Do you have those days when you know you have so much to blog about but just can't find the, what's the word...words to put it all together. See what I mean?! ;0 I'm going to give it a try anyhow, but my apologies in advance if you have trouble following what I'm attempting to say. I wanted to give you all an update on our Happenings.

Marty was home all last week before leaving on Sunday to go to work. The first couple of days were a challenge because my "normal" routine was off having him home. I kept finding myself saying "that's not how we do that". It's going to be tough for me but I'm going to have to let a few things slide on his weeks off, choose my battles. The kids loved having Dad home during the day. (Cole didn't have school on Thursday, Friday or Monday) They especially loved having him take them to and from school- that is something they are really looking forward to when he gets home.

He took a day to go fishing, gave me a day to sleep in (until 10:00, I don't remember when I slept that late, it was so nice. I would say thanks Marty, but he doesn't read this!) Ella took him on a picnic at the Rose Garden where she shared her knowledge of the rose's names: strawberry, snow, plum, peach ;) He and Cole did a project from his chemistry kit, candle making. It was messy, but so sool! We did a lot of shopping on Friday to be sure Marty had everything that he needed. We were so burnt out that evening- 2 hours and Winco and another 2 at Wal Mart with all 3 kids was way too much!

He coached his last soccer game of the season and the boys did SO good- the best ever! It was pouring at first, but the sun peaked through the last half of the game. After the game, the team met at McDonald's for a little together for Marty. If you ever want the McDonald's playplace to yourself, just bring 11 wet, dirty, 8 year old soccer players and their families, it did the trick for us. All of a sudden, we realized that we were the only one's in there! It was very loud but so fun. The team was so gracious and everyone pitched in for a thank you card and a $70 gift card to Brick 29 Bistro, our favorite restaurant! We are looking forward to a date night when he gets home. Thanks Kaia for organizing it all! Marty was so surprised and overwhelmed with gratitude!

The rest of Saturday was a nice lazy day at home together. Making cookies, putting out our Halloween decorations, getting Marty's laundry finished and such. For "Marty's last supper", he made peppercorn steak and shrimp scampi (his speciality!) and I made clam linguine, it was so good! And there was enough leftover for lunch on Sunday. After dinner, we watched National Treasure together- I wish it didn't take us 4 years to watch that, we loved it and are excited to watch the 2nd one soon!

Sunday morning went way too quickly with packing and getting the last minute things done before he left around noon. It finally clicked for Ella when Marty brought his bags outside, she said "Why are you bringing your suitcases?" She must have asked 15 times that night when he was coming home. We are going to make a countdown paper chain so Ella can take one off a day until Dad gets home. She also wants to send him a letter, but he doesn't stay in the same hotel for more than a few days, so he might have to get a PO box there for things that this.

Sunday night went as normal for the kids and I except I found out that money had been taken out of our checking account that we did not authorize. We have to cancel our debit card and get a new one. There is a lot more to do and it's very time consuming and inconvenient for us right now, but I won't bore everyone with the details. I just kept wondering why it couldn't happen last week before Marty left! ;) We also having some issues with Marty first direct deposit- it came 2 days late and then it was a lot less that we were told. So is life, there are always little things to keep it from running smoothly. It is just taking extra energy that I need right now.

Other than the issues with our checking account, yesterday felt pretty normal. Jace came to play with Cole while Ella was at school. Then we went to my mom's for a bit. Alli fell and hit her head right on the corner of the wall and has a huge black and blue goose egg on head. It looked so bad at first that we thought we were going to have go to the hospital. But frozen peas to the rescue- the swelling went down quite a bit. And looking the horses really helped her too!

Kaia invited us over for dinner and it was nice enough to eat outside. I didn't realize until I was sitting down and relaxing with the best tasting beer I have ever had (they wouldn't let me help with anything) how much I needed to take a breather. Her husband took the boys to soccer practice while we cleaned up. Cole had a hard time having the assistant coach be in charge of soccer practice. This is his 4th year in soccer and Marty has always coached so it's going to be an adjustment. But next week is the last week. He was pretty sad last night but he talked about how he was feeling, which is hard for him. He was able to talk to Marty on the phone for quite awhile last night and that made him feel much better.

Jere came and mowed my lawn last night and we watched a little bit of Heros- which just confused both of us! Thanks Jere!

Alli is sleeping and Cole's at school, the perfect time for Ella and I to make her countdown chain!

I will try to make the next post more interesting! ;)