Spring Break - Day 7

Well, today was my last day of Spring Break. I know I got a lot done but it still feels like I have a lot to do. Guess that's part of the joy of homeownership. Lucky me!!

After spending so much time this week looking at other people's houses, we decided to spend time in our own.

Today we:
-Did tons of yardwork.
* Weeded
* Pruned the roses
* Cut off the bottom part of the spruce tree
* Moved wood from the garage to the shed
* Cleaned out 5 flower beds
* Planted new flowers
* Added edging to 2 flowerbeds
- Went back to Ivey Gardens to buy what I didn't buy earlier this week.
- Went back to Lowe's to get some new pegboard pieces.
- Went to Wal-Mart
- Took a NAP!

I'm exhausted! We did lots of stuff this week and I loved every minute of it! Now it's time to head back to work - life as usual. I'm ready.

Spring Break - Day 6

Another full day! Today we:
- Went to a really cool clinic at Smith South Plains - the Ford dealership in Levelland. They had a special clinic to teach people how to use their Synch system. The people were all great and Dr. Dave and I learned a lot!
- Visited 2 builders' model homes.
- Visited 10 Open Houses
- I spent a litte time on files
- I stressed about possibly moving.....

Sound familiar??

One more day left in my Spring Break. Wonder how I'll fill it?!??

Spring Break - Day 5

Another day spent with my hubby!! Love that!! Today we:


- Enjoyed a DELISH breakfast at The Breakfast House. This is one of our favorite places and today the food was exceptional!
- Talked more about a new house and drove all over town looking at some.
- FINALLY opened joint accounts!! We've been talking about it since we got married so we finally took the time today to do it. Yeah for us. We can now cross that off the list!
- Went back to Lowe's to get an ornamental grass for my new flowerbed and some more edging. Oh yeah -- some stuff to kill the grub worms I found while digging that bed. YUCK!
- Dr. Dave had a meeting so I spent the time browsing through a garden catalog and talking to my parents on the phone.
- Went to the laundromat to wash cleaning rags and Riley's towels and bed cover. I'm not putting those nasty things in my washer/dryer!

To think we did all of that with a cold dust storm blowing us around like crazy!

Yup - I still have tons of stuff to do around the house, but they'll wait. This was more fun!

Spring Break - Day 4

Another full day. When do I have time to work? Ha! Dr. Dave was off again today, so we were able to spend the day together. Yippee!!

Today we:
-Met the Betenbough New Home Specialist to tour a couple of homes (one is ready and one is still being built)
-Went to Lowe's to find one of those things you put on your garage floor to let you know when to stop before you hit the wall!!! Also checked out the garden center.
-Spent lots of time trying to figure out if we can put in the fence by ourselves for less than the builder will charge. (We can, but not for a lot less. Is it worth the hassle? What am I saying - we haven't even decided to move!!)

-Took my Tribute to the shop to have a few things checked out.

-Went to Ivey Garden's to check out their pretties.
-Stopped by Sutherlands - they didn't have any pretties at all!
- Took a NAP!! : )
- Dr. Dave went to class and I dug a new flowerbed and planted cannas. After I add a couple of things I'll take pix to post.
- Dr. Dave brought me a YUMMY Blizzard!!! Good man!!!!

Whew - wonder what we'll do tomorrow!

Spring Break - Day 3

Spent the day House Hunting and Golfing.

House Hunting - are you kidding?!?!?

Dr. Dave and I have started having "the talk." No - not THAT "the talk". The other one. The one that starts like - "We sure are running out of space. Maybe we should start looking at larger houses." I don't know what we're thinking!! This house is beautiful and we only moved in 3-years ago. In fact, we built it. I love it, but do admit that more room sure would be nice. We've started looking at some existing homes that are currently on the market.....haven't been impressed. Also started looking with our builder - Betenbough Homes. Definitely have seen some houses we like. Now, just have to look at our budget. We're not planning to move any time soon, but you never know......

Golf

Well, I have a true "love/hate" relationship with golf. I want to love it - really I do. My loving DH loves it and I want to love it like he does. The problem is that I'm REALLY bad!! Actually, it's more like painstakingly, pitifully, horribly bad! I've only played about 30 times and some days I don't think I've gotten any better.

The course was super crowded today and that made it even harder for me. I'm easily intimidated when there are so many other people around. (Remember how bad I am?!?!) We were paired up with a father/son so I didn't end up hitting many balls.

Oh yeah - I'm also easily distracted!

Guess this little fella is hoping no one hits him with a slice!

This one is hoping I don't get his back foot - I need all the luck I can get!!

Still, it was a beautiful day and I got to spend it with my hubby. Life is good!

Spring Break - Day 2

Well, second day of Spring Break was MUCH better than the first! Not a single work call or text!! No chip in my windshield. No grumpy mood! My throat still hurts, but I'll live.

The weather was cold and damp this morning, so I opted to stay inside and work. I tackled Miles and Miles of Piles!! Yup - I'm an information collector. If it's something related to early childhood, I keep it. Well, today I was ruthless and tossed tons of stuff. Know what - it felt great! I can't wait until tomorrow so I can trash some more useless stuff!

Today I:
- Cleaned out Miles and Miles of Piles
- Dug weeds out of the front flowerbed.

I know this doesn't look like much, but trust me - those 2 items represent hours of my life. Hours I'll never get back.......

Spring Break - Day 1

Since I worked all during Spring Break, I am taking this week off. Can I really consider it a day off when I got texts and calls all day long?!?!? I also had to go back to the Preschool 3 times!! Augh!! It's OK - I have 4 more days to relax.

