Mothers Day

We spent a quiet weekend at home.  My mom came down on Saturday.  It was cold out (frost warnings in May).  On Sunday the sun decided to come out for a bit so we decided to get out in the yard and try to figure out where my vegetable garden was going to be planted this year.   I had visions of nice rectangle framed, raised garden beds that I thought should be placed on top of the ridiculous putting green in our yard.  Well, after much debate it was decided that we would pull up some existing flower beds and plant on the south side of the house.  After much digging up, replanting, recycling stones that were randomly buried in our yard to be used as the 'frame' around the garden, and mulching, we are now ready for the beans, tomatoes, peas, carrots and peppers to go in.  It's still too cold and now REALLY wet as it rained all day today.  

  Here we are in our 'American Gothic' pose.  Notice the rake in my hand....I broke it!  Don't ask!   LOL

Here is one other pic of the princesses and the Queen Mother (as they named themselves).  Gotta love McDonalds Happy Meal toys!

The wheels on the bus do go round and round, even when the bus is over capacity!  I think this looks like a picture from a Richard Scarry book.  Can you find Goldbug?  ha-ha

Retirement note:  Monday was Menards day and a Girls Night Out with my friends, Tuesday was Home Depot, Sears and Target, along with drum lessons for Ella and yoga for me in the evening.  Today was a doctor appointment for Ella and a great hour massage for me.  I have gotten a few things off my checklist, but no routine has been established.  :)

Retirement....

So, yesterday was my last day of employment....in the corporate world.  I told people I was retiring and I heard a lot of  'You aren't retiring....you're not old' and 'It's not retiring when you have 5 kids at home to take care of!'  They are sort of right.  I am retiring....and my definition of retirement is this....'I get to spend every day with my favoritest (yes, that is a word) people in the whole world and do the things that I want to do on my schedule'.    I may not be bringing home the bacon anymore, but I am making the memories that I want to make with my kids and husband.  And I am finally at the point of being okay with turning over the bacon makin' responsibilities to my husband.  :)

My friends from work were great on Friday.  We took the VGM Party Bus to Tokyo (Japanese steakhouse) for lunch.  One of my favorite places!  We ate and had a great time talking about LOTS of fun times we have all had together.  They have been my second family for the last 14 years!  I have spent about 28,000 hours of my life with that group of people and I must say that even on the most stressful days I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with.

Monday will be a whole new world for me.  I think I am ready to tackle it.  The best part(s) are that Brian is on vacation that day and I am meeting my BFF's for drinks after work.  Cheers!

Cousins and Trifles

We had a great weekend!  My cousin Jason was in town with his girlfriend Joanna.  It was great to meet her!  Jason has always been a kid at heart and while he was here he and Ella had a little impromptu piano recital.  I wish that they lived closer to us because it would be awesome to see them MUCH more often!

I have to share one other thing.  I made my first trifle tonight!  Some will find this quite amusing since I actually loathe cooking, baking, pretty much anything involved with the kitchen!  But I got this great new bowl and we are having our small group over tomorrow night and we always have desserts.  The picture is below.  This is not full presentation mode since it has to go in the fridge tonight, but I just wanted to show that I can make things (when I actually put forth some effort!).  I even made some little baby trifles for the kids!

Life Changes

I am really trying to get better and blogging more often....hopefully that will be easier soon. I have put my notice in at work and will officially be a stay-at-home-mom after May 7th. This was a VERY tough decision for me.

I have wrestled (with myself) about this change for a long time. Some days I would think...duh...easy decision, other days I was filled with so much angst. I had a very clarifying moment a few weeks ago, and decided it was time. Brian has always been supportive of me staying home or working at whatever level I felt was manageable for our family. The hard part was telling my boss. I tried for 4 days before I actually got 2 minutes of his time and was able to utter the words that I was leaving after 14 years. I am really going to miss seeing my friends every day, but I know we will all stay in touch.

More great news from this week: Brian has signed his contract for his 'real job' (as I like to call it). He will be working at a family practice clinic in Waterloo starting in August of 2011. This may sound like a very long ways off for some, but the planner in me loves that this part of the journey is done. It's confirmation that the 9 year plan is almost complete. We will NOT have to move again and Brian is very happy with his decision. I am so proud of him!