We survived VBS. Just barely. Actually, it went really, really well. WHBC had prepared well for it on all levels, so the atmosphere was easygoing, fun, and friendly to the children, which made for a great week. Ana and Emma enjoyed their class, brought home lots of adorable crafts, and stole the show with their song performance on Wednesday night. (Ana did whatever hand motions and actions her three year old classmate did, and Emma beat two sticks together with the music. Well, kinda with the music, as in not really with the music at all. But cute, cute, cute all the same!) They especially enjoyed being cared for by a horde of fifth graders yesterday afternoon while I took down all of the decorations in my room. They fed Ana pizza. She was thrilled.

On the agenda for today is trying to get back on a normal schedule. The laundry, ironing, cleaning, cooking — just didn’t happen this past week. So, there’s a lot to do. I also ordered some prints of pictures from our last few months in Okinawa and our half year here. Do you know when I last had time to scrapbook? That’s right, before Emma was born. And I was already behind when that happened, which means that my scrapbooks are updated up until May… of 2007. A whole year behind! Now that I’m anticipating some time (hopefully) to start this up again now that Em and Ana enjoy playing with each other without my constant involvement, I’ve given priority to the baby books. Ana’s baby book is done! Emma’s isn’t, but I’m working on it. (I’ve been told that the first baby is usually the only one whose baby book is done in a timely fashion. I’m the second born in my family, for example, and my mom only finished my baby book last year. She actually had to do a search online to remember what songs, movies, and TV shows were popular in 1978.) Anyway, I have a huge stack of pictures to sort through now and put together in a beautiful scrapbook. I’m looking forward to it!

Next weekend we’re going to San Antonio for a wedding shower. The shower is for Wes’s cousin, Kevin, and his fiance, Elise, who are getting married on July 26th. (Also Em’s first birthday, which will make it easy for us to remember their anniversary!) They’ve registered at stores that we don’t have here in Duncan or Lawton, so I got to shop online. The gift arrived via UPS last night, already gift-wrapped. No hassle! I may join this century and start to enjoy the ease of online shopping!

We have a fencing company coming over today to give us an estimate on redoing the fence in our backyard. It’s a mess, and we knew we’d have to have it replaced when we bought the house. (Got a better price because of this, so it all evens out.) We had a spring on our garage door break a couple of weeks ago and finally had someone out to look at it this week. The door is the original door… which means that it’s not in great shape. (We knew this, too, when we bought the house.) So, we’re going to go ahead and replace the whole thing, rather than doing a temporary fix on the spring until another part breaks. Did you know that owning a home is expensive? I thought, naively, that the mortgage was the expensive part, and it is… but the surprising expenses and upkeep expenses aren’t cheap. We’re looking at each repair, replacement, and upgrade as an investment into the value of our home, which is a great house. Just a house nearing the ripe old age of thirty and in need of some maintenance.

And speaking of maintenance, I’ve got a question. How do you maintain your ideal weight? (Taking into account two babies who limit your time and availability to exercise.) Getting down to pre-pregnancy weight after Em was born wasn’t easy, but I’m finding that it’s even harder to keep my weight there without starving myself. Before the babies, I ran a couple of miles a day, which made staying the same weight easy, as long as I ate reasonable meals. I’m finding it difficult to make time within the girls’ schedules to go and run, and I’m afraid of having them out in this heat for too long. (We go out in the backyard, but that’s just a few steps away from airconditioning, not on some random road a mile or two away from home.) Part of me wonders if it would make a difference now anyway, since one good pasta meal seems to make me gain ten pounds. Should I just add “ruined my metabolism” to the list of gifts my children gave me and not give it another thought?

Wes is telling me about the horse race that’s happening today. This, my friends, is what happens when the Spurs go out of the playoffs early. Wes is left with nothing to enjoy but the sports that he cares nothing about! (He watched an entire baseball game last night. Snore. For both of us.)

And that is the longest post I’ve written in a good long while…