Today I:
- Went to the bank
- Paid the cable bill
- Spent my $20 Kohl's cash (Thanks, honey!!)
- Finally put away all of my Easter and spring decorations.

Yes, I know Easter was a long time ago and we are still in spring. I was just ready to get everything put away.

Hopefully I'll get more things accomplished tomorrow. My list is pretty long.

Teacher Appreciation Day

On Friday, we celebrated Teacher Appreciation Day. I first started planning this weeks ago - I wanted it to be a surprise for the teachers and I was SUPER excited because It Worked!!!

The teachers were overwhelmed with the gifts, notes, and cards from both the parents and the children. It was so special to see their faces and hear their stories. I know they work extremely hard and I wanted the teachers to know that the parents know it, too.

Dr. Dave and I prepared a homemade lunch for everyone. Dr. Dave spent the day at the Preschool - cooking up a storm. He wore his chef hat and Mickey Mouse apron. Needless to say, he was a HUGE hit with the children and the teachers. It was great fun!

Leslie, Children's Ministry Director, put together a milk and cookie bar. It was so adorable! The teachers talked about it all day long! (Well, in between bites, that is!!)

It was a great day and we're already thinking about what to do next year!

Lubbock Arts Festival 2010

Today was a gray, rainy day, so Dr. Dave and I decided to go to the Lubbock Arts Festival. We were glad we did. Check out these amazing sculptures made entirely of legos!!

This one looks a little funny. Actually, the tiny blue person is walking into the big person's belly.

Notice the front half is an actual bike - the back half is made of legos!

When you stand up close, this looks like a random design. When you look through the camera or you stand back a little bit, this amazing face becomes clear!

This is called "My son".

This is another one that became clear when you stood back a little.

It's hard to see in this photo, but this person is literally building himself! His left arm is working on his right arm. How crazy!

How in the world did he create all of those? Wow is all we could say!

Irises and lemons

Whew - I'm so far behind with this blog. These last couple of weeks have been SUPER CRAZY BUSY and I haven't been able to play very much. Yuck! Still, I have certain priorities and tablescaping has become one! I couldn't NOT participate in Susan's party - she's always such a gracious hostess!! (http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/)

Last week, I teased everyone with my dark purple irises. They have been so beautiful this year. As soon as they started coming up, I knew I had to design a table just for them. The pictures don't really do it justice. The table is really beautiful.

The table is a mix of purple, silver, and yellow. I layered a dark purple lace cloth over my white tablecloth. Yellow cloth napkins match back to the fresh lemons.

Bottom layer is a sparkly purple charger. China is our wedding china - Mikasa Parchment. We LOVE it!! The silver swirls are light and add just the right touch of elegance to any color scheme. The silverware was from my maternal grandmother. I think it's called Remembrance. It has a sweet little flower at the tip of each piece.

I love the contrast of the deep purple flowers with the yellow lemons.

Where's the Calgon when you need it??

What a morning! Between 9:30-11:00, ALL of this happened.....

* A sub called in sick
* A teacher had her contact roll to the back of her eye
* A teacher had a sick baby
* A lady came to talk to a teacher and look at our clay. (Sounds funny, but she's going to do a special Mother's Day craft with our kids and she wanted to see the condition of our clay.)
* Our Child Care Licensing Representative made an unannounced follow-up visit. We were using a Sunday School room that we are not authorized to use. Yikes!! Luckily, she didn't write a citation - just a big warning!
* 2 different people came in to apply for jobs.
* The Speech Path came to conduct a hearing screening on 7 children.
* 2 reps from the temp agency we work with stopped by on a courtesy visit.
* A tour of 9 high school girls came through
* A photographer visited all the classrooms. (We are making posters for the church Mother's Day Love Offering.)
* Don't forget all the phone calls!

Whew - I'm exhausted just from writing all of that!

Easter table

These pictures aren't the best, but hey - at least I managed to post them fairly close to Easter!!

I chose a light purple tablecloth and then layered a "spring" colored smaller cloth on top. I found the smaller cloth while thrifting last year. I think it was about $2. It's closer to dish cloth size, but I liked it centered on the table. Purple sparkly chargers are first, then the dinner plates. The end places have light green plates and the four side places have glass purple plates. The green plates came from Ross about 2 summers ago. I've had the purple plates for a long time, so I don't know where they came from.

The napkins match the tablecloth. The napkin rings are super cute little bunnies. They are all different. Four of them were purchased (on sale of course) at HL. The others were a lucky thrifting find last year.

Love the carrot dishes?? Me, too! Found those at Pier One sometime in January. They were on clearance and I have no idea why!! Someone obviously wanted ME to have them!

The centerpiece is a fav birdcage. I use it in quite a bit of my "home decor". Sweet little bunnies, some Easter eggs and grass, a ribbon and purple candles are enough to set the mood.

SUPER cute s&p!! Also a great thrifty find last year. (Sorry for the photo. I didn't get a good shot while the table was actually set. I had to grab this one later.)

I had to keep this table fairly simple because we were actually going to serve the food on it. (Not a buffet as we sometimes do.)

That's it for the Easter table. Now, it's on to my next one. Here's a hint........

Here are my irises today!

The irises are starting!

I am so happy - the irises are starting to bloom! I've been watching the stalks get taller and taller - then all the buds starting to appear. Just yesterday, there were still only buds. When I got home from work tonight, there were 2 blooms and several others on their way. YEAH!

The dark purple come up first. The lighter purple will bloom in a couple of weeks. I know they don't last all season, but they sure put on a show while they're here.

I can see a tablescape in the very near future!