Here Comes Santa Clause!

Saturday we attended Petruska Family Anuual Christmas Party. We so look forward to this every year. Santa always pays us visit and the kids get to tell Santa their wish list and actually get to spend time with him. It sure beats standing in line at the mall!





Yesterday we baked cookies all day with Granny. The kids made their gingerbread house too!






Now we just have to wait for St. Nick to come on 24th and then we are headed to Disneyland, YEAH!

Elf Yourself

For your entertainment, LOL :-)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Thanksgiving!

With all the work that goes into the holidays I sometimes have to stop and remember what the true meaning of these holidays. We get so caught up in the hustle and bustle and tend to forget. I know I do. I'm so guilty of trying to get everything perfect, the food, the house, the presents, the wrapping, the Christmas cards and pictures, etc. Sometime I need a timeout and take a breather. But that is the obsessive compulsiveness in me. I have vowed to not let it get to me this year. That is why I started my Christmas decorating early, LOL :-)

Now first and foremost I am so sad at the events that have taken place in India today. I work for predominantly Indian company and I hope and pray that each and every i2ers and their families are safe!

I have so much to be thankful for (not in any particular order):

1. My husband Jerry. I couldnt ask for a better husband. He is a great dad, works hard so we can go to Disneyland this Christmas.

2. My 2 children Bianca and Matthew. I cannot imagine my life without them.

3. My job. I know I complain about it a a lot, but I have it so good. I've been there 11 years. I work from home most of the time. I love the people I work with and they are the reason I've stayed so long. (It's definitely not the pay!)

4. My family - I am thankful I have my family and that they are close (well most of the time I like having them close by). Jerry's family is spread out on each coast and I know it is hard for him and I take it for granted sometime that mine are just a mile away.

5. I am thankful I live in the United States of America!

6. I am thankful we are all healthy!

7. I am thanful for my awesome neighbors!

8. Friends. I am thankful we have such great friends that we can count on especially the girls who I can call to go to happy hour when I need hard liquor!

I'm sure I'll think of some more and I'll post some pictures of the festivities tomorrow. We are cooking 3 turkeys! One roasted and 2 fried. This is for 22 people and everybody complains there is never enough leftovers for sandwiches so we made an extra turkey!

November Fun

I have not posted much this month. It's been busy. Earlier this month we went to my parent's lake house in East Texas for the weekend. The kids had a blast. Bianca drove the golf cart all over the place. I must say she is a pretty good driver! Matthew just loved the "woods" and building the fire and making smores. We took Sonny with us and he loved swimming in the lake!




Last weekend Jerry did a guy trip to Chicago and to see Notre Dame game in Southbend Indiana courtesty of Honeywell. The kids and I stayed home, did some Christmas shopping and had a nonstop Christmas move marathon on Saturday. Sunday we did our shopping for Thanksgiving. We have 20+ people coming to our house this year again.






I got my trees up this week I'll do the rest of the decorating after Thanksgiving. The trees are time consuming and I'm glad to have them done. I must say though I have totally rubbed off on my son. He LOVES Christmas (and all holidays) Some day he is going drive his wife insane. I cannot tell you how many times he has watched Frosty, Rudolph, Charlie Brown, and Grinch this last week. He actually wanted to join hands and sing a song around the Christmas tree last night after watching Grinch. Between Matthew and me we will drive Jerry crazy for the next month. He can't wait to help dad put the outside decorations up!

December is going to be BUSY! We have so many event coming up. Jerry's Birthday December 5, i2 Christmas party on 6th and my SIL 30th Birthday on 7th. The following weekend is Jerry's graduation so his whole family will be here for the entire weekend. The following weekend we have the Anuual Petruska Christmas Party which we look forward to each year. Some time in there I have to find time to finish Christmas shopping, wrap presents, make cookies with my grandmother and pack for our trip. We leave Christmas Day for California and Disneyland through New years!

Trick or Treat!

