Busy would be an understatement

Beauty in the Common Things: rain. Some began developing in our area and then it made a complete circle around our neighborhood, literally. No rain. 106 degrees. Relief...please!

Listen In: Minute to Win It. I'd like to try these games they play on here. However I wouldn't do them in low cut shirts like these women on here. Goodness...

Dinner Plans: I'm trying to wait until the weekend to grocery shop, so we are pulling out all the freezer favorites like chicken nuggets!

View from the Kitchen Window: No rain. Looks like rain, but again...you guessed it....no rain.

August is almost over and has gone by very fast. Like the previous post says, Daniel was gone for a week. As soon as he gets back, we completed Grant's new room transformation. New paint, new carpet, and a new bunk bed that took forever to put together. However, the results were great for Grant's new 'cowboy' room!

He was SO excited!

I modified the valances that came with the comforters, refurbished the end table, and repurposed some decorations and organizers. The bed has built in drawers so we didn't have to purchase separate storage.

A week later, my family and friends gathered to celebrate my Masters degree graduation. All the events were supposed to be a surprise...but...a glance of a text and too many clues later, I figured some of it out. Either way I was appreciative of everyone's efforts and excited to celebrate. I also give Daniel props for planning this event on the ONE day in August that wasn't over 100 degrees.

We ate dinner and enjoyed some custom cookies Daniel had made.

From there, we went to one of those go-cart/arcade/mini golf entertainment places. Grant and Corbin LOVED mini golf, the 3 year old version. In this version, you grab any ball you see and throw it and try to make it into the hole. You do this as fast as you can by any means necessary. That even includes stealing stranger's balls as they about to make their shot!
Grant and Corbin also enjoyed air hockey and the other arcade games. Corbin won the jackpot (over 1100 tickets) on one game. I hit 900 on another. We were able to get the most JUNK out of everyone because of our winnings.

That next week we started back to school. Meeting after meeting, then here comes the kids the next Monday. We are on day 4 of the first week of school and I forget how exhausting it can be. Our feet hurt, our heads hurt, and we are living off take out and items from the back of the freezer. We are ready for the weekend!

When Daddy is Away, and the Heat Wave Comes In...

When Daddy is away, and the heat wave rolls in...

You dance in the car with your froggy boots on.

You pull out Mommy's old dolls for pretend time (whether they are clothed or not!)

You trap giant dinosaurs...

...but share your apple juice with the little ones.

You try out your artistic side...
...but you get messy, too!

You go surfing on the front porch.

You show your Mom you can help her bake a cake, even if you are left handed.


You sit still and do what you're told while getting a hair cut, but no one said you had to like it!

You watch a Disney movie from your Mom's childhood and share popcorn with her. Bonus: You get to stay up way past your bedtime!

Ode to My 2nd Favorite Red Head

Today would have been Lucille Ball's 100th birthday. I found out thanks to the Hallmark Channel running an all weekend long "I Love Lucy" marathon. How could I not know such a thing ahead of time? Lucy is my lady. She has been for quite a while. I will say I'm not such a crazed fan as some, but I am a great admirer of her work.

Google is paying tribute to her birthday today as well.

Of course, I only know her from reruns, after her death thanks to DFW's channel 33. In elementary school I remember watching it before bedtime and on Saturday mornings. Then I began to get things to view my admiration. First came the t-shirts. I made my Mom drive an hour away in Dallas to a little store I heard sold them (you know, BEFORE the internet!). I wore them to school, in jr. high, and even though she wasn't as cool as the Mossimo shirts at the time (haha, Mossimo), I showed Ms. Lucy off. I don't remember anyone asking, "Who is THAT?" Knowing me if they did, I felt embarassed and was reluctant to wear it again. T-shirts turned into more than that over the years. I named one of my dogs Lucy, in fact. In fact, when I lived on my own after college, my guest room was the "I Love Lucy" room. When I got married, I felt I had to scale it down because I'm sure Lucy is looked at as a little girly. It was hard, but I parted with a few items. Today, you can still a few items lurking about.

