time for my biannual posting

i think it's safe to say that blogging is not turning into my super favorite hobby, but i enjoy reading others' blogs quite a bit, so i'll keep this sad little blog gimping along and one of these years i might just get regular about posting...

a quick update for those who might not know: our family has changed quite significantly this past year-my sister amy and her two children are living with us now, which brings the adult count in the house to three, and the kid count in the house to four...until october. cuz we're having another babaaaaaaaay! woo hoo. i'm due 10/10/10, and yes, it's another girl! apparently geoff+molly=baby girls. we're excited, and so are all the kids. i am also very glad that we have a house with a finished basement....i hope the old lady who lived in a shoe had a finished basement in that shoe.

we've chosen the baby's name, so for all three of my regular readers, you get the sneak peek-yee haw! her name will be kajsa molly archibald. for those of you who aren't fluent swedish speakers, the name kajsa is pronounced "kai-sah". no i don't speak swedish either, but we've liked this name for a long time (it was a serious contender when we were choosing georgia's name). i've received mixed feedback from those i've told it to thus far, (ranging from, "oh what a beautiful name, i love it!", to "sounds like a made up utah name to me!" but we are 100% sure this is the baby's name, and we 100% don't care if people don't like it. so, kajsa it is! i'm sure she will encounter plenty of people with even more "unique" names than hers, given the baby names i've heard recently (pixel, pepper, brayley....) so i'm not super worried about it. besides, any kid of ours will have naturally good self esteem, right? :)

other than baby news, there has been plenty of excitement to keep us busy around here--if you count various illnesses as excitement. it seems like we've all been taking turns getting sick. this weekend it was geoff and quinn's turn-georgie got in on the action by deciding to sprout her 2 year molars a little early-so i got to play nursemaid today. i don't think i'd make a good nurse in real life, but when my patients are so adorably pathetic, i don't mind.

geoff also attempted to take a continuing education course in chicago this weekend (right before his stomach bug decided to show up-wah) so i had the kids and house to myself on friday and saturday...quinn had already taken to the couch like a lump, poor thing, so georgie and i did some mama projects. really, georgie tortured the cat and i indulged in some serious de-crapification. i don't know that anyone but me would notice but seriously how many sippy cups does one family need?!! especially since none of the tops matched any of the bottoms. gone gone gone. also cleared out: about 50,000 scribbled up coloring books, a sad sad excuse of a pillow-it might be older than our marriage, honestly-and, the saddest one of all, a record player.

this was my mom's record player. except that i never actually saw her use it. and i owned exactly three records. and the entire time i've owned it (coming up on six years) it has needed a needle replacement....goodbye, record player! (and the 3 records too) i've been contemplating getting rid of that thing since about five minutes after i brought it home. not sure why it took me so long--which brings me to the biggest accomplishment of the entire weekend: the PINK SHOEBOX OF DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

alright kids, hop into your Way Back Machines, because it's time to go down memory lane....all the way back to 1996. which my dear friend nancy pointed out was fifteen years ago. FIFTEEN. i am officially old.

so in 1996, nancy and i embarked on a fantastic adventure in moscow russia--we went over there and taught english as a second language to young children. we were there for 5 months, then did some travelling through europe afterward. one of the best times of my life, for sure. definitely one of my formative experiences, and such a great way to get out of my comfort zone. and oh yes, the pictures. i took approximately 899,994 pictures. which i then came home and developed on the "free doubles day" at my friendly walgreens. (remember having to get pictures developed? i might as well get out the geritol right now!) after looking through the pictures several times and even LABELING the envelopes by month (so sophisticated, my organizational system!) i shoved all bajillion envelopes into a pink shoebox and....then did nothing. for fifteen years.

of course, my intention was always to put them in an album and to appropriately label the pictures with heartwarming stories and touching details. i never deluded myself into thinking i would make a scrapbook with metro passes glued onto the pages and stickers saying cute phrases in scrolly cyrillic lettering....i'm just not a scrapbooking kind of chick-BUT, for fifteen years, i never so much as opened the box. it just seemed so overwhelming and not something i'd ever have the time to do. UNTIL NOW!!! cue the dramatic music, folks--i did it!

