Beautiful Day for a Field Trip!

Jessica's class has been studying plants and each year the first grade classes take a field trip to either the Botanic Gardens or The Hudson Gardens. This year they went to The Hudson Gardens. I didn't get to go when Amy was in first grade because I had Jessica at home and no one to watch her. Jessica's teacher called me personally to ask if I would be willing to chaperone since I know the class pretty well after all my volunteering. I thought it would be fun, so of course, I said yes. Today was the day and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. Temps in the 60s and very sunny. I remembered my camera and got a few shots that I thought you might like to see.

Unfortunately, at this time of year, not every thing is blooming. But the Gardens have a neat set up for keeping the kids involved in touring the gardens. They give each group leader a tote bag with supplies and information. Our tour involved using the senses. Essentially, this is a self guided tour.  I missed taking pictures of the gorgeous tulips at our first stop because I was still finding my bearings on what I needed to do with the information and supplies. We went first to the Oval Gardens and the kids got to exercise their sense of sight looking for different colored flowers.

The following pictures are when we stopped to exercise our sense of tough. Their were three canvas bags in the tote and little chalkboards. The kids got to feel the bags (I thought) and guess what was in it. Later I found out they could have stuck their hands into the bags. Duh! I'm a dork, but the kids enjoyed it. Here you see Jessica drawing what she thought was in the first bag. They were trying to copy each other, so for the next bag, I had them find another spot to draw what they thought was in the bag.

Jessica chose this chair. Doesn't it look like an idyllic spot to rest and enjoy the scenery??

Around this same area was the neatest miniature railroad track. I sure wish the train had been running, but 

it probably would have been too distracting for the learners.

In this picture you can see the track from above and also the Chocolate Garden. Yes, the plants there were supposed to smell like chocolate. They sort of did, I guess. We were to also find the stinky plant, but never did. Again, I suspect it's because it's pretty early in the growing season.

A pretty plant along the way.

We also went to the vegetable garden to find plants that could be harvested to make a tasty salad. Um...we had to imagine those, as not all the plants were visible just yet.

Another stop along the path.

There was a rock formed play structure called the Hobbit Hole which was a big hit after the students ate their lunches.  Then it was time to load back onto the bus and head back to school.

Jessica really enjoyed this field trip and so did I. We might have to go back this summer when more plants will be in full glory mode to get the best effect.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you've had a terrific Tuesday!

A Flaming Hot Spot!

Happy Monday to you!

I've mentioned a time or two that the breakfast bar we have is my hot spot nemesis. Since I spent so much time last week on the whole tub issue, that meant I wasn't doing real well on keeping up with other things. I literally spent most of my day yesterday scraping and yanking the caulk in the tub. I'm relieved to say, I am almost done! I've got all the big hunks of caulk out and most of the tub cleaned up. I have a section that's about 12 inches long to do before I can call it done. One would think I would get going on it immediately this morning just to get it done. Yeah, no. Look at what a raging fire of a hotspot I had (also known as the breakfast bar, counter and sink). I'm keeping it real here, friends. I may talk a good game when it comes to cleaning up around here, but I still falter big time! LOL

One of the problems is that this space is so easily accessible to plunk things onto. I'm as guilty as any of the other members in the household. Don'tcha love the doll heads? The girls "rediscovered" them and have been doing up the hair the past several days. Next to them are two swimsuits I picked up at the thrift store. Unfortunately, they were too small. So, back they need to go. Um, there's Jessica's crown from Build-a-Bear. Lots of bottles to clean up our thrift store finds from the other weekend. Oooh, out of licorice in the big glass jar, let's put it right out there so Mom can be sure to see it. LOL Lots of stuff!

Further down, you can see the corner of our new dishwasher, breakfast dishes and stuff I threw on the counter from the "junk" drawer (the top one you see) when Steve interrupted my scraping so I could  find the Super Glue. The tube we had was dried up. Ugh. I was too focused on my tub job to clean it up yesterday.

 And my sink full of dishes. I'm about the only one who does them. Steve is a sort of a lick and promise guy when it comes to washing dishes, so I don't make a fuss. I'd rather they be clean. LOL Oh, I was going to load up the dishwasher, but somehow the dishwasher never got started last night, so these got washed by hand.

