So I was sitting here when I suddenly realized that I needed a lip balm fix. I am, shall we say, a lip balm addict. I also have problems making decision when I have more than one option (it's hereditary).
I reached for my lip balm and suddenly realized that I had three different kinds within reach. And, if you count the additional two different kinds in my purse, that put the grand total of lip balms within two feet of me at five.
Five lip balms.
Five.
I withdrew my hand and stared at the three lip balms that I could see. My visible options were:
1. Burt's Bees
2. C.O. Bigelow Spearmint Mentha Lip Shine
3. C.O. Bigelow Mentha Lip Tint in a shade of red
I started to squirm when I realized I had to make a decision. Then I remembered that I had two more different kinds of lip balm in my purse; maybe I wanted one of those? My invisible options were:
1. C.O. Bigelow Shea Butter Lip Balm
2. C.O. Bigelow Mentha Lip Tint in a shade of pink
Which one do I pick? Do I want pink lips, red lips, shiny lips, smooth lips or pepperminty lips? I squirmed as I pondered my options.
The decision-making process was proving stressful. I think I have too many lip balms. Suddenly I grabbed my Burt's Bees, applied it, and leaned back with a great sigh of relief; one (albeit minor) decision down.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Henry Gets Crafty
My Father-in-Law Answers The Door
At 6:00 last night we decided to have Joey's parents over for dinner. So we rushed around and made sure we truly did have enough food for 4 people, then we all sat down to eat a nice meal of chicken marsala, biscuits and some other stuff that I can't remember right now.
The Lauras and I were planning to leave around 7:00ish from our place to go shopping for some Christmas gifts. Our SF group got a couple of names of needs DTS student's children, and so we planned to have a toy-shopping evening. Super fun.
Well, Laura #1 showed up at 7:00 and was kind of confused when she saw 2 other people in our house that she didn't recognize. She, naturally, thought she'd got the time/date/place wrong and was screwing up our dinner. We assured her that she was right on schedule, we'd just juggled around our plans.
Than...FIL#1 got a tricksy look on his face. "I should have answered the door and freaked you out! Made you think you had the wrong place and everything!" He said to Laura #1, who was sitting on our couch. Poor Laura #1.
Joey laughed and laughed. "You have to do that when Laura #2 comes in a few minutes. And I'll take a picture of her face."
Even poorer Laura #2!
"She can handle it," Laura #1 said with a little giggle.
I decided the safest place to stay out of this mess was in the kitchen. So I left Laura #1 on the couch and started on the pile of dirty dishes we'd accumulated as we made dinner. About 10 minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
Joey and FIL#1 sprang into action. (I have never seen either one of them move quite so fast before.) Joey yelled, "Just a minute!" and FIL#1 took his place by the door.
FIL#1 opened the front door and said "hi" as Joey snapped a picture, and there stood poor Laura #2, just as confused as can be.
"What is going ON?!" Laura #2 asked as FIL#1 let her in the house. She was seriously confused.
Joey explained the prank and Laura #2 said she'd have been even more confused if Joey hadn't screwed it up by yelling "just a minute" the way he did. (Seriously, Joey.)
"That picture's going on your blog tomorrow, isn't it," Laura #2 bemoaned.
(Of course it is. I mean seriously, look at that amazing look on her face?!)
We all had a good laugh, mostly at Laura #2's expense, and us girls headed out to go shopping. A good time was had by all.
Well, I think all. Hehehe...
The Lauras and I were planning to leave around 7:00ish from our place to go shopping for some Christmas gifts. Our SF group got a couple of names of needs DTS student's children, and so we planned to have a toy-shopping evening. Super fun.
Well, Laura #1 showed up at 7:00 and was kind of confused when she saw 2 other people in our house that she didn't recognize. She, naturally, thought she'd got the time/date/place wrong and was screwing up our dinner. We assured her that she was right on schedule, we'd just juggled around our plans.
Than...FIL#1 got a tricksy look on his face. "I should have answered the door and freaked you out! Made you think you had the wrong place and everything!" He said to Laura #1, who was sitting on our couch. Poor Laura #1.
Joey laughed and laughed. "You have to do that when Laura #2 comes in a few minutes. And I'll take a picture of her face."
Even poorer Laura #2!
"She can handle it," Laura #1 said with a little giggle.
I decided the safest place to stay out of this mess was in the kitchen. So I left Laura #1 on the couch and started on the pile of dirty dishes we'd accumulated as we made dinner. About 10 minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
Joey and FIL#1 sprang into action. (I have never seen either one of them move quite so fast before.) Joey yelled, "Just a minute!" and FIL#1 took his place by the door.
FIL#1 opened the front door and said "hi" as Joey snapped a picture, and there stood poor Laura #2, just as confused as can be.
"What is going ON?!" Laura #2 asked as FIL#1 let her in the house. She was seriously confused.Joey explained the prank and Laura #2 said she'd have been even more confused if Joey hadn't screwed it up by yelling "just a minute" the way he did. (Seriously, Joey.)
"That picture's going on your blog tomorrow, isn't it," Laura #2 bemoaned.
(Of course it is. I mean seriously, look at that amazing look on her face?!)
We all had a good laugh, mostly at Laura #2's expense, and us girls headed out to go shopping. A good time was had by all.
Well, I think all. Hehehe...
268 mg of caffeine in 6 hours...
I woke up at 5:00 with a fearsome cluster headache. (I'd felt it coming on about 9:00 last night so I was at least sort of prepared.) It hurt so bad that I didn't even get up to take Excedrin Migrane which, in hindsight, was a pretty bad idea. In any case, when I finally hauled myself out of bed at 6:30, I popped 2 Excedrin tablets. Each Excedrin tablet has 65 mg of caffeine, so that was 130 total.
Because of the headache I decided that I might as well have coffee with breakfast since I already had a headache. Besides, maybe a little more caffeine wouldn't hurt? So I brewed myself some drip coffee, which tops out at 100 mg of caffeine.
And now, with my Jason's Deli for lunch I am drinking a Pepsi, which has 38 mg of caffeine.
This puts my grand total of caffeine intake for the morning at 268 mg. (Mom, don't pass out.) I'm starting to feel a little jittery, caffeine paranoid, shifty, and otherwise strange.
AAAAUGH!!!
Because of the headache I decided that I might as well have coffee with breakfast since I already had a headache. Besides, maybe a little more caffeine wouldn't hurt? So I brewed myself some drip coffee, which tops out at 100 mg of caffeine.
And now, with my Jason's Deli for lunch I am drinking a Pepsi, which has 38 mg of caffeine.
This puts my grand total of caffeine intake for the morning at 268 mg. (Mom, don't pass out.) I'm starting to feel a little jittery, caffeine paranoid, shifty, and otherwise strange.
AAAAUGH!!!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Thankful for Thanksgiving
Being expat Iowans like we are, we found ourselves about 12 hours too far away to go home for Thanksgiving. This left us with a Very Important Decision:
1. Have Thanksgiving by ourselves and try not to burn the turkey
2. Have Thanksgiving somewheres else
We have cool friends, so we got an invitation to have Thanksgiving somewheres else. (Hooray!) We weren't sure they had entirely realized what they'd gotten themselves into when they invited us because I still don't know much of anything about football, ("Woah, that guy just whacked that thing out of the air at the end of the field, was that good?") or about computers. ("Joey, come put stuff on the flash drive for me. I still don't know how...")
Almost everyone knows that two important things on Thanksgiving are watching football and going through the ads to decide whether or not it's worth it to go shopping on Friday. I try to understand football, I really do. But there are just some things in life that I can't seem to comprehend. And I need Joey to feel like he's The Man, so I let him do all the computer stuff.
Anyway, Danny and Laura invited us to Laura's family's house to share the holiday. We had a fantastic time.
Before lunch we watched football. Correction: Joey watched football and I tried to watch football. None of the refs got ran over by any football players in the 10 minutes I managed to watch, so I got bored of it very quickly and looked through the ads. Cabelas wasn't having any good deals on anything unless you wanted guns (ick) or a fake deer to practice shooting your gun (also ick).
This is Danny and Laura. We are very thankful that they shared their family with us for the day! I managed to be 95% homesick free, which is a pretty good percentage considering all the amazing funness that was being had in Iowa without us.
After lunch we went on a very long walk. It was nice and cold outside which was perfect for Thanksgiving. (Rumor has it that snowflakes were seen in Dallas, but we were in Plano and didn't see any.) We all bundled up as much as possible and headed out. Fortunately, Joey had our camera in tow.
We hadn't walked four blocks when Joey saw a large cluster of bushes.
"Danny, run behind that bunch of bushes and I'll take your picture," he said.
Danny ran over to the bushes and posed like a gopher. (At least we think it looks like a gopher, who knows, maybe he was going for chipmunk.)
(The two nice-looking people in the foreground are Laura's parents. And that's Danny behind the bush.)
Someone happened to notice this trailer parked right across the street from the bushes that Danny had been hiding behind. I'm not sure you can read it, it's pretty small, but there are about four cameras on top of the trailer pointed right at the bushes. The sides of the trailer say "WE ARE WATCHING YOU!" They're serious about it, too.
We half expected FBI agents to come busting out and take us all down.
Along trail was a creek and, as we got closer to the bridge, everyone ran to grab sticks we could play Poohsticks. I held mine and Joey's since he was taking pictures.
And, for a brief moment, I thought I'd actually won! But then it was pointed out to me that Laura's brother Matt had won and his stick looked an awful lot like mine.
(I will point out that Joey's stick, a smallish, lightweight reed-type thing, lost the worst of every other stick. So at least I beat him.)
We walked a little bit farther and, around a bend, we came upon this sign.
"Ha!" Joey crowed, "Go stand under that sign! I think you'll fit."
I fit. Barely.
The pond/lake was just down the path from the horsey sign, and the sidewalk and bank of the pond was covered in geese. It was pretty amazing. So Danny and Megan chased them and made them all fly away which, had I different shoes on, I'd have totally done too.
Our first Texas Thanksgiving, I'd say it was a pretty great day. Thanks to Danny and Laura and the Reeders for hosting us, we had a fantastic time.
