It was a lovely Sunday today. I did manage to drag my very tired ass out of bed and get to church on time this morning--yay. When we got home, both my sisters, both their husbands and Grandma were here after their breakfast out. We drew names for Christmas (so that we have all year, basically, to shop for them) and then older sister and hub flew the coop. Younger sister and I got down to Algebra business. I helped her with her take-home test and I actually remembered what a standard deviation was and how to do it both manually and on the calculator. That totally rocks.

After the algebra-fest, they all left and we decided to go looking at houses. There is a new, upscale development going in, attached to ours, and Ed and Joey went through the model home. They also picked up a folder and brought it back. I looked at the floor plans and the two that I liked best were the only 2 that Ed like, too. It was another affirmation that we are totally in sync with house plans and home decor. Aren't we fortunate? We decided to go on a drive to look at another model home from the same builder in a nearby town. The model home was absolutely wonderful--we totally fell in love with it. I can never go look at model homes because it makes me want to build a new house. We've been in this house for 5.5 years and will likely be here another 2 years. But I'm wanting to move now!!

We did come back with some plans to upgrade this house, though. We plan to paint the common areas a taupe color, put wide-plank pine floors in the living/dining room and hall, replace the office doors with glass-paned doors, finish the built-in shelving above Ed's computer desk alcove, replace the tile on our island with something more interesting--perhaps stone or different, cool tile, finish decorating the living room and replace the interior doors with 6-panel doors instead of the cheap, warped hollow-core doors. By the time we finish all that, though, we'll be ready to move. How stupid is that?

All that driving around in neighborhoods made me dizzy and nauseated so when we came home, I had to lie down to make the dizziness go away. Next thing I knew, it was 2 hours later. I fixed a tasty dinner for Ed and me--lovely ribeye steak with fresh mushroom ragout and baby rice. I was going to fix a salad but Ed didn't want it so we'll have the salad tomorrow. The steak was very tender and I didn't over cook it so I was very happy about that, too. It was medium rare. I used the Bobby Flay method of cooking steak--seared it on high heat on both sides then put it (and the whole frying pan) in the oven at 425 degrees for about 6 or 7 minutes to finish it off. Mmmmm...

Let's not talk about Joey's dinner freak-out, though. Ok, let's just a little. She requested a Marie Callendar's turkey pot pie for dinner. She had one about 3 weeks ago and loved it. Slicked it all gone. Ate all the crust, especially. They're really quite tasty, as far as pot pies go. I like them from time to time. Anyway, I prepared it and she sat down and said "I don't like this. I don't like the crust. It's icky." I almost threw her in her bed without dinner but instead I turned it over to Ed. She wanted gyoza and was being very unreasonable about eating anything else. Arrrggh! After we finally got her some baby rice with butter, soy sauce and tuna on it (that she ate, along with toast), I warned her that if this *ever* happens again, she will not be given anything else to eat. She will go to bed on the spot and can eat again when breakfast is served. Little sh!t.

Ed and I watched the closing ceremonies of the Olympics tonight. They were about 100 times more interesting than the opening ceremonies! Ooh, and isn't that Jon Bon Jovi still a cutie? Mmmmm.

--L