Last year at this time I wrote: I think we need a vacation together to reconnect. It's so difficult w/ two kids, three jobs, separate hobbies and the rest of life to find time to be together to talk, cuddle or anything else for that matter. After 19 years together, we will find a way to reconnect but it's just a difficult time right now and I'm a bit bummed about it.
Wow, how ironic because this week I have again been feeling disconnected from my spouse. Maybe it coincides with the loss of my grandfather? Maybe it is the fact that ever since my father in law died, my husband has not been the same. There are moments where he seems to be his "old self" but then there are times I don't even feel like I know him anymore. Well, today after work we are leaving for a weekend in Louisiana. Shreveport tonight and Nachitchoes tomorrow night. He planned the trip which you would think was romantic but funny thing is this trip is actually a glaring reminder of how little he knows me. See he planned this trip originally for Mother's Day weekend. His plan was for us to get up Saturday morning and drive straight to the little B&B we stayed in last summer. I love that little town and the B&B was great BUT: 1) I wanted to be with my kids and my mom for Mother's Day weekend; 2) I'm really not the antique shopping, stroll by the river kind of gal. I hate to sweat. I hate bugs. I really am not a big fan of other people's old stuff; 3) If I'm going to Louisiana I want to gamble. His weekend plans did not include a stop in Shreveport.
Alot of things came up that weekend so we agreed to move the B&B weekend to later in the month. Fast forward to last week when I arranged for a free night in Shreveport for tonight. He was okay with the idea of going away a night early but seemed befuddled this morning when I asked him to get me some gambling money for the trip. I'm sorry but tomorrow we will be doing what he wants to do. Tonight is mine. You would think after 20 years he would know that to me a vacation gambling is the best vacation there is. I love the beach and I love a good relaxing getaway but if you can combine that with a casino - I'm so there! I don't have a problem or anything with gambling - I haven't been to Shreveport since last November. I just like to go if the opportunity presents itself.
I'm hoping we do reconnect a bit this weekend. I think we need the 'alone' time.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Pap
Today is the two year anniversary of the day my beloved Pap Pap passed away. I still think of him almost every day. It doesn't hurt as much as it used to when I would think about him being gone but today it seems to hurt as much as the day it happened. It is still hard to believe he is gone. Hard to understand how I've managed to make it thru the last two years without his smile, the sound of his voice, his support, and his love. They say that when you lose someone close to you eventually you will forget what they looked like, smelled like, sounded like -but I still can vividly remember those things about Pap.
He was my champion. My cheerleader. There was not a thing I tackled in life that I did not know he was in my corner cheering me on. Convincing me I could do anything. I try very hard to project that same attitude to my children. I want them to always know that they have me in their corner, just like I had Pap Pap.
I wish my kids could have known him better. I wish they could have known him before the pneumonia kept taking all his energy. Before his legs didn't want to work anymore. Before his body gave out. I wish they could have known the man that would take me to the Elks Club before I was 5 and buy me a steak because "that's what his little girl wanted and by golly that was what she was going to have". I wish they could have been there when he'd slip a $100 bill in my hand as a secret so I could go shopping or gambling. I wish they could have played Hell's Gate Bridge or Knock with him and see the way he'd roll his eyes when he'd lose a hand or the way he'd blow a hand just to protect me from losing. I wish they could have been in his living room with him in the mornings watching cartoons while he drank his morning coffee and read his newspaper. I just wish they had more time with the greatest man I ever knew.
I miss you with all my heart Pap.
He was my champion. My cheerleader. There was not a thing I tackled in life that I did not know he was in my corner cheering me on. Convincing me I could do anything. I try very hard to project that same attitude to my children. I want them to always know that they have me in their corner, just like I had Pap Pap.
