Smellyann Strikes Again

The Mystery Is History

You know what? I have been mystery shopping like crazy lately and have learned one thing I never really picked up before about living in Miami and surrounding cities: There is a ridiculous number of malls here. I've been to more shopping centers than I can count lately, and they're starting to blend together. But it's fun, I'm learning my way around with Siri's help, and hopefully I'll be helping pay the bills when my fees start rolling in...

Another thing I've learned is this: I can usually fill Oscar the Pouch and the belly of at least one of the smaller children (not Rob's or Sophie's - the two of them are never full) by walking around the mall's Food Court during peak hours, sampling everything that's handed out, and save some money on buying actual meals. They don't seem to care whether you plan on buying there or not, or even if you listen to their sometimes long-winded spiel about everything that's on offer, but I usually try and stay. Unless I can't understand them. Then I just say "thank you" and bounce. 

So when we found ourselves at Aventura Mall on Wednesday evening, with not a clue on the planet where the expensive kitchen boutique was that I was supposed to evaluate and four hungry bellies (and a pouch), we headed for the Food Court to do my trick. Only, we were there at a bad time, apparently, because no one was out with their red tray (it's always red, I wonder why?), giving out samples in dixie cups. That's another thing I learned: no one here uses toothpicks for the samples. I wonder about that, too; did a guy stab someone at the crowded table next to him for some teriyaki chicken?

Anyway.

We bought some delicioso Thai mango chicken and something-BBQ chicken (I seem to be having as much trouble returning to full-on vegetarianism as I am giving up my Diet Coke habit), lo mein, flied lice, and fried platanos (yum!) for dinner. Chloë surprised me by completely chowing down, even more than Sophie did, I think. Once in a while, Chlo can really pack it away.

So I couldn't find the boutique, left the mall to go across the street, walked around for about ten minutes, went back to the mall, and finally went into Nordstrom (or "Nerd Storm," as Sophia has hilariously dubbed it) to ask for help. I thought it would be in there, knowing how much the coffee machines I was to evaluate cost, but I was wrong. Argh. More walking, and I have a huge blister from Orlando on my left pinky toe.

Rob and the kids were still out in the car by this point, having gone all over Aventura to track this damn shop down, which really cut into my mileage and per-hour fees, y'know? It's a good thing I ended up getting a perfectly brewed cup of coffee and a pretty big fee out of that shop, or I'd have been more upset. I still haven't shut up about that coffee. If I didn't have the Keurig, I might be tempted to buy one of these guys, outrageous price tag notwithstanding.

After the coffee boutique, we headed NW to Sawgrass Mills, a freakin' enormous mall with everything from Old Navy and The Gap to Jimmy Choo and other lux brands. Sawgrass Mills is to the left of Fort Lauderdale, if you're following along on a map. I had to go there to do three valet parking and one retail shop. One of the valet stands no longer exists, though, so it's anyone's guess whether I'll get my fee for a 'closed' shop (sometimes you get paid even if the place isn't there anymore) or not. After we parked at the first place, we had to wander around the mall a little bit to kill time. There were these cool spiral-shaped fountains there, and this one was empty, so we let the kidoodles walk around on top of it. I love the stance and look on Jack's face, like he's in Jurassic Park or something.

We happened across an arcade, Gameroom (which Sophia amusingly decided should be called "Gam-er-OOM" instead of the real pronunciation), so after checking that prices weren't outrageous, I decided to load a game card with a little cash and turn the kids loose. We were the only people there, so they had the run of the place. It's like a giant, grown-up Chuck E. Cheese's in there or something. I've not been to a Dave & Buster's yet, so I can't compare.

We went around, sliding the card for one kid after the other, for about a half-hour. Each kid won a ton of tickets at their games. Here, Sophia was on a machine where she had to jump when the light was on "STOP" to win lots of tickets. Not shockingly, she was great at it. This kid is good at pretty much everything she attempts. Except cleaning her room, but I'm starting to think that's a conscious effort on her part...

I told Chloë, "I don't know why you guys love playing the Claw Game so much. It's almost impossible to win anything!" but they don't care. They'll care when it's their money, I'm betting.

Jack loves to prove me wrong. He won this humongo ball from - you guessed it - a Claw Game. A gigantic Claw Game, one of four adjacent to each other. He was, to put it mildly, thrilled. So was I - we can use it for P.E. class! Never mind that the thing is as big as he is.

Speaking of huge games, Chloë found this big Connect 4 and had to play that. She won, too, but it's a pretty easy thing to do when you have no competitor...

When Rob helped the kids feed their earned tickets into the redemption machine, they'd gotten 209, I think, for their little bit of money. I showed them all the things that could be gotten for 200 tickets, and they weren't impressed, so I showed them some things they could save up for, and which would they rather do? Miracle of miracles, they decided to bank their tickets for another time. You could've knocked me over with a feather; they've never gone that route when I've tried to convince them in the past!

::SNIFF:: My little babies are growning up.

Anyway.

We went and did another parking shop at the same city mall, as well as the retail store I mentioned above. It was silly, because that store has a similar name to a much more well-known, popular brand (see photo above for hint), and I had to ask in the no-name shop if they were the big-name one. Kind of embarrassing, but I love to embarrass myself, so I didn't care. I like to play games with these shops when they don't give me a specific scenario: I make up something ridiculous, just to gauge the reaction I'll get. This time, I went in there insisting that I had to have a yellow tank top; no other color would do, because I simply did not have enough yellow in my wardrobe. The guy who helped me cracked up; he couldn't help it. If you're crazy and you know it, clap your hands!

We headed back East then to Fort Lauderdale to do a really fun (or at least it was supposed to be) shop that the kids had been anticipating for about a week. I expected a much more professional, business-like outfit than the disorganized, badly-in-need-of-my-services one we encountered, however, which meant a long report was going to have to be written. I love doing the shops themselves; going home and doing the reports is another matter. I don't mind doing them, but I do, admittedly, seem to have a problem getting them done in a timely manner. I make sure to write kick-ass reports to make up for it, though!

We had time to kill, once again, between portions of this last shop for the night, and once again everyone was ravenous, so I checked in to our location on Foursquare to find recommended places to eat. We were in the Las Olas Shops section of Ft. Lauderdale by that point. All of the recommendations were too far to go in order to eat and be back to the place where we needed to return in an hour, so we looked around for inspiration. At first, I thought we'd go to the crépe restaurant - who doesn't love skinny pancakes?! - but then we spotted a cheese-and-whine bistro next door, and yeah, they had me at 'cheese.' I love cheese. Jack, who doesn't, was less than thrilled and refused to eat, so I promised him something else when we got back to Penelope.

If you're looking around for a place to eat in Las Olas, I recommend the Cheese Culture. The food was outstanding, and the ambiance was really cool. It's not a place for kids, and they don't have a menu for them either, but it sufficed. Especially since we ate outside on the otherwise-deserted patio, away from the rest of the grown-ups. People seem to get grouchy when their fancy date nights are disrupted by bickering little ones, for some reason... I want to go back sometime when we have a babysitter.

The girls shared an "Ultimate Grilled Cheese" sandwich, with gruyere and Emmenthaler cheese melted on a delicious ciabatta, and I had a bite. It was splendid! Rob and I each had a "Build-Your-Own" sandwich. I forget what he got, except for the greens on the side that were good but got left behind when I told him we had to dash off to get back to our shop location on time - bummer. I had turkey, fresh mozzarella, baby greens on a baguette with garlicky basil mayonaisse. I don't usually like mayo, but it sounded (and was) good. The food delivery had artistic flair to match the out-of-this-world flavor. The server was a little dingy but sweet, and she agreed we should return on a parents-only date night. I bought a bottle of wine from her, a sweet Moscato that we have yet to open, and she gave me a discount for which I didn't even ask. Nice place.

Kilwin's, a chocolate shoppe in Las Olas, was just a few store fronts down from Cheese Culture, so I stopped in to peruse the goods. I am first and foremost a chocolate fanatic and second a chocolate-coconut truffle fiend, so I'm forever on the hunt for the perfect one. I found it once, at a candy store on the Jersey Shore, but its match has been elusive ever since. They had huge coconut chocolates at Kilwin's; I bought a couple, and they were all right, but definitely not perfection. Alas, I'll keep looking.

I purchased some more truffles while I was there, though, about ten or twelve. Obstensibly for Robert, though I don't think he's had a single one yet. I bought him the raspberry ones, which he tends to love, along with some mocha, mint, and other delicious goodness I can no longer remember. These chocolates weren't cheap, being in the neighborhood of $23/lb and up, so imagine my chagrin when I woke up the next morning to find the cats had knocked them off the table and used them for hockey pucks!

We returned to our previous location to finish the half-begun assignment and go home. It was late by then, about 10:30 PM. Obviously, we weren't in NYC, but there's a hint for you. The return was more pleasant than the first leg, but they still blew it. Like I said, they need me. Desperately. I'll fix 'em, I will!

Apropos of nothing much, Rob told me recently that I should open my own mystery shopping company. I don't know. I doubt I'd do it, though it would be fun.

*~*~*~*~*~*

I had reports to write when we got home, but I was cold and exhausted. I decided to treat myself to some JAFRA Spa pampering, and it was just the right call to make. I was in smelly-good heaven, relaxed and soft of skin and hair. It felt amazing. I even tried to nap in the bathtub, but I didn't want to pull a Whitney, so it didn't take. Sorry, that was crude.

Ahhh... so refreshed! (That's unretouched Instagramography, there. Thanks, JAFRA!)

If you want to win some awesome JAFRA products, by the by, friend me on Facebook. I'm having a fun FB party online this week and yes, there will be prizes!

*~*~*~*~*~*

On Thursday morning, Rob unfortunately woke up with a pretty nasty cold, so it kinda sucked that we had about 10 hours of mystery shops to do in the Keys that day. And yeah, he is totally playing the part of military retiree these days. Hanging out in the Keys, fishin', growin'a  beard... people are always like, WHAT. is THAT. on his FACE?! Haha. Although, one of my friends did say he's kinda smokin' with the beard, and of course I agree. I ♥ my little Fur Face...

The first shop in Key Largo was interesting. It was inside an exclusive, gated village, and the words "hoity-toity" come to mind. Now, I've been in exclusive, gated villages before (and I don't mean gated apartment complexes like the one we live in now), in places like Hilton Head and whatnot, but this was something else again. They had a whole town in there, with grocery and fishing and shoe and other stores, and it was definitely an Old Money community. I felt spectacularly out of place. The gate guard took my driver's license, called up the shop where I ad to evaluate the service, and asked them permission to let me enter. I wasn't expecting that. I'm not a gawker or anything, not too much, but I gawked, y'all.

I had to do a high-end fishing store shop. Rob is a fisherman. He knows what he's talking about. Me, I don't collect and kill animals as a general rule (no offense) (maybe a little), so I had no clue. I tried to inveigle him into coming into the store with me and running the show, but he wasn't down with it. So I had to go in there and wing it. I played up my scenario thusly: I'm getting gifts for my fisherman husband and I don't know what I'm doing, so please help me out. It worked. I bought him four clouser saltwater fishing flies - though he doesn't have a saltwater rig yet - and he was happy with them. Win.

I had to drive south to Marathon after that and evaluate the company there that, uh, well, see the picture above? I can't exactly spell it out for you, because that would give it away. Anyway, the guy I talked to there was amazing. He completely blew me away with his keen interest in environmental initiatives. Y'all know I'm a raging environmentalist, so we really hit it off. I'll probably go back and talk to him some more on my own and have him give my kiddos a tour of the facility someday, too. This guy was GREEN, folks. True green. I loved it. Also, he gave me a way cool "welcome to the neighborhood" gift of 4-5 reusable canvas bags, an electronics charger that shuts down after the device is fully charged to stop vampire electricty suckage, a nifty keychain, lots of information printouts, and more. Color me impressed.

It had been storming like the dickens in the Keys between the first two assignments, and there came a point where Sophia and I really had to pee. Water rushing down the windows didn't help that situation much, you know? So Rob drove us right up to the door of a Hom Depot, and in the ½-second it took us to get out of Penelope and into the Depot, we were completely drenched. Which meant we were freezing when we returned to the air-conditioned van after emptying our respective bladders. That's probably what helped along my cold, from which I'm now suffering. Anyway, it was quite the tropical storm. When we got to Key West a couple of hours later, the roads were all rivers. Lakes. I haven't seen that much rain since 1995, during Tropical Storm Gordon my freshman year at U-Miami.

We arrived in Key West much earlier than we needed to be there, so we drove around a while and returned to the souvie shop where I'd bought my red wrap dress/skirt/thingy the week before. I think I showed it to you? If not, here it is:

It's amazing versatile and, I think, pretty flattering, depending on how I tie it. For twenty bucks, I can get several styles of dresses, skirts, and tunics out of it, so I wanted to get a yellow and a teal one, too. That I did. I accidentally bought the floor-length ones, though, which is okay but not ideal. I'll just have to tie them the other ways that don't work with the red one, right?

After that, Rob wanted to go fishing. He knew we'd end up down there way earlier than my assignment required, so he'd brought down a few poles, a cooler, and a bucket to prepare. We drove around on a wild goose chase for a while, trying to find a decent place to fish, before someone in a Circle K just told us to go the marina. You're not supposed to fish there, but he said they were cool about it, since it was the end of the charters' day. Worse thing that could happen was they'd tell us to leave, so we went.

The fish weren't biting for him, though. I think he was disappointed. I was, I know that much. I may not like to catch 'em and clean 'em - although back in my Mote Marine Lab days, I was pretty good at filleting the snook for the grouper and snapper - but I don't mind cooking and eating them these days. I'm trying to quit... but not that hard! ;) 

After an hour or so, he packed it up, and we went off in search of dinner and gas for Penelope. We didn't want to eat out anywhere, needing to save our cash, so we ended up at the Publix nearest my next assignment. Rob and the kids stayed in the car while I shopped for sandwich fixin's on the cheap. Bologna and American cheese it was; I splurged on good rolls. I got back in the car and told the kids, "Here are your choices: You can have boloney and cheese, or you can not eat. That's it." Guess what? They ate.

Finally, it was time to head over to one of the movie theaters on the island for my last assignment. Sophia was my date, having won the title of "Best Behaved Child" (can you believe it?!) after our trip to Orlando earlier in the week. We had planned to see The Croods for her sake, but it was 3D, and no upgraded movies were allowed for the job, so we went to see Iron Man 3 instead. It was the only one left that was semi-appropriate for an 8-year-old. I wasn't terribly excited, not having seen IM or IM2, but I was happy to have my fun baby as a companion. She did not disappoint.

The movie turned out to be really entertaining. It held my interest from start to finish, and hello?! I knew this already, but the movie reaffirmed it: Robert Downey Jr. is farking HOT. Oh, my word. I may have drooled. Cute butt, too. I think wardrobe did a really good job with him (as did his parents' genes). Honestly, though, I didn't expect to NOT be bored throughout the movie, and there wasn't one single second of that. I don't normally go for superhero movies - not since Christopher Reeve as Superman, anyway - but this was extremely well-written and -acted. In a nutshell, I liked it. Go see it. I'd even watch it again. And not just for RDJ. Much.

*~*~*~*~*~*

We got home from Key West at something like four in the morning on Friday, and I had all those reports to do. But I didn't. I tried, man. I tried. I was beyond exhausted by that point, though, and went to lie down "for a little bit." You guys, I didn't even get up until 9 PM on Friday to pee or anything! Crazy. So I missed a bunch of shops that I've since rescheduled, all my reports were late (ahem, but what else is new?), and I had a killer migraine. I needed that sleep, though, so it's all good, I guess.

And now? I have more shops to do. See ya!

Fin.

Sea World, Orlando, & Downtown Disney

Over the past two days (Monday and Tuesday), Team Odette traveled 4½ hours away to Orlando for a mini-vacation. Thanks to Anheuser-Busch for supporting our troops, because with their Here's to the Heroes 2013, Rob and three of his dependents could get in for free. We just had to buy a ticket for Jack. We also bought the eat-all-day deals for everyone but me, which is totally worth it, because you can literally go through the participating restaurants again and again and again and get way too much food for a normal person to consume. We are normally not wasteful people, so it was a little painful to throw away perfectly good food, but otherwise it was a really good value; do it!

