In all their glory

I bring you:

Cherry Blossoms from the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C.!!!

Aren't they beautiful?! Today was the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. We got up early and made our way out and over to the Jefferson Memorial where most of the blossoms were. I was watching the news the other night and they said they're expecting over a million people to attend the festival over the next 2 weeks. I do believe the entire million were there today! LOL! We had the best time! The blossoms were really pretty. It looked like a sea of different shades of pink and white when you looked at them. There was a kite festival on the grounds of

the Monument so it was busy over there with kite fliers. We took the kids on a paddle boat ride in the tidal basin. It was for an hour and at first I thought an hour was too long but after we got out in the water I realized it would take us the whole hour to get around it! It doesn't looks so big until you're having to paddle your way around it. We got a really good look at the trees and the kids loved being chauffered around while Mike and I took turns paddling.

After our ride we walked around a good part of the basin. We hadn't

been over to the Roosevelt Memorial so we made our way over there. On the way I noticed an artist painting a beautiful picture of the Jefferson Memorial and some Cherry Blossoms. I had to sneak in a pic while he was painting so I could show you. He's very talented and I begged Mike to ask him if he'd sell it to us to no avail. Mike seems to think the price would have been far higher than he would've paid...lol. I loved watching him paint and could've sat there for hours watching him....and begging him to sell me one of his masterpieces.....lol.

There were a BUNCH of photographers and artists lurking about. We saw a CNN truck doing some taping too. We even saw a bride & groom right after they got married. I wanted to head over to the National Museum of Natural History for a while but changed my mind. I had flashbacks of how busy it was on Veteran's Day weekend and had no desire to live that over again...lol. Instead we made our way back to the car....and I mean WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY back to the car...lol. We stopped off at the Cheesecake Factory in Arlington and got a couple of slices of cheesecake to go. We had planned on saving it until after dinner but managed to get stuck on 95 coming back (imagine that!) and were so hungry we decided to dive in to a piece of it then. Yummy! That was a very nice way to end the day :).

I'm not old enough for that!

So check this out...a bit ago I was drying my hair. The bathroom I was in has a skylight in it. The sun was shining pretty good and I had the lights on when to my complete horror I see something gleaming on my head. After a careful inspection that took nearly 30 minutes, I pulled out 2 rather long strands of white hair. What in the world?! I'm 32! Never mind the fact it would've been nice if one of my peeps around here or the ones I was just visiting would have pointed that out. I would've pulled those puppies out before now! Humph. Anyway.....

We're back from visiting my family. It was eventful. Some fun and some not. I got the pleasure (somewhat!) of seeing some relatives I've not seen since I was about 16. Some I don't recall ever seeing at all. Some are exactly what I expected and a couple surprised me...not in a good way! Some were there from Florida for my Grandmother's 90th birthday party. There are a couple that I hope stay in Florida....in particular a couple of Aunts who appear to REALLY like Mike. So much in fact there are probably imprints of their hands on his body from constantly hugging him LOL! Which is funny considering I've not seen one of them since I was a baby, the other since I was 16, and they had never met him LOL! One aunt came over that I hadn't seen since I was 16. I don't like her and I never have. She's not nice! I was trying to be nice when she walked in so I went over to hug her. She sort of pushed me out of the way and said, "Why don't you let me put my shoes down first...geez." I had some things I wanted to say but I didn't because my kids were in the room. I didn't say another thing to her and am glad she was there for less than an hour. On another note, I did get to see my grandmother, my favorite uncle, and another aunt & uncle. I really like all of them and am looking forward to spending time with them the next time we go back. There was another aunt and uncle that really like but we missed them this time. We'll catch them next time. Hopefully I'll get to see some of my cousins soon...the nice ones anyway. See, my dad has 9 brothers and sisters, some of which have decided to re-populate the Earth so my family is just enormous. At this point I'd be surprised if there was someone in West Virginia or Florida that I wasn't related to LOL! I did some stitching in the evenings and my mom did some crocheting along with me. She made this doily for Cassie. Isn't it pretty? She's a really good doily maker. She tried to teach me to crochet once to no avail. I think I'd better just stick with stitching.

The kids had a really good Easter! The Easter bunny was pretty generous as usual. Each kid found a new Webkinz in their Easter basket...imagine that! The day before Easter they did some egg decorating and here's what they came up with. Now, have you ever seen an egg wearing clothes?! Too funny! Apparently I'm the one in the white hat and Mike is the one in the black hat...lol.

