THE consignment sale

Joni, my sister (www.thenesbittfamily.blogspot.com), convinced me to consign our baby clothes for the first time at a sale in Hendersonville. Hendersonville is about 40 minutes away from us! She insisted this is the one to go to b/c of its great selection of NWT gymboree clothing from "the gymboree lady". I spent FOREVER getting all of this ready. Then I drove up there last Wednesday to drop it off. I had very bad directions and got very mad when I couldn't find the place. That's a whole other story. Well, after all of that time, effort and frustration I was determined to go to the presale for consignors only. It was last Friday when the weatherman was predicting a "blizzard". Joni was ready to forget about it and just go Saturday morning with the public. I was determined I was going to be there Friday night for the presale. I made her come with me and we got there just fine. We shopped, my sister Julie called to warn about the snow, we shopped some more, my sister called again, I told her to stop worrying and let me shop, we shopped some more and then Joni stood in line to check out. She finally made me stop and get in line. I actually spent the same amount as Joni did but I'm just a very slow decision maker so it took me longer. After I got in line and realized I didn't have as much as I thought I did I wanted to go back to the racks but Joni wouldn't let me. She insisted that we needed to leave. So, I checked out and spent the same amount for my two children that she spent on her one child! I was proud of that fact. Anyway, the roads were fine when we started out but started getting covered about the time we hit Harding Place. It ended up taking us about twice as long to get home but we made it safe and sound, just like I said we would. The pictures above are of a few of the dresses I got for Grace. The first picture shows Grace with a scooter that I found and Lyla with a big dump truck. They both love their new toys. Grace is riding that silly thing all over the house and leaving in just the right places for Eric to stub his tow on every day. Grace was very excited about the new dresses and has been wearing them every day. I think she wore 5 out of the 8 dresses on the first day! Lyla on the other hand wouldn't even stick around long enough for me to show her clothes to her. It's funny how they're so different. Grace only wants dresses and Lyla just wants pants with pockets right now. Well, that's my consignment story. It will be interesting to see what my profit check from the sale ends up being. I hope all of that work was worth it. If nothing else, I eliminated several boxes from our attic! One more little note...who taught Grace to pose for pictures like that?

I finally gave in

Ok, every girl knows what a pain it is to grow out short bangs. That is why I have tried my hardest to keep my two girls' bangs long. I wanted to save us the frustration and heartache of growing out short bangs at age 7. Well, I couldn't take it any longer with this one. Sunday afternoon we were trying to quickly get ready to go to Life Group. I was giving the girls a quick snack. I looked at Lyla and she was eating a muffin. The problem was that her long bangs were mixed in with the muffin in her mouth AND the snot under her nose. GROSS! She just will not leave a ponytail or barrette in her hair. She'll let me put it back when we go somewhere but she always pulls it out before we ever get home. I just couldn't take it anymore. I took her upstairs and convinced her to let me cut her hair. It took a few minutes but she finally agreed. I think it looks pretty cute. I tried not to cut too much. The long pieces on the sides still fall in her eyes but not nearly as bad. I just hope she doesn't hate me later when she wants to have long bangs like Grace.

The best princess party ever!

Last weekend was Reesi's 4th birthday party at Sweet and Sassy. The girls LOVED it! They got to pick out a costume to wear, get their hair in a glittery up-do, have their fingers and toes painted, and have make-up put on them. Then they walked and danced on the catwalk, played limbo preschool-style (bending forward, not backward), and have birthday cake and chicken nuggets. They were so cute in their make-up and costumes. Lyla was a king in her purple cape, which is exactly what she insisting on wearing and Grace was a ballerina. Lyla was more into the make-up than I thought she would be. It was loud and chaotic but they loved it! Thank you Reesi (I mean Joni) for treating us to a great afternoon.

Bed anyone?

