Week In The Life 2011: Friday

(source: etsy)

a month later and i'm finally wrapping up the last few days of my Week In the Life 2011 project here on the blog. sheesh. life has been moving a lightning speed lately.

Monday-Thursday can be seen here.

noticing::
that, corny as it sounds, life is perfectly imperfect, and just plain beautiful.

enjoying::
dinner out. mexican again. this time a lovely treat from my dad for my birthday. that makes mexican four time this week....or was it five? i dunno, but wow---we hardly ever eat out and somehow we've managed to eat out more this week than we have in the last three months. ha.

loving::
watching spidergirl eat chips and queso. that girl eats so much cheese i keep telling her she's going to turn into a piece of cheese.

wishing::
that i could drop everything and make one of those "this is my happy place" signs. RIGHT NOW. i love it. i love it. i love it. i can't tell you how many times doug and i have had the conversation about how i want our house to feel. the conversation that ends with me saying....i just want this to be my happy place. whenever things are chaotic at home, i get a little discouraged. so doug, lovingly mocks me, and says...."welcome to your happy place." and it makes me laugh every.single.time. it made me smile so big when i came across the image on Pinterest.

waiting::
it's a little tradition of ours to head for icecream after eating at the mexican place, then going to visit the pet store right next door. emma is a lover of all animals, but those dang allergies keep us from having our own pets. she's not allowed to hold the animals, but can pet with two fingers. then we all sanitize our hands and take showers as soon as we walk in the door. i hate that she has such a reaction to pets. this particular evening we found ourselves stuck in the pet shop for an hour while we waited for a torrential downpour to let up enough to be safe driving home. (and i love how my step-mom, dad, and grandma are all looking on in the background)

anticipating::
vacation to myrtle beach! the anticipation was just made a little stronger when little grandma handed over a wad full of ones to each girl after dinner. souvenir money. how sweet of her. :)

hardly believing::
that ashlyn is in her room, laying in her own bed, with no one else around. this rarely happens. rarely. she doesn't normally sit still, let alone spend time in a room by herself. and time with her baby is becoming less and less. she's growing up.

shopping::
clothes to wear in 100 degree weather on vacation for me, watershoes for ashlyn, earplugs for spidergirl, and, um...nothing for doug. he sees something he likes he buys it all year long so he rarely needs anything when i'm out shopping.

smiling::
every time i glance over at the picture drawn by Chuck E Cheese of me and spidergirl. she's definitely my mini-me, no doubt about it. crazy cool kinda resemblence. i love it.

Week In The Life 2011: Thursday

these were all taken last thursday. sheesh, that seems so incredibly long ago. it's usually on thursday of every week in the life series i've done that i decided i've captured enough. but ironically, it turns out i have more photos from this day than any other. funny how that works.

...noticing::
hat skipping my evening dose of pain medicine just because i feel good is not a great idea. definitely not a good idea to skip several days in a row. :(

...loving::
how pleasant spidergirl is when she wakes in the morning and how adorable she looks, even with bedhead. :)

...hating::
waking up three hours before my alarm, completely nauseated from the sheer amount of pain i was in. a warm shower, two hours on the heating pad, and sitting through an episode of The Glee Project while snuggling spidergirl (and her ginormous puppy) was enough to get me functioning again.

...laughing::
at ashlyn's self-chosen chores. "don't whine" cracks me up. i've pretty much decided that it's impossible for her to do.

...practicing::
spidergirl is content with the littlest things. i was getting her morning medicine ready and turned around to find her attempting to stack these rings in under a minute a la the game show called 'Minute to Win It'.

...dreading::
the morning hairbrushing. did you see that bedhead!?!? it's double the fun when there is a sensory defensive child involved. chlorine from their two-day-a-week swimming adventures does nothing good for their hair. sometime soon i'll do a seperate post on summer haircare for the kids--it's a question i get asked often.

...collecting::
random markers throughout the house. if there's one thing that ashlyn is addicted to, it's buying markers. they are never fresh enough for her unless they are brand new. without a doubt, 2/3rds of these markers could be pitched. someday.

...awaiting::
new artwork from the kids to hang in (more) frames that never stay straight. LOL. kidART makes me ridiculously happy and i think it deserves to be framed. it's important to me to put their artwork on display.

...smiling::
every time i walk by my newly acquired spiderplant, that has yet to be potted. i got it at a garage sale for $1 because it reminds me of one we had hanging in the kitchen in my childhood home.

