Go, Go, Goers!

This has been a rough week.  Busy, of course, with work, friends, and family...but there's been an underlying sadness.  I cried myself to sleep on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, I had to explain to my 8-year old daughter why 60.3 million Americans voted for a man who displays behavior that we have been working tirelessly at preventing in our schools.  The look on her face was one of fear and sadness. I had to explain that out of the four of us in our house, that her father may be the only one who is not negatively impacted, as he is a straight, white, Christian male.  Ava and I?  Well, we're females, and our reproductive rights might fly right out the window.  G?  He's too young to know where he is going to land with everything...all I know at this point is that he's a white male. This week, I've done a lot of reading, discussing, and thinking.  I don't generally get so heavily invested in politics, but this decision was too big to jus...

What a super busy last 216 hours! If you recall, last weekend we had two Halloween parties (FUN and FUN!), two birthday dinners for G (YUMMY and AWESOME!), pumpkin decorating/carving, and also some leaf-diving.  That led into Halloween-day festivities, and then an evening full of Trick-or-Treating around the 'hood.  On Tuesday night, G had his three-year check up (all is well, and apparently he's on the short & fat side of things.  That's a first for either of our kids!  I'm sure he'll lengthen out soon...his weight is 50% percentile, so he's not really fat...)  On Wednesday night, I went to Ava's school conference...she's doing fabulously!  Her reading level is already beyond where it needs to be at the END of 3rd grade.  She listens in class, focuses on her assignments, and plays very well with the other kids.  I specifically asked if she talks too much in class, and the answer was no, she's actually a bit reserved. Shocker!  Her teac...

On Friday, Ava asked me if we could put up our Christmas tree this weekend.  I told her that might happen the day after Thanksgiving...but not one minute before!  I explained that this weekend was already full of birthday and Halloween celebrations, and even once we're done with that, Thanksgiving is next up on the holiday docket. When I was out shopping last weekend, I saw some Christmas displays, and opted not to venture down the aisles.  No wonder January feels so blah...we've been exposed to the holiday season (including Halloween) for at least three months prior, and when it's all done, it feels like a huge void! But, I digress. We are right in the middle of the birthday and Halloween events for this weekend, so I'll be posting all of that next week.  But, I do want to wish our little G a super duper HAPPY BIRTHDAY (yesterday)!  He's three, I can't believe it!  Three was the hardest age with Ava, soooo....I guess we'll see how it goes with G....

The right decision is often not an easy one to make...Scott and I had been struggling with a decision about our oldest beagle, Darla.  For the past year, she has been afflicted with multiple medical issues, and we knew that she wouldn't make it much longer.  It felt like we had been saying that for several years, but she kept on bouncing back and recovering from whatever ailments she had.  Over the past summer, she began licking her tummy to the point where she licked off all of her fur, and her skin was rubbed raw.  She also stopped eating around that time, and had no energy.  But, amazingly, she bounced back!  Then, just over the last few weeks, she started having multiple, daily accidents inside the house.  To the point where we'd let her out, and within an hour, she was going potty right in front of us, inside the house. I'm not sure how that became my tipping point, but it hit home that this wasn't something that we could fix.  Last week, s...

This week seemed to be all about making future plans...I bought tickets to see my favorite band in concert next August, I bought tickets for Ava and I to see a Minnesota version of the Nutcracker in December, and I'm looking into getting tickets for a holiday train ride in WI, and also going to a Vikings game with a friend and our daughters.  (It's nice that Ava's at the age where I can bring her to things, and she will actually enjoy them!)  We also have several holiday parties coming up in the next few weeks (Halloween, G's THIRD birthday (!), and a pre-Christmas party in WI!)  Plus, I'm thinking ahead to all of the travel I want to do next year...NYC with Ava, Napa Valley with my mom, and maybe a warm-weather vacay to the Dominican Republic with a group of friends in Feb.  And maybe even a long weekend with another friend...just to get away for some girl time. No wonder we feel like we're always on the go! :) This weekend also had a road trip component....

A few weekends ago, we visited a new-to-us apple orchard in Lakeville.  I don't think anything will ever top the Afton Apple Orchard with the tire mountain, petting zoo, and tons of fun kids things...but this one had a big play set, a tractor hayride, and a TON of apples to be picked.  I think it's safe to say that we'll go back there in the future!  Plus, we managed to be outside during the beautiful morning hours, so we had nothing but sun while we were outside! Interesting frost ring...didn't change the delicious flavor! Relaxing after a long day of picking apples... This past Friday we had family fun night where we each made our own pizzas and then put together an "I Spy" puzzle.  Thank goodness for Scott because Ava and I were doing pretty badly at finding the items in the picture! I like this...G was sticking his tongue out while running Yesterday I tried something new...glass fusing!  My neighbor pl...