The "F" Word

Dinner was a lot of fun at the ‘Rents last night. When we drove up to the house, my SIL (from Texas) was taking all the kids for a walk – the 2 little ones were in the wagon, and the older girls were walking. B honked as we drove up, and our 2 older nieces turned around, saw us, and started running towards us. It was so cute! Of course, they were running across a main road to get to us...thankfully there were no cars coming, and we got BIG hugs when they got to us. They were both talking a mile a minute about the train, and the rain, and a walk, and all kinds of other things that I didn’t quite catch.

We went inside to get settled while the kids continued on their walk, and when they got back, we had to give the 1 year old his presents - y'know, it's not fair to keep a toddler waiting! He loved them, I’m so glad...I never know what to buy for little ones. And then I had some gifts for the girls (you can’t leave them out, even if it’s not their birthdays...what kind of an aunt would I be??). I had some little patriotic hair bows and rubber bands for our family reunion this weekend. They loved them, and ran to tell their moms that they got gifts, too, even though it wasn’t their birthdays. I love those kids!

Later in the evening, my two SILs pulled me into the bedroom (where we had to fight off the little girls for 5 minutes of big girl time) to tell me a HILARIOUS story from earlier in the day.

Apparently my 2 older nieces (who are cousins) were sitting at the table when all of a sudden Sweetie (named by her mother on her blog, which hasn't been updated since New Year's Day, but who's keeping track??) started screaming and putting her hands over her face saying, “Don’t tell your mom. Please don’t tell your mom...anything, but don’t tell your mom.”

All the commotion drew the attention of my SILs who stared at the wacko kids with stunned looks on their faces – trying to figure out what was going on. Sweetie was so upset that her mom took her into the other room to figure out what was going on. While her mom was chatting with her, trying to convince her that she should just ‘fess up about whatever was going on, my other SIL was trying to get the story out of her daughter, Lulu, back in the kitchen.

C asked her daughter what was going on. Lulu said, “Well, Sweetie doesn’t want me to tell you. She did something bad." "What did she do?" C asked. "She said the F word," Lulu said.

Now, these girls are 5 and 6, and the sweetest kids you’ve ever seen. I know C was shocked to hear that little cute Sweetie, her darling niece, had said the F word.

Back in the bedroom, J was still trying to convince Lulu that she would get in less trouble if she was honest than if she kept hiding her terrible sin. Finally, Sweetie said, “Mom, I said a bad word. I said the F word.”

J said, “You did. Well, what’s the F word?”

Sweetie said, “It's Fat,” {bawling and crying continues} “I said Fat. I’m so sorry!!”

By this point, J is doing all she can not to burst out laughing. We aren’t exactly sure why Sweetie thought Fat was such a bad word, but J did a great job composing herself and inserting a little lesson at the same time.

“Well, Sweetie, it isn’t nice to call someone Fat. But, I can tell you that I like my burgers FAT, and I like my pillows FAT...” {giggles are starting to come from Sweetie as she sits on the bed}

“...and you will get FAT if you eat French fries....” {giggle, giggle}

Kids...ya gotta love ‘em!

Birthday Celebrations

Today is my nephew's first birthday, and tomorrow is my SIL's birthday...so, tonight we are heading to Small Town, KS, to celebrate w/ the fam-damily.

B's older sis has been in town this week w/ her kids (her son is the kid turning 1 today), and I haven't seen her yet. I'm bummed...B's youngest bro and his family (including my SIL who's bday is tomorrow) have been at the 'Rents all week and last weekend, too, and we haven't been able to participate in the fun yet.

Of course, as much as I want to see and hang out with them, I'm insisting on going to the gym after work before we head down there (I talk about it like it's a long drive or something...it's only about 25 minutes from our house). I would have more time to hang out if I'd bypass the gym, but my favorite aerobics instructor, and new friend, is teaching my favorite step class this afternoon, and I refuse to miss it!! Especially since Missy will be on vacation next week, and I'll have to go through withdrawls then anyway.

So, I'll rush to step class after work, rush home to shower and change, and rush down to the 'Rents for fried hamburgers for dinner (the food is SO not what's important...and note to self: teach 'Rents how to BBQ burgers, not fry them in a pan, in the house...yuck!), and fun w/ the nieces and nephew and gifts for the birthday kids (yes, SIL is still a kid, in my book!).

My mom and dad are somewhere in New Mexico as I type this, and they'll be here sometime tomorrow. Yay! A fun weekend is up ahead -- Mom and Dad here, and a quick family reunion w/ B's family (including cousins and aunts and uncles who I can never remember who they are or how they're related...oh well).

New York, Part 2

I’m exhausted! I think I did as much in the last 2 days as I normally do in 3 weeks. Saturday was so much fun, hanging w/ Virginia and Scuba Steve. We saw a lot of NYC, but there is so much more to do here. I wish I would have taken more pictures…but I was afraid that if I stopped to snap a photo in the middle of Broadway or 5th Avenue I would get trampled by the millions of people storming down the street. I will have to make more trips out here – I would like to see Queens and Brooklyn and more of Central Park and Long Island and ride the subway and maybe the double decker bus, too. Of course, it may take many more trips to do all that, seeing that I’m a zombie after only a couple days!

Virginia and I found an AWESOME mall in Short Hills, NJ, on Sunday. They didn’t open until 11am, and I had to leave for the wedding at 2pm, so we ended up speed shopping – which is probably good for our bank accounts (y’know, more time = more money spent!). This mall had Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Saks, Nordstrom, Cartier, Jimmy Choo, True Religion, Ann Taylor, Sephora, A Pea in the Pod (for preggers Vriginia!), Lucky Jeans, and the list goes on and on!! I bought a dress for the wedding at Ann Taylor (since I wasn’t overjoyed to wear the one I’d brought), and a pair of 50% off jeans at Lucky. Ginny got some cute baby stuff for her “pea in the pod”. We left knowing that we could have spent many more hours there, but also thankful that we got out with money still in our wallets.

Here's a picture of an outrageously priced (even at 50% off!) Lucky sweatshirt for Ginny's baby...she had to get it because it said Bakersfield on it...how cool is that??


I freshened up for the wedding when we got back and took one more picture w/ Ginny before we all had to hit the road. I went to the wedding with the bride’s friend, Lorna. Lorna graduated from my college, also, but I had only met her a few times before the wedding. Her hubby didn’t come out either, so it made sense for us to go to the wedding together…this is where things started getting interesting…

We had directions from yahoo maps to get us to the church for the ceremony…it was about 25 miles away. We did great until we got to within a mile of the church. Either we missed a turn, or the directions were wrong…thankfully, we had left early, and we only had to make one extra turn. We were relieved when we saw the church ahead of us! The ceremony was beautiful – the church was huge (the ceilings must have been over 50 feet high!), and MA made a gorgeous bride! Her hubby comes from a VERY large Italian family, and MA comes from a loving and loud Portuguese family…let me tell you…that combo makes for a fantastic wedding!!

After the (hour long Catholic) ceremony, we gathered on the front steps of the church to blow bubbles at the happy couple as they made their way to the waiting limo and flowing champagne.



Besides Lorna and a few of MA’s family members, the only other person I knew at the wedding was my old college boyfriend. I hadn’t seen Mikey since graduation – 10 years ago (man, I’m getting old!!). We dated for one year when I first transferred to my university. He’s from a small town 45 minutes from my hometown, and a mutual friend introduced us so that I would know somebody at school when I transferred. We hit it off, and I’ll always be grateful to him for making my first year away from home so much fun. In fact, I met MA through Mikey…I met all of my college buddies that I still keep in touch with through him.

