4.29.2010

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Car Show

Last weekend we decided to go to the Car Show down in Sunny, Warm Moab. The weather delivered beautifully. The boys played with Tank on a new contraption, a trampoline. He wasn't so sure about the bounciness but didn't hate it.


Then we headed to the car show. There were so many beautiful old cars. I'm sure plenty of them cost more than my house. Betty Boop was here to welcome all.


Then I found this Aston Martin. Beautiful. And for Sale! For only $15,500.00 That's a deal. I did ask how much it would cost to upkeep. Then Olaf noticed that it was a replica. It sure looked old. And pretty. I know James Bond had an Aston Martin or two, but I don't know if he had one that looked like this or not. But it would have been pretty cool to get one.


Olaf ran across some '58 Corvettes. They are cool. And shiny. And expensive. Too expensive to drool on, so be careful where you drool.


Here's Olaf showing the kids the details of the beautiful corvette.


This truck I found interesting. It was sitting on the ground. Must have some sort of hydraulics. But it was fun to look at.


Here's Sister-in-Law Fashionista with her favorite car. It was sparkly. It's pretty dang cool.


Couldn't help but snap a picture of this shiny chrome car. If you looked too long it could make you go blind.


Loved this old red jalopy on our way out.


And the cream on the pie was I got to sit in this cool car. The old guy who owned this car said I could take it for a spin, the keys were in it. I didn't take him up on the offer, but I did sit in the car and enjoy it for a few minutes.


At night the cars go cruising down Main Street. We sat on the road for a couple hours watching them drive by. It was pretty fun.


We had a grassy knoll behind us. All the kids played. They made new friends.


They roughhoused. The got battle wounds. They laughed.


And Olaf rode along with his Brother Copper. First they responded to a truck that drove into the Texaco. Thank goodness no one was hurt.


The driver moved the wall in about four or five feet.


Someone was out having a smoke break on this bench. Thank goodness he wasn't hurt, but his bench went through the window and into the store.


There 's gonna be a lot of clean up for this store. At least the weather's nice right now since it'll be an open air gas station for a few days.

Soon after this event Olaf and Uncle Copper filled the red dodge charger with gas. Thank goodness because minutes later they responded to a call of some motorcyclists who were driving recklessly. So they took chase. They followed them for 100 miles, into Colorado. I got a text after the chase was done.

"Arrested a guy 8 miles into Colorado. Got up to 148 mph."

I asked Sister in Law Fashionista if they could arrest someone in another state. She said if the chase originated in Utah then they could. I didn't believe Olaf at first but he sure had the ride of his life that night. I asked what caused the motorcyclist to pull over. He ran out of gas. But as Uncle Copper and Olaf pulled up behind him their own gas light came on. If they hadn't just filled up they would have ran out of gas first!

The next day on our way home Olaf didn't attempt any police driving. He said he'd had enough the night before and would be happy to never go that fast again.

4.27.2010

Another Birthday Party

Remember this cute little rugrat visiting my house a little while ago?

Well when she heard about my Big Birthday Party she told her Mom to get my other sister in town and head down for the party. She did not want to miss. Well, it's a six hour drive and it's the middle of tax season, so the trip was not made. But Sister Accountant promised the next time they visited we would all celebrate my birthday.

So on Saturday we spent all day cooking this delicious cake as found here. It was delicious!

And I finally got to use these cool candles I picked up somewhere. They were tall and fun! The kids had a ball playing with them afterwards. I'm still finding them around my house.

On another note, I have leftover frosting in my fridge calling my name. I'm going to have to get rid of it somehow, other than eating it all. So if you want any come over and get some.

4.26.2010

And the Answer Is...

As many of you know, I love Math. Math is not your enemy, it's your friend! It can help in so many ways. When I worked at Target as a cashier in my college days (the first time around) I used to race the cash register in figuring out change to ease the boredom. I know, I'm really weird. But I will not delve into my love of Mathematics. Instead, I will show you this sign I walked past the other day at K mart. Instantly I was puzzled by the ad. I pondered the mathematics of this ad in my head for a while before I went back and took a picture. I didn't think I could be right, but...(drum-roll please)


3 for $13.00 is $4.33 each. According to the sign the regular price is $4.29. Hope you didn't buy any Coke on sale this week at K mart!

4.25.2010

Coming to you Live from Kmart! Can you spot the glaring mistake in this ad?

Check back tomorrow for the answer!

4.22.2010

Dinner Time!

