April

Here we go it's April. Tonight I will make the birthday cards for the month and pull out the supplies for the gift making for this month. There isn't took much going on this month other than getting ready for May really. Actually what I will be doing the most of is picking people up and dropping them off at airports and seaports. It seems everyone is coming and going. I have already taken hubby to the airport today. On Saturday I pick up SIL and family from the seaport. Then I will hopefully be picking up hubby from the airport and the following week MIL from the airport.

Easter didn't require any making of anything because all of the small ones were away on vacations. The youngest child at the small family gathering was 17. And although some coaxed and teased to go hide in another room while we hid eggs, he didn't budge. There was no hunt this Easter. It was still nice.

Hubby who was here for the weekend headed back to NY for another 10 days. At least that's the plan but we already know that's a moving target so we will have to wait and see. I did send him back with a Thank You card for the folks at the deli he eats at (with the exception of his birthday) for indulging me with his birthday cupcakes.

May will be a busy month as 17 is graduating. There will be awards ceremonies, graduation mass, and the big day itself, and the party that we must have to celebrate the milestone. To that end I have to finish up his scrapbook. So, I will be doing lots of that in the days to come. I really want to get it all done. So, I will be organizing those things this evening as well.

I see an evening of planning and scheduling to make sure its all done it time.

6 more

The ole groundhog say his shadow and so there will be six more weeks of winter. It really doesn't matter to me here in Miami because normally it just gets cool enough to be able to turn off the A/C but my baby, 20 is in upstate NY as you know and he will be cold for real. Pobrecito!

Plus, hubby just found out he's going on a project for 3 to 4 weeks also in NY. NY is a big state. The project could be anywhere and he is going to be about a mile away from 20! Can you believe it? What are the odds of that? I think its pretty wild.

I am going to have to do some quick cooking this weekend to send a care package with hubby for 20. Plus I am making jambalaya for the big football game on Sunday AND its my nephews birthday on Sunday and I will be scrapping all day on Saturday. OMG I am already tired from the weekend and its not here yet. I need to organize my grocery list tonight to make sure I have everything because all the cooking will be on Friday and Saturday night.

Today is also the birthday of 17s godmother. I'm going by after work to deliver her gift which is a framed senior picture of her godson and a handmade card.

During lunch I am going book shopping for the nephew who is crazed about WWII planes. I'm thinking that shouldn't be to hard to find books on. I am hoping for something about the Tuskegee (sp?) airmen. We shall see. Those are the first two birthdays of the month. This weekend I will make cards for Valentines Day and the birthdays that are later in the month. So far I am on schedule with my gift making.

Lots to do but its all good....

Dots of Doing and Liking

In an effort to keep tabs on my progress with this year's theme of "Do what I like. Like what I do." I think I am going to start a weekly or so entry of a list of Dots to document the abundance of action that will abound this year. Work with me people. Here's the first list:

* I agreed to a Scrap club with some girlfriends. I'm not sure how this will work other than its once a month but I like the friends, I like scrapping and have lots to scrap so it sounds perfect. I have no idea how I am going to schlep all the stuff that I use when scrapping but I am sure that the logistics and details will sort themselves out.


* I took a nap. I realize that this sounds contradictory. I am celebrating the doing of nothing well not nothing but sleeping. What needs to be understood here is twofold. First, I rarely sleep completely and soundly through the entire night. Second, the only time I ever sleep during daylight hours is if I am sick and I am talking really sick. So, I stopped everything (paused really) and took a nap on a Sunday afternoon for a whole 35 minutes! That my friends is (in)action at its best for me.


* I made yummy side dishes for me this week that only I enjoy and let the men stick with the boring stuff I have been making for years. I made wild rice to have with chicken and roasted veggies. I made a lovely mixed greens salad with a lively lemon based dressing and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds on top. I made a pasta salad using whole wheat rotini and marinated artichoke hearts to take to lunch for work that was delish!


* I found my pretty stationary that I haven't used in years. I am planning on writing some letters to some family that I have lost touch with.

* I WENT to scrap club which from now on will be known as S.I.S. and had a blast. I got THREE pages done. I am so happy. I already learned some things that I must take with me next time. I also got lots of inspiration seeing the pages the others were doing.

