Just when you think you understand the world.

Brett Favre retires. Now, I'm no football nut, and I really don't even care for the Packers (though I do understand how that team could bring some joy to your life if you're from Green Bay, where it's 32 below and snowing in JULY), but you could just always count on Brett.

Not to mention, it's one of the most egregious mispronunciations of a French name that I know of. The v comes before the r, yet you pronounce it in the opposite order.

sheesh.

Sometimes, she can plan...

Now that I travel, I pay attention to the weather. I am famous for never knowing the forecast (or what time it is, but that's a different post). I used to wake Lindsey up to ask him what the weather was going to do, which I am quite sure he found very annoying. In fact, I know he found it annoying, because he used to say things like "how would I know? I'm not up yet!"

Anyhoodle, because I now use weather.com for purposes besides convincing myself it was within the 12 degree temperature range that allowed us to take the kids to recess, I knew YESTERDAY it was going to be rainy & gross today. That meant I went OUTSIDE yesterday, and read on the swing, and walked around downtown Decatur. I left all of the yucky inside chores for today, so today I get to do the following things:

1) Clean. In a big way.
2) Organize fabric into cloth bins suggested by the amazing Sarah.
3) Laundry. You all know that laundry is an uphill battle for me ALL THE TIME. I used to have to stay up all night in college sometimes, not to do schoolwork, but to do 15 loads of laundry. Ugh. I'm not that bad anymore, but I still really hate it. And believe you me, if I didn't have moral principles that prevent me from hiring out housework to people Lindsey & I refer to as domestic wageslaves, I'd definitely let someone else do my laundry. But that would be wrong.
4) Write a bunch of thank you notes, sympathy cards, and general mail that hasn't been sent for a variety of lame reasons.
5) Work on a master plan for VBS.

Did I mention that I bought Steel Magnolias for $5 at Target??? That means at some point today I'll be bawling my eyes out, if you're interested.

And has anyone listened to Lennye's playlist yet? It's definitely quality, but for some reason it makes me think I should be drinking while I'm listening to it. I'm not sure what that says, exactly, but it's an unsettling feeling at 10:00 in the morning...

Finally, I don't think I've shared this yet. While in New York, I got to check out the fabulous Purl Patchwork store. The thing is about the size of a large closet, but they have it very well stocked with some gorgeous fabric. I'll have to photograph my fabric selections for you, but here's a shot of the store:


For added excitement, you get to swivel your head to see this, because I forgot to flip it before I downloaded it, and I just plain REFUSE to waste time downloading it again.

Happy Tuesday!

Vintage Heart Swap - from Becky

First of all, I need to offer HUGE, gigantic, enormous apologies to the Fabulous Becky, who sent me such fantastic swap gifts, and whom I have neglected to thank publicly! So, Becky, I'm truly sorry it's taken me this long to share with the bloggy world the great things you sent me. :)

Secondly, y'all are going to be amazed with the things Becky sent. It is not acceptable to drive here and try to take them, but I am willing to let you see them when you come to visit, I promise.

Without further ado.....


This lovely framed art piece is made from a vintage quilted heart, vintage fabrics, trims, and a heck of a lot of ingenuity. I LOVE it. I am having trouble deciding where to put it, but it will be an all-the-time piece of art, not just a Valentine piece of art.
Becky also sent a pretty basket full of treats, including a silver heart box full of old buttons (!!!), a bunch of candy that may have disappeared very quickly, or so I heard, a nifty purse holder, another quilted heart magnet, some Mary Engelbreit items, and more.

And because this is hanging in our hard-to-photograph computer nook, I am linking to Becky's post about the calendar she designed & illustrated herself! It's a very high-quality calendar, and the images are just darling. I am not lying when I say that I hope she does one every year. ;) (Hint, hint, Becky!)

THANK YOU, Becky!!! This swap was a blast. :) If you're interested, you can see Becky's post about what I sent to her, here.

She's back. Again.

But only briefly.

I did manage, though, to swing two days off in a ROW. I got those to atone for working Saturday & Sunday. Yesterday lasted longer than I thought it would, so poor Lindsey had to go to my Sunday School meeting for me. Yes, you heard right. I have decided to teach Sunday School (again.) I gave it up for quite a while, since I had kids all day long every day, and I just didn't have much left to offer come Sunday morning. Since I don't have kids all day right now, I figured the time was right, plus they really needed someone to start a new class. So, here I am, the new 4 & 5 year old co-teacher. (They've arranged for two of us, but something tells me..... I digress. Ahem.)

Oh, and did I mention that I'm co-chairing Vacation Bible School, too???? That's only a week-long extravaganza, not to mention that I've never done that before.

Here's a question for you church-going readers: how much is expected of the parents of the children in your Sunday School programs? We're in a small quandary over this right now. I'm interested to know if we are unique in that none of the parents are directly involved in the Sunday School program.... They do other things in the church, but not this.

Very shortly, there will be another post, just as soon as some things get loaded into Flickr.... Be patient....

On the road again....

Tomorrow I leave for Savannah & Augusta, and I'll be on the road more or less non-stop till the end of March. YIKES! I could really have used another day off, but that's just not how the scheduling worked out. On the upside, I only have to go into the office tomorrow long enough to pick up a few things, so I will have some time to deal with a few things here.



It was great being a part of Chip & Katy's celebration yesterday. They have a very close group of friends from their singles' group (where they met, actually), and we were definitely the odd people out, but everyone was really friendly. Her father is a pastor, so he married them, which was sweet. Their ceremony was a great deal more contemporary than ours, but seemed to be meaningful to them. :) One sad moment was Lindsey's realization that because he had to stay after the ceremony for pictures, all the chocolate-covered strawberries would be gone by the time he got downstairs. This was the truth, unfortunately, but he managed to recover. Here he is with the tricycle we decorated as the getaway car. The frog "chauffeur" plays Cypress Hill's Jump Around, which was hysterical to everyone in our demographic.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We're headed out of town for a wedding tomorrow, so I thought I should post this a bit early. I received my amazing valentines from Sarah's swap today. If you look through the last few entries, you'll be able to see all the valentines. Some of them took a tremendous amount of effort! They are all quite nifty, though, and I can't wait to decorate with them. :) This was my offering:

I really loved the vintage girlies I cut from a sheet of wrapping paper. They were not so fun to cut out (I'd forgotten how thin wrapping paper used to be), but I thought they looked pretty good. Sarah probably wants to kill me for glittering the hearts, but it was a lot of fun to do. :)

Have fun tomorrow, and have a good weekend. I'll be back on Sunday with wedding pictures!

Day in the Life of a 3rd Year

The star of this is my brother's friend. It's hysterical, particularly knowing this kid.

Random Moments from the Weekend

See all that grey? That was Saturday. Sunday was much prettier - until I got on my plane, whereupon we had a snowstorm. Yes, you can fly in a snowstorm. No, it is not any fun. Trust me.

Caro - looking oh-so-lovely - this is actually the bed. Apparently, when your hotel has a letter of the alphabet for a name, this is what you get. Seriously, though, Lauren was awesome to let us eat up a kabillionty of her hotel points to stay there.

Heather & Lauren - somewhere in Soho - eating gluten-free goodness.

Remnants of said gluten-free goodness - three cupcakes gone. I told them the Mama Lee story about cupcake wrappers, but they were unimpressed. Hmpf.

Caro & I - post cupcake.

Joey, Jason, & some girl. Joey is fabulous, because he hates diamonds, too. (Actually, he's fantastic in general, but you get my point.)