If she had the proper words to say,

Well, we woke bright and early because a friend was supposed to drop by at 9:00am. On a good "sleeping in" day, I set my alarm for 8:30 instead. When I woke, there was a new snowfall of 4-5" overnight, so I quickly roused Philip as well so he could clear the driveway and sidewalks for my expected guest.

While he worked on that, I busied myself in the kitchen, chopping and dicing, throwing the ingredients together for Chicken Gumbo in the CrockPot. It was the perfect meal for such a wintry day, and I knew it would smell delicious all day long while it simmered. The boys woke and dressed, and Jack set himself to working on his paper crafts again (he's been making many things, planning special homemade cards for teachers and friends). He also made more snowflakes throughout the morning, and I dutifully taped them to all the kitchen cabinets for display. I finished the gumbo and moved on to cleaning the kitchen and bar, then straightened up the dining room as well.

Philip finished clearing the snow and came back inside. He sliced some cheese and we had crackers with it for a mid-morning snack. My guest had still not arrived, so he began vacuuming the main level of the house while we waited some more. I wrote out some thank-you cards and a long overdue birthday card and prepped those for the mail, and then I searched high-and-low for some glitter glue for Jack. (No dice on that, we'll have to grab some in town soon.)

Finally, I sat down with the newspaper just to pass the time. Philip finished vacuuming the entire house, and then he disappeared to our bedroom and folded laundry. The boys began to ask for lunch, but we staved them off a bit. We'd been planning to run to town for a few things, grabbing lunch at the same time. I finished the paper, and we waited a bit more. Finally, the doorbell rang!

It was noon by then, and when my friend left, we set our sights on lunch. Philip and the boys went to the BX and grabbed chicken from the new Popeye's location. I began watching a movie while they were gone, and by the time they returned, I was so far into it that Philip told me to finish it. I had chosen The Young Victoria (something he would *never* be interested in!), and he quickly fell into a nap on the couch while I finished it. Our plans to go into town were dashed at that point, so I laid down for a nap myself.

When I awoke, I made the garlic bread and rice to serve with dinner, and we ate. It was such a low-key evening, and I was thankful for it. We had planned to watch Elf together as a family, but the boys received an impromptu invitation for a joint-sleepover at their best friends' house (the friends are brothers as well), and they packed their things and headed out. It's always so amazing quiet when it's down to just Philip and me!

Even quieter still, my neighbor Tanya soon called, hoping to find a last-minute babysitter in A.J. for little Emma while she and her husband attended a UFC fight. Since A.J. was already gone, Philip volunteered to sit with Emma while she slept, and I continued baking cookies for an order. Philip came home just after 1am, and I had finished baking (though not decorating) the cookies. He was so close to sleep already that I chose to watch Bright Star, and I enjoyed it as well, though not nearly so much as The Young Victoria.

Philip was so sacked out on the couch that he never came to bed, and once my own head hit my pillow, I never even noticed! The house was wonderfully silent this morning, and we both slept in. Even now, it is 12:40pm, and Philip has just called for the boys. I imagine the noise/ruckus will begin again shortly... *wink*

On the morning of Jack's special day (this past Thursday), we ran around to pick up a bunch of things. Jack had an idea to share his birthday cake in the evening, and I helpfully suggested that sharing might work better if he had cupcakes. When given the choice, he picked out an Orange Supreme cake mix and Chocolate Fudge frosting, as well as orange icing for decorating. It sounded pretty good to me too, and I'd never had such a combination before.

We came home, and I whipped up another trifle dish of banana pudding for all the guys at Runza (Brett's little dish had been *inhaled* before he even got a chance to see it!) I set the pudding in the fridge while I made the cake batter and filled the little foil wrappers. I set Jack's cupcakes to baking, and I washed a few dishes and cleared the table while waiting. As soon as the timer went off, I pulled the cakes from the oven, and then I dashed into the shower.

After my shower, I dressed, and then we all set out to take the pudding to Runza. We picked up lunch there (Jack's choice), but we brought it home, expecting little Catherine in just minutes. We got to be her first-ever babysitters, and it was such a wonderful time. She was an absolute angel, but Heather came back to get her much too quickly. I've got a ton of pictures to post, but look for them over in this locked post (Jack's birthday: Part 2).

Next up, Part 3!

I am EXHAUSTED this evening. We went swimming with Herb while I was babysitting Josie this afternoon, and playing in the water always tires me out. I've felt like I'm in a fog these last two hours or so, but I did manage to take my shower and toss in a load of laundry (currently in the spin-cycle, I hear).

I made a bookmark two nights ago using navy and white, and when I starched it, the navy bled into the white. I was so bummed. Luckily, I've had several other ladies express their like feelings when I told them of it. It's always nice to have support.

And then yesterday I tatted up a bookmark for my mother-in-law. The entire bookmark came together quickly and easily, but I noticed a "fatal flaw" as I tied off the end. Nothing can be done to fix it, as the flaw is in the very first stitch of the piece, so that was 2.5 hours of my tatting time wasted. And what am I supposed to do with it? No one wants a flawed bookmark. :-(

Tomorrow starts the week of VBS for the boys. They are excited, and Rachel will be bringing them home afterwards and watching for two more hours until I get off work. They love Rachel, and it's been a while since she babysat.

