This seems to be turning into a crazy, hectic week, and we started off with a blast yesterday celebrating Ella's second birthday. Here she is after tasting her chocolate birthday cake. Not too messy, as you can see.



I've gotten so used to having two children - Accalia and Cole - who are so into every little thing about birthdays, and here we have Ella who gets excited about it all but really doesn't care about all of the festivities. So I just made sure our little celebration had plenty of things that Accalia and Cole would have fun with - decorations, playing a few games, etc. - and Ella seemed to enjoy their enthusiasm most of all. I think her favorite present had to be a pack of crayons. She was so excited when she opened it and started taking out each crayon one by one (24 pack) and setting them on the rug in a row.

Actually, Ella was probably most excited about picking up Accalia from dance class later in the day. We arrived a few minutes early, and Ella ran out on the dance floor to be right next to Ella. She stood right by her as they formed a big circle to say goodbye and followed along with all of the dance moves. Right now she's wearing Accalia's dance clothes for tap.

Today we took Ella for a well child visit. She's gained almost six pounds since her 18 month checkup and weighs in at 38 pounds. She's also grown three inches and is 38 1/2 inches tall. The doctor said that she's actually a little overweight and could be 2 1/2 pounds less. Cory said I should have asked what diet he recommends. Uh huh.

The kids are really excited about Halloween. Cory most likely works in the evening, so I'll be on my own for all of the festivities. We're all pretty bummed about that. Accalia's planning to be a witch, and I think Cole is going to be a frog. If Ella lets me put a costume on her, she'll be a bee. I'm not convinced she'll let me do that, though.

Okay, I should really tackle this pile of emails I have after not getting online for basically all day yesterday and much of today.

Cory had a great night in tips last night - nearly $50! He's working again tonight - first time closing - so he won't be home for a few hours at least.

Last night ended up being a late, late night, and I was just exhausted by the time Cory came home. Today has been a pretty laidback day. Cory had one counseling appointment this morning, and much of the rest of the day has been devoted to hanging out at home. We did go out for lunch. I made a couple stops to see if I could find fall/winter jackets for Cole. Ended up empty handed. Accalia, Cole and I ran to the grocery store after Ella went down for a late afternoon nap. We just picked up a few things and will have to go out again tomorrow to pick up a few more.

The first thing Ella did this morning was wait for Cory to come downstairs so they could sit together and listen to music from the Broadway show Wicked on the computer. She did this the other night while Cory was listening to it and now it's her new favorite thing to do at the computer. Cory half jokingly said that his mom left that part of her for Ella. Both Cory and Mary loved/love musicals. They both participated in school and community theater, and I'm so glad that Mary was able to see a couple Broadway shows when she and Myron took a trip to New York City a couple a year or so before she died.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a productive day. Other than the trip to the store, we'll do a few things to prepare for Ella's birthday. The biggie will be baking her cake. Cory will work just a few hours in the evening, and he'll have an extra day to the weekend since he's taking Monday off for Ella's birthday. He will see his clients at night, though.

Happy Saturday everyone!

It's 8:40 p.m. and Ella's awake again. Yeah, I didn't see that one coming...

Did you see last night's full moon? It was gorgeous and just happened to be the largest and brightest one of the year.

I just put Ella down in bed after a day of no napping. Unfortunately, going to bed at 7 p.m. even without napping does not mean that my almost two-year-old will be down for the night. I really hope she is, but I've grown accustomed to not expecting that to be an absolute. Ella had a glorious day of playing with lots of kids - pouring dirt on her head while chatting up the 5-year-old next door, sitting in my friend K.'s lap and instructing us to clap whenever she pushed a Matchbox car through the toy carwash, and so on.

We were planning to get together with K. and her girls this morning, but they didn't show up until two hours after the time we had agreed on. I didn't hear from her, so I didn't know if I had just mixed up the time or if perhaps they were called to take in a foster child (recently licensed as foster parents), or what. It turns out that they were in an accident on the way to our house and had spent this time dealing with the police, etc. Thankfully no one was hurt, but their van is probably a goner.

We did a little shopping this afternoon, including Accalia picking out a new shampoo for herself. This is very serious business as Accalia is really into making her bath an elaborate affair. She has no desire to take a shower and instead luxuriates in a bath and experiments with all of these different bath products that I've collected but have never had a chance to use.

