7/31/08

1. Good tutoring session, and I'm probably adding a few sessions with my client's sister!

2. Lots more work done on mom's house, including the initial bids on the bathroom and kitchen

3. Coffee out with my sweetie.

7/30/08

1. Great grocery shopping trip--saved $61 and spent $99

2. Took the kids to the mall and got $1.50 slices of cheesecake (Cheesecake Factory's 30th anniversary--I got Tiramisu; C got Key Lime; T. got Tuxedo chocolate and M. got white chocolate raspberry) and then free underwear at Victoria's Secret.

3. Trim painting next door is going smoother than I'd feared!

4. C. is really being so very helpful. Maybe (dare I say it?) the first 6 weeks of summer were an anomaly?

5. Mom is back here, safe and on-time!

7/29/08

1. Surprise cancellation of one of my tutoring clients (he was sick), which left me with some time to start painting the trim next door.

2. New haircut! (my ends were SO split)

3. Knitting club

7/28/08

1. Chiropractor visit. This was the last one covered by my insurance :(

2. Got my formal GRE scores in the mail. I got a 5.5 on my analytical writing (out of 6).

3. Bought tickets for Mom, C. and I to see Dar Williams in September. Not as good as the front row seats I got last time, but we're in the 7th row, center!

4. More stuff done on Mom's house--starting to see results now!

5. C. hit a very important milestone (and I was with her-at Target, no less-when she hit it)

7/27/08

1. Not as lazy of a Sunday morning, but still time to read the Sunday paper--and we got muffins for breakfast.

2. LOTS of stuff done at Mom's house both inside (priming done) and out (12 arbor vitae pulled out).

3. $2 Frappucino "date" with G.

4. How good of a job C. is doing and how good of a sport she is being with helping watch her siblings and make lunch/supper and so on while we're working next door.

7/26/08

1. Got the rest of the painting prep done this morning!

2. Since we finished so early, and the weather was perfect, we started priming this afternoon.

3. Out for supper (Qdoba) since we were so exhausted from painting. ;)

7/25/08

1. Got my house semi-cleaned for the first time since Mom bought HER house.

2. More work done at Mom's house--this time T. and M. helped!

3. Finally able to make some plans regarding painting next door. I hate the uncertainty, so this is a BIG relief! ;)

4. First zucchini (almost ready to be picked):

7/24/08

1. Good tutoring session with my newest client; I like to feel like I'm actually helping.

2. Fun trip to get C. and two friends from camp. The mom of one of C's friends (also my dear friend) "roadtripped" with me and it was nice to have an hour and a half of uninterrupted talking time, and fun to hear the 13 YO's talk about their camp experiences.

3. Our block Book Club--"The Time of Our Lives" by Mike Leonard. I'm so excited to have a chance to hang out with other women on my block--such fun!

7/23/08

1. M. passed Level 1 in Swimming! I didn't expect her to pass because she can't stand to have her face in the water.

2. Grocery shopping--alone. :)

3. Trip to the zoo to see a band--Five Card Studs. The father of one of M's classmates is in the band. We went with family friends and the kids had fun dancing and the music/performance was VERY entertaining!

7/22/08

1. Today is my 100th "Three Simple Things" post.

2. My new tutoring client will be a 2x a week client!

3. More stuff done at Mom's house

4. Fun knitting group as always. We witnessed a throw-down by some cops--such excitement for a knitting group! lol...

7/21/08

1. Got Mom to the Amtrak station, T. to Ceramics class, and me to tutoring (M. came along) with little hassle.

2. Despite having little time, we got lots done on Mom's house this afternoon/evening. We have the best neighbors ever! They helped cut down arbor vitae, knock down fence, and scrub walls!

3. Got a third summer tutoring client. I start tomorrow.

7/20/08

1. Lots done on the outside of Mom's house. We removed bushes, graded it, took off the ugly canopies, cleaned gutters and the outside of the windows.

2. Afternoon coffee with my husband. :)

3. C. got a ride up to Leadership Camp with a friend's family, so I didn't have to drive that far (and could continue working next door).

4. My nephew's 4th birthday party! Got to see family and extended family and it was fun.

7/19/08

1. Lots done on mom's house

2. The kids were well-behaved while we worked on mom's new house.

3. So far, I'm not in excruciating pain from all the physical labor (close to 10 hours worth)

7/18/08

1. MOM GOT THE HOUSE! I won't elaborate on all the hang-ups along the way, but the closing went through and it is hers!

2. Mother-Daughter Book Club here; despite it not being the best book (The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman), we found lots to talk about. It's such a fun group of women (and 13 YO's).

