The Basket List

A few weeks ago, I made a list of all the things I'd like to do while the boys are away on spring break. After two week-long delays, they're finally getting to spend some time at Camp Mamaw & Papaw and I'm getting to my list.

I didn't want to call this a "bucket" list because I have no intention of kicking the bucket when I finish it. I thought a "basket" list was appropriate since these are things I'm doing before Easter and the boys are back home.

Monday

1. Went to the dentist. I went in this morning for my semi-annual cleaning. Everything looked great, so I'll see them again in September or October, I can't remember which...

2. Shopped for beads. I'm nowhere near finished with this, but I did check out Hobby Lobby's and Michael's beads. I bought a few things at Hobby Lobby for myself using the gift card I got at Christmas. Everything I bought there was half-price.

3. Bought a few new shirts. I don't think this was on my list, but I decided to stop in Kohl's and was pleasantly surprised to find two shirts I liked. They were half-price, too.

4. Browsed Aldi. The new grocery store is interesting. It's quite a bit smaller than even the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. They have very few recognizable name brand products, but what they do have is lower priced. The produce department doesn't have as much to offer, but what I saw there today looked like good quality and the prices were low. Avocados were 38 cents each; pineapples for 99 cents; a quart of strawberries was $1.49. I started to buy a pineapple and a container of strawberries, but I wasn't sure if I was coming straight home or not.

5. Looked through jewelry design books at Borders. I didn't really see any books I wanted to buy, but I did look through several, and I got some new ideas for things I want to try. I wish they'd get some of these books at my library so I could look at them for an extended period of time. It's always then that I come upon things I missed the first time looking through the book.

6. Made some jewelry. I've been working on a few crystal crosses for pendants and earrings today.

7. Bought some lipstick. I found the lipstick I wanted from Merle Norman. I went ahead and bought it, despite the ridiculously high price, but now I wish I'd just waited to find something else that wasn't so expensive. Plus, it's not quite the shade I remember wearing a few years ago. Of course, that could be my imagination since my opinion has been clouded by the price...

8. Ate supper at a "new" burger place. It's not new, but it's new to us. I can't remember the name, but it's just down the strip from Double Dave's Pizza. The burgers were really good. The fries were overdone with seasoned salt. I'll go back, but not too often. It was a heavy meal after eating lighter for so long now.

9. Looked at shrubs and trees to replace the dead and/or ugly stuff in our front flower bed. We went to Lowe's and Home Depot to see what they had, what their prices were, etc. We have a few ideas...

Tuesday

10. Got my hair trimmed. I haven't had a trim since August, I believe. It was high time! I don't have the name of a good stylist anymore, so I took a chance and walked into a salon. The stylist did a good job of cutting my hair, but she didn't want me to walk out with a wet head since styling is included in the price. I don't use a hair dryer or any other heat appliance on my hair, and I had to tell her repeatedly that I didn't want her to use the flat iron or a curling iron (?) on my hair. I did let her dry it and "style" it, though. I probably won't go back there...

11. Shopped for beads. Yes, again. This time I went to Bally Beads in Rockwall and was pleasantly surprised to find out they now sell wholesale to the public, not just to those with tax ID numbers. Woohoo! They have a great selection of natural stone beads, which I prefer to work with, but they also have some good glass beads. I also think they have the best prices on craft wire and sterling silver wire - but they don't carry a big variety of it.

12. Colored my hair. After I got home, I colored my hair (and rinsed out the dry frizz and itchy clippings out of my hair). For the last few years, I've gone with Chocolate Peanut Butter or Chocolate Caramel, but this time I decided to be a little bolder. I used Sangria for some nice deep red highlights. I like it.

13. Bought some copper washers from Harbor Freight Tools. I'm going to make jewelry out of them. Yes, jewelry. Earrings, bracelets, maybe even a belt. Billy bought some gardening tools. The lady noticed what we bought and laughed that we were backward. :o)

14. Ate a delicious Mediterranean Wrap at Jason's Deli. I started to get a quarter muffaletta and cup of red beans & rice. Then I saw a veggie pizza on their specials menu. Then I saw the low-cal wraps on the menu and went with that and a side of fresh fruit. I'm ready for more!

15. Looked at more shrubs and trees. Yes, again. We went to a different Home Depot to see what they had. We still hadn't made any firm decision on what we wanted - except I definitely wanted gardenias.

Wednesday

16. Completed my third ring sample and all my class instructions for my Beads of Splendor class. Finally! I took everything in to Diana and she put me down to teach a class in May. I told her which weekends were better for me, and she said she'll be in touch.

17. Shopped for beads. Yes, again! I bought a few things at Beads of Splendor, then went up to Rock Barrell for some things, then back to Rockwall to Bally Beads to get a few things for a birthday bracelet party I'm doing for a 13-year-old from church. Oh, and I stopped at Hobby Lobby again to get a few more supplies that were on sale.

18. Looked at more shrubs and trees. We still hadn't settled on exactly what we wanted to plant, but we did buy some gardening tools and concrete block border for the flower bed.

19. Ate supper at Chili's.

Thursday

20. Attended the Dallas Blooms festival at the Arboretum. This was my first time to go in the more-than-6 years we've lived here. There were brightly-colored tulips everywhere. Beautiful! I took tons of pictures, and I can't wait to see how they turned out.

21. Enjoyed a delicious lunch at Ali Baba. I've been wanting to go here for months. A Mediterranean buffet full of all sorts of delicious samplings... My favorite thing, as usual, was the roasted cauliflower. I ate entirely too much and enjoyed every minute of it. I think there are several things there the boys would enjoy eating.

22. Bought gardenias and a red dogwood tree. We made a spur-of-the-moment decision to buy a red dogwood tree. The size was right, and the price was lower than we had seen at other Home Depots in the area. We decided to wait another weekend to get azaleas done.

23. Planted our new garden finds. Rain was in the forecast for Friday, the day we originally had planned to do our planting. We had a good block of time to get things done, so we got right to digging up the old dying scrubby shrubs and pulling weeds. Billy dug up the scraggly tree and hit the main water line into the house. Why they had planted a tree right over that, I'll never know! Water was spraying everywhere! Billy managed to stop the spraying, but water started rushing into the hole. Someone from the water department came out to shut the water off and tell Billy what he needed to do to fix it. We got the gardenias in the ground, then went back to Home Depot, a nearby hardware store, and Lowe's to find what was needed to fix it. Finally Billy found what he needed and we made it home in time for him to repair the line before dark. Then we put the border down and called it a night. It looks so much better than before! I took some before and after pictures, but we still have to replace three more bushes with some azaleas (yes, we finally decided!) before we're truly finished.