Tuesday Ten

1. I put up a Christmas tree yesterday. I know. I know. It's early... but I bought this fully decorated tree at Michaels two years ago at a steal of a price after Christmas and have yet to put it up. Last year, with the kitchen remodel, there was hardly time to get the regular tree up. And when I went through the Christmas storage area the other day, I saw this little tree and just knew I had to put it up. It makes me happy. This brings my tree total to three - the big tree, the kids' tree, and now I have a kitchen tree. YAY!
2. We made about $16,000 at our school auction last weekend. That's a great thing. Totally makes all the hard work worth it. I couldn't believe how much people spent on things - this was certainly a different socio-economic group than we are in... two families spent over $550 dollars each for their kids to have lunch with the principal. Crazy.
3. My friend Mindy came over yesterday and taught me how to knit. I've always wanted to learn. I have about three inches of a scarf made. It's the prettiest green... I sat and knitted through two ER's last night. (We still watch the show after all these years, but are weeks and weeks behind.)
4. Got all my stocking stuffers bought last night. LOVE that feeling. I went to the dollar store after my work out and bought loads of candy and trinkets. I'll still pick up a few things, but the bulk of it is done.
5. I've been lacking patience lately with the kids... seems like they ignore me all the time. I get SO angry when they ignore me. And then I just lose it. Bad Mommy. Need to pray about this one - I hate to yell, but I feel like it's the only way they pay attention to me anymore. Ugh. Parenting is hard. I'll take any and all advice.
6. We have a wedding date for Ryan and his fiancee. July 7th. We're SO excited for this wedding. Ry asked Asia to be his best man. We were surprised by this, since he has two brothers - but he and Mindy (not the one who taught me to knit - the one who is Ryan's fiancee) both wanted to have the people who have played an important mentoring role in their lives stand up for them. We are honored.
7. The dog is laying in a sunny spot and has her paw over her eyes to shield them from the sun... too cute.
8. My kids apparently don't understand the concept of garbage cans. I was helping them clean the basement the other day and we found oodles of wrappers all over the place. We're talking about a whole small garbage can full... what's up with that? Whatever gave them the idea to throw garbage on the floor? Appalling!
9. Pottery Barn has the best taper candles. (And that's all I have to say about that.)
10. I have an idea in my head about a mini Christmas tree made out of three die cut pyramid boxes and it's all I can think about - so I'm off to my studio now to see what I can come up with. Happy Tuesday, friends.