She is slacktastic in updating her blog, but she has fabulous weekends full of fellowship!

Ok that's not really part of Proverbs 31.

My laptop is sadly on the fritz, so Kim had to repair the desktop's numerous issues so I could go on the intertubes. He did, and I am here! since I have posted last I had two wonderful weekends. On the 17th, I drove up to my older sister's house in PA so we could go to the Women of Faith conference in Philadelphia. We had a great time, and I enjoyed meeting some more of her friends. We saw Mandisa, and Steven Curtis Chapman, ANitra Renfroe, Patsy Clairmont... it was lovely. But it was great to come home. I missed my family.

What I did not miss so much, was cleaning and taking care of the house. I have been most lazy in the past week, but I've also been busy.

This past weekend I saw Fame with my friend Renee, and we both agreed the best part of the movie was when I went over to the noisy teenagers and said "You need to be quiet now." I kind of scared them because I had to pee very bad at the time, so I was perhaps a little more insistant than usual. The good news was the were quiet for the rest of the movie. We ate at the mall's food court (mmmm lamb kabob) and went shopping with some success. I found a skirt that called my name while she was in the frustrating pursuit of Pants for the Legitimately Petite™. Although I have shopping issues of my own, I do not have this pants issue, and watching her go through it was disheartening. I am also annoyed that plus sized stores and department stores do not carry more options of petite women. It makes me want to scream. Although Lord and Taylor has some ridiculously cute suits for slim petite women. Like Susan Lucci tiny.

Sunday I went to church early, then went over to Jason and Bridget's house for our Shepherd Group feast. It's our last feast as a large group before we split into three and it was a little sad. :( It was also great to catch yup with everyone, because it seemed like so long since so many of uswere in the same room. We haven't had the entire group in one room since about a year ago, and yesterdsay we were missing once couple. They were vacationing in Hawaii, the slackers. hehe

It's like a super long weekend of fellowship since we had Shepherd Group on Friday, Renee time on Saturday, Feast on Sunday, Women's Ministry tonight, and Bible Study on Tuesday. Busy, but I love it.

She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

I am concoting a welcome home feast for Kim. Tonight I am defrosting a turkey breast in the sink, and will make a pumpkin pie in a little bit. We'll have mashed potatoes, gravy I will make from the drippings, sauted onions, and whatever else I can whip up. Maybe corn bread and cranberry sauce. I am currently looking for crock pot recipes for the turkey breast so I can put it on in the morning before I leave for work. I will get it set up tonight and put it in the fridge then turn it on in the morning. I have found a recipe that is basically what I do in the oven, so that looks like a winner.

Update on the pie. somehow I dropped the bowl of filling into the pie shell as I was filling it. But I was watching Little Women and I said to myself "What would Marmee do?" So I cleaned it up as best I could and popped it in the oven.

So on a completely different note, I am preparing to go to the Women of Faith conference in Philadelphia with my older sister Annie (Anna to the rest of y'all). The one in DC was during our big crazy family vacation in Myrtle Beach this summer, so I noticed the closest one was in my big sister's neck of the woods and asked if she would go with me. Somehow she got roped into organizing a trip for her church, so there will be a bunch of ladies I don't know also, but I'm adaptable. I'll raise hands in front of anyone! Except when I'm driving... then I raise hand.

So I stumbled across the blog of an artist (who is, by the way RIDICULOUSLY talented) and was fascinated with how she made her list. She DREW everything out. I am very visual, so I thought I would give it a try! I may have gone a wee bit overboard, because I started to draw out which toiletries I wanted to bring. But then I realized while drawing that I had forgotten an item, so I guess that worked out well. My goal is to fit it all in a carry on sized suitcase, and my messenger bag, which has become my purse/work bag these days.

So I feel a little behind on laundry. Honestly, I did neglect it early in the week, but now it's an issue. Normally I want lots of work hours, but I'm kind of hoping I'm out of work by noon so I can come home and finish up laundry before Kim gets home. Not to mention make sure all those little drawings I did are accurate by moving the right clothes through!

The house is clean, the dishes are done, the preparations are being made!

Ruby Rating : 4/5

Ummm, I'm not sure the turkey breast is going to fit in the crock pot!

You're the sunshine on my floor, you're the book I've halfway read.

Kim inacting one of our jokes about the potential to lose na eye on that part of the staircase.

Only one more day without Kim. What I miss about Kim isn't just the around the house stuff, and the parenting stuff, but I miss the friend stuff. I miss having someone to talk through my day with, bounce ideas off of, etc. I miss having a partner. Kim is my quiet, steady, emotional rock. I am verbal, expressive, creative, funny, scattered, slightly high strung and anxious. Kim is quiet, thoughtful, thinks before he speaks, intelligent, analytical, and diligent. He likes to see all his stuff (i.e. a bit messy), and I crave neatness, but am still messy. I am generally a positive thinker, Kim is a realist. He is the jam to my bread, the yin to my yang, he balances me. I feel most unbalanced without him.

