10 Random Things for a Friday

1. Got to spend the weekend last weekend with the babies in CR. I love CR weekends. I wish they were longer.
   
2. I have a birthday next week. If you ship the presents by Monday they should get here in plenty of time.
3. If you can be in Omaha on Saturday the 19th, let me know and I'll get you the 4-11 on the whens and wheres of the big party.
4. Thanks to Facebook I now know how many of the people I know that I really don't agree with their political views. Not sure how I feel about that.
5. Tonight we are having a chocolate and wine night at the Pusher's house.
6. I had an acne breakout for the first time in a bazillion years last week. In perspective it was nothing but it did throw me for a loop.
7. I think I am going to chop off more hair. Not Short Hair Mafia style but significantly shorter than it is now.
8. I cried when I saw Thanksgiving stuff in the store last week.
9. My office was on the news on Wednesday. We are apparently this week's token sign of the times.
10. I have had Starbucks two days in a row. I shall have it a 3rd time this afternoon when I use my treat receipt. :)

Hope that your day is a good one. And your weekend even more so. Be well my friends!

Heartbreak Hotel

This is the Babe's current favorite song. We have worn it out.

On a side note... I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I posted. Sorry about that. They'll be 10 things tomorrow. I promise.

Petula Clark - Downtown (1964)

Wish there was still a downtown like this.

Homegrown Tomatoes

There is nothing a homegrown tomato won't cure.

10 Random Things for a Friday

1. Jr. is here.
2. Lucas is here.
3. Alison is here.
4. I have been obsessed with them coming all week.
5. Lucas is taking a nap in my room.
6. The Babe REFUSES to take a nap at home anymore but will take one everyday at the babysitter's. She is now downstairs refusing to take a nap. But she is finally quiet so that is a move in the right direction.
7. We are going to the zoo tomorrow.
8. I am on a covert mission to convince them that they should really move to Nebraska.
9. I hired a babysitter so we could go out for an "adult" night tomorrow.
10. With 3 of the 5 kids, both grandbabies, and a hubby that I celebrated an anniversary with this week... I am truly blessed.
    

The Babe's 3rd Birthday Part V

I think the big kids had as much fun as the little ones.

The Babe's 3rd Birthday Part IV

Good thing we had big kids to keep up with the little ones! BAM is quite the climber.

The Babe's 3rd Birthday Part III

Even the Toddlers had fun. Lucas was hard to keep up with!

The Babe's 3rd Birthday Part II

Cake and Presents

The Babe's 3rd Birthday Part I

Daddy and the Babe in the Ball Pit

All Pile in!

Friends in the Ball Pit

Daddy at the top of the playground.

What is in the cupboard?

We have run out of room for electronics.

Oreo Madness

Reason number 5 as to why you shouldn't give a toddler mini oreos in the car on a long drive.

How incredible!

This has to be the coolest Wedding March I have ever seen. Hope it makes you smile like it did me.

10 Random Things for a Friday

1. Today is my friend Carrie's 40th birthday. She is now really old. ;)
2. Lucas is coming to visit in a few weeks. :) I'm all shades of excited and looking forward to having him and his parents here. :D
3. My friend Wendy bailed on me for lunch today. Dave the lawn dude took me out for Chinese/sushi as a consolation prize. He wins the friend award for the day.
4. I hate when I have to evict people. I wish they would just follow the rules.
5. One of the people I am in the process of evicting brought me in a cucumber from her garden this morning. If I eat it is it like taking a bribe?
6. We are getting about a dozen eggs a day from the chickens because the babies started laying. Anybody need eggs? $4 a dozen. Speak up now!
7. This the USDA report on carrot production in the US. It blows me away that people need to know this stuff! Even funnier that I got this from a listserve today that has nothing to do with agriculture.
8. I am in love with a big blue frog. A big blue frog loves me.
9. If I won 100 million dollars in the lottery I'd have a really cool give away on this here blog. I was going to play the lottery numbers on the back of my fortune cookie. Then it occurred to me that I didn't know which lottery the numbers are for. For all I know it is the New Jersey lottery or something. But I know that I have numerous states represented as readers on here so let's try this. Go play these numbers 8 23 30 34 40. I'll cover Nebraska, Iowa, and powerball. If you win you have to send me a finder's fee so I can have a really cool giveaway on this here blog.
10. Anybody know a good way to keep shoes on a little one? BAM refuses to wear them and keeps taking them off. I am at a loss.

Happy last weekend of July! Where is the summer going?

Google Reader and my Free time

I have about 100+ blog subscriptions on my Google Reader feeds. so probably about 25 new blog entries a day.

Today I deleted 768 unread blog entries.

Where did my free time go?

