Good Times

The past month has been a whirlwind of events! I am still working at the JuJu Gear store at Eden Prairie Center. In addition to the store, I have been doing craft and trade shows on behalf of JuJu Gear. The great news is that we are spreading good JuJu all around and gaining new fans each week! A few weeks ago I was a craft show in Maple Grove and this past week I was at the Twin Cities Women's Expo at the Minneapolis Convention Center. It is so much fun to introduce people to our fun skirts! Next up I will be at the big craft sale at Canterbury in Shakopee in April. The news of JuJu is definitely spreading. Today I dropped off the application to be in Art on the Lake in Excelsior and the woman said, "oh, are you part of those super cute JuJu skirts?" I was wearing one at the time and she was so excited. Can't wait to keep riding the JuJu train and see all of the exciting places it takes me!!

Here's my friend Aimee as we get all set up for the Women's Expo

Becca went to Sweetheart's Dance a few weeks ago. She was lovely in her dress. Erick and I went together to take the pictures. It was so much fun to see all the kids dressed up and having a great time.

Next week Bella goes to her survival camp for 4 days with her school. She did great last year, with the support of her great teacher. It was a good opportunity for her to be independent and handle her equipment by herself. She is getting good at it and like last year, I am packing a picture book on what steps need to be followed daily. The biggest issues for Bella are how to put the disposable batteries in since we don't use those on a daily basis. Also she needs to be reminded on when to change them. She is super excited to go on the trip. I will miss her tons, but it is a great chance for me to catch up on things around the house, while also having some fun downtime.

Never Knew, Until now...

So the high temperature here in lovely Minnesota was -4 on Monday. That is air temp, mind you, not windchill! Whenever it gets this cold, the tv stations always play clips of other parts of the country complaining about cold temps. I guess in LA last week it was only 56 and everyone started to lose their minds. Well CA friends, I invite you to come to MN in January. It is character building if nothing else...

With the cold temps, we have been enjoying some time indoors. On Monday, I just couldn't bring myself to load Bella in the car for swim team. Yesterday, Bella asked if we were going to swimming and I said, "yes, of course." She said it was too cold outside and I said, "Bella, yesterday was cold. Today it is 2 degrees. We are going." Today it is forecasted to be 11 degrees. I am going to resist the urge to put on capris.

So with the temps so cold, Bella has been focussed on indoor activities. Namely listening to Taylor Swift over and over on her ipod. In early December, I bought tickets to see her concert. That is a story in itself. I hadn't purchased anything on Ticketmaster for awhile and certainly nothing ever with the same intensity as Taylor Swift tickets. The plan was to purchase mid priced tickets on the Saturday evening she was performing. Understand that she won't be in Minneapolis until September '13. Anyway the tickets were going to be for Bella's 11th birthday in January. I thought I had planned everything so carefully! I had the presale code direct from Taylor (along with many others I came to discover), I had set up my Ticket Master account the night before with my credit card info so checkout would be quick. The plan was to sign in right at 10am, get my tickets and be done. The plan changed quickly when I put my desired date/ticket price along with the code and it quickly came back with the message that no results were found. I did it a handful of times, each time getting the same "no results found" message and having a little more anxiety and sweat build up. Finally I gave up control and put in the code with "best available" as the guideline. Immediately I was presented with available tickets at the highest price on the Sunday evening concert date. And then that lovely timer appeared on the ticket page. Giving you only 2 minutes to either make your child super happy or on the edge of despair. I tried opening another window quickly to make one final attempt at my original request. No luck!! So guess what? We are going to see Taylor Swift on a Sunday night next September in the highest price seating. And so it became both Bella's birthday and most of her Christmast present as well...

So back to Bella listening to Taylor on her ipod. In general she does a good job of understanding the lyrics in songs, but like anyone with a hearing loss, there are some problems. I was so excited last week when I discovered the app, Sound Hound, for her! It allows you to stream lyrics to the songs on your ipod as they are playing. It is really quite cool and it has opened up her world. Now we really know that Taylor is "never, ever, getting back together"...

Next week, Bella celebrates her 11th birthday on the 29th. I can't believe it. Through all the ups and downs with her over the years, I am amazed at what she has accomplished. As Taylor would say, "It was enchanting to meet you..."