navygreen | Entries tagged with mail

Philip is becoming addicted to the yard sale feature on Facebook. (I already was.) I've scored a neat apron, several DVDs, some cookie cutters, and I'm currently waiting on a changing table. It's cherry wood, matching my dining room, and I've been looking for one for a while that would work well for all my cookie stuffs. At the moment, however, Philip is out buying a barely used 120gb video iPod for just $60! He is stoked!

Yesterday was a banner "retail therapy" day! I had nothing that needed "therapy," but boy, I sure managed it anyway! While the boys were in school, Philip and I headed to town. We went to the mall first, to Bath & Body Works especially. I'd been all out of wallflowers, and I stocked up big time - I bought 18 scents! I also nabbed two new wallflower units, as well as a couple jar candles.

Then, we headed to Walmart, and I ducked in really quick to return a shirt. Afterwards, we went to Menards. Philip grabbed a wall patch repair kit, and I stocked up on more rods for my second cookie cutter rack. (Yes, I've halfway filled a second rack now. It's a disease, and I'm not looking for a cure.)

Philip then suggested we stop by my favorite kitchen shop, and how could I resist?! I bought a second half-sheet pan and a second Silpat to go with it, and then I picked up just one more cutter. I also bought my fifth set of measuring spoons. I promise I needed them, as it seems that all of mine are constantly dirty. Have I mentioned that I bake quite a bit? *blushes*

When we returned home, I had two boxes waiting for me. The first was a small box of cookie cutters I'd ordered early in the week, and the second was a GIANT box of stuff I ordered from

ginky's Tastefully Simple party last weekend. Super-quick shipping, both of them! I put all those goodies away, too.

And all of this post is reminding me that I haven't even thought to check the mail today...

w00t! Today was great, and tomorrow is forecast to be even better. Our high today should've been 11° or so, but instead, we were hanging out at 16° when I checked this afternoon. Even now, we're currently 14°.

Even better than THAT, however, is that we're in the mid-30's tomorrow! And for the next day! And upper 20's the day after that! What a great weekend!

I was so thankful for the 5-6 days of 30-40° weather we had last week, even if it did dip back into the negatives again over the weekend. I mean, it's winter, after all. Once the snow comes, I expect it to be there nonstop until spring. However, that huge warm-up caused all the roads/sidewalks to be not just clear, not just wet, but down to DRY PAVEMENT. That is a huge plus in my book. I love a fresh start!

I received a great box in the mail today. Philip surprised me with a set of lights I'd found after the season and been drooling over: Williams-Sonoma Cookie Cutter Lights. I found the item one night, and intended to order it the next day (they were on clearance). However, the next day, they were sold out and gone!. He contacted his sister-in-law to see if they had them in her local store in Greensboro, and then she found a set on eBay later. He created a new account and bought them for me! They will be perfect on my kitchen Christmas tree next year!

I've got about 48 hours' worth of baking in front of me. Four cookie requests, plus a cheesecake. I've got to get to the kitchen!

Current Mood: happy

I am completely out of any type of stationery, and this makes me very frowny. :-(

I have an honest-to-goodness, long-hand pen pal, and she is just amazing. Each new letter brings me SUCH joy! I'm wistful for the days when most communication was done by snail mail, but I'm so thankful for this relationship now. :-)

Current Mood: happy

I just marinaded my first brisket, and here's hoping it tastes fabulous on Wednesday night. I made a bunch of yeast rolls last night, and I can't wait to have little shredded brisket sandwiches. *fingers crossed*

Also in the kitchen today, I made chocolate chip cookies and the first banana pudding of the year. The boys and I had small bowls of the pudding after dinner tonight, and I also made up two pretty dishes of pudding for my two favorite neighbors. I hope they enjoyed it, too.

