Goodbye Spring Break

My spring break is officially over. No more vacations until...oh...one day off in May for Memorial Day?
So this week I:
*exercised every morning
*Got a physical (blood work came out perfect! :)
*Got Snickers to the vet for HER physical and shots.
*Cleaned out 2 cupboards and the pantry.
*Baked bran muffins and took them to a few lucky neighbors.
*Had a girls day.
*Got rid of the gray in my hair.
*Got Snickers hair done.
*Volunteered at Grace's school for about 6 hours doing interviews for new Board members...
*Started a recipe project (organizing and re-writing/typing all of my loose ones in preparation for a BIG family recipe project)
*Shopped for Easter (mailed Ty his loot) and cooked for Easter dinner.
*Got manicures with Grace...and took her to Justice for their big sale :)
*Saw TWO free movies.
*Took Ryan shopping for new church clothes.
*Cleaned the entire house.
*Took a load to the D.I.
*Vacuumed and cleaned my car.
*Oh and played Zuma on my laptop for too many minutes...ok...hours.

I'm pretty jazzed that it rained all week so I didn't have to worry about adding YARDWORK to that list...'cause I would have.
It's been a lovely week.

ZOO!

My spring break was a week after the kids. So I kept Grace home from school on Tuesday to play with me...
All 3 of us girls went to Hogle Zoo. It was cold, but actually the best trip ever in terms of actually viewing the animals!

These are the girl giraffes. They walked right up to us.
Grace getting eaten by a lion...
Then we went to the 3D IMAX movie "Born to be Wild." We look ridiculous.
It was amazing. Thanks to Jill's Megaplex job for the free movie passes...we can see any movie for free after it's been out for 10 days. It's. Awesome.
It was a super fun, animal-filled girls day!

Q came out...and other quotes

"Q came out!" - Grace

"It's so windy! I'm glad we're not hobos..." - Grace

"My foot is $5.00!" - Grace

"Yeah...if you ever visited me, I'd find a mannequin head in my bar-b-que." Ry to Ty

"I would hate to be a sink." - Grace

"The kangaroos are running away with the gold!" - Grace to Jillian

"No! I'm not about to trust you and a squirming dog in the middle of a parking lot." -Jillian to Grace

"Did the new edition of Better Homes and Igloos come out!?" - Jillian to Grace

"You need to put soil and corpse together." Ty to Ry

Finnley

Isn't she beautiful!? I'm a...... great Auntie. Good grief. Makes me sound like some old lady in a house-coat with gray hair....
I, of course, have been waxing poetic...maudlin...singing old songs from "Fiddler on the Roof"...that sort of thing. Her mother was born the year I graduated from High School. My first niece. I experienced that first uterus-crushing love the day I held her for the first time. Blind, unconditional, soul-deep love for another person. Sweet Megan. And now she's a mother. She'll be a fantastic one, too.
Now you're singing the song too, aren't you? Ha!

Sibling Boredom

These pictures are what happens when Ry and Grace have too much time on their hands on a Sunday afternoon...



The many faces of Grace. Scary. Silly. Sweet?

Funerals

Andrew's parents are very private people, but I feel that the events of the past few days need to be documented?
His mom passed away on Wednesday. Just 2 short weeks after a diagnosis. We're happy that it went so swiftly, that she didn't have to suffer for a long period of time, and that he was able to say goodbye.
As the mother of the man I married, I want to honor her memory by mentioning it.
We're getting pretty good at this funeral thing. Sigh.