Random Ng-ness

I know what you're thinking. "Wow, Kristen, we haven't had a new post on the blog in a bit. Things must be busy, huh?" Which is your nice way of saying "Get your butt in front of your computer and write something, puh-lease." Not in a mean way, but in a "the last time you were off the blog for this long, your kid was in the hospital for a week and we're concerned" way.

I wish I had something really fabulous to share, like "We just came back from the most awesome vacation ever!" or "We won the lottery and have been enjoying our time together now that Carey will never have to work again." Alas and alack, not so much. There's just been a lot of "Ng Things" going on around here lately. What kinds of things you might ask? Let's see:

• My dad was down for a week remodeling my parents-in-law's kitchen. I played the part of paint maven, which turned out to be a much longer process than I would have liked. But, the project is done now and looks amazing: new cabinets, new counter top, new microwave, and more storage space than Mama and Dad will be able to shack a stick at. And, it was so much fun to spend time with my dad. We even joked about starting a reality show about a father-daughter remodeling team. :-)
• Abby and Zach are both in summer reading clubs at our library, so we've been spending lots of time reading and going to the library to turn in our time clocks for cool prizes and more books. (On a side note: Abby never ceases to amaze me. My little bookworm can hear a book twice and recite it from memory. Sound familiar, Aunt Katie?)
• I've been doing some part-time work on the side. I don't want to go into too much detail until I'm sure that things will work out, but its been great to put some of my workforce skills back to work, and doing it from home no less.
• We've just had a lot of cleaning/organizing to do around the house. To be frank, Carey and I are currently trying to decide if the Ngs will remain a family of four, or if God has plans for a "Party of 5" around here. So, we've got a lot of baby stuff (clothing, accessories, toys, etc.) hanging around in limbo: we don't want to sell it if we might need it, but we don't want to keep it forever either... So how do you store items when you don't know if you'll want to sell it or if you might need it for another little baby butt?
• And when we haven't been doing all of the above, we've been enjoying the summer. Walks, Italian ices, trips to the playground, playing in the kiddie pool in the backyard.  Just enjoying summer.

So, yes, we're still here, and we're fine. Better than fine, actually. We have these two faces to fill our days.

Someone took my baby and replaced him with this pastina-faced little boy...

Abby, building her very own toolbox at the local Home Depot's Customer Appreciation Day
She proceeded to paint it pink. :-)

So, yeah, we're good.