Baby's best friend lives across the street from us. They've been friends since they were born. They both feel like either house is theirs and they both have two moms.

Baby's BFF often eats dinner at our house. I don't mind at all because he LOVES all my food. When everyone in this household is whining and crying that I'm cooking again and not taking them out to eat he is sitting at the table gobbling up their portion plus his.

But for some reason he surprised me last week. We had eaten dinner and Baby was headed out to play. His BFF came over to get him. He walked in the back door. He looked at the remnants of dinner sitting at the table. Then he looked at me with this incredibly hurt Why-Didn't-You-Call-Me-For-Dinner look on his face.

It was priceless. I couldn't resist. I asked, "Would you like some tacos?" As you can see we had absolutely nothing fancy for dinner, good ol' easy tacos, a staple at this house.

A look of relief flooded his face as he bounded across the room and plopped down in a chair. While Baby started playing he sat and ate dinner.

4.20.2010

Birthday's Galore


Grandpa recently threw a Big Birthday Party for Olaf's Mom. It was her 39th birthday again. Now Olaf has surpassed his own Mother in years. Sometimes it's a good thing that most people don't understand math.

Grandpa had the party at a swanky reception center. It was a lovely dinner and everyone had a wonderful time. For some reason I don't have a picture of Grandma's cake but I couldn't' resist several pictures of Olaf's cake.


See, it was his 40th birthday and we were out of town all around the big day. So Grandpa added a small cake for Olaf to honor his birthday. Grandpa came up with the decorations all by himself. So ingenious and original!

But I got the best laugh out of the women's bathroom. I walked in and noticed the placement of the large oval mirror and busted a gut.

4.18.2010

The Visitors

This weekend my Sister came to visit! Her Hubby had Scout stuff going on so he dropped her off at my house on his way. Her and three little kids, the oldest being four.

Here's Sister Accountant and her Baby. So Adorable and Squishable. Almost makes me want to bear another child. Thank goodness I'm much too old for that.

Here's her oldest girl. She is sweet. And spicy. She sure has a fun personality.

This little boy is smack in the middle of two girls. He was so fat when he was little that you couldn't keep your hands off of him. He also had the most infectious laugh. He would laugh so hard that you had to make him stop because he sounded like he was going to explode. Such a joyful sound.

He loved the dusty exercise ball. It provided hours of entertainment with him rolling it all over the room.

They also taught my dog new tricks. That squeezable boy left a half eaten doughnut on the top of the picnic table. It took a few minutes for Tank to muster the courage needed, but he jumped up on the table and ate it. Then after a few minutes of looking and testing he figured out how to jump down. Now our food isn't safe!

I introduced these kids to old Scooby Doo movies. They can't get enough. He decided he wanted to watch this one all by himself. He kicked his sister out of the way, turned the tv, and laid on the hearth three inches from the tv and watched the movie.

She is just fun. She crawled all over. So we had to keep her away from the stairs. And the doors. And the running kids cuz cousins from the other side were over playing too. It was quite a successful weekend as all the kids got along fabulously and had a ball and kept out from under my feet.

And Sunday morning Sister Accountant's Baby woke up my Baby. He didn't mind at all. He loves babies, especially his cousins.

We all had so much fun that I'm going to bed early tonight!

4.15.2010

Merit Badges

In the old days there was a Stalking merit badge for Boy Scouts. Awesome! I've been thinking about it a lot ever since then. When we were in Vegas at the Int'l Boy Scout Museum I found an old patch.


This merit badge is no longer part of the Boy Scouts for obvious reasons. Stalking really meant Tracking, Tracking an animal that is. So it is in the hunting category. But I love the name!

4.12.2010

Marriage Secret

Every now and then someone will ask me how Olaf and I have such a happy marriage. Come on, it's been over 17 years, aren't you sick of each other yet?

And you know, some days I am sick of it all. But I love the guy. He is wonderful. But he has faults. But so do I. And I have to remind my friends-in-not-such-happy-marriages that it's not all peaches and cream. Sometimes it's curdled milk. And sometimes it's hot lava, but that's mainly from me, not him.

But I decided the other day one of the reasons we make it work is the attitude we have. We both knew marriage wasn't going to be easy. We both knew it would be a lot of work. We both knew it would require 100% from each of us.

But the most important thing I think is; We both are just Thankful that Someone would actually Like us enough to Marry us and Put Up with us on our worst days and all the other days in between. The first few years of our marriage I just kept expecting him to call it quits since I was such a pain, but he never did. I know I'm not real easy to live with and every day I thank my lucky stars that Olaf is willing to put up with me.

