12 hours

Whew! What a day. We were gone for right at 12 hours!! I don't know if you realize, but with 2 kids and an agenda, that makes for a long day! We had a fantastic day though. The whole family went to the Saratoga Farmers Market and we got some great goodies (veggies). I must say that it was WONDERFUL shopping for fresh veggies and knowing when I would use them because I stayed up until 1:00am finishing my menu and shopping list. So, back to the Farmers Market...we had a lot of fun! Jared pushed Maddie in the stroller while I walked with Emma around the little outdoorsie place. Emma loves dogs. She "barks" at them whenever she sees them (her barking is her saying "woo woo" and yes, it's the cutest thing ever!). She fell in love with a chocolate lab so I think we should get one, but first my grandma has to win the lottery and buy us a house so we have somewhere to put the dog. So, once again, back to the Farmers Market...Jared found gelato (Italian ice cream that is to die for!!) and he was a happy camper for the rest of the day (minus the overwhelming yuckiness of Wal-Mart).
After the market, it was nap time for the girls so we HAD to go find garage sales so they could sleep in their car seats (twist my arm to go on an adventure of finding yard sales and then searching for the treasures). Jared and I had a blast getting lost in Saratoga, ending up at the horse race track on one of the biggest race days of the season. We saw some funky hats and lots of limos and we could even smell the money being burned in the air. :) hahahahah
Then it was off to lunch at Moe's. Emma had her first "personal" meal, meaning she got her own. We won't do it again. She didn't eat enough to cover the  "at cost" cost of the meal so we decided next time we are just going to get a side of beans for her. But it was a fun experience. She likes drinking from a cup with a straw in it too. Sometimes drinking was a loose term as it ended up down her shirt, on her legs, on the table and eventually on the floor. Such is life. Job security for the clean up crew (and it's only water).
On to get the oil changed in the van, nothing exciting happened there because they are so fast! Praise the Lord for that! Then we went off to the dreaded Wal-Mart. We knew it was going to be a little nuts with this crazy hurricane hitting so we were mentally prepared for it. You can never be fully prepared for inconsiderate people though. They just like to stop in the middle of the isle way and pretend like they are the only ones figuring out which kind of beans they want. It wasn't terrible but there were some people that tempted me to let Emma throw a Cheerio at them. :) Something amazing happened while we were shopping. Emma dropped her Nalgene bottle and it broke! It was half full of water and of course, that was now all over the floor. No big deal though, she was more concerned about the Cheerios that kept flying from her little cup. Again, it was great shopping for things that I knew I would use in the next two weeks because I had my menu planned out and knew what I needed! What a relief. I had a proud moment tonight. Jared asked me to make him a menu for while I was in ATL so that way he would eat something more than cereal. What wife could resist that? :) It warmed my heart and made me smile. Jared and I enjoyed the drive home together as well. Both girls slept and we had some "date time". We talk about all sorts of stuff. We also had a "drive-thru date" at McDonalds. We had a coupon for by one get one of their strawberry lemonade frozen thingies. OH MY WORD! Those things are so sweet!!! Not like good sweet, but literally sweet. My tongue felt like it was swollen so I told Jared that my taste buds were now mad at me for taking in that much sweetness so late at night. And, it was red sweetness which hypes people up so now they were going to be mad at me until 2am! It's only 12:45 am and my taste buds got over it a couple of hours ago, but I do know that I will not be getting another one of those. Jared however liked it but no thanks for me! After my body calmed down from the sugar surge, we made a game plan for when we got home. We had two kids, diaper bag, stuff and groceries to get into our second story apartment at 9:30 at night. So, I took the big kid, Jared took the little one. I got Emma ready for bed while Jared set Maddie down and let her continue to sleep. Jared then would go get groceries. Yeah right. Maddie woke up and needed a little bit of attention. Emma needed a bottle. So, I changed Emma while Jared got the bottle together. Maddie calmed down and I got Emma to sleep. Maddie woke up demanding more "food" as I was putting Emma down. PS, they have excellent timing. Usually one stops crying and the other starts or they both just cry at the same time but either way, excellent timing. Needless to say, we got everything accomplished but not according to plans...just accomplished. Then, with Irene on her way to visit, we needed to run the dishwasher, do laundry, freeze meat and charge phones before we lose power (probably sometime tomorrow). I do have to say, Jared and I make a great team. It wasn't always like that but now we are a SUPER team!! If we were super heroes, we would be Super 'Rents! That sounded better in my head. Maybe it was because I can see our costumes in my head and that makes the name cooler. I don't know, but I will continue. Uh, I don't think I have anything else to add. :) I think it's bed time. Don't forget to check out my facebook page as I added a few pics but more importantly I added 2 videos of Emma being herself. HILARIOUS!!!! :)