This week, my sister, her husband, and their three kids came into town. Eddie ran the Peachtree Road Race, and went home early. My sister - always a whir of activity - got caught up with friends, as did my niece and nephews, who grew up here for a while. The youngest, Aidan, remembers the least, but he is content to hang around with his brother or sister and their friends.

Yesterday, they went to see the fireworks that were postponed because of rain on the fourth. I begged off, as I had the day before, because I got an e-mail from the producer at the DIY Network, saying that he was going to pitch my show on Wednesday, and could I send him instructions for the story boxes, as well as at least two variations on the theme.

I got it done, staying up until 3AM and working in Photoshop to get illustrations, etc. together. I went to send it, and it came back to me with a Mailer-Daemon message... not to panic. I was able to resend it the next day. I still have not heard the verdict.

Last night, I spent a lot of time organizing all of the papers I have collected to use for...something. I have bought all sorts of BEAUTIFUL papers at Il Papiro, and have been picking up Punch Studio wrapping paper at T.J.Maxx for a while. I love their stuff!

Oh, I heard from a customer service rep from Hobby Lobby, who said that she would send an e-mail to all of the stores to see what remaining 2-deck card boxes they could round up. We'll see!

One more little momentous thing tomorrow - if I want, I can call in to ETS and see what my score on the Language Arts Praxis is... God, I hope I passed - I am sooooo tired of worrying about stuff!

Today, we met my sister and the kids at a bowling alley and then we took my niece and nephews to Don Taco for lunch. We sat out on the patio, which looks out onto Buford Highway and the labor pool ( a group of Hispanic men, waiting for someone to pick them up for day labor). It was picturesque... We should have just gone to Quiroga, the taqueria near my house.

After that, we went to the Buford Highway Farmers market to look at the wierd foods. My nephew, Aidan, said, "There is NO food I recognize here!" We bought marshmallow candy for McKenzie, shrimp chips for Aidan, ginger candy for my husband, chopsticks for Robert (it was a LOT of chopsticks!), and fortune cookies and El Milagro tostadas for me. My husband picked up a package and said, "Look, honey, all of the makings for goat stew!" I almost bought it right then and there. I will go back for it... and for the Virgin of Guadalupe beach towel!

OHHHH! This morning, the mailperson rang the doorbell, and voila! My Sampler! I got an interesting grab-bag of stuff. My favorite thing that I haven't even gotten yet is The Get Off Your Ass to do list!. My favorite thing I received so far is a notepad covered with an old Harlequin Romance novel. I cannot find the website on the Sampler page, and I'm too lazy to go to my car and get it.

My Doll

Isn't that cool?!!! Well, that took up about 30 minutes!