"Trail Mix" part 2

{I guess I have a lot of updating to do since I have been without frequent updating for so long . . . ha!}

• This weekend we put up a gallery on our wall coming up the stairs. It looks cool. I'm really happy with it. I uploaded pics to flickr. Tell me what you think! (Erin, did we do okay?)

• We also cleaned out the garage this weekend. First time doing so. And when I say clean, I mean we literally took everything out and scrubbed the floor. Looks like sparkly perfection. (Not really, but tons tons better than it did a week ago.)

• Two days ago I got really frustrated with how scraggly Maia's hair looked and since she has only had 1 haircut ever, guess what I did?! I cut her hair myself and I have to say, it looks pretty good for my first time. It's still piggy-tail doable, don't worry!(More also on flickr.)
  

• Earlier in the summer I went to my "adopted" grandmother's estate sale. As you know, I won (yay!) one of her beautiful old upholstered chairs. I also won an antique "brownie" camera. Then I bid on some other boxes . . . where i wasn't sure exactly what was in them, but I knew I wanted them. And so I took a few pictures of my finds. I'm so excited about it all because they were things of hers, but also because I think some of things are pretty rare. For instance, there was a Newsweek from when Reagan was shot, a copy of "The Grapes of Wrath" from the early 1900's, and then some storybooks which were of some ladies from my hometown who could have been grandmothers to Marie (my adopted grandma), so they date from the middle 1800's. I also have Marie's Home Economics textbook which has recipes in it and little notes in her handwriting. She doodled all through it and would write notes like "very good", etc. beside favorite recipes. There are also pictures of women cooking in this book over old stoves probably in the 30's? I'm so excited I have these things. I have a few showcased in my dining room hutch. Check out the pictures which I uploaded to flickr. There aren't a lot of pics, but a few.

• While Erin was here we went shopping. I mean, how could we not?! We adore all the same things, dress alike, decorate alike . . . and she came across some fabulous ceramic vases which she just knew would look great in my (still being transformed into) VWC "presentation room". So I bought them. 3 of them. Plus a little suitcase thingie and she bought me a bowl. Looks awesome! I have some pictures of Erin "Vanna White-ing" off our finds on flickr which you must go see (if you haven't gone there yet).

• An old friend and I just got reconnected through facebook.com (I love that place and it's sooo addicting!). Right about when her daughter was born, she started up an online scrap booking store. It's really awesome and I'm very proud of her. I know how hard it is to keep a small business going, so I wanted to give her a little plug. Please check it out. She has some really cool things (even though I don't scrapbook) and I looked on her sale page and from what I know about scrapping, her sales are a must to check out!

• I forgot to mention last week that the first day Erin was here, she gave me a fun "thanks for having me gift". Which I think was more of a "R&R" gift for after the day full of parties. Inside the cute paisley turquoise bag were some coasters that she made herself (she's very creative, ya know? -- I love them!), a candle, body cream, leg gel (for my tired legs), lots of yummy Canadian chocolate that we don't have here (which is better than most chocolate we have here!), and my very favorite . . . TWO bags of ketchup chips. Oh my gosh, I love those things!!! (Unfortunately, so do my kids. Thankfully, Neil does not, which means I get his portions.)

• We did trick-or-treating tonight and the kids had a blast! Maia was way way more into than Noah EVER was at this age. And Noah had a really great time. He went on his own up to houses and said "trick or treat" which is really big for him; he's really really shy. Anyway, O'ma came over to see the kids and walk around with us. Then we went to dinner. It was nice. We had a really good time. I'll post pics another day. Happy Halloween!!!

Breakin' news

Not really. Just thought that was a cute little title for today. You'll see.

I had another morning the same as Friday with Noah. He didn't want to go, he pleaded with me to go home. His excuses were "I'm sooooo tired, mommy", or "it's so cold", and I responded, "it will be warm inside your school" and of course when we set foot in the door he said "it's coooooold in here, too" in a whiney tone. (ugh.)

I said a little prayer as I walked out the door this morning. And guess what? I was only in the school 2 minutes sitting on the floor trying to get Noah to play with one of his really good buddies, Brevin, and in walks my saint (hehe), Leann, who is normally not on schedule but running a tad bit late (love ya, Leann!), but not today!

I said, "today is going to be another day like Friday", and she said, "no it's not, I'm here." So, somehow I snuck out while Leann stayed on the floor with Noah trying to get him to play with Brevin and her daughter, Kristin. I got in the car and what a relief I felt come over me. The fact that I was able to leave without hearing screams as I stood outside the school door was amazingly peaceful. Now, I know Leann may not be there every day, but I really think she was my angel in disguise today.

I had a really great weekend and I hope you did also.

Originally we were going to go to Chuck-E-Cheese on Saturday with my friends, Heather, Lee and Cole, but, well, that didn't work out with the behavior I encountered on Friday (I'm a mother who is following through with discipline -- yay me). So, instead we all went to an estate auction of my adopted grandma's, Marie.

Marie passed away in May. I had known her all my life. I posted about her death a while back. Her estate auction was finally on Saturday.

I wanted really badly to get some things of hers. (Well, some I already did get . . . one very important thing which she had "left" for just for me. I'll post about that later -- it's so incredibly special!). And two of those things were an old (old) chair that I had always grown up sitting in, and an old Brownie camera. But while there, I got way way way into being the cool passive bidder (ha ha, yeah right. I was the one waving my number way up high in the air for all to see. How inconspicious I was ---- not!) and bid on a lot of things.

I'd see things that I remembered . . . and you know how I am with memories. So I bid on them. Or I'd see things I didn't know she had and felt the urge to have myself -- usually old vintage things -- and then I'd bid on those, too. So I walked away with a lot. And I was happy. Very happy. Still am.

People rarely bid against me and I think it's because I was a young female (I'm still young, right?) bidding against tons and tons of old farmer men and perhaps I made them feel insecure or maybe they were just shocked? I doubt it, really. I'm sure they were just being incredibly nice. That's just how farmers are. So I had a really really great time.

And then I walked through Marie's house one last time. Talk about memories. I stood in the living room and could vividly picture all her furniture in it, my brother and I sitting on the floor playing, and Marie sitting in "her" la-z-boy chair watching us and watching us when suddenly she would blurt out something that was on her mind and usually it was something sarcastic that I just didn't "get". But as I grew older, I did learn what a funny, very blunt, yet very loving and caring woman she was. It was great going down memory lane. I miss her.

Oh! So what I won! The two biggest things ----- my camera (for $3!, no kidding!), which I'm guessing is probably from the 1930's or 40's. And then MY CHAIR! So I'll post pics one day when I actually take them. I got some other really cool finds which my vintage-loving friends will really adore.

So my breakin' news is this. I need to take another break. I must. I spend way too many mornings and afternoons on my computer on the internet and not in photoshop like I should be doing. I would be ahead, instead of behind, if I'd just attribute those hours to my work. So that's what I'm doing again. I have to get caught up because in just a few weeks I'm having my Halloween party, which as of now, I'm totally not prepared for AT ALL. When are we ever prepared, really? But this is a big party . . . and it keeps getting bigger . . . so I need, no MUST, work a little bit harder or I will never ever be caught up.

I leave you with a picture of the honeysuckle that has (over) grown on our deck. Isn't it pretty? Once the blooms are gone, I'm cutting it all down. It's way too overtaken. But it's quite beautiful.
Have a great week, my friends!