It seems that laundry day has become my official internet time. Tonight I wasn't really expecting to have time for laundry because I was planning on spending the evening voting. When I got home from work I grabbed a camp chair and a book and headed for the polls. I was shocked there wasn't even a little line, so my evening quickly opened up.

I tend to jam pack all my not-so-fun-to-do-with-a-kid activities into my Marilyn free days, so they're always really busy. Laundry is at the top of the list because waiting around for clothes to dry just isn't her idea of fun.

Let's see... this week Marilyn and I had some good halloween fun. We both went as kitty cats-- her idea. We carved pumpkins (well I carved them and Marilyn hacked at the cut-outs with her little knife), and on Friday I got to take her to my work for trick or treating.

I decided it's time to be frugal, so I don't have internet in my new home. Tragic I know. Most of the time I'm too busy to miss it, and I do have it on my phone, but I feel so incredibly out of touch with EVERYTHING. Today I was going a little nuts and decided it was time for a good quality internet fix.

Anyway, I moved out at the end of September, so I'm officially on my own and I love it. Sharing Marilyn with Bill is a little hard, but so far I've been so busy with things on the days I don't have her that the time flies by. I also think the break helps me be a little more fresh for her and we've been having a great time together. For the most part I think she has adjusted well. For the first week she was acting a little funny, and the concept of having a "mommy's house" and a "daddy's house" was a little difficult. My place also doesn't feel like too much of a home yet because I still haven't found a couch I love enough to buy, and there's still boxes everywhere too. On Sunday when it was time for her to leave though, she threw a fit about it, and I'm taking that as a sign she's starting to like my place too.

Anyway, I miss everyone, but I'll come out of my little cave soon and be social again. :)

Bill took Marilyn for the day so I finally was able to make some real progress. For now I'm out of boxes though, but I'm almost done. There's something about putting all of your possessions in boxes along a wall that really makes you realize how much stuff you have. I've tried to get rid of as much stuff as possible while packing, but it all just adds up.

It seems like forever since I’ve blogged. I know part of the reason is because I’ve just been busy with everything, but part is also because I’ve been avoiding a certain topic because I just didn’t know what to say about it; for the most part I still don't which is very apparent by the number of times I've edited this post...

Anyway, on Friday I will be moving out. I feel like I’ve been packing forever because I’ve spent the past month doing a few boxes here and there. The apartment I’m moving into is also really small, so I’ve had to downsize a lot, and Marilyn seems to always get into trouble or want to go outside when I get started too. I’m almost finished though (I think) and I’m excited to unpack and make myself at home in my new place.

Every year my family stays at Bear Lake for a week, and so I'm up here for a couple of days with them. Not only does this place bring back all sorts of wonderful childhood memories, but I'm having a lot of fun sharing them with Marilyn now. As a kid I don't know how many hours I spent playing on the beach here, building sand castles or finding sea shells. I was allowed to be independent and do pretty much whatever I wanted, and I'm enjoying giving Marilyn just a taste of that same freedom. She's off riding her bike and I'm watching her from a distance. Every once in a while she'll go a little further than she's supposed too, but she'll come riding by and say hi. She's a very fun kid to watch.

Here's my latest layouts of her...

We went sailing again yesterday at Bear Lake. Good times were had by all, especially because we won the race.





Marilyn fell asleep right after the race. She slept while the rest of us swam and played for a bit, and she woke up right as we finished getting the boat cleaned up after the race. I just love taking pictures of Marilyn sleeping; she holds still!

I have yet another cold, although this one is pretty mild. I did take some sudafed though, and I think I'm going to blame that on keeping me up. Inspiration struck while lying awake in bed though, so I just finished one of those in the middle of the night layouts. Luckily I don't have many because really I should be sleeping in the middle of the night.

I might just take another look at this in the morning and wonder what I was thinking, but here is my first layout since April.