Vacation days one and two

Ok, so our first day of vacation - and this is one of those vacations that the girls are going to look back on and remember fondly, if I have to beat it into their heads. No, really, you know those family vacations where you are dressed in dorky clothes and your hair is styled in some weird way you don't want to remember? This is that vacation. I feel like such an adult now. I don't like it one bit. Ok, there are pluses....anyway...

Not far into our first day, we are reminded of the power of God, mother nature, whomever you believe is in charge of our weather. Here is a picture of the flooding in Witchita Falls.

That's just off the highway. Not even in the town or anything. WOW.

Our first dinner break. See, this is one of those pictures.

The hotel we stayed at our first night was next to a truck stop and these were parked there. They are the propellers for wind turbines. They are HUGE! You can tell by the size of the trucks parked next to it.


Begin our second day of vacation...

Mandatory cheesy picture in front of the "Welcome to New Mexico" sign. Sadie was asleep for those wondering. And I know you were.
Boredom set in easily and often. Madeline learned new tricks. Good girl!






So much for the mandatory cheesy picture in front of the "Welcome to Colorado" sign. We just whizzed by it. We were ready to get where we were going.

We were impressed by this mountain until we saw...

...this mountain. Then we saw...
...these mountains. You'll really have to blow this pic up to see the snow capped mountains under the clouds. But, I can tell you, they were beautiful and impressive.
As soon as we got there, Madeline played dress up. Notice the shoes. Wendy calls them "stripper shoes".



This is Conrad, Aaron (the tall one) holding Anna over the rail, James and Wendy on a bridge out their back door. Totally cool area.

Cactus flowers in bloom we saw on our way back from that area.

These are my Air Force Academy Chapel pictures I 've taken so far. There's more, but these are good.

We get to go inside and hear my mom play the organ in there on Monday. I'm so excited.

Only people who watch "All My Children" will get this next picture.

Wendy lives in PINE VALLEY! How cool is that?

Buggin' out

Yesterday when we left the house, this bug was causing quite the stir. No one would get in the van because of it. So, what did I do? I went and got my camera. I'm so wise. Cool looking bug, huh?

By the time we got to Wal-Mart, it had found somewhere else to be. No harm, no foul.

Sadie, giving the bug plenty of room and making sure it doesn't jump on her when she gets in.

"Crocs" or a resonable facsimile thereof

Disclaimer: Any mention of the shoe "croc" in this blog is actually an "off-brand" of the style of shoe considered "croc".

Anna's got "crocs".
Hers are pretty pink ones with flowers. Mads has some just like it but I was so excited to find them in Anna's size! She loved Sadie's but I didn't get her any when I got Sadie's because I needed to get other stuff. Then, of course, when I went back to get them they didn't have any. Isn't that always the way?

So then I found some at JoAnn's fabric store (they sell them in the weirdest places - like Hallmark stores) and Anna was SO happy. She picked out a lovely pair of red ones. Well, we get to the checkout and they were $17.88. I don't think so. I don't pay that much for a pair of shoes for me if I can help it.

So I broke her heart and left them at the store. I have been on a quest since then to find her some less expensive "crocs". And then I thought about Rack Room Shoes that had them last year. I went in there and it's "croc" heaven. They have 'em for kids for big people for boys, for girls. They have the flip flop "crocs" and regular ones. It's amazing. Plus, the adult ones are on sale for $10 each. I got 2 pair.

Skatin'

The fantastic PTO at our school for next year has decided that getting the kids together during the summer would be fun. And tonight was our first attempt. A skating party. We all went to the Skatium and had a blast. It was raining cats and dogs out but 32 kids skated and their parents visited. I think a good time was had by all. The next time we get together will be a swimming party. Woohoo!

The pictures are not that great on this outing. I forgot my camera at home so I had to use my phone. Other than not being big, in focus or sharp, they're pretty good, don't you think? The top picture is Becky, the beloved new babysitter. She runs, jumps and plays with the children. They beg for her to come babysit them.
This is Brady. Yep, he let 8 little wheels get the best of him. He gave up skating early on and decided to play video games instead.
This is Becky and Madeline.
And, this is Sadie and Becky. Pretty clear pictures, huh?

VBS

We had VBS (vacation bible school for you who had no childhood) this week. Yesterday was the closing program. Here's what I get for leaving Conrad in charge of taking pictures.
I know these kids by face, not by name. We've been teaching them songs all week. I think they're good kids but I don't want their picture. And, none of my kids are in this picture.
But really? I can't complain. When I had the camera, these are the only pictures I took.
As an kudo Conrad, I think he got lots of video. I haven't seen it yet, so I'm not sure of the quality. If I can get it posted, I'll put it on here.

Just overheard

I don't know what Sadie and Madeline are doing but I just heard Madeline say "Wake up, I'm your fairy god-pillow".

Explain that one!

What a weekend!

