Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Kayaking

We took the kids kayaking on Saturday morning - the 25th. We also took Teddy (our dog). So, there were 6 of us. Since Conor and Teddy are not able to row, we got 2 kayaks that were both 2-seaters. As I have never been in a kayak, only canoes, I did not know what to expect. When we were getting our oars, Jeff was going to be the only rowing person in his boat, so he got the double oar. When I went to get the same one, he told me that I should just get a single one since there were going to be two people rowing in our boat. Wrong. But it was a lot of fun. It was a girls/boys split at first, with Allie, Ceara, and me in one Kayak; Jeff, Conor, and Teddy in the other.

Teddy - Mr. I'm-Scared-of-Any-Type-of-Water (including rain) did very well as long as we weren't too far away from him. Whichever kayak he was in, if the other one got too far in front, or too far behind, he would start whining. And he adores Ceara. Allie and I were the rowers in our boat at the beginning, and Ceara sat in the middle of the boat. The boys took off before we did, and when we took off, Teddy jumped out of their boat and started swimming to us. As soon as he hit the water, he started freaking out, trying to get into the nearest boat (which wasn't ours) causing the woman in the kayak to freak out a little. We were finally able to get him back in the boat and we were off. We went very slowly at first, with Allie and Conor starting the splashing wars, and stopping often to swim.

After the first stop, the kids all wanted to be in one kayak with the dog, so that left Jeff and I in one. The kids had the two single oars, and so that left me without an oar to row with. So, I got to sit back and relax and let Jeff do all the work for a bit.

At the second stop, we switched back. But Teddy wanted in our boat, so we had an extra. We switched around often, at one point the girls chose to swim down the river instead of riding in the boat.

Towards the end of the trip, it was Allie, Teddy and me in one kayak; Jeff, Ceara, and Conor in the other, and we came up on several splits where we had to choose which direction to go. Since Allie and I were always in the lead.. and whichever path we chose, Jeff chose the other. Teddy had a fit.

I have some very bad scratches on my legs where he was jumping around trying to see them. lol

On one of the last shallow parts, Jeff and Ceara were trying to glide the boat through by riding on the ends of the kayak - not really in it. And the laughter brought me to tears when Jeff fell off the back of the boat. :) I was laughing so hard tears were forming.

When we would get into shallow water and get stuck on rocks, the girls were the ones who usually got out and got us un-stuck, so I joked that the only reason we brought them was so they could pull us along in the shallow water.

So, when we finally got done and back to the truck, water was still dripping from my shorts. Not wanting to get the seat soaking wet, I took my shorts off and wrung as much water as I could from them and then just got into the truck thinking I'd let them dry a bit. Hey.. it's not much different from me just having a swim suit on. :P

I held my shorts out the window to let the wind blow them and Jeff said, "What are you doing to do if you drop them?"

"Well, you'll either turn around and go back to get them, or we will be going home before we go to the Open House."

We were going to my cousin's open house. She and her husband had built a house and they were having a party for everyone to come and see it. We didn't have time to go home to change our clothes, so we were all looking like drowned rats when we got there.

"Nope. You'll just have to explain why you aren't wearing any pants when we get there." He added an evil laugh after he said this.

So, we drove to her new house and happen to pass the road she lives on. Jeff turned around and I started putting my shorts back on and sped up a bit.. trying to get to the house before I was dressed! How rude.

We looked like a bunch of river rats getting out of the truck, but we were dry for the most part. We got to tour her beautiful house, eat some of the ton of food she had, and hang out with some family and friends for a while.

Conor felt that all the cookies there were for him, and he tried to take about 10 of them at once. Of course he didn't get to eat but one or two.. I saw one, but knowing him, he snuck another one.

Conor was wore out from the long day, so he was ready to head home. He fell asleep in the truck on our way home, and finished a nap when we arrived home. I took a shower and joined him for the nap.

It was a fun day and there was a lot of laughter - mostly at Jeff, but.. hey. He's a good subject to laugh at. :)

Monday, August 20, 2007

"Acquired"

I've been trying to cut some caffeine out - drink less coffee (I don't drink soda much anyway) - and for me, that is a huge step. I love coffee. mmmm. So, today is my first day of not having coffee in the morning before work, I just started with water.

Today is also my boss's first day back from his vacation. When I got here, he was in a meeting in his boss's office, but I didn't think a thing of it. Then he came out and said, "We all need to go into the conference room and talk."

"What? Why?" Obviously this is not something we do a lot of..

So, we gather in the conference room and are told that we (our company anyway) has just been acquired by another company in the industry. No one had a clue. And no one knows what this means for us either.

My boss was trying to be positive.. could mean better benefits (I really don't think they could get worse, but.. I could be wrong). Could mean .. that the new people might pay attention to what is wrong with some stuff in our company and fix it.

Anyway, for the time being, nothing is changing, but no one really knows what will change and when. There will be a company wide email sent out "soon" to let everyone know, so my boss said he was expecting he would get a bunch of phone calls.

