Where's Polly?

She may think twice before she hops up on the edge of the bathtub again!

The Best Weekend...EVER!

Where do I begin?

A couple of months ago, I asked my Clarion Hen friend, Kim, if she'd like to meet me in Minneapolis to see The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, at her Mall of America book signing.

The answer was "yes". So we invited ourselves to stay with our Minneapolis Hen friend, Heidi, for the weekend.

A weekend trip to the Twin Cities soon turned into a four day excursion after I suggested we throw a little wedding dress shopping into the plans.

We had a lot on the agenda...buy a wedding dress, catch a movie, shop, eat, talk, sleep, and meet a celebrity blogger.

Luckily, the theme of the trip was "Git 'er Done"!

After several hours of dress shopping, Kim walked out of the dressing room, I let out a huge gasp, and we knew she'd found the one.

Spoiler Alert!

Mike...if you're reading this, the dress looks a lot like this...


We ate, shopped, talked, and slept. Then came Saturday, the day of the big Pioneer Woman cookbook signing. It was scheduled to begin at 1 pm. So...duh...we got there at 1 pm. Only to find out that people had started lining up at 7 am. The line was unbelievably long and sadly, we realized it would be a huge waste of time to stand in line all day.

Two seconds after Heidi snapped this picture to chronicle our irritation, a security guard asked us why people were lining up to have some dude sign their book. What, huh, oh my God, it was her husband, Marlboro Man, signing autographs too!

After we saw him, I felt a bit better. If we couldn't talk to her, he was just as good. So we headed through the mall to grab some lunch and see the new movie, The Blind Side, which was a very good movie indeed.

After the show, we walked back through the mall, right past the area where, 12 hours ago, all those crazy fans had lined up for a chance to meet some rancher's wife from Oklahoma. And low and behold, would you believe it, but she was still there signing books and it was now 7 pm!?

So we got in line. There were 5 people in front of us and we were the very last 2 people to have our books signed by The Pioneer Woman that day!

Like I said...the BEST WEEKEND EVER!

A Kitten with Mittens...Literally

Helping me make mittens has been very tiring for Polly.


Here is my last batch of completed mittens. Six of these are already spoken for and I'm thinking of keeping a pair for myself.


I've made a total of 44 pairs of mittens. Some I've given as gifts to friends, family, and Allie's teacher. One pair was made for Jason's coworker who gave me four of her old sweaters. And the rest I've sold for $20-25 each. I've made close to $500 so far, and minus the cost of supplies, that's a profit of $300!

Seriously...I Could Post One of These Everyday!

This is the basket where we put our receipts that sits on the kitchen desk.

Back to the Cutting Board

Allie's Second Grade Portrait