spring break is over

But, we sure made the most of it.

Monday we didn't do much. We drove into downtown Wilmington to a pretty little neighborhood to pick up 2 free Fake Books. If you are a musician, you know those are very thick music books that only give you the words and melody line along with chords written above it. They are good for guitar playing, not so much for piano because there is no left hand part written out. Someone had posted them on Freecycle and either our name was chosen or we were the only one who was interested in them. Didn't matter - the lady emailed and said they were ours if we wanted them and she would leave them on her side porch in a plastic bag for us to pick up anytime. If you don't use freecycle, look it up in your area. It is a Yahoo group that is set up to keep things out of landfills. If you have something you are getting rid of, you can post it there and people respond via email if they are interested. You choose who gets it, and set up a time to drop it off or have them pick it up. We have given away a bunch of things - even found one family that was expecting twins who I was able to give a bunch of double stuff to. And, sometimes we put in to receive things as well. It's a neat little community. And it has helped my garage and upstairs basement immensely!! I have even been known to garbage pick things specifically to "save" them and give them away for free. 2 Melissa & Doug easels for instance. People throw those things out with the clips still on them! But, my innate garbage picking abilities are a post for another day.

After picking up these music books, we headed to the library to pick out a new chapter book to read at bedtime, a couple other books and of course... a movie. Carl loves getting DVDs from the library. His taste sucks. This week, he chose a Kipper the Dog video and I was very happy! Then, he came over with Kipper as well as Max & Ruby. I was more happy - I love Max & Ruby. We should have left right then. But, Gretchen & I were in the middle of puzzles and reading... so.... he had time to change his selection. We ended up leaving there with a Caillou DVD and also Snoopy, Come Home. I don't exactly remember the storyline of that one, but I do know it is a tear jerker. Not my first choice in a kids' video. But, there was no talking him back into Kipper, Max & Ruby. Sigh.

Slipping in a shot of Carl in his new favorite shirt (thanks, Colin!)
When we got home, we grabbed the guitar and put the 2 new books to good use outside. The kids are really into folk music right now - and it is so easy to find songs they like to sing and dance along with. If you have "Lomax The Hound of Music" on your PBS station (we get one new episode per week) check it out. It is the current favorite around here. Lomax is a Melody Hound and his sidekick is Delta, a white cat. They are puppets. The human character, Amy, travels around with her 2 pets all over the country in a caboose seeking out folk tunes. It's pretty cool if you are into folksy stuff like we are. I just let each kid pick out a white stuffed cat online and they are each going to get their own Delta Kitty. Boy, I hope both packages arrive on the same day! I'll have to tuck one aside for sure if they don't.

Tuesday morning I had a phlebotomy so Lew didn't go in to work and I left early to head to oncology. The last one I had 3 months ago was a 3.5 hour ordeal. Only 25 minutes of actual phlebotomy. The rest of the time I sat waiting for them to figure out why I was there. "We don't have orders from your doctor." Cripes, in 3 hours, I could have walked blindfolded over to his office, played charades to get them to know why I was there and crawled back with the order. So, this time - I started right off by saying, "Last time this took 3.5 hours. It better not be that long today." I was assured it wouldn't be. It ended up being 2.5 hours. Woo Hoo! And - my BP was higher after giving the blood than before! I was 130/90 and no one seemed at all phased. Wonder why it was so elevated?

Here's another slip-in... good thing there is that really high mesh wall, eh? So, when I got home from my morning with the vampires, it was 11:30. Lew left for work and the kids and I headed out back. We spent a few hours just playing. They did some finger painting and we hung the paintings up to dry on the deck. It looked cool having some extra color out there. They were really into practicing their swing dismount jumping. We even had lunch outside. Watermelon is one of their very favorite things and it was on the menu with chicken nuggets and PB sandwich as well as baby carrots (another fav!)! It was a good lunch!! Followed by a good nap! Ahhh!!



On Wednesday, we had reservations for the Chick-fil-A Easter Bunny event I already wrote about here. After lunch, we did a little shoe shopping. I am not a big shopper in the first place, but man - what a pain looking for cute little girl white sandals. I wanted to get Gretchen some new sandals for her graduation ceremony so she wouldn't have to wear her Birkenstocks. First - I am shocked at how many toddler sized shoes come with high heels!! I wanted a nice, sensible, cute pair of flat sandals. Not white with big ol flowers stuck on them. Not white with cork high heels. Not flip flops. Not something that is so stiff it gives you blisters just looking at it. And, yes, not something that costs $45. We tried a shoe store right from brunch with no luck at all. We had already checked a couple stores before today, too. Then we tried Kohl's. There was a cute pair, but not in her size. By now, I have decided a pair of cute flats would work, too. Those are the ones that were mostly so stiff she said they hurt when she put them on.

We gave up shoe shopping and met Lew & Lindy for lunch at Costco. Hot dogs and ice cream with Lindy - it does not get better than that! He mentioned taking us camping on the next full moon. he knows of a campsite about an hour away that is on a little island on the coast. You ferry over. Having the full moon will give us more light at night. Here's my history: I was a Girl Scout all the way through school - even all through high school when it clearly was not cool. I loved all of it except camping. I hate camping. The problem is Lindy mentioned this in front of the kids and now all they can talk about is sleeping in tents by the ocean with Lindy next month. yippee.

After lunch, I decided since we were right next to Marshall's, I'd check there. And the shoe store next door. No luck at the shoe store, but Marshall's had some sandals Carl fell in love with. I wasn't even in the market for a pair for him, but he did only have his Birkenstocks that fit right, so I let him try these on. You know - he wears a size 1?? Gretchen is only a size 11. But, they had a pair of pink bubblegum sandals she liked. Crocs. Ugh. I think those clog things are about the ugliest things ever. This is why it is good I never say "never". As ugly as they are, I didn't say, "My kid will never wear those hideous shoes!" OK, maybe I thought something pretty close. But, this pair was not the classic clog and they actually coordinated with Carl's pair a bit. And she liked them - big plus! So, I let her buy those, too. Each pair was only $15. I think a good deal for sandals.

The best part..... they can put them on all by themselves!!!!!!! Nothing for me to tie!!!! or double knot!!!! Worth the $30 right there!!!!!!!

Still no dress shoes for graduation. We decided, yeah right - I decided - to stop at Sears on the way home because I saw a pair in the Lands End catalog that I was kind of comparing everything else to to this point. Of course, they don't carry kids' shoes in the stores. The sales guy made a big deal about the fact that I could order them online right there and get free shipping to the store. All I would have to do was pick them up. Gee, every single day I get some new "free shipping" code from Lands End directly in my email. Mailed to my house.

But, we did check the regular shoes. And we found a pair!!!!! She liked them!!! They didn't hurt her feet!!!! They had her size!!!! They are white!!!!!! and cute!!!!!! and under $20!!!!!!!! I did keep the tags on them until we could check one more store before deciding for sure we were keeping them. But, she likes them and can walk nicely in them! So, all in all... on Wednesday, we got 3 new pairs of shoes!!!! No more shoe shopping stress until back to school time now!


One more day to report on ... Thursday. This post is already pretty long. I will close it up and make a new one for Thursday's fun, OK?