Fri., Aug. 31

Okay. So I have at least one waiting with baited breath to hear how Date Night was last night (Thursday). Jeremy and I drove allllllllllllllllll the way across town to meet Dick & Shirley and Ray & Judy at a precious "Mexican" food place that's owned and run by a Guatamalan family, actually. That was some YUMMY food. Mm! Then Jeremy and I decided to change our plan for the rest of the evening. We were going to go see a movie, but we chose instead to go to Barnes & Noble and 'hang out'. We have so much fun at the book store! There is so much to see that I wonder if we could ever tire of it ... as seldom as we go out, at least. :) We spent on books the money we would have spent on the movie; he came home with a couple new hardback Dune books (The last one just came out ... big excitement!) and my purchase was a couple of idea books for homeschoolers. We also made an important purchase: an excellent children's dictionary that is actually a good, 'real' dictionary. THANK YOU. We've been extremely frustrated with the exceedingly poor excuses for 'children's dictionaries' that we've received for free, so we are thrilled about that dictionary!

After we got home from our date, at 9:30 the phone rang and it was Laurel! She and Daryl and their children were heading toward Tombstone tonight and wanted to take a pit stop here ... see the house ... let our children play ... you know. :) It was tricky because the Singing we hosted started at 7, so it was "Company Day"!! Since we're having people in the house again tomorrow (Saturday), I figure -- hey, if I have to clean the house, might as well have EVERYONE over at the same time!! LOL

So today, really, was spent just picking up the house and prepping for company. It was fun. N & J played outside some, and worked on picking up their bedrooms. They Lego'd, read, and crafted in between work projects. [Oh, btw, the 'science-y' book Jeremy and I bought for N at Target last weekend about the human body...? Yeah, Natasha finished that book in its entirety today!! Good GRIEF she can tear up stumps when it comes to reading something she's interested in!!] A couple of days ago, when the children were playing with the animal box...? I mentioned that Natasha had taken a picture I posted of Justus. What I didn't say is that she took, oh, I'd guess about 25 other pictures that day! I went to take some pictures of the house and -- the camera was full!! The following two pictures are good examples of what met my eyes when I got her pictures downloaded onto the computer.

Here is a picture N took of her latest flannel board picture. This is the first time she has really mixed-and-matched the different sets of pictures, and she was proud because she thought to have the horse 'rearing back'. :)

Here is a picture of Natasha and Justus playing with Bennett (age 7, on detached slide) & Kellan (exactly the same age as Justus, on the see-saw). I don't know how I got such a funny picture of Justus holding his mouth like that, but -- he does that a lot when he's being silly. Two seconds after I took this picture Elenna, age 19 mo., walked right into where Justus was swinging before he could stop. :*( Oh, man.... These things.... When it was time for them to go we sent them off with our bottle of Children's Motrin, since we haven't used it in forever and they hadn't brought theirs along on this trip.

Here's how Mr. Organized set up his "sleeping buddies" in bed tonight. I didn't realize he was pretending to be asleep. I think I actually just caught him in a blink - weird. Oh, and ... for those of you who don't know, some friends of ours in Montana are trappers and last year they gave each of our children a pelt. Natasha got a racoon pelt (!!) and Justus got a muscrat pelt. He carries it around like it's his best friend; its name is "Musky". That's who is right beside him in this picture. (Almost every night he and I go through a ritual where he wants me to give Musky a kiss good-night. Ever kissed a muscrat pelt?????!)

Here are pictures of what we call the "Family Room". During the tour this evening (half the church came all through the house; it was kind-of fun, tho' also kind-of strange! lol) I learned that the reason I've also been hearing this room called a loft is because of the half-wall (where the stairs are) that opens up to the downstairs (entryway). Hm. "That's nice." I stepped a little ways down the hall to the south and looked north to take this picture.

Here is the Northeast corner; we can easily get to the computers, and the bookshelf, but they're no longer part of the central area. Basically, we're trying to do too many things with this room so there's a little too much furniture, really. But we actually like it better this way because the sitting area is cozier! Oh, and there on the right is the "game closet" (probably supposed to be a linen closet) and that's also the entryway into Justus's room. That closet is super-nice. I was able to stack two sturdy boxes on their sides one on top of the other on the top shelf; it is a perfect place to keep some books we don't need to get to very often, but can now at least see them when we wish to get to them for whatever reason. The closet is also home to the library books and books Natasha might 'grow into' at any given, unexpected moment in the near future. I have long wished for such a space for homeschooling purposes, where our 'homeschooling'-type things are available, but still "put-away". Linen closet? Who needs a linen closet?! lol Well, what with the "homeschool dresser", and then Grandma & Grandpa's storage cabinet/dresser-type thing I 'inherited' - that's in the upstairs hallway, now that Elaine doesn't need it anymore - and all the storage in the master bathroom/closet, we did NOT need to use the linen closet for linens! [Interesting: The bookshelf in the center of this picture has been with us since Papillion! It's survived five moves! Only a couple pieces of our futniture can boast similar sturdiness! :) ]

Here's a picture of the sitting area, facing northwest. Lego table under the window, "homeschool dresser" in the corner (accessible, but out of the way; it's not stuff we use every day), and then our little TV. ;)

This is the west wall of the Family Room. Yes, those are Lego guys on display on the trunk, along with a tower made from the pieces of a "Jenga"-type game.

This is the view of the south side of the family room. I don't know why the couch is all funky-looking right there; I'll have to see what's up with it! lol That is the sewing table to the left. As I said, we're doing too many things with this room! The sewing table is acting as an end table, too, with lamp, coaster, stereo remote, phone, and timer on top!! LOL Good grief....

This concludes the pictures of the upstairs, and you've already seen some of the downstairs as well. All that's left are the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Fun, fun!