So, I diligently worked on clearing out the mess. I even cleaned out the junk drawer! I didn't take a picture though. Man, how can so much stuff end up in one little drawer? 

But I was rewarded for the efforts by this sight:

(disclaimer-the side you see that is still piled up on the left side is someone else's stuff. I gave up trying to clear it off, the stuff kept reappearing-I'm trying to come up with ideas to make it less glaring)

Any guesses as to how long it'll stay like this? How about until around 2:30 pm, when the girls get home from school? Or 5:30 when hubby arrives? I'll enjoy it while they are out of the house, though, that's for sure!

*Ü*

Thanks for stopping by! I'm sure glad you liked the cards I made with the digital supplies. Since I can't quite get to my not yet established crafty space in the house, I figured making those might be the next best thing!

Adora"bill" Card~Again Inspired by Mary Fran

I took a break from caulk removal to try my hand at another card. Mary Fran just released Just Ducky (and Lil Bits (where you get the 'adorabill' image) and showed the cutest card (I thought) to tease her customers. It worked on me! Ü. You can find her version here. Drat, I just realized I forgot the bow and the buttons. Oh well. I changed a few pieces to make it "mine" and I think it came out pretty cute. 

I created a blank file 5.5 x 4.25 and built up the card with all the images layered on top of each other. I tried to shadow a bit, too. I was able to print off the whole piece. I used photo paper this time and it sure does make a difference. *Ü* Thanks for the tips on that. I cut out and adhered this piece onto a cardstock base. I did a little editing in PSE and this is pretty close to how it looks in real life.

Thanks for stopping by. Guess my break is over. I have one more side to work on and then cleaning up those bits that just don't want to come off. Steve gave our old refrigerator to a buddy at work and he came by to pick it up this morning. So of course, Steve showed him what we are doing (guess this guy does home improvement stuff) and he immediately told us we don't have a mold problem! Yahooo! That's another confirmation. Now it's just a time game, shimming up the tub (Steve's job) and my removing the rest of the stubborn caulk, before someone (who is not me) runs a new bead of caulk.

Okay, break's over! Thanks for stopping by! Hope your Sunday is going great.

First Card Made With Digital Supplies! (Thanks to Mary Fran's Inspiration)

I've been interested in creating cards using my digi supplies, but have held back because I was afraid I'd use up too much ink. Mary Fran of Nitwitcollections blog has been posting cards and hybrid projects she's made using her digital stash and you know how much I love her stuff. Well, I am so inspired by her creations, I bit the bullet and worked on my first card of this type today! I was inspired by the card she shared here on her blog. The colors in her card are more vibrant, but I just used cardstock to print onto, maybe that makes a difference. Because I was experimenting, this card is probably too large to send in the mail, unless I put it in a bigger envelope, but it might look cute up on display should I ever get setup with that storage unit we bought last weekend. LOL

Credits: Spring Whimsy (modified pot, tag), Just Hatched (ladybug), Blossom (flowers, leaves) 

Steve cut the hole in the closet to check the tub along the wall, where the water pools, and we can definitely see the gap that is causing the water to pool. What we don't see is mold! Huge sigh of relief. We'll have to shim along the tub via the hole to get it more level, but if that's the worst of it, that's quite all right with me! *Ü*

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have experience using your digital stash to make cards, feel free to comment on what I can do better on my next attempt! I know I've seen tutorials, but never saved any that I have seen and they are harder to find than I thought when I tried searching.

The sun finally made an appearance today! Yay!

The Mom Song

I found another book by Anita Renfroe at the library the other day called Don't Say I Didn't Warn You. I started reading it while waiting for my appointment at the doctor's office (and was giggling right away, she is so funny to me). At the very beginning are the lyrics to this song she wrote to the tune of the William Tell Overture. In the book she details how this came about. The video is on You Tube and I just had to find it to share. I think it is hysterical. Hope you find it funny, too. Here's the video of The Mom Song.

