Z Sisters update - and still that's all the blogging I've done

SARAH

Last (2) week(s):

• I feel like this pregnancy is affecting me hormonally more than my others have and I've found myself feeling more down and unmotivated and generally unenergetic than I'd like. So there was far too much moping around and taking mid-day naps, not working and not doing anything fun with the kids. Gotta get a handle on all that.
• Executed Halloween - June wore her BYU cheerleader costume for the "real" Halloween on Monday night, but refused to before that to her school party or the elementary school parade. Huck made a very cute BYU football player and Oliver was a total nerd. In true 12-year-old form, Brenden wore the tshirt that says "this is my costume." The boys went off with neighborhood friends, and Huck and I answered the door for a while before joining Scott and June for a short walk around the cul de sac. We made way too much chili for the ward party but it was the cheap canned kind so I didn't feel too bad when I poured two huge pots worth down the drain.
• I did make it to yoga once and ran on the treadmill twice. How much is 8K anyway? I've done 5 miles - does that mean I can do 8K? Will they shut down the finish line if I take more than an hour? I'm not very fast
• Took Brenden to an indoor skatepark in Midvale, and took advantage of being north to bring home Pei Wei for dinner. I sure love that place.
  
• Caught 4 mice. Well actually I had nothing to do with the actual catching except maybe I was the one who saw one first (I was just sitting minding my own business in the living room when a tiny mouse popped out from behind the couch) so I made Scott set the traps and clean them up. The kids think dead mice are NBD and that it's so funny mom won't even look at them.
• Man I really haven't done much the past couple weeks. See point #1 above, I guess.
  

This week:

• Get my hair cut! This is long overdue and I'm hoping will help lift me out of the doldrums a bit. Maybe time for something more dramatic.
• Get the Lower Lights Christmas CD off to duplication and set it up for pre-orders on the website. I'm really excited about this album - it turned out great!
• Get our cub scouts pack re-chartered with the BSA. Not sure why this arduous process must be repeated every year. I guess it's an excuse for them to collect fees more frequently.
  
• I need to take June shopping for some new clothes. She has gotten so picky about what she'll wear. I'm totally dreading this, but seems the only hope to getting her some seasonal clothes that fit her if she's the one who can pick them out. I have to be very careful about where we go, though. She needs new long pants, jeans, long sleeve shirts, dresses, a sweatshirt, and shoes.
  
• Grocery shopping - it has been far too long. Dreading this too.
  
• More yard work - I'm making slow but sure progress to prep the yard for winter. Need to pull out the vegetable garden next.
• Run a couple more times?
  
• GO TO RICHMOND!!! I'm so excited to see everyone this weekend. It will be a whirlwind I'm sure, but super fun and just what I need to look forward to.
  

ANNEE
(you all remember what she looks like, right?)

Last Week

• Halloween! The kids didn't have school on Monday. But I was so happy they didn't. We needed a morning to sleep in and do nothing. I rolled out of bed around 9:30, and got them to agree that I should go for a long run. Got home around 11:30, made pancakes and eggs, which qualified as breakfast and lunch! Spent the afternoon running errands with four kids, which included getting some Papa Murphy pizza's for Halloween dinner night. Did you know they make a jack-o-lantern pizza on Halloween every year? And it's only $6. We've been buying them every year since moving to Colorado.
  
• Subbed twice. Got called in at the last minute for a job on Tuesday. I had a long ago agree to a job on Thursday, subbing for Ruby's teacher. At one point in the day Jane come into Ruby's class too. I have to give my kids tons of credit for being super mature about handling it when their mom is their sub. It makes me proud that we can all act appropriately in those types of situations.
• Spent all day Friday shopping with Darin. I think what prompted the trip was new church clothes for Henry. He's been wearing the same navy blue khakis since last November. With his new ordination as a Deacon, it seemed a good excuse to spiff up his church wardrobe a bit.
  
• Piano started again! Our teacher has been out on maternity leave. We love that she's back, but MAN it's a lot of work to have four kids taking piano lessons. It's my greatest challenge of persevering! I hope I triumph in the end.
  
