What a wonderful weekend!

Well, if you've been checking in to see when I would post, your wait is over. If you read my blog last week then you know that my best friend, Geekwif, my good friend, Snow's Mom and my daughter's best friend, Snow White, were planning to arrive on Friday for a reunion weekend.

I wish I could express how wonderful this last weekend was... I could easily write thirty paragraphs and bore you to tears and still not convey how great it was to have the three of them here. My faithful readers will remember that we moved to Champaign from Minnesota three months ago now and Sweet Girl (SG) is thriving in all things, except missing her grandma, her godmother (Geekwif, you know) and her best friend. It turns out the feeling was mutual. Snow White (SW - I call her that because of her beautiful porcelain skin, glossy brown hair and doe eyes) was struggling mightily with missing her Sweet Girl (who, in this particular company, becomes Cinderella due to her flaxen hair and deep blue eyes). Snow's Mom, being a wise woman, decided the best course of action was to come for a visit and bring along Geekwif. Give that woman a medal! We decided not to tell either 6 year-old SG or 4 year-old SW about the weekend. We are smart women who knew that we would not be able to live with our children's excitement levels if we did, so neither of them really knew what was happening until they met at the front door. Amazing that Geekwif and Snow's Mom managed to keep her in the dark for the 10 hour drive!

So, day by day:


Friday: Do you have any idea how hard it was to contain my own excitement and not spill the secret to my daughter?!?! Auugh! Add to it that Friday was a no-school day and you get the idea... Long day of anticipation. When they got here, I had SG answer the door. I think she was in shock! I expected jumping and screaming. Instead, she grabbed SW's hand and took her on a tour of our house, starting with her room! After that, we all went to Za's, an amazing semi-fast food Italian restaurant here in town. I think they were converted at first bite. I know by the end of the visit they were trying to figure out how to get one of them in Minneapolis. Well, fresh garlic, Italian sausage, white wine sauce, grated parm... All for a great price. What's not to love?





Saturday: When we planned the trip, I had the great idea to get the girls Disney princess costumes, which I picked up at Wal-smart. Sweet Girl as Cinderella and Snow White as, well, Snow White, of course! We took the girls to Sears (there is only one in this town and it has the best decent-priced portrait studio around) for a photo shoot. The girls loved every minute of it. We did a set in street clothes and then pulled out the costumes. Ah, our little princesses! What fun.

After the photo shoot and the agony of choosing what we needed without buying every. single. pose. they. shot, we took the girls to lunch and then to the carousel for a ride and the wishing well to toss a few coins.



Later, Champs and I brought home LaBamba - the best Mexican food in Illinois. We got the girls to bed and then sat back with some wine for a serious time of girl talk. Yeah, I needed it. Geekwif got a kick out of how quickly my white reisling wine hit me. What can I say? Since I had the gastric bypass and my gall bladder out, I am the Ultimate Lightweight!

Sunday: Champs and I took the ladies to our new church. They enjoyed themselves and gave our new spiritual home two thumbs up, which was a real booster for us. A highlight of our church time was when we picked up the girls from kid's church. While the children's pastor was reading the closing bible verse, SG suddenly cried out and jumped up. She had finally got her loose front tooth out - by pulling it out herself! She was smiling from ear to ear while bleeding down her chin. I think it freaked out Pastor Amy a bit!

After church, we had to go back to Za's for lunch. As I said earlier, Geekwif and Snow's Mom loved Za's! When we got home, we compelled the girls - and the grown up girls, to take a nap. After our much needed rest, Geekwif and I snuck out to go shopping at our local nursery/craft/home decor center while Snow's Mom was still sleeping. I can't begin to say how nice it was to be out practicing the rights of commerce with my best shopping buddy! It wasn't about buying, it was about looking at everything together and just.... being. We loved it. We loved it so much that we went back to pick up SW's Mom and go to Joanne's for, yes, more rights of commerce.



When we got home, we were just in time to start dinner while the girls played. Champs planned to grill a garlic-stuffed pork loin. I am here to tell you that my husband is an artist when it comes to the grill! That man is amazing! Add to that some lightly sauteed broccoli and smashed potatoes and you have a feast! The ladies loved it and Champs continued to secure his title as Grill Master.

