Chelsea Salomone

Thursday, July 16, 2009

New Team

I couldn't be more excited about my team for next year! They are so much fun!! Yesterday we got together at Al & Teri's house to swim and eat lunch. When Jane walked in, I couldn't have felt more certain that I'd picked the right team.

Ha! We had so much fun talking and spending time together. I just know next year is going to be great! Tammie and Layla weren't able to make it, and unfortunately I didn't get a picture of April.

For dessert, I served up a pretty neat little concoction, if I may say so myself. I mean obviously, I had to out do myself and the cups of pink sundaes I served to our roofers.

I know I must have seen this idea somewhere and I just can't remember where, because I don't have the creativity to just think something like this up on my own. It was SO easy. I bought small flower pots at Hobby Lobby and washed them really well. Then, I lined them with foil and put ice cream in the inside. (I let it soften on the counter first.) Next, I stuck a straw in the middle of the ice cream and cut it off so only about half an inch was sticking up. Then I froze them for a few hours.

Before serving, I put Oreos in the food processor until they were very fine and "dirt like" and poured those on top of the ice cream. I cut the stems of flowers really short and stuck them into the straw and viola! Pot-o-ice cream! I think this would be so cute to serve at a little kid's birthday party.

Another thing that's even cooler than eating ice cream out of flower pots, is that CNN Money magazine ranked Keller the Number 7 town to live in, in the U.S. Pretty cool! Can't hurt property values either.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Disarray!

Last night Al called and offered to take us to La Familia for Mexican food. Teri is out of town and I had no objections to a free meal, especially when it means not having to cook in this heat and escaping the CONSTANT BANGING on the roof.

When we got home from dinner, we found that the roofers were gone for the day and had so kindly returned the remaining supplies from their ice cream party to my plant stand by the front door. (Don't worry I did not stick those back in the fridge after sitting out in the heat.)

But that wasn't all they left us... I just LOVE having this truck parked in our drive way.

One guy left his lunch box and gloves. I guess after the sundaes yesterday, he figures lunch is on me today.

A blue shirt left hanging from the tree?? Possibly their way of asking if I wouldn't mind throwing this in the wash for them?

Needless to say, I'm over getting a new roof. We had to take everything off the walls inside our house, too. I feel like everything is in a huge disarray, and it's driving me nuts! I will be SO glad when they're finished today.

On a better note, last night after we got home from dinner I was laying on our bed reading and Nick was watching t.v. in the living room. He came in our bedroom and sat on the bed and asked what I was reading. Then he said, "I don't tell you this enough, but I just want you to know how much I appreciate everything you do around here. You are always cooking for me and doing the laundry and dishes, and I just really appreciate all you do." Period. End of sentence.

As in, it wasn't followed by, "So, would you mind if I went to Lubbock this weekend with Brett and Kevin and Randy?" Or "Do you care if all my friends from Houston come stay with us and watch football at our house for a few days?"

That was it. Just a sweet thank you with nothing following behind it. It's amazing how great that can make you feel. It absolutely made my day!!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Week Day Time Fillers

I really hate to say this. Two months ago I would have told you it was impossible, but I think I might be getting just a teeny, tiny bit bored. I feel especially guilty admitting that because I know a lot of people who would switch spots with me any day. Including Nick.

I suspected boredom might be creeping up on me last week when I kept asking Nick what errands he needed me to run for him, and he couldn't think of anything. Well I must have kept asking a lot because he finally gave me his watch one day and asked if I would take it to the jewelry store to be cleaned. That was literally the highlight of my day. Pathetic.

I have been keeping myself busy working out here and there, reading, running any errands I can think of, playing golf, meeting people for lunch and trying to catch episodes of Sixteen and Pregnant. I have done something every day. But after a while, some of those things start to feel like time fillers. And they don't exactly fill up all of the hours in the day. Sure there are things I COULD be doing, like go up to school and work in my room or clean out our closet, but what fun is that? I guess I could go swimming, but it is so hot outside that the pool seriously feels like bath water. Being bored is my best option at this point.

Today, I finally came to terms with the fact that I am bored when I found myself JOYFULLY preparing an ice cream sundae party for our roofers. Shamefully, I am not even kidding. Other than going out to lunch and helping Kari look for a baby book to escape the BANGING, this has been the highlight of my day.