Cole was so excited (as usual) to play with the neighbor girls, but today he easily got upset with them. Sometimes it's something like one of the girls taking "his" swing while other times it's the oldest (age 6) doing something because she knows it upsets him (sometimes real, sometimes mock anger). Cole is not a fan of being teased, but this seems to be a big thing for the neighbor girl. There are times when Accalia will start to tease Cole, but she knows to pull back when he no longer likes where it's heading and moves on to something else. The neighbor girl - not so much.

Cory works tonight, tomorrow night and Sunday night delivering pizzas, but we should have our days for fun family times. We'll start getting things ready on Sunday for our family celebration of Ella's birthday, which should be an absolute blast. Cory's taking the day off for that.

While living in Yankton does have its charms and benefits for our family, being near major museums and such definitely is not one of them. It would be fabulous to live close enough to make a day of going to, say, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Right now there's an exhibit there about the beginnings of paper photography. My actual experience developing photographs is limited to one semester my sophomore year of college where I took a photography class as part of my journalism requirements. I wasn't terribly gifted at it, but I suppose with additional practice I could have managed fairly well. Thankfully I never had to make use of those primitive skills during my time at various small newspapers. If I ever would go back to journalism - and I'm not sure that I would - I have a feeling that those skills are even less in demand now that there's much more use of digital photography than there was more than eight years ago when I was actually employed with a newspaper.

Time to get everyone ready for storytime.

One thing I've always had difficulty doing is being able to turn around my mood if things go bad. It doesn't matter if it's just me being grumpy or if I'm letting someone else's mood (Cory, the kids, etc.) turn mine sour. It takes a lot for me to get back to my happy place. I think I get that from my dad. Anyway, if my day starts off bad then it's that much harder to get back on track. So one thing I've been trying to do is to start off the day with even just one thing that I can look forward to so I don't let negativity take over. For me, it can be something as little as making sure I have a cup of coffee during that point in the afternoon where I've lost my energy and need to reboot. I don't even need to be able to sit down and be still while drinking it. I can be upstairs putting away laundry and taking occasional sips.

Another thing that I have to work hard at is not forcing my desire to get going right away in the morning to run errands make me a grumpy, impatient person. This is another thing I've gotten from my dad. Even though I don't get up quite as early as I once did, I still like to get ready and run any errands I may need to do (bank, post office, etc.) right away so I can get that taken care of and move on with the rest of the day. That was easy enough to do when it was just Accalia and me or even Accalia, Cole and myself. Now that all three of the kids are on a cycle of late nights and late mornings, it's given me the chance to use my mornings for other pursuits. For instance, it's 10 a.m. and all three kids are still asleep. I'm sure they'll be waking up soon. I've been up since about 8 a.m. I need to make a deposit at the bank for Cory and mail a couple things. Normally in the morning I would hurry around trying to vacuum or take care of dishes or do other things while the kids are asleep and I'm at my peak. But, since I know I'll most likely not have a quiet evening to relax since all three kids are sleeping in, I'm taking advantage of this time now to fill myself up with a little "me" time. I'm on my second cup of coffee and I'm reading through magazines that have been sitting on the table for a while. It's a great start to the day and really helping me center myself.

Now I hear at least one of the kids stirring, so I'll have to continue this later on today. Hope everyone has a great one and can find a little time for themselves throughout the day!

Made it through another weekend. Whew! Yesterday was warm (around 80) and sunny, but today is cloudy and in the low 50s. Cole went over to see if the neighbor girls could play this afternoon, and they told him it was too cold to come outside and play. This doesn't bode well for playing outside this winter!

Cory didn't put in quite as many hours delivering pizza this weekend, which is what he's doing right now, but he still managed to make decent tips. He even received a $15 tip on Friday. It felt really strange to wake up on Saturday and not have to get ready for a soccer game. Accalia did have a birthday party in the afternoon, which was a lot of fun for her, and the rest of us did a little grocery shopping after dropping her off.

I've felt very little motivation this weekend and some of last week - not even motivated to read much of the book I'm currently reading! - and I'm really hoping my motivation comes roaring back this week. We don't have too much out of the ordinary going on. Accalia has ballet on Monday and tap on Friday. There's storytime on Tuesday and art on Wednesday. I'm finally getting a haircut on Tuesday after months since my last one.

