3.30.2010

a new brother!

This weekend was a good one. I like going on dates with Kevin. He is fun and nice. I like that we can go back to places we went to when we were just dating, like Cafe Rio and Sensuous Sandwich, and have it be at least as much fun as it ever was then. I like who we are, just the two of us. Natalie and Kevin, Kevin and Natalie, 6 years later and better than ever. We went to Cafe Rio on Friday night. We stood in line behind a guy (a nice guy named Adam) who could text like 100 words per minute without even looking at his phone without even a full keyboard. We felt old.

My sweet little blackberry makes it as simple as possible, (no need to hit a key 3 times to get to the letter I want) and still it takes me forever to construct a sentence. And then I wonder if adding a smiley face is dorky, so I add it, then delete it, then add a different one, then delete it, decide it IS dorky, then send my one line, and get a smiley face in response from my sister who is NOT dorky. So now I know smilies are okay. I'm learning, but I still don't like it much. I never know how to end a text conversation either...you never know if someone is in the middle of typing something else, so it seems awkward to say "okay, bye!" I suppose it's just another facet of my social inadequacies.

Anyway, we had dinner with Marlee, her friend Jessica, Mikelle and her FIANCE Clark. That's right, they're getting married! In June! In Washington! Her ring is beautiful, see:Very Exciting! Clark is fantastic and they are so very in love. The purple ties were inspired by Mikelle's decision to make purple one of her colors for the wedding...I just couldn't say as much until they were official=) It was so fun to spend the evening with them. We totally killed them at Rook, finally.

The boys had a dream day on Saturday. My sister-in-law Nicole gave us their swing set and the boys are so thrilled. Kevin set it up and surprised them. They played on it for hours until it was time to go to a birthday party. Just Jack and Tays went to the party, so we bought Noah a root beer on the way home. We were going to get him an ice cream cone, but he wanted root beer=) I loves that stuff. Jack and Taylor had so much fun. They played, ate cake and ice cream, and came home with goody bags full of candy. They took the candy outside to their swing set and were in heaven.

As the day wore on, I felt the itch to really clean my house. A good, old fashioned, kid-free, cleaning spree, complete with pandora blasting through the house as I worked like a mad woman without distraction. Kevin's parents were kind enough to let Kevin and the boys watch a movie over there for a few hours and clean. I. did. It was wonderful. It was much easier since I'm now caught up on laundry and didn't have to deal with that at all. That was my heaven.

And the last 2 days the boys have spent 75% of their waking hours out in the back yard. I love this time of year when I can keep the back door open and just listen to them play without worrying about hot/cold air or flies getting in. They pulled a bunch of pillows and blankets outside and made a bed. When it became especially windy, we all got in. I remember doing this as a kid and loving it. As it turns out, I still love it.

My neighbor brought us some Easter sugar cookies that were to die for. Mmmm. I AM getting that recipe. She sent nine cookies over. I gave one to Jack, one to Taylor, one to Noah, ate four myself, and so far I've managed to save 2 for Kevin...but there are still a few hours to go before he's home to claim them...does he really need two? Yes, yes he does.

And that, it a long, wordy nutshell, is my life.

12 comments:

  1. Congrats to Mikelle! Her ring is gorgeous!

    I, too, love letting Lu play in the backyard, and leaving the door open so I can hear her play. She is starting to pretend things, and I could just listen to her all day!

    Maybe we should practice texting? I have a newish phone and could use some more time at the teeny keyboard! ;) (a non-dorky smiley, bc I'm not dorky, and neither are you!!!)

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  2. Congrats! They look so in love in the pictures!!! I love her ring! I can't wait to see all of the wedding pictures!

    I love that you have neighbors that bring you things. There are 100 people that live in my building and I don't know one, besides the maintenance people. Sad.

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  3. Congrats! That's awesome :) I can't wait to see pictures too. I'm so glad you had a great weekend and could you come over and help me do a deep clean??? I love my life too, but part of me still wishes I could have a do-over at our beginning- engagement, wedding, timing wise especially. I totally could have used sisters to plan it all for me! It's going to be fun to relive that excitement thru your sister thru you though!

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  4. I guess some things are just universal. I use to clean as soon as my boys went anywhere. I could go through the house so quickly, and I loved enjoying the clean for a few moments until they would return. It was rare for them to go anywhere without me, but when they did, that was my kind of heaven too!

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  5. Congrats to Mikelle and Clark! You'll have to tell them you know a good photographer for engagement photos -- I'm still not charging anything, and I've been dying to do another fun couple.

    And I love Cafe Rio, too. You know what's the best, though? When you have a child old enough to babysit so you can just leave the house without all the hassle. It is SO amazingly freeing.

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  6. I'm dying at how gorgeous that ring is...Please send me cookies!

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  7. I thought this post was going to be an announcement that you are pregnant with another boy (another brother for your boys)!

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  8. Yikes! That ring is incredible! I'm jealous of your super clean. Now THAT is dorky...cleaning envy :)

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  9. Wow...Mikelle has grown up so much!!! It's been so long since I've seen her. I love weddings, they always bring the family together and it such a happy time!! They look so cute together!

    Hooray for good weather!! Natalie I would love to see you and your cute boys. One of these days when I am in Utah we will have to meet up. It's seriously been way to long.

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  10. Great news! Congrats to your sister. We are loving the weather too. And with 5 nieces and nephews in the house plus my two, I wish I HAD bought the swing set I debated about on craigslist :) one day.

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  11. Ok, isn't Mikelle like 8 years old?! I can't believe it! Tell her congrats for me!! And yes, I love her ring!

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  12. Yeah! I have so much I want to tell you after that post: Great job on cleaning. Ditto on loving this weather and a swing set. You love Pandora too? You should blog about what pandora radio stations you've created. I'm always looking for good mix ideas. Glad you went on a fun date. We should text-do you do picture texts? I wonder if you are on Verizon like I am. Then our texts would even be free. But most of all, I AM SO EXCITED THAT WE'LL BE RELATED!!!! What will that make you and me...You'll be my cousin-in-law's sister?! I've been hosting company and I haven't been on the computer for 4 days. Then I hop on to my favorite blog (yours) and get the great news about my cousin! Too funny how that all works. Thanks for keeping me informed! I can't wait to see you in May.

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