In addition, I thought it was super-adorable that both of the afore-mentioned neighbors joined a group on Facebook called, "I ♥ My Neighbor." It's especially heartwarming because I know that both of them only know me on this street. When I saw that, I became all warm & fuzzy inside, and plenty smiley on the outside. :-D

I had a good time at the National Scrapbook Day event on Saturday. I completed nine pages in about 7.5 hours, and that's probably a record for me. (I usually average about 1 page every two hours or so.) Also in that time, I spent half an hour eating lunch and at least a good hour sorting through photos. I'm trying to get an album completed of my own childhood, and it's tough to sort through my baby and toddler photos... I can't remember that time, you know? My parents are coming to visit this summer, and I'm hoping that my mom can look through the album with me. If she's willing to journal some stuff in it, that's great. If not, I plan on taking notes while she "talks" through it. I'm excited to have the finished project!

Jack had an early soccer game Saturday morning, and then the guys dropped me off for scrapbooking while they had a "Dude's Day Out" together. They visited the Dakota Territory Air Museum, then headed to lunch at McDonald's (the one with a large play area), and then they headed to the mall to catch a matinee showing of Iron Man 2. Sometime during their day, they bopped over to the specialty kitchen store, and Philip surprised me with the Beater Blade for my KitchenAid that I've been dreaming about. (I used for the first time in today's cookies, and it worked beautifully!) Then they picked me up at 6pm, and we came home for a dinner of BBQ Chicken Pizza. It was a great day, and I fell into bed by 11pm and was asleep before my head hit the pillow. ZZZzzzzzz...

I mailed several boxes off today, and I'll be mailing one more tomorrow. After that, I'm ready to stay away from the post office for a while - it's so expensive! Meanwhile, I've been waiting on a special something to arrive in *my* mailbox for over a week, and I'm getting antsy...

Jack's soccer practice tonight was really warm. It's been mid-70's and sunny here for the past three days, and it's not set to change anytime soon. In fact, it's supposed to be mid-80's by the end of the week. I'm so glad I got all my flowerbeds planted last week, or I'd be totally burned when trying to do it this week. After the planting, I put it 36 bags of mulch, and it took a good while!

Alrightee, I'm off to do the dishes that just don't ever seem to do themselves. After a day of baking, I've got an entire sink full - eeep!

Current Mood: good

Two nights ago, I puttered around in the office, knocking out a couple of chick flicks while Philip was at work. I watched The Women and The Prince & Me 3: The Royal Honeymoon (I *know*. It went direct to DVD, I think, if that's any indication. Still, I'm a sucker for that movie series, and it was total fluff.)

The next night, Tuesday, the boys and I worked non-stop for HOURS on their valentine boxes for school. When they arrived off the bus, I took them straight to the BX to pick out supplies. From there, we rushed to Jack's soccer practice, and then back to the BX for the actual valentines (how did we forget those the first time? Honestly!) We came home, and got down to business. Between coats of paint, they wrote out all their valentines, then bagged them up with candy. We'd not been able to find treat bags of any sort, so they used sandwich baggies that they decorated with valentine stickers. Seriously, they went to bed sooooo late that night, and even then, the boxes were only 1/3 finished, but no more could be done until the paint dried more. Later, I felt more tired, and I headed to bed at the early time of 1am, taking with me my new book. Hang on - I haven't written about that here...

Marissa and I first saw the trailer for Dear John several months back, while at the midnight premiere of New Moon. We saw it before subsequent viewings too, and each time, we remarked on how good it looked. She read the book a while back. The weekend before last, we were talking about it again over the phone, and she asked me if I read the book. I told her I still hadn't, and she asked me if I'd like her to mail me her copy. "Sure!" I replied. The next afternoon, she called to let me know that the book would be here Saturday or Monday.

On Monday, I received a package from Amazon.com. I'd been expecting one myself for some things I'd ordered, so I didn't open it until much, much later in the evening. When I finally did, I was thinking, "I don't think this is a big enough mailer..." But it was! It was because it was my own brand-new copy of Dear John, and Marissa had ordered it and had Amazon send it straight to me! Such a sneaky gal, she was!

So... since I was felt more tired, I decided to curl up in bed and read just a chapter or two to "wet my whistle" for reading it the next day. Wrong-O! At 5:30am, I closed the book, having finished it in its entirety instead. It was a good read, and I've got some thoughts swirling on it. I think I'll probably put those down in my paper journal, though.