* I tried a fruitcake and survived. Not only did I survive it was tasty. The thing is I hate fruitcake but this one was touted as the best ever and ya know what it was good. I could eat this without having to pretend to like it because it was good. I want the recipe and will gift it next holiday season.

* Had coffee with some friends that I hadn't seen in a while. It was great catching up in person because even though we email in person is great.

* I chatted with 17. Just the 2 of us caught up on an assortment of things and it was nice. He told me about the trials of prom preparations that SAC is going through and we laughed at some of their ideas and problems. It was very nice sharing time.

* I may not have liked the cold blast we got but I certainly liked curling up under the comforter straight out of the dryer. It was a stroke of genius if I do say so myself!

Here's to Doing what I like and liking what I do!

MARCH!

It's March already and I realized this weekend that I have not read one book yet. Heck, I have only read scrapbook magazines. I am in the middle of "Into Thin Air" and I've been in the middle of it since December! So, I brought it in to work today and by golly I am going to read on my lunch hour. I have to get a balance on all the things I like to do and not let any one get out of hand. Yeah right.

My good deed for today was surprising my GM at the Rehab Center for breakfast. I took her a pastelito and cafe con leche on my way in to work. I have the car today because the boys have a Track meet and go on the bus. She was surprised to see me since I didn't call first. She loved the pastelito and ate that plus the breakfast they gave her. And I took her and her neighbor a couple of books. For my GM, Mario Puzo's "The Godfather" and for her neighbor one in Spanish because she doesn't read English by Isabel Allende.

It was a nice way for me to start the day too.

Lovely

What a nice weekend I had.....Semi-prodictive, VERY relaxing and lots of reconnecting....just lovely!

Saturday, after running errands early and doing house chores, I had lunch at home with hubby. Nothing special, just reheated leftovers from the crappy week but it was just the 2 of us and we sat and talked and it was nice.

We then went and picked up 18 at the airport from his week in DC. Heard a bunch of stories, he had a great time. We had an early dinner and all 4 four of us just sat around after dinner and 18 told us stories and we updated him on things from our week. It was nice. It all seemed so "grown-up". Hubby and I commented later that it was a little surreal that those were our children seeming like adult friends. Again, it was nice. Saturday night hubby and I hung out together and watched Tivo and folded clothes and sorted some pictures that I will be scrapping.

Sunday, I didn't have time to make the usual waffle breakfast for the boys because they slept in and I had the first cooking class that day but I left them the batter ready to go and was happy to hear later that they made their own waffles when they each got up. Of course, hubby commented that he hopes they ate more than they spilled all over the counter.

The cooking class... I am organizing cuban cooking classes to pass down home recipies to this generation. This was our inaugural class. it was at one of my best friends' mom's house. We learned to make ham croquettes. It was fabulous. Such a wonderful time. During the downtime form the actual cooking we sat aroudn and she showed us on old photo album and we talked about all sorts of things: Cuba, our kids, comparing the raising of kids from their times to our times to our kids, music etc.. It was soooooo nice!

When I got home 18 had me fry up some croquettes right away and loved them. We had another easy nice dinner and then the boys went out. I did some scrapping and hubby watched TV and we called it an early night around 11.

Such an easy, pleasant weekend. I wish everyday could be that way....

A few things...

Let's me jot these things down before I forget them...

* 15 enjoyed his weekend sans big brother. He says next year is gonna be great! He doesn't have to wait for anyone else to use the bathroom. Doesn't have to yell at his brother to turn the light off of the bathroom which apparently bothers 15 from his room (who knew), he can have his music on louder and it doesn't bother anyone, he can play PS II whenever he wants. When I told him I hadn't realized they had so many issues he stopped and corrected me. They are "issues" he explained, it's just stuff that's not important, no big deal in life but it will be nice when the stuff is gone. He's got such an easy going personality, it amazes me.

* The weekend was easy. It just flowed without complaint. We told 18 this because he was home no less than 15 minutes before he was witching and moaning about stuff and the 3 of us looked at each other and said welcome back! and laughed.

* 18 had a great time. He wasn't expecting to (such an optimist, no?) but he liked the school, the area, the people, the coaches, everything. Says if he could have registered for school right then he would have and just not come back. I'm glad he liked it.

* Last night 18 commented on how refreshed he was even though he was physically tired. He concluded that it was the trip. He had really needed to just get away, the break did him good. He decided everyone should do this often - just get away and break up the routine. Hubby told him in the real world it's called vacation. We all laughed.

