beautiful day

I was so happy to see the nice weather come back. Once I got off work, I came home and the girls immediately went outside to play on their swings. They can sometimes do this for hours on end. I sat out in my adirondack chair for a few minutes basking in the glow of the sun while looking through my mail (nothing good). I was hoping to get a little bit of sun bronzing for our family pics on Sat.

After supper, we headed back outdoors. This time, I had to water my flowers. I noticed a TON of little elm trees growing up in my garden that need pulled as well as my overgrown bushes. The bushes can be trimmed now since they just finished blooming (a project for tomorrow). I got all of the trash out to the curb and then watched the girls play on their swing for awhile longer. We then got ready for our walk. Aliyah decided to ride her bike. She is getting much better about listening to little tips I give her to make this a fun process. We didn't have any spills on the whole walk. Keirah just sat back in her Bugaboo and enjoyed the ride as always.

Following our bit of exercise, we came home where Aliyah & Kiki wanted to play outside some more. Keirah grabbed a ball and Aliyah drew a hopscotch course with the sidewalk chalk. After Aliyah and I played hopscotch a bit, I decided I was ready to go inside to do chill. I checked in on my normal stuff on the computer. I regularly read the audreycaroline blogspot. Angie had posted some more devastating news on there today. I can't believe how much this family has been through just in the past few weeks! It truly makes me realize that the things I allow to bother me are pretty insignificant.

I played with the girls some more and then got Kiki ready for bed. Aliyah cleaned up her toys and helped put away Keirah's things also. Aliyah read a book to me and then I sat and waited for Josh to come home. It is just now 11 pm and he's finally headed home. Yay. We have lots of yard work to do tomorrow. Hopefully we can get it done quickly b/c I don't want to spend our entire day together doing yard stuff. We plan to go to Splashdown on Saturday (opening day). We are all very excited since we have missed it since it closed for the season last August. Josh just told me that we need to have a porch night. I agree. It will be the first one of the year!

plans

Tonight was the first evening with Josh in 5 days! He worked open to close for Friday-Monday--aagghh. Needless to say, he is tired and I'm tired to.

After catching up on the mundane of life such as laundry, vacuuming, dusting, dishes etc... we had a few spare moments to think about other stuff besides work and more work. Since our anniversary is next week, we decided it was time to book our little Amtrak tickets for a day trip to Chicago. Riding the train is cheaper than driving due to high gas prices and the price of parking. I failed to mention that riding the train is much more relaxing than the hassle of driving in downtown Chicago. We booked this trip back in late March, but cancelled at the train station when it was pouring down rain. This time should be 80's and nice (fingers crossed). Hard to believe it has been 8 years--where did the time go?

After that, my mind wandered back to Florida--that place I miss so much! After living there, I just long for those sugary white beaches and aqua water. It truly is one of my favorite things! I decided to check flights on a couple of different airlines to a couple of different cities--Orlando & P'cola. Orlando because--duh there's Disney World there and also my friend who gets married next week will be living there. Pensacola is more expensive to fly to, however those sugary white beaches and aqua water evidently speak louder than Disney World because Josh says it's P'cola that he wants to go to. Now, to decide on where to stay. I guess that is more dependent than anything on what we can afford. By the time vacation time arrives in Sept. We will probably have spent any extra $$ on gas and groceries at the rate they go up!

With prices the way they are, I am always thinking or trying to think of ways to save $$. Every now and then I get excited b/c I do come up with a way. Yeah, I've read all of those things on MSN money and whatever else. I haven't heard anything new in a long time. That's what I want to hear is some new way for me to save $$. Something that I can and would do. No, I won't be growing a vegetable garden so that I can have fresh veggies for dinner--I'm not a veggie eater (sorry mom).

Get this, we have STOPPED SHOPPING AT big W!!! Can you even believe that?? Our family is sick of it. It is furthest away from our house in town and we just go to Target when we are in Peoria. Actually, I realized that I get everything that I would buy from W cheaper either at Target or Kroger--get that!! I feel so W-liberated!!

Okay--I'm done for tonight because time has gotten away so quickly and there's a gazillion more things to talk to Josh about before we crash to the pillows. Sometimes, I wish time would stand still for like a day when he is home. Just enough to get everything done and then have a little fun time!!!