He’s a doctor now!!! A PhD in Materials Engineering…wow! He came to the wedding with his beautiful and fun girlfriend, Molly (also a PhD!). It was a little awkward at first, but once we got past that, I really enjoyed hanging out with my old college buddies. Mikey hasn’t changed a BIT! Still skinny, wearing doc martens and smiling and laughing, showing off those cute dimples.

Molly and I got to know each other at the martini bar at the reception. There was an ice sculpture that the bar tender poured our martinis (notice I said martinis, plural!) through to chill it, and she caught it at the other end in our glass (I should have taken a picture of it!). It was so cool! It’s a good thing I had to drive Lorna to the bus station after the reception, or else I would have camped out at the martini bar!

The reception was amazing!! When we got there, we were offered pina coladas or daiquiris while we waited to sign the guest book. From there we headed into a room that had more food than I can even describe! And it was just appetizers! There was a table covered in every possible fruit, nut, cheese, cracker and shrimp cocktail in the middle of the room. On tables around the outside of the room were pasta bars, a roasted pig (yes, whole!), calamari, the martini bar and at least 2 other fully stocked bars. Servers roamed the room offering us more drinks and bite sized snacks on trays.

After an hour of drinking and eating, we were invited into the dining room for dinner. The dining room was decorated with tables covered in light blue tablecloths with beautiful floral centerpieces sitting on footed silver platters about 2 feet high. There were more glasses and silverware on the table than we knew what to do with!

The bridal party made their grand entrance, and then the bride and groom had their first dance. Next we were invited to take our seats for the pasta course…yes, more pasta! We were served a bowl of shells and marinara sauce. Lorna, Mikey, Molly and I just looked at each other and tried to figure out how to push the pasta around our bowls to make it look like we had eaten some of it. It was delicious, but we wanted to save room for our entrées!

Here is a picture of the bride and I...doesn't she look fabulous?



After the pasta course, we were encouraged to dance (to work off some of the food!) before the next course was served. Molly and I were the first ones on the dance floor, determined to shake our thang! A few minutes later, we were asked to sit down again, since our salads were being served. Our salad was served in a ring of cucumber, shaped to serve as a bowl. It was yummy…and we ate it up, since lettuce doesn’t take up much space in our ever growing bellies. Again, we popped up to dance after we finished eating. I should mention that by this time we’d been at the reception for about 2 1/2 hours!

Our entrée was served next – we had a choice of beef, chicken or salmon. I chose the chicken, and in true Italian spirit, my chicken was covered in prosciutto and mozzarella cheese. It was served with yummy mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus and carrots. As delicious as it was, I only ate about half of it…because by this time we had heard rumor of a dessert bar that was about to be announced!

We were not disappointed! After the bride and groom cut their cake, we were invited out to the patio for dessert. We saw 2 tables about 20 feet long that were covered in every kind of pastry you can imagine (cannoli, cheesecake, tiramisu, chocolate mousse, and things that I don’t even know what they’re called!), another table had ice cream cones, and other had chocolate sauce for dipping things like fruit, cake, and marshmallows. Of course, the wedding cake made an appearance (but I didn’t even eat any!). There was also an espresso bar, and lots of after dinner liquors.

The new Mr. and Mrs...


Thank goodness for the wonderful wedding band – their great music encouraged us to keep dancing so that we would be able to walk out of the building at the end of the night. We danced and laughed ate and did it all some more. The night flew by, and before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye and drive Lorna to the bus station.

Lorna’s friends who traveled with her had checked out of the hotel in NJ, and checked into one in NYC for the next 2 nights…her plan was to ride the bus into the city after the reception to meet up with them. Too bad that didn’t work!

On our way to the reception, we had followed the hotel shuttle, and it was all I could do to keep up with the NJ driver, let alone pay attention to how we got there. It was only about 10 minutes from the hotel, but that didn’t help us find our way back any easier at the end of night! Lorna’s bus station was about 5 minutes from the hotel, so we pulled out the directions the desk clerk had given me and set off in the direction of the hotel…or so we thought.

0.9 miles into our drive back we were already lost…we missed the first turn somehow. So, here we were driving around small town NJ, in the dark, through hills and curves, with no idea where we were! Finally we saw a sign for the highway we were supposed to take back to the hotel…280 West. We followed the signs, and merged on to the highway. About 5 minutes later, we saw a sign saying that we were on 280 East! How did that happen?

In an effort to make this story end soon – here’s what happened…we finally made it to the bus station, after only 3 more wrong turns, about 30 seconds before the bus was due to show up BUT. Lorna hadn’t been able to get in touch with her friends in the City, who were supposed to meet her at the bus station there, and she didn’t want to show up in NYC at 1am all by herself, so she decided to crash on my couch in my hotel room.

We both got some much needed sleep, and I dropped her at the bus stop this morning when we woke up. I haven’t heard from her since, so I assume that she made it ok. I took it nice and slow this morning, and said goodbye to MA’s family at breakfast, packed up and headed to the airport PLENTY EARLY…I was not about to get lost again, especially when I didn’t have anyone to navigate for me!

So, here I am, checked in for my flight and sitting in the airport 4 hours early. I tried to get on an earlier flight home, but there aren’t any from my connecting city. At least I’ve had time to compose this MONSTER of a post about my whirlwind 72 hours on the East Coast.

I’ve had a wonderful time, and there is so much more I want to see…but not for a while…I need a rest from getting lost and going 100 miles an hour and eating too much!


Little did I know as I sat in Newark writing the above that my journey was nowhere near over! After sitting in the airport for 3 hours waiting for my scheduled flight, we boarded our plane and taxied out...only to sit on the tarmac for 2 hours! Apparently, some HUGE storm (at least it better have been huge for all the mess it caused) shut the Atlanta airport down for a couple hours. We got to Atlanta over an hour late, and a few minutes after my connection was scheduled to leave for Wichita.

I recognized 2 ladies on my flight from our trip out on Friday, and we had started chatting while we sat in Newark. Luckily, our connecting gate was close when we finally got to Atlanta, so we headed over to find out what was going on. After several frantic phone calls, talking to a gate agent who knew absolutely NOTHING, we were told that our flight had left ON TIME from Atlanta, and the next available flight to Wichita was at 8pm tonight (24 hours after the original flight). Needless to say, we were not happy. After another phone call to her son, the lady I was with told me that the airline's website said that our plane was still in Baltimore and hadn't made it to Atlanta yet (that was the first believable thing that we had heard all night!). I ran down to our gate again (we'd been in line at the customer service counter), and happened to run into our flight attendants who assured me that we WOULD get to Wichita that night, but we had quite a wait until the plane would get there.

So, after a VERY long day, I met B at baggage claim at 12:15 am this morning. By 1am, I collapsed into bed...but I couldn't drag myself out of bed and to work this morning. That's ok, I had time to do laundry, work out, take a nap, and clean the bathroom...back to work tomorrow, oh joy!

I Love New York!

We had a blast today. The weather was perfect, clear skies and about 70 degrees. We ended up driving into the City....I'm a pro now! Some guy in our hotel told us it was really easy to drive over, and park right after we got out of the tunnel. BUT, he told us the wrong tunnel to take! We ended up in Lower Manhattan right by Ground Zero, when we thought we'd end up by the Port Authority. It worked out well because we decided we wanted to see Ground Zero...after only 2 trips around the block we found a parking spot, and we spent a few minutes looking at the remains of the Twin Towers (I'm glad I went...thanks for encouraging me to see it!).



After that we headed to mid-town to Port Authority and the Theatre District. That was the scariest part of the drive, but we made it without incident (the cab drivers are INSANE!). Before the Lion King, we wandered around Times Square and Broadway and ate lunch in an Irish Pub.



The show was awesome! The costumes are amazing! I can't even describe it. We weren't that impressed with the voices on a couple of the actors, but Rafiki and Timon were awesome! Virginia and I took a picture outside of the theatre...

Central Park was next on our list of things to see, so we headed north up 7th Avenue. There was a huge street fair going on, and we walked right through it. We saw all kinds of things from food to crafts to sheet sets! AND THEN, we were getting ready to cross the street when I heard someone yell, "Sally!!" I turned around to see a guy that I used to work with in Bakersfield! How crazy is that?? We stopped and chatted for a few minutes, and then we waved goodbye and started walking again.

Central Park was gorgeous! And it was packed, but here we are...



Here's Virginia and her hubby, Scuba Steve...


We walked down 5th Avenue next, where we saw Bergdorf Goodman, Louis Vuitton, Trump Tower, Prada, Tiffany, and tons of other cool places. Oh, and we saw Playboy Enterprises, too.



We stopped at the Rink Bar in Rockefeller Plaza for a drink and to rest our weary feet. Then we found a quaint Itailian place on 9th Avenue for dinner, and I finally got my NY Pizza...served by a very large Italian man. It was so yummy!

We were exhausted by the time we finished dinner, and then we realized that we'd been gone for almost 11 hours already! It was a great day, but there is so much more I want to see! Buddies, we HAVE to come here for our next big trip...I love it!

I'm here!!

I'm in New Jersey!! My trip went completely as planned...amazing! Everything was on time, actually I was a little early getting into Newark, and my luggage showed up, I rode the train to the rental car counters, and I even got a free upgrade to a midsize b/c they were out of compacts.

On my drive from the airport to the hotel, I caught the quickest glimpse of Manhattan, and I got giddy! I'm so excited to be here!

Now I'm sitting in a very nice one-bedroom suite, getting settled, checking email and waiting for my friend, Virginia, and her hubby to show up. Our plan is to head into the city tonight for dinner. Woo hoo!

Time to go find a snack to tide me over until dinner! Catch ya later!

Update: Just got back from my adventure to find a snack...I was looking for some cute little Italian place to grab a slice of pizza...and there were plenty of those, but they were all on the other side of the highway, and there was nowhere to turn around. Let's just say that I saw quite of bit of small town NJ on my quest that eventually took me through the McD's drive thru...oh well, next time.

Oh, and I already had to act like a NJ driver when I slammed on my brakes and punched the horn as some idiot in a Lexus almost pulled right into me! And, have you seen all those Dunkin' Donuts commercials w/ Rachel Ray? I was wondering why it was such a big deal for Rachel Ray to do an ad for them...and then I got here. There are LITERALLY Dunkin' Donuts on every sinhgle corner! I think I passed about 10 in the less than 10 miles I drove!

Random Thoughts and Childhood Bodily Functions

On my way to work yesterday, I stopped at Panera for a large coffee and a cinnamon crunch bagel (yum!!). As I sat at the stoplight waiting to turn out of the shopping center, I glanced down and saw a coffee dribble on my seatbelt in the middle of my chest. I touched it, but it was dry, so I know it wasn’t from that morning’s coffee…seems I’ve found another use for seatbelts…protecting my clothes from my clumsy self.


Overheard in the Wal Mart parking lot last week:

Child to Mom: Mom,my I want Daddy to drive us, why can’t Daddy drive?
Mom: Honey, I’m going to drive us.
Child: But, I want Daddy to.
Mom: He can’t – he doesn’t have his license back yet.


I swear, I really did hear the above as I walked into Wal Mart last week…and I busted out laughing. I couldn’t bear to turn around though and see if the mom caught me laughing at her.

Ok, on to B’s adventure last week. Once a month I play Bunco with some ladies in my neighborhood. My SIL often comes and plays with us. On the nights when BIL is working, she brings my nieces and B watches them while SIL and I roll dice, chat, and feed our faces. Usually, it’s no problem…in fact, B has come to be known as the Bunco Babysitter, and he really enjoys it. He feeds the kids, sometimes gives them baths, plays with them, and helps them do crafts.

All was good until about 8:30pm the other night. My cell phone rang, and I when I saw it was B, I knew something was wrong. I opened the phone, said hello, and this is what I heard: “Get back here now. E is pooping everywhere!!” I threw the phone to SIL, and she listened for about half a second before she said, “I’m coming now!” threw down the phone and ran out the door. The rest of us just sat there not sure whether to laugh or pray or what…we finally decided to laugh, and pray!

It appears that my oh-so-adorable 2 year old niece ended up with the runs. She’s potty trained, so when she “blew out” (B’s words), it went everywhere. They were in the middle of playing some game when all hell broke lose…and my oh-so-sweet and loving hubby had the quick thinking to pick up the child, run her to the bathroom, strip her down, start to clean her up…and it was only then that he somehow was able to get his cell phone from upstairs and call us.

By the time SIL got there, he had done a lot of cleaning up already. He started barking orders to SIL about what he needed (towels, cleaner, etc), and only when she brought them to him did he throw up his hands and walk away, leaving E in the loving care of her mother.

I’m so impressed and proud of B!! He’s ALWAYS told me that he will never be a diaper-changing Dad (don’t worry, he won’t get off that easy!), and then he handled this fiasco in total stride. SIL and I made sure to tell him that this was WAY worse than a dirty diaper would be.

I think he’s making progress! And every day I’m more and more convinced about what an AWESOME dad he is going to be!

Father’s Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a great Father’s Day weekend…we sure did. B had to work Saturday morning (no biggie since he actually gets paid for OT at this job! Woo hoo!), and when he got home around lunchtime, he poked his head in the door and called for the puppies…”Come meet your new friend, puppies!” he said.

I knew immediately what it was…a turtle! B has been scouring the streets for turtles the last couple weeks. With all the rain we’ve had, turtles are everywhere! We've seen several, and on our way to High School Musical last week, we saw a HUGE snapping turtle trying to cross the road. He couldn’t get over the curb to get to the lake on the other side of the road, so B insisted on turning around and helping it. Now, I did say it was a SNAPPING turtle, so the thing is trying to bite him every time he touches it. B ran back to the car, grabbed a towel, wrapped the turtle in a towel and ran over to the lake so he could deliver it to safety. (I took a picture of this adventure with my phone, but I don’t know how to get it OFF my phone. oh well!)

Anyway, back to Saturday…B found another turtle in the road. This one was a water turtle (I had NO idea there were so many different kinds!), and he stopped, picked it up, and brought it home! He took it out to the back yard with the dogs, and everyone tried to get acquainted. It was hilarious! But, I did feel sorry for the poor turtle…if turtles could have heart attacks (can they?), this thing had to be close. Rerun had no idea what it was, but it was moving, so he was pawing at it and trying to get it to do something – our new friend had retreated into his house and was refusing to come out.




After a few minutes, we decided to give the turtle a break and we dragged the dogs inside. They stood, at point, in the living room watching the turtle haul butt to get out of our yard.


He bee-lined for the fence on the other side of us, and after about 20 minutes we went to see what he was doing. He was GONE! We have wrought iron fences, so I guess he escaped. We couldn’t find him anywhere. Poor guy, I hope he’s ok!

So, that was our excitement on Saturday…on Sunday, the ‘Rents and my SIL and nieces came over to BBQ after church. We all liked what we ate on Mother’s Day that we had the same thing yesterday – aren’t we original?? After we stuffed ourselves as full as we could, and we waited for the sudden downpour to pass (more rain!), we headed outside to play with all the “toys” (putting green, golf balls, and B’s new Air Soft pellet gun – even our youngest niece shot the gun, the older one chickened out). After that, I headed to the couch for a nap, and the kids and Uncle B checked out the new additions to the train in the basement.

Here's Uncle B with his girls...coming soon is the story of B's introduction to dealing with pesky childhood bodily functions...stay tuned for a future post.


Grammy and the girls...

We had a great day, and I even found time to get in a workout last night, since I’d missed my workouts on Friday and Saturday. Here’s a picture of B in his Father’s Day gift from the puppies…he was heading out to the grill to throw on the Cheesy Dogs – our new favorite appetizer.


Oh, and I have to tell you about B's shirt...he bought it at work. It says "Got Freedom?" on the front, and on the back it says, "Thank a Vet!" I love it!!

THANK YOU!

Thank you for all your comments and calls and prayers...I definitely felt God's hand on me on Tuesday. Everything has worked out, as usual, and according to God's plan...why did I ever doubt?

Tuesday was a stressful day for me, but it ended wonderfully! B and I went to Chili's for dinner, then on to the theatre...High School Musical was amazing! It was, by far, the best theatrical production I've EVER seen (of course, after next weekend, I'll have to see how it compared to Broadway). The actors (most of them under 20 years old and the majority from south central Kansas) did an outstanding job, and the music and dancing was so fun! It ended with the Wichita Collegiate Drumline rocking out with us and the cast dancing and singing a great finale.

Our local music theatre is great, and I will definitely be going back to see future productions.

Thanks again for all your prayers...they really meant a lot to me!

Please Pray

I'm not usually cryptic in my posts, but this morning I'm going to be. I'm asking that you guys pray for me this morning...pray that God gives me strength and courage and strengthens my faith in Him and His will for my family. If you read this, and you pray, please say a quick prayer for me.

Thank you, blogging buddies!

Niece to Grammy

Niece to Grammy: Ooohhh, look at the elephants!

Grammy: I see them. They look kinda little for elephants, don't they?

Niece: They're not that little, they're as big as you.

Full House

I mentioned in my last post about a busy month for us, but I didn’t go into details. I’m so excited about some of the things we have going on. We will enjoy social events and family visits and travel and time off from work…and it all starts tomorrow!

I have somehow convinced hubby to go see High School Musical with me tomorrow. It’s opening at our local Music Theatre tomorrow night – Wichita is one of only 5 cities in the country who Disney has authorized to perform the show, and we’re going! Then on Thursday night is my monthly Bunko game with my neighbors. On Saturday, my SIL and I are taking my nieces to see Cinderella at the Children’s Theatre, and then I’m getting my hair done. Sunday is Dad’s Day, so we’ll have the family over for a BBQ and some visiting…and that’s just this week!

I leave for NY next Friday (I can’t wait…have I said that??), and I’ll have a blast there for 4 days, and then I come home, work for 4 days, and then B and I head to his family reunion for a day. By the time we get back from the reunion, my parents, my cousin, and their dog should be at our house. They’re driving out from CA with the truck and 5th wheel. My brother and sister and their spouses will show up on the 4th of July, and then we’ll have several days to hang out as a big family. There’s still some uncertainty around whether my bro’s kids will be able to come from L.A. or not. I’m praying that they will get to come, because the entire family (including my cousin) hasn’t been together in ages. I really want to take family pictures while they’re all here, and it will stink if my niece and nephew miss it. We’re planning on hanging out, showing everyone around Wichita, shopping, laughing, eating…you name it, we’ll try to fit it in!

We still don’t know where my sis and BIL are moving to, so we may have to try to find a way to get some of us to AL to help them get ready. And then at the end of July, my good buddy Shell is coming out for a weekend to visit. So much craziness going on! And I’m looking forward to all of it!

Weekend of Sequels

It’s been a while since I posted, and there’s no good reason for my absence…I’ve been running blog ideas through my head, but I haven’t taken the time to sit down and write them out.

June is flying by! I can’t believe it’s June 11 already. We are going to be very busy for the next month or so, and I’m so excited!

I had a great weekend. It started out on Friday night with dinner with a friend of mine. Our schedules have been off lately, so we haven’t been able to catch up. We dined at Outback since both of our hubbies don’t care for it…and we even ordered fried mushrooms as an appetizer…yumm! After dinner, we headed to the mall so she could help me pick out a dress for the wedding I’m going to in NJ in 2 weeks. I bought 2 dresses, but I still don’t think I’ve found the right one. Why isn’t shopping fun when you HAVE to find something?? After my trip to the mall, hubby and I camped out on the couch to watch Pirates II, so we would be prepared for our trip to the theater for Pirates III on Saturday night.

Saturday was devoted to my niece’s 5th birthday at the Z-O-O. About 10 kids and 15 adults showed up to eat cake, open gifts and follow “the Queen” around (her name for herself). She had the map, and it was up to her to direct us to what animal to see next. Penguins were first since they’re the newest animal to the zoo…but then she wanted to see the rhino which just so happened to be back where we started from. That was the way it went all day! By 3pm, B and I were exhausted and ready to go home for a nap before our night on the town (a.k.a out to the movies).

We chose our downtown theater to see Pirates III because you can push this handy-dandy button from your seat and order food – and not just popcorn and candy – we had burgers and fries and salads…all at our seat while we watched the movie. Our server was a little slow, so our food showed up right when the lights went out, making it a little tough to see what I was eating. Oh well, it tasted good. The movie wasn’t that great, though, I don’t think. To be honest, I really didn’t like Pirates II, either. I thought the story line was too complex and hard to follow, and the movie was WAY too long!

We had some big thunder storms Saturday night, and none of us slept (dogs included!), so we woke up tired on Sunday morning. We still got up and headed to church and lunch after, and then I took a nap while B headed to the golf course. Somehow I got my booty off the couch long enough to do 2 loads of laundry, make cookies, and whip up a new recipe for dinner (Italian Wedding Pasta – it was ok, not earth shattering, but ok).

We ate dinner, chatted with some neighbors and then watched the first hour of Mission Impossible III (it was the weekend of sequels!)…and that was all we could take before we crawled upstairs to bed.

And here it is, another Monday…happy happy joy joy! Hope you all had a great weekend, too!

New York New York!

I'm going to NYC in 17 days!!! I can't wait! One of my college friends is getting married in NJ, and I am going to the wedding!

My best friend from college is going to meet me there with her hubby, and we're going to have a blast. We have tickets to The Lion King on Broadway, and we're bound and determined to see Central Park, shop on 5th Avenue and roam around Times Square. I would also like to stop in at Serendipity for a snack, but we'll see how that goes.

It's a quick trip. I leave Friday, we see the show Saturday, the wedding is Sunday and we all go home on Monday. Whew! It will go quickly, especially since the quickest route to the city from our hotel in NJ (that I can find) is 2 1/2 hours by bus and train (we will NOT be driving into the city!). That means that we'll probably spend ALL DAY Saturday in the City, and it's questionable if we'll have time to get back for quick trips on Sunday or Monday.

So, anyone out there who has visited NYC? Got any great public transportation advice for me? Or any must-see sights?

Relay for Life

One of my sister's best friends from high school is participating in Relay for Life. She's walking in honor of her dad who passed away 8 years ago. Check out her post about it here.

I'm sure everyone knows someone who has been affected by cancer. I lost both my grandparent's on my dad's side to cancer, and I pray someday we find a SURE-FIRE cure for everyone!

Think about what you can do to support cancer research, so we can find a cure!

Another Book Giveaway!

I just found out that Joyful Days is hosting a book giveaway. She's giving away 5 Christian fiction books. You can check out the details here!

The first book is called Gone with the Groom...tell her I sent you over!

8 Random Things About Me

Mama Bear tagged me for this one. I've done several like this lately, so I'll dig deep and try to come up with some new things.

1. I broke my arm when I was in the 1st grade...jumping off of a bench at church. It was my right arm, so I had to learn how to write with my left hand...and I wasn't allowed on the playground at recess...that part sucked the worst!

2. I have had stitches only twice in my life -- once when I had my wisdom teeth out, and once when I had a mole removed.

3. Hubby and I have been married for 6 1/2 years, and we've lived in 3 cities and 5 houses during that time.

4. My dad's dad died when I was in 4th grade, I think he was about 52 when he died of cancer. That scares me b/c Dad is going to be 55 in a few weeks (and he's retiring right after that -- go Dad!)

5. If I'm not busy busy busy, I'm the biggest procrastinator. Being busy helps me prioritize and get stuff done.

6. I wish I was thinner right now...I wish I looked like I did before I got married -- why didn't I recognize that I LIKED how I looked then, and just stay that way??

7. I am becoming addicted to working out. I've worked out 7 days of the last 8. I feel great because of it, but when I miss a day I get grouchy.

8. My dogs are named after Peanuts comic strip characters. In fact, every dog I've ever owned has been named after a Peanuts character -- and they've all been mini schnauzers, too!

Graduation Day

Little Man graduated from 8th grade yesterday. LM is my cousin who lives with my parents, you can read more about him here.

I’m not sure about other parts of the country, but in central California, 8th grade graduation has become a bigger deal in the last couple decades…maybe because fewer and fewer actually graduate from high school. Anyway, LM got his chance yesterday…and in the true spirit of his immediate family (parents and siblings), no one called or showed up for the ceremony or sent a gift.

The kids don’t wear a cap and gown, but they do get a little diploma. I wish we could have been there to cheer for him. Mom and Dad sat in the audience and smiled and clapped, and then they took him to the all time best pizza place around – Rusty’s! They were still chowing down on pizza and potato wedges when I called to wish The Graduate congratulations. After dinner, he was heading to the 8th grade dance. Woo hoo!

I remember my 8th grade dance, and I was feeling brave last night, so I thought I’d post a picture of me at my dance…but, I couldn’t find one…so sorry! =)

Congratulations to Little Man! I asked him if was ready to be a high school kid, and he said no, he’s just a kid…and he liked junior high…he’s enjoyed ruling the roost this year. Tough break…but he’ll do awesome in high school, I know it!

Random Acts

Something strange happened to me last week…I’m talking really strange…a woman insisted on paying for my order at Panera.

We had a big storm the night before and it knocked out our power, so my alarm didn’t go off, and I woke up 15 minutes late. I had to stop at Panera to get breakfast for the class I was facilitating. I’d been stopping there on my way to work all week, but I was about 10 minutes later than usual that morning.

When I got there, there were 2 people in line in front of me. While I studied the menu and decided what I wanted to order, a bus driver and another woman got in line behind me. The woman behind me knew the woman in front of me, so they started talking until the line moved forward. The lady in front of me ordered her bagel and coffee, and then leaned forward and said something to the cashier.

Then it was my turn. I stepped up and started ordering my coffee cake, bagels, and coffee, and while they started putting my order together, the lady leaned over and said, “I’m paying for your order.” I just stared at her at first, and when I finally found my voice, I told her that she didn’t have to do that. She said, no, she wanted to pay for my stuff. I told her it would be a lot, and I was getting reimbursed from work, but she still insisted. I asked her why…she said, “because it’s Thursday.” What??

My order probably came to $15 at least, and she insisted on paying for it. I had never seen this woman before in my life, and she knew the lady in line behind me, but she paid for my stuff. I managed to sputter out a “Thank You”, and “I really appreciate it,” but I felt like I should have said a lot more.

I drove to work in a daze…I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I guess it was truly a random act of kindness.

I started thinking that I now needed to do something nice for someone else. Because isn’t that the point of random acts? You’re supposed to pass that kindness on?

I’ve been thinking about what I could do, and I had 2 chances today, but still it seems like not enough to “pay back” what that woman did for me. At the gym this afternoon, I fixed the step of the girl in front of me so that she wouldn’t fall when she jumped on it. And at the grocery store later in the day, I helped a lady who was about to lose her soda from the bottom of her cart.

I guess part of the point might be just to make me more aware of being friendly to other people. Actually, that’s not a bad thing for me to be aware of…I tend to have very little patience for people in the public, and sometimes I’m not very nice.

I have no idea why that woman picked me to be nice to, but it definitely has caused me to think differently in the last several days. It’s not that big a deal to do something small for someone else, even if you don’t know them…I’m going to try to do those things more often from now on.

7 things from my teenage years

1. When I was 13, my parents ruined my life. Yes, they did, really…see, they picked up our family and moved us from CA to TX…1 week before I started high school. It happened quickly, so when I finished junior high we had no idea that we would be moving, which meant that I didn’t have a chance to say good bye to a lot of my friends. I started high school in San Antonio, TX, where I didn’t know a single person. Of course, 15 months later, after I’d made a best friend, and come to LOVE LOVE LOVE Texas (the entire family had), they picked us up and moved us back to CA – stinkin’ jobs!

Here we are driving away from our house in CA for the LOONNNNGG drive to TX -- nice VW bus, huh?


2. When I was 14 and at the end of my freshman year, my brother ruined my life. I had become good friends with our next door neighbor who was a year older than me. Her mom was a lot more lenient than my parents were so we had started to spend the night at her house on the weekends and sneak out to wander around our neighborhood after we were thought to be sleeping. One night we had the bright idea to sneak out and go to a teenage night club – somehow our brothers found out and they told on us. My dad showed up AT THE CLUB to take us home. All I remember is that I was dancing to some RAD (*snort* I said rad) song, when I saw my dad in the strobe light across the club. I literally froze – deer in the headlights – as Dad pushed his way towards us. As it turned out, it was a good thing he showed up since we didn’t have a ride home, and we were in a not-so-nice industrial part of SA. I got grounded for a month, and my friend couldn’t use the phone for a week…so we enslaved our brothers to carry notes back and forth – after all, it was all their fault.

Here's my next door neighbor (on the left) and I (in the middle)...check out those 1988 clothes and hair!



3. When I was 16, I ruined my own life (notice a trend here??). Obviously I hadn’t learned my lesson from #2 above since I told my parents I was staying at Renee’s house and she told her parents she was staying at my house, and we actually took her mom’s Prelude, cruised downtown, turned the wrong way down a one-way street (I was driving) and had to bale out into an alley where we scratched the side of the car, then proceeded to pick up some guys and hang out for a while before we went back to her house and crashed. If that wasn’t bad enough, our parents got smart, figured it out, and I got grounded for 3 months! Without the use of my car! I think Renee got restricted from the phone for a week.

4. The summer between junior and senior year of HS, I went to an engineering camp for girls in Hoboken, NJ (yes, I was kind of a nerd). I knew I wanted to be an enginner, and my physics teacher recommended me for the program, so I applied, was accepted, and flew off to NJ/NY for 2 weeks. I had a blast, met some great girls, learned a little, and got to see the Twin Towers.

I'm so happy I was able to go to NYC and see it before 9/11...


5. I graduated from high school when I was 17. I was ranked number 11 of about 550 students, and I was considered a valedictorian because my GPA was over 4.0. I spent my summer between high school and college working at a law firm as a file clerk and taking English Composition at my junior college, where I went on to take 2 more years of pre-engineering classes.

Here are Dad, Mom, and me at my baccalaureate...the scary thing is that that Dad was only a few years older than my hubby is right now!


6. While I was going to junior college, a lady who I worked with at the law firm decided to retire and move to the mountains. Her house wasn’t selling, so she asked me to “housesit” until it sold. My best friend, Lost in NC, moved with me to the house. While we were living in the house together, NC and I had some car troubles. My 1983 Honda Civic died at school one day (we later found out that the timing belt had broken), and I had it towed home.

Here's Mr. Man, my busted old car...he was called Mr. Man because he never did what I wanted him to when I wanted him to.

The next day I had an 8am class, but NC didn’t have class until later. So, she told me to take her car (a 1982 Honda Civic almost exactly like mine) and come back to pick her up on my break. Well, I totaled her car on my way to school. I flipped it when I drove too fast up a hill on wet roads. When the guy who pulled me out of the car asked if I was ok, all I could say was, “I totaled her car, she’s going to kill me…what did I do???” There’s a lot more to this story, but the bottom line is that NC and I are still friends, but we did go through a rough patch for a while…at least we had my grandma’s 1977 Pontiac Bonneville to drive around in until NC could get a new car.

Here's "Henry", NC's car...after I wrecked it. When I flipped it, I landed on the roof of the car.


Here's Bonnie, the Bonneville...ain't she grand?


7. When I was 19, I got baptized. I became a Christian when I was very young, but I never thought much about baptism until my late teens. Somehow I finally learned that even though I didn’t need to be baptized to be “saved”, God still wanted me to do it – in obedience to Him. It was an amazing experience – several others in my youth group were baptized with me, and I will never forget it.

NOTE: None of the above items really ruined my life...but as a teenager, it kinda felt like it at the time. I learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes, made a lot of great friends, and became a stronger person because of what I experienced.

How people find my blog...

Here are some of the most recent searches that have led people to my blog...kinda scary, huh?


“Egypt Girl Slave California”
“pictures of gorillas eating food”
“gorillas I got sunshine in bag”
“my husband conjugal visit"

Say what??

"Maybe you're pregnant if you're feeling so sick," my hubby said to me as I lay in pain on our couch last night.

After several seconds of stunned silence (from me), I finally was able to respond, "No, I don't think so. It's too early."

The reason I was stunned was this was the first time, ever, that hubby had said the word PREGNANT in my presence. See, when we got married, hubby swore he didn't want kids. It almost broke the engagement because, although I wasn't positive that I wanted them, I also wasn't willing to rule it out at that point. He finally settled on the statement that he didn't want them then, but he MAY change his mind later.

I was blown away that he didn't want them because he is SO great with kids...all kinds, any kids...they all love him. He doesn't hesitate to get down on the floor and wrestle around, or sit on the couch and watch a silly movie, or do magic tricks, or read books, or play make believe, or help them with art projects. In fact, at most parties where kids and adults are both there, hubby usually disappears with the kids to play...instead of hanging out with the adults. His argument was always that he didn't have to deal with them when they weren't having fun anymore...not a bad argument, but I've always known that he would make an awesome dad.

Last year sometime, my biological clock finally started ticking (at age 32, it was about time!). It started out slowly, and was helped along by many many many announcements of pregnancies by friends and family. Hubby started to cave in on his ultimatum of no kids...either he'd woken up and realized how great a Dad he would be or I finally wore him down. We agreed that once we left CA, we'd start trying.

That was 9 months ago.

And nothing.

I have several friends who have had fertility problems, and they have been wonderful resources for me as I learn things about my body that I probably should have already known. My good friend Paulette loaned me an awesome book that has taught me SO much, "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Toni Weschler. I found out that there are some pretty basic things about reproduction that I had no idea about. I hope my new knowledge will help us speed things along.

I've always wanted to be a young mom (if I became a mom), but I also wanted to establish my career and have time with my husband before I started a family...funny how those 2 things don't match up. And I went through a time where I didn't want to have kids because I was afraid of the pain of giving birth. I'm still very afraid of that part, but my desire to have a child that is part me and part my husband has far outweighed that fear (at least for the time being!).

Somewhere in the last several months, I think hubby has come to have the same desire of me. I'm not sure if it was there all along and he was keeping it in, or if he has a bio clock that has started ticking, or if maybe all the time he's spent with his nieces lately has had an impact, but I'm glad that he's looking forward to children as much as I am now. It will make our journey together that much more exciting and special.

Ra ra ra ra ra ra

Waiter #1, Waiter #2, Waiter #3: [singing] Deck the halls with boughs of horry, ra ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra.
Chop Suey Palace Owner: No, no, not 'ra ra ra ra', 'la la la la'! Try again.
Waiter #1, Waiter #2, Waiter #3: Deck the halls with boughs of horry, ra ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra.
Chop Suey Palace Owner: No, no! Sing something else.
Waiter #1, Waiter #2, Waiter #3: Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sreigh!


I expect everyone to know EXACTLY where the above quotes are from...c'mon...you know it...A Christmas Story! Well, I was at that same Chinese restaurant last night -- it HAD to be!

MIL's bday is today, so last night all of the local family members took her out to dinner - her choice...thus the scary Chinese restaurant. It's the 'Rents favorite place to go (which in my opinion means that they need to get out more, but I digress), and it's about 100 years old.

I had actually eaten food from there before, but we had it delivered. I wasn't that impressed with the food then, but I thought it might be different if we ordered it and ate it right away - at the restaurant. So, we walk into this ancient place at 7pm last night, and we're the only ones there -- we were probably the only ones who were there all night. The place is OLD, and it smells old, and the owner/hostess/waitress came to greet us from a dark room off the lobby of the building where she'd been doing something on a computer. We were seated and started to peruse the menu. The descriptions sounded wonderful, and I made my choices. FIL ordered his standard appetizer - which turned out to be pretty yummy - crab rangoons.

It's a good thing that the place wasn't busier because it took us 2 hours to eat crab rangoons and our entrees...but we didn't actually mind because we got some GREAT stories out of MIL. I think my jaw hit the table no less than 3 times at what I heard (it's a good thing, too, because it distracted me from my nasty chicken and celery in some weird sauce -- NOT the description from the menu, but whatever).

Come to find out, MIL was engaged to some guy before FIL. She said that she accepted his proposal even though she didn't think she should...no one thought she should, but no one told her that either. Anyway, while she was engaged to this guy, my FIL started as a new preacher at her church...and immediately he set his eyes on her, EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS ALREADY ENGAGED. He started calling her house all the time and talking to her at church, and he claims that she was always making eyes at him, too...typical male ego. *smirk*

One of these times that he called her at her home (where she lived with her parents), MIL happened to be out riding her brother's motorcycle (this is when my jaw dropped again -- I had NO idea she was so adventurous), and her mom told FIL to NEVER call again...but, he didn't listen.

At some point, MIL woke up and dumped the first dude and the rest is history -- they dated for 4 months before they got engaged, then got married 8 months after that...and that was 41 years ago! Go Mom!

We had a wonderful evening (aside from the food) -- my nieces brought MIL flowers, B played with the girls, SIL and I got to chat, MIL got great gifts, FIL got his crab rangoon, and BIL had to leave early to sell a car (good news!). All in all, it was a fun evening. MIL even thanked me for coming into B's life and rescuing him from the life of sin that he was leading with all his other girlfriends (that says a lot seeing that I'm from the wrong "denomination").

After we got home and got ready for bed, my little sis called from AL and I chatted with her for a long time while I lounged in bed. Sis and I love each other very ,but we also tend to disagree on a lot of things. Last night, however, we had an awesome talk.

I've mentioned before that she's preggers with her first. She and her hubby work for a great non-profit organization where they DAILY impact the lives of kids. Well, they've been asked to consider an opportunity to further their work with the organization, in Colorado. This is something that they considered months ago, but didn't think would work out so they decided to buy a house in AL and stay down there for a few more years...then they found out they were expecting, and it really seemed like they'd made the right choice.

The house they bought was supposed to close escrow this weekend, they have given their notice on their rental and have to be out by the end of May, and oh yeah, remember she's pregnant and swamped at work. AND THEN, Colorado calls and says, send us your resumes, we think we want you. What??? They were already stressed by about a million things going on in their lives and then this. They love AL, but they are determined to do what God wants them to do -- now, they just have to figure out what that is.

My prayer list has gotten longer and longer as this year has progressed. God is faithful and answers all our prayers (even if the answer isn't what we want to hear), and I'm so grateful that He hears me...my sis is now at the top of my list. She and her hubby have a lot to decide in not much time -- God has already answered prayer because they have extended their escrow on the house they're buying and their landlords have agreed to let them stay through part of June (when before they said NO WAY).

If you guys think about it, say a prayer for Sis and her family...I would appreciate it. I want them to do what God wants them to do, also, but I have to mention that CO is a lot closer to me that AL! =)

Yummy!

So, what do ya think? Does this kid love her corn or what?? This is my niece on Mother's Day.



We had the fam over for a BBQ on our deck - it was a GORGEOUS day! We cooked chicken on the barbie and then we sat out and enjoyed the sunshine while the little kids played and the big kids hit golf balls. The weather was perfect, the food was yummy, and everyone had a great day.

Lists

Things I miss about California
* Buying strawberries fresh from the field – and munching down on them on my way home
* REAL pizza – yummy pizza from places like Me-N-Ed’s, Rusty’s, and Klondike.
* Chicken Tacos from Baja Fresh
* The beach (and cool air) being only 2 ½ hours away
* Jamba Juice
* Making it through a 4-way stop sign without screaming at the idiots around me
* Family and friends (but that goes without saying)


Things I love about Kansas
* Blue skies
* Clean air
* White puffy clouds
* Friendly people
* Quik Trip
* Cheaper gas (but not by much anymore)
* Days like yesterday (75 degrees, slight breeze, clean air, gorgeous sky)
* Awesome neighborhood
* Family and new friends

Fake Steering Wheel Fun

Looks to me like this lady's hubby was taking her on a nice Mother's Day ride...enjoy! =)

Happy Mother's Day!

The one I will NOT be voting for...

I'm glad that there is a little humor coming out of the terrible tragedy in Greensburg, Kansas. Apparently, presidential hopeful (not gonna happen!) Obama is a little mis-informed...the following was posted on Fox News today.

Obama: '10,000 People Died' in Kansas Tornado
Wednesday, May 09, 2007

RICHMOND, Va. — Barack Obama, caught up in the fervor of a campaign speech Tuesday, drastically overstated the Kansas tornadoes death toll, saying 10,000 had died.

The death toll was 12.

"In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed," the Democratic presidential candidate said in a speech to 500 people packed into a sweltering Richmond art studio for a fundraiser.

Obama mentioned the disaster in Greensburg, Kan., in saying he had been told by the office of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that the state's National Guard had been depleted by its commitment to the Iraq War.

"Turns out that the National Guard in Kansas only had 40 percent of its equipment and they are having to slow down the recovery process in Kansas," Obama said, his shirt sleeves rolled up and his head glistening with sweat.

As the Illinois senator concluded his remarks a few minutes later, he appeared to realize his gaffe.


On the other hand, our actual President made a personal trip to Greensburg today to see the damage for himself, and to offer encouragement and comfort to the families of Greensburg. Click here to see some photos of his visit.

Purse Meme

Love Bears All Things tagged me for this Purse Meme that I've seen all over the place lately, so I guess it's my turn to play...here's my purse in all its glory...

This is the bag that I've been carrying lately...it's a great size and fits everything I need, and I love that it has a pocket for my cell phone.




I have to admit that I was in between purses when I got tagged for this, so I threw the few things from a smaller bag (that I took to WI last weekend) into this, my regular purse, before I took the photo...so, here's the inside.



And, here is everything all laid out on the counter...wallet, checkbook, handy-dandy calendar, ear buds, ear piece for my cell phone (the phone is mysteriously missing...it was in my gym bag), ipod, drugs (don't fret - just Advil), MAC blotting compact, lip gloss, battery (not sure if it's a good one or not), 3 different flavors of gum (who knows what I'll be in the mood for), and a little pouch for all of those gift cards, punch cards, and discount cards for all the stores...oh yeah, and don't forget about keys, sunglass case, and all those miscellaneous papers that I may or may not need. Whew...what a bunch of junk!

Check another one off the list!

I can now say I’ve been to Wisconsin…that makes state number 42 that I’ve visited…and for those of you nay-sayers who say being in the Chicago airport doesn’t count for visiting Illinois, I have now spent the night in DeKalb, IL – so I’m official now.

B has been in Wisconsin for 2 weeks training for his new job, so I came up to visit for the weekend. He has one more week to go…and although there are great benefits working for the gov’t…flying home on the weekends isn’t one of them. I didn’t want to go 3 weeks without seeing my husband, so I booked a ticket and came up for my conjugal visit. LOL

We had an amazing weekend. I got in Friday night, and on Saturday morning after a GREAT and FREE breakfast in the hotel (the short order cook made me eggs just the way I wanted them), we jumped in the rental car and headed south to visit our good friends in Illinois. We met G & D right after we got married when we lived in Texas. D and hubby started with their company on the same day. Neither of us knew anyone in our little East Texas town, so we spent a lot of time together. They have twins who are now 10 (I can’t believe it!), and we love them to death! G & D left Texas a few months before we did, and since then they’ve lived in MI, UT, MN, and now IL…wow! In only 5 ½ years!

We’ve only seen them a handful of times since we all moved away, but whenever we get together it’s like no time has passed (except that the kids are almost as tall as me!). We spent the day doing what all northerners seem to spend their days doing – drinking and eating, oh yeah, and drinking some more! But, it was a blast. It was windy and cold, but we braved it all to hang out on the front porch (the deck was just TOO windy), telling stories, laughing hysterically and listening to Bryan Adams…how much better can it get?

Sunday morning, we woke up and ate breakfast with our buddies, and then we hit the road back to WI to spend the day with my brother and SIL. Brother has decided that he doesn’t need rehab (not entirely sure how I feel about that), and SIL has moved back in to their apartment. Brother turns 30 this week, so we told him to pick the place and we’d take him out for lunch. We ate at a local brewery on the river in Milwaukee (iced tea and sodas all around – no booze), and then brother toured us around Milwaukee. We walked by Lake Michigan, drove by all the cool architecture, hit a local hobby shop (for B!), and then went to see their apartment. It’s in the cutest little village, with their own village hall, and houses still standing from FDR’s New Deal plan.

Time was running out so we grabbed a coffee and headed back to the hotel, where I had to pack up and say goodbye to B…again. Thank God he only has 5 more days and then he’s home. I’m so glad I got to come up for the weekend, but I’m sad that B isn’t going home with me.

I’ll be boarding my plane soon to head home, and I pray that the thunderstorms of the weekend won’t affect my trip home. I get in late and then I have to make it in to work somehow tomorrow morning…the worst part about the whole weekend!

