Weekend recap

We all know how much there is to do when you get home from a trip and I woke up with a yucky stomach bug about 3am.  Feeling better now but really needed today to get caught up.  Here’s a recap of the craziness.

Wednesday night we attended the kids Awana awards night at my Mom and Dad’s church.  Emma and Luke had been memorizing verses and going to Awana meetings since October and they both had worked so hard and both got Awana clubber of the year.  I was so impressed with how much they have learned.
We left straight from the Awana night and drove to Reston, VA (about 320 miles).  Got to our hotel at about 2:30am and caught a few hours of sleep and headed over to Wibo early on Thursday morning.  Met some great ladies while we helped with check-in and at the Ladies Luncheon that Ainsley organized.  Jennifer Antonucci had an honest, from the heart message to pastor’s wives.  Looking forward to reading her blog.  There were also some great speakers at WiBo that encouraged us to keep seeking God in this whole church thing and a new passion for seeing the lost find Jesus.
After Wibo we had dinner with my uncle Larry and my cousins.  They live a few miles away in Maryland.  Great dinner at Morton’s Steak House.
Then we drove to Woodbridge to spend the night so we could be ready to hit IKEA Friday morning.  We had ordered a BUNCH of stuff for our new downtown building.  It was and ALL Day affair at IKEA – we were exhausted but had a nice ride back.  We always enjoy talking on long car rides.  
That’s a recap of our trip – I like to visit new places and travel but I love being home.  I missed my kids.

Cool new kids stuff -puddle jumpers and tigers

My mother in law got me a subscription to Family Fun Magazine last year and I really enjoy it. They also have a great website with lots of kid ideas. Here are a couple of cute kids things that I found in this months issue. Since we love to ride bikes on the New River Trail this really caught my eye. We already have a trailer but this looks like a great one if your in the market for one.
I also ran across these cute shoes. Puddle Jumper’s – cute and they even go up to tween sizes. They have interchagable flowers and ladybugs. Check out the sale page for great markdown prices. And a part of their profits go to support orphanages worldwide.

New Crafty ideas

I found Kids Craft Weekly over on Goody Blog. It’s a great craft site for kids. I am not very crafty – you won’t find scrapbooking and sewing at my house. But, Emma really enjoys crafty things. She is usually left to finding and creating her own crafts because I am not good at initiating crafts or coming up with ideas. Check this out. I think I will give her the instructions for the flowers and let her make some for Grandma’s birthday today.

Mother Daughter Brunch

I am looking forward to the Mother Daughter Brunch on Saturday. Time is running out to sign up for. Awesome brunch food, a fun craft for the kids and mom/daughter/grandma/aunt time. Join us. If you don’t have a mom or daughter to bring- borrow one for the day. Go to www.mycornerstone.org to register or email me and I’ll get you signed up.

Cheap hotel for WIBO

I am really picky – spoiled – is probably a better word – when it comes to hotels. I don’t like old hotels or dirty hotels or outside entrance hotels or mom and pop hotels – you get the idea. We are going to Reston in a couple of weeks for WIBO and I had been putting off making reservations because I had looked around a little bit but everything in Reston is really expensive for us non-NOVA people that aren’t used to the high prices up there. I had read on Ben Arment’s blog (the organizer of WIBO) that hotwire.com had cheap prices but you don’t know what you are getting until after you book and you can’t cancel. I was a little worried but I decided to be dangerous and live on the wild side a little. We got a room for $69 at the Holiday Inn at Dulles – doesn’t look great but fine. We won’t be able to leave Galax until about 8pm because the kids have an awards night we don’t want to miss so we will only be at the hotel for a few hours of sleep and a shower. I also reserved a room at a nice Country Inn and Suites in Woodbridge for Thursday night so we can be at Potomac Mills bright and early Friday morning without fighting the traffic. I am excited about WIBO and the Ladies Lunch and picking up our furniture for Cornerstone downtown at IKEA.

I am a jotter now


I guess I can’t give Mike a hard time about his tech nerdiness. I signed up for Jott last night and it is very cool. You call the toll free number, choose a contact and then say your message and it converts it to a text and an email message to that person. No more using thumbs to text and you can send emails on the go. Mike and Boni are the only ones in my contacts list. Boni signed up this morning too so we have been “jotting” each other. Mike stopped at the grocery store last night so I “jotted” the list to him. It needs a southern accent feature to choose because there were a few things that it totally messed up. I said “cheese – the pizza kind” and it texted “cheese and pizza corn” it also called my husband a b&$%#rd when I tried to say “last one”. He said he laughed out loud in the grocery aisle as he read that one. I guess I am going to make sure I speak clearly and try to loose the accent when I Jott.

My husband is a twitter

Ok, as if blogging isn’t enough to keep everyone “connected” Mike is now using twitter. Twitter is a strange tool that is like a mini blog and you can keep track of what other people are doing throughout the day. I have been giving him a hard time about it but I knew when I married him that he was a tech nerd. Maybe that’s why I married him to keep all my tech stuff running (and maybe a few other reasons too 🙂 I do have to admit that after looking at Twitter it could be a lot of fun. Are there any twitter chicks out there or any that want to give it a try? Maybe we could be Twitter Mama’s together. Or maybe mama’s don’t have time to twitter. Let me know if you are a Twitter.

Cool link to share

Just stumbled across this company – Ephraim clothing. Check out the section that says heart to get their story of starting a Christian Clothing Company that adds art and style but keeps the message. Very artsy and very cool.