Wednesday

Paul advanced from his blue belt to his red belt Tuesday night, which was pretty exciting.   In his new studio they go from blue to red to brown to black, whereas in his Maryland studio they skipped the red but had two levels of brown belts.  The particulars don't matter to us, we're just happy to see him advancing in karate rank and to see him rewarded for his hard work.  His new belt matches his uniform, which he thinks is pretty cool.

Today seemed to just fly by.  I dragged myself out of bed at 7:15 to get to my water aerobics class by 8:00.  Nice Ben was very encouraging and took care of making sure Paul got off to school.  Once in class I enjoyed it and felt good afterwards; that's the way of it, isn't it?  Getting there is half the battle.  I love the cartoon posted at the entry desk to the pool:  Exercise early in the morning before your brain knows what you are doing! 

When I got home I had coffee and breakfast and then got involved making fabric Christmas cards with a snow globe motif.  I was inspired by my quilting friend LeeAnna after reading about her snow globes on her blog.   I had to make a run to JoAnn's for some needed supplies to complete this project, but I timed that so I could pick up Paul from school.  This is final exam week for his first semester at Boulder High, and he's getting out a good hour to ninety minutes early each day this week, which is a big thrill for him.  We keep trying to explain that exam week is supposed to be stressful because you are studying, but all he can see is that it's a great week since you get out of school early. 

After I got back I finished a couple of the cards; here's one to give you an idea. They are fun to work on and kind of addicting.  I need lots more cute Christmas or winter fabrics if I'm going to make many more of these.  I felt a bit silly working on them when I could be doing something more serious but honestly, I just needed to have some fun!  I had a good time working on them while I watched my favorite Christmas move, Love Actually, on Netflix.  Definitely not a movie for kids, but Paul was busy on his iPhone downstairs.  One thing they don't tell you about having kids is that you can't watch adult TV when they are around! 

While I was having fun making the snow globes Fetcher jumped upon the cutting table and in true cat fashion decided that everything I had out must be for him.  Bad kitty!

Finally he moved over to the day bed where he had a nice nap.

 Later he  made himself comfortable on Ben's lap, impeding Ben's use of his laptop.  Well, what's a guy to do but just surrender and pet the nice cat?

While I was out I stopped in Hazel's, the local liquor and wine store, where I was thrilled to see a display of our friend Raymond's bitters.  His company, Cocktailpunk, is having a big success this season and it's such fun to see his products in bars and stores around the area. 

He's having such success that he's working hard to fill all the orders he's getting, so we invited him over to dinner tonight.  That handsome dog Gus came along and had a great time sniffing around the house to see what was up and getting petted by Ben and me.  

That was the day and a pretty good one it was!   Hard to believe that Christmas is just a week away from tomorrow.