Tuesday.

Was a really great day.  I got Bella to school and then I began resetting the house.  I cleaned up the kitchen/living room/studio, unpacked from my trip, did 5 loads of laundry, finished a messenger bag order, and finally got a box big enough for my brother's birthday present so I could ship it.

I stopped at the bank and the post office before grabbing B-bo from school, and we stopped at Target on our way home for a few necessities and a few not so needed items.  While there, we also perused the Halloween section to make sure that our costume of choice still remained the same... panda bear.  After looking at every single costume, she decided that she did indeed still want to be a panda bear :)

Once we got home, Bella took a bath and I put away some laundry while we waited for Vince to get home from work.  While he made us a yummy veggie burger dinner, B-bo and I played some games, or more specifically Go Fish and Guess Who.  During dinner, Bella told us about what they had been working on in Technology class and it about blew my mind.  They are working on typing, and she proved it by placing her fingers on an imaginary keyboard and saying, "a, s, d, f, j, k, l, ;" using the correct fingers.  They had worked on the letters r and u today which she said was boring because they had to do it over and over again.  Learning to type in kindergarten?!  I didn't learn until the 7th grade so consider me impressed.  I guess the sooner the better these days considering computers are introduced at such an early age now.

After dinner, we played a short Uno tournament before bedtime.  Vince read stories, and I cleaned up the dinner dishes.  After that, we headed to the office so Vince could prep for his class the next day, and I sat on the red sofa and read.  It didn't take long for me to fall asleep because the next thing I remembered was Vince gently waking me and telling me to go to bed.

Really.Great.Day.

Trip #5

Friday morning, I headed to the airport to catch a flight to Gulfport, MS to meet my Mom, and help her finish up some loose ends.  We both arrived in Gulfport around 2 in the afternoon, rented a car, and made our way to Hattiesburg.  First we stopped at the bank to get a statement for Papa's account, and then we headed out to my Aunt Doris's house.  She is my Grandmother's (Papa's wife) sister, or my great Aunt.  Out of 8 siblings, only she and her baby sister Suzy remain.  Anyway, we hung out and chatted with her for about an hour before going to the Garden Hilton Inn to get a room for the weekend.  No way were we staying in Papa's house, it would have been too weird and creepy.  We grabbed some dinner from Newk's, put on pj's, and watched reality tv until we fell asleep.  I'm pretty sure we were out before 9 p.m.

Saturday, after we had breakfast, we headed over to Papa's house to clean out everything because the house has been sold, and we sold most everything in it too.  A local family is buying it, and their 2 adult sons are going to live in it.  So whatever they can't use, they're just going to donate, which is great because that takes care of the need to have an Estate sale.  My Mom and I had everything cleaned up and cleaned out in about 3 hours.  We've all been slowing doing it now for 6 months, so it made for an easy job.  It got hard though when I had to take his clothes out of the closet, and put them in giant trash bags for donation.  It felt like I was throwing him away... I know this isn't the case, but it still didn't feel good one bit.  At 12:30 we got some lunch, and headed back to the hotel to take a break for a bit.  William Hickman, the man who bought Papa's house, also recommended a guy who might be interested in buying Papa's car which was spectacular because that was the other big thing we really needed to take care of.  We met him back at Papa's house around 4, he looked at the car all of 10 minutes, and then offered $2500.  SOLD!  The last big thing was taken care of, and I could feel the stress leaving my Mom in waves.  Once paperwork was signed, we closed up the house and headed over to pick up Aunt Doris for dinner.  We went to O'Charley's, and had a really lovely time.  My Aunt reminds me so much of my Grandmother, and on top of that she is hilarious, and we spent most of dinner laughing.  It.felt.good.

Sunday morning, after breakfast, we stopped by Papa's church to drop off some checks that people had sent for the scholarship fund, before picking up Aunt Doris and going to church with her.  Before leaving for church, she gave me the vintage linen napkins I had been salivating over the night before plus 2 more sets.  I love her so much.  Anyway, after church, we had lunch at Mac's Fish Camp.  I know it sounds sketch, but it is delicious!  They have a buffet on Sunday's, and a dessert cart that is to die for.  So what I'm saying is, lunch was WONDERFUL!  After we dropped Aunt Doris back at her house, we had to go by Papa's one more time to put out all the trash, do one final walk through, and then say good-bye.  I took a birdhouse that Bella had painted for him, and put it up in a tree on the trail in his backyard that I have walked since I was a kiddo.  When I walked back to the front of the house I noticed 2 orange butterflies following me.  They then stopped and hung out on this huge bush full of pink and orange flowers in the front flower bed of Papa's house.  I took one final walk around the house, and they followed me until I got back up to the front where they went back to the colorful bush.  It reminded me that my Grandparents are together again, happy, and that they will always watch over me.

