Snow My Goodness

Woke up to this:

Spent an extremely long, lazy morning in bed. Because I could.

Then:

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

They're even cuter than I thought they'd be!

They're so soft!

How will I ever buy sneakers from another brand?

HOW?

OH MY HECK

I spent a good portion of the day battling the dirty kitchen and made good progress. Tomorrow should be the end of it.

Then: C's last soccer party, at Firstenburg Center. Much hugging occurred, to the point that this party will become a COVID-19 hotspot (she predicted direly).

But we ate well (Hawaiian food) and goofed off a lot and saw a very touching slide show and heard wonderful speeches. Just a very sweet way to end this era.

The Fab Four: Alberto, Loren, Hubby and Darryl

C receives his plaque

I took R home (Hubby and C stayed to play with the other coaches and team) and now I'm in bed.

A good day.

Scary Times

As mentioned yesterday, over the past few days, huge things have been happening in regards to Coronavirus. Today was the most monumental of all: we received word that after today, by order of the governor, the kids won't be attending school again until April 27th. They'll miss six weeks of classes. C's graduation date hasn't been affected but now R will be in school until June 19th.

As I was picking C & R up from school, B & L texted pictures of grocery shopping at WinCo, how bare the shelves were, and telling us that the checkout lines went clear back to the ice cream freezers at the back of the store. This stresses me out as I really like eating.

B, H and I will be working less hours. This also stresses me out as I also like paying bills and our mortgage and having money to buy things we need.

So it's just a yucky stressful time right now. 

The silver lining is that I'll have time that I never usually have for projects and cleaning and hanging out more with Hubby and the kids. We have food, we have cash, we have a butt-ton of books we checked out from the library. We have Netflix and a garage full of crap to clean out and sports equipment and craft supplies up the wazoo. We're close to several stores and a sweet neighborhood park.

And, I don't have to wear a bra till Tuesday.

Hopefully, in the end, the worst that will happen is that we'll be inconvenienced. The important things will remain in place.

And now, some cute pictures:

1) Bella in bed with THREE BOYS.

2) This girl's face

3) Today was R's band teacher's birthday. She painted this picture for him and it made him happy.

Tired

That's about it.

Also, coronavirus is happening, and huge things are being suddenly closed or ended. Broadway shows, travel, college and national sports programs, my former religion's semi-annual conference. It's crazy! 

Yuck

Morning: Still feeling sad about last night. It was a hard one, where a few small things added together equalled one ginormous family blowup. I hate that. I'm feeling so unmotivated this morning. I have a busy day at work, so hopefully that will help.

Afternoon: Work went well. We were busy with a new bonnet launch - one is called Daybreak, which made the Barry Manilow song get stuck in my head (which is admittedly much better than My Little Buttercup - d'oh!). Everything went pleasantly. The family stuff began to resolve, and Hubby and I made some plans that we feel good about. I even created a Pinterest board for it (that's how you know when it's officially happening).

Picked up C & R. R was chatty:

And life feels decent again. May it ever be thus. Also, Survivor is on tonight and the players are getting new teams. 

Played with Baby tonight. Awww.

Sunshine Day

You'd never know it now at 2 pm, but this morning, temps in our area were below freezing. Another good day to layer up.

Waiting for those durn kids outside their school. Those are some spiky bangs

A cartoon I saw today, exactly describing the latest BYU homophobia kerfuffle

Current favorite slow carb snack: carrot "chips" and hummus with a few almonds thrown in

Later: I needed to leave the house for a while, so I took R to soccer practice tonight. I enjoyed a lovely darkness show as the sun set:

Well done, Mother Earth!

🍒

Soak Up The Sun

Selfieeeeeeee.

Had a dental appointment today. It was most unpleasant. But my teeth look good. 

Some work pics:
1) Catching the blue sky behind my IKEA bin fortress

2) This bonnet is called Nettle

Some WinCo pics:
1) Cheat Day, you and I have a date with these

2) For roasting and baking veggies, fish and chicken. My onion breath will rule the planet.