So it should be a pretty typical week - the week before Ella turns two. I do hope Ella's crankiness abates a little - it's been better today - although there are plenty of reasons for her to be a little out of sorts. She has several teeth coming in, including molars. I can see, too, that she's trying so hard to do things that she can't quite manage yet and that easily frustrates her. She's so determined to do everything that she sees Accalia and Cole doing, and sometimes that ends up being frustrating for all three of them. This just seems to be one of those times of growing and adjusting and transitioning as a family that is a little harder than other times.

How can you not love a show that includes scenes like this?

Busy day. It's rained again today but not as much as it has been for the past week. There were even a few brief glimpses of sun. I think tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, too, but then it should clear up and allow for outdoor play once again. It doesn't seem like anyone is feeling stir crazy from being inside so much, and I think that's probably because this is the first stretch of being inside since last winter, and there have been so many fun things to discover and rediscover.

Cory took off most of the day because all of us (except Ella) went to the dentist this morning. Ella was not at all happy about me being in the dentist's chair and her not being able to be on it with me, but she cheered up toward the end of my brief check up. No cavities for the four of us. Accalia and Cole have yet to have any cavities discovered, and I'm very happy about that. Neither Cory nor I have spectacular teeth, so we're glad that so far Cole and Accalia seem to have good, healthy teeth. The unfortunate news for Accalia is that orthodontics are most likely in her future due to some crooked teeth and either an overbite or underbite (can't remember which). Our dentist usually starts looking seriously at that sort of thing around age 10 at th earliest, so there's time.

After lunch, Cory had to go to the prison's trustee unit here in Yankton so he could lead the final annual training session on suicide. By the time he got home, it was almost time for Accalia to go to art. She had a great time today. They moved into the new addition in back of the main studio and even had a photographer from the newspaper take pictures for something that will run in November.

Since Cory is delivering pizzas this evening, he stayed at home and had an early supper (and watched a sleeping Ella) while Cole and I dropped off Accalia at art and did a few errands. We had one book that was due at the library yesterday, and instead of just dropping it off Cole decided he wanted to go in and look for a few more books. So we did that, then ran to the dentist's office to return a finger puppet that Cory had accidentally taken home this morning. We made a quick stop at Goodwill to see if there were any fall or winter coats for Cole, but we came up empty there. Then we stopped at a downtown business so I could sign a petition for a recall election of our mayor and one city commissioner. Unfortunately the two petitions that were there had already been filled, so I'll have to do that another day.

Now that supper's over, we'll see what the rest of the evening brings. I'm trying to pick up a little more in our office/playroom/music room/little bit of everything room.

It was another rainy day. I'm not sure if it stopped raining at all today. We found plenty to do at home today. It turned out to be a really fun and relaxing day for all of us. A few pictures...

This is Ella sleeping on the couch last night. Accalia and Cole sat and watched her and exclaimed about how cute she looked. They even brought her toys to keep her company in her sleep.


Here is Cole playing with a fabric tent that Cory's parents gave Accalia for her second birthday. This has been such a fun toy for all of the kids and has been in constant use over the past six years. Ella is most excited about it right now and always is dragging it out in the living room to set up and sit inside.

I'm tired and ready for bed, but we'll see when that actually transpires. It's raining right now, as it's been most of the day, and the sound of the rain drops on the air conditioner and other outside objects is so soothing. All I want to do is climb into a nice warm bed with Ella cuddled next to me. It's too bad both Ella and Cole fell asleep late in the afternoon.

Cory delivered pizzas from 2-8 today and is probably very happy to be in bed right now. This morning I took Cole and Ella to do a bit of grocery shopping, and there was this spooky maze built out of hundreds of packs of pop for anyone to go through. They loved it and went through it again and again. This afternoon we had to go back so Accalia could check it out for herself. Hmm, what else did we do? We stopped at the library for a few minutes to return movies and to look for a couple books for Cory. We put the coffee grinder to use so we could grind up some lovely french vanilla scented beans. We read a book about ancient Egypt.

Now I'm going to tuck in Accalia and start to get ready myself.