I think Nick is a little put out by this. He was none too happy when I called him at work (for the third time today) asking for ideas of things to do for our roofers. At first I thought about making a taco run, but that seems kind of stereotypical, and Nick quickly shut that down.

"Chelsea. DO NOT go to Taco Bell and buy them tacos. Are you freaking kidding me?!?! We are paying them to work on our roof, it's not like our friends are out there doing it. That's their job. DO NOT spend money and go buy them food. They don't need to be taking taco breaks- what they need to do is work hard and finish our roof."

Well the only thing I really took from that conversation was DO NOT spend money, so that's actually how I got the idea for sundaes. I dug around in our freezer and found everything for sundaes, plus pink cups to serve them in and plastic spoons.

I also found some pretzel poppers in the freezer I didn't know we had, so I went ahead and baked them as well and set them outside on the sundae table.

Nick will for sure thank me when he sees how motivated people are by free food. I bet we'll have the best roof on the block!

When Nick is home at night or on the weekends, it's a different story. So far I haven't found myself bored enough to be making sundaes for strange Mexican men.

We went to dinner at Blue Mesa and to Thomas' game on Friday night. Saturday we rode bikes with John Garrett in Ft. Worth. That could be a blog entry in and of itself, because I think I almost died. They ride WAY too fast for me, and it was SO hot. Let's just say it ended twelve miles later with me sprawled out in the backseat of John Garrett's truck clinging to life, begging for one last snow cone while John Garrett and Nick laughed and made fun of me. They clearly didn't understand the magnitude of my suffering.

Saturday night we went to a graduation party for my former neighbor, Kyle. It was GREAT getting to catch up with old friends from Jason Drive and see everyone's little kids, including Addyson and Hallie. I hadn't seen Tiffany's kids in a while, and they are just adorable!! After that we went to a barbeque and Josh and Elyse's house.

Sunday I had a lot of fun playing golf with Kimba. I just love her! We were cracking up, because we would get so excited about these shots we would make, that really weren't good at all. If the ball even went in the general direction of the hole we would cheer and congratulate one another.

So that's July in a nut shell. I guess I'll go get my ice cream scoop back from the roofers and see what came in the mail.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

A Little Too Ross

Last night we went to Frisco to watch Thomas pitch with Colten and Alison.

Colten is so cute!! He is now five months old and weighs 22 lbs. He has an impressive comb over-esque type of hair do. The right side of his hair is full and dark and long, and the left side is completely bald with a little blonde starting to grow in! It's hilarious! He can roll over on both sides, and is now sleeping about 12 hours at night. And eating rice cereal. And possibly copping a feel in this picture.

At the game we were lucky enough to meet a new friend, A Little Too Ross. "A little too" is a term my roommates and I came up with in college. It's a ubiquitous phrase that describes things you can't quite put your finger on. People and situations that you can't really peg as being one thing or another. Times when you're inevitably left thinking, "It must just be me thinking this."

Here are a couple of examples of little too scenarios to help you really grasp the concept.

If, for example, you're at a friend's house and seated right next to their Glade vanilla musk wall plug in. As you're talking, keep getting a whif of something- and it doesn't smell bad necessarily, and it's not completely over powering, it's just a little too... fragrant.

If you're at a party and you're not completely hot and sweaty and no one else is complaining, but you're just past your temperature comfort level. You give your shirt a good shake, and look around the room thinking, "Is it just me, or is it a little too hot in here?"

For me personally, I encounter the feeling of a little too when I see thirteen year old boys and girls walking around our neighborhood holding hands. I can't quite place why I don't like it.

Anytime you start off a sentence with "Is it just me or...." you're most likely in an LT situation. You're never fully confident or bold in your assessment of something in LT situations.

Which brings us to LT Ross. How we came to know LT Ross was that we were sitting in really good seats that Thomas left us. I have no idea why, but out of the hundreds of people sitting in that section the usher chose Nick and I to walk up to and ask to see our tickets.

Nick fished them out of his back pocket, and the guy gave us a once over and went on his way. So Nick mutters an explicit that starts with an a and rhymes with "bass mole." Of course there happened to be a four year old boy sitting right next to Nick. I was SO embarrassed. I elbowed Nick in the ribs and shot him a dirty look. He looked over and apologized to the dad who happened to be LT Ross.