...wishing::
that i had a cleaning fairy that went around behind me cleaning up my snail trail. as of late it's been bad. especially the passenger's seat and floor of my car. it pretty much always has a pile of paperwork needing my attention, bank errands needing run, etc. maybe i just need to start carrying a shoulder bag or a purse. ha.

...eating::
chipotle chips & guacamole with a side of rice. yummo. that makes mexican twice this week.

...trying::
really hard, trying to find new frames. mine snapped at the bridge and eyewire on july 4th and i've already made 3 other attempts to find something i liked. apparently, i'm quite particular about how my glasses look. i was determined not to leave until i had something ordered this time. and i'm thrilled to say it was a successful trip.

...purchasing::
my weekly stop for prescriptions from walgreens only cost me $59. gah.

...rushing::
home from work and straight to a pep rally for the house they are building locally on an episode of Extreme Home Makeover.

...celebrating::with our friend oliver because he landed himself a design gig/art installation in two of the kids' rooms in said house on Extreme Home Makeover. taping of the episode is next week, but it will air in December.

...adoring::
spidergirl pretty much adores everyone. i love that she spreads joy the way she does. i also love that she still can't say oliver, but instead says oviler. it's so cute, i hope she never gets it right.

...eating::
yep, you guessed it. mexican. again. third time this week. heh.

...observing::
the way ashlyn builds a fajita. she has a very methodical way of doing so. she spreads sourcream super thin on the whole tortilla with her finger---don't even suggest she use a knife. then she tears her meat into pieces and places them all over the whole thing, and sprinkles the smallest of small amount of shredded cheese & rice over the whole thing. she's done this for as long as i can remember.

Week In The Life 2011: Wednesday

...noticing::
i need that "keep calm & carry on" reminder more today than any other day. the clutter left behind from 2 months solid of me running to and from doctors appointments and working part-time outside the home and full-time on freelance work from home is wearing on me. i don't do clutter well. but i'm thankful for a cheerful reminder that greets me every morning.

...enjoying::
several emails back and forth with my sweet friend sherry. we email often every afternoon, but it's a delightful treat to have a spare moment in the morning to chat with her.

...wishing::
that i could rip up all the carpet through the whole house and install hardwood floors, everywhere. oh how i hate carpet----especially this carpet. it's so dark and depressing. it hasn't been in our budget to do anything about it---and it was brand new when we moved in. it's perfect and super durable for raising kids though. *sigh*

...anticipating::
moving a vintage couch, purchased at a church rummage sale earlier in the summer, from the garage into the livingroom. it's SO perfectly me and reminds me of visits to my grandma rose's house as a child. it just needs a little steam clean first, then i can chuck that nasty recliner. :)

...washing::
mounds and mounds of clothes. i'm convinced it multiplies overnight. this was my first morning home in about 2 months. i liked revisiting a familiar morning routine.

...avoiding::
cleaning the disaster that is my studio. i honestly don't even know where to begin. as you can see, it's beyond a mess.

...wondering::
how long before this rheumatoid flare goes into remission and i can put away this handicap sticker. i don't use it often, but there are days where i wouldn't venture out if i didn't have it.

...feeling::
major pain on the whole right side of my head. i'm sure it has more to do with being without my glasses than anything else.

...promising::
myself, that tomorrow i'll make time to pick out new frames.

...sampling::
the pineapple mango smoothie from mcdonald's.....it's delish.

...walking::
through the entire church, down the long hallway to the activity center to pick up the girls from daycare. i'm usually the one dropping them off, not picking them up, but doug had a meeting tonight.

...looking::
at a myrtle beach coupon book turned to a page ashlyn is jumping out of her skin about while sitting at a stoplight. they are beyond excited to be going on vacation.

...gathering::
rounding up coupons to hand off to a friend who is treating them for a night of roller skating.

...celebrating::
doug at a meeting + the girls rollerskating = a whole night to myself! awesomesauce. these nights are very rare.

...eating::
chef salad with suzi.

...folding::
gobs and gobs of laundry with suzi.

...watching::
beastly with suzi.

...loving::
that i have a friend who will help me tackle laundry, like suzi. :)

...thinking::
that it's time to update the photo wall (how many times have i said that here on the blog??) and figure out a way to keep the frames from going crooked. my kids (& husband) are way too rambunctious for perfectly straight wall frames.

...giggling::
at spidergirl's sleep mask. simple irresistible.

...bumming::
about the attitude i'm going to deal with in the morning when spidergirl has to brush through tangles of hair because she fell asleep on the couch after her bath--and before brushing her hair. :(