Arts on the Avenue..

That is the name of the function at Benton's school we attended last night. As soon as I picked them up from daycare yesterday, he informed me he wanted to attend Arts on the Avenue last night, and we did. And, they could not have been any sweeter. We arrived early, got our hands stamped so we could participate in arts and crafts functions and the fun began. When we walked into the school, we had to pass through the silent auction area. Benton wanted to know what all the stuff was sitting out for. I explained in great detail how a silent auction worked, and he was hooked. He had me put my name on several things he was interested in. I reminded him we would have to check back from time to time to make sure we were still high bidder and he was good with that. We looked at the art projects he had created, as well as art projects created by his entire class. I am telling you it was very impressive what they came up with.

We wandered into the area where individual artists were set up giving demonstrations of their skills. Benton was fascinated by it all, especially the pottery guy and the lady painting still life. In fact when we got home, he picked up a tablet and pen and starting drawing a picture of a vase of tulips Brandy had sitting on her breakfast room table. I have offered several times to pay for art lessons, but so far, he wants to do it on his own.

Bailey was fascinated by the ballet dancers. And to be totally honest, Benton loves him some ballet. He was introduced to ballet when he was 2 by his great grandmother and he was hooked. One of the items we bid on at the silent auction was a DVD of Ballet Magnificat - The Story of Ruth. He has seen this previously live, but wanted the DVD. Once the dancers left the stage, Bailey even talked to a couple of them. I was not close enough to hear what was said, but the fact she even talked to a stranger without me or her mother around was pretty impressive.

We ended the night by listening to a group of third graders playing music on a flute like instrument, and let me tell you, it was very well done. The music teacher at Benton's school is awesome and he loves her. Benton and Bailey sat mesmerized through the entire mini-concert. Once this was done, we headed back to check on our auction items and the auction was over. Unfortunately, we only won one thing, but fortunately, it was the item that Benton was the most concerned we might not win.. THE DVD OF THE BALLET!!!! $5.00 later it was his to take home. Bailey then declared she was hot and it was giving her a "hurt head" and she was ready to go.

We got home, took baths and settled down with ballet DVD. Benton fell asleep while watching it, and Bailey watched it in its entirety.

Another fabulous night with two of the people I love the most in this world!!!!

A few more things happening in my life right now...

Some of these are repeats.. I think..

1. Tonight I am keeping the grands while their mom is in school.. We are going to the mall, per Benton's request, to get a pretzel, and then to Cazadores for Mexican.. It is their favorite place to eat, and I love to take them there by myself. Just me and them.. Lots of interesting conversation...

2. I am almost done with the packing. Everything that can be put in a box, is pretty much in a box. Except for the stuff we have to use daily.. like our toothbrushes...

3. We close on our current house Monday at 10:00 A.M.

4. We close on our new house Monday at 2:00 P.M.

5. We do the final walk through of the new house Sunday afternoon.. The buyer of our house does her walk through Monday morning at 9:00.. I hate she has to do this in the midst of a mess, but I will have the bathrooms and kitchen very clean and very empty by that time.

6. I have only been in the house we are buying 2 times, and there are numerous things I cannot remember about it.

7. We have bought some new furniture for the new house, even though there are some things I cannot remember about the new house. Hopefully it will all fit!

8. I am hungry for some crawfish.. Seriously!

9. I am very, VERY tired of living in a mess. I have washed all the bedding, from the mattresses up, on every bed, before packing it. I have washed many loads of dishes that were dusty simply from sitting in the cabinets, and gotten rid of many useless things along the way. I am making sure the inside of all cabinets and drawers are cleaned once all items are removed. I would only hope someone else is doing this in anticipation of someone new moving into their house!!!

10. All the work I have to do in the next few days makes me want a cold adult beverage. RIGHT NOW!

Moving....

Moving sucks... I didn't realize just how much stuff we owned, until I started the packing process. I have been packing for 4 weeks now, and although I thought I was just about done, I realized last night just how far from done I am. I made some headway last night, but there is still so much more to be done, and I am doing it mostly by myself. Hubby is no help. He has packed three boxes. Yep, three boxes. Two of those were his guns, which all reside in gun cases. The third box, he packed last night, consisted of various motorcycle apparel, and other useless stuff that he had forgotten about BECAUSE HE NEVER USES IT, but yet he refuses to part with it. And, when it was time to close the box and tape it shut, he NEEDED MY HELP!! All I could do was laugh. I have packed over 100 boxes of stuff in the past 4 weeks and not once have I needed any assistance to tape the box shut. When I told him this, he disputed the fact that I have packed over 100 boxes already. That was his only defense. I asked him if he would like for me to stop helping him tape his box of stuff shut, and start counting the boxes I have packed. He declined.

Next week will be a killer, but I am getting excited about the move. This house has more room, and the most exciting part of the house is the kitchen. It is a lot more people friendly than my current house and I am really looking forward to having people over. My current house has a huge deck out back that I absolutely love and it will be hard to give it up. But, my new house has a large covered porch out back with ceiling fans and a beautiful back yard that backs up to the Natchez Trace. I will be able to sit out back, even it if is raining.

Two weeks from today, the movers will be unloading my stuff at a new address. Another new beginning. One that I am excited about.

Busy Easter weekend...

My weekend started about 3:45 Thursday afternoon.

The grandkids spent the night with me Thursday night since school/daycare was out/closed Friday. By 7:30 Friday morning, we were all dressed and on our way to Sonic for breakfast. From there we went to Walmart, where Benton spent approximately 25 minutes picking out an Easter basket. And, he didn't want one with cars, or soccer balls or baseballs. He ultimately decided on the $1.00 blue plastic bucket. Then, we had to find stuff to put in the bucket. We came up with 2 plastic snakes, a tablet, some pens and bubbles. Bailey took about 1.2 seconds to pick out an Ariel doll that she could play with in the tub. By the time I got what I needed from Walmart, and the stuff we didn't need, we had been in there for 2 hours!!! We went home to unload our bags, and then headed to Renaissance for some pictures. They took their bubbles and were blowing them while hanging out in a play area. They finally decided it was too windy to be out there and wanted to go eat Mexican, which we did, and then headed back to my house for "rest"... we can't call it a nap in front of Bailey or else she won't lay down. She is afraid she will miss something if she should fall asleep. They both "rested" for a couple of hours, which meant rest for me too. I finally took them home to their mama, and came back to my own house and "rested"...

Saturday hubby and I went to look at furniture, and then to eat craw fish. I needed another "rest," but didn't get it since I was in charge of the Easter feast and needed to get started on that. Since I am in the middle of packing, we did Easter at Brandy's house this year. I took everything there, and cooked or at least got everything oven ready for Sunday. The kids finally rested again, and I helped Brandy work on her deck. We spray painted numerous pots, stands and chairs and then planted numerous plants. By the time we were done, it was worthy of a several page spread in a magazine.. When I was getting ready to leave her house, I discovered you should not spray paint stuff while wearing flip-flops.. Soooo, I went home and used lots of finger nail polish remover to remove the spray paint from my feet, and re-do the pedicure I had just given myself 3 days earlier.

Easter morning, I did some things around my house and then headed to Brandy's to finalize lunch, and if I do say so myself, it was delicious..

Today, it is back to the grind. And, I am tired..