To prepare for the trip, I packed tons of snacks (no-frosting strawberry Pop-Tarts, trail mix, a little chocolate, cereal, etc.) in snack-size Ziploc baggies for all three kids in their new bags (from Publix) with their names on them. I gave each child a clipboard filled with paper and enough writing and drawing implements, new sticker books, glitter and glue, and more to keep them busy. Finally, I ran to the Toys 'R Us outlet store at a mall about 5 minutes away and picked up these glow sticks, together with smelly-good bubbles and more cyalume light-up bracelets and necklaces, for use on Monday night after we left the park.

I let them open up their new goody bags on Sunday night before bed, giving them instructions on when and where each item was to be used. We had to leave at about 0400 to get to Sea World by the time it opened at 0900 Monday morning, or else I would have left them in their car seats and let them find them then. They were super-excited to find out what was in those bags!

We arrived at Sea World more than a half-hour early, thanks to only having to stop for potty breaks and drinks at the Florida Turnpike travel plazas once or twice. I'm definitely going to do this pre-planning packing for the kids' car trip needs when we road trip in the future. It worked out perfectly: there was no "I'm hungry," "Are we there yet?" or "I'm bored" whining whatsoever. Awesome!

One really nice thing about Anheuser-Busch parks - and Sea World was no different - was that, right after the park opened for business and while we were standing in line to redeem our vouchers for tickets, they stopped to play the National Anthem. Rob stood at attention respectfully, and as usual, tears welled up in his eyes. I love that my guy is such a true patriot. I really admire that. Sophia started talking about what a dumb song it was, but I hushed her up and explained to her what the song was and what it meant, and that shut her complaints up immediately. She stood quietly and respectfully throughout the song after that.

Entering the park was really easy, smooth and fast. The folks at Sea World have got it together. The first thing we found inside was a flock of flamingos, stinky and squawking like crazy. They have a distinctive smell, which isn't very pleasant, but they're absolutely beautiful. Sophia, our bird lover, was particularly captivated.

Near the flamingos, also-banded pelicans waited to be admired. Or as a Facebook friend called them, "the crows of Florida." Still, as aggressive and unpleasant as these fowl can be, I think they are pretty cool.

We moved along to the stingray tank (although there were other rays including this cownose), and of course my thoughts immediately went to the untimely death of Crocodile Hunger Steve Irwin, right? Apparently, though, the stingrays are de-barbed or something, to make them not dangerous to park guests. I don't know how I feel about that, but I guess liability would be a huge issue if a similar thing happened in the park.

There were oodles and oodles of penny press machines inside Sea World. They were everywhere! We spent about $25 on collecting these souvies everywhere we found them, which makes me cringe a little. However, they're really cool, a great thing to collect, and the kids have fun doing them. It's a take-away and a project in one experience, so I think it's worth it in the end. We have collections from here, now, along with Disney World and Epcot, and everywhere else we've been able to find them. I love 'em.

It took us less than two hours to fill our Sea World pressed penny book! The machines were so ubiquitous, it wasn't hard to do. We have about 10 more that don't fit in the book, plus there are another 10 or 12 on the back of this book, so we have plenty. We probably even missed a bunch of machines, since we didn't do everything there was to do in the park. It'll give us something to do on a future visit to Sea World, y'know? 

After we pressed our first set of pennies, the first thing we found was the dolphin feeding tank. It cost $7 per kid and was on Chloë's bucket list, so Rob and I talked it over and decided to do it. $21 for an experience like that was pretty cheap compared to other behind-the-scenes adventures Sea World offered, and we had zero fundage for souvenirs other than the requisite pennies and my shot glass collection (I got a shark one, natch), so this was the thing to do. I'd rather give the kids an amazing memory than more stuff we don't need any day of the week, too. Here, we were waiting at the dolphin tank for our turn to pet and feed them.

Soon, it was the kids' turn to step up and feed the bottlenose dolphins. It was an incredible, memorable experience for all five of us. I'm actually surprised Chloë didn't cry a little bit. We all got to touch them, and the girls and Rob (who stepped in for the too-nervous Jack) each fed them two fish after doing the instructed rub under the jaw. It was amazing; words can't do it justice.

We walked through the aquarium that goes over one's head after feeding the dolphins, and I pointed out the different fish we saw to the kids. Parrotfish, like this Stoplight one here, are among my favorite of the reef fish. 

We visited Turtle Trek, which was a breathtaking surround cinema, like the inside of a planetarium. Another Facebook friend highly recommended it, and she was right; I loved every second of this short 3D adventure through a turtle's life. Afterward, there was a staffer giving out trivia questions and discussing the lives and habits of turtles and other sea creatures. I answered one question correctly before anyone else did, so she handed me a baseball card-like information sheet on the Leafy Sea Dragon for a prize. Later, she talked all about conservation efforts in which Sea World participates and gave the kids a chance to earn their own cards. We walked away with prizes for the Bottlenose Dolphin, Florida Manatee, and California Sea Lion, too.

Speaking of manatees, I love that the iPhone 5 has such a great camera; I took this picture, which Steph snagged off Facebook for a background on her iPad, with it. It turned out beautifully, IMNSHO.

The kids played a little turtle game, "Race for the Beach," against other kiddos. There were lots of little educational and interactive exhibits around Sea World like this one. I think it's great the way the park is so focused on edutainment and conservation; they really make the effort to preserve our natural marine resources. That impressed me throughout the day.

A Florida gator adolescent taking a swim 

We found some upside-down jellies, Cassopeia frondosa, near the alligator holding pen. I learned about these animals long ago as an undergrad at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmopsheric Science (RSMAS), during my Invertebrate Zoology class with the wonderful Dr. Peter Glynn. I wonder if he's still teaching; he was an inspiration for me as a budding marine biologist.

I'm not sure what kind of Cnidarian this one is, but my question to you is: artistically beautiful species, or just ick?

We then visited some leopard sharks, and Rob asked me to drop some knowledge about them. You know what? I didn't want to; I just wanted to have a fun, great day without so much pressure to be the authority on anything. So I refrained and just enjoyed being in the moment.

By that point in the day, it was hot, we were sweaty, and the kids were red in the face. Sea World isn't too heavy on rides and play so much as shows and experiencing the natural beauty of the marine environment, so we didn't have a lot of that. Fine by me, but the children wanted more of it. We headed over to the little kiddie area on the far end of the park to let them play in the small waterpark area for a bit. It was just the cool-down they needed, so I'm glad we took the time out to do that.

Sophia as Queen of the World! 

Chloë and Sophia took a ride in Swishy Fishies, which is like Sea World's equivalent of Disney World's Teacups. Jack, who had been the most vociferous complainer about the lack of rides, chose not to go on any rides. Really? That's so Jack, but whatever, he still had a great time and thanked us for taking them on the trip, so it's all good. If you're a Teacup fan, by the way, they also had a similar ride that went high up in the air. We didn't do that one, though, because the kids have a bit of a fear of heights; they come by it honestly!

Chloë had to pose for a photo-op with a Shamu replica; she happily obliged my request. It's never hard to get this one to do so; it's always hard to get Jack to pose unless he's thoroughly pleased at the moment!

Oh, I lied. Jack DID go on one ride, the kiddie train. This was more his speed, literally and figuratively speaking. 

We opted to rent a double stroller for several reasons: Jack, who has taut Achilles' tendons, has trouble walking for long distances. Plus, we knew we'd have lots to carry and thought it would be easier to take them around with us than pay for a locker we might visit but once during the day. And also, it would provide some sun protection for the kids, who took turns riding during our visit. An unexpected bonus was that it provided some tush respite for Rob, who occasionally took a brief siesta when he could sneak the opportunity!

My friend from Portsmouth, Miss Lisa, requested a family picture in the park, so I stopped a woman to take one in front of the sea creature-themed carousel we all rode immediately after that. Sophia started to pull a stranger-child off a purple seahorse that she wanted to ride; the nerve of her! After a scolding from me, we went on the other side and found one for her. But talk about embarrassing...

Just for good measure, I had Rob snap another shot of me on my carousel ride for Miss Lisa. You know, we all wore bathing suits all day long, but I was the only one who wasn't asked to cover up with a shirt or shorts. If you ever visit Sea World, be prepared to have a cover-up of some sort for males and females alike, because they will say something to you if you're not 'properly' dressed.

A fun moment between Jack and Chloë that I was thrilled to capture

We walked through the Arctic exhibit and found ourselves there at just the right time for a short training session for the beluga whales. The trainer had the belugas spin, jump and play for fishy treats. What fun to watch!

This polar bear was lounging near the beluga whales. I'm sure there were more, but we didn't see any, and she didn't want to come closer for me to get a better picture. Brat. I jest.

Both Rob's and my phone died after that, so this is a shot of Shamu that I stole off Google Images. Hee. We walked around the beautiful Sea Garden - a replica of the undersea environment made out of land plants - while we waited for the Shamu show to start at 1730. It was completely worth the wait. I had gone to Sea World with my grandparents when I was five years old, but the only things I remembered were seeing the flamingos and having an alligator come toward us while we ate dinner. 

Shamu - probably the n^th generation - and other orca friends put on a great display of tricks with their trainers. We had a lot of fun sitting in the Soak Zone and watching all the people in the rows in front of us get up, pissed, to leave after they got completely wet from the killer whales' antics (they're really dolphins, though, you know). Um, duh? You sat there knowing you'd get splashed and then you get upset when you do? What kind of sense does that make? None. Plus it's hilarious to have a whale do a humongous belly flop in front of you that leaves you dripping from head to toe. Make sure to put away those electronics and purses if you go; "soak" is definitely the key word!

Shortly after watching Shamu, we headed to our nearby hotel for the night.  The Seralago has mixed reviews from friends and strangers alike who have stayed in the same place, but we had a really nice stay there. There is a big cafeteria-slash-convenience store near the main lobby; we were able to get pizza, burgers and gyros for dinner, and everything tasted great. We picked up breakfast in the morning from there, too, even though Expedia said there was supposed to be a free continental one. (That was the only let-down.) There was a tiki bar and playground in the pool area, and the room was spacious and comfortable. For less than $60 a night in a high-traffic resort area, we were not disappointed. Your mileage may vary. 

The kids played with their glow sticks and bubbles, went swimming with Rob and warmed up in the hot tub at Seralago. Meanwhile, Rob and I got drinks from the bar that we left mostly untouched. Oh, that was another thing - my piña colada? They must have thought I was fourteen, because I swear it was a virgin; if there was alcohol in it, it was undetectable by my highly sensitive system. And that's sayin' something. I'm actually kind of glad, though, because I no longer enough the buzz of alcohol and have pretty much decided I'm done with the stuff after this. I might have something now and again in the future, but for the most part, I see no need to imbibe.

For lunch on Tuesday, we headed back East to Orlando (we stayed just West in Kissimmee, which is pronounced "Kiss-IH-me," but which my silly grandpa always pronounced "KISS-amee" to be funny) for a mystery shop. The place was dead, so we were able to get in and out of there fairly quickly before heading to our next destination.

We didn't have any real plans for Downtown Disney other than something fun for Jack and possibly renting a paddleboat, so I asked Rob's dad if he wanted us to visit them instead at their place in Boynton Beach on our way back to Homestead. Only, Rob's dad was not actually IN Boynton Beach yet, so that didn't pan out. A weather check Monday night didn't look promising for Downtown Disney, either, but fortunately the rain held out and we had a beautiful couple hours of sun during our trip to the Marketplace.

After getting squirted with water by the giant Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) at World Of Disney, we stopped to listen to the orchestra play some tunes from movies and TV shows everyone recognized. I really enjoyed that and was grateful we didn't miss it.

There's a big LEGO store - one of Jack's few obsessions - at Downtown Disney, but instead he wanted go to Ridemakerz to build his own radio-controlled car. We spent a lot more there than I planned, but it turned out to be really worth it. The cars, accessories and chargers come with a lifetime warranty, which is good because later we discovered he had a bent axle and needed a new undercarriage. They swapped it out for him, no questions asked.

At the store, which is at the back of Team Disney if you want to find it, there was a huge selection of rims and wheels. Some are included in the price of the chassis, and some are extra. Jack happened to pick a set that were free-with-purchase, to my relief.

After he selected his rims, wheels and sound, Chris helped Jack assemble his new yellow Corvette. That was fun, to put it concisely. Jack could have been timed to see how long it put together the vehicle, just for fun, but he chose to take his time and not rush through the experience. I wasn't suprised at that; he's a pretty methodical kid when it comes to mechanics.

I wanted the girls to have an equitable experience compared to Jack's, and we didn't want to do the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, so we walked around to see what they could do. First, they chose to have their faces painted. Artist Emily was really talented; Sophia looks adorable in her "Princess Kitty" make-up, doesn't she?

Chloë chose to have the "Music Mania" paint. They each opted to get the glitter lipstick after Emily verified with me that it was okay. Why not? Full package, baby.

After their faces were done, we went to the Ghirardelli store near the entrance and got a strawberry shake for Sophia and a chocolate one for Chloë. I didn't taste Sophie's, but Chlo's was really rich and delicious. They were a bit pricey, but since neither girl could finish hers and passed them to the boys less than halfway through, it was okay by me. We got chocolate samples when we walked in the door, too, which satisfied my sweet tooth!

Just like my dad, Chloë usually chooses to eat the stems of her maraschino cherries. I do it, too.

Stim (Steph and Tim, back in Virginia) are big fans of Sulley from Monsters Inc., so now that the new movie is coming out, she was hoping to have me pick her up some Sulley merch to send her way. We didn't find anything for her or the boys, though I had fun looking around and texting her pictures of all the latest offerings!

Even though he'd spent a small fortune at Ridemakerz and knew he wasn't getting anything else, Jack wanted to look around at the LEGO store. I figured I'd see if they had anything new in the LEGO Friends section (the girls collect those sets) for my lady-babies, because their shakes and facepaintings cost nowhere near as much as Jack's Corvette. Not that I wanted to spend money just to spend money, not at all, but I wanted both to be fair and also give them something to DO and something to HAVE, just like Jack.

Sophia, who's been gunning for the LF House for over a year now, surprised me by changing her mind and opting for the Stable instead. She loves horses, as well as the afore-mentioned birds (bugs, too, though all the kids love animals in general), so maybe it wasn't so surprising. Chloë went with a smaller set, the Café I think. When we got home that evening, they started building their sets out front on the patio, since their room is still crowded with unpacked boxes. Must remedy that situation soon!

There are many LEGO structures around the store in Downtown Disney, including a serpent in the water nearby and this family and their dogs. On our way back to our van, Penelope, Jack wanted to pose with this structure for me. Oh, see his gappy grin? He lost a tooth at Sea World the day before! Apparently I forgot to tell my progeny that they weren't supposed to leave body parts in the park.

After stopping for another potty break during the ride home, we spotted this fresh Florida oranges and grapefuit shop that I wanted to visit. We were out of oranges, after all, and I knew we'd find more local goodies from right there in Fort Pierce and surrounding areas. I was right. I spent more than I wanted to, but shopping locally is important to me, so it was worth it.

Along with my ¼-bushel of Valencia oranges, I bought some real Florida honey (mmm...), some orange honey, and jellies and preserves: Guava Jelly, Jalepeño Pepper Jelly for Rob (ew, but he'll love it), Tangerine Marmalade (omg, that sounds so good right now), Orange Pineapple Cherry Marmalade, and also Mango Chutney. I also picked up some Vidalia Onion Mustard for Rob, and some Habanero Beef Jerky that he gobbled down as soon as I got back to Penelope and handed it to him. I snagged a bag of saltwater taffy that the propietor described as "so good, it's addictive" to ship to NY for my BFF, Dr. Lisa. She loves the stuff.

When we finally got home after a quick stop at the Walmart Vision Center to pick up Chloë and Rob's new prescription sunglasses (theirs took longer than Jack and Sophie's because they're so blind), Jack rushed out to test out the new wheels. He drove it all the way around the block and had to be convinced to come in when it got dark. I'm glad he was so happy, but he seems to think we'll be going back every year to get him another one. Ha! I don't know where he got that idea, but it wasn't from me!

So now that it's May, it's time to really get serious and down to business. April was a full month of fun for Team Odette, but it's time to rein it in just a little bit. Oh, there will still be plenty of fun, but we have work to do. There's lots of homeschooling on which to catch up, jobs to get, unpacking to finish, VA paperwork to get done, a house in Virginia to sell, and college to get into (for Rob). Much to do, though like I said, we'll still be having fun in between the more serious stuff. Stay tuned for another post tomorrow, as I have fun mystery shops planned for today!

