The weekend with Julia actually went smoother and easier than I expect. Way easier! She didn't cry once and she was so delighted with having a big-sistery-type person around with Joey that she was quite easy to entertain. Joey played dolls with her, colored and painted, took her on walks around the neighborhood, watched Monsters Ink, and generally played nonstop with her for 2.5 days. And Julia went to sleep easily--no fuss, no muss. Just went into her portacrib and fell right to sleep. I tell you, it was really quite nice.

The big adventure was going to the pumpkin patch. She thought it was a grand adventure and especially liked the tractor-pulled hayride out to the pumpkins. They planted pumpkins way far out there this year so our ride was about 8 or 9 minutes long over some bumpy terrain which entertained her to no end. And there was a large selection of pumpkins in several sizes. In the past, it seemed they had smallish ones and gigantic ones and nothing in-between. This year there was everything from monster 500-lb pumpkins to tiny little ones that fit in the palm of your hand and everything in between. Julia picked out a cute little tiny one that she could carry by herself and was ever so proud of her selection.

She was also very fond of the freshly made elephant ear with cinnamon-sugar on top. I even had a few bites and it was quite tasty. Like a freshly made doughnut. MMmmmm. There was an animal barn to visit, too. She got to pet the little rabbit which was highly exciting. Though not as exciting as getting a major tongue-bath from Amy's yellow lab Marcy earlier in the day. That was hilarious to watch as Julia giggled.

By the time she left, though, I was pretty much ready to have my home back again. She didn't get into much that she wasn't supposed to but I felt like I had to keep an eye on her all the time to make sure she wasn't sneaking into the office or the bathroom. I'd forgotten what that feeling was like. Of course, when we had a two-year-old in our home last, my house was more prepared for it and I had locks on cupboards and doorknob thingies to keep little ones out of rooms where they didn't belong and baby gates and things like that.

Stop snickering.

Joey is out of school for 3 days this week due to conferences and a state-wide in-service day on Friday. We've got lots of fun things in store for the week including a mother-and-daughter day o' beauty with Auntie Amy and her other niece on Friday. And Joey has 2--count 'em--two slumber parties this week. Woo hoo! Par-tay. Sex on the living room floor in front of the fire. Wee-haw!

I think I need to cut back on my caffeine consumption. I've been drinking Diet Dr Pepper like it's going out of style and that's just not good. I need to make sure I don't drink any after 6pm, that's for sure. And then I need to cut back during the day. I'm starting to put away 5 or 6 cans of the stuff a day. That can't be good for me--all that aspartame and caffeine and carbonation. More water. That's what I need. More water. Our water sucks, though. That's why I've been drinking so much soda. Time to start buying water again. At least I'll drink it that way. And it's less expensive that all that soda I'm downing. I used to be addicted to Diet Pepsi. Then I went on the wagon and stopped all soda cold turkey. After about 9 mos. I was introduced to that sweet brown ambrosia known as Dr Pepper. I fell in love. I drank it all the time. I gained weight and I kept drinking. Then I said What the hell? I've gained 20 lbs. since I started drinking this stuff. No more sugary stuff. I started drinking the diet version. Now I'm back where I was 3 or 4 years ago when I was all addicted to Diet Pepsi. At least I've lost all the Dr Pepper weight I gained. (There's still plenty more to lose, however.) Now I need to wean myself off the stuff. At least wean myself back some. Seventy-two ounces of soda a day, even diet soda, is entirely too much. Shame on me.

That might even help with my sleeping problems. You never know.

That's all the news that's fit to print today.

--L