Tribute to my Dad

I love these photos of my Dad and my grandmother.


Isn't this one great! He's in the middle. Classic 70's.






I love you so much Dad, thank you for your sense of humor, your testimony, your love and your good looks. Ha Ha!

A Force to be Reckoned With

Last Thursday a wave of crazy washed over me, and I wanted to do something exciting and different and new. So ...I knocked down a wall.
It was a half wall separating our kitchen and dinning room. I've wanted to do it for a long time, and Thursday was the day.
The kids watched me and Brooklyn kept saying "Put the wall back, put the wall back please!"

Sorry Brooklyn- that wall is never going to be back, but you can still look at it, for now it is a pile of trash in our yard waiting to be taken to the dump.

It was exhilarating doing something that awesome- I highly suggest to anyone out there whose wanted to take down a wall, TO DO IT. (whether that be literally or figuratively.) You'll feel like a force to be reckoned with.

Of course it only took 30 minutes to take it down, and 2 days to fix the hole in the floor, paint and lay tile. But whose thinking about that when the crazy waves come!

Also, one place you don't want to put your phone:

A flushing toilet. Cause you can pretty much kiss it goodbye.

Cause the flushing waters of a toilet are definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Branson

Sisters. Cousins.

My sister Danica and I.

Our daughters- Hmmm I wonder who belongs to who.

Finally Summertime

We went to "Dutch Wonderland" a amusement park for kids. Where Hunter and Brooklyn could go on any ride they want.

We have a membership to the zoo, and took our friends the Jensens. During our visit a big black snake about 10 feet long came out of the bushes where we were walking and slid right in between me and Brooklyn. I was screaming and children and adults all around us were screaming. Image if you saw a 10 foot snake loose in a ZOO!! I was to terrified to jump over the snake to save Brooklyn so suddenly a big black man came over and picked her up. She had no idea what was going on. Her mom is screaming, she is standing right next to a huge snake, and suddenly she is swept up in a strange mans arms. Well the snake finally slid off, and we all recovered. But about 5 min later we ran into a metal statue of a snake, and after the horrible experience with the loose snake outside- my friend Kristen jumped about 3 feet back screaming. It was a good laugh.

Kristen also had this MARVELOUS idea to have the kids throw rocks into a puddle. Well Hunter skipped the rock part and jumped right in. He had a great time.
We went camping this weekend, it was beautiful and wonderful. The only problem was the kids thought tent time was playtime and crawled all over us giggling til midnight.



We then played Frisbee Golf in the morning. Brad was really good.
I wasn't so hot at it. But Brooklyn picked up the words" Holy crap", from her daddy, and kept repeat it over and over again. We got to start watching what we say now!
And Brooklyn threw rocks in the lake, and tried not to get as much into the water as possible, without getting her clothes wet.

Midsummer Nights Dream

I was recently in the community's college production of "A Midsummer Nights Dream". I haven't been in a show for 4 years. SO it was fun be back on the saddle again doing my same routine. The idea behind the show was the "Hollywood Hills", so my character had a Paris Hilton spin to it, so stiletto heels, and my hair is featuring a "bump it".
I loved getting time away from the kids and being in my element. But in the end I missed my family tremendously, and it will be hard to fit another one in. Plus it was really weird kissing a 19 year old boy, when I'm 30.

Brooklyn's 3rd Birthday

We had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday for Brooklyn. Since Daisy is her favorite character, we tried to dress her up as Daisy. (There is NOTHING you can buy for Daisy. There is stuff for every princess you can think of, but NO Daisy. Brooklyn does NOT like princesses.)

We had pin the bow on Daisy.

"Don't Wake the Giant" (Brad was the Giant)

No party is complete without blanket and Mr. Bear that go with her everywhere.

She got ALOT of chalk. But she LOVES it.

Her 5 year old friend, Sophie had all the kids tear down the crepe paper, wrap it around their heads, and anyone who had a juice cup and a goodie bag- was in the "Indian club".

I'm especially proud of this little number. It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. You make think it's not that awesome- but it was a big step for me- because I always just use sprinkles on top.

I also made a Mickey Mouse head pinata. As soon as the children starting hitting it. Brooklyn ran inside the house and hid in her room because she didn't like to see the kids hitting Mickey. I had to gather some candy for her. I'll know next year no violence to favorite Disney characters. (But I probably could get away with a princess.)

Happy Birthday Brooklyn! I'm so proud of you! Now I wish you would go to the potty!

Car Repair

I'm turning a new leaf and developing a valuable skill. I've had the privilege of fixing up my car twice in a month! I fixed the rear brake pads on the Saturn one weekend. My friend from work helped me out. He's experienced and has all the right tools...including a torque wrench! Then about a week later the serpentine belt exploded when Celeste was driving to rehearsal. Turns out the tensioner pulley disintegrated and that was the end of the belt. So I replaced the tensioner and replaced the belt. Replacing the belt involved jacking up the engine and taking off an engine mount. Again, my friend came and helped me since I was nervous embarking on such a dangerous mission. Nonetheless, the belt got replaced and the car runs great! It turns out that there are a lot of little repairs on your car that are pretty manageable. I'm excited to see what breaks next!