Summer Fun

What a great way to water the grass AND entertain the kids! Thank you Nana & Pops for the new water toy--as you will see, the kids love it! And as for all our videos--turn the music off at the bottom of this blog before viewing.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Birthday Baby Monkey!

We actually celebrated Nick's birthday a couple of weekends ago, since Bryan & I are doing the weekend drive-by-kid-handoff most weekends due to work. Here's Nick opening a few of his many presents--you'll need to turn the music off at the bottom of the blog.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Big Boy Beds

We thought it was about time to get Brandon a bigger bed when his feet started hanging off the edge of his racecar bed. Which was about a year ago. With Bryan's hectic work schedule and my grad degree workload, we never got around to getting that new bed. This entire time Brandon has stayed in that bed, with Tyler in his firetruck bed and Nick in the crib. Yes, Nick is just about 3-years old and is still in his crib. And we have enjoyed keeping the little monster in that cage, knowing that he will be free and loose to lurk around the house at night soon enough with his big-boy bed, when he should be asleep.

This is a somewhat sad time for us--we now have to get rid of the crib. The crib we bought in San Diego before Brandon was born.

All three of our boys came home from the hospital to this crib. While we are very happy to be moving on with our growing boys--it is very hard to let go of the memories associated with it.

Brandon & Tyler will switch out of the beds they've had for the last 3 years--the racecar bed and firetruck bed we bought to haul to San Diego for my temporary work assignment when I was pregnant with Nick.



Nick is very excited to be taking ownership of that firetruck bed, and Brandon is very happy to get a loft bed. He's not quite as happy about having a room to himself (he's going through the scared-of-the-dark phase.) Here was Nick's bedroom yesterday before Brandon's new bed arrived (ignore the mess):


Here they are now:

Sixth Annual 29th Birthday

Yeah, for years I have been telling everyone I was 29. It was perpetually my annual 29th birthday. Now that my metabolism has slowed down, my sight isn't what it once was (even after surgery), and gravity is taking it's toll--I figured it's about time to face reality. So, Happy Birthday to Me!!! And check this out, all you under-30 Whipper-Snappers! (courtesy of an e-mail from Shannon)

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning, uphill... barefoot....BOTH ways.

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

And, I remember promising myself that, when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it! But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And, I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid, we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen! Then, you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3s or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or, you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal - that's it! And, we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and ʽAsteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your Imagination!! And, there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen, forever! And, you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

And, we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove... imagine that!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

Blog Fart Friday

Blog Farts – noun. Def: Crappy ideas that are too short to make a real blog post, but when combined, join forces to make one unified, albeit half assed, post.

• Last weekend while hanging out at Wal-Mart (like all good small-town rednecks do), a new product caught my eye. It was a bottle with a picture of a red-cheeked, cartoon monkey on it. And by red cheeks, I'm talking about butt-cheeks. "Anti-Monkey Butt Powder" Check it out. They even have a special product line for ladies.


• Speaking of Wal-Mart (also where many of our life stories originate), I will not be nagging Bryan to go with me anymore. He chased me around the store talking like Borat. Yes, really.


• Headline on my local news website: "Walking, Biking to Work Linked with Better Fitness". Really? Where do they come up with this stuff?--what a smart, original idea to make the front "page"...come on, people.
• Brandon was watching Bryan surf the internet. He asked what Bryan was looking at, and learned it was eBay. He said he didn't know what eBay was, but he heard it on Transformers (the first movie). The things kids pick up from the movies...kind of worrisome, just thinking about some of the little things they could have absorbed from some PG-rated movies we let them watch.
  
  

Family Gamers

OK, It's offical. I am outnumbered by gamers in my house. Bryan started it--he's delved more and more into games in the last few years, and Brandon just couldn't help but get into all the shoot-em-up stuff, loud explosions and awesome graphics. Here they both are--one playing the big PS3, and the other with his little Nintendo DS (nevermind the date stamp on the picture--this is normal everyday stuff.)

Oh, but that was just the start. Now look who's been bitten by the gaming bug:



So, that makes three. And of course, whatever big brothes are doing, Nick wants to do. For now, he'll have to settle for a hand-me-down V-Smile from his brothers.

gunter glieben glauchen globen

Step inside, walk this way, you and me babe--HEY HEY! That's right--we glammed up and went to see the best bands on Earth:

(and Cheap Trick, but we don't really care about them.)

We've seen both bands before each on different tours, but we love their music so much that we'll continue to watch these old guys--rock of ages, still rollin'!

We kicked off our "date" with an early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (we've eaten there several times, and I still haven't actually had their cheesecake--always too full on their food!) We made it to the ampitheater just in time to grab some super-expensive beer and head to our seats, which were a few rows back from the stage extension into the crowd. First up was Cheap Trick--who played for about 20 minutes. One of the band members (I don't even know their names) threw an LP record into the crowd and almost took a woman's head off two rows in front of us. I only knew two of their songs, which they did a good job on, and then Poison took the stage. Bret Michaels and CeCe Deville had such energy--they put on a great show. I really think they upstaged Def Leppard. Don't get me wrong--I loved all the songs Def Leppard performed, but Bret Michaels really knows how to work the crowd. He made a point of touching the hands of every person on the front row, whether they wanted it or not. And their songs are so much upbeat and fun, in contrast to Def Leppard's heavier songs.

We had a great time--it was nice to cut loose with these bands we grew up with. And they may be old, but they still kick butt.

Blog Fart Friday

Blog Farts – noun. Def: Crappy ideas that are too short to make a real blog post, but when combined, join forces to make one unified, albeit half assed, post.

This week's farts (and they are very small--sorry. Not creative lately.):

• Have you ever tried to stack Q-tips just like they're packaged? Impossible. I have a decorative jar for Q-tips in our bathroom, and I can never get the them to sit nicely in there...they are all skewed and jumbled.


• This philosophical thought is from a Facebook friend: If you soak a raisin in water, does it turn back into a grape?


• One of the busy roads I take home has a big, bright green spot where a spray-paint can exploded. The can is still there at the curb. Wouldn't it suck if that was your car that hit that can?


• I think Captain Jack Sparrow is HOT.
  

Not-So-Happy 4th of July

I could tell you that we had a great holiday weekend, despite Bryan having to work the evening shift the entire time. I could tell you that the kids had a blast playing with sparklers, watching fireworks and even seeing the county fireworks display from our front yard. And that Bryan was even able to see the city fireworks show at work from the top of his ship. That is what I planned to talk about.

But our feel-good holiday spirit was crushed this morning with the sombering news that a 3-year old little boy drowned yesterday morning in the river. I found out from my Starbucks barista, who said a prayer for my family knowing that we frequented that area with our kids. She was relieved to see me this morning (meaning it wasn't our kid) and told me what she knew--and as a parent, as a mother, I was devastated to hear that a family was having to feel the horror and terrible pain of losing a young child. And that is all I can think about right now. We don't know the family--they are not local, but the terrible news still strikes home and my heart goes out to them.

Bryan and I repeatedly talk to our kids about water and pool safety. We have several neighbors with pools, which we frequent, and we routinely take the kids to the beach. I like to think that something like this would never happen to us because we watch our kids and are rarely out of arm's reach in the water. Still, the what-if's are now playing in my mind. For all of you with kids, whether they know how to swim or not, whether you have nearby pools, ponds, lakes, beaches or not, please please teach your kids water safety and don't ever let your guard down when they are playing in or near water. I know Bryan & I would never fogive ourselves if something like this happened to any of our kids.