Finer Things

I vowed not to do it. I even vocalized it out loud, I am not watching that movie I said. The movie in question? Christmas Shoes. Yet, there I was, the only one still up watching that movie. And of course sobbing. Mostly, I was sobbing because that movie was real for many this year. Three sets of kids I know of have a mom that died before Christmas this year. One a little girl Miranda's age. I can't even imagine the grief that a child must go through. It seems bad enough to lose parents as adults. I shouldn't have watched it.....

Then, yesterday, as I was listening to satellite radio, and thank god for that because radio here is bad, really really bad, I heard a song I hadn't heard in ages. I heard Steve Winwood's "Finer Things" and this line caught my attention:
For time is a river rolling into nowhere
We must live while we can
And well drink our cup of laughter

So true. Time marches on, regardless of what happens, and we have little control really over what happens. Being OCD, I love control, but what control really do I have over things? So, listening to that sond I realized my quest to live each day to the fullest is a good one. We should all take that advice. Live while we can. Be good to our bodies, be healthy, and make the most of the life we have been given. Be thankful everyday. I know I am. Life is good.

Snow Days

It's that time of year. Snow is everywhere, temps have dropped, and Spring is just a faraway date on the calender. Last year, instead of hibernating, and getting seasonal depression like I usually do, I embraced the snow. Funny, I never thought I would like it as much as I did. Sure, I ski, but I am a fair weather skiier. It has to be sunny and near 30 for me to have a good time on the slopes. Last year, I embraced it all from below zero to sunny 30 degree days, and you know what? I loved it!

My plan is the same this year. To sled, snow shoe, ski, shovel the driveway, walk, and maybe even a winter hike. Last year, I tried my hand at snow shoeing and really enjoyed it. So far, I have gone sledding with the girls ( I actually get in the sled and slide), shoveled, and of course walked. The winter hike idea really appeals to me. I am and ADK girl. Love my Adirondacks. If I can find a nice day hike not far from here, I will add that to the winter activities I enjoy.

So, let it snow! This girl is looking forward to fun in the snow and sun.

Holiday Funnies

My kids crack me up. Anna is usually the comedian, but Ava took the mic this holiday and did a little stand up herself. At dinner on Saturday, my sister in law was in from North Carolina. Ava was trying to have a conversation and said " Daisy pees in the snow." We all roared. Then, on Christmas day, after devoring a bowl of Bryers vanilla ice cream, she looks up and says "I'm still waiting for my coffee." Again......very funny kid. Finally, this AM, she came up to me and said " I need my sockie mom, my sockie." After searching the house for her socks, she lead me by the hand to the mantle and pointed to her STOCKING. I had a good laugh.

Loved my holiday. It was perfect adn I am the proud owner of a counter top roasting oven, just like my Grandma Ina had. It's a beauty. I can roast meat in that and free up the oven to cook up 3 racks of food when throwing down a holiday dinner. Then, my glorius roasting pan becomes a chafing pan, and you place the insert in and can keep warm 3 side dishes. Sweet.

Today, as we enjoy new toys, we are also going to head out and visit the sledding hill. Sun is shining, snow looks good, and we need to run off all those sweets we ate! Enjoy the day, and happy Christmas vacation!

Santa Babies

Magic of Christmas

I just read Traci's very sweet blog about Christmas, and it's very much the same here. T'was the day before Christmas when all throught the house, we have presents to wrap and cannoli to fill ( and eat!) The stockings are waiting to be hung by the chimmney with care, for fear baby Ava will pull them down on her head. The girls are counting the hours till bed, and mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again ( wait, that is a different song.....)

I just discovered that the old light displays from Trinkaus Manor are on display in Rome, so we are going out tonight to see them. That used to be a Christmas Eve tradition, until the Trinkaus burned down. I guess I always thought the lights were lost too, and it made me so sad. The OD just ran a story about them in Rome, so away we will go. My dad used to take us, and then later in life, Brian and I used to go every Christmas Eve, and then go out to dinner. I am going to take photos to share with my dad. He will get a kick out of seeing them again, and the fact that my girls will enjoy something his little girls used to enjoy. That is, after all, what Christmas is about. Tradition,and time with the family making magic Christmas memories to savor and remember someday, when the girls are grown, and my house isn't quite so busy.

Merry Christmas. May yours be as magical as mine.

