Cooking Lessons

Abby took some lessons on cooking today. She learned how to layer a perfect lasagna. She's finally on the getting better end of the cold, but she is still really clingy, so she's been doing everything I've had to do. So this morning she had to have her hair blow dried. And this afternoon, besides her nap, she's been glued right to me. And last night she made it 2 and a half whole hours in her own bed before she freaked out and needed her mom. I am going to need a vacation from sick toddlers.

We found a great deal at our Goodwill today - a Little Tikes play table for Abby. It cost her a whopping $1.50. It even has fancy pink legs. After we cleaned it Abby enjoyed her lunch from a seat at her big kid table. She is so funny about big kid things. Tonight her friend A.J. will be over to play, so they can both enjoy dinner at the big kid table.

Working Girls

Abby and I spent all day yesterday working. We packed at the rental house in the morning and unpacked and cleaned the new house in the afternoon. We even let Maize come to the new house to check it out. She, of course, instantly peed on the carpet. Luckily the carpet is all coming out, so a little dog pee won't hurt it.

We moved the garage sale sofa in last night with some help from friends. It is just as nice as our current sofa, so it will work out great. We also hosted our first dinner party at the new house last night for the friend who carried in the sofa. We found a few more little things that we needed to fix by having company over and using the bathrooms.

Abby and I ran some errands this morning and worked on some additional packing. I think it is going to be a very busy weekend for us. We stopped in the local florist and greenhouse and remembered how spoiled we are having Grandma Jennie and Delton Floral in the family. The flowers and baskets at our greenhouse up here were almost double the price and not nearly as nice. I was definitely disappointed in the selection! We also stopped in Goodwill and found a great little picture for Aunt Carol (it's a whole row of Raggedy Ann's and Andy's). I love the half price tags - we got the picture for $1.99 and a winter weight infant car seat cover for $2.49. THIS DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER BABY - I just figured for such a great price there was bound to be someone who could use it and it is the fancy, normally $40 or $50 dollar kind.

This afternoon has more packing, moving, and cleaning in store. I am waiting for the last load of curtains to finish washing so that we can see how they cleaned up and decide whether they are moving back into the house or moving down the street to Goodwill. There may be a few in there that would be bad enough that no curtains would be better than re-hanging them.

Good Deals Day

Abby and I went to Goodwill a day early this week (we had to drop some information off to the store manager). While we were there we tried to find some good deals and we had great success! Our Goodwill now sells all children's clothes for $1.99. We got two nice pairs of blue jeans, a Winnie the Pooh shirt, and a pair of black leggings for Abby. She is going to be one well dressed little girl. Better than all that, we found the loving family doll house (for little people) and it was a great steal at $2.99! We can't wait to get some good playing done with our new toy. Abby also got a good treat when her dad let her sneak some of his breakfast. She is one lucky girl!
















Abby helped me make 2 1/2 apple pies yesterday (the 1/2 was a mini pie that she also helped consume). She mostly took slices of apple and snacked while I peeled and chopped. She also played me some nice music with her instrument table. She was being very helpful. And our pies turned out pretty good, except that my rice flour crust wouldn't stay together. But if it's going to be sliced and munched anyway, then it probably doesn't matter how pretty the top of the pie looks.

Tonight we are going to try some Hawaiian style pork with pineapple, yummy!!! I am hoping a tropical dinner will help our snow melt.

Goodwill Friday

Our little girl apparently LOVES shopping (oh no...). I think it is the overhead lighting that most amuses her. Today we decided to try my sister Melissa's favorite Friday trip and started our own "Goodwill Friday's" tradition. We found some good bargains. We got a set of illustrated bible encyclopedias (each volume was only 99 cents - and they were old so they match my antique book collection). We also found a VHS copy of The Prince of Egypt and 3,2,1 Penguins (a movie by the veggie tales guys). Last, but not least, was a car seat winter cover for Baby H. as soon as he or she is ready for it. Abby will be too big for the infant car seat before it gets too cold here. Or maybe we should re-phrase that - she will be too heavy for us to keep carrying her in that seat.

So... we took our afternoon and made the most of it, and I think we both had fun. Abby laughed and cooed all the way through Goodwill, but slept though the book buying at the Salvation Army.

Today was happy in a brown shirt day - these are my favorite pictures from this morning. She's been a happy camper all day long :-)