The Thursday Ramble

1. Look what my sister and brother-in-law gave K- for Easter. Real Tinkerbell Crocs! I admit that K- has been wearing the Toys R Us knock off's. You know what? Jibbitz fit in them too! :) Aunt K- took the girls yesterday to the store up the street to Jibbitize their footwear. Aunt K- told me that K- picked her very own Jibbitz out. We've got the school bus (because Kindergarten is starting next year), a lion, a Care Bear, Clifford and the donkey from Shrek. K- loves them. (Yes Rach, I though of Lily-- croc-croc shoes!)
2. I got chewed out at work on Tuesday. Don't worry. It's all good. What we have at the gallery is a place where we are able to voice our own opinion, as the eclectic group of artists that we are and by and large, it goes over just fine. Unfortunately, we are all suffering from being a bit disheartened by the economic situation that everyone is in and as such, I was trying to voice my opinion to the ordering powers that be what the customers are stating that the DON'T want to see. I was encouraging more handcrafted, non-commercial items (we have a multi store complex that carries handcrafted and commercially crafted items.) Apparently, I stepped on toes along the way, they spoke to the owner who came over on Tuesday and gave me the come-hither finger. Ouch. 95% of this boils down to CPSIA, which though good intentioned, has caused more stress amongst the handcrafted artisans. My job is not in jeopardy. I'm glad that I work at a place where we are able to freely discuss these things. Still, I don't like my boss being irritated at me.
3. The frog and toad count of Tuesday night was canceled! Hooray! Hubs was home at the regular time and not out tromping in people's yards until 11 PM or later. (And again, yes he does get paid to count frogs and toads.)
4. A praise that Brien is doing better! Another praise is that Rach has been home on spring break with a croupy Lily, but at least they were off and paid for it. That's a good thing!
5. K- went back to school this week and was so excited to! They are officially done with their little letter books of the week, have been working on perfecting their last names and writing their numbers.
6. Jamie has a computer and is now feeling connected to the world, again. And Jamie, back up your stuff and keep glasses of tea away from this one, please! :) We miss you when you aren't around. Besides, it's kind of tough to do your work thing without it.
7. What is it with teachers dating their students? I mean, really. (As I'm writing this, there is a story about a teacher dating and *whatnot* with his 17 year old student.) Ugh.
8. Aunt K- took the girls and Grandma to the Hannah Montana movie yesterday. K- really liked it. I admit that it was only her second time to a movie theater. K- admitted that she ate far too much and thought she would be ill. She said that she worked hard on not getting sick and didn't want to say anything. Apparently, they got a huge bucket of popcorn and sat it in K-'s lap between the three girls. K- has the habit of over indulging, if given the opportunity.
9. We got together last night with Hubs' family (a couple of aunts, an uncle and a cousin) that I haven't seen in a while. Aunt A- has been in treatment for recurrence of breast cancer. It has probably been a few years since I've seen her. I admit that her appearance is much altered, but she is in good spirits. Dinner was wonderful and I was glad that we got to get together.
10. I did an Easter egg hunt for the girls. It was good fun. We suited the kids up in their new crocs and let them run around in the wet grass to get the eggs that were strewn about.
11. We were so busy at work yesterday! We are having a show on Saturday and I was so happy to see the traffic. People were buying things! Lots of things! People were happy! It seemed like a normal day in the gallery. Truly, it made my heart happy.
12. K- was able to play with her cousin from Chicago and they even met her at school yesterday. They all went with grandma (the cousins and Aunt K-) to pick K- up. She was so happy!
13. I sign K- up for Kindergarten on Friday. Eeeeee! Where the heck did all the time go? We were discussing this evening about how it may very well be faster for us to walk the 8 blocks to school, as opposed to run the car conga line. Her school (eeee!) is on a small back street, nestled into a residential neighborhood and I'm thinking that the flow isn't going to be that good.
14. We have a park program today. K- is back at the kindergarten program at the local park and today we'll be learning about wildflowers. She's missed Miss Pat, but the visitor center is currently closed for renovations, we had holidays, major crapped out weather and we finished our time at Little Gym, which was just up the street. The park program is about 20 minutes away, but it is just a wonderful science lesson for K- with hands-on field adventures. I'm glad that we're getting back into the swing.
15. Have I mentioned that I've finally figured out a way to wear my hair down and keep it out of my face? Bobbie pins, baby. A couple bobbie pins in the side and it actually looks like I did something to my hair. Believe me, besides wrestling a hairbrush through it and putting some curling mousse in it, it is what it is. Anyone with curly hair knows what I mean. I've been happy with my hair lately. But, shhh. Don't tell my hair. If you do, it'll stop behaving.

Have a great day!