Filling our time

I'll miss the summer. Mostly I'll miss the end of summer when it's in the mid 70's for a while. Things are starting to get chilly.

We took advantage of the 75 degree weather on Labor day by taking a trip to our beloved Longwood Gardens with our friends, the Fishers. It was a great day and the kids all got soaked in the new childrens' garden. This particular garden is filled with fountains of dripping water that are all within a small child's reach. We visited the gardens again at the end of the month and this time I brought an extra set of clothes for the girls.

These are some awesome looking glass pumpkins on display. Yours for only $300.

I took advantage of the good weather by starting a daily walk. I push the girls around the apartment complex three times and then put Juliet down for a nap while Adri and I make smoothies. Adri was starting to get a little bored of the whole thing until I acquired a walking buddy. My friend Ruth recently moved here with her family from England. She has a daughter, Elloise, who is just Adri's age. Now I have someone to walk with and Adri and Ellie run around together holding hands. The only downside to this is trying to get the girls to part ways, if only for a few hours so their mothers can shower. Adri once cried and reasoned, "But she's my best friend!!" Lucky for Adri, Ellie feels the same way and even her older sister, Neve, has joined in their best friendidness. They are lovely people but I'm afraid I might offend if I go straight to using my English accent when I'm around them. It's hard to resist! As I said to Jason, "It's like I'm in a Harry Potter movie!" So Awesome. Plus I get to learn all the British equivalents for the American words I'm familiar with. For example: 'trousers' are pants, 'pants' are underwear, 'trolley' is a shopping cart, 'full stop' is a period, and so on. Look at you, learning things from my blog . . .

Adri and Ellie

I know it's a little early but we went shopping for Halloween costumes this month. Gramma Nancy wanted to make sure we got exactly the ones we wanted before anything sold out. Adri chose an elegant Belle dress with a crown and glittering slippers while I chose a Tinkerbell dress with light-up wings for Juliet. Adri loved her dress and wore it in the store until we left. The next day when we tried it on she decided she hated it and threw a fit while trying to get it off. So we headed back to the store to trade in the Belle dress for a Snow White dress that fit much better. I hoping this dress will still be acceptable by the time Halloween rolls around.

Juliet seems to like Tinkerbell just fine

Not Adri's Snow White dress, but still cute.

Gramma also got us a pumpkin to paint for Halloween. Adri insisted that we have lots of pink paint. She did a fabulous job while Juliet was continually scolded for trying to eat the paint and/or pumpkin.

Along with walking, the girls and I also have a regular appointment at the library for story time. Adri is doing great with the three year olds and even Juliet is paying attention during her one year old session. Adri gets a kick out of playing the computer games there and is getting quite adept at moving the mouse around the screen and finding what she wants to do. After Adri's story time we usually stop at the grocery store. This particular store has a really cute babysitting service called the 'tree house' where you can leave your kid while you shop. Adri has decided it is a fun place to be and, for the first time, Juliet and I went shopping by ourselves. I was so proud of Adri (if you know her you'll realize this is a huge step for her to go into the care of adults she has never met) but I felt a little weird without having her tag along. I guess this is what it feels like to have your kids start to grow up.

Story time before bed

Juliet is growing all the time. She is starting to look less like a boy now that I can squeeze together some hair to make piggy tails. Plus, she has started walking and is now a pro. She no longer looks like Frankenstein as she waddles about but is now stable enough to play 'chase Adri around the house'. She is getting more friendly but tends to prefer the company of men (sorry, Grammas). Adri has usually had the opposite problem and does NOT like boys, although Uncle Nate seems to have found a chink in her armour and she will now have lengthy conversations with him (sorry, McKenzie).





As for me, my work load has been growing steadily. Hallmark has been good to me this month and I was granted another work day. Well, technically it's in the evening but I'm glad to have the hours either way. The hours start to get longer during the fall and winter seasons too so I'm gearing up for more time at Walmart (and more cash for Christmas).






I also took a trip by myself to Philadelphia. Anyone who knows me knows that I have only one super power - the power to get lost no matter where I am. I had a 2pm appointment to appeal some parking tickets. I drove around that stupid city for 2 hours until I finally found an open parking meter in front of the building I was looking for. I went in and started to fill out my paperwork when the fire alarm sounded. I walked out and finished my paperwork in the car and was actually able to appeal my tickets in a timely manner (the outcome of which has not yet been determined). Upon my departure, I called Jason and begged him to stay on the phone with me to guide me out of the city. I was lost after maybe three turns. I nearly turned up a one-way street (nearly half the population of streets in Philly are one-way streets) and then proceeded to get so lost that Jason couldn't find me on Google maps. After about 6 hours I got home and vowed never to go into the city again. Then I listened to conference. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that the new temple will be built as far from the city as possible or so help me I will make Jason keep taking me to the D.C. temple.

Please click to enlarge and see the chipped tooth.

Jason has been trying to earn some extra cash for our family by participating in an ESPN challenge. All he has to do is pick the winner of any game for 25 games in a row. His longest streak is 7. Then he lost. Now he's back up to 4. We'd sure enjoy the million dollars they're promising but we're not holding our breath that Jason will win. The good news is that he did win an obstacle course race after a work picnic. He was very determined and jumped head first down a slide and ended up chipping his tooth. Lucky for us we have dentist friends and the tooth was fixed within the hour AND they wouldn't let him come back to work for the rest of the day.



That about sums it up for our month but I do want to congratulate my brother and sister-in-law on their new baby girl Payton Noelle. Way to keep havin' those babies!