a great day

I am blogging from my brand new adorable TINY laptop that I got today! It's so small, it's really hard to type on. I have to type slower than usual, but I think I'll eventually get used to it. It's the size of a portable DVD player! Insane. Here's a link: Eee PC

Brian also got a new 22" HD flatscreen monitor today - he's been wanting one forever and now that he's making games for the iPhone, he needs something bigger than his laptop to program on. He set up a temporary workspace in the kitchen tonight - we will be re-vamping the piano room after Christmas so he can have a workspace in there. When I came in to see what he was doing, here's what I found: How cute is that?! It was nice to put the dining room back together...he's had his workspace in there for awhile and it has gotten messy!

So we had a great day today. It's been awhile since we had a whole day with nothing on the agenda. I can't even remember when the last one was. Anyway, we stayed up late last night playing cards with Tim and Christi (girls won both rounds, yeah!) and after they left, we stayed up even longer, just getting things cleaned up and lounging around. We turned off the phones last night and slept VERY late this morning - it felt great! It has been nice just to be together.

Tomorrow we're going to Disney after church. We want to ride Everest - every time we go, the line is too long. But tomorrow we're just going to tough it out! Our anniversary is Tuesday, so it's perfect timing to have a non-stressful weekend together. :)

For our anniversary, we bought a new kitchen sink and faucet today. I cannot WAIT to have it installed - the plumber is coming on Wednesday to do it. Our sink now leaks - it's the faucet, it leaks all over behind the sink and we constantly have a puddle of water there. It drives me nuts. So I am really excited about my new sink!

Well, I want to get a little more work done before bed. Kindermusik is awesome and I will give an update on that soon. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

happy christmas to meeeeeeee!

Look what I got this week!!!! These are the two newest limited edition alphabet gift sets from Quickutz. They are SO cute - and the packaging is just as cute as the alphabets! I never dreamed I could get them both, but this is my early Christmas present from my fabulous and amazing husband. I can't wait to get the foam on them and start cutting!

it's almost time

Well, in case you haven't noticed, Kindermusik has pretty much taken over my life. I actually scrapped last night, but the whole time I was scrapping, I was thinking of other things I should be doing! So today, it's back to work! 4 days until classes start, and counting.

I have to go to the dreaded Walmart today. Ugh! It's SO not my favorite place, as you read in a previous post. But I have to get child locks for my cabinets, a doll to use during the baby class (to demonstrate with), and a plug adapter thing, because the outlets in my room only have 2 prongs and my heavy-duty fan needs 3. Brian is out at Target right now buying me this really cool stereo/speaker set for my iPod. That way I'll be able to upload the songs for class onto my iPod, put them in the correct order, and then use the remote to play/pause. I have high hopes for this to work without any tiny hands getting ahold if my iPod!

Besides that, the room is nearly ready. I have to hang a dry/erase board tonight (well, Brian's gonna hang it), and I must remember to take everyone's picture on the first day, so that I can put them on my wall - I got little music note die cuts for the pictures. I can't wait! I'll take pictures and post them when it's all done.

And I've been studying the curricula - I'm SO very excited about this and I know I'm going to love it. I'm nervous about teaching the actual classes, now that I've gotten used to the demo classes! But I'm more excited than nervous. I just have to plan the lessons and I think I'll be all set. Seems like there's no time lately to eat, sleep, clean the house, or relax - but I'll get there.

And, by the way...HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNI! I know, it was yesterday. Sorry I didn't even call you! We will talk soon. Hope you had a great day!

catching up

Well. I've got a few spare minutes to blog while Brian takes a shower and before we watch our nightly episode of King of Queens. So I'll try to quickly catch up!

The rest of the week at my parents' was wonderful and fun. We ate at favorite restaurants, I visited Dad's voice lessons, Mom and I cleaned out closets and dressers and stuff till our little hearts were content. We even got Dad to go through some old stuff and throw things away! AND we found a bunch of slides and had some GREAT laughs - and then we shared them with Nan and Pops in the car on the way to the airport. In Columbus I even got the chance to stop by Archivers, a fabulous scrapbook store. And I only spent $13 in there! Amazing. All in all, it was a great week with Mom and Dad!

