5/30/10

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

It’s so nice to be able to have a day to chill tomorrow! Angel didn’t have school Friday, so I took the day off, and spent the day getting the house presentable (and applying weed & feed and grocery shopping and putting dance pics in frames and random other stuff here & there). Saturday I had to re-arrange the living room, since the console radio and its adorning plants were in front of the window where we put the A/C unit. Then took Angel to dance, made another trip to the grocery store & the hardware store. 2 people that Randy graduated with came over with their families for a visit. We actually had a really good time! Hannah & Ron were really nice. Hannah’s hubby, Dave, grew up in Sterling Heights and his parents only live maybe 2 miles from us! Their son was perfectly happy in front of the TV.  Ron & Wendy drove up from Indiana for the afternoon….sort of an impromptu Smackover Buckaroo Class of 1985, north of the Mason Dixon reunion. Almost 10% of the class was there (they only had 39 in their class!) Today we went to church, then over to Aunt Jenny’s for a BBQ. We didn’t leave there until after 8 pm. We had a good time with the fam.

Randy, Hannah, Ron

me, Randy, Hannah, Dave, Wendy (with Dixie) and Ron

So the plan for tomorrow is…….veg!!! OK, changing sheets & doing laundry, but that’s it!!  Maybe spending some quality time out on the patio under the awning with some nice sun tea and a book....or I may drag out the coffin to paint it!  I will get that done sometime early this summer!!  It's calling for rain in the afternoon, so the awning will be welcome.

I finally got the girl’s dance pics yesterday. They’re awesome!

Ballet

ballet (yes - she's in mid-air)

Hip-hop

Jazz

Lyrical

Wow, not a whole lot has been going on otherwise. We got an email about Pnut’s ballet & jazz classes being extended up until the recital as of last week. An extra 45 minutes of ballet per week and 30 minutes of jazz. The ballet drill instructor is a real stickler, so she’s really “polishing” them. And jazz is just a super fast song, so the extra practice must be welcome. There had been talk about extra hiphop practice, but no one ever said anything more about it. Guess they got it together.

Pnut owes Randy 2 car washes – I took her out a week ago Friday looking for these rubber band bracelet things that EVERYONE had. So of course every place we went to was sold out. The last 2 places, a CVS and a Walgreens told us that they were getting trucks in Saturday morning, so I volunteered Randy to take her. Darn if that little turd got offended when we told her she could use her own $$ and then take Randy to Tim Horton’s for breakfast!!! She said it was a waste of $$!! I will totally remember that line & use it on her when she wants me to get her something.  So Randy bought her 2 packs of these cheesy bracelets and she has to wash his car once for each pack and had to pull all the weeds between paver bricks on the patio to cover breakfast. Took her an hour and a half, but she did a really good job!

Funny story while she was doing that. I was around the side of the house, pulling weeds in the flower beds when she called me – there was a strange dog in the yard and Jack wasn’t on the run because I’d been playing ball with him. So he’s out in the back with a huge put bull. But the pit was just standing there while Jack sniffed him. Jack turns deaf when his nose is working, so he didn’t come when I called him. I kept calling and calling and this pit bull circled around like he was going to come to me. I finally got where I could grab Jack’s collar and the hose to spray the visitor. So he left. He seemed friendly enough, never made a single hostile moment, but we don’t need strays in our yard! So when I was in the front, I saw the neighbors had the pit on a leash and a Shelby K9 unit was over there. I get the impression someone else in the hood had called the cops about the dog running loose but the neighbors knew who he belonged to. Angel said she saw that dog out & about all the time going to and from the school bus. A little while later, she took Jack for a walk and came home to tell me that she heard the neighbor’s calling the pit bull (who was doing full body wiggles while the cop was petting it) and his name was Jack, too! No wonder the poor dog looked confused, I was calling his name, but shooing him away!  But I'm so glad he was friendly, since Angel wouldn't have stood a chance if he went after her while sitting on the patio. 

Anyway, I’m getting tired now. These early mornings are catching up to me now, so I think I’ll turn in!

Out!

Joe was all up in our new grill!

5/14/10

TGIF!!

It’s Hamvention weekend, so it’s just us girls at home. Randy left this morning for Dayton. I just got a text from him that he already got the SkyWarn bumper sticker that I asked for. Can’t wait to see what else he comes home with.

I had ambitious plans to put up new shower walls in the hall bathroom while Randy was gone, but then I realized just how big a project that would be. Besides having to use a hammer or something on the soap dish, I‘d have to take the faucet & spout off. I’ve never messed around with plumbing, so I think I’ll just pass on that. Guess it’s going to be a Labor Day weekend project. So my project tonight was putting together the gas grill that we got at the end of the summer last year. I stopped after work and got the fuel tank filled, so it’s almost ready to do some cooking!

Jack approves

It’s supposed to be sunny & upper 60s all weekend, so I’ll find something to do outside. I’ve considered dragging out my Halloween coffin & throwing a coat of paint on it. Touch ups on the headstones maybe. I don’t know. I have all summer for that, but I also want to get it done early so I can concentrate on my new ideas for this year.

I was pretty excited Wednesday when I went to pick Pnut up from dance. The owner of the studio happened to be watching the jazz class warm ups and noticed how much Angel has improved in her technique, and asked if she’d like to try out for the competition squad next year! I’m so proud of her! I’d noticed how much better (for lack of dance-ese speak) she looked, so was happy to find out a ‘professional’ also noticed. I haven’t sat her down to ask what she wants to do yet.

Love the ballet costume!

