Let Them Eat Cake!

And eat cake I shall, apparently, now that I am going to be living in a new 'uppity 'burb. I didn't grow up here in Minneapolis so it's all Greek to me, but I guess anyone who lives in my new zip code is given the lovely term 'Cake Eater'. It's beyond me as there are definitely enough well-to-do people where I am currently, but there it is. I guess it started way back in the high school sport world, where fans from Edina would shout to the others, "your dad works for my dad", and things like that. I suppose I can see why people that grew up hearing that hold a grudge, but ah well. I'm sure those things aren't said anymore, not in this PC world we live in now. (at least not out loud. eeek.) All I know is we found a bigger house with more space around us for LESS money in both house and taxes than we are paying here. So why wouldn't I eat cake?!

Life has been crazy crazy around here lately--first trying to find a home, then finding one and getting all of the details sorted out. Then there is the fact that the kids will be in a new school district, and all of the rigamarole that goes with that. And that needs to be sorted out in all of a week! Both Vivian and I need to get our heads around the fact that at 6th grade in this new district she will be starting Junior High. eeeek! Neither of us are prepared for that! She'll be jumping right in. She's a bit nervous (of course!) and sad about missing her friends (of course again!) but she's also excited for her new adventure.

Meanwhile I'm a busy party girl with my new Silpada Jewelry business. I have to say, it is a blast--and where else could I make over $500 for a few hours' work?? Gotta love that. I get to sport lovely jewels, hang out with women at parties and make good money. Nice!

In all of this craziness the Coreman and I managed to squeeze in a date--the other night we attended this cool benefit called 21 For Kids, a dinner and auction put on by Wild hockey player Mark Parrish to benefit local charities that help out kids in need. It was a blast, and I was all ready to plunk down some serious ching for an autographed poster from the latest Harry Potter movie, "The Order of the Phoenix". Oh man, when I saw that I was freaking out, knowing how much both Vivian and I love the books and movies. I was totally caught up in the hype of it all and before I knew it I was writing down $550 on the line. Yikes! Probably lucky for us, we didn't win it...it went for $900. Whoa! Coreman kept joking that I'd be giving up my new washer and dryer in the new home for the poster. I suppose he was right! We've got to sort out our priorities, after all. (in the wise words of Ronald Weasley.) The event itself was a blast--amazing food, hob-nobbing with the stars (at least star hockey players, not that I knew who anyone was) and listening to a fun band called The Zoo. All in all it was fun to get gussied up and go out with my man. These days those evenings are few and far between!

And tonight, gussied and out with my peeps Stephanie and Kim! Those lovely ladies are taking me out for a pre-birthday dinner, I am so excited! I haven't given one thought to my birthday coming up, honestly. But I am so happy for any excuse to spend time with my lovely friends. So much has been going on in our lives and we've been too busy to dish about it! Maybe I'll order a nice slice of CAKE for dessert....;-)

Where In the World??

Ahhh, nothing like a day at the pool with Stephanie. And dang, that woman can even make a bowl of popcorn be gourmet. Yum, delicious! I don't know what she does, but it must be the Smokey Touch. :-) Yeah!

I can't tell you how nice it was to just sit and do nothing for a couple of hours, life has been so crazy-hectic lately! Things are moving forward with our house sale, but still not finalized. Ahhh, the house game. It's amazing how complicated it is. Working on selling this baby and then figuring out where we'll end up...but it's fun. I've always liked a bit of adventure, and hey, not knowing where you'll be living in the next couple of months is definitely adventure! It's easy to get hung up on certain things you like or dislike, but you know, I'll tell ya...what it all comes down to is having your family. Your family IS your home, really. I'm a true believer that things happen for a reason, and if something is meant to be it's meant to be. I realize that it's quite possibly just a major coping mechanism, but hey. It works for me....

So stay tuned. Soon we'll be playing Where in the World is Metal Mommy??

