Purple & Maroon

OK, so after a very hectic week last week, I neglected to write in my blog.  So here it goes, two weeks in one sitting.

Last week was highlighted with family visits and out of the ordinary adventures.  Jeff's younger brother got married last weekend.  His sister and niece came to stay with us for a couple of days, I picked them up from the airport Thursday afternoon.  We went out to dinner when Jeff got home to Manuel's here in Sahuarita.  It was super yummy.

So since I've basically done an over haul of my eating lifestyle I have had the nice challenge of picking new, sometimes completely out of the norm, things to eat when we're out.  I don't know who else is like this, but I pretty much get the same things when I go out to eat and having to pick healthier options has really broadened my horizons.  If you're trying to make healthier choices, don't be afraid to speak up and make some modifications.  When we went out, instead of a chimichanga (which looked delicious) I had a Topo salad with grilled chicken and asked them to leave off the fried shell it comes in.  I had salsa as the dressing and it was AMAZING.  The other nice thing I'm finding when we eat out is that the healthier selections usually come in a more appropriate portion.  This is great, because I've always been the person that can't leave food on my plate so I always walk away feeling overly full and not very good, which kind of ruins the fun of eating out, right?  If the portion is too large, I ask for a box right away.  If I get a sandwich or turkey burger, I cut it in half and put half in the to go box and push it out of site.  Now I can clear my plate and still feel satisfied, not stuffed. Anyway, now back to our week...

It was my off Friday so Tracy and I got a manicure and pedicure which was really nice.  I love to treat myself to that every now and again.  Jeff stayed home and watched the kids until he had to leave for school.  We went to the wedding on Saturday afternoon and that was very nice, and we enjoyed visiting with family we hadn't seen in awhile.  We didn't stay too late as Arlo was getting cranky.

On Monday after I got home from work and Felicity from school we took Tracy and Daphne to the International Wildlife Museum, which you've heard me rave about before.  The kids enjoyed themselves and I was really impressed with how much Felicity remembered from the last time we went.

We said good bye to our visitors on Tuesday morning and it was back to the normal schedule.  It has been a busy week as I had a lot going on at work and I needed to finish making the kids' Halloween costumes.  Helen, Arlo, and Jeff got sick this week which wasn't fun; I feel like someone has been sick every week for months now.  I did finally make some running breakthroughs this week.  Jeff ran with me on Monday morning and made me feel very slow, so when I got out later in the week I made some real effort to up my pace.  I logged my fastest 1k and fastest mile.  I am really starting to miss my treadmill as it stays dark later in the mornings and has been cold.  I'm really running out of available time to get out and move it.  I am excited to report that as of today, I have officially lost all my "baby weight" and am down to the weight I was before Felicity was born.  I still have a long way to go, but the difference is beginning to be more noticeable to people other than myself.

 We were really productive on Saturday and got the house clean, finished painting the interior doors downstairs, went grocery shopping, swapped out the kids' summer clothes for their winter clothes (aka a few long sleeve shirts and some hoodies), and I finished sewing the Halloween costumes for the kids.  Finishing the costumes is a huge relief as I'm almost always trying to sew or glue something the hour before they go out.  My goal was to make them something that was coordinating, and only used fabric that I already had.  So after buying a cheap pattern for the girls and finding some online tutorials for Arlo's, I sewed them pioneer costumes.  They are adorable, I especially love the little hat that I made Arlo.  If I have time, I want to find a red wagon for Arlo to ride in that I can convert into a covered wagon.

We had a quiet peaceful Sunday, and I'm looking forward to the coming week!

Sky Blue

  

 Life feels so full and joyful, and this week it also felt productive.  Felicity had fall break and Jeff and I did not.  I'm grateful for everyone who pitched in to help us cover our childcare needs this week.  Other than not having to get up and get Felicity out the door it was a pretty normal week. 

The weather has been beautiful.  We really don’t get fall here, it’s something I like to call “second spring”.  As the temperatures drop to a more pleasant range the garden is having a second life.  Everything is green and we are harvesting from the garden almost daily.  We have one watermelon in the patch we are waiting to finish ripening before it gets too cold.  We’ve had every window and door wide open, reveling in the fresh cool air breezing through the house.  I love it!  We didn’t have the AC on all week and have been wearing long sleeves in the evening.  The other nice amenity that comes with “second spring” is dining al fresco.  We’ve eaten at least two meals a day out on back porch listening to the fountain and watching the humming birds, butterflies, and bees.  With Halloween just around the corner, it will be but a short time before the holidays are upon us and I couldn’t be more excited!  Last year I was very pregnant and didn’t get to do as much baking and merry making as I would have liked, so I’m looking forward to it this year.

Felicity is doing marvelously in school; we will have her first parent-teacher conference at the end of this next week.  Her reading skills impress me so.  We were reading Charlotte’s Web together the other night and she needed to get up to go to the restroom, when she came back, I couldn’t find my place and she pointed to the last sentence we had read together, “we’re there Mom”.  She had been reading along.  She makes us so proud.  Helen has graciously fallen into her role as middle child so perfectly.  She drives us nuts sometimes!  She’s so independent; she is constantly making herself a snack, getting her own drinks and almost always making a mess while she does it.  I was upstairs the other afternoon and heard the microwave ding.  When I got down to the kitchen here comes Helen with a warm tamale on a plate and a cup of milk, headed up the stairs.   Arlo has a couple of new teeth, his top incisors came in, which makes for six teeth, although we pretty much have to turn him upside down and tickle him to see the top teeth, which coincidentally is how I discovered the new choppers.   He continues to stand for several seconds at a time and loves pushing toys in a walking position, but no first steps yet.  He is the most adorable little thing on the planet!

