Sunday, June 29, 2008

The Things You Don't Brag About

Instead of posting how wonderful our weekend was at Steve's dad's house in Minneapolis (which it was), I will instead post on a few things you usually don't brag about. This will be fun. Here we go...

Anna helped pack her suitcase on Thursday night and when we opened it on Friday, we discovered that she threw in an ice cream sandwich. Thankfully, it only made a few spots on her nightgown.

Grandma Ginny took us to Dairy Queen Friday night, and I dropped Anna's popsicle on the ground. Ginny wanted to buy her a new one, but I swiftly wiped off the dirt and gave it to her. Steve had a good argument that she would probably drop it a few more times anyway.

Jack threw a fit at Dairy Queen, so I had to put him in the van to sit quietly. He was sooo mad at me and as I was buckling his seatbelt, he screamed, "damn! damn! damn!" It's like I didn't realize he was mad, so he had to curse the situation. And by the way, I have NO idea where he hears that stuff.

And finally, I can't let all the things be negative, so here's one positive thing thrown in there. On our drive over there, Jack said, "Mommy, when I grow up, could I marry you?" Awwww. What a sweetie!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Going Solo

I finally got to see Sex in the City this weekend. And it was a big step for me. For the first time in my life, I went to see a movie by myself! All my other Sex friends had already seen it. Steve's mom was going to go with me, but I couldn't wait anymore. With so many summer movies out, it might be out of theatres soon.

It was a great, great movie. Love a good girl movie, and this one was especially good because it was funny, too!

So score one for me...first movie going solo. And the best part is that I didn't have to share the popcorn bucket with anyone!

And here's a quick kid story. We love bell pepper slices at our house. But Jack doesn't know them as peppers. He calls them Js because if you cut a bell pepper in half and then cut the slices, you can get perfect little Js. He thinks it's awesome when we have Js.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day

Just a quick post to say that we had a very good Father's Day. Steve's family came down, and we all went to the Brewers game. And not only did we go to the game, but we thought it would be fun if we did some tailgating, too. We weren't sure how it would go with the four little ones. Though honestly, Ian and Jack aren't so little anymore at 6 and 4.

It went great. The big hit of the tailgating was this chair game that someone invented. They put two lawn chairs 15 to 20 feet apart and then put little chairs in front of that. They then threw the football to aim for the little chairs. It was a blast for Ian and Jack. Here's a picture from the event with Jack and Grandpa Jeff. (By the way...you see Anna in that Sponge Bob outfit? Yeah, she had a cute Brewers skirt and matching shirt on, but she got it soaked by something. So she had to wear these Sponge Bob pajamas for a short bit while her other stuff dried in the sun.)

Game was good (they won), and we even made it through the whole thing!

Thanks to the Dad of our house who is truly a hands-on father. You're a keeper, and we love you.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Oklahoma Top 10

We just returned from our Oklahoma trip. It was a blast. On the way down there, we narrowly missed a tornado (it hit about 30 minutes behind us). Then on the way back, we narrowly missed another one. And then today, we spend the late afternoon in the basement because of tornado warnings around here. All is well, though. Here's a "Top 10" from our trip...

10. Nails. My sweet mother took me to get a pedicure and manicure. I got French tips on my toes, and darn it if I didn’t chip one already because I was swimming at the hotel pool with Jack and Anna. The bottom of the pool will do it every time. I’m planning to hit the store tomorrow to get some white polish to tidy it up.

9. Sleeping. Thanks to my mom wearing out the kids every night, Steve and I got to sleep in every single day. Sure, it wasn’t like we slept until 10 (though Steve did make it until 9 one day). But I don’t think I got up before 7 a single time. Even when the kids got up early, my lovely mother was there with them, making breakfast or doing something else to entertain them.



8. Day in OKC. We went up to OKC because my mom got 2nd place in a “Made in Oklahoma” recipe contest. (Wooohooo Mom!) She was accepting her award, so the kids and I tagged along, went to the zoo (that's Jack and Anna below with cousin, Lockin) and Build-a-Bear. The highlight of this trip is that when we stopped to get lunch, I was handing a $20 to the drive through worker. He didn’t grab it in time and it went blowing away in the wind. I was cursing slightly, but that didn’t stop me from jumping out of the car and running after my money. The wind was blowing like crazy, and it blew the money into the road of a busy intersection. I kept my eye on it and kept running, though. Finally, it blew out of the road into some grass, and I grabbed it. It was quite a hike, though.



