High and Low.

Last week was up and down to say the least.  It had its really great moments, but I also struggled a bit emotionally this week, and I will get to that in a bit.

                                               








              Tuesday was Valentine's Day.  I know that a lot of people don't like this day, and just see it as a holiday forced upon us by Hallmark, but I really like it, and it was always a fun day when I was a kid.  Bella and I spent 3 hours the night before creating paper animals out of heart shapes before placing them in woven Danish hearts for her friends.  She did not complain once that it was taking too long, in fact it was me wondering if we were ever going to finish :)  They turned out adorable, and she was so excited to give them out to her friends.  For dinner, the 3 of us went to our new favorite local spot, The Hill Grill, for all you can eat wings for V & I, and a yummy grilled cheese sandwich for the Bsters.  All in all, a very lovely day.

On Wednesday, I got a new car!  Here's where things got a little emotional for me.  So, my car, Lou Corrolla, was my Dad's car.  It's a 2003 with a lot of miles on it, and the struts need to be replaced for a smoother ride and slower tire wear.  Well, I really didn't want to spend $1200 to get Lou fixed, and was wondering what to do.  My Dad always took care of my car, made sure I was getting the oil changed, buying me new tires, etc.  Well, it seems, he still is.  Without my in-laws knowing my car situation, Diane told me that she was getting a new car, and would I like her CRV instead of trading it in.  It's a 2000 in excellent condition, and it has literally been driven like a grandma it's whole life.  She wasn't planning on getting a new car until closer to this summer, but she ended up finding what she wanted much sooner and Wednesday, Frank helped me get all the paperwork together to transfer the CRV to me.  Here's where I am having a hard time.  Lou was my Dad's car.  The steering wheel has indentions in it from his hands, the driver's seat has his impression, I can still feel my Dad when I drive Lou.  I know that Lou is just a car, and that letting it go doesn't mean I am letting go of my Dad.  It just had physical reminders of him all over it, and it has been very comforting driving Lou for 4.5 years.  On the flip side, I have a new/safer car and I know that my Dad is smiling in Heaven because of it.

Friday was class picture day.  Bella wore my favorite dress of the moment which happened to be very similar to the dress I wore for Kindergarten class pictures.  I can't wait to compare last year's picture to this year's because she really has grown a lot in a year.

As for the rest of the week, if it wasn't raining, we were hanging outside.  The first thing Bella does when she gets home from school is rush out to the backyard to swing and play in her wisteria fort until dinner time.  Once we get our new fence built, the dogs will be able to hang out too because right now we really can't let them out of their pen because Jane likes to jump our current fence and terrorize the neighborhood.  Bella loves her dogs though, and is ready to be able to play with them more.

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Liz and I went to see Cabaret at CPCC where Jen Hamilton is stage manager.  It was a really great performance!  After the show, we went to Common Market for a few glasses of wine and conversation.  It ended up also being BINGO night, so we played a few fun rounds, had some laughs, and won nothing :)  I got home around 8, chatted with Vince for a bit, and then promptly fell asleep on the sofa.  V says he tried to wake me up 3 times to get me to come to bed, but he was unable to rouse me and I eventually stumbled to bed around 3 a.m. I think.

It was a great week filled with fun, a touch of sadness, and lots of love from family and friends.

Now, it's a new week.  B is out of school for the first 2 days of it, and she requested a trip to Ikea today.  Why not?!  Besides that, I will be doing some laundry/clean-up, but not before I have a second cup of coffee.


Have a great week everyone!

