Okay. From Mary, as I can sit here and take my time to do this between sibling tiffs.

1. Yourself:
mom to two

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend:
my husband is napping

3. Your hair:
pigtails inspired by dream

4. Your mother:
gets it done

5. Your Father:
awesome guy.

6. Your Favorite Item:
architecture license

7. Your dream last night:
weird braid extensions.

8. Your Favorite drink
regular coke if calories don't count.

9. Your Dream Car:
stationwagon with 4wd and great fuel economy

10. The Room You Are In:
office, a bit of a pigsty

11. Your Ex:
got me

12. Your fear?
driving into water

13. Where you want to be in 10 years?
right here, mothering at least one more.

14. Who you hung out with last night?
the fam and the boatbuilder and the hubby's old pal.

15. What You're Not:
tall

16. Your Best Friend:
I can't say there's just one now. highschool, she died. 13 years ago.

17. One of Your Wish List Items:
some sort of baby's first year book.

19. The Last Thing You Did:
nurse a baby.

20. What You Are Wearing:
life is good tshirt, jeans, bare piggies.

21. Your Favorite Weather:
cold fall air, sweaters and jeans.

22. Your Favorite Book:
The Red Tent.

23. The Last Thing You Ate:
reese's pieces.

24. Your Life:
excellent. love the fam.

25. Your Mood:
tired, still have work to do.

26. Your body:
flabby but working on it

27. What are you thinking about right now:
going to lay down with the book and the babe.

28. Your Crush:
I'm so out of touch I'm not going to even try.

29. What are you doing at the moment:
this. And watching the kids play decently.

30. Your summer schedule:
It's pretty well over now. We're going to see Real Dinosaur Bones at some point.

Today we met Nino's preschool teacher. They have this very defined process for starting school, which begins with a home visit, then the kids and parents visit the class, then we drop off. I'm so excited about this program. They've thought of it all and know what to expect from 3 year olds. She didn't bat an eye at his crazy showoffy behavior. It's also nice when someone calls your child "very bright". ;o)

We went camping for the first time. It was really nice but I was glad to be home. I woke up the next day with a splitting headache, and I think it was all of the stress of the dirt, the bugs, the not bathing, the lakeside site/3 year old/campfire combination just slamming into me the moment I got some rest. Hubby wanted to go back this weekend, but I'm thankful that the holiday has it all booked up. We'll go the following weekend, after I've had my fill of screens and showers.

So here it is. Vacation week.

We played miniature golf, which lasted 3 holes and 45 minutes. The place was packed.

We also went to old sturbridge village. Kids had way more fun than I expected. Blacksmiths are cool.

When you go to target for portraits with a coupon and don't have an appointment, expect to get what you pay for. They made me wait, and now I have to wait 15 days to pick them up. "Why does it take so long?" "It takes 7-10 days". "um . . . 15?" "the holiday?"

Right. A one day holiday makes it take 5 more days.

Oh and I changed the photos above. Aren't they just the cutest things?

See?

Found the camera. Just in time for some hysterical photo taking, of course.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do next week. Babysitter is going on vacation, but I still need to get some work done. I'm thinking of finding a neighborhood girl to hang out with them a few hours for a few days. I hope they're cheap, because I still pay for vacation time. The arrangement sucks.

Seriously. Take me off your invitation list if you're planning to invite me to your wedding, kidfree, at 5 pm Friday in Boston, and I hardly know you. Your fiance/husband's parent company's vp is nice and all but really.

And then into Boston again tonight for a cocktail/schmooze hour. It was beautiful and fun but I missed the rugrats. I now have a good structural engineer contact though. Speaking of, I need to make business cards.

Speaking of making things, I made Nino's backpack for school and it's sooo cute. I really love it and think I might just make and sell a few. It's so simple and old-school. And toddler sized. I'm not putting a full sized one on his little back. But it will still hold full-size artwork.

I would take a picture but I can't find the camera. I remember the last day I had it but no clue. I'll keep looking.

Our neighbor has a fish pond. She let us use her pool for a few weeks for swimming lessons, and the pool is always open to us. She mentioned that she wanted a frog for her fish pond. So this afternoon, we went to Uncle's house, got out the nets, and grabbed her three tiny frogs. And luck of all lucks, they are different patterns - stripey, spotty, and mostly plain. So we delivered them. I hope they flourish there. It was a fun adventure and I hope it worked out.

Fortunately, the chinese soup tub stayed shut the entire ride and the only thing that smells of frog water is the tub itself. I drove in a tizzy all worried.

Both kids also have a viral rash. No telling what it is, but they have a lacy but not bumpy rash primarily on their cheeks. Also present on arms, shoulders, and bum. In the sun, it gets nice and red and streaky on the cheeks and they look like I should have them shuttered up with chicken soup or something. But they're really fine.

It's been a while huh? Just life, nothing very exciting. Lots of pool-beach-park-sprinkler stuff going on. Not to mention a few illnesses. Nino had this awful cough for over two weeks (finally gone? knock on wood), I got a lovely case of mastitis, and M currently has the poops either related to the antibiotics and/or the tooth. I can't even figure out where she's teething but she definitely is. She's already got the front eight so your guess is as good as mine.

On another note, good luck today Stacy. I can't wait to see pics of that beautiful baby girl!