Mail and meltdowns.

I officially drew two names out of a hat this evening, and the Valentine card recipients are going to be Lisa Tanner and Jill from Omaha. Send me your mailing addresses (to nitty.grittyjody@yahoo.com ) and I will get those cards in the mail to you.

Thanks to everyone for all your candy heart thoughts. I now have some new blogs to check out thanks to some of your links too. Just for that, I will have even less time in my life to scrap layouts and make cards. =)

I am happy to report that Chip made it home safe and sound, and wanted to pack his bags for another trip after being in the house for less than 2 minutes. Everything and everyone was just as he had left it- crazy as ever! Some of you can relate to that, huh? I owe a big thanks to Rachael for all her help with my younguns while Chip was away. She kept me sane and we even had some laughs together...so, "Thank You, Rachael".

In addition, I owe "Dr. & Mrs. H' a big apology for Bella's meltdown at their front door as we prepared to leave their home last evening. Bella wanted to stay and have a sleepover with their 4 year-old son...and she was devastated when I wouldn't allow it. {This was only the second time she had ever played with their son! I do have a few standards. =)} So, she cried the whole way home, and then once inside our house started saying, "I love you, I love you, I love you"...so that she could avoid getting an expected punishment. Smart girl, really. I hope her behavior isn't a reflection of my parenting, or of how she plans on acting in future years. But I have a strange feeling.... Despite all the yelling, running, jumping, not sharing, pulling, pushing, knocking over, and misunderstanding, we had a nice time with the 'H family', and we hope our friendship can blossom from here on out. Thanks for dinner and entertaining my kids, and I promise to work on Bella and her meltdowns this week.