Sherri's (Never A Dull Moment) World

Elijah's First Car

For Elijah's first birthday, I wanted to find the PERFECT gift. I visited the toy section at Target. I checked out Toys R Us online. I asked young mothers what their kid's favorite toys were. And Ta Daaaaaa!  This is what I chose, the Little Tykes Cozy Coupe Car:

 

These cute cars came out after we were finished raising our kids. I have seen other kids with them, using them inside and outside. It seemed like just the thing for a young man who is walking all over the house. So I bought it! I took the (wrapped) big box to Chuck E. Cheese, where Elijah's birthday party was held. But we ran out of time to open presents. So I stuffed it back in my car and followed them back home, so he could open our gift at their house. We cracked open the Cozy Coupe box, which said "some assembly required". I am pretty handy, so I told Jeremiah & Angela not to worry about it-- I would stay and put it together.

According to the instructions, all I needed was a screwdriver and a hammer. We laid out all of the parts on the floor and I got to work. Elijah was pretty excited... he kept handing me the black tires, he wanted to hold the screwdriver and the hammer (sorry, not this time). I had to keep a close eye on the screws and washers, as Elijah wanted those too.  I handed him the (unattached) steering wheel and he was happy walking around the house with that for awhile.  While I worked on attaching the tires to the axles, Jeremiah and Angela were helping with the car canopy:

 
Elijah was fascinated! What was this going to turn into and when could he play????

 
An hour went by and Elijah, who had been running on baby adrenaline since his party, pooped out and was laid down for a nap. Angela kept me company in the kitchen, where I was still adding car parts, decals, and trying to install the finishing touches. I called it quits after two hours as I needed some muscle to pop in the Cozy Coupe roof.  So close!

 
So, Bill and I went over the next morning to complete that crazy Cozy Couple car. I handed Elijah the instructions so he could "supervise":

 
Bill (a.k.a. Papa) provided the muscle and put in the last two screws:

 
I told Elijah to check all of the pictures... for quality control purposes:

 
At last! It was READY! Without missing a beat, Elijah went right to the driver's side door, opened it & climbed inside!

 
He even closed the driver's door behind him (HOW did he know to do that?????)!

 
I showed him his "key" and the "ignition". I showed him how to beep his "horn":

 
He LOVED IT!!!  We took turns pushing him around the house, driving his new car.

 

It was A HIT! Angela told me that this is now the first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning-- go for a ride in his new car.

How cute is that?!! Moments like this: priceless. :)

Am I glad I chose the Cozy Coupe car? Absolutely.

The Divorce

Up until a couple of weeks ago, LIFE WAS GOOD at Hallmarkland. We live in a strip mall and have survived many changes with our anchor stores (Ernst, Albertson's, G.I. Joes) coming & going. We were always strong in the middle of the strip. And we had the perfect business "marriage" in the whole neighborhood-- Hallmark and Starbucks Coffee. We went together like peas & carrots, ice cream & cake, cards & coffee. We were soooo happy together!

 
I knew all of the baristas and they knew me. Just like "Cheers"-- instead of going to a bar where everyone knows your name, it was a coffee bar and everyone knew my name!

And they knew my beverage of choice: a tall, pepppermint hot chocolate (I don't do coffee) with extra peppermint (usually 6 pumps) and extra hot:

 

We both weathered it out during this rough economic year. We kept selling cards and coffee with smiles. And then the inevitable happened... Starbucks left us!

 

This is our happy Hallmark storefront window (with Jackpot Teriyaki next door) and a now empty Starbucks space. (sigh!) WHY???? Because they were tempted by the lure of a (gasp!) drive-thru window:

 

We have not signed official divorce documents, but the separation is clear. Our customers are confused.... WHY? They ask. I just shrug my shoulders and say it hurts too much to talk about it.  Our Starbucks has moved a block away to the corner of a very busy intersection. I drive by it almost every day but find myself silently refusing to support that #$@^$^^%@! drive-thru window. They claim to have a bigger lobby but they only have five parking slots, so why bother?

I am trying to move on. I visited another Starbucks this week, in my neighborhood.

 

The baristas were friendly enough. They took my order. But my tall, peppermint hot chocolate (extra peppermint, extra hot) was just not the same. It did not taste like my drink. The next day I told the barista to add 6 pumps of peppermint and it was still .... flat. Oh no. Where was the Starbucks love??This divorce transition period is going to take awhile... I can tell.

Nerdy Afternoon

We have been soooooo busy. We decided to treat ourselves to a Nerd Day at Bellingham. We had heard a rumor that the s*** word (don't say it!) (I'll just whisper it-- "snow") was up there...

 
and it was true!  We wanted to try a new place for lunch, so we stopped at this cute Mexi restaurant on the Guide Meridian:

 
I must explain: Bill & I are secret salsa taste-testers. We LOVE Mexi food and that includes chips & salsa. So at every restaurant we visit, we are secretly rating their salsa which may determine whether we go back or not. I guess you could call us "salsa snobs". (We prefer "salsa taste-testers".) So, the cute waitress sat us at a table and delivered a hot (!) basket of chips. (Very promising!) Then she motioned for us to visit their "salsa bar" which looked like a small salad bar only it was filled with almost a dozen containers with limes, radishes & salsas. Eureka! Bill filled a couple of dipping dishes with hot salsas and I chose a medium salsa. Back at the table, I dipped my first chip in my salsa cup and the flavors just EXPLODED in my mouth! Bill tried mine next and agreed with me... these people knew how to make a FABULOUS salsa! WOW== was all I could say as we scarfed on chips & salsa until our orders arrived.

