Our downstairs bathroom

Since my husband and I are no strangers to fixing up a house or two, I've noticed we always tend to fall into a pattern when it comes to remodeling. And that's that we work hard-core on a house for a few months, and then we get burned out. Sometimes we "burn out" due to lack of funds and we just have to wait to get caught back up. That was the case this time. However, since we sold our fifth wheel, we feel that we can now start working on the house again. But, that doesn't mean we get real motivated to do the work. However, just like our burn out pattern, there is also one sure-fire way to get us motivated on fixing up a house again. What is it, you may ask? Having company! We've known for a few weeks now that my sister and her family would be visiting us this month, so that gave us a goal to get our downstairs bathroom remodeled! We finished just in the nick of time considering our guests will be arriving tomorrow!!! (Also, my parents are driving up to see them as well, so we will once again have a house full!) Now, keep in mind we still haven't remodeled our upstairs bathroom, which happens to be the bathroom that is attached to the master bedroom. I am a little jealous that my family members will be using the "nice" bathroom while Greg and I will be using the "crap" bathroom. But hey, we figured they would enjoy it. Plus, there was literally a hole in the downstairs shower which meant it needed to be fixed before we remodeled our upstairs bathroom anyway so we'd have a place to shower while the other one is being fixed. Sheesh!

This is what the bathroom used to look like:






And this is what it looks like now!





Do you want to know what our inspiration was for the color scheme? The shower pan! Greg didn't want to have to install a new shower pan when the one that was in place was in good shape. However, it had blue flecks in it. I figured, why not work with it! And thus, the blue/gray tiled shower was born! Luckily the shower door was in good shape as well, so even though it's gold trimmed, we figured we'd cut cost by re-using it. We had originally bought some marble tile to re-do the vanity top with, but decided there would be too much tile going on. So, we decided to use the same tile that we used in the shower, and I'm so glad that we did!!!

Next, we painted the vanity and the medicine cabinet white. Also, Greg did some "modernizing" to the medicine cabinet. Everyone who has seen it can't believe it's the same one! It's amazing what some paint, new hardware, and new trim will do to a piece of furniture!

I figured the best color for the walls that would go well with the tile was a gray color. Typically I like a warmer color palette, and since the grays and whites really gave the bathroom a "sterile" feel, I decided some pops of color were in order. Originally I wanted hot pink, but figured Greg would kill me. I think red was a good happy-medium! I already had two of the black towels and one black rug. I bought another black rug and towel at Wal-Mart and the three red hand towels at Wal-Mart as well. The flowers came from a Hobby Lobby run I did while we were in Oklahoma. Those happen to be my favorite flowers (antherium) and were used in our wedding! OH, I'm forgetting one of the most important things! Ever since we purchased this house, I kept picturing a decorative ladder to hang towels on for that bathroom, since there is so much wasted space in there. Low and behold, I found one at a garage sale for $5. All it needed was a coat of white paint! Also, do you like my curtain tie-backs? They are actually pony tail holders! Yes, sometimes I can think outside the box!

There you have it! I think next on our agenda may be flooring for our dining room and kitchen. Which means, who's coming to visit? We may need some motivation!

Showing Off!

A few weeks ago we made a journey to the Sooner State so Greg and I could show off our most prized possession to our family. (That would be Mr. Parker in case you didn't know). He did as good as you can expect from a 10 week old baby during our traveling (although Greg would probably say otherwise!) He got to meet a lot of family! As in, two great grandmothers, a grandma and grandpa, three Aunts and Uncle, and lots of cousins!!! I had a great time showing him off to everyone but of course there was never enough time for me to meet up with all of my friends...which is why I didn't even tell many people that we were going to be in Oklahoma. There's always next time!

The last part of our trip was spent at Lake Texoma. Greg actually planned a huge fishing trip for a bunch of our friends. We had friends from Oklahoma, Texas, Tennesse, and even some of our friends from here in Colorado that met us at the lake. I spent most of my time with Parker, but from what I hear everyone had a great time. It will be fun to take Parker to the lake this time next year; I can't wait! Luckily I had two of my really good friends come down to my father in laws house so they could meet Parker and so that I could visit with them. My friend Misty just purchased a professional camera and so we had an all day photo session. I was eccstatic that she was willing to do that and I had to show off a few of my favorite shots of me and my little man! Enjoy!!!

A Great Week

Last week was a great week for us! It all kicked off on Friday of Memorial Day weekend. That morning I officially signed the title of our fifth wheel over to the new owner and mailed off the cashiers check to pay off our loan! Woo-Hoo! It was beginning to be such a financial burden to us, so I'm not even sad to see it go. Our traveling days are officially a thing of the past. Although, Greg is convinced we will someday own a toy hauler, since he and Parker will need something to haul their four wheelers and motorcycles all over the place! Greg sure is going to be disappointed if Parker takes after his Momma and isn't as adventurous as he is!


Friday afternoon my brother and his family arrived at our house. Parker finally got to meet an aunt, uncle, and some of his cousins! We had a pretty laid back weekend with our company. Lots of walks through the neighborhood and just hanging out.

Our company headed back home on Monday with the exception of my sweet eleven year old niece, Braylee. She stayed the week with us. I was worried when she asked us a few months ago if she could stay with us that she might get bored. That feeling escalated once I actually had Parker and learned how time-consuming breast feeding is. However, on Tuesday I learned that Braylee had never seen any of the Harry Potter movies. Luckily a friend of mine happened to own all six movies and she was generous enough to let me borrow them. The rest of our week consisted of a Harry Potter marathon! Although, I think by the time we were on the sixth movie, Braylee was a little tired of watching wizards and witches! I also introduced Braylee to a game that I was recently introduced too: chickenfoot! It's played with dominoes and oh so fun! Anytime Parker was sleeping we would sneak down to the basement to play as many rounds as we could. I love playing games; Greg, not so much. So it was nice to finally be able to use the domino set I recently purchased!

We have a cherry tree in our back yard that is producing the most delicious cherries! Needless to say, Bray did her fair share of cherry picking while she was here, too! One day I thought it would be fun to have a little beauty session, so we slathered masks on our faces, painted our toe nails, and gave our hands a much needed sugar scrub! Above all, Braylee was great with Parker! She would talk to him, read him books, and even volunteer to change poopy diapers! She was quite the little helper as far as house works goes, too! She was great at washing dishes and loading the dishwasher, and she even cleaned the downstairs bathroom twice without me asking her to do so! I know when I was eleven years old I would have never thought to do that! David and Karen are definitely raising her right!


On Sunday we all loaded up in the truck and went to Denver to deliver her to my brother. Since we no longer have to budget for a trailer payment each month, we are now able to get back on the ball with remodeling our house!!! And since this house has two rooms that we've never had before (a formal dining room and a second living room) that also means we have some furniture shopping to do! One item on our list was a china cabinet. Not because I'm fancy enough to actually own china, but I do have a small crystal collection that I'm quite proud of! Greg scoured Craigslist since he knew we would be in the Denver area and while we were up there we made our first successful Craigslist purchase! A china cabinet for $100. With a little paint and new hardware it'll be perfect! I'll try to be sure to take before and after pics and post them on here!

Like I said, we had a great week!

P.S. This is one way that an eleven year old entertains an eight week old! Too funny! Can you say overstimulation?

Parker's Birth Story

Wow, it's amazing to think about how much my life has changed since I last blogged. That's because I was finally able to cross an item off of my bucket list; I had a baby! Here's how it all started:

Around midnight on Sunday, April 11th I was once again hit with another round of insomnia. So, I got up and got online to see if my sister was on messenger (which she was!) I chatted with her for a bit until I felt I was tired enough to go to sleep. Unfortunately, once I hit the sheets, I was wide awake again. I had taken some cute maternity pictures a few days before so I decided to get up and try to post my favorites on my blog. Blogger had other plans though, and I eventually gave up. I posted them on facebook, instead! By then it was almost time for Greg to wake up, so I went ahead and went down to the kitchen to make his lunch and breakfast (yes, I am that kind of wifey!) Once I was finished I felt that I was finally tired enough to get some shut eye. However, once I hit the sheets, I felt it. A sharp pain in my stomach. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 5:55 A.M. About ten minutes later I felt it again. When Greg came in the bedroom to tell me good-bye I told him I thought I was having contractions but that he should go to work since I wasn't sure. They didn't exactly feel like what I expected them to feel like. They hurt, but they weren't unbearable. And I also was told that your whole stomach gets hard, which wasn't the case for me. It felt more like a menstrual cramp. As the morning progressed, I continued to get the pains. I began keeping track, but my times were all over the place. Sometimes I would have contractions for 6 minutes then they would spread out to 10 minutes apart.

The funny thing about the whole situation was that the day before we moved our fifth wheel to a piece of property on the side of a busy highway so it could get better exposure since we are trying to sell it. Go figure my cell phone is the number we used on the signs. All morning long I kept getting phone calls. The last thing I wanted to do while I was in labor was talk to people about our camper!

Around 11:00 A.M. I called Greg and told him he needed to come home so we could go to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 12:30 P.M. and they hooked me up to a machine to make sure I was having contractions. Sure enough I was. But I was only dilated to a 3. So they told me to start walking. I'm curious how many miles I put in walking around the hospital that day. The funny thing about it was that one of the girls that was in my birthing classes came in having contractions as well. So we walked the halls together. I'm sure we were a sight to be seen. Her carrying around a barf bag, and myself stopping during each contraction to sway and do the typical "hee, hee, whoooo" breathing technique.

As the day progressed I didn't seem to dilate any more, but I was still having contractions and my blood pressure was rising. So the nurses decided to go ahead and admit me rather than sending me home. As the night dragged on, I did begin to dilate, and I also began feeling quite a bit of pain. At 4 centimeters I opted for IV drugs. By the time I was at a 6 (I think) it was time for the epidural. I was scared to death! I've heard so many horror stories about epidurals that I was shaking like a leaf once the anesthesiologist arrived. Luckily, it was totally painless! Afterwards I'm pretty sure I dosed off because the next thing I knew a nurse informed me I was 7 centimeters. Then what seemed like 2 minutes later I was told I was at a 10.

However, my water still hadn't broke. Which lead the midwife to ask me if it would be okay for her to break it for me. This was another situation that I was scared to death of. So before I could even give her an answer, my impatient husband said, "yes!" And once again I was surprised by how quick and painless the procedure went.

From there it was time to push. I knew from doing a tour of the hospital prior to going into labor that the hospital had a mirror if a mother wanted to watch her delivery. Believe it or not, I requested the mirror! I really wanted to watch Parker being born. Once the mirror was in position, I began pushing. Let me tell ya, it wasn't easy. I had Greg holding one leg and a nurse holding another. Then there were so many do's and don'ts. Don't make grunting sounds because it uses up my energy. Do pull on my knees to help make the push stronger. Don't tense my face up because "What to expect when you're expecting" says you'll get bruises. Do push just using the lower part of my body. And on and on. The only thing encouraging me was seeing Parkers head peeking out. Unfortunately, when it came down to actually delivering him, I had my eyes closed, so I still missed out on his actual birth. I pushed for 1 hour and 5 minutes putting my labor at a total of 21 hours.

It is true when you hear people say that once a baby is born the pain is automatically forgotten. At least that was the case for me. I've always been the type of person who is grossed out by blood or anything gross. So I was a little apprehensive about my blood, and who knows what else, covered baby being laid on my stomach as soon as he was born. However, that flew right out the window. In fact, I didn't think he was bloody and gross at all (the nurses were doing a great job of wiping him down!). Throughout my pregnancy, my sister kept harping on me to smell him as soon as he was born. She was never able to do so with her two kids since she had a C-section with both. She had heard that a newborn baby smells exactly like baby lotion. I kept telling her I didn't think I would want to smell him since I don't even like the smell of baby lotion (and he would be bloody). But, that flew out the window as well, and as I took a long deep whiff of him I was pleasantly surprised to discover that he did smell like baby lotion and that perhaps I had been wrong about the not liking that particular smell all along.

With that being said, we welcomed Parker John (we'll sometimes call him P.J. for short) into this great world at 2:50 A.M. on April 13th, 2010. He weighed 7 lbs. 4 1/2 oz. and was 18 1/2" long. He has tons of hair (thanks to both parents), adorable dimples and long eyelashes (thanks to Daddy) and a cute little button nose (thanks to Mommy).

Life has been pretty different for the past two weeks. First of all, we were in the hospital from Monday until Thursday. Mainly because Parker wouldn't eat very well, and also because of some of my blood work. I still don't understand what was going on with me, but I'm fine now. Parker on the other hand, would like to scream and cry all night, and when I tried to nurse him, he would fall asleep. When we finally left the hospital his weight was down to 6 lbs. 11 oz. It is normal for a baby to loose weight after being born, but they felt this was a little much. The day after I got home I had a lactation consultant stop by the house. She weighed him as well and he was down to 6 lbs. 6 oz. This caused her enough concern that she told me I needed to be nursing him every hour and a half.

My next week was basically spent nursing. As soon as he was finished I would have maybe an hour before I had to feed him again. Luckily we had family that came to visit and they helped me out by keeping the house clean. The following Monday I took him to the doctor and he had gained a little bit of weight back, putting him at 6 lbs. 10 oz. However, they were still concerned and wanted me to come back for a weight check the following week. As the week progressed, Parker did begin to nurse much better. In fact, almost too well. He would literally take an hour to nurse. I knew this had taken a toll on me when several nights in a row I would turn the alarm that I set for myself to wake him up to feed him (he doesn't wake up on his own) off in my sleep. I know my body needed the rest, but it still made me feel guilty. A few days ago I decided to stretch out his feedings to 2 hours. However, I learned that I was timing my feedings wrong. Before I would wait an hour and a half after a feeding. I learned I was supposed to start my count from when I started feeding. So basically even though I'm doing 2 hours, it still adds up to about the same times.

At his weight check this past Monday he was up some more, at that point up to 6 lbs. 14 oz. However, I told the doctor that he was spitting up all the time and that it was always chunky. I told him the feeding schedule he was on and how long he nursed and the doctor said he thought I was over doing it. He wanted me to visit with the lactation consultant the following day. That night I nursed Parker on one side at a time. I had tried doing that a few days before and he threw a hissy fit. But, for some reason, that night it stuck. I've continued doing that since Monday night and he is spitting up less often. I was able to have him weighed again today and am proud to say that he is now up to 7 lbs. 1 oz. He will be weighed again on Friday and hopefully by then he will at least be up to his birth weight.

So there you have it! Life with a baby boy is exhausting and a little stressful, but I wouldn't trade it for anything else!

Sesame Chicken, How I Love You So!

For the five of you who regularly read my blog, I figured ya'll might get a kick out of Part Two of my sesame chicken cravings. As you know from the post below, I was left defeated when it came down to crunch time and was unable to satisfy my gnawing hunger pains for the yummy Chinese entree. Well, let me tell ya, things didn't get much better. On April 1st I remembered that the restaurant was finally open for business again! I begged Greg for us to go and he begrudgingly agreed (he likes the other Chinese restaurant much better, but like I said, their sesame chicken is spicy. Gross.) Now, as you know, my husband works as a wind turbine technician. That means the wind blows pretty good here in the little ole' town of Lamar. That day was no exception with wind gusts of up to 80 MPH (yes, this information is relevant to my story. I promise.)

We pulled up to the restaurant and there were surprisingly a lot of cars there for dinner time. We went inside and the one waitress that was working seated us. And then we sat there. For a good ten minutes. She didn't even bother to come take our drink order. Mind you I was trying to be as patient as a starving pregnant lady can be...which wasn't easy. As we were sitting there, the restaurants phone kept ringing. We heard someone yell from the kitchen why the waitress wasn't answering the phone and she yelled back that the wind was messing up the phone lines and if she answered then she would just get a busy signal.

At this point Greg and I were giving our waitress the death stare in hopes that she would remember we were sitting there and would come wait on us as well. This meant I didn't miss a beat when she told the table she was visiting with that the phone problems were probably affecting their credit card machine as well. Go figure. All Greg and I ever carry on us are our debit cards. We were screwed. Not only did our waitress seriously not know how to do her job, we couldn't pay for our meal even if she did. So we got up and walked out. Oh I was so close!

The following Saturday my friend Nelle was in town for the weekend. I called her to see if she wanted to go eat Chinese lunch buffet and she agreed! Yay! As we approached the restaurant I could literally taste the sesame chicken in my mouth! And there was no wind that day so I knew nothing could go wrong! We walked into the first door, only to be greeted with a sign on the second door that said the credit card machine was down. I was back to square one and all Nelle had on her was a credit card. She asked what I wanted to do and I immediately replied, "go to the ATM!" Nothing was going to stop me today! So we loaded back up and drove to my bank. The funny thing about this town is despite the fact that it's so small, my bank happens to have two branches. Luckily one of those branches was just a few blocks away from the Chinese joint. Unlucky for me was discovering they don't have a ATM machine. Are you serious??? What bank does not have an ATM machine? Off to another bank we went. By the time we got back to the restaurant fifteen minutes had passed and if I wasn't 9 months pregnant with huge swollen feet I probably would have literally leaped out of the vehicle and ran to the door.

As we walked in I noticed the sign on the door that said that the credit card machine was not working was removed. I pointed it out to Nelle and the hostess/waitress over heard me and said, "Oh yeah, I saw you guys leave and figured that was why. I forgot to take it down yesterday." I had a quick mental image of me screaming in rage and tackling her to the ground screaming, "why didn't you stop us???!!!" But instead I smiled and said, "No problem", and headed straight to the buffet where I loaded my plate up with a big scoop of sesame chicken.

Just My Luck

Aside from the Twinkies dipped in cool whip, I really haven't had any of those weird pregnancy cravings that I've always heard about. What I do get, is a craving for normal, everyday food items. So it was no surprise when over a week ago I really started craving sesame chicken. I happen to love Chinese food (in a strange twist, my sister does not and she just moved to China. Go figure.) and sesame chicken is one of my favorite entrees. There are two Chinese restaurants here in Lamar. One offers a lunch buffet and their sesame chicken is amazing! The other restaurant is very good, but their sesame chicken is spicy so I'm not really a fan.

Now that you have the background information, let me tell you what happened yesterday. I finally reached my breaking point and decided if I didn't have sesame chicken I was literally going to chew my arm off. Yes, it was that bad. I called a girlfriend of mine who is a stay at home mom to see if she wanted to join me for lunch. Unfortunately she had prior plans. All my other friends work and their lunch breaks aren't until around noon. I like to eat lunch before 11:30 lately. Finally I decided, "Screw it, I'll just go by myself!"

I hurried and got ready, which consisted of throwing on a pair of sweat pants and pulling my hair back into a ponytail, threw my jacket on, and reached for my keys. Unfortunately, they weren't on the key rack where they belonged. This meant I spent the next ten minutes frantically looking for the them while visions of sesame chicken swam around in my head. I had my jacket on, so as not to waste anytime getting out the door once the said keys were located. After I broke out in a mild sweat, I decided to call Greg to see if he hid them. Of course he didn't answer his phone. So, what do I do? I turn around and immediately text him. I got a response that read, "I think I have them". Great. He took both sets of keys with him to work which meant I was stranded. I could have screamed. The sesame chicken in my mind grew a face and began laughing at me. I had plans to go grocery shopping as soon as I finished my feast at the restaurant, so I was not surprised to open the kitchen pantry door and be greeted by....nothing. I dug around and in the back I found a can of "healthy" soup. Which translates into mostly broth with some vegetables thrown in for the heck of it. I was pissed. I opened the can up and fixed myself a bowl in silent misery.

That afternoon I came to the conclusion that I deserved to be taken to dinner that night. Can you guess where? I anxiously waited for Greg to come home, which of course meant that he didn't get off on time. I shouldn't gripe about an hour of overtime, but I was seriously ready to get my eat on. Then, after he had finally texted me that he was on his way, I began to put my jacket on when his estimated arrival time came around. But instead of hearing the sound of our truck pulling into the drive I heard the sound of my phone receiving a text. I open it up, it's Greg, and it reads, "Road construction started today..it will be another 10 minutes".

Somehow the ten minutes passed fairly quickly and he finally pulled up in the drive. I ran (OK, waddled) out to jump in, happy that I was finally going to be able to satisfy my raging craving. As we approached the restaurant I began to wonder where all the cars were. Eventually I noticed the sign in the window that read "Closed". This could not be happening. We pulled up to the entrance, only to be greeted by a sign on the door that read, "Closed for Vacation until March 30th".

Just in case your wondering, a cheese enchilada and a chili relleno at a Mexican restaurant does not compare to sesame chicken. Is it March 30th yet?

A Snowboarding Weekend With Friends

I'm experiencing an unusual surge of energy today so I figured I'd blog about something that I should have blogged about a month ago! Over Valentines weekend, we had several friends from Oklahoma come up to Colorado to go snowboarding with us! Well, by "us" I mean everyone but me. You won't find me on the slopes, pregnant or not! Anyway, after they arrived at our house around 1 in the morning they all blew up their air mattresses and camped out in our basement den. Then the following morning (Thursday) we all piled into our vehicles and made the almost four hour drive to Salida. Surprisingly this was my first time to Salida this winter. I can't even tell you how many times I was there last year! We made a pit stop in Pueblo for lunch and for me to run into Hobby Lobby real quick to buy hostess presents for the gals that were throwing my baby shower for me. By the time we got to Salida it was late afternoon and Greg and I were dying to go out and eat. Unfortunately, all of our friends were understandably tired so they chose to order pizza's and chill in their hotel rooms.

The next day everyone except Shannon, Braxton (her one year old son) and I went to Monarch to have some fun on the slopes! At the last minute, Shannon and I decided to drive up to the lodge ourselves so she could see what the ski resort looked like. We were able to gather everyone up and take a few group photos! Now, I mentioned way back when that the women in Salida are very "natural". So, I opted to do the same and I didn't wear any make-up! Obviously I'm not what I would consider a "natural beauty" by any means, but this tired girl was sure glad to have an excuse to not go through a rigorous beauty routine!




After we left, Shannon and I went out to eat at my favorite cafe called (appropriately) The Salida Cafe. From there we went back to the hotel and just relaxed for a couple hours. Once Braxton took a short nap we ventured over to the Salida Hot Springs. Normally I would always go to the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs, which is so beautiful! Here's a pic I took of it last year:



It's located outside and you can actually sit in the river where the hot water flows naturally. But, since I'm pregnant and am not supposed to get in water that is too hot we went here instead. It's an indoor pool that is supposed to be filled with the natural hot spring water as well, but if you ask me, it smelled like chlorine. Oh well. I wasn't really a fan of the water being around my belly, so most of the time I just sat on the edge of the pool with my feet in the water. Braxton had a blast, though! Speaking of those "au natural" women of Salida, there was one lady who was playing with her son near us, and I couldn't tear my eyes away from the bush that was growing underneath her arms. I tried not to stare. I'm not sure how good I did...Eventually we went back to the hotel so we could change and go out to eat with everyone else.

The next day was Saturday and I spent the day with Shannon's sister, Shyla, who volunteered to baby sit Braxton so Shannon could try her hand at snowboarding. We drove up to the lodge again to eat lunch with everyone but it was so crowed that our lunch plans weren't as organized as we thought they may have been. Let's just say we didn't stay too long after I ate a quick hamburger. On the way back into town I pointed out to Shyla the pet cemetery that is located on the side of the highway. At least, I always assumed it was a pet cemetery. I never actually pulled over to investigate until this day, and I'd say by the names on the crosses that I was right! Cute and kind of creepy at the same time. (You may have to click on the picture to get a better image.)



We relaxed for most of the afternoon and then took about an hour out to go downtown and do some window shopping. Afterwards we went back to the hotel to wait for the rest of the gang to come back from the slopes.

Greg happens to work with some guys who live in Salida. They wanted to meet us for dinner at a pizzeria that we had never been too. Our Oklahoma friends weren't ready to eat by the time we were (Greg and I don't mess around when it comes to eating!) so we let them do their own plans for dinner and we joined the guys Greg knew, as well as some of our friends who also went to the mountain from Lamar, at the pizza place. To say that they had some unusual ingredients for their pizza is putting it mildly. Let's just say that cream cheese balls on pizza is pretty darn good! While we were eating Greg learned that one of the Salida guys owns a DeLorean. Apparently this was a big deal, so after we ate we went over to their house just so Greg could see it for himself. Now, just in case some of you who are reading this are as clueless as I was, the DeLorean was the "Back to the Future" car that was used in the movie. I still wasn't that impressed but as you can see from Greg's face he was giddy to have a chance to sit in it!



On Sunday Greg and I woke up early so we could meet "The Crane Guys" as I call them (the guys that Greg works with) at a restaurant for breakfast. From there we went back to the hotel and everyone except Shannon, Shyla, Braxton and I went off to the mountain. We, on the other hand, wanted to do some shopping in Pueblo, before heading back to Lamar. I was so thankful the girls were willing to take me to both Ross and Target before we came home. I was able to find a basket for Parker's "toy box" for $10 at Ross along with some new throw pillows for the love seat my sister gave us. Then, I had about $100 worth of Target returns from my Oklahoma baby shower that I exchanged for the high chair I really wanted. I was a happy girl by the time we got back on the road.

When we got back to my house I cooked up a huge pot of soup for everyone to eat for dinner. We had spent so much time shopping that the rest of the group got home shortly after we did. By that point everyone was pretty wiped out and all of us girls were pretty upset that our men didn't surprise us with Valentine's roses (OK, I'm exaggerating, I never expect roses from Greg. LOL!) that it was clearly bedtime! The next morning the group loaded up in their cars and headed back to the Sooner State. I had a great time with them and hope that this is something that we do annually!