So far behind...part II

Friday night (the 14th) my mom called me at around 10:00 to say that Laura from Never the Same had called to say that she had "won" 2 gift bags for the Girlfriend's Shopping Weekend. So, Saturday morning my mom went to the store to get the canvas bags. We weren't really sure what all was involved, but we were up for just about anything.

We were to register at the Hotel Fredrich by 9:30 where we received the goodies and a scavenger hunt list. Let me just say that these bags were STUFFED with all kinds of fun little treatsies (my new word--it'll be totally over-used for a while)!!!! This included: a bottle of water, a coupon for free batteries from Radio Shack (perfect since my camera was still lacking the 2 fresh Obama batteries, remember?), a coupon for BOGO at Girlfriends, samples of Face Food, some deli tongs, some lipstick, a measuring spoon, a jingle buddy with a coupon to Main Street Gift Gallery, a coupon for a cookie from Taylor's, a week free at Curves, lotion, a shoe horn, etc, etc, etc. On the list were local businesses that we had to visit. At one of the appliance stores, Stevens TV, we had to find out the name of the owner's dog. At Curves we had to try out some of the machines. It was so much fun that we are thinking about going next year!! We missed out on the Friday night festivities which included a pajama party, karaoke at Jim's Place (I heard I REALLY missed out on something there!), wine and cheese tasting, etc. We had so much fun, so thanks to Vanessa for organizing it!!

Since I hadn't really planned on doing much for the day, I REALLY needed some caffeine. We decided that our first stop would be for a little late breakfast & some sort of fancy-named coffee drink. Here we were to sample something....what was it? Cake, of course!

Thanks to Dawn for making a delish drink....yum!

Then we went across the street to Imhoff's Hometown Appliance Store where we received these super-cute (and mighty tasty) teacup cookies!

Then it was on to Intensive Hair to retrieve this message

Next stop: Celestial Body Aromatherapy for some essential oil sniffing. My fave? Lavender. (If anyone's wanting to splurge for Christmas, this gong fountain would surely fit the bill...it was like $2300.00, but oh-so peaceful!)

Vanessa's collection? Flamingos, of course!!
We stopped to get the name of the frog in the ladies' room at Jim's Place, searched Never the Same for the "Shutter" snowman, dropped in to see baby E at In Stitches (she wasn't there, though...sniff, sniff!), Stevens TV for the dog's name & then to a flower shop for a sign. Madisson had a basketball game so we took a small break and went to LSE for game 1 of the season. She didn't get to play because of a mixup with her physical (another blog, another time). They ended up losing mainly because Madisson didn't play. That's the supportive mother-ly thing to say, right?!

Anyway, after the game Madisson joined us on our trip to Radio Shack to get our free batteries & learn about the Samsung tele on display. Next stop: Dave's Country Market to try cheese...I love me some cheese. They had caraway havarti (YUM) & some mozzarella. We all decided that we liked the havarti best. Since we were getting hungry, we picked up Kat & intended to go to Louise's Tea Room for lunch. We had to stop there anyway to discover the "Pie of the Day". (Cherry for those of you that are interested!) Louise was already gone for the day so we just chugged on with our mission to completely fill our answer sheets. We're such over-achievers...we only needed 10 of them but we were having such fun that we didn't want to stop!! We went to Gordon Jewelers to learn about Troll beads & see the gorgeous yellow diamond that was bargain priced at a mere $16,000. We walked out of there with a new Precious Moments figurine (from '04, but still new to me!) & some pink hand sanitizer. Off to Main Street Gift Gallery to learn the temperature at which glass melts: 980 degrees. My mom was in stitcher-person heaven since she discovered that they sell DMC embroidery floss--the only place in B-ville & nearly CoMo now, too!

Our last stops were at Curves where we tried a few machines, visited with Jafra about the "Royal Jelly" & learned that the At Home America special was the Chip & Dip Bowl. We got a tour of the Garden Gate Bed & Breakfast's bedrooms (3, to be exact!) & then went back to the Hotel to see who won the prizes! My mom won a cleaning set courtesy of Stevens TV & I won a gift basket full of fun coffee-like things.

