Trying to catch up!

Okay, going to try to make this as short and sweet as possible.

Over the last week or two a lot has been going on. We've done some minor 'improvements' in our house (and have a few more planned): peep hole in front door (I feel SO much safer now!), new drains in master and upstairs bathtubs, new flag for our mailbox (it's been broken since we moved in) and a new showerhead! I LOVE the new showerhead! I wanted a massager kind to make it easier to bathe our dog and to clean the shower, and then we found this!

I also never got around to mentioning that we purchased several storage totes around Christmas and REALLY organized our decoarations closet upstairs as well as the half of the garage that is now being used as 'baby stuff' storage. For less than $100 (I did my research and we found a STEAL at Big Lots for 50 Gallon tubs) we really utilized the space we have much more efficiently. I'm reminded of an old George Carlin skit about a house just being a place for your stuff..."Actually this is just a place for my stuff, ya know? That's all, a little place for my stuff. That's all I want, that's all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? I can see it on your table, everybody's got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that's your stuff, that'll be his stuff over there.That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time. A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you're taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody's got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff. " We definitely have TOO MUCH STUFF...but at least it's organized now!

We had another set of visitors last week...C's dad and step-mom, Patricia. They came in Thursday afternoon and stayed through Saturday morning. It was a very relaxing visit and we just talked about so many different things. Riley enjoyed EVERY MINUTE of it. He was also so excited when he would wake up from nap or in the morning and remember that FaFa and Shisha where here!

Riley was so curious about FaFa's blood sugar tester

Drawing on doodle pad with Shisha

Chris having his blood sugar tested - what timing I have!

I've been reading a lot lately, and keeping up with my chore planner. I LOVE that I have expanded the types of books I now read, because it really opens up conversations. However, the bad side of that, is that I keep adding MORE AND MORE books to my list! For example, I mention to Melissa that I was reading The Notebook, then she suggests 2 other Sparks books I need to read! Patricia and I had several lengthly conversations about books and we were both recommending tons of books to each other! So far this month I have read 'The Life of Pi' by Yann Martel (definitely recommend), 'The Thorn Birds' by Colleen McCullough (LOVED it, another definite recommendation), 'The Notebook' by Nicholas Sparks (good, quick, easy read, will try more), and I am currently reading 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini (so far, so good).

Chris and I celebrated our SIXTH anniversary on February 2nd. Well, we actually celebrated the following weekend by going to lunch at Texas Roadhouse and a movie, 'Fool's Gold'...ALONE! Stephanie babysat Riley for us and it was wonderful. I LOVE my son, and I know you all know that, but it certainly is nice to have a relaxing meal (without the throwing of crayons or spilling of milk) and I actually haven't been to see a movie in the theater since our THIRD anniversary the month before Riley was born! I know, crazy! I think it's something we will start doing more often.

More to come on Valentine's Day, Riley's first Valentine's Party, the planning of his 3rd birthday, etc. but this has already passed 'short and sweet' so I better end for now! (I'm in a hurry, so please excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes!)