Nose Hairs, cold and chili

It's been a little chilly here lately.

I'm not complaining.  I like me some jeans and sweatshirt weather.  I enjoy the smell of a fire outside and burning an autumn candle on the inside...

It's the frozen nose hairs in the morning as I inhale b/c my Italian Stallion deems it non-economical to put the heat on in September.  It may also be the fact that my children like to put their cold hands up my shirt just to hear me scream...

But, as I said, it's been a little chilly here lately...

Chilly enough for big pots of chili for dinner and hot coffee in the morning.  Chilly enough to start wearing socks with my birks...fashion faux-paux #264 I know...Chilly enough that I needed to purchase another sweater because as I said, our heat isn't on yet:)  So, what better way to put that "economy" to good use?
plus, I had just a bit left over from birthday moneys...yippee!

And so with cold fingers I tap away on this keyboard to bring you earth-shattering news from the Italian household...

*silence*

yeah, there's nothing really earth-shattering goin' on over here...lots of soccer practice, life group started up again, studying the book of Isaiah, helping in the classrooms at school, workin' on a cool soccer slideshow project for the girls, continuing my "office decor"...

just stuff...

stuff I thought I"d share...

cuz, you know...you come over here to read the blog and I gotta be writing something...

Have a great Tuesday...I promise to think up some more intersting things to type about here in the near future...

as soon as my fingers warm up...or maybe I'll just go get some gloves...

Happy Tuesday!

WHAT. IS. MY. WIFE. DOING???

Those would be the words coming out of the mouth of my husband last Wednesday.

Let me set the scene...

It's overcast...tornado sirens are blazing in the city just over...wind is whippin' ore the plain...distant thunder is rumbling...and my firstborn is running up and down the soccer field while her daddy coaches from the opposite side.

The first three quarters, the girls are scrappin'...there are no subs...5 girls didn't show up and one showed up in flip flops.  As fourth quarter progresses, so does the rain...as in, a torrential downpour...

The girls are soaked, cold, and out of breath...it's tied 2:2 and I can see from their eyes that they're about out of steam...

What's a mother to do?

I'll tell you what THIS mother does...she hands over her camera to another saint of a mom who actually thought to bring an umbrella...she dons her royal blue poncho and begins running up and down the sidelines...

SCREAMING MADLY...

"you can do it!
"You are strong"
"dig down deep"
"take a deep breath"
"one kick at a time"
"go after it with all you've got"

and it just goes on and on...the screaming, the running, the wild arm cheering, the fist punching the air...

people stare...

I'm sure many shake their heads in pity...and/or annoying aggrevation...

Obviously, I have issues...

I CANNOT keep my mouth shut at my girls' games...I've tried...I've tried sitting on my hands, eating crackers, talking on the phone...It's not that I coach them...I just like to cheer them on...be that voice that validates their pain, that lets them know they've got someone pulling for them...taking photos is about the only thing that keep my jaw from flapping b/c I have to actually steady myself for the shot...

But this night...with the rain...I didn't have my prop to stop me...and I was all out...full force..

I am now wondering what kind of impact this "wackiness" is going to have on the future mental well-being of my girls...

I have a feeling that they are sooo going to need therapy.

The post where I try to justify the fact that I haven't folded clothes in a week

In the midst of my ranting and raving about the injustice in the world of soccer AND my astonishment at my girls' abilities to break the sound barrier with their whining AND continual lack of sleep due to the wantings of young ones or crazy dreams about Ape people and Hector...

I HAVE been busy...

doing ACTUAL things...

Some of those things being decorating "my" office...

And although I hear my kitchen screaming at me, "ya know, you COULD wipe up that dripping syrup from the pantry...we've got a puddle over here" and my bedroom crying, "honey, we haven't seen the carpet in days...couldn't these clothes go somewhere else???"

I have chosen to ignore the voices and push ever onward in my denial of all things clean...and spend time on these more "important" things...

Like cutting paper and sewing uneven stitches and tying pretty blue bows...

And thus began my "office decor love fest"...

Bursting forth from the gates....

I wanted some "inspiration" hanging from the windows...so I did just that...my sweet girls and pictures of our family just hanging from ribbons on my new "sheer" curtain...notice I did not zoom in on the stitching...and if you happen to come over and view said "sheer" I will not be allowing you to stand on a chair to view it closely either, because frankly, I'm not the best seamstress in the world and it's a miracle it actually hangs at all.

 Next we have my personal favorite...MOMENTS...