* I am still scrapping. Not the football stuff, even though I have more football stuff to scrap for my son. But my in-laws brought over a bunch of loose pictures that they found that he thought I might like. From hubby as a baby through our kids as babies. So, we grouped them together and I have been scrapping all those pictures, I have done 12 pages in 3 nights. They are coming out beautiful as I get more and more confident and creative with my layouts.

* We have a TON of work at work- Yuck! We are working too many hours.

* I signed up for GoodReads and so far I have a bunch of friends but haven't done much else with that. I need to enter the books but you know, I'm scrapping.

* I joined a Food Co-op thing. I'm not sure what I am going to get but I'm going to try it. A co-workers daughter was trying to round up a group of people and so they convinced me. Right now we are going to do it every 2 weeks, we'll see if it changes to weekly. For $25 I will get a box of produce. Right now she is going to Homestead and picking it up but maybe eventually we'll take turns, carpool, whatever. it's very casual, you can cancel anytime, no subscription or season of weeks to buy. My co-worker said that they got bananas, tomatoes, lettuce some squash and fabulous corn. Let's see how this goes.

That's all I can think of for now....

The Banquet

The Football Banquet was last night. WOW...it was emotional.
I was worried that there wouldn't be enough food and kept saying when it's gone it's gone. Many took home trays of leftovers. We laughed out butts off as the delivery guy kept coming back with more and more trays. Tooo funny. We joked that they made a mistake and gave us food for 2000 instead of 200 LOL!

We hired a company to make a highlight DVD of the season to take that task away from the coach and let him have time for other things- you know like coaching. I was concerned about the music selection, the pictures, the whole thing. Everyone loved it. I got orders to buy more after the viewing.

The coach spoke. It was lovely. The team captains, all seniors, one of them my son all got up and said some words of thanks etc. It was beautiful got us all choked up. It was even fun watching them try to keep composure as some of their teammates tried to make them laugh. All good fun. An assistant coach spoke and got teary eyed as he spoke about all the team had accomplished and what it meant to all of them. Very emotional, more than one of us had tears in our eyes.

Then we handed out the scrapbooks we have been working on for months. The boys started flipping through them right away. We had a page in the back for Autographs. We thought they might think it was mushy and not do it. I handed them all pens. They immediately pulled out their sheets and started passing them around to get signed. It was a beautiful thing.

The whole night was a success. A beautiful recap to a great season. The camaraderie, the bonding between the teammate and the respect and love from player to coaches. It was all great.

Of course, we already made plans to get together so that we don't loose our connection with each other. I think I've made some good new friends in all of this and that's always a good thing, you can never have too many friends. Life is good!

Still scrappin'

In case you have never read my blog....I am organizing a group of women (6) in making 30 identical scrapbooks (one for each Senior on the Varsity football team) to be handed to them at the football banquet on Tuesday. We are making 30 books. We have been making 30 books since September, meeting once a week at my house with VERY few skipped weeks over the holidays and some weeks 2 meetings and this week they will be back a third time tomorrow- Saturday! I started researching and planning the book last June! Looking and pricing albums, paper, embellishments. I started ordering supplies over the summer.
The book is 44 pages and includes all aspects of their Senior year of football. We still have 2 pages to do! There are 9 books that are complete (sans 2 pages) and 21 books that are like a third of the way there. I have thoroughly enjoyed having everyone over, laying out the pages and even looking for the stuff but if I don't have to think in multiple of 30 again that would be a good things as far as I am concerned.
In the process 2 of the moms have become scrappers and we plan on getting together to add a few more special pages for our boys later but see 3 of something is much easier to get than 30 or 60 or 90!

Quick list

I haven't had time to properly blog but have things to put out there so here's a quick list of bullet points.

* Why am I busy? Because next week if the banquet for 18s football team and I am the coordinator and it's for like 200 people and I haven't got the food set yet and so far I really only have tablecloths and plates and we need to finish 30 scrapbooks for the Seniors and I don't even have all of the collages yet or enough refill pages for all the scrapbooks and and well you get the picture.

