Trackout and Speeding Tickets

Today is the first day of Emma's 3 week trackout. I was a little concerned on Friday about her being home for 3 weeks since she was complaining 30 min. after she got home from school that she was bored. However, today has gone surprisingly well. Lily is so happy she's home to play with this afternoon and it's been very peaceful for me. Now, I realize it's day 1 and the day isn't even over yet but...we are off to a good start! Maybe these next 3 weeks won't feel like the eternity I once thought...

Paul got a speeding ticket last week. He says I shouldn't care since this is the first one he's had since we were married (8 years). Right. My point in sharing this story is the unbelievable amount of law office solicitations he's gotten in the past few days. He got his ticket at 11:15pm on Wed night and Friday in the mail he got 7 solicitations from law offices offering their legal services. Today he got a few more. I think he's up to 10 now..I'm amazed this being the first traffic ticket either of us has gotten in many years...I had no idea law offices did that for speeding tickets..just crazy! I also didn't realize how expensive it could be to get a speeding ticket..court costs have risen in the years since I've had a traffic violation..inflation I guess...

Surprise!

I am feeling so overwhelmed and grateful tonight! I seriously have the best friends and neighbors ever..I am so blessed! So a couple months ago my friend, neighbor and fellow bunco player Ashley mentioned she wanted to host a baby shower for us. I was so touched by her offer and thankful. A couple other friends from the MOMS club had mentioned it too but I wasn't sure if it would all work out. In any event Ashley had said the shower was today 2:30 and my friend Belinda said I should stop by her house and get her on my way because her husband would be watching NFL opening day and she would need to leave at the last minute.

So I go down to Belinda's on my way to Ashley's..when I get there I ring the doorbell and Belinda says come on in I need to get my shoes. And once I walked in tons of my friends and neighbors are there! It was a surprise baby shower at her house! Those sneaky girls tricked me! Turns out all the awesome girls who offered to throw us a shower got together to plan this big surprise shower. It was so, so special. Like I mentioned tons of friends, neighbors and even my mother in law and sister in law were there. It was so great! I was overwhelmed with emotion. I just couldn't believe all the people there.

The afternoon was so lovely. The girls played some cute games and food was so, so yummy. The generosity of everyone was amazing - we got so, so much stuff for baby boy Potter (and no, we still do not have a name, really). Seriously I think all I really need to get are diapers! It was such a special, special day and I'm so thankful for all my friends!!

My friend Alyssa made this cake for the shower! Isn't it amazing!

Girl Power Rocks

So we bought this shelving system to use in the nursery to help store the new baby's stuff. It was a big decision for us for some reason and took us forever to decide what exactly we were going to do about storing his stuff. So we go to Target last Sunday and found these cute cubicles that can serve to store baby stuff for now and then can go into the playroom at some point for toy storage. So Sunday shelves bought and actually brought into the house. Good start. So the box sits in front of the nursery all week. Paul was off yesterday and thought he might get around to putting it together but no, he did not. And I really need the shelves put together so I can put baby stuff away. So this morning I start pondering whether I could put the shelves together by myself. I'm a fairly smart person, I can read directions, I can sort of use power tools why not I think to myself. Then I tried to lift the box to move it and decided I needed help.

So my good friend Belinda came to the rescue. She's very smart and I've heard her say before that she doesn't like to wait for her husband to help with such matters so she brought her kids over and we went to work on my shelves. Well...she went to work on the shelves and I was present in the room. I did help a little but she did most of the work. We had one minor mishap that doesn't need to be repeated but overall we rocked it. And, my shelves are done and put together and all ready for baby stuff! And Paul will be thrilled that it's done and that he didn't have to do it or listen to me nag him for another week until it's done. Yeah! Girl power rocks!!

First Day of Preschool

My Lily finally started preschool today! Yeah! It's been a long last few weeks of summer. She's been missing Emma a lot over the past couple weeks so it was nice for her to do something of her own. She said she had a great day and likes her teacher. I don't get much out of her. Contrary to Emma "The Talker", Lily doesn't talk about every detail of every day. So little by little this afternoon I've been getting parts of the story.

Julia and I had a fun morning. We went to Target, AC Moore, Trader Joe's, Staples and Food Lion. You can really accomplish a lot in 3 hours with only 1 child (especially when you are used to having 2 or more)! Two more days to enjoy time with just Julia while Lily is at school......

Yeah for Preschool Haiku

Preschool starts Tuesday
Oh the shopping I will do
Glad for 2 in school

Meet the Teacher Day

Today was Meet the Teacher Day for Lily's preschool. It was very exciting to be back at preschool. We got to see some friends from last year and meet her new teacher. I think the new teacher will be fabulous. I'm excited that Lily has her. There are only 10 kids in Lily's class right now which is great. I guess there are openings but with the school cut off changing for Wake County for this Kindergarten class perhaps that has kept the numbers down? Who cares.. really it's good for Lily to have a smaller class...10 kids..2 teachers. Perfect.

We also got a new tote bag so I'm sure there will be more tote bag drama to report tomorrow. Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought the school tote bags from last year were crap so this year the school just got the ones from Michaels (yep..same one I bought on Tuesday) and were selling those for $3 (yep..cheaper than what I paid on Tuesday) so we got that one. Then we headed to JoAnn's to get some more supplies to decorate said tote bag. Seriously this has turned out to be the most expensive tote bag ever. My friend Belinda (Hi Belinda!) said she's help me sew on the iron-ons this time which I think will be very helpful.

So the "Countdown to Preschool" is at 5 days - yeah. Which means I'll have approximately 3 days or 9 hours to enjoy with just Julia before "The Talker" aka Emma tracks out for 3 weeks. That might just be a very long 3 weeks....

The Most Expensive Tote Bag...

So Lily needs a new tote bag for preschool. The preschool sold them last year for $2 but they were crappy and thin so I thought this year I'd spring for the extra $1.50 and just get her a more durable canvas one at Michael's that we could decorate this week and have all ready for her first day next Tuesday. So armed with my 40% off coupon we head to Michael's this morning to pick out the tote bag and some iron on appliques for it. Of course my strong willed 4 year old had to pick out the royal blue tote bag - instead of the plain canvas or cute denim one..but at $3.49 who really cares...So then she picks out letters to spell her name (this is after I vetoed the paint because we tried that last year and it wasn't as cute as I envisioned and was actually sort of messy). Thankfully her name is short. Then she goes to pick out other iron-ons. We go through about 100 before she settles on a mulitpack that includes a "born to shop" purse, a cell phone, high heels, a "girls rule" heart, a lipstick and the word "sassy." No butterflies or flowers for my 4 year old..(we're in big trouble..I know). Then we pick up some beads so we can go to my friend Belinda's to use her Bedazzler to add some bling to the bag. We head to the register and $15.51 later we're out of there.

She's so excited to do her new tote bag so we get home and turn the iron on and start to work. I get the Lily on and am feeling pretty confident in my abilities to do iron on transfers. Then I go to work on the purse. I decide to just open the bag up and stick the iron in there to do the back..why waste time turning the bag inside out. Except I didn't realize the handle was under the iron. And guess what happened..you domestic people probably know..yep..the handle melted. Crap. And broke and left blue junk all over my iron. Great. Tote bag is now in the trash can.

So now it's back to Michaels for another $3.49 canvas tote bag and more freaking iron on junk. This tote bag is costing me more money and time than the infamous Hannah Montana backpack.