Well, we made it. Chris made it through another RAGBRAI - his fourth, and we girls made it through a week without him. I think the week without him was the hardest on Sugar. There was only so much attention to go around, and she definitely got the short end of the stick. None of us girls were going to take her jogging in the 90 degree temperatures!

Olivia, Elliott and I joined Jackie and Jamie, along with our friend Heidi and her two kids - Hunter and Olivia in a trip to the Lost Island waterpark in Waterloo. It was our first tme and it was a lot of fun! Olivia and Olivia really got along well and the ratio of four adults to four kids was just about perfect. Elliott enjoyed it all, but still needed a nap in the afternoon. I thought she would be able to get through one day without, but the ten minute screaming meme showed me that I was wrong. The kid was practically begging for a nap! She gladly laid down and snoozed on her towel in the shade for an hour. Poor Olivia ended up with a pretty good sunburn, despite the sunscreen applications.

The bus pulled in a little bit before ten last night to drop Chris off. He said he was very glad to have a real shower and a real bed. They were reportedly very happy with how the bus worked out. He said that it will need some maintenance before next year, but that it was a good decision for the team. The girls were very happy to see him this morning. Elliott snuggled with me in bed for a while this morning before we got up. I told her that her Daddy was home, and she said - my nonny old daddy?? Yep, that's the one!! She was instantly ramped up and ready to see her daddy!

Olivia and I went school shopping today. I just love school shopping. She has most everything she needs - except for the elusive dry erase eraser. She opted for a messenger bag this year instead of the standard back pack. It looks huge on her!! She got new gym shoes, and two new pairs of school shoes. I was a bit startled when we measured her feet and found that she was a size thirteen!!! She is definitely ready for 2nd grade :)

When Jackie was over on Thursday night, she was trying to tell a story that contained a somewhat off-color reference - she started to spell it out loud, but then asked how well Olivia could spell. That kid can spell - so she thought maybe she would sign it to me. Only problem was that Olivia was saying the letters out loud as went - and she was doing a better job of it than I was!!! Can't get anything past that kid :)

Hello Houston, we have growth. Both of my girls must be ingesting miracle grow on the sly. I measured Olivia yesterday on her growth chart - I've been thinking this last week that she really seems like she's getting bigger. It wasn't just my imagination. Since March, she has grown an inch and a quarter!! Most of that I swear was overnight - we have measured her a few times since March without any noteworthy growth and then wow! She's almost to the top of her chart - she's sure to be taller than me by the end of the year - or at least so it seems.

Olivia woke Elliott up this morning, and insisted that she had grown too. She was getting her to stand up next to her chart when I walked into the room. Sure enough, our little squirt has had a spurt too. Her last mark on her chart was in mid-June. She has grown a hair over an inch and a quarter in a month!!!! Kids - they have a way of doing that, just when you get used to the size they are, they go and grow!

Roger and Diane left this morning for their trip to Colorado to visit her twin sister Donna and her family. They are very excited, as would I be. We've always enjoyed the time we've spent with Donna and Ron. I'm looking forward to doing a little more traveling as the kids get older, but I think we have to hit Texas before we head to Colorado - unless my Texas sweeties decide to come back North. I would start to extol the virtues of Northern living, but after watching the weather forecast this morning... highs in the 90's and unbearably humid for the foreseeable future. At least we don't have fire ants???

And, just so you can all sleep well tonight - I did remember to roll the trash can out to the curb last night :) Go me...

Well, it happened... I finally broke out the sprinkler and made it rain last night. It took me quite a while to get it appropriately situated, and I still think that I was watering the fence more than anything. I think I was inside for a shorter period of time than it took me to set up the sprinkler before it started to rain. Good old Murphy - he rarely lets me down!

We had a really nice time with Jackie, Griffin and Speckles for dinner last night. We indulged on hamburger helper and corn on the cob. Hamburger helper you gasp with disgust... Well it's a forbidden food at our house - somehow my husband is a huge HH snob. The corn, although not Fincels - was delicious and cooked to perfection. And the double chocolate - chocolate chip cookies for desert were divine. I tried to convince the girls that they were dirt cookies, but no one was willing to give theirs up!

And the girls were very insistent that Jackie give them their bath. Who was I to argue? I even got a load of laundry folded while they frolicked. Poor Jackie was simply exhausted by the time she left, but believe it or not she's coming back for dinner and visiting on Thursday :) By then she'll be an old pro at bath time :)

I must say that it's a lot of work being a temporary single parent. I imagine if you did it all the time, you would have your routines established and delevop a tolerance - I'm just not there yet, nor do I want to get there. I have the kid stuff all well under control - it's the things like watering the garden, emptying the dehumidifier, remembering to take the trash to the curb on garbage day that seem to get me.

