Amazing!!!!

Two posts in two days??? Ahhh!!! Where is Lauren and what have you done with her?

Nah...just kidding. It's me. Really. I am alive (Mom). And I am jumping for joy. My husband's semester is OVER!! Yea. He's celebrating in style by going to be before one o'clock in the morning for once this year. He's been in bed since eleven. Hopefully my clickety-clacking on the keyboard isn't disturbing him too much.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a few pictures and also tell you that I put up a post on my work blog. I created this blog back at the end of January, but things got so crazy around home and work that I really just couldn't keep it up for a while. I don't know if anyone ever looks at it or even knows it exists (I only ever did one post on it and we didn't ever put the web address on our statements or anything, so there is really no reason for anyone to know it exists except my boss and I. But I suppose one might stumble upon it if and when they searched for "Inspirations Flowers and Gifts."). So, anywho-ey...go check it out! It has lots of cool pictures of our works of genius :)

Okay...on to the fun stuff:

Uncle Kendall making waves in the pool for Will to ride. He LOVED it.

My mom thought this was too hilarious. She wanted to paint Claire's toenails. So to distract her we grabbed the first thing we found that we thought she couldn't hurt and it happened to be a tampon box. My mom took about ten pictures of Claire with this tampon box!

Mom and Dad's church has the most beautiful garden. There is even a pond in it that they use as their baptistry (I'm sure it's chlorinated and I know it has safety rails and steps, etc.). When they have baptisms, they video it and the congregation watches it live from inside the auditorium. It's pretty darn cool. Anyway, here are a few pics of Will in the garden. (Claire was asleep!)

The Malletts came to town a couple of weeks ago so Leland could help his old Big Spring kids with their yearbook. We were blessed to spend three different meals with them and their precious kids. Here's a pic of the baby girls--Claire and Reese--standing at our coffee table.

Will's birthday is Saturday and we are having a rootin', tootin' cowboy party. My mom found some western duds at her favorite store, Gymboree, and we got the package in the mail today; in time for Will to wear them to his party on Friday! Thanks, Nana! We love them!

I Survived...Barely

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone...yea!!!!!!!!!! This year was no different...it was still very stressful and frustrating, but we made it. We had a few hang ups, such as on Tuesday afternoon, the car rental company that we were going to rent two vans from called and said they had no vehicles to rent us. So, after a few moments of panic and freaking-out, we were able to find some vehicles to use. Then, on the very day of Valentine's, one of our extra drivers quit in the middle of a delivery run (we put two people in a van, one to drive and one to "hop"); he asked his partner to pull over and let him out because it was just "too stressful." Wow. And yes, we did have some guys show up after we had locked the doors begging us for flowers. It happens every year.

I said I survived (barely) because now I seem to be getting sick! My throat is all cruddy. I guess my body just let me be well enough to get me through V-Day. Oh, and if you were wondering what Claire did during all this chaos, I will ease your mind. She stayed with some very good friends of ours and had a nice relaxing time.

Other news:
Claire's first tooth still has not poked through. What's up with that?
Will is doing well in his new school.
Scott is knee-deep in papers and such for school.
Because we have been ultra-busy, sick, and way too tired, our Christmas tree (naked, mind you) is still standing in our front room. We are going to try to get it down TODAY.
Thanks for your prayers and thoughts for me while I was in the melee of Valentine's. I appreciate it!

Inspirations

The flower shop I have worked at off and on for 5 years has changed it's name and location. Instead of being in an old 7-Eleven building way off the main street in town (not even close, actually), we are now in a century-old red brick house with an excellent location. This move has been more than a year in the making and is super-exciting. The "new" shop looks fantastic. This weekend is the Grand Opening of the store and I went back to work a little. In a few weeks, I am planning on going back to work on Wednesdays and Fridays while Will is at Children's Day Out. The current plan is to take Claire to work with me; I took her with me yesterday and she did really well. Below are a few pictures of the shop that I took today.

The sign

My boss and her husband in front of the shop (this was after we closed for the day).

A view from across the street

One of the many rooms inside