First things first. I put up twenty new pictures here. There are lots of cute shots of the kids and (my personal favorites) a few of Michelle.
The heatwave of the past week is over. Thank goodness! On Thursday we did go to see the Nix's up in Belmont, NH. Traveling north didn't seem to do much cooling of the temperatures. On the way back we stopped at a nearby ice cream stand. When we got back home we went to the YMCA. It seems somewhat ironic to escape the muggy heat and sweat indoors, but working out in air conditioned comfort beats sitting around and sweating doing nothing.
I should also mention that on Thursday we got a beautiful anniversary gift from Alyssa, Tom, and their kids. It's a sign that says, "It's a Wonderful Life". It's shown in this picture. Michelle hung it up directly over one of our four-print picture frames. Each of the four prints holds a different child. "It's a Wonderful Life" is also one of my all-time favorite movies.
On Friday Michelle and the kids met up with Anne Bannister and her girls. The two families went to visit Anne's mom in Acton, Mass. Anne's mom also has a pool, a valuable commodity on Friday. By Friday afternoon the storm came in that broke the heat wave. That evening we had a sitter come in to watch the kids. Michelle and I went out to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary. We started off at The Dry Gulch, stopped by the Video Mat to rent some movies for the weekend, and finished up by having some dessert at Denny's.
We got a newsletter from Infant Jesus School, where Claire starts in a few weeks. They are getting a new first grade teacher this year and Claire will have her. There's an open house the day before the first day of school. I plan on attending then since I personally didn't go to any earlier ones. Michelle had gone previously. I'm nervous and excited for Claire. I sense that she is too.
Saturday Michelle got a last minute phone call asking her to substitute teach for the Saturday morning step class. The boys and I took a brief nap when we got home. After the nap we went on quest for new car seats for the boys. At first we went to Burlington Coat Factory but had little luck. So we decided to make the next leg of the trip a long one in the hope the Abby and the boys would fall asleep. It worked! We first stealthfully swung by the Quikava to get some coffee drinks and then headed to the Toys R Us. We found a matching pair of car seats and it was much easier to get them to the van because at Toys R Us you just pull your car up to the bulk item loading station. There was no need to try to carry two boxes of car seats through the store and parking lot. Bonus! We topped the afternoon off by going to Saturday evening Mass. The Church had just had it's parking lot repaved. It was still off limits, but looked nice.
This morning I worked on editting the pictures mentioned earlier. At the boys' second nap I took Claire to see The Princess Diaries. It was a pretty cute little movie. Then we made the most stupid move of the weekend. We drove all the way down to Target to get Claire the few school supplies she'll need. I'm certain I could have done it with a lot less aggrevation by going to Staples by myself some evening after work. Well, now we know... We finished the evening off with a psuedo-picnic dinner on a quilt in the living room eating some Burger King. After the kids went to bed I called my Grandpa Bilik to wish him a nice visit to Poland. He'll fly out on Tuesday and stay three weeks. I also called to make sure he got the pictures I sent him before he left.
I should also mention that I watched Blazing Saddles this weekend. Boy! You could never air a movie like that in these politically correct days! Even though they were making fun of racist attitudes, I'm sure the NAACP would be all over the networks asking for boycotts and such. In the end Mel Brooks would have to write a check to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition.
That about wraps it up. I'm certainly glad that the heat wave is over. I didn't get much of a chance to read anything worth mentioning. It's my hope that this work week isn't as stressful as the last. Training is not something that I particularly enjoy. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures. My digital photo editting skills are slowly getting better.