I dressed as Lucy for Halloween in college. I bought the wig out of a catalog, made the apron, and took an old dress from my granmother's closet. My husband and I started dating the day I wore this costume. He claimed he knew who Lucy was but never saw an episode. I continued to date him despite that awful remark!

Here is a color picture of the costume. Me with SFA Preseident Dr. Tito Guerrero.
I told him he could be my Ricky if he wanted to (such a cute little man!)

The few pictures/signs I kept are hanging over my scrapbook area.

This is an advertisement that Lucy did for Max Factor makeup. My brother found it in an old magazine and framed it for me.

Lucy, thank you for giving us the best show of all time. As a marketing teacher, I talk about it being the most recognizable show and longest running show in syndication on TV of all time. You won't find curse words on her show or anything close to it. You won't find teen pregnancies, homosexuals, or too much skin. Its the farthest things from today's TV shows and maybe that is what makes it such a hit today. Who wouldn't want to live in Lucy's world? Best friends next door, so handsome exotic husband, son who always behaves and is musically gifted, perfect hair and outfits, and movie stars always just showing up. Not to mention all the laughter.


Lucy, thank you for giving your kids some brains. Have you thought about how much her children make from royalty payments?? That is something else we talk about in my marketing class. All those reruns, all those t-shirts, shower curtains, books, etc. They have to have permission from her estate and her estate gets money from it (or that is how I understand it atleast). What if her kids held on to all those reruns and pictures? Then generations of people couldn't enjoy such things.

Someone gave this to me as a gift. The mints were AWFUL, but I loved the tin it came in.

Although I know my 3 year old son won't stop to enjoy you now, Lucy, I hope one day when I say "Lucy, I'm home!" he won't think I'm crazy. Also, one day I hope to actually learn Spanish so I can translate all the mean things Ricky says to you!



~Did You Know?

• "I Love Lucy" started as a radio show called "My Favorite Husband"



• Lucy was shy as a child



• Lucy was the first pregnant woman on TV. Before, it had been hidden.



• Lucy's real hair color is chesnut brown



• Lucy was the first woman to run a major production studio

Great quote from Lucy: "Love yourself first, and everything else will fall into place."

Staycation

According to the popular resource Wikipedia, a staycation is a neologism for a period of time in which an individual or family stays and relaxes at home, possibly taking day trips to area attractions. It became popular in the U.S. during the financial crisis between 2007-2010. The term was added to Webster's Dictionary in 2009.

Well, I'm pretty sure that staycations have spilled over into 2011, or alteast they have for our family. We decided to do a quick one yesterday that ended up nothing like we expected.
We traveled to Grapevine, TX to the Grapevine Mills Mall. This is no regular mall. This is tourist central. We have been several times, never to shop.

The first stop was the Rainforest Cafe. We have eaten there a few times, but always ended up eating in the bar area because of the long wait. We decided to stick it out for a late lunch, so we ate next to a giant cheetah, some gorillas. If you've never been there, the atmosphere is pretty neat, but the food isn't that great. You are paying for the scenery. Grant enjoyed it, that is what mattered.

Grant and the tree frog Rainforst Cafe mascot.

Animatronic croc

There is so much to look at and its to dark in there, we were just glad to get this one picture.

From there, we went to the other side of the mall for the new attraction, the SeaLife Aquarium. It just opened last night and Daniel has been wanting to visit.

Grant and nurse shark

Neat shot of Daniel and sting ray in the walk 360 aquarium walkthrough According to the aquarium's website, it said it would take 2-3 hours to go through. It took us 30 min. It was crowded, hot, and they didn't have more than some fish, some murals, and a place to pet starfish (which Grant didn't even want to do). Needless to say, we weren't happy with our experience.

Bad news. We had to pick my parents up at the airport at a certain time and we thought we wouldn't have free time before their arrival. Oops.

Ok, so a trip to the Bass Pro Shop then. We walked around looking at the well taxidermed animals and spent all our quarters at the arcade.

Still almost 2 hours to kill. Ok, on to see The Smurfs Movie. With the help of GPS, we finally found the movie theater we were looking for. Tickets were sold out.

