Whew!

Just coming off the end of an incredibly busy week. All we did yesterday was lay around and listen to General Conference!

On Monday, I cleaned. And cleaned. Have I ever mentioned that I don't like cleaning? I also watched Chuck, one of the new shows on NBC. I really liked it, and not just because Chuck's Nerd Herd car is a Yaris hatchback like my husband's. (Pam Beesley on The Office drives one, too.)

On Tuesday, my mother and sisters got here. Mom brought books for the kids and hand knitted washcloths with their initials knitted right in. Betsy had her first dance class that night. I found dance classes that are actually affordable; the Tuesday night session is taught in the dining room of an assisted living center. The seniors sitting in the lobby loved seeing Betsy come in all decked out in her dance attire. I left Porter with my mom so that I could actually sit in on the lesson. Betsy was actually the only kid in the class that day. Twenty bucks a month for a private dance lesson? That's not a bad deal! She was really cute, but she's still having a hard time with paying attention.

Mom and I watched NCIS, or tried to anyway. Somehow - I think Porter changed the settings on the VCR - we were getting the audio commentary for the blind. It was kind of funny at first - "Ziva gives Tony a scathing glance." - but it got super annoying. So, I muted the TV and we just read the captions which are, you know, for the hearing impaired. We all applauded when Tony threw the note into the fire. If you don't follow the show you have no idea, but if you do watch NCIS you probably hated Jeanne as much as I did.

On Wednesday, we had a fun girly day of shopping. I took Mom to the sweet new fabric store that's opened up near the library. They have Amy Butler fabric! I still didn't buy anything, because yeah, it's like $9 a yard. But my mom came out with an armload of fabric, plus we left a trail of drool all through the store. Had Steak & Shake for lunch, because that's what you do when Cindy's in town. The dark chocolate milkshakes are delicious, are they not? We hit up the local Goodwill, but no spectacular finds this time. Wednesday night, I watched another new show, Pushing Daisies. I've been really looking forward to that one because I'm one of the approximately 19 people in the world who watched Wonderfalls. Mmm, I loved it. Bryan Fuller is still a genius, Lee Pace is still very tall and funny, and pies are delicious. (I did actually make pies a little later in the week.) We also saw Life, mainly because it's got the guy from Band of Brothers in it. I'm liking a lot of the new shows this fall - like I didn't have enough to do, right? But I haven't watched Cavemen.

This is the dress we made, when we weren't watching TV. I really need to get my own serger.

Thursday my mom & sisters left in the morning, so I had a little time to regroup before Matt's parents arrived that night. I made a big old pot of chili. Wally and Connie exercised their grandparental right (that's a word, isn't it?) to bring the kids candy and toss them in the air. Porter loves his grandpa, they are like two peas in a pod.

Matt took Friday off from work (I am having a little too much fun with the bold tag, can't you tell?) to spend some time with his parents. I had a doctor's appointment in the morning (everything looks good, baby's heartbeat is 165-170, and I am NOT going to tell you how much weight I've already gained) and we went to the pumpkin patch. It felt slightly un-autumnal, hayrides notwithstanding, because it was like 85 degrees.

Had Chinese buffet for lunch, and then I went home and napped for a long time.

We started listening to General Conference on Saturday. Also got to see Mark (Matt's brother) and Jenny again, for the first time in over two years (when they moved to Texas). They were stopping in on their way home from Cleveland, where they went to a neuroscience conference at the Cleveland Clinic. Jenny was answering questions about her stroke and the aftereffects. It sounds like it was pretty interesting. Anyway, I learned that two things have happened in the last two years: 1)Jenny can finger spell really fast and 2)I'm actually slightly better at interpreting what she says. (I found that Sesame Street sign language book at the state fair, and I've been practicing. I still mix up G, H, P, and Q though.)

While the guys went off to Priesthood session, we had sort of a girls night in. A lot of Jenny's friends from their old ward came over. That was also the ward that Matt and I were in when we were first married, so I knew everyone too, which was pretty nice. It was just a really fun time. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. They guys didn't get home from conference until after 11 at night, though, which was crazy. But not too late to eat pie.

And on Sunday, everyone cleared out. And now it's Monday and I'm sitting here writing this.