Ah, The Memories....

This is what Keaton looks like after spending a few minutes on a slip-n-slide that's layed out in the hot sun on top of freshly cut grass. Man, I miss those days.

* Crappy cell phone photo

4 Wheelin'

Today Scott, Izzy and I hopped on the 4 wheelers in Cassville and rode to and through Hailey Hollow. It was so much fun. I love riding these things, but I'm not really into hill climbing or crawling over rocks sideways, etc. This is more my thing. Like a trail ride. We had a blast. I totally enjoyed it.

Woo Hoo, I Am Friends With A Pool Owner

I spent last night in Fordland with Lisa and Larry and got to see their Memorial Weekend project in progress. Actually it was mostly done when I got there, but they did finish filling it last night and this morning Larry shocked it and is busy checking the PH balance. I bet they're swimming by tomorrow.

Pampering The Droid

Months ago, when I first got my Droid, a friend of mine recommended I go to Best Buy and get a Zagg screen protector for it. Which I did. But I had never bothered to apply it until tonight. Mostly because it says after you adhere it to your phone you have to let it dry for 12 - 24 hours and since it's my only phone of any sort I just haven't invested that kind of time. But I just got back from a road trip last night and I've got no major plans for the next day or two, so I decided to get it done tonight. Lisa invited me out to Fordland to spend the night and catch up with her, so I just took it with me and did it there.

Route 66 Roadtrip Continued

We spent the night in Weatherford, Oklahoma and continued our trip today. We stopped at two different Route 66 museums this morning, so it took us about 4 hours to get over to Texola, Oklahoma and cross into Texas. This was our turning around point and since we had already seen everything we wanted to see we just drove the interstates back home. We pulled into mom's driveway at 8:30 pm.

It was a great trip. The only regret I have is that I didn't take more pictures.

Route 66 Roadtrip

This morning Jessica and I left her house in Seligman at 6:00 am and began our journey through Oklahoma on the Mother Road. There are so many things to see... i took so many pictures. My favorite part of the whole thing was The Blue Whale in Catoosie. I had always heard about this icon and had seen numerous pictures of it in Route 66 blogs, so I was extremely excited to finally get there in person. This is the one object I took the most pictures of. And I talked about it for 3 days afterwards. And I want to go back and see it again. I'm such a dork.

Oklahoma Route 66 Roadtrip Begins Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning Jessica and I are leaving at 6:00 am to begin our epic adventure through the state of Oklahoma. We are going to travel the length of Route 66 and see all the old tourist traps. I am so excited. I love Route 66.

Last Christmas she asked for a summer trip instead of a Christmas present. And since my interest in the mother road has resulted in her being interested in it, I decided this would be a cool trip to take. Today is their last day of school in Washburn, so I've come down to Seligman to spend the night and get everything ready to go.

Oops, I Did It Again!

Wow, looks like I forgot to take a picture today. I slipped up again. Tonight Izzy came over and ate dinner with us. We walked around the block and played some Rock Band after we ate. And I forgot to take a picture. :(

New Moon

I had a busy weekend and I feel like unwinding and relaxing, so I invited myself over to my sister Wendy's house to watch New Moon. I love the Twilight books and so I feel a need to also see the movies. But I'm not gonna lie... the movies really are not that good if you have read the books. They leave out so much and the movies are so freaking emo. Yes, there is a lot of emotions in the books. But the movies portray Bella as constantly sad and pouty and Edward is always sullen and reflective, etc. In the books those moods happen, but they also have moments of happiness and laughter and they smile at each other because they are in love. Seriously, I don't care for the way they made the movies. I urge you all to read the books.

Renaissance Fair

Last year I took Marshall & Dillon to the St. Louis Ren Fair and they loved it so much I promised them we could do it again this year. But I didn't want to leave Charlie out so we brought him along too. The trip is my treat. Just something I do to make sure I spend enough quality time with the kids. Today was Charlie's first time at one of these and he really enjoyed it. I gave them each $20 for spending money, but they were all bummed to learn that they weren't allowed to purchase any type of weapon. Because of course that's the only thing they wanted. I felt bad they were so disappointed but we had a great day regardless and I really enjoyed my "boys day".

Side note: Charlie spent Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday morning with me and I didn't find out until the next Tuesday that he had shaved off his eyebrows completely before he got to my house and no one knew he had done it. I can't believe I never noticed. I kept looking at him because something did look different... but he's also lost 30 pounds in the past 2 months and his face is changing as he's getting thinner. So I just kept thinking that's what looked different. But now as I look back through the pics I took, it's pretty obvious that he's missing his eyebrows. His parents, his sister and my mom never noticed either once I took him back home. Once it was discovered they were not amused.