This is where I took a bunch of wood letters and found some pretty papers and then sprayed them with this 3M photo mount spray and COMPLETELY covered my hands in sticky, gooey adhesive...which in turn allowed me the wonderful task of scrubbing my skin raw in order to get the excess goo to ball up enough for me to peel it from my skin...JOY!

but soooo pretty, right?

That's me hoping that it will look nice on the wall, but too chicken to actually hammer the holes in...so my best guestimate is that the letters will stay on the floor for AT LEAST another 2 weeks until I get up the gumption to do the final deed!

I LOVE my shadow boxes.

Italian Stallion detests them...he thinks they are too bulky.

I,however, believe they are a treasure and I can put so much stuff into them...it's like hanging a scrapbook page on my wall...BLISS...finding a way to my heart...

Another thing I added, just cuz I wanted that "ecclectic" feel..just painted an old clipboard and put some pictures behind an old piece of glass...tie a ribbon and WhaLa...

Lastly...and Little Munchkin's personal favorite...the coasters....

They're just a sweet touch to the room...

Other things I'd like to add are a stainless steel magnetic board, a few more frames, and some other funky hanging thing for more pictures..OF COURSE...

Italian Stallion thought it needed this too...

And once again I am reminded of how GOOD I have it...

even with drippy syrup and crumpled laundry...

Thank you Jesus!

Preface First

I need to preface the following post with a few facts...

Facts of which I am completely and utterly aware...and therefore, once I make my way around the barn a couple of times, will come and land back onto those "truths"

Fact #1- All people make mistakes...this includes myself and my husband and my children
Fact #2- Not all people are kind (and subsequently, not all people are intelligent either...but I digress)
Fact #3- I do not posses the spiritual gift of Mercy
Fact #4- Noone is perfect and everyone needs grace
Fact #5- Dealing with a vomiting and diahrea 3 year old all day, bleaching your house, attending a soccer game where your child's team gets beat into the ground and then receiving a ridiculous email from a disgruntled soccer parent WILL cause you to blow your top.

Okay...that all said, let's just say that although I may lack in the Mercy department, I am FIERCELY loyal...and with that loyalty comes utter abandonment to all things logical when it comes to defending said person to whom I am loyal.

My darling Italian Stallion has coached our daughter's soccer team for 3 years.  We have had the same group of girls all three years...give or take a few that have headed up to select soccer and such...The point is, you aren't supposed to get a choice of your team, but these parents specifically write down his name to make absolutely sure that they stay with him and all together. 

This year we lost a couple girls who, as stated previously, headed up to select soccer.  This left some openings.  Therefore, we gained a few more new girls.  This is always exciting and as such, my hubby refuses to keep things the same, that way EVERYONE gets a chance to participate in team names and team unity, etc.  (this is where the fierceness comes in) You have to understand that soccer coaches get paid NOTHING, NADA to spend any amount of time teaching these girls...and yet, he spends hours watching DVDs and searching the internet for drills...he talks to countless other coaches from different divisions to get any advice possible...he spends hours excel programming out his schedule and the line up and making sure everyone gets a chance to play equal time...AND he spends up to 3 hours after work running practices and dealing patiently with little girls who run around and act all girly!

I have not heard of one rude complaint in all these years.  There have been concerns that have arisen from time to time and people have been gracious and kind and mature in their dealings with him and myself.  Until this evening...

I can't go into too much b/c my poor friend A.M. has already heard a mouthful...and by mouthful I mean, she needed to cram some soap down my throat due to my over-zealous rendition of "don't mess with my family" that I felt it necessary to vent upon her b/c I.S. wasn't going to let me near the REPLY button on the email that was received...AM I am so thankful for you!!!  My hubby doesn't let things like this bother him...it rolls off his back...he wrote the "new dude" back and was done with it...

And I sit here still seething and thinking of all the things I'd LIKE to say...

There are worse things in life...I know...I've been there too...

So, in the scheme of things, it's not really worth my time...and yet, I bore you with another blog post of negativity and vulnerability to allow you yet another glance at MY own imperfections...

There you have...I tried to warn you...and I am completely aware of the preface statement above...I'm not looking for validation (SHOCKER I know) I KNOW my I.S. is an awesome coach...I also know that even though this individual can't seem to put a proper, grammatical sentence together properly, he obviously is in need of grace...

I also know that sarcasm and cynicism is evil and causes people to cringe...

(you're cringing aren't you)

Fact #6- probably not a good idea to write a blog post when you're a tad angry...otherwise, sarcasm and cynicism arises...

