Ballet

On Thursday afternoon Jordyn had ballet about an hour after she hopped off the school bus. It was a rainy day, but Jessica got us to the studio with time to spare. Michael stayed at the house to watch Breaking Bad on his iPad while Jonathan did homework. Before ballet started, Jordyn got changed into her pink tights and leotard then ran back and forth in the lobby to show me her leaps. She looked at an old Nutcracker magazine and pointed out some dancers she knew. Jordyn was in the Nutcracker for the first time before Christmas last year. She played a super cute mouse and a beautiful young gypsy.

This day she pushed me over to her teacher before class started to be sure it was okay for me to sit in and take pictures of her. Jordyn sat on the opposite side of the room for most of the time, but I only had the standard lens, so I was unable to get pictures of only her. Having the extended zoom lens in a room full of little girls might have looked suspicious, especially for the other moms dropping their kids off a few minutes late.

Jordyn did really well and was quiet and paid attention as much as a five-and-a-half year old can for a whole hour. She did her stretches as far as her legs would stretch and was first in line for more leaps and (insert ballet terms here) back and forth across the room. She got a few blue stars on her chest for being such a good listener. Only during the free dance part did Jordyn run over to give me a hug and a kiss before spinning off again by the barre.

We had leftover pasta shells and tomato bread for dinner, then after some very dramatic goodbye tears from Jordyn, Michael drove us home. I liked that it didn't seem like a 3 hour drive on the way back, but it was still enough time for me to finished off the box of Thin Mints!

I love my Godsister

Jessica was quite the vision as she walked down the driveway to give us hugs when we pulled into her neighborhood on Wednesday. Dark skinny jeans, scarf, and intense black velvet high heels that she made look effortless. I hope one day I can be a hot mom too! ;) It's always really nice to see her and I spent a lot of time with her while we were growing up. I've always loved her personality- so happy and bubbly, and she laughs all the time. She seems to pep me up when I'm in a blah mood and brings more energy into the whole room.

March 6th, 2014 at top & October 18th, 2012 above. Somehow we looked older before.

Jessica is always able to find something fun for us to do. Yesterday she showed me her Cricut, a sort of printer for cutting shapes to make cards or banners. I picked the beach/ vacation themed set and made a tourist camera, island, a happy sun, a turtle and a smiling crab. She also had glitter that I painted over some of the papers. I really like how the gold sand turned out! Michael stayed upstairs when he could, watching Breaking Bad on his iPad. He came down at one point to see what I was doing, looked at my five handcrafted cards and said, "You're adorable."

For lunch I had leftover Quinoa crusted chicken that Jessica and her family had for dinner on Tuesday night. It was interesting, but Michael wouldn't try it. I would attempt to make it in the near future. We all shared a box of Tagalongs that day, but I need to make my own with vanilla wafers and a scoop of peanut butter dipped in chocolate. Why did I have to give up chocolate for Lent? Please note that "give up" should be in quotes since I had ordered a box of Girl Scout Thin Mints from Jordyn and I couldn't let those just sit around for the next 40 days. They were delish!

Happy Lent!

How come I never crave chicken as much as I do on specific days during Lent? It sounded so good and Michael brought home a free half Hawaiian/ half Meat Lovers pizza from Salvatore's since a customer never came to pick up their order. I couldn't share any of it since it has meat, so I stared at the pantry for a few minutes before mixing up cheddar broccoli rice and lentil beans. I got excited last week when Lauren, a super fun girl from Massage Envy who is going on a mission trip to Africa in May, said she was Catholic too!! And since we work the closing shifts a lot at work, we try to come up with ideas for what to eat those days. Most of the time I don't take a break and just suck on mints during my shift. Tonight I told her about Jim Gaffigan's hilarious religion act. "God Pocket!"

Michael was able to get two days off from work with me, so two days ago, on Ash Wednesday, he drove us to Atlanta to spend a night with Jessica. I can't believe I hadn't seen her in about a year and a half. I suppose that's one good thing about time going by so quickly these past few years. We got to her house at 2 o'clock as she left to pick up James from school. Jordyn's bus arrived across the street shortly after that. Jonathan got home from work before dinner and Michael was able to talk with him while Jordyn showed me her princess Lego set. Then we played Chutes and Ladders and a Mickey memory game that Jessica made out of paint color samples.

For dinner Jessica made really yummy jumbo pasta shells stuffed with ricotta cheese, spinach baked in marinara sauce. I'm pretty sure I made the same thing last year for Ash Wednesday or one of the first Fridays of Lent! But she also had this amazing sun dried tomato bread. Then we hurried off to church. There was a lot more traffic than usual and we got there about halfway through the service and still had to stand in the lobby. We filed through the line to get ashes on our foreheads then found a vacant spot since a bunch of people left after they got ashes. James rubbed his finger all over Jessica's head which is why hers is almost rubbed off. And Jordyn's was leftover from mine.
Happy Lent!