As I eat Japanese leftovers.

I'm back to work after a weekend of visiting with the in-laws, which is always fun and a nice break from the usual weekend routine. They hadn't seen Ari since he was only a month or two old, and I think he was a hit. He was his normal charming self, with just a little crankiness from teething. He showed off his crawl (or, non-crawl as the case may be). Owen had great fun with NiNi, Mamaw and Pa, and even stayed one evening with Mamaw when we went to dinner. He ate an egg sandwich and was very happy. They left this morning, after a huge breakfast at Cracker Barrel. It will be wonderful when we get back home, and family visits don't require 8 or 9 hours of driving.

Owen is doing so good with his potty training. He very rarely has accidents; in fact, he hasn't pottied in his pants since Tuesday. I'm so proud of him. He doesn't like to poop in the potty yet, and every night after I tuck him in, he poops in his night diaper. I've decided that starting tonight, I'm going to put him to bed in underwear, and then I can sneak in and change him into a diaper later after he falls asleep. That way if he needs to poop, maybe he will tell me and we can use the potty. But overall, he is doing so good. He still gets excited every time he uses the toilet. At Chili's the other night, he ran across the restaurant towards Keith shrieking, "I PEED! I PEED! DADDY I PEED!" Just a little something for patrons, to go with their Babyback-Babyback-Babyback ribs.

Thursday is my tooth extraction. I am not looking forward to this. I hate dental procedures of all sorts. Before the Root Canal of '01, I didn't mind the dentist at all. But that stinking root canal snuck up on me and whooped my butt, and now I hate all things dental. Except for my actual dentist, who is actually a very nice man, and the youngest of 7 children. All 6 of his older siblings are girls. He said his mother kept trying for a boy, and finally - lucky number 7. To celebrate, she named him Marvo.

Work is overwhelming me these days. I have all these new marketing duties, and I have no idea where to begin. I know zero about marketing. Cripes, I'm a college drop-out! Why is this new responsibility being given to me? Oh yeah, because RD was terminated. That's right, you heard me, he's out out here. But that's extra work for me, the underling, the one with aspirations no greater than motherhood (which is a great aspiration, don't get me wrong). So far in May I'm scheduled to be in Baltimore, Houston & Orlando. So far. I'm shooting for failure; at least then I won't be disappointed.

Mother's Day is coming up. Keith asked what I wanted, and I said I'd like a printer for our digital camera. He was quiet, and then he said, "I was thinking more like a card." Look, I'm a simple kind of girl, but even I was thinking more than a card. I guess diapers take precedence.

Last weekend we bought some cute clothes for Eva, and Laura bought some outfits for her yesterday. I have a little box of ruffles and pink and purple and bloomers, and they're all sorted by size, and I love to dig through it and think about what she'll look like in each one. The program director of our agency left today for Kazakhstan. He'll be back in 2 weeks, hopefully with pictures or at least an update on Eva, and I cannot wait to hear from him. He's getting back around May 10, which is the day before we leave for Arkansas. Our trip home has sure snuck up on us - it's in about 3 weeks. Which means cousin Chad is getting married in 3 weeks! We RSVP'd both children to the wedding, in the hopes that Ari will not blow raspberries or pull Owen's hair during the ceremony, and that Owen will not yell during the ceremony about some poor random guest, "Why his hair so crazy Mom, why?" or grab Ari's arm/leg/head and injure him in some way causing distress to all involved parties. And if we're really lucky, he won't yell out, "I PEED! I PEED! ASHLEY I PEED!" Wouldn't want to detract from the bride, you know.