So I slept for a bit, then got the boys off to school, and then I went back to bed. I got up for the day around 12:45, intending to head to the commissary for our bi-weekly grocery shopping (Philip had gotten home after PT around 9am, crawling straight into bed). While I was in the bathroom, the doorbell rang. (I didn't hear it, as the bathroom heater runs too loudly.) Philip did, and he threw on clothes and answered the door. It was a neighbor woman that I'd not met when delivering treats to the block a few weeks back, as only her husband had answered the door (he'd told me they were all down with the flu, and after I handed him the baked goodies, I came home and scrubbed LAYERS of skin off my hands, just to be safe!). I had told her husband to have her come by sometime when she felt better to chat, and that's exactly what she was doing. Philip ran upstairs to let me know, and I hurriedly dressed in the bathroom and came down.

It was an awkward start, and she saw my house in a state of disarray. There were painted objects all across the table, wire bits littering around them, and the entire "craft bin" was open and picked through on the bench in the dining room (we'd used markers, pens, wire cutters, paper, paintbrushes, tape, staples, etc). In the living room, both of the fluffy blankets we use for cuddling on the couches to stay warm were still out, having not been folded and put in the end table at the close of the evening. I had dishes in the sink - oh, it was just awful! Despite that, she and her 14-month-old were very, very kind, and we chatted for about three hours in the living room - even a little past the time that the boys arrived home on the school bus! Her little one conked out for a nap on the couch for a few hours of that, just so sweet. I was SO glad she stopped by, too. I mean, you tell people to drop by anytime, but it seems like they hardly ever do, you know? Especially when you've not yet met them!

I love how great the response has been since the boys and I delivered all those goodies. I baked for four days straight (I called it my "delayed holiday baking," since it was in January), and then the boys and I spent an entire afternoon delivering big trays of goodies to every single inhabited house on our block (eleven total). It was very, very cold and windy, and we had to come back after every third house to grab more trays, but it was so fun. Included with each tray, I had written our names, address, and telephone numbers on a card, and I let each family know to call if they ever needed anything. Everyone was so welcoming, and we were invited into so many homes for a bit of chatting. The boys took off their shoes in each house and immediately disappeared with the kids of that family. I'd been nervous about it being a Saturday afternoon, but since it was so very cold, every single family was home - amazing! I also learned that our entire block is new, as the earliest family here only just moved in at the end of October. We're all newbies, so we ALL needed welcoming. :-)

Once the boys were settled from school, we dug straight back into our crafting. We finished more "steps" yesterday, as there wasn't so much painting to do. Still, it's not a crafting afternoon until I have to clean wet, red paint (A.J.) off my wooden dining room floors, right? We worked for hours, stopping only to head into town to try a new Chinese restaurant for dinner (we were missing fresh lettuce and tomato for the planned meal, and the commissary had already closed). The food was great, and we were all stuffed when we returned home, going back to work.

I took pictures of the finished boxes this morning, and then I drove the boys to school. We didn't want to risk anything being crushed on the bus, and now they're good for tomorrow's valentine parties. :-)

Meanwhile, I ended up not grocery-shopping yesterday, so I'm headed to the commissary in a little bit. Philip is testing today, and then he may have weapons firing later this afternoon. Jack's got another game tonight, and it's his day to bring refreshments. I'm going to be so ready to curl up for a movie tonight with Philip - I need to relax! We watched The Taking of Pelham 123 (the newer one) a few nights ago, but tonight, I'm feeling more like a rom-com. :-)

Current Music: The Way You Make Me Feel ~ Michael Jackson

Well, I've got a yummy plateful of fresh Snickerdoodles in front of me, so I figure I can make a post now. *wink*

Jack began his indoor soccer league last Tuesday night. It runs for 13 weeks, and he has practice and/or games on Tuesday and Thursday nights at the Youth Center. The center here is amazing, by the way - voted 'Best in the Air Force,' and it is the largest in the Air Force, too. It is just insane how many activities are going on each and every time we walk in the doors. I swear, the very first time, the boys' heads were absolutely spinning, trying to take it all in.