10 Random Things for a Friday

1. My great aunt Dorothy died this week. She was in her 90's. What I remember most about her was her contagious smile. Smile today in honor of my aunt Dorothy.
2. I get to see the boys, 2 of my best friends and my nieces this weekend. I'm WAY excited. Tomorrow can't come soon enough.
3. LOVE this idea from Daily Digi for a Fun Jar. Perfect for the "I'm bored" days.
4. Writing grants is by far not my favorite thing to do. Yet here I am this week yet again putting together a grant.
5. After I wrote that thing about the porch I found this Zen Habits blog entry about life vs. stuff. that should make it easier to purge stuff, right?
6. My dad's facebook addiction has led to finding extended family that we didn't even know we had. He and my mom are going to a family reunion in Minnesota with part of the family this weekend. Adventure!
7. The Babe is getting wood for her birthday. Hopefully it will be enough wood to build the swingset and slide ladder.
8. Baby BAM fell last night. Again. This time it was his forehead square into the corner of the love seat. He looks like a Klingon with the ridge and red mark in the middle of his forehead.
9. I have a kids' church song earworm.
10. I actually hired a babysitter to watch the Babe tomorrow while I clean house and work on the yard. Is that crazy or what?

And there you have it folks. The 10 Random things for Friday July 10th. Hope your day is now complete.

United Breaks Guitars

This would be really funny if it wasn't a true story. What a great way to protest.

The Front Porch

The other night I stood on the front porch and looked at it. This is one of the reasons I fell in love with our house 2 years ago. It was this porch and the cool yellow chair the previous owners left behind. I used to love my porch. I saw huge potential for it. Green plants. A sitting area. A place for the grandkids we didn't have yet to play on cooler days.

The porch is the first thing you see when you want to come into my house. The screen door sticks now. We've kind of fixed it but we really should replace it. Sally tore the screen out one day when she let herself out of the back door and then couldn't get back in. And then it started to rain. So she forced herself in the porch door.

So you come in through the screen door that sticks and you find yourself looking at the stuff on the once clean porch. The porch has now become the catch all. I swore that no box would come into the house unless it was put away right away. So several boxes with stuff that never found homes are still sitting on the porch. And other stuff has joined it. Stuff like bulk purchases of diapers, the roll top desk that didn't fit into the 2nd bedroom very well, all of the Partylite stuff that came with the double size kit from when I thought I was going to start selling Partylite again, the baby swing that is waiting for the next grandbaby that will want to swing in it, and everything else that has found it's way there for whatever reason. But where is all of this stuff supposed to go?

It's sad.

I need to reclaim my porch. And then put a cute comfy yellow chair on it. And some green plants. and a toy box for the little ones.

Anybody want to come help?

Questions I'd like answers to

• You know those commercials that say "4 out of 5 dentists recommend...."? How many free samples did they give to the dentists before they said "sure, we'd recommend your product"?
• The instructions on the box say to "pull corner to vent" before you microwave it. How much of a corner is that? 1/2 inch? 1/4 of the package?
• What exactly are "natural flavorings"? I mean, poop would be a "natural flavoring" but I sure wouldn't want it in my soda pop.
• Were the pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked jalapenos, bell, or Italian banana peppers?
• Who the heck ever thought to make gelatin? And did the idea gross them out as much as it does me?
• Whose mom decided what words were curse words?

see. these are the things that just pop in my head sometimes. what are yours?

2 Years, 3000 Visits, and a mind that can't hold a thought

So June 28th was the second birthday of this here blog. I missed it. 3000 visits we just surpassed. I missed that too this week. In the grand scheme of things I know that is only 28 visits a week. But I have to tell you that it still strikes me as funny that 28 people care what I have to say.

Hope your day is more exciting than mine.

• Everyone else in my house has decided that napping sounded like a good idea.
• I should be cleaning house but I can't get up the gumption.
• We should be out doing something fun but there isn't much to do in Omaha on a 4th of July. which is really sad when you give it any thought at all.
• Our thermostat has apparently given up the ghost. Or at least that is what we think the problem is. We'll see on Monday when I dare to call anybody about it. Good thing it's in the 70s and low 80s this weekend.
• I should really get to the birthday planning for little one.
• hubby's bday is Monday. We are celebrating tomorrow. I have no idea what we are doing beyond the chocolate chip cookies and lasagna he has asked for.
• It looks like I could have some red tomatoes in a few days. :)
• I asked hubby to get me a Diet Coke at the store earlier today. He brought back a 44 ounce fountain drink. I laughed. what was I going to do with 44 ounces of Diet Coke? um... it's gone. has been for about 3 hours.

I should really head to the grocery store. I wonder if Baker's is open?