Current Events

I can't stand that I don't have time to blog. Well, in current events, the kitchen project is humming along. The "major" stuff was done by the contractor, and Brian and I are finishing the rest. Because we have kids and life is crazy, I am hoping this will be done by Spring. What has been done is awesome. I love it, and it is just the "Country Living" vision I had in mind. Loving the 29 bottle wine chiller ( but why 29, 30 is a much more rounded number?)
Christmas? Not really ready for it, which is making me crazy because I like to be resdy for things. I still need to shop this week, which is not like me at all. Hopefully, I will get everything all ready. I only had time to put about half my usual decorations up. Kind of sad, but you reach a point where you can only do so much and accept the fact that life will go on, and may perhaps return someday, right?
I am still hoping for my pre-Christmas snow day that we usually have and I get caught up. It almost happend this AM, but all we got was a delay. Miranda came downstairs with a look of hope, as did I, and I said "delay". She said " OHHHHHHHH". My thoughts exactly. I too, still look forward to my snow days. Just a big kid, I am.

Halloween Carnival

It Has Begun

My kitchen remodel, the one I have been dreaming of and planning for 2 years has officially begun!!!!!!! Be careful what you wish for though, we have started ripping out the old. Part of my vision involves being featured in This Old House when we are done. See, I LOVE TOH, watch it like it's required viewing, and it is when you have a 157 year old side hall Colonial. However, I look at the projects and it's just not realistic when you have most of a house to remodel and are just normal people, not Doctors living just outside of Boston. My goal, is to have this remodel, and entire kitchen with new cabinets, flooring, a stamped tin ceiling, the works, come in under 15K. Impossible you say? Oh, you just watch me!
To date, I have purchased all my cabinets. I shopped 3 different kitchen centers, Lowes, Home Depot, and J-Kay Lumber. All three were quoting me about 10K for new cabinets, and higher. I hemmed and hawed over design, and guess it's a good thing I did. While I was obsessing like I do over which style to buy, a friend of mine has a friend who gutted a new kitchen. It's a long sad story ( husband may just be mentally ill), but they decided their CUSTOM MADE pine beadboard 42 inch cabinets and brand new stainless steele appliances ( GE, top of the line) were not what they had in mind so they gutted their own new kitchen and called my friend. They said if you want it come get it, otherwise it's going to the curb. My friend didn't, the look is too modern for her ( she likes primitive, very old country), but they knew I would like it. The sold it to me in what I call our "Yankee Deal." I got, for 3K, ALL the appliances ( the dishwasher was still shrink wrapped, never used), and ALL the cabinets ( did I mention they were hand made, and do not include any particpl board??). My friend got some cash to re-do her roof, and I saved over 9 thousand dollars and I got the look I wanted. In the process, I needed to order a few pieces to "fill in" and I went with a distressed off white beadboard to make my look like something out of Country Living magazine. We discovered that a Wine chiller ( a 29 bottle, electric, digital, locking wine fridge) cost less than a base cabinet ( base was almost 500.00, wine chiller after my 10% off coupon was only 385). So I am actually getting a wine chiller to go under the counter between 2 base cabinets. I am very excited as this was not in the original plans.
We took off the hardware because it was gold, and we want satin nickel to match the stainless steel appliances, and I just found the decorative handles I wanted on ebay. For 4.75/each, that is at LEAST 6 bucks a piece less than what I was looking for special order elsewhere. With 35 of those to order, that's a savings of more than 150.00. Did I mention they were new??????????? And my sink, I just purchased a great looking Victorian vintage satin nickel on Overstock for 200 less than the home improvement big boxes.
Finally, I wanted an apron sink, or farm sink to bring my farm look together. They are well over 1K at tht three kitchen centers I looked at here. I found one online for 400 ( with shipping!!!!). That is 600 less if you are counting. It's porcelain, from a known manu. and has a life time warranty. Cool!

And of course I am re-purposing something. My butcher block counter, lovely and worn, Brian is sanding down and re-oiling to use as the top to me NEW ISLAND!!!!!!!!! It will be centered, topped with the butcher block as a work space, have room for 2 counter stools, and it has all kinds of storage.

I am both stressed over the demo, yet so excited that my vision is coming together, and will under 15K. Photos coming soon.......

