Quick Takes Friday

Well, it has been quite a while since I did any quick takes (I have to admit that three small successes seems less daunting than 7 quick takes these days!) But here it goes...

1-
Charlotte will be 4 (4!) this weekend...I started this blog while I was pregnant with her, which means two things...I have been blogging for too long and my baby is getting too old.

2-
I am absolutely loving the fact that softball season is over and I no longer have to take a daily trip into town. Of course, now MILs exchange student is playing basketball, so she has to take trips into town everyday...plus she is nice enough to let her exchange student participate in jazz band in the mornings, which means she has to take him to school twice a week in the morning and pick him up every evening. I still seem to have plenty to do without softball practice, so I am still trying to decide whether or not to put Eva back in piano lessons. I'm leaning towards perhaps buying her some piano books that I can teach her out of, since I really don't see a need to make another trip into town (particularly since her piano teacher has 6 pm or 7 pm as possibilities for piano lessons on Tuesdays...which would get us home at 7 or 8 pm...)

3-
I got a notification from Snapfish this week. Apparently, they will store your photos in albums there indefinately, as long as you make a purchase every twelve months. I have one week before my 12 months are over...this isn't a big deal because of the photo storage, but it is a sad commentary on how scrapbooking has been going since we put our old house on the market a year ago. So, instead of cleaning my house for Charlotte's birthday party this weekend, I've been uploading photos and blogging...yep, I'm a procrastinator.

4-
My SIL who recently moved back home has been helping me a lot with cleaning the house. Pretty much every weekend, she is willing and ready to help me...between having a much larger house than I am used to, homeschooling both girls this year, and having our exchange student, the house seems to get very cluttered over the course of a week (some weeks it is getting really bad by Wednesday!) but SIL is willing to help out (and even does things like disinfect my trashcan lid...which I would hardly ever do...) This past weekend, she helped me dig out our walk-in closet (that wasn't a walk-in when we started...) and we pulled out seven trash bags and two boxes of giveaway stuff. I'm trying not to turn my closet back into the dumping ground of things I am not sure what do to with. It's very nice to be able to walk in and get our coats, since it started snowing yesterday.

5-
Eva sold candy, nuts and magazines for her girl scout troop. With the money raised, the troop was able to buy tunics for all the daisies and sashes for the brownies and junior girl scouts. Eva sold the most of anyone in the troop, so she ended up with a whole bunch of incentive awards...and she felt bad that her friends didn't get as many prizes as her. I had to remind her that we didn't sell stuff for the prizes, but we sold to help her troop...and that she made a big difference in helping everyone get their tunic or sash. She's been cracking me up with her stuff...a lot of the prize options were monkey related, and she just loves monkeys...so she got a very large stuffed monkey, a little stuffed monkey and a monkey t-shirt, which she wants to wear for the first time to Charlotte's birthday party...Charlotte wants her to wear a "happy heart" shirt instead.

6-
This Sunday, hubby has a Knights of Columbus meeting in the nearest large-ish city, so the girls and I are looking forward to doing some shopping. I am most of all looking forward to buying a booster seat for Charlotte...YEAH for no more carseats!!!

7-
I'm running both out of time and things to say (of course, I will think of 10 more things immediately after I post this and leave the house!) so I guess I will end my quick takes here.

More quick takes over at Conversion Diary.