But back to soccer! His team is made up of 7 & 8-year-olds, and though it is mostly boys, there are at least three girls on the team, too. On the first night of practice, the coach scrimmaged the team for the entire hour, getting a feel for what the kids could do. Jack played goalie for over half of that time, and he rocked it. Philip and I just were amazed at how much his skills have improved in the last year, and it is evident that Jack has really worked hard. I also think it was extremely helpful that his last league team had six players and two coaches. With a ratio of players to coaches of 3:1, the kids got oodles of personalized coaching instruction, and that had been wonderful.

He was catching high balls in picture-worthy "leaps" at the goal, and he was rolling like a pin to block the fast-moving floor shots. He was on fire! In the second half, he was dribbling through the players in a way we've never seen - we couldn't say enough good things! He had so much fun, and each day he tells me how he can't wait for the next Tuesday or Thursday (whichever is closest) for practice again. I am SO happy that he is loving this sport more and more each year!

*runs to pull the next batch of cookies from the oven*

The Friday before last, A.J. had mentioned to us over dinner something about his school having a Geography Bee. I'd never heard of such a thing, so I questioned him and learned it to be very similar to the Spelling Bees I was familiar with from my own school days. He said that he'd need to stay after school for the Bee, and that he, "won't ride the bus home that day, Mom. You'll have to come and pick me up later." I asked if we could attend the event, and he said he thought so.

We planned to do just that. I was expecting it to be the entire sixth grade competing, and I imagined it would take a while, too.

Last Tuesday morning, I received a call from A.J.'s teacher, Mrs. Kreutzbender, and she wanted to give me the details on the Bee. She explained that the Bee would begin at 3pm, so we would need to be there before school let out (the normal school day ends at 3:15). She also told me how very proud she was that A.J. had managed to take the top spot in his class after only eleven days in the new school, and that he would be one of ten students competing from the entire school.

Wow! I didn't realize he had earned SUCH an honor! When he had mentioned it to us, he hadn't made it sound like he had already competed to get to a certain level, and he certainly didn't mention that he was one of ten. Amazing!

We arrived at the school on Wednesday afternoon about ten minutes before the Bee was to start. I asked in the office for Jack to be released from class a bit early so he could watch A.J. as well. The kids were seated at the far end of the library, two to a table, and the parents were to sit/stand at the other end. As such, we could barely see A.J. in the farthest table.

The kids were so nervous. After asking the first two questions without a single response from any child, the librarian stopped the competition and made everyone take a few deep breaths. It was still very intense, and you could see it on the kids' faces. In the first round, each child was asked an individual question. They could answer the question from another kid if that person had already guessed incorrectly, but they still didn't receive any credit for it. A.J. missed his own question, but he correctly answered the questions of two other children. In the second round, the kids had to write down the answer on their paper with a giant marker. A.J. wrote down the wrong state in that round.

The Bee went very quickly. Once a child had two misses, they were excused from the remainder of the Bee. At the end of the second round, seven kids were dismissed, including A.J. At the end of the verbal third round, two more children were dismissed, and the winner declared. I don't remember her name, but she was a girl from the other sixth grade classroom.

We were still so very proud. A.J.'s teacher arrived in time for the third round (school had just let out), and she gave him a big pat on the back and congratulations for making it this far. The librarian said that there were small tokens for each child competing, but that there was a shipping snafu - they hadn't arrived at the school in time. A.J. will be bringing that home later.

*more cookie-ing*

I think all the recipients of last week's mega-mailing have received their goodies/gifts. I've not yet heard from my Grandpa, but he's not really a phone guy, and he doesn't have a computer, either. I still have two boxes left to mail, but I've been sitting on them for a while. One is ready, one is not - but going to the post office on base is just a drain. The one in town, however, is huge and efficient. Also, they have an adorable old-tyme post office right in the lobby - literally taken directly from the railroad tracks years and years ago. So quaint! I could have dreamt the day away just looking at it!

We hit 43° yesterday, and it was HEAT!WAVE! Seriously, though, imagine that we were NINETY degrees warmer than last week's -47°, ya know?

