From here to Chicago and back

...is a great city. My dad's family lives near there and I traveled there last weekend for a cousin's wedding. I have some great memories from time spent there, and had fun adding to those memories. The picture above is me with my lovely sisters before the reception. So, I'm curious, blog visitors, who would you say I look most like? As I said, I was there only a weekend. I flew there with Joseph, who was a good little traveler considering both flights were PACKED. The little guy has already flown twice and he's only two months old, but we'll really be slowing down with the travel now. It occurred to me when I got back that I have nothing planned for the next 3 months -no travel, no visits, no big events. WEIRD. I haven't decided if I'm excited or uneasy about that...or a little of both. And there is always the unforeseen. For the record, we welcome visitors. Hint, hint.

Of course, I hope to make Thanksgiving and Christmas special for our family. So, there's a couple things on the calendar. I've begun to think about traditions and which old ones I want to keep or new ones I hope to create. And I have no lack of unscheduled things to do... including getting a Texas driver's license.

Or maybe I'll just never drive. It is a hassle to load the kids up and so scary to drive around here. But that's not realistic. If I hadn't lived in St. Andrews where not having a car was possible, I wouldn't know how great it is to not have to worry about a vehicle -insurance, repairs, general maintenance, cleaning because someone (I suspect a stupid or malicious kid from the nearby high school) spilled something sticky all over the driver's side door. But I did live car free, and now it is harder to deal with those things.

There is an upside to my car grumblings. It puts other things into perspective. Whenever I am tempted to wish we owned a home, I remind myself how great it is to be a renter. When the faucet won't turn off because a screw came off somewhere inside the handle, you can call the office and they send their competent handy man over to fix the problem. All you have to do is endure the dripping for a night and then maybe let Mr. Handyman borrow your tweezers so that he can recover the loose part and then "voila" problem solved with no nagging to the spouse. It's been really great for our marriage.

Speaking of marriage, Stephen and I are going on a date on Saturday. Seriously, this is newsworthy stuff. It's been a little while and I am sooo excited. More kids= more appreciation for times to get out of the house away from crying, whining, pee, poo and spit-up. (for non-parent readers I apologize that I have given up the fight and given in to talking about bodily functions. it's what parents do.) Believe me, I LOVE my adorable children, but I like to think it's healthy that I am looking forward to getting away from them with the man I love.

Speaking about the kids, they continue to make life fun and interesting. Joseph has been sleeping through the night now for a couple weeks now (yeah!!!) and Nora is potty trained aside from a few accidents here and there. Though it's been a fairly easy process, I don't think there's a room in the apartment that hasn't been christened, and I've gotten really good at cleaning up after her. (or at least I tell myself that to feel better about my house). Nora's imagination is growing by leaps and bounds; today she ranged from Cinderella to Wendy to a bird to an alligator and on from there. Joseph is as sweet as can be. He has hints of personality developing, but it's still a little early to pinpoint exactly. He has a winsome smile and funny poofy hair (hopefully a picture of that soon), that makes me laugh. He can also be a grump, but it's so pathetic and (usually) half-hearted that it mostly just makes me laugh, too.