It's been a wonderful morning!

Why has it been a wonderful morning?

Because for the past week or so, I've suddenly noticed that I was having to buckle my belt on the very inside-most hole. I noticed that my jeans were looser. I noticed that a pair of slacks I almost took back because they fit too tight were suddenly just fine. Yesterday it occurred to me that a pair of jeans I recently bought a size smaller than usual were too big and, even with my belt buckled on the tightest loop, there was still a lot of slack.

This morning, on a whim, I pulled a pair of jeans from the bottom of the stack. A pair I haven't been able to wear in a couple of years. They slipped up and buttoned so easily it was laughable.

So now you're wondering how in the world I've managed to lose weight and inches and be almost completely oblivious to it, aren't you?

It's called no more benadryl.

For the past few YEARS, I've had to take massive doses of antihistamines to control my hives. We'd found a few food allergies, but it took a long time for me to discover and eliminate the biggest irritant - caramel coloring. It's finally worked it's way mostly out of my system and I've been down to just 1 medicine in the morning and one at night for awhile (with the exception of one breakthrough, but it's back under control).

You know how just one dose of benadryl will knock most people out? Just think of years of massive doses of it and every other antihistamine you've ever heard of. I felt like a zombie. No energy, no focus. The meds slowed down my metabolism and slowed me down so that even my daily activity level bottomed out.

If that's not a recipe for weight gain, I don't know what it.

Since the allergies have been under control and I've gotten off most of the medication, I'm moving more. Doing more. My body has been recovering from the constant onslaught. As a result, my body is shedding the weight the medications caused. I really wasn't looking for it and so it kinda caught me by surprise. A pleasant surprise.

Here's hoping the trend continues and I can pull out more of the smaller clothes my little optimistic self has been keeping around just in case.

Chew toys

Today I dropped the oldest daughter off at a birthday party and took the younger one with me on an exploratory trip to a nearby pet store.

We don't shop at pet stores as a general rule. We have a cat, but I can pick up food and cat litter when I do my grocery shopping. No extra stops required.

It, however, occurred to me today that November 22nd or 23rd will be here soon. As in just over a week and a half. As in *next weekend*. What's happening on that fateful day, you ask?

We get a dog.

Not just any dog. A puppy. A puppy that we're raising for Southeastern Guide Dogs. For the next year or so we'll provide basic training and lots of exposure to different environments. This puppy will go with us on errands and field trips. We'll hang out with other puppy-raisers and do plenty of group training and events.

I've had dogs before. Growing up, we always had at least one, but we lived in the country and our dogs had no training and were free to wander at will. We never had an inside dog that we had to walk or teach to behave. It's been making me nervous. I have a comprehensive training guide that gives specifics on *everything* - from how to word commands to what kind of food dishes to use. That in and of itself is nerve-wracking to my little rule-following heart. How will I remember everything???

During our trip through the pet store today, we looked at pet gates with special doors that the cat can get through. We discussed the pros and cons of different crates with an associate. We priced food and water dishes. We talked about brands of dog food (did you they make food specially formulated for labradors?) I'm going to have to go back with one of the other puppy-raisers to see what they suggest. Then L and I got to the fun stuff. We looked at collars and leashes and we checked out the chew toys. Curiously, they looked a lot the chew toys for babies.

We picked out a chew toy that fit what I remembered of the guidelines from the manual and we made our very first purchase for the puppy that will be here next weekend. Seeing that chew toy makes the whole thing more real. It's actually going to happen after months of waiting. It has the dual effect of making me even more nervous and calming my fears a bit. It will just be a puppy. A cute cuddly romping puppy that needs a family to take care of her.

You want to know what else helped?

Go to the Southeastern Guide Dog website puppy cam and watch their current litter play. I don't know if it's the litter that will be coming to Charlotte or not, but they're really really cute. I was also extremely heartened to see that some of the toys in that pen violated the rules in the manual. When it comes to puppies, you have to be a little flexible.

My low-budget living room makeover

This post should be alternately titled, "One woman's garage sale stuff is another woman's treasure".

A few posts ago, I showed off the buffet I inherited from my grandmother. It's been a beautiful addition to my living room and I've been working to make the rest of the room look worthy of such a grand piece of furniture.