My Date with a Baron

I had a big day yesterday, a picnic lunch with the Baron. I have been wanting to see him for almost 2 years, but everytime I tried, it was too late. You see, on a really big hill not far from my house ( the last time we came down that hill my brakes smokes, kids thought it was cool), is a State Park that is the final resting place for this Baron. He is really important. So important towns, counties, and even my street is named after him, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. We packed a picnic lunch and headed out and this time, we got there while the park was still open.
The girls and I got a phamplet when we got there and I read it to them. This guy was pretty important. It seems during the American Revolution he basically helped us get our shit together. We were looking pretty rag tag and didn't have supplies, so he organized our troops, taught the men to assemble and march, taught tactics, helped get the supplies, and turned our troops into a force to be reckoned with! HE is held to an esteem almost as high as George Washington. After the war, the state gave him 16,000 acres near where he is now buried ( and the took it back, in true NY state fashion after he died). What remains is 5 beautiful acres where he is buried and a memorial park. It was pretty nice, and a nice history lesson for the girls.

I guess because we were visiting dead people, we stopped by a cemetery near there to see if we could find my great grandfather. I know he is buried somewhere near hear, but he was not as easy to find as the Baron. Miranda can spell and read, so I had her reading tombstones. The baby just thought the cemetary was a cool place to run and play and was having a grand old time, and she loved to sit on those little stones, the ones close to the ground. Anna yelled at her, she said the people were "trying to rest! " We didn't find my grandfather, but reading stones I found a couple that just made me so sad. Again, for the second time in a week, I was reminded of past days where children died young. We found a little angel marker for a baby, and a stone for "Our Lizzy" who was 1 year 6 months and 21 days old. So sad. Miranda, the tombstone reader, had tears in her eyes. I know it sounds like a morbid thing to do, but I want to find my great grandfather and help connect my girls to this area. He lived up the hill from where I do and my grandfather and siblings were born here as well. It turns out not to be just a random place I took a job and moved to. Turns out I have family here, dead and alive. I thought I knew where he was buried. I guess I'll have to ask family members. I do want to see the stone, and reconenct with my own history.

1900's House, Lead Paint, and other ramblings....

My friend Amy lent me 1900's House on DVD. I had originally viewed it on PBS when I was in Grad school, which meant I never saw the end. I love, I mean LOVE Victorian times and history, so I was happy to have it to view. However, it's 4 hours long. I hopped on the exercise bike with the DVD player and watched over an hour ( my butt was falling asleep I was on the bike so long). I stayed up way late trying to finish it. Tired girl this morning, I am dragging. I am also more thankful that I live in modern times. Although I love Victorian times, I only like to decorate in this theme. It was a hard life for women in 1900. 1 out of 4 children died before adulthood, and if the arsenic in the wallpaper didn't kill you, the soot and ash from the boiler combined with limited oxygen from wearing the corset did. As much as I love to clean, laundry that took 3 days would really get to me. This AM I threw my wash into the dryer and it's already done. I was feeling a little tired and stressed over being home all summer and tending to the kids and keeping up the house, I feel a little less now and a little foolish. Imagine life for my Grandmother? The woman who cried when she got her first washing machine.

I just went through the recalled toy list. We don't own any lead paint toys, but Miranda owns 4 Polly Pocket playsets effected by the magnet recall. Although she would never put a toy in her mouth at 9 years of age, the baby does, and will likely inherit these toys. I broke the news to Miranda and sent for the information on what to do. I did tell her Mattel wil give her a voucher to buy new toys. That perked her up!

Just yesterday I was praying for strength to help me make it through summer. I was also feeling guilty that I would feel this way. It just seems everyday I cook 3 meals a day, cleam, do laundry, and take care of kids. And the kids have reached the point where they really don't like eachother and are looking forward to starting school. After watching 1900's House, I think I can make it. After all, when the going get's tough I can: order pizza, brew coffee in less than 5 min, take a 30 min hot shower without having to keep a fire going for 6 hours, and plug in the vacuume aand rip through my house in 20 min tops and it's nice and clean. Oh yeah, and the Bubonic Plague is nowhere to be found.......all that and I can vote, and choose not to wear a bra. Life is good. I am off to fold my laundry that only took less than an hour start to finish.

Re-entry

Do you know how the Astronauts prepair to reenter the Earth's atmosphere after they have gone to the outer space? They go through a special procedure and hope they have planned all the angels correctly so that it goes smooth? Well, that's how I plan for "back to school", and that is what I call it, re-entry.

