One Busy Week

Big weekend with my friend Angie and sister Cathy. We drove to Las Vegas to walk neighborhoods for the Romney campaign.

Abbie made an aborable cake for Luke to enjoy on his first birthday.

Luke is ready to dig in.

The shirt came off once Luke became serious about eating.

Happy Birthday beautiful boy!!

   I am still recovering from an extremely busy week, so I thought that I'd recap a bit about what's been going on while I sit here and take a deep breath.  First off, in the fall each year Mark takes a long business trip to India and the Phillipeans which keeps him away from home for two weeks.  BOO! We miss him so much while he's gone.  This year the second week of his trip fell on Emma's fall break so I took Emma and the boys to Disneyland for a couple of days while Abbie stayed home with a friend so she wouldn't miss school (eighth grade really cramps my style). We had a great time running around the parks and got home the day before Mark returned on Wedensday.  Thursday Mark stayed home from work and continued tiling our kid's bathroom.  It just occured to me that since I've been so bad at blogging this year I haven't mentioned that we had some major water/mold damage in our home in August (the week school started to be exact and we were stuck in a hotel for 10 days) and the upstairs bathroom is now being remodelled by Mark.  Maybe I'll post a picture when he's done.
   Friday at noon I loaded into the car with my friend Angie and sister Cathy and hit the road for a girls weekend to Vegas.  A girls' weekend like no other, actually!  After braving Friday afternoon traffic we finally arrived at the Mitt Romney Headquarters in Henderson, Nevada to be put to work for the next 24 hours.  Since Nevada is a swing state and California clearing is not, we wanted to help get out the vote for Romney in Nevada where it really matters.  We spent a couple hours on the phones and seven hours on Saturday walking a pretty sketchy neighborhood encouraging Romney supporters to vote early.  We met some really nice people who felt like we did about the election, and some others who slammed doors in our faces (supported or not) and even yelled at us.  The high point for me was meeting a kid who was turning 18 on election day and was going to the polls to vote with his parents to celebrate.  He said he couldn't think of a better was to spend his 18th birthday and then shook my hand as I left his door. The low point was when Angie approached a door and then decided not to knock.  The guy living there saw her anyway and ran outside where he saw all of us and asked (shouted) who we were campaigning for and flipped up off, etc. as he went back inside.  Seconds later he ran outside again and started screaming at us about being women voting for Romney.  The guy was a loon.  All in all, though, it was a great experience and really exciting to feel the energy at headquarters as people came in and out with yard signs and as busloads of peopel from other states joined locals to be put to work. I'm glad that we were a part of it.  Go Mitt!
   I got home on Sunday in time to celebrate sweet Luke's first birthday,  It's hard to believe that a year has gone by since little Luke has joined our family. We all have such a big crush on him.  Luke always has a big smile on his face (that dimple!!!!).  He even smiles when he cries--which isn't very often.  He's happy and laughs easily.  He loves us and reaches out his arms for us to pick him up when he sees us. He loves throwing balls, swinging, playing outside and taking baths.  He doesn't like getting his diaper changed or being put in his carseat.  He is such a special part of our family.