Sell, Baby, Sell!!!

Emma has been learning the finer points of sales...something I HATE doing, and something Emma and her other Daisy friends are proving to show that they may have a promising career! We were selling Girl Scout Cookies at the PetCo in Auburn Hills on Saturday! The weather cooperated and the sun made it quite nice outside in the middle of February! There were about 6 girls that came over the course of about 3 hours and we sold 118 boxes of cookies! Here's our booth...that's Emma sitting in the front with the earmuffs and sunglasses... :)

If anyone would like to buy some Girl Scout cookies, let me know! We're selling them until March 20th! They are $3.50 a box and there are 8 different kinds! :)

A Busy Saturday!

The only thing scarier than realizing I made it through Saturday, is looking at my calendar for the week ahead of me!

Saturday was absolutely crazy...and ended up going so well! I took Bradlee to his gymnastics class make-up from the snow day...then I took him to get gas in the car, pick up some flowers, and through the car wash! In the mean time, Tony took Emma to a birthday party for a friend! I got home with Bradlee, made him (us) lunch, then took him to get his haircut! He was SO good! He sat in the chair by himself for the first time and "helped" comb his hair with the combs Chrystal (our stylist) gave him to play with! She even made his hair spiky ("pikey!") when we left...he looks SO much older!!! So cute, though! :)

I took Bradlee grocery shopping and got back home just before Tony and Emma did from the birthday party. We had "rest time" (I would have said "nap time", except that would imply that someone actually napped!) and then got Emma ready for a big night!!! It was Tony and Emma's first Daddy/Daughter Dance!!! They had a wonderful time!

Tony and Emma left for the dance, I took Bradlee over to my parents' house for dinner at Fuddruckers! I left Bradlee with my parents, then went down to Holly to pick Emma up. Tony was then going to the high school to DJ the Snowcoming Dance! We went back to my parents' house and then just had a great time the rest of the night!! Kat and Garrett were there, also, so we had a nice time talking and just hanging out!

A great story of the night: Bradlee and Emma were in the living room playing, the rest of us were in the kitchen talking. All of a sudden, a car alarm starts going off in the driveway! Garrett looked out the window, and it was my mom's van. He put his shoes on to go outside and investigate. My mom turned the alarm off with her key fab. I asked her where the other key was (thinking the kids found it and were playing!) and she said it was hanging up right next to where her keys were. I went into the living room, and there on the table with some blocks was a key fab from the van! Last Christmas (2009), my dad gave my mom a remote starter for the van...they got 2 new key fabs (which they use now), and they still had the old ones in their living room! I picked it up and asked Emma if she had been playing with it and she said no. I then went to Bradlee and said, "Bradlee, were you playing with this?" He looked at me with those beautiful blue eyes and oh so innocently said, "Yep!" :) I asked him if he was pushing the buttons and he said, "Yep!" Mystery Solved!!!! We all got a good laugh, and my dad took care of the key fabs they don't use anymore! :) Bradlee got a round of high-fives from everyone for the good "joke" he played on us! :)

17 Minutes...

I only have about 17 minutes until House comes on, so I thought I'd share these few photos...

On Friday, if they took in a box of the "Drink on the Go" mixes to send to the troops overseas, the kids at Emma's school were allowed to wear "mixed-up" clothing to school! Emma took full advantage of it and helped pick out this outfit...she did have a pink hoodie sweatshirt on over the dress, too, but got too warm during the day and it came off. My favorite part is the purple & yellow knee socks...and you can't see them, but she has two different earrings in and her hair has half in a pig tail and half out! What a mixed-up kid! She had a GREAT time participating! :)

On Saturday, Tony and Emma entered a small derby car in the "Girl Scouts' Powder Puff Derby" in Holly. There were a ton of girls there racing their cars they each decorated, designed and named...and let me tell you, it was definitely a girls' race! There were names like "Pink Pony Princess" and "Hello Kitty" and, my personal favorite, "Prettiest Pink Princess". LOL Emma named her car "Bolt" (after the Disney movie...we were watching it at home when we asked her what name it should have!) She even designed it like the dog...white car, red lightening bolts on either side, and googlie-eyes, a nose and whiskers in the front. Well, here are Tony and Emma putting some final touches on the car (and adding a weight)...

Each car raced 4 times in the first round...one time in each of the four lanes. "Bolt" won 2 of those 4 races! She was really excited to see how fast it could go. Her car ended up finishing 5th in her Daisy division (of about 20) and 21st overall (of about 75)! The best part was that the girl who's car won the OVERALL 1st place (in all the divisions!) was a girl from her troop!! They had a great time, and Emma got her first trophy for participating...and of course a patch for Gramma to sew onto her smock! :)

Sunday was the Superbowl...and while the team all 4 of us didn't win (Steelers), we had a great time at my parents' house for their annual Superbowl Party! Here's Emma with part of the food spread! :) She had fun trying all the new foods and Bradlee had fun helping Gramma and Boppa cut up veggies for the veggie tray. Boppa would cut the onions (green), hand them to Bradlee to put in his bucket to rinse off, and instead, he would PULL off the rest of the green part, throw it in the sink and then save the white parts of the onion. When Boppa finally noticed what he was doing Bradlee's response was, "I fixing them." :) PRICELESS. We got pictures of Bradlee helping Gramma and Boppa, but they're on my dad's camera...