Fin.

Oh, My Dawg, I'm So Excited!!!

...or, How We Spent Our Tax Refund!

        ...or, Man, We Should Be One of Those Couples Who Has To Spend a Million-Dollar Inheritance in 24-Hours Flat!

                   You feel me? But let's move on from these 77 alternate titles and get to the meat of this post.

If you hadn't realized, our federal tax refund hit our bank account yesterday. Here's how we've spent it on the kids and household goods in the day since then:

1. First stop, our local post office. We had to mail five or six packages, including the Progressive Snapshot device I'd never plugged into our Odyssey, Penelope, some video surveillance equipment for a mystery shop I'd (never) done, and the keys to our Virginia Beach house to our realtor back in that town. Plus, I had to buy a roll of stamps. Yes, some of us do still send snail mail. And also, we had to bring our lease in so that we could FINALLY get the keys to our mailbox. It's been 3 weeks, and we still have almost NO mail, save for the little bit that trickles down into our PO Box. Speaking of which, the kids and I went to check it while Rob finished up with the lease business, and there were two cards in it from Aunt Stacey (my sister). She sent cards and money for the two birthday babies, Jack and Sophia, having decided together with me that money was the way to go for our kids' respective birthdays from now on.

2. Next stop, Walmart. We spent a buttload of money on household necessities (and a few un-necessities, but not many) there. And Jack spent his new birthday money on this remote-controlled boat he'd been eyeing for a while.

Sophia spent her birthday money on this horse, which goes with her doll that she'd bought with birthday money from others earlier in the month. Granted, it's not tax money, but it happened yesterday, so I have to tell ya.

Also, Chloë and...

 

 

... Sophia both got new pairs of skates, which was and wasn't a splurge. It wasn't an absolute need, no, but they did need to get more and more varied exercise, and I needed a skating partner! Rob wanted to buy me a bike, too, but I figure I'll keep an eye on Freecycle for that. (Side note: Sophia fell on her butt a million times but is already zooming skillfully around the block. Chloë is still falling, but she'll get there, I'm sure. Soon as she lets go of all the tree branches, that is.)

 

 Other spending at Wally-World included food (absolutely necessary, right?), an iron (Rob had left ours back at the Va Beach house, oops), toilet bowl brushes (because, eww, he forgot those back there, too), a plunger (same story), towels and accessories to match the new shower curtains and mats in both our and the kids' bathrooms (splurge-y), a garbage can (forgot it, too), aaaand new bedding for all three kids (Sophia ruined all the old ones. She does that).

 

 

 

Next up, back at home, I went online to the Florida DMV website because we both need new state licenses, and then we'll need to register Penelope and the motorcycle, and then we'll need to get new insurance policies. (And I still freakin' need to fix the gigantical crack down the middle of my windshield, but that'll keep a li'l longer, won't it? It's been a month and a half already, after all...) But the next appointment - you make 'em online, here - for the DMV isn't until May 6th, so I looked at the docs we'll need for the new licenses. Crap, I need a new Social Security card. So do the kids; ours got stolen, which is not awesome. Lots of other stuff did, too; someone stole our "important papers" lockbox I kept under my desk. Ugh. Anyway. We'll go do that business tomorrow. Of course, they'll want my driver's license, among other things, to get the new card, so now I understand dogs and cats chasing their own tails!

 

 

We don't need cable TV - -haven't had it for years- - but we do need internet service. This is 2013, after all, and we have numerous electronic devices needing wi-fi. Not to mention the fact that our iPhones get crap for signals in the house on the LTE network, or 3G or 4G for the matter, and we don't have a landline. So, we put in about a half-dozen phone calls to Comcast to sign up for supah-fast (and cheap, compared to what we were paying for Cox in VA) cable internet service. We'd have done it sooner, but, ah, that's neither here nor there. It's done now, and they're coming Sunday, and I can't wait, and yeah.

 

 

Next stop, JAFRA, to place an order. I have gotten several from clients that needed fulfilling, plus I plan to start kicking that into high gear, so I needed a few things myself for said purpose. Yeah. I love JAFRA packages. They smell so damn good and always bring promises of buttery soft skin. Mmm, me likey.

 

 

 

Speaking of our iPhones, I've been boosting off my 5's Personal Hotspot to get online and do all the important stuff like tell you on this blahg about that important stuff, and so I had to go on the AT&T website to pay our big, fat bill. That was that. Can't wait to whittle that back down after the Comcast guy comes with our new, um, nothing?

 

 

Speaking of paying the bills, I hopped over to our bank website and put in an extra payment for Penelope, and...

 

 

 

...Elsie, Rob's BMW motorsickle.

 

(Yes, I spelled it that way on porpoise. C'mon, now.)

 

And then, the really exciting stuff started. Well, wait, first dinner. The kids must eat. The husband must eat. I... must nibble. I gained about 10 lbs during our move and realized it even before I got my scale back a week ago to confirm it, so I've been eating very carefully and am already down 4 lbs since then. I was hoping to take it off by my birthday in September, so yay. But what? am I talking about??

 

 

For dinner, after Rob and the kids cleared off the table and cleaned up the kitchen enough for me to cook in it properly, we laid down the new bamboo runner we'd gotten on clearance from Walmart (a minute splurge, yes, but it went with my Fiestaware, and hey, bamboo!) and used the also-clearanced new cloth napkins (hey, reducing paper waste is a good thing). Since we were going fancyish, I decided to make the kids promise promise promise they wouldn't break the wedding crystal we'd gotten from Dr. Lisa and Uncle Faris, and they did pinky-promise, which is as good as gold 'round here. And guess what? The only person who came even close to breaking one was ME. Yup, I'm still the same ol' klutz I always was, rest assured. PS, the candles were Sophie's idear. We are SO decadent. ;P

 

 

I'd gotten this Ninja Chopper from my friend, Yet Another Stephanie, back in VA, but I hadn't put it to good use yet. We had avocados, we had guac mix, and we had tortilla chips, so it was time. And guess what? After a few pulses, we had delicious-ish guacamole. It wasn't the best I've ever had, but compared to the improvised batch I made after Rob and - yes! - the kids quickly polished off this one, it wasn't bad at all. Heh. (Mine wasn't either, but it lacked salt. And lymes. And cilantro. And had too much onion. And tomato. And not enough avocado. Damn, it must've sucked worse than I first rememberated.)

 

 

 

This picture is way washed-out compared to the actual scene, but then I whipped up a pork steak dinner from a recipe I'd gotten on the back of a can of Campbell's chicken broth. There was pasta instead of rice, because that's what I had, and I needed to squeeze fresh juice from oranges rather than use bottled juice, because that's what I had and hello, yummier, but other than that, it was pretty much according to the recipe. Kinda. Anyways. Rob says it was good enough to make again, which is high praise coming from him, but all three kids had upturned noses, the punks. I don't see them doing the whole presentation-is-everything thing on me with hummus and pita, or anything, so humph!

 

 

 

However, Jack and Chloë did enjoy the orange slices in the dinner so well that they requested more for dessert. Um, okay, twist my arm a little bit, why don'tcha.

 

And NOW for the rilly, rilly exciting part!!!

 

(You'd better be sitting down now.)

 

(I mean it.)

 

(Because this is heady, heady stuff, coming up here in a second.)

 

Are you ready?

 

All right.

 

You asked for it.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

I bought stuff for homeschooling!!!!!! Yeah, school, baby! I can't WAIT to delve back in and get the kids back on track and have tons and tons and TONS of fun in the process. I love teaching them!!

 

Here's what I bought over at the Homeschool Buyers' Co-op:

 

 

 

All FIVE levels of Latin American Spanish from Rosetta Stone!!! Whoop!! For cheap! I have been wanting RS for aaaaaaaages, ever since I did a mystery shop at one of their kiosks (oops, I'm not supposed to tell you that) and saw how well it works. Chloë started angling for German, and I would have been thrilled with Latin, but we all settled on the LAS after thinking about what would be the most useful in our lives right now. I can not WAIT to get my teeny-weeny little hands on this baby. Sirrusly.

 

 

I usually piece our Science and Social Studies curricula together myself, but this year (starting now), I'm going to get a little help from the award-winning Adaptive Curriculum. I cannot wait to see how that works for us, especially in Social. Science, I've got down, but our Soshe has been a little, well, piecemeal, so I'd like to get it more organized in their brains, y'know?

 

For teaching Grammar rules more concretely, I got us a lifetime passport to Grammaropolis, which looks very promising. Sounds like fun, too!

 

 

For writing and all that goes with that business, I bought us a year's subscription (which is really enough information, with what I got, to last us through the end of high school if I choose) to Brave Writer, a highly rated program about which I've heard nothing but good stuff. Eeeeeek!

 

And now for the reeeeeealllllly exciting part!!!!

 

Can you stand it? I can't!!

 

Because we want the kids to be technologically savvy, and because so much of their work is computer- and internet-based, I have been wanting to get them each their own laptop or tablet for a while. I've been researching and thinking and debating about it; we've had ONE laptop for the kids up 'til now, and it just doesn't work that well when all three kids need to be online to do assignments. With three, I wouldn't need to constantly rotate them out and cut them short on projects - they could all work simultaneously! So after tons more research, I bought them each a Kindle Fire HD 7" tablet on Amazon.com! Wooohoooo, the
y are going to be so stoked, man!

 

 

 

 

Of course, to protect their shiny new electronical toys, I got them each a case in a different color. Jack's is green, because, well, it's his favorite, and I couldn't find a boyish pattern to suit him.

 

 

I think this one will be Chloë's.

Sophia will like this one.

I don't know how much they'll need or use them, but it remains to be seen, so I got them this pack of 6 styli for their Kindle Fire HDs, and also one - yes, just one - wall charger to share. I figure that much we can do on a rotational basis, right?

But I'm still not done outfitting the kids for the coming year. Nope, nope, nope. I did s'more shopping on ye olde Amazon first:

Sophia needs a new queen-sized mattress for the bunk bed she'll now be sharing with Chloë, because we had to leave her old one behind in Portsmouth (doesn't really matter; it was gross). I got her this memory-foam one, which has really good ratings. Remind me to air it out for two days first...

Oh, and for us, I got a new bed frame since Rob left our old one behind at the Virginia Beach house, which sucks because they aren't as cheap as I thought they were. Booger.

For Jack, I picked up a Yamaha keyboard stand (and a new wall charger, since he lost his). Even though he's decided not to pursue lessons for now, the music store folks convinced us to hang onto the keyboard in case one of the kids picks it up. And I can play, albeit slowly and gingerly, so we can all bang around on it for our music lessons in Sweet Pea Academy. It's cheap but comes highly-rated, so I think this one'll do us just faaaahhhhhn.

 

And finally (as you all breathe a sigh of relief, I know), the kids have been doing some growing since last I shopped for summer clothing for them. Especially Sophia; she's now, like, a foot taller than Jack! No lie. She needed a new bathing suit and picked this one out at Sears.

They all needed shorts and tees, so I bought bunches upon bunches of those for each kiddo, too, along with one dressy outfit for each kid. Inexplicably, after making a painstaking order there, Sears canceled several of my items and let the rest go through. Buh-wha-huh? I have to call them. I want those things, dammit! They need 'em! But it'll keep 'til 0900. Which, oh, is four minutes from now. Serendipity, baby!

Oh, shit, I totally forgot one more big splurge! Well, not like, a boat big, but Shamu big. *Ahem*

 

Yep. We're going to Orlando on Monday and Tuesday! Rob still has a little bit more time (a month, maybe) on Active Duty, so that means he and three dependents still get in for fah-reeeee at Anheuser-Busch parks through their ongoing Here's to the Heroes Salute program.  That leaves one kid out, so I bought another ticket, along with our parking pass, dine-all-day passes for Rob and the kids (I'll nibble and graze meagerly), and a stroller rental voucher. I can't wait, and the kids are ecstatic! (The stroller is mostly for Jack, who still has trouble walking sometimes, especially for long periods of time, thanks to his tight Achilles tendons, and also to keep the kid out of the sun here and there, and also in case we want it to carry things around the park without holding them.) Can't wait to see the shows, can't wait to see Shamu, can't wait to see my babies' faces when they get to feed a fish or two to the dolphins. Wheeee! That'll be Monday.

I think we'll do this on Tuesday, but we might not. I don't know yet. We'll see. Maybe we'll just come home Tuesday, or we might hang out with my online friend, Gloria, whom I've not yet met, or maybe we'll... hm. I don't know! Suggestions?

NOW I'm finished.

I have some mystery shops to go do today, along with my doctor's appointment for this thing growing on my chin, soooo.... whew! This post took forEVER to write.

Fin.

P.S. I'm such a liar. That's not all. HAHAHA. The cats got new beds and litter to poop in - LOTS of litter.

Sophia Lorelei Turns The Big "8"!

On Saturday, our wee baby girl turned EIGHT freakin' YEARS OLD, guys. Can you believe it?! I can't. My baby. Is old. Which means I'm old. Gosh!

By the way, blue, because her favorite color is now blue. Gone are the days of all pink-and-purple  all the time. Le sigh.

Also by the way, because I'm thinking of it, she's the youngest kid, yet she's the biggest by quite a bit. Chloë is the size of a 6½-year-old and has the maturity to match, whilst Sophia's maturity matches her chronological age. It's quite an interesting dynamic, and by that I mean... frustrating entirely too often.

Anyway. Saturday, Sophia's birthday, was a beautiful day. Just gorgeous. And we had a blast. But first, there were the presents:

Grandma (Rob's mom) sent a jumprope, headbands, puzzles that got put together immediately by all three kiddos, and a doodling book that she's been working in for hours on end each day since it came;

Aunt Gail (Rob's sister), a new Scentsy consultant, sent her a Scentsy kitty which, as you can see, was met with much excitement; and, 

on Friday night, she not only got a card with money from her Grandpa (Rob's dad, along with his stepmom), but our realtor stopped by to take the lockbox off our front door and, upon learning it was Sophie's birthday, whipped a $20 bill out of her wallet and gave it to the extremely delighted child, amidst our protests! So we took her to Wally-World and let her have a little shopping spree. What fun that was! 

But back to Saturday, her special day... We were headed out to do a plethora of mystery shops that I'd lined up for the weekend, but the first one didn't pan out (and none of the rest 'cept one did, in the end), so we ended up in Miami's Bayside Marketplace. In all my years living in Miami the first time around, I'd never made it to Bayside, which turned out to be a feast for the eyes and ears. What a bizarre bazaar! I instantly loved it.

The kids meandered around for a while, looking at this and that, before they happened upon the family bikes for rent. We didn't get a chance to ride that day, but we've done it before and I'm sure we'll do it again one day. Or have we? I can't remember, now that I think of it, when we actually did, so maybe I just made that part up.

After that, Sophia got to ride in the carousel, choosing of course to sit in the spinny-thingy that she loves so much, for the mystery shop portion of our visit to Bayside. I'd have let the other kids go, too, but fundage is at a premium right now and I could only let one kid go. Being the birthday kid, choosing Sophie was a no-brainer.

She also got to ride the train, as part of my evaluation, but she didn't sit here for long, oh no, she didn't!

Instead, she climbed into the caboose (after determining that she wasn't allowed to ride in the engine car) and pretended she was a caged lion at the circus. Silly girl!!

The ticket seller gave me a free punching balloon for her birthday. I don't know about you, but I love a punching balloon, and I'm pretty damn good at it, too. Much better than these goons kids of mine, but Jack is getting to be the best of the bunch at it. Sophia and Chloë, er, not so good...

That ^^^ is what I had to do after the mystery shop portion of our visit. And so, I did. 

Since we were at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant for me to GO, the kids were posing outside in Forrest's photo-op bench and shoes for Rob. Silliness.

Across from the restaurant was this enormous banyan tree, which is my second favorite kind of tree, I think, after palm trees. This one was about 100 years old, though they can live to be about 1,000 years. Did you know that when the branches reach down all the way into the ground, they grow into new roots of the tree? Isn't that amazing?!

Chloë had fun climbing up into the tree, and then Rob joined her. He climbed quite a bit higher, but not as high as he'd wanted to go before he got stuck with slick branches from the thunderstorm we'd gotten earlier that day. Indeed, the flooded roads are what stopped me from being able to get to my first mystery shop on time.

