Home. Friends.

This is the post I almost believed I'd never write.

Sorry I've been getting so far behind on reading blogs.  I have been busy.  Making friends.  Smiling.  Laughing.  Planning.  Happy.

That mommy group I could never meet up with for activities?

I've been meeting.  I've been active.

In the past three weeks I have:

Learned to make and can jalapeno jelly and strawberry jam.  Turns out it's so much easier than I would have guessed.  And fun.

Ordered tutus from one of mommies for the girls for Fynnie's birthday party.  Mad's will be pink, yellow and purple.  Here's a (blurry) picture of Fynnie's that I snagged.

The blue piece in the center above the bow is a flower for her hair.

Taken a belly dancing class.  There was another one this morning, but I couldn't make it.  I'll catch the next one.  It was fun and a good workout.  Made even better by the fact that I had Fynnie strapped to my body during the whole thing.  Madelyn?  She was busy playing with the other kids or running over to try out our moves.  Oh!  And remember that one miserable trip to the breastfeeding support group when Fynnie was a couple weeks old?  Remember the mama who gave me the blow-by-blow of the last 11 weeks of her pregnancy, labor, delivery, recovery and the status of her relationships with the medical staff at the hospital where all this happened? She was there.  She's been my Facebook friend for a few weeks, but I didn't know until she walked in and started talking.  And talking.  She struck me as nervous (I don't think any of us had met before, except for me and the host... who'd been at the canning party).  I think that 11 months ago she must have really been (understandably) traumatized by the circumstances of her daughter's entree.  And I have to say that I kind of like her.

Supported a mom's endeavors to avoid having her son selling discount cards at the grocery store.  I bought four of them and, along with all the discounts, was thrilled to get a 20 minute photo shoot for my girls.

The girls and I met again with the photographer mama and her girls.  At the mall.  For pretzels and lemonade and to get my CD of photos, but we hung out for almost an hour.  We may start getting together to walk in the mornings.

Applied to host a couple of young women from China for about two and a half weeks.  I think we're in.  They arrive on the second.

Tomorrow I'm hosting a canning "party" of my own.  All I did last time was cut up some strawberries and jalapenos and then fill up and label a few jars.  Neither of the women who are coming tomorrow were at the last event, so I'll be the "knowledgeable" person.  Bahaha!  One of the ladies who is coming is the same one we were able to help out a month or so ago.  The other one is just coming because she's interested.

I've still been going to the gym regularly with my pal, Jennifer.  I did miss two weeks because we were fighting off sinusitis.  Yuck.

And aside from all of the fun and frivolity, there have also been trips with the girls to the local farmer's market and the farmer's market from a neighboring town.  Tom and I took Mad to a cooking class the other night (more on that later).  We're getting out more.  And "out" no longer means just the grocery store or the park.
Tom, Madelyn and I painted that orange wall.  It looks great.  Tom's very happy.  Making such a bold statement started off as just following through on one of our "some day" conversations.  But as the girls and I went to choose the paint, it occurred to me:  Making this dramatic change is akin to transforming our house into a home, something that stalled out a couple of months after we moved in.  (It has also led to a discovery:  If one paints a wall, the first thing one does is stand back and appreciate the new color.  The second is to notice that the other side of the wall really needs to be painted, too.   Still no decisions regarding the niche, but we'll get there.  Maybe I'll ask the ladies tomorrow what they think.)

Oh, what's that?  You want to see pictures from the photo shoot?  Did you think I'd pass up a chance to share my sweet girls?  Feel free to check out the rest of the pictures here.

Mad and Other New Frog

Fynnie Fynn getting ready to crawl away

Could she be any cuter?  No, but does anyone else see that look in her eyes?  The one that says, "Hey, I wonder what your shoulder tastes like!  Mama's tastes great and she makes this awesome sound every time I bite her.  Will you make a sound?

Doesn't she look sweet?  Our photographer friend is amazing.  This shot was taken while Mad was doing the most hilarious slo-mo roll around the floor, arms and legs up in the air.  It reminded me of some old SNL episodes with Molly Shannon.