• Spent a whole lot of time wearing my running shoes with jeans. I got new shoes just over a week ago. I know they are going to be great shoes. I know they are! But they are making my toes numb for any run longer than three miles. I'm kind of nervous about the situation.
  
• Darin and Henry went on an 11 year-old scout camp out. They thought they were freezing. I tried reminding them how much more freezing they would have been if we still lived in Colorado!
• Busy Sunday as per usual. Totally awesome to have Henry passing the Sacrament for the first time, with his dad. That was a great Sunday. He looked super handsome too. I had early morning meetings, followed by sharing time. Came home, to start getting ready to host the missionaries for dinner. This included taking down our Halloween decorations. They were good while they lasted. Lucky for me, Darin let me sneak off for a long nap while my rolls were rising. I don't think I would have made it through the day without that nap!!!
  

This Week:

• Monday morning 6:15am call to be George's sub. I said "yes" only for the novelty. Otherwise I probably would have said no. Ruby was up in the night. Then Jane was up in the early morning. I was tired! Let's hope we have a good day here in the 4th grade.
• MARATHON!!! I'm running a marathon on Saturday?!?!! Ready or not...
• My upper hamstring is still bothering me. I'm wondering if I should buy the groupon for the massage and hope that I can cash it in sometime this week?
  
• Subbing for Jane's class on Thursday.
• Driving to Richmond on Friday. Can't wait to see everyone. The excitement over the reunion is helping me not worry so much about the race. It's going to be fine, right?
• I'd love to start a quilt this week. I have this great idea. I really want to see it come to life. I doubt there is time. It's a dream, on the wish list for this week.

IE LI

Last Week:

• Did my 9 mile and 5 mile runs. I will have to do my 10 miler on Monday.
  
• Trick or treating.
  
• Took Stephen and Mi Na to the farm while Mei Li was at school.
• Didn't do any laundry. Our washing machine is still broken and we're waiting for the replacement part to arrive. I have never craved doing laundry as much as I do right now.
• My visiting teacher took our family pictures on Saturday.
  
• Helped with an Eagle Scout project.
• Had our first parent teacher conference. Mei Li is doing great and we are so proud of her. We also saw the picture of Mei Li's admirer. For some reason, I was relieved to see that he was little and wore glasses.
• Went to my optometry appointment. My prescription has improved since my last check-up.
• Had my Chinese neighbors over for dinner on Saturday. They helped me translate the characters on the headstones of my ancestors. As soon as my neighbors left, I entered all of the information into Family Search.
• Had Sunday dinner with Rachel, Ken, and Christine.

This Week:

• 10 mile run
• Mi Na's doctor appointment
• Mei Li and Stephen don't have school Monday or Tuesday so I'm thinking of taking the kids on another fall drive.
• Start planning Stephen's birthday party.
  
• Make some headway on Christmas presents and advent calendar.
• Richmond half marathon! Can't wait!
  

RACHEL

Last Week:

• Had training offsite all week. It was a nice change of pace. One of the instructors was a retired PwC partner who reminded me so much of dad. One day he asked how many of us change our voicemail message every single day. Everyone was SHOCKED that someone might actually do that. It reminded me so much of dad who might continue to change his voicemail recording every single day until his last.
• Helped CZ rent a car on Tuesday night at the DCA airport.
  
• Wednesday night I fell asleep for the night at 9pm before Ken even got home from work. Oops.
• Thursday our friend came over who was in town for another accounting firm.
• Friday I had to get to training super early to turn in our final paper. Ken went to court officially representing me as my lawyer and got a parking ticket dismissed. How exciting!
• Bday dinner at J. Gilberts. It's a great local restaurant which is always PACKED.
  
• Friday night we made the turkey brine. Saturday at 6am we put the turkey in the brine.
  
• Saturday we went out to Lucketts to see their holiday display and browse for xmas decorations.
  
• Attended a technique class at William Sonoma where they taught about turkey prep. Used the extra discount for attending the class to FINALLY pull the trigger on our knife set (Wusthoff Classic Ikon). It only took one full year!
• Sunday dinner at Steve's house. The chili was delicious!

