Anxious.

Thursday evening, when Vince gets off work, we will be driving down to Atlanta to spend the night, and then Friday morning we will continue on to Hattiesburg, MS to Papa's house.

I'm feeling pretty anxious about this trip, and if I'm being honest, I'm really not looking forward to going.  Vince flies home from Gulfport, MS this Sunday, and Bella and I are staying with Papa through Friday.  Andrew and Sarah get to town next Thursday, and we are going to stay a day so we can spend some time with them.

I'm concerned with keeping Bella occupied, because I know she is going to get bored, and taking care of Papa on top of that is going to be a bit challenging.  During the day, I can take Bella to do some stuff for a couple of hours or so because Papa is ok at home by himself as long as he has a phone number to call if he needs to so that helps.

I'm being a little selfish, I know this, but it is really hard to see Papa this way.  I know he isn't suffering, but he is still dying and I am having a hard time with it.  It just makes it that much harder when it's right in front of your face.

He is so excited to see Bella, and I am very happy to be able to take her down to spend some time with him.  This trip will be remembered for the rest of our lives, and I can't wait to take a million pictures of Bella and her Great Grandfather.  All of that though, still doesn't make anything any easier.

I love Papa so much, this is just so hard.

Best Friends.

Yesterday, Tuesday.  Bella and I woke up, got dressed, ate some breakfast, and then headed to Hobby Lobby to pick out some fleece to make 3 blankets for a sleepover later in the evening.  She chose a cute pink fleece covered in multi colored polka dots in various sizes, very sweet.  After we checked out, we got in the car, and headed out to Monroe to pick up Allie.  We hung at the Schmitt compound for a brief moment before heading back to our house to make some blankets and have some lunch.  Post lunch, we all got our swimsuits on and left to go get Marty and meet baby Ozzie.  He is sooooo tiny!  You forget just how tiny they are when they are only weeks old.

Liz and I enjoyed a beer and a little conversation before suiting up Marty, and then myself and the 3 amigas  left to head to Pine Lake CC for an afternoon of swimming.  Poor Marty, her Dad is a bit controlling and refuses to let her spend the night anywhere so she couldn't stay and was pretty bummed.  What can you do though?  The girls had a blast at the pool, and then we all went back to our house to play for a bit until Liz came to get Marty.

I ordered a cheese pizza for dinner, and Vince had an impromptu dance session with the girls.  Allie needed it because she was beginning to get a little teary eyed.  When she started to cry a little bit, I asked her if it was because Vince's singing was so bad, and that made her laugh immediately.  She then seemed to forget why she was upset and the rest of the night went smoothly :)  While the girls watched a Strawberry Shortcake movie in a fort in the living room, I cleaned up Bella's room so that Allie would have somewhere to sleep.  Her room always looks like a bomb went off when friends come to play because they want to get every single toy out, and I don't mind because I know they were having a grand ole time.  They had built an entire city using all the pony houses and accessories.  Each residence had furniture, food, animals, you name it, and it was all set up so neatly.  Quite amazing really.

At 10, I got B & A settled in her room, and I set up the little DVD player so they could watch Tangled while they fell asleep.  They made it all of 10 minutes :)  With the girls peacefully snoozing, Vince and I settled on the couch to watch Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix.  Pretty sure I fell asleep in 5 minutes.

All in all, a very lovely Tuesday.

Fresh Paint!

Yesterday, I set out to repaint the living room... and I succeeded!  It is now Woodlawn Colonial Gray and I love it.  A couple of disclaimers... 1. The rug pictured will be moving to the office where the red sofa now resides and where it will match, and a fluffy darker gray rug will be it's replacement.  2.  Molding still has to be hung and of course artwork, read "in progress." 3.  Bella's table and chair set will be repainted a mustard yellow, or the accent color pictured on the giant floor pillows sitting on the couch.  4.  The wall behind the tv is going to be a collage of cut up old doors done in a repeating pattern I have laid out.  5.  A small wall facing the hallway is going to get some bad ass wall paper and a nice mirror hung on it.  6.  I'm creating custom drapes for the windows which I already have the material for.

I think that about covers it!  I am loving the transformation so far and I can't wait to see the final product.  Stay tuned...

Round 2

If I'm being honest, I was beginning to regret agreeing to taking Bella to see Hairspray, but for my own selfish reasons so I left the decision up to her.  She was waffling herself some, but in the end we went and it.was.amazing.  Bella sat in my lap and was at the edge of it the entire play.  This is not a short play either, it's about 2.5 hours long and she didn't get fidgety once.  In fact, she repeated numerous times that she can not wait to be in a play, and that she wished her acting classes started tomorrow :)  I waited until the end to reveal that Edna, the main character's mother, was in fact being played by a man.  She found this hilarious, and on the way home we actually had a pretty deep conversation.  She decided for herself that as an actor, you can play any part that you want, even girls can play boys and vice versa because acting is really just a big game of pretend.  Wow.  How does she know so much already?

We got home around 6, and while Bella ate dinner, Vince and I did some painting.  He painted the outside where our gutters had been removed so that we can re-install them.  I spray painted our mailbox black again after it had been tagged with orange spray paint by some bored teenagers, and then I repainted our fireplace inside.  I also painted a larger area next to the fireplace with the sample paint I had gotten that we are going to use in the living room in order to see how the color was going to look in the space.  Well, I love it and I think I'm going to go get the paint today and paint the whole room because I love it so much.  Good bye Pacific Coast Blue, and hello Woodlawn Colonial Gray!

For now though, it's time to feed a hungry B-bo and then move some furniture around to prep for painting.  Happy Monday all <3

Hairspray and Stained Glass Lighting.

Keri came to town on Friday to spend the night on her way down to Atlanta, and Jen Hamilton got us some kick ass seats for Hairspray at her theater for the evening as well.  It was a really great show, and we went out for a few drinks and girl talk afterwards.  Keri and I didn't make it home until 2 a.m. and that is a first for me in a very long time.

Saturday morning, Keri left around 9:30 to make her way down to ATL for a few days, and after Vince got up, we made a Lowe's and Target run for various necessities.  One of those necessities being a new stained glass overhead light for my studio that is beautiful.  Vince installed it that night and this morning when Bella saw it she said, "That is a very pretty light Mama."  Also, yesterday, Mark and Nicole came to hang out for a bit, and Nicole picked up her messenger bag.  She just got a new teaching position at Providence High School so I'm hoping to get some super sweet orders from a bunch of teachers/students.  We all went to dinner at Hawthorne's Pizza, and when we got home, I carried a sleeping B-bo straight to bed.

Now it's Sunday morning.  I'm on my second cup of coffee, and we are getting ready to make another trip to Lowe's for some more supplies.  A lot of home improvement has been going on around our house.  Then, this afternoon, I'm taking Bella to see the matinee performance of Hairspray.  I think she will really like all the costumes/singing/dancing, and she is super excited about going.

All right, time to run a few errands...

Custom Cushions Anyone?

I made a custom cushion and small throw pillow from scratch today.  I had some leftover fabric from the 8 table runner order, I made these, and I'm super pleased with how they turned out.  Now the kiddo is asleep and it's time to enjoy a little quiet time.

xoxox

Swimmer B

Bella finished up her second round of swim lessons today, and she came really close to passing Level II.  We need to work on her front/back crawl for 25 feet, but other than that she did awesome!  I am very proud of her, and this year I really saw her gain a lot of confidence in the water.  It really is so wonderful to watch her grow <3