Happy Birthday Lori!

My college roommate turned 40 on St. Patrick's Day. Doesn't she look good! I have been planning to surprise her for lunch since January so besides the Friday before my birthday party this is the only day I have actually asked for off in January. Then her sister decided to have a surprise birthday party for her the Saturday before. So I decide to go down for that. Then my DH decides that I can't go out two nights in a row I need to choose either Friday after work (which has been planned for 3 week) or Lori's party. Since the work group was already giving me a little grief because I have been the one to leave early the last few times I knew I couldn't skip that. And I'm sure that was the one Brian was hoping I would forgo. I had Lori's birthday off so I knew I would still see her. It worked out great. I'm sure that she had no idea about it. I walked into her office and she was expecting her mom and dad. We had a great lunch. I got to hear how Mike is reacting to being an expecting dad. It's just like I knew it would be, he is just as nervous as Brian was the first time. They are both overprotective and worry about all the little things that you really can't do anything about. I was a little disappointed that she didn't have a baby bump yet, but I will see her again with one I know I will.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

What a beautiful day St. Patrick's Day was. Sunny and warm. It was almost 70 here.

Spring Break Monday

I got so much stuff done today it was amazing. First I was only on Facebook for 5 minutes this morning. Then we got much needed shoes for Campbell. Jamison and Campbell both have sandels for the summer now too. Then we got gas and checked out a new park to play at. We went to Hansen School as they built a new park this summer. Campbell was not to excited about it. He says Southdale still has the best park for schools. We attempted McDonald's for lunch. Jamison just did not eat as usual. Then home for naptime. The neighbors were out when we came home so I lost Campbell to the call of Star Wars. During nap I finished a quilt, I painted the board for the Upper Case Living saying below and I went through all my boxes in the garage. When Brian came home I had $55 worth of stuff to go to Goodwill in my trunk so he stayed home while I made my trip. Then Jamison got up and I took him to another park, to the recycling center to empty 2 tubs and to Wal-Mart to get milk and bread. When we came home it was time for supper. Bishop's has reopened at Crossroad's Mall and since this is one of Brian's favorite places to eat we headed over there for supper. When we came home it was homework time for Campbell, he has to write in his journal everyday this week. I put the saying on my board that I painted this afternoon and I started gathering items to give to my friend Lori for the baby. Whew! I'm tired, I think I will go to bed now. I hope tomorrow is just as productive.

Saturday & Sunday

Above is a February shot of Campbell after he lost his fourth tooth. You can actually tell this one is missing so I thought I better post.

So Saturday I didn't really get a lot done. Not that I planned to either. I don't have to be to work again until Thursday so I had time to do my list. I did some quilting and watched movies. Since I went out Friday I couldn't go down to Des Moines for Lori's surprise party. I don't think Brian understood that it was okay to bring the boys since we were to meet in a restaurant. But he wanted to also go to the boat show and he hadn't been out for (gasp!) 5 days. Heavens what should we do? Any way the only major thing I did on Saturday was pull Jamison's clothes out of the closet to go through it as we had a growth spurt. I still haven't gone through it.

Sunday since I quilted on Saturday I worked on scrapbooking. We went out for lunch with Ken and Lorraine. They took Jamison bowling and when they dropped him off for nap time they took Campbell went to the sports show. While it was nap time I went for a walk with Natalie since it was a beautiful spring day. We are both off on Wednesday so we have a play date with the kids. Brian and Campbell went to see about joining a gun club with no success. They will try again another day.

Friday the 13th

Friday night the work gang were going out and we were meeting at 4:42. I was a little late because Campbell was yelling at the xbox game because he was dying. We had to have a talk. I thought being just 5 minutes late I wouldn't be so far behind but no I find out MY BOSS let everyone go home early so I was 2 drinks behind when I got there. We had some shots on the owner and I need to find out what they were because they seriously tasted like cough syrup. But thank you Darren we did appreciate them and the free pizza. Go figure Terri's friend would know friends of Brian's now she is invited to the birthday party and I haven't invited them yet. We headed to the Triangle in Hudson for a few more drinks. Met Big Mike although at 6'5" I don't really think we need the "big" it's pretty much a given. Jeff and Natalie hit the dance floor. Oops they didn't have one. I do need to talk to Nick about his bartender. When half your clientele are sitting in one booth you should not make them come to the bar for drinks you should go out to them. I mean come on, you could go out to smoke stop by the table on your way back.

