Busy, busy bee, that's me!

So, if I'm gonna be completely honest (and a blog is a good place to do so), I am normally lazy enough to give myself plenty of time on the good ol' 'puter. Often my cute little HP Mini is another appendage. (Sending out this quick shout-out to my Hubster for the ever-so-thoughtful birthday gift!) However, the past few days I've actually been busy.

~Saturday I helped Husby with the Tacoma Wedding Expo. Afterwards, we had dinner out with D, T & Lex at Adriatic Grill.

~Sunday was a baby shower for my soon-to-be-born-Goddaughter (daughter of D & T). :) That was an all day affair. Okay, the shower wasn't all day, but I did help with set up, some of the tear down & had LOTS of visiting.

~Monday my grandparents came over for dinner. I planned on making meatloaf. Meatloaf requires the oven. Upon preheating the oven to make lunch for my husband and daughter, I noticed while rushing around doing the oh-my-goodness-someone-is-coming-over-so-I-gotta-clean-and clean-fast shuffle that my oven had smoke billowing out of it. So, the kid & the hubster got PB&J & I got to go research to to clean a gas oven.

I am ashamed to say that I've never "actually" cleaned an oven. Yeah, I've got the gunk out, but not really used real, grown up, oven cleaner & scrubbed. But, I had to on Monday. My husband reheated some pizza in the oven, directly on the rack. While he swears that it wasn't his pizza (and all the oil that MUST have dripped off of it) that made the oven smoke, it didn't smoke BEFORE he reheated his pizza. I'm just sayin'.

AnyHOO - I made turkey meatloaf (amazing, if I do say so myself), mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli, & rolls. Had a great visit with my grandparents.

~Tuesday we had some Ang & Kyle over for dinner. I made lasagna. This was only my 2nd attempt at making lasagna, but I'm not tooting my own horn when I say that I think I did pretty damned good. Ang & Kyle brought salad & dessert (brownie bites & Tahitian Vanilla Bean gelato). Dinner was grubbin' & company was RAD. We played Catch Phrase. Girls won 2 out of 3 rounds. Hell yeah!

~Wednesday (today) we started the day out with tax prep. Yeah, we should be done. But we're SO not. Ugh. Help Hubster out with that for a while, had some de-lish leftover lasagna, then the cable guy arrived. Our Internets connection had been unstable at best. It's now fixed.

While the cable guy worked on cable-y things & Hubster did tax stuff, I organized my closet, part of the top of my dresser (it's the ULTIMATE catch-all), and also hit my bathroom counter & vanity. I feel a bit less like an upcoming episode of Hoarders (or Buried Alive: Hoarders) after that. I then TRULY deep cleaned the oven, did some dishes & rewarded myself with some cookies (Luscious Lemon Tea Cookies - eating the rest now). I worked on a bit of laundry, but decided that I was done cleaning for the night.

Made a VERY gourmet meal for Loodle & I tonight - lil' smokies, mac & cheese, & raw carrots. The BEST part of the meal... Loodle requested the carrots!

Did some more dishes (why did I cook ANYTHING?!?!?!), some more laundry,too. While doing more laundry, I noticed how TOTALLY messy the 1/2 bath downstairs looked. So, I dusted the walls, dusted the pictures & shelves (nick-knacks, too), rearranged the nick-knacks, cleaned the toilet, mirror & sink. I didn't clean the floor because it gets cleaned a few times a week - when Loodle pees on it. :) Guess I shouldn't complain - I'd rather she pee on the tile floor instead of the carpet. (Aaahhh - the joys of potty training!)

Truly, I'm done now. Not with the whole house. Oh, far from it. I'm just hoping that I can have more energy tomorrow. It would be GREAT to get some more Spring Cleaning done. Here's hoping that I can go thru the whole house. Do me a favor & cross you fingers for me. And keep 'em crossed, okay? (Because that's what it will take, folks)

~Thursday (tomorrow) we have a roof guy coming. He's got to go into our attic (thus the cleaning of the closet - the access point is thru the closet ceiling) to check out the possible mold situation. Yep - we found out that our roof isn't properly vented (too MANY vents = improper air circulation) and as a result may have mold issues. Aaaahhhh - the joys of home ownership. I also have another tax-date with the hubster in the AM. (Don't be jealous) After that, I'm hoping for more spring cleaning. Yay!

In family news - I have a new sister. My dad & step mom adopted a beautiful little girl. That makes my total sibling count 6 (3 sisters, 3 brothers). Yes, I am 30... with a sister that's 1 year old. Mine is a very modern family. My family pretty much rocks. I love my family.

In Loodle news - I am pretty certain of the following fact: she gets cooler each day. AND sassier. And I'm also pretty sure she gets cuter daily, too. She is REALLY into a hugging & kissing stage right now. She adores cuddles, too. I am very pleased that she offers up so many hugs & kisses lately that I don't think I could even count the number of free hugs & kisses I get.

We're also doing a new bedtime routine. After brushing teeth, washing face & combing hair (willingly on her part, I might add), we go to bed... rather she goes to bed and I get her room ready. I turn on her various night lights & the local jazz station (used to be classical, but the station doesn't come in well) and tuck her in. We then share more hugs & kisses, sing a song or two (it's been "Peter Cottontail" lately), & talk about "happy things."

She used to not offer up any "happy things," by that wasn't the case tonight:

Mommy: Tell me one happy thing...
Loodle: EASTER BUNNY!
Mommy: EASTER BUNNY?!?!?! Can you tell me one more happy thing?
Loodle: I pway with Audrey. (Audrey is a friend she met a few weeks ago)
Mommy: Yes, you did!
Loodle: An Oxin & Rocksan (Austin & Roxanne)
Mommy: Yes, Audrey's mommy & daddy. Can you tell me another happy thing?
Loodle: *taps her chin thoughtfully*
Mommy: Is helping a happy thing?
Loodle: Yes! I help with forks an' knives an' spoons!
Mommy: You do help me with dishes!
Loodle: An' laundry an' cwean my toys inna wivingwoom.
Mommy: You are my good helper.
Loodle: You are my FAY-BRIT mommy inna WHOLE world!!!
Mommy: *beams, hugs & smooches simultaneously*

Closing note: Must have hit the mouse pad & hit 'publish post' - kinda freaked out until I realized that I can at least do spell check. I almost lost my head for a minute... phew! VERY tired tho, so making zero promises on grammar and/or content. I just got razzed by Amy and felt like I'd better blog something tonight. I think I'll go eat some grapes & then hit the hay! No wonder the numbers on the scale keep going up...