Some success on my errands yesterday.  In the morning, I got my hair cut.  Then I ran to WalMart where I found a couple of things (including a big section of clearance baby clothes, so I bought a bunch for a baby shower later this month), to JoAnn Fabric to return some stuff, and to Strader’s Garden Center to buy some garden things.  Then I went home for lunch.

After lunch, I headed north to Sawmill.  I went to (in order) Pier 1, Hobby Lobby, Bed Bath & Beyond, Babies R Us, a Christian book store and Target.  I was looking for decorations for our newly repainted kitchen at most places.  I found a great ceramic pot at Pier 1 (on clearance!).  Then I bought a couple of those vinegar filled decorative jars at Hobby Lobby (though they are too tall for where I was hoping to put them).  Then I got a paper towel holder at BB & B; we have for the last two years just left the roll of paper towels on the counter, but I figured since I now have a theme in my kitchen, I could buy one…so I did.

By this time in the afternoon, I was hot and had a small headache, but I needed to finish my errands.  Holly (my niece) turns one today, and her party is on Saturday, so I went to Babies R Us to find a toy she had really liked while we were there once before.  Unfortunately, it was no longer on the shelves…how annoying!  Then I made quick stops at the other two stores, but didn’t buy anything in either place. 

When I got home, I made banana bread to take to a picnic we had for church.  Then I unpacked my purchases and started putting them up in the kitchen.  Eric helped some when he got home, handing me things and giving his opinion.  Overall, I’m going to like the effect when it’s all done.  We went to the picnic, but didn’t stay long.  I still had an echo of my headache, and Eric wanted to get some yard work done before the large pile of mulch he ordered arrives this morning.  So we worked on that and then showered off and went to bed. 

Today…I’ll be finishing the yard work we started last night and then starting on the mulch.  No fun errands for me today!

Yesterday was quite full…and I didn’t start out planning for that!  I was planning to just run errands all day, so that’s where I started.  I went to the mall in the morning and then came home for lunch.  While I was in Macy’s, my mom called to see if Eric could come down and help my Dad move the furniture back upstairs.  So I called Eric at lunch to make sure that would work for him and told him to call me when he left work so we could head down somewhat early.  Then I ran some more errands though the afternoon stops were not very successful…oh well.  We went to Cedarville, and I ran up to CU to do a grade change since I was there.  Then we helped them move stuff upstairs.  The new carpet looks really nice, and the house is still pretty messy because my mom is sorting as she goes (what will and will not go back upstairs).  But the heavy stuff is done.  We had supper with them and then chatted for a while before coming home…and not even terribly late (though later than I’d wanted to get home). 

Today, I’m going to try to finish my errands.  I may also need to run some errands for a picnic the Music & Arts ministry is having for its people tonight, but we’ll see.  The sky is very cloudy right now (I needed to turn on some lights!), but it’s supposed to clear off and warm up…that’s good!  I don’t like running around in the rain!

So far…no luck with people for my “living picture” for the weekend of July 1 & 2.  I have to start this early asking people because it’s CRAZY hard to find men who are willing to help me do it.  It can be very frustrating…especially because it wasn’t my idea, but I have to somehow pull it off. 

Yesterday, I did some desk work in the morning, then I cleaned the mirrors in the house and spot-cleaned the floor.  After lunch, I washed the baseboards, trim and doors in the kitchen before mopping the floor.  Then I changed my clothes and worked in my flower beds for the rest of the afternoon, weeding and turning the dirt and pulling out rocks.  It is amazing the size of rocks that we have been extracting from our flower beds!  Eric got home about then and he worked outside too (mowing, rehanging my porch swing).

After supper, we went over to see the house Karen & Erik like.  It’s nice…it needs cleaned and repainted, but it’s nice.  So hopefully, it will work out for them to buy it!  Then they went to dinner (our parents and Erik’s parents also saw the house) and we went to Home Depot.  It wasn’t the most successful trip to Home Depot, but we did get a few things we needed.  Then Mom & Dad stopped by just long enough to see our new kitchen colors before heading home to buy & deliver pop to Chris and Deb’s house (both of them and Kelly have the stomach flu…Kelly got it on the weekend and the two of them came down with it yesterday.  Yuck!). 

Today I have lots of errands to run…should be fun!

For the upcoming patriotic weekend at our church, I have to re-create this picture.  I think it’s going to be a lot of work…especially for the 5-seconds they want it up there!

Our weekend wasn’t too exciting. We went to Lisa Hamer’s surprise b-day party (she turned 30) on Friday night.  I got there and volunteered/was asked to organize things, so I did.  It was actually a lot of fun to hang out and see a bunch of people I don’t get to see much anymore. After a while, we ended up with the boys inside playing Atari, and the girls outside chatting, which was a lot of fun…we laughed VERY hard.  Then we “played” Scene It (we only watched the dvd…but didn’t use the board).  We didn’t leave until 11:00!

Eric worked on Saturday, so I did laundry, finished the jam making, and cleaned a bit.  In the afternoon after it FINALLY stopped raining, I also planted some impatiens in the front flower beds, so that’s starting to look a bit more complete again.  I still need some more of them, but they aren’t hard to find!  We looked at our various plants (my veggies are really growing well!), and then Eric started edging the beds, so I worked on cleaning up the dirt clods he’d made. I also deadheaded the roses so they keep blooming as well as they have been!  Sunday was less exciting. Church, dinner, read the newspaper, finished the laundry (I even ironed everything and put all the clean clothes away!), watched some tv with Eric and then watched a movie before we went to bed.  We watched The Island. It had been highly recommended to me, and it was definitely worth the watch.  I liked it, but I also like Ewan McGregor, too, so that helps!