I love Halloween it is probably my 2nd favorite holiday next to Christmas. We let Matthew play hooky from school yesterday to go with Jerry to the Southwest Airlines trick or treat party at Love Field. Jerry works for Honeywell but works onsite at SWA so gets to participate in all of the fun SWA events. They actually have one floor of cubicles turned into a haunted house. Jerry said it freaked him out a bit but he was a trooper. Here are some pics of him at Jerry's work yesterday.

Oh and by the way, he insisted on being a friendly ghost. We found this costume online and he loved it. We got so many compliments on his "old school" costume yesterday. He thought he was scary but everybody else thought he was adorable!




I was a little bummed that we could not do the i2 Halloween party this year but it was just logistically impossible. Bianca had a test so I could not pull her out early. By the time she got out of school, got ready, drove to i2 offices in Dallas we just would not have enough time to make it back this way to the Halloween party at my granny's retirement home. Instead I worked from home and made Halloween dinner of Chili, cornbread casserole and pumpkin dump cake. I had to make sure they had a good dinner before consuming the massive amounts junk the rest of the night, LOL.

At 6 we headed to my Granny's retirement home for trick or treating. Bianca won first prize in the kids costume contest and Granny won first prize in the resident costume contest. Both were thrilled!



Next we headed home for our neighborhood trick or treat festivities with the neighbors. Our neighborhood was so packed with kids by the time we got back we had alot of catching up to do!




I love that Halloween was not on school night. After we were done trick or treating the kids played outside with the neighbors until 10:30. Here is Jerry being silly wearing Matthew's costume :-)



So today I started packing away the Halloween decorations and getting out the Thanksgiving decorations. Matthew was so excited this morning saying it's time for Christmas, LOL! He is so his mother's son, but I told him we had to have Thanksgiving first. He said he does not like Turkey so he just wants to move to Christmas now. I would if my husband would not totally kill me. We have Thanksgiving at our house this year again for 25 people so I cannot have Christmas decorations up! I've thought about putting up one of the trees early (just the tree though nothing else) I've already started Christmas shopping and I've bought some Christmas ornaments already but Jerry has no idea :-)

I Survived!

I survived another school dance and slumber party! It was alot of fun. It's kind of a tradition since elementary school that Bianca has a sleepover after the school dance. In elementary they have a sock hop every year and now in intermediate they have a Halloween Costume Social. Bianca was a ladybug this year, she looked really cute. Most of the girls met at our house and I walked them over to the school and then walked them back home. I could not chaperone this year because Jerry had school and didnt have anywhere for Matthew to go. So Matthew and I hung out at the house getting everything ready for the Spooktakular Sleepover. We went over to the school early and watched from the cafeteria windows. It is so funny to watch 5th and 6th graders at a dance. After the dance I took 12 crazy pre-teen girls home with me for a slumber party. How crazy and I? I guess very crazy. I had so much food including Pizza, popcorn, cupcakes, carmel apples and buckets full of candy. It was ALL gone this morning! I could not believe they ate everything!!! I went to bed around Midnight and they were all up screaming their heads off, playing dance dance revolution on the Wii and the Music blasting! I woke up at 4AM and half were asleep, they other half NEVER went to sleep!?? I went back to bed for another hour, then got up went and got donuts and sausage rolls. They ate ALL of that too! The final girl left around 1PM. I'm tired but now I have to clean up my house because it is a disaster!

September Fun

I've been slacking lately, I know. September was really busy for us. Jerry traveled quite bit this month which left me to busy with work, school and the kids.

Matthew started T-ball and he loves it. He definitely likes it much better than soccer. He is the youngest on the team though which makes it difficult. He is already more immature than most kids his age and then you put him with 6 years olds and you can really see the difference. But he loves going to practices and games which ends of being 3 nights a week, yikes!



On that same note, we decided to pull Matthew out of public kindergarten and send him to private about 3 weeks into the school year. He was not handling it very well and the whole half day kindergarten didn't help. I should have trusted my instincts from the beginning and not sent him since he was a summer baby. I will keep him in private for the rest of year and then decide what to do about next year. He loves his new school and going full day is working out good for him. Although one day the teacher told he me fell asleep on the floor during story time, LOL :-) He loves his naps! I do think I'm going to have him repeat kindergarten and then send him to public in first grade.