* After living in Miami since 1983 I finally went to Knauss Berry Farm. Friends took me on Saturday morning. It's a lovely ride to a fresh fruit, veggie, baked good stand open only for a short season run by what a friend endearingly calls quasi-Amish. I bought their famous and delicious sticky buns, key lime pie, cherry pie, raisin bread, 9-grain bread, strawberry jam, hot pepper guava jam, strawberries, tomatoes (red & green), scallions, zucchini, yellow squash, green & red peppers, oregano, cilantro and a bag of mixed salad greens. I think that's everything. It's all yummy! and I so enjoyed it and now I know where it is and can go whenever I want. YEAH!!

* I had to send my sewing machine back because it was missing some accessories and apparently its a bundled package and they can't just send me the missing parts but have to get this one back and resend a whole new one! Whatever, they are paying for the shipping since it was their mistake.

* I went to a book reading. The book was "The Geography of Bliss". The author is a friend of a friend. The subject sounds fascinating and I can't wait to read the book. I have been thinking about it a lot - being happy that is and I think it will be interesting. Granted he told us one of the things was to not over think it but I think I need to think about it. I'll let you know how that works out.

*18 has now been accepted at 3 universities, Xavier University in Cincinnati, Loyola in New Orleans and FIU in Miami. AND Union College in upstate NY is going to fly him up to see the school. They are interested in him playing football. Catholic University in DC is also interested in him playing football but they told him they didn't have budget to pay for a visit. We shall see what happens with all of that.

* I have talked about learning to cook Cuban food for a few years. I have wanted to learn all the home recipes from the moms and grandmas but it never happens. Well this year its going to. I've gathered a small group of friends and we are going to use our moms and inlaws to teach us their recipes to pass them on to the next generation. I am so looking forward to it. We are starting with croquettes. Trust me you will hear much more about this.

* I recently saw the movie "Zodiac". Obviously, the topic is uber-scary as it's about the Zodiac killer. The movie is very well done. The camera work is excellent. It starts in 1968 and goes well into the '80s and maybe even '90s I forgot already but it is really well done. They were never able to convict anyone or even arrest anyone for all those murders but it shows you how it haunted and affected so many how were investigating it. How they were convinced of a suspect but frustrated at not being able to prove it. I don't know what's up next on the Netflix queue.

* I'm excited about Masterpiece Theater airing all of Jane Austen's novels. I Tivod the first one Persuasion. Who knows when I will be able to sit and watch it but I'm looking forward to it.

That's all for now....

Last day....

I did all of my hobbies Sunday! I think that is just too cool. In the morning I did some scrapping, I laid out 2 pages. I used my sewing machine for the first time. I made a custom "table" cloth for a built in that I have. Each of the sides has a different stitch because I was playing with the machine learning how to use it but no one will notice. Then in the late afternoon I made guacamole (becuase I had a couple of avocados laying around) which I will serve for at the New Year's Eve Party at my house tonight.

The bad part of the day was finding out that a friends mom fell and fractured her hip and requires surgery and she spent the day in the hospital and that sucks.

I am working today, I have between 70-80 people coming to my house tonight and I am working. Everything is really done, I mean hubby is just cleaning the plastic chairs and setting up tables outside. Everything else is done. The cleaning lady is there today and she will clean the bathrooms and give the kitchen a final once over and I will come home to a freshly cleaned smelling home. Too bad we are going to undo all that a few hours later. Oh well! C'est la vie!
I sincerely wish everyone a new year of good health and happiness!

Tonight and ...

Tonight is football scrapnight. A group of women gather at my house and we scrap 30 identical pages for the boys. Much cutting, gluing, wine drinking and fun are had by all. Of course, I have spent 3 nights laying out the pages that we will work on today and tomorrow so for me every night is football scrapnight. It has pretty much consumed me and all my white space right now.

I did manage to see the movie Pan's Labyrinth over the weekend. I will venture to say that you have to be in the mood for this movie and I don't think I was in the right frame of mind. I started it and was a little EWWWwed by it, stopped it made myself some popcorn, snuggled on the sofa under a blanket and started it again. It was good. Visually- wow! How creative! The creatures, the tasks. I loved the way he positions the two opposites the fantasy world and the harsh reality of Franco's Spain and the rebels. Really well done. Balance was key in this movie and I think he got it. I don't think that it was overdone either way. The fantasy was as fantastical (I think I made that up) as his reality was real. Not for little kids but good movie for everyone else.

