The Way Things Are

So, in the course of putting the house back together after the new flooring, I have been sorting through our possessions, and I filled three paper grocery sacks full of books I no longer wanted. DH, the girls and I trooped down to Half Price Books on Saturday to sell them.
I asked the lady if we could just go eat lunch and come back, and she said no, that we had to stay in the store.
Fine.
You know what happened, don't you?
DH found a $17 book he'd been looking for, I found a $5 Jude Devereaux I hadn't read, and each of the girls found a book they wanted.
The total from the three grocery sacks full of books? $11
The total of the books we purchased? $35

Procrastination

Go Texan day snuck up on me this year.
For those of my readers who are not Texans, "Go Texan Day" is a day where your kids dress up as cowboys/girls, and do square dances during PE, and you can go watch them and take copious pictures.
I normally buy the cowboy boots at Target in December on sale, and we're good. But I forgot this year, which is why Wednesday DD1 and 1 went to 5 stores looking for boots, to no avail.
Today, I found some at Boot Town. I bought them in the afternoon, and when DD1 tried them on, they were too small, so we went back and she found a comparable pair that fit. I went up to the front to exchange them, but there was no tag on the new pair of boots, so the guy asked me to step aside so he could ring someone else up while a minion went to discover the price. So I wait for about 5 minutes. Finally the minion comes back, and the guy looks up and tells me the price. Fine.
And I expect, that when he has finished ringing up the lady at the front of the line, he will motion to me, and I can finish the exchange. But no. After that lady way done, he looked at the next lady in line and started ringing up her purchases, never giving me a second glance.
So I had to go to THE BACK OF THE LINE. Which, because Go Texan day is tomorrow, was long. And the kids were cranky and tired and hyper. And I was at least two of those.

I Won!

My friend Danielle and I and six others put together a little Oscar pool, each chipping in $5. and I won! $45! Yay! I'm going to sock it away toward that new lamp I want....http://www.barnesandwagner.com/bwg31199my.html
Biggest surprise of the evening: Best Actress going to Mariane Cotillard. Didn't see that one coming -- I picked Julie Christie to win.

Camping Out

I slept alone last night, not because DH and I are on the outs, but because he and the girls decided they wanted to sleep in the tent in the back yard last night. They asked me if I wanted to join them (ha!), but I informed that that ladies of my advanced years do not sleep on the bare ground without the benefit of air mattresses. Plus, I have to be at church at 7:45 these days, and I wanted to be well rested.
Turns out the birds woke them up around the crack of dawn, so they all trooped in and went to bed.

Update

Sorry I haven't posted much lately, but nothing particularly interesting or funny has happened lately -- i've been bz catching up on laundry and getting DH's office put back together so one can walk in there.
The girls and i went to family Zumba at the Y tonight. they were kind of so-so about the class, but they really liked the hip scarves some of the ladies were wearing around their waist that had jingly coins attached. the scarves were $8 apiece, so i told the girls i would buy them each one, but they had to go to 8 zumba classes with me.

Today

Did laundry in the morning, and then went to have lunch with my old friends Mindy and Robert. They were my first two friends that I made in Houston. Mindy and I were in a show together, and Robert and Mindy are best friends, so we all hung out together and did karaoke on the weekends and so on.
We hadn't seen each other in months, so we sat there for over two hours and talked and laughed. Our little waitress kept coming by and saying, "Is there anything I can get you?" There were empty tables around, so I didn't feel guilty about making anyone wait.
There's something so satisfying about spending time with people who have known you a long time.

I Am Soooooo Pretty

Some of you may not know, that when someone around me says something a little silly or stupid, I turn to them and say, "You are so pretty."
So.
DH had yesterday off. Because it was Presidents' Day.
DD1 had yesterday off. Because it was Presidents' Day.
And somehow, in my chemo-addled brain, that transformed into EVERYONE had the day off! So, around 10:30 yesterday morning, we all pile in the car to go see "The Spiderwick Chronicles." And our route takes us past DD2's school.
And there are all these cars in the parking lot.
Hmmm, I thought. That's odd. Maybe the teachers are having an inservice day.
So I call my dear friend Anne, whose son attends there, and ask, "Did we have school today?"
And she just starts laughing.
Whoops!
So, we just declared it a vacation day for DD2, because we didn't think she'd be happy if we turned around and put her in her uniform and dropped her off at school while the rest of us went to a movie.

One Boston Terrier. Going Cheap.

