Back to Normal .... almost

Now that I'm feeling much better, it's time for another update....I guess the late nights in Vegas put me over the edge because I haven't had a cold knock me out quite like this one did. But I'm so glad to be able to actually stay awake all day again :)

The girls missed us of course, but had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa. Katelyn keeps a journal for school and just last night she wrote all about it -- with a page and a half dedicated to the trip to Build-a-Bear - and surprise - not a single mention of the final price tag. I thought after hearing how many times you all ate chicken and noodles that I'd need to be creative with meals, but the girls are staying true to form and ate noodles last night and Katelyn's taken chicken to school for lunch at least a few times this week. Although they do have a new favorite snack (thanks Mom!) - Apples dipped in cinnamon-sugar -- or as Lindsay says "spinamon"

The highlight of the weekend for Mike and Katelyn was definitely the father-daughter dance. Lindsay didn't go, but she had to put on a dress and get in the picture :)

I managed to "sneak" into the dance and get a few pictures. I just loved seeing her dancing with Mike and with her friends.

Cookie Mom

Katelyn is in her second year of girl scouts now -- she's a Brownie. Part way through last year she wanted me to become troop leader this year. I explained that it didn't work that way -- that most times troop leaders stay with their troops, so if she wanted to stay in her same troop I couldn't be troop leader. Her troop leaders are the moms of 2 of her very good friends - so I couldn't understand why it was such a big deal for me to be troop leader. Her explanation....."but Mom, Sarah and Julia get patches that say 'My mom is a troop leader'!" Later she realized that the mom who volunteered to help with cookies also got a patch for her daughter saying "My mom is the cookie mom". So we compromised, I'm not a troop leader (phew!) but this year .... I'm the official Cookie Mom for her troop.

Katelyn did a great job selling this year. She's sold just over 200 boxes and is the top seller for her troop. (Thanks to everyone who bought cookies! :) I picked up about 1000 boxes of cookies - completely filling my Explorer - and then completely filling my dining room.

Luckily we had a beautiful sunny weekend since we spent nearly 3 hours delivering in our neighborhood and another 3 hours working at a booth outside of Lowe's grocery store.

Finally!

Ok, I finally did it. I've been watching my friend's blog now for months. I LOVE the fact that I can watch her little girl grow up even though we live so far apart. My own girls, Katelyn and Lindsay, are growing and changing so fast. I've tried photo-sharing to keep friends and family up to date, but that's not the same...you often miss the story behind the pictures. I thought this might be a good way to share and remember some of the many memories we are making along the way. Hopefully, I'll update this a bit more than I upload pictures :)

The picture above is from our "Snow Day" last month. It sure is different from when I was in school, but the girls and I had such a fun time with our snowball fight, an attempt at sledding and of course hot chocolate with LOTS of marshmallows!