Scrap weekend

I have been scrapbooking ALL weekend. I have only stopped to go to the store for supplies, take my family to the game and dinner with my girlfriends on Saturday night while the boys were at the game. My dinning room is not a dinning room right now. It's the scrap room. Why so much scrapping you ask? Because we are making 30 identical books. One for each graduating senior on the football team. I have a group of 6 women who come over every Tuesday and we make the pages that I design. This week another group is coming on Wednesday. So, I am making enough pages for us to work on 2 nights. It's crunch time because the season is almost over and then we will have a banquet where they are given their scrapbooks of the season and well obviously they must be done by then. So, meanwhile we scrap- lots! It's coming out wonderful!

Looking back and ahead

So what else happened this week? Hmmmm, here ya go:

* Status on reducing the double-wide.I stopped buying breakfast at Starbucks. I haven't had any ice cream. I am drinking way more water. I made Jello to have as dessert on the nights when I just need a little something else. I have had salad as a side at every single dinner. I didn't eat any french fries the 2 nights I made them this week. Yeah, me!

* I got my hair but last weekend. I forgot to tell you. It was just a trim. I have it on the short side now so that it gets curly. They are big curls. It's better that just hanging straight down.

* The manager of my GM's ALF called that they were shutting down and were trying to find her a new place but that she was refusing to go. Mind you I was updated that she had moved twice since June and not told me. Granted they were houses owned by the same owner as he was downsizing trying to hold on to a house or 2 but now they are shutting down. When I told her that I had no idea because I hadn't been able to speak to her since the beginning of the summer, she was shocked because GM had told her that we speak every week. She lied. Big surprise there.

* You know those little strips they advertise to put on your nose to stop snoring. They look like butterfly band-aids. Well, THEY WORK! If you have a snorer that wakes you up, RUN don't walk to the nearest store and buy some. You need to understand I have lots of sleep issues. I don't sleep well as it is and hubby's snoring doesn't help. He snores so loud that it jolts me awake. I try to get him to roll over but he doesn't then it takes me forever to fall asleep again and repeat cycle. I think I may have to buy stock in the company because we will be buying it in bulk. He has been wearing the strips for 3 nights and OMG if he's snoring, I don't hear him. It's a godsend! Who woulda thunk it!

* I ordered more online stuff. Some scrapbook papers and a necklace. Actually I ordered a couple because I think it would make a great Xmas gift and it was on sale. I need to start thinking about Christmas cards. I was thinking about making them this year since I'm scrapping now, I should be able to make the cards. We'll see.


Weekend plans: (in no particular order)
Visit GM, now that I know where she is and take her some of her favs: chocolate covered cherries, shortbread cookies etc.
Mail some packages to a few people.
Make some color copies of newspaper articles for the football scrapbooks.
Get my mammos grammed on Saturday.
Go to son's football game Saturday night.
Clean kid's bathroom.
Go to dinner with my culinary girlfriends on Sunday!

Have a good one everyone! TGIF!

We Interrupt This Family for Football Season

That's what the sign says on my front door. Honest. I'm sure you've heard of 'Monday Night widows' because the husbands all watch football. Well, at my house they took this idea and ran with it.

There's Sunday football, Sunday night football, Monday night football, Thursday night football - that's when the Pros play. Then there's Saturday for college football and there's high school football which can be either wed/thurs/fri/sat. It varies from week to week. That's just when we WATCH actual football games.

17 is a Senior of the Varsity football team and we are very involved with the high school. Translation...football has creeped into every other day of the week too. Hubby keeps the books for the QB Club which is like the parent's booster club for the football program. He's been doing that for 2 years. I help out in other ways from organizing the weekly team meals to stocking the concession stand for home games and ensuring that parents of all 3 teams are up to date on the latest happenings. I am also holding weekly (Tuesday- the only day of the week not previously mentioned) gatherings at my house to make a scrapbook for each of the graduating seniors (there are 26 this year) and we also made banners with their name and number on them and they are hanging in the cafeteria for the season and each will keep it at the end of the season as a keepsake with their scrapbook. It's really oodles of fun. We had a blast making the banners this week. It took 10 women hours and hours of prep work and then hours at my house to put it all together but they came out really nice! It's fun doing stuff for the boys and I'm making good friends with the parents to boot.

