Picking Out Clothes

I was up before Keree this morning, so while I worked on all those last minute things for this weekend, she slept. Which honestly I work everyday for hours a day but I'm never done. I still always have a stack of bows or something to get done. Keree joined me a little after 830a (loving she's sleeping in later but that could be because she's staying up later with me). She played happily before she finally decided, a few hours later (ok it was almost 1p) she needed to get dressed and she needed to get dressed now. Usually, I pick out the clothes she should wear ahead of time and she gets dressed by herself but today she loved that she was going to get to pick out what she was going to wear. She picked the shirt her Godmom Stef and family sent her two Christmas's ago (which is still too big on her at a size 2), some jeans (they are size 3-6 mos, so they are shorts on her), her good red socks (the tragedy of her wearing them on a non-fancy day), her favorite robeez Monkey slippers (they are size 18-24 mos, love that they fit over her brace so easily) and let me not forget her tropical loopy bow. I don't think she looked bad at all....my Mom on the other hand, well she chuckled at the outfit she put together. Looking forward to getting out of dodge for the July 4th weekend and hoping this show is as good as everyone says it will be. Keree's picture are awful but the sun and heat was unbearable even for a short time.

Book Report Winner

Last night, we got a call saying that Keree's book report won at the Library and that she had to pick up her prize bag asap. So while I stayed home this morning and tried to fix our tent so we could use it this weekend, my Mom and Keree headed to the Library. Keree was so excited to see her Book Report on the board with the 3 other winners (her report has the fantastic ribbon on it & the arrow pointing to it). The Children's Librarian then gave Keree her prize. It's a canvas bag with the Summer Reading Program's logo and inside was a free movie ticket voucher, a padlock, an eraser computer mouse, some pens, pencils and papers. My Mom and Keree then looked for her dragon that she made the day we signed up. My Mom was surprised that Keree remembered that her dragon was orange. Heck, I'm amazed she remembered that because I didn't since we were so rushed that day. After they took a few pictures, they headed home. Both Keree and my Mom were amazed that I had fixed the tent (replaced two section, part of a leg and did some major rehabbing to it), replaced the top, waterproofed the top and set it up and put it back down all by myself. Actually, I have to say I was quite proud of myself also. Since it was so miserably hot, my Mom and I took it easy, while I worked upstairs on crafty stuff. I was upstairs from 11am till almost 130 am. I got alot done but still have so much more to get done tomorrow.

Reading & Chinese Food Day

Since Keree had finally read 8 books on her own, we headed out, so she could turn in her Barnes & Noble reading list for her free book. She was suppose to pick a book off the list but had her heart really set on this Rapunzel book. So, I decided I would just pay for this book (eek! I hate paying retail for books) and also let her get her free book. When we arrived at the cash register, the Cashier instead let us just use the credit for the Rapunzel book and didn't make her choose one off the list. Hooray! Keree was so excited to get her Rapunzel book for Free. She told me she was keeping her receipt, so she can show everyone that it was free. That the ticket said 0.00 for the price. Honestly, the girl cracks me up sometimes. We then ran to the Library to have her reading list stamped and to pick up her little weekly prize. Which she picked out another Frog Princess, she wanted the Frog Prince but they didn't have anymore. Since I had promised her last week that the day we went to the library, we would eat out. We headed to the local Chinese restaurant thats downtown. It was our first time eating there. I had heard good things about them but we won't be eating there again. We placed our order as soon as we walked in, Keree wanted wonton soup and I decided we would split some Shrimp LoMein. As we were paying, the cashier wanted to know, where Keree was from. Keree told her Vietnam, which weirdly the Cashier was also from Vietnam. She asked Keree what province and Keree told her HCMC, it turns out that the Cashier was from DaNang. The Cashier then turned to me and goes, "you pay lots of money for her?" I looked at her and go "No, there are lots of fees involved in adoption and they go to different entities." She looked at me and goes "You buy her, but that ok, she cute." If I hadn't just paid the women, I would have walked out without our food. I was appalled by the whole conversation, because it didn't just stop with that comment. Most people don't ask, most people don't give Keree and I a second look, they honestly think because I'm a single Mom that I slept around or something. I'm honest with Keree about her adoption and we talk about it alot. Especially with all the stupid things said during this school year by her Teacher but this one just caught me off guard. Needless to say, as we waited for our food, I was steaming the entire time. Then they decided to take over 40 minutes to cook our food. I was plain pissed off by the time we left. As we drove home, Keree asked about what the women said, I told her that some people don't understand adoption and they think you can just buy a baby like buying something in the store. I told Keree that's pretty funny because we can't walk into Wallymart and buy a baby can we. Keree laughed and was ok with it because my explanation made sense. When we got home, we finally sat down to have lunch. I was so disappointed in the food. The wonton soup was the worst I have ever had and the shrimp lomein was beyond bland. Guessing, it will be a long time before we eat Asian out again because honestly it's just better to cook it yourself. As for the rest of our day, we read, re-read and re-read her new Rapunzel book. I worked on bows and trying to catch up for our 4th of July show.