There were some rather rude "girlfriends" who were being ungrateful about the prizes they won..."I'm allergic to real trees", "My daughter doesn't live here", "I don't want this phone". With that said, I hope I wasn't contributing to the problem but I offered to trade my basket with the winner of the Christmas tree. My main objective was to offer an option for someone allergic to trees. Of course, I think the real motive there was to be put back in the pile in hopes of being drawn for the grand prize of a night's stay at the Hotel. Hmmmm....

Since we hadn't eaten lunch, we decided that a little LaHa was in order. What a great ending to a fun-filled day of Girls!!

BTW: I ended up with the Starr Pines Tree!!

So far behind...part I

This part will be the New Kids on the Block concert trip! Lorea, Johanna, Kim & I decided back in May or June that we just HAD to re-live old times and check out NKOTB in St Louis! We had a great time, which included a trip to the Des Perez mall. (That's apparently pronounced "Day Pa-ray" for those of you who don't know. Don't worry...I sounded like all the other "foreign" out-of-towners and pronounced it just like it looks, too. I'm so imaginative.)

Anyway, after lunch at T-Bell, we stopped at the mothership of all shopping fanatics to ooh and aah at the pricey items they had on "SALE".

I tried these on, but decided not to buy them because they don't seem to cover my ENTIRE face! I look like a dang owl! Hoo hoo...
After we left the mall we decided to stop to grab some liquid treatsies to enjoy before the concert. Luckily, Kim brought along some snacks that prevented us from eating in establishments that feel the need to post this on the door:

Does this mean that they don't SERVE animals either? Hmmmmm.....

I only have about 5 photos taken with my sucky phone at the concert since I didn't take my camera with me. I ASSUMED that no cameras would be allowed, but apparently I was the only fool that didn't get the message: FORGET YOUR CAMERA AND YOU'll BE THE ONLY FEMALE IN THE ENTIRE SCOTTRADE CENTER WITHOUT ONE!!! Also, my stinkin' batteries died on me before we even left the hotel room....Again, typical! But, in my defense, someone traded 2 of my fresh new Obama batteries for 2 old, stinky, near death, tease you with a handful of pictures before I call it quits batteries. (Kat claims that they were "on the couch"...huh? Don't think so, sister. Try that song and dance on someone who doesn't take photos every single moment of the day...) Anyway, here's one of the photos of Joey, Danny, Donny, Jon & Jordan....ah, sweet memories.

If Johanna wants to "donate" some of her pics, there are great ones to be seen of us hallway surfing on the luggage cart. It's so nice to know that when the kids aren't around, we do all of the things we would totally yell at them for even thinking about. I guess they will too, one of these days!!

A Bunch of Nothing!!!

Well, it's been quite some time since my last post, so here I am at 9:28 p.m. on Tuesday trying to think of something interesting to say. Hmmmmm. I've got to get 3 kids to bed, do a load of laundry, take a bath (I'm 2nd in line, so that'll be a while), pick up the living room & figure out what I want to say. Not interesting at all. Since I'm not having much luck, I PROMISE to pick back up tomorrow. I've got some fun pics of our girls trip to STL for the NKOTB concert, the Girlfriend's Shopping Weekend pics, some of our "watch" party (yeah, I know...the election was weeks ago!!) & a little day trip to COMO. I'm utterly aware of how far behind I am in my posts & have every intention of getting them caught up within the next day or so. Please be patient! :) See ya soon!!!

The Week of Halloween...Part 3

It's finally here!! TRICK OR TREAT!!

My Halloween was a little bit of a reality check this year. If we didn't have Aidan, Dustin & I would have been going solo. We would have been those "old" people that sit at home and pass out candy while the other parents are off dragging their kid from neighborhood to neighborhood searching for the best candy. Sad...34 years old and no Halloween costumes or fun meals or treatsies to pass out to the kids? Thank goodness for our 3 1/2 year-old dose of kid-ness! Katarina went to a bonfire at a friend's house while Madisson trick-or-treat"ed" with her 8 girlie friends & one Mark Dad. (Thanks so much Mr. D for "volunteering" your Friday evening and being drug around downtown B-ville instead of chill-axing at home with the fam!)

Dustin made Mouse Meatloaves (I found the recipe, and therefore deserve ALL credit!) & ghost mashed potatoes for dinner

The plate looks a little empty, huh? No green veggies & no fruit? What's up with that?!