After working for a couple of hours on the caulk, I had to take a break. My hands are so sore! LOL Finding and watching this video was a nice distraction.

Enjoy!

What a Week!

Whew! It's Friday! This week is just about over. What a week it has turned out to be. I've been feeling such angst over my ill-fated attempt to re-caulk our tub, but I'm getting over it. Especially after Steve was able to rig up a modified "shower within the shower." It's working pretty well, too! He bought a shower rod and a shower curtain liner. That, with some cable ties, turned into this:

This is what you see when you walk into the bathroom

This is the top part of the back end of the shower.

Looking down a little farther you can see more duct tape and some clothespins holding the liners together.

This is the front end. You can see how the shower head is tucked into our "tent" shower.

And this is along the side next to the wall.

I thought he was all kinds of clever for coming up with this. He admitted though, a guy at work told him how to rig it up. I told him he didn't have to let me in on that part and I'd keep on thinking he was super clever. Well, getting it to actually work IS pretty great!

Remember when I mentioned our rock star neighbor who helped us move in my thrifty finds last weekend? Well, he works in construction and Steve's been wanting to talk to him about our, ahem, situation. He came over last night and took a good look at the shower. In his esteemed opinion, he didn't think the mold would have moved up behind the walls. First of all, when it was installed, they used the green drywall, which is the mold/mildew resistant kind. He found flaws in how they DID install it, but he didn't think we needed to remove the surround. What we do need to do is cut a hole in the wall behind the tub/shower via our entry closet and try to shim up the lip along the long wall. I told him how water pools in one spot along that side and he could see how the edge of the tub in that area was angling toward the wall. If we didn't get that fixed, we would continue to have mold issues. We do have an access panel to the pipes for the faucet in our laundry closet and there is no evidence of mold that we can see there. Whew. So my job today is to work on getting more of the caulk out. Stuff I didn't know was caulk. This weekend Steve will cut the hole and with our friend's help, work on getting that area fixed. We are hoping once that hole is cut, we'll be able to see if mold might have crept up through any gap we think might be there. Our tub is a jetted tub and there's an access panel in the front side. We've looked in there as best we can and don't see any mold on the studs supporting the tub, which is hopefully a good sign. So, keeping fingers, eyes and toes crossed, this will be an easier and less expensive fix than we feared. You don't know how badly I hope this turns out to be the case!

In other areas of our life, I was busy on Wednesday volunteering at the school for their Earth Day activities. My friend, Susi, organizes a really neat event, complete with different stations for the kids to go to and learn about the earth and how to protect it. She enlists the help of the city we live in. They came and shared their expertise. We even had the mayor there, who helped us dedicate a newly planted tree. We did the Earth Day event a day before because yesterday was Take Your Child to Work Day and the 2nd-5th grade students had a field trip planned to watch a ballet performance at another school. It turned out to be a good move aside from the other events. It's been raining most of this week. Wednesday morning it didn't rain, so the Earth Day event (which is held outside on the lawn) went off without a hitch. And yesterday morning it poured! Whew!

Jessica went to work with Steve yesterday. His company has an organized program they run for this event. Amy was more interested in the field trip, so she didn't go to work with them. Anyway, the program was scheduled from 9-Noon and I completely spaced that off when I made a doctor's appointment for myself (routine check up to have my prescriptions refilled) at 9:15. Oy! Steve was fine with actually taking her into work with him and I picked her up at the end. She really enjoyed herself. She got to meet some "new friends, not kids though, adults" (her words). She said all the adults kept saying she was cute. LOL At the program she was quite impressed by the presenter who dipped a cracker into liquid Nitrogen and then ate it! He had smoke coming out of his mouth! (Steve works at Ball Aerospace, for those of you who didn't know that) He also froze a banana! They also worked in Earth Day as well. She got some sort of footprint (she hasn't shown it to me yet) that has wildflower seeds in it that we can plant. We'll do just that, if it ever stops raining!

We started up swim lessons again this week, so that has been added fun.