Have a great evening!

Daddy, you're a Bob!

Our youngest has developed quite the vocabulary...

AND...she likes to use it...whether she understands what she's saying or not...

AND...even if noone is actually listening to her, she still talks...hmmmm...I wonder where she gets it?

She has recently begun using her hands as puppets to talk to one another. 

I know, I know...you can hear my heart beating a little faster and the excitement building as "mommy" thinks..."Maybe we have another puppeteer on our hands!!!"

Does "puppeteering" fall in the inheritable genes realm??? 

probably not...but anyway...she talks...

she talks a LOT and even uses her hands...which, would also prove the fact that she's Italian I suppose...

All this to say...she keeps us laughing and sometimes with our fingers in our ears or the CD player cranked up just to dull out the constant commentary...

She did manage to say something the other day that had us rolling...to which we said to her...
"Little Munch..." in our long drawn out, eyes rolling sort of way...
and she replied,

"I know...I'm AMAAAAAZing!"

After the laughter subsided she felt it necessary to tell us how "lutty" (this would interpret as LUCKY) we were...

"mommy, you are sooo lutty...and you are so pretty"

she is sooooooooooooo a Momma's girl...

I smiled and gave her a little pat on her leg as we continued driving home from a long, yet fun evening at our church's Holy Ghost Weiner Roast...where Daddy played babysitter and I exercised my spiritual gifts of talking, more talking, hospitality (they tell me) and encouragement...along with a heavy dose of "love me, know me and please have some adult conversation with me"...

She then said to her father,

"Daddy...you're a Bob!"

I don't even know where to go with that...but she thought she was HIL.AR.I.OUS!!! 

I'm looking forward to a fun week! 

Me and BOB!

Blog Constipation

That blog title is courtesy of my darling husband. 

I have some things swirling around in my head...makin' my head kinda all swollen and bloated...

are you just loving the word pictures I'm giving you here?

The fact of the matter is that I've just got a lot of thoughts going on...

Had a good friend over to visit today...we're on a "yearly visit" basis...even though we live about 25 minutes from each other.  I met her from reading my college alumni magazine, finding her blog, stalking down her email, getting her cell phone number and bugging her until she came over and became my friend.  You can find her HERE...after this afternoon, I'm hoping that our yearly visit breaks down to at least monthly if not more frequent...b/c not only does she actually LIKE my cooking (lest you think I actually cooked, I defrosted some pesto I made awhile back and she went and picked her own tomato out of our garden...just so we're clear!), but she gets me thinking...and I love our talks...

We had all sorts of conversations today...mostly centering about "what do we do with Jesus? in our lives...NOW, this present day?"  And I gotta tell ya...that mixed with all my thoughts concerning my parenting and relationship with my girls which has been so heavy on my heart lately, along with what am I supposed to be focused on right now cuz I've been doing a LOT of dabbling: (photography, scrapbooking, music, cleaning, neighborhood relationships...etc)

Well, with all that goin' onside, I can't figure out how to rectify certain things in order to not only verbalize but set myself to action...

So, here's hoping I get the "runs" sometime soon so that I can have a better picture of what God created me specifically to do!!!

In the meantime, I continue putting one foot in front of the other, continue reading and studying, continue screaming at soccer games, laughing at Little Munchkin's zany personality, working on my home office decor project and praying that all of the above will serve as a heavy laxative for my "issue"...

I'll be back soon:) 

Fallen off the Bandwagon

This is yet another post where I start frivolously spewing information that really has nothing to do with the blog post title, but in my mind it actually does, b/c it gets me to the point that I'm trying to get across...

and so you'll have to bear with me as I circle around the barn a few times...

For my birthday this year, I told my hubby that I'd like to decorate my office...the fact that I referred to as MY office probably took him a little "aback" because really it's supposed to be HIS office...now, seeing as he's gone for about 10 hours each day and I basically hop back and forth in this quaint room, I"ve now claimed it as MY own...and so "sthppppp" (that's me sticking out my tongue and spitting)...however, I probably shouldn't do that, as that is so very mean, especially when he's going to allow me to HAVE what I wanted for my birthday...

goodness, I just ramble on and on don't I...oh well..

So, I've spent a majority of my time that should have been spent sorting laundry, changing sheets and actually preparing healthy food for my family...in front of my computer looking for cool ideas for my newly termed:  ECLECTIC HOME OFFICE! 