We then stopped by my Aunt's one last time to drop off a few things for storage for the time being.  It was an early night because we had to get up at 3 a.m. to drive to Gulfport to catch our 6 a.m. flights.  I had a great weekend with my Mom, one I desperately needed, and it was hard to say good-bye at the airport.  She leaves for Africa next Monday to go to Kenya and Tanzania with her friend Linda and a group from Georgia Tech, and now she can truely enjoy her trip knowing everything has been taken care of.

I got home around 1, took a shower, and then watched last week's Project Runway episode.  Now I think it's time for a cup of coffee before I head to pick up my B-bo from school, which I'm excited about because I missed my little kiddo biddido <3

xoxox

Off and Running...

Well, not in a good way.  Bella and I both have diarrhea.  So in other words, it's going to be a great day.  I'm not so bad, but poor little bit has resorted to just hanging out in her panties because it's just easier.  Plenty of fluids and relaxation it is!

Here's a little recap of our weekend.  Saturday, after the play, Bella spent the night with her grandparents, and Vince and I had a lovely evening at home.  Wine, dinner and dancing followed by a late night movie all from the comforts of our house.  It.was.wonderful.

On Sunday, we got all the necessary materials to replace our mailbox for the 4th time!  Granted, this is the first time we have replaced the post because in the past we've been able to patch it back together.  Not so this time, whoever hit it took out all of it.  Now it has a nice cedar post with an Ironsides mailbox on top so if it gets hit again, it will leave a mark.  Plus, next time we replace it will be with a hefty brick number, so people, please quit hitting our mailbox!

Monday was another rainy day.  I completed a custom t-skirt for a client, did laundry, changed sheets on beds, and did some general picking up.  It was Vince's first night of class for the semester so he didn't get home until around 9:30.  long.day.

Now, I need to return some emails because I have a messenger bag/wet bag order, a t-shirt quilt order, 2 more t-skirts to make, and a teepee to construct.  Custom orders rule!

xoxox

Going to a Play!

I got 2 for the price of 1 tickets to Seussical the Musical for this morning at 11:00, and Bella is so excited!  I will add more to this post after the show.

Here we are before the show, and very excited to be going <3  It was really fantastic, and Bella loved every bit of it.  The sound/lighting/costumes were all spectacular, so much so that Bella can not wait to be in her first play.  Her favorite characters were Gerturde, the bird with only one feather on her tail, the little kangaroo, and Cindy Loo when she zoomed by on her stomach on a skateboard during an ocean scene.  We had a really great time, and can't wait for our next show... Commedia Cinderella at the begining of November.  It's an Italian comedic take on Cinderella which should be a good time.

From Last Weekend Until Now.

Let's just start with last Saturday...

Around 11, I left to go shopping for some new clothes, and La & Karl came to pick up Bella for a fun excursion to Monkey Joe's with Nanny.  Nanny likes to take the kiddos there for their birthdays and she always includes Bella which I think is sweet.  I finished up shopping and headed home to spend a couple of kid free hours with Vince, before the girls came back because Allie was going to stay and spend the night.  Around 5:30, we loaded up and went to Pap Pap and Jamma's house for dinner, and after dinner I took the girls to see The Lion King in 3D.  The movie started at 7:45, and I knew I was pushing it but decided to go for it anyway.  big.mistake.  5 minutes in, Bella began saying she wanted to go home, and she continued to say this about every 5 minutes after that.  By the time Mufasa dies, Allie is in tears, and when I ask if they want to go home, Allie says yes, Bella says no and begins to cry herself.  Awesome.  So I gather them up, we throw away our trash, they are both crying, and through tears Bella says, "I'm sorry you don't get to keep your 3D glasses like us Mom."  The attendent up front was giving me the "can I do anything to help you" look, to which I politely smiled, shook my head, and continued escorting my crying kiddos out the door.  Allie continued to cry for about 10 more minutes and then they settled down and began reading their books like nothing ever happened.  When I got them home, they took a bubble/glow stick bath for an hour, climbed out, and then fell asleep watching a Barbie movie in 10 minutes flat.  Whew, girls can be exhausting at times.

