Five years ago today this little girl came to grace our family with her joy, giggles, and unique personality.

And now look at her all grown up. 

Happy Birthday, Allyson!  My fun sleepover guest.  My hiking buddy.  My Applebee’s companion.  My lemonade maker.  My afternoon break friend.

Love you Ally-bug.

(And, yes, I realize she doesn’t look happy in this picture…we were about 1/2 way into our 2 mile, uphill hike and she wanted to quit.    We persevered and she finished the ENTIRE hike that the trooper that she is.  Although, she has informed me that she won’t hike “the mountain” again until she’s 7, or maybe 6.)

Ugh, this is my with my head in a bag, admitting that it’s been THREE months since I’ve posted.  Goodness, how did that happen?  Uh, I guess it’s this thing called life.    A lot’s happened in those three months.  I’ll give you the highlights then tell you about the fun I had last night.

February ended with me being extremely busy with work.  So busy, in fact, that I had to hire an assistant in March.  She’s in college, super on it and comes to the office almost every day.  She rocks, I love it.  March also had me traveling down to Texas to visit a great client/friend, Candy of OffAssist in Austin then down to San Antonio to watch my amazing Goddaughter, Bethany, graduate form Air Force BMT.

Of course, if I had a better camera, OK, if I had a camera other than my phone I would have a better picture for you…but I’m still proud. 

April, of course, was the end of tax season and to say it was a blur is an understatement.  I survived it so that’s good.    Tami found out in April that she got a job so she started the plans to get an apartment for her and Rider.  I’m excited that she has her own place and happy to have my place back but I miss them. 

May found me going to Miles City, MT for the Bucking Horse Sale and my mom’s cousin’s 45th anniversary party.  Both were a BLAST.

I came home from that trip to an empty house and lots of work to get caught up on. I swear, sometimes I wonder if vacations are even worth it.

So, here we are to Memorial weekend.  Saturday I was L-A-Z-Y and it was GREAT.  Yesterday we took the boat out on a lake east of here then down the river.  It was SO much fun, except for the light sunburn I got.  But, even that isn’t too bad.  I also got to drive the boat for a while.  Brian would have let me drive longer but I was getting nervous because I didn’t know where we were going and I was getting close to the area that we had to paddle through on the way in because the grass was so high.

Last night I did the insane fun sleepover with ALL the kids.  Yes, I hosted a sleepover for a 2 1/2 year old, almost 5 year old and 5 1/2 year old.  It was a blast.  They got here around 8PM (which was the only bad part but we’d been on the boat all day) and we made homemade lemonade.  Then I downloaded Ant Bully off Netflix for us to watch.  We put the air mattress in the living room and all snuggled down on it to watch the movie.  Kyle and I fell asleep and the older two woke me up when the movie was over.  Then we went to bed.  Rider decided he wanted to sleep with me because “Ally wakes up to early”.  I couldn’t argue.  So asleep we went, at 11PM.    Sigh.

Then, bright and early, Ally and Kyle woke me up at 6AM.  When will these kids learn to SLEEP IN?  Sheesh.  I got up with them and let Rider sleep. I downloaded Madeline on the computer for them to watch and fell back asleep in the living room while they watched their movie.  Rider woke up at the end of that movie and we made pancakes.  The first set were shaped with my pancake shapers (a bear head, heart, and star) but then we just ate circle pancakes.

After breakfast was cleaned up we watched Ant Bully again (well, they did, I fell back asleep).  When that was over they were hungry again so we had chocolate ice cream.  It’s a sleepover, who cares that it was 9AM.  Then we got dressed, and cleaned up for mommys to come.

Today, I’m playing my new favorite obsession game Farmtown on Facebook while Rider watches The Specatular Spider-Man marathon while his mom does some shopping.

So, there you have it.  My life the past three monhts in 700 words or less.

It’s been a while since my niece and I had a sleepover.  So, I decided tonight was the night.  Welcome to our party…

Her daddy dropped her off at the office around 5 and (unfortunately) I had a couple minutes of work left so, she  hung out until we could leave.  We decided to go to Applebees for dinner so headed there straight from the office.

We ordered our favorite “snack” (aka appetizer) “cheese french fries” (aka mozzarella sticks).  She had chocolate milk (which the bar (?!?) luckily had tonight) and with a corndog and applesauce because she doesn’t “like broccoli”.  (Although, seriously why would you put broccoli as the only vegetable option for a kids menu?) I had the mini cheese burgers (which aren’t very good so don’t get them).