I envision things that motivate and inspire me, but also a place where potential clients can see ideas of ways to use their photos...I've got shadow boxes (see my post on ctphotomemories for more on that) little hanging pictures from my window, clipboard frames and I've recently spent time searching for a metal magnetic board and stainless steel alphabet letters...to NO AVAIL...and I am saddened by this fact...I'm praying that more ideas will come to me as I sleep this evening...(I've also been steering clear of the Electric Company for fear of Hector popping in with an idea or two of his own...YIKES)

Okay...so...getting to the bandwagon...amidst all these creative juices pumping around in my blood, it's gotten me antsy...now, not antsy enough to actually get up and run...oh no...

I didn't run this morning b/c I get nervous to run when I'm the only adult in the house and the chillens are sleeping...visions of sleepwalkers falling down the stairs as I run oblivious to any screams and watching numerous infomercials to spur me on...

Italian Stallion is home now and so I can relax...let my hair down...and in this case...sit in front of my computer and eat an entire Hershey's Milk choclate bar in about 5 minutes flat...this was AFTER I shoveled chocolate chunks mixed with butterscotch chips earlier this afternoon...

I don't plan on running tomorrow morning either because heaven forbid I don't get everyone out to the bus on time and don't get Little Munchkin in the car and ready to go to our first class at BSF (Bible Study Fellowship)...but the REAL reason that I'm not planning on running is because I want to make sure I have enough time to make a stop at Starbucks and Tim Hortons on my way to Bible Class...

It's pathetic...I know...

but I have so many moneys on my little gift cards saved up for starbucks...and...and...

I've fallen so far...

I promise, size *** jeans, that I WILL squeeze into you when the time comes...but, for now, I'm slipping on my jersey skirts and making my coffee runs...

As a side note...for anyone that cares...I've become quite addicted to coffee...and I don't really enjoy the taste all that much, but I've been drinking it at home just because it seemed like a grown up thing to do...does anyone else get pimples due to an overload of caffeine...got some major "teenage zit action" goin' on over here...

but again...not really willing to do much about it: thus my over indulgence on chocolate and lack of exercise once again! 

Hope you have a great evening!!!

Digging for Treasure

Found some stuff in my basement the other day...

WHOA...I KNOW...I too am amazed that I actually FOUND something in that explosion that happened down in the depths of my house...

It's my old cowboy hat that I purchased while in Australia.  Quite the fashion statement I made back then...
yep, all that long hair, oversized flannel and an authentic Australian hat...

I use the term "authentic" loosely...

I bought it at a flea market and one of my teammates probably haggled down the price for me...or I just paid whatever cuz I really didn't understand the value of good money back then...save it, spend it, it was dad's anyway right?

Yes...well, THANKFULLY we've turned the corner on those "money issues"...but, at least I have this dapper cowboy hat to show for it!

The girls are in a new school this year...new teachers...new programs...

One of the "newbies" is as new music teacher who is introducing the kids to a different type of music...and being someone who knows sooo much little about music (my worship pastor actually informed last Sunday that I sing tenor...for those wondering, that's a GUY's part to sing...NOT a girl...so there you have it)  Anyway, she's learnin' them some new music and goin' cultural on them as well...

Sweetpea has her first performance sometime in October and it has to do with Australian music...seeing as my nose is already quite tanned from the summer (do you "get" the word picture here?) I contacted the music teacher and told her that I indeed had gone to Australia and would be MORE than happy to come share my wealth of knowledge from the country...I mean, really, I was only there a mere 16 years ago...not much could have changed right?

So, THAT'S what got me down to the basement and got me digging in my treasure trove...whereas I located my Australian cowboy hat...

Not that you needed this bit of information, but I'm lacking good blog topics of late, so there you have it!

Numbering My Days

A couple Sundays ago our pastor started a new series...I wish I could tell you all the ins and outs and points and subpoints to his sermon.

I can't...

cuz you see, I got hung up on a verse that he pointed out...

So hung up in fact that it has stayed with me...day in and day out...now I am at the point of purchasing a canvas and painting this verse to hang in my office b/c I feel like God is wanting me to remember this..

and remember I will...

forget you dead brain cells...I WILL get this into whatever is left of that mass of mush sitting on my neck!

Psalms 90:12 "Teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom"...

Mamarazzi translation: "Teach us to recognize how few our days are and savor the moments so that we will spend our time here just as we should!"

I haven't necessarily been "savoring" lately...I'd like to call it more "surviving"...

Now, I know that as a mother of 3, sometimes survival is all we can hope for...amidst the diapers, laundry, whines and cries, picking up after everyone, playdates, cooking meals, trying to get a shower and MAYBE getting our hair dry before we have to shove everyone out the door...

