Sunday, sickness, a really big cold sore and loooove....

Well, it's been one of those winters for colds in the Howard home. We made it back from our quick trip to Florida and the girlies promptly fell sick.

Sunday morning brought fever and the start of a mondo cold sore for H (it was really sad). G was fevered and coughing, so I threw in the towel at that point and sent John off on his own to church, while I tended to my sick little peanuts.

Once amply dosed with cold medicine and armed with hot cocoa and tissues, we dug out the art supplies and took advantage of the down-time by making valentines for the girl's school classes. It turned out to be a good project for them, since it kept them still and entertained.

We used tags cut from cardstock, holographic pencils from the dollar store and some fun, foamy, glittery hearts. It was an idea taken from the February, '09 issue of Family Fun. I think that they turned out cute, and the girls had fun making them.

On the tags, we wrote things like 'you're so sharp', 'write on', and 'you're all write!' When the tags were done, we punched a hole in the corner and looped them around pencils with elastic string.

Florida, a bargain, two bears and a bunch of ducks.

What, may you ask, do these things have in common? Why, it was our January trip to Tallahassee!

At the end of January, John had to make a run over to the corporate office. With two hours notice, and luck on our side as we needed to board the hounds, we decided to tag along. The company's paying for mileage and hotel, so why not? Right?!?

We survived the four hour drive and no blood was shed, though it got close there toward the end. Thank goodness for the portable dvd player and mp3 players! Once checked into our hotel, we headed over to our oldest daughter's house to have dinner with her and her husband. The food was great and we're super thankful that they were willing to accomodate us on such short notice. It was really nice to be able to spend a few hours with them and do some catching up! (And John thinks it's pretty awesome that with three of the kids grown and gone now, we can impose upon them to take care of us now and then! I agree, it is pretty wonderful.) Thanks again, guys!

The next morning we dropped John off at the office and headed over to the mall to kill some time. I've turned into a total mall Scrooge over the last several years, so I was happily surprised when we drifted into Gap Kids to look at what was on sale, and hit the mother load on winter clearance. I LOVE that! I'm an enthusiastic bargain shopper and try to stay a size/year ahead on clothes, so this was right up my alley, baby! We got cute t-shirts, soft, warm pants for next year, a couple of jackets, new mittens, hats and scarves. It was awesome! I think I walked out with 13 or 14 items for under 30 bucks. Yay!

While we were at the mall, we paid our first visit to Build-A-Bear. It's a good thing that we saved so much money at the Gap, because our frugality ended there. How, may you ask, could we have escaped this particular money pit for so long? I attribute it entirely to my Scroogedom. The problem is, one can only take Scroogedom so far and so long before becoming an ogre. So I caved. H and G REALLY wanted to go, and the rest is expensive history. They both opted to put sound in their bears; H went with the one that says "I love you!", and G decided on the roar. (How fitting, considering that roaring and growling seem to be her favorite angry sounds to make these days!) ;)

Our last stop of the morning was at Lake Ella, a nice little park that's great for walking and duck feeding. H was ready to wade through the ducks and get to it! She had no qualms about being in the middle of all of those birds and cheerfully doled out bread to them.

G did not share her sister's enthusiasm for this peaceful past-time, and was a slightly more reluctant participant. What do you think?


















The difference made me laugh. She just wasn't feeling much love for the ducks. Or the gulls. There were a TON of gulls there. Now, I've been around gulls before, but these were soooo agressive! They would fly right up in front of you and hover just in front of your face, waiting for you to toss some food to them. It WAS pretty cool how they always caught it in mid-air though... G didn't really appreciate the novelty of that, either. Before we left, I got a shot of the girls together. H is showing me her teeth and looking at some more birds to go feed. G is holding on to H and giving me the 'hurry up and get me out of here!' look. Gotta love it!