the funniest thing is that once i finally opened the shoebox, it hardly took me any time at all--i sat with a trashcan by my side and quickly got rid of all the doubles (except for a few that i knew i'd want to send to nancy). it was so gratifying to reduce the stack by 50% so quickly that i just wanted to keep going--what a pathetic thing to get so excited about, right!?

then i went through the stack again and it was immediately apparent which shots were important enough to hang on to and which weren't. something about being 15 years removed from the situation. :) so i ended up with 2 big envelopes of pictures, which i've since sorted out a little further into smaller categories-i'm getting an album THIS WEEK and sticking them in there, labelling them with what few bits of information remain in my sad 34 year old brain, and then i'm DONE! i even put the doubles in the mail for nancy already...i thought if i didn't do it right away, i might wait another 15 years. :)

it took me about 30 minutes to do what i've been avoiding for fifteen years. i'm really going to try hard to remember that then next time i'm tempted to put something off. does anyone need a really old pink shoebox?

food for thought

so yesterday the internet was acting up, and we were without the magical superbox for most of the day. it turned out to be a rather productive day. i'm not saying these two things are related in any way.

lies and the liars who tell them.

trying to come up with an appropriately sheepish/gee i've been super busy this...year phrase is kind of hard. i think i thought blogging would come somewhat more naturally, but i confess that while i really enjoy reading others' blogs, i haven't forced myself to sit down and update my own because...i'm lazy. i like updating my facebook status because i can do it in one or two sentences and that's it. i suppose i could just write one sentence blog posts but i don't know if that would go over so well. 2010 looms on the horizon and i'm avoiding making a declaration about the frequency of upcoming posts, since we all know how well that turned out for me THIS year. still, i believe in the idea of this blog! i have faith that eventually i will magically turn into a super blogger. or at least one who writes more than twice a year. maybe if i tell myself i don't have to post any pictures ever, that'll take the pressure off and i'll actually write? 

i just attempted to sum up the last year in one paragraph and then i realized that would be both dumb and ineffectual. here's the quick status on life RIGHTTHISMINUTE.

Quinn is 3.5 and loves going to preschool 2 mornings a week, and pretending her name is Jessie. (why? i have no idea.)

Georgie is 14 months and lives to walk/run/destroy everything, all the time

Boo is still a fat lazy cat who lives to eat plastic and then puke on the rug

Geoff's practice is going really well--he is having a good time and staying busy

I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off most of the time. my sister Amy and her two kids (Sophie- age 5 and Marcus-age 2) are living with us now, and Amy is going back to school. so that means we have a one, two, three, and five year old in our house. good thing we finished the basement last year. :)

alright. i can now officially cross off "update stupid blog already" off the continual list of "things i should really get around to doing but probably won't". hurrah. 

bits and bobs. no pictures though.

"fresh with no mistakes in it"...anyone recognize that line from anne of green gables? i love january (at least the first few days of january) because i haven't made TOO many mistakes yet. we started off 2009 with a bang-geoff and i ran the polar dash 5K along the mississippi yesterday morning with 800 of our closest friends. brrr it was chilly (about 9 degrees) but once we finally got going we warmed up quickly and really enjoyed ourselves.

this was a well organized run-the team that sponsored it actually holds a series of 6 races throughout the year, and if you do all of them, you can get a really nice running jacket. it's a bummer because you have to do all 6 races, and 2 of them are held on sundays. geoff and i do not participate in athletic events on sundays (email me if you are interested in knowing our reasons behind this) so we aren't eligible for the jacket.

it's kind of dumb, i know--running isn't about the t-shirt or the jacket, and i know plenty of people think it is stupid to pay money to run with a bunch of people you don't know when you can just run on your own for free. but i freely admit to being totally motivated by the t-shirt or the jacket, and i love running with a big group of people who are all just as excited to be there as i am. i'm not a very good runner, but now that i have experienced a few races, i don't think i'll ever be able to give this hobby up. yes, i admit it. i do pretend all the spectators are there to to cheer ME on. :)

we spent the rest of the day cleaning out the closet and desks in our computer room...sadly, it did take all afternoon. when we lived in the duplex, i was really on the ball about keeping the junk from coming into the house, and i made drop-offs at the thrift store almost weekly. we just didn't have the space to do otherwise. now that we are in a much larger house, the clutter has begun to take over...it is subtle and takes a while to notice, because we have lots more places to stash it. but it has started getting to me so i'm back on the decrapification bandwagon. (special credit to audrey and tyler for that excellent term, decrapification). i know i'm not the only one who gets this way at the beginning of a new year--i'm sure the thrift stores will experience a swell of donations in the next few weeks. hopefully people will donate good stuff and not trash.