Finally, we just sat around talking and drinking a bit more wine. We had to turn in pretty early since the gals got back on the road at 4:30 Monday morning. I hated for the weekend to end, but having them here refreshed me in a way that I can't explain. Perhaps it was having them here and getting a "stamp of approval" on our home, our city and our church. Maybe it was just getting a few hugs and maybe it was just the ability to be with my friends and not have to speak - just be. In any case, I needed the weekend more than I realized and it was wonderful.

And before I wrap this up, I have to give a TON of kudos to my wonderful hubby. The estrogen to testosterone level was 5 to 1 for about 72 hours. Most husbands would have escaped and left us to fend for ourselves. My hubby was the epitome of helpful; playing with the girls to let us have some lady time, cooking for us, listening in when it was time and giving us space when we needed it - as well as essentially giving up his weekend time with Sweet Girl and me. He is wonderful and I just wanted to recognize it publicly! Oh, and also a shout out to The Geek and Snow's Dad, who were both willing to give up their girls for the weekend. Thanks, Guys!

Here are Snow's Mom, me and Geekwif, enjoying ourselves on our last night of girl time:


Now I'm just counting the moments until this summer when we turn around go visit them!


Here's some comments from this post:
Geekwif said...
Very nice. Very nice indeed. I could not have summarized it better myself.
I was going to do my Thursday 13 on this subject, but I don't know if I'll get one up today. After a wonderful weekend of relaxation at Chez Blonde, the rat race has taken off in full force again.

Suzy said...
I am so excited for you that your bestest friend got to come visit! How fun and blessed is that? I'm so thankful my best friend lives only minutes from me. =)
Oh forgot to tell you....what a sweet picture!!

Carmi said...
What a heartwarming entry. It brought to mind what we went through when we moved away from our hometown of Montreal. Our son was two, and we knew no one here. My wife cried for months, and the loneliness was crippling.
Eventually, we found our footing in our adopted home. But it took visits like the one you describe here to convince us that we still had a network of support - it was just a little more stretched than usual.
Popped by from Michele. Good to e-see you again!

Thirteen Things about Geekwif

Yes, I know I owe a real post and I will get there. I have been running all week. However, since I had to post my T13 and since she is so important to me, I thought I would tell everyone just a few things about why I am so glad that Geekwif is my best friend.

1. The way she makes me laugh - at myself, at life, at the good stuff and the hard stuff - Geekwif has a way of seeing the lighter side of anything.

2. She lets me get her hooked into my escapades. Take beading, scrapbooking, stamping... I got her hooked on those. In many cases, she has eclipsed me, but I still got her going.

3. She gets me hooked into her latest escapades - normally computer based. Geekwif discovered making tiles on the internet, and so she showed me. We both went nuts for a while. Just check out Tile Machine and do a search by artist. My stuff is all by Cathreeno and her's is all by Eight. It can be pretty addicting. Oh yeah, then there was the blog thing... yeup, she got me started on this... and on the T13...

4. Her loyalty. I have lost other friends when I ceased to be the "flavor of the day" or through petty arguments. Not Geekwif. We have weathered a couple of disagreements that might have made others walk away. However, she understands the value of a friend and has stood by. You could ask our friend, Little B - she and Geekwif have been close friends for something like 15 years now.

5. Her tenacity. Geekwif will not let the separation of a few miles change our friendship. Yes, it does mean we cannot go shopping together as often, but it does not change what her friends mean to her. See, Little B, who I just mentioned? Well, she moved to Tennessee 8 or 10 years ago. She and Geekwif are still very close, talking and e-mailing often and seeing each other anytime they are in the same town. I was extremely comforted by this when we were planning to move from MN to IL.

6. Her truthfulness. Geekwif is not an outspoken person and doesn't like to go to great lengths to make sure everyone knows her opinion. That said, she will speak the truth in love when it is needed. Case in point: The first couple of years of Sweet Girl's life, I was always morbidly afraid that she or Champs would die on me suddenly. It was on my mind constantly. Finally, Geekwif wrote me a note telling me that she hated to see me feeling the way that I did and observing that I watched E.R. consistently. She presented the possibility that watching families constantly dealing with the unexpected emergencies might be contributing to my anxiety. Then she left the ball in my court. I did decide to stop watching E.R. I still worry about my family, but the near constant barrage of worry has been greatly reduced, thanks to the wisdom of my friend.