I ordered a chicken taco salad:

 
which was muy delicioso in both texture and taste! Bill ordered chicken flautas:

 
We left with full stomaches, happy hearts and I think both of our mouths had finally cooled off from the hot salsas. We will definitely visit that place again!

So we continued treating ourselves to a visit at Barnes & Noble (hence, the "Nerdy Afternoon"). It makes me so happy to walk in the front doors and see .... BOOKS EVERYWHERE! Magazines! Bargain tables! Games! Calendars! The Nook! We bought a couple of books and got a few ideas for Christmas presents and left with happy hearts again...

 
We thought we had better leave during daylight hours while that s*** was hanging around:

 
It was a lovely day for a drive... (sigh!)

 
 I'm so glad we went.

Five Things I Love...

on Friday! Here are a few of my favorite things today:

1) Starbuck's Peppermint Brownie-- it's back! It is my favorite Starbucks treat during the holiday season.

 
2) The new throw pillows that I bought at Pier One Imports... they are sooooo pretty in my living room:

 
and

 
3) Pink's new song called "Raise Your Glass".  I have always been a Pink fan and I particularly love her new song, coming out on her greatest hits CD this month. This song makes me want to car-dance and raise my own glass in gratitude for all of the great things in my life:

 

4) A new AMC TV mini-series called "The Walking Dead".  It is about a small-town deputy sheriff in a society afflicted with zombies, searching for his family and any other survivors. As I have said before, THE RODGERS LOVE ZOMBIES and it is totally worth staying up to watch at 10 p.m. on Sunday nights. However, I woke up exhausted Monday morning after last Sunday's episode.  In my dreams, I was fighting off zombies and trying to get from town to town without being eaten. Maybe this week, I should just use my DVR and watch the episode during daylight hours?

 

5) My new favorite TV commerical is this. I don't know who this guy is, but he just cracks me up while he is driving his new Hyundai Sonata Turbo car. Bill has a Sonata and he doesn't make these faces when I am with him.... Hmmmmm. Maybe it is because he doesn't have the Turbo model? Or is he just holding back and driving the speed limit???  

CKC 2010

I secretly look forward to November each year because that is when the Creating Keepsakes Convention (CKC) is scheduled for our area:

 
What is CKC? It is a scrapbooking convention sponsored by a major scrapbooking magazine (Creating Keepsakes) where they offer a vender faire (=shopping), classes, and sometimes scrapbooking celebrities are there to give lectures or meet-n-greet opportunities. This convention hits a dozen major cities across the nation throughout the year; it usually winds up in Bellevue each November. So we head to the big city for the day:

 
I always go with my favorite scrap partner-in-crime, Kris:

 
We pay an admission fee to get into the vender faire, which means walking up and down rows and rows of booths to shop for the latest scrapbooking goods:

 
Sometimes there are demonstrations of cool products and new techniques:

 
It usually takes 3-4 hours to see everything (which includes a lunch snack). Here are some of my favorite things that I purchased this year-- I just HAD to have this T-shirt (remember, I am raising chickens):

 
I could not pass up this cute snowmen die set (you run it through a machine with colored paper and the images are cut out for you):

 
The Tattered Angels booth was back! (I spent some serious dough there in 2008.) They had some gorgeous new products and lovely new Glimmer Mist sprays. I bought myself some new colors, like Peacock, Angel Mist and Black Gold:

 
Technique Tuesday was there as well-- they make clear rubber stamps and are one of my favorite brands. I bought this dreamy lowercase alphabet (which matches the capital letter alphabet I had at home):

 
We looked at EVERYTHING and left before my car turned into a pumpkin at a nearby paid parking lot. We window-shopped at Bellevue Square. Then we had a lovely dinner here:

 
We always compare notes over dinner, recapping what our favorite booth, favorite product(s) were and did we find what we were ultimately looking for? We had the best time!  For us, it will be same time, next year.... until the 2011 CKC.

Cutie Patootie

Baby E is turning one year old next weekend. In preparation for his big birthday party, Jeremiah took Elijah to get his first haircut. This was Elijah last week (wearing his monkey costume for Halloween):

 
So I stopped by to see his new haircut today. I followed him around the house, like paparazzi, trying to catch the new 'do:

 
He thought it was a game and I was going to steal his washcloth:

 
I was snapping pictures like crazy:

 
Then Angela grabbed him and he started to show off:

 
He showed me his new backflip:

 
He showed me his dance combo (he now shakes his head when he dances):

 
See the new haircut??

 
He is the cutest boy EVER (after Jeremiah and Nick, of course)... and I just adore him:

 
He is my cutie patootie.