Recap of a Lovely Week

And it really was... Wednesday, Paul & Dean came out to finish hanging crown and trim in the hall bath, to replace the brick molding around the fireplace, and to fix the side door frame.  It all looks AMAZING!  Especially the bathroom.  I still have to paint all the trim, but it really looks so good.  I tried to get on track for Vintage Fresh this week, and I had a little success.  I completed a 5 foot round rug out of 5.5 pairs of jeans that I'm pretty proud of.  It would be great to take to the beach, camping, on picnics, or just about anywhere because it's super durable/washable and cute.  Can you beat that?  I didn't think so :)  I also made 30 woven Danish heart pockets out of felt for Bella to put her finger puppet valentines in for her classmates.  Yes, the idea came straight from Pinterest, but it was relatively easy and the end result turned out very cute.  Friday, I helped Jen H. repair and create some new mic bags for CPCC.  That took some time, but it is always nice to hang out and chat.  Bella found out that she got the narrator part in her school play next month, and she couldn't be more excited.  She told me that Miss Alexa chose her because when she writes and reads she does so with feeling and emotion, which is very true.  Growing up, my Dad used to tell us to do things with more feeling/emotion, so when I heard Bella tell me this, it was like listening to my Dad :)  She is so much like him sometimes it's scary, but in a good way ;)

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to breakfast at Jimmie's before Bella and I headed out to pick up Allie for a sleepover.  While out there, I did a quick photo shoot of La and her friend Jenn because they just recently wrote a children's book together and it is getting ready to be published!  They needed a picture for their book jacket and asked me if I would help them out to which I replied of course!  If you can't tell, I'm very, very proud!  Post photo shoot, I loaded up the girls and we headed back home.  I edited a few photos before taking a shower and meeting Jen H. to go see a play, "Jack Goes Boating."  It was terrible.  I've never seen a terrible play before, so there's that, but I mean ugh.  Worst part was, we couldn't leave at intermission because Jen's friend was in the play, and we were supposed to meet up with her afterwards.  Thankfully, her friend was too tired to hang, so we got to leave after all, but not until enduring 2 hours of a bad story that relied too heavily on taboo subjects (pot smoking, foul language, sex), and never seemed to absorb me in.  I still had fun checking out a new theater, and spending an evening with my bud, so all was not lost.

Now it's Sunday.  The girls were up at 6:30, and had turned the living room into a messy art studio before I could have my first cup of coffee.  They made some great creations though, and it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside to see them put their imaginations to work.  The big announcement for today though is... Bella lost her very 1st tooth!  That sucker has been hanging on by a thread for a couple of weeks now, and today she was brave enough to finally let me pull it.  The one next to it will be falling out any day now as well, and she will be left with a nice gap on the bottom :)  I remember when that tooth came in because it was her first and only for a long time.  They really do grow up tooooooooo fast.  Now she and Allie are building towers with Dixie cups and listening to Pandora on this chilly Sunday morning.  I guess Queen Charlotte the groundhog was right when she predicted 6 more weeks of winter.  3rd cup of coffee, here I come!

Monday.

Was pretty good, considering it was a Monday after all.  I started my day as a Reading Buddy which is always a great way to start my day.  I read with all the kindergarteners individually, and they were all especially chatty wanting to tell me all about their weekends.  I just want to squeeze all of them!  I got back home around 10:30 and began finishing clean up from our party.  It really wasn't bad, I just needed to get the kitchen back under control, sweep and mop all the floors, and do laundry.  I think all the Christmas tree needles are finally out :)  On my way to pick up B from school, I stopped by Jen Hamilton's to return everything she forgot to take with her post party, and we hung for about an hour and chatted.  Always nice.

Last night was V's first class of spring semester, so Bella and I got Chick-fil-a for dinner on our way home from school.  Once we completed our usual routine of bath/dinner/homework/FRED book, we settled on the couch and watched an episode of Cake Boss together before I tucked her into bed.  I just love that sweet, sweet girl <3  I then poured myself a glass of wine and turned on Antiques Roadshow to watch until V got home.  Well it was the episode in Houston that my parents went to, and I got to see my Dad, walking/talking/breathing, and it made me both happy and sad at the same time.  It was so good to see him, but it also reminded me just how much I miss him.

After Vince got home from class, he some how convinced me that it would be a good idea to watch the movie "Absolute Zero" with him.  That's 2 hours of my life I will never get back...  He redeemed himself though by letting me snuggle in and fall asleep so I wasn't really too upset ;)

Now it's Tuesday, and I have a little laundry left to finish up and that's about it.  My bronchitis is trying to come back so I think I will take it easy today because I really don't want to go to the doctor for antibiotics.  If I don't feel better tomorrow though, I'm going to breakdown and go get some because I am tired of feeling crummy!