I wish my kids could have known him better. I wish they could have known him before the pneumonia kept taking all his energy. Before his legs didn't want to work anymore. Before his body gave out. I wish they could have known the man that would take me to the Elks Club before I was 5 and buy me a steak because "that's what his little girl wanted and by golly that was what she was going to have". I wish they could have been there when he'd slip a $100 bill in my hand as a secret so I could go shopping or gambling. I wish they could have played Hell's Gate Bridge or Knock with him and see the way he'd roll his eyes when he'd lose a hand or the way he'd blow a hand just to protect me from losing. I wish they could have been in his living room with him in the mornings watching cartoons while he drank his morning coffee and read his newspaper. I just wish they had more time with the greatest man I ever knew.
I miss you with all my heart Pap.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Memorable
So it was a weekend full of swimming, crawfish and tennis! No pics of swimming because I was always in the pool and didn't want my camera anywhere near the water. We started our weekend celebration a little early with hamburgers on the grill at Mom's while Dad and kids got in the pool. After 1/2 a day at work on Friday, I headed home, got some productive things done around the house and picked Ash up from school (a rare treat for me). Then that evening I took Ash over to a friends for some swim time. When she decided it needed to be a sleepover, I packed her bag and headed back over. Luckily, she was hanging out at my friend Ms. K's house so I hung out awhile too. Ms. K and I went for a drive around the town and then to the grocery store for some cold beverage. Ms. T came to join us for a bit when we got back.
Saturday morning was more time at the house and some errand running. We had to go to Denton to pick up the tags for my car - I now have my IMAPHI plates on the new car so all is right with the world again. After church, we headed back over to Mom and Dad's to hit the pool. This time, even I got in. We cranked up the tunes and enjoyed the water. Only the rain could get us out of the water but it was just in time for dinner so that's okay.
Sunday was crawfish boil day! A tradition for probably 10 years now. We usually have it at our house but we did have it one year in Hachie. This year we decided to have it by the pool. Begin the tragic music.......first off we had to haul everything over to Mom's. When we fill the cooler back up with water for the crawfish, we realize something is terribly wrong. All the crawfish look DEAD! 28 lbs of crawfish and after an hour of picking thru the bunch - only about 1 lb lived. Not being a family to give up on our traditions - we made numerous phone calls before finally finding a place in Grapevine that had some mud bugs for us. My dad and brother head off with cooler in hand. DH decides he'd better get the pot boiling to get the seasonings 'just right' so he sets up his Bayou Blaster, hooks up the propane, starts the fire, puts on the pot of onions, lemons and crab boil and heads off to pick up our son from a morning playdate. About this time, my friend Ms. K comes over for a visit. While we are talking I notice the flame is coming up one side of the pot. Never noticed it doing this before so I turn down the flame. My mom comes over and turns it back up. Flames start shooting up the side of the pot. Upon closer inspection, I realize the hose that connects the propane to the cooker is hooked up thru the stand and in direct line of the flame. I have a feeling we are very lucky we did not explode the line and blow us all to smithereens that afternoon. One frantic call to my DH to inform him of his stupidity and he borrows a cooker from E's friend's parents. Thinking all is going to be okay, we set up the borrowed cooker only to realize that it is so old - it's parts are not compatible with the new propane tanks. UGH!!! So DH is off to the store in search of another cooker. In the meantime, my dad and brother come back with a big old cooler full of some delicious looking crawfish (Thank you Salt Water Willy's)!. DH arrives soon after with the new cooker which requires "some assembly". Have I ever mentioned before that I'm the person in our family that always assembles stuff? My DH has no patience for that sort of thing. My brother has the brawn but not the "ability" to follow directions. So after about 20 minutes of my brother, husband and nephew trying to put this thing together - my brother calmly walks down the steps and says he needs my help. It seems my DH was being his normal self and thinking he could just 'rig' the thing together by skipping steps. My brother knew this was a recipe for disaster and rather than fight w/ my DH over doing it the right way - he wanted me to do it. So I did and after a few minutes - the three guys figured out the problem and finally got the thing put together. Even after all the delays and setbacks - we finally settled down to eat 38 lbs of crawfish. They were not as spicy as I like but then the water never really got a chance to boil like it should have early in the day. Everyone else seemed pleased with the lack of 'hot' that I'm used to from DH's crawfish so I think it was a success!
