I Miss Blogging and A Bit of R&R

And I don't just miss the (somewhat) frequent posts I used to put on my own blog. I miss reading other's posts and feeling connected to other's lives.

This isn't me declaring that I'll be better about it, because I probably won't. I'm just saying. I miss y'all.

We're spending Memorial Day weekend with my in-laws at their house which is on a lake that's West/North West of Minneapolis.  This is possibly the most relaxed I've been since coming home from our Disney/Universal week. There are many memories of spending time here with John before we moved to Texas back in '03. Then we'd come here any time we could on our vacations. Also, there are grandparents here to help with all the grand children (let me tell you...a house full of a six year old, two two year olds, a one year old, and a newborn is really, really crazy sometimes). The littles are really comfortable here because they were in this house when John, Malachi, and I were in FL. Simon was especially excited when he found out we were going to grandma and grandpas house. Coen got in the house on Thursday and proceeded to smile happily.

It unfortunately isn't super warm here. John's parents bought sea-doos right before we came up and I haven't been on one yet since it's so cold outside! Not to mention that the lake water is still super, super cold. That doesn't make for excitement to possibly be thrown in.

Yesterday I drove my first go-kart. It was fun, a bit terrifying, but fun. I think if I was provided a helmet I would have been a bit more adventurous.

Today we're getting together with John's aunts and uncles and cousins whom we haven't seen in years. The last time I remember seeing them was when Malachi was Coen's age. Crazy.

The kids were sick when we got into MN a couple of weeks ago, and I finally am showing signs of a cold. Blech. Hopefully it will go away by next Wednesday when I have the kids to myself for four days.

Still on Home Leave

We've gone to Disney World and Universal's Islands of Adventure
We've seen family and friends
Said family and friends have met Coen, and some even met Simon
We've learned of a fun new game (Dominion) and taught it to family
We've eaten more great food (and we started to eat more meals in my brother-in-laws house):
Famous Daves (MN BBQ is not as good as TX BBQ)
[More] Jimmy John's
Papa Murphy's
Probably others that I can't think of right now
We went to the lake to spend a night at John's parent's house to pick up the kids
We've watched movies in my brother-in-law's home theater
We fish-sat
We puppy-sat (for about a day)
We've done dishes (BTW washing dishes by hands has proven to be very cathartic during Home Leave)
I've washed laundry (and not folded or put away, per tradition)

Once we're done with home leave I'll post more about it and how I feel about it, currently though, the outlook isn't great.

I was going to post pictures, but I can't seem to get the computer to read the card. :/ Hopefully John can get it to work.

My First Home Leave

So far we've...

Eaten at:

Celebration
Campuzano
Jimmy John's
Krispy Kreme (twice)
Mama's Daughter's Diner
Breadwinner's
Hard Eight
Quick Thai Bistro
Papa Murphy's a.k.a Cafe Moore's
Cafe Dunham's

and some insignificant places.

We've seen lots of friends, a few family members, and missed out on some sick family members. We've driven almost 2,000 in our brand new Mazda CX-9.

It's been fun, and it's been exhausting. Being stuck in a small room with all three kids is a challenge. We've said good bye to the littles, and prepared for my and Malachi's first trip to Disney and we take off early tomorrow for that.

I don't know how people keep up with blogs during home leave! It seems like an impossibility at this point.