Amy has a field trip today (how lucky is she, two field trips in a row?) to the Museum of Nature and Science (her favorite place pretty much) where they are going to tour a newly opened exhibit on the human body. The class has been studying the body during science time, so this worked out wonderfully for the teachers. I might have volunteered to go, but they only needed one parent. Amy kind of does better if I'm not around (I think I annoy her too much...LOL), so I don't feel too bad about not going along. I AM going along with Jessica's class when they tour a garden next week (and the forecast at this point is for it to be dry-let's hope).

And if you are still with me after all of that jabber, I managed to finish the girls' dresses yesterday! Isn't that blue fabric for Jessica so pretty?? I love me some bright vibrant colors, don't I?

I took close ups of the yo-yo stacks I made to help dress them up just a bit. Oh heck, let's be forthright here,  I made them to hide the hand stitching I had to do after adjusting the strap lengths. LOL The pattern called for tying ribbon around the strap, which would have been cute, but I thought this might be a little cuter.

Okay, I'm done now. I've got caulk to remove.

Thanks for stopping by. And thanks, big time, for not laughing too hard at me about trying to re-caulk the tub and having it blow up in my face. By the way, that Renovation Realities show appears to be on every night during the week at 9pm Mountain time on the DIY network. I've watched it a couple of more times. They show a new episode on Saturday nights. Just in case you were interested.

*Ü*

Update...Ugh...

Just got off the phone with Steve who was chatting with a co-worker who's done this type of stuff before and since I found mold, this guy thinks we should pull out the surround and make sure there isn't any behind it. Oh man! All I wanted to do was re-caulk the tub, not a major thing like this. Steve told me not to attempt to caulk until we talk more when he gets home.

Yep, the surprise is on me!  Sigh...talk about renovation realities. (but it gets me out of attempting to caulk...)

Renovation Realities

I stumbled upon a show last night that I'd never seen before. I was channel surfing because I wasn't quite ready to go to bed and my usual channels weren't thrilling me with their content. Oh my gosh, I have not laughed so hard (and also empathized) in a LONG time. I was a giggling maniac. The show is called Renovation Realities and it's on the DIY Network. It's a show about real people doing real renovations on/in their home. There is no glamorous host, it's kind of like a video diary of what happens. That's not the funniest part though, as you are watching the trials and tribulations of the homeowners, the editors of the show add pop overs that are hysterical. Of course, they promote the DIY Network, but they are also a bit sarcastic and, did I mention, funny? Well, at least to me they were.

For instance, on the one episode, the homeowners were renovating their kitchen. I mean a total overhaul, sink, cabinets, adding an island. They estimated it would take 4 days (even I knew that was not gonna happen). They got to the flooring and the guy was trying to use a hand tool to scrap off the tile or whatever it was. He's huffing and puffing and commenting it's gonna take a long time. The pop over at this point says...that's why they invented power tools! Then they show the guy using a power tool and it's going much more smoothly. LOL The second episode I watched involved two female middle school teachers who wanted to fix up their kitchen. They live in New York. They were going to take out a part of a wall to create a breakfast bar. The one gal was trying to find the studs in the wall using a stud-finder. Then she drew lines across the wall (not vertically)where she said the stud was. The pop over said something like going to diynetwork would help her learn the direction of studs. Or later, when they went to get supplies for the renovation and upon arriving home, sorted the supplies. Each wondered where the other put the sink. Um...they forgot to buy it! (the popover mentioned it, too). They had to go back to the store and get the sink and take it home on the subway! They also came across some electrical conduit in the wall and thought it was a gas line. The gal said she was comfortable continuing the project even though she thought the line was a gas line! The other gal was a bit more cautious saying they could explode! I'm giggling remembering that part. I'm for sure gonna look for the show again. If you get the DIY Network, you might want to check it out for a good laugh. Oh and at the very end they show the completed project, how long it REALLY took and if they stayed on budget. The first kitchen overhaul took 4 weeks, but they stayed on budget. The second, with the teachers, took 4 days instead of three and they were $2000 over their $1000 budget. Ouch.