On top of all this, I am now learning about Cross Country running. 15 has had 2 meets already. On, you guessed it, Tuesdays after school. He was not happy with his performance the first meet. I on the other hand was in tears watching him strain to the finish line. I am so impressed with him. He beat his own time, the second meet. So, he was a little happier but according to him he's got a long way to go. He only started training this summer and started at over 30 minutes to run 2 miles. Tuesday he ran 5k in 22.43 - frickin amazing, if you ask me but I'm mom and we all know that means I don't know squat. So, I'm meeting more parents and got on another email list to get involved with that team too.

The thing is work just keeps getting in the way of all these other things I want to do but somehow I guess I'll muddle through. It's going to be a long year and at the same time it will be over in a minute. I mean they just started yesterday and 17 will be graduating in the Spring. How did THAT happen?

Gosh!

I knew I was behind in the blogging but I didn't realize I was THAT far behind. Since Aug. 30th! Whew! I know I've been busy but that's no excuse for such a long absence. Soon my adoring fans will give up and forget me. HA! I made a funny! Adoring fans...get it? As if!

It was my dad's Bday on the 3rd, my MIL was operated a week ago, I am working volunteering with my kids high school with all sorts of back-to-school meetings that were happening and with the QB Club. I actually ended up kinda running the QB Club and now we are meeting at my house every Tuesday, this past Tuesday being the first one, to work on a scrapbook for the graduating seniors, make banners that hang in the cafeteria, order the food for the weekly meals, coordinate people to work the concession stand for home games and whatever else coach needs parents to do. Its 17's Senior year so the list of things to do is endless from college stuff, to school activities. 14 had his first cross-country meet this past Tuesday (yes, same day as scrap mtg.). So, ya know things have been a little busy and all of this is happening with 17 and I sharing the car. It's been a little hectic - what can I say. But they only do this once and then its over before I know it so onward and upward or as the high school's motto is - Adelante!

So, let me pause here and just take a deep breath and ask the good Lord above for patience and energy to get it all done and enjoy the school year ahead and to blog about it along the way ;)

Lost $$

You know that feeling you have when you reach into your wallet and your short on cash. Well that would be constantly but I mean short as in you thought you had a $20 and in fact you have a $10 not just that you wish you had more $.


Well, that happened to me this weekend. Now I'm not a math wiz but here's what happened. I had theater and dinner plans for Sunday that were all going to be paid for cash and so being the planner that I can sometimes be I went to the bank on Friday and took out $100 bucks for my weekend extravaganza of entertainment. Mind you I already had $34 in my wallet so I can do this math (100+34) now I've got $134. Woo hoo, for a girl who doesn't carry much cash that's a million bucks. I had to pay back someone for the theater ticket ($25) and have cash for dinner. The dinner was a super ritzy place that we were going to because they are part of a program offering limited menu at a fixed price with the intention of getting people (like moi) who can't normally afford the place to come out and try and then maybe we'll repeat (when we hit the lotto). So, dinner was to be $35 plus drinks and wine. Are you still with me? 25+35+drinks+wine= $100 and I have $134. I have extra, no problem. I was perfectly prepared to splurge and spend this on little ole me all in one day and have a fantabulous time.


Friday night, 17 needs $ for the movies and whatever. Fine. I have extra, remember, I give him $20. Saturday goes by running around doing groceries, getting school uniforms, taking kids to get haircuts for the first day of school and even driving thru for lunch. All paid for with plastic. yes, even the drive-thru. Thank you very much. I'm still good. Got all my money saved for me on Sunday(read in sing songy voice)...looking forward to it....working on my scrapbooks...thinking about tomorrow...gonna have a great time....(stop sing songy stuff).


Sunday is here. Make the usual waffles for the gang. Work on a scrapbook page that I was too tired to finish last night. Go take a shower and hubby drops me off at girlfriends house to go to theater. Once we are all ready to go, she's writing a check for the theater ticket, I tell her I've got cash. So, I open my wallet to separate it. Counting out the cash I have $70. Woah!What happened I had extra money! Now, I'm short! Where is it. I start looking thru all the nooks and crannies in my purse and wallet. I find coupons, receipts and business cards - no cash. I don't understand. I've counted the cash 3 times and its still only $70, apparently it doesn't increase by she upon recounting it. What to do?! OK, I have a check on me. I can write a check for the theater ticket. That leaves me with the $70 for dinner, if I don't have a cocktail I should be fine for dinner and wine. But where's the $30. I gave 17 $20 not more than that. I didn't pay for any of the errands on Sat. Friends hubby is trying to help me with the math he knows I'm not the best but even when he does it doesn't add up. I will have to deal with it later. Did one of the boys take $ without telling me? It would be a first. Maybe the $ I gave 17 was more than one bill stuck together, I'll ask him later. Friend now takes some extra cash because she's wonderful that way, to be sure that we are not short in our adventures of the day.