1. Have Thanksgiving by ourselves and try not to burn the turkey
2. Have Thanksgiving somewheres else
We have cool friends, so we got an invitation to have Thanksgiving somewheres else. (Hooray!) We weren't sure they had entirely realized what they'd gotten themselves into when they invited us because I still don't know much of anything about football, ("Woah, that guy just whacked that thing out of the air at the end of the field, was that good?") or about computers. ("Joey, come put stuff on the flash drive for me. I still don't know how...")
Almost everyone knows that two important things on Thanksgiving are watching football and going through the ads to decide whether or not it's worth it to go shopping on Friday. I try to understand football, I really do. But there are just some things in life that I can't seem to comprehend. And I need Joey to feel like he's The Man, so I let him do all the computer stuff.
Anyway, Danny and Laura invited us to Laura's family's house to share the holiday. We had a fantastic time.
Before lunch we watched football. Correction: Joey watched football and I tried to watch football. None of the refs got ran over by any football players in the 10 minutes I managed to watch, so I got bored of it very quickly and looked through the ads. Cabelas wasn't having any good deals on anything unless you wanted guns (ick) or a fake deer to practice shooting your gun (also ick).
This is Danny and Laura. We are very thankful that they shared their family with us for the day! I managed to be 95% homesick free, which is a pretty good percentage considering all the amazing funness that was being had in Iowa without us.After lunch we went on a very long walk. It was nice and cold outside which was perfect for Thanksgiving. (Rumor has it that snowflakes were seen in Dallas, but we were in Plano and didn't see any.) We all bundled up as much as possible and headed out. Fortunately, Joey had our camera in tow.
We hadn't walked four blocks when Joey saw a large cluster of bushes.
"Danny, run behind that bunch of bushes and I'll take your picture," he said.
Danny ran over to the bushes and posed like a gopher. (At least we think it looks like a gopher, who knows, maybe he was going for chipmunk.)
(The two nice-looking people in the foreground are Laura's parents. And that's Danny behind the bush.)Someone happened to notice this trailer parked right across the street from the bushes that Danny had been hiding behind. I'm not sure you can read it, it's pretty small, but there are about four cameras on top of the trailer pointed right at the bushes. The sides of the trailer say "WE ARE WATCHING YOU!" They're serious about it, too.
We half expected FBI agents to come busting out and take us all down.Along trail was a creek and, as we got closer to the bridge, everyone ran to grab sticks we could play Poohsticks. I held mine and Joey's since he was taking pictures.
And, for a brief moment, I thought I'd actually won! But then it was pointed out to me that Laura's brother Matt had won and his stick looked an awful lot like mine. (I will point out that Joey's stick, a smallish, lightweight reed-type thing, lost the worst of every other stick. So at least I beat him.)
We walked a little bit farther and, around a bend, we came upon this sign.
"Ha!" Joey crowed, "Go stand under that sign! I think you'll fit."
I fit. Barely.
The pond/lake was just down the path from the horsey sign, and the sidewalk and bank of the pond was covered in geese. It was pretty amazing. So Danny and Megan chased them and made them all fly away which, had I different shoes on, I'd have totally done too.
Our first Texas Thanksgiving, I'd say it was a pretty great day. Thanks to Danny and Laura and the Reeders for hosting us, we had a fantastic time.
Monday, November 26, 2007
The Great Christmas Tree Hunt
We spent Thanksgiving with our friends Danny and Laura (yes, folks, THE Danny and Laura of thestillers.blogspot.com fame) and had a great day. Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon as we were discussing Black Friday deals and Christmas trees, we decided to try to find a real, live Christmas tree farm and cut ourselves a couple of Christmas trees.
So I asked The Google where I might find a Christmas tree farm. It told me I'd find one in Flower Mound, complete with hayrides.
I shall abridge the story and just tell you that the Christmas tree farm in Flower Mound gets their trees from Michigan. They are not "cut your own" and, considering the place is in the middle of town, I have no idea where they give these alleged hayrides.
So we gave up and drove over to that Lowe's on Jupiter. But, quite by accident, we found a Christmas tree tent a few parking lots over from Lowes. These Christmas trees came from Oregon (I'm not sure if that was supposed to be a major selling point or not...) and were proudly displayed in all their fluffy, pine-needley glory. These trees were not all strung up with twine like the ones at Lowes.
Joey and I conspired about our budget and finally settled on $40. We ran hither and yon until, at last, we found the perfect tree. (We also found a tree that cost $350 and was taller than my parents house. But we left it in the lot.)
We also brought our camera along and took 100 pictures. (You did read that correctly - one hundred pictures in less than an hour) I think it's dangerous for Woestmans to own cameras.
Once we found The Tree Danny said, "Stand by it and I'll take your picture." We stood by the tree. Danny took about 25 pictures. I like this one because I'm being all green friendly and hugging my tree.
This one Joey made me put in here. I look like an idiot and I think that's why he picked it. He's not very nice.
I decided to carry the tree out of the tent. It wasn't very heavy but it was very sappy, prickly and cumbersome. I was mostly just proud of myself that I got the tree off of the ground, up into the air, and over the other taller trees since I'm not very tall in the first place.
When I finally got the tree outside the guy came over and said, "You know, I'd have come and gotten it for you." I couldn't tell if he was annoyed with me or not, but I decided I didn't really care. So I told him it was OK and we just wanted to be sure we got the right tree. (That's really only half true, mostly I wanted to carry the tree around.)
This is Danny and Laura and their cute little tree. Fortunately they have a Jeep and we were able to tie our trees on top of it...otherwise I'm really not sure how we'd have gotten our tree back into our house.
Poor Henry, we brought the tree inside and got it all set up. He was fairly scared of it until it was in its stand, then he hesitantly came over to smell it. His analysis was that it was poky, sharp and wasn't worth his time. (Whew.)
And this is our Christmas living room. I love it! Isn't the tree just perfect? And we have a fireplace to hang our stockings! I just love Christmas...
So I asked The Google where I might find a Christmas tree farm. It told me I'd find one in Flower Mound, complete with hayrides.
I shall abridge the story and just tell you that the Christmas tree farm in Flower Mound gets their trees from Michigan. They are not "cut your own" and, considering the place is in the middle of town, I have no idea where they give these alleged hayrides.
So we gave up and drove over to that Lowe's on Jupiter. But, quite by accident, we found a Christmas tree tent a few parking lots over from Lowes. These Christmas trees came from Oregon (I'm not sure if that was supposed to be a major selling point or not...) and were proudly displayed in all their fluffy, pine-needley glory. These trees were not all strung up with twine like the ones at Lowes.
Joey and I conspired about our budget and finally settled on $40. We ran hither and yon until, at last, we found the perfect tree. (We also found a tree that cost $350 and was taller than my parents house. But we left it in the lot.)
We also brought our camera along and took 100 pictures. (You did read that correctly - one hundred pictures in less than an hour) I think it's dangerous for Woestmans to own cameras.
Once we found The Tree Danny said, "Stand by it and I'll take your picture." We stood by the tree. Danny took about 25 pictures. I like this one because I'm being all green friendly and hugging my tree.
This one Joey made me put in here. I look like an idiot and I think that's why he picked it. He's not very nice.
I decided to carry the tree out of the tent. It wasn't very heavy but it was very sappy, prickly and cumbersome. I was mostly just proud of myself that I got the tree off of the ground, up into the air, and over the other taller trees since I'm not very tall in the first place.
When I finally got the tree outside the guy came over and said, "You know, I'd have come and gotten it for you." I couldn't tell if he was annoyed with me or not, but I decided I didn't really care. So I told him it was OK and we just wanted to be sure we got the right tree. (That's really only half true, mostly I wanted to carry the tree around.)
This is Danny and Laura and their cute little tree. Fortunately they have a Jeep and we were able to tie our trees on top of it...otherwise I'm really not sure how we'd have gotten our tree back into our house. 
Poor Henry, we brought the tree inside and got it all set up. He was fairly scared of it until it was in its stand, then he hesitantly came over to smell it. His analysis was that it was poky, sharp and wasn't worth his time. (Whew.)
And this is our Christmas living room. I love it! Isn't the tree just perfect? And we have a fireplace to hang our stockings! I just love Christmas...
My Pops Turns The Big 5-0!!!
Today is my daddy's birthday and, since he's not my mom or a lady, I can tell you all how old he is. He's 50. It's lame that I have to be in Texas on such a comemorative day as today, so I have spent the better part of the morning coming up with amazing things about my dad.
But first, here's 50 ways to say happy birthday. Some are other languages and some are just, well, things I came up with. (You'll definitely be able to tell which is which.)
It's Dad's birthday! Veels geluk met jou verjaarsdag vader! Happy birthday Dad! Feliz cumpleanos Padre! My dad's getting older! Aita Zorionak! Gray hair is great! Happy birthday to you! Sretan Rodendan! 5+ for the birthday boy/man!
Van harte gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag! Dad speaks English; happy birthday! L‡ breithe mhaith agat! Birthday felicitations! Ick wuensch da allet Jute zum Jeburtstach! Happy birthday Pops! Inuuinni pilluarit! A pinch to grow an inch! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Celebrate You!
Birthday. Happy. Joyeux Anniversaire! Hau`oli Lā Hānau! Daudz laimes dzimsanas diena! We like Dad's birthday! Grattis pŒ fšdelsedagen! Dogum gunun kutlu olsun! Make a birthday sale! Many happy returns of the day! Let him eat cake!
appyhay irthdaybay! A Freilekhn Gebortstog! Hppy Brthdy! Bonne Fete! My dad's birthday is better than your dad's birthday! Felichan Naskightagon! 5+ for anyone whose birthday is today! Vsechno nejlepsi! Tracy Lesan would say Vsetko najlepsie k narodeninam!
Picaw-picaw! (that's chicken for happy birthday...) Maligayang Bati Sa Iyong Kaarawan! No working on your birthday, make Mom do it all!! Vse najboljse za rojstni dan! Three cheers for Dad; if we didn't have him we wouldn't have us! Mi fresteri ju! All cats adore Dad and wish him happy birthday! Janmadina subha kankshalu! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD! I LOVE MY DAD!
