Steph is one of those people that I am so happy to know and call friend, she moved away a while back and came to visit some friends for the week and I was able to get her for two of those days! I did not feel like myself because of all that was happening in our lives, but noticed as I was prepping Chloes room in anticipation for her arrival that I had no guard up with her, she has always been comfortable to be with in the way she does not judge. I looked awful I was swinging back and forth with feeling awful, but it was okay that I had nothing much to give. I trust her to see my private home all at its worst. We talked and sat on the floor and painted and listened to music and ate pumpkin soup and in the end it was just as I hoped it would be. She is a beautiful strong brave woman. 
Quick sisters day, my Sister-in-law Renay could not come, but Martha (in the pink shirt), Janet, Juls (in the black), and I all met at Juls house, and ate waaay too much. 
Thursday the air was so cold but it was playing games, because from inside the sun looked so warm, coming in all the windows and making us think of the park. So I took the kids out and we lasted less than half an hour, it was so cold. I ended up looking for places in our area that they could go indoors. 
Later that same afternoon Jeff went up to his room and stayed up there for over an hour. It was not like him to be away for so long so I went up to see what was up. I had moved Chloe's dollhouse into their room to make more room for Steph when she was here. Jeff decided that the dolls were in his room for long enough and had spent all that time invading her doll house. The teddy bear with his arms up in the air on the second floor cracks me up. 
Steve and I a few years ago went to see the group Stomp (a traveling dance/rhythm/percussion stage show where the dancers make use of brooms, barrels, trash can lids--anything they can get their hands on--to make music) and were hoping that we would be able to see them again if they came to our area. They are really such a cool group. We were looking up all these YOUTUBE videos to show the kids because it was too hard to explain. I left the house for a while to visit with my Grandmother and when I came home I found that Steve had made his own version of Stomp for Eti. Eti loved it and gave us all a nice headache. Chloe seeing it for the first time raced upstairs and came down with a box of plastic food and spent the rest of the afternoon making soup for all of us in the pots. 
Look how the one arm is back with so much energy and how intense he is!
St Patricks day parade 
On Friday Juls watched the kids so we could go on a date. We hardly ever go out on a date, sitting on the couch and watching Lost or American Idol is a date for us. But we needed this. We sat in a little corner of a restaurant and talked for a few hours. Things are happening and changing so fast in our lives, it was good to be alone and talk it all out. After dinner we went to see Slumdog Millionaire, it stayed with both of us. I fell asleep going over the story in my head, and woke up thinking about it. This movie is the only one that Steve and I both equally wanted to turn around and see again right away. James (Steve's brother in law) said "Jo will want to move to India after seeing it" So true! I have always wanted to move to India but this movie stirred up that desire. The photography was powerful, and the story..everyone wants to be loved and pursued the way Latika was. And the brothers, there is so much to analyze there, how they took such different paths. So yeah, it is on my top five all time favorite movies list. On Sunday Steve bought me the soundtrack. I keep telling my Mom to go see it with Dad. | 