Last night was a long night for me, with the hospital Board meeting finishing up at nine. Grandma Diane and Papa Roger brought dinner for us, which was divine! And the girls had a marvelous time playing with them when I went back to work. It was reported that Olivia gave Papa a complete extreme makeover, including a skirt, barrettes and makeup. Oh how I wish they would have been able to find the camera!!

Chris called while I was gone to check in. He spoke with Olivia and Diane, and near as I can tell, all is going pretty well. He did report in our brief conversation on Sunday evening that he had a flat tire on his bike that day, and that they were having some issues with the starter on the bus. Hopefully all of their karma has been cleansed now and they'll have smooth biking for the rest of their journey.

We are looking forward to having Jackie and her dogs over for dinner tonight. And I MUST, simply MUST water the garden if it doesn't rain today. I definitely feel like my friend Len who was always in danger of killing every plant they owned while his wife Anna was away. The things that are not in my routine are simply that - not in my routine.

I am 3/4 of the way through Marley & Me and I LOVE IT!!! It's one of those books that's super easy to read. I've laughed, I've cried, I've had trouble putting it down. I love to read in general, but this book has definitely been a treasure. I have to thank my friend Carol for recommending it.

Well - here's to Tuesday :)

We had a good and full day yesterday. We rode our bikes to the post office and the library. The girls and I cleaned out their sandbox. It was quite the growing ground for little trees and weeds. I weeded in the garden a bit. I mowed in the afternoon, and after showers, we packed up and headed out for a surprise! It drove Olivia crazy to not know what the surprise was :) I didn't want to tell her ahead of time, just in case it didn't work out. We drove to Waverly to watch the Heritage Days fireworks. I was a little bit worried that we were going to be rained out, it started sprinkling just as we pulled into town. They shoot the fireworks off on the golf course, so to avoid all of the traffic and mass chaos, we parked at the hospital. We spent some time in my office, waiting for it to get dark, and then ventured out onto the deck outside of my office. It turned out to be the perfect viewing spot. There were a few that were a little low and might have been better closer, but for the most part we had a great view and all of the effects of the big booms. My boss and his daughter and her friend had the same idea, as well as some other off-duty hospital workers, and some that were on duty in the ER. Being up a bit and off the grass helped with the mosquitos too. Both girls were really tired. Olivia fell asleep on the deck bench and slept through the grand finale and all of it's massive booming. Both were asleep in the car on the way home. We left Sugar at home, but not kenneled up, and we were very impressed - there was no destruction - at least none that we've found :) Of course, despite being up until 11:00, Elliott was awake before 6:00 this morning. I'm quick to get up with her as she's wearing panties to bed now, and I want to avoid accidents. I did get her to lay down with me until 7:00. I think we'll all be ready for a nap today!!!

The big yellow bus pulled up in front of our house at about 7:15 this morning, and was on it's way again at 7:30. It looks like they are going to have some pretty good weather for this year's RAGBRAI. The girls and I have been looking forward to our girls only week. We did try to convince Chris to take Sugar with him for the week, somehow that didn't work!

Other than RAGBRAI - let's see... Olivia has almost completed her thirty books for her summer reading list. That has been a great way to keep us motivated to go to the library. Yesterday we went after work, joined by Savannah. I LOVE our library. They know us, we never have to show our card or tell them our number. I had them hold Marley and Me for me (a book about a challenging dog and his owners - Chris just chuckled reading the cover because he was reminded so much of Sugar) - and when we went to check out, she had it up on the counter waiting for me! I LOVE it!!! Of course, everytime we go, we have to talk Elliott out of checking out the scooby doo video. It's not that we dislike the scooby doo - but the video tape is just in horrendous condition - but it's the one she wants EVERY time.

Elliott has been quite the hoot lately, making us laugh out loud quite frequently. The other day she asked her dad if she could watch some scooby doo and he said yes. She came running over to me and reported that her dad said she should watch scooby doo. Who could argue with that! Yesterday, she had gotten her after school tootsie roll out of the drawer and was looking for help to open it. Chris said - you can open that. She replied that no, she couldn't open that, she can only open the blue ones. Well - there you have it!!!

Happy Birthday to the Divine Miss M!!! My niece Morgan turned 5 yesterday!!! It looks like she had a great time at Chuck E Cheese's celebrating - the girl knows how to have a good time :) We are so excited for her to be starting kindergarten this fall - I know she's going to love it! We were reminiscing at lunch yesterday about the start of school and how exciting it is to go shopping for new school supplies. I admitted that I still, as a parent, LOVE to go shopping for new school supplies. I always stock up on extra to keep around the house just for fun and because they have such darn good sales. We talked about the excitement of picking out the outfit you were going to wear on the first day - and how it always seemed that it was just way too hot to wear any of the new "school" clothes that you got. Olivia is very anxious to start second grade - it seems that it's just torture for her to wait!! To me it seems that it will be here in another blink of the eye, but I know that time moves differently when you're her age. She is supposed to have water play day at daycare today, but it's looking an awful lot like rain. I hope that it clears up - poor girl had rain on the day that they were supposed to have their field trip and it was postponed - until we were gone to Minnesota. I guess that's the way it goes, and certainly none of us would have traded our trip to the lake for a field trip to a farm!!! Have a stupendous Friday!!!

