this past weekend was phil’s last one for his walk-in clinic rotation.  it was a great month since he had no call and had all his weekends off, plus mlk day off.  from here on out, all of his remaining rotations have call every fourth night.  so we packed in as much as we could into one weekend– a family outing, a spa day for me, and a date night, to last us the next five months.   friday evening, we went to see “elmo makes music” at the target center.   we ended up with a great view from our seats.   mikey was engrossed and sat very still to watch…

it was 5 below zero when we woke up this morning.  that’s cold.  way too cold to be outside for any length of time.  poor mikey is going stir-crazy from being stuck inside all day.  and i’m going a bit batty myself with the incessant chatter, chatter, chatter.  he’s gotten to be quite a talker.  i know this is supposed to be a good thing, but some days…  a moment of silence to complete one thought is priceless. when it’s super cold outside, the warm air inside the house condenses and freezes against the windows.  thank goodness we have double paned windows or else all that ice would melt once the…

i told myself i wouldn’t think or worry much about all that needed to be done before The Big Move back to california until after the new year.  so from mid-march until december 31st, i lived in a state of general blissfulness with only the teeniest, tiniest seed of concern buried back in the furthest corner of my mind. on new year’s day, the teeny, tiny seed of concern bloomed into a full-grown oak tree of worry.  all in one day! it is now january 14th (!), and i’ve been busy making lists, selling stuff on craigslist, looking into moving companies, and deciding how to downsize all our stuff so that we can…

ok, this is a bit overdue, but i got tagged by mrssjlee, and after thinking long and hard, here’s my list of favorite simple pleasures.  in no particular order. when phil calls unexpectedly during the day just to say “hi”.  even better is when he’s calling to say he’s coming home early (doesn’t happen very often)! hearing mikey’s unprompted, “thanks, mom!” (a new thing he’s been saying). seeing allie rest her head on daddy’s shoulder. getting a surprise package in the mail. when phil comes home in the morning on post-call days with mickey d’s breakfast for us. seeing mikey watch out for his little sister– he notices when there…

found cool free potty training charts… http://www.childavenue.com/images/pdf%20files/train_potty.pdf http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/images/Potty-Chart1.pdf and http://www.printablechecklists.com/checklist59b.shtml