Mountz Memoirs: Girls' Weekend

On Friday Jon took the car to Fisher's to fix the breaks. I had intended to run errands in Reading but the car was not going to be finished until after lunch. Instead my morning consisted of cleaning up the house. Since the men's retreat is this weekend I invited a handful of girls over to watch the chick flicks our husbands never want to watch. Therefore I wanted to have the house cleaned up for the event.
Jon texted around lunch time and said the car would not be finished until after noon. A colleague was leaving Iron Mountains for another job in NY and the office was going out for lunch at Antonio's. Jon had not intended on going but felt like he should after he was asked another time by a coworker but he felt bad to not be coming home. He texted and asked if I wanted some pizza that he could bring when we go pick up the car. Yes, please!
So Jon came home after lunch and we went into Elverson for the car. Ellie and I then went to Walmart for a few groceries then back home to make some brownies. I had decided that we should have the cliché meal of Chinese with our movie night. Since Chinese food is also known for making people ill in this area I was a bit nervous about choosing the restaurant. Should I go with Zou's Garden, Good Friend, or China III? I decided to stick with my usual location of Zou's Garden and proceeded to over-order for the group of six women.
Jon came home at 4:30 and packed up the car, set up a fire in the fireplace, and headed off to the men's retreat. He picked up Ryan Frey and they drove to Black Rock together. The girls weren't arriving until 6:30 so I tried to feed Ellie some bananas then played with her before putting her to bed at 6:15.
Brittany Mountz, Dorothy Bradshaw, Sarah Rus, Tara Frey, and Kelly all came over for dinner and movies. It was a nice group of girls. Sarah generously picked up the dinner so that I would not have to run out since she lives in Morgantown and came from that direction anyway. They arrived and we picked out a movie then dished out our Chinese food.
We ended up watching two movies, Crazy Stupid Love and When Harry Met Sally. We ate Chinese and had ice cream sundaes. After the movie we spent some time just hanging out in the basement. Ellie woke up around 12:15 and I fed her and came out to say goodbye when I heard people starting to come upstairs around 12:30. As the girls left they said that we should do this every year - I think that means it was a success!
On Saturday I had previously thought to go out to Reading to do some shopping for next weekend. After our late night I decided to just take it easy and laze around the house. I slept almost whenever Ellie slept, which felt great! Mom came by and brought soft pretzels after lunch and stayed for a bit. She said she wanted to make some caramelitas so I offered to do the task since I had all the ingredients and an empty afternoon and evening ahead. We made the caramelitas and spoke with the Brust family for a bit over Skype. It was great to see them! Please do not hesitate to call again :)
Sunday morning I had the task of arriving at church at 8:00 without the help of Jon. I was playing in worship but I told Mr. Lambert that I expected to be late but would come! I went to bed at 10:00 so that I would wake up without trouble. I set my alarm for 6:30 and woke up shortly thereafter. Although I tried to leave on time Ellie was still sleeping by 8:00 so I finally woke her up and headed out the door. Having Jon take care of Ellie, make breakfast, and pack up the car on Sundays really helps me out. I finally made it to church and walked into the sanctuary around 8:25. They were halfway through practice -- oops. Perhaps they'll dock my pay.
When I dropped Ellie off at nursery I told the volunteers that she would be hungry but I only had one bottle (usually I send two - one for each service. Although she does not need two eating always helps calm her down when she is tired and she's always tired from lack of sleep at church). Since I was helping in worship I could not come if called during the worship time. After second service worship I checked in and baby was crying really hard. So I fed her and she slept briefly and then I handed her off. I went to Sunday School for the last twenty minutes of church and then picked up Ellie from nursery and headed to Mom and Dad's to pick up my caramelita pan and say goodbye.
Jon was tired from the men's retreat so after lunch he took a nice long nap. Ellie had fallen asleep in her car seat and napped for a bit so she was not ready to sleep again. Instead we hung out in the living room. Corinne sent me a text message so we corresponded for the next hour or so. She is very excited about seeing Mom and Dad! She also updated us on the toddler house (which is still not finished) and the boy the Brusts' used to support who was adopted officially and went home in January. I really enjoyed hearing from her and hope it happens again!
Ellie fell asleep while I was texting with Corinne and slept for about thirty minutes on the living room floor. After she woke up we played for a bit before I fed her and put her down for a real nap in her crib. I laid down while she slept and then we woke her up to go to church. They changed the time of our evening service from 6-7:15 to 5:00-6:00 for the Superbowl. I was in nursery and had Ellie and Clark along with two other boys older than Clark. It was fun to spend time with Clark!
Jon's parents invited us over for dinner following prayer meeting. Ellie was a bit on edge since she was both tired and hungry during dinner. She had a lot of fun watching Grandma and chit chatting. Pop-pop (Doug) enjoyed her animation since he had not really seen her so active.
Jon and Doug talked in the kitchen while the girls went into the living room to be by the fire. Ellie really started chatting at Donna (Nana) as she was becoming tired. She also chuckled a bit for us all when she was tickled and whatnot. We came home around 8:45 so that Doug and Donna could watch Downton Abbey and Jon could do some work on the computer before heading to bed. I'm now watching a TV show on AmazonPrime while I blog. I think I will head to bed, though. Grandma called and left a message saying that she was looking forward to seeing Ellie tomorrow while I go to the gym so I better wake up and get to Elverson in time for my class!

Ellieisms:
Ellie does not like sweet potatoes....yet.
Ellie loves her exersaucer. She lasts longer than 2 minutes, now! She actually plays with the toys instead of just staring at them.