Only 4 days until I head to Chicago for my annual girls' weekend. This year, because of fuel prices, we've decided to take the train. We leave the St. Paul Depot at 7:50 am on Friday morning and arrive in Chicago at 3:55 pm. Yes, it's a long time but when your main objective of a weekend like this is to catch up with your girlfriends, eat some good food and rest (along with some major shopping), then it's the perfect solution. We'll be picking up our friend Gwen as we travel through Milwaukee. Not much of an agenda after that which is simply sublime!
This month has been somewhat of an exhausting one for me. Clare has suddenly come up with some major separation anxiety...just in time for her first year of preschool. We've had some major ordeals at carline. But she's getting much much better. Clare has also chosen this month to eliminate her naps. Actually, I chose that after a long deliberation. I hate nap-dropping season. If you let them nap then they usually can't fall asleep much before 2:00 in the afternoon and then they're up past 9:30 most nights (which I just can't tolerate...note the heading of this post - sacred). And if she didn't get a nap, she was just a monster! When Cate dropped her nap, she just got whiney and tearful. Clare gets mean. Hitting, kicking, sassing, and overall naughtiness are the norm. Very stressful for everyone in the family. The only good thing, is that she zonks out in about 5 minutes. Of course, mommy needs to lay with her for this to happen. But what's 5 minutes. I'll break that bad habit after her body normalizes to the change. Which is already happening, thankfully. We give her a nap every 3 or 4 days which is working out pretty well.
So, Clare has been a major issue this month. Cooper has been super cute but is teething and learning to crawl which means he's been up at night a bit. Generally I can handle it now that I'm not as sleep deprived. We had him dedicated on the 2nd at our church. He looked so handsome! We had a little brunch here afterwards to celebrate.
And our Cate has been a dream. She's in that really great stage where she's really compliant, good natured and fun to be around. Gives me hope for Clare in about a year or so. But poor Cate is fighting some virus - she's had a fever for 4 days now which means, of course, waking mom up at 3:00 am when the ibuprofen wears off. 6:30 comes early folks.
I did get a little mommy time yesterday when I got my hair done. Finally! A full foil and decent cut which took 3 hours. My stylist was making me a little nervous. I was watching in the mirror as several times she forgot which color she was working on (I was getting highlights AND lowlights for you hair afficianados). Needless to say, I have a huge chunk of super bright blond right on the top of my head, which I actually like but then right near my bangs, it looks like there was no color added at all. Very drastic difference. I'm hoping I can get in on Thursday to have it fixed. If not, I'll have to strut around on the Magnificent Mile looking like I CHOSE to have my hair look like this. If you start seeing half blond/half mousy hair all over Chicago and on Oprah, you'll know who started that phenom!
MOPs started this month as well and was a big hit. I think everyone is starting to form some really good relationships. My friend and our coordinator, Paige, is doing a fabulous job.
Attley had his 2 year post amputation check up a couple of weeks ago and checked out completely fine! No signs of any cancer in his lungs or anywhere else. It seems he is one of the 5% that has beaten the odds.
Scotty has been busy helping his folks close up the cabin at Webb Lake. And busy with ....garage stuff. He's always tinkering on something. And when he's not, he's GLUED to CNN and anything to do with the presidential race. And any past president - he's been watching those PBS shows on the presidents all month. Last night was Lyndon Johnson. Me? Not so much. Although it is pretty easy to get sucked into it all.
Anyway, I'd better get dinner going. I'll post more after Halloween. Enjoy the beautiful fall!
