Dear Employer, Thank for sending us home early on Thursday afternoon. One o'clock is a perfect time to end the workday. I was able to run errands, stock up on holiday food and still get home in plenty of time to spend a few hours before dark with my family. Dear Oil Change Man, You creeped me out a little bit. You did a great job on my very first oil change in the new car, but your jokes were a little sketchy. No need to comment on my weird email address or offer to grease my fingernails while spraying the door hinges. Nope. Not at all. Dear Three Day Weekend, You were amazing. Family time at the pool is always good, but kabobs and American flags make everything better. Dear Morgan Creek Winery, Your Independence Day celebration was amazing. The fireworks might not be as big and ...
Happy Weekend!
Here's hoping your holiday weekend is filled with sunshine and pool water and pasta salad and all the people you love. Happy Independence Day, friends! ...
Recital Recap | Five Years
It might take a week or more to catch up on all the things that happened while I was away from the blog, so I figured the best way to do it was to rewind and start from the beginning! Originally, my trial was supposed to start the first week of June and the girls' recital would have fallen on a weekend in the middle. As things in the legal system are prone to do, our trial got bumped a week and the recital ended up being the Saturday before we went to court. Not good. I had scheduled everything as well as I could considering I was working around the clock, barely seeing the girls and they were about to leave for a two week vacation with my parents, but the pressure of work and the stress of so many dances left me feeling like I needed a redo. Thinking back, there are some things I would do ...
Letters to all
Dear Husband, I'm pretty sure I've both neglected you severely and taken full advantage of your wonderfulness over the past few weeks and I'm terribly sorry. I've missed you like crazy and I'm glad to finally be in your presence for more than ten waking minutes at a time. Hopefully, you are just as thrilled that our quality time is no longer limited to the moments that I'm either sleeping or getting ready for work. Thank for you taking fabulous care of our furry friends (even though you despise our cats), for visiting the vet on behalf of our arthritic dog (your other least favorite thing to do), for consoling me over the countless animal deaths that have occurred in our front yard, for meeting me for Mexican dinners at odd hours and for talking me off of numerous ledges during the course ...
Whole30 Bacon Chutney
I'm not trying to rush June away already, but this weekend was so sweet and I can't wait for work to settle down a bit so that I can enjoy my people a little more thoroughly and a little more often! We didn't do anything significant this weekend, but I spent long uninterrupted days with Josh and the girls, drank many pots of coffee, watched movies, slept late, got a pedicure and logged a few hours in the sun. After a long day at the pool, these three girls decided that they wanted to see Maleficent and since Josh was glued to college baseball, it worked out well! The big girls wanted Zaxby's for dinner, but Sophie requested "Marinara Bread" (Panera Bread) so we had to make two stops before the movie started. We had just settled in with our popcorn when the previews started and Sophie ...
Killer & Company
It has been a rough weekend. I'm sick and I'm tired and I miss my people and I just want to be at home with my girls or on vacation with them. But neither of those things get to happen for quite a while. My work situation usurped my vacation plans and we'll have to send our girls to the beach with my parents for a few weeks without us. We're sad, but it can't be helped. Everyone we love will be at the beach, I'll be at work and Josh will be home alone. Not ideal for anyone. But it's just a season and there are fun days and more beach trips on the horizon, so we're pressing forward. On Friday night, I worked until almost ten and then sat on the porch with the cats for about thirty minutes before bed. We've been trying to spend lots of time with them and make them super duper snuggly for ...
Ballerina Birthday
It's been thirty days since my Sophie turned four and it's still kind of hard to wrap my mind around. Can you tell that I'm struggling just a bit when it comes to her growing up? She had asked for months to have a ballerina party at her dance studio. This is her first year taking ballet and she has had such a wonderful experience. She loves dressing up, is fascinated by her teachers, and it doesn't hurt that she wants to be just like her big sister. This Ballerina Birthday was perfect! I realized after I ordered tutus for the girls that I was one short. Oh well. The birthday girl deserves a special tutu on her big day, right?! I replicated graphics from her cupcake toppers and liners to make these name tags and we hung them on satin hangers from the ballet barre. I borrowed a picnic ...
A Weekend Recap
This past weekend was one of the best I can remember in a long time. I spent the entire weekend doing fun things with my favorite people. I didn't wash the first dish or even pick up around the house until almost 8 o'clock on Sunday night. It was wonderful to ignore all of the boring responsibilities and just soak up a beautiful weekend. I mentioned before that my Jeep was on its last leg. I meant that pretty literally. Josh & I bought it on Mother's Day weekend in 2007. Ella was 8 months old and I was so tired of snapping her car seat into the backseat of my little car. It was the second Grand Cherokee I've driven and I loved it with a capital L. I loved it so much that it had a grand total of 216,000 miles on it this past Saturday morning. We had been talking about replacing it for ...