The Birthdays.

We have missed posting about every single birthday this year (and last year too, I think).  Here goes a look at all the birthdays, since we have just closed out the birthday season with Darin's birthday on February 21.  We'll start with the most recent and work our way backwards...

Darin turned 37 in 2012.  Here was his traditional cake shot:

One year later, a few more grey hairs, fewer hours of sleep, and two kids later, we celebrated his 38th birthday:

A table full of love!

The day before Darin's birthday, our sweet girls turned 8!  We are looking forward to their baptism on March 22nd.  How does it all go by so fast?!

At 8, our girls are as alive and full of excitement and life as ever!  They still love to read and have imaginations that make me proud.  We gifted them with their very own dedicated reading nook this year for their birthday.  You can often find them reading, playing, imagining, or planning in that space.  

Jane is obsessed with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.  And Ruby's love for The Little House on the Prairie series is as strong as ever.  I love that they are each their own person, and yet share a very strong and secure love for their "other-half".  What a joy they are.  

Wednesday nights have suddenly gotten a lot more quiet around the house.  With Darin begin the Young Men's president, he and Henry either have Scouts or a Youth activity.  George goes to 11 year-old scouts, and now the girls join them for Activity Day Girls!  I get to stay home with the babies.  I don't think I ever would have guessed the year the girls started ADG that I'd be home with a set of baby twins :) 

George's birthday!

Since this is George's last birthday in North Carolina, and he is possibly our most social kid, we wanted to give him a big birthday party.  He invited a great group of friends to go to Defy Gravity (indoor trampoline type place) 

At 11, George is obsessed with Minecraft.  He got a laptop for Christmas and he has remained busy learning the ins and outs of Windows 8, and tries to learn as much about it as he can.  He loves to take video of his games with his friends, and edit those videos and has created his own Minecraft youtube channel?!  Believe me, I barely know what I'm talking about.  He has a great group of friends.  He's in a rock band created by the music teacher at the elementary school.  He goes to band practice once a week.  

We have a teenager!!

Henry turned 13.

Henry commemorated his 13th birthday with an iphone of his very own!  Preferring a simpler celebration he opted for leaving school early to go to lunch with his parents (and baby siblings), then taking his best buddy Ben to Buffalo Wild Wings and Defy Gravity, followed up with a sleep over wherein hours of basketball video gams, and real basketball could be played.  At 13 Henry loves basketball, the Lakers, and almost anything Nike.  He's still an avid reader.  He's such a great kid.  We are blessed to have him as our oldest.  He is responsible and kind to all the younger kids.  He's the best babysitter ever!  He makes us feel totally fine when we leave him at home in charge.  As long as we order pizza, and have ice cream in the freezer, we can count on Henry to keep everything under control while we are away.  We are so grateful!!

So much to celebrate!

Their first year is getting away from me.  Though we are posting a ton of photos to Instagram, I am sad to see that in 2012 I only made 11 blog posts.  We're not keeping a family record anywhere else, so I shouldn't let this slide!

At six months these two are as smiley as ever (though Eleanor wasn't feeling it this morning for the camera).  Eleanor is especially smiley and will laugh readily at any of her siblings.  

Wally is a solid sitter-upper.  Eleanor is a bit more tipsy, but she is well on her way to mastering the skill.  

Wally rolls, and has already rolled off of our bed once.  Eleanor is still mostly content on her back, but she is getting very close to being able to roll from back to front.  She can easily roll from her stomach back onto her back.

They babble and squeal all day long.  They are starting to get super drooling.  Maybe teeth are in our near future?  

At six months old, they sit down in their high chairs to eat solid foods at least twice a day.  Sort of like a breakfast meal and a dinner meal.  They still nurse a few times during the day, and take a bottle or two at some point as well.  They go to bed at 7pm, and are supposed to be down for the night.  They wake up around midnight to eat, but then stay asleep again until somewhere between 5:30-6.  They are usually up for the day around 6:30, but they go back down for a nap around 9.  

They have taken their first road trip to Virginia to see their cousin LiYa get blessed.  They've stayed at their first hotel on that trip as well.  

They are super grabby at this point.  And put everything right into their mouths.  

They continue to light our all of our lives.  We are blessed to have them.  

A quick glance back...

Progress report.

Hi.  Just checking in.  We still have six kids.  I'm still super tired.  