Big Trip Tomorrow

Tomorrow I am taking 3 of my nephews (Charlie, Marshall & Dillon) to the St. Louis Ren Fair and to save time I have them all spending the night at my house so we can have the car packed and just get up and go in the morning. But we had to entertain them tonight so Scott, Izzy and I took them bowling and then to Andy's for some custard. Here they are actually sitting down for a few brief moments. Trust me, it didn't last long. These boys are hyper.

BBQ & Rock Band

Summertime is so much fun if you have good friends to hang out with. Tonight we hosted a BBQ and Rock Band party at the house with 8 or 9 great friends. Scott grilled some burgers and brats to go with the potato salad, beans, chips and dip and Izzy brought some Angel food cake for dessert. I even broke out the ice cream maker and made a batch of chocolate ice cream. It was a great night. And every time we have people over I get so carried away being a hostess that I always forget to take a picture. So here's some of the aftermath after everyone left and the rock band instruments were abandoned.

Silver Dollar City - Trip # 4

I seriously love this place and even though having my job taken away from me sucked, it has allowed me to spend a lot of time at SDC this year. Normally I only get 2 or 3 trips each year and so far this season I've now been 4 times. That is so awesome. Today I went with DJ, Jordi and Cordell and we had so much fun. They all have season passes now, so I really hope I get a chance to go back with them again this year. It did rain on us, which cuts down the fun a bit, but we bought poncho's and carried on. The only real problem I had with the rain is that I had to put my camera away and make sure it stayed completely dry so I didn't get very many pictures.

Incredible Pizza

I FINALLY went to Incredible Pizza for the first time tonight. I've been wanting to check it out since it first hit town years ago, but had never had the opportunity. Until Jordi invited me to go with her and Cordell tonight before our planned Silver Dollar City trip tomorrow. The pizza buffet was really good, the different places to sit were neat. And of course they have ice cream... AWESOME! I was disappointed to discover they only had 1 pinball machine and it wasn't working. I love pinball. But I had fun playing skee ball, guitar hero and all the other games. Also got to watch Jordi and Cordell try to play Dance Dance Revolution... and fail. Ha, it was so cute. In fact, I had so much fun I totally forgot to take my photo of the day while I was there and had to settle for a cell phone pic of my game card. Close enough. :)

My Plant Missed Me

I'm finally home again for a night or two before my next adventure begins. I can tell this poor plant in front of our garage has missed me.

The Wedding, Part 4

I know you're probably wondering why the title of this post is still referring to the wedding even though the wedding took place yesterday. But the picture is of Sabrina's son Ashton and I think it's pretty obvious that the whole stress of preparing for and participating in the big day proved to be a bit too much for the poor little guy. He's lost his little mind.

The Wedding, Part 3

It's official. The happy couple has tied the knot.

The Wedding, Part 2

Friday night means rehearsal night. The wedding was originally supposed to take place in Grandma's back yard. But since it's been raining non-stop for days and it's still raining, Todd and Sabrina had to make the last minute decision today to move the wedding indoors somewhere. The church Sabrina attends was available, so we scrambled to let everyone know and then headed down for rehearsal. Even though there were last minute changes, it all worked out okay. Just ignore the fact that in the above picture, the groom and groomsmen and the bride and bridesmaids are standing on the wrong sides of the preacher. We straightened them out and rehearsed it again.

The Wedding, Part 1

This weekend my amazing cousin Sabrina is getting married to a wonderful man named Todd. This is big news in the family because Sabrina is everyone's favorite. She's just so sweet and always does more for us than she needs to. She just doesn't have a bad bone in her body, so we are all extremely excited about her new happiness and upcoming wedding. I'm so excited that I've come down to Cassville a few days early so that I can offer my help with the preparations while also documenting the whole affair. This is Thursday night, the wedding is on Saturday. As you can see, the bride is attempting to use tulle to make some bows... and she doesn't quite have it figured out yet. See, this is where I should be helping. But it's more fun to make fun of her and take pictures of her confusion. Lol.

I Love Nature

Today was a really cool day to be outside paying attention to nature. The weather is starting to be really warm consistently and the animals are stirring. I spotted this lizard in the rock garden while he was drinking from a puddle of water on a rock. I wish I had a picture of that, but my camera was in the house at the time. After staring at him for several minutes I decided to go grab my camera. When I came back out, he was no longer drinking, but I did spot him trying to climb the deck. Hoping I was guessing his path correctly, I positioned myself where I thought he might pass and managed to get a really good pic of the little guy. I love lizards. They are really quite pretty.