Some Fort Vancouver pics:
1) I'm not a fan of sitting in the sunshine normally, but it feels amazing today.

2)Looking south

3) Looking east

A library book pic: Part autobiography, part history, part instruction manual - so far a quite charming read.

Soccer in Albany

After we stopped at Starbucks for breakfast, we left town at 8:20. 

Secret shenanigans

It was SO COLD. I had layers on top but only yoga pants on my lower half and I was freezing, so I raced over to Wal-Mart and spent $7 on this leopard leggings-fleece blanket combo, which went swimmingly with the old blue Adidas. 

Yeah, we're not telling the YourCloset app about this ensemble.

Me and my man ❤

Some game shots. R is #13 in black:

We won 5-1! Whoop whoop! Then we took our frozen selves to Red Robin in Woodburn:

I cheated on the slow carb diet at this meal, but nothing too terrible. (Now watch: tomorrow I'll be eight pounds heavier.) I had a few sweet potato fries, and two regular fries, and a mozzarella stick, and cheese and croutons and honey mustard dressing on my salad....holy crap, I'm screwed.

Then it was off to the outlet stores as R "needed" some new Crocs (just. Why). Hubby and I purchased some as well. I went for some nifty sandals for river adventures:

We visited a kitchen store and bought a new 20-piece set of Pyrex storage bowls and lids, because there aren't enough Pyrex bowls and lids in the world to accommodate our culinary exploits.

Finally, my favorite purchase - some bling:

oooooh, ahhhhhh, sparkly. These were an item on my "50 Classics" list that I'm trying to complete. 

Accessories and shoes are first, because I'm working on my weight and don't want to buy clothes yet.

And we were home by 3:40 PM. What a very fun trip! 

I DEMAND SATISFACTION

But first: Enjoyed a fabulous walk this morning. 2.66 miles!

I had an appointment today with the piercing place to get my post replaced with a shorter one, since my nose was supposed to be healed enough by now. However, I was thwarted - THWARTED - by my nostril. Apparently the post still takes up the entire hole and I'm not ready for a smaller post yet. I disapprove of this situation.

The only thing making me happy currently is the fact that I woke up a pound lighter. Gotta love that bean diet!

Weather Report: Sloppy and Wet

But who's griping? Not me. I was home by noon today. 

In other news: slow carb diet is going well, except for fart fear. 😳

🍒

Braids

I've been waiting months for this. And I was sick of doing my hair this morning. There you have it. 

why yes

This is my personal thing of hummus.

Here we go with the slow carb diet again. I've been weighing myself almost every day since mid-January, and I've watched, and that weight won't magically lose itself. I had some success before I got sick, and now that I'm well again, it's time to get things going.

So the slow carb diet, copious amounts of water, no eating after 6 pm, and daily weighing to keep those numbers in mind and help me make better choices, are what I'm doing. May it bear fruit. 

In other news: R and the band went to Tacoma today to cheer on the girls' basketball team. Here they are:

High

Beautiful blue skies, warmer temperatures, a good chat with T, new and interesting projects, done before noon = good work day.

Hubby stayed home from work with the cold currently plaguing him. He hardly slept last night. I know at some point this collection of illnesses will leave our household. Can't wait for the day when all nine of us are healthy again. 

Hubby told me the best thing today - that I've aged well. It made me very happy. He's such a sweetheart. 

Back to reality

Gripes:

1. Gonna have nightmares about making tags tonight

2. The furnace is still broken. Gah

I'm so happy March is here. Farmers Market will be opening soon! 

Waking Up at the Duniway

Downtown Portland at 3:30 AM:

At 7:00 AM:

Watching Grease and then The Princess Bride. "Anybody want a peanut?"

Breakfast in bed: a slice of chocolate torte

Then, brunch at Salty's. Coronavirus-aware bar next door:

We loved the view at our table almost as much as the food.

🍒