I came back home to find that my Kindermusik postcard was in my mailbox! (I mailed out 2500 of them to people in my area, and of course I mailed one to myself.) I literally walked in the door to a ringing phone - everyone else had gotten their postcards that day, too. The phone calls and emails haven't stopped coming since then! Which is great - but boy, am I busy! I've got 8 demo classes set up; my first one is Tuesday. I'm so nervous and excited! I'm going to spend most of the day tomorrow preparing. I'm even going to run through the whole thing with Brian (little does he know that I'm going to give him one of my old Cabbage Patch dolls and say, "Here, this is your kid.") LOL

So, this past Thursday we took off for the condo in Ft. Myers with Tim and Christi in tow. We spent all day Friday there and most of Saturday - we lounged by the pool, went to see "The Bourne Ultimatum," (GREAT movie), ordered pizza, played lots and lots of cards, sat around and talked, ate at the Shrimp Shack, and just relaxed. It was great fun, even if lots of things were not quite right! (I'll save that story for another post - there's just not time!) But, suffice it to say that the "Spider Van" (sung to the tune of the "Spider Man" theme song) is now parked in our driveway! More later. ;-)

Last night we had a long rehearsal at church (we learned some new songs) and then I had to practice quite a bit when I got home. (And then I STILL messed up some this morning during the service, ugh!) So we went to bed really late, got up early, did the church thing, then went to the Sprint store - I needed a new phone and a new phone number. (I had never gotten a local Florida number and hey - I just realized that it was 2 years ago today that we closed on our house in NY!) Anyway, I got the coolest phone, it's RED, (love it), it's called the Upstage. Flip phones and I don't get along, so this phone is perfect for me. :-)

We got home around 3:00 (after fooling around at the Sprint store forever and then going to eat) - and we relaxed for about an hour and then we headed over to the Presbyterian Church to work on my Kindermusik room. We worked there till 8:00, cleaning out things, cleaning up things, vacuuming several times, scrubbing, taking down the bulletin board stuff, covering the bulletin board, and etc. and etc. My wonderful husband vacuumed up all the scary bugs, and then we moved a big shelf and there were some dead lizards under there, and he got rid of those too, while I ran away! LOL They were weird, too - they were like little skeletons. Gross! Then he went all the way around the room and scrubbed the baseboards! We washed windows and I scrubbed the countertop within an inch of its life. When in doubt, use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. This church is like 100 years old and the room I'm using hasn't really been used for years, and there were all kinds of stains and paint and stuff on it - and I got it completely clean and shining! Brian even washed the mini blinds. That room looks and smells as great as a 100 year old room can.

Have I mentioned that I love my husband? He's fab. He helps me so much and supports me in my new little business. He's the best. :-D

So then we went and ate dinner and then went to the dreaded Walmart. I DESPISE Walmart and this trip did NOTHING to change my opinion. We were there for over an hour and I just needed help with one thing (I needed 6 storage bins and they only had 2, and both of those were broken.) Well, in the course of those 60+ minutes, I asked no less than 4 people to help me, and they all gave me some kind of big sob story about why they couldn't help me. Add this to all the random screaming kids, and parents screaming back at their kids, people dropping store merchandise at least 3 times and making large noises, crazy rednecks pushing their 2-year-olds around while cursing up a blue streak (the rednecks, not the kids, although it won't be long for the kids, I'm sure), the filthy store, the unorganized aisles, the mobs and mobs of people, most of them with B.O., the apathetic employees, and I'm sure more stuff I can't think of right now...........and ugh, you'll easily understand why I DESPISE Walmart. >:-( But, Brian got a Rubik's cube and that made it all better.

So now we're headed to bed. We're exhausted, but we've had a successful day! Tomorrow I'll take my instruments over and get the borders up on my bulletin boards, go to NY&Company and buy some shorts to teach in (they're on sale and they're comfy and long, so they're perfect), and study for the demo class. After Tuesday's class I can release this stress, since I'll be doing the same class 7 more times. Whew. OK, good night!

thanks to tara...

...I had to go and buy some new MAC eye shadows on Sunday. Since Tara and I are both Sephora junkies, and just makeup junkies in general, I thought I would share what I bought, in honor of her MAC posts, seen here and here. Tara, I'd like to thank you for your contribution to my makeup collection, and I'm sure my husband also thanks you for your contribution to my spending! LOL
The colors are, clockwise from top left: Satin Taupe, Malt, Orb, Texture, and Vanilla.

In other news, I've been doing some scrapping again, finally! It's Summer Scrapfest over at Lifetime Moments, and I'm having a ball trying to meet all of the challenges. Here are a few of my favorite layouts I've done in the last week or so (all clickable, if you want to see a bigger image):

more shopping!