in other news, quinn is rapidly approaching her 3rd birthday and is currently deep in the throes of "i can do it myself-itis". it's great, except for when it sucks. most of the time i love it that she is becoming so independent and that she wants to do things on her own. but when she tries to do something and she can't quite get it, she goes from happy and independent to impatient and whiny in about .4 seconds. THAT is the part that sucks. one of the things she is unable to do on her own is to put her mittens on. i should call them "glubs", because that is the only way she refers to them. so she wants her glubs on and she wants them on RIGHT.NOW. well, honey, i can't help you because i'm driving right now and i don't want us to go off the road and die in either a fiery ball of anguish or an icy pit of despair (these being the two options when you live by approximately 953 lakes) so could you pretty please wait for just a minute until we get to the stoplight? no? ok, continue with the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

georgie is our deliciously chubby smiler. she has 3 rolls on her legs--ABOVE the knee. she is coming up on her 4 month mark and i think she weighs almost 18 pounds. i would worry except that quinn was almost the same and while she is certainly not petite, she has slimmed down and gotten quite tall. besides, there is just something so yummy about a big round squishy baby girl.

and yes. we do have pictures. there are about a zillion on our camera. i've been putting off blogging because i haven't taken the time to get the pictures off the camera. but again, i resolve to do better. 2009 will be the year of pictures. you won't be able to get away from us. just call us britney.

30 years ago today!

geoffrey david archibald was born, hurray! as i learned from the always informative and sometimes entertaining internet, 30 years ago today was the horrific jonestown massacre in guyana. let's focus on geoff!

i was going to write 30 things i love about geoff, but my 2 month old is freaking out a little here, so let's go with 3. each one stands for ten years. :)

1. geoff is the sort of person who does not require an audience-if he thinks something is funny, he will do it or say it, even if nobody is there to ham it up for.
2. geoff is a thoughtful person, both in how he treats other people, and in how he forms his opinions-he doesn't just spout an idea simply because he heard someone else say it.
3. geoff is a fantastic kisser.

i love you geoff! happy birthday!

the depths of my nerdliness know no bounds...

i am so excited! my awesome sister-in-law sarah is in town visiting with her teeny weeny baby (seriously, georgie is only 2 weeks older than edie but georgie looks like she ate edie) and look what we spent 2 hours doing yesterday!!

before

after

yes. i am a dork to be so happy that my pantry now looks like a grocery store shelf. hurray!!

i'm feeling nostalgic...

i've been inspired by my friend mari's blog--she just wrote the story of how she met and married her husband. i know i always love hearing other people's stories, but if you're not interested in this sort of thing--SKIP IT!

edited to add: this ended up being SUPER long, because i remembered a lot more than i thought i did, and i thought it would be good to get it all down in one place. so if you don' t have a long time to sit and read all this stuff, my feelings won't be hurt, i promise...

geoff and i met in september 1997. we were both attending the st. paul fifth ward (aka singles ward), which met at the institute of religion at the university of minnesota. geoff was a freshman that year, and since he was pre-mission, 2.5 years younger than me, and i was dating someone at the time, i didn't give him a second thought.

this person i was dating was geoff's home teacher, however, and he came to me saying, geoff archibald--you know, the freshman? he's having a rough time in his comp. class, and i was wondering if you'd mind helping him out. i said sure, and set up a time with geoff to work on his paper.

we met in the library at the institute, and worked on his composition-he started out by telling me that his professor actually announced that she doesn't give "A"s. nice! the topic of the paper was his green couch. (riveting stuff!!) we actually had a really good time working on the paper and had fun talking together and getting to know each other. geoff was also dating someone, and the 2.5 year age difference seemed enormous at the time, so there was no flirting or tension-just getting to know each other.

the next week, geoff came up to me and said "we got an A!!" i will always remember that, how he said "we". i thought that was pretty cool. we were good friends from that point, and we hung out together relatively often. since we were both involved with other people, it was usually in a group, but we really had a good time.

