Congratulations Corinne & Daniel!

Thursday proved to be a typical day. I had one of my free consultations with a trainer at the gym. When I signed up I received two free workout consultations and one free nutritional. Poor Ellie was sad in the childcare services but the girl in there was very patient and up for the task. Halfway through the trainer received a phone call so I went and calmed Ellie down. It helped. The employee told me that Ellie would generally stop crying when she was watching the Zumba class dancing.
We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for lunch and Ellie took a nice nap on Grandma's bed. Grandma and Grandpa were raving about the Badger's game they watched the night before (I believe) and how well Ben played. They didn't initially agree on how many overtimes were involved but they said Ben played very well and that he looks just like Jonathan. Kelly and Clark also joined us for lunch and we hung out for a while until heading home. I had big plans for cleaning and grocery shopping in the afternoon but that was put on hold when Lauren called from Austria! We ended up talking close to three and a half hours. It was so nice to catch up.
Jon came home for dinner and we ate and then went out to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up a shower gift for Brittney's bridal shower on Saturday. We also ordered a wedding gift. Jon sat in the car with Ellie until she became cranky and he said when he walked into the store she became silent and just looked around quietly until we left. We arrived home relatively early but went straight to bed since we were both feeling tired from our late nights.
I caught up a bit on my to do list on Friday. I cleaned up the house and even cleared out a corner of my bedroom after Carly's motivational text. Ellie also took a bath which was a necessity as she was starting to smell like a wet diaper. Clark came around lunchtime since Kelly had a doctor appointment in Collegeville. He is such a good boy! I held off his nap for a bit since Kelly said he generally sleeps two hours and I had a piano lesson at 2:00 and it would work best for him to be sleeping during it. He went down at 12:45 and woke up right near 2:30. He was a nice distraction for Ellie, who actually took a nice long nap over the piano lesson, too.

Admiring herself

I guess it's not vanity when she doesn't even know that's her own reflection

Clark showing off his skills

Kelly came after her appointment and hung out for a bit before heading home. I continued some laundry until Peter and Brittany came at 6:30. They brought along some Joe Corbi's pizza from a fundraiser at their school and we watched the rest of Season 3 of Downton Abbey. While we were watching the final episode we heard a loud noise outside. Peter and Jon went upstairs to see if they could see anything and they concluded it was a snow plow. About thirty minutes later our doorbell rang and it was our neighbor telling us about the car accident that occurred in our yard. A lady was driving on Haycreek Road and lost control rolling her car in our ditch. She flipped it once and the car was definitely totaled. I tried to sneak some pictures through the blinds in the bathroom. I wasn't very successful.

Since the weather was nasty from the snow and the car accident was disconcerting, Peter and Brittany decided to spend the night at our house. The hunkered down in the basement by the fire since we don't have an extra bedroom and I'm sure they wouldn't have wanted to share Ellie's!
When I woke up at 8:00 on Saturday morning Peter and Brittany were already home. I had my second consultation scheduled but the trainer called to see if I was able to drive in and I said I felt safer staying home after seeing the accident. In reality, I just didn't want to get out of bed earlier than necessary and then also risk being late to the bridal shower at 11:00. It was a win-win cancelation.

The wall he just repaired this summer. It took over 9 hours of work. 

Jon took pictures of the damage to our stone wall during the morning and I hung out with Ellie and prepared for the shower. I put Ellie to sleep before leaving at 10:15 and hollered some directions and wished him good luck.

Playing the piano for Ellie

To economize I went to Brittany Mountz's house and we carpooled to Kelly Estes' for the shower. It was a very nice shower with maybe 25-30 people present. After the gifts were opened I checked my phone for any message from Jon and Brittany looked at Facebook. She showed me a picture of Corinne and Daniel and said, "Did this just happen?" Confused it took me a while to realize it wasn't just a cute picture but their engagement picture! She probably wonders why I hardly reacted (sorry, Corinne) but I think I was just trying to figure it out. I sent out a text to the siblings just in case they hadn't seen instagram or Facebook. When I realized what was happening I told Kelsey, Marianne, and Hannah Kurtz who were also at the shower and they were really excited. Aunt Sharon, Mom-mom, Aunt Carol Hoke, Aunt Carol Stoltzfus, and others all wanted to see the picture. I was asked what happened and when they planned to get married which I had no response for. So let us know, Corinne! We are all very excited for you and Daniel!! Congratulations!!
After the shower Brittany wanted to stop by Aldi's so I went in, too. Brittany had thoughtfully brought some bags for me and I purchased much more than I anticipated. I had told Kelly that we could watch Clark tonight if she wanted to do something with Josh and she took me up on the offer so I picked up some vegetable chips for Clark. We were in and out in pretty good time and I was home by 2:30.
Ellie apparently had some difficult spells with Jon but they survived. When I arrived she seemed content hanging out in the Bjorn and Jon had finished eating lunch. I took over with baby so Jon could work on the taxes. Clark joined us around 4:15 and in the evening we ate dinner, played with Clark, and Jon worked on more tiling. We're making progress!

Clark showing Ellie how to eat vegetable chips
(I put our highchair low down so he could see her. He's not a giant)

Cousins playing

I am so excited for Corinne and Daniel's engagement! I can't wait for Mom and Dad to come home and give us the details of everything. We love you both!