Today I got myself out of bed at a normal hour (9am), showered and put on real clothes and drove myself all the way to Ruthanne’s house. Today was the day she got to see what was in her tiny box.  She could have never guessed because it is a one-of-a-kind handmade, special ordered SNORT necklace. If you know Ruthanne, you know she says snort at least 10 times a day (at least on twitter, facebook and her blog). I got it at a shop called Piano Bench Designs on etsy.

She got me the first 3 seasons of Mad Men! I’m so excited. I just started watching Mad Men this season so I haven’t seen any of the first three seasons.

While I was there I got a sneak peak at her new camera strap designs. They are going to be so cute! Of course they are. Ruthanne designed them!

And, she made me curly.

Seriously. She has mad curl skilz. I can’t figure out how to post the picture here, but you can go to my facebook fan page and see the picture Ruthanne tweeted. I would not call myself naturally curly. My hair has gotten more wave in it since I’ve had kids, but it’s more of an annoying wave than a pretty curl. But Ruthanne knows how to wrangle that little bit of curl and make it look right. I was major impressed.

After I left her house I finished my Christmas shopping! Yes I did. Now I can spend the rest of the holidays in my stretchy pants eating fudge and watching Mad Men.

Ever since I added the little table in the kitchen, along with a basket of animals, Tess (and others) can be found sitting there playing. It makes me so happy because I remember my big girls playing at this same table. They enjoyed it so much and now she is too.

She cannot stand to leave anything stacked up.

Because today was beautiful and I treasure each day of wonderful weather right now as we head into winter, we went on a walk in the woods. This is the best part of homeschooling, taking advantage of really nice days.

Our fall color this year has been indecisive. Some trees are bare, some are full of brown leaves and a few are adhering to schedule, turning yellow or red as they are supposed to.

One reason I chose to walk in the woods is that I figured our days of ticks and snakes were over with the very cool nights we’ve had. I was wrong. We came upon this black snake at the end of our walk. “Zero at the bone.” I always recall Emily Dickinson’s poem when I see a snake. It has stuck with me. I read it to the kids when we got home.

The two Anne’s in my life finally met tonight. It was good.

Ruthanne and Suzanne both came to my make up party. It was great to have them both here. Can you tell I’m the oldest? I just had a face lift in a bottle. The make up party hostess had given me a facial just moments before this picture was taken. So now I’m sure I look as young as the Anne’s.

It’s totally worth it for you to move to Arkansas just to meet them.

We are definitely going to have to find more opportunities to get together.

I should have taken a picture of my whole group of partiers. We had a good time eating and talking and I appreciate all of them who came out.

And now I need to sneak off to bed because it’s 1:30 am and in just a few minutes it will be time for the Anne’s to rise up and have coffee and read this post. We may be good friends but we live on totally opposite schedules and coffee cannot be found in my house.