What's making me happy this week!

I listen to a lot of podcasts.  One of them is NPR: Pop Culture Happy Hour.  They have different topics that they talk about and each week each of the hosts lists what is making them happy this week.  I love this.  It can be short and sweet or sometimes they elaborate and they give details.  I have found that I look forward to this in each episode.  I kind of want to pipe in and say... "Cool, this is what's making me happy this week."

So... What's making me happy this week?  I'm so glad you asked.

Summer - It is finally here!!  Jake and Amanda finished school yesterday and Nick is done today!  Yeah!

Baby Rabbits - Yes, we had more baby rabbits.  Yes, it was planned.  Carmel had 5 baby rabbits on Wednesday, May 29th.  They are adorable!!


A new box of workbooks - I ordered a box of workbooks from School Zone for Jake and Amanda.  They are going to work hard this summer.  Jake needs to work on Multiplication and Division and his Reading.  Amanda is going to continue building the skills she learned in Kindergarten.

A Free weekend - John's nephew Brad graduates from High School this year and we have his graduation party tomorrow.  Other then that our weekend is wide open.  I have a habit of booking my calendar completely full so I'm very excited about an open weekend.


Each week I am going to share what is making me happy. I'd love to hear what is making you happy!  Please leave me a comment.

Birthday Boy

It was a very busy weekend at our house.  Jacob turned 9 last week so we had his birthday party with my Parents and our Siblings/Nieces/Nephews.  It was a great time.  I can't believe he's 9 already!  Wasn't he an infant yesterday?!?

My cute little 8 lb 13 1/2 oz infant

My 9 pound grown up little man

We ate, we visited, we watched and we sang. He had a great time and that made all the cleaning, baking, cooking, wrapping and more cleaning afterwards all worth it!!

Everyone needs a personalized License Plate!!

A Snuggly Rabbit Puppet

Blowing out all those candles!!

Happy Birthday Jacob!!  I'm so proud of the boy you have grown into.  You are so smart and caring.  I can't wait to see what the next 9 years has to hold for you.

I really enjoy watching the kids all play together.  All the running and laughing.  It all makes it worth it.  I hope they enjoy the time with their cousins like I did.  I remember all the fun at my birthday parties.  The ended up being like a big BBQ Party and were so much fun!!

Kids X-Cel Book Fair

I am in full swing of a book fair at Kids X-Cel Center.  It is going very well.  The school will be receiving lots of great books for their class rooms.

 

 

I have really enjoyed getting to know my new "little friends".  :)  Some of them know me as Michele and some know me as "the crazy book lady".

BHH (Book Hauling Husband) John has watched the book fair for me an hour each day.  He was telling me how he overheard one of the kids talking about the "Crazy Book Lady" to their mom. Apparently the mom scolded the child and said that wasn't nice to call me crazy.  No really! I am the Crazy Book Lady and I wear my name with pride!!


It is a beautiful center and the kids are so darn cute!  Tonight is their open house and I will be there from 3-7:30.  Come see me and check out this amazing center!!

 

My Display!!

One of the teacher's Wish Lists.

The wish lists work great for the schools!  The teachers pick out books that they want from the catalogs and get them back to me before hand.  I make each of the teachers a Tag Board with all the books written on post-its.  Then the parents can simply pull the title they want to purchase off the list.  It works great! 

Honk if you love books!

I purchased some vinyl lettering for my van last fall.  I hesistated to put it on before the winter though.  My van sits outside most of the winter and I wanted to wait until Spring.

The BHH (Book Hauling Husband) helped me put on the first set of lettering.  It was pretty cold out the day we worked on it so only the back side is done at this point. 

BHH Pulling off the backing... There may (or may not) have been some cussing while this was going on. :)

Smooth it on with a credit card.

Revealing the lettering!!

I think it look fabulous!! 

Now the questions.... Should I put it on the two sides of the van as I originally planned to?  Is that too much?  Opinions please in the comments.

Honk if you love books and see my van!!

Blast from the Past

Have you ever thought about somebody you used to work with and wondered how they are?  Maybe even someone you just used to work with over the phone?

I spent about 8 years working at a Post-it Note Factory in Mankato.  I did a lot of my growing up while working there.  Met my husband, bought my house and had both my babies.  I did Customer Service for a good portion of that time and developed a great relationship with lots of my customers.  Some of these people I talked to multiple times during the day.  A few I met in person. 

Today I was thinking about a guy that I used to work with.  Back in the day he used to tell me all about his wife and two grown sons.  The drama with various son's girlfriends and the ones serious health condition.  I busted my chops for him on rush orders that he pushed through and he trusted me with a lot of his business.  A great working relationship.

It's been over 5 years since I've talked to him.  Today I picked up the phone and called.  It was great fun catching up with him.  Hearing about how his wife and boys were doing.  Some of the drama remains and the health conditions have improved.  It was so nice visiting.  So glad I picked up the phone and just called.

We don't get out much...

Saturday Morning John and the kids and I piled in the van and drove up to Menards.  We weren't on a mission of any sort so we were just kind of wandering.  The kids had never been there before and... come to think of it... I don't think they've ever been to Menards in Mankato either.

We headed toward the Bathroom Remodel area.  We oggled the new glass wash basin's.  Amanda's favorite is the blue.  Mine is the green.  We wandered down one aisle quietly imagining our future (although far off future) bathroom.  The kids headed down another aisle.  John and I commented on some of the different prices.  I was silently calculating how many hours I'd have to work to afford some of those fancy faucets.  Cripes!!  (I either need a big raise or cheaper taste.)

John and I came around the corner both wondering where the children were.  We could hear them jabbering but couldn't see them.  Then we spotted this....

I had to get closer to make sure I was seeing correctly.  

Yup... Those are my children's shoes.  My thoughts... "Good Lord, Where are my children and why don't they have their shoes on."


Then I spotted them!  Good Grief!

Like two caged animals.

Ahhhh!  So relaxing!  Dadd, we need this tub!!

This one is nice but kind of short.  Maybe a longer one, Daddy!

I really need to get these kids out more often!  They truly enjoyed their trip to Menards.  In fact, they haven't stopped talking about it yet.  Amanda was telling Jacob yesterday about how Amazing Menards is and that you can buy ANYTHING there... except rabbit stuff.

(No, in case you are wondering... I am not sponsored by Menards.  hum... maybe that's how I could get that fancy faucet!!)