The rest of the month we spent going to birthday parties. I think we have had 1-2 every weekend! Here are some pics of a little cowboy party we went to in Dallas which was so much fun. There was petting zoo, pony rides and miniature golf. The kids had a blast!




October is jammed packed for us as well. I spent the last 2 weekends decorating the house and yard for Halloween. I'm hoping the weather cools down soon. I really want to go to pumpkin patch but it just does not feel like fall when it's 90 degrees outside! We'll also go to Boo at Zoo later this month. I'm also still trying to squeeze in the State Fair one weekend too!

Bianca has her costume social dance at school on the 23rd and she will have her annual Spooktakular Sleepover with about 10 girls afterward! Then she has another costume party and sleepover the next night and then on 25th Jerry and I have a Halloween Party to go to at the Stevenson's! I have not yet decided what we will go as so I've got to get moving on that!

New Layout

OK, I know it is very busy! I had to find a background that matched my header because I cannot change my header right now because I dont have photoshop any longer. I need to purchase it because my trial membership ran out. So as soon as I can do that and create a new header with new pictures this will have to do. It was fun though playing with the different backgrounds. Can you believe people get paid big bucks to custom design blog layouts? I wish I was talented like that but I can barely do the basics in Photoshop. Here are some sites that have some cool free layouts:

http://leeloublogs.blogspot.com
http://thecutestblogontheblock.com

This one is not free but her layouts are amazing, but no way am I paying that kind of money. I'd have to come up with a really good reason to Jerry as to why I had to spend $100 on a blog layout!

http://blogsbydanielle.blogspot.com


I think I need to take a Photoshop class...

3 Day Weekends

Oh how I love 3 day weekends. I think every weekend should be 3 days :-) No really, 2 days is just not enough but 3 is just perfect.

We survived the first week of school. It went well and so far so good with teachers, classes etc. But we have not started our extra activities yet so that will put another layer of stress. Bianca will start tennis this next week. Matthew still has a couple weeks before T-ball begins, but I have no idea what the schedule will be yet. I have a 1 activity rule per kid. Anything more becomes too stressfull with work, school, homework, etc.

The weekend was nice. Friday for my birthday Jerry took me to Ferraris for some good Italian food, creme brulee, and pina colada martinis. Saturday I went Birthday shopping while Jerry was glued to the couch watching college football. That is how most of our Saturdays will be for the next couple of months, LOL :-) I took Bianca and 2 of her friends with me to the mall. We had dinner and good 4 hours of non stop shopping. It was a lot of fun!

Sunday my parent's and Granny came over for dinner. I made Pioneer Woman's Best Lasagna Ever and Best Ever Chocolate Sheet Cake! YUMMY!

Monday my entire family came over for a fish fry. My Brother-in-law caught a ton of fish at my parent's lake house a few weeks ago so we fried it up with french fries and hush puppies.

My wonderful husband got up early and drove to Dallas to buy me Sprinkle Cupcakes since we were celebrating my birthday with the family today. I was actually expecting him to bring them home on Friday for my birthday?. He only works about 2 minutes from there. He said the thought never crossed his mind, LOL. I do not think he will forget next year :-) He bought a variety of flavors, some I have not had yet. I cannot wait to try them.

This weekend and been nonstop food fest. Tomorrow it's back to the diet!

The rest of today we will spend getting ready for the week. Luckily its a short week with the holiday. I'll be counting the days until next weekend :-)

First Day of School!

Where did the summer go? It is so quiet here in my house it is scary; however, I only have 2 more hours until I have to pick Matthew up from his first day of Kindergarten.

Both kids had "Meet The Teacher" nights last week. Bianca's 3 teacher team is ok, she would have like to have another "team" but only time will tell how this year will go. She was actually excited to go back. I think the summer was a bit long for her. She couldnt sleep last night though!, LOL. She is in 6th and they are the "seniors" of the intermediate school so she did not even care. Next year will be whole different story with middle school.

