Day 334

When I got home from work this afternoon, my husband came out to greet my youngest and me. He gave me this look like, "I totally cannot believe you!"

I asked him, "what?"

He says, "You got six packages today!"

Um, well, I knew I had been ordering a few things lately, but six packages in one day? That seems like a lot.

It's true.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I do a lot of ordering online. There have been bunches of sales going on, and I've taken advantage of one or two, or maybe six.

And here's the worst part, all but two of them were for me. Yup, I've been shopping for myself just weeks before Christmas. Two of the packages were CDs. One was for a card creating kit that is absolutely adorable. The other three are clothes - two packages for the boys and a bag for momma. Most of the clothes for me are going back to the store.

Don't tell him, but there are more coming...

Day 333

When we moved into our new house better than a year ago, my father-in-law took one look at our television and stuff hanging out in the nook over the fireplace and told us he could make it neater for us. He took some measurements and pictures, and I didn't really think much of it over the past year.

We found out a week or so ago that he'd been hard at work creating a unit for us, and this afternoon he came over to install it.

It is amazing! It fits so perfectly in the spot above the fireplace. It's modular, so if we were to replace the television to something bigger (not sure why we would), we could just take out the cabinets and it will fit. I just love how neat and clean everything looks now.

Here's the nook before...


And here is after...


It is 1,000% better. Thank you!!!

Day 332

I had a coupon for one of the local craft shops this weekend, so while the kids were napping, I went out to see what bargains I could find. I was really excited to find this beading book for 50% off.

There was also a trunk show going on today, and they had some fun copper pieces including this strand of copper pringles. Those will be tons of fun to incorporate into some new pieces, and they were sooo much less expensive than their sterling counterparts.

I consider it highly successful shopping venture.

Day 331

There was a deal at Costco that I wanted to take advantage of, so we decided to run by and risk the crowds. We were pretty surprised to see that it didn't seem to be any more crowded than any other weekend. The lines were actually very short. It might have been our strategic plan to go right at lunch, or maybe everyone was at the mall. Either way, we weren't complaining.

Day 330

Happy Thanksgiving!

Day 329

This afternoon was a lesson in sacrifice. I "slaved" over making this pie for the pie social this evening at church. Each family is supposed to bring a pie, and I wanted to make something that varied from the traditional pumpkin pie most families bring. I made this chocolate pie, and as I feared, I didn't have one bite.

I did buy a few extra ingredients to make it again, so maybe I'll get a piece soon.

Day 328

I'm not really sure how I ended up with this picture today, but since I don't seem to have anything else for the day, I'm going with it. This is the leader board for the Bejeweled Blitz game I've been playing on Facebook. This happens to be the best score I've ever gotten.

Day 327

Today was one of those days where you feel like you work and work and don't accomplish one thing. This was my desk at noon, and I was so ready to call it a day.

Day 326

This afternoon I had the opportunity to take a discounted metal working class with my beading partner. I'm not sure if this would have been my very first choice for a class, but it was what worked out with the timing. I liked the technique and there are a lot of possibilities. Unfortunately, there is yet another tool to purchase if I want to do more with this one.

I do love the wire we picked out.

Day 325

I spent the day doing some learning.

Day 324

As I was leaving the movies after 2am, I paused for a moment to get a picture of the lovely Christmas decorations. The mall is kind of an eerie place to be in the middle of the night, but the lights were pretty.

Day 323

A couple of months ago, I was presented with an opportunity to attend the midnight showing for a movie I was really looking forward to. When you add in the fact that we'd be viewing the movie in a private, luxury theater (complete with recliners and seat-side service), then it certainly seemed like an opportunity I could not pass up.

I have to say that based on my viewing of the lobby at 11:30 tonight, the experience will totally live up to my expectations.

Day 322

I found myself in the presence of a fish tank this evening and used the opportunity to snap some pictures of the brightly colored inhabitants.

Day 321

I've been working on creating the invitations for a certain little boy's upcoming 5th birthday party. I think I have them mostly done, but will probably do a bit of tweaking before I print them up.