I'm still not functioning well without my coffee. But, I'm certainly not going to stress out over it. It could get better, it could get worse. Time will tell, and nothing I can do about it anyway.

Back at my desk, my phone rings. One of our on site techs calling.. I answer.

"So, what does this email mean??" was the first thing out of his mouth.

"Why are you calling ME?? I'm not your boss. Call Dave!"

"But, you're the one who knows everything there!" He said... ha! He is seriously delusional...

I'm not answering my phone anymore today, and I'm going to go get coffee now. This should certainly make the remainder of this year interesting. The sale is not expected to be final until September. Then we will see what changes are made.

OK - back to the need at hand. Coffee. Going now. :)

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Aquarium

Jeff and I decided to take the kids to the Newport Aquarium - and yes, the date on the pictures is correct! We went down on a Saturday with Allie, Ceara, Conor, and Kaitlyn. On the way down, Jeff tortured, or uh.. enlightened the kids by having them listen to a book on CD. When he put the CD in, the kids responded by saying, "Uh! Can't we listen to music?? We don't want to listen to this!" But, thinking they would eventually start liking it, Jeff did not give into their requests.

Once we arrived at the Aquarium, we had to walk a bit to get there. This activity was met with, "My legs are tired, I don't feel good, blah, blah, blah..." But yet, take em to a mall to shop and they can walk forever to all their favorite stores. They are such pleasant children to take places! ;)



Since we purchased our tickets at Kroger before going, we did not have to wait in the long line that had formed outside. Anyway, it was shark time. We walked throughout the Aquarium amongst a huge crowd of people. Conor was excited to see them all and he loved looking in each glass enclosure and trying to find what was pictured on the little plaque.



He also would make very strange faces whenever he saw me taking a picture. Quite the little comedian.

They also had a place where you could pay $1 to get a little plastic cup of nectar so that the birds could poke a hole in the bottom of the cup with their beaks when trying to get a drink. Then all the nectar you just bought just poured onto the ground. They must have already been full for the most part, though, because one bird I was holding simply put his beak in the nectar, sucked a little up, and then shook his head around, spraying us with the nectar. Such lovely birds. One even peed on my head as I walked under him. Joy. It was certainly nothing like the experience we had at Kentucky Down Under. The birds at the aquarium did not get excited when we came in the room, and we had to coax them onto our hands to have them spit their food we just bought them all over us.



And Allie was a bit more afraid of these birds. Maybe it was their beady little eyes. Or the fact that they spit and peed on us. But, it was fun anyway. :)





Conor was keeping a close eye on his bird - I'm not sure what he thought it would do...



The alligators and turtles are obviously good friends. :)

Allie had to make sure she didn't miss any important messages from her friends while we were there..

In this picture, we were waiting in line to see the shark movie they were showing. So, Conor had to do some more of his funny poses. lol


While he so wanted to touch one of the crabs, he was so afraid to. They weren't exactly the cute, puppy type want-to-pet-kind of creature. What with their huge shells and spidery legs coming out from under them..

He did, however, try to pet the sharks in these pictures. But his arm was too short, and he was not able to touch them. I got to, though, and the black one swimming above was rather slimy feeling, and there was another one sleeping on the edge that felt like sand paper. It was very interesting to touch them.

And of course, on the way out of the aquarium, you have to go through the gift shop. Every parents favorite place to go to waste money on some souvenir-type toy that will be found under the couch, long forgotten a few months later. We actually got through without buying anything, but then Kaitlyn walked out with a stuffed animal that her dad had given her money for, and Conor so wanted a shark... so. We now have a stuffed shark to add to his already too large collection of stuffed animals.

It was a fun day, but by the end of it I was worn out. :)

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

New Blog Link

I have added a new blog link to the side - Attack of the Redneck Mommy. She may or may not be your cup of tea, but I find her extremely witty, intelligent, funny, and she can definitely bring you to tears - of laughter and sadness.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Allie's Birthday Pictures

My baby girl, first born child, turned 14 on July 6th. We had a small party for her at our house and she had a couple of friends over for it (Vanessa and Tommy). I cheated and bought the cake.. it was a busy week and was so much easier to just buy it. :) Besides, I have not mastered the chocolate icing and I've found two sources for yummy Bill-Knapp's-like chocolate on chocolate cakes! :)

Strange how in the above two pictures Allie looks exactly the same.. like she didn't move and kept her smile exactly the same. And her eyes..



As you can see, she got all dressed up for the occasion. Those monkey pajama pants matched really well with her pink T-shirt. I also got a white cake because Vanessa (Allie's friend who came over) doesn't like chocolate. You can see the white cake, with strawberries on top, in the above picture. Also shown in the picture is Tommy - one of the neighborhood boys who is also Allie's friend. He was a little camera shy, so I wasn't able to get many pictures with him in them. Vanessa's leg is in this picture... note the jeans. I don't know why she even wears them when she has another pair of pants under them. *sigh* Guess I'm showing my age, eh?


