Wow, I really wouldn't mind a quiet day very soon. It seems that the weekend being filled with so much has just continued over into the week. We're all surviving, though, and most things are good.

Cory delivered pizzas on Friday and called a couple hours into his shift to say that the check engine light in his car had gone on and wasn't going off and that I should be prepared to pick him up if he got stranded. Thankfully he made it through the rest of the night and took the car in right away the next day. Unfortunately, the computer diagnostics showed that it was the transmission, so his car was out of commission for the rest of the weekend until we could get it into a transmission place on Monday. We did and were told what we were expecting - rebuild the transmission to the tune of nearly $1800. Ugh. It certainly doesn't make the $1000 worth of repairs we're waiting to do on the van any more pleasant. The positive in this situation is that, while Cory's car is in the shop for most of the week, Cory is up in Sioux Falls for a department meeting and using a state vehicle. That means we're not struggling to figure out working around only one vehicle.

Cory's birthday was Saturday - 36 - and other than taking his car in to the shop, we spent a lot of time (more than four hours) at Accalia's two recital run throughs. I went to the one in the morning and Cory went to the one in the afternoon. My parents arrived in the early afternoon, and we spent the time waiting for Accalia to finish her second run through taking walks around the neighborhood and playing at a park. My parents took us out for supper that night to celebrate Cory's birthday, and then we went to the hotel they were staying at so we could swim in the pool. My parents decided to get a hotel instead of stay with us just so the kids would be able to go swimming in a pool, which I thought was very sweet. I was pretty exhausted after getting home, though, because I spent a lot of time climbing up and down the pool ladders following Ella around. There's nothing like being in the sixth month of pregnancy to realize how much energy your two-year-old has throughout the day.

Speaking of pregnancy, I had a prenatal appointment on Friday and everything is fine. I've gained around 28 pounds so far, which is unfortunately not much different than other pregnancies. Next visit will include testing for gestational diabetes and anemia.

The day of the recitals was pretty packed. It also happened to be the day of the art show at the art studio Accalia has gone to for the past few years. We ran over quickly after lunch and then raced home to get Accalia ready for the first recital. Both recitals went really well and Accalia really enjoyed herself. My parents took Cole and Ella home about half way through the first recital since there's no way they would have done well sitting through four hours of dance recitals. We already have Accalia's professional pictures back, so I'll have to scan those to show what her costumes were this year. Accalia was also very happy to be finished and just relax that night. She and Cole were talking about all the good things that had happened, and Accalia said this was "the best day ever!" (There are a lot of those around here.) Cole replied, "Yeah, except for the dancing!"

I was really hoping to catch up with stuff on Monday, but the youngest next door day came over a little after noon (she goes to preschool in the mornings) wanting to play. She (and later her older sister) ended up being here more or less until around 8 p.m. I think the only break was when Cory came home from work and we took his car to the shop and had supper. Now that Ella is older, it's not as easy to do things inside the house and keep an eye on the older kids outside because Ella won't tolerate being inside if everyone else is outside playing. She was going strong after everyone else had gone inside because she wanted me to jump rope. I'm sure that was an amusing sight to see, although I'm glad to know I'm still coordinated enough at this point in the pregnancy to be able to jump rope.

Today really didn't have any more of a chance to play catch up. We had the van (Cory took it to work Monday), so the first thing we did was go to the store to pick up some things we had run out of since we hadn't had a chance to grocery shop over the weekend. Then the phone didn't seem to stop ringing most of the day. Sometimes it was Cory in Sioux Falls. Or there were LLL helping calls or calls from people around town. I was on the phone a long time on Monday, too, talking with a friend who likes to talk quite a bit. For someone who just is not huge on talking on the phone, I think I'm worn out partly from that alone.

Tonight Accalia had a soccer game. We had a thunderstorm pass through earlier in the afternoon, and it was growing dark again by the time her game was supposed to start. The girls started playing and played nearly a quarter before the game was called off because of lighting. We never actually had another storm, and the lightning and rain stayed to the south. They must have policies, though, about getting off the field after seeing so many lightning strikes Hopefully this weekend will be a bit better for soccer since Accalia has a soccer festival and plays one game on Friday and two on Saturday. I have my LLL meeting on Saturday morning, so I'll have to miss one of her games.

Okay, that's a brief rundown of the past few days. Hopefully I can catch up with things tomorrow and get back to normal.