this is somewhat unrelated but too funny not to include--that winter, there was a sledding activity-after the activity, there were a bunch of us sitting around at the institute drinking hot cocoa and warming up. geoff and i were sitting next to one another on the couch, and nearby, our friend c.j. was flirting like MAD with this girl tessie. they were talking about the movie "somewhere in time" and one of them was saying that they'd never seen it before. they started talking about how they needed to get together to watch it, and geoff pipes up, "oh, i've never seen that movie before, either." c.j. and tessie completely ignored him and kept flirting, and geoff turned to me and said, "did you see that?? they are totally going to get married!!" and guess what--they did! just a funny aside..

geoff went to his parents home in idaho (they moved there right before he started college) for a few weeks before leaving on his mission to england. he called me from idaho, and i was feeling kind of gloomy because i'd just broken up with someone. (video game guy). i remember that he cheered me up and made me remember all the reasons i'd broken up with video game guy--i promised i would write to geoff, and we hung up.

i DID keep my promise---i wrote to geoff once when he was in the missionary training center, and once right before he came home. :) the letter before he came home was actually to see if he'd want to go out on a date with my sister amy. geoff's brother kent and i had been talking, and we thought it would be fun to set up our siblings. i'd called amy out at byu to tell her i had the perfect guy for her, and she said, "geoff? he's more like my friend--i don't think i could think of him that way." my response? "come on, amy! geoff is a great guy and i want you to marry him so i can be related to him!" (too funny!!!)

geoff came home and we went out--amy (who was home from byu on winter break) and geoff, and me and kent. we had dinner and went to see "o brother, where art thou?". kent and i hung back to let amy and geoff talk, and we thought we were being totally sneaky...

amy went back to school, and i told all my friends in the singles ward to stay away from geoff, since i was reserving him for my sister. (i didn't tell him this, though) geoff didn't have a car, and lived close by me, so i gave him rides often, and we hung out together. then we were asked to be in charge of the activities committee together at church, so we spent even more time together. all this time, we were hanging out, and i thought i was reserving him for amy...

geoff asked me out on a double date, but he did it in such a way that i didn't think he was interested in me, just that he needed someone to go with. we went out together and had a really good time--the story of that date is pee-your-pants funny but this is already getting too long, so i'll save it for another time--after the double date, i started thinking, hmmm, maybe i could be interested in geoff.

i actually called amy up at school and told her i was having a problem, because i was saving geoff for her, and i thought i was starting to like him. she laughed and said to go for it because she wasn't interested. i also told a friend, sara, that i thought i could be interested in geoff. she was excited for me, since i was going on another double date with him the next night. (totally orchestrated by me in a completely manipulative and passive-aggressive, let the guy think he's chasing you but really you're just letting him catch you sort of way)

we went on the double date (to see "the sting" on campus in completely uncomfortable chairs) and after the movie was over, we said good night to the other couple and he asked me if i'd like to go on a walk. it was march 17th. in minnesota. BRRRR...i said of course! we walked around for a few minutes, and when geoff noticed that my face was turning blue, he made his little declaration. it was completely adorable and endearing.

we went back to the car, and i told him i thought he was brave to put his feelings out there when he wasn't sure how i was feeling. he hemmed and hawed, and then admitted that my friend sara "can't keep her mouth shut" vaneps had blown my cover and had told him i was interested. (technically, she didn't TELL him, but she let him know without coming out and saying it. all for the cause, i know! but still!!) we had a good laugh, and then decided to play a practical joke on sara. i called her from the car and told her i was home from the date and that it was a total dud. i told her my crush on geoff had been completely momentary, and i was totally over it. i added that i was SO lucky to have her for a friend, because i could tell her all my stupid secrets and didn't have to worry about anyone ever finding out. poor sara was really squirming at this point, but just to make it really awful, i said, "you didn't TELL anyone, did you?" sara sounded about 2 inches tall and she answered, "ummmm...", but we finally let her off the hook and told her we were just playing a trick on her. not the nicest thing to do to a friend, i know...

geoff and i didn't date too long before getting engaged--just a few months. i know some people would find that foolish, but the nice thing was that we already knew each other really well, since we'd been friends for so long. we were married in the st. paul temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on dec. 28, 2001. we'll be celebrating our seventh anniversary next month, and we've been blessed with 2 beautiful daughters, Quinn and Georgia. it is so wonderful to be married to your best friend.

