Side splitting entertainment

Ron and I had an actual dinner/movie date last night. And, oh yeah, there was also some shoe shopping in between. Who could argue with that?

Side note: I was having a "shoe crisis" and thankfully it was solved last night. As I've said before, if my feet are not happy, then I'm not happy. And since we will be walking all over NYC for 5 days straight, I've been searching for a couple of weeks (ok, let's be honest, probably since we decided to go) for the perfect pair of comfy shoes to wear with capri pants. I usually just wear sandals since they are comfy, it's summertime so my feet can breathe, and they don't look goofy with short pants. I really didn't want to wear sandals to walk all over the city, even though I have THE MOST COMFORTABLE PAIR OF SANDALS I've ever found. So, I've been searching and searching through every shoe store in sight, even willing to pay FULL PRICE if I found the right ones. I thought I had found the perfect pair of Skechers, until I tried wearing them the other day around the house and they started to hurt my feet. Alert! Alert! Shoe Crisis! Well, last night I finally found a pair that works. And I've finally, kinda sorta, fulfilled a childhood dream of mine. Do you remember the KangaROOS brand shoes? You know the ones with the zippered pocket on the side? The really cool ones that EVERYONE who was someone had? Well, I never had them as a kid and I really, really, really wanted them at the time. No, I didn't buy any even though they had a few different colors to choose from with the zippered pocket and all! But I did get a pair of KangaROOS with a little pocket on the side big enough to fit a quarter in it. No zipper on the pocket, but I don't care. The other part of my shoe crisis was also diverted as I found a pair of cute and comfy sandals to go with my dress I'm bringing for evening wear. You'll never guess where I found them. Walmart! Even though I loathe that store, they have cheap bunny food and they carry the Earth Spirit shoe brand and although some of the styles are a bit frumpy I found a cute pair that my feet love. Yippee! And they go perfectly with my Sarah Jessica Parker dress (as it was dubbed by Ron). Anyhow, back to reality.....

So, the movie we watched was Blades of Glory. It was either that or Disturbia and neither of us were in the mood to be disturbed in that way. I have never laughed so hard in my life in a movie theater. I was crying so much that I wished I had brought in tissues (which I plan for when I'm watching something sappy).

I've promised him that I'll have to do a few spins while walking down the city streets. He requested that I walk over a subway grate as I'm spinning.





These are so freaking comfortable that I forget they have heels. They even have built in cushioning!



The infinitely small pocket is right underneath the little kangaroo on the side.

Just like there's so many talented singers who never make it to the radio

This is why I love reading The Beast Mom blog. Whether you're a parent or not, she has some really awesome things to say. And I also love her quirkiness. :)

Slippers for Mommy

As part of a contest on this blog, I'm posting the next project that will make itself onto my needles next. Not only does it look like an awesome knitting blog, but she's giving away FREE YARN (note to Bearette: visit quickly before July 4th!). I'm hoping to make these. The first pair I'm going to make for myself and then I'll adjust the pattern if necessary to make some for my mom for her birthday (I have size 10 feet and hers are more of an 11 1/2 to a 12). Instead of starting a month or less before the date, I'm starting now so I don't end up stressing to get it done like I usually do (her birthday's in Oct.). Now I just have to find some yarn to buy that I like.....

As soon as I get busy with the camera, I'll post some of my finished projects.

Now I can breathe

They made it! Safe and sound with no problems whatsoever. Now I can start to enjoy my newfound freedom. Well, after I clean up the aftermath of messy kids so that we have a halfway decent house for the next month.

Onward and upward!

Edited to add: While cleaning up some leftover stuff outside from Jesse's party, I was emptying out the tent (that they never used because there was a SPIDER inside...eek!). Well, let's just say I will be having nightmares about spiders and bugs of all types and sizes for quite some time now. One of the zippered doors had been left open and there were literally dozens of spiders (at least a few were brown recluse), earwigs, crickets, and spider sacks. Yeah, I know. I put on my brave face, armed with a long handled broom and headed in. There was a boatload of pillows, blankets and enormous stuffed animals.....covered in these little buggers. My system was...drag them out one by one and shake everything off trying to not let anything crawl on me in the process. I've still got the heebie jeebies. Shudder.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Toothpaste and toothbrush...check

Camera....check

Swimsuit and goggles...check

My stomach in knots....check

(in case anyone doesn't remember, we're sending the kids on a plane, BY THEMSELVES, to Seattle tomorrow)

The cat is out of the bag (twice)

This past Friday, Jesse's surprise party was definitely a surprise....only not the kind that one would hope for. Four of her friends had been invited. By Wednesday, I had only received one RSVP and that was from one of her best friend's saying she would not be coming as she was grounded for a month due to punching a boy at school, giving him a bloody nose, and being suspended the last two days of school. Nice. This friend then insisted on calling Jesse THE WHOLE WEEK and almost spoiling the surprise multiple times until I finally got on the phone with her and pleasantly asked her to shut her mouth about the party (that Jesse was not supposed to know about it, hence the surprise).