I offically re-enter next week, as I go back before teachers. The clock is ticking, so this weekend, I finished off all, and I do mean ALL the back to school shopping. I have every pencil, eraser, and school supply on "the lists." Done. I have been through each girl's closet and mucked out the clothes that don't fit, checked the "next size up" boxes to see what I may already have, and this weekend, we shopped for everything they needed to complete a fall/early winter wardrobe ( we shop on February break to refresh everything). They have socks, underwear, fall jackets, pants, shirts, and really cute outfits. They have new backpacks, lunchboxes, and oh do they have shoes. I tend to overbuy shoes, and they end up with a generous amount of shoes. Let's just say they will be able to accessorize. The new backpacks are packed and ready to go, and the pantry is even stocked up with lunch box food. Cool! No, that one gets a way cool from me. We have a new chest freezer and that baby is full as well, so I can quickly pull out meals after work.
As for mom, because I lost weight, mucking out my closet was fun. Good BYE streatch pants and clothes that had to flatter a fatter me. Hello to all my new clothes! I went to the Dress Barn yesterday, and I wasn't really a fan of this place until recently, and boy did I have fun. I tried on an armload of clothes, most in one size up from where I want to be, and some in that coveted goal size and I am happy to report I brought home size 10's that fit me!!!! I guess the bad thing about losing weight is that everything looks cute and I came home with most of what I tried on. The good thing is, I needed early fall pieces for when the weather is still warm ( my cave, I mean office is usually hot as hell, the heat comes on at random times), and all the things I needed we on end of summer clearance, so I did make out like a bandit! Add that to the three pairs of shoes I have on the way and the tops from Kohl's and I will be looking very well put together this year.

All we need to do now is back to school haircuts and we will be good to go. I actually did a " we have all our supplies" dance in Staples yesterday. The girls were wondering what was wrong with me. The clerk helping me must have thought I was nuts. Oh well. Next on my list? Winter outerwear........

Celebrity Look a likes

Stolen from Traci. This was too funny......

Charity Begins at Home

This morning, as I was bustling around the house ( yes, of course I bustle, I have 3 kids leave me alone), Ava was apparently feeling the need to help me take care of Daisy. I hear her say " Daisy, want some?" I am thinking, cute, she is feeding the dog. Then it hits me. She is in the living room. No dog bowl or food in there. I peek in, and there she is on the floor, with the box of Friehoffer's chocolate chip cookies open, feeding them one by one to dear old Daisy. She looks at me and says " Cookies, ok mom?" I just had to laugh, and retrieve what was left after the retriever had breakfast.

Daisy has never had it so good.

M-I-C-K-E-Y

Ava's birthday is coming up in September. You know how I like to plan? OK, I actually LOVE to plan parties. I am in full plan mode for her party. We didn't have a very big one for her 1st birthday, just grandparents and aunts actually, and a birthday cake. I feel the need to party this year, but my kitchen will be all ripped up by the end of September. So, it hit me. There is a nice town hall close by, we have decided to have it there and throw her a "Playhouse Disney" party. She loves, LOVES Mickey and Pluto, and has been smitten since our trip to Disney when she actually met them in person. I thought she would freak out, she was so happy to see them.

So far, I have ordered her the cutest minnie mouse dress up dress, complete with petticote and ears, and purchased some nice primary color party ware ( Dollar Store!!). I will "fill in" with the Playhouse Disney pinata, centerpiece, etc....... I have planned some cute games for all the kids, and am contemplating a clown. There will be a lot fo kids there if everyone comes, and the girls and I keep seeing "Flower the Clown" and her beautiful VW Bug all done up in flowers around the area. I think it's a sign.......

Pants, Slacks, Trousers, Bottoms

How can one thing have so many names? Anyhow, I was in my closet yesterday, looking over things for the Fall and I tried on all my pants. In the Spring/ early summer when school finished, I only had a few of my "old" pants that fit me. When I say "old" I mean pre- Ava. I had purchased some nice clothes when I did my internships. They were mostly 10's and 12's. At our garage sale I got rid of anything larger, and anything "stretchy" that I considered fat pants. Good riddance!

I was elated to find most of my smaller pants fit!!!! There were only a couple exceptions, and these were pants that ran smaller. Thank GOD! Some of my old wardrobe fits! I will have many more outfit options in the fall when school starts. See, I love clothes. I love accessories, and I really enjoy dressing nice for work. It's been so depressing carrying around extra after baby weight for so long. I was energized yesterday by this discovery.

Whatever you call them, mine fit again.

