Big Day Runway

   Michele & John hosted a fashion runway show at their Olathe store, Big Day Boutique, tonight to premiere their summer collection, which will be featured on Zulily.com soon. A bunch of our friends & their adorable kids all turned out, in Squeaks & Beeps wear...

Showing off the merchandise

YUM.

The Kings

Jill

Stacy

I think Laura may be overserving...

A-dorable!

Jasper busts a move. Has he been in the wine?

Friday & Saturday

   On Friday, I went to work, came home, and Mom helped me load up & drop off a carload of donations at Catholic Charities. Round 1 (of probably 20) of housecleaning complete! To celebrate, we raced south to beat the rain to Heritage Park to give the dogs a run. We laughed at Taylor the idiot as he chased cars up and down the fence line. This boy had some pent-up energy, and rightfully so! No walks when it's raining (I'm lazy).
   No sooner did we get to the far end of the lake, than the ominous clouds finally betrayed us, and we had to beat it out of there. We stopped at Bo Ling's on the way home and walked out with a veritable Chinese buffet. We loaded up our plates & sat on the couch—staying up way too late again watching Mad Men, in a desperate attempt to catch up before Sunday's season premiere... a good effort, but I'd have had to take the whole week off to get there!

   On Saturday we had to be up by 4:30 (yes, that's am. @#%*!!) to get Mom to the airport on time. The dogs rode along quietly, and I stopped at Panera on the way home for my favorite soufflé, then settled in for a long morning of Mad Men season 2, disc 4...

   I wish I had been able to take more time off to spend with Mom, but we (okay, SHE) got so much done in the house, and we had fun hanging out in the evenings. It has been years since everyone has come to KC to visit (we've spent the last few holidays in Ohio or Los Angeles), so it was nice to have a guest for a change.

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING, MOM!!!   :D

Saturday: Mom Arrives in KC

   Mom flew in from Ohio this morning to spend her spring break with me. I decided to surprise her by taking the mutts to the airport with me. I knew they'd enjoy the ride in the car, and I was curious to see how they'd handle the situation. Not surprisingly, they behaved very well, and we heard the usual oohs and aahs over their extreme cuteness.

   Taylor was especially curious about the escalator when we walked by. I think he would have jumped right on it if I had let him! Aki didn't seem to notice that, but she was enthralled with the sliding doors. This one squeaked a little like a rodent. So she paced back & forth, staring up at it, and even stood up on it. She wasn't afraid at all, just very, very curious and on high-alert.

   After we found Mom and retrieved her bags, we headed toward home, with a detour at Antioch Park. Spring had sprung a few weeks early, and I wanted her to see one of my favorite parks in town. The daffodils, hyacinths, magnolias, redbuds, dogwood, and cherry blossoms didn't disappoint! She quickly learned that it isn't easy to walk two excited Shibas:

   The rest of the afternoon, Mom worked outside in my yard, weeding and cleaning up the flower beds, picking up sticks, and trimming the shrubs. I was amazed at how much she finished so quickly! Partly because she was racing to beat the rain, and partly because she's had years of practice. What a relief to have that work done for the season! It's like having my own park in my backyard!

Sean Speaks!

   ...with a lil' help from some Scrabble tiles, that is. (Kelley & I just might have put him up to it.)

Grandma Lizzie's birthday is February 11

What boy wouldn't love robots, skulls, & space invaders?!

Squeals for Squeaks & Beeps

   Sean seems to like the handmade bibs and burp cloths that Michele made just for him!

 FOR ME?

 WHEEEE!!!

Squeaks & Beeps Are in the House!

Teddi's house, to be exact. Holiday open house tonight...

    And in case you were wondering, the bibs fit adults too. Mine has Space Invaders. Don't be a hater!

Advice

   "You should wear this one. You look fabulous in this. ...Of course, it's a bit wrinkled since I've been sitting on it. Also, it might have some cat hair on it. But you're used to that now. No big deal. You're welcome."

Homeward Bound

Renee and Joe enjoy torturing their little food-hound 

   We enjoyed a Continental breakfast this morning (thanks again, Renee!), packed up our campsites, and headed our separate ways. I came home, unpacked all my gear & put it all away, started to tackle the mountain of laundry(5 loads!), bathed the dogs and put them in the back yard to continue enjoying the freakishly-warm (75+ degree!) weather & dry off I ran to Home Depot to buy a Shiba-proof fence for the compost bin. Phew!

Random Hallmark Moments: Coldilocks

sketch by my friend Gary

   This morning it was negative degrees when I woke up, it took over an hour to get to work due to the 3" of snow that fell last night, and I spent the first several hours of the day in a meeting in a conference room where I could practically see my breath. I wore my long wool coat in the meeting, and seriously considered the gloves. I'm not ill-prepared: I'm wearing layers, including a wool sweater. With all that wool I might as well be a sheep! I am also wearing thick socks and tall boots... which did not keep my toes from going numb! I'm a Jensicle!!! Space heater at my desk is on full blast. I can't wait to go home and climb under a blanket. I'm loving the snow but hating the big drafty office building!!!

Feeling puny, but it's good to be small

   I realize that it's Saturday night & I should be doing something more exciting than blogging, but I'm still a bit lethargic from the sinus infection, and also from running around shopping all morning with Kelly (and lunch at Blanc... mmm!) So I'm on the couch with the heater on me, kitty on my lap, catching up on my magazine-reading. But I am definitely feeling better. I don't think my homemade chicken & veggie soup + the red wine are hurting matters. Or maybe it's because Dr. Pioli knows her stuff! The prescriptions she gave me started working right away. She had a great sense of humor too.

   I had a funny shopping experience tonight. I was bored & wanted to get out of the house, & ended up at a sporting goods store because I need to replace my 1-piece bathing suit, for swimming laps. My current one is several years old, and either I am shrinking or the suit is stretched out, because when I push off the wall the straps often fall off my shoulders, and it bunches in an unflattering way when I leave the water. Yeah, it's time.

   I went through a few racks of womens' suits, none very attractive, and none less than $65-85, and none in my size (the smallest was a 4). Rats. But wait, what's this? I turned around to discover a rack of girls' suits behind me. There's no way they could fit me... could they? No. Yes? NO! ...Maybe?

   Let's just say that I walked out with TWO very cute suits, and they fit perfectly, and they were on sale, and together they cost half of what one of the womens' suits cost. I can't wait to go to the pool! Or Hawaii.

Good Grief.

   Someone at worked started a thread on our group Facebook page, posting photos of ourselves as kids. In hindsight, I really should have known better:

   This photo was also published in Giant Robot Magazine a few years back, when they did an article about the worldwide popularity of Peanuts. I like to say I was, "happy on the inside."

Cousins, identical cousins...

Sure, sometimes you accidentally wear the same color as a coworker, but SERIOUSLY, we could not have been more coordinated if we had PLANNED this, which we totally didn't. (That's me, Ing & Laurie, the 3 green & black musketeers.)

かわいい着物ですね。。。

Is it wrong that I kinda want to have a kid just so I can dress her in this adorable kimono dress?

Freak-ky

Walked around a corner into a dressing room in Oak Park Mall today to try on some clothes—and was unexpectedly greeted by a legion of headless bodies & piles of dismembered arms!!!