The theater was a hoot. It was a musical and a friend of our was in it. It was called "Tomfoolery" if you've never seen it and its playing near you run to buy a ticket. I need to see it again because I laughed so much that I know I couldn't hear it all. Too too funny! I forgot to give my other girlfriend the check to pay her back for the ticket. Oh, well. We have plenty of time before our dinner reservation so we go hang out at the local independent book store which we both LOVE. We sit and split an appetizer because we are both starving and neither of us had lunch before the theater. So, this will hold us till dinner 3 hours from now. Dinner was great. Good friends at a beautiful restaurant with good service and good food. The dessert was PHFft but the rest was good. A lovely time was had by all. My good friend had to fork out a little more $ to cover the valet- I told you it was a ritzy place- but what are friends for.

Got home told hubby about my outings. He had a grand time at home doing nothing. I mean NOTHING! He watched the golf tournament all day - that's it. Fine. Good for him. We each had our good time in our own way. Went to bed.

Woke up! Sat straight up in bed and yelled "Oh, thank goodness!" Hubby snored a little louder and shifted in bed as I looked over him at the clock. It was 2:35. I took a deep breath and thought well, at least I found the missing $. In my outings on Saturday although I didn't pay cash for any of the boys things. I did stop in a Scrapbook store and bought some very necessary pages and embellishments that I honestly really really needed. That I paid cash for because remember I had extra but I guess I forgot I had given my extra to my son and so now I was short. So, let's review the math shall we: extra$ minus $for son minus $for scrap supplies equals short for theater and dinner. Oh well it was pretty paper.

So much to do, so little time. This isn't letting me put a title for this entry! Start frustration! Moving on, tonight I will draft the blog entry of the books I've read. I will Dust (yeah, right). I will enter important dates in the new agenda I bought. I will answer emails. I will put together a package of stuff for someone at hubby's office for a Pampered Chef Bridal Shower. Yeah, I sell Pampered Chef products (read: its the part time job I have been NOT doing). Tonight I will gather the Confirmation Certificates and 8th grade diplomas of my kids to copy them at the office in a reduced size to use them in the scrapbooks. I was talking to someone at the store on my lunch hour and they suggested this and I think it's too cute! Can't wait.

Now, in reality I probably won't do much of any of that but I did call the microwave repairman today to ask about replacing the cover to the fax that fell off. Woo Hoo. I did something on the long list of things to do. I'm so proud of me. I also had a 40% off coupon and so I went and bought more scrapbook paper.

Stress

What do you do when you are stressed? I do all sorts of things.

First and foremost, I eat. I am very good at that. This week I have gone through an entire bag of Jolly Ranchers hard candies. I even ate the grape ones and I don't like the grape ones.
I'm not talking the little rolls you impulse buy at the grocery checkout. I'm talking the big momma bag they sell in the candy aisle.

I also make lists. I make lists of things to do, things to get, things I want to read whatever, lists.
Another stress buster for me is cleaning, I shouldn't call it cleaning, it more like spring cleaning -even if it's not spring. You know, empty something out, go through the stuff, give stuff away, throw stuff out and organize back to where it was.

And then last but not least I start a new project. Well, I have done all those things the past 2 weeks. I have been bogged down with all of the above. My project du jour is organizing 7 years worth of photos and storing all of the assorted school and sports photos I have purchased over the past 12 (OMG-12!) years of my children.

My entire dinning room (chosen because of the ample surfaces available to cover) has been taken over by stacks of pictures. Loose pictures, envelopes of pictures and boxes of pictures. The sorting began. First just divvying them up by year and then getting the year in order. Then buying photo albums to start storing them. And that led me to my other new project; scrapbooking. Note: If you are easily addicted to things, do not start or even think about scrapbooking.

You will hear so much more about scrapbooking, I may have to consider changing the name of my blog to Gimme Scrap! LOL!