doings part 2

some of you may know that my sister amy and i are superfans of little house on the prairie--we read all the books, went to the pageant, and raced home from the bus stop to catch the show on channel 9 at 4pm everyday. i even had a little house birthday party one year. so it warms my heart to see my handsome husband wearing his daughter's bonnet. and his "i voted" sticker. what a fashion statement!

georgie's halloween costume. again, note the goofy expression.

geoff and his girls. quinn is holding her baby too.

we carved a jack o'lantern for family home evening one night. quinn really enjoyed it, and made us put the pumpkin facing the house so she could see him from the window.

another picture from the cousin visit. the stuffed dog that quinn is holding was my old dog "arf-arf"-i've had him since i was 2. he is so mangled and nasty, i can't believe i allow my toddler to touch him--he really should be sent up to the great dog bowl in the sky, but i confess it makes me happy to see her playing with him. one of these days he'll just disintegrate completely (does anyone else remember that nasty yellow foam they put into toys in the late '70s? it's coming out of a hole in his neck. nasty.) but until he does, viva arf-arf!

i'm sure i'll post more pictures from the last few weeks soon--and i'm going to try really hard not to get so behind. i'm sorry i've been so lax in posting pictures of georgie, especially. now that she's starting to wake up a bit more we'll have more chances to take good pictures of her with her eyes open.

some of our latest doings..

so i am still somewhat ignorant of how to post pictures--i have a bunch i want to share, but for some reason can only post 5 at a time...i'll end up with multiple posts here, but that's ok i guess.

this is quinn's first official trip to the dentist--of course she's been to the office a million times (thinks she owns the place!) but she's never actually had her teeth checked. she did really well, and barb did a great job of helping her feel comfortable in the chair. thanks barb!
this is a great picture of quinn and her cousin sophie, who came to visit for 2 weeks. we took the kids to the red balloon bookstore in st. paul--this is a fantastic children's bookstore, and the storytime is just the best. well worth the drive. after storytime we walked down the street to cafe latte (the other reason it's well worth the drive) and had yummy lunch. amy snapped this picture of sophie and quinn zipping down the sidewalk with their balloons.
during amy's visit, we also went to pinehaven farm. this place isn't too far from our house, and it has a petting zoo, hay maze, pumpkin patch, and--get this--"minnesota's FIRST pumpkin shooter". amazing, the cultural offerings we have up here in chisago county...:) actually the pumpkin shooter was pretty awesome--according to the guy loading the cannon, the pumpkin comes out at 200 mph, and goes a half mile! modern engineering is a miracle.
here's another shot of the cousins (sophie, quinn, and marcus) on a train ride at pinehaven. quinn and marcus did have a good time, despite the fact that they aren't smiling...
here's a shot of the elusive georgia. she did accompany us to the previously mentioned outings, but she was mostly sleeping, so we figured we'd let her alone and not bug her with posing for pictures. she's just about asleep in this picture too, but since she's only 7 weeks old, that's kind of her main activity. it's kind of hard to catch her awake, and even if you do, she usually has a goofy expression like this one.

i'll post again with more pictures.

this is totally uninteresting, even to me.

i've been lax in posting, not only because we've been busy around here with the new baby and tons of out of town visitors for several weeks, but because geoff and i are super lazy about uploading our pictures from the camera, and i've been stuck in the mindset that i have to have pictures in order to post. wow that was a long sentence, but it's the truth. so more and more time has gone by, and then i feel irritated with myself when i see my friends' blogs--i really enjoy reading them, so i'm assuming they'd like to read mine too. so i hearby resolve to do better, imaginary cyber-friends.

we're starting to fall into more of a routine, which is nice--little Q is finally sleeping through the night again (she would wake up in the middle of the night asking to color, or to ride in the car? i think she was dreaming...), although the baby still needs to eat twice during the night.

i'm finally able to exercise, hallelujah! i haven't managed to figure out how i'm going to do it with the two girls, but at least i have the doctor's go-ahead. so far i've just been doing annoying aerobics videos in my basement and then going running on the days when geoff's home. or at least i WAS running--my feet grew with this baby! they swelled with my first one, but then they went back down. not this time!

