Busy, busy, busy!

This last week has been unusual in a few ways.  First, I did not have to go into Salem at all.  Gasp!  Admittedly, I did pass through Salem on my way to and from the airport, but that's not quite the same thing.  For one, I didn't have my children with me.

Second, I got all my primary grocery shopping done by 10:30 Friday morning.  This is very different from my usual schedule.  Usually I plan to leave by 10:00 to do shopping, but something or other (usually MS-related) delays it until after lunch, then delays it further, until I wind up going in with Matt when he goes to work, dropping the kids off at my sister's, then scrambling to fit shopping into the hour or so I have remaining before picking Matt up from work.  This time, however, I took Noah to school (the local community college) at 9:00, then went straight from there to the grocery store.  Everything (except for Salem-specific items) was done and I was back home by 10:30!  Oh, glory be!

Third, and possibly the most important, a Very Cool Person was in Salem for the week!  By which I mean, my totally awesome friend Julie!

Please ignore my double chin.  And the hat that makes me look bald.

 I wish I could say we partied with her every day, but since she's so cool and popular, there were lots of people who wanted pieces of her time.  So I got to see her Tuesday (since I got to pick her up from the airport, haha!) and today.

Ah, today.  Today was quite spur-of-the-moment and fun.  It started by being woken at 6:00 by a cute little guy named Henry.  When I got up and started to make breakfast, allergies hit.  So of course I took a Benadryl and by ten-ish I was ready to collapse.  So I did.  At 11:08 I received a text from Savanna:  "Ok, Fletcher said 11:30 - 12 works for him."

I should explain, Noah's friend Fletcher has agreed to help Savanna with a project.  Since neither knows each other extremely well, and since my house is rather Central Base anyway, they had planned to meet here.  A time had not been discussed.  So imagine my bewilderment at learning that they might be arriving in as little as twenty-two minutes.  Nevertheless, I rallied forth and attempted to get the house in some semblance of order.

When they showed up and sat down to discuss the project, I was suddenly very glad to be there, because they could not stay focused at all!  Not that it was terribly vital, but wow, they got distracted by all things geeky and had to discuss them at length!  It was actually extremely amusing.  We eventually sketched out a rough plan, and then I let them at the geekiness until I had to leave to get Julie.  Matthew and the small ones accompanied me.

We went to a park.  Hurray for parks!  The kidlings had fun.

The adults had fun.

 The kidlings and the adults had fun together.

I think Rowan might be in love with Julie.

All the way to the top!

Perched in their nest.

Reliving youthful days!

Whee!

Hurray for swings!

Then I made Julie come home with me for dinner, because I'm selfish and I wanted to keep her around a bit longer.  So we had fettuccine alfredo, which is amazing.  And then I had to take her back to Salem. :( And she gave me a book, which I hope will be very enjoyable.  Rowan fell asleep before we got to Salem, and Henry fell asleep at home while I was gone, so I consider that a win!

How was your week?