NEW, NEW, NEW...and...ummmmm...

NEW!

It's only Thursday and I'm already declaring this week FULL.

WHEW...I'm exhausted! But here's a quick run-down of the newness, so you can agree with me!

NEW CAR. No, not for me. Not for my husband. For my girlfriend's husband. But I went shopping with her to pick it out. It's a gift for him - and it's one hot little car!


We took one amazing (hilarious) test drive. I'm sure the salesperson will never look at "Gilbert stay-at-home-moms" the same way again. And let's just say - we can pick out cars! WOWZERS!

NEW Wii GAME. The boy got this for Christmas, but has only really gotten into it in the last few weekends. But now that they're into it - they are IN TO IT! If you don't have Mario and Sonic at the Olympics...go get it! The boy and his crew love it!


Yesterday they were into the swimming and the table tennis...


which really is hilarious with all four of them thrashing about. It's such a good time watching them play. They laugh, they debate, the compare, they keep track, the totally freak the dogs out. It's all good!

(They also drink a lot...

and the shrapnel they leave behind can be quite impressive!)

NEW GOODIES. Today is the last day of January - which means tomorrow is the first day of February. And that means the birthday celebrations are right around the corner. But the birthday shopping has already begun. Got treated to this gorgeous item...


and am simply in love with it. Oh, my partner-in-crime really wanted me to pick the lime green one but I picked the brown and black one instead. It's versatile. It's huge. It's classic. And they are so new that the store had just received them the day before. Love it! But since I wasn't gutsy enough to go lime green for the purse...maybe I need to go back to pick up the lime green wallet?

NEW PRODUCT. Got a big ol' envelope of scrapbooky goodness yesterday. New stuff. New letter stuff. New shape stuff. Oh for cute! Therefore I have some assignments to crank out today. Oh the drudgery of my job! (insert big ear-to-ear grin here)

NEW TO-DO LIST.  Had to add one big item to my to-do list for today.  As a matter of fact, everything else on my to-do list got crossed off.  This  has to get done today, no ifs, ands or buts.  Apply for my passport.  I think I'm going to have to pay for expedited processing. Woo-hoo!  I'm off to get started.  I'll get everything else done today, but wait to get my pictures taken when the teen comes home.  Since she's a "passport picture pro".  This is going to be fun! 

Did I mention the drudgery of my job? (one more big grin right here)

until then - - -

I KNOW IT'S GOING TO BE AN AWESOME WEEK...

because of the following things:

The new Pottery Barn catalog arrived Friday afternoon, and my lime-green-lovin' heart jumped for joy!


The whole magazine is filled with green-goodness. Oh - dear husband - this could be a ver-r-ry dangerous month. Birthday, anniversary AND Valentine's Day...and THIS catalog sittin' on my desk. Watch out!

The teen is on a drama-induced-euphoric-high, that is going to carry her though this entire week.


This is her as she headed out the door to work the box office and usher for the performance. She worked all weekend long and was blown away seeing her first high school drama performance. The performance was Shakespeare and she's now chomping at the bit to get even more involved. Love the excitement. Love the friendships. Love the...well...the drama of it all!

Spent the wee hours of the past weekend hanging with my girls. My scrappin' girls, that is.


Lots of productivity. Lots of stories. Lots of laughter. And quite a few cocktails. Thanks ladies for joining me - let's do it again...soon!

And finally, the dogs. The old boy is sick - diagnosis bone cancer. He's slowing down, he's limping, he's a bit on the whiny side. But we feel as a family that he still has some love to give, and he's still comfortable. What's been interesting this weekend is that we realized the little girl has taken on a new role around the house. The role of caretaker.


She rarely leaves his side. She responds to his whines. She repositions herself a million times a day to be "right there" for him. And it makes me feel good. The old boy is loved - by the four humans in this house and by our little girl.

So with an amazing weekend...days full of fun and laughter and love and fur and paper and driving and Mass and singing and CDs and shopping and food and excitement...how could this upcoming week be anything but FANTASTIC?

I don't doubt it for a second!

Super Bowl week is upon us! The boy is spending the day with dear husband on Friday to take part in the NFL Experience. VIP tickets are easy to come by with both teams are customers...and the NFL office in NYC was one of his meetings last week! Can't wait to hear the stories and see some pictures. Good "boys day out" kind of stuff!

until then - - -

SHEESH...

where the heck has everybody been for the last eighty-four days?

What? You've been here? Hmmmmmm

Well then where the heck have I been all this time?

I walked in to Mystic Paper last week and Jennifer and Kim just about fell over. Seems they were sure I had met my demise while in Seattle! {grin}

My cousin in Boston emailed her father, who emailed his brother because she was worried she should be sending flower arrangements.

My dear aunt in Colorado sent the cutest email mentioning that the ONLY way she knows what is going on in our life is by reading my blog.

Several local friends are asking about my well being - because the word is making its way back to me.

Strangely enough, even former co-workers seem to be waiting for some really good gossip to explain away my lack of blogging.

Well - I'm sorry to say that there is no juicy, convoluted, breath-holding explanation for why I haven't blogged. I just wanted to take some time off.

Let's call it a "surgical removal of the keyboard from my fingertips".

So instead of blogging - I've been traveling. And scrapping. And cleaning. And organizing. And reading. And shopping. And cooking. And writing. And taking pictures. And redecorating. And building. And laughing. And planning. And scheduling. And wife-ing. And mom-ing. And friend-ing. And generally feeling no pressure from anyone, anything or any entity.

And I love it!

But in all honesty - my break can't go on much longer. So I may as well get back to blogging.

I got an amazing new computer for Christmas - from my dear husband...


so I'm all set to start working again - HUGE monitor and all! Love me some MacBook goodness - speedy, shiny white and sporting a built in iSight. Thanks hon - LOVE IT!

There have been all kinds of fun things going on the last 3 months - but one unplanned bit of excitement was this...(click on the picture to enlarge)


a little mention in Simple Scrapbooks magazine by the one-and-only Stacy Julian. How fun that was - and it led to mass hysteria on some message boards that I frequent. It was definitely a great way to kick start my 2008 scrappin'!

I'm heading to CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) in a couple of weeks. Can't wait. I know secrets. I've been told secrets. And I've got secrets that I get to share once I get there! And I LOVE SECRETS! The only bad part is I'll be away from my family on Valentine's Day...but I think we'll celebrate the whole week before, so that'll make up for it!

Thanks for being concerned. Thanks for understanding that a 2-week break often leads to a 6-week break and that ultimately leads to a really L-O-N-G vacation!

I promise - I have lots of scrappy goodness to upload in the next few weeks - stuff to show off, stuff to share and stories to tell!

until then - - -