Craft Day, Spa Day, a Birthday, and Some Art & Dance
This past week was a very creative outlet for most of us, especially for the girls. I think every day there was something fun and relaxing to do.
Monday: I sat down with the girls in the afternoon so we could make some Valentine's cards and crafts for family members.
I decided to do a ribbon craft that I found on the internet. I already had a lot of miscellaneous Valentine's ribbon supplies in my craft cupboard downstairs, so I didn't need to buy anything at all for the project. That's always nice!
Later that evening, while Amber took Abby to her dance class, Scott and I took Gwen with us on a dinner date. The date included Scott's parents, Phil and Coy, because we wanted to treat Coy for her birthday. Technically her birthday was on Wednesday, but Tuesday evening worked better for our schedule. We took them to Perkins, one of their favorite restaurants.
Gwen did great, seated and sandwiched in between Scott and me. She ordered Rainbow pancakes with a Gogurt, some chocolate milk and a cookie. She was pretty happy when her plate arrived.
On the way home she was chatting up a storm, talking non-stop. At one point, she must have had a mouthful of spit with all that talking, which caused her to cough and then choke. She was strapped into her car-seat, and we were literally coming around the corner to our driveway, when she started barfing all over herself.
As soon as we pulled into the garage, I got her out of the car and into the bathroom. It was all I could do to not throw up myself. I have a very weak stomach when it comes to other people barfing. I got her all cleaned up in the bath tub and into some clean pajamas right about the same time that Amber and Abby got home. What a whirlwind that turned out to be! Interesting note: Because Gwen was wearing her winter coat in her car-seat, it caught all of the mess within her partially unzipped coat. Ewwww. But at least I didn't have to sanitize the entire car-seat in addition to Gwen!
Wednesday: After several preparations and errands throughout the day, promptly at 6:00 that evening my young women's class came over for an art lesson with Amber.
She first had them paint some watercolor on special watercolor paper. Their instructions were very liberal, allowing them to be as structured or as relaxed as they desired. The watercolor would become the background for Step 2.
After it dried, with a little help from a blow-dryer, they taped on a piece of graphite paper. On top of that, they taped a copy of a photo of themselves. Next, they used a pen to trace all the details from the photo onto the graphite paper, making a carbon copy on the watercolor background underneath.
One of the girls, Allie, was a little distressed at how it turned out. So Amber helped her add some finishing touches to her piece, such as hair highlights, shadowing, etc.
Lastly, Allie added a few white paint dots to embellish the overall and finished product. I think she was much happier in the end.
The girls really enjoyed learning at the feet of a master artist. They are already looking forward to the next art activity that we'll do sometime later this spring.
Thursday: I did a bunch of cleaning, including washing all the bedding in the guest room. It was time for my dear husband to make the trek down the hallway to our bedroom and start sleeping in our own bed once again. The first night was a little rough for me, not necessarily because of his occasional coughing. More so because I had been so used to having my own space and my own peace and quiet at bedtime. I had to make room once again for the man I married, the man I love. But it was still hard. :)
Every time he moved, I noticed. Every time he got up to get a drink or go potty, I noticed. And when he wanted to snuggle me, I would get overheated because he is literally molten lava encased in a human body. And then I felt guilty trying to extricate myself from his grip just so that I could kick off all the covers and turn on the ceiling fan in order to survive. Eventually, I made it through the second half of the night. The next night was much better.
I ordered new vacuum seal space-saving bags because the old ones weren't holding their seal anymore. The extra bedding underneath the guest bed was becoming an eyesore as it stuck out instead of being tucked away out of sight. The new bags, a Ziploc brand from Amazon, were wonderful! They held a lot more items than the old ones we've had for years.
I went from this - with a large king sized blanket plus 2 pillows:
After we finished our 10 minute walk, we visited a darling little shop right on the river at Snake River Landing, called "Love at First Bite". It's a shop filled with pretty much everything! Gifts and baubles galore, along with decadent treats and desserts.
They also have a large assortment of flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegars. I was able to sample a few before deciding on a Tuscan Herb olive oil and a Sicilian Lemon balsamic vinegar. We made a lovely dipping oil to go with our dinner that night, dipping French bread into the Tuscan olive oil sprinkled with some dry pesto seasoning. It was amazing!
The girls had fun picking out a treat of their own in a children's toy and treat area. Gwen chose a roll of bubble gum "tape". Abby chose a hilarious lollipop that you dip into a tiny toy "potty" that has liquid candy inside.
It turned out to be a little more sour than she anticipated.
After dinner Friday evening, we watched the next movie in our Jason Bourne series, The Bourne Ultimatum. We've been enjoying watching one at a time on the weekends, as time permits. It's been fun to revisit Jason Bourne again. He's probably one of my all-time favorite action heroes. The scenes are pretty intense, but the suspense and thrill of it all is quite riveting. A bowl of popcorn or a little bit of ice cream are also a nice bonus to have in our downstairs "theater".
