Let there be light

This weekend, Josh and I played "Spouse Swap" with Rachel and Lips. On Saturday morning, the girls and I headed up to Rockford (where, to no one's surprise, the temperature was a full five degrees cooler than it was at home) to help Rachel knock out some of her to-dos before Zechariah makes his appearance, and Lips came down to help Josh with some home improvement projects, little things that would make us enjoy our home more.

I was so excited to spend time with Rachel and Nehemiah, who is so much fun and who gives the best hugs. He and the girls had a ball playing, chasing, giggling, blowing bubbles, picking flowers dandelions, and in general running around crazy together. Rachel and I managed to organize some baby clothes (so teeny...my time with onesies wasn't so long ago, but it certainly felt that way....) and made several meals to throw in the freezer. And we just enjoyed being together. We took the kids to a park, drove by the neighborhood where Josh and I lived when we were first married, and ate at Burrito Loco where I introduced Nehemiah to the wonder that is horchata. We sat outside in the sun and talked about work and our husbands and our homes, and I found myself wishing that I could somehow make Rockford and Chillicothe two minutes apart instead of two hours. 

Because I made the extra effort to take our nice camera, I took exactly zero pictures with it. Thank goodness for camera phones!

Elaina at the park. She spent much of her time hanging around kids a good 4-5 years older than she, having a grand time  until Mommy Killjoy intervened to suggest she stay a bit closer to her family. So fun to watch her play, even if her independence scares me sometimes.

My bubby. I mean seriously.

Thankfully Ellie doesn't yet find hanging out with Mommy to be nearly the drag that her big sis sometimes does. We had quite a bit of fun on the teeter totter.

Meanwhile, Josh and Lips got to work putting a window in our bathroom. Over the course of Saturday, our bathroom transformed from a cave to something much more lovely. Josh and Lips were kind enough to text updates to their expectant wives, and it was so exciting to see their progress.

Lips giving a play-by-play to Rachel

Framing complete!

Holy cow, there's a hole in my house...

And now there's a window!

Finished on the outside Saturday night....

Finished on the inside Sunday morning!

When the work on the window was done, they got busy adding a storm door to the front of our house.  This had been on my wish list for a long time, because I wanted the light and the cross breeze without the fear of stuff blowing in or the cats getting out. Apparently we got a frou-frou door and Lips teased Josh about it, but I couldn't be happier with the finished product.

Almost finished...

Look at all that light! (and ignore the floor I need to mop...)

All in all, it was an incredibly successful weekend. I got some far to rare sister time, and the girls got to hang out with their cousin and auntie, and I got lots of hugs and kisses from my bubby. Josh and Lips got to work together and hang out, which they don't often have the opportunity to do, and the improvements they made are so nice and so appreciated. Now my house has a little more light, and because of time well spent, so does my spirit.

Easter by the numbers

Our Easter this year included:

1 church service

2 pretty new Easter dresses

3 Easter egg hunts 

7.5 Aunties, Uncles, and Cousins

297 hidden eggs (give or take)

433 pieces of candy, gum, stickers, bubbles, and chocolate bunnies

100 memories

1000 gifts.

Just like old times

This weekend was all sorts of wonderful. Our house was full of family, we went to an awesome concert on Friday night, and had little else on the agenda other than spending time together.

On Friday, Mom, Dad, Rachel, Lips, and Nehemiah came down. The girls were ecstatic. As soon as Mom and Dad arrived, they were ushered into the playroom, which has been rearranged/created since the last time they visited. When Josh and I went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, the sounds of their giggles echoed down the hall. Ellie did not stop talking all through dinner; her topics ranged from the sleepover the girls will have at Mom and Dad's later this month, rainbows, school, and what life will be like when she's 4.

Around 6:00, Mom, Dad, Rachel, and I left for the Selah concert. It's funny--I can't remember the last time it was just us, without spouses or babies in tow--and honestly, it was kind of nice to have an adults night out with my family. The Selah concert was, as always, amazing. I am so impressed with the quality of their concerts; they sound as good live, if not better, than their albums. And the concert was nearly 2 hours with only a 10 minute intermission--well worth the price of admission.

I clearly need longer arms for group selfies

After the concert, Rachel declared it time for ice cream, and, well, you really can't say no to a woman who is 7 months pregnant when she wants ice cream. So I directed Dad to the nearest Dairy Queen; along the way, we teased him for his penchant for, as Mom says, "cramming on the brakes" and I teased them about the 4-cheese pizzas I ate ad nauseum on Friday nights when Rachel and Jeremy left for college. When we walked in the shop, I saw a guy from our high school who had been a year below me. We were in band together, so I stopped and chatted and laughed about what a small world it is that two people from podunk Colchester would cross paths all these years later.

By the time we got home, we were all pretty exhausted, so Mom and I gave the girls their promised kisses good night and we all went to bed.

On Saturday morning, we sent the girls upstairs to see everyone while Josh took the dog out (the dog, whom I love so much, and whom I was tempted to move outside because she whined in her crate all. night. long.). I made breakfast--heating up cinnamon rolls I had made and frozen last month. Then there was play and puzzles and chatting and relaxing. 

Puzzles with Pampah

Auntie Rachel getting a lesson on ponies

Here, Mama. Have some wemonade.

