Yep. I'm still here.

So the three of you who actually read my blog may have been wondering where I've been or if I ever planned to return to the blogging world. Well, let it be known--I am still here!!! And Kori--I hope this staves off any withdrawal symptoms you may be experiencing. :-)

Not a whole lot has been happening around here. After a two week break from school we started back up again only to have Thanksgiving come around and interrupt our schedule again. The Monday before Thanksgiving I had an all day training so the kids went out to a friend's house. Tuesday we did school and I worked that night so Wednesday was fairly unproductive concerning school. We packed and I napped. Dan left with the kids Wednesday after work and went to his parents' house for the weekend. Then I worked part of Wednesday night and all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. By the time Sunday rolled around I was more than ready for them to come home. One of the things I really missed was having good food. Since it was just me, I didn't do any cooking. I pretty much subsisted on a few leftovers, toast and cereal. I was so desperate to make something that I made some bars and took them to work on Saturday. They were all appreciative, but Dan and the kids weren't too happy when they saw how few I had left at home. But I knew that if I didn't take them to work I would eat way, way too many. I thought about taking a picture of the bars so I could post the recipe later, but, alas, Dan had the camera with him. I may have to make them again just so I can take a picture. :-)

Sunday afternoon after I got up I went to the library. All by myself!!! It was wonderful. Now lest you think I hate taking the kids with me, I don't. It's just that when I take the kids I have to make sure that Darin and Natalie aren't disappearing and Natalie usually picks that time to behave like she hasn't been taught how to act in public. So I usually just pick up books for the kids and make my visit as short as possible. If I want any books I just reserve them online and then send Ellie in to pick them up for me while I wait in the van with the rest of the kids. This time I was actually able to do a little browsing and picked up a few non-fiction books and a few cookbooks.

The drive home for Dan and the kids was uneventful (save for a few tiffs between Darin and Natalie) until somewhere around Cannon Falls. Then the roads turned to ice and he didn't top 20 mph. There were several cars in the ditch and a few accidents too. It took him a lot longer to get home than he had planned so by the time they got home they were all very hungry. And the two younger ones really had to go to the bathroom!!! Thankfully Darin and Natalie managed to hold it and I didn't have to wash any carseat covers.

In other news Ellie has decided that she wants to be in the Scripps Spelling Bee so she has been studying words this week. The spelling bee isn't until January so she'll be studying for quite awhile. The spelling bee is open to 5th-8th graders so she will be one of the younger ones but she's not intimidated by that. This will be a regional spelling bee and those that win will advance to the state spelling bee, etc (I think anyway). A little known fact--I went to the state spelling bee when I was in junior high.