Goodbyes

I haven't posted much since starting my blog. It's not that I haven't had plenty to say, but finding the time to do it has been another. For the past week, we have been super busy. I have spent more time outside than usual.
Let's see, between work for both of us, getting ready for a garage sale, and Josh working on our new master bath....that's just the main ones. Throw in time with the little ones, cleaning, and just the normal everyday and we've had a busy week. I have been tired the entire week because we've been going to bed 2 or 3 hours later than usual.
We had to say goodbye twice this week. We spent more time outside this week because it was our neighbor's last week in their house. My girls love playing with their 10 month old. They love to see her and sit with her in the grass. Sometimes, we take walks with them too. Since Keirah comes home and immediately points to their house and says "baby", it is necessary that we spent any last time we could with Jadyn. They moved on Friday and since then, it has been kinda lonely to see the house empty and dark =). Goodbye to Justin, Julie, & Jadyn...we will miss you. Come back sometime to visit!
My next goodbye was to a friend that I've had for 21 years!! That's funny considering I'm 30. We've been friends since elementary school. We were even roommates in college. We've shared a lot of laughter and tears. The tears mostly came because we were laughing so hard. She is getting married in a few days and moving to Melbourne, FL. We are happy that she is getting married, but sad that she will be so far away in FL. I guess that doubles the desire to go to Florida. She came over on Thursday evening and we talked for several hours and it still doesn't suffice to say goodbye. We did get to see her again on Saturday for a bit and that was nice. Of course, we will be going to the wedding, but you know how weddings go...not enough time to talk for hours to everyone. So, in the aspect of having to say goodbye twice in a week to people moving away, it has saddened us. We'd just like to keep them here close by.
Other than that, work was very busy on Monday. It always is on Mondays. I caught up in the next few days. Each day at home was busy. I was getting ready for my annual garage sale. I don't know where all of this stuff comes from, but we sure manage to get a lot. I guess it comes from my desire to change things. Josh told me that he thinks this is the most stuff we've ever had at a garage sale. We had light fixtures, outlet covers, blinds, faucets, curtains and of course the hundreds of other things. I tried to make this garage sale my last one for awhile. It went well (minus the torrential rain that we had on Friday for several hours). I can't complain. From my observations, it seems that everything that I thought I would throw away afterwards if it didn't sell--SOLD. For instance, the mini-blinds. I had probably 20 sets of these things. I have purged my house of them. If I sold any I would have been glad. They were like a weird hot commodity with these garage sale people. They ALL sold. The other things were stuff that I pulled out of the garage or garden. You guessed it--every single item sold!!
My house feels much lighter and my new furniture has been ordered. We have to paint the LR before it gets here--Ugh! I'm just tired of painting stuff. I even thought of a new set-up for the LR. We'll see if it works!
Josh has been working on the Master bath. It would be wonderful if he had more than a few hours a week to do so. He and a buddy from work (Scott) were able to do several things on Wed. afternoon/evening before Josh had to run off to a work meeting. It is now ready for paint/tile.
Now that we've gotten some major to-do's done, I need to clean the house again. Working on the bath has produced a lot of dust & stuff. I have been glad several times over that this is a long weekend. I need to do some more laundry, vacuuming, & dusting. I don't have to water my flowers outside today because it rained--yay. Josh is working all day so I can get stuff done without feeling like it's intruding on precious time with him.

today

Well, it's Tuesday and since I have many things to say in future posts, I will share just today.

Work was busy today

I was tired today--that's what happens when you stay up too late a couple of nights in a row

I took a 30 min power nap today

I took my 20 month old on a walk and noticed MANY people outside today working in their yards. I guess they were all taking of that great spring weather -Today.

On our walk, we stopped by grandma's house to pick up our 5 year old. She wasn't ready to go, but quickly decided she was when grandpa & grandma offered to walk along with us--today.

We arrived home and the girls played outside while g&g watched. Grandpa even played a little ball with the girls--today.

Today, we met on Facebook the person who will be our new neighbor. We are excited as we think of this as an answer to prayer. We have had some very colorful and "interesting" neighbors that we would rather not repeat living nearby. He is excited as are we that we will be neighbors.

Today, I am watching the Dancing with the Stars Finale and I am hoping that Kristi Yamaguchi wins. I have watched her ice skate since I was in jr. high.

Today, I have missed Josh as this is a day where I don't see him very much as he works all day.

Today, I have thought about doing several chores around the house like dishes and prep for my garage sale, but I haven't done them. Oh well!

Today, I gave myself a manicure & pedicure. I mostly needed to do this because for my feet--it is flip flop season and for my hands because I have a shiny new sparkler to show off. My wonderful Josh bought me a new wedding ring and I LOVE IT!

Today, I am thankful and blessed for the things of today.