i'm annoyed with myself for not utilizing this perfect outlet for my random thoughts and activities. part of the reason for my chronic blog neglect has to do with the fact that for months now, our memory card for the digital camera has been M.I.A. it's fun to post recent pics of the family and our shenanigans on here, so i guess since i've not been able to do that, just journaling hasn't been a priority.

tonight was awesome. josh and i went on a much-needed date. we dropped the kids off at daddy and vesta's at 4, then we went to addison and had dinner at sweet tomatoes. i'd heard about this place from several friends, and had been told it was like souper salad, but a notch above. it was delish! i had an asian salad with crunchy wontons on top, a baked sweet potato with butter, some bread, and i tried two kinds of soup: corn chowder with potato and bacon, and yellow curried split pea. both were awesome, but i slightly preferred the corn chowder - the split pea had an aftertaste that i didn't love. for dessert, i had a warm blueberry muffin with butter. yummm!!! not the healthiest, i know - i could pretend i had "salad" for dinner and feel super healthy, but i ate a ton of carbs. and butter. after dinner, we met my brother, caleb, and his girlfriend, beth, at adventure landing for a game of miniature golf! it was josh's idea, and it was so relaxing and fun. not one of us has a competitive bone in our bodies, so we just played around and had a blast. i got three holes-in-one, josh and beth each got one, and my stinkin' brother got three also, including one which he achieved single-handed, with his LEFT hand, AND while talking on his cell phone. show-off.

in between dinner and golf, while we were waiting for my punctuality-challenged brother to arrive with his girlfriend, josh and i went down the street from adventure landing to super target to get josh a 3-ring binder, spiral notebook, and usb flash drive for his drafting class. i also picked up a new memory card for the camera, and a cute shirt for micah and a two-piece outfit for rowan that were on clearance. i fell head over heels in love with all of the autumn boys clothes that were there, and wanted to buy everything for rowan. i can't wait until i start making extra money typing for my dad and i can get him his fall wardrobe! as much as i love buying cute clothes for my kids, i'm glad my aunt and mom have micah pretty much outfitted in oilily for the rest of her life (until she becomes a teenager and decides she only wants to wear white, black and brown), because two wardrobes to purchase might be hard on the wallet. i still can't keep myself from buying cute stuff for micah at target or old navy. it's just too fun.

my latest hobby, knitting, makes my heart so warm, and hopefully one day soon it'll make my head warm, because i'm trying to knit a hat. i say "trying" because i've attempted this hat three times now, and it keeps coming out too enormous for my head. mama, katherine and i are going to dunn bros. in addison tomorrow to knit together, and to cast on our first "knit-a-long" - this booga bag. i'm so excited about this! i don't get to sit down and focus on knitting too often during the day, so i'm sure i'll be tagging along at the tail end of the knit-a-long, but that's okay. i'm just so excited to have a bag that i can actually use, that i MADE, at the end of it!

micah has been asking me to read to her non-stop lately, and i love it. we have gobs and gobs of books, a lot of them from my childhood, and looking through them gives me warm fuzzies. she wants me to read them all, every day. rowan likes books, too, but he seems to want to look at the pages on his own, quickly, moving from book to book. he's not too interested in sitting in my lap and being read to. he makes lots of sound effects to accompany the story, and doesn't like how long it takes me to finish each page. the super early-reader board books are right up his alley - the ones with a picture and one word on each page. he digs those.

in other kid news, rowan has sporadically been using the potty! usually before his bath, or right after. the other day, while he was naked in the playroom, he actually stopped playing, found me in the computer room, led me to the bathroom, climbed on, and peed - twice! i was impressed. josh and i briefly discussed buying him some training underwear, but quickly realized, upon turning and finding him sprinkling the hallway carpet, that he's not there yet. he just likes to do everything his sister does.

ahhh... that's enough for now. i have so much more to ramble on about, but i'm very sleepy, and i'm reading a great book, and am anxious to snuggle up in bed and read until i can't keep my eyes open.