Gratefulish Friday

I have been seriously considering evolving some fins and gills. Maybe a mermaid tail? I could rock that, right? We have had so much rain and miserable, cloudy weather that being cold-blooded did sound like some kind of coping to me. We had something like 17 or 18 straight days of little or no sun? (Don't quote me. I'm not making a statement about Planned Parenthood).

Well, we did get a break last Saturday. It was lovely. Warmish with shiny, happy sunshine. And, where did I end up for the afternoon? Indoors, in the dark. I don't mean that as complaint, it was a nice afternoon. Just ironic, you know. Fact is, thoughtful Aunt Laurie sent Ellerie and I to a local children's theater production of "Alice in Wonderland" for Elle's birthday, rather than getting her more stuff. Awesome, I know.

On top of it, The Bird, got to dress up all fancy-like and hit the theater in style. Check out this pretty dress! I won this a few weeks ago from Susannah over at An Art Nest. She is such a fab all around talented artist and person. She made that dress and then GAVE IT AWAY. Clearly, she is also generous because I'm not sure I could spend that kind of time and then send it to a complete stranger. ;-)

And, the good news is, the sun is back out and is scheduled to make appearances next week as well. Now if I could just get the temps up about 10 degrees.....

Random Bits

• Maybe the pic is too small. But, really? Pizza Hut opens at 12 am on Sundays? I highly doubt that. Please management, this is a public building. Drives me insane.

• We spent Easter at my parents' without Mike. For the first time since we moved here, we had trouble with flooding in our basement. It has been SO wet. Just barely any sun for weeks and tons of rain, so Mike spent the weekend researching sump-pumps and periodically emptying the crock in the basement. The kids and I had a nice time but, of course, they were all getting sick and so cranky, mouthy behavior followed. I probably wouldn't list it as my favorite Easter ever.

• This week I'm running doggy day-care for our neighbors' dog. They've been at the hospital with his mom, so Gigi is getting a few days with her boyfriend. She's thrilled, even if he does keep losing puppy teeth and bleeding all over her white coat :-) My neighbor and I have decided we should have named them Romeo and Juliet as they frequently gaze across the street out their windows or through their fences and whine for each other.

• I get very discouraged when I have grand plans for things and no budget or time to do them. I need to work on being content. I am thankful for what I have, but not always content with it. I am learning there is a difference and that I need to work on patience.

• Speaking of discontent: my yard looks like garbage. We have weeds, crab grass, maple tree saplings abound, ants, bees and moss but hardly any grass. SIGH.

• Not sure what I am going to do with the dogs when I go pick up Ellerie from preschool. I have just over an hour to figure it out.

• That's it. I got nothin'.

Good Friday Music

Spring Break What?

See how depressed Pink Panther looks here? That's sort of how I feel this week. In Pink's case, it isn't because he hasn't been getting any attention.

Quite the opposite. He's been played to death. Along with Pinky-Dinky Doo and Phineas and Ferb. The troops have been literally spending their afternoons glued to Netflix streaming.

And I really can't blame them.

This was how our Spring Break Monday started out:

And it really hasn't got any better.

Thank God for Splash Week at the Y in the mornings or we might be Netflixing it all day.

Speaking of, we're gonna be late if I don't stop whining here and get my bum moving. After all, it'll have plenty of rest time later when we're zoning out to The Super Mario Brothers Super Show. ;-)

The Party Life

We had a whole lot of birthdays this past week. My second youngest nephew turned 16. My baby girl(s) turned 4

and 1. Gigi got a play date with her best bud down the street. Literally 4 straight hours of this:

Then she proceeded to destroy half of her birthday presents within three days, including this awesome flying duck, and to help herself to her own cupcake at Saturday's birthday party. Ahem. Seriously rethinking this G(ood) G(irl) name.

My very youngest nephew also had a big day. He turned one! Such a cutie.

I made him his own birthday crown and was SO happy with how it turned out...

It is currently, however, a tad too big.

Doesn't matter on such a handsome little dude and hopefully it'll be just right starting next year.

Back to regular life for a week with decisions to make about yearbooks and book fairs and Easter baskets. I don't know why one of my pics loaded bigger and the rest tiny and it is driving me nuts but I am forcing myself not to waste time going back to fix it. Too many more important things to do like drinking my coffee and scooping dog poop. (Not at the same time though. That would be weird, even for me.) Plus I swear the laundry alone is a full time job around here. And I'm sick with some little virus that gives me the usual happy congestion, but throws in a nice kicker of me waking every day with a headache like I've been beaten all night with a hammer and every movement feels as if I'm getting one more knock. But it's 70 this morning. SEVENTY!!!! And I know it's gonna rain, but I must soak this day in before it's back to 50 tomorrow. So i'm off to try to do just that. And to take some more ibuprofen. ;-)

Ellerie is Four!

Huh? This doesn't look like a happy birthday girl.... Although I'm pretty sure she's trying HARD not to laugh.

What's up? Tate's ready to party..

That's better.

Make a wish!

Not sure if your wish came true, but mine did.

Innovation ;-)

So glad Mike stumbled across a solution for my typing woes and solved my "I never have time to exercise" dilemma in the process.

You're laughing right? Play the video. Now imagine everyone in an office or your house doing this at the same time. Good times.

In other news, my hands and arms have been MUCH better, so I should not have to convert to aerobic emails just yet. They're not perfect, but not waking me up at night, so I'm good. I cancelled the appointment and am just trying to manage my time with certain activities better.

Which does include typing so I am off to put laundry away which, unfortunately never seems to bother my hands and arms. I'd be happy to just do a funny little dance to get that done.