Six more weeks

As I was leaving to take Spencer to school this morning, we had to wait on a very grouchy raccoon to get out of our way.  Doesn't he know he is nocturnal?

Spencer and I made jokes all the way to school about why the grouchy coon was out and about this morning.   Did he come home smelling of fox and his wife kick him out?  Did he party all night? Did he see his shadow and we're going to have six more weeks of...weird?

Celebrating the LOVE in my Life

Valentine's Day 2010 was as wonderful as all the people in my life. I had little gifts for all the kids and I made homemade goodies for the family (apple cake with caramel pecan topping and turtle brownies) 

Spencer got candy, gum, Mario Kart Pez and, oddly enough, swim goggles!

Will and I took the boys for lunch (they chose McDonalds!) and then for a couple of rounds of indoor miniature golf under black lights.

Of course I got Will chocolates from Mama Laura's and wine from the Wet Whistle...You can't have Valentine's Day in Trinity without those! I also got him a framed lithograph of Wayne Coyne's The Stars Are So Big since his favorite band is The Flaming Lips.  Don't judge--haha!

And Will did some major spoiling.  When you see me, make sure you oooh and ahhh over my beautiful new Accutron Courchevel watch.  He picked the perfect one: sapphire crystal (because he knows I am clumsy), 10 diamonds (because he knows I love me some bling), light blue mother-of-pearl on white face (because he is starting to embrace this Carolina Blue thing I think), Black onyx cabochon crown and lug ends (because hey, who doesn't think that's awesome??!!)...and of course he included candy and the gratuitous NC State T-shirt. He is such a sweet guy--how did I get so lucky?

Sunday Sunday Sunday

...actually it was Saturday Saturday Saturday...but that just doesn't have the same ring to it...
The boys went to Charlotte for their second Monster Jam event of the year.  Oh darn, I didn't get to go (ha ha) Spencer had a blast and the highlight of the day was meeting his favorite truck/driver:  El Torro Loco!

Everyone is burping up jalapeño poppers on Monday...

...because Will and I made 118 poppers for Super Bowl Sunday. It took 4 hours--seriously. Will even declared that now that he knows how long it takes to wash, clean, stuff and bake them, he will eat them s..l..o..w..e..r and savor each bite.


Since Will was here for the weekend, we thought it would be a good time to blend our poochies. We tried at Christmas and they weren't keen on the idea. But this time, it worked! Well, we had to give them warm up time.... And my big 60 pound lug still thinks he is a tiny lap dog (he loves to be held like a baby!)..and Will's little, chi-weenie thinks she is a huge mastiff and definitely established herself as the alpha dog.

As if the jalapeño poppers weren't enough, we also made brownies, caramel popcorn, and a special Key Lime cake for Melissa's birthday. Will had the pain-staking task of spelling out "happy birthday" in mouse droppings a.k.a chocolate sprinkles. The cake was a hit--and tasted good, too!

The Super Bowl was fun to watch-- most of us were cheering for the Saints so it was great to see them win. Of course, the drunken victory calls from my "coonass" friends (What's up Lori?) made the night even more memorable!

Per tradition, the party is at Mom and Dad's house. But they don't even watch the game! Mom, Dad, Betty, Ann, Archie and Lisa stayed in the kitchen all night enjoying the conversation, drinks and snacks. Spencer and IV played in the hallway on the Pepsi football field rug most of the evening. Randy, Karen, III, Lucy, Will and I stayed in the living room and enjoyed the game, the commercials...and judging from today's indigestion...too many poppers!

Route 258

Most of you know that I have been a Mobile Meals volunteer for about 12 years. My dear friend and Mobile Meals partner (we drive/deliver the meals in teams) for that entire time, Nancy, died unexpectedly New Years Eve; therefore, last week was my first delivery without her.
Her funeral was difficult--because I think I was still in shock-- but as fate would have it, I ended up doing the route alone for January. I drove most of it through tears, but I think it brought the closure I needed.
It is normal to worry about losing family, I never considered the void I would feel from losing a friend -- the books I borrowed and never got to return, the recipes we shared, how I feel when I put on the pin she gave me for my birthday. It's a different kind of hurt--but a wake up call to make sure I cherish everyone around me.
As for my Mobile Meals route, I will continue on in Nancy's honor. Both my mom (also a friend of Nancy) and Nancy's sister have agreed to be my new "partners."

First Scrapbooking Weekend of 2010

Neither rain nor sleet nor snow could stop the LooLoo Crew scrapbook weekend.  We piled in on Friday and just let ourselves be snowed in while we cropped all weekend long.  It was the perfect time to get some scrapbooking done!
The weather did keep a couple of our girls away, but Dee, Stacy, Julie, Melissa W (Lucy), Holly, Mom and I made it the entire weekend.  Melissa P was able to join us Friday night but the roads were too bad for her to come back on Saturday.

Of course, we took a brief time-out to play in the snow.  Stacy and Melissa were far more adventurous than the rest of us!

And as usual, I did something stupid. Sometime after midnight Saturday night, I went to the downstairs fridge looking for a snack. I found the leftover cantaloupe and the sour cream container the fruit dip was in. Since there was only a little bit of each, I took them back to my desk and ate straight from the containers.

The next morning at breakfast, Julie went to the upstairs fridge and got out some fruit and the sour cream container of leftover fruit dip. Uhmmmm....what?? Are there two fruit dip containers??? Nope. Julie said the fruit dip had been upstairs all along! So what in the hell did I eat??
We dug the container out of the trash and it had expired in May 2009. OMG!!! It was lumpy (but so was the fruit dip) but it wasn't moldy or smelly-- all I really remember tasting was the cantaloupe because I was kind of stopped up/nasally. I was instantly nauseous.... We have NO IDEA what I ate!!!

New Pets?

To country folks, these two fellas might look like little bits of bait, but to Spencer, these are our two new pets: Tar and Heel.  They are aquatic African Dwarf Frogs and are about as exciting as watching paint dry.  How did that kid get me to waste $30 on these nasty little things??? << sigh  >>

Goodbyn Bandwagon

Okay. Okay. Okay. I am FINALLY on the Goodbyn bandwagon-- all those bully mommies I hang with finally convinced me to do the "green" thing while still packing Spencer a nutritious lunch and guess what-- HE LOVES IT!  And no wasted baggies, saran, foil, etc. Excellent!