I better drag myself to bed now while I still have use - albeit, limited and exhausted - of my legs.

Did I update yesterday? Oh my gosh - the days and nights are dissolving into blurs of CSS codes!

Seriously, this layout thing is consuming me at the moment. On the way to the commissary yesterday with Philip and the boys, Philip actually had to snap his fingers in front of my face and tell me to "get out of the computer world" and come back to the real one. I hadn't realized that I was sitting perfectly quiet, planning out pixels and different methods to try as soon as we arrived back home. And then I slipped back into "computer world" on the way home!

I sat here at the computer for 50 bazillion hours last night, and I don't have a lot to show for it. I'm so stumped, and I'm c-r-a-w-l-i-n-g my way up. After dropping off Jack at his first day of preschool today (first day!), I worked for two more hours on the coding. After we returned home from preschool, I worked for another hour before stopping to make lunch.

The worst part is that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH MY CODES! As I'm still fairly new to Cascading Style Sheets (having only cut & pasted with them before, but not really altered too much on my own), I'm sure I'll regret saying that... but there is nothing wrong with my codes! Why the heck is this one step not working?!

After lunch, I didn't return to the wonderful world of computers and CSS. Rather, I set about for a deep clean of the kitchen. Of course, I'm sure you can imagine what I was working on in my mind while I was cleaning - ha! I ended up scrubbing the floors and cleaning the entryway as well, as well as finishing up two loads of laundry. I just couldn't face the computer again until I had a workable solution to present it with (and I still don't have one, for the record).

Besides, I watched Jamie's kids this afternoon from about 1:30 to 5pm, and there wasn't time for anything else while the kids were playing and having a good time. Jack, Bridget and I spent a good bit of time outside while Philip, Noah and A.J. watched Cars inside. At 4:30, it was time to drop off Philip at work (I needed the car later on this evening), so he piled in their carseats and off we went. When we returned home, we all played outside until Jamie and her hubby arrived to pick up the kids. (Okay, the kids played, and I spent a while thinning out the zucchini plants - again.)

After they had gone, the boys and I stayed outside until almost 6:30pm. I continued to work on the zucchini, picked a bit more veggies and did some serious weeding in the marigolds. We came inside at that time so that I could pop in the shower before heading over to Heather2's house tonight for some pizza and games. ( Heather was there as well.) It was a fun evening, and hey - I didn't have to cook! We stayed very late, even though Jack fell asleep on me in the recliner around 10:30 or so. We got home just after midnight, and he went to straight to bed in the shirt he'd been wearing (though I did help him out of his shorts first). Poor kiddo! A.J. also went to bed quickly.

I'm vowing not to look at the coding again right now, if only because I know I'd end up not going to bed for 3-4 more hours if I did. And then I wouldn't be able to get to sleep easily because I'd still be thinking about it. So I'll just face it with a fresh, well-rested mind tomorrow.

(And hopehopehope that I can figure out where the glitch is!)

I watched the three children of a 'down-the-street' neighbor yesterday afternoon. I was really surprised to have a call from Shawna on my answering machine when we came home on Tuesday. I'd taken over some candles and baked goods at different times in the past years, but I'd really not talked to her since Halloween 2003. Even then, they had just moved into the area a few days before Halloween, and as I'd taken over welcoming cookies, I'd invited her family to our Halloween shindig. At the time, they had a newborn, an 18-month old and a 3-year old. Add almost 2 years to those ages and you can see what ages I had yesterday, plus she's due with a fourth baby in early October. They were wonderful kids, but it was a bit confusing to have a 'Jack' and a 'Jackie' in the same living room!

I didn't do much yesterday except immerse myself in The DaVinci Code. I realize that I'm behind the times in reading this book, but it was so good. I had never paid any attention to the hype before, but as I settled down to watch a movie a few nights ago, a preview for the upcoming movie version of the book piqued my interest (May 19, 2006!). Especially with big names like Tom Hanks and Ron Howards, I was really hooked. I found a website for the book, and I read the first 5 chapters online. Oh, it was so good! And I know that I still don't know much about the Church's history, nor would I ever be an expert on art history, but I swear I do feel like I know such a great deal more after reading this book, even if it is fiction.

I have an appointment with Dr. Jane Warren this afternoon at 2pm, and I'm taking the boys over to Janiece's house to play while I'm gone. Then I'll pick them up and race to A.J.'s school - they're posting the classroom lists at 3:45pm today, and 'Meet the Teacher' time is then from 4-5pm. He then starts school on Monday!

I made a big pan of scalloped potatoes on Tuesday night, and I forgot how much it makes if you're not taking it to a function of some sort. The boys and I have eaten some for every meal since, but we've just passed the halfway mark of the 9x13 pan. Still, homemade scalloped potatoes are so worth the trouble. My mom used to make them for special occasions, and it feels "homey" to eat them.

The boys received a big box from Amazon.com last night. Inside was a gift-wrapped present from Uncle Chris and Aunt Amy - laser tag. They are so excited to play, but I only had 4 of the needed 12 AA batteries, so we're heading out to get some more soon. It is for their birthdays, of course, and it's a neat set that has different features for inside or outside play. I'm sure that Daddy will love playing with it as well. ;-)