I've Fallen off the Wagon

... the blogging wagon, that is. Lately, blogging has been the equivalent of scrapbooking for me, and that isn't a good thing. My poor son-- his scrapbook has every single freakin' thing the boy did from birth to age two, and then... NOTHING. I like to and want to scrapbook, and I have the best of intentions on doing it. I have even went through and developed tons of pictures from the last several years. But then that's as far as I've gotten!

And that's how my blog has been for the last 13 days... but who's counting (oh, wait, my b-i-law is counting, aren't you, Luke?!?) I have been crazy busy at work, and with some volunteer stuff, and Jace has had several tests each week. Between everything, blogging has definitely fallen off the radar. I've had a post in mind, about a couple of books I've been reading, but I knew it would take quite a bit of work to write about it, so I have been procrastinating on that.

Then I was gone to KC last weekend, had our women/heart disease event at work this week, and now heading to St. Clair this weekend. I took some vacation time at work this morning just so I could finish up some stuff around the house before we left town again!

Last weekend I headed to KC to see my brother and friends Garry and Heather while Jace was with his dad. Thom and I ate at Kona Grill, then I met a high school friend, Duane, for drinks at Kona. It was great to catch up with Duane, I hadn't seen him in 7 or 8 years at least. After saying goodbye to Duane, Thom and I headed up to North KC to hang with Garry and Heather for the evening. Friends Brent and Laura came over as well, since they had a babysitter for their son Carter for a couple of hours.

It was the first time I've seen any of them since D and I split, so Brent and Laura brought a bottle of Hot Damn for us to share a few shots and toast to new beginnings. Laura was the only one who was exempt from the shots, since she's expecting baby #2 in September! Here are a few pics from the evening:

Me & Thom

Brent & Heather!

I think this is mine and Garry's second shot....woo hoo!

CHEERS!! (minus Miss Heather, behind the camera!)

It was a great evening, and so nice to catch up with all of them again. Garry had awesome tunes playing all evening, which of course was one of my (and his) favorite things! Thomas left us about 8:30 that night to go hang with the cool kids back down by his place, and leave all of us old folks to our own revelry! Brent and Laura headed home fairly early, and the remaining three of us capped of the evening with a trip to Ruby Tuesdays about 5 minutes away. I don't really know why, since we had plenty of wine at their house, but we each ordered a glass of wine AND shared two decadent desserts (a fudge cake with ice cream and a piece of strawberry shortcake! Yum!!!)

Fabulous weekend with my brother Thom, and with my four friends. I'm so glad to be "keeping them" in the divorce! Of course they will still be D's friends too, as they were his for 5+ years before I ever met them. But nice that we can both maintain the friendships, because they're some of my very favorite people and I would miss them greatly!

This weekend I'm heading to St. Clair with Jace; he and I are going to a surprise party for a friend on Saturday, and then I'm catching up with some high school friends Saturday night while he spends some time with Mimi (grandma). More pictures soon, and I promise it won't be 13 days before I post again.

My Funny Valentine

I'm having a great Valentines Day this year; Jace and I slept in late this morning, then I went to the store and bought him Krispy Kreme creme-filled chocolate frosted doughnuts (none for ME, I'm having oatmeal, toast and coffee!). Now we're snuggled up on the sofa for a little while; he is enjoying cartoons and I'm playing around on the laptop. What a great Saturday morning!

Jace's class wrote Valentines letters at school this week. He was proud of his, especially about the funny comment at the end:

It says: "Dear Mom, Thank you for helping me on my homework. you also do my laundry. But that's not why I love you. I love you because your my mom. You also give me an allowance. I'll see you later. PS: can I have a raise in my allowance? Sincerely, Jace

Nice try, son! He is a great kid, with a big heart and a funny sense of humor. I find myself being grateful for his openness and loving personality, because I know he may become more reserved as he gets older. After all, it isn't cool to be as close to your parents when you're a teenager. So I try to make time each day to snuggle and talk, and just enjoy my time with him.

Happy Valentines Day to everyone, hope you all are with someone you love.

Jewelry Update!

Just wanted to share my happiness, in that I have FOUND one of my fave pieces of jewelry that has been missing for a couple of months. If you remember my post from a couple of weeks ago, I have been missing a one-of-a-kind pendant made by local artist and friend, Tammy.

I've been painting my bedroom for the past several days, and hoisting furniture around with the help of best pal, Gail (thanks, Gail-- I owe you!). Tonight I moved my bookshelf out to paint behind it, and there was the pendant - yay!

So, I've found the jewelry, but still lost the husband, as I lamented about in the previous post. But you know, I am feeling a little more okay about that as each day passes. Looking forward to a fun weekend, with great friends and great plans. Now, back to painting!

Winter Fun!

I'm a little slow in getting these posted, the snow was actually LAST week. Jace was ecstatic that he was off school Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; me, I was happy to have a little time off with him and worked half-days while he was off. The photos below were from Wednesday. He was out in the cold for two hours with all the other kids at the nearby school, it is a great hill!

Of course before we headed over to the school he had to try out another GREAT hill, our driveway. The thing is so steep, I am glad it is good for SOMETHING!

He had a blast sledding with friends at the school; last year I actually got out there and went with him, but this year I was content to sit in the car and read while he went with friends.



Now this week the snow is melting- well, it was yesterday, but today we are back to 28 degrees.... Brrrr!! I'm hoping the weekend brings warmer temperatures. I'm ready for spring, although I know we still have a couple more months of potential winter weather.