The girls are all bathed and in bed and in just a couple hours I get to go pick up Eric from the airport.  He was a little delayed leaving South Carolina (I think that’s where he was) but was going to still be able to meet his connecting flight.  So I’m assuming since I haven’t heard from him yet he is on a plane right now heading towards home.

The girls and I were going to decorate Gingerbread cookies this evening, but when we took them out of the package, they were in a million pieces and all the little candies were rock hard.  So we trashed that idea.  So instead after dinner (that Erica “helped” me cook) we had hot chocolate with Snowman Peeps melting in it and bakery bought gingerbread cookies.

Ally was feeling especially loving towards Erica.  I bet Erica thought it was her birthday as Ally tends to want to be as far away from her as possible.  She even played in my big bathtub with her new toys with her.  And after I told them it was time to get out 40 minutes later I turned around and they were both perched on the bath tub taking turns brushing each other’s hair.  It was so sweet. 

Then Ally actually went downstairs and played Barbie’s with her for almost a half an hour before it was bedtime.  It was truly a peaceful night between all three of the girls.  During all of this, Jackie had decided her room needed reorganized.  A girl after my heart. 

Now I’ve got Ally’s laundry just about finished.  Jackie’s sorted and am off to go watch the weather to see what my drive to the airport has in store for me.  Depending on which channel you watch and which day, we are supposed to get anywhere from 1 to 8 inches of snow from about 11:00 tonight to knows when.  I’m just hoping it holds off until after I get home from picking up Eric.

Yay!  And the best part is it is a short one!  I dropped him off at the airport around 10:30 this morning and get to pick him up tomorrow evening!  Those are my favorite sort of business trips.

And I won’t even have time to miss him!  Today was a day FILLED with errands.  Erica is usually so happy about running errands, but I think we went to one too many places today.  I’ve been obsessing over trying to find the tags at the office supply stores in the area that Tim Holtz uses.  No such luck. 

Got home just in time to put the groceries away and meet the girls home from school.  I had time to do a couple household tasks and then it was time to scoot them out the door to music lessons.  While they were at music lessons I ran over to Hobby Lobby and grabbed some of their circle punches that I didn’t already have that were on sale, some more beading wire and a couple of Christmas garlands for the Great Room Fireplace.

I just barely made it back in time to get the girls, grab Jackie a bite to eat and then head out to Platte City for what we thought was Mutual.  Thankfully something told me to wait a few minutes and make sure Jackie got settled in okay.  Because by the time 7:05 rolled around no one else had arrived yet.

So we grabbed food for the other two girls and myself and headed home.  Girls are showered and everyone is tucked in and hopefully asleep.

I’ve cruised everyone’s blogs and see that we are taking turns blogging.    Now that I’m trying to get back to blogging it looks like everyone is taking a break.  So off to tidy the kitchen up, watch a little bit of TV and hopefully get to sleep early tonight!  Yay!  I’d say it was a pretty happy day!

Okay, for anyone who isn’t aware of it, Tim Holtz has been doing this 12 Days Of Tags on his blog.  They are way too awesome! 

For anyone that has been around me the past month I have been in a scrappy blah.  I have gone to crops with friends, but just sit there.  I have felt so uninspired to whip out my ATG gun and inks and scrap.  But I’ve been reading Tim’s blog and am so itching to dive in!  I am overwhelmed and yet very inspired by all the different techniques he has been demonstrating!

So much so, that I went up to All About Scrapbooking and Denise has been following his blog too!  And she has a Tim Holtz shrine where just about everything you would need to create these awesome tags are conveniently located!  So if you are in a scrappy rut and wanting so badly to just loving play with some fun product while learning some new techniques I highly recommend looking up Tim’s blog, making your shopping list and heading up to All About Scrapbooking on North Oak!  You won’t be sorry!

Kids are all snug in their beds wishfully dreaming of another day of no school and I am off to play with my new products!

Every time it seems like I’m getting back into the blog groove, life happens.  Eric had two seminars to speak at four days apart in Atlanta, leaving me as a single mom for a week and a half.

Then I’ve been struggling with some choices a very dear friend shared with me and finally decided it was something I couldn’t handle or support, which I just won’t go into.  So I lost a friend this past week.

I had to fire a housekeeping service, which has to tell you they were pretty bad as I am so not a rock the boat kind of girl and will make excused for anything for everyone else.  Which really when I went with this service I knew in my gut it was the wrong choice, but there were aspects of their service that I wanted to add on in the future so made allowances in my brain for that.

Then Eric called me while he was gone to ask me how I felt about bumping Christmas a little early this year.  At first I was offended and assumed it was because he was going to be on some sort of business trip.  Nope!  Guess where we are going to be during Christmas?  Disney world!

He’s booked us a two bedroom villa at one of Marriott’s resort.  Of course I was scoping it out on the Internet and it is awesome!  Not only will we have a fully functional kitchen, but we will also have a washer and dryer in our villa!  Okay, I know it’s ridiculous that I would be getting excited from the parts of home you go on vacation to get away from, but there’s something comforting about knowing I don’t have to pack the girls’ entire closets.  And you know me.  The night before we leave Florida I’ll be up washing clothes so then I don’t have to do them when I get home from vacation!

Sunday was the 2nd annual Circle Of Friends Ornament Exchange!  I thought the ornaments last year were fabulous!  Holey heck!  This year was amazing!  There is not a single ornament I would have been unhappy with going home with.  I stole Karen Millers Christmas Doodlebug House!  It was as if she made it just for me.  It was covered in sugar coated paper.  Sugar coated brads on top.  It was even pretty on the inside!  Very blingy and I knew I just had to have it for my scraproom.

It’s been awhile since so many of us girls have been in the same room.  We had a couple of girls who just weren’t able to make it.  They were missed.  It was a wonderful evening.  I actually went straight from dropping off Eric and the girls at home from the airport over to the party.  So it was a much needed break from being a mom.

Tonight I was supposed to go over to a friend’s house and Santa was going to make an appearance, but Eric wasn’t comfortable with me being on the roads.  We are at the tale end of an ice storm.  The girls got to stay home from school today and are hoping that they will call off school tomorrow too.  I’m thinking they are going to be out of luck. 

So, that’s been my life for the last couple of weeks…  Now off to try and catch up on blog reading.