All I Ever Wanted

Vacation, that is. (are you singing that Go-Gos song now? If you are of my generation, you are...!) Just got back and it was heavenly. A week's worth of fun, relaxation, watching the kids have a ball and hanging with my childhood friend and her wonderful family by the lake. When I'm there I literally have no clue what's going on in the world for an entire week, and that my friends is a wonderful thing. I also had my very first Silpada jewelry party there, and even though it was a bit quiet because the staff decided to go have their annual dinner that very evening and therefore many guests went out as well, it was a success. I have also received my first official check. woo! I am a Money Maker once again, a contributor. Feels good, I have to say.

We got home and it was right back at it. Actually, we didn't even really get to be home...not an hour after we arrived we had a showing since our house is now officially on the market. We walked in the door, talked to our agent, and realized we needed to high-tail it back out of there. Crazy! All of us dirty, needing a shower, just wanting to get in and unwind. My lovely friends Stephanie and John were so kind to let us crash their pad, even with them leaving us to take their weekend drive. Of course Digby has to come with us whenever we leave the house, and he proceeded to pee on their floor. ! He hasn't done that kind of thing for months, it must have been a combo of being at Grandma's for a week, being whisked over to Stephanie's, and then smelling ol' Sigmunds' smells all over. sigh. From there it was dropping Vivian off to a party, but not before a trip to Target to buy a gift we had already bought for the birthday friend that had gotten lost in our house cleaning frenzy. (I have since found said gift in a kitchen drawer along with my baking utensils. How silly of me not to look in there in the first place....!!) We had yet another showing at 5:00, so off to Petsmart we went, the only cool place we could think to go to that would take the Digs. They may be seeing a lot of us...! Nothing like 2 fast food meals eaten in the car, in one day. Is this house-selling thing fun yet?! And it's only week one....

The good news is we do have some interested buyers already, but we're in that frustrating in-between stage where we don't know what's really going to happen. It would be amazing in this market to have or house sold within a couple of weeks. We shall see! The one we love is still available, I'm just holding my breath on that one. Could life be any more crazy right now??
Don't answer that...!

A Troubled Bridge Over Water

I'm sure most of you have heard about the 35W bridge that collapsed here in Minneapolis. What a tragedy! Imagine going along at rush hour, sitting on that bridge, all of a sudden you are dropping 35 feet. I guess the whole thing went down in about 4 seconds. The only saving grace with that is that no one had time to think or panic, it just went down. Of course they are still checking the river below, I'm sure many cars are in there. Very scary. Vivian's first comment when I told her was, "Voldemort is back!", referring of course to Harry Potter's nemesis, who's return brought chaos to the Muggle (non-wizarding folk) world by destroying things all around, including major bridges. Whereas this event here certainly isn't anything to joke about, the fact and reason that it happened is just as un-explainable and bizarre. Luckily, so far no one I know has been effected by it. My heart goes out to anyone that has been.

And speaking of Harry Potter, I'm about halfway through the last book, "The Deathly Hallows"! Not bad, considering my daughter had it with her at camp for a week, and in between reading I've been frantically trying to get our house ready to put on the market in ONE WEEK, packing and gearing up for our vacation, and preparing for my first jewelry show up there as a new http://www.silpada.com/public/ Representative. whew. Life is busy right now, to say the least. But it's all good! I am certainly not complaining!

In all of my running around to prepare for everything I've mentioned, I had to sneak in a little personal shopping and ran into Steve and Barry's, a clothing store which just so happened to be conveniently in a location I needed to go. I myself have never heard of this store, but I knew that it carried Sarah Jessica Parker's new clothing line, "Bitten". My Friend Kim had checked it out and came back with a couple pair jeans--jeans that fit wonderfully, no less, and cost next to nothing. huh. I have to say I wasn't impressed. I tried on some jeans, and they sure didn't fit me well. Granted I wasn't spending a lot of time and only tried on a couple of styles, and of course jeans fit everyone differently. But the overall look of the clothes is just 'eh'. If you need t shirts, polo shirts, that kind of thing, than I'd say it's definitely worth a look. But I guess I expected the funky and fun style that goes along with SJP--at least as Carrie Bradshaw. And c'mon, can SJP be anyone else?!

Off to vaca tomorrow! Boy, do we need it. I can't believe when we get back we'll be school shopping. Whoa! Time does fly.