Out and About

Eleanor, Zach, Kate, and I enjoyed our first day of having the Yukon back. It was fun...and exhausting. Matt took a bus to Massachusetts today to pick up his car. It is very nice! Now back to our adventure. Our first stop was at church for a playdate with Courtney and her 3 kids. Before I talk about that though I have to mention Eleanor's conversation on the way. She asked if her Grammie was ever a baby. I said yes and then she realized that if Grammie was a baby, then Grammie had a Mom and Eleanor asked who Grammie's Mom was. I told her and then she asked if Grammie's Mom was a baby. I said yes and then she asked who her Mom was. It was so neat that Eleanor was catching on to relationships with family members that she has never met. A baby has a Mom...who was the Mom? It has me thinking about my ancestors, which is good because I have a goal to bring a family name to the temple in about 3 weeks and I have yet to work on the goal.
Now back to our playdate. It was nice to talk with Courtney and the kids had fun playing with balls, legos, kitchen toys, and other things. It was nice to be out of the house and to talk with another Mom, and to see the kids run around and play. We had a good hour before Eleanor started being mean to her friend, Lucy. Eleanor and Lucy are a lot alike and it seems like they either get along great or not at all. They both have strong opinions about how the play should go and if the other messes with that plan, watch out! I hate it when Eleanor is mean to Lucy because I know how much Eleanor loves Lucy, and no one likes being around someone who is mean. Lucy however is more forgiving than I am. And she was happy with Eleanor again before I was. I started picking up toys to get ready to go when Eleanor was having a tantrum and by the time everything was cleaned up, Eleanor and Lucy were having fun again. I was glad because I'd much rather end a play date on a happy note than a sad one, and I was planning on taking the kids to McDonald's for lunch and I wondered how I was going to justify that when Eleanor's behavior was mean and rude. McDonald's...now that was an interesting time! When the lady handed me my tray, she asked me if I would like help since I was holding Kate and would be holding the tray with one hand. I figured I could handle it and I did...until right before I got to our table and my milkshake fell to the floor. So because I refused the help, another worker got to clean up my mess. Kate had fun dipping her fries into Zach's ketchup and dropped one on Zach's leg, so I cleaned up that mess. Eleanor needed to go potty when we were almost done eating. I had her and Zach go to the bathroom at church so we wouldn't have to make any potty trips at McDonald's...so I sent her in by herself since it's a small McDonald's and we were near the bathroom. Zach decided to join her and I went in after I heard the stall door slamming over and over again. Eleanor came out and then Zach needed to go potty. I tried to convince him that he really didn't have to go, but then realized that if he did really have to go then I would be regretting the accident later, so I got Kate out of her highchair and we went into the bathroom. And he did really have to go. By the time we left, Eleanor and Zach were here, there, and everywhere and I vowed to myself to go through the drive-thru next time and bring the food home. Our third and final stop was at the grocery store, which was pretty uneventful...THANK GOODNESS! I even found a parking spot right next to the door. I'm sure I was purposefully blessed with that parking spot because a walk across the parking lot with 3 kids at that point probably would have put me over the edge!

I put our hummingbird feeder out today. :-) So our new game is to see who spots the first hummingbird.

Emily brought up the fact tonight that she'll miss this house when we move into our new house...whenever that will be. She said our house is comfortable and we know where everything is. It was nice to hear since we'll most likely be here a few more years. My new attitude is to make what we have beautiful...which is mainly geared toward our home and land. I am content right now with our home and life. We still have debts to pay before we can take on a mortgage. There are months when we can't pay the debts we already owe, so I don't want to take on another payment that we can't consistently pay. We have a house (as Matt points out every time that I say I want a house and then I have to correct myself and say NEW house). We are warm, dry, comfortable, and blessed. Our house is small enough that I know what everyone is doing most of the time and we spend a lot of time together (which has it's ups and downs, but I think overall it makes us a closer family). And I will have to read this paragraph over and over again this summer because during the hot, smelly, summer months is when I HATE this house.

Poor Kate has a cold and earlier she had a fever, and she keeps waking up. This night is looking to remind me of what is to come soon!