Just Chillin'

Ahhhhhhhh. The fevers have gone. The meds have been discontinued. I haven't given either of the kids any Tylenol or Advil in over twenty-four hours. Yay! I had a great day with the boys today. Chris worked until noon then his plan was to go fishing for the afternoon. He kindly did a mini Wal-Mart run for me since we've been lacking peanut butter for ages now. He also picked up milk and cereal.

For breakfast I made the kids oatmeal. I don't think I've ever done that before. I sprinkled it with the same cinnamon sugar I use to make their usual daily cinnamon toast. It was well received. Cooper barely touched his so I didn't have to make another bowl for myself. We played games and I did a few loads of laundry. Then I came across a book Mom lent me ages ago and with my recently rekindled thirst for reading, delved into it. It was a Diane Mott Davidson book, titled, The Grilling Season. I murder mystery-slash-cookbook! The heroine is a caterer, and as she described the dishes she was preparing for her catering clients, she included all the recipes. I seriously might just try a few of them since they sounded so good!

I did little else after I started reading. I tended to the needs of the kids and read as much as possible, finishing the book just after supper. I've barely touched the computer lately, since I made a late decision to give up Facebook for Lent, along with a couple of my previously abandoned habits from the new year. I have, however, made a few forays toward Starbucks, with the help of Kelly, and have decided my new signature Starbucks favourite is a caramel vanilla latté. I'm trying to vow to myself to make it only a special treat, though I've had a few these past couple weeks.

I heaved about four baskets of clean laundry from the basement before my little reading escapade, and they are still staring at me from the middle of the living room floor. That will be my project to tackle tomorrow, along with more laundry. I did a little vacuuming in the basement and have plans to rearrange more stuff and chuck some out. I'm envisioning filling the back of our truck with oodles of junk to take to the dump.

Last night, I had a very last minute date with Kelly and a couple girls from her office. I know them well from our shared coffee breaks. We went to a quarter auction in a nearby town. I was envisioning winning a cool prize like I did last time we went to a quarter auction. When we walked in, in all honesty it looked like a handful of people did a closet roundup of items around the house, from wooden clocks to homebaked (very gorgeous) cakes and a very purple, very coffin-lining-loooking satiny dress, complete with a gaudy purple necklace, all adorned with the original price tag of one hundred seventy-five dollars. We made a pact that, if we won that item, I promised to wear it to the office on Monday. I was afraid, very afraid. I had to lay out a couple rules, one being that there had to be at least ten bids before we four were allowed to bid, and that we could each only bid once. When they called the winning number, I was mortified because it was only two digits from my number. I fearfully glanced around at my cohorts' notes to see the numbers they were assigned by the auctioneer. We just missed it by one number. Whew! Much laughter all around, and relief from me, since I would have surely kept my promise!

Some of the items were so awfully knick-knacky that Kelly and I were bidding with the intention to give it to each other for the other's birthday. She actually won a glass plate and stand, with a friendship poem etched into the glass. Guess what I'll be getting for my birthday? Oy. Well, she'll get it right back next year, I can tell you right now! Either that or it will pop up where she least expects it. One of the other girls won a little porcelain-faced doll sitting in a rocking chair. I have a feeling I'll be seeing that somewhere again too.

I arrived home to find Carter was asleep but Cooper was still up, feeling even better than when I'd left. I've had much interrupted sleep lately, with the boys taking turns at least hourly to get me up for some reason. I'm looking forward to a feverless sleep all around. Chris fell asleep on the bottom bunk with Carter while they watched Flubber. Cooper just fell asleep beside me only a few moments ago. I'm hoping to stay awake long enough to watch SNL. We'll see. I started a scrapbook page days and days ago, and it still sits open in PhotoShop waiting for me to come back and finish it. I might just tackle that too. Oh and I must remember to change a few clocks tonight too...I'm in agreement with Angie's dismay over the spring forward thing...this just means my kids will be up another hour later. ::sigh:: I just have to concentrate on looking forward to spring, and eventually summer. (Our doorstep is currently a skating rink. Yikes.)