And these are the 50 reasons why MY dad could beat YOUR dad up. He's pretty much awesome. (I had originally made them in an Excel spreadsheet because my Pops is really good at Excel. So you'll just have to pretend that these are in a spreadsheet so you can get the full effecet.)
But first, here's 50 ways to say happy birthday. Some are other languages and some are just, well, things I came up with. (You'll definitely be able to tell which is which.)
It's Dad's birthday! Veels geluk met jou verjaarsdag vader! Happy birthday Dad! Feliz cumpleanos Padre! My dad's getting older! Aita Zorionak! Gray hair is great! Happy birthday to you! Sretan Rodendan! 5+ for the birthday boy/man!
Van harte gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag! Dad speaks English; happy birthday! L‡ breithe mhaith agat! Birthday felicitations! Ick wuensch da allet Jute zum Jeburtstach! Happy birthday Pops! Inuuinni pilluarit! A pinch to grow an inch! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Celebrate You!
Birthday. Happy. Joyeux Anniversaire! Hau`oli Lā Hānau! Daudz laimes dzimsanas diena! We like Dad's birthday! Grattis pŒ fšdelsedagen! Dogum gunun kutlu olsun! Make a birthday sale! Many happy returns of the day! Let him eat cake!
appyhay irthdaybay! A Freilekhn Gebortstog! Hppy Brthdy! Bonne Fete! My dad's birthday is better than your dad's birthday! Felichan Naskightagon! 5+ for anyone whose birthday is today! Vsechno nejlepsi! Tracy Lesan would say Vsetko najlepsie k narodeninam!
Picaw-picaw! (that's chicken for happy birthday...) Maligayang Bati Sa Iyong Kaarawan! No working on your birthday, make Mom do it all!! Vse najboljse za rojstni dan! Three cheers for Dad; if we didn't have him we wouldn't have us! Mi fresteri ju! All cats adore Dad and wish him happy birthday! Janmadina subha kankshalu! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD! I LOVE MY DAD!
And these are the 50 reasons why MY dad could beat YOUR dad up. He's pretty much awesome. (I had originally made them in an Excel spreadsheet because my Pops is really good at Excel. So you'll just have to pretend that these are in a spreadsheet so you can get the full effecet.)
- My Pops is great because he has cows.
- My Pops is great because he is on the missions committee.
- My Pops is great because he loves my mom.
- My Pops is great because he is the best realtor in
- My Pops is great because he helped me get down the aisle at my wedding without tripping!
- My Pops is great because he likes Snickers, Almond Joy and Pepsi and now I do too.
- My Pops is great because he is the birthday boy.
- My Pops is great because he likes to go to the Boundary Waters and he lets girls go along too.
- My Pops is great because he lets me drive his old timey tractors, sometimes even at Old Threshers.
- My Pops is great because he needs help fixing his cow sprayer.
- My Pops is great because he knows a million Excel formulas.
- My Pops is great because he used to play Gitchu with us, and everyone knows Gitchu is the best game ever when you're a little kid.
- My Pops is great because he taught me how to cut a worm so I could go fishing.
- My Pops is great because he likes to sing.
- My Pops is great because he took my mom to the
- My Pops is great because he has lots of pairs of wicking socks.
- My Pops is great because he used to let me have Pepsis and let me sit at his desk when I'd come visit him at St. Luke’s.
- My Pops is great because he took us tobogganing in the snow.
- My Pops is great because he let me have a horse when I was in high school.
- My Pops is great because he does the weed-whacking so the girls don't have to.
- My Pops is great because he sprayed for wolf spiders for me when I lived in the basement and used to have tons of them.
- My Pops is great because he bought a rocket when he came to
- My Pops is great because he likes lima beans, and he's probably the only person in the entire family who does.
- My Pops is great because he blew himself up when he was in high school in
- My Pops is great because he likes John Deere.
- My Pops is great because he gave me boy advice when I really needed it.
- My Pops is great because he remembers all the old stories about old locations where family members once were, and he tells them to us.
- My Pops is great because he helped me make pinewood derby cars.
- My Pops is great because he has the Frog Face. (You know, from Frog and Toad…)
- My Pops is great because he likes the Wild Wild West and used to bring us home tapes he made for us when he was at work.
- My Pops is great because he has strange children.
- My Pops is great because he hangs out with us and our friends.
- My Pops is great because he always encourages me.
- My Pops is great because he lets me help with the cows.
- My Pops is great because he gives me backrubs. Sometimes.
- My Pops is great because he makes very nice fires in the fireplace on cold evenings!
- My Pops is great because he takes me to Tractor Supply Company and lets me help pick out cow ear tags. (Except I like green but you never buy green.)
- My Pops is great because he tried to teach me how to chance the oil in the 2K, but I can't remember how anymore.
- My Pops is great because he flew me up to
- My Pops is great because he let me be his receptionist.
- My Pops is great because he lets me go fishing with him in the Boundary Waters, even though I talk too much and scare the fish away.
- My Pops is great because he taught me how to canoe properly.
- My Pops is great because he usually forgets how movies end and gets real excited during all the jump scenes.
- My Pops is great because he likes oranges.
- My Pops is great because he gets into mischief.
- My Pops is great because he drives with an earbud and is, subsequently, safer.
- My Pops is great because he has always lived in
- My Pops is great because he knows more about chickens than you do.
- My Pops is great because he gives nice hugs.
- My Pops is great (times infinity!) because…he's the only one!
Happy birthday Daddy!!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Joey Screams
Over the past couple of years, I have become a huge chicken. Movies, television shows, radio programs....all of the above have the potential to scare me really bad, especially when creepy music is involved.
For Christmas last year, Joey was given the complete 7 seasons of MacGyver. We're about halfway through the 3rd season, we usually watch a couple episodes a week. Last night's episode was called "Ghost Ship" or some such nonsense.
MacGyver was doing some kind of land survey up in Alaska and, while he was out there, he found a ship anchored in a bay. So of course he checked it out; something definitely was afoot. The creepy music began to play and I buried my face in the back of the couch.
"I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared," I repeated, rather like Joey's 3 year old cousin now that I think about it.
MacGyver found a rowboat with claw marks gashed in it and fixed it up so he could row out to the ship. Once he got to the ship, the music started in again.
(This is the part where it got too scary for me and I went to the kitchen to empty the dishwasher.)
"What's going on?" I asked, hesitantly, from the kitchen.
"He's finding a lot of broken stuff on the ship..." Joey narrated. "Oh, a bloody handprint...and lots of broken glasses. There are open magazines on the table..."
The music got creepier. There were now strange, animal-like howls. Suddenly...
"AAAAAAAUUGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" Joey screamed and jumped about a mile. I glanced over at him, thinking he was making fun of me. He was not; he had legitimately screamed. He had a sort of tense look on his face and he was staring at the computer screen intently.
"What happened?" I asked.
"A big furry arm just flashed across the screen." He was holding a pillow tightly.
"It's good I'm in the kitchen." I said, relieved.
"Yeah, it probably is. I can't believe I screamed." Joey seemed kind of ashamed of himself, but I was secretly proud of him.
And now that I type out the circumstances, it's pretty lame that either one of us were scared in the first place. The furry arm turned out to be a man dressed up in a Sasquatch costume trying to keep people out of the area. Oy, I think I might be rubbing off on poor Joey.
But man, that 80's jump-scene music is pretty creepy...
For Christmas last year, Joey was given the complete 7 seasons of MacGyver. We're about halfway through the 3rd season, we usually watch a couple episodes a week. Last night's episode was called "Ghost Ship" or some such nonsense.
MacGyver was doing some kind of land survey up in Alaska and, while he was out there, he found a ship anchored in a bay. So of course he checked it out; something definitely was afoot. The creepy music began to play and I buried my face in the back of the couch.
"I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared," I repeated, rather like Joey's 3 year old cousin now that I think about it.
MacGyver found a rowboat with claw marks gashed in it and fixed it up so he could row out to the ship. Once he got to the ship, the music started in again.
(This is the part where it got too scary for me and I went to the kitchen to empty the dishwasher.)
"What's going on?" I asked, hesitantly, from the kitchen.
"He's finding a lot of broken stuff on the ship..." Joey narrated. "Oh, a bloody handprint...and lots of broken glasses. There are open magazines on the table..."
The music got creepier. There were now strange, animal-like howls. Suddenly...
"AAAAAAAUUGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" Joey screamed and jumped about a mile. I glanced over at him, thinking he was making fun of me. He was not; he had legitimately screamed. He had a sort of tense look on his face and he was staring at the computer screen intently.
"What happened?" I asked.
"A big furry arm just flashed across the screen." He was holding a pillow tightly.
"It's good I'm in the kitchen." I said, relieved.
"Yeah, it probably is. I can't believe I screamed." Joey seemed kind of ashamed of himself, but I was secretly proud of him.
And now that I type out the circumstances, it's pretty lame that either one of us were scared in the first place. The furry arm turned out to be a man dressed up in a Sasquatch costume trying to keep people out of the area. Oy, I think I might be rubbing off on poor Joey.
But man, that 80's jump-scene music is pretty creepy...
Pull Over, I'm Gonna Hurl!
No, I didn't say that. (But I was feeling like it as I was somewhere into the second mile of my run last night, realizing I hadn't waited long enough after I ate dinner...)
On Monday evening, Joey and I were driving home in rush hour on the freeway. It was a lot slower than usual and, once we hit Mockingbird, traffic stopped altogether. We were in the far lane and we slammed on our brakes to avoid rear-ending the large white truck in front of us. (It really wasn't that dramatic, but come on. It sounds better.)
Suddenly, the large white truck veered over onto the shoulder and pulled up next to the brown minivan it had been behind.
"That's...really weird." I said to Joey.
"No, it was good. He was just trying not to rear-end the van since he stopped so fast."
It hadn't really looked like the white truck had to stop that fast to me, so I was doubtful of this explanation. The white van crept forward a little bit more and we pulled up alongside it. The passenger door began to wiggle. I thought, Wouldn't that be disgusting if the passenger leaned out of the car and--
My worst fears were confirmed. The wiggling passenger door flew fully open and a man leaned out of the car....
...and threw up all over the freeway.