We had a hold on our mail while we were gone. When we got back and our mail was delivered I was happy to find a package from Rachel. She was sending to me for a scissor and fob exchange we're in, in our yahoo group. When I opened it up I found the prettiest little Santa scissor fob with matching Santa scissors! I just LOVE them! She knows how much I love Santas so both of these were perfect choices for me. Thanks so much, Rachel! I just realized I think I took a pic of the wrong side of the scissors. The right side has a Santa face on them. They're so cute! I'll post a pic of the scissors and fob that I'm sending to my partner when she receives them. They're heading to Canada so it'll be a bit.

Happy Easter!

I know I'm a few days early but we're heading to my parents house tomorrow and I doubt I'll be posting again before I get back. I think we'll be back late on Wednesday. I really like the drive to there house but I really don't look forward to traveling with the animals. Dollie is incredibly whiney and has a very high pitched one. She's usually ok after the first hour after she's given me a headache.

My grandmother's 90th birthday party was last Saturday. I didn't go for several reasons.....one was because it was a 5 hour drive and I would have had to drive up there on Saturday and then back on Sunday. With gas prices these days if I would've done that then we wouldn't be able to go back for spring break. My dad has 9 brothers and sisters. They all came up for this party along with a lot of their kids, grand kids, ect.....I really don't even know these people. Nobody expressed any interest in my or my brother's existence our entire lives until now even though we have previously expressed an interest on several occasions in getting to know them. They found out I was coming and decided to extend their stay. After some of the things I've heard about these people I actually thought about canceling my trip to my parents house so I wouldn't have to deal with them. I think we all know it would take a lot for me to want to do that. I'm feeling like they have an interest now because they think I might be able to do something for them. I don't like opportunists.

I'm really excited that we're spending Easter with my parents! The Easter Bunny has already been advised of where we will be this weekend.

Last Saturday Laura and I went to that stitching exhibition at the Woodlawn Plantation. We had the best time! Sorry, no pictures! We both had our cameras but they wouldn't let anyone take pictures. We're planning on making the trip up there every year. We had a really great time admiring all the entries and I think we're both planning to stitch something to enter next year for fun. I already have something in mind and bought fabric for it a few days ago. I don't know that it would win anything but I love the piece and have been meaning to stitch it for several years. This gives me a really good reason to. I think it would be a perfect thing to enter. It's not huge like some of the other things that were entered and it's not a complicated thing to stitch but I really do love it. I did have another thing in mind and I think I could stitch it and enter it....in 2018 because that's probably how long it would take me to stitch it LOL! After we finished browsing we went in to the gift shop and picked a couple of things up. My mother collects cookbooks so I bought a couple for her. One of them was a Woodlawn cookbook and mostly has recipes that a lot of Virginians used in the 1800's and early 1900's. I've done a lot of browsing through them and have learned a lot of neat things. After we left Woodlawn, we headed over to In Stitches. I didn't buy a lot but I did pick up a few things. I found an out of print Prairie Schooler chart which thrilled me to no end. This was Laura's first visit to In Stitches and I know she likes that shop as much as I do. We really enjoyed looking at all of the stitched models they had hanging up. It was really nice to have someone to browse with me.

I've got to run....there was a note in Joshua's backpack saying he's the student of the month at school and they're having a big thing for him at lunch. He doesn't know about it yet. They told me I should come because I'll want to take pictures. Right after that they're having their egg hunt so I'll be hanging around for that too. I still need to pack so I should have a full day. I hope you all have a really great Easter!

