Nonsense From Wonderland

A bumpy ride! 6-21-09

Outside the pirate shop @ the Ren Faire, 6-21-09

Chowing on a turkey leg! 6-21-09

 
It’s finally trying to be summer here.  We had so much rain for most of the month, baseball was postponed for 3 weeks.  They are now cramming in makeup games and pushing back the tournaments.  Makes for a looong season, plus with everyone having vacation plans, a lot of kids are missing games, so coaches are scrambling to find kids to fill in (you have to have a minimum of 8 or you forfeit).  We’ll miss some games next weekend, when we head to Buffalo for my cousin’s wedding.  It’s the first wedding on that side of the family since ours 12 years ago!!  Should be a good time.  I’m just excited for the cake, since mom is making it!!  She makes the BEST wedding cake.  I need to find out if she is making the cream cheese mints.  Those are my fave, and I can make myself sick eating them!

Break has been good so far.  I’ve spent most of it doing things around the house and reading.  I’m determined to get a LOT of reading done this summer, because I know once school starts, my time will be limited.  I read 2 William Queen books in about 4 days, and a Spike (Buffy) comic and Cirque Du Freak last week.  I’m also doing a read aloud with the boys.  I love sitting on the porch swing w/them and reading.  Been trying to keep them up w/their independent reading too.  Even though they are both fantastic readers and do enjoy reading, they are occasionally giving me grief about doing it (I think because they are equating it with school work!!).  Oddly enough, they don’t give me a bad time when we do the read aloud.  We’ve gone to the library a ton!  All of us finished the summer reading program and got our prizes.  I think this is the earliest we’ve gotten finished.  I’m usually scrambling down there to get prizes right at the deadline.

For Father’s Day we went to the Renaissance Faire in Larkspur, CO.  It was the first time I had been since about 1980 or ‘81.  Breck and I rode a camel, and all 4 of us rode the elephant.  Very cool : ).  I had ridden the elephant before, w/my grandma (a fond memory).  We spent a few hours wandering around, and after enough pouting and begging, Jason broke down and bought the boys wooden swords.  They got spray paint and customized them the next day!  LOL   We had Father’s Day dinner at Bono’s BBQ, which is awesome!  Jason took me there over spring break.  We always enjoy good BBQ.  Our smoker box on our grill has pretty much burned out, so we haven’t been able to smoke anything for a while.  Been looking at a new smoker, so I think we’ll be getting it soon.  Jason is a master at the grill!  He made steaks and corn on the cob last night that rocked!

Last week we saw Transformers 2 and LOVED it!  We had planned on going for the midnight showing, but figured with it being nearly 3 hours long, the kids wouldn’t stay awake.  Heck, Jason and I were thinking WE probably wouldn’t stay awake either!  LOL   I’m hoping for a date night w/Jason to see Public Enemies.  Ice Age 3D is on our list next for the kids, as is Harry Potter.  I should reread the book, because it’s been about 3 years, and other than one main happening, I can’t remember much about it.

I’m attempting to knit the boys Sackboys from Little Big Planet.  After we got the Wii, we took a break from LBP, but have recently gotten back into it.  I hope I can make these little dolls (or action figures, as Peyton is calling them).  So far I have a body and part of a head done.  The boys are a lot more confident in my ability than I am!  It’s been forever since I’ve knitted anything, so fun to get back into it.  I just usually don’t like handling yarn in the summer.  Knitting for me is more of a winter time, stuck inside activity!

The end of school is in sight!  Only 5 days left!  Monday, all of the paras get to go to a lunch together, which will be fun!  I don’t think we’ve decided where yet, since we just got our invites yesterday.  Field Day is Thursday, and I will be helping at the popsicle/playground/bubble station.  The forecast isn’t that great for Thurs., so hopefully we still get to be outside for some of it.  The kids are out at 10:30 on Friday, so Jason’s going to take the day off to get them, as I have to work a full day.  We’re having a luncheon for our retirees that day too. 

Brecken ended spring soccer today.  We’re going to a pizza party after bit with the team.  Peyton had a baseball game this morning.  I only saw part of it since I was across the road at soccer.  I guess he was kind of out of it today; didn’t really have his head in the game.  I’m trying to figure out all the things I need to do when school is out, now that I have time.  Lots to do around here, and of course I’d like to catch up on reading and scrapbooking.  I’ve got a few outings that I’d like us to do before the boys head to Buffalo. 