Lest you think I'm terrible for laughing at this. I'm not above laughing at myself and my attempts and fixing things up. The caulking in our one and only bathroom that has a shower/tub was in desperate need of replacing. Initially Steve thought we should get a handyman to do the job. My friend, Erin G, insisted I could do it myself. I procrastinated forever and a day, but thought I'd surprise Steve and get it done yesterday. Yes, laugh at me, I actually thought I could do it in one day. Shows what I know! I got all the caulk out in one day, if that means anything. I also sprayed the heck out of it to kill the mold that was growing...ewwww...I won't gross you out with a picture of that, okay? I thought Steve might get really mad at me for starting and not completing the project (remember, we don't have another tub/shower), but thankfully he wasn't, especially when he saw the mold. Whew. So, I think, let it dry overnight and Steve can wash up in the sink in the kitchen. Um that would be NO. He still wanted to take his shower. He told me to duct tape trash bags over the open areas and he'd take a super quick shower. I didn't really want to do it, but I did it anyway.

Here's what it looked like: LOL A true blue Red Green moment.

I asked him if it worked after he took his shower. He said yes. Only when I checked it after he went to work, and I'd say not so much! The area was definitely wet. Shoot. I've got a fan blowing in there now  to be sure it's extra dry and will attempt to caulk in a bit. Wish me luck!

Yes, I decided to do this as a surprise, since he surprised me by agreeing to purchase my thrift store finds. The surprise may definitely be on me, if I find out I can't caulk! LOL

Thrifty Score BIG Time!

You all know my cardmaking stuff is out in a room in our garage. And I know I am totally lucky to have that space. It worked wonderfully when I was a consultant. However, it wasn't making me happy anymore to have to trudge outside and wait for the room to heat up via space heaters in the winter. Plus, when I had to use the restroom, I had to trudge back into the house and then trudge back outside as this garage is not attached to the house. I've used it because it's the space I had, and even though I purged a ton of stuff recently, I just wasn't motivated to head out there anymore. Granted it's only a matter of yards, but when you aren't feeling it, it could be miles for the effort it takes. I really liked it when I had the corner in our spare room, except I felt claustrophobic, so I headed back outside. And you see the result of that, I've not been making any cards or paper crafts lately. LOL The big deterrent for Steve is my stuff looks cluttered and he probably feels claustrophobic looking at it. Granted, I do have a ton of stuff, so I can't argue it too hard.

When I stumbled upon that computer armoire, I thought it could be the answer to my being able to stamp/papercraft back inside the house. That's why I was bummed when it wasn't in the cards for me at the time. Yesterday changed all that!

For I found this wonderful handmade piece of furniture that I felt would work even better than the armoire.

It's pretty big and hard to get in one shot, so I don't know if you can get a feel for it. But here's the first shot I took of my new storage space for crafty stuff.

It's two pieces, actually. The shelf unit is separate. This puppy is over 5 feet long!

And it has three cabinets, with a shelf in each...

Had to put the sewing machine somewhere. LOL

And it has three drawers!!!

I'm absolutely giddy over this find.

This huge thing was, are you ready?

$65!

Let me tell you, I worked for this (and so did Steve and our rockstar neighbor) 

I had to take three trips back and forth in the van, plus one more for the recliner that Steve bought!

That's 4 trips to get all our goodies home.

But it was worth every.single.trip!

Oh am I a happy, happy, HAPPY girl!

Now, excuse me, I have some cleaning up to do around here.

I have to decide which items will be housed in the unit, too.

Happy Sigh...

Thrifty Score #2

Oh my, what work I had to do to be able to post this. Thank goodness for having multiple computers in the house! LOL The card reader on my computer isn't working at the moment. So, I ended up starting this post on Steve's computer, so I could upload pictures. Then I saved it and went back to mine to finish the post. LOL

Thanks for your sweet comments on the thrifty finds from yesterday. I hinted at being able to share another one and possibly two. Well, this post is about the second option. The first one isn't ready yet, but hopefully it will be later today. (I will be writing it after I publish this post, so check again soon).

A little (okay, long)  backstory...a couple of weeks ago on my thrifty hunt, I saw this item and really, really liked it. Only it was too expensive and the color tag it had on it meant that I couldn't get it for half price. I admired it, sighed and moved on. However, I did tell Steve about it. At the time, he wasn't much interested and I dropped the subject. Going back to the same store another day, I saw the item still in the store, with a different color tag and a lower price, but knowing Steve wasn't interested, I admired again, tried to convince myself it was a little too beat up to ease my longing, and moved on. 