Sunday.

The girls were up at 6:30 happily playing, and planning their day.  They spent a lot of time outside digging for worms, hunting for fairies, painting the fence with mud, feeding the dogs carrots, and coming up with some of the most intricate make believe scenarios I've ever heard of.  They were having so much fun, that I didn't end up taking Allie home until about 5 p.m.  Once home, we launched into our nighttime routine, got Bella fed and in bed, and then I wasn't far behind her.  It was a fun weekend watching B-bo and her best bud Allie have so much fun together.

Some Highlights this week...

Wednesday was Peace Day at Bella's school.  She wore her purple butterfly dress because purple is the color of peace and butterflies are her school's mascot.  In other words, she was very excited.  When I picked her up from school, we began our usual question/answer session when she blurted out, "Peace Day was terrible!"  When I asked why, her response was, "We had to stand together and sing the same song over and over again, and I did not like it."  I just started laughing to which she wanted an explanation... I said, "Yesterday morning you sang the Ants go marching song 5 times in a row, the morning before that you sang the Doe a Deer song about 10 times, and this morning you sang your favorite song from Tangled several times in a row before we got to school."  She was giggling through all of this, but I tell you, she is quick on her feet this one, her response... "Well, I don't like having to stand still when I sing, I need to dance!  That's why it was awful."  So dramatic...


Thursday was Bella's second acting class.  She LOVES it and is dying to know what the first play is that she is going to be in.  Daily, she tells me that she also want to be a singer, and she wants to be on TV like CeCe of Shake it Up.  I have never seen Shake it Up, but she told me she has watched it at Allie's house and at Papa's house.  Without knowing it, I bought her a CeCe outfit at Target, and she now thinks I am so cool.  Gonna soak it up while I can, because it won't be long until I am so not cool in her eyes.

Friday, or this morning.  Bella chose to wear her white tiger shirt from the Houston Aquarium, a black cardigan, a floral skirt that I made for her, and her Missoni flats.  She told me that she chose her Missoni flats (and yes she called them that) because kitties like to scratch.  What in the world does that mean, and how many other 5 year olds do you think know about Missoni?  I love this kid <3


One more thing before I go... I watched Bridesmaids this week, and I LOVE this movie.  It made me laugh so hard I cried and I really needed to do that :)  So if you haven't seen it, go watch it very soon.


Now I'm going to make a second cup of coffee, and then watch Project Runway from last night and enjoy this rainy Friday.


Have a great weekend all!

First Lunch.

Yesterday, Bella bought her lunch at school for the very first time.  You would have thought it was her birthday due to the amount of excitement emitting from every ounce of her body.  When Vince picked her up from school, lunch was the first thing she discussed with him.  She had mac & cheese, a pear, peach jello and chocolate milk.  One day, she will read this and think, "Really?  I was excited about buying and eating my school lunch?"  Until then, I will enjoy her pure excitement.

I wonder what would make me school lunch excited?  Something to think about.

Big Smiles.

Yesterday was a really good day for a few reasons...

1.  After being told that his class didn't fill for the semester, Vince got a message saying that the administrator forgot to turn off the class and that 2 more people registered last night which filled the class!

2.  My new boots arrived, gorgeous brown boots that I have been waiting patiently for for about 5 years to purchase...  I like them a lot!

3.  I have had a bonfire going since Labor Day, and as of yesterday, all of the 2 Bradford Pear trees that we took down have been burned.  I have bruises and scratches all over me, and Bella has asked me daily why I smell like a campfire.  Yes, I am a pyro, but a good pryo.  I only burn in a designated area :)

4.  Missoni did a line for Target!  I got a cute beret and sweater dress for Bella, and some silky pj pants and a baby blanket that I turned into a cute sweater shrug for me.  It's the little things <3

5.  My Mom made it home to California!  She can now relax since there will be no more back and forth to Hattiesburg.  Plus, now she can look forward to her trip to Africa in October that she is going on with a friend.  They are going to Kenya to go on Safari and to fly over the savanahs in hot air balloons.  How cool is that?!

Now to plan my Wednesday.

xoxox