{ I HAVE RETURNED!!}

Spoken in a booming voice over a loud speaker to the masses of fearful Imperial fighters....oh, sorry, I've been playing with a lot of Star Wars Legos lately!! That's what happens to you when you have a 7 year old Lego obsessed boy at home for the summer!!!

Let's see, what have I done since I've been gone from the blogging world?????

• Drove to DC with Joshua---we had a fun time in the car---he played Nintendo DS and I redecorated (and added a lovely addition to) my entire house in my mind---very fun!
• Hung out with my sister's family until Monday, which included going to the LEGO store (this is huge, since we don't have one),
  
• the kids went to the National Zoo with Uncle Bill
• Shannon and I went to the mall and happened upon all of our teacher gifts for Christmas (a BEAUTIFUL ornament from Restoration Hardware for a crazy, crazy cheap, uh, inexpensive price)--we'll add some ribbon and a pretty tag and we'll be good to go~
  
• Lunch at la Madeleine--one of my favorite places---their Strawberries Rominoff and latte are each AMAZING
• Dinner out with my sister and her husband---sans kids---kids trying to kill each other at home while we were gone---that's always fun to come home to, isn't it??? :) (they wouldn't have killed each other, of course, they just wanted to---and so did my sister by the time we were home!!) KIDDING---sort of!
• Watched my nephew do some fireworks---this is a really big deal to a 13 year old boy---do you know what I mean?
  
• Got home and did the laundry chore---again, but we could say that everyday/week, right?
• Finished a Summer Project with my son---separating all of his legos into colors....yeah, I'll see how long this lasts....I've threatened him though, so hopefully he'll remember it for awhile! :)
  
• Helped Joshua clean his room---it wasn't too bad, but it needed to be done--many more Legos were found---this is sort of depressing, but I won't go there!
• Played with said LEGOS and wished desperately that more of them were still in the "put together" state than in the bins of lovely color!
• Did some math, flash cards, "drilling", fact family reminders, this sort of thing---yep, I know it's summer, but three months off can suck the knowledge right out of your head, so we are doing math---
• Listened to a LOT of Star Wars and Indiana Jones stories and played in a few---quite enjoyable, if I do say so!
• Had our deck taken down (it had sagged and just couldn't stay together anymore---it was a danger) and we are having a new one built---it's going to be amazing! Come back for pics of that soon!
  

I so enjoyed my time with my sister last weekend. I think it was our most enjoyable visit in a long time. She's home a lot right now and so we were able to just hang out and talk, and talk, and talk. I hope you have someone you can do that with occasionally---it's even better if it's your sister!

I have some pictures to share, but Photoshop isn't cooperating and I don't have the time right now to deal with it---so, I'll try to come back later today to show you what's been going on around here this week...the family, a card, the deck---later!

Thanks for stopping by~
Many hugs~
Kathleen