Catching Up

We barely had time to catch our breath last week before we jumped back into everything with both feet. Dani has completed Freshman Orientation and we've finished most of her school shopping. (All that's left is the school supplies that she'll find out about the first week of school.)

I got some estimates on the air conditioner, and it's been replaced. For a nice, tidy sum of $1500. Thank God for credit cards. Evil that they are.

We had all 13 rolls of film put on CD, and then we merged them into files with all the digital pics. All told, we took just under 1200 photos in Ireland. !!! We pruned and pruned, and had just under 400 of them printed. Tonight, Darren and I organized them with the memorabilia we collected, and got everything ready to scrap. I finished the title page, which is weird for me. I usually do the title page last!

Yesterday, we spent all day with friends from church, playing Spades and Charades, and eating homemade ice cream. Afterward, I went out to dinner with Kristi and Cara. It was so nice being with friends and feeling relaxed. Before our vacation, I was so stressed and so busy that I hadn't taken time to just be with my friends. So yesterday felt great.

I'm really gonna try to get Ireland completely scrapped this week. There are two reasons for this: I have a job that's supposed to be arriving this week, and next week, I've scheduled a special album project with Sherilyn: we're going to scrap our trip to see Donna last summer. Next week will mark the one-year anniversary of that trip. Actually, there's a third reason. So many people are chomping at the bit to see our photos, and I'm just fanatical enough that I don't want people pawing through them until they're safely in a scrapbook. :) Plus, Darren's dying to take the completed book to work. :)

Played Chutes and Ladders with the boys this afternoon. Aidan completely FREAKED when I wouldn't let him just go zooming up every ladder he happened to come across. It seems that GRAMMY lets him do that. I'm a mean Mom. I made him play by the rules. HE hated me for about 10 minutes. He can cheat on Grammy's time, but he'll play by the rules on mine. Isn't that what Grammy's are for, anyway? :) Part of me was thinking, "Good GRIEF, Stace. THis is Chutes and Ladders. What's the big deal if he doesn't follow the rules?" But the bigger part of me was thinking, "Little battles win the war." And so I stuck to my guns. At dinner, Aidan announced to Darren, "Daddy, I'm a cheater." ROFL! Poor kid. What have I done?