There’s a circus coming to Columbus for the next couple of weeks.  I really want to take Kelly…I think she’s old enough to really enjoy it now!

Not much to say today.  Yesterday Eric came home from work before noon because he didn’t have anything much to do at work and he wanted to de-grub the lawn before it rained (the stuff is supposed to be watered once it’s down).  Then he just hung out and read a book at home for the afternoon.  Karen came over and we pretty much finished up the strawberries. That was good…now there’s LOTS of jam.  I think I need a bigger freezer.

Today Karen is coming over and we’re heading to Cedarville for the day.  I need to send a couple of emails in my office and then we’ll have lunch with mom (and maybe Deb and the girls).  Then over to see Trisha and Kayla for a bit.  Can’t wait!

Strawberry picking and making jam makes a body very tired and sore!  Karen and I both woke up today pretty sore from the bending and standing.  And my feet were VERY tired by the time I went to bed last night. 

But it was lots of fun anyway.  The day was perfect: warm, but not too humid.  The weather has been great, so the strawberry crop was excellent.  The girl working the U-Pick field told us which rows hadn’t much been touched yet, and she was right! We found tons of really good berries.  We picked for about an hour and a half and then came to my house for lunch and to start making jam.  And we did it!  It turns out that jam making is time-consuming, but not difficult.  As my Grandma Campbell told my mom once, if you follow the Sure-Jell directions exactly…you just can’t mess it up.  So we made 5 batches of jam yesterday.  I froze some in the evening.  Karen is going to try to get back over here this afternoon to work on the rest of them, but we’ll get it done pretty quickly now, I think.

So other than finishing strawberry stuff, I may run some errands and do some smaller cleaning chores. Such fun, huh? 

So the biggest excitements from yesterday were that the power went off for about 3 hours (for absolutely no reason) right in the middle of the day and Eric worked until 7:30.  He was cleaning gold off of some of his machinery (part of his job requires the evaporation of various metals and they do eventually condense on his machines) because he didn’t trust anyone else to do it right. 

Since I had the whole day to myself…I cleaned out my office, sorted old pictures, planted the rest of our container garden (beans and zucchini), and finished vacuuming the living room (I wanted to move the furniture to get under them which I only do sometimes…and I still haven’t gotten under the sectional because I can’t move it!). I tidied my bedroom and cleaned the laundry room, and then I read a book (the whole thing…it was short!) before Eric got home. Then I was hungry, so I made myself a light supper and he got home shortly thereafter. Then we relaxed for the evening, read for a while, and got out the flags for awhile before turning out the lights!

Today Eric got up a bit earlier than usual, so the day’s been slightly ahead of schedule.  That’s fine since Karen will be over soon for strawberry picking.  Should be fun!

Crazy weekend…that’s what I had!

I did spend Friday cleaning; I worked VERY hard!  We left for the farm as soon as Eric got home and we got everything loaded up.  We spent the evening at his cousins’ house for a graduation party, and then chatted for a bit when we got back to their house.  Eric and I hung around for the morning at the farm on Saturday and headed home just about lunch time.  Then we went to a gradauation party for someone we know from church and ran some errands together.  Then we went home and I went shopping while he mowed the lawn and did other little projects.  Our primary project for the last week and a half has been stripping the wallpaper in the kitchen and repainting.  Thankfully the painting is now finished.  So on Saturday, Eric removed the last of the masking and rehung the blinds and the brackets for the curtains.  (He did paint touchups on Sunday from where the masking did damage!).  We still have lots of work to do to finish the kitchen, but the walls are done…PRAISE JESUS!

Saturday evening, we had dinner and then I made desserts (Oreo cookie ice cream dessert and a berry pie) for our small group cookout which we hosted yesterday.  Then we watched Fantastic Four, which is really a good movie, and then we went to bed!  Sunday was church, then I had a meeting and Eric did the paint touchups, then a light dinner.  Then I cleaned and he worked on the computer.  The guest list changed constantly for the cookout…it was kind of crazy.  At one point it was down to just Karen & Erik and us.  But we ended up with 9 people total, and it was a good time.  Jen & DJ brought their week-old daughter with them, and it was GREAT for them to be out of the house and talking about non-baby things for awhile.  So overall…it all worked out.  Why do I ever doubt…

So our project is almost done!  Good thing, too…because Eric tends to lose focus after about a week on a particular project.  So if it takes much longer than that…our progress starts to peter out!  I spent most of the day yesterday working on it and running errands.  Eric helped me finish up the big stuff last night.  SO that means that I can FINALLY clean my house! 

So today I’m going to clean and clean and clean.  We are hosting a cookout on Sunday, so that gives me some real motivation, but I’ve got to clean all the bathrooms and basically the entire downstairs.  I’m even going to mop the kitchen floor!  Actually, I really wish I was strong enough to separate the parts of our sectional couch so I could vacuum underneath it. Oh well!

The weekend is going to be VERY busy for us.  As soon as Eric gets done at work today, we are heading out to the farm.  His youngest cousin (on the Hogue side) graduated from high school this year and her graduation party is tonight, so we thought we should go.  I also had a bridal shower for Sheri Phipps tonight, but I’m not going to that!  Then we have to come back tomorrow and get to another graduation party from a guy from church who plays with Eric in the orchestra.  Then I have to work on the house and shopping for the cookout.  Then Sunday is church in the morning, a meeting during the second service and the cookout starts at 6:00 (so I’ll spend the afternoon finishing up whatever needs done for that!).  Good thing I’m off for the summer!