7. We enjoy some of the same things - such as reading, shopping, beading...

8. We enjoy different things, but can share that joy. I am not much of a gardener; I seem to kill every plant I try to help. Geekwif, on the other hand, is a gardening fiend and loves to share her successes and ideas with me. She knows that I'll enjoy it for her sake, if not for my own.

9. Her view of God. When I need to talk about a particular issue, be it theological or spiritual and personal, she will hash it out with me. With Bible verses. And a love of the truth. We usually reach the same conclusion, but it is fun getting there. Also, no one I know has as much fun as we do planning our futures in Heaven... (tee hee)

10. She loves personality quizzes as much as I do! When we were younger, before the proliferation of on-line quizzes, we used to meet at my house of a Saturday morning and, over a brunch of eggs, cheese and avocado (yum!) do the latest quiz in "Glamour Magazine". We still remember the difference between a husband-husband and a boyfriend-husband.

11. Then there is the shared Longaberger obsession... we've been known to share bundled basket orders to save money. She used to be a consultant and I think I may have been her most consistent customer. I must have been; at last count, I've got something like 44 baskets around here... and don't even get me started on the pottery!

12. Geekwif is someone with whom I can share my fondest dreams and biggest hopes... and know they will be nurtured and held safe from the unwelcome scrutiny of gossip and jealousy.

13. We just click - it's our personalities, I think. Everyone has a certain personality type that works for them and our friendship bears this out. Geekwif has a personality that is actually a lot like my husband, Champs. And my personality is a lot like The Geek's (her husband). Sometimes we laugh about how much alike our marriages are, only flipped.

So there it is... 13 reasons why Geekwif is my friend (trust me, I could come up with more!) I pray she always will be my friend.


Here are some comments from this post:
Cheryl said...
You have an awesome friend! I hope I can find a friend like that :)

Geekwif said...
Okay, seriously, NOT worthy! But thanks so much for your sweet list nonetheless. It is true that we do share a love of many of the same things and the sharing is sometimes the best part. I mean, bead shopping – or any kind of shopping for that matter – is just not the same without you there!
(sniff sniff) I miss my friend! :(

Trish said...
Aww.. sweet. :)
And belated happy Birthday!

Faith said...
How awesome to have such a wonderful friend!!! You are both very blessed!!

Carmi said...
I feel inspired after reading this. You've written so poignantly about the power of friendship.

I'm SO Done!

Well, we had planned to have the garage sale from 3-6 on Thursday and from 9-6 Friday and Saturday. But by 1:00 today we were so picked over that we were selling .75 an hour and begging people to take things away. So I had Champs go take down all our signs and I started boxing things up. In the end, I went from 19 totes and more of stuff that I sorted through to four boxes of stuff to give away and ended the sale early. Not bad, really.

I've spend more time on the sale than my house this last week, so tomorrow will be spent reclaiming the house and putting away those things that I decided not to sell. After that I'll have maybe 4 or so boxes of nit-picky stuff to sort through and we will be truly "settled". Champs is overjoyed that his garage is finally his garage and he's out there as I type, reclaiming his space. There's a bit of stuff to store away, but in the end, we did really well at creating space for him - and my car! Not to mention that we made almost $500.00 in the process. Yeah, not bad at all.

My neighbor, Star, was invaluable through this. She helped me sort through boxes and kept saying, "do you really need that? Does it change your life?" Because of her I was able to really pare down on all the extras. I can honestly say that I won't miss anything I got rid of. Not only that, but she took Sweet Girl for an overnight and out for the day today so she and Comet could have some fun together. What a great neighbor!

There were three stories from the sale that taught me a lesson:
1. A woman came up to me and said, "See that lady over there? Well, I was picking out magnets to buy and she took two of them right out of my hand!" She didn't say anything to the woman, but I sure would have! Lesson here: If it's in your hand, it's your stuff. Protect it!

2. I sold a bunch of rubber stamp sets at a great discount. Most of them were brand new sets. I put a sign on the table that read, "Stamp prices are firm. Thank you." Well, I had a lady come yesterday and tell me how she was going to use them for her church, etc., etc. She kept talking, asking prices and adding sets while I was trying to help other customers. In the end, she talked me down to $20.00 for 5 sets; three of them really large sets. It turned out to be $4.00 each average price for brand new sets that I paid $14.95 -24.95 for. After she walked away and I realized, I was so mad at myself for letting her bamboozle me. She came back today and said she was back for "another good deal". I explained to her that I had already marked the prices down for today and she would have to pay the price that was marked. I further explained the average price she had paid yesterday compared to the new prices I paid and pointed out that she wasn't paying tax or shipping. She actually got mad at me and huffed away. Lesson here: Don't let people turn your head with their intentions for your stuff. If it's worth the price, charge it or keep it. In the end, I kept my other stamp sets and I'll e-Bay them.