After climbing the banyan tree, we stopped at Häagen-Dazs to get ice cream for Sophia. Again, I couldn't afford to get treats for all three kids and still do my mystery shops (which I later ended up abandoning anyway), and I had a coupon for one small kid's cone, so Sophia got it. She did share with her brother and sister, but Jack ended up crying about the ice cream and made me feel like complete crap. He knows we don't have a ton of money and that the birthday kid is the one who gets somewhat spoiled on their day, just like he did, but it's still hard to understand and accept at 10 years old... so I told him and Chloë they could each spend a dollar or two on something at the market. Again, ::sigh::

Chloë was simpler, as usual, as she's relatively easy to please and Jack is impossible. She wanted her fortune told, so we spent her dollar on that. Sophia ended up getting her fortune read, too. Except it was funny, because Chloë hit the button for Spanish, and the fortune teller switched to Spanish for all of his mumbo-jumbo, of which I undertood not a word this time. Bah. 

Jack's tastes aren't cheap - everything he wants has wheels or is some mode of transportation or another, and he pointed out things that cost anywhere from ten bucks to $200! Um, no. I said a dollar, Jacky darling...

The girls were in heaven when we found this corner of a toy store decked out in Hello Kitty, well, everything! Sophia urged me to get the HK steering wheel, but I passed. Hee. I could just see me driving Penelope around with that on it, right?

In a shell shop, Sophia put a dried-out sea star on her ear and pretended to be a mermaid. That's another thing she loves - mermaids. She did look pretty with it there, I have to say.

Across the hall, we headed into the Brookstone store to see if there was anything (bahahaa) Jack wanted and could afford. I knew we wouldn't, but I humored the lad. We all found various massaging apparati that we all desperately wanted - and needed, you see, because we still don't have our household goods from the move and have been sleeping on tile floors for almost 2 weeks now. Talk about your aching bones!

Finally, we found a candy store - which is seriously the last thing Jack really needs - and he got some Pop Rocks and a push-up thingamajig to spend his buck-fitty on. Ah, well. Remind me to call a dentist tomorrow, m'kay?

Right after that, the kids were begging to go to the beach, which we'd promised this weekend, but first, Sophia had to dance to the salsa and merengue music playing outside by (I'm guessing) a local band. She stopped after I took this picture, came over to me, and whispered, "I'm kind of embarrassed, Mom. I don't know how to dance in public." So cute!

And then, there was a fountain as we made our way over to the merengue band, so of course I had to fish three pennies out of my satchel to let them each make a wish. Rob and I abstained for once, though we usually join in and toss a coin or two.

At the bandstand, there were plenty of listeners up front and center dancing to the music. Good times, good times, and no, I'm not near brave enough to have joined them. Not in a million years, though I like to listen and watch!

On our way over to the parking garage, Sophia spotted a man twisting up balloon animals. She ran over and told him it was her birthday, so he asked her to pick a color and tell him what she wanted. He didn't speak much English, so she just dove into his bucket of balloons and fished out a blue one, asking for a dog. He whipped it up in no time flat, then made the sign of the cross and wished her many blessings for her birthday. Nice.

A pretty smile and a blue poodle. A bloodle?

At last, we made it out to Key Biscayne. First stop was Diver's Paradise, the dive shop where I used to work back in the day, to visit "the Omars" who own it. Only, Omar Jr. wasn't there because his wife had just had a baby boy, and Omar Sr. wasn't there because of the awful diving weather earlier in the day. Bummer; it's a looooong, long drive out to Key Biscayne from Homestead, so I don't know when I'll get out there to see them again. I will, though - count on that - but probably not before we get a dive in on the other end of the Florida Keys.

Y por fin, we made it to la playa.  Those are my buried feet at the bottom of the picture; I'd have shown you my piggie toes, but my toenails aren't painted, and once, in college, a guy told me that girls' feet are ugly if the toenails aren't painted. Hee!

Sophia was the only one who'd kept her bathing suit on after (we thought) the thunderstorms altered our plans to go to the beach, so she plunged RIGHT in the water and had herself a birthday ball. That, right there, is a happy, happy 8-year-old.

Somewhere between the Sophie picture and this one, I'd dropped my iPhone and my keys into the water. Only, I didn't realize at the time about the keys, since I was so intent on rescuing my phone to get the next great picture. Hm. We'll revisit that later. See the muck behind Chloë, where Jack is? It was gooey and goopy, and she ran through it shouting, "EW! EW! EW! EW! EW!" in a very Chloë-like way.

Rob found this whorling shell - a mini conch, mayhaps? - in the low tidal zone, and thus began a collection between him and Sophia. They found many a cool shell that day.

And then, someone found a crab in the water, and all the Latinos ran screaming away, yelling (in Spanish) that it was poisonous and would kill them. I laughed and said it wouldn't, so my girl Sophia was the first one to dive back in and check out the crab. The Latino children kept running over, screaming, and running away, in a most amusing - albeit histrionic - way.

A while later, I managed to find this itty-bitty hermit crab walking in the shallows, so I gave the kids an on-the-spot lesson about the crabs, their unique anatomy, and how they make their living.

After that, Sophia hollered to me, "Look, Mom! I'm a water skipper!" and then she proceeded to run, splashing, across the top of the water like a little beetle. She's great fun, that kid.

Finally, Jack decided to brave the muck. He rolled up his pant legs, with Daddy's help, and made his way over to me. In this picture, he was telling me there was no WAY he could manage to stay in the muck and water...

...but pretty soon, realizing the fun that was to be had in the calm waters of Hobie Beach, he got over himself. I love, love, looove to see this boy have a good time.

And there's me, freckling up like a freckly frecklepuss. Check it out, I have hair again!

True to form, Sophia made a new friend. She does this absolutely everywhere she goes. The thing I loved most about this instance, though, was that Ana didn't speak a lick of Spanish, and yet Sophia still managed to pal around with her. They talked through me. Chloë and Soph asked a billion questions of Ana, and we learned that her favorite color is red, her favorite food is fried rice with eggs, she's 8 years old, and she has a pet bird.

Meanwhile, Rob was walking around, solo for the most part, on the far end of Hobie Beach. I loved watching him connect with nature and enjoy himself. I think he's home. At last, it's his turn to shine, and he will do it well, I know.

After a while, an ice cream truck sung out its offerings on the shore, and Ana dashed immediately over to her mother to ask for some helado. Naturally, so did my trio of hooligans. Remembering that Sophia had already had Häagen-Dazs that day, I threw sense to the wind and decided to make it right with Jack. So they all got ice cream. Though wouldn't you know it, three bites into his Spongebob sherbet, Jack decided his was too cold, and he didn't want it anymore. The little shit!

Sophia and her new amiguita, Ana, enjoying ice cream together wordlessly

After ice cream, Sophia apparently channeled Brookstone to give her sister and brother foot massages in the water. Jack was too squeamish to let her rub sand on his feet, though, so he ran squealing away as soon as I snapped this Instamography.

Not long after that, the sun was setting for the day, and, knowing our shark friends like to come closer to shore at that time of day, we rounded up our little'uns and started to head toward the sand. Satisfied, we were, that a full day was had, so no complaints ensued.

Sophia and Ana hugged good-bye, promising to see each other soon (though we have no way of reaching Ana). Somehow, these flowers materialized out of nowhere, and Ana gave them to Sophie, wishing her a very happy 8^th birthday. Despite the ice cream stains and sand on her chin, I still think she looks beautiful here.

Immediately, Sophia decided to play "bride" and, turning around, threw the bouquet to her sister to catch. The flowers went all over the place, the girls went under water to catch them, and I had myself a good belly laugh. Hence the blur.

We got up to the arena, and Sophia dropped down to make sand angels. Of course! Who wouldn't want their wet and sand-covered birthday girl in their nice Honda Odyssey, ya know? I didn't care. It's such a messy Penelope right now, and I need to clean it out anyway...

Once we got back to Penny, I realized that I didn't have my keys. What? The doors were unlocked, too, so I scoured the front seat for them, to no avail. I sent Sophia back to where we'd left our shoes, but soon I realized that I had never put my keys down there in the first place. That's when I remembered dropping my phone. Just as a couple holding hands strolled by, I dashed down to the shallow water, and there were my keys, half-buried. I shouted, "I FOUND THEM!" to Sophia, and the male half of the couple exclaimed, "Wow! You were so lucky!" Indeed.

Sophia mentioned something about her birthday cake being the last thing she needed to make her day complete, and that's when I remembered that, oh yeah, I'd made no plans for a cake! Oops. We stopped halfway home at the Publix where I worked in college, and I chatted up Little Richard in the produce department while Sophia picked out some strawberries. My girl loves her some strawberries like nothin' else. She always tries to find the biggest one. Look at her! She's such a goose.

It was so big, she pretended she was a pig with an apple in her mouth. Jack wanted to cook her, but that's where I drew the line.  I know, I'm such a good mom.

The berries were super juicy, and I had absolutely NOTHING of my cake-making schtuff to work with, so I did the best I could. Sophia didn't care a wit. She said it was the most beautiful cake ever, and she loved it. Who could argue with that?

I had a bite, but it was one bite too many. On the other hand, Sophia has managed to sneak about 2/3 of the cake since last night, so I guess the chocolate cake-and-strawberry frosting combo (which Jack said tasted like Mentos gum) was too her liking. 

And that, my friends, is how you do a birthday 'round these parts.

Thanks for stopping by our little corner of the blahgisphere. Hope you'll stick around.

Fin.

Time For Some Fun... And A Little Retail Therapy

Snacks, Miami-style, seen at a local gas station convenience store

After our disappointment at the realtor's office Friday, we decided that we needed to branch out from the internet, regarding our home-hunting search. We'd stopped in several stores, both drug and grocery, to look for the Apartment Guide and similar resources, but we haven't found any. I told Rob we should go up to my alma mater, the University of Miami, and look for the campus newspaper. I knew that classified ads for rentals were placed there back in my college days, so I thought we might be successful with some leads that way.

When we got to UM, we parked near the UC (aka University Center, the school's student union), where I knew we'd find a paper and maybe some bulletin boards. The first thing out of Penelope (our Honda Odyssey), the kiddos wanted to chase around some Muscovy ducks that were visiting Lake Osceola. They were successful, as you can see from the photo, despite my protests.

So, I found The Hurricane, our student-run newspaper, but no ads of any kind. Since it's not quite summer rental time, I'm not completely surprised, but a little. However, we want to find something long-term instead of just a sub-lease for the summer, so it's probably for the best. Hindsight is 20-20, though. 

The kids wanted to see more of the campus, since they scarcely remembered our last visit there in 2007, and of course I was happy to oblige. We still had about 20 minutes left on the parking meter, so I showed them around the UC and Lake Osceola. Back in my day, most things were white with green and orange trim. I noted to Rob that everything has not only been upgraded, but changed to completely orange and green, with a wee bit of white trim. UM has gone full-on 'Canes décor, that's for sure!

After the UC and the lake, the kids wanted to see my dorm. I'd pointed out a couple others within view of the UC, so that piqued their interest. We drove over to Mahoney and Pearson residential colleges, the later being my dorm, and I pointed that out in addition to the dining hall where I took most of my meals. They loved it all, of course, and so did I. Ah, the memories... if we can afford it by the time the kids are in college, I'd love to continue the legacy with at least one of them. It costs a fortune, though, so who knows?

After the very brief tour of UM, I thought the kids would enjoy a ride on the city's MetroRail, the overhead subway that goes pretty much in a straight line from South Miami to Hialeah. I was right, of course, though I should have expected Jack to be scared of the high platform. He was terrified, cried, and clung to me for a while, even though he was excited to ride the train. 

After a little bit of quick math in my head, I figured out it would be cheaper to get Day Passes for each of us, rather than go the pay-as-you-ride route. $25 later... ouch! Prices sure have gone up in the last 15 years. (I can't believe I'm that old, either!)

Finally, Jack relaxed enough to let me take a picture with him and Rob. I think Rob looks so cute with his shaggy, very white beard... ♥ (My sister is not a fan, but she's not married to him, so pbbbh! It does tickle, though!)

We decided to take the Metro into Coconut Grove and walk the mile or so down to Coco Walk, one of my favorite hangouts back in college. It hasn't really changed at all! I thought the kids would enjoy playing the "right" songs on the jukebox at Johnny Rockets, remembering how the wait staff would get up on the counters and dance to "Respect" and other fun hits. Well, they still had a good time, but the jukeboxes are broken now, and the staff said they only dance when the place is full. Bah. It was nearly empty at that point. The kids donned their paper hats and Jack said, "We work here, Mom!" So cute.

Sophia and Chloë had grilled cheese sandwiches, Jack had the chicken fingers (well, really a bite of chicken and most of his fries, the stinker), Rob had a cheeseburger, and I ate my old standby, a tuna melt. Oh, and we got milkshakes for the kids, which they loved  - in no small part because the server spun the lid of the straw jar for them and made the straws spin out prettily! They're suckers for the little things, just like me.

After dinner, we decided to walk around Coco Walk for a while before heading back on the Metro. We found a fountain, and I had enough pennies for everyone to make a wish. Can't tell you what we wished for, but one person on Facebook guessed mine easily! Can you? ;)

Upstairs, I spotted some Britto luggage in a window and practically ran to go look at it. I haven't seen a Britto merch shop since we were in Charleston, and I do so love to look at it. The store sold Crocs, too, and Sophie fell in love with some Hello Kitty ones, along with a set of Hello Kitty Jibbitz that she just had to have. I debated for a while before deciding to get her some pink Crocs that she chose (the HK ones were too small for her piggies) and the Jibbitz, for her 8th birthday in two weeks. I might give them to her earlier, since the flip-flops I'd picked up for us girls at Walgreens are uncomfortable for her.

Anyway, the shopkeep at the Crocs store said there was another shop down below that sold a lot of Britto merchandise for cheaper than anywhere else he knew about. You know we ended up there, eventually, right?!

First, though, we kept looking around upstairs. We came across a Pan Am store (what's up with that?! Is that a thing, now?) that sold lots of vintage-y Pan Am merchandise. They also had some old Pan Am displays set up, including this one of an actual plane interior. Chloë posed, and I taught her to say, "Buh-bye. Buh-bye now." Remember those old SNL skits?

Jack found a paper glider set there he wanted, and it was only $5, so I was going to get it. Then he found a miniature replica of a real Pan Am plane, but it was $30 - I said No Way, José! Not after all the loot he'd just scored for his 10th birthday. He was so disappointed, he cried. And then, of course, the $5 gliders weren't good enough either, and I wasn't going to buy him something just to buy him something. I explained it to him, and he understood, but he was still moody for the rest of the night. I did find $5 handmade necklaces at a kiosk down below for each of the girls, so I told him he could spend the same amount, but he found nothing he liked. Later, he asked me if he could just add the $5 to the $26 he already had saved up (and let the movers pack, by accident); I found this to be entrepreneurial and accepted. He brightened when he realized that he'd have enough to buy the miniature replica when he got his money back!

Finally, we made our way to the shop that sells Britto merch on the cheap, Sparkle Plenty. Wow!! What a sight to behold. There was so much goodness in there, it's like I died and went to heaven. I decided that, to go with our Deep Night Romance giclée by Britto, we should stick with kissing fish only. There were several options, including an $80 picture frame (not now, thanks!), and an $18 luggage tag (also a nyet), but we went with these:

a cute little toothbrush holder that I plan to use to hold scissors, if they fit, or something else if they don't, on the computer desk, and this:

a fishy teapot that will look great in our future bright and cheery kitchen, no?

Awesome. We love you, Romero Britto!

At the counter in the same shop, while paying for our goods, I came across these packs of gum and had to snatch a photo. Silliness. There were more, but I couldn't them all in the shot, and these were funnier.

After the shop, Rob said it was time to go back to the hotel and tend to our kitties. I had asked several people if the Metro Day Passes I'd bought could also be used to ride the bus back to the station, but no one knew. Finally, I spotted an Information booth, so we strolled over there to ask. The three uniform attendants said, "YES!" in unison, so I gave them a double thumbs-up and said, "Right answer!" The kids were so not up to walking back, and we were all relieved. Woot!

Sophia found this guitar art standing up near the bus stop. She immediately had to start 'playing' it, Sophie-style. What fun!

We rode the bus back to the station, and then we got up to the platform to ride the station back. No sooner did we get there, though, before I started to convince Rob we had to go back down to the store across the street. I was DYING of thirst. Dying, I tell ya! I told him we'd get back in time for the train that was coming 17 minutes later (they run less frequently at night, and it was about 10 PM by that time). Well, guess what? We didn't! Oops.

