Happy Mother's Day

Today was an absolutely wonderful day! This marks my 3rd Mother's Day as a mom to 2-legged kids and my 9th as a mom to 4-legged kids. They are all very precious to me! I was rousted out of bed just after 9am (which is now sleeping in very late) and greeted by my lovely hubby who asked what I would like for breakfast. When I replied that I wasn't very hungry, he said that I had better change my mind real quick.

A few minutes later, I was greeted by a wonderful breakfast in bed! That never gets old. Here's a pic of my youngest who insisted on climbing up to have her pic taken. Yes folks, this is what I look like first thing in the morning. Scary, I know.


After spending several hours in bed, reading the paper, watching a favorite movie , and cross stitching, I finally got dressed and got the kids ready for an outing. My parents found out that the Backyardigans Live stage show was coming to town and insisted on getting tickets for my kids. It was a very sweet gesture, but the only show was at 4pm today. Not exactly how I had hoped to spend my Mother's Day. The girls enjoyed the show, but my youngest was more interested in climbing on the chairs.

We hopped over to one of our favorite eating establishments after the show and enjoyed a lovely dinner together. Hubby and the kids really made this day great for me and I only hope I can continue to live up to their expectations. I'm the really lucky one!

The Deck Project - Day 2

So, hubby worked until about 11pm last night doing the really not fun stuff. Nobody in the house got much sleep last night (I guess because we're all too excited about this deck project). So, an early start happened this morning.

The supervisor, Chloe, clocks in for work at 8:30am. She wants to know where her laborer is.

Hubby makes it out a few minutes later, assessing his handywork from last night and hoping that the light of the moon didn't mislead him. Everything appears to be in order.

So, the kids & I were gone for the better part of the day and then naptime ascended upon us. I tackled the master bedroom declutter again while the kiddos slept and before I knew it, the time was almost 5pm. I slipped outside to check on the progress and he had the framing well under way. He's doing the project 100% solo, so I'm impressed with how quickly he's moving.

My parents wanted to take us out to dinner for Mother's Day, but hubby wanted to stay and keep working. This deck has pretty much turned into my present for tomorrow, so he's really motivated to try and get it done. How sweet! The girls & I left for dinner and when we returned 2 hours later, hubby had made TREMENDOUS progress! The framing is about 90% complete. He's out there right now putting the last support posts in and concreting all of them.

He says he's going to wait until tomorrow to do the actual decking across, but knowing him, I have a feeling I'll be going to sleep to the hum of a hammer in the backyard.

The Deck Project - Day 1

Technically, yesterday was Day 1, so I'm going to backtrack a bit here. Hubby worked late into last night doing the "pre-work" work. I'm not very handy, so of course, nothing is ever as easy as I would have it be. I just thought he basically would nail some boards together and voila...instant deck! Ok, so I didn't think it would be quite THAT easy.

The scene in our garage as some of the lumber assembled here. The white boards are part of the shelving project for the kids rooms. I told him those had to be painted before anything was even started on the deck. The shelving project is something I've been asking for months to be done.

This is part of our backyard. Hubby is working hard to repair some water damaged wood under the french doors. The concrete slab that he's sitting on has been there forever and manages to trap water against the house every time it rains. Lucky us. Here's the rest of the lumber.

My little tomato plants. I'm so proud! I picked them out all by myself, but that's where my contribution to all this ends. That's the best for everyone involved. I got 6 Big Boy plants and 1 Cherry plant. I can taste those wonderful red fruits already!!

Fabulous Friday

Wow, I hope you all are having as great a friday as I'm having today! Let's see if I can recap without writing a novel here.

1) Today was week 18 weigh in for the biggest loser competition that I'm in and I lost 2.4 lbs this week!!! Woo hoo!!! I'm back in a decent lead overall, so I have 2 more weeks to keep that lead and win this contest. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

2) I took the girls for their first visit to Chuck E. Cheese today. Boy, what a trip down memory lane it was for me. I had my only birthday party as a child at this venue (when it was Showbiz Pizza Place) and although the interior was drastically different, I still felt that excitement when we walked in the door. I bought tons of tokens and then proceeded to show my girls as good a time as their little hearts could stand. They were over it after about 40 minutes. I could have stayed for hours playing skee-ball and eating greasy pizza. Ah, memories!

3) The IRS bestowed our "rebate" today, so with it burning a hole in our pocket, we rushed on a pilgrimage to the Hell Depot. Oh, I mean the Home Depot. After an hour of misery, a huge scratch on my leg, and giving them our first born, we had our car and a friend's truck full of wonderful home improvement items! We're really very excited about this new chapter of projects that will begin this evening and last the entire weekend (if not much longer). Slated for this weekend are shelving in the kids rooms (for the stuffed animal overpopulation), building the tomato garden (my mother's day gift) and beginning on the back deck (the thing I'm most excited about). I'll have pics and posts all weekend I'm sure, to document the madness, er, I mean progress.

Thankful Thursday

The girls sat down on an empty box this morning and both said, "Mommy, take our picture please." I'm always thankful for my 2 beautiful girls, but today was extra special.

Hot Potato

It's just after midnight and I should be completely exhausted. However, my adrenaline has been pumping overtime for the last 2 hours as I've been literally, slaving over a hot stove.

As I mentioned earlier this week, it's Teacher Appreciation Week at my daughter's preschool. Being the pushover that I tend to be, I felt badly when I saw that nary a person was signing up to do anything for the luncheon that's being held tomorrow. So, what started out as my attempt to help (volunteered to bring a gallon of tea) turned into Iron Chef in my kitchen! And the mystery ingredient tonight is.......POTATO. I somehow managed to volunteer myself to make homemade baked potato soup for 10 people. It's official, I have lost my mind.

Now, it's not often that I say this, so mark this one in the books. My hubby is "da bomb"! Thankfully he doesn't totally freak out under pressure situations, such as when the potatoes have been "baking" in the oven for almost 2 hours and they're still not done. No, he goes to plan B and microwaves those suckers, so that I can stop hyperventilating over the base that I've whisked into a frenzy. He totally came through for me in the pinch and I am so grateful! And now, I have an awesome batch of homemade soup in the fridge, ready to transport to the school in 8 short hours. Wow, I hope I don't sleep through my alarm.

A New Look

Ok, so I was getting bored with the look of my blog and decided to change things up a bit. I've been looking at others sites and gleaning all sorts of wonderful ideas. My question is, what would you like to see on my blog? I plan to add way more sites to my surfing list and you already know what tunes I like. Any suggestions on cool things I should add?