"Oh it's okay," LT Ross piped up, "They hear that all the time." Kind of a weird response... I mean- I don't know if he was trying to make Nick feel better or what.

Ross was probably in his early forties, wore a gold bracelet and his hair was short in the front and longer in the back. It wasn't a full on mullet by any means, but not a style you see every day either. A little too close to a mullet? So we started talking to him, and he seemed like a nice guy. He had three boys with him and pulled out a picture of his wife and daughter to show us. Before long two of his three boys wanted to go get ice cream. "Is it cool if the little rugrat stays with you?" he asked us, referring to the four year old. A little too trusting???

When they got back we talked to him for a while as we watched the game, and Nick, Alison and I were passing Colten back and forth. I happened to be holding Colten and LT Ross clapped his hands together and smiled and said, "MY TURN!!" I didn't know what to say! Again, as is common in LT situations, I started thinking, "Maybe it's just me who thinks this is kind of weird." I looked at Alison, and she clearly didn't know what to say so she just nodded... and LT Ross held Colten.

We watched the game and chit chatted with LT Ross & Co. a little more, and the topic turned to marriage and kids. Nick told him we'd been married two years, Ross has been married fifteen. Then he asked Nick, "So are y'all trying for kids yet?" Nick laughed awkwardly and assured him we weren't, and I was left thinking a little too forward??

See it's just hard to put your finger on situations that are a little too. Ross wasn't overtly abrasive or rude, but just crossed that line a little tiny bit. After the game, when the fireworks came on one of Ross's "rugrats" climbed in my lap and another one had his sweaty arms wrapped around my neck. We had been talking to them all night and I like kids a lot and everything, but it was just kind of weird- I mean I didn't KNOW these people. Even his kids were a little too!

After the game and fireworks, LT Ross shook our hands and laughed and said, "One hell of a salesman I am, I don't even have a business card on me" and stared right at Nick. Nick fumbled around in his wallet and found one of his cards and handed it to Ross. I'm about 90% sure that we'll now be receiving email updates and Christmas cards from LT Ross and fam. from here on out. They're the exact kind of people that if you're ever lucky enough to own a vacation home, and they hear about it, they'll show up uninvited- with all their kids and three dogs.

As we were walking to the locker room area to meet Thomas, Alison was juggling Colten and said to me in kind of a whisper, "That guy we sat by was really nice and everything, but didn't you think he was kind of... I don't quite know how to describe it.." Of course you can't describe it. You can't exactly put your finger on it- it's just LT.

And on another note- we have worked so hard and scrimped and saved our money, and now our efforts have paid off. We spent thousands of our hard earned dollars on this lovely reward, which was delivered to our home just today.

We're getting a new roof Monday, and I'm thrilled because that's EXACTLY what I want to be spending our money on. But don't worry- those giant, black tire marks they left ALL over our drive way were free :) Plus, now we get to be those neighbors waking up the neighborhood a little too early.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

The Giving & Receiving of Goats

I'm going to preface this one. Let me just say, I love Nick. I love him more than anybody or anything else in the whole world. He is my best friend and a great husband. He makes me a better person. And truth me told, if an unbiased observer were to watch us, he would undoubtedly discover (very quickly) that I am the more difficult person to live with. That being said...

When John Garrett and I were little and I would get especially worked up because he was tormenting me like usual, my grandma Nanny would say, "Oh Chels, don't let him get your goat." To this day that saying makes zero sense to me. I think it's an old Southern cliche that means don't let someone get to you. What goats have to do with anything is beyond me. But I will say, with about 99% assurance, today Nick got my goat.

We had a really fun weekend, but spent pretty much every waking (and sleeping) moment from Thursday afternoon until tonight together. So by late this afternoon, I think we probably just needed a little time doing our own thing. But instead, I got the bright idea that we should play a friendly game of Scrabble. Except our friendly game turned arduous very quickly (wish I could have spelled that word on the Scrabble board). Miriam Webster was consulted, points were tabulated and then rechecked by the opponent, words were denied- it wasn't pretty. By a stroke of luck (and 100 points give or take), Nick wound up winning. He didn't take his win lightly, and I didn't take the loss lightly. Nick went on and on and on and on, until I seriously couldn't take it any more. Then, he decided it was funny to keep me riled up and started making noises and gestures, and pestering me, and generally acting like a ten year old boy. You can imagine- I won't go into detail.

