Mother's Day Fun

I just brought my baby (Maddie) home from the vet, following a pretty big surgery yesterday (bladder stones again). As I sit in my chair with her warm little body snuggled in next to me, I thought it would be a good time to update and reflect on Mother's Day.

Mother's Day was magical for me. I started the day off with a phone call from Melanie and Luke, wishing me a happy day. We had a nice visit before I had to dash out to take Maddie to the groomer to get beautified. While she was there getting primped and fluffed, Katie and Phil came down to spend the day with us. They brought me beautiful fresh flowers from Pike Place Market along with a gift card for pampering at a Gene Juarez salon. I'm very excited to use that! Part of the fun of that particular gift is the anticipation and dreaming about which service I will indulge in. I'm leaning toward a pedicure that includes a paraffin bath for the feet. I'm told it's heavenly.


Katie had made reservations at Mama Stortini's for the Mother's Day Brunch, which I have always wanted to try. We arrived, were seated right away, and were immediately treated to mimosas. The food was all wonderful. There was sooooooo much! We enjoyed both breakfast type food and dinner cuisine. And then there was the dessert table! As Katie put it, "we rolled on out to the car," and took a little drive out to Van Lierop's bulb farm. Most of the tulips were already cut back, but there were still some pretty gardens to see. Here are some pictures I took.

After we left there, we drove north to pick Maddie up from her beauty appointment. She looked absolutely adorable all decked out in a turquoise scarf with a turquoise dragonfly on her right hip. We all went home, put a leash on Clancy and took a nice family walk in the neighborhood. This was followed by just relaxing for a bit and then a trip to Lowe's to look for plants for our containers. The flowers there were pretty picked over so we decided to wait.

Although we left Mama Stortini's completely stuffed and feeling like we could never eat again, we all decided we could probably fit in some ice cream for "dinner" so we were off to Cold Stone Creamery. YUM!!! I, of course, had my all time favorite...Coffee Lover's special. To round out the day, when we got home I received a phone call from Megan to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. I had a nice little chat with her. Needless to say, I felt very spoiled and was made to feel very special all day. I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful family and count myself a lucky mom!

A Full Weekend

It sure feels good to relax in front of the old television for a bit after a very busy weekend. It was so nice to have the entire weekend off with Phil. I'm feeling really good about a decision I made Friday to drop the Pro-Cert program I was in. It had become such a source of stress on top of stress at work. After doing some investigation, I discovered that I have a lot longer on my current certificate than I was being led to believe, so I have some time yet before I need to submit a portfolio to the state. Making the decision to drop was like a giant weight was lifted and I truly felt relaxed over the weekend.

Saturday we added a new member to the household. Phil's brother has been working construction jobs that take him all over and he has been looking for a good home for his little dog. We have been a one dog household for over a year and I have really enjoyed only having one dog so much that I was hesitant to take on another one even though we know he is a good guy. Roger's daughter took him for a while, so we thought everything was taken care of. Unfortunately, her boyfriend's dog didn't particularly like having him around and seemed to want to attack him. Therefore...we decided to go ahead and adopt him. Eight year old Clancy MacMurray joined our family on Saturday afternoon. Julie, Michele, and Tyler drove over from the Tri-Cities to deliver him. We had a very nice visit with them and all went out to lunch together. Maddie gets along well with Clancy unless he is heading for her food bowl. She does seem to have her nose a little bent out of shape, but she's coping.

Clancy

We spent today up north with Katie and Phil looking at houses. We went to several open houses and checked out a lot of neighborhoods in Lynnwood and Mill Creek. There is a lot to see and we difinitely saw a couple with some real possibilities. As the experienced support crew, Phil and I threw our two cents worth in and now it will have to be up to them. I'm sure all the information and options will be swimming through their minds tonight.

We finished our day up there with a feast at the Chinese Buffet. YUM!!! Almost bedtime now and then back to reality tomorrow.