7. Dinner at Grandmas. It wouldn’t be a complete visit without Sunday dinner at my Grandma’s house. The kids had fun. I got to see my grandparents. My cousin, Josh, showed me pictures of his recent muddin’ adventure. And the food was SPECTACULAR. No wonder I gain weight when I go home. It’s so worth it!



6. Riding 4-Wheelers. My dad took us out to “the farm” he has where the kids rode with my mom to the little creek nearby. Anna was scared at first to get on them, but she definitely warmed up. (If you want to see the picture of Anna, e-mail me. Here's Jack fishing at the creek.)



5. Pictures with Tina. Tina always takes great pictures, and this time was no exception. I’ll post some more of this another time, but here’s my favorite one of Jack and Anna. I love that you can see Anna’s bellybutton.



4. Arbuckle Wilderness. “Come feed the animals at Arbuckle Wilderness.” That’s the theme song of this drive-through animal park. It was a blast. I was in the front seat, so I was the one feeding most of the animals. A donkey nipped Anna in the hand, but it didn’t hurt her. It gave her a good story to tell. The best animals to feed were the giraffes. They were so amazing and gentle. There was this horrible slobbery one. You should have seen my car after we left that place. It was splattered with giraffe slobber.




3. Day at OU. Steve and I have nostalgic ties to OU. We went to the bookstore at the Union, just across the street from where Steve’s office used to be. Oh yeah, and we stopped at 4 different Sooner stores and loaded up on a TON of t-shirts, sweats, etc., etc. Such good buys!

2. Feeding Rocky. If you read my earlier post, you know that my mom was helping my brother take care of a baby raccoon. The kids ADORED him, and they especially looked forward to feeding him with his bottle. It was really one of the highlights of the trip.





1. Playing in the Pond. Finally, this is the top event of our trip. We spent all kinds of money riding trains, going to the zoo, going to Build-a-Bear, and everything else. But when it came down to it, the thing the kids liked the most was running around and swimming in the pond behind my parents’ house. It was the perfect pond, too because there was this shallow section that was pure mud along the bottom. So they were running around like crazy without having to worry about stepping on rocks or anything like that. You can’t compete with good ole times of playing in the mud.

Cinemark Sucks

I was bummed when I first found out that Sex in the City would be released the weekend we were leaving to Oklahoma. I really wanted to go on that first night. I love, love, love that series and couldn't wait to see the movie.

I didn't fret for long, though. I soon realized that my good friend Tina in Ada was also a Sex fan. We could go together! My plan seemed so perfect. Now I could go to the movie with a real, bona fide fan.

Tina and I had plans to go to the movie on Wednesday night. So we met at Starbucks beforehand and then sashayed over to the movie promptly at 7. We stand in line, wait our turn and then politely inform the lady that we need two tickets to the hottest show in town. She gives us this scared chuckle and replies, "Oh, I'm sorry. That movie is broken. We should get a new copy in a few days."

At which I reply...."Are you kidding me? Why don't you have a sign up? You should really warn people."

I was soooo mad. How hard would it be to put a nice little sign on the billboard out front that says it's temporarily out of order?!? Well, apparently it is too hard for the Cinemark staff. It looks like someone helped them out later that night, though. I have NO idea who would have printed out that sign and stuck it up there, but we couldn't resist taking a picture. Don't worry. It didn't last long. There was a church group there, and I'm pretty sure one of the chaperons ripped it down. It got some good laughs, though.


Monday, June 02, 2008

My Grandma's raccoon can beat up your Grandma's raccoon

I couldn't resist a quick post while we're in Oklahoma. After all, it's not every day that a kid can brag that their Grandma has a pet raccoon.

His name is Rocky. He's not really a pet, but my mom did know some people who started looking after four baby raccoons after their mom died. He's such a cute little thing right now and wouldn't hurt a thing, though I'm sure he'll get mean later on. They plan to let him go once he's a little older. The kids love, love, love him and check on him every few minutes. They even help Grandma feed him with his bottle.