Annnnnnd, we’re back! Thank you for holding. The 2010 National Engaged Encounter Convention was a HUGE success (as I – one of the co-chairs – so very humbly say). We lived at the hotel for a week, we scrambled at the last moment to get a last minute fill-in presenter, we hosted a party for 450 people (and didn’t get in trouble with the hotel!), we ignored our children for the last couple of weeks – OK, or years – and we successfully “Rebooted” (the theme was “Reboot your Relationship”) all attendees. It was such a party that I even got a babysitter for the boys so that my parents could have a night off and join us (I know – aren’t I kind?). They were having such a good time I had to call the sitter to see if I could extend their curfew (now, that’s a role reversal)! The whole thing was awesome. Wonderful. And now it’s done – thank God!

The boys had a great time hanging out with my parents while they’re parents partied – er, worked – at the hotel. Zach spent one afternoon at my friend Andrea’s house where he (don’t pass this around too much) secretly, thoroughly enjoyed playing with Shay’s and Brooke’s Barbies. He loved it but was quite distraught and frustrated at one point. He’d been playing quietly with the dolls – er, action figures – in Brooke’s room while Andrea and Brian – who works from home – were on computers in their family room. All of a sudden, Zach – having stealthily tip-toed down the hall – jumps into the room and shouts, “BOOO!!! Did I scare ya?!” He then went on to ask Andrea for assistance.

“I’ve tried every single one of these hairbrushes and I CANNOT get the tangles out of this Barbie’s hair!” Andrea reported later that she and Brian had a hard time showing sharing Zach’s s amount of concern as they were so distracted by his cuteness and focus on the problem. It’s true – his cuteness can be quite distracting.

Anyway, we’re settling back into ‘normal, quiet’ life – the kind of ‘normal’ where we scramble to wrap up Nat’l Convention loose-ends so we can hand it over to the next suckers – I mean, Convention Coordinators (Boston, 2012). Our ‘normal’ life is surprising with the occasional kid falling in the closet laundry basket and the backyard being visited by three deer!! We also have quite a few big house projects we’d like to do. Then there are the doctor and dentist appointments that we’ve been putting off and then there’s this whole baby thing that’s happening in about a month and a half!!! Right! That’s our normal quiet life, alright!