Still almost 1 and a half hours to kill. Ok, so a snack is in order. We drove around trying to find a little ice cream store or something. All we found was an Italian ice cream shop which I'm sure my son would be confused by.

Suddenly, I find a Target! We hit the snack bar for some cheap and yummy popcorn, a little rest, and the $1 aisle. This adventure would have been much easier if my boys liked to shop!!

On to the airport. I quickly made a Welcome Home MiMi and PawPaw sign out of a napkin (sad, I know) and headed to baggage claim.

Next time I think our staycation should include a hotel!

Friday Fun

Movie Fun

Chalk Fun

Cousin Fun

Earning our Family Badges

This summer I began getting the Disney Family Fun magazine. What cute ideas to share with others! Starting the month I got the magazine, they were starting a contest called Badges of Fun. Each month, your family can earn 'badges' for participating in a certain activity. Honestly, it just happens that we did the last two events at the same time it asked for these types of things, so I thought, "You have 2 down, you might as well finish!"

Last month we earned the Backyard Fun Badge by creating a campout in our backyard for Grant and Fletcher. See previous post.

This weekend, we earned the Hit the Road Badge.

We headed South. 1st stop: conquer those go-carts. Earlier in the week, our go-cart outing didn't turn out as planned (see previous post), so we ran by for some quick 'racing'. From there, it was time to head East. East Texas is nothing but basically backroads and small towns. So part of the badge earning experience, we decided to play a version of "I Spy". I made a list of things we had to look for and count on our road trip.

• Dead animals - 6



• Logging trucks - 1



• 'Road Gators' - 3



• Dairy Queen Restaurants - 3



• Side of the road bathroom breaks - 1



• "Don't Mess with Texas" road signs - 0

I'm about 100% sure we missed some dead animals and 'road gators' in there. I was sure we would see more logging trucks (East TX is all pine trees) and atleast 1 "Don't Mess with Texas" sign. Looks like TX wants me to litter. Sad.
We made it to Nacogdoches, the Oldest Town in Texas, without a hitch. We were there to spend the weekend with college friends of ours. We ate, shared memories, laughed, and I even did some crying. However, I did not get many pictures taken except this Christmas card worthy one of Grant in front of SFA's (our alma mater) football stadium with his new football. It was over 100 degrees outside but we managed to play a quick, super quick, game of football on the field.

Road tripping on the way back home was not as fun. We were all tired so the only thing "I Spy-ed" was the back of my eye lids.

~~I can see someone saying, "Huh? What is a road gator?!" That is a term I picked up for tire fragments on the road. They can be evil things!

1st Trip to the Dentist

Daniel had to go get his teeth cleaned today, so we decided that it was a good time to get Grant's teeth checked out as well. All 'the books' say to get a dentist appointment as soon as your child gets their first tooth. When I talked to actual dental professionals, they say thats not necessary. We just switched from toddler toothpaste to kid's so we thought it'd bee good timing for that reason as well.
To prepare our son, we talked about The Wonder Pets episode where the bird cleans the alligator's teeth and that the dentist is fun. He was excited to go, so no problems there. We arrived and Ms. Beth did a great job showing him everything. He sat still and did what he was told for his check up.
He got his goody bag when he was done, a toy out of the 'treasure chest', a sticker, and gum (from me).
As a reward (and a way to beat the heat), we went to a local movie theatre that has go-carts and an arcade. He was excited about the go-carts, which we have done before at this location. However, we get in line a realize that neither Daniel and I are wearing the proper footwear to drive the carts. I was expecting a fit from my red head, but he really didn't care. He ran in and was ready to play games!

Me and a hot little man on a bike, what a way to ride!

There is a small alternative to regular bowling at this place. Grant decided he wanted to bowl this way, which was ok since no one was there.
"Yeah! I knocked some down!"
He really would have spent his whole time trying to play this shooting game inside the 'jeep'
Interesting family portraits...haha. I'm pretty sure that how dirty a kid's shirt gets is an indicator of his/her day. Well here you go...time to break out the stain stick!