"OHHHHH!!!" I wailed and covered my face with my hands. I hate seeing people throw up. It makes me feel sympathetic and like I'm going to be sick as well. "Is he done yet?" Of course we were still stuck in traffic and sitting right next to the puking man.
"Yeah, he's done." Joey replied. He seemed to have an aura of feeling awesome about him, like he'd just seen something really disgusting but also rare and was really proud.
"That was the sickest thing ever," I moaned and squinted my eyes to check that the coast was truly clear.
"It wasn't very chunky though," Joey said as he (finally!) started accelerating and we drove past the barf man.
"I didn't want to hear that." I pouted.
"Can you imagine? All of a sudden that guy must have been like, 'Pull over, I'm gonna hurl!'"
"I don't want to imagine. So disgusting."
And that was how Joey and I were treated to the sight of a man barfing all over the freeway. It's a sight I hope never to experience again, especially at such close range. And, if you're really looking for the silver lining, we were fortunate enough to be just far enough away that we don't need to take our car to the car wash.
(That's not to imply that our car is actually clean and does not to see the inside of a car wash, regardless of Mr. Barfer on the freeway.)
On Monday evening, Joey and I were driving home in rush hour on the freeway. It was a lot slower than usual and, once we hit Mockingbird, traffic stopped altogether. We were in the far lane and we slammed on our brakes to avoid rear-ending the large white truck in front of us. (It really wasn't that dramatic, but come on. It sounds better.)
Suddenly, the large white truck veered over onto the shoulder and pulled up next to the brown minivan it had been behind.
"That's...really weird." I said to Joey.
"No, it was good. He was just trying not to rear-end the van since he stopped so fast."
It hadn't really looked like the white truck had to stop that fast to me, so I was doubtful of this explanation. The white van crept forward a little bit more and we pulled up alongside it. The passenger door began to wiggle. I thought, Wouldn't that be disgusting if the passenger leaned out of the car and--
My worst fears were confirmed. The wiggling passenger door flew fully open and a man leaned out of the car....
...and threw up all over the freeway.
"OHHHHH!!!" I wailed and covered my face with my hands. I hate seeing people throw up. It makes me feel sympathetic and like I'm going to be sick as well. "Is he done yet?" Of course we were still stuck in traffic and sitting right next to the puking man.
"Yeah, he's done." Joey replied. He seemed to have an aura of feeling awesome about him, like he'd just seen something really disgusting but also rare and was really proud.
"That was the sickest thing ever," I moaned and squinted my eyes to check that the coast was truly clear.
"It wasn't very chunky though," Joey said as he (finally!) started accelerating and we drove past the barf man.
"I didn't want to hear that." I pouted.
"Can you imagine? All of a sudden that guy must have been like, 'Pull over, I'm gonna hurl!'"
"I don't want to imagine. So disgusting."
And that was how Joey and I were treated to the sight of a man barfing all over the freeway. It's a sight I hope never to experience again, especially at such close range. And, if you're really looking for the silver lining, we were fortunate enough to be just far enough away that we don't need to take our car to the car wash.
(That's not to imply that our car is actually clean and does not to see the inside of a car wash, regardless of Mr. Barfer on the freeway.)
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The Heist
We played Mexican Train last night with some friends. I'd never played it before and found it to be quite an enjoyable game. (For those of you who are thinking "Mexican Train?! What...", it's a game you play with Dominoes.)
Each person had a small train token that, when they ran out of options for their string of dominoes, went on the little roundhouse in the center of all the madness, indicating that that string of dominoes was fair game for other people to play off.
I had the purple glittery train. But I wanted the green glittery train and Kevin had the green train. I was jealous.
Kevin, aside from being the green glittery train hog, is from Iowa and likes The Red Green Show. So in reality he's probably an OK kind of guy. But...he had the green glittery train. And I wanted it.
So, at the end of the first round when everyone was mixing up the dominoes, I leaned across the table and snatched that green glittery train. In its place I set the glittery purple train and set the green glittery train on my lap under the table.
Now that I had successfully stolen the green train, I wasn't sure how to execute my next move. I obviously couldn't use the green train as my game token, because if I did Kevin would realize who had stolen it and then make me give it back. I didn't want to give it back. So I sat there holding on to the green train waiting for Kevin to notice it was gone.
It didn't take long.
"Where's my green train?" He asked and began searching all over the table, the floor, the counters behind him...
I sort of felt guilty for stealing the green train, so I set it on the table behind my water bottle. Audra noticed it, giggled, and grabbed the train and hid it in her lap for a little while.
Kevin continued to look for his train. He was unsuccessful.
Andra slipped the green glittery train back to me while Kevin wasn't looking. Somehow I had to figure out a very awesome and hilarious way to get the train back without Kevin realizing who had taken it. I began to think.
I thought, and thought and thought. I thought some more.
I finally decided that the ideal way to give the train back but also make Kevin think he was going crazy would be to put the train piece back on the roundhouse in the middle of the game. You know, like it had been there the whole time.
So, as I drew my dominoes, I reached across the table with my right hand to grab a few dominoes. With my left hand, I sneakily replaced the train on the roundhouse. Audra and I shared a smile and sat there to wait for Kevin to notice his train. It really didn't take too long.
"HEY! My train!" He yelled as he suddenly saw his green glittery train sitting right in front of him.
He instantly began blaming everyone at the table...except for me. Oh, and his girlfriend. (Who is also a fan of the Red Green show and, subsequently, an OK sort of person.) The blame generally centered around Audra and her husband, Austin who, in all honesty, did seem like the perfect candidates for a train robbery.
Throughout the remainder of the game I made several pointed "what kind of a person loses their train" comments, but he still never caught on. So maybe I should make my living as a robber or something, because I must not look like the kind of girl who goes around stealing things.
I was pretty proud of myself. It was the perfect heist.
Each person had a small train token that, when they ran out of options for their string of dominoes, went on the little roundhouse in the center of all the madness, indicating that that string of dominoes was fair game for other people to play off.
I had the purple glittery train. But I wanted the green glittery train and Kevin had the green train. I was jealous.
Kevin, aside from being the green glittery train hog, is from Iowa and likes The Red Green Show. So in reality he's probably an OK kind of guy. But...he had the green glittery train. And I wanted it.
So, at the end of the first round when everyone was mixing up the dominoes, I leaned across the table and snatched that green glittery train. In its place I set the glittery purple train and set the green glittery train on my lap under the table.
Now that I had successfully stolen the green train, I wasn't sure how to execute my next move. I obviously couldn't use the green train as my game token, because if I did Kevin would realize who had stolen it and then make me give it back. I didn't want to give it back. So I sat there holding on to the green train waiting for Kevin to notice it was gone.
It didn't take long.
"Where's my green train?" He asked and began searching all over the table, the floor, the counters behind him...
I sort of felt guilty for stealing the green train, so I set it on the table behind my water bottle. Audra noticed it, giggled, and grabbed the train and hid it in her lap for a little while.
Kevin continued to look for his train. He was unsuccessful.
Andra slipped the green glittery train back to me while Kevin wasn't looking. Somehow I had to figure out a very awesome and hilarious way to get the train back without Kevin realizing who had taken it. I began to think.
I thought, and thought and thought. I thought some more.
I finally decided that the ideal way to give the train back but also make Kevin think he was going crazy would be to put the train piece back on the roundhouse in the middle of the game. You know, like it had been there the whole time.
So, as I drew my dominoes, I reached across the table with my right hand to grab a few dominoes. With my left hand, I sneakily replaced the train on the roundhouse. Audra and I shared a smile and sat there to wait for Kevin to notice his train. It really didn't take too long.
"HEY! My train!" He yelled as he suddenly saw his green glittery train sitting right in front of him.
He instantly began blaming everyone at the table...except for me. Oh, and his girlfriend. (Who is also a fan of the Red Green show and, subsequently, an OK sort of person.) The blame generally centered around Audra and her husband, Austin who, in all honesty, did seem like the perfect candidates for a train robbery.
Throughout the remainder of the game I made several pointed "what kind of a person loses their train" comments, but he still never caught on. So maybe I should make my living as a robber or something, because I must not look like the kind of girl who goes around stealing things.
I was pretty proud of myself. It was the perfect heist.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Loser
Joey and I are seriously immature. We call each other losers all the time, and yesterday was no exception.
"You," I said smugly to Joey as we drove by an empty Christmas tree lot, "Are a loser."
Joey smirked at me.
"I am not." He said, then paused. "You are a loser. Your maiden name is Laird and, frankly, Laird sounds a lot closer to 'loser' than Woestman does, and I'm a Woestman. So that means that you're the loser."
I wilted and made a sort of pathetic/defeated squeaking sound. "Nuts."
Joey grinned proudly to himself and kept driving.
"You," I said smugly to Joey as we drove by an empty Christmas tree lot, "Are a loser."
Joey smirked at me.
"I am not." He said, then paused. "You are a loser. Your maiden name is Laird and, frankly, Laird sounds a lot closer to 'loser' than Woestman does, and I'm a Woestman. So that means that you're the loser."
I wilted and made a sort of pathetic/defeated squeaking sound. "Nuts."
Joey grinned proudly to himself and kept driving.
Friday, November 16, 2007
I GOT IN THE DTS FOUNTAIN!!!
So ever since we visited here a year ago when we walk by the fountain at DTS I ask Joey, "Can I get in it?" He always says no.
Until tonight.
It was dark, Security was off somewhere else and, when I asked if I could get in the fountain he actually said YES!! So I ripped off my shoes and socks, rolled my pants up as far as I could possibly get them, and jumped into the fountain.
It was freezing cold. And a lot deeper than I'd been planning.
"Joey...my jeans are getting really wet," I said as I stood on my tiptoes trying to keep the fold (which was right at my knees) out of the water. He finished taking pictures and I sloshed out of the fountain.
My calves were white with cold and the fold of my jeans was dripping with water, but I was about as proud of myself as I've been in a long time.
"I got in the fountain!" I crowed and skipped alongside Joey, linking arms with him and swinging the shoes I was holding with my left hand.
"Yes, you got in the fountain," Joey said with a grin.
I think he's secretly proud of me.
Until tonight.