Project Mode

This entire vacation has been about house projects. Since I was able to do so little last year with the baby, I am trying to make up for lost time. I have done so many projects including: Decorating the side porch, spray painting all the register vents with a bronze color to cover up the rust and ugly tan color they were, ripping up not one but 4 rugs so far to expose wood floors and replacing with beautiful decorative rugs ( and a GREAT hand hooked rug for the upstairs sitting area, scored a great sale price), decorated Anna and Ava's room as Tinkerbell Hollow, finished stenciling Miranda's room, recovered her vanity bench, put stars on her ceiling, found perfect print to frame in old antique frame I "repurposed" for sitting room, organized closets with new hampers, organized pantry, and that is just the stuff I rememer.!!

We had the garage sale this weekend, which in itself was a HUGE project. Made a clean sweep of all my closets, cabinets, and in the kitchen the appliances. I donated a truck load of stuff to Salvation Army, and blankets to the Humane Society, and saved some of the nicer sale items for our next sale ( I am a girl always cleaning closets, may as well plan the next sale, I will find stuff!). With our garage sale money, we gave some to each girl for helping, and will now purchase some things we need for the house including a freezer, new picnic table for the back patio, and a deck box for the pool.
So now I eyeball the house and see what I can do today. Here is what I have come up with: Hang our framed degrees in the offfice, fix the frame on the framed tinkerbell print for Anna and Ava's room, and "repurpose" the lantern we took off the side of the house ( oh yeah, a project I forgot we did, Brian removed the old black outside lights and put up nice bronze looking ones, old style lanterns, and one even has a on at dust off at dawn feature). The one I want to repurpose looks like a lantern you would walk around with in days gone by. I have pulles out the wires, and am going after the part the light bulb screwed into today. After I pull that out, I am painting it bronze to match the new out door lights. I am going to use it to put on the floor of the porch over a big pillar candle for nights we sit out. I am excited about my idea because it will not only look great, but go with the old style we are trying to maintain for this historic 1850's house. One final thing I want to do this summer is to get a plaque made for the front with the date on it.

Happy projecting! I am off to "repurpose".

Has Anyone Seen my Carbs???

So, I have been trying to lose weight, and lower my BMI number since January. I am happy to say I have lost 22 pounds to date. However, holy crap has it taken a long time! I know I know....... the best way to lose weight is slow. I had gotten impatient with how long it's been taking on WW, so I boosted things alone these past two weeks. I did what always workds for me, I gave up carbs. It's been 10 days since bread, potatoes, or refined sugar has past my lips, and I have entered the zone where I feel awesome. Why does it take giving up carbs to make me feel full of energy, and GREAT? It's not fair, but I did speed up my weight loss. The scale, which had stalled out is moving again. I am happy to report I am currently wedding weight, which isn't my all time low, but it's on my way. ( 1995 weight!!!) My 12's are FINALLY loose, and I bought a skirt last week that is a size 8. Today I am wearing shorts I haven't been able to wear ever ( they are from Sandi) and yesterday, my favorite American Eagle denim shorts were feeling very loose. 10. 10 is where I am heading, and trying hard to be there by the fall.

So, keep eating the meat and veggies, and keep the carbs out of my house and keep the scale moving!

My Farmer

Miranda took Acrobatics this year along with her Ballet class. Remember how it was how I got out of enrolling her in cheer leading? Anyways, it was a nice class and she can do these amazings things now with her body. Instead of the regular split she could do, she can do two others, including one you run into. ( who knew about that?). Her routine for the recital was choreographed to "Devil Went Down to Georgia." Some girls were the Devils, the older ones, and Miranda was a farmer. The girls kind of dueled it out on stage with the things they could do. It was a great routine, audience loved it. Here is my daughter, granddaughter of a farmer, daughter of a farmer's daughter, but please note I never knew a farmer to wear something like this.

Look at me GO

Now that the baby is a little older, I am finally able to get some things done! It also helps that school is out, and I am a stay at home mom for the summer. Yesterday I had one of those days again where I went to town! It started off in the AM when I decided my fridge was full and I needed to cook some things before they go bad. So, I cooked 2 home made pizzas for dinner to use up the veggies, cheese, etc....Then, I chopped up the Rhubarb I got at the farm stand and made my dad 3 Rhubarb pies for his birthday ( it's a tradition, nobody else makes the man these pies). Somewhere in between, I did 2 loads of laundry, ran errands ( returned bottles, dropped off something at the Docs, went to LNT for a rug for my porch, and AC Moore to get stencil paint). Then, after dinner, I finally spent time organizing and pricing items for the garage sale next weekend. Finally, at around 9:30, I spent an hour stenciling Miranda's room while she is at camp.

What a great day! It's starting to feel like I actually live here now that I have time to decorate, antique, and plan the kitchen remod. Let's hope for another day today as productive.