So 20-some minutes later, we caught the next train and rode it back to the University station. Or so I thought. It completely skipped over our stop, and I looked up just in time to see the words "South Miami" flashing by as we approached the next station. Um, what?! No one at the next stop could understand why that would happen, but it did, so we had to get back on the Northbound train and ride back again. The kids weren't dismayed at all, thankfully, because I was dog-tired by that point and not up to another battle.

After we disembarked from the train a third time, we got over to Penelope and tried to start her up. Only, the battery was dead and the parking lot was now deserted. Greaaat. I told everyone to be quiet for five minutes, and I prayed. Then I tried the ignition again. Started RIGHT UP. Thank you, GOD!! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We got back to the hotel, where all five of us promptly climbed into bed and fell asleep.

I can't tell you what happened most of Saturday, because I slept through, having come down with a bad cold, until nigh on 6 PM. I know Rob took the kids swimming at some point, but that's all I'm aware of. Now it's Easter, and I need to get the kids' baskets. It's 2:30 AM now, so I'll wait a couple more hours and then hit up a Walgreens for those and some newspapers. Surely there will be plenty of houses-for-rent ads in there, too.

So that's our adventures for now! I'll post more frequently than I have been in the past several months, now that we're here. Comment, sil vous plait. 

Fin.

I Can't Drive 55!

It only took 9½ months, but just days before our move to Miami, we finally got the rest of our stuff out of the Virginia Beach house and over to the Portsmouth house. Well, most of it. We did have to leave some stuff behind, but I don't know what, and Rob wouldn't tell me because he didn't want me to be upset about it. We have waaay too much stuff. The movers, when they showed up to the Portsmouth house where everything was stacked up in boxes all over the place, were not pleased. Ah, well. It's done now, right?

On Monday morning, the trucks came to load up our belongings. Two were needed: one to shuttle things from our driveway to the 2nd, main one that will actually be transporting our goods, because the street and driveway were too narrow for the big truck to remain. We must have had traffic blocked off in both directions about six or eight times that day. Sorry, folks!

Finally, in the evening, it was time to go!! We filled up the gas tank, and off we went! First stop: Saritah's house in north central North Carolina, to say our last goodbyes. We had planned to spend the night, but our situation required that we get to Miami as fast as possible, so we had to abort that mission. After we left, two hours after we arrived (and many tears later), we drove straight through to Miami with minimal stops. The kids, who had not slept well for days, slept all through the night. That certainly facilitated the quick drive south!

We got to our hotel around 2 PM on Tuesday afternoon. (I guess I can stop using military time, now that Rob's retiring from the Navy, right?) The total drive from Saritah's house there, including rest stops, took just 17 hours. Not bad, not bad at all.  The kids have declared about 9,000 times since we arrived, in breathless tones, "Miami is beautiful." I have to agree.

Our six cats fared pretty well. I thought we were going to listen to all of them meowing constantly for the duration of the trip, but they settled down and napped for most of it. One cat had a poopy accident and another peed, but for the most part it wasn't too bad at all. They're having some trust issues after being shoved into boxes and spending two days there, but they're letting us cuddle them, so it'll be all right soon, I'm sure.

Tinkerbell, our mama kitty, stepping out of her carrier for the first time

Ginger, Sophie's sweet-but-dumb kitten, allowed her to snuggle him right away after he finally stepped out of his cage.

Rob took the kids to the pool while I started our massive house-hunting efforts. More on that later. Sophia, naturally athletic, went right in the chilled water, while Jack continuously grumped about "hating Miami because there aren't any indoor pools." The kid grouses constantly like that, but we're used to it now. Chloë dipped in briefly, but she got cold quickly.

There are a few vending machines in our hotel, outside the pool area, including one for ice cream. I treated the kids to some cherry-watermelon pops after they swam, before it was time to get back in the van and go look at a property that turned out to be a dud.

For lunch, we went to Pollo Tropical. I hadn't been there in years, and of course, the rest of the family never had. I want to immerse them in the local culture quickly, and this was a good way to start even if it's a chain. We had Flan and Tres Leches for dessert, and they LOVED it. 

Pajama Party!

Next up, a post about our house-hunting so far. It's going...slowly, but going...

Fin.

Miami Move Mathematics

Hey, you guys! What's up? Well, as for Team Odette, I'm now coming at you from sunny South Florida! Woohoo, we made it - and we could not be having a grander time.

Our move, by the numbers:

0 = Number of times we want to do that again

1 = Different homes we want to have this time around

2 = Homes Rob almost single-handedly moved us out of to get us here

3 = Kiddos in our Honda Odyssey, Penelope, for the drive down here

4 = Times I saw groups of deer next to the highway, mainly in the Carolinas

5 = Times we had to fill up the ol' gas tank to get from Virginia to Florida (Penelope was loaded from rooftop to undercarriage, and we got horrible gas mileage!)

6 = Cats in carriers we brought along for the journey

7 = In thousands, times we heard, "Can you put a new movie in the DVD player?"

8 = Actual hours the kids slept straight through on the trip - really! They did faaaabulously well. Thank you, God!

9 = In tens, fastest speed I drove while en route - but only until I realized. Swears!

10 = Approximate number of times I cried while saying good-bye to our Virginia/Carolina friends. I won't list you guys, because I'm sure to leave at least one person out, and I can't deal with the hurt feelings that would cause!

11 = Total number of poopers in Penelope for the drive. Dudes. That is a lot. I don't recommend it. (On a related note, only ONE cat had an accident, compared to 2½ PEOPLE on the trip, including yours truly. As Chloë hilariously put it, "I have to go to the bathroom. I have to go to the bathroom. Oh, no. Oh, no! Oh, noooooo! I went! I pooped my pants! Wahhhhhhh!" And call me a bad mother, but I really did laugh listening to her. So did Rob. Quietly, to ourselves, natch, but come on! It was funneh!)

1,000+ = Miles logged on this journey. Hey, I got a free buck for Amazon.com from the iPhone (not sure about Android) app, Ride, just for having it downloaded and running in the background during the trip. I could have saved it, but you know, I'm not so good at delayed gratification lately.

4 GB = Notification from AT&T I literally just received, saying I've reached my max data usage and am now going over our plan limits. No free wi-fi in the Motel 6, y'all. Sucks! On the other hand, Personal Hotspot rocks so I can bring you this post (and the following ones, I'm sure) until we get set up in a new place with innerweb service.

Hey, that was fun, recounting all that... pun intended. Stay tuned for more pictures and posts!

Fin.

Aloha Friday

Kailani & Pals link up here for Aloha Friday posts.

My question for you this week is:

Are you a good driver?

I used to consider myself one, until I got "Penelope," our Honda Odyssey, two years ago. I don't know why, but it seems like I'm trying to destoy the poor thing!! Oy vey.

What about you? Let me know in the comments.

Have a great weekend!

Fin.

A Day (And A Half) In The Life...

It was Road Trip time again for the four youngest members of Team Odette this past weekend. Rob couldn't go, because he had duty and had to stand watch. Suck. I was hoping he'd be able to join, but alack and alas, no such luck this time.  I'm going to present the 36 hours in chronological, timeline format, which I hope is interesting and not dreadfully dull. If it is, be sure and tell me, and I'll go weep in the corner with self-pity. Um, yeah. So away we go!

Friday

1230: The children and I set off from our home in Portsmouth, VA, to points northward. Washington, D.C., to be specific. The trip should've taken 3-3½ hours, but ends up taking a little longer because of some heavy duty weekend traffic out of Hampton Roads.

1630: We arrive in downtown D.C. Because I've been chugging beverages all along the route, and despite a rest stop, my enormous bladder is full to burstin'. I finally find somewhere to park and then realize I have zippo change for the bloody meter, which doesn't take the $1 coins I received for change from my $20 bill at the rest stop vending machine. Arghhh!

1630-1700: We race around, finding plenty of signs like the above, first to get change for the meter (18 minutes' worth for a buck, ugh) and then find a place to make weewee. Nowhere. Nowhere to GO! Finally, at last, and por fin, I found a restaurant that would allow us to use the facilities. How do you spell relief?!

Relief. Get it?!!

1700: I now have exactly one hour left to complete the mystery shop I'm there to do, which necessarily has to take a full hour. I'm cutting it short on time. It takes me five minutes to find a parking space in the zone of my shop, which I'll explain more about later, and it is a pay-by-app or -phone spot. The app won't download - no signal in D.C.? Really?! - so I call the number. I have to give my license plate info first: CARE PKG. I spell it once, twice, thrice, and the system hangs up on me after successive failures. Repeat once more. The third time, I get smart and spell it phonetically: Charlie Alpha Romeo Echo Papa Kilo Golf. Success! But then... after setting up my credit card number and getting an account established, I input the parking meter number, and the system tells me that I cannot park there after 4:00 PM on weekdays. Then,

LOTS of them.

1725: I call my scheduler, give him the lowdown on the sitchy-ation, and ask if I can come back to do the evaluation on the 'morrow. He shuffles around some assignments, 'cause it matters whether it's done on the weekend or a weekday, and gives me the green light. Whew. We head out of the District, north to Maryland.

1820: We make it to the hotel where I'm doing a mystery shop that night, check in, throw our stuff in our room, and head back out to go do yet another mystery shop.

1955: After stopping at McD's to grab the kids some dinner and getting lost a few times, we arrive due west for our next mission: three games of laser tag! The kids are overjoyed; I've surprised them with this gig. They LOVE laser tag, having played it for shops twice before, and are now downright giddy. I have another surprise in store for them, too:

 

My old college pal Play-Doh, from our joint alma mater,

works nearby and met us there to play, too! The kids LOVE Play-Doh, and now they were brimming with the energy of crazed children that only comes out when the excitement is extreme. You parents know what I'm talkin' 'bout! They were all over him, jumping on him, climbing on him, etc., in a heartbeat, and I could barely get in a hug. The five of us had a blast playing laser tag (I kicked PD's arse 2 out of 3 times, woot), arcade games, snacking, and hanging out, until my shop was complete.

2215: We parted ways with PD and headed back East to the hotel. I got lost again a few more times. Dang, I miss Sue, my GPS! I had my iPhone GPS, but it just ain't the same.

2330: Tired - nay, exhausted - and gross from the long day in the car and games, I quickly do what I need to for the shop that night, before plopping the kids in front of the tube (because they're waaaay too wound up to sleep at this point), while I go soak in the tub. Ahhh.

Saturday

0015: I'm still working on getting my as-yet-hyper babes to sleep, while trying to get some work done on the laptop. I'm unsuccessful at both, so I give up trying. All the lights get turned out, I set my alarm, and crash. I assume the kids do, too.

0830: I wake up just in time to go have breakfast before they shut it down, then head back to the room and crash some more. I'm soooo tired still.

1200: The kids and I finally rouse ourselves, an hour past check-out time. I've totally slept through my alarm and wake-up call. Whoops! We take 15 minutes and race around the room, getting dressed, packing up, and movin' on out. I go check out at the front desk, where I obviously don't look as shabby as I think I do, because the clerk is practically undressing me with his eyes. He's cute, so I let him. Ha.

1340: We arrive back in the zone of my evaluation of the streets of D.C. and park. I can't really tell you too much about it, other than that I'm basically mystery shopping the city itself. Yes, I'm that badass. I kid, I kid. We walk around my assign streets, doing what I need to be doing, and the kids all develop blisters as we go. The streets are clean enough, so I let them go barefoot. In downtown Washington, D.C. In the summer. On hot sidewalk granite. I'm an excellent mother. :\  We come across this little pond, an oasis in the desert city, and they look longingly at it. I look around, see no one in authority to stop us, and quickly let them dip their feet in the pondlet. They gab on and on about how good it feels. On we march, to finish the job.

When we come back across the Washington Monument, which the kids easily recognize in such a monument-filled ciudad, the kids insist on having their picture taken in front. Note that I'm still camera-less, save my iPhone, so quality is less than awesome.

1520: I finish my assignment, and we get back to the vicinity of the car park where Penelope is waiting. I know Play-Doh is busy studying in Georgetown for a major upcoming exam, so I call him up and offer to bring him some lunch for a study break. He happily accepts.

1610: After getting lost a few more times (!!!), we finally find la escuela where PD is studying. Immediately, the kids jump out of the car and begin climbing all over him again. PD is child-free, so far, so I offer him a few of my own. He laughingly declines. I try to get a decent picture of the kids and Play-Doh and end up with this lovely work of art:

Gee, thanks for putting the sammich down for 30 seconds, Jack! Sheesh!!

A little more chit-chat, a few more hugs, and PD is off to get back to studying.

1630: We head back out of the District, back into Virginia, for our next destination in Williamsburg, for another surprise mystery shopping assignment for the kids.

1845: We arrive at our destination at last, to the kids' total excitement. They are having way too much fun on this trip! We head in and go look at a bunch of weird, wild and wacky shiznat.

Like, this maneless, albino male lion, which the kids insist over my protests is a tiger...

... and this two-headed calf, which Sophia obviously thinks is wicked crazy.

I let them play the target-shootin' game, and it turns out that Jack is quite the ace with a BB gun! The girls each get a shot or two in, but Jack manages about ten! Nice. Maybe he'll grow up to be an expert marksman like his daddy is.

Sophia was busy looking at this slow-fast-slow-fast motion demo, when Chloë hollered at her to come try the laser obstacle course room. Oh, and we went through this groovy tunnel on a bridge, made with an optical illusion effect so you think you're spinning around and going upside-down instead of just walking straight through it. I loved it; meanwhile, it made all three children CRY. Yes, cry. Group hug time.

Feeling badly, I let the kids do the claw machine, which we all know never works. You never win these things. Ever. But guess what?! On the first time, Jack and I tag-teamed that bad boy and won these kids a one-eyed stuffed puppy they named Ripley. Woot!

Before we leave to go next door and watch the 4D movie, I insist we all get in the photo booth for a group sesh. Here's the result. We so crazeh!

2020: Finally, we're done with our shops and are ready to head home. I text Rob and tell him that we'll see him in about an hour. Ha. HA! I say.

1159: Over 3½ hours later, because the main Interstate (64) from the Peninsula down to the Southside of Hampton Roads is closed for the weekend at the same time as another alternate route in what can only be described as the most brilliant fecking move EVER, leaving the entirety of Hampton Roads to bottleneck through the last remaining resort, we get home. That, up there, is a full bladder. All of us had one, though mine had to have been about 90x that size, I swear. I barely made it!

That brings us to the end of our journey. But one more thing. You may have read a recent Friday Fragments post in which I challenged you, my readers, to play me on Words With Friends? Well, one such soul decided to take me up on that, and I spent the weekend being positively TROUNCED by such individual. My pride is wounded. I rarely get beaten, and never so badly, so I have a message for you, KO:

Imma gonna getcha! May take me 100 games, but when I do, well... Imma put a hurtin' on ya! ;)

Have a great week, pals!

Fin.

Aloha Friday

Link up here if you have a question for Kailani and friends today!

My question for you this week is:

Are you an equal-opportunity hater, as my husband says?

What the heck?

I mean, if you're going to talk sh** about a bad driver, is it harder for you to do so if they drive the same make as a vehicle in your household, or does it not matter?

I know this is the most ridiculous question, but it came up today, so I'm asking y'all. As for Hubs, he's equal-opportunity. But if I see a

like my Odyssey, or a

like Hubs' F650GS,

it's harder for me to go, "oh, you stupid Honda driver!" On the other hand, I can cuss out a Ford pick-up truck driver (especially one with the Confederate flag plastered all over it *ahem*) with no such qualms. So, if you think about it, what about you?

Have a great weekend!

Fin.

Sunday Stealing: The Imaginary Meme

Link up here if you're playing along - I'm doing Parts I and II together since I missed last week. Enjoy!

Sunday Stealing: The Imaginary Meme, Part One

1. Have you ever peed your pants as an adult?

I've had four kids, including a set of twins, via c-section. You don't put that much pressure on your guts without a little weewee squeaking out now and then.

 2. Who do you have a celebrity crush on now?

I've gotta agree with Jennifer Love Hewitt and go with Adam Levine from Maroon 5.

3. Would you date someone you met online?

 

Would. Have. Married him...

4. Do you wear underwear always?

 

Nope. Most of the time, I do. Not at the moment, though!

5. Do you hate yourself at times?

 

*snort* I can't count how many times I've attempted suicide. You don't do that because you like yourself.