so i went to get new shoes this weekend--we were in the big bad city (how i miss you, tall buildings!) and i stopped at running room--can i just say that store is seriously over-rated? at least the grand ave. one is. i found out that i was already wearing my running shoes too tight, and now they're even worse with the extra half size i've gained. after trying on these lovely size tens, i CANNOT go back to my size 9s.OUCH! unfortunately, they didn't have the shoes i wanted in size 10. had to go home and order them...long story short (too late, i know), they are on the way, but the warm weather won't be here for long, and i wanna get out there!! i'm THINKING of trying to run through the winter this year....again, i need to figure out what to do with the girls, but the thought of treadmill running all winter-blahhh...i didn't get to run at all last summer--i miscarried in july--and then this summer i "ran" (ha ha, is it really running when you are shaped like a giant football??) so i've been dying to get out there. this is the deadly dull saga of the running shoes. the end.
p.s. i really am going to post about things worth reading...i promise. just trying to avoid politics for now.

my daughter has AWESOME hair!

she's here!

Georgia Carrie Archibald
9/17/08
9 lbs, 4 oz
20.75 inches

Just wanted to take a minute and let everyone know of the new addition to our family--Georgia was born last Wednesday and it's been a busy week with little sleep, but we're really enjoying her. Quinn has been fantastic-she loves to "help" and has a little stool next to the bassinet so she can look in on her sister.

We were in the hospital for 2 days and Quinn stayed with Baba and Grandma Danny--she had a really good time, and they all got to come to the hospital and visit. Quinn was pretty hyped up but she had been prepped fairly well, so she was bouncy but relatively well behaved in the hospital...the curtains on the rollerball track were nearly more exciting than the new baby sister. :)

Just like Quinn, Georgie had a case of jaundice, but fortunately for us, she is a much better eater than her big sister was. There has been no worry of keeping this baby awake long enough to eat--she is a hungry girl! She does let us sleep for a few hours at a time, so it's not too bad--Geoff's working half days this week and next, and that's made a huge difference. The hospital sent us home with a bili light and we had to keep this thing on her for 20 hours a day-I was just starting to get a bad case of cabin fever when they finally told us we could take it off. We should just be grateful that we were able to bring her home instead of being under the light at the hospital, but I was seriously going bonkers being at home for an entire week. It's probably a good thing, it forced me to take it easy for a little while.

We are now gearing up for another marathon of visitors--Geoff's parents are coming into town for Georgia's baby blessing this weekend, and his mom will stay until Oct. 4 (yay!) Our good friend Annie lives in Pittsburgh, but she has an art history conference in St. Paul, so she'll stay with us for a few days as well. After they leave, my sister Amy and her 2 kids are coming to visit for 2 weeks! We are excited, and we are also glad the basement project is done so we have a place to put all these people. :)

We'll post again soon with pictures from the baby blessing and all the family fun.

A visit from the fam

We are recovering from a wonderful 10 day visit by Kent, Christine, and Ian. They live in Virginia now, and we have been going through withdrawal since they moved. For those who don't know, we shared a duplex with them for 4 years, and Ian and Quinn are just 6 weeks apart. They are best buddies, and it was really fun to see them back together, especially now that they are speaking in sentences...there was no warm-up time at all, they just hit the ground running and never looked back. Some highlights of the trip include a trip to the state fair, a train ride, and a local "wildlife education center". We also spent a lot of time just hanging out at home and at the park. Geoff and Kent got to have some much needed brother time when they drove down to Nauvoo for our good friend Robert's wedding. (Congrats to Robert and Jamie!)

We're also continuing preparations for baby Georgia--Quinn and Ian got to take a tour of the hospital and to see where she will be born...at first they weren't too excited about it, until Christine and I told them "We're not bringing any babies home today, we're just looking." :)

Quinn now has a baby doll (named baby Georgia--creative, eh?) that she's been putting into the crib at night and carrying around the house. It's been good practice being gentle, except for when she decided her dolly wanted to learn how to fly. Oh well...

why leaving a 2 year old unsupervised for 10 minutes is a really REALLY bad idea

this is why we aren't going to be nominated for minnesota parents of the year anytime soon...:) at least she managed to stay on the dropcloth, but it did take three days to get all the yellow paint out of her hair. two year olds are so much fun!

Our athletic endeavors...

Here we see 2 pictures of Quinn at her "jumping kwass". She is an enthusiastic gymnast, and demonstrates her abilities at home by jumping on the couch and attempting to help the cat learn tumbling tricks. Really, it's been a lot of fun taking her to this little class---her confidence and her willingness to try new things has increased quite a bit since she's started. Plus, check out the little dress! So cute. She loves wearing this dress and is always sad when it has to go in the "wondwee".