Well that got me thinking about things I hate. Like I hate the fact that I'm always freezing cold in our house because the thermostat has to be on 72 with the fan on high, and I hate that ESPN is always on t.v., and I hate the fact that he never washes his sweaty baseball caps.

Which made him think about how much he hates that I'm always making all the plans for us and expecting him to just go along with them.

We hashed that out, and by that point it was time to start thinking about dinner. I didn't feel like cooking or eating out. I was happy with a sandwich or left overs. Nick, on the other hand, didn't feel like a sandwich or left overs. So I huffed around the kitchen and made myself a turkey sandwich, and he left to go to Albertson's to find something to make himself for dinner.

While he was gone, I started feeling a little guilty about the whole thing. I mean, maybe I do tend to make the majority of the plans and sometimes forget to tell him until the last minute. And I know that he likes the house extremely cold and ESPN and his sweaty hats, but he is a boy after all. And those aren't such terrible things. And if I was completely honest with myself, I would have to admit that maybe I might have behaved the exact same way if I'd won Scrabble tonight.(Which I very easily could have.)

So, Lexi and I made a sign for the garage door because I knew it would make him laugh. And it made me laugh... and feel a lot better. See Lexi is proudly guarding the door because she agrees with the sign.

Then I ran a bath, put my Aveda deep, reconditioning therapy on my hair, wrapped a hot towel on my head, and put a mask on my face. I dimmed the lights in the bathroom, closed the doors, and put my iPod on the Relax play list, which is basically a bunch of overtly feminine songs by artists like Sarah McLaughlin and Enya. And I just soaked.

When I got out of the tub and into my pajamas, Nick was in the living room playing NCAA Football on his Playstation, satisfied from eating something for dinner besides a turkey sandwich. He gave me a big hug, apologized, and told me he got a good laugh out of my sign. And he actually doesn't hate that I make all the plans. Maybe I could just try and do a better job of communicating them to him. And he even picked up a delicious, sugary box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch for me at the store. Nothing says love like Cinnamon Toast Crunch I tell you!! I apologized as well and all was forgiven.

So, I guess one might say (as is often true in marriages and other relationships): Today, Nick got my goat. But then, he gave it right back.

Fourth of July Weekend

The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday by far! Christmas is very meaningful, but it's too cold outside for my taste and requires too much work beforehand. Thanksgiving is always boring to me, full of eating and football. Plus, on those holidays Nick and I always end up driving all over the metroplex to try and see all of our family.

But Fourth of July is just perfect! I love the patriotic songs and seeing all of the flags flying. I love eating watermelon and watching fireworks and barbequing and swimming and spending time with friends and family. I love that Nick's birthday is on the Fourth of July. To make it even better, we got engaged three years ago on Fourth of July weekend. This weekend, for whatever reason, we didn't really do any of the typical Fourth activities, but we had a lot of fun!

Our weekend technically started on Thursday. Nick only worked for a few hours, and my mom and I spent the day in Dallas. We shopped at North Park, and she took me to the best restaurant in Inwood Village called Rise No. 1. It was SO good and very quaint! We had such a fun day together.

Nick took off work on Friday, and we played golf and went to the Rangers game. After the game they had fireworks and music.

Saturday was of course, Nick's birthday! I just love this picture of Nick laughing after he blew out the candles on his cake. I don't remember what was so funny!

Saturday night we went to our favorite restaurant, Hibiscus in Dallas with the fam. to celebrate Nick's big 2-8! Too bad you're in your LATE twenties now, Nicky!!! Hehe.

I have been reading The Time Traveler's Wife pretty much every spare minute I've had this weekend. I stayed up late reading every night since it came in the mail. I just couldn't put it down! I finally finished it late last night, so it was nice to sleep in this morning. We hadn't done that in a while. When we finally got up, we decided to take our bikes to Trinity Trails in Ft. Worth.

Hope everyone had a fun holiday weekend!!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

ELL-EEN

Since summer started I have been going to yoga in the mornings a couple times a week (or once a week or none times a week, depending on the week). It's been enjoyable going into the 100 degree studio so I can have a breather from the 107 degree temperatures outside. Nice little cool down.