Saturday: Half of my day was shot because of a small health issue. My skin has been really upset lately as I've been trying to find some better products for my face (cleanser, exfoliator, moisturizer, etc.) I try not to be too quick to jump to the next product, but instead giving it at least 1-2 weeks of devoted effort before aborting and moving on. I know when it's time to move on because my face tells me. In loud and obnoxious sorts of ways.
This time, I decided to try a couple of Aveeno products. My Grandma Doris, ever the advocate for her Aveeno face lotion, always invited me to try her favorite brand. But I had my own brand of Olay facial moisturizer and it was working just fine. This winter, I decided to follow Amber's lead in trying Curology, an online company that caters their skin care products to your own face. You send in photos, they prescribe a treatment plan under the care of a nurse, and they keep in close contact with you each month to see how you're doing. After more than a month on their products, I wasn't super impressed. I was still having more breakouts than I would have liked. And now I've been on the hunt for a promising product ever since.
When I chose to try the Aveeno brand, I couldn't help but think that my Grandma Doris would be so pleased with me. I bought a cleanser/exfoliator to use in the shower, a good moisturizer with SPF 30, and some facial cleanser wipes that even take off mascara. It was the wipes that ended up being the disaster.
Thursday evening, I used one of the wipes to take off my mascara and clean my face. I've used a Neutrogena makeup remover cloth for years, but this time I thought it would be nice to keep it all within the same brand. Bad move it turned out to be.
The wipes are called Aveeno ULTRA calming wipes. Dermatologist recommended. Good for removing makeup and even mascara. But when I woke up the next morning, and even 2 mornings later, my eyes were all red and angry. It felt like I had a chemical burn going on around my eyes.
Amber suggested that I go to the Dr.'s office to have them prescribe me a steroid to calm down the reaction. Her friend had something similar happen and the Dr. prescribed an oral steroid for a couple of days to fix it. And it did fix her skin reaction. So I went in to the Dr. yesterday, and he prescribed me a 5-day regimen of Prednisone, taking 2 pills once a day.
I remember taking Prednisone in liquid form as a child with asthma, and the extremely nasty and bitter taste is something I can still taste in my mouth all these years later when I think about it. It was so horrible. But a pill form is okay. He warned me that it would make me a bit jittery so to be sure to take it early in the day - WITH FOOD. And I did.
But it made me a bit dizzy, so I had to lay down for a couple hours until I felt a little more calm. As the "high" wore off, I felt pretty sleepy, so I closed my eyes for another half hour. Finally, mid-afternoon, I got up and started doing some things around the house.
Today, Sunday, my eyes are a little less red and puffy. The stinging and burning sensation is no longer there. So that's good. And when I took the Prednisone today, I didn't even really notice any extreme effects. Hooray! Hopefully I can get my eyes back to normal in a jiffy.
I took the Aveeno wipes back to Target and they happily refunded me the $6.00, taking pity on me as I showed them what it did to my eyes. The other products seem to be okay so far. I'm crossing my fingers that it will work out . . .
Abby had her first dance recital last night. She did great! I thought she was very confident on stage, and very expressive in her dancing. She had a blast and loves being with the girls in her class.
Amber sent out a link with photos and videos from the day, beginning with getting her hair and makeup all done up, and lots of behind the scenes photos.
With her permission, I share the link here:
In the first dance, Abby is the second from the right - and is in the front row.
In the second dance, Abby is at the far right in the pale yellow dress. When Amber switched Abby up to the 5-7 year old class in January, they had already ordered all the yellow tutus for the other class members way before Christmas. There wasn't enough time to order one for Abby, so she wore the same dress from the first performance again for her second performance.
When we asked her what her favorite part was, she said it was when they "pony leaped" over and then held hands, putting them up into the air, dancing in a circle, then back out again. It was during her first performance.
The week was fun, creative, and a good pace. Wasn't too stressful, and certainly wasn't boring.
Oh! And Benson and Kylie aren't able to come visit us this week!! SO SAD. They were going to stay for a whole month! They did everything absolutely right. But circumstances just weren't in their favor.
- They were told to take a COVID-19 test 72 hours prior to their flight. So they did, yesterday. (Saturday)
- The website told them that it would take 24 hours to get the results. They lied.
- After they got tested, they were told that it would take until Wednesday to get results. Their flight was scheduled to leave on Tuesday.
- They called the airline to see if they could change their flight. They couldn't.
- The airline told them they need to cancel the existing flight and re-book a new one. But in order to use the credit from the first flight, it could take up to a month to receive it and then be able to use it.
- SO, instead, they will wait and try to fly out again in May.
In the meantime, we'll see what this upcoming week brings . . . :)
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