Some things will be the same at every progress report.  I think I just named the top two.  

New at this progress report is that I am now 35.  I had a sweet birthday.  I had my expectations in check to begin with.  How much can the people around you do for you when there are two tiny infants to maintain.  Darin let me sleep in as much as he could.  He even took Eleanor with him to do the morning school drop off, and stop at the grocery store.  When they got home, he cooked me breakfast, and suggested that we go to the mall that afternoon.  

Later that night, we had some friends, who also had a set of twins two years ago, babysit the new babies for us.  Though my older kids thought they were qualified, I believe their skills still need a bit of refining.  And Walter and Eleanor need a bit of refining too.  They are still mostly irrational.  After Darin and I dropped the babies off, we headed over to the Weathervane for the first time.  I was deliriously happy to be alone, without kids on my big day.  Or, maybe I was just delirious.  I work mostly on about 3-4 hours of good sleep per night.  My body has mostly adjusted, but every now and again it's hard to think straight, and I almost didn't stop at a red light the other night because my brain was having a hard time catching up with what was going on.  Kind of scary.  Kind of tragically funny.  I did stop at the red light in time, FYI.

A few days before my birthday the babies achieved their 4 week old milestone!  

Eleanor was having a hard time cooperating.  After a stern talking to, she was able to be a bit more friendly...

Walter was in an unusually pleasant mood.

The day before my birthday the twins turned 1 month old.  They got dressed up in their party clothes.  To the great delight of her older sisters, Eleanor wore a dress for the first time and everything!  But they simply couldn't get their act together.  Everyone was a crying wreck.  The photo shoot was cancelled.  

  

We tried to rally for the five week photo shoot.  Eleanor seems to always have an excuse as to why it's not working out for her.  Such a Diva.  

I was trying to illustrate their size difference this week.  At least their last weigh-in, Walter was a whopping 8 lbs 9 oz.  Little Eleanor was 6 lbs 13 oz.  

Maybe this picture illustrates that point better?!...

As part of the progress report, I still spend what feels like the majority of my day nursing the New Twins.  When I am particularly unlucky, I have to feed them in-tandem.  When that happens, I like to play a game, that Sarah and I started when we were canoeing 50 miles across the Great Lakes...it's called, "Would you Rather".  When we had entire days of rowing ahead of us, and only the two of us in the boat, we used to make up crazy scenarios and ask, "would you rather be canoeing across the Great Lakes, or go to school naked."  You get the idea.  In short, we thought canoeing across those still, still waters was about the worst thing that had ever happened to us.  But the game helped us realize that there was always something worse.  

Today's version goes something like, "Would you rather be nursing two babies who don't suck in tandem, or would you rather be a double amputee?"  

Keeps life in perspective.

Look how cute these guys were on the first day of 5th, 7th, and 2nd grades!!

Miraculously we've managed to send them to school everyday for the past six weeks or so.  Though unfortunately in order to manage such a feat, Darin and I have mostly had to split up at night.  He takes the blow up air mattress in the attic.  I take the two newborns in the grand Master Suite.  He has to set an alarm for 6:30am and pack four lunches, do hair, find homework, shoes, socks, and drive everyone to school.  I mostly just hope that a few hours a night coincide wherein me, Walter and Eleanor all sleep at the same time.  It's not ideal, but it's getting us through this first very difficult and very unusual stage of life.    I think he and I are both managing remarkably well considering last year Darin told the kids he "didn't know how" to pack lunches.  And I never would have thought I'd be able to live on three hours of sleep per night.  

And just like that, we are moving forward.  My mom always says, watching babies grow is kind of like watching the grass grow.  But somehow before you know it, they are in middle school.  

The End.

A new normal.

It's time.

I'm going to blog again.

I hope so anyway.

I want to do lots of things right now though.  But mostly my day is spent nursing, changing, swaddling, soothing, holding new babies!  Let's have a little look-see at the progress we've made so far.

It feels minuscule  but I think it's actually huge.  We are doing this.  We are raising TWO more kids.

