Double Weekend Rewind.

Hiya, loyal readers. It's E--you know, the lesser-half parent of the Olson team. I played blog hooky this last week for a number of reasons, including but not limited to: we had two super full weekends sandwiching very full days in which I cleaned (I'm slightly obsessed, but hey! With two kids under three, I find that Tacky, Gooey, and Crudy are three of the blechest companions I can encounter, and they need to go bye-bye sooner rather than later. Which means sooner. And sooner again. And sooner again, ad nauseum... I mean, ad cleaneum.), made three types of bars for church fellowship after service on Wednesday (creamy lemon, butterscotch pecan, and ultimate brownies--yum!), and took my FAVORITE 15-minute naps in the afternoons while the boys napped. So here's a little family recap of the last two weekends--and thanks to Papa for posting in between and not letting our blog fall off the face of the earth!

 Friday night we had over the lovely CH, who helped us eat my homemade chicken alfredo pizza. She alternately played with the boys, watched The Incredibles with us on our newly-arrived plasma flatscreen!!, and talked to Papa while I did the normal night-time routine. We enjoyed her visit immensely! What a terrific lady!

Later we Papa watched the UK-OSU debacle while I folded laundry. I saw the last two minutes. I already said what needed to be said here.

Saturday we headed over to the high school for the annual Home and Health Show, where we signed up for hundreds of giveaways and got twenty free pens, some Tootsie rolls, and a big orange balloon with a trash can on it for P--all in all, pretty much a jackpot! Then we met up with CH again for Indian tacos at the Little Feather Interpretive Center, which we'd never been to in all our years here. They were very good--regular tacos and seasonings, but on this incredible soft, puffy, fried bread. We ate next to a preserved buffalo that was used in Dances With Wolves. Not your typical eating environment, but very local-culture-ish!

Sign above the buffalo: "Please do not jump on the buffalo. You could get hurt. Thanks!!" And yes, that is a Santa Claus by the buffalo's head. Not sure of the significance.

After that, J took the sleepy boys home and I went with CH to our lovely library for a poetry reading by Lee Marwitz, a former area teacher who's a poet. His book, Turning the Cup, featured many lovely ramblings painted with the soothing sounds of aptly selected words. Very relaxing.

I had to go check our calendar to remember what else we did last Saturday, and it looks like we skyped with Aunt Mil at 4. That was fun, as always! I'm sure we did stuff after that, but it's not written on the calendar (I know, that is SO 1993!) and I don't remember anything else.

Sunday we went to church and Sunday School, Papa went to do a service at the nursing home, and I packed up some stuff like crazy (with P's help) so we could hit the road as soon as he got home. A little after two--which was our goal; really good for me!--we headed east on 30 toward Lewisville and Uncle Brian's house. (He's not our REAL uncle; he's P's godfather and our good friend!) The drive was very March, very southwestern Minnesota March.

The boys rode beautifully, especially Papa, who had both Coca-Cola AND coffee to drink on the way (not together). :D The backseat boys (I should trademark that name for an all-male pop group, hey?) did terrific, too.

Reading, shortly before he fell asleep.

Gotta love Bear, S!

We enjoyed a lovely late afternoon and evening with Brian. He made baked chicken and served it with homegrown potatoes, beans, and corn, and organic bread--the perfect Sunday dinner! Later he made popcorn on the stove with pure coconut oil--I practically drooled into the pot. It was PERFECT POPCORN. Especially because we consumed it while watching the well-known 1938 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, You Can't Take It With You, in which Lionel Barrymore played a GOOD GUY! who, in one very memorable, fiscally-conservative kick-ass scene, put an IRS agent in his place with an exchange that would land the average US citizen today behind bars for a decade for tax fraud. Very provocative film, for many reasons, too many to list here. I'll just throw in a good word for Edward Arnold here, too--very, very few actors with his kind of gravitas anymore. Incredible voice!

We arrived home late Monday, in time to Skype with the Ohio E's and Grandma E and to collapse into bed. Great weekend!

Fast forward a few days to this barely-still-here weekend! Friday was our bi-monthly trip to Sioux Falls to go shopping, so we left early. Between grocery shopping at three different stores, a return to our favorite second-hand kid's store, picking up some basement remodel odds and ends, an oil change and tire rotation, we managed to go to--once again--the world's best burger-and-custard joint, this time with Uncle Mark (again, not a real uncle; a dear friend and S's godfather)! We ended the day with a family viewing of (the beginning parts of) P's favorite movie, always a winner! To quote Mater: "I'm havin' more fun than a tornado in a trailer park!"

Saturday two wonderful M family kids came over to watch our boys so I could go to the LWML Spring Zone Rally. The speaker was Dr. James Lamb, executive director of Lutherans for Life. His presentation was on "The Abundant Life," John 10:10, and what a gift it was to hear how Christ leads us like a shepherd leads his flock--He knows where He's going. He's been there before. And He knows where He wants us to be. We read Psalm 139 responsively (one of my favorites!), and I got to sing "The Tree of Life" with my dear friend Beth accompanying me on the piano--many, many reminders of how precious life is! On Sunday Papa, the M parents, and their two eldest got to hear Dr. Lamb again at a circuit presentation geared for youth. Then they all came over and we enjoyed pizza, carrots and ranch dressing (does anyone ELSE think raw carrots taste awesome with pizza? We realized we have this in common, to add to the list of commonalities) and chocolate-covered bars together! I just love friend and family time! Now it's 10:45 Sunday evening, all my boys are asleep, and I guess I need to wrap up this rewind, too. I'll just leave you with these pics of my lovelies from this evening.

My boys laughing together. One of life's best moments.