Monday morning brought tennis. The Club had a tennis mixer from 10a-noon and the kids both wanted to participate. E did a great job with the little kids. He is so shy that I was afraid so much activity and so many people would freak him out but he participated in the tennis drills and had a blast. Ash got to play with the adults because no other kids her age and level showed up. She had a ball playing doubles with a grown up partner. She really held her own too. Every adult she played with commented on how polite she is and what a great tennis player she is. I was proud. She even got to pair up with her old coach and they skunked their opponents 6-2. Afterwards, the kids and I had burgers by the pool at the Club and then headed home to 'suit up' and head to Mom's pool. We spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening there.
Three days in the pool and I am a lobster. I used sun screen but obviously not often enough. I don't hurt - just red all over. I love the water. I spent every moment of every summer at the swimming pool when I was a kid. I am totally loving that my parents have a pool and am looking forward to many weekends in the water! Ash loves it too which is ironic since she had to wear ear plugs most of her life due to various sets of tubes in her ears. E is not much of a pool guy yet. He thinks he is but he's really quite the pain. He hates water in his eyes so the minute he gets splashed - he freaks. He is so shy that swimming lessons do not work well but we are going to try again this year and see if we can get him acclimated to water. If he doesn't lighten up pool time with E will not be much fun.
Saturday morning was more time at the house and some errand running. We had to go to Denton to pick up the tags for my car - I now have my IMAPHI plates on the new car so all is right with the world again. After church, we headed back over to Mom and Dad's to hit the pool. This time, even I got in. We cranked up the tunes and enjoyed the water. Only the rain could get us out of the water but it was just in time for dinner so that's okay.
Sunday was crawfish boil day! A tradition for probably 10 years now. We usually have it at our house but we did have it one year in Hachie. This year we decided to have it by the pool. Begin the tragic music.......first off we had to haul everything over to Mom's. When we fill the cooler back up with water for the crawfish, we realize something is terribly wrong. All the crawfish look DEAD! 28 lbs of crawfish and after an hour of picking thru the bunch - only about 1 lb lived. Not being a family to give up on our traditions - we made numerous phone calls before finally finding a place in Grapevine that had some mud bugs for us. My dad and brother head off with cooler in hand. DH decides he'd better get the pot boiling to get the seasonings 'just right' so he sets up his Bayou Blaster, hooks up the propane, starts the fire, puts on the pot of onions, lemons and crab boil and heads off to pick up our son from a morning playdate. About this time, my friend Ms. K comes over for a visit. While we are talking I notice the flame is coming up one side of the pot. Never noticed it doing this before so I turn down the flame. My mom comes over and turns it back up. Flames start shooting up the side of the pot. Upon closer inspection, I realize the hose that connects the propane to the cooker is hooked up thru the stand and in direct line of the flame. I have a feeling we are very lucky we did not explode the line and blow us all to smithereens that afternoon. One frantic call to my DH to inform him of his stupidity and he borrows a cooker from E's friend's parents. Thinking all is going to be okay, we set up the borrowed cooker only to realize that it is so old - it's parts are not compatible with the new propane tanks. UGH!!! So DH is off to the store in search of another cooker. In the meantime, my dad and brother come back with a big old cooler full of some delicious looking crawfish (Thank you Salt Water Willy's)!. DH arrives soon after with the new cooker which requires "some assembly". Have I ever mentioned before that I'm the person in our family that always assembles stuff? My DH has no patience for that sort of thing. My brother has the brawn but not the "ability" to follow directions. So after about 20 minutes of my brother, husband and nephew trying to put this thing together - my brother calmly walks down the steps and says he needs my help. It seems my DH was being his normal self and thinking he could just 'rig' the thing together by skipping steps. My brother knew this was a recipe for disaster and rather than fight w/ my DH over doing it the right way - he wanted me to do it. So I did and after a few minutes - the three guys figured out the problem and finally got the thing put together. Even after all the delays and setbacks - we finally settled down to eat 38 lbs of crawfish. They were not as spicy as I like but then the water never really got a chance to boil like it should have early in the day. Everyone else seemed pleased with the lack of 'hot' that I'm used to from DH's crawfish so I think it was a success!
