Cougars.

I had a wonderful time away with some fellow moms this past weekend. We decided to celebrate 3 years of friendship and motherhood with a girls getaway in Chicago. It was super fun. We were total girls doing lots of shopping, taking eons to get ready, trying on each other's clothes, putting make-up on and gabbing one another's ears off. It was fabulous and very refreshing. We kept commenting on how strange it was to be only responsible for our selves, to finish conversations, and eat entire meals while they were still warm! Jer called us 'cougars' and I'll let him explain that one to you sometime!

Jer and the boys seemed to have had a nice weekend. Apparently they were busy doing projects as I've been finding things like leafs all over the house (from their wax paper leafs) and homemade frozen yogurts in the fridge. They managed to do some fishing and spent some time raking over at Donna & Bruce's, too. It sounds like they got some good male bonding in.

When I went to get a permit for our new deck last week, the city told me that I could not do a deck or porch or anything except replace our cracking front stoop. So, after feeling frustrated and bad about all the time Al had sunk into designing it for us, we've moved on to new ideas. Gardeneer came out on Thursday and took out our old front stoop and walkway. (Thank you, Al!) We contemplated trying to pour a new front stoop and little patio area immediately, but with temperatures dipping into the 20's at night, the concrete guru advised us to wait. So for the time being, my dad, Owen & Walter built us a temporary front stoop today. We will be patient and finish our curb appeal in the spring.