Then yesterday, the item was STILL in the store, but the color tag was the one that wasn't on sale. I did see another item that tickled my fancy hugely, and I called Steve to come to the store to take look (this is what I will be showing in my next post). He thought that item was a great deal and okayed the purchase. We wandered around a bit and Steve came to this item. He looked it over and thought it was pretty cool. Only it wasn't on sale. He told me if it was still there next week, when it would go on sale again, I could get it. I was very excited.

I moved along on my shopping and was on my way home when I realized I had a coupon that said if I donated something, I could get one item for 50% off! I double checked and it would work for this item I've been longing for the past few weeks. I'll tell you how much I paid for it after the pictures. I'm still pinching myself. (hee, hee)

Are you ready?

You sure?

Okay, enough suspense. You may not think it's a big deal after all this talk, but it is a big deal to me!

TA DA!!!!

Closed, it looks like this

But open it up and you get THIS!

A new to me computer workstation armoire!

Our next door neighbor is completely awesome. He has a furniture dolly and he helped us move in my new goodies and he loaned us the use of Old English scratch remover for dark wood. That stuff rocks!

And even better...I got this sweet station for $35! No that is not a typo! When I first saw it, it was over $100.

Ahhhh, sometimes it sure pays to be patient. And it helped I'm sure that it looked beat up and was missing some knobs. The knobs are easily replaceable and the scratches aren't too glaring, 

so it works very well for me.

Sigh...I'm a happy girl!

Check again in a bit for my other great find!

Today's Thrifty Finds...

Oh my goodness, I hit the motherload of goodies when I did my thrift store shopping today! Just take a look at all these goodies!! Every single item was 50% off, except for that coffee/tea cup/saucer (it was FREE). I have specific plans for most of these goodies and I can't wait to share them when they are put to use.

This is a close up of the hankie. Love that stitch work for 65 cents!

The placemats will be used for holiday decorating. Maybe 4th of July. Two for $1.50!

I about jumped for joy when I saw this cake stand.

It was $4 on sale!

The bottom part needs to be cleaned up, but isn't it pretty?

And you guys, I'm going to have something else verrrrrrrrrrry special to share soon. Possibly TWO things, if I get Steve's okay on the second thing. I know I'm being mysterious but you'll understand when I can share. Even if the second thing doesn't work out, the first thing is so exciting, I'll still be happy!

This turned out to be a very good day!

Yay!

*Ü*

Thanks so much for stopping by. I am just about done with Jessica's dress, just need to do some hand stitching and add a little accessory or two and then I'll get the girls to show off their new dresses. And I went back to Joann's and found another pattern (and some fabric I just adore) for another dress for each of the girls. Wheeeee!

Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing in excitement over my fun finds.

Well, Look at What the Fabric Became...

I'm thinking it might not surprise you too awfully much to learn that I know how to sew would it? LOL In fact, one year I sewed my entire school wardrobe (I think it was the summer before 9th grade). My mom taught me to sew and I took Home Ec in junior high. I made the girls' crib bumpers and crib skirts, too.

With that said...this pile of fabric...

turned into this!

I found out Joann's was having a sale on their McCall's patterns. Like 99 cents a pattern! Full price this one would be $11.95! Now you know why I haven't delved back into sewing lately. LOL But I saw a pattern created by a blogger for a sundress that I thought was adorable. I didn't quite "get" her pattern...it sounded too complicated for my feeble brain to get the right measurements, especially since I've not done any sewing for oh about 8 years. I figured an easy 99 cent pattern would work to ease me back into sewing. This package said Easy and it didn't look too complicated. However, there were a few places in the creating that I was stumped and had to get creative. That bottom tier is one. The way they had it written I was supposed to match marks to seams. Only I had 4 marks (that were on the pattern, I didn't invent them) and only three seams. It obviously wouldn't have fit right. All my gathers would have been in one area only. Sheesh. Talk about easing back into it. LOL

I'm not completely done yet, except for the main sewing. I have to see if it fits Amy and adjust the straps if necessary. I also have to do some clean up with stitching and hand stitch the lining. Oh and add a couple of buttons. I also have an idea for an accessory for the dress. Once I get it completely done, I'll share it front and back on Miss Amy. (And yes, Jessica will be getting a dress as well, only in blue) *Ü*

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your Wednesday is a happy one!

