Let’s see. Where exactly did this weekend go? On Friday, I got a tooth yanked that was abscessed. It hurt. The drugs really knocked me out for the rest of the day which was ok except I totally forgot that Grandma Vicki was coming down for the weekend to visit the girls. I was pretty out of it all weekend so I’m not sure what they did. Me, I mostly just slept and tried to recover. Thank goodness for pudding is all I can say!

I did manage to drag my sorry self down to IKEA with Kevin on Sunday and we ordered the rest of our kitchen cabinets. They are arriving on Wed. Yikes! Once they are here we will have no excuse left. The thought of tearing up my kitchen makes me break out in hives but I need to keep looking at the big picture, right? Out with the old and in with the new!

It was a perfect weekend for the coast. The beautiful spring weather held for us all weekend. I’m so glad to hear that Kevin managed so easily without me. All this time I’ve been hesitant to leave fearing that he’d be in over his head. Now that I know he has things so very well under control? Well, let’s just say that the mommy going away weekend once every year is definately going to increase. Yes indeed.

Over the weekend I finished a very cute quilt top that is, unfortunately, earmarked for a family Christmas present so I have to pictures I can post here. We also discovered that the cute local quilt shop was having a going out of business/retirement blow out. It was a little bittersweet. One the one hand, the prices on everything were phenominal. But on the other, that meant no more quilt store in Lincoln City. Sigh. Ah well, I guess that means next time we’ll have to try somewhere new.

I wonder if Kat is free next weekend…or do you think that’s too soon?

We’ve been busy here at Casa McLaughlin. Must be the spring weather making us buzz about like bees with things to do and places to go. Has the urge to spring clean hit you yet? I’m beginning to look around and notice the dirt and clutter more and more every day. Poor Kevin. I forsee lots of furniture rearranging in his future. Hee hee.

Anyway, I finally finished up two more identical skirts for the girls. Remember the twirly skirts? Here are their cousins, the button skirts. I cut the fabric a good two months ago and it languished about on my craft table. It was moved and buried and pushed around most rudely until I finally decided to sit down and finish it off. Just like the twirly skirt, it was a snap to sew up and I’m so pleased with the results. Leina? Not so much. She has decided she will “most definately not ever” wear her skirt and threw a fit when I dared to hang the offensive article in her closet. Kulia, of course, decided to take the exact opposite reaction and loves hers. Don’t worry, I fill force Leina’s unwilling body into her skirt if it kills me. I’m seriously thinking I need to start sewing for myself because trying to guess the reaction of a very extremely tempermental 4 year old is wearing me out.

Anyhow, I am not the only one creating. My girls are both crafty chicas extreme. They love paint. I’m not so hot on them painting. We compromise with dot paints. Who ever came up with dot paints should be awarded some sort of mommy nobel peace prize. All the fun of paints without the horror. So here they are, my crafty chicks.

This snail caused them to go into fits of laughter. Why? Because they thought the snail’s tail was poop. Snail poop! Could anything be funnier? Um, yeah. I’m so not looking forward to the whole “poop humor” phase but it seems we are there. Sigh. I can only hope it passes very quickly. Of course, I understand after poop humor comes fart humor. Things to look forward to. Lucky me!

Yesterday everything that has been circling around us decided to collide. At one. It was crazy.

A few days ago, the frame on our sofa broke.

A few days ago, Kevin wrote a check on an account we had closed to Costco.

A few days ago, I noticed Artie had a tooth that looked wrong.

A few days ago, Kevin ordered a new video card for our computer.

And then, yesterday, all of the above were fixed and/or updated. It was a wild ride that went something like this.

Woke up and took Artie to the vet for an 8am exam. He tried to eat everyone he saw even though he was muzzled. Unsurprisingly, the vet didn’t really want to try and open his mouth to take a peek at his teeth. I do not blame her. Artie really does not like strangers prying around his mouth and he has very large and mean looking teeth. So they decided to sedate him and take a look. 20 minutes later I learned that he had two shattered teeth. Poor thing. Image the pain of two shattered teeth! The vet said there was no emanel and she could poke right into the nerve. Yikes.

So I left Artie there for some emergency dentestry and headed home. Kev took off for work after dropping Leina at school. This meant I had to pick up Artie myself. Well, myself and Kulia. Imagine, if you will, the joys of trying to get a very drugged out dog and a two year old across a parking lot and into a car. It was not fun. Threw Artie at home, picked up Leina from school, ran home for lunch where I got a call from Costco saying our check was returned and we needed to try again. Yeah, decided to leave that mess for Kevin. Also found out that our broken sofa was still under warranty. Yippee! New sofa section is on it’s way. Also arrived in the mail, the new video card which Kevin kindly installed so now I can play my computer games without a lot of awful lag. Another yippee. But by the time we crawled into bed, we were wiped. All the odds and ends we were trying to track all week landed at our feet yesterday.

The up side, of course, is that our to do list is strangely empty. Which is good because this weekend is my big coast vacation with Kat. So I can leave worry behind me. Thank goodness.

Oh yes, and Artie? He looks a bit like a hobo with two missing front teeth but he appears to have fully recovered. At I write, his is curled up gnawing a bone quite happily. I can ony imagine he’s relieved we finally notice that fact that his teeth were killing him. Poor old man.

Here she is, with her own very important message for you.

Be nice.

We are back and finally unpacked.

I have spent the last few days totally glued to the computer because some how I found myself with 264 blog posts to read. 264! How long was I gone people?!?! So I have been reading and clicking and reading and clicking but I am finally caught up.

Phew.

That’s the problem with the Internet. Everything is so connected. So one site leads to another, leads to another, and before you know it, it’s 6:30 and the kids are starving and your house has been ravished and your husband has just walked in the door and is looking at the chaos with wides eyes that clearly say “what on earth have you been DOING all day” and some very wise part of your brains warns you not to answer that question because hearing that you surfed the Internet for, like, 8 hours straight will not ease his mind in the least.

So, yeah, I’m back and caught up. Just in time for the weekend. Yippee!