3. Overall good day and the end to an insanely stressful, chaotic week. Again, I realize how much happier I am when I am busy.

p.s. I started a blog to chronicle the work we do on mom's new house. It's at: http://myneighbormom.blogspot.com/

7/17/08

1. I got lots done this morning.

2. Starbucks--$2 Grande Frappucino (only in the Milwaukee and Oklahoma City markets, I guess)

3. Out with our neighbors for drinks and live music, while the teen girls did some shopping

7/16/08

1. Mom and C. made it safely here (though they really hit rough weather in the middle of the state)

2. Trip to the library with T. and M. I love seeing them get so excited about books (in a related note, I talked T. into choosing "The View from Saturday" for his free book from the B&N reading program and he LOVED it!)

3. Busy day in general, but everyone got where they needed to be-on time-and a busy day is a good day.

7/15/08

1. THE GRE'S ARE DONE!!! Thought I didn't do as well as Suzee, I'm happy with my scores:
Verbal: 610 (this section was REALLY hard)
Quantitative: 780

I won't get the Analytical Writing scores for about 2 1/2 weeks.

2. T.'s guitar lesson. His teacher says he's doing well and he's learning "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" by Van Halen now. too funny...

3. Out for dinner with my family to celebrate the GRE's being DONE.

4. Knitting Club! Again, such a neat group and so inspiring!

7/14/08

1. Chiropractor visit :)

2. M's first swim class; she's in a small class (4 kids) with one of her best friends from K4!

3. Last day of freaking out before the GRE's are OVER.

4. Brainstormed with G. and came up with some other options for what to do with the rest of my life if/when the GRE thing doesn't go as well as I'd like.

7/13/08

1. T. and M. (with my help) made muffins for breakfast. It was a nice morning meal, eaten while reading the Sunday paper.

2. Lots of yard-type work in preparation for Mom getting the house!!! G. moved the entire woodpile (it was stacked against the fence we're taking down) over behind her garage and I took a big garbage bag and picked up garbage, broken glass, etc. from the yard. Then I started cutting down branches from the Arbor Vitae that are hanging over the fence in my yard. ;)

3. Book Club! This Book Club is with a bunch of wonderful women I met through La Leche League over ten years ago. Now that our kids are bigger, we don't see each other at LLL meetings or playgroups, so Book Club is a way to stay connected. I wish I saw most of them more often.

7/12/08

1. The whole house is clean for company! Such a rarity to have everything done at once.

2. T. had a lot of fun playing with Schwa since C. isn't here this weekend.

3. G's sister's family came for a cookout--we hadn't seen them in ages! The cousins play together so well and G's sister is the sister I never had. After supper and a few rounds of Rock Band, we got the fire pit going and (eventually) made s'mores. Then we caught a TON of fireflies!

7/11/08

1. Although our water had to be turned off for the workers to re-connect us to the water main, it was only HALF of the day that we were without water and it was back on by the time we returned from the mall at noon.

2. Fun morning with T. and M. at the mall; went to Caribou for breakfast, redeemed the Barnes & Noble free book coupons, and walked around. (The line for the new Apple iPhone was crazy!)

3. C. made it safely up to Bayfield with our neighbors, where she'll be staying for the weekend.

4. Things are moving along nicely in the garden. Look! Zucchini blossoms:

And a ripening tomato!

7/10/08

1. Coffee with the 5th grade moms; so refreshing (and educational--I found the name of a paint that works better than Kilz!)

2. First time tutoring my new summer client. She seems very willing to learn and review and work hard, which makes my job so much easier (not to mention more enjoyable)

3. Made something new--Sopa Seca in the rice cooker! Super easy and really yummy, too.

4. Impromptu trip to Target with the neighbors--who are taking C. with them on vacation this weekend. Lots of fun and some great deals, too!

7/9/08

1. Finished sorting and chronologically arranging a year and a half of photographs (I ordered another year's worth from Snapfish that should arrive soon) and put them all in albums and labeled them!

2. The girls helped me make yummy hummus for lunch. Such an easy, cheap, healthy meal!

3. C had her FIRST babysitting job all summer. It's so odd--last year she was busy 2x a week all summer and this summer nothing! It's especially rough (for her--haha) since she's developed more expensive tastes (in clothing and coffee, etc.) than Mom's willing to finance. She's still there now and had a few glitches (including giving a crying toddler her cell phone to play with--said toddler threw it and broke it!), but I hope it'll all be worth it for her.

