Here's a glimpse the latest decorating job I'm working on right now!

We still need to move the painting to the right and up several inches. I have been terrible about getting before and after pics of the projects I do. I'm trying to build a portfolio, but it's hard to do when I keep forgetting to take pics. Last month I helped a neighbor with her office, master bedroom, and bath. We found an incredible deal on window treatments! The hardest thing about interior decorating in a small town is how limited we are on shopping. This client showed me a lamp online that she wanted to order. I told her to check TJ Maxx and Hobby Lobby first. You can almost always find a similar lamp for a quarter of the price. Also, it's easier to return if it doesn't work and there is no shipping fee! She found this at TJ Maxx and it's almost identical to the lamp she originally found online!

Hanging out on Sunday afternoon!!!

Hayley got Drew a tight rope. Several of the neighborhood kids came over to try it out! It was Laurel's Birthday this weekend. She turned 22! Alex and Hayley and several friends threw her a surprise party on Saturday night, then Sunday Laurel's family came in town and took them all for a nice lunch. Later that afternoon they came over, hung out, had dinner with us, and slept over. 

Day at the Park...

Ellie and Emma at the park!

Laurel and Hayley mentor some young girls in Athens. Don't know where they find the time being full-time students with part time jobs as well as their involvement in school clubs! Today they took Ellie and Emma, along with the girls they are mentoring, for a play date in the park. I feel so blessed that my boys have chosen such sweet girls to date. I love how  the "big kids" are so inclusive with the "little ones"! They are always taking them on hikes, fishing at the pond, down to the river, to the park, the tennis courts, or on golf cart rides... they play board games, computer games, and wii with them... they take them out to eat, to the movies, to the pool in the summer, and sledding in the winter. Whose a thankful mom? This gal!!!

Emma's Neon Dance at High Shoals Elementary

Emma's 2nd Grade Valentine's Party!

Valentines Day spent cleaning ice off the courts!

USTA Rules state that you only have one week to make up a match or you have to forfeit. My opponent was going to Hawaii, so I had my match early, but the rest of my team only has a few days to make up their match. Unfortunately, all the courts in Oconnee County are still covered in ice. Yesterday, the girls helped Natasha and I clean ice off the Lane Creek Courts for hours... Then when I got home, I realized I still needed to shovel my icy driveway. Every time I'd make headway, a huge chunk of ice would slide off my roof and mess up the part I just cleaned. Whew, I wouldn't have run that morning if I knew I was gonna be shoveling ice all day! I was surprised that I wasn't even sore when I woke up this morning. I read somewhere that it's even more important to stretch after hard work than before. I had remembered that and stretched after I finished all that shoveling. Maybe that made the difference? 

It was 4:30 and I was ready for bed, but I still had to do the grocery shopping. Because of all this bad weather and not being able to make it to the store, our cupboards were getting bare. I picked up a Valentine's cookie kit for the girls for after dinner. Keith had to work yesterday, so he picked up Chinese on the way home! We had a nice Valentines Day and slept well last night! Well, at least until we felt the house shake at around 10:30pm. I thought it was just another layer of ice and snow sliding off the roof, but turns out it was an earthquake! Crazy weather we're having... snow boots one day, flip flops the next, then back in snow boots again... now an earth quake? Whats next, swarms of locusts???

Snow/Ice Week!!!