A little bit of quiet time

I would say I haven’t had anything to blog about, and that’s why I have been quiet, but really I have just been too busy.

I turned 31 on May 16. Not a big deal, just something I did. Last year, I blogged 30 things about me in the 30 days leading to my 30th birthday. It was fun. It was hard. It was lost in the great blog disaster of 2007. There have been several celebrations for this event.

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Mother’s Day weekend we stayed with Gramma Matriarch. She lives in Schenectady, New York. There was a full house and lots of food. On Saturday night we had Key Lime Pie and they all sang Happy Birthday. (celebration 1)

P1010203.JPG Sunday night was Chinese with my parents, my sister and her fiance (this parenthetical statement originally contained a negative comment about my sister’s fiance, I have taken it down). It was joint Mother’s day birthday dinner. There was no singing, but there were lots of cards. My mom dropped a little box off at my door the next day with a pair of very small star earrings. They are some sort of diamond like stone and very sparkly. I have had them in my ears ever since. (celebration 2)

Tuesday we headed south to Hadley, Mass for dinner with Best Lady, my sister and her fiance. We ate at a cute place I had heard about for years called All Fired Up. I took some pictures there but it was dark. You choose the meats and veggies you want and they cook it up for you. It is like those Japanese cook at the table places, but here you hand them a bowl of stuff and they cook it on a huge grill-thing with everyone else’s. We had a good time and stayed out very late. After dinner we went back to BL’s and played with her cats. Good times. (celebration 3)

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On my actual birthday my darling husband hid cards in various places around the house. He also did silly sweet things like put the toothpaste on my toothbrush for me. He didn’t finish the bathroom or buy me anything, but he did some nice things for me.

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I got great gifts from my awesome mother-in-law and my fabulous mother. MIL made me a little card game kit. She bought a little Finding Nemo (my favorite kid movie) lunchbox and filled it with 2 decks of cards, notepads, tiny pencils and card holders. She wrote on the card that I had mentioned I wanted to take our game with us to Star and she thought it was a great idea. My fabu mom got me cute little star earrings. She admitted that she got them at TJ Maxx on my birthday, but I still love them. Maybe even more since I know they weren’t expensive. I have worn them every day since.

Sunday night blues

This was such a busy weekend I can’t believe I am still awake.

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This morning we went to several stores to get more supplies. We picked up a little plastic greenhouse, so I can start marigolds on the porch, and paint chips, to decide what color we want to paint the house, at the small town hardware store. Then we headed to a garden center to get topsoil and hummus. Struck out on the hummus, but got some potting gloves and edging. Back to yesterday’s greenhouse, still no hummus, but found some gorgeous flower pots. Downtown again for a table cloth and some Crocs. I wanted brown ones to work in the garden in. My pinks ones get dirty too fast.

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After spending all afternoon yesterday getting the front yard garden ready we finally got to plant today. Lord S finished straightening out the line and I planted pansies. Lots of pansies. And Alyssum. I filled 2 flower pots, a strawberry pot, 2 wooden buckets, a pair of boots and a little girl shoe. You will have to wait until tomorrow for the pictures though.

Because while I was outside planting my friends arrived to scrapbook. It was planned, but we shopped for so long this morning we didn’t have much of the afternoon to plant. We still have a lot more space to plant in the front yard garden, but it is looking better than grass. I would really like a garden like you seen in Great Britain, but I am not sure that is ever in the cards. Right now I would settle for one that doesn’t look like crap.

{more pictures to follow}

Gardening

My Pansy mosaicToday we are planting pansies. We bought a handful at the grocery store and then went to a greenhouse/farmstand and bought a dozen more 6 packs. I don’t know where they are all going to go, but we are going to plant them today!

Yesterday we worked on the front yard. We are expanding a flower bed that was created when we cut down a ginormous pine tree. Eventually our whole front yard might be garden. That could be interesting.

We stayed last night to see the whole show. It was so not worth it. But I got a bunch of knitting done. Sometimes our company does not pick the best shows.

Today the tile man is back. He is mudding some seams and then will finish tiling shower. Hopefully he will be able to be here all day and he will finish the job. Not that it is his fault, we have been hiring him whenever he can work. T-10 days until my birthday. Will I be able to shower in there that morning?

So far Saturday

Friday night we did box office for our company’s current show, but Lord S was so congested we came home. I knitted until I nearly fell asleep.

Today I weighed in (no change from last week), got breakfast from Dunkin donuts, worked out and bought flowers at a local greenhouse. We spent the afternoon preparing the front yard for flowers. Now we are heading out to box office for tonight’s show.

Thursday Things – AM edition

This has been a crazy, but nice week. I’ve had something nearly every day after school and then in the evening too! G!rls @n the R*n is going really well and the girls are having a great time. This week we did lessons on listening and gossiping. They are two of my favorite lessons (not that I am good at either of them) with really fun activities. We are coming up on the big run and the next two weeks we will have practice runs. I can hardly believe we only have 2 weeks left.

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Tuesday we had our first outside dinner of the summer. We ate at Top of the Hill Grill. T got a bean burrito and I got a quesadilla. We watched the evening go by, which included a waterskier on the Retreat Meadows. It was a great start to our summer dining.

P1000601.JPGP1000595.JPGLater I went to my friends’ house to watch Idol. I don’t watch Idol, but it was a chance to hang out with friends and a baby! I brought the little guy (3) two Mr. Potato Head accessory kits – Safari and King Spud. He had fun putting together new combinations of his dress up tuber (a “big brother” gift from another of our friends). Even the big boys had fun with it. P1000542.JPGI brought 7 Mason-Dixon bibs I’ve been working on for months. We also drank and gossiped and gigggled. Idol wasn’t so bad, but I don’t think I will start watching it myself. I really thought Phil Stacey did a great job and I was sorry to read (after searching this morning) that he has been kicked off.

Wednesday was board meeting night and then LOST. It was a wicked great episode.

Today is just Thursday. Staff meeting, rehearsal, Grey’s.