Baby Showers, Cross Stitching, & Tea Parties

Great news: I finished my book and it was AWESOME!!

Bad news: I now need another book to read...heavy sigh

This weekend I had a blast throwing my beautiful friend a baby shower and she's having a girl!!! I bought all of the pink and sparkly things I could find...then I went back for more!

We had a great time catching up and showering our beautiful mama :)

I also got to go to a Tea Party!!!  I wore a dress with a floppy hat and everything!  My little girl heart was super happy!  These ladies are part of the cross stitching group I am in and they assisted me in making some progress

I learned a valuable lesson today: if your stitches are supposed to be straight across and they are slanting, you probably missed a count...may have had to take a couple stitches out...

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

I'll be over here eating cupcakes in this new and beautiful way

Anyone else make their cupcakes into a sandwich?  I'm never going back to having frosting on my nose again!

Reunions, Shopping, & Easter

I still to this day find Phil's training schedule a mystery: on one hand it feels completely normal and I continue to bop through life at my normal pace, missing him mostly at night.  On the other hand it feels like part of my essence is gone and I don't do certain things while he's gone; but I only realize that when he returns home.  They say hindsight is 20/20 and boy do I believe them! Whoever the "them" actually is in this case...but I digress.

Phil left for a 3.5 week training and I made him take the standard leaving picture:

I am a sucker for photos, I think because when I see cute couple photos on social media and my other half is gone, I miss him more and long to take cute photos with him.  

That being said, I forgot to take a Welcome Back photo with him when he returned on Tuesday, oops!

The puppies have finally stopped eating grass that has caused them stomach distress all week!  We are all finally sleeping through the night once more!

I moved my feet, and lost my seat: they clearly feel guilty about that

Phil and I spent Friday up in OKC doing some shopping and exploring; I was especially excited because I scored two new pairs of shoes!!  A new pair of gym sneakers (my first pair of Reeboks) and another pair of Birkenstocks...I can't help it, they are super comfortable and I absolutely love them.  Unfortunately for Phil, I still haven't gotten rid of my seriously old and broken ones...I can't though, they are good for yard work and fetch and a lot of other things still!

This is the only photo I took today for Easter; I made Phil and I Belgian waffles, and while I was eating mine, he took over the waffle iron.  He mastered that so well, he might have to put those skills to use more often :)

I hope everyone had a restful and thankful Easter!  Phil and I took a really nice walk around post today, got some quality puppy play time in and I have put a lot of pages behind me in my new book:

I love a classic "who done it" and I am seriously enjoying this one!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Anyone else reading anything good lately?

M&Ms, Rain, & A Sick Pupper

State testing is over!  Wahoo!! It has been a long two weeks, but we have conquered those tests and are now on our way to fun things - again, probably English teacher fun ;)

I had a sweet delivery to the school this week:

Phil has been away at training and must have sensed that I needed a boost...he was right! Insert sigh and heart eyes.

I had another sweet surprise this week and it came in the form of a bag of M&Ms:

A small gesture with such a huge impact that I literally cried.  A student bought these for me and told me: "Miss, these are for you because you never give up on us and sometimes we really don't deserve that, so thanks.  And your cold sore looks really painful.  And you miss Phil."-7th grader

It is those types of moments that really bring me to my knees sometimes and remind me why I do this everyday.

We had an all day rain/wind soaker on Saturday; spring was in full force here in OK!  The dogs and I enjoyed spending all day on the couch watching cartoons and Hallmark movies (the Spring movies are super cute!)

As you can see, the couch was well guarded...

Sadly, our night was super chaotic with a sick little pupper :( Poor Penny has been hit with some tummy distress, so Sunday has passed with Clorox wipes, multiple baths, laundry, and more couch cuddles.  She is extra snuggly when she is sick, so we have made sure to grab all of those that we could today.

Max embraced the cuddle day as well:

He feels fine, he just didn't want to be left behind...also I am unsure how the position could even remotely be comfortable...maybe if I did yoga I would understand better.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!  We have a four day week to celebrate Easter!

Anyone have any Easter plans or traditions that they are looking forward to?

Cross Stitching, Cold Sores, & Testing

State testing is exhausting!!! Whew!  Our kiddos handled it like champs last week and I hope they got enough rest over this weekend for Week 2.  They had the ELA and Writing last week which leaves Math and Science this week.   I will be excited to have testing over with so we can get back to doing fun things like research writing and reading our novels....at least I think that's fun...English teachers ;)

However, with the stress of testing and Phil being gone on training, I have managed to give myself a beautiful cold sore :(  So I will be sporting a puffy and sore lip for most of this week...Abreva do your thing!!  I think I need new ways to cope with stress lol; the gym, chocolate and my puppies aren't doing the normal job!

Speaking of the puppies, how cute do they look:

They went to doggy daycare today and then got groomed.  Max was happy because he received his Blueberry Facial and Penny got the de-shedding treatment (hello blowing winter coat).  They earned their bandanas and also posed for this photo under the pretense of getting a cookie...they may have gotten two because I'm a sucker.

I have started a new project: cross stitching!

I have absolutely NO experience in this craft, but lucky for me, my amazing friend Julie is awesome at it and is willing to take me under her wing.

This is the pattern that I am working on:

I was honored to be inducted into the Order of Molly Pitcher this winter and would love to do this pattern justice.

I am currently 6 stitches in....


I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Anyone else have any hobbies they are just starting out?  Or any cross stitch advice?