When too much is just too much

For the most part I have no problem in making my contribution when it's needed at school. Sometimes I do wonder though why they ask for so much. Kids take things for granted nowadays. I think the school's play somewhat of a large part in that. Let's take holidays for example. I'm like the queen of holidays here and always look for an opportunity to give presents. Never anything big, just thoughtful little things here and there. I've tried to not spoil my kids but I can't say that their various grandparents have done the same. I get that...they are grandparents after all. Joshua has 24 kids in his class. Cassie has 27. Way overcrowded in my opinion. Joshua comes home with a note saying that they're having an Easter egg hunt at school next week. Great, nothing more fun than being 6 and hunting for eggs at school. I guess....when I was 6 we didn't hunt eggs at school so I wouldn't know. That was something we did as a family and I looked forward to it every year. Anyway, the note also said that each child needed to send in 24 plastic eggs filled with goodies. What?! Tell me why each kid needs 24 eggs?! That kind of...no that really takes away from the little egg hunt that I was planning on having for them. I'd rather they just have a small party than an egg hunt...not that I had a choice in the matter. I can see having a small hunt, I really can. I just think that 24 goodie filled eggs per child is way too much. That's a lot more eggs than I was planning on having per kid for my little hunt. I feel like I'm having to compete with them and I don't like that feeling. The same thing happened at Christmas. You wouldn't believe how much stuff they came home with after their Christmas party. I wish they'd keep it simple like they did when I was a kid. I know the things I do matter but sometimes it doesn't seem like they do. I mean if I was 6 I'd rather have 24 candy/toy filled eggs from school versus the 10 my mom has. Even though the mom put a whole lot more thought and love in to it than that darn school did! Pffftttt.

Mike's been back from California for nearly a week now. We picked him up in D.C. last Friday night. He had goodies for everyone in tow. He brought me back the cutest pair of silver handcuff earrings from Alcatraz...lol. I tell ya, of all the things he did that's the one place I really wanted to go. I went to San Francisco years ago but didn't have time to do the Alcatraz thing. He also brought me back a piece of Alcatraz. No foolin....you can buy a hunk of Alcatraz....lol. I shall leave it in the case. I may not be able to visit the Rock myself but I have a piece of it hanging with me right here.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend! My stitching friend Laura is driving up from Richmond. I'm picking her up at her sister's house Saturday morning and we're going to head up to the needlework exhibition at Woodlawn. For those of you who don't know the history of the Woodlawn Plantation but would like to, you can read a bit about it here. After we leave the exhibition we plan to head over to In Stitches to see what we can find. I love that shop and am really looking forward to having someone to browse around with me. They're having a Carriage House Samplings trunk show so it'll be fun to see some of their pieces stitched up in person. I don't recall ever seeing one of their pieces hanging up in a shop I've been in. I could be wrong though.....

I'm so glad spring break is coming up! We'll be leaving the afternoon of the 21st for my parents house. We won't be staying for all of spring break, just for half of it. I think we're coming back on the 26th. We're planning on spending the day in D.C. on the 29th. Why the 29th you ask??? Because it's the start of the 2008 Cherry Blossom Festival! I'm really excited about that! According to the chief horticulturist of the National Park Service, we will be visiting during their peak bloom time! YAY! I've seen the Jefferson Memorial from the street but haven't gotten up close to it yet. I'm sure I'll meander over to say hi to Thomas while I'm gazing at the cherry blossoms. I'm gonna keep an eye on the weather because if it's fairly pleasant that day I'm going to rent a paddle boat so we can paddle around in the Tidal Basin and look at the blooms. I can't wait to get some pictures of them! I can't wait till it warms up. We are so gonna be picnicing on the Potomac :o).

It found me

The one thing I don't like about the school's up here is you have to go inside to pick your kids up, you can't wait for them outside. They won't release them until you go in to sign them out. It doesn't matter the circumstances you still have to go in. I know it's only for their security but sometimes that can be a wee bit annoying. The flu and several other things have been lurking about like crazy. Last week I was really annoyed a few times when I picked them up from school to hear people coughing like nuts and looking like death. I was irritated at them for coming in to the school and infecting other people. It's only been the past few days that I realized they didn't have a choice. Not only have I managed to catch a flu but a stomach flu nonetheless. Wahoo. What makes it even more fun is Mike's still in California. At this point I feel like I'm just gonna croak. I've either been sitting on or hovering over the porcelain God for a couple of days now. Not only can I not eat but I can't even keep gatorade down :(. So I call the school to tell them I can barely make it 10 minutes without hurling and can they just send Cassie out (Joshua's sick too) and they say no. So that means I have to go in the school and spread my ickyness to who knows how many people. If they would've just sent her out like I asked then I might have been able to make it all the way back home before getting sick again *SIGH*! Obviously my diet's going well...if I even think about putting anything in my mouth....ugghhhhh. I feel so worthless right now. I had to have Cassie put Joshua in bed last night because I just couldn't leave the bathroom long enough to do it :(. Luckily I have improved today and can actually visit other parts of the house. We're picking Mike up from the airport Friday evening. I sure hope I'm better by then.