Monday morning brought tennis. The Club had a tennis mixer from 10a-noon and the kids both wanted to participate. E did a great job with the little kids. He is so shy that I was afraid so much activity and so many people would freak him out but he participated in the tennis drills and had a blast. Ash got to play with the adults because no other kids her age and level showed up. She had a ball playing doubles with a grown up partner. She really held her own too. Every adult she played with commented on how polite she is and what a great tennis player she is. I was proud. She even got to pair up with her old coach and they skunked their opponents 6-2. Afterwards, the kids and I had burgers by the pool at the Club and then headed home to 'suit up' and head to Mom's pool. We spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening there.
Three days in the pool and I am a lobster. I used sun screen but obviously not often enough. I don't hurt - just red all over. I love the water. I spent every moment of every summer at the swimming pool when I was a kid. I am totally loving that my parents have a pool and am looking forward to many weekends in the water! Ash loves it too which is ironic since she had to wear ear plugs most of her life due to various sets of tubes in her ears. E is not much of a pool guy yet. He thinks he is but he's really quite the pain. He hates water in his eyes so the minute he gets splashed - he freaks. He is so shy that swimming lessons do not work well but we are going to try again this year and see if we can get him acclimated to water. If he doesn't lighten up pool time with E will not be much fun.
Monday, May 25, 2009
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
She's just awesome!
Last night was the Middle School awards ceremony. Each child that was to receive an award was given a letter last week asking them to attend the ceremony. They handed out the letters after last Thursday's field trip so there was some confusion as to the location of some of the kids since they were sent to different classrooms to watch a video when they got back to school. My overachiever came home devastated last Thursday because several of her friends received the letter and she did not get one. I told her it was probably because she wasn't in the band hall where she was supposed to be in 7th period. I was right of course (part of the power of being Mommy is always being right). The next day in 2nd period they finally found my depressed daughter and delivered the much anticipated letter.
Flash forward to last night. The first award of the night is perfect attendence. Ash has never missed a whole day of school but we have had to pull her out of a few classes for dr. appts. from time to time. She wasn't sure if missing part of a day counted or not so it was funny to see the relief on her face when they did NOT call her name. She was seriously afraid the only award she was being given was perfect attendence. She wants academic awards - not perfect attendence. They started off with elective awards for Student of the Year. There are over 200 kids in 6th grade band. Ash's band director always calls her his favorite clarinet player but I've always figured he was saying that to everyone. Lo' and behold, she wins Student of the Year in band. Funny thing is that one of her very close friends is the directors "favorite percussionist" and I could see the disappointment in her face when they called Ash's name. She was happy for everyone else when they won awards but I think she thought she had that one in the bag. This same friend went on to win SOTY in Pre-AP Math. Another couple of close friends from elementary won SOTY in Pre-AP Science (different teachers) and Pre-AP LA. Ash then won SOTY in Gates Language Arts. Funny - in 5th grade she won SOTY in Gates and in LA. This year they are combined into one class and she wins again. She was pretty pleased with herself to have two big medals around her neck at the end of the ceremony. She was the only 6th grader to win two awards.
I can remember year after year sitting in the bleachers while the same 3 or 4 kids in my class won everything. I cannot recall ever actually bringing home a single award all my years in school. So how the heck did I end up with this overachieving winner?? It boggles my mind every single day. Still think they switched my kids at the hospital w/ someone else's.