The people who go to morning yoga are a lot different than the people who go to yoga at night. It's people (like me) with nothing better to do with their morning. Except I'm pretty sure that the requirement to be a morning yoga regular is being over 5'7, less than 115 lbs, and a BMI of 4 (not like me). And I'm pretty sure they don't reward themselves with a bag of Sour Patch Kids or a snow cone after an especially good session. But that's neither here nor there, and I have been going despite the obstacles.

Today the board said HELEN would be teaching. Normally a teacher whom I really like named Yong does the morning session, so I was curious to see who this Helen was. I automatically knew I was in trouble when she walked into class, flipped on the light to end our "meditative state," and introduced herself as "ELL-EEN." Let it be known she didn't have an accent on any other word she said, or appear to be from any place other than Texas (she even said y'all!) I guess when you can bend in ways not anatomically possible for others, the pronunciation of your name is arbitrary.

I won't lie. Class was HARD today. Like really, really hard. EEL-EEN kicked my butt. I have been going for a while now, and I can keep up, but I'm just not very flexible. No matter what.

At the very end of class I had to sit out for the last "standing split eagle series." I was starting to see big, white spots and regret the pizza and ice cream pie I ate for dinner last night. And I've given blood and found myself on a cold floor with a nurse standing over me one too many times to know about white spots. So I just sat there and took deep breaths while everyone else did their eagles. The last thing I wanted was to suddenly find myself incapacitated on the floor with ELL-EEN and the rest of the twigs peering at me. Because then morning yoga would definitely be over. I do have SOME dignity.

Anyway, so as class was ending, we were lying on our backs with our eyes closed as we always do. ELL-EEN turned out the lights and said, "Ok, y'all- take a big, deep breath and thank your body for all of yer hard work today. Y'all did great! If you were able to keep up and do all of the postures, pat yourself on the back. You did great! And if you had to stop and sit for a minute or two, tell yourself I AM NOT A LOSER. I AM STRONG. And guess what, you'll do it next time!"

My eyes snapped open at that point. Like- was she really saying that??? FOR REAL??? Again, meditative state over. I always knew I didn't like people who mispronounced their name.

In other news, we are getting new neighbors across the street! I was really holding out for another pair of D.I.N.K.S. until their sea foam blue mini van pulled up behind the moving truck! Obviously, no such luck. Dang it!! I kind of want to take some cookies or something over there and meet them, but I don't know if that's lame or creepy or whatever. I've never had new neighbors. Besides, I'm sure my other lovely neighbor will be over at some point today to tell me alllllll about them. I'm anxiously awaiting her visit. Until then, I'll just keep telling myself "I am not a loser! I am strong!" and eating Sour Patch Kids. Or a snow cone!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Nothing Better To Do

I have reached an all-time blogging low.

I'm posting pictures of my flowers blooming. Clearly, one two possible things is happening.

A) I'm turning into my grandma Nanny. She ALWAYS takes pictures of her flowers blooming, prints them out and puts them in albums to show us.

B) We don't have kids, therefore I have nothing better to take pictures of than our dog and my flowers.

When Nanny pulls out her flower pictures, I always think, "Why in the world would you take pictures of flowers? Who wants to see that?" I should take my own advice.

But I just couldn't believe how all of the orange lilies opened up over night, and I swear the flowers in my flower pots grew a couple of inches since it's been cooler today and yesterday. Since it's summer I have time to sit around and do things like watch my flowers grow.

And while I was outside taking pictures of my flowers (embarrassing), guess who came wandering over??? My favorite neighbor. The one who so kindly branded me a D.I.N.K.

She just wanted to see if I knew that some of our neighbors have taken their kids to Disneyland. I did. And she just wanted to ask if I really think they can afford to do that, what with the stepson going to college in the fall and everything. Because she doesn't think they can. And she hated to say it, but she was going to anyway: what they need to be putting their money into is fixing their roof and landscaping their yard.

The whole time she was blabbing about this, I kept thinking I REALLY want to think of something juicy to tell her about Nick and I that will just completely throw her for a loop. Oh she would just have a ball with that!! Wouldn't that be funny?? Unfortunately, it's tough to trick her into thinking our life is incredibly exciting or scandalous when I'm in the front yard taking pictures of flowers for goodness sake!

