a groundbreaking weekend

a little behind on a weekend post, but we've had a crazy busy two last days of school and TODAY starts Thanksgiving vacation. Wa-to-tha-hoo, friends.

My reasons for this post title are three-fold. First, literal groundbreaking took place for our church building on Sunday.

We had a short service followed by lots of picture taking with golden shovels. Can I just say what an awesome day this was? Not only was the weather absolutely gorgeous, but God's presence was so incredibly thick as we remembered His faithfulness over these last 19 months and his protection on  that day.

The second groundbreaking thing that occurred happened on Saturday when I took everything out of the shop/Walter's house and swept it from ceiling to floor for the first time evah. GAH-ROSSSSSSS. Needed to be done though, and now it is! The hubs and I have already had talks of turning it into an actual working space now that it's de-nastified for the most part. Maybe a sewing/crafting shop for me, or just an additional space where we could play games and hang with Walter. I think some carpet is in the future for the room, and maybe another scrubbing of the walls plus some paint. We shall see. For now, here's some before + afters.

And just because I want you to truly understand the level of rank-nasty grossness I was working with, this is what was all over the window...

I know.

Most of what was being stored in there was junk, plain and simple. And so I threw it away. Some of it I listed on a local garage sale site, some of it was donated, and I downsized my Christams decor from 7 large plastic bins to 4. Heck yeah. I didn't even use most of my Christmas decorations last year because I made new stuff. (Another lesson from 7: if you haven't used it in a while OR if you don't think you'll use it again....get.rid.of.it. No more hanging on to stuff we don't need.) 

The third groundbreaking thing that occurred? My high school's new Musical Theatre club performed Hairspray last Thurs-Sun, and after asking my seester & a couple friends if they were free to go with me, and striking out, I remembered that I had a musical lovin' 3 year-old who would probably be jazzed to go with me. And she was. We got dressed up and had a most fun and memorable Mommy/Eliza date watching a musical that we can both sing songs from. Love that one of my kiddos loves what I love. While it's definitely not the first show she's been to at the ripe old age of 3, it's the first show I've taken her to that I didn't direct. And we had a blast.

Kudos to my friends Joey, Alisha, and the entire cast + crew on a fabulous production.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We're looking forward to spending time with family, some of which we only see once or twice a year. Later, friends! 

4 things....

1. Hairspray closed. I honestly had a fabulous time and already miss all of those involved. I can't put into words what it was like to be on stage again. I am TRULY blessed that my husband and my children's grandmothers were willing to help out and feed, bathe, and put to bed my babies so that I could do this. This is me as Velma with Alisha (Tracy). I also credit this show with helping me shed about 20 more pounds of post-pregnancy weight. I am currently wearing a pair of jeans that are some of my favorites from BEFORE I had the girls. That's right folks, PRE-pregnancy jeans. Alisha's fabulous choreography in the show literally made the weight drop off. (hoo-RAH)

here's me and baby girl at Target last night buying a butt-load of groceries. This was my first monday night off in a bazillion years.... so of course i had to go to my favorite place. (Also we were out of bread, peanut butter, lunch snacks, and FOOD) While the show was going on, I literally bought only what we HAD to have for school lunches, night-time bottles, etc. We are now completely and totally restocked. (whew)

2. My shoes died today. And no I don't mean broke. When you say, broke, there's usually a chance that said object can be fixed. My shoes died. They are, in fact, in our kitchen trash can as I type this. I can't be too upset, however, since I have owned them since college and had really neglected them as of late. I mean, let's face it- you can't (or shouldn't) wear platforms when you're pregnant, so they really haven't been stepping out a lot lately. In fact, the most action they've seen as of late is being carried room to room by a 16-month old. (Eliza took a liking to them, and really....who can blame her?) So....

"Good-bye 11-year old BCBG shoes from TJMaxx. You will be missed"

( here's a closer shot of the hot mess they became while I was at work today. that's masking tape you see holding that heel together. There are literally pieces of them all over my classroom floor ) sniffle....

3. I grew my nails out for Velma and will be saying adios to them tonight. I broke one during the run of the show, and another last night. Ah well....they were pretty while they lasted, but they ain't ME. (totally Velma though)

4. It's taco night.....

which also means the house will be full of boys. In fact, when Clay told Oliver we'd be eating tacos tonight, he immediately said, "who's coming over?" hahahaha

(any girls want to come play with me?)