Sis and I went to No Doubt in Denver on Wed. night and it was amazing!  Getting there was extremely stressful.  Traffic was horrible, and it was a 3 hour trip from here to Fiddler’s Green.  I made it to Denver in about an hour and 10 min., but driving out to where this place was just became a nightmare.  We sat on the stupid exit for about 45 min.  Unfortunately we missed most of Paramore.  The 3 songs we saw were good.  Our seats were great–about 5th row behind the pit.  We sat in the same # seats for Crue Fest, just 2 rows up.  Got home around 1:10am, completely exhausted and hurting.  My knee and neck were giving me fits.  It was a fantastic show though!  No other concerts lined up at this time.  I’d kind of like to see 3 Doors Down again at Frontier Days, but not sure I want to spend the $, since I have these other ideas for us this summer. 

Peyton ran for delegate-at-large for student council, but lost.  It was a very close race though.  He wasn’t upset though, as he’s going to be a Peer Mediator next year, and excited for that.  I’ll think he’ll be great at it, since he’s kind and fair, and gets along well with everyone.  I think the boys both had a pretty good school year.  I also really enjoyed my first year back at work full time, even though I couldn’t seem to keep up with everything around here.  Maybe I can use this summer to devise a better schedule for myself!

I was debating on going to see Night at the Museum 2 tonight, but I think we’ll wait and go tomorrow morning.  If you go before noon at one theater it’s only $4.25 (as opposed to $8.50 at night).  I swear everyone in school saw the movie last weekend.   

A couple pics:  Brecken @ the sheep dairy, in front of the sheep nursery.  I just finally took the pictures off my camera.  The other pic isn’t the best, but it’s Peyton while he was waiting to give his speech for student council elections.

Aww, Breck and the lambs

Peyton, candidate for delegate at large!

Mr. Bright Eyes!

The Monster!

Life’s been zooming lately, which leads to the blog going by the wayside, so I suppose it’s time for an update. We had a good time at the Nuggets game over spring break. Had dinner at the Hard Rock, drinks at ESPN Zone, and dessert at Cheesecake Factory. The next day we had lunch at Bono’s BBQ, which was fantastic. We spent the rest of the time driving to 4 different Harley stores, which is always cool. I went up to Casper to pick up the boys and my sis the day before Easter. Easter was very low key for us. We had fish for dinner and just spent the day hanging out at home. Jason was supposed to go to Atlanta last weekend, but due to the 2nd crazy blizzard, which resulted in a snow day from school and state offices being closed, he wasn’t able to fly out. I was happy he got to stay, but he does have to go later . My sis came down to stay with us, but ended up going back home after about a week. She’ll be back on Mother’s Day and will stay through the end of the month. We go to No Doubt on May 27th. Can’t wait for that! We’ve seen Gwen solo twice, and she puts on a kick-ass show! We surprised the boys a week ago w/a Wii. Our bundle had Wii Sports and Wii Play with it. I haven’t had a chance to do Play yet. I also bought Wii Fit, and I love it! Now if I can just stick to a regular workout schedule! I bought Animal Crossing, since I’d been eyeing it before we even had a Wii. It is so freaking cute. Spent 2.5 hours playing it tonight. My mom got the boys Super Smash Brothers Brawl to play up at her house, but I think they are sending it back for them to have here.

We are down to exactly 30 days of school left. It would be 29, but we have to make up the snow day next month. I am taking a personal day on the 13th to go on a field trip w/Breck’s class, to a dairy farm in Nebraska. The last month of school is so busy w/field trips and various things (Muffins for Moms, end of year testing, track meet, Earth Day celebration (we had to postpone ours since our principal was gone). I am really looking forward to summer break and getting some things done around here, as well as just enjoying some lazy days and WARM weather. I love sitting on my porch swing reading or just enjoying the fresh air.

I suppose that’s it in a nutshell for now. We’re catching up on the DVR, since it’s close to full! Just never have time to watch a whole lot at once.

Although I did this on Facebook, I thought it’d be fun to post here too. Just a neat little meme that my friend Mel had done on FB. As always, she finds the coolest stuff! If you want to try it, directions follow.

In other news, I am LOVING my new Blackberry Curve. This phone does it all, and I will never go back to a Windows Mobile based smartphone again! My favorite apps so far are probably iheartradio and Slacker Radio. I am becoming a SERIOUS BB addict .

