at the sound of the beep...

please leave a message. i would normally be happy to take your call, but at this time, i am too busy playing with all of the fun *working-out-of-the-home-mom* goodies that natasha sent to me!!




amazing good mail!! this package was waiting at home for me the other afternoon, and i couldn't be more surprised by all of the FUN inside. i thought, for a moment, that natasha had held up the Post-It factory. it will certainly make tedious afternoons at work a whole lot more tolerable!

USPS redemption

apparantly, the USPS is trying to get back on my good side, as i have received several pieces of really good mail over the past few days.

first, an amazing LOVE swap package from liz, featuring Lavender bath sugar & salts; Orange chocolate; Vintage-look apron with amazingly fun prints; and a fun letter E with embellishments. it was all topped off with very cute and sparkly letters, which are currently hanging from my mantlepiece, and will become part of my annual valentines decor.



thanks, missy, for organizing such a fun swap!

yesterdays mail included a return address i'm getting to know quite well, only... it was addressed to jack!! he was THRILLED to get a pack of authentic hockey trading cards from barb. he even got a *special* card that featured swatches of two jerseys! i'm telling you, i just can't get these here, so this really was good mail for both of us! (he also loved the pinewood derby stickers.)



i've received a number of fun cards and valentines, too. (i must get better about photo-ing them!) there seems to be lots of good mail floating around these days. are you good at documenting yours?

additional postage necessary

there is absolutely NOTHING exciting about finding your mailbox chock full of valentines, when they are the valentines YOU mailed out!!



yup. that's what greeted me yesterday afternoon. and every single one of them had an obnoxious sticker covering the mailing label announcing that my valentines require additional postage because they can't be machine cancelled. because in a last minute attempt to make my valentines *cuter,* i added an embellishment that is apparantly offensive to the USPS and their sensitive machines.

and just why, exactly couldn't they have told me this when i asked them to put postage on the valentines that were going to other countries?!? why couldn't they tell me then??? and i've only gotten about half of them back, so i'm fully expecting that i'll get the others today. and, by God, i am going to resend each and every one of them again. so there.

and as long as i'm in the middle of a good rant, please read this:



do you see the part where it says, "if you are going to send in a treat in addition to a card, please choose stickers, pencils, erasers, etc. we do not encourage sending candy..."

wait - you couldn't read that? here, maybe i can get a clearer picture with this lollipop-laden valentine in the shot. the red dye, high fructose corn syrup laden valentine from. his. teachers.



here's the total haul (which i dutifully tossed while jack was off at a scout meeting.) one and half pounds of candy!! (and, i'm here to tell you, it wasn't even good candy!)



i'm feeling a little better, now that i've gotten that off of my chest. how are YOU this morning?!?

look what rolled in on the tide

a few weeks ago, i wrote this post. and imagine my thrill when a few days later, i found this in my mailbox

 

patsy sent the sweetest message in a bottle, and i've been smiling about it ever since!! matty and jack dubbed it *the coolest good mail ever.*

have you ever found a message in a bottle? would you send one?!?