Andrea & Chris had us over to Andrea's apartment tonight. It was so much fun! We made pizza, ate ice cream pie and watched the new season of Entourage. They are going to be out of town on Nick's birthday so we did an early celebration with them.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Random Monday: Orange Things, Tiger's Blood & Books

I got my Gussy bag in the mail!! Isn't it cute? I just love it and especially the orange ruffle! You can see it very well in the awkward picture of me holding the bag above.

Last night we had Al & Teri and Andrea & Chris over for a belated Father's Day dinner. I picked up these orange lilies for the table, and I just love how they've bloomed!! I wish they would look just like this forever.

Today has been a pretty uneventful Monday. I was hoping to sleep in, but at 7:00 this morning, right after Nick left for work, I started hearing loud voices and lots of banging. Our neighbors are getting a new roof, and I guess they decided that 7 a.m. was the time to start. Not that I can blame them in this heat! Well, about five minutes later I heard our other neighbor fire up some sort of machinery. I don't know if it was his lawn mower, weed eater or if he was chopping down trees but it was SO loud! I think he was right outside our window or something. At that point I just gave up and got out of bed. I did some laundry and watched the Today show. Is it just me or is anybody else sick of hearing about Michael Jackson?!?!

I met my friend Christin for lunch in Ft. Worth. We hadn't seen each other in a while. We ate some great sushi and had a lot of fun catching up. I am SO excited to hear that she plays golf too! Ever since Kari got pregnant, I lost my golf partner so it will be fun to play with Christin. I am playing with Nick and his parents on Friday. I just love playing with them- they're so much fun and so patient with me, but they're also a LOT better than me! I hate feeling like I'm slowing them down.

After that my mom brought her new dog Annie over for a visit. She's going out of town next week, and we're going to keep Annie. We wanted to make sure she and Lexi got along okay. They did good. Here is a picture of Annie at the shelter. This is one day when Tammie and I went to visit her. She's pretty dirty, but you can still see her cute little face. Now she is all cleaned up and got her hair cut. I'm so glad my mom got her!

After that, I went to get a snow cone. I discovered a new flavor- Tiger's Blood, which is strawberry and coconut, with cream. It is SO good!! My tastes are evolving. Now I'm just waiting on Nick to get home from work. He went to get drinks with his boss after work. Things are a little shaky at the bank right now (ITE), as I'm sure they are at pretty much every business in America, so I'm interested to see what he finds out. There's no point in worrying about it, because ultimately it will be okay and we have no control over it. That's one thing that I have been doing really good at since I started my bible study on Thursday nights. We are reading Calm My Anxious Heart, as I mentioned before. It is a great book, and we just have the best group of girls! The book talks about how to find inner contentment, regardless of what's going on on the outside. Even if you don't have a group to read it with, I would recommend this book. It has given me such a great perspective. I am really enjoying it.

And speaking of books, this morning I ordered The Time Traveler's Wife on Amazon. I can't wait for it to come in!! Has anyone read it? I saw the movie preview on Saturday, and I'm not going to lie and say I didn't tear up just a little bit. Oh- it looks SO good! I like Rachel McAdams a lot too! Of course I made Nick watch the preview on YouTube, and he wasn't impressed (on the outside). I know he was tearing up on the inside! His response was something along the lines of, "I guess you're gonna make me see this with you?" But what he was thinking was, "Oh wow! This looks SO sweet. I want to cry! It just looks like the best, most romantic movie ever." See that's what happens when you've been married two years- you can read each other's minds like that. Have a great Monday!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Fernsitting

Last night Addyson spent the night with us. Oh my gosh- I didn't know I could love that little critter anymore than I already do, but I fell in love with her a little bit more when she spent the night!!

I met Lisa on Wednesday morning and picked Addy up. Now I know that Fern is highly advanced, but I started thinking that she probably can't quite grasp Monopoly or Guitar Hero, and I don't think Dave Ramsey's book or Twilight is up her alley. Since that is the extent of the toys at our house, I decided to take her over to my mom's to get some stuff. Except "some stuff" to Addy meant we needed to go ahead and clean out my mom of every childhood toy of mine she has saved. We played over there for a while and then my mom and I took her out to lunch at Mijo's. Let me just say, the girl can put away some chips and salsa!!