And now for the mosaic rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search (http://www.flickr.com).
b. Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. Change rows to 3 and columns to 3 (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php).
d. Save the image and post it on this note!
e. If you’re tagged, pass it on.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What is your favorite color?
4. Favorite drink?
5. Dream vacation?
6. Favorite hobby?
7. What you want to be when you grow up?
8. What do you love most in life?
9. One word to describe you?

Mosaic 2009

My friend Mel always finds the coolest things online, so I am snagging this from her!  It’s a fun site called Wordle, which I can tell is going to become a huge time waster for me, when I actually have some time to kill.  My first two ”pictures” are the lyrics to 37mm by AFI, which is one of my all time favorite songs; and Happy Birthday by The Birthday Massacre. I have this song stuck in my head on a daily basis! Clicking on the small pic will take you straight to the bigger version on Wordle’s site. Enjoy!

The Indy Monster, Feb. '09

We had a pretty good, productive weekend I think!  The boys were both at sleepovers last night, so Jason and I went to the Chinese buffet, then over to the mall to see Taken.  We both liked it.  After we got home we watched Eagle Eye, which I had from Netflix, and we liked that also.  I always enjoy Shia.  We slept in a tiny bit this morning, then Jason decided we should get the bikes out and ride to breakfast at the Luxury Diner.  I wasn’t so sure my bike would start, after not running since about October I think, but she fired up and went!  It felt so good to be out again, even if I was a bit cold.  Hopefully we’ll be looking at some warmer days, where I could ride to work.  After breakfast we headed to Barnes and Noble.  I’ve been on a book buying spree lately.  Today I bought 4 books by Neil Gaiman, the guy who wrote Coraline and Stardust.  I ended up getting Stardust, The Graveyard Book,  Neverwhere and Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders.  Can’t wait to start on them.  I really need to get serious w/my reading.  I had planned to finish Breaking Dawn this weekend, and I did read both days, but didn’t finish : (.  When Breck came back from his sleepover, his friend came w/him and hung out for a couple hours.  Jason got them McD’s for lunch, while I was busy scraping old caulking off the kitchen counters.  I was only going to do right behind the sink, but kept going and decided I’d do the entire counter on that side of the room.  It looks so nice and fresh w/the new caulking.  We also redid the caulking in our shower, and put new stuff around our vanity.  I rearranged the stuff on the kitchen counter, got dishes put away, and did some laundry.  We also finally hung Jason’s new Bengal thermometer mom and dad got him for Xmas.  It looks nice, and I’ll be able to see it w/out my glasses.  We had a digital one that came w/the house when we bought it, but I couldn’t see it unless I had my glasses on, and even then, the numbers were tiny.  We were going to replace some pieces of lattice on the bottom of the deck, as the dog has been going under there, but we couldn’t find just the strips, so will probably end up doing the whole piece.  While at Lowe’s, we browsed the sinks, faucets, stoves, and carpet.  It would be so great to carpet both living rooms and the basement in one swoop, but that stands to be very pricey.  Might actually have to have someone from Lowe’s or Home Depot come and measure, so we can get an idea.  The basement definitely needs carpet first, since it’s in a semi-unfinished state.  I told Jason today we need to make a list of what’s a priority, because we’d like to have a lot of new things (couch, dining set, sink, stove/micro, carpet). 

Tonight we watched Stardust.  I bought the DVD last night before dinner.  The boys and I had seen it, and since I’m on a Neil Gaiman kick, I just had to have it.  Plus, it has a small appearance by one of my favorite people–Ricky Gervais.  The boys stayed up late to watch it, so hopefully morning isn’t a pain.  I showered tonight, in hopes of making my morning go faster.  This week I have class on Tuesday, and the kids have their school carnival Friday.  It’ll be the first time Jason gets to go, since he no longer bowls on Fridays.  Peyton’s done w/basketball, and will have a pizza party at school Thursday, to turn in his uniform.

I guess it’s about time to hit the hay.  I need to take some laundry out and throw in another load before I go up.  Looks like we’ll have some decent temps this week, which I am hoping really is true, since I have bus all week!

3D glasses so rock!

We saw Coraline tonight and absolutely LOVED it!  The 3D was totally amazing, and we were laughing at how funny the glasses were!  I bought the book Saturday, and read it in about 2 hours.  The movie did add some things not in the book, but you know how that goes.  I just got the soundtrack on iTunes, and kind of want to get the video game too.   You could say I’m obsessing a bit .