When the cartoon portion of the morning was over, I put on a Dateline I had recorded for Mom and Rachel about a murder that had happened in Peoria a few years ago. Josh and I ran to Peoria to get lunch, and not long after Rachel and Lips and Nehemiah got ready to go home. I took Rachel upstairs to shop/pawn off stuff she may need for the baby--a swing, a crib mattress pad, a ball game. I was sad to see them go, but my poor little bubby needed a nap, and I understood.

When they left, Mom and I got busy researching a long lost family member, Minerva. She was the first wife of my great-great grandfather, and when she died, he married her older sister, who became my great-great grandmother. Minerva had a daughter, and through our sleuthing, we determined that the daughter came before the marriage, though we're not sure by how much. What's more intriguing is that there's no record of Minerva's obituary in our family papers, and we have so many others, including my great-great-grandfather's, our link to Ireland. While she and I sleuthed, Dad made popcorn, which was gobbled up happily by all of us.

Yuna was a fan of the popcorn, too

Mom and Dad left, but not without leaving the girls with a couple of new books and calendars to mark down the days until their sleepover, and lots of good memories too.

I was a bit pooped after all the activity, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. If anything, I wish we all lived closer together so these weekends wouldn't be such an anomaly. It was such a fun mash up of past and present and future. Just like old times, only better.

Things worth remembering

The winter doldrums have been getting to me a bit lately. The girls were sick with a worse-than-a-cold-not-quite-the-flu ickiness for the better part of a week. It was particularly hard on Ellie, who fevered and coughed her way through three days and whose generally happy personality was replaced by a lovely combination of pathetic because she felt so poorly and Incredible Hulk because, whoa, does illness make her fuse short. Josh has had a stressful few weeks at work. The average high this time of year is in the mid-40s, but we've been lucky to get out of the teens, and Yuna seems to derive great pleasure in taking her sweet time first thing in the morning. No alarm clock is quite as jarring as traipsing out in the snow wearing your husband's snow boots and his winter coat and having the wind slice through your pajama pants like a thousand knives. And today it snowed, again.

But in the middle of those doldrums, we've had many moments worth remembering. And because I'll forget them if I don't write them down, here are a few:

Last weekend, while Josh made dinner, I gave the girls a makeover with some of the makeup they got for Christmas. Ellie chose blue eye shadow because "it matches my eyes", and Elaina chose black, I think, because she wanted to look like the wolf in the Zelda game Josh is playing. Once the eye shadow, blush, and three shades of lip gloss had been applied, they wanted skirts to complete the princess look. Ellie then had a change of heart for her future ventures: "Mama, I don't wanna be a seff (chef)  anymowre when I gwow up. I wanna be a pwincess!" 

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A conversation overheard while the girls were taking their baths:

Ellie: I'm awwergic to bees. 'Cause bees make me sneeze.

Elaina (indignantly): No, you're not! You're allergic to a-mozzerella!

(For the record, Ellie is allergic to neither bees nor cheese. But she is allergic to amoxicillin.

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The girls have been doing chores for the last several weeks to save money for a game they both wanted--Shelby's Snack Shack, or something along that line-we just call it the Dog Game. They earned enough money, we ordered it from Amazon, and it finally arrived on Tuesday. We played four rounds--one for each of us to win--and had a great time.  

Elaina's not competitive at all, no siree.

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Ellie has a particular affection for one pair of pink socks, mostly because they go to her knees. She was thrilled to put them on one night and spent the majority of her bedtime routine walking around with her pants hiked up so everyone could revel in the wonder that was her "stwetchy pink socks."

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On the topic of clothes...on Thursday, I wore an outfit to work that in all honesty did nothing for me. I felt frumpy and middle-aged and soccer-mom professional. On Friday, however, I pulled off what I felt to be a professional, age-appropriate, cute outfit. And my hair cooperated. And Elaina helped keep me company while I did my makeup, and it turned out better than normal. All I have to show of it is a bathroom selfie, and even though I felt stupid taking the picture, I did it because I wanted to remember  a day where I really felt put together.

Please excuse the poor lighting...

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Elaina, in her great love for Yuna, allows the dog to lick her face. Which isn't bad in and of itself, until she walks away looking like she's been in the pool. We've gotten after her a thousand times to stop, but she just can't seem to resist the licks and giggles raucously as it happens. 

One day this week I was helping Ellie in the bathroom and heard Elaina cooing, "Oh, Yunie, Yunie!" and giggling her tell-tale giggle. Knowing what she was up to, I yelled, "Elaina! Get off the floor and quit letting the dog lick your face!" The giggling ceased, and a pregnant pause followed. And then a little voice from the hallway said, "Mama? Can you see through walls?"

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This weekend we went out for lunch with Rita and then headed to the Peoria Home Show to gather some ideas and see what local companies have to offer. The girls were quite patient, though Elaina was particularly disappointed she couldn't get a balloon animal that other children were walking around with. (This is what happens when Mama and Daddy forget to carry cash....) Thankfully, as we were headed out, we happened by a booth offering free face painting, and less than five minutes later, we had some pretty happy girls on our hands. It sure is a joy when their reward for good behavior becomes our reward, too.

Elaina and Rita at Cracker Barrel

Love how Ellie is looking at her sister here

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Tonight, I made rainbow spaghetti for the girls, and Josh made a white wine sauce for it, just because.  Life is so much more special when you say yes to simple stuff like this.