Does anyone in their late 20's, early 30's go to bed by 10pm? I really, really want to but it never seems to happen. I'm just wondering how people do it. What am I doing wrong that causes me to have sooooo much to do after the girls are in bed? After they are quiet, I usually have to go back to the kitchen to either clean up (again) and/or make lunches for the next day of preschool. Then I usually have other picking up to do or a board to paint or a blog to post or curtains to hang or a floor to clean or a splinter to pull out of the bottom of my foot (that was last night) or a dog to feed or clothes to fold or.......... The list goes on and on. Is it just me or do other people in this stage of life do it this way too? By the time I go to bed it is 11pm at the earliest. Then I have to practically force Eric to come to bed. It is rare for me to go to sleep before midnight. Last night, for example, I got in bed at 11pm. Eric didn't. I could hear the TV downstairs. Then Rebel barked at something. This went on for about 20 minutes. Finally, I asked Eric to please come to bed. When he finally came Rebel barked again. Then he had to do stuff in the bathroom. By the time he got in bed it was almost midnight. Well, on the way to bed he tucked the girls in. Well, Lyla woke up when he went in her room. I really, really hate it when this happens. So, of course, she got up and came to our room. She got in bed with us but couldn't go to sleep. Eric had brought her a sippy cup with ice and water in it. She kept moving that cup around which was rattling the ice really loud. Then she would ask me something. This went on for a while too. I finally got up at about 12:20am and went to Lyla's bed to sleep by myself. That made Lyla cry but luckily she stayed with Eric. So, an hour and half after I went to bed I finally got to go to sleep! Ahhhhhhh I wish I could go to sleep before Eric when he wants to stay up late. I just can't. Before you get all mushy, it's not that. I just can't go to sleep when he is up because I can hear the TV and then when he comes to the room Rebel barks. Then he takes a shower! It's just pointless to even try to go to bed before he does. It makes it harder because Eric is a night owl! If I let him he would stay up until 1am or later every night! I don't know how he does it. He gets up by 6:30am during the week and never even complains of being tired. I can stay up late too as long as I get to sleep until 10am. That never happens though. So I would really love to go to bed at 10pm every night. I always say I need to give up the board painting or the email and computer stuff or the crafty curtain making and picture hanging stuff but I just can't. I guess I am going to have to learn to either do more while the girls are awake or just be tired for the next 18 years! I would go to bed right now but I have a bonus room covered in boxes and baby clothes I'm sorting through for a consignment sale! I would leave that until tomorrow....but....tomorrow my mom will be here in the morning for Reesi's birthday and the bonus room is a pass-thru to my bedroom at the top of the stairs. Plus, Reesi is spending the night so the girls will be up early and needing things. Maybe I'll just push the baby clothes to the wall so I can walk through and leave that for another night. Good night!

Family Night at the Bowling Alley

For some reason Eric has been itching to take the girls bowling. We tried to take them on Valentine's night but when we got there we found out that they have league bowling Mon-Thursday. I had no idea there were so many serious bowlers around. That night we ended up at Chuck E Cheese. So, we tried again. This time it was last Saturday night. We thought if we got there early it wouldn't be crowded. We got there at 4:30pm! They told us it would be 6pm before a lane would be open! I couldn't believe it. The girls were really wanting to do it so we waited. Luckily, there is a little restaurant in the alley. We ordered some relatively bad food and waited. Lyla and Grace drank about 24 ounces of Sprite that night because there was nothing else to do but sit and suck on the straw. One picture above is of Lyla lying upside down in her chair. After we ate, we went to the arcade area. There they played air hockey, which they love, ski ball, and basketball. We only had a few tickets but some nice little boy gave us about 50 tickets he didn't want. That bought them a ring pop. You can see in the pics that Lyla chose blue of course. We finally got a lane in the kiddie section. They really enjoyed it and Grace actually beat Eric and me! It was really funny to watch them. I was afraid Lyla would throw it into the next lane but she didn't. She really didn't throw it that hard at all. Grace would run and toss it and just about fall down each time. She did really well though. I have to say a little about their outfits. Lyla is wearing a shirt Eric brought back from his erosion control conference in FL last week. It says "Girls like dirt". He thought that was really cool. Grace on the other hand didn't want to wear a plain old t-shirt. She chose to wear the outfit SHE picked out at the Goodwill store just the day before. I'm not a big fan of the mint green, purple, satin skirt but she likes it.

Paris, here she comes

It will be interesting to see if Grace turns out to be in the fashion business. She loves to change clothes, many, many times a day. The other day I couldn't help but take a picture of this outfit she chose. She has dress socks, pink leggings, pink/brown leopard print skirt, red christmas shirt, and her Easter gloves! I love that she is independent enough to dress herself! Her choices make me laugh. I can't wait to show her these pictures when she's 18.

She's still sick!

She started Sunday night. Today is Thursday. I thought we would be able to make it to school today. We missed Tuesday b/c she threw up about 10 minutes before we were going to leave. She didn't throw up yesterday but still have an upset tummy. I thought she could make it today b/c she ate a good dinner last night and seemed to be perking up. Well, as we were pulling into the parking lot at preschool she threw up an entire cup of apple juice, which does not smell too good after being in the tummy for a while. I guess it's a good thing she did it in the car and not in the preschool classroom. This is a picture of our poor Lyla Belle. Yesterday she wouldn't let me go anywhere in the house without carrying her with me. She didn't want to lay on the couch alone. When I was trying to fix dinner I sat her on top of the island in our kitchen. She layed there the whole time. When I would take her anywhere and put her down she just layed down right where I sat her. I went to Verizon yesterday b/c my phone won't charge anymore. She layed on the floor the whole time. Poor thing. I have to secretly confess that it's been kind of nice to have her so still for a few days. It's also been nice to be able to sit and hold her. She never sits still!