I think Matthew was oblivious to the whole "kindergarten" thing. He was in preschool and I really think he thought he was going back there, LOL. He was so excited this morning, put on his backpack, took pictures,etc. We got to school and all the kids had to go to the gym an line up by class. It was the moment we entered the gym that I think he finally understood. He had a look of terror on his face and was holding my hand so tight. I made him sit with his class. He looked straight ahead and did not crack a smile for about 5 minutes. He was like a deer in headlights. Then the little boy in front him started to talk to him and he loosened up some. They then took them to their class. It was so hard to hold back the tears but I did not want him to see me cry because it would make him more anxious.

So hear I am sitting in the quiet house, drinking my coffee. I cannot believe both kids are in school now. My Birthday is this Friday and I will be over the mid-thirty hump and it's a little depressing but nothing that night out with the girls won't cure :-)

Counting My Blessings!

It's been a very emotional and exhausting week. My grandfather who is 90 years old was in the hospital. He has cancer and some other things wrong. He will be having some surgery in the next couple weeks. So I decided I needed to go see him in Northern Pennsylvania. My parents left last Monday and drove and Tommy and I flew out on Saturday morning. Then we had news that my cousin passed away. He was only 45 years old. He had 3 boys, one leaving for college in 2 weeks. They live in the same town my grandfather so Tommy and I got to go to the funeral and see aunts, unlces, and cousins we had not seen in almost 20 years. We also met quite few 2nd cousins and 1 third cousin! It was just so sad to see a family's life turned upside down in a blink of an eye and made me appreciate so much more what I have and how blessed we are.

While we were up there we decided to drive to Buffalo to see my Godparents. They are both in their 80's now and I had not seen them in almost 5 years. They are the sweetest people and have the best childhood memories of them.

It was just so emotional with the funeral, my sick grandfather and seeing my Godparents. I just pray this will not be the last time I see them but the reality is that it just might be.


We took tons of pictures, BUT I forgot my digital camera so had to go buy a disposable so now I have to go get them developed! How did we ever live without digital cameras, LOL :-)

Then all heck broke lose at work this week while I was gone and we were acquired by another company. We pretty much knew it was coming but nobody knew when or who. So I missed the 2 days of meetings!

On a lighter note, we only have 10 days of summer vacation left. It is bittersweet. I love summer but it will be good to get back to a normal schedule again. I'm not looking forward to the busy schedules though. Jerry and I are both in school, matthew will be doing T-ball and Bianca will be doing Basketball. Not to mention that work is going to get a little chaotic with the acquistion. It should be a busy few months leading up to Christmas. I do plan to do a couple fun things next week before school starts. Most likely visit the waterpark one more time and go to the IMAX theatre in Fort Worth that just reopened last week!

I've got most of the kids stuff ready for school. Bianca and I did her clothes, school/locker supplies before I left. Matthew, I just need to go find construction paper. Everybody was sold out! I'll use next week to get all laundry done and the family household schedule created in Excel and posted (yeah I'm a bit anal) but I have to have everything organized before school starts or I will feel out of control. I think I may need a therapy session, LOL :-)

Happy Birthday to Matthew!

I know a little late but we celebrated the entire month of July :-)

His actual Birthday was July 8 but most of my family was out of town so we did not have his actual birthday party until much later in July.

On July 8th we ate at Chili's, his favorite restaurant, for lunch and then we headed to NRH20 meet up with my sister and his cousins. He had a blast and he was exhausted.







Later in July we had his party at Incredible Pizza. He wanted a dinosaur theme. It was a lot of fun and Matthew is still talking about it, LOL :-)

Total Blog Slacker

I know I have been bad!

It's been a crazy month. Summer will do that to you. The days just seem to slip away. Since the last time I posted we have had alot of going on.

First was Bianca's actual Birthday on June 13. We have a tradition of going to Cheescake factory, YUM!



Next it was Fathers Day and Matthew's last soccer game. We spent Father's Day at my moms and had a brunch. She made her famous eggs newberg and I made my famous creme brulee french toast. Luckily I made 2 pans because I burned the first pan. I was so mad.



Matthew had his last soccer game on Father's day. He was so proud to get his first medal :-)



And here are just some miscellaneous of me and kids being goofy!