It was dark, Security was off somewhere else and, when I asked if I could get in the fountain he actually said YES!! So I ripped off my shoes and socks, rolled my pants up as far as I could possibly get them, and jumped into the fountain.
It was freezing cold. And a lot deeper than I'd been planning.
"Joey...my jeans are getting really wet," I said as I stood on my tiptoes trying to keep the fold (which was right at my knees) out of the water. He finished taking pictures and I sloshed out of the fountain.My calves were white with cold and the fold of my jeans was dripping with water, but I was about as proud of myself as I've been in a long time.
"I got in the fountain!" I crowed and skipped alongside Joey, linking arms with him and swinging the shoes I was holding with my left hand.
"Yes, you got in the fountain," Joey said with a grin.
I think he's secretly proud of me.
Light The Christmas Tree!
Tonight at 7:00 p.m. they lit the tree outside the downtown Neiman Marcus store. Joey and I were there to witness the madness.
The "tree" was actually not a tree at all, but a bunch of aluminum can looking things stacked on top of each other in a treeish shape. There were some ornaments hanging from the "branches", but as far as trees go, I'd give it a -2. This is why you do not see a picture of the actual Neiman Marcus tree here, just a picture of the outside of the store.
The Cowboy Band marched down the street from Neiman's to Pegasus Plaza where another, taller, more Christmassy Christmas tree was lit 30 minutes after the Neiman Marcus tinfoil tree.
I found the Chase dog.
Ho Ho Ho backwards says Oh Oh Oh...
I'm standing in the middle of the road...and I'm really really tiny, but I'm really there right in the middle. Joey made me do it. There were a couple of cops standing next to me but when they saw that Joey was taking a picture they skeedadled out of the way.
I love Joey! Aren't we so cuuuuute?
There were about a million people downtown. Actually, no, not a million. Not even close. But if you stood in the right place at the right time it kind of felt like a million.
Joey found this huge boom and he wanted me to take a picture of how amazing it was. I'm not sure I captured its true...majesty. But it's still cool, honey.
Joey said, "Hey, Jenna!" I turned and looked at him...and he snapped this picture.
After we got tired of being downtown, we went over to DTS to watch The Office. But first we ran around campus and took pictures. Most of them turned out kind of dark and hard to see, but Joey was feeling kind of artsy when he took this particular one.
Too bad it's sideways.
We're outside the library. I was trying to make it look like I was actually IN the bush... Joey told me that if I climbed in the bush I'd get in trouble. I asked him if I could get in one of the bushes if it was a scrawny bush and he just laughed at me.
Pretty much Friday nights being married are a million times better than any Friday night when I was single. Doing just about anything with Joey is more fun than most people have in an entire month.
It's been a good Friday.
The "tree" was actually not a tree at all, but a bunch of aluminum can looking things stacked on top of each other in a treeish shape. There were some ornaments hanging from the "branches", but as far as trees go, I'd give it a -2. This is why you do not see a picture of the actual Neiman Marcus tree here, just a picture of the outside of the store.
The Cowboy Band marched down the street from Neiman's to Pegasus Plaza where another, taller, more Christmassy Christmas tree was lit 30 minutes after the Neiman Marcus tinfoil tree.
I found the Chase dog.
Ho Ho Ho backwards says Oh Oh Oh...
I'm standing in the middle of the road...and I'm really really tiny, but I'm really there right in the middle. Joey made me do it. There were a couple of cops standing next to me but when they saw that Joey was taking a picture they skeedadled out of the way.
I love Joey! Aren't we so cuuuuute?
There were about a million people downtown. Actually, no, not a million. Not even close. But if you stood in the right place at the right time it kind of felt like a million.
Joey found this huge boom and he wanted me to take a picture of how amazing it was. I'm not sure I captured its true...majesty. But it's still cool, honey.
Joey said, "Hey, Jenna!" I turned and looked at him...and he snapped this picture.After we got tired of being downtown, we went over to DTS to watch The Office. But first we ran around campus and took pictures. Most of them turned out kind of dark and hard to see, but Joey was feeling kind of artsy when he took this particular one.
Too bad it's sideways.
We're outside the library. I was trying to make it look like I was actually IN the bush... Joey told me that if I climbed in the bush I'd get in trouble. I asked him if I could get in one of the bushes if it was a scrawny bush and he just laughed at me.Pretty much Friday nights being married are a million times better than any Friday night when I was single. Doing just about anything with Joey is more fun than most people have in an entire month.
It's been a good Friday.
Brothers...
Joey met me for lunch today. He loves Freebirds and that's what we were having, so he got over here as quickly as he could and stood in line literally buzzing with excitement that he was getting to have Freebirds and not pay for it .
I, unfortunately, am totally over the free Freebirds thing.
We sat in a conference room watching the worker-men construct a new high-rise across the street. Joey had to field questions from me like, "How do they get the cement to dry in the air like that? How does it not ooze through and make a big pile on the ground? Why is the whole high-rise not just one huge pile of cement and wires on the ground?" and "How do those guys get up there in the first place?"
(The answers were: "The cement is very thick; they use molds" and "They climb", respectively.)
Then I asked how they got the molds off once they cement hardened onto them. It seems to me like the molds would become one with the cement, thus making it kind of pointless to have bothered with molds in the first place.
Poor, poor Joey.
After I got tired of asking questions about construction and we'd finished up our chips, we began talking about baby names. (No, we're not having a baby. But friends of ours are - CONGRATULATIONS!!!! - and so we talk about baby stuff a lot more than normal now. However, we're still not having a baby.)
Somehow we got onto the subject of dolls. My childhood dolls, unfortunately, are a rather sore subject for me; I think Joey was trying to rile me up.
I had three beautiful dolls from my childhood that I was saving for my own daughters someday. (I played with dolls until I was 13, thank you very much.) Their names were Melanie, Elizabeth and Marna. (Marna was a Cabbage Patch doll and so she came with an ugly name. I got to name Melanie and Elizabeth myself because they were Magic Nursery.)
When I grew out of playing with them I put them in a box in the storage room with the rest of my doll things. Several years ago, in the middle of college, I thought it would be fun to get out my three good friends and look at them.
I went to the box. I opened it up. I picked up Marna and...
"MOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled.
I grabbed my three dolls and stormed upstairs.
"Mom, the boys must have gotten into my dolls while I was at college or something." I said, depositing them on the kitchen table.
My three favorite dolls had numerous nail holes through their eyes, ears, nose, mouth and the tops of their heads. There were also pencil makings on their faces.
(Stop laughing. It really isn't funny.)
I don't think the boys ever got punished. I can think of lots of terrible things to do to them.
And so, as we were sitting together eating lunch today Joey dipped his chip in the last of his queso and said, "You should get some little boy dolls, name one after each of your brothers and pound nails into their eyes."
"Oooh," I said, "That's a great idea. I still never got them back for that. Do you think Goodwill has boy dolls?"
"We'll have to check." Joey replied.
And I think we will.
So, Brothers, just you watch out. You think you got away with ruining my favorite dolls...you think I've forgotten all about it...but just you wait. I'll melt all your Legos or break off all the connectors for the wooden train tracks or...something. But it'll be good whatever it is.
I, unfortunately, am totally over the free Freebirds thing.
We sat in a conference room watching the worker-men construct a new high-rise across the street. Joey had to field questions from me like, "How do they get the cement to dry in the air like that? How does it not ooze through and make a big pile on the ground? Why is the whole high-rise not just one huge pile of cement and wires on the ground?" and "How do those guys get up there in the first place?"
(The answers were: "The cement is very thick; they use molds" and "They climb", respectively.)
Then I asked how they got the molds off once they cement hardened onto them. It seems to me like the molds would become one with the cement, thus making it kind of pointless to have bothered with molds in the first place.
Poor, poor Joey.
After I got tired of asking questions about construction and we'd finished up our chips, we began talking about baby names. (No, we're not having a baby. But friends of ours are - CONGRATULATIONS!!!! - and so we talk about baby stuff a lot more than normal now. However, we're still not having a baby.)
Somehow we got onto the subject of dolls. My childhood dolls, unfortunately, are a rather sore subject for me; I think Joey was trying to rile me up.
I had three beautiful dolls from my childhood that I was saving for my own daughters someday. (I played with dolls until I was 13, thank you very much.) Their names were Melanie, Elizabeth and Marna. (Marna was a Cabbage Patch doll and so she came with an ugly name. I got to name Melanie and Elizabeth myself because they were Magic Nursery.)
When I grew out of playing with them I put them in a box in the storage room with the rest of my doll things. Several years ago, in the middle of college, I thought it would be fun to get out my three good friends and look at them.
I went to the box. I opened it up. I picked up Marna and...
"MOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled.
I grabbed my three dolls and stormed upstairs.
"Mom, the boys must have gotten into my dolls while I was at college or something." I said, depositing them on the kitchen table.
My three favorite dolls had numerous nail holes through their eyes, ears, nose, mouth and the tops of their heads. There were also pencil makings on their faces.
(Stop laughing. It really isn't funny.)
I don't think the boys ever got punished. I can think of lots of terrible things to do to them.
And so, as we were sitting together eating lunch today Joey dipped his chip in the last of his queso and said, "You should get some little boy dolls, name one after each of your brothers and pound nails into their eyes."
"Oooh," I said, "That's a great idea. I still never got them back for that. Do you think Goodwill has boy dolls?"
"We'll have to check." Joey replied.
And I think we will.
So, Brothers, just you watch out. You think you got away with ruining my favorite dolls...you think I've forgotten all about it...but just you wait. I'll melt all your Legos or break off all the connectors for the wooden train tracks or...something. But it'll be good whatever it is.
Monday, November 12, 2007
10,000 hits!
(No, I haven't gone on a punching binge.)
Happy 10,000 blog hits to me!
I just checked my hit counter and sometime on Sunday night/morning I had my 10,000th visitor since I started tracking it last year.
So...thanks to all my friends out there for hitting "refresh" a lot so I have an inflated sense of accomplishment. :)
Happy 10,000 blog hits to me!
I just checked my hit counter and sometime on Sunday night/morning I had my 10,000th visitor since I started tracking it last year.
