Have you ever noticed that I begin almost every post with a description of what I should be doing instead of blogging? This post is brought to you by the large basket of ironing that I’ve been putting off for two whole weeks!

We had a great weekend! After Wes was done with work on Thursday, we drove down to Fort Worth, getting there just in time to have dinner with my parents. Our restaurant of choice has a floor covered in peanut shells, and Ana was mighty miffed when she saw it, insisting that, “da floor all dirty!” Once she figured out that she could throw shells on the floor, too, she really got into it. So much so that I think there were just as many whole peanuts on the floor with her peanut shells by the end of the meal. (Along with some pieces of bread. And a straw that I caught mid-throw.) Emma was too interested in eating the unhealthy parts of Gram’s meal for her that she didn’t even see the shells. To each her own, Emmy.

Wes and I woke up early on Friday and went to visit my best friend from high school. She has a daughter Ana’s age and just had a baby boy this summer. (For those who love theological trivia, he was born on the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth. That boy is destined to be a reformer, y’all!) We got to spend about an hour visiting with her and playing with the kids, which was a lot of fun. I’m amazed by how much her daughter has grown since we last saw them, and I so wish the weather had been better (it was super rainy and cold outside) so that Ana and Emma could have gone with us. I’m hoping they’ll be able to next time, as I’m sure those three girls will LOVE playing with one another.

Wes and I left from there and did some Christmas shopping. We had put off a few gifts until we got to DFW where, believe it or not, there are a few more stores than in Duncan. We were able to get a lot done and had the opportunity to have a couple of meals out together, just the two of us. I took a huge box of books to sell back at Half-Price Books and bought some more with the earnings. They’re geniuses, those Half-Price Books people. They hand me cash back for my old books (which I originally bought from them) after I’ve had about fifteen minutes to find MORE books, knowing full well that I’m going to turn right back around and give them their money back! I think I managed to hold onto two dollars. Which we spent later on drinks at Starbucks. Totally worth it, though!

I found a set of Christmas dishes in a JC Penney catalog while we were in town, and I went by the store while we were out and about to see what they looked like in person. They didn’t have them out in the stores yet, of course, because it’s October and they were just starting to bring out the Christmas stock. Wes has since informed me that dishes are one of the “traditional” gifts listed for five year wedding anniversaries, and wouldn’t you know it? We’re just about to celebrate our fifth anniversary! (I didn’t plan this beforehand, y’all. Honest!) I’m thinking that he wouldn’t have offered this information if he wasn’t intending on buying these dishes, which is great. Here’s my question, though. (Or series of questions.) I have an everyday set of dishes and a set of china, both with serving pieces. Would another set of dishes, even cute Christmas ones, be overkill? They’re Pfaltzgraff, which is more casual than china, and I’m thinking we’d use them instead of our everyday dishes during the holidays. If I do go for it, how many place settings should I get? I’m pretty sure Wes will go for the first four, but wouldn’t I eventually need twelve place settings? (Somewhere, Wes is reading this and clutching his heart, imagining that I’m planning on spending three times what he was planning. Well, not right away, dear. But eventually, yes. Ha!) What would you do?

Our big reason for going to Texas was to see our nephew, Connor. We had planned to go up to Dallas on our way back to Oklahoma and visit him at his house, but my sister and brother-in-law were traveling to Austin for the UT game and a much needed night away after six weeks of newborn living. They brought the kids to my parents’ house where they would be staying, which kept us from traveling to Dallas AND which gave us extra time with Connor even after his parents had to leave to make it to the game. Though my mother hovered impatiently over me, I managed to hold Connor the entire time I was there…

Is he adorable or what? After holding my friend’s three month old and holding baby Connor, I think I got my fill of babies this weekend. (Well, maybe not, as I managed to get about forty-five minutes of holding and rocking a newborn from our church on Sunday evening.) You forget how sweet tiny babies are when you’re in the toddler trenches. And by “trenches,” I mean that you spend all of your time crawling around after them because they insist on playing puppies, lions, and a very odd game they invented which involves a huffing, puffing Big Bad Wolf (expertly played by Emmy) and a tiny baby bunny that he’s determined to eat.

We came back to Oklahoma on Saturday night, where our two exhausted tots were like zombies. Ana got pretty upset at dinnertime, crying and pleading with me, “I wanna go to DUNCAN!” I kept trying to tell her that we were in Duncan, but she would shake her head, hold her forehead, and say, so dramatically, “NO, we at ANA’S HOUSE!” I couldn’t convince her that Ana’s house was in Duncan, so I distracted her with the promise of “chocolate bears” (ie, Teddy Grahams) for dessert. It worked. Whew!

We had a little ceremony during the Sunday evening service at church to give our AWANA clubbers their vests. Ana got up and said a verse in front of the whole church, making her Mommy super proud. Not as proud as she was, though, when she finally got to put that Cubbies vest on…

As Wes said, that vest looks small enough to be worn by a doll. Indeed it does.

Our Puggles class is for two year olds and includes fun activities and lessons but no scripture memory. I didn’t want Emma to be left out of the festivities, though, so I made sure she got one of these adorable shirts during the presentation.

We knew she had been learning about creation in her class, so we asked, “Emmy, who made the sky?” She told me, ever so sweetly, “Jesus.” Last week she told us that Mrs. Maggie created light, so we were impressed by this week’s answer. Way to go, Emmy!

I spent yesterday doing the mountains of laundry that we accumulated over the weekend, which is why I now have a whole basket full of ironing. It was already full — now it’s just full-ER. Life is back to normal around here.

And now that I’ve come full circle with this post, I think I’ll close. I promise that the next post will be more interesting! Hope you’re having a great week!