Bonus Family Time!

Yesterday was kind of a weird day...I was supposed to go to work, then found out the day before that I'd spaced and forgotten about a Region 4 workshop.  We had a PPCD meeting/baby shower planned after school, so it was supposed to be a late night for me.  So, then the weather reports started talking about ice on Wednesday, and after getting burned on the whole snowpocalypse (thanks for the term, Ronny), I was like, forget it--I'm going in!  So I did.  And the workshop was aMaZiNg--like, I built a blueprint for next year in my head amazing, girls.  And I got to spend some time with Tammy and Cyndi (my supervisors) and talk a little about what's been on my mind:  spending more time in Brenham and less on the road.  I feel like a weight has been lifted, just getting it out there.  So we'll see what happens next, but so far, it looks good!

Right when we were dismissed for lunch, I got a text and a phone call--there was ice in Brenham, and both kids' schools were shutting down.  James had the kids handled, so I made some calls to assess the road situation and headed for home.  It wasn't a bad drive at all, luckily, and kind of like Thursday and Friday--pretty underwhelming.  Thank God, because I was really dreading driving on ice (which I only SAW once).  What's funny is right when I was like, this isn't bad at all!, I realized that my car was iced over.  Like, couldn't use the windshield wipers.  Then when I got home, all of the doors were frozen shut!  You Yankees can laugh, but that just doesn't happen here but once a year or less.  :)

When I got home, it was such a relief to see James' truck in the driveway (it was a big, black ice cube!).  He made yummy potato soup for lunch, and then we all took a nap.  A looooooooong nap, apparently, because we woke up at 5:00 (yikes!).  Noble actually slept a little longer, which meant that he woke up g-r-u-m-p-y.  By that time we were getting hungry, so James and I went over our options and decided we'd save time on making dinner (he'd run across to Subway) and then use that 20 minutes to tackle the linen closet.  You heard me...

For months (truth be told, probably about a year...tell you why I said that in a minute), we've been fighting a ginormous PILE in the linen closet.  Our very small linen closet.  Every time we had company or it got really cold and we needed an extra blanket, whoever opened the linen closet door would fight the pile and try to keep it all from tumbling out into the hall, then fight to get the door closed.  It was a battle every time, let me tell ya.

We pulled everything out, and it felt like a magicians hat...the stuff just kept coming and coming and coming...and then we sorted it all out to take some stuff that we don't use to storage (we only have 2 beds, and 2 extra mattresses...and we had, seriously, 15 sets of sheets.  I don't KNOW why...) and two black bags that can go away to storage.  There's some really good stuff in there that won't do us much good in this house, so we sent that to storage to.  (By "sent to storage," I mean, "stacked in the dining room" until I can get to it tomorrow.  You know.)

I suck at before pictures, because I'm always ready to plow right in.  So here's the after, which really, isn't as impressive since you didn't see before.  This closet is nice because it has shelves all the way to the ceiling--even James has to get a chair to reach them!




Oh!  And look what we found waiting at the bottom--this gorgeous valentine is a gift from my Mom.  (The lighting is off because it's early and dark in here, but you get the idea.)  Wish I'd found it a few weeks ago...there's incentive to keep organized...




Looks a little familiar, right?  That's because it has a little sister who lives on our table this time of year (pardon our mess):




On Tuesday I tackled the pantry--the down below part where I store all of the extra paper goods and party stuff and extra ziplocs and stuff--and that feels GREAT...I hate to admit, there was still a mess in one of the containers down there from when Noble was a bAbY!  Talk about procrastinating!  Next up, and James is tickled about this (not!)...the pots & pans cabinet.  He doesn't know it, but we're totally doing that tomorrow night.  Or Sunday...but definitely before Monday.  :)

This weekend the kids and I are going to IKEA (James is judging VASE on Saturday) to get more storage drawers to go beside my desk.  I've got stuff kind of floating around everywhere and it's getting to me...not to mention that my side of the closet is overflowing with scrapbooks, supplies, and things that need to be scrapbooked.  I've decided that scrapbooking is going to be my summer project with Kayci (if Noble can go to school one day a week, that is), so I want to get organized.  That's one thing about a small home...we don't have a place where works in progress can live, so we have to be organized to pull stuff out and put it back when we're done.  :)

Alrighty...off to the shower!  The kids and I are having an adventure today, thanks to Amy & Kristin--can't wait!