10 things

I'm still here.  I promise.  I've not intentionally quit blogging.  It just hasn't happened.
I definitely miss it.  So while things may be a little sleepy here on the blog, I promise it's not dead.

The last year or 2, my blogging has gotten slower and slower. Ha, you've noticed haven't you?
Pretty par for the course considering most other aspects of my life in the last 2 years also.  Seems my theme lately is just trying to stay afloat. I don't mean that in a totally depressing, overwhelming way.  I just mean that life kind of just caught up to me.  I guess after baby #3??  A lot changed in the last 2 years. And I can't really even explain, or pin point what's different. It's just different.  And I'm learning to be okay with that.  I'm learning what I can and can't do...and learning to be content with the things I can't get to.

And I'm thankful for Instagram to record quick bits of our days and capture memories that I sometimes don't have time to record here.

So how about a quick list of some random updates...

1.  Tomorrow will start day 1 of no pop.  I knew this day was coming, but I have to work up to it. Ya know, like get in as many as I can and savor every last drop and mentally prepare for the day that I have to say goodbye. I can't just go cold turkey one day.  I just love Pepsi too much.  But today is the day.  The last drops of pop are gone from our house and we committed to not buying more.
I can do this!

2.  We're going on another free cruise through Premier!  I worked to earn it free for both Dave and I.  And then the night we had to make our final decision by midnight about whether we were actually going...we decided at 11:45pm, after going back and forth on the decision.  The 7 day cruise is free, but we still have to get there.  And we so badly wanted to spend a few days in New York City since that's where the boat is leaving from.  It's always humbling when you come to reality of just not being able to do it all.  But after transferring all our Southwest points from this summer into one account, getting one of our tickets super cheap, and cutting out all the days we had planned to spend in NYC, we decided to go for it!  We're pretty pumped about 7 days on a boat, just the 2 of us.  We might be the most excited about getting some extra sleep.

3. While everyone else is complaining about the winter...I don't mind it.  Actually I love winter.  And with long ones like this I move from LOVING it...to not minding it.  It definitely helps that my kids don't mind playing in the cold.  All 3 of them will still spend hours outside (many times with neighbor friends) even on the coldest days.

4.  Dave says we are burning our last fire of the season because we're out of wood.  SO, in that case.  Spring can come. Because a big reason I love winter is our wood-burning stove and the cozy warm fires that are constantly going.  It cracks me up to read posts from others about wearing layers of clothes, being wrapped in blankets and just freezing their booties off even at home...while we sit here in short sleeves with my sweat pants pulled up into shorts.

5. We jumped on the band wagon with all the Wichita State Shocker fans?  Are you on it too?  I bleed purple, but it's fun to have another Kansas team to cheer for too.  We're all together pretty excited about the tournament coming up!  Looks like we'll be trying to catch tournament games while we're on the boat or in airports...like we did a few years ago. 

6. Speaking of basketball, I coached Taylor's first basketball team in December and January.  It was so much fun!  Dave and I have both loved coaching the kids' teams.  So far, 2 seasons of indoor soccer, 1 season of outdoor soccer, 1 season of t-ball and and season of basketball.

7.  In case you were wondering if we ever heard from the Amazing Race people..nope.  Oh, did I ever even tell you that we auditioned?  We did.  And just in our usual fashion, we debated all day long and went at the very last minute.  Going at the last minute means you don't have time to find a sitter for the kids.  So they got to come along.  And we really had no clue what they'd do when it was our turn.  All we knew is we had 1 minute to tell them why they should pick us. Our kids waited in line for an hour and a half with us.  When we got very near to the front, we spotted Dave's cousin Terry (who was there for the hockey game) and he tried to take the kids with them, only the big kids would go.  So we still weren't sure what we'd do with Gavin when it was our turn.  We ended up putting him at our feet, below the line of the camera, and he just stared up at us during our interview.  It was fun.  We were glad to say we actually did it, instead of just talking about it and wishing we would have.

8. I love this mason jar.  I know it's funny, but I drink water soooo much better when I have something fun to drink it out of.  And a drop of Wild Orange or Lemon essential oils helps too. But then Gavin decided to push it off the counter because it was in his way. Pretty typical of him, but this is the first time the object has been glass.
I was so sad.  This was right after he poured an entire bottle of real maple syrup into his bowl of cereal, and relocated a few things that didn't belong to him into the fish aquarium.  But he's so darn cute.

9.  I saw this on Pinterest and decided it had my name all over it.

10. Do you watch the Oscars?  I never have until this year.  My sister was here after she got to spend the weekend at Whatever Craft Weekend.  And considering we only see her a few times a year, it was weird having her in town but not with us.  But we were thankful she spent an extra day with us and helped us celebrate Mason's birthday.
She and her best friend are all about the Oscars and try to watch all of the best picture nominees.  So Dave and I sat through all the red carpet stuff and then the awards show.  I've never been a huge Ellen fan but I thought she was amazing! And now Dave and I have a list of movies we want to see.  Captain Phillips is the only one we've seen so far, which was very good!  But this is what I really want to see right now...

Hopefully I'll be back soon.  We had a March Madness birthday party I'll hopefully get to post soon.
Thanks for sticking around despite my absence.