When you walk into my house, you walk right into the living room. It has a 2-story ceiling and white walls and I wanted to make it look warm and cozy with browns and oranges and reds and I wanted to do it without spending a fortune. Like what it would cost to paint the 2-story tall walls in here and the adjoining dining room. Or buy new furniture. I worked with what I had.

What I had was a black modern futon and a set of tables in dark wood. I had rich red-toned wood floors, two heavy dark gold lamps, and a few pillows, a few knick-knacks, and a beautiful antique buffet. What I had was no budget to work with so anything else I got had to be cheap.

And this is what it looks like tonight.


When my parents were down last month, we decorated the buffet and my mom was wonderful enough to buy a few decorative items to use there and I found a few inexpensive additions.

I wanted some trim to dress up a small lamp, so I went to the fabric store where I found some wonderful fabric heavily clearanced that would be perfect for drapes. Sure, it was a little more floral than my ideal, but at $3.50/yard, I wasn't going to be picky. Buying the hardware at Wal-Mart saved a few dollars and the rods are still pretty.

The next day was The Nester's yard sale and even though she swore she didn't have many cute things, I came out with a huge bag full and I only spent $8.50. So, Nester, do you recognize this pedestal?


A little spray paint and some furry trim and it's a completely new creature. Then her bird found a new home on top of my wire house.


Some old pillows and fabric remnants from that garage sale became new accents on my couch.


I even made small pillows for the extra dining room chairs that wandered away from my table.


The Nester's old pillows were far cheaper than buying new pillow forms from the craft section. When I was recovering the pillows, I decided to iron the edges under and topstitch them to make it easier to fit the pillow in and sew it closed. Mr. at Home came in and he knows enough about sewing to know that I was "supposed" to sew it inside out. I was trying to explain the different design and he exclaimed, "Oh, like a ravioli!" Why, yes, exactly. It's like sealing a ravioli.

The Nester lives way around on the other side of town and I had trouble getting back out to the loop after I left her house. I ended up shooting over it and I had to turn around in a neighborhood. Where there was a yard sale sign. And I figured, hey, why not. I could ask the quickest way to an entrance ramp AND see if there was anything else I *needed*. That's where I found this mirror.


Which I brought home and spray painted and hung on the wall. And paired with this little spray from the 75% clearance shelf at Target that I enhanced with a few orange-y flowers I got from The Nester.

In addition to making 6 pillows today, I edited Mr. at Home's paper for business class and took the girls to a local fall festival. It was in a town center filled with little shops, one of which was going out of business and I found this little bird house on "going out of business" clearance.


I love how the little birds hung out a fall wreath and I have a feeling they'll be putting out a different one for Christmas.

And those sticks in the vase? Those were in my backyard. Add a couple of sticks of berries left-over from a project years ago and it's a free version of the latest in home decor.

So a whole new warm and cozy living room filled with not-so-new stuff that I love.

K the Softball Legend

K plays softball. Have I mentioned that? She's on her 4th season, 4th team, 4th set of coaches, and 2nd association. We've had awesome fundamental coaches, excellent strategy coaches, and coaches that were so bad we didn't play in the end-of-season tournament because they didn't know about it.

We moved across town last year and K is playing in a different association that is part of a different league with different rules. In the spring, K had to get used to the girls doing most of the pitching and she handled the transition well. At the end of the season, K learned there was an all-star team and a travel team and her goal became to do whatever it takes to get invited to those teams.

So for the first time, we are playing fall softball. It's a slightly smaller group with our association fielding 3 8U teams instead of the 4 it had in the spring. The biggest change is that all the teams have taken it up a few notches. The girls pitch more consistently, field more accurately, and hit more regularly. I don't know if they've all developed that much more body control since the spring or if only the more serious players participate in the fall, but it's been exciting to see the level of play improve so much.

We've slogged our way through a wet autumn season with weeknights and weekends committed to softball games. When we've wanted to camp, we've had to suck it up and stay for another game. When my grandmother died, K missed several games while we were gone. She couldn't miss any more and be eligible for the tournament, so we had no choice but to be there every single game. Thankfully, she made it to the end of the regular season healthy and ready to play every time.

Our team had a fantastic record. We got a brand new coach who amazingly stuck right in there with the seasoned and dedicated guys who've been coaching this level for ages. Our record was exactly the same as the others. Our team is full of tall girls and every single one of them can hit and hit well. Our coach knows the game and how best to use each girl's strengths and we went into the tournament last week fully expecting to do well.

