Family, Food & Fun

After enjoying a morning of sleeping in and being lazy, I headed north to The Legends to meet my brother Steve & his fiance Meghan for lunch and a little shopping. We ate at Applebees where we enjoyed a great meal and then walked around the shopping center browsing through my favorite stores. I ended up getting a pair of jeans at the Gap and that was it - I did good :)

After a lovely afternoon with them, I headed home making a stop at the grocery store to pick up some items for this evenings get-together in the cul-de-sac. We all pulled out the lawn chairs and gathered around the table of food in the middle of the street while our neighbor Tom grilled the meat. We got to meet the newest addition to the neighborhood - Baby Sophia - who was 2 weeks old. We all took turns holding her while she slept through her very first cul-de-sac gathering!

After we ate and cleaned everything up, we grabbed our lawn chairs and headed to the back of our house where the fire-pit is and the guys started a huge bonfire for us. We enjoyed the evening around the fire chit-chatting, eating smores and relaxing with a few beverages. It was another great evening spent with our wonderful neighbors!

Fall Addiction

Every year I anxiously await Sept 1st....just like I anxiously await the first week of November when Star 102 starts playing X-mas music :) SO, what happens on Sept 1st you ask???

THIS:

The candy corn is BACK and stocked on the shelves :) Woo Hoo! Bring on the fall season and everything that comes with it!

As I cruised the aisle with my shopping cart, I just couldn't resist the sale price of 2/$5.00 of the jumbo bag (which I only purchased one)! It was heavenly when I tore open the bag and tasted a few of the corns with their sweet, honey goodness. mmmmm - YUM!

Let the candy corn addiction begin....

2 many t-shirts

The other day as I was doing laundry, I discovered yet another NEW black t-shirt in Shane's "collection". I started to wonder just how many black t-shirts does Shane actually own? So I did all the laundry, put it away and proceeded to count the number of black t-shirts hanging in the closet. As you can see in the below picture, 2/3's of the row is black t-shirts - can you believe I counted 43 of them plus he was probably wearing one at the time so make that 44!


44 black t-shirts - that is INSANE! Oh, and note that every t-shirt is hung on a hanger and not folded in a drawer! What a waste of closet space...and hangers! You should see the closet in the office - it is jam packed with all his dress shirts, nice shirts, polo shirts, work shirts & other pants! He is worse than a girl!

Now look at the below pic - on the top shelf above the 43 black t-shirts:

If you count them, that is 16 pairs of jeans on the top shelf NOT including the 5 pairs that were folded on the bed AND the pair he was wearing. 22 pairs of jeans! And he says I have way too many clothes....

I THINK NOT!

Afternoon Matinee

Today Shane & I ventured out on the Harley for an afternoon "date". We first had lunch at On The Border (our favorite restaurant) and then made our way to the afternoon movie.

It was Shane's turn to pick the movie and he decided that we were going to see Final Destination in 3D. When we paid for the movie I was expecting to receive a fun pair of 3D glasses but instead the cashier said that there are no glasses - the movie is protrayed on a special 3D screen with special imaging and it will appear as if the movie is in 3D. I was quite disappointed there were no fun glasses :(

So after watching this movie I made 3 conclusions:

1) it was dumb and quite predictable & I can't believe we wasted $15 on it

2) the 3D screen/special imaging sucks and in no way looked 3-dimensional

3) Shane is put on "movie-probation" for awhile!

He is going to have to suffer through a few "chick-flicks" before I let him pick another movie :)

Little Bunny FuFu

Today I spent the afternoon outside pulling weeds in all the flower beds around the house, trimming overgrown bushes and shrubs and enjoying listening to Kenny Chesney while being out in the beautiful 70 degree weather.

As I was pulling weeds in the flower bed in the backyard, I made a scary discovery....or so I thought it was scary. I bent down and went to grab a huge clump of weeds when I heard this loud "squeal" and a little fluff of gray bolted out from under me and under the fence. I literally screamed out loud, lost my balance and about peed my pants. Once I got back up and calmed down I looked on the other side of the fence to see what the heck that was and I discover the cutest little bunny I ever did see. I must have accidentally grabbed him when I grabbed the weeds!? Then I remembered what Shane had told me yesterday.