But, I'm also realizing that all of a sudden, my eldest one is nearly NINE...

Nine years have come and gone...in nine more, she'll graduate and be out of my house...

I don't want to smother her, or over protect her, or cause her to say, "geez mom, lay off the kissin and huggin' already"...

well, okay, I don't really care if she says that or not b/c THAT I'm NOT stopping...EVER...

however...

I want to be more purposeful in my parenting, meaningful in how I spend my moments with them, and then stick those memories into my heart and pray for them with all that I've got in me...

So today, after I failed miserably with ALL of the above...due to messy rooms and whining and relentless nagging and arguing and crying...I finally said ENOUGH...yes, they need to learn to keep their rooms clean, but before the sun sets on today, we will NUMBER today and MAKE IT COUNT..

And so, we headed out for a scooter run before bed...

and I savored my girls and my husband laughed at me while I ran after them all with my camera...here are a few of my "memories" from my numbered days!

My baby...(yes did a little photoshop action on these shots...) She's growin' so big!

Here's that almost 9 year old...the sun was just setting and reminding me how little time I have and how I just love her soooo much!

ohhh, and my middle peanut...she's so easy to love...and I pray I don't just skip over her b/c of it...

here's Munchkin sayin, " Okay, now SOP...everyone SOP...now I GO!!"

heading down the pike...

car comin'

And we headed home...read books...kissed them all goodnight...and praying for another day to spend with each of them!!!

I was awakened at 5:30AM to the sound of someone shaving and the shower running on the anniversary of the date of my birth. (which happened to be yesterday in case you were wondering---which, knowing that small detail obviuosly makes this post more relevant)

Which is also why I didn't post yesterday--taking a birthday hiatus...

"Ummm, you take LOTS of hiatuses"  (is that a word? may have to google the plural form of hiatus--perhaps hiati?  dang, that looks a little like Haiti...good grief, I'm completely off track...do you see the trouble blogging causes me?  THUS, the hiatuseseses...and yes I'm aware that I take many!)

Where was I?

Blah blah water running blah 5:30AM blah blah

Yes, so I call to Italian Stallion in my most gracious & pleasant morning voice...it's like the sound of angels I tell ya...

So I called, "What the heck are you doing up at 5:30 IN THE MORNING?"

To which he sweetly comes over and kisses my head and replies, "Well, Happy Birthday sweetheart, I have a breakfast meeting, just go back to sleep."
(this in turn makes it hard to be upset that he has awakened me from my dream of Hector from Electric Company and some Ape people who wanted to go to Kids Camp, but I wouldn't let them because they were more like vampire type of Ape people and I was scared that they'd eat the children) WHAT IN THE WORLD am I eating before bed that gives me these strange dreams...alas, I'm off topic again...

Needless to say, I couldn't get back to my dream, but I did fall back asleep and completely missed my wake up time of 6:30 where I get up and run and loose inches around my waist while watching infomercials about Hip Hop Abs and Bare Minerals...

*chirp, chirp*

Yeah, you're not fallin' for that are you? 

I basically dragged myself out of bed and crawled to the shower to possibly get my eyes to function properly around 7am when I hear my husband's voice calling me from the bedroom...

What?  Wasn't he gone by now???

THAT'S WHAT I WAS THINKING!!!  So I quickly jumped out of the shower and thought, oh goodness he's completely forgotten something and he's going to be late and good things I skipped running this morning b/c I'm going to need to darn a sock or something...

but NO...

There in the doorway stood my husband, with a take out bag from Panera and a venti Starbucks...for ME!

"Happy Birthday!"

I asked, "I thought you had a business meeting?"

he nodded

I replied, "I AM your business meeting???"

he nodded again!

I was giggly for the rest of the day!!!

And for the record, I did get clothed before heading to kitchen table where we sat and enjoyed our breakfast together before the little girlies came tumbling down the stairs wanting to know where THEIR bagels were...to which Daddy came through with flying colors as he pulled out 3 more cinnamon crunches for them to munch on with us!!!

The day only got better...and it's okay that I"m now in my "late thirties"...

at least that's what I keep telling myself!

The Weekend

Well..Labor Day weekend proved to be lacking in the "getting things accomplished" area...

I originally had high hopes...

I thought it'd be fun to go hiking, go on a bike ride, fish with the girls, clean the entire main floor (including the play room) organize the fridge, finish the laundry, wash all the sheets, organize a few of my photos, get in some more labor day sales shopping and possibly go out for pizza...

