Counting Down



It was 87 degrees after school today!

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Brady got out the sprinkler.

We had dinner on the patio.

We went on a long walk and then took the dog for a car ride to cool off.

 

This evening feels like a glimpse of what is waiting for us right around the corner.

The simple days of summer.

 

We have 11 days left until school is out!

We can't wait!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Mother's Day Weekend



We spent Mother's Day weekend at the beach.
It was a suprise.
When Brady and I walked out of school last Friday,
Eric was waiting for us in the parking lot, all packed and ready to go.









 



 

 

 

 Even though it was a little chilly, Brady and I had fun collecting shells.

  Steffi liked playing in the sand and we all enjoyed sitting out on our balcony at the hotel.

We had a great lunch at the Tap House overlooking the bay.

The drinks were pretty good too. ;)

 We will definitely go there again.

 We also had seafood at the Bonfire and Brady tried fried clams for the first time.

We walked to get ice cream and did a little outlet shopping.  









 When Eric told me we were heading to the beach, I cried. 

And, if I'm keeping it real over here, they weren't happy tears.

The only thing I wanted for Mother's Day was my bike tired fixed.

I was looking forward to the simple weekend we already had planned.

 

 

I feel terrible about not being excited about Eric's suprise...

and, I'm pretty sure I ruined the whole weekend.

If I had it to do over again, I would have let my feelings go...

and thought more about my husband's.

 

 

 

 

  My husband has already given me the greatest gift in the world.  I am so blessed everyday to be Brady's mom.

 

 

And just so my husband knows.....



 

 

 

 

Smoothie Fun

I'm addicted to the plastic summer isle at Walmart. 
Every year I find myself wanting every piece of that colorful fun stuff.
Please tell me you know which isle I'm talking about?
Everthing is super cheap, so I fill my cart and then realize at the checkout..oops, cheap things add up!



Yesterday I was walking around Walmart and that plastic isle started calling my name.
So, of course, I headed over for a quick look.


I've been wanting to get a co-worker of mine a little thank you gift...
and her twin daughters love making smoothies...so I thought this would be fun.

Colorful tumblers, napkins, and straws.
I added the little notebook and made a smoothie label to put on it.
I thought they could use it for recipes.


Easy, cheap and FUN.


Wouldn't this make a great end of the year teacher gift?!

Last Week

 

 

 

 

Ok, not the best picture...and not the best paint job.

I had Brady take this of my nails (so nice of him to get my double chin in there too!) because it's been over 20 years since I last painted them.  Can you believe it?!

It's not that I have anything against painted nails.  I've just never wanted to draw any attention

to my hands!  I inherited these hands from my dad.  Nothing against his hands...they are fine for my dad...just not for me.  I also broke a few fingers playing basketball, and there you have it.  Add insult to injury, my best friend in college was a hand model. :) 

Anyway, nail polish seems to be the big thing right now...so I thought I would give it another try.

A funny thing happened after I turned 40....I don't seem to care as much about what others think.  I would never have posted a picture of my hands five years ago! :)

 

 

 

 

I stopped at the consignment shop on the way home from work.

I got these three tops (one is from L.L. Bean & one is from LandsEnd) and a pair of

pants (from the Loft).  I wore the pink shirt under my jean jacket in the picture above.

I hate to spend money on new clothes for work...so every once in awhile I will stop in a thrift store.

These four items came to $13.75!   I would much rather spend money on a new pair of jeans for the weekend rather than work clothes!

 

(Brady in Kindergarten)

Last Thursday was bring your son/daughter to work day.

I arranged for Brady to get out of class in the afternoon to observe me doing a reading lesson with my first graders.  I let him do the last part of the lesson along with a worksheet that he explained to the kids and helped them with.  I wish I had taken my camera.  Brady was so cute and the kids were so excited to have the "big" 4th grader in the room helping.  After school Brady said to me, "if this tennis thing doesn't work out mom, I want to be a teacher."

 

 

I organized some of my jewelry.  I have always used egg cartons for my earrings....it's the way my Grandma Hester always organized her jewelry.  She had quite the collection and bought most of her things second hand.  She loved owls and had an owl necklace that reminds me of so much of the owl jewelry I have seen lately.  Like this one, that I might need to get!

 

 

Brady made it to the Hershey final on Saturday.

He has made it to that final the last 4 times but has yet to win it.

He was disappointed...but lucky for his dad and I, he gets over things quickly.

 

 

He also never gives up...

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a lot of time this weekend doing yardwork.  It's not our favorite thing to do...but it has to be done.  Brady was a huge help again this year, especially with the mulch.  He and I have a system down...and we do pretty good teamwork.

 

Can you believe it's May already?!

We are counting down the days until school is out for the summer!

 



Acts of Kindness

On March 18th, my friend Holly posted a birthday wish on her blog. 

First of all, let me just say that Holly is amazing and fun and kind and honest (I could go on and on) and I am lucky to have met her through blogging.
Holly wanted to do something special to celebrate her birthday and asked for some help.

I'm so happy to say that her birthday wish came true.

You can read all the random acts of kindness done in honor of Holly's 29th birthday HERE.

 

Although I didn't get my story to Holly in time...I wanted to share it anyway.
 

