Life In The Woods: Just Some Over-Due Rambling

Phew! So I guess I can always gauge how busy life is by the amount of time that passes in between blog entries. Keith can tell what kind of day I have had when we gets home and my coffee is in one of three places: still in the coffee pot, cold in a mug on the counter, or sitting in the microwave where it had been forgotten after it's 9th 45-second warm up cycle. I have to admit, I have been playing a lot with my little buddy and when she is taking her nap, I have been taking that time to get my run in. So, I haven't managed to find a balance that will allow me to get a lot of blogging time in. Ava is getting extremely active which I absolutely love. She is and has always been satisfied with playing in the house all day. Now that we don't have a morning nap anymore to break up the morning before lunch, I do try to get her out of the house every once in a while (otherwise Mommy can get a little tired). Every other Wednesday we do have MOPS at church. So we both look forward to that (I say "we", but Ava is the one that doesn't get to eat the awesome smorgasbord of MOPS breakfast goodness...so I can probably say that I look forward to those Wednesdays a little more than she does.) This week, story time starts on Thursdays at the library. I am really excited to bring her to that. My little bookworm loves to read. While I am cooking or cleaning in the kitchen, I often peak into the living room to see what trouble she is getting into. Silence is never a good thing (actually, Ava isn't very good at being sneaky...when she's getting into something, that something is usually accompanied by some sort of rip, bang, thump, pop, click, ouch, you name it.) Anyway, I will often find her quietly sitting in a pile of books, flipping the pages of her favorite pick of the moment. It's really cute. For a while she didn't care if the book was right side up or upside down. Now, she'll flip it so it's right. She's gotta read it, you know.

Fridays are my favorite. Fridays are our Galleria day. Some of my most cherished memories that I spent with my mom are a part of our shopping trips. It started with grade school clothes shopping trips and went all the way to just recently shopping for my graduate voice recital gown...oh, the memories. We would get up early in the morning, go to Willowbrook Mall, eat lunch, and shop till we dropped. Now, every Friday I take my little lady to the Galleria. She gets to play on their playground, I get to watch her play, and then we get lunch and eat together at the Mall. It is such precious time that I hope, as she grows older, she will love and cherish it as much as I do. I love hanging out with her. *Just a little sidenote -- Ava has now taken a liking to calling me. All of the sudden she has decided to practice melting my heart all over again. Multiple times throughout the day I will hear out of the blue "Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum." Oh, it's music to my ears. She can have anything she wants when she says that.

Well this last week we celebrated a birthday. Yes, Keith turned 32. He swears that he is 20 on the inside because the Wii Fit said so. And you know the Wii knows it's stuff. We spent his birthday in our quiet, calm, house (well, it turned that way around 7:30 when Sassy went to bed). There is a delicious new Italian restaurant in town, so I brought that home. It was nice to just kick back and relax in honor of his special day.

Keith's parents came into town this last weekend. I don't know what it is, maybe I am really really starting to get homesick, but it is getting harder and harder for me to let family go when they come to visit. We all just have such a good time. Thanks for coming Granna and Granddaddy -- thanks for spoiling our little girl (in doing that, you spoil us.) We love you!

I guess I am not feeling very witty tonight. Sorry if this is missing the entertainment factor. Here are a few pics to make up for it!

When I was little, I remember that I would love to run errands with my parents. I liked going with my Mom because she would always be out looking for something fun to buy. I liked going out with my Dad because we would always stop at a gas station and get a huge Diet Coke fountain drink. But I do remember going with my Dad to Lowes or Home Depot and I would sit on the tractors that were always out front. Here's our little Johanna Deer.

On Friday night Ava got to stay home and play with Granna and Granddaddy while Keith and I went on a date. I see they had lots of fun while we were gone. Keith and I went to the Studio Movie Grill in Plano and saw "Slumdog Millionaire." We even got to get some coffee afterwards! I laughed because while we were in the car I started to tell Keith what I wanted so he could go in and get it for me. It was at that point I realized I could actually get out of the car with him because we didn't have Ava in the backseat. Oh my, have times changed...