I think everyone has their own secret ingredient in their marriage. Sometimes it just takes time to find out what it is. Hopefully you can figure out what makes your marriage special and remember that when the going gets tough.

4.08.2010

Glorious Spring Break

This year, Spring Break landed on Easter weekend. We've never had any days off around Easter. So this year we headed to Sunny Las Vegas. And I'm so glad we did because at home they woke up to several inches of snow on Easter and for several days afterwards.

While everyone at home was wrapped up in their flannel jammies, we were eating Easter Dinner on the patio.

The Eater Bunny even thought about hiding eggs in the yard, but decided there were too many thorns in the yard. So the Easter bunny just hid them at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The kids had a good time finding them all over.

The day after Easter was Olaf's 40th birthday. Since we weren't home and I couldn't throw him a big party with all his friends, I took him on a Mob Tour of Las Vegas. Lesson learned: The Mob is really Mean and Violent, don't join. But a monument was placed behind the Flamingo hotel and it's the only monument to a Mobster in the whole US.

Earlier that day we went to the International Boy Scout Museum, also in Vegas. I told Baby to pose like he was looking at stuff and he struck this pose. While I'm sure he thinks it's akin to The Thinker, I think it makes him look like a monkey.

Here's the whole family including my Mom. And Flat Stanley. He's going back to California in a few days so he went on vacation with us.

Then we headed to Arizona to visit my Bestest Friend and family. I've never been in Arizona, other than the airport, which doesn't really count. So I enjoyed watching the countryside.

Loved the numerous Joshua trees and Saguaro cactuses.


My friend has a pool. So my boys didn't waste any time jumping in the water even though it wasn't quite 80 outside. The Arizonans still feel like it's too cold to swim, but my boys, still in the throes of Winter back home, thought it was plenty warm.

We headed to Tombstone. The Rowdiest town in the West!

Here's my and my Friend with a Man from the Past. I think he was headed to the Bird Cage Theater to cause a ruckus.

We stopped at the Boot Hill Graveyard. The graves were all covered with rocks. Once I explained to the kids what was under the rocks they quit trying to climb all over the rocks.

There were a few tombstones with entertaining epitaphs.

And we finally found the Birdcage Theater. The most Haunted Building in the US. Next time I come to town I'm taking the Haunted Tour of Tombstone. Plenty of people died here, I should see at least one ghost.

Then we headed to Kartchner Caverns. They found the bones to a sloth so we had to get a picture of the fake sloth at the visitor's center. Love extinct beasts.

Here's the kids climbing all over one of the stalagmites. But this one isn't real, it's fake and in the visitor's center. They are very careful inside the cave to keep it living. Yes, Mother Earth is real.

We have been having so much fun on our trip. It'll be sad to go home in a few days. But Tank will be glad to see us!

4.05.2010

It's the End of the World as We Know It

2012 recently came out on DVD. Olaf and I saw it with my siblings at Thanksgiving time. We left all the kids home and had a date night. It was a fun movie. Lots of action! So, when I saw that it was coming out on DVD I asked my kids if they wanted to see it.

Baby wasn't as thrilled to see it as I expected. When I asked him why he gave me a really good answer that I wasn't expecting.

"Mom, I don't really like End of the World movies. They're kind of scary to me. I'm still Little you know!"

4.03.2010

Jeep Safari

No, we're not in Africa on Safari this weekend. These are pictures from my local McDonald's this past Friday morning. Jeeps galore!

Every Easter weekend there is a small thing called Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah. All you jeepers out there can quit squawking. It's not a little thing, it's a Big Thing! Uncle Copper will never have Easter weekend off because the town is overrun with people in Jeeps and every similar vehicle.

The whole week before Easter weekend there is a steady stream of cars pulling jeeps, RV's pulling jeeps, and people driving jeeps down Highway 6 to Moab. It's like Spring Break for Grown-ups, well, some are grown-up but I think most of them leave their maturity behind when they enter Moab. The locals in moab dread Jeep Safari. They stock up the week before and don't venture out for the whole weekend.

As we were leaving McDonald's I missed the best picture by about 30 seconds. All these jeeps in the parking lot were together in a caravan. They had just left and were all lined up at the stop light. I scrambled to get my camera out of my purse but the light turned green and they were gone before I could get a shot off. Here's hoping they have fun and no one falls off the Lion's Back.!