But only today without him, and then he will be home tomorrow around 3:30. Granted I leave the next day for the weekend, but at least I know I can call him to talk whenever I want. Only a day.

Wordless Wednesdays (Shamelessly stolen from Leighann)

I am really starting to miss Kim.

My husband Kim travels several times a year, but he doesn't usually do short trips. The shortest trips are generally a week, including weekends. An average is about a week and a half. once every four years there is a month long trip, which usually involves a few two week trips in the months preceeding it.

This one is a week and half. He's in Geneva, and we generally only get to chat once a day via Skype. Which is nice because I get to see his face. It really helps the kids and Kim too. My problem is that before I go to bed, I need to verbally process my day. When I began working and started going to bed earlier than him, it was ok, but I found I wasn't sleeping as well, so I decided to start going at the same time as him again and just take a nap in the afternoon.

And today was a crazy day. I did get to talk to him about it a little, but I often lie in bed and chat until I realize he has fallen asleep, so this is going to be a rough falling asleep day. Tomorrow Renee is coming over for SYTYCD and Glee, so that will help. Thursday night is book club here, and that will also help. Friday will be Shepherd Group, but that doesn't always help because then I have new info to process. *sigh* It'll be ok and I can try and finish the book club book for Thursday. Haven't had much time to read.

Oh you earworms!! *presses play on her playlist*

Did you see the playlist? Scroll down and it will load on the right. It just came in very hand for me as Leighann posted a hit of the 1990's as her blog post title and it was stuck in my head. I Saw the Sign over and over. Chris Tomlin, much better.

Speaking of Leighann, she's unveiled Ryan's brand spanking new chest on her blog: http://marquissclan.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-opened-up-my-eyes-i-saw-sign.html Check it out, because it's pretty awe inspiring.

I decided to volunteer to work Labor Day at work because I would get paid double time. So my five hours in work pays like ten. YAY! I woke the kids up super early, but I think they thought I was kidding last night about the early wake up because they were groggy munchkins. Apparently my mom made them a hearty breakfast with bacon and eggs and sausage and they perked up. I went off to a pretty crazy day at work, because things always go wrong when there is limited staff on hand. Everything is fine but I spent half my time putting out random fires. Figurative fires.

Had a nice late lunch early dinner at my folks, then came home. Kim was on Skype, so we were able to chat for a bit, but he was tired, and went off to bed. After the video chat I relaxed for a bit, then made the kids a light dinner. We cleaned up the family room, because for some reason I thought the kids should start the first day of school with a clean family room and kitchen. Is that weird? Maybe it's just me who needs to start the year organized and non-stressed... After the kids went to bed, I vacuumed and made lunches for the kids. Hard boiled eggs, Babybel cheese, carrot sticks, juice, granola bars, and fruit snacks. They will eat some for lunch and some for snack. They just aren't sandwich kids. We tried with Julia, but they always came back smooshed and uneaten, even if she would normally eat it at home. Joe really only likes PB&J, but there are two kids in his grade with severe nut allergies, so I don't like to send it in. Hope they enjoy!

Good day, but a tiring day. I'm glad I get the extra hour and a half of sleep!

Ruby Rating: 4/5

She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple

I have this dress I bought at Target a few years back. I bought it thinking it was a blouse, but when I put it on, I felt it was just a bit too long for a blouse, and too short for a dress. But since the fit was pretty good, I thought I would shorten it... one of these days. I wore it once or twice with pants, but always felt it didn't look right.

Today I decied to shorten it, since Kim left for Geneva and I wanted to get my mind on something else. It had a lining, which to be honest, I just hacked off high enough where it wouldn't affect the waistline, but not so short that it would look funny. I might tack it down later. Then I took a DVD case and took it up by that amount all around the hem. What can I say, I was too lazy to find the solitary measuring tape in the house. Note to self: Get another tape measure. After a hairy moment when I thought I messed up, but realized the hem was lower in front to compensate for the bust, it was a pretty straightforward process. I am quite pleased with the result, so much so I am going to wear it to church tomorrow.

Speaking of church, Julia is so excited because this year sixth graders will go to Jr. high ministry at "The Gap". The Gap is our church's auxillary site across from the McTaco Hut, about a mile away from church. Tomorrow they will take all the rising sixth graders to The Gap for an orientation. Afterwards, I will pick her up and then we will go to church together for the first time in a long time. :)

P.S. the blouse does have some purple in it.