I'm baking Peanut Butter Star Cookies right now (chocolate stars from Brach's®), and I've a little bit of time between batches. Just a little bit though, as these are cookies you have to babysit: bake for 8 minutes, take out, push the chocolate star in, bake again for 2 minutes, take out, cool for 2 minutes, transfer to wire rack. Lather, rinse, repeat. Oh, but I looooooooove these cookies, so they're worth the trouble!

I'm going to pack up a bunch of goodies today, as well as tons of other small packages that I need to send out. I was afraid I'd lose track when I went to purchase padded envelopes and boxes, so I made myself a large list. Even so, as we were driving, I realized I'd left my Grandpa and Jack's old teacher off the list - oops!

Philip's at a training thing-a-majig at the base hospital right now. I'm going to continue baking and packing for now, and then I'll take my shower this afternoon sometime. We're headed up to the boys' school at 3pm for a special event. :-)

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: The Riddle ~ Five For Fighting

So. Much. Unpacking.

It feels like it will never end! Realistically, however, it will be done late tomorrow or Tuesday - I can't tell just yet. I am so very much looking forward to calling the moving company and asking them to come back and pick up all their boxes and packing material! (I'll have space in my garage again - whee!)

My dining room is just gorgeous and huge. I still cannot get over all the space in there. That, to me, is the most drastic difference between our old house and this one. I love the fact that it's not situated off the main garage entrance into the house, and it's not near a television of any sorts. It's awesome, truly.

The plan tomorrow is for Philip and I to move/unpack all the stuff in the garage. See, the movers unloaded all our shed and garage items directly into the garage, so we've got to unpack everything and get it moved into its proper place in the storage room in the back. Philip already took apart our shed, and we'll put the pieces in our "renovation space." (When they renovated this house, they built on an extra room along the basement wall, and they entered through there, bringing all their equipment with them. Once they finished, they closed off the room and left a large access flap. We can easily open it via the flap, and it's an 8x10' space, at least.) While we're doing that, the boys will be playing hard in the snow. Once we're done, we'll have all our space back in the garage, and we'll move all the boxes and packing material to the breezeway until pick-up. Trash Day is also on Tuesday, and it'll be great to have all that gone, too. (Gosh, but moving creates a lot of excess trash!)

Depending on how long we're out in the garage tomorrow, we'll work on the office afterwards. It's the only room left, and that's because I considered it the lowest priority of all the rooms. I mean, *I* love this room, and I practically live in it sometimes... but everything I really need (computer, bills, filing cabinet, etc.), I can already reach, and we brought with us ahead of time. What needs to be unpacked are the bookshelves and lots of Philip's military memorabilia and knick-knacks. He heads back to work on Tuesday, and I can finish this room by myself, if needed.

As a reward once ALL of the unpacking is done, we plan to go see Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. The boys are dying to see it, and I think it looks pretty cute, too. I thought the first one was good, and I'm sure this one will be about the same. The boys are also anxious to spend some of their Christmas cash at the mall, too. *wink*

Speaking of movies, we all went to see New Moon last Friday. It was the boys' first time seeing it, Philip' second time, and my seventh time. I probably won't see it again in the theatre, but it was just as good this time again. A quick rundown of the showings I've been to:

1st - with Marissa as my 'date' to Amy's midnight premiere party (11/20)
2nd - with Marissa again on Sunday afternoon (11/22)
3rd - with Liz on Sunday night (11/22)
4th - with Philip the following Tuesday (11/24)
5th - with Cheyenne on Thanksgiving night (11/26)
6th - with Aimée on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (11/28)
7th - with the family (12/21)

We also recently saw The Princess and the Frog (on opening day!), and we all loved it. I cried a little near the end, but it was wonderful to see the old-style animation again. And - I was so surprised when the first song began! I'd almost forgotten how the older Disney movies always had original songs - how sad is that?! I thought the characters were very charming, and I really hope the movie does well enough that Disney will do another one in this style again soon.

