Sister Update

ANA

Last week:

• Major doubts about our piano...What the heck was I thinking painting a piano? Its going fine, but really a blue piano in our living room? Somehow I feel like I remember Elvis having a blue piano. Am I decorating my house like Graceland? But it's done, and it will remain blue forever.
• Gained 7 pounds in 5 days. My doctor picked up one of my feet, and said, "There's half of it, the rest is in the other leg. Welcome to pregnancy." Honestly I have no ankles. Think elephantitis and you'll be close. Made no other visible progress. This baby is still floating up high. Also Zack can't seem to remember how much time I have left which makes for some bitter exchanges. Like, hey only 3 more weeks. Thats something to never say to a women 1 week away from her due date.
• Stopped myself from making nasty comments to the guy asking where I was carrying the bowling ball to? Honestly has the world totally lost all politeness?
• Started to force Jack to have a snack and glass of water as soon as he gets home from school. It has helped with the massive meltdowns that were happening as soon as he walked into the door.
• Got a new calling. I'm supposed to teach the 6 year olds. I wondered if the Bishop saw my swollen belly as he was giving me the calling. A few days later I got a nice phone call from the Primary president making sure I knew they weren't expecting me until January. Bless that kind woman.
• Went out on a date with Zack. It was blissfully perfect.

This week:

• Plan an out of school friend gathering for Jack. I want to help him feel like he has friends at school. Its something I never really had to think about because I always had a built in friend.
• Figure out a way to stay asleep. Maybe I should stop blogging at 4am?
• Figure out how to tie my blue piano in with the rest of the room...
• Deliver this baby.
• Get as much tied up with work as possible.
• Stop eating for two.

IE LI

Last Week:

• Visiting teaching
• Preschool, kindergarten, ballet
• Picked up trash for the Virginia day of service
• Prepared for Michiko and sons' arrival on Monday!
  
• Play dates
• Finished sanding down all the drawers of the dresser that Rachel so kindly picked up for us.
  
• General Relief Society Meeting. I think I should plant some forget-me-nots in my garden next spring.

Next Week:

• See some sights with Michiko and boys
• Play dates
• Run
  
• All the usual stuff

ANNEE

Last Week:

• Fruits and vegetable week came to an end, and I just didn't plan sufficiently to cook at home consistently this week. I was telling the kids what a failure it was that we hardly ever had a dinner plan, and how often we were going out to eat. Funny that they didn't see it the same way that I did. Fruits and vegetable week was fully awesome. I loved it, though I was kind of starving in the beginning. By the end I had the hang of it, but then it came to a crashing end when I needed some sort of sustenance for my 16 mile long run. It was a steady spiral down from last Saturday until this Saturday. Why does that sort of thing always have to happen?!
• Attended a back-to-school PTA picnic. Marveled at what a difference a year makes. Remembered vividly this same event last year where we felt totally unacquainted and alone. This year the kids wanted to go to see their friends and teachers. I had fellow moms to sit around and chat with. It was nice.
• Subbed in 5th grade all day Thursday and Friday. There was a half day of school on Wednesday that we opted out of. This week went by really fast!
• THE PRIMARY PROGRAM!!! It was today. Hallelujah! It went really well. Now I have eleven month to relax until it's time to do it all over again :)
• Had to take Henry to get a tetanus shot booster before he would be suspended from middle school for not complying. He kept telling me to let him get suspended. I decided scheduling a doctor's appointment was the more responsible route. He measured just under 5 feet 1 inch tall. He is almost 100 pounds, and he has perfect vision and hearing. Where have the past 12 years gone?!
• Darin and Henry had an 11-year-old camp out to go on on Friday night. This put a hitch in my Saturday morning long run plan, and since I had been working Thursday and Friday I hadn't been able to do it early either. This means my 17 mile long run remains on the to-do list. I'm aiming to accomplish it on Tuesday. I'm subbing tomorrow too.
• Darin needed to reconnect with civilization after his grueling 11-year-old camp out over-night :) We needed to go out for Mexican, and then follow it up with the opening night of "Monday Ball" at the theater. It was a lovely Saturday night date night.

This Week:

• Sub on Monday.
• 17 mile long run on Tuesday
• Go to the Temple on Wednesday. I'm aiming for once a month. I'm cutting it really close!
• Get ready to host my sister-in-law Amber Earnest who is flying out on Thursday and staying through Sunday. It's a birthday trip for her. I'll have to remember all the fun things to do here in Chapel Hill. I'm excited she's coming.
• Darin would be really annoyed if I didn't express my excitement over the big Wilco concert we'll be attending up in Raleigh on Tuesday night. I guess they're on tour again. I guess we have tickets. Can't wait to frame another Wilco poster!
• I miss the fruits and vegetables, and the eating at home. Maybe there will be a return to all of them this week. Maybe.
• Finish a baby quilt. Hopefully before the baby gets here...

SARAH

Last couple weeks:

• Celebrated Brenden's 12th birthday! Can't believe I'm (I mean he's) that old! We had a great weekend including the Wasatch Elementary Fall Festival, the Fathers & Sons campout, a whole day at Lagoon amusement park with the whole family plus Grandma & Grandpa, presents, funfetti cake, and best of all getting to go to Young Mens. I remember being that age and being so anxious to be done with Primary - just like Brenden is now.
• Witnessed Brenden's ordination to the Aaronic Priesthood office of Deacon today. What a sweet experience watching Scott confer the Priesthood to Brenden with Dad right next to him in the circle. I'm so proud of Brenden and loved watching him pass the sacrament today. I splurged on a sharp new Sunday outfit for him - nice not-too-short slacks, crips shirt, & cool tie.
  