Last picture of me 37 weeks pregnant with TWINS.  On September 7th, we were scheduled for an induction.  We were supposed to show up at the hospital at 10am.  Around 8:30 that morning, I got a call from the Labor and Delivery ward saying that they were completely booked, and over crowded.  They couldn't have me come in in the morning anymore.  They hoped that later on that afternoon or evening they'd have more room for me.  Talk about a crushing blow.  I wasn't sure I could be pregnant a minute longer!  To get my mind off of the tragedy at hand, I told Darin we'd better go to a movie and out to lunch for the afternoon, or else we could sit at home and watch me cry all day long.  As we were getting ready to leave, I started feeling more and more "odd".  Like super crampy, and tons of lower back pain.  I called the hospital and they told me it sounded like it could be labor, so I should come in and get checked.    After we got checked in to a temporary triage room, the doctor came in and did her assessment.  She said I was 5 centimeters dilated and having contractions two minutes apart.  Apparently even if the hospital is over crowded, if you are in labor, they won't send you away!  We got checked in and got a room.  The doctor said we would be having babies later on that evening.  I think I went into shock.

Here we are in the room.  Hooked up to 102 different monitors.  This is me after my epidermal  and after my complete meltdown that labor was taking entirely too long, and that I didn't believe that I would have babies that day!  

 But then, all of the sudden, my labor progressed at an alarming pace.  Even with an epidural, nothing could mask the pain and pressure of a baby that is wanting to make it's way into the world.  I got wheeled into the operating room, where they deliver all twins, in the event that an emergency c-section became necessary.

This was the face I made after I had successfully pushed Eleanor out, and realized that I had to still push another baby out.  At that moment, I wanted to push pause, and just go home.  I did not think I had enough strength left in my body to get another baby out.  I was definitely in full on panic mode!

This is my face after Walter was born.  I have never known such instant relief as when I had pushed Walter out and no longer had 13+ pounds of baby inside of my rib cage.  I just sobbed and sobbed with joy that it was all over.  I had avoided a c-section.  I had pushed two healthy babies out of me.  We had avoided any sort of emergency medical situations.  It's was too much to be grateful for.

The New Twins!

Eleanor Anne Earnest

6 lbs 1 oz.  

Born at 8:31pm

Walter John Earenest

7 lbs 1 oz. 

Born at 8:36pm

First Family Photo

Thanks to Grandma Z. who had gotten to town the night before they were born, and helped keep the big kids entertained all day long while they waiting for the New Twins to arrive.  

 

Posing with Grandma Z. on their first night home.

The next series of photos is just to help me try to see that we are indeed making progress:

 

I'm out of time.

Eleanor and Walter are currently re-enacting the above photo.  That means I need to go.  I hope we can keep getting things documented.  Maybe I'll even get ambitious enough to go backwards and pick up a few of the activities we did before the babies were born.  Maybe!

Over-and-out.

Z Sisters.

*we got an update from Ie Li.  It's added at the bottom of the post...*


Annee:

Last Week:

• Spring Break!  Monday the boys participated in a UNC study about boys, speech, and autism.  They were the "control" group :)  It took forever, but I think it's a good and random experience to have in one's youth.  
• Tuesday the boys had dental appointments.  After the dentist, we took a trip to the library to equip everyone with reading material for the trip to the beach the next day.  I was so proud to see each one of them pick out three books that they were excited to read.  A few were disappointed in their selections once they started reading.  You are always allowed to NOT read a book if you decide you don't love it.  But some books were real winners, and I think "James and the Giant Peach" cycled through all four kids.  I think it was voted Spring Break 2012's best book.  I love that they read.  Seriously, it almost makes me feel like I want to cry.  Why does it make me so happy?!  
• Girls dental appointments, and second day in a row of spring break breakfast at McDonald's.  The dentist office is right next door to a really nice McDs.  Too bad.  But convenient.  It helped make it feel like we really were on vacation.
• Got home from the dentist and had until 12:45 to do all the laundry, and then pack five suitcases for three days.  I was not excited about my chores.  But, I really wanted to impress Darin who has nearly lost all faith in my capabilities lately.  When he walked through the door at 12:45, I had all the suitcases lined up!  And all the excess laundry folded and ready to be the clean clothes for us when we got back from vacation.  I know he was super impressed :)  
• Went to the Outer Banks!!!!  We knew the weather forecast wasn't promising.  But, we were excited all the same.  Found a perfect hotelish/condoish place right on the beach at Nags Head.  We had three queen size beds and a loft in the one room.  It was ideal.  The hotel had an indoor and an outdoor pool, and was right on the beach.  We are happy we got the "off season" rate!  
• Swam at the pool right away.  The boys went down to report just how freezing the ocean and beach were.  Went out to dinner, and located Duck Donuts for the next morning.  Went back to the hotel and fell asleep, eventually...
• Next day, breakfast at Duck Donuts!  Off to the sand dunes for kite flying and running down hills.  It was a real highlight!  Kite flying has never been so easy. 
• Back to the hotel for more swimming, then on to mini gold.  Out to dinner at High Cotton, the same BBQ place we all went to on our last day of Beach Week.  Delicious once again!
• Friday's weather was supposed to be nice, so we packed out of our room, and checked out, but planned to use all the hotel facilities for the beach and the pool, until we had had our fill.  It was the perfect plan.  Drove by Duck Donuts and a light house on our way out of town.  It was the perfect vacation!  

