The Nelson Narrative

One of my new year's resolutions was to read more.  It took several days into the new year to get going but I finally did and recently finished To Kill a Mockingbird which, no, I had never read in High School or any other time.  Now I am reading Eat, Love, Pray which I am thoroughly enjoying.  It's amazing how much reading you can get done when you give up Farmville and Cafe World on Facebook!  OK, I haven't given them up entirely but I have cut WAY back.  Although I'm never going to be one of those people who can read 50+ books a year or go on a weeks vacation and devour 5 or 6 (or 10) books, but I'll be happy to read one a month for the whole year.

A few hours ago a friend of Paul's called up and asks if he wanted to bring the girls and meet him and his daughter at the mall play area for a playdate.  Cool!  They get to go do something fun and have special daddy time and I get the evening to myself!  I'm sitting here with a glass of wine, contemplating taking my first bubble bath in 2 or 3 years.  Ooh, maybe I'll paint my toenails while I'm at it!  And fingernails, too, because as if that's not enough I have a girl's night out tomorrow with some high school friends that I haven't seen in a long time and because of that, (it keeps getting better and better) Paul is taking the girls to his parents for the WHOLE DAY and will visit some friends while he's there.  So I basically have the next 24 hours to myself!  That's never happened before!  I'm so excited.  The mall by where we used to live has a whole bunch of new stores in and around it, so I'm going to go check it out.  Can't wait!

Now that the girls are old/big enough to open doors and/or play with the lock mechanism, I've been pretty careful to take precautions, such as shutting the pantry door behind myself, when I go out to the garage for whatever reason (you go through our pantry to get to the garage, and the door from the pantry to the main part of the house has a childproof cover-thingie on it to keep the girls out).  Yesterday, however, I forgot.  We were going to go for a walk and I took Olivia out to the garage and strapped her into the stroller and then went back for Kayley.  Usually we all three walk out together but for some strange reason I just took Olivia first.  Anyway, when I went back for Kayley, she had locked us out!  I don't know how many times I've thought to myself that we should keep a spare key in the garage (or hidden outside some where) but there wasn't one anywhere.  So I went to my neighbor's, who happens to be currently unemployed and home during the day, and bor

It's hard to believe but the girls' second birthday is almost here.   I've had their party planned for months already--is that weird?  But even though the big day is a month and a half away the "terrible twos" are in full swing around here.  My sweet angel Olivia, where, oh WHERE, did you go?  Seriously, she throws fits left and right these days.  When we finally take her off the potty 15 minutes (it seems) after she's done using it, when we get her down from the table looong after mealtime is over, when I don't let her get out every last piece of clothing to try on, etc.  It's all really annoying, but what I really miss is being able to just put her in her crib at naptime and have her go right to sleep.  Heck, sometimes she'd practically ask to go down for her nap, grabbing her doggie, walking to her crib saying "nap".  Now when I put her in there she stands right up and starts screaming and crying.  But only for a few minutes and the

We started potty training the girls right before Christmas.  Not real aggressively, we just kind of put them on there randomly throughout the day and see if they go and they have been going (pee) at least once a day, sometimes up to three times.  Today Olivia pooped for the first time!  Yay!

One of my resolutions is to read more.  A fun thing circulated on Facebook awhile back that was a list of 100 books that the BBC (not sure if they mean the British Broadcasting Corporation or what) says most people will have only read 6 of.  I have read 11, but that still seems really pathetic.  Some of the books on the list that I haven't read even though I OWN them are: Emma Pride and Prejudice To Kill a Mockingbird Wuthering Heights Great Expectations and a few others I swear I had but can't find now.  Might have sold them at garage sale or something. Anyway, there are also several on the list that I don't own but can't believe I've never read, like Winnie the Pooh, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Little Women (actually, I think I did own that at one time.  Nonetheless, I've never read it), etc. So, my goal is to tackle this list, starting with those listed above that I already own.  This might be harder tha