Tales of a Shoebox Princess

I've decided that I need to go to more book signings. They seem to be a lot of fun. Last Sunday as I was perusing the Variety section of the paper, I happened upon a listing for a book signing for an author Matt really likes at a St Paul bookstore. In amazing alignment of the planets, we were totally free last night when the signing took place. I was so glad to be able to go; I feel like I don't do much with the kids anymore because I'm so dang busy all the time. Woe to me. Anyway, we got to the signing nice and early and grabbed a prime spot. The bookstore is a small one and they had only about 25 chairs set up. I wondered if they really expected that few people--this author is a "#1 New York Times bestseller!" (His name is Brandon Mull) And I was right. There ended up being closer to 100 people there, most of them ages 8-12. Matt was one of the older kids in the room. He definitely had the deepest voice. Brandon Mull was fun to listen to. He told us a li

I'm still tickled about the dresses we got for Hayley at Bethesda. Be prepared for more posts like this every time Hayley wears one of the "new" dresses for the first time. Hayley wore one of the thrift store dresses to church this past Sunday. She surprised me with her pick, but when I saw her in it, I thought she looked very cute. The sleeves are a bit too long, but she likes things slightly too big. As you can see, the neck is scooped quite low, but a red cami underneath it adds an interesting bit of color (the phrase "a pop of color" currently makes me want to hurl. So I avoid saying/typing it). I tried to convince her to wear red tights too, but she wouldn't. And yet she complains of being cold all the time. She wore her coat over the dress all through church so wearing a cute dress was pretty much a wasted effort. Oh well. At least I have this picture. Forced seriousness She is also wearing the ballet flats we got at the thrift store. I neglec

We didn't intend to spend any money beyond the cost of dinner, but... It started out as the traditional birthday date with our daughter. Hayley got to pick the restaurant, and she chose the Beijing in Minnetonka, having had her first taste of their food the week previous and she LOVED their cream cheese puffs. Since the Beijing is not far from my mother, we invited her to join us (our other children, however, were not invited. They dined on whatever they could scrounge for themselves, which for Paul was a "heptaburger" at Culver's--7 patties. *shudder*). Dinner was good, and the entertainment was actually very good, because half the restaurant had been rented out for a private wedding reception. Where we sat in the front part of the restaurant gave us an excellent vantage point to hear the toasting going on from the wedding party. Mini golf, Acute Ashley Disorder, a scrapbook, and stalking were some of the main points of the toast I heard from the maid of honor. W

Namely years, in the case of Hayley. It's hard to believe that she has been around for 16 years. She was born back when we were still in the townhouse. Not that she remembers living there. 16 things about Hayley: 1. She gets packages in the mail. She's some sort of trendsetter on a website and as a result of having so many followers, she gets freebies in the mail. 2. I tease her about it, saying she's like Lane's little brother in "Better Off Dead," but I don't think she can build a rocket out of cheap t-shirts and leggings with skulls on the knees (which is what her packages usually contain) 3. She's going to prom 4. and proudly wearing a dress she rescued from the dress up box, one that used to be Katie's. 5. She stayed home sick from school today (the day after her birthday) 6. I think she just stayed up too late playing with her birthday present 7. which was an electronic drawing tablet. 8. She goes to friends' houses after school

Paul is an Eagle scout. All the hardware has been officially presented to him. Jim took over the event planning for this court of honor. with all the stuff that has been going on lately, court of honor planning has not been on my mind lately. Jim, on the other hand, has not forgotten and did a good job putting the program together. Jim kept it simple. We had two speakers, and Matt presented a few interesting facts about Eagle Scouts. Then one of our more recent Eagle scouts administered the Eagle Oath to Paul, and after that, Jim and I got our pins. Then we got to eat cake. If you are going to have boy scouts milling around, you'd better have cake. Yes, there are pictures. Matt before the court of honor The display table close up of a few pictures the hardware Matt presenting some facts about the Eagle rank The Eagle Oath The presentation of hardware to Paul I get my mother's pin Jim gets his father's pin Paul present

Paul is having surgery on Friday. Nothing major; the orthopedic surgeon is just going to fix his funky meniscus and pop a cyst (that sounds like fun. I wonder if they would let me do it) in his knee. So today Paulie went in to the dr for a pre-op physical and as is routine, they hooked him up to the blood pressure cuff. While the nurse was checking his bp, he asked the nurse if she was going to do a blood draw at this physical. She said, "Yes." And she watched Paul's bp skyrocket. She said, "I can tell by your bp that you don't like that." I had a good laugh when Paul told me. I would like to hook Paul up to a bp cuff and see what else would send his bp to new heights. Spiders for sure. Unclean/unvacuumed rooms perhaps?

Jim had a birthday yesterday! Cake! Of course the ideas for cake decoration always come at the last minute so I don't have time to fully flesh out the idea and collect materials. But since cake is meant to be eaten, I don't mind so much that my ARTISTIC VISION is not fully realized. Plus, Jim doesn't care. When I asked him what kind of cake I should make him, his response was "whatever, just not strawberry flavored." And even then, he said, "I'd still eat it, though." Has there EVER been a guy easier to please than Jim? I think not. The idea came from his age. Yes, he's 51. And when I hear "51," first thing that springs to mind is Area 51, that secret military base that houses aliens. How to turn that into a cake? Pretend that Jim is an alien. I like the lettering style of the 51. It ain't perfect, but I like it. The HB, in case you can't figure it out, means Happy Birthday The cake plate is upside down and covered