It’s back to the grind tomorrow.  I just told Jason I wish it could still be the weekend.  It’s nice being lazy and not having so many things planned.  We all just needed to get healthy again too, and I think we are.  Tomorrow we have basketball after school, at a school on the other side of town.  Think we’ll go look at bookshelves and lamps after that.  We’ve needed a new lamp for a while, and although we looked at shelves yesterday, we didn’t get anything.  I think I’ve figured out what to get now.  Didn’t really want to get the inexpensive, pressed wood kind, but I think if I get them at Target they will look okay, and I plan on putting one on each end of the fireplace.   We have such a varying array of furniture in here, as far as colors and type.  Drives me crazy.  Some of it matches, but it’s my grandparents’ old Ethan Allen stuff, and is older than me I believe, so in great need of restaining.  The kids have not been gentle on any of it!

My pretties

Hope everyone enjoyed a nice day with their loved ones and/or family!  I got a wonderful surprise at work yesterday after I got back from lunch….the gorgeous boquet pictured above!  They smell so good, and the color is so vibrant.  VERY sweet card w/them as well.  This morning I came down to some nice cards from Jason and the boys, as well as a box of all dark chocolates!  I LOVE dark.  It’s my favorite kind of chocolate.  It was just a very nice day spent together, and of course we got a lot of Little Big Planet play time in.  Jason finally got us past this evil level that had us stuck for the last week. 

This afternoon I spent my Barnes and Noble card that I got for my birthday from my co-workers, and picked up a new Twilight bookmark w/Bella and Edward (I have one w/my favorite Edward pic too), Coraline, a comic version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and What the Dickens.  I just love shopping in the kids’ section.  Seriously, they have the best books, and I am the kind of person who immediately gets drawn in by cool cover art.  I have often thought about getting a Kindle (my friend has one and loves it), but I just don’t know about giving up the real book feel.  I also check out a lot of books from the library, and rarely buy a book that I will plan to give away some day.  I told Jason I’d like to get some nice bookshelves for the living room.  I have books tucked away all over the place it seems. 

We are all on the mend, although Jason’s still feeling a little blah today.  Peyton’s stomach was bothering him too, but hopefully it wasn’t flu related.  I went back to work yesterday, and Jason stayed home.  Luckily it wasn’t too rough of a day, and the girls were looking out for me, not letting me be outside for my bus duty.  It’s great to work w/such caring people : ).  I did go to Kerri’s Tastefully Simple party last night, but I didn’t eat a bunch, because I was worried about my stomach.  She had the choclatinis I wanted to try too, but didn’t, dang it : (.

We have Monday off, of course, so I will really be enjoying the next 2 days.  I would like to get some reading done.  I’m trying to make some kind of plan about which book I want to read next when I finish Breaking Dawn, but I am so all over the place w/my books, it’s hard for me to stick to any one thing.  I just want to read everything, and I want to do it NOW!  After watching Harry Potter 5 with Peyton the other night when he was ill, I really had a strong urge to reread the whole series.  It’s been a while, and of coure I’ve forgotten a lot of those little details.  One thing that I am thankful for, is that I will never have a shortage of things to read.

I suppose I should get up to bed.  We watched Madagascar 2 tonight.  Mom got it for the boys for V-day.  I dozed off, so will have to rewatch, but what I saw was so funny!  I want to go see Coraline at the theater, but am wondering if I could read the book before we go see it.  It looks like a really short, fast read.

….and I like it that way!  It’s a gorgeous weather day too.  The boys have been out playing, and just walked down to the school to see if the new playground equipment is done being put in.  Jason and I have been watching “Even Scarier Movie Moments” and “100 Scariest Movie Moments.”  I do have to run to the post office and store.  We are having biscuits, gravy, bacon and eggs for dinner.  YUM!  I got the stuff yesterday to make banana splits too!

Halloween was good.  The weather was awesome!  The boys didn’t need to be layered or wear hats and gloves!  Jason took them out for 2 hours, and we ended up with over 5 lbs. of candy.  We had quite a few kids, and I ran out of candy, so had to dig into the boys’ stuff when they got home!  Our last trick-or-treaters came at 9:10.  I did not get an Alice costume, as I had hoped, so just did my creepy makeup.  I did scare one boy who came to the door.  LOL

BOO!

Daddy and the boys heading out!