Last night, Brian and I went to the mall. He needed some new shorts (which we didn't get) and I needed a bathing suit. We ended up getting B a nice shirt and tie to wear on Easter Sunday, and I actually found a bathing suit! It even makes me look thin, which is amazing! Here is the one I bought:

Except I got a little teeny skirt for the bottom, and I got it in brown. I've never had a tankini before. I suspect it will be MUCH easier to use the restroom in this! (It's torture in a wet one-piece!) Anyway, I'm quite excited.

I have a ton of laundry to do and mail to go through, but I'm going to go get a pedicure instead. :-)

for some reason...

...I think it's absolutely hilarious to jump out and scare Brian as he comes in from work. :-) A few weeks ago, I stood inside our tiny pantry and scared the crap out of him! And for some reason, after I do it, I just dissolve into laughter! I mean, I think it's funny, but after I've scared him, it's just the funniest thing in the world! I did it tonight, but he came around the corner looking for me because Max was staring at me. Max gave me away! =^..^=

Well, this past weekend was busy busy busy, again. On Saturday I went to the Scrapbook Expo at the Orlando Convention Center. I went with my friend Tiffany (her husband works with Brian) and while we were there, we met up with Christy, a girl I know from online at Lifetime Moments. Christy lives in Tampa and is just the most adorable. We only got to hang out with Christy for about an hour, though. But Tiff and I had a ton of fun and probably spent too much money! I'll have to take a picture of my stash and post it.

After I dropped Tiffany off at her house (we stayed almost till the end of the Expo), I rushed to church for rehearsal. It was a really fun rehearsal and the guy who used to play piano with us was there, so he stayed after rehearsal and showed me a few jazz chord voicings that I wanted to know. So I got home really late. And we got up early of course, headed to church, did the rehearsal/sound check/service, then had lunch with our guitarist & drummer, then went to my cousin's for a little while, and then back to church for more rehearsals. It was revival weekend and we combined with the musicians from the first service for Sunday night's service. It was really fun and I thought pretty much everything went well.

Needless to say, Monday I was exhausted! Tuesday I went to Winter Haven for vocal rehearsal, and then I went shopping. Again. I went shopping last week too, but haven't blogged about it yet! Anyway, over the last week, I've gotten 3 pairs of capris, 2 skirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 tops, and one pair of shoes. I think I'm just about done shopping for awhile - I could still use a few more tops, though. :-) I love shopping now that I can fit into stuff! By the way, it looks like I'm down another size! I can't even believe it.

Well, it's about time for me to get dinner. It's almost done - Dream Dinners Orange Mongolian Beef with rice and veggies. I'm starved!

dresses, sunshine, and love

Well, I had a post all fixed the other day, but then the browser crashed on me and I didn't feel like typing it all back out again! In it I had described our Valentine's Day dinner at Bistro de Paris at Epcot. It was delicious! Here are some pics of us:



Our weather has been getting warmer and warmer, tomorrow and Saturday it will be in the 80s, and I'm finally getting a little tan again since I'm walking several times a week again. I really really want to get these last 20 pounds off. It would be a shame to get this close to my goal and not make it! Plus, I want to get into single-digit sizes, and I'm not that far off!

Speaking of clothes, I went shopping today after I got my hair done. I've been looking for a dress or two, and I finally got lucky at Ann Taylor Loft! Here are the dresses I bought:





I know, I know, lots of brown - but apparently brown is big for spring. Good thing I look decent in it! I had fun shopping, which is still a shock to me. Although today it reminded me that I REALLY want to get rid of the extra 20 pounds I'm still carrying around!

Tomorrow we're headed to Animal Kingdom for the day. We're meeting Brian's friends Glenn and Lorie (Glenn was the best man at our wedding) and some other friends. For dinner, we made reservations for just the two of us at the Sci-Fi Cafe, which is probably our new favorite cool dining spot. It will be a fun day.

Sunday, we'll have church and then Sunday evening, the whole band and praise team and spouses are coming up to our neck of the woods to attend a service at Northland Church, and then they're all coming over to our house for dinner! So I've been cleaning. I'm making my wonderful friend Sera's Tortellini Soup. Yum! OK, gotta go dust.

Oh! I almost forgot! I've mentioned before that we have a clear glass shower in our master bath. Since it's CLEAR glass, you can see every bit of soap scum. Well, I finally figured out how to get it off. A DRYER SHEET! I took a NEW dryer sheet and wet it and scrubbed the door - it rinsed beautifully! I was amazed. Just another tip from me - your favorite lazy, short-cut-finding house cleaner. :-)