Update: I'm home now...back in the land of Oz. I'm sure all of you heard about the devestating tornado that hit Greensburg in Western Kansas on Friday night. The town has been demolished - they say the tornado was over 1 mile wide and was spinning at 200 mph. Families are homeless and there is a lot to do to recover from this. Please keep them in your prayers - the interviews on TV show people with amazing attitudes, but they also have some grieving to do. Thankfully, the 100+ tornados that were spotted on Saturday were not too close to the metro areas, but there are storms still predicted for the rest of the week.

Book Giveaway!

I know some of you out there are avid readers like me, so go check out Overwhelmed with Joy's Book Giveaway...she's giving away a copy of Unbroken by Tracey Elliot.

You don't have to tell me twice about a free book! =)

Let's go to the Z-O-O!

My SIL and BIL both had to work last Saturday, so I got to hang out with my nieces for the day. We decided to go to the Z-O-O (I have to type it that way, because we had to spell it out...just saying it wasn't enough according to my 4 7/8 year old niece, Sweetie, who's working on her reading skills right now). I'd heard that the zoo in our town was great, but I hadn't had a chance to visit it yet, so my nieces wanted to give me the grand tour.



I wasn't exactly speedy on Saturday morning, and even though I made the girls blueberry muffins for breakfast, they still kept asking me when we were leaving. Who knew that it would take HOURS to get all 3 of us ready and out the door? But, we finally loaded up the car and pulled out of the garage right before 11:00am...and then we drove 2 doors down to pick up the stroller my neighbor so graciously loaned us. I seriously DO NOT know what we would have done without it at the Z-O-O.

Now, there's been some hype about a new exhibit opening at our zoo...it's penguins! And my SIL guaranteed us that it was already open, so Sweetie said she would get the map and direct me there first. So off we went, but we couldn't find it on the map. Sweetie (remember she's not quite 5 yet) asked some very nice girls in the souvenir shop where the penguins were, but the news wasn’t good. They aren’t going to make an appearance until the end of May.



Sweetie told me that we needed to find a bench so she could figure out where we needed to go next (she hung on to that map all day long!). We headed over to the petting zoo, where I had to coax Sweetie into the gate. Honey (the 2 year old) just marched right in and up to the fence so she could see better.





We saw some very pretty peacocks, but I had to explain to my darling nieces that Auntie DOES NOT like peacocks. We had about 12 that lived behind us in CA, and they are the loudest, most annoying birds you’ve ever heard. They don’t squawk or chirp or sing, they SCREAM!! But, we took a picture anyway.



Next on our list (or map) to see were turtles. We saw some giant tortoises, but they were kinda boring so we focused on the smaller turtles that were eating salad. Everything was fine and good until some wacko lady next to me said, “look at the snake in the tree!” This was the response of the girls when they heard this…the snake was right above our heads, but he was just curled up napping.



We came upon the jungle next where we saw bats (yikes!) and all kinds of birds, and a ton of plants and it was VERY humid. We spent quite a bit of time in the jungle searching for the Scarlet Macaws (Go Diego Go!)...we looked high and low...we braved the bats and the bugs...but we could not find those Scarlet Macaws. Finally the humidity got to us and we had to get out of there. Well, it wasn't until we got home that we found out that the 2 Scarlet Macaws from our Zoo had been STOLEN, the day before! It was a scandal! Where's Diego...he needs to go find them! Here's what we would have seen if some wacko hadn't stolen them.



We ended up at the giraffes next, where this one was resting his chin on the wall. We figured his neck gets tired pretty quickly since it’s so long.



We were starting to feel like the giraffe, so we went searching for food and the gorillas. Once we got close to the gorillas, I got so excited that I made the girls wait for lunch so we could go watch the apes. Our zoo is so cool – as you walk toward the exhibits, the trail is landscaped like the natural habitat of the animal you’re going to see. We passed cranes and some cattle looking thing (I can’t remember what it was), and the biggest frog we’d ever seen, and then we went into the gorilla house. Sweetie was kinda scared, but I dragged her in anyway because, dang it, I wanted to see apes. They must have just had lunch, because they were all lying around in the shade sleeping. We waited around for a while, and finally a couple of them got up. The first one that stood up had been lying by the glass where a young family next to us was standing. The ape stood up, put his butt toward the window and bent over to touch his toes…what?? Yes, his ape butt was pressed up against the glass, and he just stood there…for a long time! I was laughing too hard to take a photo, but I promise you, this is true! Then he and a buddy wandered over and sat down under a deck in their yard. The girls were begging to leave by this point, so I gave in and we went to get lunch.



You’d think that the Z-O-O would have staffed up for this, the first Saturday of the year with no rain, temps over 80, and not a cloud in the sky…but, oh no, we waited in line for 20 minutes to buy a shriveled up hot dog and a cold pretzel that we all shared for lunch. The break was good for us, though, and we finished our food and took off again…to the Lions!



There are statues of some of the animals before you go into their area, and Sweetie wanted to take pictures by all of them. I tried to get both girls up there, but my normally fear-LESS niece, Honey, was terrified of the statues, so all the photos are of Sweetie. Unfortunately, the statue is all we really saw of the lion because he was also taking a nap…we could barely see his mane over the rock he was sleeping behind.



The elephants were awake, though, so we stood and watched him eat for a bit…yum, hay for lunch!




We also walked by the chimpanzees and the bears, but we were pretty beat by then, so I suggested we get snow cones. Bad move, Aunt Sally! The line was as long as the giraffe’s neck…actually, it was MUCH longer than that…but I had promised something cold, so we cut our zoo trip short, with promises to come back again and again and again, and we headed over to the ice cream shop for a much needed snack.

We had a wonderful day, and we were exhausted by the time we got home, so we put Shrek in the DVD player and we fell asleep until SIL came to pick up my girlies.

SIL says that Sweetie is still talking about the zoo and everything we saw…except for the kangaroos…we missed them, and apparently it’s all my fault (even though Sweetie had the map)…that’s ok, we can start there next time!

Pray for Heather

I recently stumbled upon Heather's blog...probably from BooMama, and I'm so glad I did.

TODAY, Heather is undergoing brain surgery to remove a large tumor. I don't know a lot about her, but from what I've read, she has an amazing Christian faith, and she sounds like a great mother, wife, friend, and more!

The blogging world has opened my eyes to a lot more around me, and I've "met" people who challenge me in my faith, and help me have a better perspective on life. What was I thinking griping about work 2 days ago when Heather is fighting for her life? I've been praying for Heather and her family, and I'll also be clicking on the button above to check on her progress.

If you think about it, say a prayer for her!

I don't even know what to call this...

I hate my job I hate my job I hate my job...those are the thoughts that pounded through my head as I jogged out to my car, in the rain, just now to get my jacket...so that I can walk, through the rain, to our north plant. I've been told my highest priority today is to help them figure out why their heads are in their asses and what they can do to possibly pull them back out again.

Well, that's my take on it, anyway. I'm being sent as a knee-jerk reaction to a HUGE issue (in their minds) on one of our asssembly lines. They want to know why we can't make the units we should be making up there, and they want me to fix it, pronto! Well, I can tell them why w/o even going up there. They are running a product on this line that was NOT designed to run on the line, and they're attempting to do this with NO prior planning whatsoever, and the people on this line are temps who were either flipping burgers yesterday or picking their noses while they watched Jerry Springer.

This is not a continuous improvement project (that would be my job), this is just simply use your freakin' heads and plan and execute for ONCE!

Oh, and let me not forget to mention that yesterday (before I "got sick" and headed to the gym for a much needed de-stressing hour long workout) I was told that my HIGHEST PRIORITY was to fix a line here in the south plant.

Deep breath...there are 3 months and 20 days until I can safely get my own ass out of here and maybe find something to do that won't give me a heart attack before my 33rd birthday.