Z Sister Update

It's my turn for the Z sister update.  We were on Annee's blog last week, then Sarah's before that, Christine's, Rachel's, and Ana's.  Enjoy!

Ie Li

Last Week:

• Did not wake up early once.
• The kids and I spent Columbus Day outdoors.  We went on a long walk, bought some lemonade from a lemonade stand, ended up at the field, played, and had a picnic.  It was so lovely.  
• Steve took the day off on Tuesday so we could all go to Stephen's preschool field trip to the farm.  We went on a hay ride, rode the slides, fed animals, and picked pumpkins.  
• A seven mile run for me, and an eight mile run for Steve on Saturday.  I walked around the rest of the day like I had actually run a half marathon.   
• Mei Li's school fall festival.  The kids rode ponies and ate cotton candy.
• The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk in DC.  Christine and Jon joined us.  Each walker held a dimly-lit balloon, which created a really beautiful effect.  The kids didn't get to bed until 11 PM.
• Tried out Bobby's Burger Palace after the walk.   It was good, but I've come to the conclusion that I don't really like burgers that much anymore.
• Hung one of our mirrors over the mantle.  I love it, but I definitely need to fill the mantle with some pretty things, which will likely take another year to accomplish at the rate that I'm going.

This Week:

• Run
• Ballet
• Wake up early
• Babysit
• Visiting teaching
• Finish up Mei's costume
• A fall drive through the Shenandoah Valley
• Trunk or Treat

Sarah

(no picture yet)

Last Week:

• Stayed up super late trying to get a lot done on a work project, but unfortunately I didn't so I'm still behind
• Put grommets along the top of my living room drapes - way easier than I thought it would be and gives them a nice modern look
  
• Spent too much time at DI finding the pieces to Brenden's Shakespeare play costume (then lost my keys somewhere in the store so more time spent searching for them at 8pm on a school night when we still hadn't had dinner). Found a great white blousy top then washed it without regard to care instructions. Every seam came out completely torn to shreds. Rather than head back to DI for a replacement, I pulled out the sewing machine and re-sewed each seam. Maybe it was at least easier than sewing it from scratch?
• Put the knobs on June's new dresser and spent some time moving into it. How luxurious to have so much more space now. Now she totally has room for lots of clothes - too bad she only wants to wear the same BYU tshirt and denim shorts every day.
• Gave in and put diapers back on Huck when it became clear that he'd lost interested in being toilet trained. He did great for 3 weeks, then all of a sudden one day just didn't care anymore. Ugh. 
• Started reading Ender's Game to Oliver - he always wants me to read to him and I get so tired of the Magic Treehouse or Boxcar Kids books. I told him if I got to pick something I like I'll be more likely to want to read it with him, which is turning out to be totally true.
  

This Week:

• Meet with the Mayor about next year's Rooftop Concert Series - try to get some money from the city to help support it (although I don't want it fully funded by the city - I want to retain creative control). Need to work up 2012 season budgets before that meeting.
• Work!
• Stop eating so much - I'm really out of control right now
• Yoga/running - I'll go ahead and keep this on the todo list forever, even if it never gets done. It's always a nice thought.
• Sleep - I am so tired all the time. Gotta get a handle on that.
• Go on a date with Scott - it's been too long.
• Catch up on yardwork - need to fill up our green can a few more times before they stop picking it up next month.

Annee

Last Week:

• subbed twice
• had to attend a substitute training day 
• got a massage!!  It made such a difference I already have another one scheduled. 
• ran 20 miles on Saturday. It could have gone better, but I also know it could have been a lot worse. I'm still not totally clear about how the actual marathon will go. I guess you never really are. 
• made huge progress on the Halloween front. Mostly it was mental. I strategized, gathered a few supplies, mentally broke everything down. I'll never love Halloween. Ironically Primary is in charge of the ward Trunk-or-Treat. P.S.  Darin and I will be dressing up for the first time during our fourteen years of halloweens together. Neither one of us is all that excited. 
• attended the Saturday night adult session and the Sunday morning session of Stake conference. We had Elder Jensen from the Seventy and his wife there speaking. I thought it was really excellent. I loved what they both talked about. 

This Week: 

• already subbed today. I'll be subbing on Friday too, maybe one other day. It's keeping me pretty busy!
• make more tangible Halloween progress. Maybe finish Ruby's outfit first?
• run 20+ miles on Saturday. I finally ran out of Gu's. I thought the huge pkg Rachel mailed me a few years ago would literally last me forever :)
• the whole house needs to be cleaned!!  It feels like it will take me all week to make any progress. 
• I got three packages in the mail last week!  I have one more to go. I hate the post office. 
• I'm super tired. Beyond tired!  I think I'm going to bed at 9:30 tonight. 

