Thanksgiving...

The Friday before Thanksgiving, Rich had a work thing in Spokane so he went ahead and took the girls to my parents house, which meant I got the house to myself all weekend! Too bad I had to work but hey it was quiet while I was sleeping all day. The girls stayed with my parents and he came home on Monday. I put a first coat of paint on the living room and did most of my Christmas shopping before we headed over the mountains on Wednesday afternoon. My mom hosted Thanksgiving and it was great to see all of my relatives. Apparently I took no pictures so I have none to post!

Okay I'm going to try hard to catch up on the events of the last few months since I've been a very bad blogger!

In October, Rich and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. Hard to believe it's been 10 years since we started dating but it has! Amazing that somebody could put up with me that long haha!

Merry Christmas and a riddle...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Here is a riddle for you all...any guesses?

Catching up...

I know I've been very bad at keeping up with the blog but I'll try to catch up a little. We'll start with Halloween. Madison was Little Bo Peep (costume courtesty of my mom) and Juliana was her sheep. They were very cute!

Birthdays!!!

Couldn't forget the most important post of all! On Sept 12th Juliana turned 2 and we celebrated both girls' birthdays with a My Little Pony Party. Madison was very excited by the box of yoo-hoo my parents brought for her, as well as a strawberry shortcake doll. Juliana was thrilled by her new backpack and her Dora tricycle. Their big gift was a swing set, given by mommy, daddy, and my parents. It is, as I type this, still being put together, but should be done tomorrow. Then I think that will be the highlight of their birthdays! Here are some pics...

No move for us..

At least not for awhile. Back in August Rich and I went to look at 6 houses in the Gig Harbor area. 3 of them were flat out disgusting, 1 was a great house but too far away from his work, one was too expensive, and one was nice but not much bigger than our current house. We really went through our budget and considered what was available in our price range, and decided that this is not the right time to buy for us. We will reconsider it in 3 years when our current house is paid off and we can rent it out. For now we are staying put, unless of course we win the lottery!

Rich is back teaching and coaching. I am of course looking forward to the end of the season, even though now that he is taking over the head cross country coaching position, he will never really have an off season.

Work is going fine for me. After waiting for a year I was finally able to get a part time position, so I will have my own medical benefits and we can get me off Rich's policy, which is going to save us I think $250-300a month yay! I was already working part time, but this benefitted position is different in that I now have to work 2x a week, whereas before I only HAD to work 4x a month. It will out though. We are still really tightly staffed and expecting an increase in deliveries in November so it should be a busy time.

On to September...

At the beginning of September, our babysitter abruptly announced that she was no longer going to be working for us. By abrupt I mean she gave us 5 days notice. That caused some serious stress and me scrambling around, trying to get my Thursday night shifts covered. Luckily I was able to get them covered, and now we have a new babysitter. Rich's aunt has graciously offered to watch the girls for me. I am so very grateful for this!
While I happened to be searching craigslist for a new sitter, I noticed an ad for a preschool that still had openings. I still didn't have Madison enrolled anywhere because I had thought we would be moving (see next post). We went to visit the preschool right away and loved it. The teacher told me that they only reason they had posted an ad on craigslist was because they and the church they are affiliated with had been mistakenly left out of the phone book. This preschool is usually full in the spring, so were very lucky to get her enrolled there. So I guess I can thank the babysitter for that one! She started the 3rd week of September and so far she loves it. Here are some pics from the first day...