Summer Time

Summer is finally and offically HERE! With 50 days till back to school, I am almost besides myself trying to do it all! Today, there were swim lessons for the girls, strawberry picking, complete with peanut butter sandwiches eaten in the fields, cookies to be made, 2 loads of laundry, housework, my famous home made Stromboli, and I even jammed. There are 8 jars of strawberry jam cooling on my couter, and "pinging" as they seal.

What a perfect start to summer. I am thinking it's going to be a banner summer! And picture if you will, little Ava sitting in the strawberry field, on ripe strawberries, filling and unfilling her basket. She was great! Anna ate more than she picked, and Miranda picked her heart out, filling an 8 quart basket.

Current Events

Here's what is new at our house! My big baby girl fell asleep while playing outside last weekend, and here is Ava in Anna's gear. Is that cute or what??

NSV's

I am entering week 7 on Weight Wathcers, and although I have not said much about it, I am doing well. I couldn't go to my meeting last night, the weather was bad, but as of the previous week I had lost 9.8 pounds. 10 pounds is typically a size and I am reaching the point where people have started to notice. WW's calls this a Non Scale Victory, or NSV, positive things that happen that aren't tied to a number on the scale. Here are mine:

Last Friday was jeans day at work, so I paid my $5.00 ( CMN fund raiser) and wore mine. I know they are getting loose, but I wasn't sure that it was obvious. A co-worker who didn't know I was on WW said " You have lost weight, you look great." Made my day!

Sandi, who lost sizes last year had given me a stack of her old clothes. At the end of summer none of them fit yet. Currently, I can wear a pair of red jeans that now fit, and I just tried on a stack of capri's and shorts she gave me and voila! They all fit!!!! Even after my active summer of biking, walks, and swimming, they did not yet fit. They all fit now!!!!!!! I just put together a ton of outfits for Florida based on my windfall of new to me clothes ( Thanks Sandi!)

I had promised myself a reward after my first ten pounds. In the past, when I have done weight loss, my rewards have always been food based. I had decided this time around to make my rewards non-food based. This way, I wasn't making myself feel like I had to wait for special occassions to eat certain foods. I picked my new sandals as my reward, and I was fine with the fact that they weren't cheesecake!

Finally, I am motivated, and I continue to journal, exercise, and stick to the plan.

Shoe Shopping

Yesterday I got a call from my daughter's school nurse. Seems she had a temp of 101, and needed to come home ( and on the day of the NYS Math Test......yikes!) So, after cancelling meetings, fending off students, quickly re-directing a crisis, I left school to pick her up at her school.
The good thing about an almost 9 year old with a fever is that all she wanted to do was sleep on the couch and watch "High School Musical." This meant one thing for me, free time I didn't expect. Doing what any over organized mom would do I sprang into action. Gather all the laundry for a quick load, run the dishwasher, make lunches for the next school day, pay bills and balance check book, and take care of some finance issues (moved credit card balance to a much lower interest rate card, been meaning to do this. We have good credit and get good offeres all the time, it's good to move it and save money!!!).
The closk was ticking on my free afternoon, and when my daughter woke up from her 3 hour nap, she was bored and feeling temporairly better from the fever reducer. So again, doing what any over organized mom would do I suggested we get out her summer clothes bin and pack her up for Florida ( one month countdown to trip.) Beng that she is the daughter of an over organized mom, she was THRILLED! Grabbed her bag and packed away.
This spurt of vacation action spurred me to want to purchase the shoes I knew I would need for the trip. I had already gone shoe shopping for the girls over February break. It's kind of a tradition that we get out and think about Spring and buy spring footwear over break. Each girl got comfy ( yet cute) sandals and a pair of the trendy looking lighter weight sneakers, they also picked out bathing suits. I now needed to do the same, sandals and a swim suit. So I hopped online and went to Visa.com to look at discounts that were avail ( I recently discovered that a lot of places you use your Visa at have 20% off, and my debit is Visa, so I find good deals this way). Skechers had a 20%, plus free shipping, plus ZERO TAXES! My sandals that I found for 34 dollars wound up being a flat $24 without shippig or taxes. AND they were exactly what I had in mind, comfy flip flop type shoes with a good looking sneaker type bottom so I can wear them all over Disney and not have hurting feet. WooHoo! They will be here in 7-10 days.

So if the good Lord gives you free, unexpected time, organize, clean, and shoe shop. I was one happy girl.