It's Summertime!

Summer is finally here! Bianca got out of school at Noon. She wasnt home 10 minutes and the phone starting rining. Friends calling to already make plans. We picked up one her friends, got some Sonic for lunch and headed to the pool for a few hours. Got home, ordered some pizza and then some neighbors stopped over to play too. Now Bianca is out to dinner with the neighbors. Thursday she is going to Keller Pointe and spending the night with another friend. I hope this not indication what the rest of the summer is going to be like. She's already making plans of what she wants to do next week. She wants to go spend her Birthday money at the mall and go see a movie with a friend. Yikes. She is really starting to mature and becoming alot more independent. Next thing you know she will want to go the pool with her friends by herself, UMM not going to happen anytime soon! LOL

Exhausted!

What a day. Today we had Bianca's 11th birthday party. It's kind of a tradition now that we do her friend party around the last day of school and make it and end year party birthday bash. We had it at our community clubhouse and pool. She invited her whole class, her cousins and some other really good friends. We had about 20 kids. Her theme was ice cream and we built our own sundaes, ate pizza and swam. They also did a little bit of dancing, LOL. It was quite a site! I've got lots of video of them shaking their booties :-)

The cutest thing was the shirt that her "boyfriend" made her. This is the boy that asked her to the dance. He is a real cutie and very polite. Jerry did not get there until towards the end and pretty much ignored the boy, LOL. He's going to have a really hard time making it through the next couple of years.

Graduation

Matthew graduated from preschool today. It was a very cute program. Even though he technically is not going to Kindergarten (he is but is going to a private school and most likely I will have him repeat K either there or go to KISD Kindergarten the following year).

It was very emotional. He has been there since he was 2 and these ladies are wonderful and took very good care of him. It was hard to say goodbye and move on to the next phase of his life.

I cannot believe I will have both my kids in grade school next year. Makes me feel old, LOL. He's officially not a baby anymore.

We are looking forward to nice relaxing summer. I decided to not send him this summer since I will be working from home more and we will be taking quite a bit of vacation. My mom and sister will help me out on days that I need to be in the office. It will also save me alot of money the next few months!

One Week To Go!

It's been a busy month with end of the year activities for the kids. We had our annual Cinco De Mayo party earlier in the month, Bianca had her last dance of the year. She actually had a date if you want to call it that. Some sweet boy asked her to the dance so they met at the dance and hung out with a group of friends. How sweet, although Jerry did not think so, (hee hee) Of course we had to go shopping before hand and buy the right outfit. It was a beach theme so she wore bermudas cute shirt and flip flops! Here is a picture of her and her best friend before the dance






Only one more week of school left! A week from today both kids will be home full time for the summer. Actually Matthew's last day of Preschool is this Thursday. I cannot believe my baby is graduating from preschool :-(

I love summer! I love no homework, no school activities, limited extra activities. We can just be lazy and do nothing! Matthew will have Soccer until June 23 and then that's it. We do not do much summer activities because we usually have summer travel planned. The kids will probably go hang out with my parents for a week at the lake house in June and then July 19 we leave for California for 3 weeks. We also have NRH20 passes and will get alot of use out of them.

It will be a busy week though. Thursday we have Matthew's best friend's birthday party and Matthew's graduation. Friday we are having Bianca's birthday party. We usually do her kid party of few weeks before he actual birthday so majority of the kids can make it since her birthday is in middle of June. It's kind of become a tradition for her and her friends. Its more like a birthday/end of year bash all in one. She is having an ice cream theme party at our community clubhouse and pool. They will swim and build their own ice cream sundaes.

Saturday Bianca has another birthday party for her best friend.

Then I can just chill until Matthew's birthday party on June 29. We are having his early because my family is going out of town in early July around his birthday. So if I can just get through all these birthdays then I can focus on preparing for our vacation!

Soccer

Matthew has begun his firt team sport. He is playing indoor soccer. It was kind of a mess at first because the place called us to let us know there is a team but no coach. None of the parents were willing to take it on, so now my brother Tommy and SIL Caryn are the team coaches, LOL. We had our first practice last Friday and first game on Sunday. Well, they won their first game buy default because the other team did not show :-) So we seized the opportunity to let the boys scrimmage.

