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..

Things happening in my life right now...

1. On February 28, 2010 we listed our house for sale. And, having done this a couple of years ago, and never getting a single offer, and with the housing market in the shape it is in, I was not very optimistic about a quick sale and proceeded with my spring cleaning.

2. Several people looked at the house since it was a new listing. I was cleaning every single day to keep things nice and neat for potential buyers.

3. On March 8, 2010, we had a potential buyer look at the house that seemed to "look" a little longer than the others.

4. On March 13, 2010 I took all the screens off the windows, cleaned the windows inside and out, scrubbed the window ledges, and cleaned the blinds. I also cleaned out the laundry room, threw away some useless stuff, made a pile for Goodwill, made a pile for mama, etc.

5. On March 14, 2010, we got a contract on our house. I think it is because I cleaned the windows. :)

6. On March 16, 2010 my husband went to look at houses without me because I DO NOT LIKE LOOKING AT HOUSES!!! And, he found one he thought I would like.

7. On March 17, 2010, I went to look at the house he thought I would like, as well as three others. I picked the one he thought I would like.

8. Long story short, we made an offer, negotiated a few things for a few days, and we now have a contract. Home inspections are complete and we close on both houses in 4 weeks. Moving day is April 28, 2010.

9. I started packing this weekend. Upstairs is completely packed. Brandy helped me pack Saturday morning and we have packed the dining room and part of the den. Yesterday I packed a lot of kitchen stuff. No dishes, but cookbooks and stuff. I had 4 large boxes of cookbooks.

10. Today, I am tired, and it is only just beginning....

Another busy weekend...

I think I can find something to do at home, at any time of the day or night. I am forever moving from one room to another looking for projects. Or, if I do sit down to watch TV, I think of at least 5 other things I could be doing, and sometimes just get up and start doing them.

I did take off work this past Friday for a "ME" day.. Unfortunately, it is never completely a ME day because if my husband knows I am off, he plans stuff like getting his car serviced, or detailed, and then needs a ride home, or somewhere else, and it doesn't matter where I am or what I am doing. He still wants a ride because he would rather be home watching TV than at Gateway Tire watching their TV with the same exact shows. Does it really matter where you watch TV? And, just to be clear, when I say a ME day, which happens about once every 4 months, I am still running errands that benefit my husband, and other family members, but I am doing it at my own pace, and not in the usual running-around-like-a-chicken-with-my-head-cut-off pace on my lunch hour. Just to be clear! And, there are times I tell NO ONE I am taking off.. I will actually get dressed, go to work, and when the coast is clear, take off and do my own thing.

Daughter and I were still in the midst of pedicures and I was getting my nails done when my husband called, twice, to check on my whereabouts. He actually had another ride lined up, but didn't want to watch TV for 30 minutes somewhere other than home until that person could come get him. So, off I go, and there is an hour of ME time that I will never see again. So, I have a Michelob Ultra, earlier than planned, and adjust my attitude. Anyway, I get to do a couple of things I want to do, find a couple of things I really wasn't looking for, which was a pleasant surprise, and then we head to get the grandest kids of all from daycare. Benton simply wanted to go home. Bailey wanted to go to my house. Benton loves being at home and Bailey loves being anywhere but home. So, we went to their house, and hung out for a while before I headed home for the evening.

Saturday morning I was awake at 3:00 A.M. and after much tossing and turning, got up at 4:30, read the paper and decided to make my Walmart run while everyone else in the Metro area was sleeping. I saw three other customers. I love going to Walmart early in the morning. I can go with a ball cap and no makeup. When I got home, I started cleaning the house since someone was coming to see it at 11:30. I ran some more errands in the afternoon and then took a nap. That was about the extent of my Saturday, other than continued miscellaneous cleaning and organizing.

Sunday morning I was up bright and early to enjoy the Daylight Savings Time and decided to clean the windows, and they are now so clean, it almost looks like there are no windows.. I also did a lot of laundry, and washed other things that needed to be washed. For there to be only two of us, I sure do a LOT of laundry.

We briefly rode around and looked for houses, but I do believe this is one of my LEAST favorite things to do. My husband loves going in and out of houses, but I do NOT like it at all. My philosophy is we now know the area we live in very well. When our house sells, we can easily pull up available houses we like, in the areas we like, on the internet and have a realtor take us around for tours. Until then, I just don't want to ride around and gawk at available houses. NOT FUN!!!! I would MUCH rather be sitting on the deck at Philip's eating crab nachos and drinking a Michelob Ultra.

And That, was my weekend. If you are interested..

Busy weekend....

My weekend started with a birthday celebration for my niece who turned 25 this past Saturday. We celebrated Friday since I knew she would want to be with her friends on her actual birthday.

Benton had his first sleepover Friday night. I think it went pretty well. His mom said she would definitely do it again.

Saturday morning I cleaned like a wild woman. Having the housed listed for sale is a royal pain in my rear. I don't mind cleaning, but it seems like that is ALL I do these days. But, when I was done, we headed to A.J.'s on the Lake for the first crawfish of the season and although they were a little small, they were GOOD!!! We sat outside by the lake and thoroughly enjoyed them. Bailey even joined in the fun and peeled and ate a few. She did point out they had eyes and wondered if they were watching her.

Saturday night, we just hung out at my house..

Sunday hubby had some stuff to do at his office, so I had the morning to myself to get a few things done, and then I watched the grandest kids of all while Daughter ran to the gym. After that hubby called and wanted my help doing some things at his office. I then treated myself to a hydration therapy treatment, which was quite nice, even though it got a little warmer than I expected. My skin felt better when it was done.

For dinner, I grilled chicken, baked potatoes and made a salad. It was some good stuff.

I was not ready for Monday. But I am ready for Friday.