This Week:

• Continue with the Thanksgiving practice and make an apple pie for Thursday's enrichment meeting.
• Organize the guest room. It needs some serious attention. I'm tired of it being the catch-all.
• Clean everything in preparation for visitors.
• Buy the last pot I've been planning to buy for the last year. It's 25% off, so time to pull the trigger.
  
• Work diligently each day. A full week out of the office has me feeling behind! Need to get everything from fall busy season wrapped up and filed away.
• Mom comes to town!
• Caravan down to Richmond with our friend Severin, in town for another interview.
• Sarah comes to Richmond! And Dad comes to Richmond!
  
• Run the Richmond Half Marathon!!! Cheer on Annee in the full marathon! I'm getting really excited about it all. I printed out the course today and planned everything out. It is going to be so great!
• Celebrate ONE YEAR OF MARRIAGE. Wow. Think of a gift or something?
  
• Say bye to Sarah and drive back up to DC.
• I'm so excited for this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHRISTINE

Last Week:

• Started work! I made it to my first day despite my car issues and made it through the whole week. It's definitely going to take some discipline getting on a good schedule so that I can get sleep while also having a life outside of work. Thinking back to last week I feel like I really didn't do a whole lot other than work as I was getting used to the new schedule. My first day of work seriously felt like my birthday with all of the messages and calls I was getting from people, it felt so nice to be remembered and to realize how many people are interested in and following my life. Ben and Ryan came and picked me up from work at the end of my first day since I was stranded with no car and took me out to dinner to celebrate the new job. It was all very nice and fun.
• Spent a lot of time trying to decide what to do with the Jetta. Friday we successfully got it towed from Morgantown, WV to Vienna, VA by combining the resources of Geico and AAA. A Geico tow truck driver picked the car up in Morgantown and dropped it off at a McDonald's 56 miles away in Granstville, MD, leaving the key on the driver side wheel. The AAA driver then picked the car up from the McDonald's and towed it the rest of the way to a garage in Vienna. I was glad it all went smoothly and worked out despite the actual Geico and AAA people telling me that it couldn't be done and that the car couldn't be picked up or dropped off with no one with it. I knew that if I could just get to the actual tow truck drivers and explain the situation to them they'd be totally fine doing whatever. Luckily I was right. The car is now at the shop and luckily the issues don't seem to be as bad as I had originally thought them to be so it shouldn't be too bad to fix.
• Friday after a full day at my real job I went and worked the closing shift at Anthropologie. Yes, I do still officially work there and haven't told them I'm planning on leaving anytime soon. Luckily for some reason they're willing to keep me on the schedule despite my requests to work no more than one night a week and to have at least a couple weekends off each month. I'm not really sure why they're ok with it, but as long as they are I guess I'll stick with it. It was actually kind of nice working there and being on my feet after having sat at a computer all day, but I was ready to go home by the time the store closed and ended up having to stay until midnight, so that was a little rough.
• Saturday I took advantage of the weekend and had a fun day playing mini golf, going to Cafe Rio, and finishing out the day at the Sounds concert at the Black Cat in DC. It's funny how all the sudden now that I'm working full-time the weekends have taken on a whole new meaning. They're actually significant and much more appreciated now.
• Had a delicious Sunday dinner at Steve and Ie Li's. It's always so great and fun to be with family and see all the kids.

This Week:

• Continue to work on getting into a good schedule. I need to be sure to go to sleep at a decent hour because that really determines how the next day will go.
• Figure out how to make time for exercising. Last week I just gave up on it while I was dealing with car issues, but this week I need to be much better about at least running or doing something.
• Try to bring a lunch to work everyday. Getting lunch everyday is definitely expensive and not in the budget, so I need to plan ahead each night so I have something to take the next day.
• Go to dinner with Melissa. It's crazy that even though we're in the same city now it's nearly impossible to have time to see each other.
• Go to the DMV to renew my license. I actually made it to the DMV last Saturday morning but unfortunately the system was down so no DMV anywhere in the state of Virginia could help me get it done. Totally lame.
• Drive to Richmond Friday after work for more family time! I'm totally excited and still committed to running the 8K, although I'm totally ok with walking part of it. I'm mainly just going for the family aspect and I'm so excited for that!