We had a great time on our vacation to the lake. Perry and Deb have a little piece of heaven in their cabin on Belle Taine Lake. The weather was perfect - in the 90's and only a small splash of rain on Thursday. We spent a lot of time in the lake and building sand and rock castles on the beach. We went boating and tubing - it was the first time tubing for both Olivia and I. We both thought it was a lot of fun!! Elliott, in usual fashion, had no fear of the water - which was good, but it also meant that we constantly had to have one eye on her. She really enjoyed wading out, filling up her bucket, and coming back to shore to empty her bucket. I'm not sure what she was working on, but she was very intent! It was really a relaxing vacation.

The girls even did pretty well for the long ride home on Sunday. The only real mishap was when I went to put a DVD in the player for the girls for the last leg of our trip - I went to put Elliott's headset on only to find that she had chewed through the wire!!! Stinker - at least it was the pair from the dollar store and not my nice Sony headset. We left from the cabin at about 10 a.m. and pulled in to Janesville at about 6 p.m. We were all ready to be out of the car. And Sugey did well at our neighbor's house. Barb, Steve and Savannah actually seem to enjoy having her - miracle of all miracles!!! And it's so nice to just walk next door to drop her off and pick her up. We really appreciate that.

Ten minutes to post in the morning - what a luxury!! It's been another fast week. We are glad to have Olivia home, although she had a spectacular time at Grandma Katie's and Papa Al's. I'm sure she would have agreed to stay for another week!!

We went to the Nissen's for the 4th of July. We had good food, great company and a beautiful day. Elliott got a lot of attention from Kayla and Dillon as Olivia wasn't there. We didn't make it to any fireworks though. Just too late of a night when we had to be up and around so early in the morning.

I fear that Elliott is like me when it comes to breakfast - not real fond of traditional breakfast foods. The last two mornings she has had macaroni and cheese. Strange - but she actually eats it so who am I to complain? This is my girl who ate a frozen waffle for breakfast prit near every day, and then one morning she announced to me that she doesn't like waffles - she's two. Well, of course, that makes perfect sense...

Well, time to get the train moving out the door. Have a fabulous Friday!!!

Monday, Monday, oh what a day... I had the most decadant time getting ready for work this morning with no kids!!! Olivia is at Grandma Katie's and Elliott left with Chris to go to Grandma Diane's for the day. I actually don't feel rushed and at witts end. Best not get used to that :)

We had a great time at my cousin Nicole's wedding this weekend in Dubuque. Church was a little nerve wracking. Elliott did pretty well, but Olivia was sitting too close to Grandma Katie. You put the two of them together and they have a tendency to nonny-ness. (for those of you who haven't heard us throwing around the nonny word - I think that was Elliott's first attempt at saying naughty, and it's just stuck in our household!!)

The girls had a blast at the reception. It was at the fairgrounds, so there was a big dance floor and lots of room to run. And run they did!! It was so much fun to watch Olivia play with the children of my cousins. Growing up - it was so much fun to have cousins close in age. In my age group it was Angie who was two years older than me, Kristi who was one year older, me, and Brenda who was one year younger. Now its Toni (Brenda's daughter) who is going into third grade, Olivia who is going into second grade, Rachel (Angie's daughter) who is going into first grade, and Allie (Brenda's daughter) who is going into kindergarten. It's like watching ourselves all over again. I didn't mention Kristi's kids in that mix - they are both in highschool and wow have they grown up. I don't see them very often so I was struck by the change - they no longer look like kids, they look like young adults!! What does that make me? Old lady - I know - that's what I felt like going to the wedding of someone I used to babysit for!!!!

Olivia is very excited to be spending some days with Grandma Katie and Papa Al. She barely conceded that she would miss me a little bit. She was pretty adamant that she needed some time alone with her Grandma and Papa. They are going to put her to work as they complete preparations for their new kitchen floor. She is a really good helper.

I mowed the lawn after we got home yesterday. It hasn't been that long since Chris last mowed, but it sure needed it. Elliott was eager to help. She scouted out dog poop with me, and then was content to do sidewalk chalk on the driveway with her dad and a freeze pop. After the lawn, I loaded Elliott in the trailer and I hopped on the bike and we took the (overdue) movie back to the library. I just love being able to hop on the bike with her - especially now that O has gotten so good at riding hers. It's just so easy to be able to ride to the library or to the park. I love it!! No - I don't love it enough to go on RAGBRAI - you'll note that I'm talking about distances of blocks - not miles!!!

Well, I've managed to ramble on without really saying anything, so I guess my job here is done!!! Have a great Monday and a fabulous 4th!!!!