Part way through dinner she says (very seriously) “So, Auntie, let’s talk”.  Seriously the last time I heard that I was in trouble LOL.)  I agreed so she says “what have you been up to?”.  We discussed my work and social life (LOL) and I asked her what he’d been up to.  She replied (I kid you not) “I’ve been playing dress up with my young adult friend Baylee” (Baylee’s is 11) “Baylee always wants to play dress up with me” (duh, she’s a live doll LOL).  “I’ve been going to school and watching TV and movies with my parents”.  (Dude, the kid is 4 1/2 where’d she learn to talk like this????)

We decided to go to “the movie store” (aka Blockbuster) to get a movie.  On the way I commented that soon I’d need to have her brother (who’s 2) over for a sleepover.  Her reply:  “No, sleepovers are for professionals”.  So, I guess we’re professional sleepoverers.  LOL

We rented Pinocchio (the Italian live person version — which SUCKED) and came home.  That’s when the fun begins.  LOL  Seems one of my neighbors has pretty much abandoned her two cats (don’t ask, I know the lady, I’m not commenting).  It also seems these cats have a great fondness for 4 1/2 year old blonde headed girls who absolutely LOVE cats and are dying for one of their own.  I made the mistake of telling her that the cats had no home when she asked where they lived.  Guess who wanted to have a CAT SLUMBER PARTY IN MY HOUSE.  Yeah, that got nixed really fast, not having three cats fighting over who’s boss.  But, my lovely niece got it in her head that she’s keeping said cat.  Good luck convincing your father of that one LOL.

So, in preparation of being a cat owner I let her clean the litter box.  (Yeah, that lasted all of two scoops before she was gagging and telling me she couldn’t do it.)  She did take the bag out to the garbage and feed my cat, though.  She was extremely upset when we had to leave these two (really cute, sweet, innocent) cats out in the (freezing, wet, cold) night.

We started our movie (again, it was bad) with her special TV pillow, comfy cozy pink blanket and a bowl of popcorn (that she didn’t eat but insisted she needed).

Movies over and she went to bed.  Of course a couple minutes later I hear “Auntie” followed by the pitter patter of cute little toes.  She comes in my room to remind me that we didn’t have a pajama party.  (OK, I thought watching movies in your jammies in the living room before going to bed at a sleepover was a pajama party but what do I know…guess I’m not the professional of the group.)  So, I wisely ask “what’s a pajama party”.  A pajama party is when you find a radio, turn it on, and dance in your pajamas.  So, we did it.    So much fun.

We have a busy morning.  We still need to have a tea party with my special Beauty & the Beast Tea set in our dress-up clothes.  We have an appointment for another pajama party.  And, we’re  having fruit loops with hot chocolate with marshmallows.  Although, I might nix all that and introduce her to the Donut House for hot cocoa and donuts before dropping her off at 9:45 so I can make my Saturday stamp club that I missed last time because I had to go to CA ’cause my dad was in the hospital.

I love sleepovers. 

I’m sure you know that my sister and nephew are living with me.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that part of the reason she’s with me is to pursue her education to get her cosmetology license.  She was lucky and I was able to connect her with a client of mine who owns a salon and has her instructors license so Tami is apprenticing under her.  Becky (the instructor) has wanted Tami to start doing shampoos but Tami has been nervous about learning on a client.  So, being the wonderful, supportive sister that I am I offered to go in.

I think I’m going to like Tami getting this education.

Last night she needed to practice her head massage techniques on my head.  Oh darn.  Of course, it’s a difficult job.  I have to give feedback and she is learning on me (which means I got my hair snagged — aka yanked, a couple times) but she’s really good.  And even with a couple oops I’ll let her practice on me.

This morning I met her at the salon so she could shampoo and style my hair.  I’ll probably meet her there every morning this week so she can start on clients next week.  She was nervous this morning but she did a great job.  Then I got my hair styled and it looks a whole lot better than when I do it.

How many times have you made the comment:  “Now if only you could do it every morning” after you’ve had your hair done in the salon?  I know I say it (or at least think it) almost every time I’m there.  Well, for now anyways, I get to have someone do it for me every morning.

Now if she’d just get started on her pedicure training I’ll be set.

My brother left at Dark-o-clock this morning to make the long trek to CA to pack up my sister and nephew and bring them here.  They should arrive Friday night with my nephew and mom flying in Saturday around noon.  Fun times ahead.

And, to answer the question I’ve received a couple times…the mouse is in the office.  The toilet viewing mouse happened (THANK GOODNESS) to my brother.  (If it had happened to me I would have run screaming from the bathroom — not a pretty sight.)  No new turds this morning, thank goodness.