My sister and brother-in-law went away for some relaxing alone time, which means good times for us, too: We’re spending quality time with the kids! This weekend started off with Auntie Sara and the kids taking a long walk on Saturday morning. Later in the day, we took a trip to the mall, where I tried on jeans while the nephew cried outside the dressing room door, “‘ra, are youuuuu?” Seems he likes me a bit more now. The niece was searching for new shoes (she’s still looking for flip-flops that will fit her feet; we don’t think she’ll find any this season). We came home and had dinner with Mama’s friend Marilyn, while also playing with the shemanah (geez, I hope I spelled that correctly) and just having a fun time at home. On Sunday we took another very long walk, this time with Mama. We also went to Target (still looking for those flip-flops!) and to the grocery store, but had the most fun at the park! The kids just love running around that park, and I’m a little less nervous because it’s padded. Although it’s still scary. But the niece loved the monkey bars, and the nephew loved the sandbox, especially dumping out other kids’ buckets of sand. I missed the kids so much while I was at work today, but we had a great night: eating dinner, exercising (even the little guy joined in while the girls used their weights), and painting toes (the little guy stayed out of that one). Now we’re exhausted! (Well, the kids are sleeping; I just finished watching Big Love not too long ago.)

Harry Potter update: I still haven’t gotten that far in the book. I think I’m about 170 pages in; I’m going to work on that now. Miriam is about 200 pages ahead of me! And Lil has finished it. Yikes.