since Thursday

I'm trying to be better about blogging,

since my memory totally sucks these days.

Let's see.

Thursday evening, the kids were all in the van by 5:45

waiting for Brandon to get home from work,

so we could head to Texas to visit friends.

We can't quite figure out how

what should take just a tad over 4 hours

always takes us 5,

when we only stop once to grab food

(to eat in car -  it's not like we actually eat while stopped)

and then usually once more for a potty stop.

We got there just a little before 11,
and stayed up past 1 catching up.
We had planned to go to Canton for
First Monday Trade Days
(which isn't actually on Monday...)
but the weather wasn't promising
so we decided we better save that for another time,
and spent several hours shopping at Ikea
instead.
We left with a list of things to research further,
and a bag full of goodies.

After dinner, we popped into Nebraska Furniture Mart
(the largest furniture store in North America, I'm told)
and found several sofas we liked
(now we've got to figure out if its feasible to buy from there)
and then headed back to the house for cards and more visiting.

Before heading home shortly after noon on Saturday,
we popped in to Trader Joe's to stock up on essentials,
and of course, try a few new things, too.

Everyone was hoping for In and Out for lunch,
so even though it was in the opposite direction,
Daddy obliged.

We got home an hour and half before dark,
and found that the drywall crew
was completely finished ~ yay!!!

Sunday was quite busy with church,
and parties
and work (for Bran)
and wasn't at all restful.

Brandon started summer classes on Monday morning
(and had his first quiz on Tuesday...)
while the kids and I tried to get the house back in order.
Then some friends came over to swim in the afternoon.

As soon as they left, I hopped in the car
to go to the pool place
because we are still working on getting the pool balanced.

Poor Pop had to work late Monday evening
and honestly - I can't even remember what I did.
I didn't sew, I can tell you that!
I haven't managed to fit in any sewing in almost 2 weeks,
except for a bit of EPP
the few nights we've been able to watch an episode of a netflix show.

Yesterday morning found The Four and I heading to Rogers for the day;
my mom was getting one of her knees replaced,
so we decided to hang with Grampa during the surgery,
and stay at the hospital to visit
 and dote on Gramma a bit.
As a bonus,
we ended up getting to see lots of cousins and aunts and uncles, too.

At Tyler's suggestion,
even though it meant getting home after dark,
I took the kids to Smitty's Garage for dinner
(delish!)
and even gave them some money for the games
(I thought I was being really generous,
 but the games all cost a buck each,
so I wasn't as generous as I thought...
They were still grateful, though)

My mom is doing great so far,
and we are praying for speedy and complete healing.

I was wiped out from all of the peopling
of the past week,
and really wanted to just do nothing today
but I soldiered on,
and did laundry, worked on the pool
(we're almost there!)
and went grocery shopping.

Speaking of groceries
I still have some pantry items to put away,
so I'll do that - while the kiddos swim
and then I'll figure out what to fix for dinner.