While he was weed-eating against the fence he said he about hit two little bunnies and had seen them hop off into the flower bed. Totally forgot about it until now. So I spent the next 10 minutes looking for more bunnies and I ended up finding 2 more. You could barely see them all nestled in the grass but there they were - cutest things ever:

Bunny #1:

Bunny #2:

I was amazed that they stayed there the entire time watching me pull weeds and didn't move. I started to feel guilty for destroying their "hiding place" so I left a patch of tall weeds/grass behind the electric box for them to hide in. Hopefully they do ok!?!

I also discovered this not-so-pleasant insect in the same flower bed:

That would be a wolf spider with a huge sac of spider babies on her back. I still get goosebumps just looking at the picture. This spider had a leg-span the size of a half-dollar - it was HUGE! I ran and got the can of Raid Wasp killer and doused the heck out of the spider hoping it would die. After it put up a fight, the mama spider finally gave in. I hope all those babies in the sac are going to die also! It said on google that the wolf spider can have up to 600 spiderlings in that little sac - that is crazy!

Needless to say, after all my "discoveries" the beds, bushes & shrubs look great! I also managed to get a nice litte tan - sweet :)

Game Night

This evening we gathered at Melissa's house for our monthly game-night get-together. I was stuck at work late so I didn't end up getting over there until well past 8pm so I was ready for some down-time and a glass of wine with the girls.

We never got around to actually playing any games but instead decided to enjoy one of the last evenings of summer on the patio eating, drinking and catching up. It ended up being a chilly night and Melissa's husband was sweet enough to provide all the girls some blankets. As I was covering myself up in the blanket to get warm Melissa brought it to my attention that I was surrounding myself in K-State purple and she just HAD to get a picture:

If you look closely, I still managed to "show off" my loyalty to KU despite being wrapped up in purple :)

Who would have thought that we would need blankets in the middle of August? What a crazy summer weather-wise we have had! Despite the chilliness, it ended up being a fun and much-needed evening with the girls and I look forward to next months' gathering.

Another B-Day

Seems like a few months ago I was blogging about turning another year older and already I am blogging about it AGAIN! Where did the year go?

Unfortunately, this years b-day wasn't too exciting since I spent the majority of my day in a car driving back to KC from So Dakota. I was however sent off by my family with b-day wishes, gifts and hugs as well as tons of text messages on my cell phone from friends throughout the day so that was super nice! I arrived home to find a lovely card by my husband, a few cards in the mailbox, tons of b-day greetings on Facebook from friends and spent a relaxing evening on the couch with the hubby & furry-kids watching TV to end my day. Hopefully the next b-day doesn't approach as quickly as this one did!

Here is to another year older....cheers!

Weekend in So Dakota

THURSDAY: This morning I left early and made my way up I-29 to South Dakota for the weekend. It was about a 7 hour drive and I arrived in my hometown of Mitchell a little past 3pm. Once my parents got home from work, we headed to the Pizza Ranch to enjoy some salad/pizza & catching up. After our bellies were full, we headed back home to wait for the arrival of my sister, brother-in-law and nephew who were coming from Wisconsin. They arrived to the farm safely around 10pm and we all hit the sack early since we were exhausted from driving all day.

FRIDAY: I was awakened super early by the pitter-patter of little feet on the tile and as I lay in bed I decided that a 21 month old has entirely way too much energy at 6am! I chose to get up and enjoy breakfast with my family and vegged the rest of the morning playing with Tanner. My sister was in a wedding for the weekend so she left early to spend the day with the other bridesmaids and left Aunt Heather in charge of watching Tanner. We spent the day shopping with grandma, checking out the farm animals and playing with the new toys that grandma had bought for him :)

My brother, sister-in-law, nieces and nephew all arrived later in the evening and I got to meet my 5 week old nephew Lane for the first time. He was adorable and smelled heavenly - I just couldn't get enough of him :) I was amazed at how my niece Joslyn had grown and how much she is now talking. It made me sad that I don't get to see them all more often!

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out and watching Tanner & Joslyn become fast friends!

SATURDAY: Today turned out to be a cold & rainy day so it was spent inside entertaining the kids. We started our morning my enjoying made-from-scratch banana-nut pancakes made by my mom, watching cartoons with the kids and playing with toys and a few games. Later that day, we all got ready for the reason we all came home: Matt & Maria's wedding. My sister and Maria have been friends since grade school so it was wonderful to get to see her marry the man of her dreams.