Christine

 

Last week:

• Worked Monday and Tuesday.
• Hosted Kim Tuesday night to Friday morning!  Our days were pretty relaxed without a strict schedule which allowed us to sleep in in the mornings after being up late talking and catching up.  It was a super quick visit but was all so great.  We went to the National History Museum Wednesday and toured around Mt Vernon on Thursday.  We attempted to venture into Georgetown but unfortunately my car broke down, so instead we got familiar with a nice service station while waiting for Melissa to pick us up.  Wednesday night after the car ordeal we returned to my place to find that we were locked out and neither of my roommates were waking up to my phone calls.  Luckily I remembered that my window was unlocked so we were able to climb in.  We ate good food and talked a ton and overall had a fantastic couple days.
• Jon came to town for the weekend on Thursday night so him and Kim were able to briefly meet which was fun.  Friday we went to explore the waterfalls at Great Falls which was fun and really pretty this time of year.  It didn't involve as much of a hike as I was hoping for but it was still really nice.  Saturday we had crepes for lunch then Jon was able to meet up with some people from his ward for their ward temple trip.  Pretty impressive that they all drive four hours each way in one day to go to the temple, makes me feel like I've always taken for granted having a temple relatively close to me.  Saturday night we met up with Steve and family for the Light the Night walk for leukemia downtown then quickly rushed off to Old Town Alexandria for a haunted ghost tour of the town.  The tour was very interesting and definitely entertaining, I would highly recommend it.
• Sunday I successfully made Sunday dinner for eight (pot roast, mashed potatoes, etc).  Ultimately I was happy with the results of my first pot roast.  It wasn't anything amazing and wasn't the most tender, juicy roast, but it definitely wasn't a disaster and everyone seemed very pleased and impressed with the meal.  Thank you to Rachel and Sarah for the recipe suggestions, and to Sarah for taking all my calls throughout the day with all my questions.  It's always nice to know I have so many cooking experts in the family who I can turn to for help.

This week:

• Work Monday and Wednesday, hopefully maybe pick up a shift or two Tuesday or Thursday.
• Go to North Carolina for the weekend with Rachel to meet up with Annee and Summer!!  So excited for this weekend!
• Find some volunteer opportunities.  I feel like my life has been too focused on myself lately, need to change that.
• Run/workout.  My roommates have passes at a nearby gym which I've been contemplating joining, I think this might be the week I finally do it.  I've really been slacking in all things exercise these past few weeks.

Rachel

Last Week:

• Work wasn't as bad as it could have been, but the beginning of the week was intense. 
• Ken passed the bar!  And had a phone and office interview for the exciting job he applied to last week. 
  
• Finished and filed our taxes.  With only 2 minutes to spare, literally.
• Did a lot of shopping for our Christmas card photos.  Bought more than we really needed so now I have a lot of returns to do.
• Got caught in terrible traffic going to and from Annapolis on Saturday which made us basically miss the birthday party AND the Light the Night walk.  Major fail. 
• Drove out to MD for the photos with Bluelily.  Apparently when google maps says "Turn right on White's Ferry Rd.  Take White's Ferry for .5 miles"  that means you will literally be taking a FERRY across the river.  Definitely didn't plan in enough time for that so we were late.  Tyler took our photos.  We'll see them in about a month.  Fingers crossed!

This Week:

• Take Tuesday off to relax and recuperate!  Make returns at the mall.  Vacuum.  Laundry!!
• Go out to dinner for my bday on Thursday night.
• Drive down to NC with CZ on Friday.  Spend the weekend with Annee, CZ and Summer doing whatever we feel like!  
• Turn 26.  Weird. 
• I'm dying to see a movie!
• Finalize my ideas/plans for the Halloween party decorations and purchase supplies.  Must happen.  Should we use hay and corn stalks?  I saw a farm selling some of this stuff out near Lucketts.  Wonder if they'd be willing to just rent it to me?  Hope it's not expensive.
  
• Figure out a Halloween costume
• Figure out what treat I want to have for my bday.  Nothing is really intriguing me at this point.
• Run more!  Now that I can plan to leave work at a normal time, I can exercise in the evenings again! 

Thanks for the updates, sisters!  Love you all!