Whoa, has it been three weeks since I posted here? Hard to believe, but considering I was on a short trip each of those weeks, not *too* hard.

So what's happened since the last time I checked in? I got my two business trips out of the way (both overnight trips to Memphis), and we went out for a date night on St. Patrick's Day while the kids stayed later at the daycare (we picked them up by 8:30 though; NT and AS were exhausted).

NT and I also had an impulsive date to see my fave band; they were opening for another band. We left soon after my band played though. It was an expensive impulse; my spending money is out of whack! But I always make it up in the end when that happens.

NT's birthday was the day I came back from my second business trip; he just wanted delivery food and to hang out with us and our downstairs neighbors, so that's what we did.

Soon after THAT, I had my solo trip to New York. It was so fun! I couch surfed at some old college friends' apartments, visited my old campus, went to a historical museum about the transit system, went out to eat a lot, and saw a movie plus my fave band (again, which was the main reason behind the timing of the trip). I got to see them in a little theater that was part of Lincoln Center. It was a great venue because I could really hear everything, vs. bars and concerts which tend to have a lot of peripheral noise.

It was rainy and/or gray every single day in NY, but I didn't care. I love that city and my college friends, and it was a fun and unique experience to travel without any of my family members.

I got back Wednesday, just in time for SL's 5th birthday! Everything was chaos when I got home, and AS was exhausted, so we ordered pizza delivery and hung out at our downstairs neighbors' while SL opened presents. She had a fantastic time!

Then it was two hectic days at work; basically trying to fit two weeks' worth of meetings and work into that short window. Needless to say I didn't get everything done; I'll need to work some on Sunday and be available to answer questions on Monday.

Today was SL's bday party; we had eight kids besides our two, which is a good number. We had several activities besides karaoke: hunting for clown pictures all over the house, temporary tattoos, blocks and puzzles. For snacks we did fruit, veggies, chips, pretzels, juice, frozen pizzas, and cupcakes. Pretty easy spread and not too expensive. Everyone seemed to have a great time besides a couple of minor meltdowns by kids.

It's beautiful outside, and I know we should take advantage, but we're forcing the kids to have some quiet time in their rooms, mostly for our own sake so we can rest up after the party, and then I'll take them to the playground.

Coming up in our crazy lives: a full week off! AA is on spring break, so both kids are in daycare Monday and Tuesday. We have a rental car the whole week, so we might go clothes shopping and to a movie, and anything else that occurs to us. Oh, and our precinct's caucus is Tuesday night. I might sign up to be a delegate this year. I wished I'd done it last year.

Wednesday through Sunday we're going to a house on a lake, about three hours northwest of here. I'm going to try and enforce a strict screen-free policy there, so I'm going to print out directions to everywhere I think we might want to go, and we'll bring lots of games and books. The only screen time might be going out to a movie; I think that's different from the sitting around staring at screens, which we all (especially me) do too much of.

I even asked if the house had a landline, thinking we could turn off all our phones, but they don't. So I'll keep my oldish phone out, with WiFi/data turned off, just in case any of our parents need to reach us in an emergency.

The week after that things should hopefully start to slow down. A friend is coming over the Monday after our trip to say goodbye before she moves out of state. Wednesday 4/12 I have a follow-up scan because of something concerning on my mammogram last month. I got the call about it while in NY, which wasn't very nice, but I've decided not to worry about it, after reading that most things turn out to be nothing. If it does turn out to be something, of course, our lives will change a lot, but I'm going to hope and assume that it isn't anything to worry about before then. I was thinking about buying some new glasses, but now I think I'll hold off until I see how much this follow-up exam costs (and if anything else comes up as a result).

Our shared spending went in the red for a while this month due to all the rampant birthday and travel spending, but some of AS's checks came in and we broke even. There will be more spending during our week off, but also AS is expecting a few more checks soon, so hopefully it'll balance out.

We might have to take it easy on shared spending for a while; she's booked a couple jobs, one of them quite big, but I don't think she'll get paid for them for a while. Hopefully we can stay about even until they start coming in, and then we can book our summer trip to Va. and whatever AS wants to do for her solo trip this year.

We're still adding to our reno savings for (hopefully) a kitchen redo or insulation or HVAC system. But it's in the back of my mind that this money may end up going to medical. Hopefully not. I'll know soon enough!