So far, we're 5 games into the double-elimination tournament and our team is still alive and kicking. We have lost one game, but we're in until we lose another. There are 4 teams left in the tournament - the 3 teams from our association and one team from a neighboring community. We have to win 4 more games to win the championship and we have an excellent chance to do just that. And K is one the reasons we have that chance.

K has become an excellent softball player. She's extremely patient at the plate - never swinging at the first pitch and shows absolutely no nervousness when she falls behind with 2 strikes. She can wait out a ball or foul off close pitches until she finds one she likes and sends it sailing into the outfield. Even with genetics making her a slow runner, she still manages to squeeze out a few doubles. When she's in the field, K normally plays 3rd with a stint or two in right field because she's one of the few players who will work to back up first base every time. She can make the throw from 3rd to 1st base accurately and she's strong enough to get it there in the air.

Most importantly, K is a player who does what she's asked without complaining. She listens and learns. She's focused when she's on the field, always watching and moving and reacting when the coaches yell instructions. She wants to improve and will work hard to accomplish what she needs to. Those are the qualities that make her an excellent player, a valuable asset to her team, and those are the qualities that will serve her well in every area of life.

After all, isn't that why we have our kids play sports?

If you want to move a chair...

I've been working on my living room lately. You know - reorganizing, rearranging, decorating, thinking about paint and furniture and what I want on the walls and on the mantle. It's been a lot more consuming than I would have thought, but I'm loving the changes.

One change I've decided I want to try is to move a certain brown chair from the living room where it works just fine upstairs to the loft where we need more seating and it would be more useful. But in order to move the chair upstairs, there were a few things that had to happen first.

Before I moved the chair, I had to clean the loft and the living room.

Before I could clean the loft or the living room, I had to move some extra stuff out of the living room.

Before I moved that extra stuff, I had to finish some projects.

Before I finished the projects, I had to work on school planning.

Before I worked on school planning, I had to organize a bunch of school stuff.

(It was like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" backwards.)

So I got all the school papers organized into their proper binders and put away.

Then I knew what needed to come next in the girls' lessons, so I got some lesson planning done and their work ready for the coming week.

Then I had some free time to work on my projects and got my crocheting and my sewing done.

Once those projects were done, I could move the craft table and stool out of the living room and back into the craft room and I put the crochet projects in a box to mail to my nephews.

Now that the extra stuff was out of the way, I can finish the laundry today and finally clean my living room and my loft. Ok, that will probably have to be finished tomorrow.

And only then can I move my chair upstairs and see if it works in our loft.

All that reminds me of a funny thing that happened this week. When I was finishing up my sewing, L brought her worksheet to the craft table telling me that she was supposed to draw a picture of her mom or dad working, like as a waitress or a doctor or fireman or something. I explained that she needed to draw us doing our real jobs, like Daddy working on his computer or me doing one of the many jobs I do - driving, cleaning, teaching, sewing, etc. She looked at me in extreme disappointment and announced, "I wish you were a waitress." Sheesh! Even my own daughter doesn't think I have a real job.

She ended up drawing me sewing and here's what I was working on.


The other project I finished was making was these little rectangle monsters for my nephews. The youngest's birthday is tomorrow and I thought all the boys might like getting a box in the mail and pulling out these little guys.

My Better Dressed Nest

On Monday, my parents pulled up in front of my house in their SUV pulling a U-Haul trailer. No they aren't moving in. They brought me a piece of furniture.

A very special piece of furniture.

When my grandmother passed away last month, we had to go through all the papers, photos, and furniture in her home. Relatives were given the opportunity to request things they would like to have. There were two things that I wanted. Of all the furniture and knickknacks that had found a place in my memories of my grandmother, two pieces stood out. One was a small telephone bench. It has a seat and a small table where one could sit and talk on the phone. You know back when phones were plugged in the wall, handsets were attached with a short cord, and you turned a wheel to dial a number. The other piece I loved is an old buffet that has always stood in her dining room. It was covered with desserts at family holiday dinners. We rummaged through its drawers for tape and paper. It was the signature piece that everyone loved. I'd mentioned a few times that I'd love to have it, but everyone else said the same thing. In the days after my grandmother's death, my cousins and siblings and I talked about that buffet and how it was the one piece that WAS Grandmother's house.