So, Saturday was DH's bday. After i got home from zumbaing, i took a shower and we all went to brunch at Le Peep, and then to Whole Foods. We got home, and I goofed around on the computer for a while, looking at lamps online. While I was surfing, I opened the box of SF chocolates I had bought myself for Valentine's Day. A box of 12 SF chocolates. I had 2.
After a while, I glanced at my watch, and realized that it was around 3:30, and I needed to go pick up DH's cake. So, I put the box of SF chocolates on top of my printer. Which is on top of my bookcase, about 3.5 feet off the ground.
Came home a while later, and noticed the bedclothes were off the bed. OK, keeping a tidy bed isn't important to my family, so didn't think too much of it. Then, DD1 comes in and tells me Bella threw up on the mattress cover to my bed. Sigh. OK. I put her in her bathroom, and strip the mattress cover. DH mentioned offhandedly that, oh yeah someone threw up on the bed, so he took the sheets off of it. (And put them on the FLOOR, but that's a story for another day.)
OK, so the dog is having stomach problems. Fine. Happens to everyone sooner or later, and the way that dog eats, i'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner. I announce to everyone to LEAVE THE DOG IN THE BATHROOM.
Which they did. For about forty minutes. Then, DD2 lets her out, and she promptly goes into the girls' bedroom and throws up.
After the requisite yelling, I put her back in the bathroom, and scrub the brown stain out of my brand-new carpet.
Long story short, she threw up six more times last night, so I had to put her in the master bathroom while I cleaned up the little bathroom, then give her a bath, and put her back in there. Before I left for church this morning, I checked on her and she'd thrown up four more times, which DH took care of.
I couldn't figure out what she could have had that would have disagreed with her so violently, until I saw my box of SF chocolates.
Which now contained only TWO chocolates.

Valentine's Day

V Day was actually pretty nice! I found a nice big pot for DH's cactus, which kept toppling over outside because its pot was too small. And! It was 30% off. I had lunch with DD2, and then a while later went to her Valentine's Day party at school.
I made lasagna with whole wheat noodles and organic marinara sauce for supper, and then the DDs ate their chocolates while I had some chocolate-covered strawberries. Mmmm.
DH did very well in regard to my gift -- he got me the Dancing With the Stars Wii game! Every week when we went to Target, I'd go look at it, to see if it was on sale. And it never was.
My new motto for Valentine's Day is -- do it yourself. You want Brighton perfume for Valentine's Day? Get it yourself. You want chocolate-covered strawberries? Get them yourself. That way, your DH is not burdened by your expectations.
So, I went and got "Live" perfume (appropiate name, I know)at a little boutique nearby after DD2's party, and got 4 c.c. strawberries at the grocery store right afterward. And I was happy.

So I'm walking out to my van this morning to go to Zumba class, and I see my pastor and his wife and another church member jog by. They asked me to join them, but I said no, because, let's compare running with Zumba:

1. Running: put one foot in front of the other. Repeat. You will be outside with the bugs and rain.

2. Zumba: Shake your booty to Latin and/or Middle Eastern music. You will be inside, in a nice climate controlled environment. No bugs. No rain. Ignore the mirror.

One Year!

Today is my one-year survivor date! It was one year ago today that the surgeon came into the recovery room and told me the lump was cancerous. Four more years to go, and then i'll be "cured".
Had lunch at a salad bar place with my dear friend Anne, who helped coordinate meals for me last year. Had supper at Outback Steakhouse with the fam. It was very yummy. I had a burger and steamed veggies, and part of a dessert. We tried to go to Texas Roadhouse to eat, but the parking lot was full. So, Outback it was.

Sorry, Too Tired To Insert A Witty Title

If someone ever says, "Hey! Put new carpet in five of your eight rooms! It'll be fun!", just slap them.
If you've never had new carpet put in a house you are currently occupying, let me tell you, it is just like moving. In one day. Only you don't get a bigger space to live in. And you have to cram the contents of five rooms into three rooms. Three non-empty rooms. And there will be 4 carpet guys, who will work much faster than you, so you will go straight from finishing emptying the last of the rooms to be carpeted into reloading the newly carpeted rooms. And your shins will be so bruised from bumping into stuff while carrying other stuff, you will look like you have some kind of amorphous tattoos.
The Home Depot Carpet Guys will move 5 items per room. No electronics. No antiques. OK.
Only, we have so much stuff, that they had to put the ten things from the two front rooms outside. By God's grace, it was a nice day. I was half afraid people would think it was a yard sale, and would offer ten bucks for my bookshelves.

Only of course, I got online AFTER the carpet had been installed, and discovered the toxicity of new carpet. Great. So now I have windows open all over the house. Hope it doesn't rain.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

So, my friend Debbie is planning on moving to Katy in the summer, as she wants to be nearer her family, and she wants her son to go to a better middle school. And Katy is around 30 to 40 minutes away from here.
NOW, I find out my friend Linda is planning on moving in May, as she and her DH have put earnest money down on a house in the Woodlands, which is about 30 to 40 minutes from here.
Not. Fair.

Kids Are Literal Minded

So, today was Communion Sunday, and at this church, they always have a couple of cute kids stand holding a basket near the communion stands in case people want to give a donation. This month's donation would go to a nearby food pantry. Anyway, they needed some cute kids for the 8:15 service, and since I was going to be there anyway, I volunteered the DDs.
They did pretty well, sitting there all alone, since I was up in the crow's nest. It was DD2's first time in Big Church. DD2 did get confused when they passed the offering plates, as she thought it was time for her to use her basket.
Anyway, after everyone had finished communion, the pastor motioned to the girls to come put their baskets on the altar. Then, he apparently asked them if they wanted to take communion. Although they have both accepted Christ, they have never taken communion before.
At this church, the way they serve communion is they tear off a piece of bread and give it to you and say, "This is the body of Christ." Then you dip it into the goblet of grape juice while the pastor says, "This is the blood of Christ." Then you eat your grape juice-soaked piece of bread.
When it came her turn, DD2 was none too sure she wanted to eat a piece of bread that had blood on it.....