7. Do you like dirty movies?

 

I've seen a few in my day, but most just make me laugh.

8. Could you believe Josha Ledet was voted off Idol?

 

I don't give a flying Fig Newton.

9. When was the last time that you bought a car?

 

August 6, 2010. Now I'm trying to get rid of it. :\

10. Have you ever been camping?

 

Oodles of times as a kid, and twice as a Girl Scout troop leader. I liked it much better as a kid. Lots fewer rules!

11. How many times a day do you go on facebook?

 

Sometimes none. Sometimes I never leave, technically. It all depends. I took a long break recently and didn't really miss it all that much. Surprised even me.

12. What was the last movie you saw in a theater?

 

The Pirates! Band of Misfits, with my 10yo daughter, Chloë. I wasn't too impressed (sorry, Hugh, I still love you) and spent the entire movie with my iPhone on my chest, lighting up my knitting.

13. Have you ever worried that you'd cut off a limb?

 

This meme is kind of pissing me off. Oh, wait, no, I was already pissed off. <<breathes deeply>> I don't think that's the sort of thing you worry about until you do it, unless you work a dangerous job.

14. Where did you get your last email from?

 

Freecycle. I'm getting rid of lots of good stuff today, and it feels good to be trimming the fat!

15. Favorite website?

 

Mine. ;)

16. Are you down with ghetto?

 

There's a time and, obviously, a place for that, but I try not to show that side of myself in public places!

17. Will the world end in fire or ice?

 

I don't know. Yes?

18. Do you believe in the afterlife?

 

Yes. Yes, I do.

19. Would you be upset if Facebook stopped working?

 

I'd be more surprised than upset, at this point in the game.

20. How did you start your blog?

 

I opened a Typepad account and started typing. That's pretty much how it goes, isn't it?

 

21. Have you felt that life is like being on a roller coaster?

 

Pshaw. Mine has, that's for damn sure.

22. Favorite year so far?

 

I take them as they come.

23. Do you consider yourself religious?

 

I consider myself spiritual.

24. How do you dress to impress?

 

With this body, it's very hard. I'm not fat anymore, but I have a lot of extra, loose skin. It's not a pretty picture, so there's not a lot I can dare to bare, and I can't wear skin-tight, either. Just like when I was really big, there's a lot of clever covering up going on. I do try to get away from wearing all black now, though. Mostly I focus on my best assets, which are my shoulders on up. (Thanks, Jafra!)

25. Have you ever been to Connecticut?

 

Just once. We spent the night before my grandpa's funeral there last year, which was fitting, because that's where he was raised.

26. Do you eat sushi?

 

Love it. Can't eat much of the rice, though, so it can be tricky.

27. Would you smoke pot providing there was no risk or driving involved?

 

I never have, so I don't know... but it is on my Bucket List.

28. What do you think of Idol Winner Phillip Phillips?

 

Again, I don't give a flying Fig Newton.  ReMEMber??!

29. Do you believe that animals have souls?

 

I suppose so, yeah.

30. Who did you last talk to? Share, if you dare.

 

I'm not really scared to tell you I talked to my husband. Should I be? <<looks around nervously>>

31. What is one thing that always annoys you?

 

My husband is the biggest instigator of my kids' shrieking and whining when we're out in public, because he'll pick on them and bug them to death. Seriously? It drives me crazy. You're almost 40, not 12. Grow up and act your age. (Home is a different story, of course. Go nuts.)

32. Do you believe in a higher being God?

 

Yes, I do.

33. Have you ever fallen in love with a neighbor?

 

No, but there were certainly crushes on a few when I was a kid...

34. Any plans for this weekend?

 

Well, we went out of town the last two weekends, so it's stinko that the Strawberry Festival in town is this weekend, and we have exactly zero dollars to go. Can't even afford the gas down there! Instead, we're cleaning house. (I'm taking a break, obvs.) Maybe we'll go to the beach tomorrow.

35. Would you like to rule your country, if you could?

 

Hell, no! I'm just not "leader material." I do think it's time for a woman to try her hand at it, though.

36. Do you like watching films about the nature of animals?

 

You're asking a Biologist this? As long as they're portrayed true to life, yes, I love them.

37. What's the difference between lust and/or lust?

 

I fail to understand the difference myself there, pal.

38. Do you have a soul?

 

Le sigh. I was right. This meme is annoying. Of course I do.

39. One best friend or many good friends?

 

I'd prefer both. Can I have both? 'Cause I do.

40. Do you believe in spontaneous combustion?

 

That's like asking me if I believe in Evolution. Both are completely observable, witnessed-by-human-eyes scientific phenomena. An emphatic "yes!"

 

Well. That was meh. Back to work.

 

Fin.

Friday Fragments

Link up here if you've got bits & pieces rattling around in the ol' noggin to share with Mrs. 4444 and friends today! I have quite a few, so take a load off and stay awhile, won't you?

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I've got new news, so pop on over to this post if you want to know what big changes are afoot in my (and my older daughter's) lives!

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Likewise, I'd love your input on my Aloha Friday question for this week, which is here! Let me know if you have an AF post this week, too, so I can be sure to check it out!

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I've been playing around with the new Jafra color collection lately, so I'm experimenting with some new looks instead of my usual standby, which is closest to the bottom right in this collage. Which do you like best?

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Chloë, my oldest, was looking particularly adorable today, so I snapped this photo of her and then played around with it in Picasa by Google. I can't claim credit for those curls, which she gets from her daddy. His hair looks just like this when he's not, well, in the Navy for 19 years!

 

Chloë wanted a makeover, so we played around with some of my make-up on her for a little while Thursday evening. What do you think about make-up on a 10-year-old? Totally wrong, or okay if it's just for fun, like this? Obviously, we don't do this very often, but I think it's fine once in a blue moon, for kicks.

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Speaking of Jafra, I've been painting my nails with our wonderful lacquers faithfully, and they're actually growing and not breaking! I have paper-thin nails normally, and they break easily. My sister's nails are long and strong, so I sent her this picture on Facebook. Yeah. We bonded over nails. What can I say; she's a cosmetologist!

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Sophia and Jack have been having so much fun with their Kiwi Crates over the past few months, that I finally relented and renewed their subscription after being asked approximately 8700 times. They worked on it a bit Thursday evening and made parrots and treasure boxes. Can you guess the theme? Yep. Next we'll be making pirate hats and eye patches to go with them. Fun!

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After nearly two years of trying to get a table to our local Melting Pot's Girls' Night Out, I finally scored us a table - at 10:30 PM! It ended up working out to be a good time, albeit very late, because my friend Tabby and I had preview tickets for the movie American Reunion, the American Pie sequel, the same night. So for seven hours, I was out with first Tabby, and then Tab, and two of my "Turtle Friends," Saritah and Jenny From the Block at dinner. And oh, my gosh, I laughed so hard and often during both events. The movie was hysterical from start to finish, and we had ourselves a hilarious time at dinner, too. I hope we don't have to wait another couple years to do it again!

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Our tax refund check came in recently - well, partially, anyway, as the IRS denied Chloë as our child based on a clerical error on their part, argh - so Rob and I got some very necessary new tires for his motorcycle, Elsie, and my Odyssey, Penelope. The tire appointment was supposed to take about two hours, so I asked Jenny From the Block to keep our kiddos while we were there. I just wasn't up to deal with the boredom whining, basically! She agreed, so in the end, Rob and I decided to venture out together on his motorcycle for the first time, to use one of our Groupon-like certificates for a local Thai restaurant which we'd never tried. We were the only people there for quite a while, as you can see, but it certainly wasn't because of the food quality!

Our meal was excellent, although mine was spicier than I expected. I can't do spicy, and not just because of my sensitive gastric bypass pouch; I never could handle it. I just don't have the stomach - or tongue! - for it, sad to say. Still, it was good. But better than that was the fun of riding around on the back of the BMW with Rob! I had so much fun! I was a little scared, sure, but it was a breathlessly-exhilarating kind of fun. I hope we get another chance to do that again soon, too!

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So pretty much other than the pictures and details of Jack's birthday party, I'm all caught up now on my blahggy show-and-telling. I really ought to do that, especially since it'll be time to show Sophia's birthday party pictures in another week! On Friday the 13th, my youngest child will turn seven! We'll have her, 9-year-old Jack, and 10½-year-old Chloë. It' to face the music: my family is aging out of the "little kid" stage. I guess we're pretty well established by now, huh?

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And now to leave you with my old standby, a Cute Kid Quote. As you may or may not know, in my previous existence as a singleton, I was a marine biologist, studying shark feeding behaviour. My kids know all about that, and for whatever reason, it comes up frequently. Anyway, Thursday afternoon, we were driving around, when Jack suddenly asked what a car's muffler was for. Before I could answer, Sophia snapped at him, "She doesn't know! She's not a car biologist! It's not like she dives into cars!" I had quite a chuckle over that one! These kids. They kill me.

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On that note, thanks for stopping by, and have a fabulous weekend!

Fin.

Wild Horses Couldn't Drag Us Away

Once upon a time, also known as Friday morning, Jenny from The Block, her kids, and my kids, piled into Penelope (my Odyssey) and took a road trip up the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The main purpose of the shop was to do a mystery shop for which I was well-paid, but we got, shall we say, side-tracked, after that was finished. Had ourselves a little adventure, we did. Would you like to hear about it? Good. Grab a seat, your beverage of choice, and your mouse, because you're gonna need to do some scrollin'. For once, I had the Nikon with me and got over my camnesia!

So we meandered down the road a piece and, after talking to the scarcely-toothed manager of a local convenience shop, found our way here. You know the book Misty of Chincoteague? It's about the wild horses that roam this area. Well, I've been meaning to bring the kids up here for the entire, oh, nine years we've been living in the Beach o' Virginia to look for them. Finally, we made it. Too bad our respective Rons weren't with us. (Which is Jenny-and-me speak for "Rob," both our husbands' name...) Eventually, we plan to return for longer than a few hours and do the trip proper justice.

The first creature we spotted wasn't a horse, though. It wasn't even a vertebrate. The flutter-by captivated the five children's attention for a good few minutes before we went hiking in search of the Assateague Lighthouse, our first conquest.

I love watching the kids on a mission. Look how big Sophia is - she's the second-youngest, too! Jenny's kids are peanuts like Jack and Chloë. ♥

Ooh, looky! There it is, just over yonder!

Oh, whoops. Hang on, Moms. We have to stop and do a kickline together. The kids came up with that on their own, and then the did it about six more times during the day, in various places. Too cute. Especially the way Jack can barely stand up to do it. He's kind of, um, awkward. You should see him run. I can say it, because I'm his mother. The boy runs funny.

In short order, we found the clearing where the lighthouse lives, in all its resplendent glory. Or something.

Jenny and the kids checked out the structure, while I checked out... them.

I love that the cinderblock seemed to have been placed there just for my wee laddie!

Here's what he was so fixated upon: acres and acres of pure, unadulterated Nature. Gotta love it!

Yeah, welcome. Except, what village? I must've missed that part. It was the blink-and-you-miss-it type of town.

More signage. You can read it. I don't need to describe it. It was there, so I took its picture. That's what we perfeshunul photographers do, y'know.

The entrance of the lighthouse was all one-room schoolhouse-looking. I liked it. All old and historical. Pretty cool.

The Assateague Lighthouse. And some other little building. The keeper's quarters? I don't know.

We found a nice lady to take a picture of the seven of us together. Look, you can see the kids doing their kickline again. Hee.

 

Sophia taking a quick breather... (edited in Picasa for coolness)

Curly Sue had a look-see through the thingamajig, too. Nature at its finest, ready for its close-up!

Sitting on the bench near the lighthouse, Sophia deduced that the logs used for it were cut down by the late Mr. Jones memorialized thereon, and I was pretty impressed by that. Maybe you had to be there, but it was a great example of logic and reasoning for an almost-seven-year-old!

(Click pic to embiggerate) The kids all sat on the bench for another rest, and while they did so, I had them show me all the emotions I could think of. The funny part was, Jack was super-grumpy at the moment (tired), and all his expressions were exactly the same while the other four were being theatrical. Goof.

Hiking back to the van, we spotted this flash of white in the distance. Could it be a pony? We had to go see.

Oh. Nah. It was just a log. A log that proved to be quite entertaining to the shorties for several moments.

Gavin: "Get your hands out of my butt!" Madison: "Get your butt off my hands!" Okay, I made that up. Paraphrasing from the movie G-Force... ah. I entertain myself.

Cutie-pie little Gavin... he's such a sweety-kins!

More walkin', and lookin', and standin' around... And yes, we drove all the way up there and forgot to shoe poor Sophia. I carried her around a lot that day, and she is decidedly not a lightweight. Whew.

Another Gavin capture, looking cutesy-pie

Okay, yet another one, but I just love seeing little kids crouching like that! We were trying to decide whether a nearby plant was poison ivy. (It wasn't.)

 

All right, back to Penelope, to go find us some horsies!

I just love a van full of bebes!

This was the view out my driver's side window, when we were watching the horses, of which I did not actually obtain one dang picture, because they were so far away and well-covered by the brush and trees. Poopsticks. But it was still cool being out there and watching them. It was like being on safari. For horses. In Virginia. That was my fantasy.

Somewhere, out there, beneath the pale moonlight.. okay, it was daytime, and now I'm going to have that song in my head. Anyway, out there is where the ponies were roaming. We probably saw 6-8 of them. It was all very exciting. I can't wait to go again!

After we left the Assateague/Chincoteague area and did a little souvie shopping, we found the NASA Visitor Center and decided to go in there and check things out. And behold, it was good. A very good idea.

Yeah. The boys were in seventh heaven with all there was to see and do, rocketry-related. It wasn't lost on the girls, either. Fun times!

Curls will pose with any old satellite model if you train a camera lens on her. A born model.

A big ol' NASA balloon model, which is ginormous compared to the Washington Monument model. How come I've never seen one of these floating around? I guess maybe I wasn't paying attention, because, um, they're really big. BIG.

Madi and Gavin checking out a rocket trajectory

Chloë was transfixed by the astronaut-guy, who was all Madame Tussaud's-looking. Kind of creepy, but cool. Kind of.

I had fun following Jack around while he ran here-to-there, pointing out all the things hanging from the ceiling. It was too cute!

More walking and pointing. No talking, just the pointing.

At some "point," I wondered if he really cared where he was aiming that finger and just got into the habit of doing it!

A-ha! A center just for the wee folk, in the middle of the museum. There was all kinds of nifty stuff in there for the quintet.

 

Right after this was taken, Sophia accidentally leaned on that lid Gavin was lifting, while his bitty fingers were underneath it! Ouch! Poor little fellow.

There's Jack, doing his engineer thing, figuring things out, making 'em work. He spent a good chunk of our time there at this propulsion exhibit.

Finally, he had enough and went to go look at models of Naval ships. Jenny's husband works on this kind when he's away... but I'm blanking on what it's called at the moment.

 

And of course, we have an aircraft carrier here, which Jack stepped aside for me to snap, knowing it was his Daddy's kind of ship.

Then Gavin came over and found the ship his Daddy goes on, whilst Jenny brought over some free educational loot materials for us to use in our respective homeschool pursuits. Sweet!

A quiet moment for Soap

Chloë was watching a video about I don't know what, because I was too busy admiring her curls and ringlets.

Sophia kept insisting the two bacteria samples on the right were mixed together to form the color on the left, despite my continually telling her that it was three different organisms. Stubborn girl!

Here's what they actually were. ;)

The kids learning about El Niño and La Niña

Hey look, Gavin's a pointer, too! Must be a boy thing.

Jenny wanted to pose with the astronaut suit thingy, so I told her to "look spacey," and this is what she did. Ha! She's a hoot, that Jen.

At the end of our impromptu field trip, we stopped in the gift shop. Of course, Jack wanted one of every. single. thing. he saw in there. Little did he know I'd already scooped up some goodies from the souvenir shop we'd visited in Chincoteague, so it was killing me that he waaaaaanted something so badly and I (thought I) had left my wallet in the car. (Turns out I didn't, but that is probably a really good thing, since I kinda wanted one of everything, too!)

 

What? The back of his head is pretty cute, too - especially since you can tell his eyes are bugging out in the front, right?

*sigh* All right, all right, I can't stand it anymore. I whispered in his ear that I had something special just for him out in the car, and it was our little secret, and I'd show him later, and shh-shh-shh-shh-shhhhhh!

Oops, one more last pointy-point before we headed out to Penelope and back home.