The other picture is of the three of us when we "ran" the Lindstrom Loppet a couple weeks ago. This is a local 5K, and I put the word "run" in quotation marks, because if you saw us, you'd understand how generous it is to call what we did "running". I've tried really hard to keep up with running during this pregnancy, and I'm pretty pleased that I'm still able to do it (although not with this heat this past week!) but our times show that we were burning up the road with a 14 minute mile! Not that I was very fast before being pregnant, but at least I could do a ten minute mile. Whatever--I'm still proud of us. Geoff stayed with me and earned the distinction of being the very LAST person in his age category as a result. What a guy! Even going 14 minutes a mile, I still managed to beat 10 people in my age category...I'm thinking they might have been clinically dead people being pushed on stretchers? Maybe people who only have half a leg.

just another manic monday

not really much to report, but i'm trying to get better at writing more often...you'll see that geoff uploaded a bunch of pictures last night--if you're interested in seeing more, click on the link that says "our web photo albums" to the right...

Quinn seems to be starting to understand that this baby everyone keeps talking about is actually a real baby. when we see babies in the store or at the park she wants to touch my stomach and talk about her baby "stister". oh--we picked a name! i think this is something else that's made the whole thing a little more real for Quinny--being able to refer to her sister as baby georgia. the full name is georgia carrie archibald (geoff's mom's name is carrie). we'll probably call her georgie when she's little, but i really like the name georgia too. we had originally ruled the name out, even though we liked it, because geoff's business partner has a dog named georgie, and we thought we cared. but we decided that we don't care. and the dog won't live forever...morbid i know. but in any case, baby georgia is the name!

what else is new...oh, we got a new car! well, new to us, anyway. this news in and of itself might not be so blog-worthy, but the way in which we obtained the car is a funny story--we had decided that the mazda 5 was the car we'd really like to have, and i'd even gone and test-driven one. then we started looking online for one, and realized how hard they are to come by. the mazda 5 is a cross between a mini-van and a car--it has 3 rows of 2 seats each, with sliding doors like a van, but it is sized more like a car, and gets better gas mileage than a minivan. (about 29 mpg). mazda only started making them 2 years ago, so there aren't many for sale, and we wanted a stick-shift, which apparently lots of people don't like (WHY??? i don't understand). so the end result is that these cars are hard to come by, and consequently, out of our price range...or so we thought!

the plot thickens!!

2 weeks ago geoff came upstairs with this funny look on his face and said, "i just did something." of course i was instantly curious, and then he told me he's spotted a stick-shift mazda 5 on ebay and he'd gone ahead and placed a bid. i was kind of annoyed at first until he told me that he'd only bid 9K and there is NO way the car would go for so low a price. we had a good laugh about it and forgot the whole thing.

UNTIL--a week later, i was up at a girlfriend's cabin for a few days and geoff called to tell me that there were only 3 hours left on the auction and the price was still pretty low--well within our price range. We decided to go for it, and we are now officially People Who Have Bought A Car on E-bay and Lived to Tell the Tale. unfortunately the car was in san antonio TX, but fortunately, my awesome dad was up for an adventure, so he and geoff flew to TX on the 4th of july, made the transaction and were back on the road an hour later...did you know that you can take highway 35 all the way from san antonio TX straight to our house? i guess the gps wasn't really necessary. :) i think the best part of the whole story was geoff's mom's reaction when i called and told her we'd bought the car on e-bay. she said, "geoff? OUR geoff?" it is a pretty un-geoffish thing to do, but apparently e-bay actually has a good history of protecting the buyer. and we did get a good car, so it all turned out. but watch for us on the people's court in case we end up having to sue the seller...i love people's court!

Here are some more pictures including some pictures of the new car.

Some pictures of when Grandma Archibald came to visit:

Helping Grandma with the vacuuming.
Doing some reading with Grandma.

Helping Daddy make some bread.

The funny thing my kid said today

I have a wonderful book!

In which we redeem ourselves, photographically speaking

so let it be said: the archibalds do not let more than 5 months pass without adding photos to their blog. we actually just posted a ton of photos to our web album, including pictures from the recent trip to north carolina, so if you're so inclined, feel free to look at those!