This Week:

• Back to reality.  Four lunches packed, four back packs located, four kids appropriately dressed and fed, all before 7:30am!  Once again I fell asleep on the couch around 8:30.  That morning rush really takes it all out of me!  At one point before they all left for school, someone asked me if I could still touch my toes!  Rude.
• Random house organization and paper sorting to get us back on track for the week.
• Lunch date with Darin :) 
• OB appointment on Wednesday
• TWO baseball games!
• Subbing on Friday.
• Should make sure I take at least one, if not two walks this week.  I cannot start physically breaking down yet!  Must make it to the full-term finish line in good form.  
• Did I mention we bought a new van?!  I need to get the insurance switched over from the old van!  We started looking for used Honda minivans within a 200 mile radius of us.  We found a few really low mileage ones (which was our criteria) in Tenesse and Virginia.  We were ready to pursue either of those options, when one showed up in Chapel Hill with only 26000 miles on it.  For a three-year-old Honda, that's nothing.  It had been driven less than 9000 miles per year.  We predict it was owned by some old retired couple in Miami, Florida because we can see from the Carfax it was originally purchased in Miami.  We traded in our old Nissan Quest.  We got a few new upgraded features, including the long coveted leather interior.  But we traded out the DVD player, and didn't make that a requirement for the new van.  We bought the Honda since they are the only minivan on the market, other than Toyota (only as of 2011) that make the 8 passenger seating a standard option, and have been at least since 2008.  It will be filled to capacity all too soon!  

Ana:

Last two weeks:


-Dealt with Will being sick. I finally took him in to the doctor after a week of him being up 6-7 times a night. I figured I'd rather have a doctor check him out and waste our copay and feel silly then wish I had. Turned out he had an ear infection. It was not even on my radar. I have never had a single ear infection in my life and neither has Jack. Somehow I assumed Will would have the same luck (fingers crossed maybe Will wont have Jack and my puke gene at least). After just a day or two of antibiotics he was only waking once a night and was much happier with his life. I was much happier with mine too.
-Jacks spring break. It was a long week what with Will getting over being sick. Jack was a bit of a sullen teenager for a lot of the week, and it made me worry about the summer. His last vacation was so nice that I was expecting this one to be as well. By Wednesday he was out of his funk and enjoyed being home.
-Swim lessons and extreme Dodgeball class. I still have to force Jack out of the door for swim (which he loves once he gets there but refuses to go to) but he is the first one in the car for dodgeball. Evidently pelting other kids with balls is way fun.
-Tried to keep exercising. 17 more pounds to lose. Man that's still a ton. Ugh.
-Practicing sitting up with William. He is a bit behind in this I think because he's soooo long. He measured in the 99% for height and honestly is the size of most 1 year olds. Which makes it look even more absurd that he can't do things like sit up. He is such a patient and sweet child.
-Meet up with my grandmother and aunt in Irvine. It was my first solo adventure with both kids on my own. It was a long day. Mostly because I left at 9am to meet them at 12:30 despite it only being an hour drive and got home at 5:30. It made such sense as I got in my car and then was so absurd for the rest of the day. We just kept running more errands to try to fill the time. I made it to the rainbow outlet, Costco, trader joes, target and the grocery store. I forgot my keys in the rainbow store and my phone in the target shopping cart. But all in all it was a successful day. Baba is 88 now and these moments are precious.

Next week:


-Get re-used to the craziness of getting Jack and Zack up an out of the house by 7:30 each morning. That was one of the perks of spring break that I will miss.
-Exercise. I just have to do it. No excuses. I put Zack in charge of making us do ab workouts. He managed to make me do it twice last week. Hopefully he will be as persuasive next week.

