, I decided to get rid of my lovely grey roots (it's sad how much grey hair I have... and I'm not even 40!) so it was time to drag out the hair dye supplies. I feel much better now that I look like I'm still in my 30's. lol

I decided to make a nice autumn-themed pork stew (roasted pork, carrots, onions, apples, garlic, a pint of Guinness) with egg noodles and biscuits for dinner. So, I dragged out the crock pot and started cooking that after lunch. BTW... it was YUMMY!!!

All the kids came home and homework was done. Then it was time to eat my yummy pork stew (which none of the kids liked *grrr*.) After dinner, my niece came by and wanted to use Maura & Amelia as "models" for a photography class assignment. She got some really lovely ones of Amelia, dressed in her Cinderella costume from Halloween last year, having a tea party on our front lawn with 3 of her teddy bears. And then she had me take a bunch of her making chocolate cupcakes with Maura & Amelia. They were adorable but nowhere near as cute as the tea party ones. I can't wait to see how they'll look when she's done Photoshopping the backgrounds (the tea party ones are having an "Alice in Wonderland" theme 'shopped into the back and the cupcake ones are having some airbrushed techniques done to make them look painted.)

Now I'm done with laundry, cleaning dinner dishes, and cupcake baking dishes. I'm ready to collapse. *whew*

Here's to a slower tomorrow.
Mary