Going Through Doors

Well, let's try this again. I typed up a blog last night, but it got deleted!! I was highlighting it to copy it into my MySpace blog, and suddenly it was just gone! I forgot to post it before copying it...ERRRGGGG!!!

This past weekend was full of excitement for us! Friday evening, my mother-in-law and her husband arrived to spend the weekend with us. We talked about the events we had planned, Saturday installing our new door in the main entry way, and Sunday having 20+ people over for Derrick's birthday party, and all of the things that needed to be done before that. We visited for a bit and then hit the sack.

Saturday morning Bub and I slept in until 9...which is unheard of!! I don't remember the last time I slept until 9! So we got up, had our morning coffee, and then Bub and Tom got going to work at ripping out the old door. I was so excited to finally be getting rid of the old, yellow, ugly, inefficient, windowless, useless slab of wood someone called a door, and be putting in something that would actually serve more of a purpose than to just block the light from coming in. That's something else I love about our new door...the window is huge! Around mid-afternoon, Derrick decided to help, and things were coming along nicely:

Around 7:30, the door was completely in, and I began painting the trim outside. It sounds completely insane, but I kept going outside and standing on the sidewalk, admiring our door! I can't tell you how happy I am that that hideous pee-colored thing that was lodged in my kitchen wall is finally gone! Tom suggested burning it, I was all for it, but we ran out of time to cut it up and roast it. There will be other days!

Then Sunday came. I woke up at 7:30 and hit the floor running! I went through and tended to all of the furry critters, then got ready, told the kids to get ready, and we all went to Sunday School. Normally, with a birthday party under construction, I wouldn't have. But today I was introducing the kids to our new Service Project. Every lesson lasts approximately four weeks, and at the end of each lesson we take one week to do a service project, where we try and teach the kids the value of volunteering, giving back, helping out, etc. This time we're having a food drive to donate food to local food pantries. So, the director and I thought it might be fun for the kids to break down into groups of four and turn it into a bit of a competition. Of course the first week of the new lesson was this past Sunday, so I hauled the boys into church and tried my best to get the kids excited about helping out others in the community who aren't fortunate enough to have enough to eat all of the time.

After that, the kids and I raced the clock back home, and somehow I think we tied! I was happily surprised to find that my mother-in-law had most of the food heating up (we had made up the majority of it Saturday), and there were decorations up! Our new door was adorned to greet the guests:

There were more balloons and decorations around the entry into the living room:

And no three-year-old party for Derrick would be complete without an Elmo birthday cake!

It seemed to be a nice day for all who came. Happy surprises for us were that sister-in-law and her family came from Minnesota, my great-aunt and my grandma from northern Wisconsin all came to join the party! My sister-in-law and her hubby have two little guys close to Derrick's age, and the three of them were outside most of the time, running around and playing. It's something they've all missed doing, since Mother Nature seems determined to drive all of us crazy by keeping the kids inside due to rain the whole entire last week! After lunch, visiting and cake, it was time for every kid's favorite part of any birthday party...the presents! Derrick did a great job opening things this year with minimal assistance from me, but a lot more help from Talin LOL He got a lot of nice gifts...some clothes, socks, two movies, and sippie cups filled to the brim with Halloween candy corns, courtesy of my sister. Oh, and my personal favorite, money! LOL
After everyone was gone and we got everything cleaned up, it was nice to just have a quiet night the rest of the evening. I love having company, but it's nice to have some down time, too. Derrick was wired on sugar, so was literally bouncing off the walls until bed time, and even then he was still pretty wired. But he decided at about 10:30 that he could sleep on the couch. He could have slept hanging upside down from the kitchen fan as far as I was concerned at that point! LOL

So now it's Monday. And I'm finally able to be at work and relax! Have a great one!