Odd and Ends

All the little things that have been going don't really deserve their own posts so I'm including them all in one post.

RIVERDANCE:
Last weekend, Amberly's grandparents took her to see Riverdance (the Irish dancing sensations). She LOVES Riverdance and had a fabulous time. They said she was so excited before the show started that she was literally shaking and she couldn't stop smiling. I took a few pictures before they headed out for the show.

WIND:
It hasn't been feeling very springy lately. Today it's overcast and ever windy. Tuesday night a gusty wind storm shook up my little town (we're pretty used to it) and ripped a big chunk of the vinyl siding loose from my neighbor's house. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the panels above the part that is actually hanging are very loose too and flap in the wind. Last night in the continual wind the broken vinyl banged against the house all night long. It's right outside my bedroom. Ahh! Between the banging and Lilly, who has a sore throat and woke up every few hours, it wasn't the most restful night.

I'm sure the banging was really driving my neighbors crazy too. At least they are renters and can call their landlord to fix it--hopefully soon.

PANTRY:
Utah Dad and I had a very productive day yesterday! We cleaned and organized our pantry/laundry/mud room. Over the winter this has become the room to stash everything. (I didn't take pictures--it was too embarrassing.) I found three very rotten acorn squash hiding behind the dog food (which we store in the house now instead of the garage so we don't feed any more mice) and some peanut butter coated spoons. So gross. We restocked the shelves from the food storage. We swept (apparently, a lot of chocolate chips drop on the floor when I reach in the bag for a snack) and mopped the floor. And I cleaned the lint and spilled detergent from the tops of the washer and dryer. We also cleaned off the Time-Out bench so now my kids have more room to sit when they get in trouble.

When we finished cleaning, we headed to the grocery store to buy more food storage. We filled two carts twice.

BOOKS:
Amberly and Neal have been fighting like cats and dogs this week. Neal will do something to bug her and Amberly will scream hysterically. It's very annoying. Yesterday evening, they were driving me crazy. Amberly was attempting to watch a Tinkerbell movie that she borrowed from her piano teacher and Neal would run in the room do a quick dance in front of the television. Amberly would scream and I would get annoyed. Obviously, Neal was very bored. (My boys have trouble entertaining themselves. Urgh!)

Finally, I told Neal to go alphabetize my books. He took me seriously and headed upstairs to take books from the shelves. He had a very random system but he refused suggestions from us and did a very good job. By the way, the books are alpahbetized by author. He was anxious to do all the books, but it was time for bed and some of the books are organized by size, shape and subject. I let him do two shelves. He is planning to organize his own books this afternoon when he gets home from school. Like mother like son.

I used to alphabetize and organize the books in my house when I was a kid too. I even wrote numbers inside the flap of each book and made my younger siblings "check" them out. I'm a bit surprised that my books weren't already alphabetized.

MISMATCHED DAY:

Today is "Mismatched Day" at Amberly's school. They're celebrating "Spirit week". I didn't have any trouble getting Amberly out of bed this morning. She was so excited to pick out her mismatched clothes for the day. She discovered and thought it was cool that her shirt and leggings have the same pattern just with different colors.

This is the first year Amberly has managed to match when she goes to school. Unless I insisted and battled, every day in first grade seemed like Mismatched Day. Today, she looks pretty adorable in a very goofy I-would-be-so-embarrassed-if-it-was-a-normal-day way. I remembered to snap a picture in the half-light of morning before she headed to school.

READING:

I hosted Book Club on Tuesday night. We had a great turn out and had so much fun visiting. Some of us even discussed the book, The Space Between Us for a few minutes. We actually went home at 1 am this month instead of at 4 am. Monday night, I fell asleep while Utah Dad was watching the NCAA Basketball championship game and only woke up to take my contacts out. I was trying to save up some sleeping time for book club. My body was prepared for a really late night. Even though everyone left "early" I couldn't fall asleep for several hours.

 I've been reading Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. I am a huge fan of Steinbeck but my eyes keep closing whenever I read this book. I put it aside last night and started reading Brave Girl Eating by Harriet Brown. It is a memoir of a family's painful struggle when their oldest daughter gets anorexia. It is scaring me!

I am looking forward to Spring Break next week. I'm hoping the weather will cooperate and act like spring. However, since Neal and Amberly will be spending a lot of time together, I better come up with some extra cleaning and organizing projects for them to do. Heehee (evil laugh).