Can't Believe it's Wednesday

I can't believe it's Wednesday, so that means I just have Thursday to finish up a bazillion things for a show that starts on Friday. We decided since we are having to spend almost 5 days away from home at a show over the 4th of July weekend, we will only be spending 1 night, instead of 2 at this show. So we will leave super early Friday morning, set-up, sale stuff until 11p, close-up, head to the hotel and then re-set-up Saturday, sale until 11p, pack up and drive home. So that means we will be home like 4am or 5am Sunday morning. It's going to be rough but saving money, is saving money....well unless we do amazingly well at the show and we may opt for another night in the hotel then. So as for today, Keree spent the majority of time upstairs with me. I finished about 60 bows, which isn't even a dent in what I need to have done. Now, I did get about 7 outfits done, which was huge. So while I sewed, Keree spent her time playing, she did have a few moments of awfulness but I know it's because she misses my Brother so much. I just wish Keree could express her pain of missing her Uncle better than having her moments. I'm just hoping that by Friday she's alot better. We did spend about 20 minutes outside today, Keree rode her scooter up and down the sidewalk, while I worked on pulling weeds before my Mom mowed. After we came in, we ate a late dinner (after 8p) and then watched the season premiere of Toddler & Tiaras. I have to say that everytime I watch it, I'm shocked at the behavior of the kids on it.

Cleaning

Well our plan was to head home today but after much discussion, we decided to stay an extra day. We rented a rug doctor machine and spent the entire day scrubbing my Brother's apartment floors. Honestly, we though one or two rounds per room but we started before 7a and was still working on it when he got home at 7p. There were times when I was down on my hands and knees scrubbing with a scrub brush in some spots. The funny thing is, my Brother is a total neat freak, I mean color codes his shirts, etc. But for some reason, even though he vaccumes his floor and works on getting stains up, it still was a mess. So while we cleaned, Keree worked on some sticker mosaics. She loves doing them and most of the time it gives us a solid hour of complete silence and concentration. Since I hadn't originally planned on fixing dinner this evening, when I ran to the store I saw a La Rosa's frozen lasagna. LaRosa's is an Ohio based company (which also has expanded to include Indiana & Kentucky) and we've never tired them before, so I thought why not. My goodness, they have some of the best tomato sauce I have ever had, their lasagna was stuffed with cheese. Because everyone else in the family likes meat lasagna, that's the kind I bought, I was thrilled that the meat was smooth and not chunky like most times. I honestly spent the rest of the evening talking about how good the lasagna was. It was so good, that I was tempted to go to the grocery store before we left and buy a few of them for home. We ended our evening by just being together, talking, playing and just enjoying our time together. I have to say Keree and I are really going to miss Ohio and this will probably be our last time visiting my Brother there because he's looking to be transfered out of state by Halloween.

Lazy, Crafty Day

After we got up in the morning, we got to hang out with my Brother a short time before he headed off to work. He was suppose to get the code for his apartment complex swimming pool but he had forgot. Our original plan was Keree and I was going to go swimming, while my Mom worked on crafty stuff. So since we couldn't go swimming, we ran to the grocery store and bought our weeks worth of groceries so I could cook every night. We ran to the $1 store there because for some reason they usually have a better assortment and then headed back to the apartment. I spent the rest of the day working on bottlecaps. Keree either played with Rapunzel or played wedding with a plastic wedding ring. As for my Mom, she worked on coloring rice for I-Spy bottles. For dinner, I cooked panko encrusted pork chops, baked potatoes, carrots and garlic bread. After dinner, Keree spent the rest of the evening reading books for the summer reading program. She finished 4 books and then wrote her very 1st book report. The book report portion is a weekly contest to win a bag full of books and goodies. She's very excited that she has the chance to win. We headed to bed when the news came on and are looking forward to tomorrow.