Day 320

Paul's PreK pictures came in about a week ago, and I managed to remember to bring one in for my desk at work. It's bittersweet to see how much my little boy is growing up. The other picture of him is about a year and a half old.

Day 319

Little Matt wanted to carry all of the trucks at grandma's house to the coffee table. And he was successful until he went to put them down on the table. You can see one in the lower right corner that is falling down to the floor. I thought the truck in mid-air was fun for today's picture.

Day 318

We were in Seattle again this morning making some preparations for my Paul's birthday party coming up next month. On the way back to the car, Matt spied the fountain and wanted to go and see the water. I thought the boys watching the fountain made a nice picture. It would have been better if I'd taken my stuff out of the way first.

Day 317

I was in Seattle with my oldest this evening and thought I'd get a picture of one of our well known structures at night.

Day 316

This little boy found one of mom's bracelets on the table and thought it would be a nice compliment to his pajamas. It's very fashionable. ;)

Day 315

Work-related stuff had not gone very well for me yesterday, so my sister brought me these lovely Carnations to brighten my Wednesday. I've been enjoying their beautiful colors all day.

Day 314

I've been fighting with a lingering cold and stayed up way too late last night finishing up a project. This was the hour when I decided to call it a night, which is pretty early for me. (And no, it's not quarter to 3.)

Day 313

My mom originally told me about these trellises with the vines climbing all around the structure. The changing colors are great.

There is beauty everywhere - even in the back of Target.

Day 312

In the middle of the summer we had some birds in the tree just outside our window. I was noticing that we have a much clearer view to their lovely home now that most of the leaves are off the tree.

Day 311

I'm still working on fleshing out some other flowers for my project that started with the large daisy last week. I came up with this little guy, and I think it's a keeper. We'll see if I can make him some friends.

Day 310

Tonight, I just have a picture of my oldest being a goof. He's pretty good at it. ;)

Day 309

The boys and I spent the morning running some errands and the last stop before heading home for lunch was at the craft store for mom's beading project. It was supposed to be a pretty quick trip since craft stores and little boys don't get along.

When we got back to the car after a successful stop, I realized I was missing something really important.

Two things were going on when I'd parked the car. One was that I was talking on the phone. The other was that it was pouring down rain, and I didn't want to try to wrestle two little boys and car seats and talking on the phone all at the same time. The new stereo we bought a couple of weeks ago has integrated Bluetooth, so I waited with the accessories for the car on (keeping the Bluetooth connection) until the conversation was over.

The problem is that when I got out of the car (preoccupied with the rain), I forgot to turn off the accessories and put my keys in my purse. I let little Matt lock the doors like he asks to and was promptly locked out.

Of course, it was easily resolved with a 90-minute sidetrack waiting for grandma, driving up to dad's work and coming back with the second set of keys. The boys were troopers because they didn't have lunch until after we were back in our own car. Paul said he was starving, and Matt piped up with "hungry".

Day 308

There's no telling what's going to strike me as interesting for the day. My little M&M afternoon snack came out of the package missing a couple of the common colors and I liked it.

Day 307

Late yesterday afternoon I found out that I had a dentist appointment today. Six months ago, when I made the appointment, it was perfect because I didn't work on Tuesdays. Today, I am supposed to be at work, but instead I'm waiting on the dentist for the all-clear so I can dash back and finish the day.

Day 306

There's a strange thing that happened when we set back the clocks on Saturday night. All of a sudden, when I go to work super early in the morning, the sun is starting to come up instead of it feeling like I'm driving in the middle of the night.

As I was driving this morning, I was watching the windows of a building in front of me and they were a brilliant red color. It took me a moment to realize they were reflecting back an amazing sunrise.

Then late this morning, I couldn't resist taking this picture of the same street with these great clouds.

Day 305

After going out into the world yesterday, this little boy spiked a fever late last night. He and I spent a quiet morning at home. This afternoon we went out to spread his germs around to the public and let the boys play with some trains at the bookstore.

Actually, we're pretty sure he's just getting over a cold.