Accalia's last soccer game this morning was a miserable affair. It was cold (low 50s), windy, and raining by the second half. Cole hid under a blanket for the first quarter or so but cheered up when I took him, Ella and A. to the van to warm up. Ella's face was starting to turn a little blue, so I thought she might enjoy the heat. She didn't want any of that, though. She was upset to get to the van because she didn't want to be away from the action and she didn't like the idea of possibly leaving without Cory or Accalia (we didn't plan to, of course). So we went back out, but she ended up starting to cry out there and cry when I took her back to the van. She was just tired from staying up way too late (darn late naps) and getting up earlier than desired. The good news is that Accalia's team won their last game. Accalia started crying when we got home because she's sad about soccer being over, and it didn't cheer her up that much to think of it beginning again in April.

After lunch (Burger King thanks to Cory's pizza delivery tips), Cory and I caught up on a little tv that we've missed and then he headed off to work at two. He'll hopefully be done around 8 and then we'll all watch a movie together. Ella ended up falling asleep a little before 5, but thankfully we have no reason to get up tomorrow if she stays up super late tonight.

Now I'm off to do some cleaning. I'm feeling really restless. I wish I could take the opportunity of none of the kids really needing me right now to just sit and relax and read, but I just can't make myself sit down to do that.

So we didn't buy the dryer last night. When I first called about it, she explained that she was doing it as an auction-type sale and would sell it to the person who basically ended up closest to $100 (possibly more, I guess). Someone had already offered $75, I offered $80. She called back a bit later saying that she'd sell it to us for $85, and that's the price we planned for when we went there last night. Apparently, though, someone else had offered $90 and she told us she'd give it to us for $95. Cory wasn't too thrilled that she changed the price on us when we had agreed on something, so we told her we'd think about it. That's why we're still looking. Funny, though, when I called this morning to let her know we were going to pass, she told me the $90 bidder decided to pass and that she'd give it to us for $85 again if we check back in a week. Hmm. Even though it will probably be more expensive, it's starting to sound a lot more simple just to call in a repair guy.

I finally went into the basement and looked through our winter outerwear to see what the kids may need for the fall/winter. Neither Accalia or Cole really have thicker fall jackets, so we may have to do something about that. The good news is that Ella will be able to fit into Accalia's old winter gear (and fall gear) and that Accalia still fits in her winter jacket from last year. Cole is the only one in need of a winter jacket, and I think we may head to Goodwill first since even just spending $30 on a new jacket isn't necessarily in our budget right now.

Cory took his car in this morning because it hasn't been heating at all, so now the thermostat is being repaired. There's also a belt or something that's about to go that has to be taken care of now. Then there's an oil change. He's working in town this morning and will come to the house before his lunch break so we can take him to pick up his car and then he'll be off to work once again. He delivers pizza tonight, too, so we'll see him briefly for supper in between taking Accalia to and from her tap class.

Cory also delivers pizzas Saturday and Sunday from 2-8 p.m., so he won't be around a lot. Accalia's last soccer game is Saturday (another early 9 a.m. one), and then Cory sees one client in the morning. I think we're going to all sit down together Saturday night and watch Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer since we have that sitting here and waiting.

Ella's napping right now, which is a very good thing. She's been a rather cranky girl today. That's surprised me since she fell asleep around 6 p.m. last night and I actually woke her up around 8:30 a.m. today so we could get out of the house and get a free breakfast at our local Hy-Vee. Unfortunately the free breakfast didn't happen. The dining area was filled to the brim, and when we saw the line of people waiting we turned right around and headed back to the van. Cory went early this morning before work and said we could have gotten our breakfasts to go. Shoot!

Tonight we might be getting a working dryer! Only 1 1/2 months after ours breaks down, right? Our plan was to manage for a while longer because we need to put our money toward property taxes that are due at the end of the month. Then we'd focus on the dryer. We still weren't too thrilled about calling someone for repairs when that could very well end up costing almost as much as a new dryer depending on the problem and parts needed. So we decided we'd check out the classifieds and see if anyone is selling an used dryer for $100 or less. There was one listed today and I called, and it turned out to be the owner of the art studio that Accalia attends. They had ended up getting a new washer/dryer set of a different color and this one still works great. So we're going over tonight to possibly haul it home. The fun part, of course, will be moving out the old dryer and hauling in the new one.

So that's the excitement so far today.