So, come Friday afternoon, I had one definite "no" and one "probably" and two no responses. We went ahead with the plan of Ron picking her up to take her shopping for an early birthday present so Nate and I would have time to decorate and wait for guests to arrive. There was only one problem....no guests. When Ron and the birthday girl arrived home she was surprisingly not too disappointed. Maybe a little confused though. "So, this is my party? But where are all my friends?" I just told her to get on the phone and see what mysteriously happened to them.

Luckily we were able to resolve the situation and two of her friends were able to come. Better late than never, right? They played games before it got dark, threw glow sticks in the air to the beat of Jesse McCartney and Kelly Clarkson (very cool effect), and stayed up half the night eating leftover cupcakes and watching movies.



Surprise, you're the only one at your party!!!



The prize blanket...surprisingly no one ever claimed the skunk or the squirrel



Hand-knitted kerchiefs as party favors



I've always loved scavenger hunts



The most cherished gift....a big a$$ jar of dill pickles

*****
*****

I've been keeping a secret under wraps for weeks now and am very proud of myself for not spoiling the surprise. For part of Ron's Father's Day gift, I bought him tickets to go see Rush in August. He'd been talking about it on and off but had no plans of actually buying any tickets. Surprise! We get to go and reminisce over one of our first dates ever....going way back to the summer of 1990.....the smell of Mary J wafting through the air.....Mr. Big opening the show......almost getting trampled at the beginning of the concert.....the big dude that saved us from almost getting trampled. Hopefully this time will be a little calmer. Not the music, but the whole trampling part I could do without.

Busy, busy

What I've been up to lately:

**Building: over a year ago we bought one of those massive playground structures from Costco complete with three swings, tire swing, trapeze bar, rock wall, rope ladder, slide, monkey bars, steering wheel and telescope. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the removable chalkboard. The one that is not nailed or screwed down and could (and most likely will be) become a very large weapon if someone gets a bug up their butt. This past weekend we finally finished putting it together. Yippee!

**Shoveling and raking: In order to make the "fall zone" safe for the little ones, we ordered two full loads of pea gravel (16 tons). All 16 tons need to be raked and/or shoveled to cover the entire surface area. My arms basically feel like jelly at this point. But progress is being made. This morning I had the daycare kids filling buckets of gravel and dumping it into the empty spaces. Meanwhile, Jesse and I are filling the wheelbarrow, dragging it (because that was the only way my body would allow), and dumping it. I have a feeling I'm going to be ripped when all this is said and done. Woohoo!

**Partying: Last weekend Nate had his birthday party at a laser tag facility. Needless to say, it was one of the easiest parties we've ever planned. The ride home was the hardest part of all.
2 laser tag missions + 4 teenagers = 1 very stinky vehicle. Windows were down the whole way home. Jesse's party is planned for this Friday. She has been literally begging for a surprise party. I told her that if you keep expecting a surprise party, then there's no surprise. She stopped asking a few weeks ago. Her party will be based around the "campout" theme. I've got a bunch of games planned along with the girls sleeping in the tent all night and a campfire with marshmallows. I'll report later to let you know if anyone runs into our friendly skunk (spotted last night) on their way to go potty.

Man child

My "baby" is one step closer to being a high schooler. The only thing that seperates him from hallways of trashcanning (do they still do that?) , proms (of which he just told me today he could careless about....I told him just wait til some girl talks you into it), and inevitably outings with friends taking risks that I would rather not think about just yet.

Time to dye the hair again. I think about 20 or 30 more just sprouted today.....

As of Late

I only use that term in jest because it seems like it's one of those new catch phrases that people like to use to sound smart. I try to avoid sounding smart because then people will expect too much of me. Yeah, that's right. I'm a genius, I only play dumb.

Anyhoo, here's some tidbits "as of late".

***This weekend we realized that Nate had not mentioned when his graduation ceremony was going to be. Apparently (according to our very well informed 13 year old), they have made no announcements at school about the details of the ceremony or any dance/party celebration. He did know that today was "Inflatable Day" at school though. It's a good thing to stay informed.

***I took Jesse shopping for her first real bras. They have padding and an underwire and everything. Yikes! Her previous bras were the little cotton sports bra type that you might call a training bra, whatever that means. They were just not doing the job anymore . I'm thankful that she's one of those girls that is able to embrace her changing body. I'm also scared that she's embracing it a little too well. She said she can't wait til she's 15. "Cuz then I'll be fully developed." *blush*

***My mom is at home recovering from a hyserectomy. She has dealt with tremendous problems for the last 20 years going through menopause. I fear that I will have some of the same issues as they are supposed to be mostly genetic. She asked the nurses to take pictures of her uterus so she could see (after the surgery) what's been causing her so much trouble for such a long time. I have a feeling these pictures will show up at Thanksgiving dinner at some point.

***I had to give up on making/finishing the fingerless gloves for my dad's Father's Day gift. Now I'm back to the original idea of creating a coffee package for him.

***I just updated our dry erase calendar on the fridge. The NYC trip finally showed up at the bottom. Yippee! Note to self: Must. Start. Making. Lists.