Katarina saved the evening--she ended up eating with us since her bonfire didn't start until 7. Madisson went to her friends house right after basketball practice, so I had to call them to tell them to stop by for a few quick pics! (Anyway, imagine Dustin, my mom and I sitting around eating mouse meatloaves & ghost mashed potatoes for dinner by ourselves...SAD!)

Kat is a Ceiling Fan!

Madisson and her friends dressed up in their pj's for a very strange sleep-over!

And, my all-time favorite Laundry Basket costume, is...............

EASY MAC!!!!
These are really cute (if I do say so myself!!) and simple laundry basket costumes that the girls wore in 2005!

A pretty poinsettia! And a scrumptious cupcake!

If you've got any cute laundry basket costume ideas, send 'em my way!!

Happy Halloween & Happy November!

The Week of Halloween...Part 2

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Dustin & me at the Rally in CoMo! We were among 43,000 other supporters!

I realize that these photos aren't the greatest, but....I've taken pictures of our next President...have you?!

(I promise that he's there...see the guy in red? go over to the left about an inch!)

Don't forget to vote on November 4th! (Unless, of course, you're planning on voting for McCain!)

Go ahead....comment, comment, comment!!!

The Week of Halloween...Part 1

Here's our annual carve-o-rama. We found the perfect pumpkins at Hy-Vee and they were huge...and only $3.99 each!! Our finished jack-o's didn't turn out as great as they have in years past, but they're still ones that we're quite fond of.

Dustin did all of the lid carving

Dustin with his lid

This is Aidan's main contribution to the evening...scraping dirt off of the pumpkins.

Katarina browsing the stencil book for an idea

Madisson checking out another book looking for the perfect peace sign

Okay, so here are some of the silly pictures. Madisson wanted to try pumpkin in it's raw form. Needless to say she didn't think it tasted as good as it does when in pie shaped slices surrounded by crust & cool whip!

Then of course comes Katarina. I don't know how to explain this photo...it's pretty much typical Katarina.

Aidan and Katarina pounding peace-sign pegs into Kat's lantern
Aidan enjoyed playing with his pumpkin lid after scooping out the squishy guts

I'm going to have to run out and take pictures of the pumpkins sitting on the porch to show final creations. My hands were so full of "gook & stuff" that I didn't dare touch my camera that night. Quite honestly I didn't realize that I hadn't taken the finished photos until just now! I'll be right back.......(pretend like you're waiting for me).......................................................................I'm finally back!

Okay, try to stay with me. Madisson messed up her pumpkin and decided to let Katarina "finish" it for her. In turn, Katarina let Madisson carve her pumpkin for her. Katarina put peace sign pegs into Aidan's pumpkin since he was only interested in playing in the squishiness of the "guts".

Aidan's/Katarina's "Peace" Jack

Katarina's/Madisson's Jack

Dustins's Giant Grin Jack

And, of course, this is my Mickey Jack

I don't have a photo to show of Madisson's/Katarina's House Jack because there was so little of it left after Katarina the hacker got finished with it that it only lasted a day until it slumped over into a limp pumpkin mess. But here's an old Halloween photo to make up for it!

Yes!!!

The Pumpkin Patch trip finally came!! The kids were all so excited that the weather cooperated and the first field trip of the year actually happened!

Since I went too (along with some other parents & a grand-parent), Aidan rode with me. He's very good at navigating and telling me when to stop at red & go at green!(Recognize the sweater?!)

Right away, the kids all went running to the hay bales STOCKED with the pumpkins. Aidan found the one he wanted within 3 minutes of our van pulling into the parking lot!

Here's the preschool crew posing in front of the hay horse. It was sunny, but it was chilly!

After visiting the overly chatty donkeys, we went on a hayride to the patch of tiny pumpkins. During the ride is when it happened...my camera batteries called it quits.

Anyway everyone got to pick their own little pumpkin. Aidan immediately found one that was stemless. We carefully put it back on the ground and searched for one with a stem. While we were taking the prize pick to Nikki to have Aidan's name put on it, Jackson picked up the same stemless pumpkin & I heard Johanna say "Jackson, let's find one with a stem!".

By the end of the trip 2 pigs had frolicked, 5 goats had been fed, 1 chicken had been chased, 10 pumpkins had been picked & 10 kids got very muddy! What a great trip!

Thanks to Kim & Nikki for taking us!