(I have 7 minutes!) I was having a crummy day today...I woke up with hives all over. This hasn't happened in quite a long time (use to happen all the time when I was little!), but it was getting worse over the course of the day. I have no idea what caused them, but my doctor gave me a few medications to help them go down, and to help with the CONSTANT ITCHING! :/ However, I can always rely on my kids to brighten my day and make me smile...I used to make these "pillow hats" when I was younger...I first learned how to make them at Interlochen and then I utilized my skills throughout high school! :) The kids LOVED them....I think Bradlee's was a little too heavy for him...he had to rest his against the counter so I could get the picture, but he was laughing so hard, you can't even tell! :) LOL

Have a great week! :) (I still have 4 minutes to spell-check and post!) :)

Snow Day #1!!

I was so thankful for the snow not coming until late last night because I could go to rehearsal for the Flint Symphonic Wind Ensemble! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the music we're playing and we have 2 performances coming up that we really need the rehearsals...while we only stayed about an hour, we accomplished a lot as a 3/4 band (about 1/4 of the members didn't show up) and makes me feel that much more confident in our performances! Since we knew quite early that Emma, Bradlee and Tony wouldn't have school today, I took Emma to rehearsal with me! She LOVED sitting with me in the clarinet section and listening to the music and watching all the different instruments. She also took some coloring items so she wouldn't be bored! :) Some of the other members of the band loved having a little girl there, too...especially one that was so curious about all the instruments!

Before Emma and I left, her and Bradlee were running around wearing Tony's and my boots that were drying on our rug by the door. Here's Buzz, ready to defend the snowy galaxy! :) Yes, that's a CMU hat he has on!! Sorry for the fuzziness of the picture, he wouldn't hold still! :)

So Emma and I left rehearsal and got home in decent time...no snow yet, just cold and windy! Boy oh boy was it a different story when we woke up!! I had set my alarm an hour earlier in order to give myself time to get to work...after all, banks don't close for weather (well, unless the county orders it...and that has happened once in the last 26 years!)...so I was all prepared. Got up around 7am, ready to walk out the door at 8am...brushed off the car and got in, ready to drive to work (to be there by 9am)...and I get stuck. I don't mean stuck for a minute...I mean STUCK. Couldn't move forward, couldn't move backwards...the best part of the whole thing, was that I was still in my driveway!! So I got out, called my boss (who had already called me earlier to tell me the bank was open!), changed my clothes and went out to shovel and snow blow. It took FOREVER. I figure I started about 8:15am...and I didn't get back inside until 9:30! Granted, I'm a perfectionist and made sure I did a good job, plus we do our neighbor's driveway, also. Nonetheless, it took a long time. I was able to move the van out of the way to get the driveway, then moved it back up to the top, then went around my car (still stuck), and did the whole bottom of the driveway...this is what I had to work with!

It looks like I was taking a picture of the snow blower...but I was using that as a gauge as to how high the snow was! This was the first time I went out...when I finished the bottom of the driveway and the sidewalk and the neighbor's, I tried moving the car again...no luck. I called my boss again and told her I wasn't going to make it in. Not only could I not move my car, but it was snowing again, the bottom of the driveway still had about a foot of snow, and NOTHING had been done with the street...I was out of luck. Damn.

Yes, I was disappointed. I love my job. I love doing my job. I hate other people doing my job. I hate having to not go to work because of something stupid like SNOW! :) Oh well...I took it for what I could. Nothing else I could do! I poured some salt under each of the tires of the car, on the driveway and porch and went inside to warm up!

About 4 hours later it didn't even look like I had shoveled! So I headed outside, started up the snow blower again and did everything all over again...this time, when I was done with the snow blower, I grabbed the shovel and basically dug out the snow that had melted and was now slush that was under my tires. Got in the car, said a prayer, and the car moved! :) I pulled it up the driveway and there it sits right now! :) I cleaned up the rest of the snow that was under my car, sprinkled some more salt, and went back inside!

Whew! I was exhausted! The kids wanted to finger paint, so I got out the paints and paper and let them go at it...predictably, they went after themselves, too!!

Bath time followed, then dinner and a movie (BOLT!)....now everyone is quietly sleeping...and that's where I'm headed, too!

Tomorrow's another snow day...I wonder what adventures the day will bring?