Flash forward to last night. The first award of the night is perfect attendence. Ash has never missed a whole day of school but we have had to pull her out of a few classes for dr. appts. from time to time. She wasn't sure if missing part of a day counted or not so it was funny to see the relief on her face when they did NOT call her name. She was seriously afraid the only award she was being given was perfect attendence. She wants academic awards - not perfect attendence. They started off with elective awards for Student of the Year. There are over 200 kids in 6th grade band. Ash's band director always calls her his favorite clarinet player but I've always figured he was saying that to everyone. Lo' and behold, she wins Student of the Year in band. Funny thing is that one of her very close friends is the directors "favorite percussionist" and I could see the disappointment in her face when they called Ash's name. She was happy for everyone else when they won awards but I think she thought she had that one in the bag. This same friend went on to win SOTY in Pre-AP Math. Another couple of close friends from elementary won SOTY in Pre-AP Science (different teachers) and Pre-AP LA. Ash then won SOTY in Gates Language Arts. Funny - in 5th grade she won SOTY in Gates and in LA. This year they are combined into one class and she wins again. She was pretty pleased with herself to have two big medals around her neck at the end of the ceremony. She was the only 6th grader to win two awards.
I can remember year after year sitting in the bleachers while the same 3 or 4 kids in my class won everything. I cannot recall ever actually bringing home a single award all my years in school. So how the heck did I end up with this overachieving winner?? It boggles my mind every single day. Still think they switched my kids at the hospital w/ someone else's.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Not as expected but not so bad.....
Well, the weekend did not exactly turn out the way I planned but it was still a good weekend. Friday night we did go to the band concert (they were FABULOUS by the way). Afterwards, we went to dinner at Prairie House - a group of other families were there too. Unfortunately something I ate did not agree w/ me so I went home and crashed on the couch. That seems to be happening alot lately - not sure what is up with my stomach but alot of meals are not agreeing w/ me these days and it is usually when I eat healthy.
Saturday, I enjoyed a lazy rainy morning at home w/ the kids. Then we all headed to Kohl's for some clothes shopping for E. He was in need of some summer dressy clothes for church and stuff. After Kohl's, we ate lunch at Joe's Crab Shack and headed home for some quiet time before church. Due to the massive amounts of rain, we decided to skip the Concert on the Lawn at the Club (even though they had decided to move it indoors - it just didn't seem the same and figured E would hate being crammed inside with tons of strangers). Mom volunteered to keep the kids at her house for the evening instead so DH and I could go see "Angels & Demons". Really great movie. Not Catholic bashing like folks expected. Actually provides a very nice education about how a Pope is chosen and all the rich traditions of the Church. I'm not sure how much of the information was dramatic licensing and how much was true but it was very interesting to this Catholic girl.
Sunday am, DH headed off at 7am to Shreveport to play in a golf tournament with my dad. Ash spent the night w/ my mom so it was just me and my boy Sunday morning. I just love spending time with this kid. He just really knows how to brighten my day. We met Mom and Ash for lunch and then headed over to Target to pick up some things. I really needed to find something to organize my Scentsy stuff separately from my scrapbook stuff. I bought these wooden storage boxes (some assembly required) and decided to give them a try. I came home and basically took everything off of/out of/ and inside of all the shelves, bins and desks I was currently using for storage. By the time I was ready to start moving furniture - it looked like a bomb had gone off in the playroom. Mom dropped by and helped me move the desk down and move a few things around. After she left, I assembled two of the three boxes I bought and realized there wasn't room for the third. I put all my Warmers in one box and the scents, catalogs, business cards, stickers, etc. in the other one. I feel pretty good about how it turned out. The wood grain of the boxes do not match a single other piece of wood in the room (short sighted on my part) but once I'd already assembled the first one - there was no going back!!! The room is basically a hodge podge of furniture and storage anyway so who cares? At least now, all my Scentsy stuff is in one place and my scrapbook stuff is in another. When I was done, I even carved out some time to do a page in Ash's scrapbook about her 5th grade graduation. Yep, I'm still a year behind on her book but now that my space is more organized maybe I can knock out a few pages a week.
