Scrapbook getaway

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for this! My friend Stacy in Duluth has gone to this scrapbook retreat 2 other times, and this time she politely insisted that I needed to go. Hmmm, kids have no school all week, this could work. I checked with David while at work and he volunteered to take 2 days of vacation so I could go; and he could have bonding time with the girls. We stay at an 11-12 person retreat house in Meadowlands with a complete kitchen. People offer free-will potluck-type items for the meals,-taco salad, take and bake pizzas and egg bake for brunch (yuck!) I have my rice cakes and peanut butter all set to go since I hate eggs. Stacy and I will share a 2-person room with its own bathroom. The workroom has huge banquet tables for us to set up on and go to town. I have neglected my Florida pictures, so I plan on working on that. We'll be there from 3:00 today until around 11:30 on Tuesday. I don't know if I will know what to do with myself... No chores and no children will be very strange! She said its very relaxing; sounds like just what I need. Not that I'm complaining but that 22 months while he was gone was challenging!

So the only downfall is I've been fighting the cold-crud since Tuesday, but finally starting to feel normal. Now I just have a little congestion and occasional cough.

A.I.: Sad to Chikizie go. I kind of thought Ramiele would leave. Actually liked how Kristy Lee Cook sang. My favorites last week were: Carly, David C., David A. and Luke. AND, the best news (in t.v. land) is Grey's Anatomy comes back on April 24!!! YES, YES, YES! FINALLY! I recently watched an old Patrick Dempsey movie- "Can't Buy me love", he was sooooo geeky! Much improved now days!

A.I. review/house stuff

Ok, um why is Kristy Lee Cook still on there???! But I was having 2nd thoughts about David H. anyway. I hope David A. can come back down to earth and remember the words to a song. I LOVED Chikezie's performance! Brooke, Carly, David C. and Chickezie were my fav's this week; sometimes that'll change from week-to-week.

I had a crazy morning yesterday. I spent 1 1/2 hours at a mortgage place filling out and signing papers, and asking a lot of questions. Last week we were pre-approved at a credit union but our realtor wanted us to check one more place. She had me working with the "first-time homebuyer's guru", but it turns out she could get us the best deal through the V.A.; mostly due to not having to pay P.M.I. So again re-pre-approved and being shown 10 houses in Cottage Grove on Friday. I found out that likely our landlord will show our place furnished (with our stuff in it) to perspective renters, so I'm stressing a little. Ok, A LOT. I've got to just stop and breathe. I don't know how fabulous the place can look but I will try. I'm going to buy some boxes for personal items-pictures mostly. Now I feel like I have to stage this place and it's not mine, per se. Here we go, my craziness gets crazier. I had jokingly told my mom that when they come for Amanda's first communion they'd be sitting on boxes. It won't be that bad, but there probably won't be too many decorative things and such around. Our lease ends June 30 and we have to give 60 days notice, so our tentative goal is to notify her by April 30. This could all change depending when we find something we want to buy.

spring finally?

Oh my goodness, what a beautiful day!!! IT'S ABOUT BLOODY TIME! Excuse the anger, but we've had snow on the ground since December 1st, it gets really old really fast! I let Amanda and Abby color with chalk in the driveway-they had an absolute blast!!! You could really tell they had cabin fever when I tried oh, like 3 times to get them in the house. Abby just ran right back out with the chalk in her hand. She was so angry when she had to come in. We bribed her to eat dinner while watching a DVD, so it was seriously serious. I looked at the temp several times and it was a balmy 50 at one point. We look forward to daylight a little longer although the time change has kind of been rough.

For the AI fans; the top 12 tonight! Randy & Paula appeared on the Today show and their favorites are David A., David C., Brooke and Carly. I agree with those choices. Can't wait to watch! If I had to guess, I'd say probably Kristy Lee Cook will go next. Thoughts? Comments?

house shopping

Since David returned from Iraq we've been wanting and preparing to buy a house, finally! I look on-line all the time just to see what's out there, but we now have the official green light with a pre-approval! I couldn't even call David to tell him, as he's in EMT classes at Camp Ripley. So I had to settle for sending him an e-mail and he'll call home tonight. We are very much wanting to stay in Cottage Grove, but would also consider Woodbury as it's the same school district. Our landlord gave us the name of her realtor and she's coming over to talk to us on Saturday. I really couldn't be any more excited. We hope to be settled before the fall school year starts, to make it easier for the girls. A yard will be a nice bonus feature, one we have missed since moving from Duluth. Yet, I don't miss mowing that big lawn we had on Niagara Street! Hard on the allergies...

Clumsy or bad luck?

On Saturday the little girls and I had cabin fever. David had gone to Duluth on Friday for drill and was back in the cities about 24 hours later. Then on Sunday he had to leave again for Camp Ripley for a week-long school on EMT re-certification. So our window of opportunity was very short. When he called to say he was on his way home, I asked if he was up to it and he said yes. We hit the road and headed towards MOA; crazy but I wanted to do some walking.

We parked and I was getting the girls and the stuff ready to go. David was in the back of the van getting the stroller. I walked around the back and CLOCKED me on the head with the tail gate as it was coming down-David had hit the button and didn't see me. Oh my goodness, that HURT! It literally brought tears to my eyes. I also managed to bite the tip of my tongue and it was now bleeding. David made sure I was ok of course, and then we went inside to walk around. The day it happened my head really didn't hurt, just my tongue; and it was hard to talk normally. Sunday I felt better. Today I woke up with a headache and the spot on my head hurts. Of course it has to be on my forehead, and it'll will likely turn black & blue....Oh yeah.