3. Champs was my "advertising executive" in charge of placing our signs on every major street corner and on the way into our neighborhood. I think I made 22 signs for 11 locations (one on each side of the street sign or telephone pole). He did a great job of placing them and I actually had a lot of folks tell me what great signs they were and easy to see. Today, Champs went to the store for some bags and came back absolutely fuming. Someone had taken down our signs, turned them around and written an advertisement for THEIR sale on the back of OUR sign! Oh, he was P.O.'d!! Of course he took it down. Later, he went back to put our sign back up. On the way home, he found that they had torn down our signs on another corner. That did it; he went to confront them. They tried excuses, but he had them dead to rights and they knew it. Lesson here: Pay for your own posterboard. If you're going to earn a few hundred on a sale, you can spend a few dollars to make your own freakin' signs!

All in all it was a great sale. We learned our lessons, made some money, got our garage back and Champs is happy that he'll never have to move all that stuff again. We also met a lot of great neighbors with kids and learned about a bunch of churches in our area. I'm glad it's done, but boy are we tired!


Here are some comments from this post:
Carmi said...
Isn't it sad how people reveal their nastiness in different ways? Garage sales, for some reason, have always brought out the worst in folks.
Still, we'd do another one in a heartbeat. Because for every yokel who tries to rip you off with the "it's for my church" sob story, or who blatantly steals/defaces your signs, there's a good friend who looks after your child and supports you all the way through.
The good always manages to win out over the bad. I loved this vignette, Blond Girl.

moon said...
I can so relate to your *lessons learned...my last post was about how Rude ppl are becoming. It baffles me.
To take them out of her HAND?!
Turn your signs OVER! omg...where were these ppl raised? Makes one shake their heads and totally appreciate those humans left that know BETTER.
Loved the post.


Shane said...
i guess 2 magnets in the hand 'aint worth 2 on the table.

Star said...
You have a neighbor named Star? How cool. Glad the sale went well. Sounds like you are well settled in.

kenju said...
I have had 5-6 garage sales over the years - and it sounds as if you are already an old seasoned hand at it too. You are right about people trying to gyp you down on good stuff. I let a good leather attache case go for $2 because I misunderstood what the woman was asking about (I thought it was an old suitcase). You have to stay on top of thieves too!

Geekwif said...
Arrgh. How sad that people are so dishonest, nasty and cheap.
I gotta say I'm impressed with you though even if I'm not so much with a few of your fellow "OtherStateians". You sold $500 at a garage sale! I remember doing garage sales with my mom when I was a kid and I doubt we ever hit $100. You totally rock!
Next time you're back here can I hire you as my personal garage sale consultant/organizer? :-)
P.S. Sweet Girl's got mail coming soon. Watch your mailbox!

princssis said...
I, along with the others, cannot believe how rude people have become! We even encountered rude boy scouts at the campout we went to this weekend!!! Just makes you wonder how these people were raised! No respect.
Anyway, thanks for keeping an eye on Belle, even while you had your garage sale! Although, I was sure there would be a story here about her. And, where is she and CJ on your sidebar?????? (I just have to give you a little bit of a hard time.) :)

jsdaughter said...
I'm glad your garage sale went well. Every time I have one, I say I'll never do it again.. lol

Geekwif

Just a quick note about Geekwif; she's awesome! In girly-world, she's the yin to my yang. Where I am loud and boisterous, she is quiet and confident. Where I forget to stop talking, she remembers the value of silence. When I can't make up my mind, she is the voice of reason. Actually, she's a lot like the hubby, only without the fun parts and with a shopping gene, which makes her the perfect friend with whom to spend time. Actually, we tend to laugh at the fact that I am much like her husband ("Geek", of course, since she's Geekwif.) He is also talkative, outgoing and boisterous. Only he doesn't like to shop, which is, of course, why I am so valuable to her. Ah, girlfriends! Never turn your back on a good girlfriend; she's your line to sanity! a good girlfriend; she's your line to sanity!