It's Bonkers, I Tell You!

Hi there!

Believe it or not, I've started a post two other times and never got to finish it up. I was going to chat up a storm without any pictures to share, but as the day progressed, I took a few pictures for you.

A quick weekend recap...the movie Up was a big success. I volunteered to help out and was a glorified bouncer. LOL That means that I had the incoming attendees sign in for record keeping and I had to turn away anyone who came without an adult. And there was one boy whose mom had just dropped him off. I felt bad for him, but the flyer clearly stated an adult must stay with their child throughout the movie. This is because in the past some kids didn't get picked up and had to walk home alone. In the dark. Even in the snow. Yikes! This student's mom was contacted and she reluctantly agreed to stay with her child so he could watch the movie. The admission was free, but they sold popcorn and lemonade for 25 cents a piece or for box tops. All told the event earned over $75! That's a lot of popcorn and lemonade! I enjoyed the movie as much as one can in a cafeteria full of fidgety kids! Squirrel! (reference for those who have seen the movie). LOL

The party Jessica went to was fun for her, not so much for her chauffeur. It was in the clubhouse of an apartment complex and even had stadium seating. Wow! The party was supposed to start at 6, but didn't get going probably until 6:30. The kids got a loot bag full of candy right off the bat, so there was quite the sugar rush going on. They were also given popcorn and pizza as well as drinks. Mid way through the Chipmunks movie the kids lost interest and lots of goofing around was going on. By the time they ended the movie is was already after 8pm and they still hadn't served cake! I made the executive decision (since Jess had had a late night the night before) to leave before the cake, much to the dismay of Jessica, who wailed all the way home adding to the headache that was pounding in my head. Just give me the meanest mom on the planet award. However, about 3 minutes after her head hit the pillow, Jessica was sound asleep.

On Sunday, we went to her Nature Trail clean up event and she was the only girl from her troop there! There were other troops there so she decided to stay and help find trash. She was rewarded for her efforts with an ice cold ice-cream sandwich. It was an enjoyable time (I didn't pick up trash, just told her when I found a piece...LOL)

Whew! Steve was not feeling well and went to the doctor and got some medicine, my computer fan decided to quit working, which wigged out the whole system, including internet access. As we were getting ready to start supper, a transformer blew with a loud bang and we were out of power for a couple of hours. Let's just say, the weekend was somewhat fun, somewhat interesting and somewhat frustrating! What a mixed bag. LOL

Hmmmm...wonder what this will turn out to be??

Let's just say, Joann's is having their Daffodil Dash sale and I definitely took advantage of it. hee, hee. I'll show you when it's done, but don't you just LOVE that fabric?? Couldn't help but tease you.

And the best part of today? A package came in the mail for me today and I was absolutely giddy.

My friend Becky will probably be the only one who gets my excitement, but I've been looking for this game, which is called This Game is Bonkers!(copyright 1978 or so) at the thrift stores for months with no luck. I finally resorted to Ebay and found a seller (well, more than one actually), but this seller had a buy it now button. I didn't want to mess with bidding. I bit the bullet on the somewhat high shipping and bought it last week. The game arrived today! Shipping was fast on this one. The girls were excited to finish their homework so we could play(how's that for incentive? LOL). It was Jessica's first time and she loved it. Mommy won, though! whooo hooo The game is totally fun because each time you play it, it's different due to the cards you put on the board. We had just started the game when I took this shot, you end up with most of those empty spaces filled in. Oh and Becky, I think we lucked out even more, there was a sheet of un-separated cards, including more go to lose cards at the bottom of the box. Yay!

I condensed what I was going to say and this still came out kind of long. Oh well! Thanks for stopping by and hope you are having a great week!