In reality...we rode scooters in our driveway, cleaned out the garden enough to put together a veggie tray for the fantasty football neighborhood get together, watched exactly 2.5 movies during the afternoons and ate ice cream for dinner!

Ahhhhhhhhhh, that's a weekend for ya...

and so now I'm faced with a lot more "stuff" to accomplish during the week and I've also decided that waiting 7 months to get a hair cut is helping noone!

I've developed a NEW to-do list and it started off by helping in the Literacy Room at the girls' school today.  I'm thankful to say that it did NOT dig deep into my innermost yearnings to get back into the teaching realm...NOPE...had fun sortin' through all those fun resources and books and I walked out of there thankful that I don't have to deal with parent/teacher conferences and trying to come up with 24 individual ways to motivate children that are not my own! 

Once THAT was complete, I headed home to begin the cleaning...bleaching my sink seemed like a good place to start...which ended up being a waste of time, once the quart of pasta sauce fell out of the fridge and splattered all over the floor...because I had to scrape what a could and throw it into "said" sink while trying to mop up the rest...so now we're down to 55 quarts of pasta sauce for the year...Oh the horror! On the plus side...I was able to get my floor cleaned in the middle of it all...kudos!

I made an appointment to get my hair cut...about 4 months too late, but I'm having trouble finding a "style" so we'll see what happens...I may or may not promise to post pictures later...

Tomorrow is a big day for me...gettin' myself to the OTHER side of 35...

I think I may be having some sub-conscious difficulties with this concept in that I had a dream that Hector from Electric Company thought I was 21 and asked me out on a date last night...

and after the laughter from my children, that's about all I"m going to say about that!
See you later!

Sorry it's been awhile...

I've been up to IMPORTANT things lately...

Yep...lots of important stuff goin' on around here...

First I had to...

And then I had to take Little Munch to...

and then I opened a can of spaghettios and...

um...

Okay...I really haven't been all that busy...I SHOULD have been busy...by the looks of my laundry (of which there is a plethera b/c my super incredible washing machine washes sooo much at one time and apparantly, although it IS MAGNIFICENT, it has NOT been programed to actually FOLD and PUT AWAY the laundry) also by the growing mounds in my basement, I'm figuring it will take me about 5 months to actually clear it out...5 months of time that I really don't want to give...and therefore, I've just been laying around my house this week...

I read 3 books...cried in one of them, and the other two just laughed because they were so incredibly predictable and then realized how awesome the author apparantly feels about herself and I just gave up...

I ate an ENTIRE bag of gumballs in one sitting...no lie...I like to chew about 4 pieces at a time and then stick the wad onto a paper towel that is positioned perfectly to my right so that I can set down the wad and pick up 4 new pieces without having to turn my eyes from the pages of the book.

I watched the Count of Monte Cristo and Sherlock Holmes.  I actually read the Count of Monte Cristo in French...as in, it was written in french and I read it that way...the movie made things sooooo much more clear now!  S.H. was okay...I like that sort of suspense b/c it's intermixed with some humor and friendly banter...plus it had Rachel Adams in it and I like her.

I went shopping for my birthday and bought a pair of jeans and a pair of capris and my friend talked me into two scarves...(that really isn't the exact scarf, but it's close...I got the aqua colorish one and a crazy black/brown/red/orange one)  And then...my friend turned me onto these shoes and told me I should get them...and she knows fashion stuff...like she actually dresses herself and she looks nice pretty much all the time and I figured it was my birthday and she MUST know...so I got them...

I went out with my friend and ate cheesecake...I went to breakfast with my youngest and had a delicious Panera breakfast sandwich while she ate her cinnamon crunch bagel...

All in all...I basically lounged around and did nothing but spend money...

BAD BAD BAD Momma!!!  Although I DID get all of the above "stuff" for less than $65 total with all the stored up coupons, gift cards and codes I have been hoarding...but still...I'm usually not that spontaneous with regards to moneys...you can blame it on my late nights of reading and movie watching I suppose...

so, there you have it...my IMPORTANT week is now over and I"m enjoying 3 whole days of togetherness with my hubby and girls!  As things start rolling, I"m sure I'll be back to the regularly scheduled blogging...but until then...just know that I'm having fun munching on chocolate covered almonds, eating gumballs and watching my hips expand before my eyes...

And so, those jeans that I just purchased...well, let's just say that not moving off the couch is not helping my jean size...so perhaps a size exchange will be in the near future...dang!