7 Quick Takes Friday - November 19

Thanks to Jen for hosting.

1. I did indeed have a WONDERFUL time at the Bioethics Defense Fund Passion for Life Benefit. Raymond Arroyo was fabulous, and I was tickled pink to see so many priests and religious in attendance! It was also fun to see how many small babies were there; I wish I could have brought Violet with me so I wouldn't feel so left out. :P I was able to meet Leila; visit her blog to see a picture of us (with the lovely Danya as well). I think Leila and I could have talked half the night if we'd had the chance!

2. Leila and I discovered something pretty neat: our youngest children were due on the same day! Her little boy Matthew (in the picture linked above) and Violet were both due on March 2nd, although Matthew was born mid-February and Violet was born March 5. Still, what a neat coincidence!

3. On a whim, I cut about five inches off of my hair last Friday night. I love the new look! My head feels much lighter and cooler now. Long hair was really starting to bug me so I'm glad I went shorter.

4. I've been falling behind on the housework lately. It hasn't helped that we've all been sick within the last two weeks. Collin was really sick this past week but couldn't afford to take any more time off of work, since he had to take a few days off when the kids were sick. Poor guy, he was miserable. :( We're all on the mend now but the house is a mess; I don't know how we're going to manage to get it cleaned up by the time Christmas rolls around. St. Martha, pray for us!

5. If we can find a babysitter, we plan to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 on Saturday afternoon! I'm SO excited. We're also getting together with other Catholic Phoenix bloggers for a wine-tasting event on Saturday night (again, contingent upon finding a babysitter). Collin has promised to drive home so I can sample as much wine as I want; an entirely fair arrangement given that I have always had to be the designated driver for him anytime I was pregnant and we were at a similar event.

6. Less than a month until our trip to Disneyland (and the release of TRON: Legacy, woohoo)! Next weekend I think we'll take the kids to the new Disney movie ("Tangled"), and we also plan on seeing "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" some weekend in December. Lots of great movies are coming out in such a short time (why couldn't one of them had come out on my birthday?! Don't get me wrong, "Red" was a fun movie, but something I would have been just as happy watching via Netflix).

7. Cute kid story to finish things up: We're halfheartedly trying to potty train William by putting a sticker chart in the bathroom and giving him a sticker whenever he uses the potty successfully (the idea being that X amount of stickers will get him a reward). It's not going too well, but that's rather peripheral to the story.

Anyway, William and Elanor were watching me clean out the cat's litterbox last night, and William asked me what I was doing.

"I'm cleaning the kitty's potty," I replied.

"Oh," he answered, his little forehead furrowing deep in thought as he watched me scoop the clumps into a plastic bag. "Does the kitty get a sticker now?"

Great news!

Archbishop Dolan is the new president of the USCCB! Praise God! I was not in favor of Bishop Kicanas' election. (No reflection on the man or his holiness, just concerns about his leadership capabilities and judgment calls.)

7 Quick Takes Friday - November 12

Thanks to Jen for hosting.

1. It's been quite the hectic week at the Wahlund household. Last Friday, Elanor went home sick from school after throwing up. She was fine all weekend, but on Monday she again complained of stomach pain and also spiked a fever. I took her to the doctor, who diagnosed an ear infection. An hour or so after we returned from the clinic, William began vomiting. He threw up five or six times in the span of four hours, and then thankfully stopped. He took a trip to the doctor on Tuesday, and was also diagnosed with an ear infection. On Wednesday Violet spiked a fever and also got a trip to the doctor. No ear infection this time, just a cold virus (probably the same one I've had all week and that Collin seems to be catching as well). Collin has only worked two and a half days this week, and I worked from home on Thursday. Thankfully everyone seems to be getting better.

2. Collin received a grade of 97% in his Technical Writing class, maintaining his 4.0 average at the University of Phoenix. He also received a very positive review from his professor. I'm so proud of him!

3. Elanor's new favorite movie is "The Nightmare Before Christmas." She was asking me for a toy we saw in Wal-Mart the other day, and I told her she should ask Santa Claus and maybe she'd get it for Christmas. She thought about this for a moment, then said, "I'll ask Jack Skellington." Okay, then...

I think she's more excited about seeing the Haunted Mansion's "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme at Disneyland then she is about seeing Santa!

4. My kids are getting so spoiled this Christmas. Grandma Vicki has already bought the top items on their wish lists. Yay for generous grandparents!

5. We also bought Toy Story 3 (via iTunes). I have not yet made it through a viewing without sobbing buckets at the end of it.

6. I'm meeting some co-workers tomorrow for lunch to belatedly celebrate my birthday. It should be a fun "girl time" together; we rarely get to socialize outside of work because we all live in different parts of the Valley. We're meeting in a location that's fairly central for all of us, so no one has to drive too terribly far. We're going to Oregano's, which I've never been to before but I hear is amazing.

7. Thanks to my wonderful husband, who is being very accomodating toward my sudden active social life, I also get some "me time" tonight; I'm going to the Bioethics Defense Fund's "Passion for Life" benefit. Although the introvert in me is sort of nervous about going without Collin, I'm looking forward to meeting other Catholic bloggers I know who are planning to attend (for example, Leila). All in all, should be a fun time!

7 Quick Takes Friday - November 5

Thanks to Jen for hosting.

1. We had a fun Halloween, although we got a bit of a late start trick-or-treating. We decided to take a family nap so the kids would be rested for the evening's activities, and we all slept until 5:30pm! I guess we all needed the sleep, but we had to scramble into costumes and I didn't get the chance to take all the pictures I wanted. I got a few good ones, though:











As you can see, we had Princess Tiana, Prince Naveen (in frog form) and a little firefly, all from Disney's "The Princess and the Frog."

2. I had a nice 30th birthday on Wednesday as well. I took the afternoon off of work and Collin and I went to see the movie RED. It was an enjoyable popcorn flick. I jokingly called it "Die Hard: the Retirement Years."

3. Later that evening, the kids (with Daddy's help) bought me flowers:



and also a lovely card. I'm truly blessed to have such a wonderful family.

4. Earlier last week my Medela breastpump finally gave out. I bought it in December 2004 so I can't say I'm surprised. Collin wasn't too happy at this unforseen expense, but I managed to find another (gently used) pump on Craigslist for only $100. It's working great so far and is in much better shape than my old one.

5. Last night, Collin found and killed two black widow spiders. One on our front porch rocker, and one on our backyard garden hose. Ew. He's calling the exterminators today.

6. Violet is eight months old today! She's pretty much crawling now and she tries to get into EVERYTHING. We call her "Miss Grabby-Hands" because you can't leave anything near her that you don't want her to grab. It seems like I'm forever having to fish things like candy wrappers and crayons out of her mouth! We'll have to do some hardcore cleaning this weekend so she has less opportunity to get into things.

7. Speaking of cleaning, I need to get the kids more involved in that. I'm tired of cleaning all weekend just to have them mess it back up in five minutes. I think I'll try a chore chart with stickers and see how that goes. Any hints?

Have a great weekend!

Happy birthday to me

Today, I turn 30 years old.

...does this mean I have to grow up now?