Quick Takes Friday

1-
We had a pretty good time in Las Vegas...not so sure I'd go back again. Lots of smoke, wasting money and other not so good for you things. Maybe my opinion of the trip would be different if 1) we hadn't gotten suckered into lying while we were there (long story) and 2) that hadn't meant that we would need to go to confession when we got to the Knights of Columbus with our former priest who is now the state Chaplain for Knights...he is just so extremely holy, it is very intimidating (not to mention he gives weird penances...) and I could just feel how disappointed in us he was over the whole situation. When I mentioned that the only reason we went to Vegas was it was the only destination I could come up with where hubby didn't want to bring the kids, he told me that our kids SHOULD go on vacation with us (which they usually do...) He also told me his list of 4 things that married couples should do each year. Number one, every year the wife should go on a weekend retreat, just her and God, the more silence the better. Number two, every year the husband should go away for a weekend retreat, just himself and God, the more silence the better. Number 3, every year the couple should go away for a weekend retreat together with God. Number 4, every family should take a yearly family vacation and make sure to do something for their faith on the trip, visit a shrine, a Cathedral, or something else while on vacation.

2-
The highlights for our Las Vegas vacation for me were seeing the Bellagio fountains (so beautiful!), meeting with hubby's high school classmates who live and work as lawyers in Vegas (too much fun chatting with them) who are getting ready for their first daughter, finding a new purse after mine (that was my mother's day present) kicked the bucket completely...after looking at tons of purses in the over $100 to WAY over $100 range (one was $895 on sale!) I found a plain but functional purse at the Gap for under $20, finding gifts for the girls (we wanted something personalized, but do you know how hard it is to find things with the names Eva and Charlotte???), and lazing around in the Backlot River pool (basically, a river shaped pool with a current so all you have to do is float along!)

3-
Our biggest fight during the vacation happened after we had flown back to Denver while we were driving down to Colorado Springs. The weather was pretty sketchy, so we stopped at a mall to kill some time while the rain and hail died down a little bit. I found two books on clearance for $3 each at a bookstore, one that I thought Eva would really enjoy having read to her, and another that I thought would be fun to read (by this point in the trip, I was out of reading material until hubby finally finished his book). Hubby gave me this whole speech about how he had promised me that he would tell me not to buy books from a bookstore, since I do so much paperbackswap...he basically was a big jerk to me about it, and I told him so, which he didn't like. In the end, I put both books back, reminded myself to stop telling hubby anything, and we went on our way. He felt a little bad about the fight, so I think mostly to make it up to me, the next day, we spent some time at another bookstore, and in their clearance books, we found the same book I wanted in hardcover for $1. At that point, he did let me buy the book, and I finished it before he got done with his morning of meetings the next day. The book was The Mr. & Mrs. Happy Handbook by Steve Doocy and contains such useful advice as "Never play strip poker with your neighbors or any member of the Knights of Columbus."

4-
When we got home on Sunday evening, we didn't go pick up the girls, because I had an appointment on Monday morning. So, Monday morning as hubby was heading to work, he woke me up, told me to get out of bed and get ready to go...and I had to ask "why is it that I need to get up again???" (I really couldn't remember...it had been a long week!) So, I got up, got dressed, and headed out the door. I found out that it is a much faster trip up there without children in tow, so I managed to do all my shopping before my appointment (okay, mostly I needed dog food and a couple of items from Walgreens). I ended up not getting an adjustment because it turns out I lost 9.2 lbs in two weeks! The doc told me to keep doing what I had been doing...of course, what I had been doing was a TON of walking in Las Vegas and eating out for every meal, and not cooking, cleaning or caring for children. I doubt I'll do quite that well at home, but it does make me think that maybe the restriction of my band is working.

5-
We have been falling pretty quickly back into a schedule. Tuesday Eva had a library thing, Wednesday and Thursday we did school, and we will be doing school again today after I get done with these quick takes (you gotta have priorities!) and the girls have been sleeping pretty well, considering how different our schedule is from grandma's (complete lack of a) schedule. I think we can safely say that Charlotte is officially potty trained! She even makes it through a great majority of nights without having an accident, and will NOT wear a pull up anymore.

6-
I'm VERY excited for tomorrow! Hubby has the day off work, so that means a two day weekend, and we are going to host a little picnic here. I'm not sure who all will make it, but it sounds like it will be a smaller crowd. The girls and I are going to make a flag cake, and we are going to have hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, baked beans, and watermelon (and whatever salad(s) MIL brings down). The girls are excited to wear their dopey 4th of July headbands...here's a picture of Charlotte in hers last year. (which reminds me how very much I love our new camera...our kids just move way too much for our old one!)

7-
We are trying to decide whether or not to go to the Midwest Catholic Family Conference next month in Wichita. I'd love to go, the speakers look great, and it is always fun for us to go. Hubby's main issues are that Charlotte still won't be quite old enough for the kids program and she will probably be very mad that Eva gets to go and she doesn't, and that we have so many household projects to do around here. So, we really aren't any closer to making a decision yet, but the good news is the registration fee doesn't go up until after the 24th of July, so we still have a couple of weeks to figure it out!

More quick takes, as always at Jen's blog!