Catching Up...Again

Has it really been almost a month since I've posted? My mind has been so cluttered and all over the place lately, even if I would have attempted a blog post, it most likely would have turned out a convoluted mess.

I blame Stephen King.


What little capacity for organized thought I've had over the past few weeks has been occupied by his latest book, 11/22/63. I could not put it down. I lost hours of sleep, fed my family mediocre meals and even neglected my kids on several occasions to absorb just a few more pages. And there were a lot of pages to absorb. Around 850. But it was an awesome read. None of the nightmarish terror found in a lot of his books, such as Duma Key, which is still lying half read under my nightstand. 11/22/63 is just him at his best with all his amazing character development, perfect pacing, page-turning thrills and just a few creepy moments to really pull you in. It has become one of my favorite books. Dare I write - maybe thee favorite.


Regardless, onto catching up on the Cole family's goings-on.

A few weeks ago it was so nice outside after church one Sunday that we decided to take the kids to the zoo. It was sunny and warm(ish)...well, it was around 45 degrees, but the weeks leading up to that had been so cold that 45 degrees seemed semi-sweltering to us. We layered and bundled and had a great time. It started snowing as we were leaving, which made for a cozy ride home in our warm car with two exhausted kids.






Good times.

A couple weeks after that, it was another sunny warm-ish day, so we decided to take our first trip to the Franklin Park Conservatory. It is one of my new favorite places to go. I want to set up permanent residence in the back room with the fountain and the beautiful green plants and trees - I think it's called the Palm House. It was so warm and bright and colorful and tropic in that room, it reminded Rich and I of our free honeymoon trip to Maui nearly 9 years ago.







The kids loved the place, too. The talking parrot scared the hell out of them, but it was funny watching their little brains trying to comprehend a real-life talking animal.







After spending a long morning there, visiting rooms and eating lunch, we wandered outside where it had warmed up enough for the kids to play on the playground behind the conservatory. We will be going back there soon. And often. It is the best cure for my annual winter blues.

I have much more to blog about, but no need to ramble on. I'll save those boring, rambling, brain picking posts for another day.