Visitors

Matt's mom came and stayed a few days with us. The kids really enjoy having her around. She was going to watch all of our kids while we were in Brownsville so that we could go on a date, but there never seemed to be time with everything else that was going on; so Wednesday night Matt and I went on a date. It was very nice to have some time just for ourselves. We went to an Italian restaurant that I have been wanting to try out, but didn't dare take the kids to! The food was good. It was SO nice to enjoy the meal just the 2 of us. I had gotten a gift certificate for Christmas; so we went to Christopher and Banks at Streets of Tanasbourne. We've never been to that shopping center. We really liked it! If it hadn't been so cold we would have browsed longer. I got a nice new outfit, and Matt got a hoodie that was on sale at Hollister. He's really into these brand names. Since we don't get out by ourselves very often anymore we decided that it was ok to splurge a little! We came home a little early, but it was nice to get out.

Thursday Sis. Trish came over. She stayed a few days with us, and then took Linda home. She had something she had to take back to IKEA. Her and Linda were just going to go by themselves and I was going to stay home and try to get some things done; but I could tell that Trish was nervous about driving in Portland, and I was courious about IKEA. I'd never been there before; so we all ended up loading up and all going together. It was quite an ordeal trying to figure out how to get to IKEA. It was frustrating, we would pass it, but see no way to get to it. Finally we found it! I am now an IKEA fan! It was such a great place! We wish we could have had more time to browse around. I decided that someday I want to take Matt there. He really enjoys that kind of thing.

Friday I invited all the sister's here to come for lunch to visit with my visitors. Sis. Marisela came with all her kiddos. The other sister's couldn't make it. That was kind of a bummer, but we enjoyed Marisela. We had some lunch and then we played a few hands of cards while we visited. Friday evening we decided to go visit Rusty and Mary. I hadn't been to their house yet, and I've been looking forward to getting to know them better. I was glad we went. We had talked about going to see a movie, but decided to go visiting instead. I'm glad we did. We enjoyed our time at their house. We played some games. I think I was always on the losing team, but enjoyed myself anyway!

Saturday Gramma and Sis. Trish had to go. Our kids were sad to see them go, but we were glad they got to come for awhile. That afternoon we took care of some errands and took the kids to a movie/arcade. They really enjoyed it, and were fairly well behaved.

Sunday was literally a day of rest for us! It was nice to just relax.

Monday was spent getting ready for the party that night and more company that was coming to spend the night. Mark and Kim were coming home from Brewster and had dinner with us, and went to the New Year's Eve party with us and spent the night. They had to leave the next morning, but we were glad to get to see them.

Monday night the brethren here got together at the place we have church and ate snacks and played games until it was time to bring in the New Year together. I really enjoyed it. I felt like it helped us to be closer together. I enjoy spending time with everyone. Again I don't think I won any games, but had fun anyway!

Anywhere, there's a little update on how crazy my life has been. Today things are back to normal! I only wish I had pictures to post about all this... Oh well, I guess it doesn't do any good to cry over spilt milk.