February Frenzy

Basketball has March Mania. Our family has February Frenzy. February is one of the busiest months in the whole year for us. Apparently, it isn't for everyone else, because they are the ones who keep planning things for February. It definitely isn't me! Piano graduation concert, 4-H Talk Meet, Progressive Dinner, 4-H Volunteer Conference, two birthdays... the list goes on and on. So it begins.
____________________
Well, I missed blogging all week, so I have to catch up with all the week's events...

I put a $5 bounty out on my favorite brown clogs. They had been gone for weeks and I was getting desperate. I even emailed my sister-in-law to see if I left them in Indiana. Nope. Finally I tried the financial incentive. John said it was going to take a lot more than that to get him interested (!) The kids searched diligently, but were unsuccessful in their quest. Eventually the shoes turned up. Where, you ask? Hanging on the shoe rack in my closet. I am definitely losing my mind.

Now if we can only find the lost library book.
____________________

If you haven't noticed, the 75% off sales are in full swing- this is a really good thing! I love a good clearance sale! I stumbled upon two by accident this week. I was headed into Hobby Lobby to buy posterboard for Becca's 4-H demonstration and Lo and Behold! The entire back corner of Hobby Lobby was filled with clearance items reduced to almost nothing. It was too good to pass up. But the best part was that lots of the craft instruction books were marked to $2.99 or less, and the ones that weren't were half off! WOW! I found a Mary Engelbreit painting book (which I had considered paying full price for in December) for $1.50. It just doesn't get better than that! Well, maybe finding it for .25 at a yard sale...

THEN, today I was headed into the mall to get my bangs trimmed and we entered at Dillard's. Dillard's has lots of clearance racks now, and a huge portion of the Dress Department was marked 75% off. I took a detour through the department and found a fabulous black silk cocktail dress to wear to my brother-in-law's wedding in May. AND a beaded wrap for $14. I'm still giddy with excitement!
_______________________________

Today John Mark and Becca's registrations were due for the 4-H Talk Meet. So last night, we're scrambling to think of titles for their presentations. We tend to go for catchy, but I'll settle for "ok" if catchy doesn't present itself. John Mark will be doing a PowerPoint Presentation about Bridges. We finally settled on "Bridges: Spanning the Globe". Catchy, yet sensible. Becca's title was another story. She will be talking about desert plant life and will demonstrate how to create a Cactus Garden. Try coming up with something catchy about Cacti! It was rough. I thought "Stuck on Cactus" was ok, or even "Crazy About Cacti" (this is a 10-year-old's presentation, after all). John said both were way too boring. His suggestion? "Cactus: The Desert [I deleted his word- it was too tacky for blogging! Guess you had to be there!]. (He was kidding!!) The highly creative end result was "Desert Gardens: How Cactus Attract Us". Cute, but bulky. Personally, I still like "Crazy About Cacti". So what do you think?