I actually did not dread coming to work this morning and did not even consider playing hooky. Ash, however, had a hard time falling asleep last night so she was dragging rear this morning. She asked if she could play hooky and I told her sure knowing full well that my over achieving, academic daughter would never take the bait and I was right. She said she had to go and would just go to bed early tonight. That's my girl. I have a feeling when E starts school - it will be easy to play hooky with him!!
Saturday, I enjoyed a lazy rainy morning at home w/ the kids. Then we all headed to Kohl's for some clothes shopping for E. He was in need of some summer dressy clothes for church and stuff. After Kohl's, we ate lunch at Joe's Crab Shack and headed home for some quiet time before church. Due to the massive amounts of rain, we decided to skip the Concert on the Lawn at the Club (even though they had decided to move it indoors - it just didn't seem the same and figured E would hate being crammed inside with tons of strangers). Mom volunteered to keep the kids at her house for the evening instead so DH and I could go see "Angels & Demons". Really great movie. Not Catholic bashing like folks expected. Actually provides a very nice education about how a Pope is chosen and all the rich traditions of the Church. I'm not sure how much of the information was dramatic licensing and how much was true but it was very interesting to this Catholic girl.
Sunday am, DH headed off at 7am to Shreveport to play in a golf tournament with my dad. Ash spent the night w/ my mom so it was just me and my boy Sunday morning. I just love spending time with this kid. He just really knows how to brighten my day. We met Mom and Ash for lunch and then headed over to Target to pick up some things. I really needed to find something to organize my Scentsy stuff separately from my scrapbook stuff. I bought these wooden storage boxes (some assembly required) and decided to give them a try. I came home and basically took everything off of/out of/ and inside of all the shelves, bins and desks I was currently using for storage. By the time I was ready to start moving furniture - it looked like a bomb had gone off in the playroom. Mom dropped by and helped me move the desk down and move a few things around. After she left, I assembled two of the three boxes I bought and realized there wasn't room for the third. I put all my Warmers in one box and the scents, catalogs, business cards, stickers, etc. in the other one. I feel pretty good about how it turned out. The wood grain of the boxes do not match a single other piece of wood in the room (short sighted on my part) but once I'd already assembled the first one - there was no going back!!! The room is basically a hodge podge of furniture and storage anyway so who cares? At least now, all my Scentsy stuff is in one place and my scrapbook stuff is in another. When I was done, I even carved out some time to do a page in Ash's scrapbook about her 5th grade graduation. Yep, I'm still a year behind on her book but now that my space is more organized maybe I can knock out a few pages a week.
I actually did not dread coming to work this morning and did not even consider playing hooky. Ash, however, had a hard time falling asleep last night so she was dragging rear this morning. She asked if she could play hooky and I told her sure knowing full well that my over achieving, academic daughter would never take the bait and I was right. She said she had to go and would just go to bed early tonight. That's my girl. I have a feeling when E starts school - it will be easy to play hooky with him!!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Another week bites the dust......
Ah yes.....the joy of almost kissing another week of work goodbye. It's a feeling I just cannot put into words. It's not that I am not grateful to have a job - I really am and that is my only motivation for getting up each morning and getting my rear into gear. I have too many friends that are unemployed right now and I know jobs are hard to come by in this economy. Who wouldn't appreciate a job that allows you to travel to exciting towns like Stamford, CT and Leavenworth, KS??
Tonight is a band concert for Ash's middle school so we will be heading west to the HS for that. I cannot wait to hear them play again. They were so good last month and I cannot wait to hear them inside the PAC.
Tomorrow night is a classic rock concert on the lawn at the Club. We are all planning to go and take blankets and lawn chairs. I think it sounds like a great relaxing evening out with the family.
