Phew!!!

We have had quite a day today! But let me back up a bit... I stayed up later than my bedtime last night to watch part of a movie with Mike. I actually watched all of "Dan in Real Life," which was a really fun movie. Then Mike watched "Beowulf and Grendel," which is just not my kind of movie, but I stayed up and watched the first part... until I decided that sleep was more important than watching the rest of the movie.

Anyway, I ended up sleeping in until 8 this morning, which just throws my whole day off. I really need to leave the movie watching for Friday and Saturday nights! I made my espresso and had a lovely sprouted sesame seed bagel with onion and chive cream cheese, natural cheddar cheese and broccoli sprouts.

We picked up JJ from school, then headed over to Bass Pro to check out the big fish tank and the (dead, stuffed, but still decidedly cool) animals there. We rode the elevator and walked around and had a grand old time, and the boys were so well behaved! It was wonderful.

Then we went to Arby's and picked up lunch and took it to Mike's office, where we all had a lovely picnic on the picnic table located in between a big field of tall, waving grass and a charming little lake with lily pads in it and a walking trail around it. After we finished eating, we all walked around the lake. We were going to play Pooh-Sticks -- if you haven't seen Winnie the Pooh, "Pooh-Sticks" is a game in which you all choose sticks, then drop them on one side of a bridge and whoever's stick gets to the other side first is the winner -- but the bridge at Daddy's office lake was located just on top of a dam-like thing that just wouldn't work for Pooh-Sticks. So we abandoned our sticks and finished our walk.

We all took a restroom break inside Daddy's office, which is just the ultimate in cool places to the boys. Then we came home and spent quite some time playing in the back yard on the swings. We decided another walk was in order, and walked down the trail behind our house, over the bridge (no water under that bridge) and up to the road, then back again. Yeah, I got my exercise in today! Chasing three active little boys around outside would tire anyone out! They will sleep well tonight, though, and they had SO much fun collecting roly-poly bugs and yellow dandelions and making wishes on big puffy white dandelions before blowing them to pieces... yeah, it was worth it.

I am enjoying sitting right now, and am watching Griffin work on a puzzle and Sammy play on the little VTech computer. I'm really looking forward to tonight when Mike comes home, and am hoping that maybe, just maybe I can have some time to work on cards for my website. I am running pretty low, and I have so many ideas floating around in my head, I just need to sit down and put them "on paper." With my new early bedtime, I need to use my evenings wisely and not waste my free time!

Okay, time to fix dinner. We'll be having cabbage and mushrooms over Ramen noodles tonight. Um, without the mushrooms. Because we don't have any. I think we'll have beets too. Mike's mom makes the most awesome pickled beets, and we have been enjoying them with many meals. They are very versatile, and go with a lot of different foods, so we pair them with at least one meal a week, it seems. Yummy!