The Saturday 7

1. Ladies' Retreat was wonderful as usual. Levi hardly napped, but he slept great at night, so that was a relief.

When I got home, Justin had done dishes and laundry and even washed and changed all the sheets! And then I found this from Lena:

2. The first night of Ladies' Retreat I slept on a terribly uncomfortable sleeper sofa and my back has hurt ever since. Apparently after you turn 31 you start to have back pain. It's actually been really bad and isn't getting any better so I went to the chiropractor. It's the first time I've been to the chiro since being pregnant, so he wanted to do x-rays and the whole "consultation" thing. We met our deductible with Levi so I figured now is the time to do it. Oy. He was pretty surprised with my results. My lumbar region is severely out of whack, my neck is leaning inches to the right, I hold my head way too far forward, and I have bone spurs on my spine! He said the bone spurs are the result of trauma 20 years ago, but I can't for the life of me think of what that could have been. I was a pretty cautious kid. No broken bones, no rough-housing, no sports. I did fall down our steep wooden stairs a few times. Think that's enough to cause trauma? Anyway, he talked me into coming back 3 times a week until the end of the year. So I guess I'm one of those people now. Haha.

3. Halloween was a blast on Monday. The weather was gorgeous - which is uncommon for Michigan this time of year. And we had so much fun with our friends. Lucy was Elsa, Lena was some kind of snow queen (her costume was amaaazing), and Levi was a lion. All costumes courtesy of Once Upon a Child!

With our awesome friends.

The girls loved trick or treating. Levi tolerated it. Haha.

4. My sister-in-law is home from Florida for a wedding this weekend. My girls adore her and were thrilled that she came over to play yesterday. They were even more thrilled when she offered to stay overnight and have a sleepover with them. She hung out in Lucy's room with them, doing make-up and playing with dolls until I finally told the girls to go to sleep at 10:00. Then she slept all night in Lucy's twin bed with poky springs. She's the best.

5. I've been thinking that Lena's behavior is getting better lately. I think she's finally starting to outgrow the hard stage that she's been in for a few months. She's still whiny and she has a sudden affinity for talking in a baby voice, but I've noticed that I'm enjoying her more. She's so affectionate and sweet. She says the funniest things. She's so gentle with Levi. She can play so nicely by herself. Thank the Lord we made it through that!

6. Although I suppose the reason I'm enjoying her more could be my new depression meds. I think these ones are actually working! I've been much more even-keel lately. Whew! It just took 100 mg of Zoloft to do the trick!

7. This week in pictures: