Pseudo Spa Evening

For Mother's Day this year, The Girl really wanted to give me a day at the spa. As flattered as I was by the offer, I had a few problems with this idea.

First of all, I am not interested in The Girl spending that much money on me. We have a few spas here, and despite the fact that they are relatively inexpensive compared to larger cities, none are affordable on a 12-yr-old's "salary" (read allowance).

Another problem I have is time. I barely have enough time to get done all that needs to be done in any given day. To find a way to make the time to spend several hours at a spa seems impossible to me.

The last "problem" is less of a problem and more of a issue with the entire spa day process. If I'm going to spend my day relaxing at a spa, the last thing I want to do is get in my car and drive home, because Lord knows some idiot will end up in front of me and the fruits of all those hours of relaxation will be gone in an instant when I get irritated at said idiot! (Not that I suffer from episodes of road rage or anything...)

Tonight, The Girl and one of her best friends decided the spa treatment could wait no longer. They informed me this afternoon that there *would* be a spa evening and it was to be tonight. I arrived across the street (smart girls to remove driving from the occasion) just before my treatment was to begin. I was lead to the living room relaxation room where I was attacked by one of two naked 3-yr-olds fresh from the tub greeted warmly with a hug from a junior staff member. My neighbor and I had appointments at the same time, which was pleasant. My first appointment was for a massage; hers was for a pedicure. Then, we were to switch.

My massage was quite nice. Soft music, champagne, dim lights...all that was necessary for the proper relaxation. After the first half of the spa treatment, we were led to another relaxation room where we were serenaded by the sound of rapid-fire machine guns and other death noises produced by Call of Duty: whatever version more up-tempo sounds. I was then led to the pedicure room. I was seated on the potty seat in the chair and my feet were placed in the hot, bubbling water. My pedicurist did a wonderful job and even put a small daisy design on each of my big toes while one of the 3-yr-olds clambered into my lap and watched intently I was showered with more affection.

Sadly, as all things do, my spa evening had to come to an end. (After all, the champagne was gone!) Overall, it was a wonderful evening and I truly enjoyed every moment of the experience. I highly recommend this particular spa and will definitely be returning!

"Cinco de Drinko"

I recently learned (and by recently, I mean yesterday) that Cinco de Mayo is not a big holiday in Mexico. Like many others, I thought it was their Independence Day (which, as it turns out, is September 16). Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of the Mexican militia's defeat of the French army at the Battle of Puebla. I learned all of this from my Puerto Rican friend who teaches Spanish.

It's not a big holiday in Mexico, except in Puebla and the area around it. And in the US.

It's HUGE here in the US, but then again, we're all about finding a holiday with which we can celebrate with drink!

Yesterday afternoon, a friend of mine texted me asking if I wanted to go to a particular Mexican restaurant for dinner. I wanted to go, but reminded her it was Cinco de Mayo. She didn't care. Neither did I.

There were five of us who went to dinner last night. To say we had fun would be a major understatement. I have spent the better part of every weekday evening with these women. We call ourselves the "Moms' Ball Social Club," or "Social Club" for short. We meet at football practice, basketball practice, and baseball practice. Since the baseball season has ended, we have found ourselves lost. This spontaneous evening out was just what we needed.

There was great food, a lot of laughter, drinks, and a ton of fun. One friend renamed the holiday "Cinco de Drinko." I believe it is a new tradition we will have to keep.

Hope you had a fun evening as well!

Serendipity

One of my dearest and closest friends is an incredibly busy woman. We try, all the time, to plan get-togethers, but they rarely work out. I am always working around The Boy and The Girl, not to mention The Husband. Plus, there is work, the house, the dog, and all sorts of other things. She has to work around her THREE kids and her husband, plus HER work, pets, and all sorts of other things. We live so close to each other, but rarely see one another.

This afternoon, just after I'd gotten home, she called. She had just picked up her kids from school. The conversation turned to her asking if I was on my way out the door to run to some sort of sporting event. No, actually, I was not. Was she running off to one of her kids' obligations? No. Surprisingly, she was not headed anywhere in particular. She had to run to the store, but that was all. So, she came over.

We decided to leave all the kids here and we ran to the store together. Then, I asked her to stay for dinner.

We had a wonderful time. Our kids, despite their age differences, get along beautifully. The Boy is 13; her oldest boy is 10. The Girl is 12; her girl is 8. They have known each other their entire conscious lives; as far as they know, they have always been friends. We had a fabulous dinner and toasted to ten years of memories and friendship.

Why?

Why is it ok for you to be my friend (or, as the case may very well be, pretend to be my friend) for a number of years and then, when you no longer want/need anything from me, snub me? Who said that was OK? Who told you that was acceptable behavior? You're a grown-up. You should know better. I've met your parents. They did not raise you like this.

I am disappointed. Hurt too, but mostly, disappointed. I expected more from you.

Subtlety at its finest

Last night, I went out to dinner with a friend. It was nothing special...we went to a Chinese buffet. It used to be one of the better buffets in town, but has since gone downhill. Apparently, the new owners don't run it quite like the old ones did. The food is average, at best, and the prices are a bit higher.

The place must've noticed that their business is not quite what it once was and the servers notice it in tips. My proof? My bill.

I have never seen anything like this! Sorry for the fuzzy picture; it was not easy to take a picture of my receipt without looking like an idiot. The servers were eating at the next table!

Birthday Surprises

I love surprises. Well, not all surprises. I mean, I don't like bad surprises. But good ones? I love those kind of surprises!

Yesterday, my dear friend Nichole phoned me to tell me she'd be picking me up at 9:15am and to be ready. That is all she said (besides "Happy Birthday!" Then, she gave me crap about being old, which sucks because I'm 11 years older than she, so I have no ammunition!).

This morning, Nichole (and her sister, Jen) came to pick me up and took me to a lovely breakfast at our favorite breakfast place in town. The food was, as usual, wonderful. The company was great, too. I'd met Nichole's sister before, but this was our first opportunity to really chat. She's fascinating and lovely; a beautiful young woman. The Boy was with us as well; he had gotten sick on Wednesday morning (which is a whole 'nother post that I'm working on) so had to stay home from school today.

After breakfast, we headed out for destinations unknown (to me, at least). We ended up at a local quilt shop! Nichole had arranged for us to come in and sign-up for and purchase supplies for a beginning quilt class!! What an amazing gift!

You see, Nichole and I have been talking about how much we each want to make a quilt, but neither of us has taken even the first step in that direction. My love for quilts began way, way back in high school when I went to see a local production of Quilters, which I don't recall being a musical, but apparently is.

My fascination with quilts went into a dormant period for a number of years after that. Then, in 1999, I had a neighbor who was a very talented and prolific quilter. She tried to get me to make a quilt, but I resisted. I had two rather small kids at the time and the idea of spending that much time on a single project seemed daunting at best. Still, I loved to watch her work and to look at her fabric stash.

Either that same year or the following year, my mom told me about Jennifer Chiaverini's book, The Quilter's Apprentice. I fell in love. I've read all the Elm Creek novels and, after befriending Nichole, suggested them to her. Her answer was always the same. "OK - I'll read them...someday!" Finally, about two years ago, I went and bought the first three novels and mailed them to Nichole. Having no excuse not to read them, she promptly devoured them...and many more after that.

Now, we are both going to realize our dream of making a quilt. Nichole's dream culminates with her HAND QUILTING a piece. Mine is not so ambitious! We had a blast picking out fabric for our projects. Choosing fabric is WAY harder than one might think (well - for me, anyway!). I'm excited about what I've chosen (most of which is from the Basic Grey collection).

I'll be sure to post the finished project mid-November, when I have it.

Whirlwind weekend away...and new friends

Friday afternoon, I went to Nichole's house. We left for the airport almost immediately, where we picked up two of her other friends, Dawn and Michelle. Then, we headed out to dinner at a swanky restaurant where we met two more ladies. The restaurant was really neat and clearly a trendy place (which is probably why I'd never been there!) The food was really good and the conversation was wonderful. From there, we headed to a dueling piano bar, which was a lot of fun. We found seats in the middle and laughed a lot. At one point, my phone rang so I had to go to the restroom to hear it. When I came back, one of the ladies in our group was up on the stage dancing! It was hysterical. After the piano bar, we headed to another bar, which wasn't all that bad because we were able to go upstairs and sit on the rooftop bar. The cigarette smoke was NOT bad because it was all open. (There was no smoking in the piano bar). We hung there for a short while and then headed back home...we had an hour drive ahead of us and none of us are used to staying up so late!

Saturday morning, we woke up and had coffee on Nichole's screened-in porch. Then, Nichole made an amazing breakfast of French toast (with Grand-Marnier and a fruit compote). After breakfast, we just hung around and chatted. It was warmer than I'd expected and I did not bring shorts, so I quickly ran home to shower grab some shorts. Then, we headed out for what was supposed to be tea and a sweet snack, but ended up being a full blown lunch! After lunch, we stopped at the local scrapbook store and then headed out to see the property she and her husband just purchased. It was beautiful (except I think I have chiggers now...I'm awfully itchy!) We headed back to the house and sat around chatting...and getting to know each other better. We decided to have a light dinner and we all set about helping out with that. After dinner, we sat in the screened porch and talked and laughed until we could no longer keep our eyes open. I quit at 1am, but the other three gals stayed up till 2!

Sunday morning was another lazy morning. We had another amazing breakfast and then decided to head up to Nichole's craft studio and make some cards. It was awfully intimidating for me; these other two women are on Nichole's senior design team and are absolutely brilliant. They are both published regularly and one even designs stamp sets for Nichole's company! Nevertheless, I dug in and managed to produce two decent cards. I have no photos, but I’m hoping to get some via email! I didn’t bring my camera with me and am relying on my new friends to hook me up with some of the hilarious photos from the weekend.

Again, the laughter was overwhelming and my mouth hurt all day from it! We worked through lunch (we'd had a late breakfast) and then decided to start dinner, which, again, was amazing. After dinner, there was much chatting and laughter yet again. Suddenly, it was midnight again and time for bed. Dawn and Michelle had an 11am flight in the morning, so Nichole had to leave her house no later than 8:30am to get them to the airport on time. That being decided, I decided to head home. I felt it was best if I could cut down on the number of people fighting for a bathroom when time was an issue! I got home shortly after midnight. Luckily, I could sleep in some (till 8:30) but I later took a nap! I have a feeling it will take me a bit longer to catch up on my sleep!

30th birthdays don’t come more than once, but I would LOVE another weekend with these amazing ladies! Both Dawn and Michelle are so amazingly sweet and I'm so glad I was afforded the opportunity to meet and get to know them!

A job well done...mostly

I'm kind of a handy kind of person. I like to make things and do things. In the last house we owned, The Husband and I remodeled nearly every room, and we did it ourselves. The biggie was, of course, the kitchen, complete with new flooring, cabinets, counter top, and paint. Actually, we did not install the counter top; we had it done because we were afraid we'd cut the sink hole incorrectly!

When my friend Nichole asked me to help her out with a little project, I jumped at the opportunity. It was a total win-win for me. First, I got to spend time with my dear friend (we are both so busy all the time, we rarely have long spans of quality time together), and second, I got to get dirty with a project.

The project for the day was sanding and oiling teak furniture. The task was a bit larger than we had anticipated, but we tackled it with gusto. Here is one of the chairs before we began:



The first step was to remove the seat and sand the chair. There wasn't much need to sand the seat because Nichole uses cushions on them, so they are rarely exposed to the elements.

Once sanded, the chair looked like this (except it's not a great picture and you can't see how pretty it is). I took the photos with my iPhone, so they're not the greatest quality. It was also sunny, which made it hard to see the screen of my phone when I took the photo.


From here, I took a damp rag and washed the chair. I let it dry and began the task of oiling. I was going to rub it on, but Nichole said using the paintbrush made for a much easier time. So, I got the brush and went to work. Talk about instant gratification!!

The chair is beautiful! There were eight chairs to do and one table. We worked most of the school day (I had to be home to get the kids off the bus). When we quit, around 2:45, we had completed 5 of the chairs, sanded the sixth, and Nichole had started sanding the seventh. No one had touched the table. Not sure it will all get finished in time for her soiree this weekend, but we gave it our all.

Gettin' CRAZY!

Friday night was girls' night out, except before the festivities could even begin, I managed to lock my keys in the car! Ugh! The Husband was out of town, so I couldn't call him. Instead, I called our roadside assistance people. In the meantime, it was dinner and drinks with some friends...except we never ended up ordering dinner...or at least I never did! I had left The Boy with a neighbor and had to run and get him (The Girl was at the gym and went home with a friend). So, drinks and some sushi it was!

Saturday night another girlfriend phoned to ask us over for a cook-out. Off we went. This time, however, we were able to eat and relax. No keys locked anywhere. The biggest problem we had Saturday night was that I had brought a chocolate cake but another lady had brought brownies and everyone ate those. My kids were the only ones going on and on about the chocolate cake! They were not happy we never cut it! I tried to leave it at my friend's house, but that didn't work out. It's here now.

Doesn't sound like much excitement, but it was. So much so that both kids are still in bed asleep! Maybe next weekend will be more low-key!

Catching up

Yesterday, The Girl started cheerleading camp. It's nothing serious...just a 4-day camp at the school. I wasn't going to bother but it is the last year The Girl can go and I knew some of her school friends would be there. Since she has not seen these friends in a long time, we decided to sign her up.

The camp is from 9-noon. We got there a bit early, but that was fine. I immediately began chatting with a friend, who happened to be The Boy's and then The Girl's second-grade teacher. We all adore this woman. A few minutes later, other mommies and their daughters came in and the chatting continued. We actually moved from the main hallway to another teacher (who had joined us)'s classroom. The Boy was, of course, bored to tears, but whatever! Of course, I was supposed to be home waiting for the telephone guy to come hook up our home phone, but I figured hoped he'd actually call before showing up.

Finally, at 11am, the chat session broke up. With only an hour before the end of camp, there was no point in coming home! I stayed with our favorite teacher and helped her some in her classroom. Then, as I went to pick-up The Girl, I ran into another mommy I'd missed terribly. We chatted another HOUR! It was well after 1pm when I made my way home!

The good things that came out of the day (aside from catching up with friends, which, to me, is priceless) were that The Boy was invited by the basketball coach to come to the final two days of conditioning camp (last night and tomorrow night), and the phone guy called at 2:15 to say he'd be here in half an hour...I didn't miss him!

The phone is installed and working. There was no need to dig another trench in the yard to replace the phone cord; the installer was able to patch it. Funny thing about that phone cord, too. The installer said there was already a patch there. The best we can guess is that the renter cut the cord when he dug the hole in the first place and had it repaired. Then, for whatever reason, poured the cement over the repaired wire...???! Whatever!