Then we came back to my house and she took a nap from 1:30 until 4:30! When she got up, we played, she ate a snack and wanted to color. She was very specific that she wanted to color Mogalee from Jungle Book. Thank goodness for Google and "free Jungle Book coloring sheets." Saved my life!

Well, just as Mogalee was coming out of the printer she decided that actually what she wanted to color was Balloo. We found Balloo and printed him, but she realized that she meant to tell me she wanted to color Flounder from Little Mermaid. So we printed Flounder. I didn't have any jumbo crayons lying around, so we made do with colored pencils. Worked like a charm. And good thing I didn't give her paint because she tried to "be silly" and color on her shirt, the carpet and my arm on more than one occasion.

After work Nick had to pick Al & Teri up at the airport, so I decided we would meet them for dinner. Addyson told me she wanted spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, and far be it for me to deny the child her food requests. As I was getting ready for dinner, she discovered some rain boots from who-knows-where in my closet.

Just as we were leaving for dinner she decided she needed to use the big girl potty. I was so excited for her when she did, but my excitement clearly meant little to Fern because she informed me that she needed a prize. None of my suggested prizes were satisfactory until I found some Gummy Savers stashed in a cabinet. Close call!

At dinner, I kid you not, she ate pound for pound what I did. She of course oohed and ahhed Teri and Al (whom she called "Owl") with her extensive vocabulary and vast knowledge. I was having trouble with my cell phone all day, and in the car she told me, "Don't worry. Nick can fix it. He do have batteries." Every time someone would call my phone (when it worked), she would ask me, "Who was that on your phone? What did they say?" I also learned that she can identify all 26 letters of the alphabet!! She's not even 3!

When we got home, we watered flowers and played at the park across the street from our house. She was a little concerned that I don't have a "watering can like Mimi," so I'll need to get on that sometime next week.

I gave her a bath and Nick and I read a book to her. Or she read it to us- I'm not sure which. Before her bath, she found this purple hand mirror in my cabinets. Don't ask me why, but she LOVED that purple mirror. The purple mirror took a bath with her, read a book with her.. so of course she wanted to take it to bed with her. I was a little scared she might roll over on it or something, so I put it up and gave her all the beanie babies she dragged from my mom's house.

Nick had made her a little pallet in our bedroom with the air mattress and seriously every pillow
he could find in our house to lay around it. It was a little ridiculous I will say, considering the air mattress sits six inches off the ground, but you just never know. She cried for a while when we laid her down and left the room. I finally went back in there, and she was still asking for that purple mirror. I laid down with her and rubbed her back, but she still wanted the purple mirror. I finally gave in and just let her sleep with it, and she never made a peep again. As long as I didn't try to get off the air mattress. Because I tried three different times throughout the night and she would start to whimper. So I slept on the air mattress with Addy and the purple mirror and thirteen beanie babies. (Lisa- those are pajamas right?? I wasn't sure if that was a cute little outfit or pajamas, but it was so soft that I defaulted to pajamas.)

Addy is quite the snuggler in the morning! She was so sweet! And the first thing she said when we got up is, "Where is Nick?" We got dressed, ate breakfast, and met Lisa at 11:00. She still had a firm grasp on that mirror when we left to meet Lisa! If I had known all she needed was a mirror, I probably wouldn't have driven all the way to Arlington for beanie babies.

I baby-sat for years and nannied in college but it's good to brush up on your skills because you tend to forget some things.

Like how it's not a good idea to put them down for a nap wearing a pull up unless you like doing laundry. Or how if you give them "oaties" (oatmeal) for breakfast and leave them in front of the t.v. with Curious George to baby-sit and take a QUICK shower, you will be cleaning oaties from your rug and pillows and table and couch and who knows where else for quite a while. Or, if you leave your toothbrush sitting out on the bathroom counter you don't even need to worry about fixing oaties, because they'll swipe that and just sit in front of the t.v. sucking on that for breakfast instead!!

Not that any of this happened- all hypothetical of course. And what you see laying on the coffee table in the picture is NOT my toothbrush.

Addyson is precious, and it was so much fun keeping her!! I hope she had as much fun as Nick and I did.