Back home at the love palace

After a fantastic 12 days in Albany, I'm back home.  Aaaaahhhh, it feels so good!  And the party continues--Courtney and  Hazel and I flew into Las Vegas yesterday afternoon, and I have them here until next Monday.  Yay!

 

 

Hazel is a mellow baby, thank God, because we had a 5-hour non-stop flight.  (It's so nice to be able to get a direct flight to Albany.)  Funny--there was another toddler on the plane making some noise, and the people behind us were saying things like, "They should have child-free flights" and "If it were up to me, kids would be strapped to the top of the plane."  They had no clue there was a baby right in the seat in front of them.  Oh, what a braggy granny I am.

Mike's kids are sooooo excited that Courtney and Hazel are here.  It's sweet to see Courtney and Mike's 7-year-old cuddled up on the couch watching the Disney channel.  We have a unique blended family in that our kids are decades apart in age, but it all works out.  We're so lucky.

Today Mike took us on a shopping spree for Courtney's birthday; there's a strip mall here with the holy trinity of discount stores:  Target, Marshalls, and Ross Dress-for-Less.  Heaven!  I got the cutest shoes in Marshall's, in the children's section.  (I have small feet, so I can fit in children's shoes, too.)  Believe it or not, Nine West has a children's line.  Who knew?

Earlier tonight Mike watched Hazel while I took Courtney to my ballet class.   I had Courtney in ballet classes from age 7 to 17--I figured you never see a little ballerina smoking on the street corner--and although she hasn't taken a class in about 10 years, it all came back to her.  She did beautifully!  It was so much fun taking a class together, though man, I sure felt the two weeks I missed.  And 12 days in Albany was not good for my low carb initiative--I was up to 139.8 this morning, my first weigh-in back home.  That's okay; I know what to do to get the weight back down

Home!  Home with the husb and the step-darlings and I even have my daughter and granddaughter here now, too. 

And my shamrock tree. 

Life is good.  I'm a lucky gal.