 

When we got home that night, and the girls weren't looking, I gave Jack his pressies. He was pretty excited, so much so that the first thing he did was go show his sisters. D'oh! Jack! Good thing I'd gotten them each a Chincoteague/Assateague snow globe to make up for it, but they (rightly) felt shortchanged. Ah well. I just said it was "late birthday presents," and that seemed to do the trick.

And that was the end of that little jaunt.

Fin.

P.S. Sophia's snow globe is already broken. Le sigh.

Sunday Stealing: The Eve Was Framed Meme

Link up here if you're a dirty, dirty meme'er like me.

Cheers to all of us thieves!

 

1. Why is your favorite color your favorite?

It's the color of the clear sea in the medium depths of the Caribbean, the most beautiful color I've ever seen, and reminds me of what I love in the world.

 

2. Do you prefer dogs or cats or do you just hate animals, and want to kill baby seals?

That question made me snort! I prefer itty bitty little puppy doggies, but I love all animals. Even the ugly ones.

 

3. How much time do you spend on the computer?

Six.

 

4. Not including porn, what do you do on the computer?

This meme is cheeky, eh? I do everything, a little of this, a little of that, a little of s'more stuff... nunya, mostly.

 

5. Are you a clock watcher?

Rarely. Only if I'm bored, which I try not to be.

 

6. What did you look for in a partner?

Intelligence and a good sense of humor, decency and kindness, love and passion.... and obviously not height. Sorry, baby. Hee.

 

7. What type of clothing do you prefer?

Whatever I look good in and disguises my 7-to-10-year-old baby belly!

 

8. What is your favorite type of music?

I can't lie. I like my Pop music best. I know it's lame, but it's so... singalongable, mostly!

 

9. Do you believe in the paranormal, ghosts, ESP, levitation, spoon bending?

Not right now, nope.

 

10. The most important question: Do you have a innie or outie belly button?

I've got a way-the-hell-innie.

 

11. What kind of car do you drive?

C'mon, I've got three kiddos. A minivan. 2010 Honda Odyssey. I've had it a year and a half, and I still miss my old van.

 

12. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun or The Boys Are Back in Town?

 

The former!

 

13. Camping or the Ritz?

 

As much as I love the great outdoors, I'm more at home in a fancy hotel.

 

14. What food are you craving RIGHT NOW . . . did you eat it?

 

I don't know, but no, because whatever it is, we don't have it. Oberweis cottage cheese, I think. It's the best!

 

15. The most thrilling place you've ever visited. Why?

 

Oh, gosh. I'm hard-pressed... Okay. Our 2008 Mediterranean cruise was pretty awesome. I love culture, I love travel, I love being on the water... and I was with my darling husband. The only downside about that trip was that I was still mighty big (I had my surgery the following January), and we couldn't do a few of the excursions we'd planned because of my size.

  

16. If you could slip into the skin of one public figure--celebrity, artist,--who would it be?

 

Does Matt Damon's wife count? Then he could slip into my skin. Did I just say that?

 

17. Look up from your computer. What do you see first?

The Britto we bought on the aforementioned cruise!

 

18. Sum up your philosophy of life in one sentence. You can borrow it from someone else, if you'd like.

You take the good, you take the bad, you take it all, and there you have the facts of life, oh, the facts of life... sorry. I'm in a singing mood.

 

19. Name the one thing you just don't understand about kids today.

No. The kids, I get. It's their parents I don't often get!

 

20. If you could steal one work of art from a museum or gallery, which would it be?

 

Dalí's The Persistence of Memory has always captivated me.

 

Have a stellar week, kids!

 

Fin.

Friday Fragments

Link up with Mrs. 4444 if you're fragmenting today!

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NOTE to Mrs. 4444 herself: I have a really hard time commenting on your new DISQUS system. It usually doesn't let me, and when it does, it usually takes me at least four tries. Please, change it back so I can comment?? ☺

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Today was the first day in about 3 weeks that Rob (Hubs) hasn't had a migraine of some degree. Hallelujah! The steroid course the neurologist prescribed is working. Whew! His tummy is upset from it, but it's a welcome trade-off as far as I'm (and he) is concerned!

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You gotta know when to delegate authority sometimes, and today was one of those days. Between my own health problems, which have been in the background but cumbersome enough these past three weeks, and Rob's, and the kids' various issues, I've been drained. Today was our regular Girl Scout meeting date, and I just didn't have the energy to go, much less run it, or even plan anything. So last night, at the almost-11th hour, I called my assistant and begged her to take over the meeting for me. She seemed happy to do so, and let me tell you, it was SUCH a relief. I'm not really good at asking for help, but I'm so glad I did. I usually am, as it turns out.

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Do you have an iPhone, or other Smartphone, like we do? I find I download lots of cool-sounding apps and then rarely use most of them, because I forget about them. Tell me I'm not the only one.

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I have a headache. Ironic, isn't it? Actually, I've had one just about almost every day that Rob's had one. Maybe it's something in the air. :\

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I have baby fever again, even though neither Rob nor I is capable of making them, after visiting with my friend Donnatello's sweet little girl yesterday. Ah! She's precious. I can't stand it. Babies. I just ♥ them.

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Is it wrong, or normal, I wonder, that when Rob was at the height of his health crisis, I was listening to the radio and my iTunes music and deciding which songs might be considered for his memorial service? That, and I was considering who might prospects might be if I were to re-marry. Well, if it's wrong, don't tell me, because I don't want to hear it. Besides, I told him. :P (His opinion? Normal.)

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Don't forget that today is mega-Swagbucks Friday! Sign up here if you haven't already. I've already won three times tonight, and we're only 45 minutes into Friday on the Right Coast! I'm up to 52 $5 Amazon.com gift cards and counting... Hey, free money! Don't forget to do the daily polls and watch Swagbucks TV in addition to doing searches; I've boosted my 'take' considerably that way, lately.

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Ever since we went to Europe in 2008, I've been coveting a Smart Car (hey, I could put it in the minivan's trunk, or maybe strap it on the back like my Odyssey was reproducing by budding), but then the other day a forest green BMW 325i convertible was driving down the road (by itself, yes), and now I covet that, too. Looked kinda like this, but much nicer, newer, and shinier:

 

Of course, my dream car has long been an old-style Volvo - the boxier kind - but it'll be a long time, if ever, before I can have any of these cars, what with having to carry around a bunch of offspring and their stuff all the time. Le sigh. So what about you? What's your dream car?

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Seems I riled up quite a few people yesterday when I posted a few politically-charged cartoons and status updates on Facebook, so I've decided no more of that! It's not worth losing friends over. Do you discuss politics with the people you care about? I normally don't, but sometimes things are just funny, and hey, I like to stir the pot once in a while... ;)

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On that note, I bid you all adieu. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you're in the U.S. of A., and if not, a simply terrific week!

Until we meet again...

Fin.

Road Trip: Missouri, Six Months Later

At last, the Missouri trip! Cue the trumpets! Of course, now that it has been since end of February since our trip, I will have forgotten lots of little details that I probably would have otherwise included, but I'll make up for that with lots of pictures. So. Here we go!

We left middle of the night, as I recall, and drove straight through to central Missouri where Rob's brother and mom live (in separate locales, an hour apart). I started driving, but when it was day, I let Rob take over. Of course, never missing an opportunity to take "here we are driving to another state" photos, there's the one of Rob behind the wheel, all serious-like.

See how far back he is? He may be, well, petite, but he has freakishly long arms, a short torso and proportionately long legs. I am the opposite and have to sit right up against the wheel. We are forever having to move the seat around when we switch drivers in Penelope (our Odyssey)!

 

Me, trying to look all cool for my self-portrait. Where HAVE those sunglasses gotten to, anyway?

Jack was seriously excited on this trip. It's rare to get a genuine smile out of him (for a picture, that is). I wish I could remember exactly what this one was about!

 

I think this one had either just woken up or was on her way out. Or maybe both!

Chloë was pretty happy to be heading to Grandma's, too!

 

After many, many hours in the car, our first stop was in Columbia, MO, to visit Uncle Mike at his restaurant, Sycamore. He's the chef there, and having eaten there a few times, I can tell you that it is absolutely not to be missed if you're in that town. I love that he uses fresh, local, seasonal foods as much as he possibly can on the menu. Be sure and tell him I sent you. That and five cents will probably get you a nickel, but it would be fun anyway. Here's Chef-Uncle Mike telling the kids something restaurant-y. They hadn't been there since the summer of 2007, which in kids' years is like the entire Triassic Period, so of course they wanted the whole experience again.

Here they are about to go into the giant walk-in freezer. You can see the girls are wearing their Girl Scout tunic and vest, respectively. That's because, before our trip, they'd called up Uncle Mike and asked him if he wanted to buy any GS Cookies for their annual fundraiser. He bought one of each variety from them, so Troop Leader Mom made them go deliver them in uniform. Hee.

 

Sophia liked playing with the flappy bits of the freezer.

Of course, we didn't feed them during the entire, what, 20-some-hour road trip (har, I jest), so they were quick to bum food off Uncle Mike. Well, they were in a gourmet restaurant, after all! You can't lose with grapes when it comes to kids. 
 

They liked going downstairs to look at all the restaurant-size stock in the big pantry there, too. Now that we shop at BJs, they're used to seeing those sizes of cans, and one of them mentioned that it was "like at Uncle Mike's restaurant," one time.

One last peek at Uncle Mike and the front of the restaurant, before it was time to say goodbye and get buckled back in the car for the trip to Grandma's. They didn't love that - getting back in the car, that is - but since Grandma was on the other end of the drive, the complaints were kept to a minimum.

 

Of course, the first picture I have is not of the kids greeting Grandma but something Grandma almost always has on hand (she does way more baking than I do!) - cookies! I think Sophia spotted the chocolate chip goodness in the garage on the way in and, being our constant eater, accosted them until she was granted one or five. Probably not five, though she wouldn't have turned that many down!

 

After we'd been there a little while, gone through the hellos and how-are-yous, and shown our lovely room in the finished, cozy basement, Grandma (I now call her Mamacita, so if I slip, you'll know whom I mean) took us into the storage room and showed the kids her train collection. Now you KNOW Jack was all over that!

More of Grandma's trains. I seem not to have a picture of it, which is a shame, but when we were on our way home and driving through the coal towns of West Virginia, we stopped at a gift shop. I found a train made entirely of coal for Mamacita, and picked it up for her to send when we got home. Shame on me for not taking a photo!

 

 

Well, would you look at that! I lied. I found it already filed away under the photos from March, for some reason (which isn't odd because our trip DID end in the beginning of March but because I usually don't put them "away" like that until they've been blogged). Isn't it cool? I hope Mamacita liked it.

Anyway, back to our trip.

Even Chloë got interested in looking at all the different train cars from one of Grandma's sets - but no one was more enthused than Jack, of course.

Then Grandma brought out another box. I'll show you what that was in a minute, but I just have to say this peeky-peeky view of Sophia amuses the poo out of me!

 

Inside was an entire train village of ... what's it called? that hard counted cross-stitch frame stuff, the name of which is escaping me at present ... made by either Grandma or her mother. I can't seem to remember that part, either. (Sorry!)

The kids had a great time playing with that, until Grandma said it was time to put things away and go back upstairs. But not before she gave Rob and me all manner of old-timey cookbooks and things, through which I'm STILL looking. Fun stuff!

 

Upstairs, we were shown Grandma's Galileo thermometer, which fascinated them. (Gotta admit, they intrigue me, too. I've always wanted to get one. Don't know why I never did.)

This is the next day, now. We were expecting a visit from Uncle Mike and his kids, Harry and Elizabeth, who are younger than mine by quite a few years. Out came the toys - old ones, mostly, from Rob's childhood - that Grandma keeps on hand. Sophia delved right into making a block town.

 

Meanwhile, Jack was busy setting up the play castle. I think he might have snuck a few of the pieces home with him? I don't know, but the "guys" look recently familiar. Hmmm...

 

 

Chloë was into building with the blocks after a spell, too. I seem to remember her getting in a fight over them with Sophia. It wouldn't be a stretch to make that up, if not, since they are always doing that and driving me up a wall!

At last, Uncle Mike arrived with his little ones in tow. They take a while to warm up to new people and situations, so they stuck close to Dad for a while. I tried to get Elizabeth to play, or eat a cookie, or otherwise interact with me, but she wasn't ready yet. No worries, we were all old friends by the time we headed back to Virginia!

 

Now, there was Rob, in the midst of things, checking out the Lego™ cars Uncle Mike had brought for Jack and Harry. Jack is impatient about figuring out how to put things together, much of the time, so I'm sure he went straight to Daddy to ask for help!

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Chloë and Elizabeth were working on setting up a game of Twister. Do I have to "™" that one, too? ;) I don't think they ever got it sorted out as to the proper rules, though, so maybe the game was never played. I can't remember...

 

Then the girls were given an Eric Carle book, and all was well again as they read through that one together.

In the living room - which was beginning to look like mine does ALL of the time - Harry had a flashlight. I got multiple pictures of him playing with that, but none as cute as this. I love the "figuring out" look on his face.

The girls were getting along swimmingly by that point, so there were all kinds of toys and games shared amongst the three of them. It was jolly good to see them playing together so nicely!

 

Harry was in more of a solitary kind of mood, then. But where was Jack? Playing with something wheeled, it's certain.

 

Next, Elizabeth showed us how her Daddy flips her, which then obligated him to do the same with Sophia (who weighs half a ton, no lie) and Chloë (more like half an ounce, no lie). About a hundred times. His poor back was aching after that, I'm sure!

  

Well, this was nice. More Eric Carle reading (The Mixed-Up Chameleon). Isn't it great to see kids - cousins, that is - who never see each other, getting along so swell. Warm fuzzies, I get, just remembering.

 

Oh, look, there's Jack again, probably having a "bossy" moment. He does that sometimes. Okay, a lot of times. He's not good at sharing. Luckily, it doesn't appear that Harry minded too much!

Look, there's me again! How exciting. I barely recognize myself, even now. Liz was distracted by something, but she really was paying attention to the story I was reading her. In fact, she asked me to read it about ten times. I obliged. It's not often I get to read to her, after all.

 

After a while, when it was late, my kiddos changed into their jammies, and Miss Linda - Grandma's roommate - allowed them upstairs to her suite to watch a kids' movie. They had a ball, they did. Going up to Miss Linda's room is a special treat, after all.

 

When the movie ended, and it was time for the littlest Odette children to head back to Columbia for bed, I tried to get them all seated on the stairs for a group picture. It was a comedy of errors. Here's attempt 1: nope!

 

#2: nope, nope!

  

For #3, the daddy Odettes got into the act to try and old the squirmy children still, but they STILL wouldn't all look at me!

#4: Ah, forget it!! Not gonna happen. (If I've said it once, I've said it 100 times: child photographers do NOT get paid enough!)

 

At least the three Odette girl-children posed together nicely for me. Check out Sophia's ridiculous stance. She's still doing that pose all these months later. What a goof!

 

Either he's happy the kids have gone to bed, or he's giving me a sarcastically-non-genuine "get out my face with that camera" smile.

 

Nope, they're still here! Must've been the latter. I get that a lot.

 

The next morning, we arose and got ready to leave for the second half of our week, my mystery shop at a resort in Branson. I found that town to be a lot like Pigeon Forge, TN, except with pretty bluffs. Neither was particularly my cup of tea, but hey, at least now I can say I've been there. This child was really sick on the drive down, but here it looks like she's in the middle of pitching a fit. I should know; she does it about five times every day. ::rolls eyes::

 

After checking into our resort, we went out to eat at a local touristy establishment for which we'd been given some decent coupons. As usual, there were crayons and coloring papers for the kids. Jack doesn't usually get into it as much as the other two, so this picture is of interest - at least, to me.

Rob ordered a huge beer, which took him about eleventeen hours to finish. He doesn't chug. He's not a chugger. So many times, I have gone out to eat with him and the meal took much longer than it ought to have, because he's so poky about finishing his beverages. And yes, that's a major character flaw. Ha!

 

I ordered these. Of course, I consumed nowhere near all of that, and there was much sharing and saving for later happening with these crab legs. But, hello, yum!

We stopped at Wal-mart after dinner to get a few groceries, and since our tax refund had come in, this new laptop for me to take with us on mystery shopping trips. We'd bought one for the kids, which I usurped during each such trip, back in the Fall, but Sophia had recently dropped it by accident, and it was kablooey. Can I just say, I hate this laptop? Hate it. It is the spawn of the debbul.