Matthew did surprisingly well. He got out there and ran his heart out. He is the only one on the team who has not played before. He mostly just ran after the ball and kicked it a few times. He has not grasped the concept of dribbling it yet. He was too cute.

Kindergarten Update

Well after careful consideration and after doing the whole routing of registering Matthew for Kindergarten in fall we have decided not to send him to public school K next year.

Jerry and I have been conflicted about this for the last year and given his birthdate and maturity level we feel he is just not ready. Academically he is ready but emotionally and physically he is not. We just see huge difference in him compared to others his age who are very close in birthdays. We think in the end it will be best.

Then we were on a mission to decide where we were going to send him next year. I dont want to send him back to Preschool Academy because they only go through PreK and I dont want him with 4 year olds. Since he is academically ready I dont want him to repeat the curriculum. So we researched and got alot of advice from family and friends and have decided to send him to Kindergarten but at a Montessori school. I think this will challenge him academically but also allow him to catch up maturity wise. At the end of next year we will decide to send him to Public or keep him another year to repeat K at Montessori. They have assured me the curriculum changes and since they are taught at individual levels that will probably be the best environments for him. I also like that it is full day rather than half day and I love that they get social studies, science and geography which is something he will not get in public K.

This will make him one of the oldest going through his school years but I think it's best for him. It's becoming more and more the norm to keep summer babies back a year especially boys. I was really nervous that he would be in classes with kids who were held back just for that reason last year who were already 6 and come September througout the year the kids will all start turning 6. He will have just turned 5 in July.

So, Jerry and I go on Monday to tour the school and get him setup for testing and such. I'm actually really excited and feel very at ease with this decision and the school we have most likely chosen :-)

Beautiful Day

Today was absolutely beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and in the 70's.

We got up early and got the house ready for the housekeeper. Yes I actually clean before they come?? LOL. I try and have everything picked up so all they have to concentrate on is deep cleaning and not pickup up our stuff and clutter. I dont have too much clutter anyway. Some say I'm probably wasteful, but I hate clutter and just throw stuff out. (not actually throw out, if it's in decent shape I usually take it to Goodwill or something). I left 2 bags full of boys clothes for the cleaning lady's today for their children. They each have 4 kids! I used to ebay both Bianca's and Matthew's clothes but I just dont have the time anymore and I feel much better giving them to people who really need them. They were probably pleasantly surpised when they opened them bags 2 GAP jackets, 2 Gymboree Jackets and bag full of Ralph Lauren, GAP and Old Navy boys size 2-3 clothes. Yes I am a clothes FREAK! I always have been. People wonder where Bianca get's it from!? :-)

We then went to IHOP for breakfast. The kids tried the new Horton Hears a Who breafast which consisted of Who Pancakes,Green eggs and Ham! We then dropped Jerry off to play Golf with his business partner. The kids and I then went to the retirement home to visit my grandmother for a bit. We then headed home but then decided Ice cream sounded good, so we went to get some :-)

Jerry got home about 5PM and then we went out to dinner and Baja Grill and I had a HUGE Margarita. We dont usually eat out twice a day but I just did not feel like dirtying my freshly clean kitchen.

Tomorrow we are having company for dinner. I'm still trying to figure out what to make. I'll probably deal with that later. Matthew was so tired. He crashed out at 7:30 PM tonight. It's going to be a nice quiet evening, LOL :-)

Kindergarten!

I can't believe today at 1:30 I will register my baby boy for Kindergarten next year. Where has the time gone. I remember when he was born thinking about Bianca being in 6th grade when Matthew starts Kindergarten. I thought that was just light years away. He actually thinks he is going to school today, LOL. He put on his backpack this morning!



And again, he is tilting his head!

Catching Up!