We should be getting her dance pics sometime next week – I can’t wait. They’re going to be awesome. The photog will pose the little girls for their individual pics, but will ask the older girls what they want to do. So for ballet, they got her in mid-leap. Love it! For jazz & hip-hop she’s doing something with a chair. Then for lyrical, she’s doing a heel stretch. Cool! And since they use digital cameras, we could look to make sure it was good. So the photog kept having her re-do ballet & lyrical until toes were pointed, smile was nice, legs straight, etc. For the jazz group pic, all the girls were posed so nice & serious. Then the photog pointed at ~guess who~ in the very middle & told her to do something goofy. So I think they’ll go with the one where she’s leaning forward blowing a kiss at the camera.

Last Saturday we all went to my cousin Jennifer’s wedding. This was supposed to be “The Wedding” that everyone will talk about. Yup. Sure. OK, the church was huge, obnoxious & ornately gorgeous located in snobby Bloomfield Hills. But I didn’t like how it was set up. The sanctuary was surprisingly small & the altar area was long & narrow, so unless you were sitting right on the aisle, you couldn’t see what was going on up there. Laurie & Linda couldn’t see them light the unity candle. Anyway. Jenn was probably the unhappiest bride I’ve ever seen. I know I smiled like an idiot my whole wedding day. But she walked down the aisle looking down and not a hint of a smile. It’s a shame since she was a beautiful bride! She’s one of those people who look good all the time anyway (Pppft) Chris looked pretty happy at least.

The reception was at the Troy Marriot. So we all got rooms there for the night. Let me gush on the hotel first. I totally want one of those beds. It was king sized & the mattress was so nice that I wasn’t sent airborne when Randy flopped over. Between that and the feather duvet – it was like being in a hot pocket (Randy gets credit for coming up with that phrase!!) Our room was on the 14th floor and faced east, so we left the curtains open and got to see the most gorgeous sunrise. Then we closed them and went back to sleep.

So at the reception, we all had our entertainment. Linda had Waiter Ken, Laurie had Maitre’ D Ken (or vice versa) Mom had Billie in his pink tux, Aunt Jenny (who chose to sit with us instead of her own family) had Lederhosen Ken and I had GI Joe. We had so much fun with them!! So many adventures and Laurie scared away the rind bearer with her Ken. Funny! The DJ sucked. For the bride & groom’s first dance – he played the wrong song. Then he played a few songs before anyone went out on the very tiny dance floor. Then we went out & danced a while. Then he got on the mic and said he had some requests “from the younger crowd” and started playing the kind of crap you hear on the radio now. I was offended at that! Younger crowd my butt. Jenn is only 3 or 4 years younger than me. We played together as kids! So for probably 5 songs, no one danced. Sure there buddy. I saw that “younger crowd” just rushing the floor! I’m glad I wasn’t paying for that. He “slowed it down” for the last couple songs, and then wandered away, so when one of the songs cut off in the middle he wasn’t there to fix it, so we all left the floor & no one went back out for the last couple numbers. We wandered out to the hotel bar & watched some of the last Red Wings game.

This is what happens when you tell the riff-raff what room you're in.

 

Joe and his "steel" guitar.

Fun guys!

Sunday we took Mom out to breakfast for Mother’s Day. Big Boy’s breakfast bar totally destroyed me staying on plan. Mr. Foodie Dave scoped it out & said it looked good, so I knew I was in trouble. Cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits & gravy, bacon, fresh fruit, bacon, hash browns and did I mention really good bacon?? Yeah. Hence a contributor (along with too many Bud Lights to count) to my 3 pound gain this week. But I’m happy with my gifts that I ordered for myself. I got the FlyLady mop set, with a dust mop like the elementary school janitor used in the halls and microfiber cloth refills. I got her Sink Reflections book and also her water bottle. I understand the hype about how it keeps the water cold and doesn’t sweat, etc. But I found I’m not drinking as much when I use it. I don’t know if its because the opening is smaller or what. So I’ll stick with my 20 oz plastic bottle for work and save that for when I’m going someplace.

Quick funny story re: being a FlyBaby….After I dropped Angel off at dance Wednesday, I planned on going and getting a bag or two of trash out of her room. So I came home and changed out of my work clothes and put on my lace-up shoes (not going in there barefoot – eew!). Jack saw me putting shoes on and he got all excited – he thought we were going on a walk! Of course I felt guilty, so I set my timer and did 20 minutes in her room and then took him out around the park.

This tree was blooming in the park.  Pretty!

Sad about the Wings, but at least they made it to their 19th consecutive play offs!! Considering they had so many guys out for a lot of the season, they did good. Still proud of them! Now I shall cheer for the Blackhawks, because I can’t cheer for the team who knocked out the Wings (the Sharks).  Neener, neener, the Penguins didn’t get any farther than we did, so get ready to hand over that Cup to someone else – neener neener! I couldn’t resist – when I saw they lost their game 7, I went on Facebook and put “Breaking News! There have been reports of flash floods in the vicinity of Mellon Arena, home of the Pittsburgh Penguins. It appears Sidney Crosby is crying” as my status. Heehee!

Let’s see. The girl is all signed up for the summer program at the Boys & Girl’s Club. She’s already started finale practices at the studio. Work is slow but I’m still on 40 hours, so I guess I shouldn’t complain. My 10 year anniversary is coming up in less than a month!  We have a furry new neighbor in living in our yard – a big ol’ groundhog. There is hopefully going to be VERY good news in the near future. I’ll find out more next Wednesday when we go to get the ball rolling, so I don’t want to jinx anything by speculating. And NO, it’s not anything to do with me reproducing or lack thereof, either. I’ll write more when I have more informative deets. It’s hard to bite my tongue, or I guess bite my fingers!

Peace out!

What?  There's no room for you in the bed!