It might as well be Christmas

Nine of my library holds became available on the same day,

Maryland gave me perfect soup weather on the day I decided to make Lisa's Cream Cheese Chicken and Veggie soup for dinner,

Playgroup is today and I get to go play with all of my friends Oliver is excited,

I get to go shopping for next year's summer Mini Mosai wardrobe! I plan to scour the clearance racks armed with a 20% off coupon and the promise of Kohl's cash.

Can life get better? I submit that it canNOT!

Chiwadas

Dearest Darlingest Grandma Lucy,

I made chicken enchiladas last night. Oliver called them "chiwadas". They were delicious, but now I know why you only make them a few times a year... I mean, the recipe you gave me starts with cooking a whole chicken... Those babies are a lot of work.

Thanks for all of the delicious chicken enchilada you have fed me throughout my life. And thank you for sharing your recipe so that, every once in a while, I can eat them even when I live a million miles away.

Love, Della

Getting Around...Be Impressed!

So, we've lived here just over a year, and I still feel lost almost all of the time.

The roads are twisty, the trees are tall and thick, and it's all rather disorienting. 

Part of the reason I'm always lost is that we sold our second car in preparation for moving, and I spent a lot of time in the past year at home with Oliver while Jesse went to school.

Now that we have a new car (oh yeah, I forgot to tell you...WE GOT A NEW CAR) and I can go and do things at my leisure, I've been feeling more and more comfortable on the road. 

I'm even picking up on the roadway language and no longer stare at people like a deer in headlights as they talk about one or more of the 8 million freeway routes when giving me directions.  

OK, that still happens all of the time, but I DO have a much better grasp of what's going on out there. 

AND, yesterday I met a milestone, which I wanted to share. 

So, without further ado, I present:

THE SHORT LIST OF PLACES I CAN DRIVE MYSELF (without the help of my mostly helpful GPS):

Arundel Mills (Mall, Costco, Safeway)

The Post Office

The Library

Walmart

Sam's Club

Kohl's

Church (I know three routes to get myself there!)

Most of my friends' homes

Greenbelt Metro Station

And newly added to this list: Ikea

My funny friend said, "Probably one of the most important places other than church," and, personally, I couldn't agree more!

Except I can't quite trust myself to get home from Ikea yet...I'll have to practice. And the practice is going to be GREAT!

Things That Interest Oliver

I was organizing photos on the laptop today and started erasing random photos of my front door and laundry piles, wondering why I would have taken such photos. Then I found a whole slew of Oliver selfies and realized that he must have taken them... I thought you would like to see the sights around our home that interest Ollivander the very most:

A Look Into the Lazy Life I've Been Living...

Last night, while lying in bed, I told Jesse that we would be eating vegetables today. I don't remember eating a single vegetable since Sunday. Mostly, I just remember eating treats.

This morning, I asked Oliver what he would like to do today. He said, "Umm...we could play on the playground today. It would be super fun!" Like I needed convincing... Ok, so I usually need convincing to go to the playground. Or outside.

I have to clean up today. While Andre was here, I asked him to do chores. He rocked at them. And since I didn't want him to feel like he was the only one doing any work, I did chores too. Well now Andre is gone *sniff* and I'm pretty sure my house is in shambles. I guess I wouldn't know, as I've been spending all my time in bed watching Downton Abbey while my short free trial of Amazon Prime still works. 

I have to update my budget book today. I don't even want to talk about it.

I really really really would like to go to JoAnn's today and find a project to start. I haven't made anything in months, and I'm starting to get the sewing/crafting itch. But that's last on the list, because you don't get to start a craft when you can't even find your kitchen table. And you can't buy craft supplies when you haven't checked your budget. And you can't deny your kid the playground when he's assured you that it will be super fun. You just can't ok.

But you should always eat vegetables.

Yeah. I'll get right on that...

5

Today was our fifth wedding anniversary.

Some frequencies for our fifth year:

Five years means...
60 months
260 weeks
1820 days
1 child
3 states
3 cars
6 apartments
and so on and so forth...

This last year was probably our hardest yet, and we still really like each other when you get down to it, which is good news for the future.

In my dreams, we spent our anniversary in Philadelphia seeing the Liberty Bell and pretending to be Rocky.

In real life, we spent our anniversary apart. Jesse surprised Andre with a trip to Six Flags to ride roller coasters and hang out with Wonder Woman, because he's cool like that, and my mom is generous.

I stayed home with Oliver and ordered black out curtains for all of the bedroom windows in the house. Happy anniversary to me!

Tomorrow we will eat some Tuxedo Mousse cake that we picked up for the occasion, and look forward to another year of marital bliss...and some intensely awesome sleep in some intensely dark rooms.