Sheep Guarding Llama

We had a lazy morning today but got out to Brookhaven for the Sunday brunch at about eleven which wasn’t too bad considering how tired everyone has been.  Brunch was great.  Brookhaven brunches seem to be a reliable hit with everyone.  We have been doing them more and more often.  They make a lot of sense because they are very low cost and add to our use of the country club.  If we don’t do brunch it is nearly impossible for us to use our membership on Sundays but brunch makes it really easy.  The trick, which I have not mastered, is learning not to eat the breads.

Mostly a lazy day today.  Took some time to just do stuff around the house.  We did some technical training today, nothing major.

Liesl is loving her new laptop.  She “inherited” Danielle’s Acer-made Google Chromebook that Danielle has only had for a few months because Danielle ended up needing something more powerful that would run Windows.  So Danielle got an HP Envy Pro that arrived on Tuesday and she has been using since Wednesday or so.  So Liesl is now using the Chromebook which is absolutely perfect for her.  It is the right size and works perfectly for everything that she needs it to do.  I must say that using it is really nice.  The screen is great, the functionality is solid and everything is easy to use.  I am really impressed with how good it is.  And for $199 it’s really unbelievable.  Certainly not for everyone but for Liesl and a lot of people that I know, it is the perfect tool.  She is using it primarily for ABCMouse, one of her learning programs.

We stayed up too late last night talking with Art and Danielle.  We haven’t seen them since October when they were down for SpiceWorld.  We actually see them two or three times a year, more than anyone else from back home including more than Andy and Miranda who live just three hours away.

We all slept in a tad bit this morning.  Art and Danielle not only have to deal with a general lack of sleep from the overnight drive but also have to deal with having stayed up late and the change in time zone.  It all ads up.

Once they were up and functional, which was later probably around nine thirty, they started to get ready and then drove out to Greenville and that general area for most of the day to look for villages and towns in which they are interested in potentially buying a home.  That is their real motive for making the sudden drive down to Texas, a chance to find a home and move away from cold, tax-burdened, no-work New York.

When they left I went around the corner to Subway and picked up breakfast for us.

This afternoon Dominica and I and the girls went down to Arlington for Casen’s first birthday party.  So awesome that we get to have this party today.  So much of this year was spent fearing that this wouldn’t get to happen.  Casen was doing great today.

This evening, after the Ralstons were back we all went to Brookhaven for dinner.  It’s just way easier than most anything else when people are visiting.

I did not have to go into the office super early this morning even though it is the first Friday of the month because non-farm payroll announcement (what most people call the unemployment numbers) are being held off until next Friday instead.  So just a normal Friday for me.  I was up early, did some work from the house for a few hours, and then went into the office.

On my way home tonight I swung into Panda Express and picked up dinner for the family.  Cheaper than what Dominica normally makes me do, sending me off to Rockfish on Friday nights.

Dominica cleaned like crazy all day to get the house ready.  I got home and the house looked amazing.  So much cleaning.  I had barely seen her online all day and I could see why.

Art and Danielle arrived around eight.  They made really good time doing the entire drive in under twenty four hours.  Having no kids and leaving at night helps a lot.  They were even able to stop for dinner in the drive window.

We all hung out until around midnight and then went to bed.  The Ralstons were pretty wired from their long drive.

Tonight Liesl and Luciana are making an attempt at being roommates for the first time, ever, I believe.  It is funny observing this as normally Luciana is the “easy to go to bed” one and Liesl has been the “hard to get to fall asleep” child but recently Liesl has been more and more volunteering to go to bed early and putting the two of them together appears to result in Liesl trying to sleep and Luciana wanting to talk to her all night.

Luciana got us up at one thirty this morning and after Dominica and I did our usual team effort of Dominica comforting her and sometimes changing her and me running to the kitchen to get her a new, warm bottle of soy milk I was not able to fall back asleep so at about a quarter till two in the morning I decided to just get up and get some work done rather than laying in bed thinking about how I am just laying in bed not getting work done.  So I had a very long and very productive morning.  Nothing like putting in a full eight hour day before it was even time to get up and go into the office.

Dominica went into the office at normal time.  I worked from home until after my morning conference call was over then I got the girls packed up, drove them up to Corinth where they were spending the day at daycare and went into they office.  The girls will get a full day there as Dominica is working a full day today, rather than a half day.  Today is the beginning of her putting in more hours.  They requested that she be bumped from 1.5 days per week on site to 2.5 days were week onsite earlier this week.  We have figured out how to do two full days but are unsure how we are going to handle the extra half day but we are good for the next few weeks as there will be so many people visiting us that it is pretty easy to handle.  In fact, Dominica is working overtime next week, I think.  It is going to be a very long week.

I dropped the girls off around nine thirty at Ms. Melissa’s house for daycare.  Liesl was pretty excited that she was getting a full day there.  She just loves doing just about anything special.  Dominica will pick them up this afternoon once she gets out of work which will likely be between four and five.

This was our last evening at home before the Ralstons come down for more than a week.  We had a lot of work to do in general so we did work most of the evening and tried to get to bed pretty early.  I was really tired, as you can imagine.  Dominica will be home tomorrow and very busy cleaning all day.

Art and Danielle managed to leave home at eight.  They are hoping to do the drive in about twenty four hours.  Such a long drive.  They are doing the Oklahoma route.  There is a ton of snow along their entire trek.  Being in Dallas, we forget how much snow is up there.  We are expecting it to be in the sixties here this weekend.

Luciana got me up at four thirty this morning and, wanting to be productive, I decided to stay up and see how much I could get done this morning.  So I worked in my office till nearly eight, then got ready and went into the office.

Again, just a normal office day.  I came home and watched the girls during lunch today so that Dominica could make a trek to the salon but that was about it.  I ended up working from home for the afternoon as I was busy and there really was to reason to head back into the office.

The Ralstons are pushing up their trip and rather than coming next week they are pretty sure that they are going to be driving down to Texas tomorrow instead so we might see them as early as Friday evening.  They are hoping to get down here so that they have time on Saturday to go out and look at some towns where they might be interested in buying a house.  So we need to move up our house cleaning schedule significantly.

We are getting better and better about getting the girls to bed at a good time and also about not staying up late ourselves.  Instead of Liesl not getting to bed until almost eleven, she is starting to ask for her chocolate milk around seven thirty pretty consistently, uses the potty on her own and often heads to bed around eight thirty!  This allows us to be in bed by ten which is really helping.

I am totally loving my new Kindle Paperwhite.  I am using it to read in bed for a bit every night.  It is perfect for the way that I like to read.