january vacation (or as shannon has titled it-My time in the slammer...)

i know you're all waiting anxiously to hear about my week and a half at shannon and gang's. well, as you know, i left a day early to avoid the snow storm that came with a vengence- both at home and here. the kids had a snowday, so i was able to spend lots of time with them. i always bring lots of "stuff" (shannon calls it junk, but the kids and i think it's treasures). one day into my "vacation" i was notified of a power surge back home due to a fallen branch. we lost many key electrical doo-dads . i'm not sure what went on after that- there have been many conflicting reports and gnashing of teeth- enough said about that- you all know the same old story.





anywho (sorry kelly) this is a picture of me the day i got here- i decided to just dive in and start a project- the first one that i saw- the plates and kitchen wall. that was fun, as you can see by the smile on my face. i love to do projects that my girls don't have time to do- my mom used to do that for me and i sooo appreciated it- as i know they do.


the next thing i worked on was reilly's birthday cake. that was one of the main reasons for braving the winter months - driving across the state.



the cake turned out ok- lots of pretty frosting and 6 pink candles helped make the big day special. happy birthday, reilly!

on the way here i stopped at one of my thrift store haunts and picked up a few useful things. this little cottage was part of a kit that i purchased for $1.99. i sure had fun putting the wooden pieces together, trimming and painting it. it will be perfect for the kid's christmas village.

now this one is kind of a joke- i was helping shannon with dinner- my job was roasting the almonds and as usual- i got side-tracked (no!) and they got more than brown. i thought they would be just fine, but shannon wasn't so sure. we actually had this dish 2 days in a row!(juniour league salad- recipe on an early holiday post of shannon's) .(this is a hideous picture of me -- serves me right for burning the dog-gone things).

i don't even want to talk about this one- to be brief- i was on the phone to certain parties at home more than i wished to be because of the surge caper. enough said about that...(where did that smile go?) oh yes... this is a great picture of me micro- managing things at home from afar.

we were getting hard up for projects and there needed to be a mural in the makings, so reilly and i worked up a collection of "round things". i know there are more than 35 round things in the world ( some of these aren't really round), but for the life of me we couldn't think of any more.

i'm in charge of the valentine dinner/dance at church next sat. so i decided to make a few inexpensive decorations. another trip to the dollar store-- yippee! shannon helped me make a garbage bag full of these beauties while we were watching american idol.

shannon's birthday was the next big event. we used grandma aikin's fostoria dishes and some simple decorations- wow! it looked pretty....

but not so pretty as the pot roast meatloaf that we had for dinner (the birthday girl's favorite!)

all of the girls spent the afternoon making valentines. ellie and reilly signed all of their cards for their classes. good idea, shannon. i also baked 2 kinds of valentine cookies and froze them.

a friend of shannon's is moving out of the country and is trying to sell her house. she asked

shannon to stage it for the sale. we had fun and our creative juices were flowing as we purchased items and worked together to make it extra special. i decided to make her friend 2 dinners - so that she could spend more time on packing . chicken and biscuits , fruit salad and goulash, (2 more for shannon's freezer),green beans and fruit. i love to help in this way- and remember when extra meals were soooo loved .

last but not least, how could i forget the traditional "mexican dinner"??!!! i always fix a special dinner when i babysit for the kids. we feast on burritos and rice-- icecream, for dessert, of course.

all in all we had lots of fun, some tears (won't mention the sunday lunch situation-yikes) and newly made memories. next trip is scheduled for march 21st- at least i won't have to deal with snow! until then.....