At least it did for a few days this weekend. So we took full advantage…
Friday Funk – Things I Can’t Say edition
A few weeks ago, the beautiful Shell of Things I Can’t Say invited me to do a guest post on her blog. I was flattered and thrilled! And I am pleased to announce that today is my day.
This is only my 2nd guest post anywhere, ever, so I’m a little nervous. Please excuse my sweaty palms and twisty stomach. I really hope I don’t disappoint!
Now if you would be so kind, please head over to Things I Can’t Say and see what I have to say about mawage… er, marriage.
Tucson recap
If you’ll remember, D and I flew out to Tucson for a nice long weekend over President’s Day. My grandparents live out there, so we made a Friday night – Tuesday afternoon visit. My mom, stepdad, one of my sisters, and my brother-in-law joined us for a great time.
The flights out ended up sucking, however.
We were delayed a few minutes leaving Milwaukee waiting for 25 passengers from a flight in from Newark, which was awesome. We landed in Denver in just enough time to make our quick half hour connection, though, so I thought we would be Tucson-bound with no problem.
Not so much. I looked up at the flight monitor board as soon as we deplaned only to discover that our 2nd flight was delayed for an hour and a half. Wha?!?! WHY?!?!? Now I have to spend 2 HOURS entertaining a very overtired D all by myself. Gag!
Fortunately we survived, obvs, and we got into Tucson around 1am. D was happy as a clam to see Grandma and Auntie M at the airport, and I was just so relieved to be off airplanes. Bring on the vacation!
I forgot a camera, of course, so all the pictures I have from our trip were taken on my iPhone. So please excuse the quality, but here is a photographic recap of our days out west. It felt so good to relax, spend time with family, and soak up some sun.
The fruit in my grandparents’ yards was all a-bloom!
D and I thoroughly enjoyed our first visit to the Desert Museum, just west of Tucson in the Saguaro National Park. It’s gorgeous out there! I think the hummingbirds in that little sanctuary area thought D’s hat was a flower, because 1 of them flew right up to her head, which she loved.
Tuesday morning we took D up to the mini golf course before we left, and she had an absolute blast running around all the holes chasing her golf ball. We should have done that every day!
Those were 4 glorious days, and I’m so glad we were able to make the trip. We don’t see my grandparents nearly often enough, so I always love when they are able to spend time with D too.
We weren’t quite as excited for our flights home as we were for the ones heading out there, but it was wonderful to get to see Daddy again.
Happy Hearts Day
As an adult, Valentine’s Day has never been one of my favorites.
To me, it’s much more of a made-up “Hallmark holiday”, created mainly to inflate prices of roses, candy, and paper goods.
Plus I never had a boyfriend over Valentine’s Day until I met R, so I usually didn’t have a reason to make it a big deal.
Sure I enjoy getting a card or an extra “I love you” every February 14, but I don’t really hold it in high regard or eagerly anticipate it each year.
It was great as a kid, though. Who doesn’t love a mug covered in pictures of candy hearts and brimming with said sugary confection waiting for you on the kitchen table first thing in the morning?
But as an adult, I can pretty much take it or leave it. Plus we had to send valentines to daycare for D’s party today.
Dumb.
I mean, it’s cute that they’re having a party, but dumb that parents send a dozen valentines for a group of 18-24 month olds who have zero idea the meaning of the day. Ah well, I guess it’s a small sacrifice for a classroom of cuties.
However, I am quite excited for our heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy’s that R’s mom gets us each Valentine’s Day. It has become our Valentine’s Day dinner tradition, usually paired with our favorite tv show at the time. A few years ago it was Lost. Tonight we might check out the new show The River, since I’ve heard it’s very Lost-esque. Anyone catch its debut last week?
We usually see R’s family each year the weekend before Valentine’s Day for one of our nephew’s birthday party, and that is how we always get the heart-shaped pizzas. Some may laugh, but I love it!
Plus, look at this adorable shot of D playing in a bounce house with her cousins at the party this past weekend. That’s my little valentine!
So Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone, however you like to celebrate (or not)!
Oh well, I got a story
I’m not sure what it is about me and R, but it seems like bizarre things always happen to us. Always. It’s as if our lives are governed by Murphy’s Law of Whiskey.Tango.Foxtrot?!
And never do things go “just right” or “as planned”. Never. There are always wrenches flying into our spokes, causing us to go veering off in some wild direction and usually crashing. Or at least ending up at our destination with a nasty scratch.
Fortunately this story I’m about to tell falls more into the weird stuff category than the painful crash category, but it made me laugh and think “yeah, that’s about right” when I heard it nonetheless.
Hopefully you will too. Laugh, that is. Not shake your head at the oddity that is our existence. Ahem.
This conversation transpired one afternoon last week over IM. R had been looking to buy a juicer for a little while and finally found the one he wanted that morning. He had just returned from making his purchase when the following was relayed:
R: pretty sure I just bought a stolen juicer
Me: wha? uh-oh
R: dude was sketchy as shit
Me: yikes
as long as they don’t track you down
R: showed up in a beat down mini van
smoking a swisher
very “eccentric”
definitely not someone who “has two and is selling one for his fiance”
Me: ha!
is that what he said?
R: yea
Me: dang. yep, totally stolen
R: I overpaid knowing that
oh well, I got a story
Now let’s hope we don’t get a knock on our door from the cops looking for that hot juicer.
“SURPRISE!!”
This past weekend we all went to my mom and stepdad’s house for a surprise 60th birthday party for my mom. She’s probably cringing right now after reading how I just revealed her age (hi, mom!), but I’m positive that as soon as you take 1 look at the pictures of her below, you will think I’m lying about her being 60 years old.
Things didn’t start off quite as planned, however, since this area of the country suffered a nasty winter storm Friday night complete with heavy snow, rush hour Chicago traffic, and 10 mph highway speeds. That is not an understatement. What is usually an hour and 45 minute trip took us 5 solid hours. 6 if you count the full hour it took R to get from his office, pick up D from daycare, then get down to pick me up at my office so we could finally hit the road that afternoon.
All of the guests were supposed to have congregated at their house by 6:45, as my mom, stepdad, and the couple with whom they were having dinner were planning on taking the train back to the suburbs from downtown Chicago and arriving home themselves by 7:15. Har! Yeah right. We didn’t get there until 9:00. And some people weren’t even able to come that night and had to miss the surprise and come down the next morning instead.
Fortunately they were a couple hours delayed themselves, and thanks to the horrendous traffic and some strategic texts from my sister, we were able to sneak in the door not 10 minutes before they walked in the house. Whew! The surprise was safe!
It was so much fun. I think the pictures speak for themselves…
Although he wanted none of the spotlight, we made it into a joint surprise birthday party for my mom and retirement party for my stepdad. Friday was his last day!
Please note that D assumed this position on my mom’s hip as soon as she walked in the door Friday night and remained perched there the entire weekend until we left very early Monday morning. I think she may even have snuck out of her crib during the nights to sleep there, too.
We were excited to get D on the toboggan on Saturday, but she wasn’t too thrilled with the snow. I refuse to believe that the fact she had gloves on her feet since I hadn’t taken her boots and her legs were wrapped in a blanket covered by a garbage bag to keep the snow out had anything to do with that… Ahem.
Many an hour has been spent at this table (and many a beer drunk, as you can see) playing board game after board game during family get-togethers. Can’t you just feel the concentration?
And it never fails – you try to get my sisters and I together for a picture and it usually ends up something like this…
Happy Birthday, Mom!! We love you more than words, and you will never look a day over 25!
Memories Captured – January edition
This is one of my favorite pictures ever taken of our little family. Now before you get all ranty on me, let me just say that no, this is not how every day is spent in our house. It was the last full night of our Hawaiian vacation, and we were simply enjoying a cocktail on the lanai.
And D wanted to join in the fun.