Okay Friday seemed like a bad thing while I was at work. Luckily, I only worked until noon. I left my mess of out of balance for Ruth to figure out. Sorry Ruth! Then I was off to school to help make green eggs and ham. Our eggs turned out a nice teal green color because the student putting in the food coloring did a quarter bottle of blue food coloring not just a drop or two. Some of the other groups actually made nice lime green eggs. Not in our room though.

The Retreat

We had such a great time at the quilting retreat. I only pulled out scrapbooking once and it was a magazine. The only reason I pulled it out was that I was DONE WITH MY QUILT TOP. Yes, you read correctly. I did it. I started at 9 Saturday morning and finished at 10:25 that night. With a trip to the quilt shop and eating way to much food in between. I saw what Natalie and I are going to be like in 10 years (Micki and Cindy) and a little older than that (Rose and Phylis) everyone that knows us, you might be a little afraid right now. These wonderful ladies kept us in stitches all weekend. We heard about toothless weddings and bible studies that would crack you up. I can't do these stories justice you will just have to take our word for it.

The food was fantastic. We had pork chops for lunch and lasagna for dinner. We weren't the youngest ones there as Kelsey is in her 20's but we were called the young girls. Kelsey and Mary helped me get the flow of my quilt colors going. Mary said Kelsey is a fanatic about it. Kelsey if you read this don't look too closely at the finished product as I think I turned a couple squares around.

Our bed room took a little getting used to. We had to shuffle mattresses around to find comfortable ones. We were at a church camp and stayed in the boys dorm. We were the only two in our room. When you stay up till 1 both nights you can sleep though. I did sleep in a hole the first night, the mattress was deformed. I also had a problem falling a sleep because my mind started thinking about horror films. Saturday night was much better. It might have been the glass of pineapple Rum and orange juice or because I was way tired. I'll have to analyze that for a while. The showers were powerful and hot. If your the first one you have to wait 15 minutes to get hot water but it was worth it.

We played two games of fat quarter shuffle. (Left, Right, Center is another name for it.) The first game I rolled 3 centers in one row. The dice were rigged on that game because it went fast. The Center was like the house in Las Vegas. It was greedy. I was rolling on the second game. I thought my next quilt was going to be purple since at one time I had six fat quarters in front of me. At last, I don't have the Peters luck when it comes to gambling and I came home defeated. Nope, I purchased some fabric for my next quilt while I was there. But since I came back I have started some UFOs that I had in my sewing tub along with the fabric for my quilt top. Jamison might get his crib quilt yet.

Natalie came to the quilting retreat and discovered that she didn't pack her sewing machine. As this isn't the first time that someone forgot that tool the quilt shop had an extra she could use. I won't mention what her mom, Lana, forgot but I will say that if this was her honeymoon her husband would be thanking God for his luck.

Campbell said he would take the quilt when we get it finished. Brian said him and a friend were going to make one too. With Duct tape (what man wouldn't use this?) and old underwear. Thank God that they didn't get to that. Brian was only home for about 10 minutes when I came home as his friend celebrated his birthday on Saturday and Brian couldn't go out so he had to go out Sunday when I came home. Poor boy.

Retreat!

I’m going on a retreat this weekend with Natalie. Nope, not a scrapbooking retreat although I am bringing scrapbooking projects along. This is a quilting retreat. I can hear you all now laughing hysterically and you need to stop. I have made a quilt; I made one for Campbell’s crib. I also have another one started, and then I had to put my sewing machine away for something and never got it out again. (Another reason I need a craft room.) I enjoyed most of the process. I didn’t like the perfection aspect of quilting. I think this is why I like to scrapbook each page is unique and what ever you add is the “you” factor. There is no wrong way. Anyway I am bringing a quilting project along since I will have experts around for over 24 hours I thought I might as well make use of them. I’m going to attempt a “turning 20” quilt. I think I could get it all cut out and the front completed in this weekend. If I get to frustrated I have a gift project that I’m working on. Would love to share but the recipient might actually read my blog.

Update on the weight loss goal

Thought I better give you an update on how the weight loss is going for my goal of having 15 lbs off by my birthday party. It’s not going off it is still finding me and adding up. This month I have gained 2.5 lbs. The little guy on Wii asked me if I knew why? Sure I do, I don’t exercise and I eat way too much. I need to have my mouth wired shut. So now I am down to 2 months and 17 lbs to go. I did get on Wii last night but only for a few minutes. I obviously need a bigger incentive to lose this weight. Any ideas? Give it some thought and let me know.