Tuesday Tidbits--Lots of Them

I'm way behind on tidbits, so buckle up.

Every fall I plant daffodils and tulips in the hopes of having a glorious Spring display. This Spring started out pretty well with our daffodils and they made me so happy for a couple weeks (they are now shriveled and dead). 

We saw a lot of this lovely face.

Cathy and her family came to back from Saudia Arabia for a 3 weeks at the beginning of the month. She came over to visit on a Sunday afternoon and then we went walking several times during Spring Break.

Speaking of Spring Break, it was a little rough. My car was in the shop (where it still is!) with a dead transmission plus we didn't have plans or funds to go anywhere. I don't usually my hanging out at home, but it wasn't very pleasant since the kids were grumpy about it. Landon mowed the lawn and then spent some time soaking up the sun afterward.

Whitney had her Monster Dolls and their homes all over the place...no it didn't drive me crazy at all. I am constantly at odds with the lack of space we have in our house because I like it that we're cozy as a family but can't stand it when there's no where for stuff to go.

I gave my co-worker this cute glass dome filled with Cadbury Eggs for her birthday, I thought it was a very pleasing gift.

One day at work the orchestra teacher brought in a quartet of violinists to play for us during Flex Time. They played "You Raise Me Up" and miraculously the phones didn't ring and no one needed anything for those few beautiful minutes.

Lori and Whitney have been taking a cake decorating class at Michaels but had to miss one of the classes because of the school talent show and Lori's bookclub. Because of this Lori had Whitney come to her house one evening to work on the stuff they would be missing in class, this is what they made!

I found Landon napping in the middle of the floor (again)...I just don't understand it when cozy beds are so closeby.

Whitney and I updated our photo wall a bit by adding the S's and a few more frames.

I have fabulous, new visiting teachers who have spoiled me already with a flowering plant and chocolate-covered strawberries in addition to their thoughtful lessons and wise comments.

My blogging friend Ashley stopped by the junior to bring me Jim Gaffigan's book Dad is Fat to borrow. We had a fun visit (she came at a surprisingly calm time) and it was an unexpected surprise in my day...plus the book is very funny.

We are still plodding along a half chapter to a chapter at a time in our morning Book of Mormon reading. One morning last week was particularly rough and I captured it with my phone. I didn't even get mad because it was just so funny.

We started a new Secret Pal rotation at work last week and this is the first thing my pal gave me. I had actually seen this at Walmart the previous week and thought it was mighty cute. It's now in our kitchen window.

The lilacs are blooming! Saturday was super rainy and mellow which was oh so pleasing.

I spent much of the rainy afternoon finishing this book, which was delightful but ended with me sobbing.

Amie was going through her old stash of Christmas cards and texted me this photo of ours from 2006, ouch.

Michelle and family are in Paris for BYU's Spring Term and we spent some time texting back and forth and I had her take this selfie by the window. I love it that I've been there and can picture the apartment and city so well...it's painful not to be there though.

She's Instagramming from Paris which is both awesome and painful too.

So Adam ended up putting an Easter Eggs Hunt together for his neighborhood and jokingly said something to another guy about bringing a bunny suit, and crazily enough someone did! Adam in a pink bunny suit just makes me happy!

One of the teachers at school has a ton of tulips in her yard and has kindly brought some to me twice. It was amazing to watch these flowers open up like this because they were closed when she brought them to me.

My Secret Pal gave me these cards and this nice note!

It snowed on Monday! It was swirling and cold, but didn't accumulate. 

Today I needed ice cream for breakfast.

Spring Break Hangover

 

Is it wrong that when I get a break from work I immediately forget my hard-fought sleep schedule and adopt a slovenly schedule of late to bed late to rise with some reading/napping thrown in to the mix? I kind of think it is. At first I let myself revel in the luxury of it all and give myself full permission to lounge as needed. But after the first couple days of that a pattern emerges and lethargy ensues. It seems that sleep begets more sleep yet I never feel rested. Oh cruel irony. By the end of Spring Break I was officially sick of myself and slacker ways, though I was delighted that I finished a 500 page book. Then it was General Conference weekend, which I love, except that it meant 8 hours of TV watching in very close proximity to my family, who frankly I was sick of by that point. I was actually feeling ready to go back to work today except that I couldn't fall asleep last night (due to an afternoon nap) and then had anxiety-filled sleep/wakefulness for the last 2 hours of the night. Hence I woke up with a headache and felt exhausted all day. I'll have to pack it in early tonight in order to get back into my early to bed early to rise mode...when will I ever learn?

