1. We had mice. UGH. Somehow a mouse or a couple got in, and even though they weren't in the house for long, they made a big mess and it was the most disgusting thing I've ever dealt with and I swear they better not ever get in my house again. We have traps everywhere now and are leaving them up probably all winter. Possibly forever. We also bought some of those ultrasonic things, just to see if they work. Not holding my breath, but hey, if they end up working, great.
2. Karina loves preschool. She loves it so much that she asks every day if it's preschool the next day. She only goes 3 days a week, but I think she would have been happy going 5 days (I wouldn't have been though!). Today when I picked her up, she told me she had a great day. Not just a great day, but a FANTASTIC day. She is so adorable.
3. We are going to Chicago later this year to visit Bill's family, and we'll be flying with both girls for the first time. Please send positive thoughts our way so that maybe Elena will not spend the entire flight crying and/or screaming, thus getting us kicked off in mid-air. That would be bad, even if gave us parachutes.
4. We updated our kitchen a little and got a new dishwasher, sink, and counters to match the other ones we put in (nothing exciting, just laminate, but they're much nicer looking than the ones we had before. I have plans to share photos soon.)
5. Karina and I have been working on plans for her birthday party, which we will do in early December as we've done in the past. This year she's having a sort of undersea theme, with jellyfish, starfish, seahorses, and sea turtles. The girl loves jellyfish, it's the funniest thing (yes, she knows they sting, she doesn't care). Anyway, I want to make it a really great party, and really go all out, as much as I can handle, because she'll be 5! Bill and I offered to let her have a party somewhere else, like her friends sometimes do, since it was her 5th birthday, but she just wanted a party at home, and that was fine with us. So I'm going to try to make it extra special in other ways. So far, we have some pretty neat invitations (I'm not bragging, I'm just proud that I came up with a clever way to incorporate her favorite toys and things while sticking to the party theme) with some clipart of her favorite characters standing on a beach, with words to the effect of, "From under the world of all her favorite things comes Karina's 5th birthday party, in the coral reef". Inside is a beautiful picture of the coral reef with all her favorite animals. I wanted it to look like the same characters were peeking into the water from above, but that was really hard and I couldn't make that work quite right, but I'm still pretty pleased with the result. We got some bowls and stick on tap lights and we're making some light-up jellyfish to hang. We took the lids to those squeezy fruit pouches that most moms are familiar with and tied some thin ribbon to them and made little jellyfish. We found some window clings at the dollar store with sea creatures to put in the window. And I have plans for a cool coral reef centerpiece. I want to make a cake for her and have the same characters from the invitation on the cake to look kind of like they're on a beach. But I might have to do cupcakes if she would rather have those. Anyway, that's been fun to work on with her.
6. I am making a quilt. Really. I'm so excited, too. Our friend is retiring this year and she is going to sail around the world, so I have already done the quilt top and it turned out so great! I just need to find a backing material and a binding, and then buy the batting. Then I can smash it all together and start the part I like least, the actual quilting part. I have actually made a couple of what I call "fake" quilts, because I usually sew a straight line in a + shape across the whole thing and maybe a few other straight lines to hold the batting in place, and that's it. Can you say L-A-Z-Y? Yep, that's me! But this is fun, and it was fun making her quilt because it's small. It's only about 4'x5', just a lap quilt. It has some 12" squares and some 12" 9-patches (which are blocks made of 9 squares that make a square that's 12" across in this case). Then they're just placed in a checkerboard pattern and it looks pretty cool. I'll take pictures. I haven't finished it yet, though, so I don't have any yet.
7. My 15th college reunion is this weekend! I am going to see my college roommate and another very good friend of ours, as well as some other friends this weekend. Things have changed a lot at William and Mary since I graduated, but in many ways it never changes. I can't wait to get back and walk the campus and remember all the fun times. Roomie and I are going to go to the reunion year mixer, where alumni can get together with other alums from their graduating year, and then to a big tailgate thingy. I wonder if I have to print something and bring it with me. Hm, I guess I'll be looking into that later. :-) I'm so excited to be spending literally the entire day at my old school, without the girls or Bill, as much as I love them, but just me! I get to be JUST ME for a whole day!! This is nearly unheard of. Usually I'm someone's mommy or wife, but tomorrow I get to be just plain old me. I think one day of that is enough. You know I'll miss those little cuties at home. (I've already been thinking I should have gotten them tickets, too, so I could see my girls run the Sunken Gardens and stand on the steps of the Wren Building....but I'll take them another day). Guess I should head off to bed. Lots to do early in the morning before I head out!
Click here to view these pictures larger
A note about these pictures. The white dishwasher is not the one we kept; it wasn't working and we got another one, and when we installed the new one, Bill figured out what was wrong with the white one and we could have kept it after all. Sigh. The picture of Karina holding the drawing--those are the planets. Check out Jupiter. She used a poster as a guide, but still. Proud mommy. And the duck is the replacement ducky that's too big and has essentially been rejected at this point in favor of the smaller ducky we got at the baby store. But it's all okay. As long as she's happy.
A note about these pictures. The white dishwasher is not the one we kept; it wasn't working and we got another one, and when we installed the new one, Bill figured out what was wrong with the white one and we could have kept it after all. Sigh. The picture of Karina holding the drawing--those are the planets. Check out Jupiter. She used a poster as a guide, but still. Proud mommy. And the duck is the replacement ducky that's too big and has essentially been rejected at this point in favor of the smaller ducky we got at the baby store. But it's all okay. As long as she's happy.
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