Four Day Update...

In between the regular activities of daily living, I've been preparing for Shane's big 40th Birthday Party... but even the most prepared hostess (of which I am not) probably has a million last minute details - therefore I had 10 ZILLION!

But with plenty of help, I made it... I admit, I obsess and many people might not clean the carpets, repaint bathrooms, pressure wash concrete, re-mulch the gardens along with the usual decorations, food and bar sundries...  but I'm nuts... and some things can't be helped...And my Grandma Ethel used to say you have to have a party once year to complete all those pesky unfinished projects...

But I was completely relaxed at the party and enjoyed the company of so many great friends...Here are just a few snapshots from the party...

Shane's actual birthday is December 14th, but we scheduled the party on my real birthday - it was total birthday BLOWOUT!!  Happy Birthday to US! (but let's all be clear that I DID NOT hit the same milestone as Shane... that is YEARS away :)

Hopefully now I can resume some daily December blogging...hey, a girl can dream....

December 5th...

It's way too late to be reading about Annuities...

but keeping up with Continuing Ed is part of the job, so I better keep studying...Why didn't I pick the easy courses??

December 4th

Back in October I had the brilliant idea to try P90X, so I called the ONLY friend I knew who with one text would actually arrive the next day ready to workout.... and the torture began...

Thank GOD Alexis signed on...because we alternate finding the motivation depending on who ate cake or drank wine the night before...

For me the scale hasn't moved, but I'm stronger now, and my jeans fit a little better, and my arms are a little less jiggly...

and more importantly, we LAUGH (when we can breath...)

December 3rd...

I'm very fortunate that I'm able to meet the bus each day after school...Although long gone are the days when the girls run to me, now they run straight to Coco (the 6 pound Chihuahua who provides no food, homework help or bandaids on scrapes and cuts), and the fighting starts immediately over whose turn it is to hold her first.

And believe me, I get out of the way and let them duke it out everyday...

looks like Avery won today...

December 2nd

All the girls got fancy today for the Baton Rouge General's Gingerbread Tea... Cookies, Sandwiches, Fruit, Cheese, Santa and prizes...What else could little girls want??

I'll have to add some pictures of Ashley and Hannah later... too much cuteness for one camera!

December Daily

I'm taking some advice from Debby Schuh and keeping my December Daily on the blog this year.  I actually did a December Daily album two years ago - the December I was diagnosed with cancer...believe me the album was planned and created long before the diagnosis...but I'm glad I have it.  Especially because that December was especially crazy...filled with a range of emotions...

This is a much happier year, hopefully there will never be one as stressful as that one.. But we made it through that one, and we'll make it through another one if we have too...I'm just glad it's not THIS year...

Avery's actual birthday is November 30, but we had her party on December 1.  My little girl turning EIGHT!

The "FAB FIVE" as I call them...These precious little girls have been inseparable since Kindergarten.  They skated, ate Cane's, had birthday cake and stayed up WAY TOO late with a very patient Dad (after Mommy was asleep)... and LAUGHED WAY TOO LONG!!!! 

House ADD

I have mentioned this before...See, before we moved to this house (or should I say pre-children)...Shane and I bought and sold a house every two years... I wouldn't call us flippers, I would just call me "antsy"...

There is a certain thrill of getting rid of the old and starting over...the smell of new paint...rearranging furniture in a new space...hunting flea markets to find the perfect pieces to complete the new house...

But I really like our house, and since we committed and dug that hole in the backyard, I know we'll be here for a while ever...but I sat in this house for two years STARING at this furniture, and examining the imperfections and even worse watching HGTV...

so I've begun a major overhaul, and by major, I mean labor intensive, yet fiscally lean...  Here is an example...

I love the style of my dining room table, but three years ago when we went to Disney World, Ironman didn't want the house to burn down from a "Plug-In", so he un-plugged it, and set it on the dining room table.  While we were in Disney, the fragrance drizzled out the side and kindly took the varnish off of the table...It only took me three years to remedy this with some Annie Sloan paint and wax...

here are two before pictures....please forgive me for living with is like this for three years...there were some rough times in there and I didn't have my usual energy...

 

said "plug-in" debacle...do you think the house would really have burned down???

 

Now let's discuss Annie Sloan paint and wax...I LOVE the results, but I didn't LOVE the process - especially the backache that resulted...I love that I have a new dining room table for $100 (cost of paint, clear wax and dark wax) rather than purchasing a new table (remember - I'm frugal).  But achieving a smooth even finish on a large area was tedious.  I would repeat the process in a heartbeat on a smaller object... as for a large table...well, maybe it's like pregnancy, and I'll forget...

 

So here is the finished product....

 

 

plus a new table runner from Pottery Barn and some Mercury Glass Accents.  The hutch in the back got a face lift with new red accents too.  Previously the room had turquoise as the accent color, but I'm a red girl, and as hard as I tried to like another color, it didn't work...I had to go back to red... here's the hutch... (here's a tip...scrapbook paper can be used in many places...can you spot it?)

 

 

and my mantle got a little sprucing too... I've been checking out mantles for a while, trying to figure out what to do...finally I just started pulling things from all over my house and throwing it up there...I like it...at least it's something new and different...

 

 

oh, and my front door even got a new wreath...

 

 

I'm not trying to win any awards or get featured in a magazine, but it sure is fun to do something creative... I've been so preoccupied with decor that I haven't been scrapbooking, but I'll get back to it soon... Just a few more areas need a lift...

 

Luckily my mom helps me a lot...most of the time we laugh at my ridiculous ideas and then she actually makes them work...you might just say she's the more practical one...But it does seem that I'm always the one on the ladder....