Sarah:

Last Weeks:

• Had a successful Easter in spite of doing no planning or preparing until the day before. That being said, I'm pretty much ready to do away with the whole Easter Bunny concept. Any ideas how to phase that one out? Just seems like a silly tradition and a real distraction from the true meaning of the holiday.
• Spring Break! We didn't have any big plans, and I was a little bit dreading the week of nothing to do. On Monday I had the kids help clean the house in the morning and then we went to Boondocks Fun Center in the afternoon. On Tuesday I made them hang around and be bored while I supposedly worked, although that didn't totally work out. By Wednesday I'd had it it so I packed them up and we went on an impromptu trip to St. George. Scott had to work, but the Kendricks ended up coming with us and showing us the ropes in Zions, the Snow Canyon sand dunes, and Nielson's Frozen Custard. It was a low-key trip but successful in that everyone felt like they "did something" for Spring Break.
• Spent about 3 hours tonight catching up on my various email inboxes. Made significant progress although I could/should still spent about that much more again another day.
• Submitted our taxes. Looks like it's a nearly break-even year - yay!

This Week:

• More Rooftop planning. Hopefully we're pretty close to landing some significant sponsors.
• Summer planning - need to figure out dates for our trip to DC in August, Brenden (and maybe Oliver's) week at Camp Woodward in PA, and other summer activities. Need to purchase plane tickets and really make some commitments here.
• Work! My current project needs some serious catchup attention
• CARWASH! I can't even believe how disgusting my car is right now.
• Feels like kind of a catch-up business-type week. The weather's going to be beautiful though so I guess we should try to do something fun too.

Rachel:

Last two weeks:

• Worked a lot. Like 9am until after midnight every day. So there really isn't much else that got done!!
• I taught my Easter lesson to the 5 year olds. I am so impressed that they know these stories so well already. They're only 5! How can they already know everything! One boy always corrects me when I tell stories because he knows the scripture videos so well (i.e. I say an angel came and knocked down the guards and he says no, the guards were scared so they ran away. Haha)
• Easter dinner at Steve's house. Ken made scalloped potatoes. I made carrot cake cupcakes and deviled eggs. CZ stopped by with Jon which was so fun. I'm glad we get to be so close together. Mina is a ham these days.
• Stayed up way too late Sunday night watching Mad Men. Is anyone else watching this season?
• On Friday night we went to Ken's championship ward bball game. He got elbowed in the ribs really badly and is still in pain. Doctor says it could be fractured. Geesh!
• I had 9am conference calls at work almost every day last week. This is painful b/c on such little sleep it's hard to get right into the office at 9am. But it's a good way to get me up and there and working early so that's positive.
• A full week of dinners brought into the office last week. CPK, Corner Bakery, Maggiano's and PF Changs. It's really convenient, but also indulgent. Oh well, survival mode!!
• I walked to lunch at the grocery store on Friday and somehow lost my debit card along the way. Super annoying!
• Mom came to town on Friday!! We met up for dinner at the mall. Fun to catch up.
• Saturday CZ, mom and I drove all around looking at wedding venues. There are some great options out that and I think everything will come together.
• Saturday night we attended the Marriott School Alumni dinner in Arlington with mom. It was fun to see my friends and hear Condelezza Rice speak. Why do they always make this dinner in busy season??
• Sunday was more venue hunting, out to the Marriott Ranch. Would the Zackrisons know how to entertain ourselves without a beach?? Haha kinda funny to imagine us all on a dude ranch.

This Week:

• Tax deadline on Tuesday!!! We're going to make it!! Jeans day.
• I'll go to work on Wednesday to wrap up some admin stuff. Then I'll take Thursday and Friday off. Yay!!
• Submit my annual reviews to gather feedback. Always makes me nervous.
• I want to see Hunger Games this week, finally. Ken even read the book in preparation!
• Book our trip tickets. Also book CA and Utah tickets for June and July.
• My friend Kristen comes to DC Thursday to check out UVA's business school.
• We have several gift cards to use at restaurants around town like Chef Geoff's and Ray's the Steaks and a Crepe restaurant in Alexandria. I hope we get a chance to go to one this week.