We saw Disney's A Christmas Carol in 3D, too. I found it to be much darker than I'd imagined, but the effects were amazing. Honestly, though, there were parts of it that unsettled even me, and I don't think I'd let younger children see it yet (though the Disney Channel promotes it constantly). We were late to the game on this one, having been planning on seeing it ever since we rode the official movie train back in August (what a neat experience, too!). After seeing the movie, we bought my favorite as a young girl: Mickey's Christmas Carol. I didn't have the movie growing up, but I had a record of it, and I played that over and over all year long. I still have most of it memorized. :-)

I'm hoping to have mail tomorrow, but I'm not terribly optimistic. There was, of course, no mail yesterday in the face of this major blizzard, and then today was Sunday. Philip and I did watch some lady trudge through all the snow with her key, falling down in the deep drifts and then crawling on her knees atop them to get to the box, only to open it and find it empty, of course. We learned long ago (in both Alaska and Nebraska, actually) that even though the post office's motto is, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," that isn't always the case. We've had numerous times with no mail delivery due to inclement weather, and on a day where no travel is advised, I'm surprised that anyone would think there would be mail.

Perhaps she didn't check her box on Christmas Eve, then? *nods* We'll go with that. :-)

Current Mood: cheerful

I've mailed out a lot of goodies in the last week, not to mention cards. I rather think that all of the money I've saved on gas is now going to postage.

Funny, that.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: why don't i have anything on?!

Jack was not feeling so great last Wednesday, and as such, Philip stayed home with him and A.J. while I went to the first Lenten mid-week service. I made it to the 7:30pm service, and all was quiet and serene. It was a wonderful time of prayer and promise, and I felt refreshed as I left the sanctuary. I also felt excited to share the Lenten time with my family the rest of this month.

Our youth group is providing meals each Wednesday evening during the services (there are two each night), and I wrote the meals on the calendar this month. We give a small, free-will donation ($12 for a family of four) to the youth group, and the Lenten meals are their largest fundraiser each year for mission trips, etc. This past Wednesday evening's meal was a Taco Bar, and the youth group laid out an impressive spread. The boys chose crunchy tacos, Philip had two soft tacos, and I feasted on a taco salad. In addition to all the taco trimmings, there was corn, fruit salad, and a dessert bar. It was a LOT of food for just 4 bucks!

Before the meal, however, we popped downstairs to make a family craft together. During just two of the Lenten Wednesdays there are planned family activities. These can be done before or after the worship service, and before or after eating (because not all families eat dinner at the church, either). Because I needed to leave early this week to see the play with Heather, we decided to arrive right at 5pm to begin our craft. We were the second family to show up, and we chose to make jelly bean treats together.

The boys gathered the necessary supplies while Philip and I staked a table. Once we were all seated, we read a copy of the Jelly Bean Prayer aloud, each taking one line to read (yes, even Jack). Here is the poem:

Red is for the blood He gave.
Green is for the grass he made.
Yellow is for the sun so bright.
Orange is for the edge of night.
Black is for the sins we made.
White is for the grace He gave.
Purple is for His hour of sorrow.
Pink is for our new tomorrow.
A bag full of jelly beans,
Colorful and sweet,
Is a prayer, is a promise,
Is a special treat.
May the joy of Christ's resurrection
Fill your heart and bless your life.

After reading, we each took a small baggie and filled it with one each of the different-colored jelly beans. Then we tied them up with ribbons and attached a copy of the prayer to each baggie. On the back of the prayers, we each wrote the name of the person we wanted to receive our gift. Philip chose to give his to Runza, I picked our mailperson, A.J. wanted to give his to his friend Parker, and Jack was excited to give his to his friend Ty. Before we left the table, we placed our small bags together in the center of the table, and we each prayer aloud for our individual recipients. Jack's prayer was so cute: "A.J., you forgot to say Amen! Oh, and God, I pray for Ty, and I hope I get to see him real quick. Amen!"