Sunday is a day at home!!! YEAHHHHH I love days at home. DH is leaving town for a golf tournament with my dad early in the a.m. so the kids and I will have the house to ourselves. I am thinking scrapbooking is in my plans for day.
Tonight is a band concert for Ash's middle school so we will be heading west to the HS for that. I cannot wait to hear them play again. They were so good last month and I cannot wait to hear them inside the PAC.
Tomorrow night is a classic rock concert on the lawn at the Club. We are all planning to go and take blankets and lawn chairs. I think it sounds like a great relaxing evening out with the family.
Sunday is a day at home!!! YEAHHHHH I love days at home. DH is leaving town for a golf tournament with my dad early in the a.m. so the kids and I will have the house to ourselves. I am thinking scrapbooking is in my plans for day.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
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Thursday, May 7, 2009
Phew....survived another audit
Our Home Office Senior Management crew comes to TX once a year to do an audit on our files. It's not a long visit. They start one morning and leave the next afternoon. The best part to me is having other humans in the office that actually speak to me. It's also nice that the two I work with are always on their best and most lighthearted behavior when the Home Office is in the house. It's actually two of the most pleasant days of my year at work. Another upside is all the great meals we eat while they are in town. We always get at least 2 lunches and one dinner (sometimes 2 dinners) with each visit. This year it was lunch at Cool River, dinner at Cadillac Ranch and lunch at Uncle Julio's (you cannot have folks visit TX w/o serving Mexican one meal). The winner of the three restaurants this year is Cadillac Ranch. The food was absolutely wonderful and I won't complain at all about the margaritas! I have a feeling based on our President's reaction to his chicken fried steak last night that this will be a regular stop on the annual food tour of Irving. Of course, all good things must come to an end. The four H.O. folks headed to the airport straight from lunch to catch flights back to their various states. Once they were gone, things in the office got back to normal - bad attitude and snarky behavior!
Oh well.....it was nice while it lasted and I get to go to the horse races tonight w/ my Dad's company so I'm okay for today. Tomorrow is another story.
Oh well.....it was nice while it lasted and I get to go to the horse races tonight w/ my Dad's company so I'm okay for today. Tomorrow is another story.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Back to Reality
This past weekend was a complete blast!! Friday afternoon I raced from work to get my hair colored by my favorite 'color genius' J.C. Rose! As soon as the hair was done, I was off like a mad woman in the direction of Frisco, TX for the Ladybug & Co Scrapbook Retreat. My two scrappy buddies were waiting for me when I arrived. A big thanks to them and the wonderful Ladybug Bellhops (sons of the Ladybug crew who were using tips for a Mission trip this summer) for getting me unloaded so quickly so I could enjoy a few quick bits of pizza before throwing my suitcase in the room and running back down to the ballroom to start unpacking my supplies. I brought along Scentsy to try and build up my little side business so it took me awhile to get everything unpacked. I think by 9pm, I was finally opening E's scrapbook to get started. Considering I am a year behind on both kid's books, I had my work cut out for me this weekend. Friday night, we talked, cropped, met new and old friends, cropped some more and finally headed up to bed around 1am.
The three of us were determined to get breakfast in us before starting on Saturday so we were up and going by 9:30 to make the 10am breakfast cutoff. I got so much accomplished on Saturday and learned a few new scrapbooking techniques to boot. There had been some talk amongst our little group about sneaking out for a road trip to IKEA and Sam Moon since we were just 'round the block from both stores but the skies turned black and the rain began to fall so we took that as a solid sign we were meant to stay indoors and continue scrapping. Except for dinner breaks and one walk up to the room for 3 tiny bottles of wine, I rarely stopped cropping. Oh, and there was that wonderful (but all too brief) 2o minute stress massage in the early evening!! It was so great T&K both followed right behind me to the massage chair. K crashed a little earlier than T and I. When I started yawning more than I was actually cropping, I decided it was good time to call it night. Although when you know the next day is your last, it is really difficult to walk away.
