Adventures in La La Land

Have I got a story for you this week! 1. Stella is theoretically an indoor cat, but she loves to go outside, and she usually doesn't stray beyond the backyard. She knows the sound of the slider opening and will book it outside anytime the door is open. I'm sure you see where this story is going . . . I was working in the church office on Tuesday when Justin texted me, "Have you seen Stella today? I didn't see her this morning, which is really weird. And I just searched the whole house and can't find her." Uh-oh. After some brainstorming, one of the kids remembered that she had gone outside Monday night, but none of us ever let her back in. By the time we realized she was gone, it had been like 18 hours. The kids immediately started to search the neighborhood calling her name to no avail. Lena went to bed in tears that night when we still hadn't seen hide nor hair of her. I posted on facebook asking if anyone had seen her, and I even made a "lost cat&q

Whoa. I have two weeks to catch up on. Buckle up. 1. Lena is loving her new gymnastics class. It's just the right level of challenge for her, but not so much that it's discouraging. After Girls on the Run last spring she realized how much she loved running and was excited to find out that she could join the Cross Country team at school this fall. But we just started getting info about Cross Country, and she was overwhelmed by the idea of practicing every single day. Haha. So I guess she's just going to do gymnastics for now.  2. We had another Cousin Fun Day last week - this time at the Children's Museum. More than two years ago, we bought discounted tickets during some promo or another, but they were still requiring masks and we were all busy and we just never went. Well, the tickets never expire, so we decided to try it this summer. I hadn't been there in years and was worried that my kids were too old to enjoy it, but it was actually really fun!  I think our grou

1. Lena had her long-awaited gymnastics class on Monday. She was nervous, but she actually said to me, "I know I'll be scared at first, but then I'll be fine." Y'all, that is the medicine working. I have told her that thousands of times, but she finally realized it on her own. She marched right out there with a bunch of girls she didn't know, and excelled at everything she tried. I saw the coach pull her aside a couple times, so I wasn't terribly surprised when she (the coach) came up to me at the end of class and said, "Lena has actually mastered most of what we work on in this class. I think she'd be better in the next level up." She's starting her new  class Tuesday night. 2. On Tuesday, Once Upon had its Christmas party at the Whitecaps. It was a beautiful night, I didn't have to cook dinner, and we even got Lucy to come along.  Checkout Lucy's new glasses! She inherited my bad vision, and I finally got her into the eye doctor