Busy Weekend=Long Blog

The bad thing about trying to document what I did each day for several days is that I forget all the little details that make up the stories of the day. Without the details, there are no stories. On Friday night, Jason and I babysat for Lucy and Elsa. All three babies (obviously Clara was with me) were only awake together for a little over an hour, but trying to get them all ready for bed at once caused me to realize I will be just fine if I never have triplets. Twins would be a lot of work, but triplets might just push someone to insanity. Anyway, we shut ourselves in the playroom as Ryan and Kathryn left because Jason wasn't there and we needed to distract the twins. The best distraction for Elsa was Clara. As Clara was crawling away, Elsa went over and stomped on her pant leg and just stood there, smuggly watching Clara squirm as she tried to crawl away. It was pretty funny; if only I had it on camera to capture Elsa's look declaring her innocence.

On Saturday morning we had a Pack Meeting at 800am. I planned on taking Clara, but after she didn't fall asleep until 1000pm at Ryan and Kathryn's, woke up at Midnight as we were leaving (and stayed WIDE awake the entire way home) and woke up again at 545am, I thought it'd be wise to just have Jason feed her when she woke up. I'm glad I did because I was able to help a lot more at the Pack Meeting and Clara slept until 830am. Last month's theme was "Down on the Farm" so we went to Nylene's in-law's 'ranch'. For the games we planned to do barrel racing with stick horses and corraling the "pigs" (aka balloons). I obliged when Nylene asked me to demonstrate the barrel racing. Why should I be ashamed to gallup around on a stick horse? I shouldn't, so I did it. I can't wait to see those pictures.

Anyway, Saturday evening we went to an engagement party for my friend Erin that I used to work with and went to school with. It was at her parent's in Anthem and I went back and forth on whether or not I should bring Clara and finally decided to leave her with my mom (after Jason admitted he wouldn't be holding her much if we brought her). It was during the hours leading up to our departure that I realized I am completely and pathetically paranoid. The whole time I worried about our messy house and that I didn't have our Will ready in case something happened to us. We were driving to Anthem, roughly 45 miles from my mom's house, but I seemed to have the degree of worrying involved when parents leave their children to travel around the world. I told my mom that Angela gets Clara and to liquidate all of our assets and save all of the money for Clara. Angela, with the money you can buy ONE piece of Eames furniture for Clara's room. Ha.

The party was great, which I completely anticipated. They certainly know how to host a party and the food was amazing! My very favorite was the Pear and Blue Cheese salad, which is interesting since I don't even like blue cheese. Seriously, look how the tables were set, they didn't miss a single detail.

And here is the beautiful bride-to-be. She is one of those people that looks perfect every time you see her. A guy we used to work with that was really bad with names nicknamed her "Perfect Hair". Before dinner, they had us write down words of wisdom/advice for Jason and Erin to read, one a week until the wedding. They handed out quarter sheets of paper and I laughed and asked Erin if she thought I'd be able to fit all my advice on it. She knows me better and said, "Just put your advice on the blog..." Ha ha, soon enough, but not now.Jason and I with Erin and Jason... During college, two of my favorite Accounting friends had significant others named Jason and by this time next year, we'll all be married to them! There was another girl in a bunch of our classes that was married to a Jason as well, pretty funny. I am so excited for Erin and Jason. Weddings are such happy times and marriage can be wonderful. Yeah for the happy couple!Next to my fascination with the decorations, was the backyard. It was just so quaint and I admitted that if it was my backyard, I'd just sit back there and read on the lounge chairs all day. There was just a very serene ambiance back there. I, of course, couldn't get enough pictures. Jason, on the other hand, was wondering why we were taking engagement pictures for us. Is there something wrong with taking pictures of the two of us? I don't think so, and besides, you'd think he'd be used to it by now. I love parties. I love hosting and I love attending. I always tell Jason, "Someday, when I have my party house..."

Today in Church Clara smacked me in the face with something. Jason said, "Yeah, it looks like you are going to have a black eye, oh wait, that's just the dark bags under your eyes." I was like hmmm, what a sweet thing to say. What I didn't remember, until he realized I didn't get the joke and told me, was a few years ago we were at the Clinique counter and the lady was saying a product would probably work really well to cover up the dark bags under my eyes. Okay, I don't have perfect skin or a perfect face, but dark bags under my eyes? I'm glad I can't see them! :) After Church, Clara decided she'd just jump around in her bed and talk to herself rather than take a nap again. So I had to go have a little visit with her and remind her it was naptime. This time I did it after 15 minutes and not 30 minutes like last week.

Tonight we went to my mom's for dinner. She made me Pasta Milano and cheesecake for dessert. It was SO good and yes, it is certainly better than Macaroni Grill, especially when she puts extra cream in like she did tonight. YUM! I'm not sure who was enjoying life more in this picture: Clara getting to eat cheesecake or Auntie Angela getting to feed it to her. Perhaps it was the horsey rides I gave when I was babysitting that inspired Elsa to try and ride Clara. Or maybe it was that Clara is just so vulnerable since she can't walk. Either way, Elsa saw no harm in walking over to Clara and plopping down on her back for a ride, a ride she never got for obvious reasons. And can you see that look on her face? It's the one she gives when she is making her statement of innocents, because honestly, would that sweet face ever hurt anyone? (Let us not look past my dad's long sexy leg in the background!)Lately Clara has been doing some pretty funny things. The other day I asked her to smile for a picture and this is what I got.

She also tickles me. She had been doing it for a few weeks until I realized what she was doing. I tickle her a lot around her neck, so she will do it to me when I hold her close to me and it really does tickle, so I laugh and she laughs at me. She has also discovered a new noise: breathing in with her throat a bit closed so it makes a high pitched wheezing noise. More frustrating than funny, she has developed an extreme dislike for her pj's. Every time I start snapping them up, she starts trying to push my hands away, thrashes around and pulls at her clothes like she's going to die if I leave them on. She's also started showing off. She will smile at people and loves attention, but the second they reach their arms out to hold her, she shys away into my chest. She walks around furniture fairly easy but still isn't interested in crawling the "right" way. Tonight someone very appropriately compared her scooting to a slithering snake. She is so fast and the way her body moves side-to-side really does make it look like she's slithering. Goose, snake, whatever she is, I couldn't love her more!