Not full like, I just ate a bagel from Panera, and man I'm full.
More like, I just ordered the bread bowl from Panera, with a side of baguette (yes, bread with a side of bread), and ate all the soup, the baguette, the torn off little hunk from where they poured the soup in, and then the entire bread bowl too. That kind of full.
Thursday was the pool party that I described in the previous post.
Friday I went and bought a suit, the first since 1998. Sarah rocked that out, and we were out in less than 40 minutes. Good stuff. Thanks Men's Wearhouse for making things stupid easy for me.
Saturday. Wow.
First, we went to the Broadview Christmas Tree Farm in Highland to get a Christmas tree. A family friend knows the owners, and contacted them so that we might be able to get a free tree, and have the experience together to cut it down. The girls both liked that, although we had to bundle Amie up something serious in her off-road stroller to make her part of the experience.
Janey at Broadview was completely patient with Anya and Shelley as they wandered among the trees, waiting for one to speak to them. This only took 20ish minutes, which was freakishly fast for my legendarily indecisive girls (Shelley and Anya). Amie and I are way, way more decisive about things. Probably to our own detriment. We got TimBits on the way home, which made it even better for all of them.
Yes, I said them because side note, I don't really care about sweet things, for the most part. After a meal, I might want a single square of chocolate like I do at work some times, but for the most part, I never want dessert. Or candy. Or donuts. Or cakes. Or pies. Or really anything that I am supposed to like. In the summer, I can get behind some ice cream, but for the most part, I can pass so easily. All my cravings are liquid, unfortunately. :)
Anyway, after we got home, and got Amie a nap (every day between 12-2), we received a visit from the lovely people who arranged the "Christmas in November" for us, courtesy of The Bayou Grill in Belleville. Our elves? Brian and Mary Copsey, Keith Barthauer, and three former students of mine, Janell Couperthwaite, Jillian Nelson and Leia LaPensee.
Thursday was the pool party that I described in the previous post.
Friday I went and bought a suit, the first since 1998. Sarah rocked that out, and we were out in less than 40 minutes. Good stuff. Thanks Men's Wearhouse for making things stupid easy for me.
Saturday. Wow.
First, we went to the Broadview Christmas Tree Farm in Highland to get a Christmas tree. A family friend knows the owners, and contacted them so that we might be able to get a free tree, and have the experience together to cut it down. The girls both liked that, although we had to bundle Amie up something serious in her off-road stroller to make her part of the experience.
Janey at Broadview was completely patient with Anya and Shelley as they wandered among the trees, waiting for one to speak to them. This only took 20ish minutes, which was freakishly fast for my legendarily indecisive girls (Shelley and Anya). Amie and I are way, way more decisive about things. Probably to our own detriment. We got TimBits on the way home, which made it even better for all of them.
Yes, I said them because side note, I don't really care about sweet things, for the most part. After a meal, I might want a single square of chocolate like I do at work some times, but for the most part, I never want dessert. Or candy. Or donuts. Or cakes. Or pies. Or really anything that I am supposed to like. In the summer, I can get behind some ice cream, but for the most part, I can pass so easily. All my cravings are liquid, unfortunately. :)
Anyway, after we got home, and got Amie a nap (every day between 12-2), we received a visit from the lovely people who arranged the "Christmas in November" for us, courtesy of The Bayou Grill in Belleville. Our elves? Brian and Mary Copsey, Keith Barthauer, and three former students of mine, Janell Couperthwaite, Jillian Nelson and Leia LaPensee.
To say they brought a lot of stuff would be the most massive understatement. This picture did not even encompass everything, as there was a lot of stuff on the kitchen table behind where we were taking pictures. Yikes.
We spent the next 2.5 hours going through all the bags, organizing the gifts so that we could figure out what the girls could use now, what they could use in a few weeks, and what would be good for the future. The girls were just blown away by the sheer amount of kindness, thoughtfulness, and generosity of everyone.
...and then we found the gift bag full of cards. Wow. There are no words. Really.
Truly humbling.
We went to bed on Saturday night utterly exhausted, but surrounded by the love and well-wishes of a massive group of people who care about us, and are totally invested in the welfare of my daughter.
Sunday brought another event to us, and one with a slightly more unique visitor.
Camp Casey is a non-profit group that brings horseback riding to kids with cancer, to their houses, for them and their friends.
They start off with grooming and education about horses, and then have the kids each take a ride on the horse...this one was named Ashley.
The girls had an amazing time riding Ashley, as you can imagine, and then got to do crafts afterwards, while the other kids rode.
It was chilly, but everyone had a great time with the Camp Casey folks, and especially Ashley.
Overall, the weekend was beyond good, but also beyond tiring for Amie. We're hoping she gets her energy up/back over the next few days, as her nap requests have more than doubled since all that activity started. :) Good problems to have though.
One last little thing: this is a piece of artwork I got from a student who I got to know well, but was never actually in my class. She is a 10th grader these days, and I was so pleased to see this in our gift bags from the event on Thursday. Thank you Ms. Lexie. Truly.
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