Painting a room, playing in the water, gardening, and a messed-up trip...

Why did I trust my husband to plan this weekend away? Iknow better. He is not the planner…I am.

But this is something he wanted to do,so I let him make the plans and take care of everything.

We left this morning, and it has been one mistake afteranother. Our reservation was messed up, he forgot the tickets to the event(they are in a bag at home…and at least someone else gave us some extra tickets).

I wanted to bring our car, but he insisted we go on the bus with all the others in the group and now that we are here, we found out that the convention centerwhere the event is- is not close to the hotel.

In other words, we are stuck at the convention center for hours. There is not anything close to the center. I couldn’t rent a car because we are leaving Sunday afternoon and they are closed on Sunday so we would have to return it to the airport and then how would we get back to the hotel to return on the bus?

I guess it is taxi time, which is okay, but I am a control “almost freak” and I like having a car so I have the freedom to go wherever I want when I want and I do not have to wait or pay someone to take me somewhere.

At least I have my laptop so I can write. I guess you have figured out that we are at a business convention, but not one that I want to be at…but we all do things for our spouses, even things we do not particularly want to do.

Hopefully though, it will be a very productive weekend for both of us, him- listening to the speakers and me- writing away.

Last night, I was in charge of a woman’s meeting at church. I did a lesson on self-reliance and made the refreshments for the meeting. I made two cheesecakes, orange-cranberry muffins, poppy seed bread, (I made enough of the poppy seed bread to take with us on our trip and to share)peach cobbler, and cake mix cookies.

I made all the food on Wednesday after work. Early Thursday morning, I took the girl who has been staying with us to the airport. She is headed back home to Houston. She doesn’t drive and is a young adult and wants to go to activities at church. I told her she needs to live in an area where she is in a city or area where there are buses or transportation.

This past week, I worked extra hours, and then came home each afternoon to do home-schooling with the girls. Rebeca does better at math when it is oral versus written. I find it amazing when people can do math(or spelling) in their minds. I am the type of person that has to write it down. It is as though I do not see “it” unless it is written down.

Maria, Rebeca, Elizabeth, and I went to the mall yesterday. I wasn’t paying attention to the time and was actually late about 5 minutes to my meeting, however, the girls and I had a wonderful time. We didn’t spend much. Just bought some candy, stuff that smells good, and looked around.

There was one point when the three of them were walking in front of me, arm-in-arm. It was an awwww moment. I am so happy and blessed that my three daughters are best friends. They also love and adore their sister-in-law, but she lives far awayand therefore, cannot do as many things with her.

Maria is getting big and definitely looks pregnant. We are so excited to meet Sebastian and welcome him to the family. We also wish Celeste and Isabella, our granddaughters, were closer so we could watch them grow up as well.

Celeste and Isabella playing on a warm day...Grandma wants to play in the water, too!

Sunday afternoon was a warm sunny day. We did not have company over as Fito was sick, so I went outside and worked in the garden for awhile. I can be completely frustrated with someone or just life in general and go outside, put my feet in the dirt, pull some weeds, plant some new “babies”(flowers) and all my frustrations, trouble, anger, etc. just blow away in the breeze.That is what happened Sunday.

Thank goodness for warm days and gardens.

By Tuesday, we had blizzard warnings, freezing rain and snow, and the rest of the week it was in the low 30s. Such is Oklahoma weather.

I just paid the gas bill and it was low for this time of year. I know natural gas is lower than normal, but we also have lots of wood from the tornado…and so have been burning wood all winter. I actually prefer heat from a fire. It just feels warmer, and I like warm…I do not like the cold one bit (except, there are no flies, mosquitoes, or fleas….hummm…maybe I do like the cold for something).

Last Saturday, we spent the whole day at Maria’s. The girls, David, and I helped her paint Xander’s room and two walls in the bathroom. Fito and Travis worked on Travis’ truck. It was a fun day. I hadn’t painted in  a couple of years and forgot just how much paint can change a room…and do so quickly, easily, and cheaply..

Xander, after feeding himself....glad mom gets to clean him and the chair!

Xander's room. It was plain white before.

Maria got these wall stickers online...oh how we love the Internet.