Thoughts and Looking Forward

I am feeling so incredibly wonderful today! For the last month and a half-ish I've been on a heavy duty detox program and have absolutely felt awful for that whole time. But in the last couple of days I've noticed that I have energy again and I feel much more normal. I was starting to wonder if I ever would. So I took a walk with Halle yesterday. I'm trying to not overdo it which is totally my MO but I walked for a while and then let Halle play and then walked some more. We also went to check out the skate park since I've heard a lot about it and Amanda hangs out there sometimes with her friends. I pushed Halle up the ramps and down the ramps in the stroller- she totally loved it. It was so nice to be outside and not be bundled up and I guess if it hadn't been so windy I would have been hot since it was close to 80. I can't imagine what the temperature is like in FL or what it will be like when we get there.

And speaking of FL (which I probably will be for a while), we have the most amazing treat in store for us. Shane and Angie have a time share in Destin, I think. But they also have the opportunity to trade for staying in other places. Well, they've decided to trade they're points for all of us to stay in either this resort or this one at Disney. So we'll be able to stay for two nights in a beautiful resort on the Disney property. I'm rooting for Saratoga because I think it looks nicer and the pool is incredible but I'll be happy either way. And speaking of Angie...

I (finally) started her fabric cubes. I got the fabric swatches from the Land of Nod and it just so happens that they're perfect 4 inch squares, which is exactly the size that I need fabric to be for the fabric cubes I'm making. I hadn't thought of it before when I asked for the swatch, I just wanted to see if I could coordinate with it and get the colors right for the painting(s) I'm doing. So I thought, "hmmm, I guess I could use the actual fabric that they sent me for the cubes". Which seems kind of chintzy but if I don't use it then it will just be wasted- anyway. I started embroidering her first initial and a little butterfly and flower for one side of the cube. I carefully marked out four inches and drew on what I wanted to embroider and set to work embroidering my little heart out. But I didn't take into account the half inch allowance that I'm supposed to leave for actually sewing the thing together. Sigh. So I'll probably make it a half inch bigger since I don't want to re-do it. But then that means that I can't use the samples they sent me. This is why I don't sew more. Well, that and the fact that I can hardly cut or sew straight. I'd love to show you guys pictures of what I've done because it really is cute but my camera is totally and forever broken. Maybe Amanda will let me borrow hers...

Oh and speaking of a painting for the baby...

I'm thinking of either a silhouette type (butterflies, grass, flowers) with a pink background or a set of four square pictures still silouhettes but with a pink background and a green background. But I don't know how much wall space they have, etc. I'll have to keep you posted on that.

Now I'm going to clean some closets and get ready to take Amanda to lunch. I've decided to be very deliberate in maintaining my relationship with her. When they're teenagers it's so easy (especially when you're distracted with smaller kids) to just let them go and do their thing because that's what they want to do but if I want to have a relationship with my daughter we *have* to make time to do something together. So we're going to Chick-Fil-A. It's not elaborate or earth shattering but it's still very important.