Clean the kitchen and reorganize the fridge. Grocery shop. Plan meals for the week.
HANG UP MY CLOTHES. I have so many clothes all over the place in piles from being in survival mode last week. I need to do some SERIOUS clothing and shoe organization because right now I'm being a super rude roommate.

Christine:

Last Couple Weeks:


- Easter weekend I went to Morgantown after work on Friday and all day Saturday Jon and I went around looking at apartments. We found a few great places that we really like, now it's just figuring out what is absolutely necessary and what we want most.
- Spent Easter in Franklin with Jon's family. It was a great Sunday spent up at his grandparents' farm with his parents and his brother's family. I will admit I found myself missing our family quite a bit but overall it was a great Easter.
- Exercised once in the past two weeks, not so good.
- Went and tried on wedding dresses last Thursday, it wasn't that great of an experience. I really don't know how people go through this process and pick anything when the dresses you're trying on don't fit at all and likely will look completely different once the top is altered with sleeves and all. It seems impossible.
- Mom came to town on Friday! She decided last minute to come help move along the wedding planning. It was a huge help to know she was coming and to have her for the weekend. Friday night we all got together for dinner with Rachel and Ken and Steve and Ie Li and kids at Coastal Flats. It was delicious and always a good time with family. We spent all day Saturday and Sunday driving all over looking at possible locations for the reception. We learned a lot and saw a lot of interesting places and possibly narrowed it down to one really great place. It's hard for me to commit to things but we probably need to act fast since places typically get booked up a year in advance. It was definitely an exhausting weekend but I think overall it was productive.

This Week:


- I've been working in the office this past week and will get to stay in the office this week. It's nice to not have to go so far and it's fun getting to bump into Steve and Rachel in the halls again. Wednesday-Friday I have a training in the office.
- Go to the gym as much as possible.
- Pick a photographer. I know I need to nail one down for the wedding but more importantly I need one for our engagements so we can get those taken immediately.
- This weekend Jon officially becomes the Mountaineer. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make it to the big ceremony because of my training (boo work), but I'll go up Saturday for the Spring football game.

Ie Li:

Lately:

• We've been sick on and off for a month now. We're all finally better, but Mei Li seems to come in and out of sickness pretty frequently, and that worries me a little. Now that my infection is gone, the nausea and exhaustion seem totally manageable in comparison.
• A couple Saturdays ago, we spent the day as a family at the farm museum and neighboring grounds. It was the first day in a while that I felt like a human being. It was a really beautiful day and just nice to get out again. We ate lunch at Sweetwater Tavern afterwards, which is always delicious.
• Celebrated Easter with Rachel, Ken, Christine, and Jon. We did the Easter egg hunt before church and then the dinner after.
• I went to my first ultrasound last Monday and our little baby is so cute. The ultrasound tech said, "seeing these babies at different stages of development is so incredible. You just know that something else is out there." It was probably my cue to bear my testimony or something, but I didn't. I just watched with tears in my eyes and was silently grateful for another little miracle.
• I took the girls to the duck pond last Tuesday while Stephen was at preschool.
• Met up with Grandma Z, Rachel, Ken, and Christine at Coastal Flats for dinner on Friday night.
• Stephen had his first t-ball game on Saturday. He did a great job and he has a lot of fun out there. He looks mighty cute in his uniform.
• Saturday was in general just a really busy day. There was the t-ball game, going shopping for food for the homeless shelter dinner, browning twenty pounds of ground beef for the homeless shelter dinner, Mei Li's soccer practice, and then BYU Management Society Gala. I was pretty wiped out and sick by 6 PM, so we skipped the gala and went on a more relaxing date closer to home. We went mattress shopping, ate dinner at Noodles and Company, and then watched the Hunger Games. It was really nice.
• Steve made crepes for Rachel, Ken, Christine, and Grandma Z on Sunday night.

This Week:

• Tax season ends. Steve plans to take a couple of days off of work. We are going to reclaim our lives!
• Get our AC checked out. It looks like we're going to have to replace that too this year.
• Purchase a mattress. We discovered that my hip injury was caused by our mattress and not running. Our current sleeping situation is just unacceptable. I'm sleeping on a twin on the ground. Steve joins me sometimes, and it works out okay, but it is not ideal, obviously.
• Laundry! I am so behind.
• Prepare for Steve's birthday and then celebrate!