 *******************

I had just finished reading Holly's blog about her birthday early in the morning on March 18th.

Brady and I happened to be off school that day and I was in the computer room trying to
 keep quiet so Brady could sleep in.  Just minutes after reading Holly's blog, Brady yelled for me to come to his room.  I could tell by his voice something was wrong.

There was a life support truck in our driveway and an ambulance in front of our house.

A few minutes later my neighbor pulled into her driveway...rushing home from work.

Five police cars, two unmarked cars, and a forensic team were all outside the front of our house.

As we sat on Brady's bed looking out the window, the story unfolded right before our eyes.

Our neighbor's son, took his life in a tree in his mother's yard...directly across from my son's bedroom window.

(Matt was 30 yrs. old and did not live at home with his mom.)
 

When I realized what had happened, I made Brady stay away from all the windows in the front

of our house.  The commotion outside lasted for hours.  On this day, my young naive boy learned about suicide.  We used this terrible incident to talk to Brady about why someone would choose to end their life, how God feels about this and to always have hope for a better tomorrow.  We also talked about what drugs can do to a person...it was the only logical thought I could conceive of...and I was right.  Brady actually handled the situation much better than I did in the days that followed.

 

 

 I have done a couple acts of kindness since March 18th...one for a coworker and one random act when I was out and about one day.  I also took a meal to my neighbor and her visiting family the day before her son's funeral.  However, the random act of kindness I wanted to share comes from Brady.  He didn't know about Holly's random acts of kindness plan.  And, he did not spend a dime.  His act of kindness since our neighbor's devastating loss, has been the gift of time.  Brady went over to our neighbors house on his own and asked if he could walk her dog.   He has walked  Molly almost everyday since.  Our neighbor, Carol,  has been so thankful since she doesn't have the energy to do so herself right now.    Brady visits with Carol.  They talk about Molly and music and she shows him some of her new plants.  The other evening I didn't know where Brady was and I looked out the window and I saw the two of them chatting and walking around her yard.  Brady later told me Carol was showing him a few bushes she planted in her son's memory.

I took Carol over a bottle of wine last week and we sat at her kitchen table and visited.
Carol talked about her son, his accomplishments, his dreams, and how she wishes she could talk to him one more time.  I can't even let myself imagine what kind of loss like that feels like.
Carol also went on and on about what a neat boy Brady is and how much she enjoys him stopping over.
 

The interesting and sad thing is, Carol has lived across the street from us for seven years and we have never really had more than a few conversations.  The other thing I find interesting is Brady is not usually very talkative/social with people he doesn't know very well.  He is a typical 10 year old boy that is often more interested in himself than others.

 

I'm so proud of Brady for being kind to our neighbor.  I don't know if this was something he consciously decided to do or if the timing was just so.  I do believe God's timing is perfect...and if Brady can help to lessen even a teeny tiny bit of Carol's grief and bring a smile to her face....then he has done something amazing.

 

I tell this story not to brag about Brady for the zillionth time.  (One of these days I will do a post of all the things he does that drives me crazy!)  I do it because I believe kindness is one of the most important things we can do in life.  And, kindness doesn't have to cost anything.

 

 

 

"Wherever there is a human being....there is an opportunity for kindness"

-Seneca

 

 

Thank you Holly for motivating all of us to show more random acts of kindness.

I hope your birthday was extra special this year!

A New Look

I couldn't figure out how to fix my blurry header, so I decided to shop around and get some help.  Boy, you can spend a lot of money on headers and layouts, and navigation bars and all that jazzy stuff.  I went with a premade layout from Designer Blogs.

  The $15.00 fee made it an easy decision for me.  I like the new look for now, and I like that I won't feel the need to switch it up every month....you know, like I used to. :) 

Brady wanted to know why his picture isn't in my new header?!

 

 

Another new look....I spray painted the brass fixtures in our master bathroom.

This was the only before picture I took. 

 I have always hated those lights above the mirror.

 

 

 

Here's how it turned out after a couple coats of rustoleum oil rubbed bronze spray paint.



Now, I don't think those light fixtures look so bad!

I also did the knobs on our vanity...I though they were in this picture too...but I guess not!

 

 





Speaking of "new" look, Steffi got her first haircut this week.

The lady that groomed her said by the time she got to Steffi's face, she could no longer

keep her safe from the scissors!  Hopefully each time we go she'll do better.

For now, one side of her face is longer than the other and I don't think the lady made it to

Steffi's ears.  Oh well....at least we can see her eyes now!





 

 Have a great week!

Ten on Ten : April 2013

I took pictures yesterday for 10 on 10 but was too tired to download them last night.

I know, I'm a slacker.

 

Here's a peek into our day:

 

 

It's so hard for him to put the cap back on...

 

 

I curled my  hair this morning....no one noticed!

 

 

A big walk before school...he's such a good human.

 



 

Finally, we see signs of spring....





 

Getting his daily dose...



 

I couldn't resist this picture in the grocery parking lot...



 

 

Our front lawn is covered with the prettiest purple weeds...



 

 

Poor thing can't even see....hang on til' next Thursday girl....

 

 

obsessed with baths....

 

 

American Idol time....

 

 

Happy Tenth!