Cute how they all sat on each other's laps eh? See that little basket to the right side of the picture? That was delivered to Allie during the day - filled with all kinds of chocolate, snacks, and treats. Conor's eyes bulged when he saw it, as did Jeff's.

And the two girls who ALWAYS borrow my camera to take pictures of themselves hide from me taking their picture. Kinda funny. I also have a little video I took that I will try to remember to post later. :)

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Mom's Retirement Party

OK, I have some "catch up" posts to do. My mom retired from her job at the end of May. The first week of June, we went to North Carolina, so we had a party for her later in the month. The party was on June 23, 2007, when my camera was still posting the wrong dates. :)

The party was at my sister's house and began mid afternoon. It was a beautiful day for an outside party. We were going to try for a "surprise party" but couldn't do that when we found out that she was trying to make other plans for the night.

Here is the cake - I think this was the first retirement cake I have done, and I wasn't sure what to put on it, so I just had some fun with it.

The party was a lot of fun, and as always with my family, there were lots of laughs.









We started a Euchre game at one of the tables, Maggie and I were partners - and we won a lot of the games. As always when playing Euchre, when we euchred the other team, or if we got all the tricks, we got to hear Maggie's 2 point cheer. :)




Allie took a lot of the pictures here, I gave her my camera and told her to try to get a picture of everyone there. I don't know what Mom was saying in this picture...




And yes, there were kids there! We locked them in the barn at first, but they figured out how to get out...

No, really.. they were just off in the yard, playing on the trampoline, the swing set, with the dog, or climbing fences... all boys so what do you expect?



Allie got a couple of close ups of people, I like this one of Molly laughing..







It did start raining a bit later in the evening, so we moved a few picnic tables into the garage and continued playing games, talking, telling stories, jokes, making fun of people..

We were somewhat playing a game Molly brought out, and I forget the exact name of the game, but you had to sing parts of a song while others tried to guess the name of the song and who it was by. They were songs from the 70's and 80's.. so they brought back a lot of fun memories for the adults, and it totally stumped Allie and Ceara. And we got to make fun of people! :)

So.. a little belated in the posting of the pictures - but Happy Retirement Mom! :)

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Morning Routine

Update Below*

Most mornings it's just Conor and me. During the summer, if the girls are there, they are asleep. During the school years they are up before me and sometimes even out the door for the bus before I get up. (hey... it comes really early! Oh, and I'm not a morning person. Most of you should know this.)

Anyway, Conor is usually a morning person, but I still have to wake him up in the mornings. But he is so fun to wake up most of the time. I'd say 99% of the time he is in a good mood when he wakes up.

I just thought I would post about it for memories.. ;)

I sing a variety of songs in the morning to wake Conor up, and he always giggles when I do. Here's about how it goes:

"Good morning sunshine! Time to rise and shine!" (sing-song voice)

Sometimes he stirs, sometimes he doesn't.. but I don't give up with that. I put a little twist on the Birthday song and I sing it to him every morning...

"Good morning to you,
You live in a Zoo,
You look like a monkey, (at this point I sniff his neck...)
And you smell like one too! P-U!"

This is usually when he starts giggling.. and he usually says, "No, I don't, YOU do!"

Oh, and then I tickle him ... not too much.. just enough to make him laugh a bit and wake up.

There are those seldom times when he is a grouch, and he doesn't laugh but tells me to leave him alone... but not that often, and usually only if he isn't feeling well or something.

There are a few other things I will sing to him in the mornings.. just not every morning..

"It's time to wake up, it's time to wake up, it's time to wake up, it's morning!"

"Rise and shine you sleepy head, it's time to haul your hiney outta bed!"

"Sing like the birdies sing, tweet tweet; sing like the birdies sing, tweet tweet."

On the weekends, if he happens to wake up before me... he wakes me up in the same way. :)

*Note: There will be NO .wav file uploaded for your listening PLEASURE(!) despite the request of my work bud. Conor likes it, and that is all that matters! :P

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Lazy

Yes, I have been quite lazy in posting to this blog lately. I guess I go through stages. But, most of YOU people who read it are too lazy to make comments, so .. I don't feel bad. Except for Barb. She is my only regular commenter to let me know that someone is still interested in reading my boring and sometimes too long posts. She is actually the only reason that I keep this blog going. So, Barb.. it's all on you. The pressure. To keep making comments so that I keep blogging. :) Heehee.

Yes, I know there are occasional comments from others. My work bud, Misti, and most recently Jody made a comment. I also am told that several of my family members supposedly read this blog. But they never comment.

Maybe I should post some.. uh... not too flattering pictures of some of them to get them to comment. You know who I'm talking about. I have the pictures.. don't make me use them. ;)

I finally got the date setting corrected on my camera, so no more incorrectly dated pictures on here (if I ever get around to posting them).

I just haven't felt much like writing about anything.

I have been reading a few new blogs lately that I will eventually get around to linking for you. They may or may not be to your taste, but I enjoy their humor and writing styles.

OK, that's all for now. :)