Off to Ohio

We got up early this morning trying to finish up our errands before heading to Ohio. We were only going to go for a few days but my Brother asked us to stay through the weekend, so I guess we will head home on Monday. After we got our errands done, we finished our last minute packing and then decided to take a few pictures of our Asian lilies because we were pretty sure that they were going to be done blooming by the time we got home. I also remembered and took a picture of Keree with her Summer Reading bag that she got yesterday. Now the plan was to leave early enough to get there and have dinner waiting when my Brother got off work. Well...we should have known that after getting struck in construction traffic not even 50 miles from home, that the trip wasn't going to be easy. I swear between the bad drivers, reckless truckers and endless road construction it was starting to turn into the trip from hell. I can't even count how many times a trucker crossed the line with his load and almost hit us. I can't even count how many times a car driver would just slam on his brakes for no apparent reason. I think I did count that we went through 274+ miles of road construction, sometimes we sat almost an hour for only 1/2 miles of road construction, it was nuts. Amazingly Keree slept through a good majority of it and when she wasn't sleeping she was watching movies. What is usually under a 5 hr trip, was over 8 1/2 hrs. Needless to say we didn't make it to my Brother's in time to fix dinner, in fact we got there almost an hour after he got off work. So instead we ended up having take-out pizza instead of a nice home cooked meal. After dinner, we settled in for the night and headed to bed early.

Library Summer Reading

Well for some reason, we decided that since we had a week with no shows to head out to Ohio to visit my brother. Well it's not all for a visit, we also have some business stuff to get done. What we didn't factor in was how much work we needed to get done before the next show. But more than anything Keree is super excited to see her Uncle. We spent the morning unloading two levels of the van. We then headed into town because we had a few packages to send out and then we stopped by the Library to sign Keree up for the summer reading program. I have to say I found it very chaotic and interesting as we filled out all the paperwork. There were Mom's in line already comparing how many books their kids had read that morning. It was so funny to hear them go Oh, Susie read 10 and Johnny read 11 and then when the other Mom said bigger numbers, they would correct themselves. Geesh, it's a summer reading program, it's not the Olympics. So after receiving her bag (which I forgot to take a picture of today, I'll remember tomorrow) and making her Name Dragon, we headed home to pack. While we packed, Keree spent her time learning how to tie flowers together to make necklaces. It was so cute that she made a crown for our plastic goose, GoselynBob. Because it was so hot out, we took it easy the rest of the day. Nothing like another record breaking heat.

Strawberry Festival - Day 1

Of course our first show that the weatherman predicts with no rain, instead turns out to be one of the hottest June days in 100+ years. We are having normal mid-July heat, so just hope that mid-July won't be hotter because that would mean 200 degree heat or so. So, we got up early and was here by 5a, I'm so thankful for a show that's close to home because that means our own bed everynight. We had a little bit to set-up but thankfully not to much because we were still dragging from yesterday's heat. I'm also thankful we were there early because people started shopping by 7a and the show didn't start till 10a. Keree tolerated the heat well and thankfully we are a diversified booth we also faired better than most vendors who still didn't even break-even. Now Keree did get to do a few fun things - ok most kids wouldn't think it was fun but she did. We wrote a few postcards to family members and one to herself. She then got to buy stamps and ask for the special commerative cancelation of the stamps to celebrate the Strawberry Festival. I'm pretty excited for our postcard to arrive back at home to see it. They were also giving away free strawberries and Keree got one that was almost as big as her hand. The rest of Keree's day was spent either drawing, watching movies and trying to stay cool in front of the fan we brought from home. As for Mom and I, by the end of the show today, the heat had gotten to our brains. I actually had to drag out the caculator to add things up to make sure I was charging the Customers correctly. Now the highlight and lowlight of the day was a guy who called himself a one man circus. Needless to say he was one of the worst jugglers I've ever seen. I can't count how many times he dropped the knives or the flaming baton. If it wasn't so funny, I probably would have been more scared because he was within 10 ft of us. I just kept imagining him catching our tent on fire because of his uncoordination. Then later on in the day, the One Man Circus and the Balloon Clown got into a fight over street placement. I have never laughed so hard as they both shook fingers at each other. Once the festival was over, we closed up our tent for day 2. We headed home, picked up some fast food dinner, took a cold shower and crashed into bed.

Working Day

Today we spent the day working on restocking. Keree helped Grandma on a few projects, while Momma sewed some of her ribbon skirts and dresses.