Wow, y'all must be going through I-know-somebody-who-puts-their-kids-pictures-on-the-internet-and-she-hasn't-done-it-for-a-whole-week withdrawl. I am so sorry. With Uncle Ernie passing and the ensuing paperwork/grieving/just down right tiredness I haven't had it in me to blog. But, I'm back. So ready?....

This weekend, we went to Odessa for a wedding. We stayed in a really nice place, although, I thought I had food poisoning the first night but I didn't (yea, me! - or should it be yea, restaurant?). It had an indoor/outdoor pool, an indoor putt-putt area, indoor play area (envision big McDonald's toy), ping pong table and free drinks from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.! Woohoo! Frankly, that was my favorite part. Oh, they also had a free breakfast buffet with pancakes, bagels, eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon...you get the idea, it wasn't any bagel and cereal buffet. It was full blown. Wow! Now, you had to be there by 9am or you were out of luck and oddly, we almost didn't make it both days we were there. Could have something to do with the fact that no one went to sleep in our room before midnight?

This is the girls the first night we were there, when I thought I got food poisoning.
Anna, contemplating something grand, I'm sure.
1...2...3...GO!
Julian and Linda. They are the ones who got married. If it weren't for Julian, Conrad and I wouldn't be married today (unless some cosmic happening interfered and our worlds collided a second time). We were at a place where they serve alcoholic beverages and you can dance to country themed music and we were both supposed to meet people we knew there. Well, as fate would have it, neither of our parties showed up.

Now, Conrad, left to his own devices would 1) never have been there in the first ten thousand places and 2) if he did go, he would have left without saying a word to anyone. As it happened, he had Julian there to help matters along and started talking to me, then Conrad finally chimed in. The rest, as they say, is history. And a lovely, timeless, productive one at that. Ah, sweet mystery of love...

And speaking of my love...here he is, all dolled up as Best Man.

After the wedding, Conrad took the girls to a parking lot where they had all these HUGE inflatables. There were spook houses and big slides, etc. I think they really liked it.
Here's Mads in front of some inhuman thing. Sadie says it's a dragon. Whatever, looks scary to me.Here's Sadie climbing up the very steep ladder so she could slide down the slide. By the way, this is the only outfit she brought for the trip. "I didn't know we were staying 3 days!" she says. I wanted to strangle her.

All over Odessa they have these Jack Rabbits (or Jackalopes, I'm not sure) and they're all painted differently. Totally cool. I wanted to get pictures of them all but, oddly, didn't have my camera when I needed it. I know, hard to believe. But, I did finally get this one (well, Conrad actually took the picture - I was driving).

When we got home, one of the first things I did was take the flowers out of this basket so they didn't start stinking. I had just put the basket in the chair in the kitchen when Puss made it his new bed. How cute is this?

Gettin' back to normal

Well, for obvious reasons, I haven't much felt like blogging. However, it is time to move forward and resume my normal activities. YEA! I'm sure it will be awhile before everything is "normal" (try 18 years) but, I'm going to be happy if it's just anywhere near our usual "normal".

So, this picture was taken sometime this week. Don't ask when, the days are fuzzy. But, Sadie came and asked me to come look at something. It was a baby bird. It was big but not quite flying yet. This is her feeding it. Well, trying to. She kinda got grossed out when I told her she had to chew up worms and regurgitate them to really feed the bird.

Anna loves OREOS!
These are the flowers that Uncle Ernie's daughter sent. They now grace my home. Aren't they beautiful?

In Memory of Uncle Ernie

Ernest William Meitzler

December 5, 1920 - June 6, 2007

The big reunion

My friends Kim and Lisa and I planned to get a reunion together of several classes of our two schools. Lisa and I graduated from the private school Trinity Heights and Kim graduated from the public school Northwood but went to TH for several years. As you can imagine, both schools knew people from each school, we all went to church or played sports or lived near each other, dated or in some other way each other growing up. So we thought it a great idea to combine the schools and classes together for one big reunion.

We sent out letters, e-mails, put up signs phoned people. We were flat getting the word out and people seemed genuinely interested. 3 people registered. Yep, you read that right, 3, three, tres, a trio. We were very disappointed to say the least. So we cancelled the big shin-dig and just decided to go have dinner at a place called Superior Bar and Grill on Sat. night and several people showed up for that. Some came to eat, some just for a little while to visit and when we moved from there to a place called "Harley's" to visit some more (supposedly a quieter place, don't believe it) most everyone showed up there. We enjoyed the company and it was suggested to try to do it again, later on in the summer when maybe more people could be there. I said, "You go right ahead, I'll be here with bells on, but I won't head it up again". No, thank you.

My friend, Kim and her husband Eric.
Yours truly and Conrad.
Half of the table, Kim, Kim, Kim's husband who's name I can't remember, Susan and her fiance', again, can't remember his name.
The other half of the table, Conrad, Brad, you can just see Ginger's arm and blonde head, Kay and Ron Gipson.
At Harley's (the "quiet place" - not). Me, Kim, Kim, Susan and Sharon.

For those who were there, we had a great time. For those who missed it, too bad for you. Maybe next time.