I'm tired and can't think of a good name for this post. So I'm going to bed.

(It's late on Sunday night and I'm ready to turn in.  That "Title" field at the top of my screen is going to haunt me unless I put something in there and this is all I've got.  I know it's not descriptive.  I know it's kind of lame.  I know it's "taking the easy way out."... So if you've got something better, leave a comment and maybe your suggestion will be chosen to replace it!)

As I type this post, I'm sitting in a chair at the nail salon I frequent rather INfrequently. You can usually find me here once in about every 6 months (and usually only when the stars align perfectly... cash + kids at the lake = mommy time for pedicures and haircuts).  

This weekend was pretty busy, in a low-key way.
A friend hilighted my hair on Friday... something I've never done and it turned out really good.  John came with me and hung out with her hubby and we spent about 3 hours on my hair.  And when I say "we" I mean that I spent a lot of time sitting in a chair while she separated my hair into rows and painstakingly pulled pieces out to put into the foil for color.  Not an easy job!


We got home at around 1:30 a.m.  Yes.  Us.  We're usually ready for bed by 10!  Exhausted but it was worth it.  


On Saturday we (me and John) used a coupon for dinner and totally stuffed ourselves.  Then on Sunday, today, I used a Groupon for a haircut, and now I'm getting my pedicure (the only full price thing I've done all weekend!).  Tonight we're using a Restaurant.com

 gift cert I won at She Saved so this meal will be discounted too!

And yes. I've been saving all of these things up for this (no kids, no cooking) weekend!


(Okay, now I'm home.  Dinner is over and it was pretty good.  Not sitting in the cushy nail salon chair anymore but totally wishing I was.)


In other news...


On Friday I got home to a quiet house (the kids had already left with Grandma and Grandpa for the lake) and saw  this:


Katie's piano (AKA Dolly for now), her fairy wings, and mommy's shoes...

Daddy's shoes and a fruit snack wrapper...

Kitchen utensils, poker chips, and John's coffee mug. 

I was not surprised by any of these.

My kids love shoes.  Katie usually goes for the heels and Jake usually goes for Katie's purple rain boots.  (One lonely purple rain boot was on the couch when I got home.)  Some days I come home and find at least 4 pairs of shoes in the living room.  This is the first time I've seen John's shoes "out for a walk" though.  And in Jake's room.  Strange.  Evidence (the empty fruit snack wrapper) leads me to suspect Katie.  (Jake can't get into the fruit snacks yet but she's very adept at it.)

I suspect Jake is responsible for the kitchen utensils.  He's got a history.  Yep, John confirmed that Jake took them out and Katie took them away from him.  Apparently they were too "dangerous" for Jake.

So there are days when we put away a lot of shoes and kitchen stuff.  At least I didn't have to search the house for the pots and pans... that wouldn't be a strange occurrence here either.

Oh, and something to help me miss the kids more while they're at the lake?  Cute brother/sister pics from last week:

I heard lots of talking behind my chair.  I didn't hear any yelling, whining, or screaming.  I had to get up to take a look and I had to take a picture because these kids were just.that.CUTE!

Katie had set up a reading area by our front door.  She had blankets, a kids chair, and her Mr. Bear all set up and she was sharing with Jacob and reading him a book.

More playing the next morning.  Sitting together and talking with each other.  Ahhh, what a sweet sound.

And another sweet moment between a brother and sister... yes, the blankets are still out from the early afternoon.  And yes, Jake does seem to live in his jammies.  (I promise he does have clothes.  He just doesn't have a very busy social life.)

Oh, we had a theater production of some princess story that I can't remember now.  Katie had the starring roles as Princess, Evil Witch, and Katie.  She got rave reviews from mommy and daddy.  Jake had a cameo as blurry boy.  

In the scene shown below, Katie is in her Princess role.  Note the demure expression and the hand to her neck.  I'm not sure if that's surprise or a stereotypical southern belle type of thing.

We also had an exciting breakthrough when Katie learned to TIE her belt!  She got it!  I was so proud of her new skill.  She did it in the exact opposite way (bringing the end up from the bottom instead of down from the top) I had been showing her and she got it!

(I'm pretty happy she learned to tie her robe belt.  I'm also pretty happy that I won't have to tie it 500 times a day anymore!)

We also went out for pizza with Rachel and her kids and Grandma and Grandpa on Tuesday and Katie and Jake played downstairs a bit (catching up on Grandma and Grandpa time they missed while G&G were at their lake place for the week) on Wednesday and that's about it. 

I got home on Thursday ready to grill her about her field trips and she was asleep.  Totally out of it.  John said that Jake was sitting on her head and she didn't even stir.  So I picked her up and gave her a kiss on her cheek and put her to bed.  At 7:45.  And didn't see her on Friday because they were gone before I got home.  

The kids come home tomorrow afternoon and I'm excited to see them.  They seem to grow so much in the time they are away!