Ok, time to fold laundry and soak up some sunshine on this chilly day!

xoxoxox

BYOT 6

Was a roaring success!  It rained off an on the whole day, but we did not let it dampen our fun.  After some breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee, I finished cleaning/setting up the house while Vince hung a huge tarp up in the trees to provide shelter for all of our guests while we watched the trees burn.  He also dug out the firepit, and got a fire going so that it would be nice and hot/ready for later in the evening.

After lunch, Vince met with 2 clients, and I got Bella bathed/dressed/packed and ready to head to her Grandparent's house.  Nathan and Keri showed up around 3:30, and Keri rode with me to drop off Bella and get a few more things for the party.

Once we were back home, we all blew up balloons and put glow sticks inside of them for extra fun.  We had a small helium tank that we used to fill up about 30 balloons, and those we put out under the tarp by the fire.  The unexpected fun thing about that was, after we lit the first tree, the extreme heat sucked all the balloons out from under the tarp, and into the air where they randomly popped as they flew away.  It kind of sounded like gunfire, and it gave us all a little scare and a big laugh.

15 friends + 20 trees = a whole lot of fun!  We started out slow only doing one tree every half hour, the first tree being lit at 6:30.  Then, once everyone arrived, they went much quicker.  At 10pm, we lit our last tree, and once it finished burning, we all made our way back inside to hang out and stay dry.

It was a great time, and I can't wait to do it again next year!  

One Word...

PRODUCTIVE.  That is how I would describe this week.  It all started, last Saturday, when Vince replaced our side screen door with a lovely new one.  What a difference it made just changing that one little thing.  The side of our house looks quite respectable now.  On Sunday, he rehung Bella's swing in the backyard, and we have one very happy kiddo on our hands now.  She loves to swing, has ever since she was teeny tiny, and she has spent a good couple hours a day on her swing since Vince hung it nice and safe.  I love that she is spending so much time outside swinging and rearranging her wisteria fort.  good.stuff.

The rest of the week seemed to fall into place as well.  I was a reading buddy Monday morning, and then I came home and completed my t-shirt blanket that I started 4 years ago.  I backed it with a cozy gray fleece and it is keeping me warm while I type my blog :)  Wednesday, I spent some time with Laura making tee shirt loop necklaces and taking pictures of sweet baby Scarlett.  It was so nice to sit and chat with her for a couple of hours.  Also, today, because they are studying Africa in class right now, Bella wore my African dress that I had made for me while visiting my grandparents in Lome, Togo when I was 8.  I only had to hem the skirt, othere than that, it fit her perfectly.  I still remember my Grandmother taking me to the market to pick out my material, and then the seamstress measuring me while I decided on the style.  Papa and Grandmother were definitely smiling in Heaven.  Thursday, Diane took me to lunch and to pick out my birthday Tom's.  She gave me money for some, but wanted to go with me to pick them out.  We had a great time, I also got a pair for Vince, and she also got Bella an outfit at Gap Kids before we had lunch at Qudoba.  It was a very nice time.  On Friday, I stopped at an estate sale after I dropped Bella off at school, and I scored a really cool Letterman painting from the 80's.  Once I worked on valentines for Bella's teachers until Jen came over to hang lights around the fire pit for BYOT on Saturday.  First we had to take the lights off the house and our Christmas tree, but she got the job done and they look fantastic!

As for today, we are finishing up a little bit of cleaning, and mainly just preparing to have a great time tonight!  We have a 70% chance of rain, but we are not letting that dampen our spirits.  Vince is at Lowe's right now getting a huge tarp to make a nice canopy just in case.  We are going to fill it with balloons with glow sticks inside.  I'm just so excited!

I will post tomorrow about all the fun we had setting 20 Christmas trees on fire one by one at our annual B.Y.O.T. event.  Or Bring Your Own Tree.  It.will.be.epic.