Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, *almost* everything's going my way . . .

I can't remember what musical that is from, but it's a catchy tune. I add the *almost* because not quite everything is going my way, but I'll get to that. It is FINALLY nice here again, the past week has been cold, rainy, and dreary. I know I always say this, but I had every intention of actually taking Isabella somewhere to finally get some professional pictures taken, since I've been just taking them myself for the last year and half, but since we have no in store (which I love) photographers (Sears, Penney's, etc.) around here the only other options are A) Wal-Mart and B) ultra expensive portrait studios. I like the way Wal-Mart pictures turn out, but unfortunately the Wal-Mart photographers around here are, well, not exactly the nicest people and make it quite obvious they don't like their job, which in turn makes it a bad experience for everyone. And option B, I just don't want to fork out that much money for only 2 and a half year pictures. So I gave it another try this morning. We went to ____ Gardens (I don't want to say the whole name, as I don't like the whole world wide web to know where we live). It was a little early for everything to be in bloom, but it was still SO pretty, I haven't been there in years. Isabella loved all the flowers, especially the purple ones (her favorite color). We had so much fun walking along all the paths, I don't think we even got to everything, but we'll have to go back sometime and take Daddy with. Isabella did have her first experience with a Port-a -potty, eww. She was fine with it, I was the grossed out one. If you know me well, it won't surprise you to know that the minute Isabella walks in to a public restroom she raises her hands up and says, "It is germy in here, I won't touch ANYTHING Mommy!" Ah yes, I have trained her well. Anyway, here are a few random pictures from the morning, although pictures really don't do the place justice. And I'll try to get the actual 2 and a half year pictures I took of her on here later.

Oh, and the *almost* that I was going to get to - the air went out in our car on the way home!! Our NEW car, grrrr. So we dropped it off at the dealorship on the way home, but the good news is that it is under warranty and they say it is an easy fix.

When the computer's away . . .

It's that time of year when Monte is going to have to take the computer with him for work every so often. After my day today I am actually looking forward to it, I didn't have the computer today during naptime (I'm usually on it for the first part of her nap) and this is what I got done just during Isabella's nap: kitchen, entryway, and both bathroom floors all mopped, unloaded dishwasher, washed, dried, and folded 2 loads of laundry, cleaned both bathrooms, dusted the entire house (except Isabella's room), shook out all the rugs, got a start on my "pile" of mail and other papers I don't know what to do with, got a start on supper, and pulled weeds outside that are growing in our landscaping. This is definitely NOT a usual naptime for me, but if this is the kind of motivation I'm going to have when the computer is gone, I'm all for it!

Not as Easy as it Looks

I decided to give Isabella a hair cut last night. I haven't given anyone a haircut since, well, since I whacked my Barbie's hair off in about first grade. Her hair is still so baby fine, that I don't think it looks good yet very long. Add to that the fact that her hair in front is still just coming in (that hair has never been cut) so the hair in back needs to be cut unless I want my child to be sporting a mullet around. It was definitely harder that it seemed it would be! The whole rest of the evening and this morning I was following her around with a scissers, I kept seeing little places I had missed. I think next time I will fork out the money, it's worth my piece of mind.

After: Don't look too close!

Laundry Day

Visitors

Last week my sister and niece came out to visit us for four days, it was so much fun. I'm glad they came last week because the weather was beautiful. This week the weather is awful, very cold and rainy. We even have our heat on!! We went on long walks, went to the park, played outside a lot, and went to the zoo. It was my niece's first trip to a zoo. My sister and I stayed up late chatting, and the girls had so much fun!

We got to the zoo just in time to watch the penguins get fed.

I haven't felt like blogging

I've been busy spending every spare moment playing piano! I've been getting well acquainted with my Lorie Line books again.

Someone else likes the piano too!

God Smiled at me Today

I have been wanting a piano for, well, ever since we bought our house. Not like a crazy, out of control I have to have it sort of thing, but something that crosses my mind every now and then. I think about how much I love to play, how much I would like my kids to play someday, but then I think about how crazy expensive they are, and how we don't exactly have thousands of dollars lying (laying??) around to buy one. Just yesterday I was talking to Monte about it, and I even made it a question on my "how well do you know me" quiz on Facebook.

Enter today. Monte's mom calls me and tells me a lady she worked with (Monte's mom has been retired for a year) called her out of the blue to say she is moving and wants to get rid of her piano, she remembered Monte's mom saying once, long ago, that I loved to play piano. So she was calling to see if I was interested, and to let me have the first chance at it!!! I got her number and called her, she then sent me a picture of the piano over our cellphone, it looked really nice. The best part - she wants $100 dollars for it, that's it!!

I called her back to say we'll take it. Of course there are some things to work out, like moving it
(they live 2 and a half hours from here), and borrowing my in-laws truck or trailer, but it looks like by the end of the week I should have a piano, amazing. Seriously, I'm so excited I'm tearing up!