These were the Moments...

Another weekend is drawing to a close. 

Meredith will not eat baby food, but she loves chicken curry.

But this weekend was great. It was a nice mix of quiet and activity, friends, and family.
There were moments of beauty...like driving on I-196 heading east at dusk, and seeing the last light of day reflected in all the tall glass buildings on the GR horizon. Breath-taking. It made me glad to live here. It made me wish I was a great photographer.
There were moments of incredible stinky-ness. Has anyone else noticed that the skunks have not gotten the message that it is still winter? They are all over the place!
There were moments of laughter...when Brian Marcus, in all seriousness, told me he was going to be an olympian when he grows up. Every two years. And he is going to be a tailor on his off time. Make his own clothes. I didn't laugh until later. I promise. I did encourage him that he would have to get working on a sport. Oh yes, and Elsie snorting, and telling me she does that when her "snot is on the move." Seriously? Where does she even come up with these things?
There were goal reaching moments. Brian and I ran 9 miles yesterday. Well, to be perfectly honest...we ran probably 8 of those miles, and walked one. But we did it. Onward and upward.
And there was recuperative shopping moments. I took off to the mall. I haven't been to the mall in quite a while. But I needed to find a new pair of jeans, and I just was really wanting some time. By myself. No shopping with a gaggle of kids in tow. Asking when are we going home. Complaining of hurting feet.... I ended up going with my shopper girl, Elsie. And only Elsie. She loves to shop, and a bribed her with a carousel ride. We had fun. We spent about 4 hours walking around Hobby Lobby, Penny's, Christopher and Banks, and Old Navy. We took a short bagel break, and then got back to business. I found a decently long pair of jeans. My old, comfortable ones were barely staying up, were frayed on the edges, and has a hole in the knee. Now I get to break this new pair in. I really don't like shopping for pants. Why can't women's pants be standard like men's? It would so much easier. But now you have the choice of city, modern, flare, diva, skinny, and, and, and.... And a size 10 in one brand is like a size 20 in another brand or cut. You can't just pick your favorite. You have to try on 20 pairs and hopefully find one that fits. Pant shopping is second only to lingerie shopping. I won't get into the frustrations of that. If your are a girl, you know exactly what I mean. If you are a guy-thank your lucky stars.
There were Pinterest application moments.=) Some of the ideas I "pin" are just dreams. But usually if I pin them, I have some idea of how I am going to adapt the idea. One cheap idea I adapted this weekend, was dressing up our buffet. I bought new knobs. The old ones have been broken for years. All knobs were 50% off at Hobby Lobby this week. That really brought them into an affordable range. I bought 5. Now I can get to my dishes and drawers by just pulling on the knob. I don't have to leave one door cracked open, or pry it open with a butter knife, or push the drawer open from the inside bottom. Convenience.=) I also purchased black metal letters to hang on the knobs. I bought our monogram-BVB. It looks pretty neat. And was a cheap fix.
Not only did I give my buffet a face lift, I also bought a new lamp, and two new shades. And I did some lamp rearranging. We had a silver lamp in our living room behind my rocker that blinded anyone looking at the person sitting in the rocker. I moved that lamp to the basement for sewing, then replaced in with my bedroom floor lamp. And I replaced that lamp's presence in our room, with my HL steal. I got a $100 lamp for $20. And it is a really sweet lamp. Its colors fit perfectly with my bedroom color scheme. It has a light green shade, with beads hanging down from this metal flower thing. And I love handy-dangly things. Every room comes out ahead.=)

upgraded buffet

There was the best moment...coming home from shopping to a dinner made by Brian. That was such a blessing. And it made my afternoon really nice, to not have to worry about getting back in time to make dinner. Between dinner and feeding Meredith, shopping would not have happened. Thank you, Babe!

new lamp

Take a deep breath, and get ready for the plunge.