After I bragged about my photo skills and showed everyone my pics, my nephews came running in the house all excited because they found a baby snapping turtle. This thing is seriously so tiny I can't believe they spotted it in the first place. The first picture is of Dillon holding it... keep in mind he's only 13 so he does not have huge hands. The turtle is tiny. In the second pic, the turtle is in the bottom of a 16 oz Styrofoam cup. Can you wrap your head around that? I want you to understand how little this thing really is. It was so cute. It is a snapping turtle though, so it won't remain cute much longer. They took it down to the creek and released it at the water's edge.

Late Night Bonding

Takara is in love with Scott and when he's around she basically has no idea that I even exist. Then when Scott goes to bed and shuts the door, she sits outside his room and cries for him. But eventually she'll realize he's not coming back anytime soon and she comes running to me, suddenly interested in me and desperate to lay on my lap. Yes, I get so irritated that she ignores me all day long. But then she does this and I can't help but smile.

Fun With Jordi

Tonight I had a blast running around with my amazing friend Jordi. As you can see, we really know how to fill an evening. We started off with lobster and crab legs, then went and saw the movie "Babies" at the Moxie and finally topped the evening off with some Andy's frozen custard. What a perfect evening.

Mother's Day

I know it's strange that my Mother's Day post doesn't feature a picture of my mother, but this is dad doing what he does best... grilling some burgers for us to enjoy. Chuck, Ruthie, the kids and I all went over and had dinner at their house.

It Looks More Comfortable Than The Couch

I'm spending the night with Chuck and Ruthie and since Charlie's new air mattress is currently blown up in the living room, I get to sleep on it instead of the couch I normally sleep on. It looks so comfortable, I can't wait to go to bed.

** UPDATE: the mattress was comfortable and I probably would have enjoyed sleeping on it all night... except that Charlie decided he wanted to sleep there too and after about an hour of him rolled over on top of me snoring in my ear and kneeing me in the stomach, I decided to let him have the thing to himself. I got up and slept on the couch.

Ruthie's Graduation

My sister-in-law is now an official college graduate. Woot! She just received an Associates Degree in the Paralegal field and this week has already been interviewed for a possible job. I'm so proud of her.

Kids Are So Weird

Tonight I went down to my cousin Sabrina's house so that I could go watch Ashton and Abbi play summer ball. When I got there, Sabrina was in the shower and Ashton was sitting at the bar eating a snack before the game. He claimed it was an energy snack. Take a look at that mess. For one thing, it's a huge bowl. About 10 times more food than he can even eat. But the weird part is the contents. It's his own original recipe. Microwave buttered popcorn and colored Goldfish mixed together with grape jelly. Yuck.

Happy Cinco De Mayo

I don't normally pay much attention to Cinco De Mayo, but for some reason I got a wild hair tonight and thought it would be a good idea to go out and have a drink or two. Scott and Kim agreed so we headed over to Parlor 88. None of us had ever been there but I have heard some really good reviews. And I am so glad we checked it out. It's my new favorite place to have a drink. For one, they have a huge drink menu which includes 88 martinis, 88 wines and 88 beers. They also have frozen ice cream drinks, and hot coffee drinks. And other stuff in between. Second, they are not shy with their alcohol. I ordered a strawberry mojito to begin with and it was one of the strongest drinks I've ever had at a bar. Totally worth the money. We sat out on the patio and it was just such a relaxing atmosphere. I love this place.

My New Drapes Are Up

Last week I bought some new drapes for my bedroom window, but failed to realize at the time that they required drapery hooks. Which Walmart doesn't seem to have. But I was finally able to get some today at Kmart and went straight home to hang them up. they look so pretty.

I Love Ebay

Today my latest Ebay purchase came in the mail. Yay! It's a little scanner/converter that allows you to scan 4x6 pictures, negative strips and photo slides onto your computer and make jpegs out of them. Now I can make digital copies of all of my old pictures from my childhood and can convert all of Grandma and Grandpa's old slides into a dvd slideshow of pictures. It will take a long time and a lot of work, but it's gonna be totally worth it.

Work Day

Today was a work day at Grandma's house. Sabrina's wedding will be held in Grandma's yard on the 15th, so we spent all day finishing some work on the railing, power washing all of the decks, and cleaning the siding and the roof. Of course, I have to admit that I didn't do much work. But I did spend all day documenting the progress. I love work days.

Larry's Birthday BBQ

Today Scott and I got up early and drove to Carthage so that Scott could bowl in a tournament with Shawn. For the practice and for the fun of it. He didn't come in last, so he's pretty proud of himself. Lol.

After that was over we rushed back home and grabbed some party supplies and then headed out to Fordland to celebrate Larry's birthday with him. Larry is the husband of one of my dearest friends in the world and he was also the captain of our recent bowling league. So we were excited to go hang out with his family and friends. He made some amazing pulled pork and brisket and then we all cracked open our coolers, set up the lawn chairs and played washers and bean bag toss. It was a great day.