Fast-forward a day or so, and Philip had delivered his to Runza, and A.J. had placed his special gift in Parker's mailbox a few doors down. I put my baggie into our mailbox yesterday afternoon (the mail had already come for the day, though), and I put the flag up so it would be noticed for certain. Today, as A.J. brought in the mail, he handed me a pale orange slip. I was confused for a moment, not expecting any packages currently, until I turned the paper over and read the following:

Thanks for the Jelly Bean gift - That is really neat. :-) Patty

Awww. I'm glad our mailperson appreciated her gift, and I hope it blesses her in some small way.

Today could accurately be called "Family and Friends Day." It's a much nicer way to sum up a cold Friday, I think.

This morning started off earlier than usual, as we all bundled up and headed out to the boys' school for the 'Breakfast and a Book' program. The boys munched on donuts and bananas and drank chocolate milk while Philip and I read books to them. I'd brought along a couple special books just for the occasion: Philip read a book from his childhood to A.J. (written inside the cover was his name and '1988') - it was The Christmas Day Kitten, by James Herriot. I read to Jack my favorite childhood holiday story - The Get Along Gang and the Christmas Thief (cheesy, maybe, but I loved that book!) We each finished reading the books in about fifteen minutes, so we swapped stories and read some more. Philip's story was so sad - I nearly cried as I read it to Jack! Finally, it was 8 o'clock, and time for school to begin. We waved goodbye to the boys and trudged back out to our car.

While I was at work today,

squeak_a_chu stopped by to gift me with a special ornament and some special news. It was very sweet of her. :-)

When I arrived home, I had a bundle of mail waiting, as well as two boxes from my mom. In the mail, we received five Christmas cards, including ones from

beanpop,

hp5freak,

niftybabe313 and

flyingwolf. A special thank-you to

hp5freak - she included a GORGEOUS handmade, glittery snowflake. I know how to crochet even, and I still held the flake in my hand for several minutes in awe - I haven't a clue how she made it! Thanks so much to all of you!

This evening, the boys and I picked up Philip a little bit early from work. I'd brought a change of clothes to him, and once he was ready, we all set out for the church. Tonight was Movie Night, and we bought concessions of hot dogs, popcorn, soda and snacks for dinner. We were treated to a double-feature, watching first The Star of Christmas and then The Toy That Saved Christmas (we've owned that one at home for many, many years now). In between the movies, we all sang Christmas carols together for a little intermission. It was a very nice time, and we were home by 8pm.

Once home, the boys bathed and readied for bed. I put my jammies on, and then I set to opening the boxes from my mom. The boys then joined me in the living room and read aloud the tags as they put all the Christmas gifts from the boxes underneath the tree. Our tree is quite full already - we are so blessed!

I wish for a cozy and snug weekend in the snowy weather. Tomorrow is a semi-impromptu Date Night, and we're going to use a bit of that time to finish up the stocking stuffers for the boys. Then we'll be officially done with shopping!

Current Mood: good

Not. On.
DO. NOT. WANT.

I just paper cut my primary tatting finger while opening the mail (which was a package containing a new tatting book, as the Gods of Irony poured out laughter upon me). I now have it all bandaged up, and I'm hoping the Neosporin works wonders in the next few hours.

Philip is coming home tomorrow, and I'm excited beyond belief! Even though all that excitement is very much happy, my stomach still ties up in jittery knots.

How can I tat away my knots (HO-HO, *KNEE SLAP*) of stress if my tatting finger is cut?!

*FLAILS*

Current Mood: stressed

The post doesn't usually come until about 2:30pm, so I stick my outgoing mail in the box before I head to work around 10:50am.

Why was my mail already delivered by that time today? Argh. Now my outgoing mail won't go "out" until tomorrow.

