Where have I been?

Busy. That’s where.\par
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Well, I could’ve blogged, but as usual, I keep waiting for some intellectual, non-newsy sort of thing to come up that I can expound upon, but so far, nothing. But we have been busy lately, as well.\par
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A week ago Thursday, I drove the kids and I up the Gorge to my parents house for a short visit. Michael couldn’t come, because he had to teach Sunday School (he’s teaching a Dave Ramsey personal finance course to our 17-19\’c2\~year olds). Two of my sister Katy’s friends, Hannah and Charity, came with me to help me on the trip and have an extended sleepover with KD. I had a good time and got to visit with both my good friends, Mystie and Meghan. When I left on Sunday afternoon, I left without Judah and Ezra, leaving them with Grandma and Grandpa at their house for the first time ever!\par
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While they were gone Michael and I celebrated our 7th anniversary by hiking at Silver Creek Falls and going out to dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. A wonderful lady named Patty even babysat Monica while we went out to dinner, so it was just the two of us! Michael gave me a lovely chocolate pearl necklace for our anniversary: I gave him 5 carwash certificates. Hmmm. The next night, Tuesday, we went to see Batman, this time taking the baby. I got to watch all of it, though I spent half of the movie standing up holding Monica (Michael offered to hold her, but I kept thinking she was almost asleep, until she finally was). Yes, I really enjoyed it. It was very intense.\par
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Wednesday afternoon my parents arrived with the boys, exhausted perhaps, but positive about having had the kids stay with them. The boys had a good time of course: mostly playing at the park, playing in the pool, playing in the house, watching movies, eating snacks, and doing it all over again the next day! What’s not to like? Mom and Dad spent the next couple of nights in Portland on a well-deserved staycation (sort of), then joined us for our church’s Oktoberfest celebration on Friday night. They headed back home on Saturday to deal with their broken refrigerator (stopped working right before they left town) and we were sorry to see them go, though perhaps we were all relieved to go back to normal life: except that we didn’t. Saturday night we went to Michael’s parents for a family dinner. Sunday was church, always exhausting, but also Third Sunday of the Month Fellowship Meetings in the afternoon and early evening.\par
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Michael’s Grandma Monica is in town right now as well – staying at our house! She’s a very good guest, considerate and helpful, and hopefully doesn’t mind that I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get ready for the next great adventure: our trip to Denver on Wednesday to visit my Grandpa Lew and Grandma Phyllis. She babysat the boys during quiet time for me this afternoon while I went and obtained traveling necessities at Target. While I was obtaining, I also obtained a pair of shorts ($5!) for me and some cute clothes for Monica (from Aunt Kay).\’c2\~ This afternoon all of us went for a short walk to eat a few wild blackberries, and now here we are at home. Michael is slammed at work of course (as usual before we go on vacation), but is coming home in about an hour so he can spend time with his grandmother.\par
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I need to finish the laundry (only 1/5th done now) so that I can pack, gather the stuff, pack, label, and generally organize all of our stuff so that we can leave around 5:30 on Wednesday morning. In the meantime, we also need to eat our meals, and I keep trying to have the kids pick up their hurricane disaster… I mean, their room. So, I really shouldn’t have taken the time to write this, but after a while, I figure my faithful readership deserves an update! So there you have it -\’c2\~life at Elly’s Event Coordination Center.