Spring Break So Far

We have Spring Break this week (woohoo) and have almost no plans (woohoo again). A couple months ago I started to plan a little trip to Mesquite, NV for Spring Break, but just wasn't excited about it (I hate the 4.5 hour drive) and felt giddy about staying home to putter (oh how I miss puttering at home now that I work).

So yesterday was officially day 1 of Spring Break but it was a cloudy, rainy kind of day which meant the universe was telling me to spend the day reading in the cozy. It just so happens that we're reading a fabulous book for book club this month so I was completely sucked in and read over 200 pages. The kids did their own thing all day, so other than surfacing for bathroom breaks and beverages I was all about reading...I LOVE days like this so much!! I do wish we had a more comfortable set up though, maybe an excellent chair/ottoman combo as opposed to our lumpy bed and my crazy pillow configurations.

Today is Day 2 of Spring Break and it is rainy again...I'm okay with it though because I'm still in homebody mode and this kind of weather is very conducive to staying inside.

I watched a couple episodes of "Monk" with Landon (Whitney was at the Draper Temple with the YW) and then cleaned and reorganized our laundry room shelf. I have no idea why this task has been on my mind (in an excited way) lately but I really wanted to get to it. I took everything off the shelf, washed it down, then relocated a few items that didn't need to be there. The casual observer wouldn't notice a change, but the astute observer would be delighted.

The YW President sent this photo of the kids at the temple. We thought only the girls were going, hence no Landon.

I'm pretty sure my visiting teacher left this little pot on my porch last Friday (there wasn't a note) and I can't believe how fast it's growing; it has doubled it's size in 4 days. I'm not sure what my long-term plan is but for now it's pretty cute in my kitchen window.

Some of our daffodils have bloomed, but I'm bummed because I thought we'd have quite a spread but instead have a few small smatterings instead.

The tulip foliage is going gangbusters though so I'm optimistic that we'll have a glorious array in a few weeks, oh how I love tulip season!

Creative Friday--Spring Break Edition

Panini by Michelle

Sinfully awesome Salted Caramel Butter Bars (the name really says it all).

I wrote some cardsand Michelle gave me some of the green Divine Twine she recently bought.

 Since Whitney didn't come with us (she went swimming with a friend) she sent a note and a toy for Eva (to help cushion the blow of not being there to play with her).

It went over pretty well.

The boys played Killer Bunnies down in the man cave.

Eva joined us at the table and made a slew of bookmarks, two for each person.

She made one for me that says "Jill reads a lot". I love it!

The table of happiness.

I brought my laptop and indexed 40 names from the 1940 Census. Cool.

Spring Breakalicious--Day 3

We slept much better our 2nd night at the hotel and took our time getting ready until it was time to check out and say goodbye to our hotel.

We had looked up restaurant possibilities for breakfast and decided to check out The Park restaurant. It was Wednesday morning and super busy so that seemed like a good sign. We were all thoroughly pleased with our food and just kept raving about this place and how we'll gave to go back there again. 

This is our happy, post-breakfast self-portrait with the restaurant behind us.

Landon ate himself silly and experienced some happy regret.

We decided to walk across the street to check out Liberty Park and discovered Tracy Aviary is right there as well. We had never been there before, so we decided to give it a whirl. 

The grounds were lovely and the weather was warm and breezy so it was a good place to wander while trying to recover from breakfast.

Whitney fell in love with this amusing Keel-Billed Toucan and has decided she will have one as a pet when she is older!

After walking around for awhile we found a delightfully shady bench to rest upon. It was here that I informed my family I that when I die I would like a bench to donated in my name someplace wonderful and shady since I am an avid, shady-bench appreciator.

Whitney got tired of sitting on the shady bench (silly girl) and went over to talk to an owl who was trying to get some sleep (they're nocturnal you know). After standing there talking to it and suggesting it do some tricks, the owl opened its eyes looked at her and turned its body around! She was officially dissed by an owl!!

This is just funny right?

After the aviary we walked around Liberty Park for a bit and enjoyed the gorgeous day. It was an excellent ending to our spring break activities.