So...thanks to all my friends out there for hitting "refresh" a lot so I have an inflated sense of accomplishment. :)
Slightly Over-Medicated
Because I lost my voice last night after singing my head off at a concert I was a little concerned about the fact that I might get certifiably sick. I felt kind of disgusting by bedtime last night so I took extra vitamins, an Emergen-C and half a dose of Ny-Quil.
This morning when I got up I didn't waste any time.
I downed 1 Emergen-C (raspberry fizz flavor, of course) and drank a bunch of water. I slipped 4 more Emergen-C packets in my purse for later. Once I got to my desk I immediately took my vitamins and drank another Emergen-C. I set out 4 Cold-Eeze lozenges on my desk and took one every few hours.
So my voice is raspy, my nose is a little stuffed up...and my stomach is roiling from all the supplements I've stuffed down it today.
This morning when I got up I didn't waste any time.
I downed 1 Emergen-C (raspberry fizz flavor, of course) and drank a bunch of water. I slipped 4 more Emergen-C packets in my purse for later. Once I got to my desk I immediately took my vitamins and drank another Emergen-C. I set out 4 Cold-Eeze lozenges on my desk and took one every few hours.
So my voice is raspy, my nose is a little stuffed up...and my stomach is roiling from all the supplements I've stuffed down it today.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
The Broken Glass
Last night we played Settlers of Ca-boring with Mike and Zoe and I lost. (As usual.) My main problem is that I refuse to concentrate on the game and just start trading my cards because I like certain colors and I want to get more of them...or build stacks with my settlements and roads...or forget what color I am and start collecting resources off someone else's settlements.
It's pretty pathetic.
Anyway, after that rousing game of Ca-boring, I was thirsty. So I grabbed a tall glass and filled it halfway with water. I drank a few drinks, enough to leave the glass about 1/3 full, then set it on my night stand.
The window was open and a cool, relaxing breeze was blowing in gently. The fan was making me drowsy with its consistent whirring. I set my book down on my night table and cozied down deep in my down comforter.
Then I fell asleep.
At 4:30 this morning, Joey and I were jolted awake by the shocking sound of glass breaking. And it was very near where we were.
"What happened?!" Joey asked, as frantically as one can when one has just been rudely awoken at 4:30 a.m.
My little heart was pounding. "I have no idea..." I said sleepily.
I flipped on my bedside lamp and we looked around at all the glass things we could think of. The light bulbs were still intact and the window appeared to not have a rock through it - both good things. I realized I felt a little bit wet, so I glanced around to see where the water could have come from.
"Oh no!" I said as I glanced at my bedside table.
The top half of my water glass had shattered. Almost all of the water was still contained in what remained of the glass, but there were large glass shards all over the bedside table and floor. Flecks of water and shards of glass were glistening in the dim light coming from the lamp.
Henry, poor thing, had been right in the line of fire when the glass had broken. He was wet and, fortunately, had avoided the broken glass. I picked up the largest pieces and folded up Henry's blanket (which most of the glass shards were lying on) and set it by the door.
"I'll take care of it in the morning..." I mumbled, and carefully climbed back into bed.
Joey was already asleep again. I wasn't far behind.
This morning, I found this on my bedside table.
HOW does that happen? I hadn't touched it at all!
Creepy and strange.
It's pretty pathetic.
Anyway, after that rousing game of Ca-boring, I was thirsty. So I grabbed a tall glass and filled it halfway with water. I drank a few drinks, enough to leave the glass about 1/3 full, then set it on my night stand.
The window was open and a cool, relaxing breeze was blowing in gently. The fan was making me drowsy with its consistent whirring. I set my book down on my night table and cozied down deep in my down comforter.
Then I fell asleep.
At 4:30 this morning, Joey and I were jolted awake by the shocking sound of glass breaking. And it was very near where we were.
"What happened?!" Joey asked, as frantically as one can when one has just been rudely awoken at 4:30 a.m.
My little heart was pounding. "I have no idea..." I said sleepily.
I flipped on my bedside lamp and we looked around at all the glass things we could think of. The light bulbs were still intact and the window appeared to not have a rock through it - both good things. I realized I felt a little bit wet, so I glanced around to see where the water could have come from.
"Oh no!" I said as I glanced at my bedside table.
The top half of my water glass had shattered. Almost all of the water was still contained in what remained of the glass, but there were large glass shards all over the bedside table and floor. Flecks of water and shards of glass were glistening in the dim light coming from the lamp.
Henry, poor thing, had been right in the line of fire when the glass had broken. He was wet and, fortunately, had avoided the broken glass. I picked up the largest pieces and folded up Henry's blanket (which most of the glass shards were lying on) and set it by the door.
"I'll take care of it in the morning..." I mumbled, and carefully climbed back into bed.
Joey was already asleep again. I wasn't far behind.
This morning, I found this on my bedside table.
HOW does that happen? I hadn't touched it at all!
Creepy and strange.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Friday Night Date: DTS Style
Joey had to pull an extra shift tonight to videotape an online-ed class that hadn't been filmed earlier in the semester because the prof had a doctoral student guest lecture. From 6-9 Joey was going to be down in the dungeons of Todd. (Yes, I called them dungeons. They're like dungeons; they're scary and gray and there's no cell phone signal. Dungeons quite obviously don't have cell phone signal.)
So the plan was:
a.) Jenna get off work
b.) Jenna fight traffic to go get Henry
c.) Jenna & Henry grab a turkey Subway to eat for dinner
d.) Jenna & Henry arrive at DTS
e.) Joey, Jenna & Henry hang out until Joey's done filming the class
Things are going according to plan so far. We've eaten our dinner, I've surfed the Internet and Joey has faithfully watched his 4 monitors to make sure he's got a couple cameras on the prof and a couple on the students.
(One lady earlier was so bored that she was gnawing on her finger. She was going at it so hard I thought for sure she was going to chew it off. I felt sort of bad that she didn't remember she was being watched.)
The evening hasn't been a total wash, though. I'm drinking a Pepsi and have eaten an Atomic Fireball. Joey and I were just dancing around to Chris Rice's "When Did You Fall" but Henry got jealous and started growling at us. Currently we're rocking it out to "Sweet Home Alabama" and Joey's asking me to check our bank balance. All the while he's keeping his eyes on his monitors and not missing a beat. So talented...
Come on, what gets more romantic than that?! :)
So the plan was:
a.) Jenna get off work
b.) Jenna fight traffic to go get Henry
c.) Jenna & Henry grab a turkey Subway to eat for dinner
d.) Jenna & Henry arrive at DTS
e.) Joey, Jenna & Henry hang out until Joey's done filming the class
Things are going according to plan so far. We've eaten our dinner, I've surfed the Internet and Joey has faithfully watched his 4 monitors to make sure he's got a couple cameras on the prof and a couple on the students.
(One lady earlier was so bored that she was gnawing on her finger. She was going at it so hard I thought for sure she was going to chew it off. I felt sort of bad that she didn't remember she was being watched.)
The evening hasn't been a total wash, though. I'm drinking a Pepsi and have eaten an Atomic Fireball. Joey and I were just dancing around to Chris Rice's "When Did You Fall" but Henry got jealous and started growling at us. Currently we're rocking it out to "Sweet Home Alabama" and Joey's asking me to check our bank balance. All the while he's keeping his eyes on his monitors and not missing a beat. So talented...
Come on, what gets more romantic than that?! :)
Henry and the Atomic Fireball
Mostly the only reason I'm posting this is to get a rise out of Pops and Gramps.
I'm currently eating an Atomic Fireball and I shared about half of it with Henry. He didn't like it at first, but once I convinced him it wasn't all bad he was really going to town on it. The flamin' hot feeling on his tongue doesn't even seem to be bothering him, aside from the rapid licking he keeps doing as he walks around.
I think he likes it.
Anyway, after I gave Henry a bunch of licks I put the fireball back in my mouth. And here I sit, typing away.
I shared some of my ginger ale with him yesterday and I didn't die, so I figure it's OK to do that sort of thing.
And now I'm going to go see of Henry wants any more fireball.
I'm currently eating an Atomic Fireball and I shared about half of it with Henry. He didn't like it at first, but once I convinced him it wasn't all bad he was really going to town on it. The flamin' hot feeling on his tongue doesn't even seem to be bothering him, aside from the rapid licking he keeps doing as he walks around.
I think he likes it.
Anyway, after I gave Henry a bunch of licks I put the fireball back in my mouth. And here I sit, typing away.
I shared some of my ginger ale with him yesterday and I didn't die, so I figure it's OK to do that sort of thing.
And now I'm going to go see of Henry wants any more fireball.
The Day I Mailed Something To The Kid That Was Alive
Poor The Kid. I mean, it's really not his fault...unless you count that he's the youngest. Then it's totally his fault.
Yesterday I didn't go to work because I felt "under the weather". I was mostly fine by the morning, but Joey still made me stay home. (I didn't complain too hard, I slept in until 9:30!)
Henry was being a wiggle worm by that point, so I decided I'd take him on a walk. A short walk so I didn't over-exert my "under the weather" self. It was absolutely gorgeous yesterday, 75 degrees, clear sky...perfect.
So off we went. Henry pranced gaily and I enjoyed the quiet. Sometimes I don't take my pinkPod when I go on walks so I can enjoy nature, and this was one of those mornings. The worker-men were wrapping Christmas lights on the trees along the boulevard and it was, basically, the perfect morning.
Henry and I turned to walk down different street and suddenly I noticed hundreds and hundreds of dead worms on the sidewalk. Talk about ruining the perfect morning. Some of them had dried/died with their heads (or was it their tails?) up into the air so that they made muted crunching noises when I unfortunately stepped on them.
Not that I could miss them if I wanted to...they were everywhere.
I stopped for a moment and looked down at the worm-covered sidewalk and wondered how all the wormies got there. Henry was getting bored.
I decided to start walking again and stop thinking about the dead worms and what forced their mass exodus from the dirt when, suddenly, I noticed something very interesting.
It was a long, fat, windy worm. Alive. And squiggling his way towards Henry and I.
"Look, Boo! A wormie!" I said, pointing to the worm. Henry looked the opposite direction.