When my aunt approached me and said they wanted me to have it, I was floored. Really? Me? It was like achieving Most Favored Nation status. I'm not the oldest, the only, the prettiest, the most, the favorite, or anything like that. I have a way with words and was honored to be asked to write my grandmother's obituary, but to be offered the buffet was HUGE.

I hemmed and hawed and lamented that I just didn't have anywhere to put it and it would be difficult to get it back to NC, blah blah blah. Then I smacked myself upside the head, came to my senses, and declared that I would sell every other piece of furniture in my living room to make room for that buffet. Thankfully, I have wonderful parents who offered to load it into a U-Haul trailer and bring it halfway across the country for me.

Have I mentioned how awesome my parents are? Because they are.

On Monday, my parents and the buffet arrived and we brought it in during a lull in the rain. We placed it against the stairwell wall in my living room and it looks like it was made for that spot. The space between the stair molding and the chair rail molding in the attached dining room is exactly the length of the buffet. The clearance between the front of the buffet and the half-wall separating the living and dining rooms is exactly perfect. The mahogany finish of the buffet exactly matches the finish of my living room tables. It is *exactly* the piece that completes my living room furniture and layout.


The first thing I did was get out the scratch cover furniture polish and go over the whole thing inside and out. The old, dry wood now shines. It needs a few more deep conditioning treatments, but it's looking much better. We then spent the next few days considering what to do with it. Thankfully, The Nester has been running 31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest and she has been addressing exactly the things I needed. Like having a focal point and creating a tablescape and adding seating and using lamps - all things that I've used incorporating my grandmother's buffet into my living room.


I "shopped" my house gathering things I already had that I thought would look nice on the buffet, like the old books, the pumpkins, the iron cage, and the large painting I hung above it. I tweaked the layout, we've all stood back and made suggestions. I picked up a lamp for cheap at Wal-Mart, indian corn from the grocery store, and a glass vase and a frame (on deep, dark clearance!)from Michaels. I added a tiny antique framed picture that I brought back from my grandmother's house. My mother bought me a glass gourd and a candlestick today and they were exactly what the buffet needed. I then liberated a chair from the corner of my dining room and borrowed a pillow for it from the couch and set it in the corner created by the buffet and the stairs. There's never been enough seating in the living room and this worked beautifully.


I love love love the buffet as it sits in my living room. I love admiring the wood and the structure. I love all the beautiful pieces that are displayed on top. I love thinking about what treasures I can store inside. But most of all, I love the memories of my grandmother and the wonderful times I've spent at her house that come to mind when I see her buffet in my living room.

It's my past blending into my future.

Giddy with excitement

I'm positively giddy.

Why, you ask?

Because I get to take a "business trip"!

Did you ever travel for business? Way back when I had a "career", when I was a rising star, the youngest "senior technical writer", I went on business trips. I always managed to work everything out so that I had some time to play as well as attend meetings and training sessions and talks. I've spent a weekend enjoying the white sand of Pensacola and wandered through Muir Woods outside of San Francisco. I've whiled away an afternoon in the aquarium on Pier 39 and bumped along on the Kilimanjaro Safari in Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Ah, yes, those were the days.

I did like to go alone and do the things I wanted to do when I wanted to do it, but the absolute best times I had on business trips was when I had a co-worker or two along for the fun.

So you, my "coworkers", are officially invited to join me on my "business trip".

On Monday, December 7th, the Pioneer Woman will be in Atlanta to sign her soon-to-be-released cookbook.

Pioneer Woman is a writer, a blogger, a homeschool mom. Me, too! So going to meet her at the book signing qualifies as a "business trip". There's nothing quite like going to a book release or a book signing. You're surrounded by excited people who are all talking about the book. Everyone talks to everyone else, an instant camaraderie created as you share your experiences with the book or author, what you've learned, what you love and what you hate.

So I'll probably be driving down early that day so I can find the bookstore and a hotel. I'll do a little exploring, grab an early dinner, then I'll be getting in line early and just enjoying the atmosphere. After a late night of hanging out at the bookstore, I'll be up the next morning for some shopping/browsing/touristing before I head back home to Charlotte.

If that sounds like something you'd love to do, then join me. We'll share the cost AND the fun! I've already got "buy-in" from my "boss" who will be handling my job as well as his own for the two days I'm gone. He did mention something about turning in a "detailed expense report" at the end, though. Maybe I should take it easy on the shopping...

So how about it? Are you in?