Once again, you can be jealous of us because of the awesomeness of my Aunt Edith. :-)

We had a two boxes waiting for us this afternoon when we returned home from school. One was a birthday present for Jack, and the other was addressed to me. There were a ton of messages stamped all over the box, and it was hard to make heads or tails of anything. It was also covered in plastic (good, for it was raining), so I sliced open the plastic to pull out the paper inside. Honestly, I was wondering what I must've ordered and forgotten about, especially for being in such an odd-shaped box.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I opened the card to find a unique piece of stationery - photographs of an overflowing peach tree and peaches all over countertops and in boxes. Inside the card, my Aunt Edith went on to tell me how overabundant the peach tree is this summer, and she included a poem about peaches for the boys. Inside the box? Gold! Well, golden peach jam, that is - fresh from the tree and made just this month. Peach jam! I'm so excited to try it! It looks like we might have toast or biscuits for dinner tonight! :-)

Jack's box held a gift from Uncle Chris and Aunt Amy, and we were all surprised to find that he received his very own digital camera! Not only that, but it is a Disney® Pirates of the Caribbean™ digicam - he can take 200 pictures with it at a time! I'll be sure to share some of his inaugural shots later on.

And I received a hefty envelope from my dear friend

kpnut as well. She wrote me a lovely note, and inside the package was the spiffiest pen - it's bright orange, it has a nice, wide grip space, and it has my name engraved on the clip. Perfect for writing more letters to Kelly! Thanks so much, sweets!

Aaaaaaaannnnndddd, Mondays are always good for freebies. I think the post office stockpiles them and delivers them on Mondays just to make folks' days brighter. It certainly works for me! Here's the list of the freebies from this past week:

( Listy stuff. )

So! What was in your mailbox today? :-)

Current Mood: giddy

Why do I receive coupons TODAY for the exact candy, chocolate chips, water and juice that I bought TWO DAYS AGO? That's $3.25 I could have saved!

The Coupon Gods are against me. I feel the tides.

Current Mood: frugal

Yesterday's mail - which was only just gathered a minute ago - yielded wonderful things:

- my T-shirt for both the movie and book releases
- free samples of SunCrystals sweetener
- free McGruff Trading Cards for the boys
- a bill for Philip's travel card, showing a $65 credit instead

I've just paid all the bills, and there's enough left to get groceries. Not a lot, but enough to cover our needs, and that's all we need. I do wish that our bills were spread out differently - nearly all of them are due on the 1st, with only our car payment due from the 15th's paycheck. So things are always snug here at the beginning of the month, and then they even out around the middle.

I've been taken off the schedule next week for work for my ankle. But I won't have to pay a babysitter for those days, so we'll just lounge around and enjoy the relaxation of no summer school, no work, no VBS - just us. :-)

Current Mood: content

It occurs to me right now that I forgot to get the mail... yesterday.

What has happened to me?!

Current Mood: confused
Current Music: Peron's Latest Flame ~ Evita soundtrack

Philip thought he was helping this morning, despite his doing quite the opposite. He mailed a stack of things on the table that weren't really ready for the post yet, and I'm not sure what will become of a few of the items. One was a card to

Heather's mom, but it had an old 37c stamp on it. I intended to purchase the extra 2c postage when I took it to the post office. Two items were postcards to

flyingwolf and

adiasplat, but again, I intended to purchase the postcard stamps in that same trip. There's no return address on either of those, so I don't know if they'll be destroyed or sent 'postage due' to my friends.

Argh.

At least the belated birthday cards and the Netflix movie were truly ready. That's three going out correctly among the three not quite as lucky.

Oh, and

mostcurious wanted to see some of the candles in action, so I obliged her and took a few pics.

( Which are all behind here. )

Current Mood: annoyed

A cute Valentine's Day card just arrived in the mail from

taryns_mom. With pics of ALL the kids - adorable!

Thanks, girl!

Current Mood: loved

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February 2014

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Page generated Jul. 25th, 2017 06:32 pm

If she had the proper words to say,

She would tell him... but she'd have nothing left to sell him.

Entries tagged with mail

Packed with goodies.

Warm-up lights.

No papers.

ahem

Monday, Monday (in a sing-song voice, of course).

Crafting, movies, and books - oh my!

Two boys, two stories.

Baking up the school's weather.

Unpacking under the movies and the mail.

Thinking deep.

The Jelly Bean Prayer.

A day of warmth, despite the temperature.

Not. On.

Missed.

It makes up for not having post on Sundays.

Why?

I'm kinda hungry.

Ummm...

Too much help.

Awwww.