"No, Boo, look here." I tried to point his head at the scrunching worm, but he was absolutely distracted by a stick in the road. Dogs. But then that's what I get for treating my dog like I'll treat my kid someday, making them look at all sorts of wildlife that's generally considered disgusting but that I think is actually cool. <sigh>
Finally, Henry noticed the worm. He put his little wet nose down to sniff the worm and, quite suddenly, the worm reacted violently and began flipping and flapping all over the sidewalk.
Henry jumped back and looked up at me as if to say, "Mommy! You didn't tell me it was going to do that!"
Hmmm, I thought, A worm with some attitude...
And it was then that my plan began to form.
Henry tried to sniff the worm again, but the worm was speedily making his escape towards the safety of the grass. I bent down and began to try to catch the worm before I lost my opportunity.
After several tries, I successfully caught the worm. I enclosed it in my hand where he sat, wiggling rapidly.
"Come on, Henry. Let's go mail this worm to The Kid," I said. Henry didn't have a clue what I said, but he didn't really seem to much care.
I got home and found a small, cheap plastic container that I filled with dirt. I sprayed the dirt so the worm would have some moisture, then I dropped the worm inside and closed the lid after carefully poking air holes so it could breathe.
Henry had completely lost interest at this point, so I put him in his kennel and left for the post office.
Outside the post office there was a man sitting against the wall, shaking quite like a leaf and rocking back and forth while stroking a brightly colored blanket he was holding. I thought he might be on something, so I parked as far away as possible and clutched my purse tightly as I walked inside.
"Hey gorgeous!" He yelled at me, thus confirming my previous thought that yes, he was on something. I was also glad that I'd parked far away from him.
Into the post office I walked carrying the worm container in my hand. A helpful postal-worker lady walked up to me and asked, "What are you trying to mail?"
I am serious, she asked me that.
"Um...." I tried to figure out what to say. ("A worm" just didn't seem like the best answer to give.) "Something that will go in a padded envelope," I recovered quickly.
"Oh, well then you're in the right spot." She said and then she left. I was relieved.
I turned my back to the postal worker employees and shoved The Kid's live worm into the padded envelope. It barely fit. I added the nice little note card and a couple other things to the package before taking it up to get the appropriate amount of postage.
"Is there anything fragile, breakable or perishable in here," asked the desk clerk.
Gosh! A worm is sort of all of those and sort of not!
"No." I said, wondering if I had lied.
She put a postage sticker on the envelope and said, "It'll be there 3 business days."
And that's how I mailed a live worm to my brother who lives in Ohio. Considering how annoyed he was when I mailed him the dead cicada skin a few months ago, I'm not really sure how this "gift" will factor on the annoyance scale.
I just live to annoy my little brother. (Wait, isn't it supposed to be the other way around?!)
Bad news: There's no mail delivery on Monday, the day the worm was supposed to arrive in Ohio. So...let's just hope the worm's not totally dead by the time it gets there. It's probably going to be Tuesday and, well, Thursday to Tuesday is 6 days. That's a very long time.
Poor wormie.
Yesterday I didn't go to work because I felt "under the weather". I was mostly fine by the morning, but Joey still made me stay home. (I didn't complain too hard, I slept in until 9:30!)
Henry was being a wiggle worm by that point, so I decided I'd take him on a walk. A short walk so I didn't over-exert my "under the weather" self. It was absolutely gorgeous yesterday, 75 degrees, clear sky...perfect.
So off we went. Henry pranced gaily and I enjoyed the quiet. Sometimes I don't take my pinkPod when I go on walks so I can enjoy nature, and this was one of those mornings. The worker-men were wrapping Christmas lights on the trees along the boulevard and it was, basically, the perfect morning.
Henry and I turned to walk down different street and suddenly I noticed hundreds and hundreds of dead worms on the sidewalk. Talk about ruining the perfect morning. Some of them had dried/died with their heads (or was it their tails?) up into the air so that they made muted crunching noises when I unfortunately stepped on them.
Not that I could miss them if I wanted to...they were everywhere.
I stopped for a moment and looked down at the worm-covered sidewalk and wondered how all the wormies got there. Henry was getting bored.
I decided to start walking again and stop thinking about the dead worms and what forced their mass exodus from the dirt when, suddenly, I noticed something very interesting.
It was a long, fat, windy worm. Alive. And squiggling his way towards Henry and I.
"Look, Boo! A wormie!" I said, pointing to the worm. Henry looked the opposite direction.
"No, Boo, look here." I tried to point his head at the scrunching worm, but he was absolutely distracted by a stick in the road. Dogs. But then that's what I get for treating my dog like I'll treat my kid someday, making them look at all sorts of wildlife that's generally considered disgusting but that I think is actually cool. <sigh>
Finally, Henry noticed the worm. He put his little wet nose down to sniff the worm and, quite suddenly, the worm reacted violently and began flipping and flapping all over the sidewalk.
Henry jumped back and looked up at me as if to say, "Mommy! You didn't tell me it was going to do that!"
Hmmm, I thought, A worm with some attitude...
And it was then that my plan began to form.
Henry tried to sniff the worm again, but the worm was speedily making his escape towards the safety of the grass. I bent down and began to try to catch the worm before I lost my opportunity.
After several tries, I successfully caught the worm. I enclosed it in my hand where he sat, wiggling rapidly.
"Come on, Henry. Let's go mail this worm to The Kid," I said. Henry didn't have a clue what I said, but he didn't really seem to much care.
I got home and found a small, cheap plastic container that I filled with dirt. I sprayed the dirt so the worm would have some moisture, then I dropped the worm inside and closed the lid after carefully poking air holes so it could breathe.
Henry had completely lost interest at this point, so I put him in his kennel and left for the post office.
Outside the post office there was a man sitting against the wall, shaking quite like a leaf and rocking back and forth while stroking a brightly colored blanket he was holding. I thought he might be on something, so I parked as far away as possible and clutched my purse tightly as I walked inside.
"Hey gorgeous!" He yelled at me, thus confirming my previous thought that yes, he was on something. I was also glad that I'd parked far away from him.
Into the post office I walked carrying the worm container in my hand. A helpful postal-worker lady walked up to me and asked, "What are you trying to mail?"
I am serious, she asked me that.
"Um...." I tried to figure out what to say. ("A worm" just didn't seem like the best answer to give.) "Something that will go in a padded envelope," I recovered quickly.
"Oh, well then you're in the right spot." She said and then she left. I was relieved.
I turned my back to the postal worker employees and shoved The Kid's live worm into the padded envelope. It barely fit. I added the nice little note card and a couple other things to the package before taking it up to get the appropriate amount of postage.
"Is there anything fragile, breakable or perishable in here," asked the desk clerk.
Gosh! A worm is sort of all of those and sort of not!
"No." I said, wondering if I had lied.
She put a postage sticker on the envelope and said, "It'll be there 3 business days."
And that's how I mailed a live worm to my brother who lives in Ohio. Considering how annoyed he was when I mailed him the dead cicada skin a few months ago, I'm not really sure how this "gift" will factor on the annoyance scale.
I just live to annoy my little brother. (Wait, isn't it supposed to be the other way around?!)
Bad news: There's no mail delivery on Monday, the day the worm was supposed to arrive in Ohio. So...let's just hope the worm's not totally dead by the time it gets there. It's probably going to be Tuesday and, well, Thursday to Tuesday is 6 days. That's a very long time.
Poor wormie.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
My I Love Lucy Day
I'm wearing my new tweed jumper/dress from Ann Taylor Loft today with a very lovely emerald green velvet headband and matching green bead necklace. (Emerald green is my favorite color, of course. And it's hard to find!) Because it's cold out, I decided I better wear stockings with my heels so that I wouldn't freeze to death.
Unfortunately, the stockings make my shoes just a teensy bit too big and my feet kept sliding out the backs. (I knew I should have gone with a size 7!)
So after an hour of suffering through my shoes sliding off, I decided I had to lose the stockings. Which I did and have felt just fine ever since; I haven't had a shoe fly off in several hours. I'm going to have to get heel grippers.
Once the stocking situation was remedied, I bent over to put them into my purse and - surprise! - my necklace fell off.
I sighed, picked it up and put it back on. (No easy task since I clipped my nails very short several days ago.)
I was beginning to feel like a walking disaster.
And now, as I sit here typing this, my lovely emerald green velvet headband is pinching my head in a most uncomfortable way and giving me a headache.
I can't win.
I was relating my unfortunate events to a friend who said, "Jenna, you sound like an episode of I Love Lucy!"
Nuts.
And I can't take this headband off because:
1.) I like it. It's my favorite color
2.) I'll have headband hair and the only thing worse than headband hair is unwashed hat hair.
Unfortunately, the stockings make my shoes just a teensy bit too big and my feet kept sliding out the backs. (I knew I should have gone with a size 7!)
So after an hour of suffering through my shoes sliding off, I decided I had to lose the stockings. Which I did and have felt just fine ever since; I haven't had a shoe fly off in several hours. I'm going to have to get heel grippers.
Once the stocking situation was remedied, I bent over to put them into my purse and - surprise! - my necklace fell off.
I sighed, picked it up and put it back on. (No easy task since I clipped my nails very short several days ago.)
I was beginning to feel like a walking disaster.
And now, as I sit here typing this, my lovely emerald green velvet headband is pinching my head in a most uncomfortable way and giving me a headache.
I can't win.
I was relating my unfortunate events to a friend who said, "Jenna, you sound like an episode of I Love Lucy!"
Nuts.
And I can't take this headband off because:
1.) I like it. It's my favorite color
2.) I'll have headband hair and the only thing worse than headband hair is unwashed hat hair.
Parting...Such Sweet Sorrow
Ever since we moved to Texas I usually cry a whole lot when my family leaves. Mom, Pops, Andrew, Laura and Ernie packed themselves into my parents' van and drove off on Sunday afternoon at 2:30.
I bravely watched them get in the car while not officially crying, just sniffling and tearing up quite badly.
There were way too many people around for me to actually cry. I hate crying.
Knowing that if I were to stand there and watch them actually back out of the driveway I would begin to cry in earnest, I charged in the house and up the stairs as quickly as possible.
Sister, Joey, Cousine (aka Sarah) and The Kid followed me inside.