7/8/08

1. Picking up textbooks for my second tutoring job this summer--yep! TWO summer tutoring jobs! (and in a summer where we realllllly need the money)

2. Dying M's hair (just a strand) with Koolaid last night. We used black cherry on her:

3. Ran into a friend at the girls' tennis class, who invited me to the kids' program at the mall; it was nice (art project, live turtles plus turtle skeletons, etc.) and I got to chat with other adults!

4. Turned the second heel on MamaFitz's socks! I may actually finish this "Pay It Forward" gift within the year promised!

5. Knitting Club--which is always so refreshing!

7/7/08

1. We used (lime) KoolAid to dye T's hair overnight. It turned out pretty well!
2. Started organizing photos (since yesterday I ordered a bunch more prints) so that I can get them in the albums before the new ones come. Fun to look back at how different the kids looked just two years ago!

3. Got to check out Boelter Restaurant Supply. OMG... it was SO much fun! I bought 10,000 muffin liners (for $4!), 8 dipping sauce cups, a sugar dispenser (for my kosher salt) and the cutest little pair of tongs!

4. Nice visit to the library for T. to attend a Bug workshop and the girls and I to pick books and read a bit. I also ran into a few friends I hadn't seen for awhile and caught up a bit.

7/6/08

1. Slept in; leisurely reading of Sunday paper

2. Trip to a Farmer's Market; still not much to choose from, but got baby onions!

3. M's half birthday--This 5 1/2 year old biked all the way to Culver's for supper; then we came home and had cupcakes for dessert:
She's grown 1 1/2 inches since her birthday in January!

7/5/08

1. Finally convinced myself to write some practice essays for the GRE's. It was nice to have bitten the bullet and done that.

2. Quick trip to the mall with C. and a friend; the weather was beautiful and I spent 68 cents total. :)

3. Super yummy supper--turkey breast on the grill (I HAVE to do that again and maybe try the same method* with a whole chicken), rosemary seasoned potatoes (rosemary from the garden), Greek salad and watermelon.

4. Wonderful pep talk from an online friend who took the GRE's and got into the Grad School of her choice (accepted at two of them!). I don't know if I am any more confident, but I do feel a bit better about my possibilities.

5. First family bike ride on the trail with M. on her own bike. She did SO well--riding on the right, using the brakes to slow down or stop, etc. And SO cute to see her ride as fast as she could with no fear of cars!


*turkey roasting method:
Season turkey breast inside and out with McCormick's Montreal Chicken Seasoning. Place turkey breast in disposable pan with half boullion cube and 1/2 cup water. Cover tightly with foil. Turn on burners 1 and 3 on the grill. Center turkey packet between burners. Watch thermometer to get it to 325. About 45 minutes before you think it'll be done, uncover and wipe down the turkey with olive oil. (at this point, I put the potatoes on the grill) Continue cooking until breast reaches temp of 170 degrees. Let sit 10 minutes before carving

7/4/08

1. Nice family bikeride up to see the parade, and fun watching with family friends!

2. Great cookout with friends.

3. Watching fireworks with more friends!

(OK, I'm feeling pretty lucky in the friend department today!)

7/3/08

1. Everyone sleeping in a bit; then a lazy "getting ready" kind of morning

2. The whole house clean because G's parents came for supper

3. Fun shopping trip with C. and her friend V. to pick up some stuff for tomorrow

4. Having G's parents over; I feel so lucky to have great in-laws!

7/2/08

1. Great job grocery shopping--saving $39 and spending $46 after coupons, but still getting the certificate for a purchase of $50 because it was over $50 before the coupons. :)

2. Fun afternoon at the mall with a dear friend and her kids (and my kids); I love having such a cool mall so close to us!

3. More possible opportunities open for my future. On the one hand, I don't want to be rushed into deciding things, but on the other hand, I like to PLAN things and know exactly what's going to happen! (so this is driving me crazy)

4. Heading to bed early to work on one of three book club books--this one is Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and I'm enjoying it!

7/1/08

1. G's car got the carpet replaced so it doesn't smell anymore! ;)

2. Seeing the plumbers working next door on Mom's house.

3. Peach/White Tea Cooler from Caribou--and it was FREE (because the last time I ordered one, they made the wrong one)

4. Yummy supper, including strawberries and peas picked yesterday:

5. Knitting Club! I can't emphasize enough what a great group of people this is! I laugh so much and LEARN so much every time I go!