"What Have You Been Up To Lately?"

I thought I'd go ahead and post an email I sent to my sister-in-law today, in resonse to her question: "What have you been up to lately?" There's something interesting about how personal letters/emails capture such a candid snapshot of the little details of life. Here is a pic of Mindi and I at her wedding.

"Min-
Thanks, for the email. There are days when I longingly remember the life I had (all 16 months of it)when it was just Jim and I, and you trying to decide what to do on a day off reminded me of that, today. As well as when I saw part of a scene on tv where a husband called his wife from work and said, "Meet me at Alexander's for dinner at seven." She showed up in a pretty red dress...don't get me wrong, my life is fulfilling, but often in a less peaceful and glamorous way.

Jim got back from Brazil yesterday morning, and visited us in class at co-op on his way home from the airport. We came home and had a picnic lunch on the deck, then, he spent the rest of the nice-weather-day mowing and moving dirt with his tractor, while the kids played outside, and I went for a five mile walk. I weighed myself this morning and had apparently lost 4 pounds just yesterday!

We left for softball practice at 4:30 (Jim's coaching, so I'm 'the coach's wife' which makes me in charge of fun things--like handing out papers and uniforms yesterday--but I like to get in there and dirty practicing with the girls, too, when I can--which means when it's not in the 40s, pouring rain, and blowing 30 mph--which it was the last practice I came to, so I had to stay in the car with Catie--and then, Andrew, after he got too wet and cold.

Next, we all went straight to AWANA after softball where I 'pulled my hair out' because I had a headache, was hungry, tired, and the kids were SO LOUD--kind of ironic that we had to fill out a questionaire that very night on our intentions to help with club next year--Jim had to be my voice of reason on that one--I was in no frame of mind to say 'yes' right then--but he clarified that WE both wanted to be Sparks leaders at least one more year because we could do it together with Jess and Drew on a team together--and lastly, we were home at 8:30 where I GOT to make dinner. Luckily, we had decent leftovers and I whipped together a salad. As I was putting Cate in her high chair and removing her jacket, I saw a label stuck across her tummy that read 'PIG'--I remembered her nursery teachers were holding a labeler when I dropped her off (I assumed they were using it to label cubbies or toy bins), but it clicked that perhaps they were playing a joke with us because Catherine always crams down all the Cheerios at snack time--pretty funny. Yes, I do feed her. She gets 2 or 3 'dinners' on busy days like yesterday. She sat in her stroller and snacked all through softball practice, so I guess the label fits.

Love, Tami"