• Made lots of progress on my living room makeover - lamp & side tables arrived in the mail, ordered coffee table - hopefully it'll arrive this week, ordered throw pillows and this fabric for drapes. I know it's probably foolish to spend the time and energy and money on a room that was kind of already done, rather than one of our undone rooms, but for some reason I was just really hit with the bug and I'm loving the changes. A new rug and upholstery will probably have to wait a while, though. I've been trying to decide what to do with the old Pottery Barn tables set I have - move them to the basement? They're not quite right there. I think I'll try to sell them.
  
• Applied for a grant from the Utah Arts Council for the Rooftop Concert Series - lots of paperwork - should hear next month if we got it.
• Went to two concerts last week at Velour - which is kind of a lot all in one week and maybe we are getting a bit old for it, but I really do enjoy being a part of the music scene here still.
• Found a dresser for June's room at DI - and the next day dropped it off to the wedore-dos people to paint it - no need for me to add anything more to my or Scott's already ridiculous todo lists.
• Saw a commercial for Dumbo coming out on DVD, and before it was over I had pulled out my phone and purchased it on Amazon. I'm trying to build up my classic Disney movies collection. We got Bambi a while ago and have been loving it. Can't wait for Cinderella and Little Mermaid to come out again someday!

This week:

• Work - I have a new project that I need to get started on (as in I should have started it 2 weeks ago)
• Exercise - I feel like total garbage. I have got to do something about that. Plus, I won't let myself buy plane tickets to go to DC on Nov 12th until I at least get on the treadmill once.
  
• Drive up the canyon to scope out a location for a family photo shoot. I really don't want to take fall pictures, but I fear I've nearly missed my window for summer shots.
  
• Sign June up for gymnastics lessons. Poor girl asks me every day whether I've done it yet or not. Wish we didn't need to sign up for anything else that requires driving and schedules, but alas, she deserves to learn stuff too I guess.
• Catch up on sleep - I'm falling asleep between every bullet point as I write this list. Huck & June have both been waking up in the night the past week which is really disruptive to me. I have definitely inherited Dad's outlook on having extra kids in my bed - I hate it! Unfortunately I'm not nearly as scary to them as he was to me as a little kid.
  
• Time to get new Sunday shoes for Huck & June - had to have one more week of sandals today when their old ones I pulled out were way too small.
• Need to stockpile some baby gifts - we have lots of friends and family (yay Ana!) having babies soon - and pretty much all boys. I bought a bunch of yarn earlier this summer thinking I'd be able to knit booties or hats or something. Too bad that never happened.

RACHEL

Last 2 weeks:

• Not a lot of sleep! Between the work deadline and preparing for my lesson my nights were packed! It felt good to deliver the tax return I've been working on every day since May.
  
• Took the Friday after the deadline off to run errands, buy plants, cook and bake for the weekend.
• Made Boeuf Bourguignon for CZ's bday gathering. Concluded it is better when served with egg noodles as we've done in the past.
  
• Watched a really sad BYU football game. Then a much better game the next weekend!
• Went to a networking event for work for the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce. It was really fun! I have a solid conversation starter, "I went to school in Utah" which inevitably starts a conversation about The West and what are you doing here.
  
• Ken went to Utah for his sister's farewell so I was on my own this weekend. Two nights in a row I was SURE I heard someone breaking in the front door while I was in bed. Wimp.
• Came THIS CLOSE to buying a worn out dollhouse at a garage sale to participate in this blog activity. Spent a couple hours perusing doll houses at our small town toy shop. I could REALLY enjoy that hobby. I'm penciling it in for retirement. Because it turns out a doll house coffee table costs as much as a real life coffee table...
• Ran and went to the farmer's market on Saturday to make this soup.
  
• Went to dinner and the RS Broadcast with CZ and my friend Kirstin. Forget-me-not was a lovely talk. Barbara Thompson's was spot on in answering some of the covenant questions I've been thinking about lately. Also, I painted my nails in a sparkly gold.
• Started redesigning the blog finally.
• Completed our set of wedding china.
• Tested out a couple spinach smoothie recipes. Surprised that my favorite one was blueberry!
  

Next week:

• Bake cupcakes for 2 of Ken's classes and his home teachees.
• Pick up our order from Polyface Farms on Wednesday. Their turkeys are ready! I order a 10 lb turkey. I plan to practice a couple times before Thanksgiving. I'm so excited!
• Work a ton this week. Hopefully I can accelerate most of the work I have left between now and the deadline.
• Register for the Richmond 1/2 marathon! Price goes up after Friday.
• Truckeroo is on Friday - all the food trucks in the DC area gather in one spot!
• See I Don't Know How She Does it which is in theaters now. (Actually not going to happen. There's no time.)
  
• Go out to a crepe restaurant in Alexandria after conference on Saturday.
• Brunch at home during conference on Sunday. Start planning this early so we're ready.
  
• Continue working on Christmas cards.
• Upload all pictures onto the computer. I haven't done this since July but if I'm going to start blogging again this needs to happen.
• Sync my iphone.
  
• Finish our taxes?? Our state returns are so complicated for 2010.
• Finish taxes and bookkeeping for Hud.

I'll add in my update in the morning when my eyes aren't so tired.