After the wedding, we headed to the reception and enjoyed the evening. My brother-in-law and I ended up taking little Tan Man home early since he was wore out and my sister stayed behind with her friends. We of course managed to get a few pics before we left:

My sister Jen, brother-in-law Ben and nephew Tanner

My wonderful parents

Aunt Heather & my "Tan Man"

Me, my sister and Baby Trustem (24 weeks along)

It ended up being a beautiful day afterall...despite the rain and it was great spending time with the family. I was sad to have to leave in the morning :(

NOW - Vol 31

I have come to the realization that I am getting old. I own the music CD "NOW that's what I call music - Vol 1" which I bought back in the 90's and I discovered today that NOW - Vol 31 was released this week. 31 of them?? That can't possibly be! Last I knew there were only 18 of them!

So, out of the 31 NOW's, how many of these music CD's do you all own? I have at least 8 of them :)

To tip or not to tip...

I was having an interesting conversation today with my co-workers which made me curious as to everyone elses opinions. The topic was tipping the carhops at Sonic when they bring your food to your car.

Has anyone reading this blog ever heard of this? Or even does this? Apparently there were 4 out of 6 of us at work today who said they ALWAYS tip at Sonic. I for one have never tipped there nor had I ever heard of tipping the kids at Sonic.

I got a bit vocal during the conversation as I brought up the question "why do I have to tip someone for doing their job?" Oh my - there were all kinds of arguements brought to the table. We went round and round and I ended up ending the conversation by saying "nobody tips me to save their life and I am just doing my job...even at 2am!"

So I'm curious to know - how many of you tip your carhop at Sonic? I promise I won't say a word if you do:)

Crue Fest 2

Tonight we ventured out with our friends from the neighborhood to the Crue Fest 2 concert. We started out by having a few drinks and appetizers at Johnny's where the rest of our "crew" met up with us and before we left for the concert, we had to of course take a few pictures...

*Melissa, Shane, Heather, Jeff & Erinn

*The infamous WR gangsta-sign :)

*Bellies full & beverages shared...we are ready for the concert!

We walked across the street to the Sprint Center and arrived just in time to see the band Theory of a Deadman starting. We had excellent seats and a great view of the entire stage. Next up was Godsmack and they were awesome! The drummer & the lead singer had a dueling drum battle which Shane loved and they were a great "opener" before Motley Crue.

*Heather, Erinn, Keri, Michelle & Melissa

*Looks like someone is having a good time :)

*Ken & Jeff - always seen wearing their camo shorts!


Motley Crue put on a GREAT show. They opened up with Dr. Feelgood and ended with Girls, Girls, Girls and didn't disappoint throughout the entire performance! It ended up being a super fun evening rocking out with great friends and many pictures taken during the evening - 58 of them to be exact! WOW - that is alot of pics!

Bebe Gloton

As I was driving to work this morning, I heard a bizarre & disturbing story on the radio station I usually listen to. Just thought I would blog about it and get everyones opinions...

It seems that a Spanish toy company has introduced Bebe Gloton to society in Spain and it is the latest craze among young girls over there! This "toy" is a breastfeeding doll. Yeah - you read that right!

The meaning of the name of this toy is a "greedy baby" and was designed to promote the importance of breast-feeding in mothers.

I am cool with crying dolls, dolls that can drink and eat, and even today, dolls that can soil themselves but a doll that breastfeeds? The images in my mind are beyond disturbing. I can just see a 4 year old walking around Wal-Mart "breastfeeding" their doll as mommy is shopping for groceries....eeewww!

How does this work you ask? Well, this doll comes with a bra-like halter top for the child to wear and has Daisy flower-shaped nipples on the front of it. As the baby nears these "nipples" it makes a sucking sound as if it is breastfeeding.

Here is a demo incase the image in your mind isn't disturbing enough...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqYoZVroBZs

After watching the video, what are your thoughts? Am I crazy to be bothered by this? What’s next? Bebe Alcoholic — the doll who has a problem with a different kind of bottle, and loses their family, job and feelings of self-worth? or maybe Bebe Limp — the male doll who experiences erectile dysfunction?
I just don't get it...What do you all think?