Cory will be delivering pizzas for about another hour, and then he's coming home and going to bed. Or so he said at supper. He's tired and has a bit of a headache. Thankfully he has tomorrow night off, and we can all just sit around and relax together. Other than Accalia going to the art studio, we haven't done much outside of the house today. While Accalia was at art, Cole, Ella and I ran to the dollar store to pick up a couple things. Cole picked out a little basketball game, and I picked out a face painting kit for Accalia that she's been having a blast with tonight.

Here are pictures of the kids to wind up the day:

Life right now is very busy and very hard, but it's also very, very good. Cory is finishing up his contract work with the behavioral health center because there wasn't much coming his way and the pay wasn't so great, especially considering all of the paperwork he had to deal with on a weekly basis. So, since at this point we still need that extra income and because we really want to kick extra butt getting rid of our debt, Cory has started delivering pizzas. He started over the weekend and is working on a part time basis of 20-25 hours a week. Between that, his full time job and his private counseling, he's working a lot of hours. It helps to know it's not a permanent thing, and he's finding the pizza delivering to be pretty enjoyable.

Ella is an absolute hoot right now. You can just see how observant she is of the world around her and how she's incorporating her observations into her actions. She waves and says hello to lots of different people, shakes hands, raises her cup in cheer, shuts off and turns on lights for me, Watching her interpret the world is so much fun.

Lately Cole has been very interested in drawing, and he's trying very hard to draw recognizable objects - animals, houses, mushrooms, whatever strikes his fancy. He and Accalia have been checking out lots of How to Draw books from the library so they can get ideas, and they'll sit together comparing their drawings. Cole's also at an age where he gets easily frustrated when he can't do something, and it's so neat to see Accalia jumping in and helping him out when he gets stuck.

Accalia's loving her big sister role lately and has been showing such a helping, nurturing side with both Cole and Ella. She's also shown a bigger need to have alone time and will often disappear upstairs to play by herself. We've also gotten into reading the Goosebumps books and watching the new series based on the books that just started on Cartoon Network.

There's not much going on tomorrow other than Accalia going to the art studio. Maybe we'll do more decorating for Halloween. The kids are eager to play with the neighbors and try out some new games I was explaining today.

We had a weekend full of ups and downs - mostly ups, though. Myron arrived on Friday just before supper, and he and Cory were busy for a while that evening winterizing the pop up camper and doing some framing around our front door. The rest of the evening was spent hanging out and watching the baseball playoffs.

On Saturday we were all up early for Accalia's soccer game. She had a great game and is starting to become more bold on the field and help move the ball along. One more soccer game and then the season will resume in April or May. Cole was rather out of sorts during the game because he was tired and there weren't any kids for him to play with during the game. Next week he will hopefully have Alexia to play with since Chloe is on the team that Accalia's is playing.

Cory and Myron were actually gone for the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon watching our niece play in a volleyball tournament. Neither of the nephews had come along, though, so the kids and I stayed at home. There are few things less fun than trying to keep three children entertained at a high school sporting event.

The big down of the weekend happened right before supper. Cory was getting it ready and the kids, Myron and I were hanging out in the living room. Myron's dog, Dodger (7 yo black cocker spaniel) was lying on the floor. He rolled over onto his back and I started scratching his belly. Then I stopped so Cole could scratch his belly. Cole had just started doing that when Dodger let out a short growl and leapt right at Cole, barking and baring his teeth right up against his face. He was so close that I couldn't tell at first if he was biting Cole. Cole started to back up, I grabbed Cole and got in between him and Dodger since Dodger was coming after him, and Myron got Dodger and put him outside. The whole thing probably lasted three seconds, but it was one of those things where it feels like you're watching everything in slow motion. Cole was hysterical but thankfully physically unhurt. After that Myron decided he was going to head home rather than spend another night. He felt awful and we felt awful, but I was relieved that we wouldn't have to deal with Dodger for another night.

Myron got Dodger from a shelter about two years ago. Cory and I were a little disappointed that Myron had gotten an adult dog from a home without children since we had no idea how he would be around the kids. Turns out he's not much of a kid lover. He's snapped at Accalia once before, and that was when he was trying to eat from her bowl that she had left within reach and she started to take it back. Then he's growled at Cole before when Cole was sitting by him and petting him. Dodger reminds me so much of how Lucy was before we had her put down. She was so unpredictable with what would set her off. Lucy did bite, and Dodger has yet to actually bite one of our kids, but that doesn't make it any safer or make us feel more comfortable.

