Shopping Weekend

David and I just spent an awesome weekend in Brandon/Sioux Falls with the Melius family.
It was the 4th year for our annual Melius Sisters-in-Law Shopping Weekend. As always, it included great food, great wine, great laughs, and great bargains! It took me a little bit to get in the groove this year, but I found it after a couple stores. :o)
I have been known to buy the biggest (in size) items on the trip. The first year it was our entry bench. Last year it was a baker's rack. This year, I kept it pretty small and limited it to the wall hanging I found for our living room. We had a long, narrow space between our TV and window. It wouldn't have bothered me, but there was an outlet there as we had originally planned on a mantle shelf. Now it is covered and I'm very happy about this find.

I checked our messages when we got home and had one from a store telling me my name was drawn for a free pair of jeans! I was ready to call it one of those just-left-the-building-and-your-name-was-chosen-for-the-raffle tough luck experiences, but David encouraged me to call the store. As it turned out, I just had to call them within 48 hours. I have until the end of February to pick them up. Thankfully my sister-in-law Katie agreed to help me out and pick them up sometime when she's in Sioux Falls. Wohoo-bonus bargain!
The snow, wind, and cold temperatures have provided our first snow day of the year today. Landen is helping Dad & Grandpa while the rest of us take it easy at home.
This morning David said we had "slept in" for three days in a row. I may now consider 7:30am an appropriate wake-up time, but I still don't count it as "sleeping in"! Nevertheless, it was nice to have a little extra time to ease back into "real life" today!

Quiet Time

The kids are sound asleep and I sat down to play around with the blog layout a bit more. If you usually pause the playlist, you can now find it at the bottom of the page!
Sweet dreams!

Germophobe

This parenting gig has made me SUCH a germophobe.
A flu bug is making its way through our high school. You know where it will go next. Yep. First grade. Or Preschool. We may avoid it--we may not. I pray we do.
I hate, hate, hate the stomach flu! The worst part is that it will (almost) inevitably hit every member of our family before it makes its way to the next family. It is quite obvious how this happens with young children. One throws up and the rest have to rush over to see what just happened. All the while I am cleaning up as fast as I can and spraying bleach over every surface the infected child recently came into contact with. It's no mystery how mom picks up the bug. The only problem is that by the time mom catches it, everyone else feels better and is up running around getting into trouble!
Just the thought has put me in a sanitizing tailspin.
I have wiped down all the doorknobs and lightswitches, cleaned my kitchen sink with bleach water, soaked all the bathtub toys in bleach water, and scrubbed my kitchen floor.
Will this do ANY good? I don't know.
At least my house is the cleanest it has been in a long time!

Work Evaluation

I am happy with the work evaluation I received yesterday.

It's often hard to tell how I'm doing around here. Mostly my efforts are met with resistance or one of Nathan's insults, such as, "You're kind of a boring person."
Then I find out that Landen would like to walk in my footsteps. It gives me encouragement that I am doing a FEW things right.

P.S. Be sure to scroll down and sneak a peek at Lauren Grace!

Little Changes

You may have noticed a few changes around here.
First, I have added several new songs to the playlist. I find musical inspiration from all sorts of sources . . . Christian music catalogs, KLOVE, Pandora, TV, and old favorites of family. It's a lot of fun discovering new music--even if it's been around a few . . . or many . . . years! Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" is a perfect example of that. It is the theme from the show "Parenthood." I watch the show sporadically, but I just had to find out the source of that great song!
Bowling for Soup's "Shut Up and Smile" was another great find. "All we need is some ice cream and a hug" has been my unofficial motto for most of my life. Just days after I heard it for the first time, David and I heard something about only needing ice cream in life--in a completely unrelated conversation. He immediately said that sounded like me. A "little love and beer" never hurts either . . . .
I also added a little Garth Brooks to the list. I can't believe I hadn't added any of his music before. Garth got me through Junior High, High School, and half of college. It was my life's greatest dream to see him in concert. Thanks to my dear friend Amy (and her great connections), I was able to see him in concert TWICE. Recently David and I looked up how much his Las Vegas show tickets were going for. After a few minutes' (or seconds) deliberation, I decided I best just be happy with the two Garth concerts I was blessed with in my life! Now Landen has discovered Garth on his tape player, too. He thinks it is neat that music from "way back then" is still being played. Gulp.
There's some font stuff going on here, too. I just discovered that blogger now gives more font options in its template designer! Since I switched backgrounds, I lost the neat font I had worked so hard to get before. This was SO much easier to give the blog a little more personalized look.
That's it! I hope you are all having a great day.
As always, I welcome your comments! I always appreciate the "in person" comments I receive, too. I'm glad my little creative outlet--and our crazy family--make you smile, laugh, and cry. (I hope there isn't too much crying, though!)