I slept so much better the 2nd night than the first so I woke up Sunday morning in a corny mood and raring to go! K and I let T sleep in as she seemed pretty darn happy on that hide-a-bed when we went down for breakfast. When lunch was almost ready we decided it was time to wake her up but neither wanted to be the one to interrupt her slumber. Finally, K gave in and made the call - she has much more panache for that type of thing. T joined us just as the potato bar was open so we ate lunch together at our crop tables and went right to work the minute the plates were clean. K left us in the late afternoon because there was some Mommy Guilt about the fact that she'd left her hubby w/ sick kids at home. T and I hung in til the turned off the lights and officially declared the party over. Literally, the thing was supposed to end at 6pm and we walked out the doors at 6pm. We were the last scrapbookers in the house!!! A big props to Tammy and Liz for putting together such a wonderful weekend. The hotel was great, the location was great, the food was fabulous, the hotel staff were so friendly, the activities were a blast and the company could not have been better. I am definitely on board to do this again soon!
After we finally left the building, T and I made a stop for Mexican food because we just couldn't bring ourselves to let the magic end too soon. Thanks to T and K for putting up w/ my craziness and my snoring (I think they both invested in earplugs and Benedryl for all the right reasons).
By the way, I completed 19 pages in E's book and 8 in Ash's book. They were both thrilled to see their pages when I got home and unpacked. I also sold over $300 in Scentsy products so it worth dragging it all with me and dragging it back home. I consider the weekend a roaring success!!
The three of us were determined to get breakfast in us before starting on Saturday so we were up and going by 9:30 to make the 10am breakfast cutoff. I got so much accomplished on Saturday and learned a few new scrapbooking techniques to boot. There had been some talk amongst our little group about sneaking out for a road trip to IKEA and Sam Moon since we were just 'round the block from both stores but the skies turned black and the rain began to fall so we took that as a solid sign we were meant to stay indoors and continue scrapping. Except for dinner breaks and one walk up to the room for 3 tiny bottles of wine, I rarely stopped cropping. Oh, and there was that wonderful (but all too brief) 2o minute stress massage in the early evening!! It was so great T&K both followed right behind me to the massage chair. K crashed a little earlier than T and I. When I started yawning more than I was actually cropping, I decided it was good time to call it night. Although when you know the next day is your last, it is really difficult to walk away.
I slept so much better the 2nd night than the first so I woke up Sunday morning in a corny mood and raring to go! K and I let T sleep in as she seemed pretty darn happy on that hide-a-bed when we went down for breakfast. When lunch was almost ready we decided it was time to wake her up but neither wanted to be the one to interrupt her slumber. Finally, K gave in and made the call - she has much more panache for that type of thing. T joined us just as the potato bar was open so we ate lunch together at our crop tables and went right to work the minute the plates were clean. K left us in the late afternoon because there was some Mommy Guilt about the fact that she'd left her hubby w/ sick kids at home. T and I hung in til the turned off the lights and officially declared the party over. Literally, the thing was supposed to end at 6pm and we walked out the doors at 6pm. We were the last scrapbookers in the house!!! A big props to Tammy and Liz for putting together such a wonderful weekend. The hotel was great, the location was great, the food was fabulous, the hotel staff were so friendly, the activities were a blast and the company could not have been better. I am definitely on board to do this again soon!
After we finally left the building, T and I made a stop for Mexican food because we just couldn't bring ourselves to let the magic end too soon. Thanks to T and K for putting up w/ my craziness and my snoring (I think they both invested in earplugs and Benedryl for all the right reasons).
By the way, I completed 19 pages in E's book and 8 in Ash's book. They were both thrilled to see their pages when I got home and unpacked. I also sold over $300 in Scentsy products so it worth dragging it all with me and dragging it back home. I consider the weekend a roaring success!!
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