Cory and I aren't going to tell Myron what we think he should do, but I do wish Myron would board or at least kennel Dodger when we visit. It's basically impossible to sit and relax with Myron since Dodger is always at his side. Sure, Accalia and Cole can just go to a different part of the house and play and be away from Dodger, but that's not a fun visit with Grandpa. Then there's Ella. When she sees Dodger (or any dog), she wants to be near the dog. Since Dodger's not the kid loving kind and Ella doesn't yet understand the need for distance, I spent part of Friday evening upstairs with Ella. She had napped late and wasn't tired at all and wasn't being distracted by anything.

So, I'm not sure what we'll do since Myron has given no indication that he's going to get rid of Dodger. Cory and I were talking about how if Mary were alive and this had happened, there would be no doubt that Dodger would be finding a new home if he couldn't be trusted around children. The safest thing, of course, is to just not visit if Dodger is around and roaming free. Otherwise, our visits will probably consist of me hanging out with the kids in an area that Dodger can't access while Cory and Myron hang out with the dog. And that's such an absurd scenario...

So that was the abbreviated weekend visit from Myron. Cory has tomorrow off because of Native American Day (Columbus Day for the majority of other Americans). Hopefully we can end the long weekend on a slightly happier note.

Lately Ella has been wearing a pair of pink pajamas with Blue from Blue's Clues on the front of the top. They just barely fit her, but she is madly in love with them. I think Cory's parents gave them to Accalia. These pajamas were on top of a counter - hadn't yet made them back upstairs to the dresser - and Ella brought them to me so I could help her put them on. Then she fell asleep for a nap. Isn't that a fabulous life? Change into comfy pjs in the afternoon and go down for a nap. Lovely.

We had to run to the store this morning to pick up an ingredient for supper tonight, but other than that we've just stayed busy at home. I've continued cleaning and picking up for Myron's arrival tonight. I think I could maintain a pretty spotless home if I constantly kept picking things up and rarely stopping, but I think I'll settle for a lovingly lived in home showcasing all of the cool things there are to do in here (or outside judging from the number of rocks and sticks that Cole and Ella have brought in lately). I guess Myron will be here around 8 or so tonight. He's doing some work for a farmer (loading trucks, etc.) and was planning to work until 5 p.m. Then he's making a stop in Sioux Falls, so I'll assume it'll take close to a hour more than the 2 1/2 hour drive time for him to get here.

It's going to be an early morning tomorrow. Accalia's last two soccer games have 9 a.m. starts, and she has to be there by 8:30 to warm up. I suppose getting up between 7 and 7:30 isn't a terribly early start to the day, but it is when you're used to staying up until close to midnight most nights.

The weather has been unseasonably warm and will be tomorrow, too, with highs in the 80s. It's been ideal for hanging out clothes and for sitting outside and watching soccer games. So I won't complain too much. I can't wait for the cool autumn weather, though. It's so odd to have this warm - even a little humid - weather when the leaves are falling on the ground and you're able to smell that earthy, decaying smell of the season.

I should continue with some household tasks, I guess!

Okay, life really needs to start slowing down a bit. I'm starting to feel completely inept at this whole mothering/keeping house/keeping up with LLL thing that is my life. Maybe it'll help once Accalia's done with soccer. She just has two more games and one more practice. She's having a lot of fun still and was excited to hear that soccer will start up again with her same team in April (I think).

We had to run a few errands this morning, had a quick lunch and then headed to the library so Cole could go to storytime. He's really enjoying it. Even six months ago I couldn't have imagined him being able to sit still for something like this, but he loved it over the summer and was eager to go to more. It was really hard for Accalia last week, though. This was the first storytime event at the library since we moved back when she was 3 that she's been too old to participate in. It's one thing to just stop going, but it's another thing when you're right there and see it all happening. She just loved it all so much and was pretty sad last week to see something that she's too big for (according to the library policies). Today was better, though, and we found ways to make it a special time for us three girls. It helped to find some really cool how to draw books, too.

Tomorrow Accalia goes to art in the afternoon, but that's it for running places. I'll be focusing on cleaning up the house to prepare for Myron's weekend visit. I still don't know if he's coming Friday or Saturday, staying overnight, going to be around for meals, etc. It's a good thing I can handle not being prepared for things!