Heather's Visit

I feel so sad that I don't have proper pictures of Heather and me having all the fun we did for the ten days that she came to visit. Heather and I struggle with the same problem: we don't like to go clothes shopping alone, we don't like to go with our husbands (they whine too much), and we don't like to go with friends. We only like to shop for clothes with our sisters, and that has become a real problem for those of us who live without any blood sisters nearby. I resolved the problem by sucking it up and buying essentials as quickly as possible (a shirt here, try on those pants, get out quickly). Heather solved her problem by waiting almost five years to buy anything, and when she finally couldn't live without a proper wardrobe for one minute longer, by making the long drive from Colorado to her nearest sister (moi) to go shopping.

And boy did we shop. We spent the entire weekend covering several malls. We took our babies with us and combed the malls with strollers. We left our babies with family, dashing through stores with that odd newfound freedom and speed that stroller-less moms experience. We loved it. We walked so much, the both of us got sore muscles, but it was a proud sort of sore because we had accomplished something neither of us had experienced much in the past few years: clothes and sisters.

I love shopping. I never got tired of it. You'd think after that many hours in a mall, I'd be happy to stay away from a mall for the next five years, but honestly I don't think I could ever tire of shopping. I bought so many new clothes for Scarlet that I had to put a no-spending ban on myself. But I loved it all and I'm a little depressed that it's all over.

We also did other things, like visit Temple Square and go to the state fair. I love the state fair and Heather was kind enough to document these events for us. It's so hard to get in family photos when you don't have a silent partner there to capture the moments.

I wish she could come back or I could visit her. Darn this impending winter, when we'll both be snow-locked! Hopefully the next time we see each other, it'll be in Disneyland! We both fantasize about going to Disneyland--maybe this time we'll actually do it.

Other Babies Coo, Mine Growls

I'm not joking. This is why we bought her a lion costume for Halloween. Because she honest-to-goodness growls to herself when she's playing. I tried to take a picture of her while she was happily growling on her blanket, playing with her bucket of blocks. She caught me.

One Whole Day

I have one whole day of freedom before I have to meet again with my school group. One whole day. I could spend that day working on my other schoolwork, of which there is still plenty, of course, but I do have this Saturday scheduled to focus entirely on schoolwork, a Saturday where Josh can take care of my daughter and I can hole up and concentrate solely on my work. (I'm actually looking forward to that because I'm so worn down from all of Scarlet's interruptions during my school time on the weekdays.) And I am in a celebratory mood because a minor class was passed last night. So instead of working on things I probably should be working on, I'll take this time to do something I've let drop in the past couple of months. I'm going to READ. Oh, how I can't wait for work to end so I can pick up my half-finished novel, devour it, and start a new one. I'm daydreaming about it. Just seven more hours of work...