Spring Break was fun, Bianca had a blast at the lake. I had a nice peaceful week home with Matthew. (Did I just use peaceful and Matthew in the same sentence?) No really, it is always so much easier with just one of them home. No fighting, pushing, yelling, etc. Bianca and I did her spring clothes shopping before she left for the lake. She is so funny though, picked out this St. Patrick's day outfit, WOW! Matching green hat and everything. I wish I had been there at lake to take pictures, but my mom said it was a site to see.

Easter we spent at the Petruska house feasting on lots of yummy food and egg hunt for the kids. Here are some pictures from Easter.






I have no idea why Matthew tilts his head in every picture. I think he thinks it's cute!

The last couple weekends we have spent working on the home improvements. We cleaned out our garage and we had a new patio poured last week. We finally were able to clear out all the patio furniture from the garage! Maybe now I can actually park in the garage!

Spring Break

Spring Break officially starts today at 2:45 when Bianca gets out of school. Jerry left yesterday for Savannah to visit his sister and attend one of the biggest St. Patricks Day Party in U.S. He really needed a break because he has been working so hard getting the business off the ground. His hard work has paid off and now he is enjoying a few days of R&R.

Bianca is going to my parent's lake house in East Texas with Grandma, Poppy, The Karlis Family and the Petruska Family. She is really excited, she loves the lake and exploring and having fund with her cousins.

So that just leaves me and Matthew for the weekend. Tomorrow we will go my grandmothers retirement home and attend a Mardi Gras party with her for a few hours. Not sure yet what else Matthew and I will do, probably go the park, get ice cream and grab dinner somewhere. I will check the movie listings for Sunday and possibly go see a movie with him or maybe the zoo. It will be a nice relaxing weekend! :-)

Great Weekend!

Gotta love those tax refunds! I had a good time this weekend spending most of it :-)

Friday night was mommy and Matthew night. Bianca spent the evening with my mom and grandmother and Matthew and I went to Chili's for dinner (his favorite)and then to target so browse.

Saturday Bianca had a basketball game (they won, Yeah!) Then I was off on my shopping spree. I'm still trying to get my house done (see New Years Resolution post). We moved the leather sectional downstairs so far. I went to buy new coffee table yesterday because the room just did not look right with my rectangle table. I think with all the square and rectangle furniture it needed a round table. So I scored a deal at Haverty's. The table I picked out was acutally discontinued so they sold me the floor sample for $75 off and then I got the matching end table for only $100! I'm a bit disappointed because I love my rectangle table and I just got it a year ago at Thomasville. I guess I will put it in the new living room.

Then I was on a mission for a new TV stand. I went to 5 stores before finding one at Charter Furniture. So I bought it and then this morning Jerry and had a lightbulb moment and decided to keep the one we have from upstairs and just move it caddy corner. DUH! So I have to go return it, so that saves me $600!

Then I hit the mall for spring clothes for Matthew and Mommy. I cleaned out the kids closets this week and packed up the stuff that does not fit them anymore. So I got me some stuff at Macy's (shirts and spring sandals) and then GAP, Gymboree and Old Navy for Matthew. I was tempted to buy a new spring Coach but decided to wait until I tally up my damage :-) Next weekend I take Bianca which is always so much fun! She is at the age where she is getting into clothes. We have so much fun at Limited Too and Justice picking out clothes and accessories! :-)

Today, is Jerry's days since I was gone all day shopping yesterday. He is playing golf with his business partners and I'm taking the kids to do accessory shopping for the family room. I need a lamp, accessories for the new coffee table, and a new area rug. I did buy a new piece of art for above the fireplace. I got it off ebay. This artist was featured on Good Morning America and love her stuff. It's a signed original. I ended up just doing one for a buy it now. I was bidding on another one but I got outbid at $350. I was too impatient at trying another auction so just bought one.



I still have lots of stuff left to do though:

Family Room:
Move TV and stand from upstairs and family room should be done.

New Office:
Still need to repaint the new office, hang the new curtains and move the office furniture.

New Dining Room:
Buy new chandeleir and move the furniture. Should not need anything else

New Living Room:
move couch and sofa
buy 2 chairs
Will need some accessorizing

The Game Room is Jerry's so I have no idea what he has planned.

I think I will be painting next weekend!