My work schedule has changed a little and I like it a lot better.  I’ve been going in between seven and eight, which gives me the opportunity to get up and get a run in before I head out.  I get off in time to meet Felicity at the bus stop at 2:30.  Then I work from home until I’ve completed my daily hours.  This has been a lot less stressful and I am so grateful for a flexible work environment.  I started work on the kids Halloween costumes, which isn’t a moment too early!  I got a $0.99 pattern at Joann’s and I’m using fabric from my cache.  The kids are going to be pioneers this year (because I have a ton of calico fabric!). 

We had tickets to Disney on Ice on Friday and the kids were very excited.  We went out to a nice dinner before hand and then headed into Tucson for the show.  We had good seats and the girls could see everything.  Arlo was very good and was very excited by the colors, the lights, and the music.  He fell asleep during the intermission and slept the rest of the show.  It was very cute and well done and the girls really enjoyed it.  The only down side was the vendors with toys, cotton candy, etc.  Try telling a four year old that you’re not going to pay $12 for a bag of cotton candy with a foam crown.  Well I did, because we weren’t there to buy exorbitantly expensive princess toys!  It was a great evening and they were all asleep before we got out of the parking lot.

After my run on Saturday morning, we got down to business!  We got the house clean (it was badly in need of a good cleaning), got all of the laundry done, had lunch on the back porch, and Jeff and worked on re-finishing the bench that has been sitting on our front porch.  We got it at an estate sale awhile ago and Jeff cut new slats for it, but we never properly weather-proofed it so it was looking pretty shabby. We stained and sealed the slats and put it all back together.  Then we started what is going to be a several weekend project, painting the downstairs.  I am still agonizing over paint colors, but the one thing I knew was that I wanted to paint our interior doors black, so we started there.  It’s a little stark against our white walls, but I think they are really going to look great once we decide on wall, trim, and ceiling colors.  I’m hoping to have the downstairs done before Thanksgiving, but we’ll see!

We had a nice quiet Sunday, enjoying the clean house and some peace and rest.  Jeff and I decided on our anniversary trip and made reservations.  We are going to San Bernardino, CA for the weekend of my birthday and anniversary.  It’s only a quick weekend trip, but we have plans to visit the Redlands, Los Angeles, and the New Port Beach temples.  I’m looking forward to it.  Hope everyone has a great week, and gets out and enjoys life!

Granite

What an amazing week!  I feel so incredibly content and happy and blessed; that’s a good feeling.  For the most part things have been pretty normal around here.  School, work, home life, everything has been as expected.

Felicity and I finished The Witches by Roald Dahl this week and she enjoyed it, much lighter fare than The Secret Garden.  Next we are reading Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White because no child should be denied the opportunity to come to love Charlotte, Wilbur, Fern, and the other barnyard animals.  We’ll see if the two of us can hold it together at the end.  She wants to read The Chronicles of Narnia next, but I think we might wait on those.  Our plan is to start Harry Potter next school year and then have a Potter party when we’ve finished them.  I love the time we have to read together, I really want all of the kids to have a great love and passion for reading.

I feel like my running has hit a plateau.  It doesn’t seem like I’m getting any faster, but I continue to go out about 6 times a week (probably a little excessive).  I do a long run on Saturday morning and look forward to that each week.  Since beginning in July I’ve lost 32 pounds and 3 sizes.  It’s slow and steady and that’s the way to go.

Arlo is just getting so big.  He’s using some signs now, which is adorable.  Like most babies (or at least like my other babies) his favorite is “more”.  He also shakes his head no when we tell him “no, no, no”.  He also shakes his head no to any question we ask him.  He’s been doing a lot of standing, for several seconds at a time, and loves walking his push toys around while he practices putting one foot in front of the other.  He can walk his tractor and air plane push toys the length of the hall.  It’s only a matter of time before he’s running around unabated.

Felicity's school had "donuts for Dad" on Friday, so Jeff went to the school bright and early to have donuts with Felicity.  It was also apple day, so she had a day filled with apple everything.

We had general conference this weekend, which is a favorite of Jeff and me.  We had a cinnamon roll breakfast on Saturday morning and watched the first session of conference together where we heard the announcement that we’ve been praying for, the church is building a temple in Tucson!  We were just ecstatic and there were tears of joy in the Davidson household.  When we only had Felicity we tried to get to the temple once a month, the closest being the Mesa, Arizona temple.  It got harder and harder to do as we added to our family.  It’s a five hour drive there and back plus whatever time we spend doing service in the temple and stopping for lunch/dinner.  It was an all-day event, and that’s a long day for someone to watch three little kiddos for us.  We had a few games and coloring pages for the kids to do while they listened to the speakers.  It held Helen’s attention for a while, but Felicity did very well and enjoyed listening.  She especially liked the bingo game I had for her.  She got an M & M each time one of the words on her bingo card was spoken and then she got a treat when she got five in a row and then a special new toy when she got a black out.  In between conference sessions on Saturday, Jeff and I worked in the front yard.  We did some trimming, pulling weeds, and we planted a new plant I got.

Sunday morning, we slept in!  We had apple cinnamon pancakes and watched the last two sessions of conference.  The girls made cookies in the afternoon, it was a great day.  I really enjoyed the spiritual uplift.  For anyone that missed it, or if you’re curious as to what the heck I’m talking about, you can view the 182nd Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints online.  My personal favorite talks this conference and thus suggested viewing are: Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Robert D. Hales, and Dieter F. Uchtdorf. 

Felicity has fall break next week so that will be fun.  We also got tickets to Disney on Ice for Friday night, I haven't told the girls yet, but I bet we'll have a blast.  I've got A TON of stuff to do to feel like I'm ready for the holidays, the first of which will be to begin the process of (finally) painting downstairs.  Have a great week.