"Sister, you shall be well!" Sister said to me in our Jane Austen-esque code language. (Translation for the rest of you: "Jenna, you're going to be fine".)
"I never used to cry until we moved to Texas," I choked out. I was trying not to talk because I was afraid it would set off the tearflow.
"But Sister, you must cry sometimes. I read somewhere that it releases necessary toxins, otherwise you'd get real sick." She patted my shoulder.
"Um, wait. Isn't that actually peeing?" The Kid piped in from the breakfast room.
We all began to laugh. Joey concurred with The Kid and they began ganging up on Sister, who felt the need to defend her statement. Of course.
"I mean, she'd get real anxious and have stress problems!" Sister was seeming fairly stressed out herself now. Perhaps a good cry was in order for her as well.
And, just like that, I felt better.
Until, of course, Sister, Pumpkin and Cousine left for Chicago and we dropped The Kid off at the Greyhound bus station. (All by himself! Poor thing! That place is seriously ghetto.)
I was doing OK by the time we reached the airport and Grandpa and Grandma pulled away but, mostly because Joey reminded me I'll see them all again at Christmas.
I bravely watched them get in the car while not officially crying, just sniffling and tearing up quite badly.
There were way too many people around for me to actually cry. I hate crying.
Knowing that if I were to stand there and watch them actually back out of the driveway I would begin to cry in earnest, I charged in the house and up the stairs as quickly as possible.
Sister, Joey, Cousine (aka Sarah) and The Kid followed me inside.
"Sister, you shall be well!" Sister said to me in our Jane Austen-esque code language. (Translation for the rest of you: "Jenna, you're going to be fine".)
"I never used to cry until we moved to Texas," I choked out. I was trying not to talk because I was afraid it would set off the tearflow.
"But Sister, you must cry sometimes. I read somewhere that it releases necessary toxins, otherwise you'd get real sick." She patted my shoulder.
"Um, wait. Isn't that actually peeing?" The Kid piped in from the breakfast room.
We all began to laugh. Joey concurred with The Kid and they began ganging up on Sister, who felt the need to defend her statement. Of course.
"I mean, she'd get real anxious and have stress problems!" Sister was seeming fairly stressed out herself now. Perhaps a good cry was in order for her as well.
And, just like that, I felt better.
Until, of course, Sister, Pumpkin and Cousine left for Chicago and we dropped The Kid off at the Greyhound bus station. (All by himself! Poor thing! That place is seriously ghetto.)
I was doing OK by the time we reached the airport and Grandpa and Grandma pulled away but, mostly because Joey reminded me I'll see them all again at Christmas.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
We Came, We Saw....WE PARTIED!!!
We made it to Indianapolis! We had a GREAT weekend and it went very fast. Here are some pictures, in no particular order, of our crazy good time.
This is my cousin Sarah who goes to school with Sister and Stephen at Moody. She tagged along and we were very glad to have her, indeed.
This is Grams, Pops and Andrew on Saturday morning. I think. Pops is wearing the Breathe-Rights and looks kind of sleepy, so this is what makes me think it's Saturday morning. Andrew, you may notice, is wearing his shirt inside out and backwards. (He was doing this to see how many family members have OCD and couldn't handle him having it on the wrong way. He's weird.)
On Saturday night we squashed Joey, me, Andrew, Laura, Ashley, Stephen, Sarah, AND Pops into the hot tub. We made a flower with our feet. Isn't it beautiful?
These are my grandparents. Don't they cut a nice figure?
I can stick both pinkie fingers in my nose up almost to the second knuckle. This bothers The Kid really badly, so I made sure to do it during dinner. Pretty amazing if you ask me. But my nose hurt real bad...
A picture of the entire family on the front steps of our grandparents' house! It's my family, the grandparents and the Kosegis (Pops' sister and her husband and their kiddos) and Ernie the dog.
I found this woolly bear caterpillar on a walk that we took. I love woolly bears. It was so nice to be able to enjoy the Fall leaves and colors!
We all felt like this by Sunday afternoon. This is Andrew, Laura and Ernie sleeeeeeping.
Joey and I! Isn't this a fun picture? I love the Fall colors and leaves! We don't have any of that down in our part of Texas. (Sigh.)
Mom, me and Sister this morning outside the grandparent's house. We have so much fun together.
And this is Sister and I. We are, of course, Sisters and love singing the "Sisters" song from White Christmas ad nauseum.
And this unfortunate creature is Ernie. He's somewhere between Alex's/Andrew's dog and he threw up all over himself on Saturday night and smelled very strange afterwards.
This was probably the best weekend I've had in a long time. I think I told Joey "thank you" about 15 times on the flight back to Texas last night, and I probably didn't tell everyone else thank you enough either! So...
This is my cousin Sarah who goes to school with Sister and Stephen at Moody. She tagged along and we were very glad to have her, indeed.
This is Grams, Pops and Andrew on Saturday morning. I think. Pops is wearing the Breathe-Rights and looks kind of sleepy, so this is what makes me think it's Saturday morning. Andrew, you may notice, is wearing his shirt inside out and backwards. (He was doing this to see how many family members have OCD and couldn't handle him having it on the wrong way. He's weird.)
On Saturday night we squashed Joey, me, Andrew, Laura, Ashley, Stephen, Sarah, AND Pops into the hot tub. We made a flower with our feet. Isn't it beautiful?There were so many of us in the hot tub that we made the water overflow and get all over Grandpa's deck. None of us told Gramps because we didn't think it was very important, and also if it was important none of us wanted to get in any sort of trouble. (Besides, the water didn't start really overflowing until Pops got in, and he's Gramps' kid.)
Correction: Obviously The Kid is in the hot tub also. Many apologies for leaving him out in the first edition of this post. He clearly needs to take anger management and etiquette lessons, as is evident by his very rude comment.
These are my grandparents. Don't they cut a nice figure?
I can stick both pinkie fingers in my nose up almost to the second knuckle. This bothers The Kid really badly, so I made sure to do it during dinner. Pretty amazing if you ask me. But my nose hurt real bad...
A picture of the entire family on the front steps of our grandparents' house! It's my family, the grandparents and the Kosegis (Pops' sister and her husband and their kiddos) and Ernie the dog.
I found this woolly bear caterpillar on a walk that we took. I love woolly bears. It was so nice to be able to enjoy the Fall leaves and colors!
We all felt like this by Sunday afternoon. This is Andrew, Laura and Ernie sleeeeeeping.
Joey and I! Isn't this a fun picture? I love the Fall colors and leaves! We don't have any of that down in our part of Texas. (Sigh.)
Mom, me and Sister this morning outside the grandparent's house. We have so much fun together.
And this is Sister and I. We are, of course, Sisters and love singing the "Sisters" song from White Christmas ad nauseum.
And this unfortunate creature is Ernie. He's somewhere between Alex's/Andrew's dog and he threw up all over himself on Saturday night and smelled very strange afterwards.This was probably the best weekend I've had in a long time. I think I told Joey "thank you" about 15 times on the flight back to Texas last night, and I probably didn't tell everyone else thank you enough either! So...
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Friday, November 02, 2007
Awesome Lessons
Whenever one of us screw something up or does something stupid, the other says, sadly, "You need to be more awesome."
(Usually it's Joey who needs to be more awesome, just for the record.)
"I know," the clumsy one will reply, glumly, "I need to take Awesome Lessons."
Last night we were at Half Price Books looking for something for Joey (his stash of hidden books got discovered by an employee so he was trying to find them all again) and he was taking forever.
I gave up and went to look for a magazine so I wouldn't stand there whining at him. I thought he might finish quicker that way.
It was 8:00, then 8:15. I finally called him (because I had no idea where he was) and reminded him that we hadn't yet packed, cleaned the house, made menus and a grocery list for next week, or played with Henry.
He assured me he was almost finished. I told him I was by the magazines.
A few moments later my phone rang.
"Where are you?" He asked.
"I'm by the magazines." I said again.
"I don't know where those are." He replied.
The magazines are right next to the main entrance to the store and I could see him from where I was standing. So I waved at him.
"You need to be more awesome," I told him as I walked up.
"Oh, I am awesome." He said, showing me the book he had picked out. "While I was in there I got certified in Awesome."
"Did you..." I said. It was doubtful; I don't think they give Awesome Lessons at Half Price Books. At least they didn't last time I checked.
"Of course. I took the beginner's course and I am now certified in Prime Awesome. I earned a certificate, but they wouldn't give it to me." He said.
I smirked at him.
"I actually started the advanced one too, but I didn't have time to finish."
"What did the certificate look like?" I asked him. We were almost home by this time.
"I can't remember." Joey said.
I don't think he really got certified. I think he was making that up. I definitely have to give him credit, though. It was a pretty creative.
(Usually it's Joey who needs to be more awesome, just for the record.)
"I know," the clumsy one will reply, glumly, "I need to take Awesome Lessons."
Last night we were at Half Price Books looking for something for Joey (his stash of hidden books got discovered by an employee so he was trying to find them all again) and he was taking forever.
I gave up and went to look for a magazine so I wouldn't stand there whining at him. I thought he might finish quicker that way.
It was 8:00, then 8:15. I finally called him (because I had no idea where he was) and reminded him that we hadn't yet packed, cleaned the house, made menus and a grocery list for next week, or played with Henry.
He assured me he was almost finished. I told him I was by the magazines.
A few moments later my phone rang.
"Where are you?" He asked.
"I'm by the magazines." I said again.
"I don't know where those are." He replied.
The magazines are right next to the main entrance to the store and I could see him from where I was standing. So I waved at him.
"You need to be more awesome," I told him as I walked up.
"Oh, I am awesome." He said, showing me the book he had picked out. "While I was in there I got certified in Awesome."
"Did you..." I said. It was doubtful; I don't think they give Awesome Lessons at Half Price Books. At least they didn't last time I checked.
"Of course. I took the beginner's course and I am now certified in Prime Awesome. I earned a certificate, but they wouldn't give it to me." He said.
I smirked at him.
"I actually started the advanced one too, but I didn't have time to finish."
"What did the certificate look like?" I asked him. We were almost home by this time.
"I can't remember." Joey said.
I don't think he really got certified. I think he was making that up. I definitely have to give him credit, though. It was a pretty creative.
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