"Home" to the resort after dinner, where Rob crashed on our comfy bed. It was a nice place, I'll give it that.

I can't remember if Jack already had this and brought it along on the trip, or we got it for him at Wal-mart, or what, but I'm thinkin' the latter. Else, why the huge smile?

   

The next day, we were able to go see a show called Dixie Stampede, a Dolly Parton thing, which had been recommended by my friend Julie when we were in Pigeon Forge but couldn't do at the time. I found a good deal on some tickets, and off we went!  Naturally, my horse lover, Sophia, was in 7th heaven when we were able to see the "performers" in their stables getting fed and groomed. 

The girls were enraptured of (with?) this big floral butterfly on the front lawn, and they insisted I photograph it. So there you go, lady-babies.

Sophia climbed right up on the display horse at the top of the hill. Rules, schmules, she doesn't care whether it's allowed. Take my picture, dammit!

Chloë thought the cannon was pretty cool.

 

Oh, another pretty horse, inside this time. And that was the last of the photos until we got "home," because Dixie Stampede doesn't allow photography, under penalty of death. 

I did a little souvenir-shopping after the show, and each of the kids got one of these lollies with the horsies on them. Jack and Sophia each had a birthday coming up, so I let them pick out something for that, too, for later. Now that Chloë's birthday is around the corner, I'm wondering if she picked out something for that, too. I think she did, and it's in my closet! Glad I remembered in time...!

Just for sillies.

 

Huh. I wonder why this kid has so many cavities? ::scratches head in puzzlement::

 

After that, it was time for a bath. The kids love baths, especially in hotels. They'd live in there if I let them. Anyway, a long time ago, I'd gotten something for them on steep clearance at The Body Shop, and I'd put it away for a special occasion. I'd forgotten about it until I was packing for this trip, so I thought that was as good a time as any to give it to them. You can see I made them close their eyes and hold out their hands to get it!

 

"What the heck is it?!"

 

Why, it was animal-shaped soaps, of course! Sophia was given a sea turtle...

 

...Chloë a (badly photographed) elephant,...

 

 

...and Jack got a humpback whale. There were two or three more in the package, and since I think they bathed until every last bit of soap was gone, I probably gave those to them for the next night. They loved it. Just one of those little "nothing" surprises that make life fun, I guess.

The next day, we made the pilgrimage up to Springfield, MO, home of the original Bass Pro Shops. We had lunch with our kids' long-ago babysitter, Angie, and her husband Chris, but I completely forgot to take any pictures of them! Wait, I'll go steal one off her Facebook page, haha:

 

Then we said our good-byes and headover over to BPS. And oh, my, it was HUGE. Lots of scenery, stuff to do, and of course, things to buy. Let's see, shall we?

The sign tickled my fancy!

This is the kind of place where, as soon as you walk in, you want to look everywhere and see everything at once, because there's just SO MUCH stuff to see! And they didn't spare any detail, either. It was really cool.

I think Sophia was most excited about all the scenery and taxidermied animals, though I'm not quite sure she realized most of them were stuffed!

This guy sure wasn't! Or was he? You decide.

Soph and Rob made sure I noticed the deer "running" around overhead, on one end of the massive store.

Yep, definitely plenty to see!

Jack climbed onto this Arctic Cat ATV, which was a wee bit too big for him - but he didn't care. Look at that grin!

Meanwhile, Chloë was petting this, um, dead pig thing. Wild boar, I guess? Maybe?

 

I just liked the look of all the rods displayed together like that...

 

Chloë definitely found an ATV she liked!

 

And this one suited Sophia perfectly. She may be a tomboy, but she's all girl when it comes to pink and purple.

 

Ahh, here's one that's more Jack's size. Now if only we had a few extra grand...

Always the lawbreaker, there's Sophia climbing again, this time into a speed boat. Can't blame her. I love them, too!

 

I was so glad to capture this moment, as it is truly rare, much more so than one of Jack's genuine camera smiles. They play together nicely half the time, but the other half - watch out! (And yes, I have to point out how one has a tush that fills out her jeans nicely, while the other can barely keep her pants up. Hehe.)

 

 

Oh, now we're back to petting stuffed animals. Lynx? Bobcat? I have no clue.

 

 

No doubt about what this is. P-U!

 

Jack's checking out the turtles, and probably thinking, "How can I get in there?"

 

They even left no stone unturned when it came to the ceilings. So fascinating.

 

After that, Rob helped each of the kids with their target practice. They must have played that game ten times. I got bored and went and bought a bag of hot nuts. I do like some hot nuts. ;)

Love the look of concentration on Chloë's face here.

...And Sophie the lefty's turn.

 

Look out, deer!

 

Checking out something, with a temporary friend, maybe? They make lots of those.

After that, I sent Rob to roam around and look at stuff with the kids, while I did a little shopping. Probably a little too much, but I got some great deals on some things they could really use - and have - sooo... Later, at our resort suite, I presented their goodies with much fanfare. I'm a fan of, uh, that.

 

 

Okay, so the fishing poles and tackle boxes were Rob's idea, and they LOVE them. Rob has taken them fishing a billion times since then, so those were completely worthwhile.

 

 

The net was to go along with the fishing gear, and the Bug Jug was to replace Jack's bug kit from camp the previous summer, which Sophia had broken. He was utterly dismayed about that, and just as thrilled to get a new one. He's forever wanting to put bugs in there and look at them, too!

Name placemats, for dinnertime. Well, anytime, duh. Of course, we never find anything with the right ë, but she's used to that! I do remember they used them for every meal we ate at the resort after that! Now, they rarely get used but once in a while.

 

Jack needed a coat, and I found an awesome one for him on clearance. Chloë got the wildlife puzzle, and Sophia was given a camp activity book and another chirpy bird. This time, a cardinal. (When we went to Beaver Lake in my hometown, she picked out a goldfinch. She's a big fan of birds, too.)

 

The hats and mittens were on deep clearance, too. Don't they look so cute?

You can't see, but Jack's watch has cars on it. Chloë's has hearts, and Sophia's has penguins, which are one of her favorite animals. I figured it was time to teach them how to tell time. Unfortunately, these watches are lost and found all. the. time.

 

For dinner that night, we did the Japanese hibatchi thing. We've only done that with the kids one other time, so when I found a good coupon for one around the corner from where we were staying, we jumped on it. One of the two sisters sharing our table took the picture for us. Those two girls got a huge kick out of just about everything my kids said!

 

 

So yum. We got some hibatchi AND some sushi, which of course was waaay too much for my little pouch - lucky for Rob!

 

Great. Now I'm craving some. As a totally irrelevant and probably uninteresting aside, I can NOT eat rice at all except as part of sushi. Must be the stickiness that lets me eat it?

This guy was HEE-larious - and very talented, too! He threw food into everyone's mouth and, as is usually the case at a hibatchi, did all manner of other tricks. Love those restaurants. Have you never been? You must try it!

This part always scares the kids! Well, both times it has. 

Time to cook the food. I am a major fan of scallops, and Rob is quite the opposite, so I get them every chance I get. These did not disappoint. Mmm-mmm-mmm!

 

For a little treat later that night, I gave the kids these other lollies, which I'd also picked up at the Stampede. I'm a sucker, I know. (pun intended. heh heh)

 

Obligatory candy pose. Oh, wait, I'm not supposed to show you this. Let's fix that, in case that meany hate-mail lady is still reading, shall we?

 

There. Better? :P

 

Eh, feckit. They wound down a little with some telly before bed. And yes, I know, they shouldn't be still sucking their thumbs. It's hard to give up!

I can't remember what this was. Hot cocoa, maybe? I probably didn't need to include this shot, but this post is already picture-crazy, so why not?

We checked out the next morning and drove up to St. Louis for my own personal yarn shopping spree at The Loopy Ewe, which I already told you about here. And then we went west again, to meet Uncle Mike and his kiddos for dinner at Sycamore, a kind of spontaneous decision that I'm so glad we made, because it was (a) delicious, (b) loads of fun, and (c) great for the brothers to do some up-catching.

 

Harry and Liz, Sycamore regulars

Uncle Mike giving Sophie a little QT.

 

Mike's kids LOVE mussels and get them every time they eat at their dad's restaurant. Crazy, no? My kids wouldn't touch those in a million years, so good for them!

After dinner, during much of which I chased the five children around the upscale, fancy restaurant to help keep them in line while the menfolk chatted, we decided it was too soon to say our good-byes, so we chose to go to a nearby park to play. First, though, the kids wanted to look in the fountain and sculpture outside the restaurant.

I love the way Harry is beaming up at Chloë here!

 

And look at Elizabeth, taking off her shoes and socks to dip her feet in the freezing cold water, without a care in the world! Silly girl. She reminds me of Sophia, that way!

 

At the park, it was even colder, so (much to Jack's chagrin), I put his new coat on Liz to keep her warm. Then the three of us parents chased the five kids - especially frequent escapee Harry - around the park for an age or two. It was loads of fun; we all had a blast, I think!

And then, it was over, and we hugged and kissed and maybe some of us cried a little, and there were promises to keep in touch, and that was it. Back into the van, to head back home here to VA.

 

So that was Missouri, with all its bluffs and natural expanses we don't see much of here, 

 

... oh, and we can't forget our snapshot from Dolly's show, now, can we?

But one last thing.

 

In West VA, where we made that rest stop and stopped at the artisans' village, and where I picked up that coal train for Mamacita, I snapped this picture of handmade kitchen utensils on a kind of tree, because it looked cool and stuff.

 

And I plucked this egg separator off that tree, and yes, I have used it many times since then. Sometimes I forget we have it, but when I remember, it works great!

And oh, gosh, I'm a terrible mother, because look what I got for the children again?! That's it. No more crap when we go places. (I promise they don't eat like this all the time, at home!) 

And last, but not least, a coal German Shepherd Dog for Rob, in honor of our former pooch, Tiger Lily. It sits on his dresser. She isn't doing well, so soon, ... well, I don't want to end on that note.

It was a fantastic trip, and I'm thrilled we were able to go. Even more so that this post finally got written, sheesh! It took me HOURS, so if any of you actually read it, please comment and say so. And thanks.

Fin.

Friday Fragments

 

Link up with Mrs. 4444 if you're fragmenting today!

I haven't done this in ages. I've been soo busy, since we started homeschooling this year and I started a Daisy Girl Scout troop, too. With those things, a return to regular mystery shopping, and everything else that life entails, I've barely had time to blog. So... happy to be back. I hope it sticks!

☼

 

I spotted this sign on the door at 7-11 yesterday, and it just made me giggle. Am I the only one who sees the humor in this? The clerk didn't find it so funny when I mentioned it... but I guess she wouldn't!

☼

 

Chloë's hair has gotten super-long again. Just above her tush. Well, it was, but after this, I chopped about 2-3" of dead ends off, and now it looks much better. She was upset at first, but then she looked in the mirror and couldn't even tell the difference, so I was spared a fit. Phew!

☼

 

So, here's some big news: I've lost 200 pounds!! I finally hit the mark, and I'm ecstatic. On January 26, 2009, I was a size 26. Now, all these months after my gastric bypass surgery that day, size 8s are loose on me! Woohoo!! After I get all my loose skin cut off (hopefully in the spring), I'll be in a 6 for sure - if not a 4!

☼

The Fall Product sale for Girl Scouts is in full swing, but WE are not! I have been very lazy (or forgetful) about taking the girls out to sell, so they've only gone this one time, here. Historically, Chloë has carried her troop for this and the cookie sale, but not this time if we don't get our butts in gear. Hopefully this weekend will be nice... but anyway, isn't Sophia the cutest Daisy ever??

And in her 5th year of Scouts, Chloë is now a Junior! Hard to believe; it's going so fast. Of course, she's still Daisy-sized, so she looks pretty teeny up against her fellow troop members!

☼

On Sunday morning, I crashed my new Odyssey. I'm upset, but I would be more so if I actually felt an affinity for Penelope (that's its name). I really don't. I miss Vanna, my old van, which I loved infinitely more than Penny. I just keep reminding myself that she's super-safe, and that's the most important thing. And I can't even get her fixed right now, because I'd have to be without a vehicle for goodness knows how long, and we can't afford to pay for a rental. It's a suck-suck situation, all the way around.

☼

Tonight after the regular meeting, I held an Investiture Ceremony to welcome my Daisies officially into Girl Scouts. It went really well, and the girls were adorable! What made me happiest, though, was that our audience was absolutely packed with proud family members. Such support made me so glad. I have great parents in my troop!

☼

I'm looking through the pictures that Jeff and Lisa Keeney took of our family in May right now, and there are just so many favorites, it was hard to pick just one to share with you. So here's one I love... would you like to see some more?

☼

And now, a few cute kid quotes:

Sophia, 5½, was watching a documentary about the fauna in Antarctica when she suddenly exclaimed, "Mommy, look! It's a beach beaver! A beach beaver! Wait... oh, no, it's just a sea otter..."

☼

Chloë, 9, proclaimed, "Elbow macaroni is America's favorite macaroni. I will NOT eat any other macaroni."

☼

Sophia was explaining to someone about how she lost her two front teeth: "It didn't hurt when I was hanging ON the treadmill. It didn't hurt until I fell OFF the treadmill."

(Which I thought was hysterical - the explanation, not the fall!)

☼

Going door-to-door, selling for Girl Scouts, Sophia wanted to know why she couldn't go by herself. I answered that she was much too young, and Girl Scouts requires a girl to be 13 before they can do so. She replied, "Mommy, can you hide so they know I'm old? Can I pretend I'm 8? I mean, 10?"

☼

Chloë said about Jack, 7½, "He doesn't even like brown sugar - and that's, like, the best sugar there IS!" when telling Daddy how to make Jack's oatmeal.

☼

Have I told you this one, before? We were in the mall, walking along, when Jack shouted, "LOOK, DAD! THE ESCALATOR STOPPED!!" all incredulously. Rob looked back, stopped, and then said, "Those are stairs, son."

I died.

☼

Have a great weekend!

Fin.

Poor Penelope's Pains

Poor Penny got her first booboo already on Monday! We went for a lunch-time mystery shop, and when we got back out to our car, Rob exclaimed, "Somebody hit your car!" I totally thought he was pulling my leg, so I rolled my eyes and said, "Whatever." But he kept standing there and staring at my bumper, not saying anything, so I strode over and took a look.

Holy FECK!

Someone sure DID hit my car. My jaw dropped. I think I picked it up about two days later.

We found some red paint on my van. And the car next to us was red. And had a pretty well matching booboo of its own on the corresponding rear bumper.

The owner came out and saw us looking around at both cars, and she asked what was going on. I blurted out, "You hit my car!" and she pretty much went ballistic, vehemently denying it up and down, blah blah blah.

I'm not certain she hit my car. But something very similar to my paint rubbed off on Rob's fingers when he touched her booboo. I know, he shouldn't have done that. And I shouldn't have told her, or the policeman who arrived (and couldn't do anything, because it was on private property) at the scene, or our insurance companies, that he did that. But he did.

So it really didn't make sense when she said her accident was two years old, AND she'd just had a car wash. Really now?

So then, how did my paint rub off your scratch?

Just curious.

Fin.

Oot And Aboot

Friday, we pretty much cruised aound in the Odyssey - which, by the way, now has a name: Penelope, thanks to the help of my friends - all day and all night.  We stopped at Starbucks for a frappucino fix, and we picked up all three of their low-fat coffee cake flavors to share a snack with the kids. We don't let them eat or drink (ahem, well, I guess we DO, but we're trying not to) in Penelope yet, so we continued our drive down to the oceanfront to find a stopping point and let them out.

It is next to impossible to find a public restroom on the VB oceanfront, though, and Mommy REALLY had to go, so we found ourselves at the VA Aquarium where I knew I could use the restroom. I pretty much squeaked to a stop and left Rob to park while I ran in. Ahhhh... Anyway, when I came out, he was sharing the cakes with the kiddos, above. And by the way, I think Starbucks is dead to me now. I've only been there three times in my life - all in the last two weeks or so - and the prices kill me. KILL me. Now that we are paying umpteen million dollars a month for Penny (hee), that's coming to a stop. Ouch.

Here's me at below-goal weight, about 148 lbs. Yay!  (I chopped my hair off last week, but I went in one day and got it "fixed," so it's now even shorter. I like it, but I don't love it, so I'm going to grow it back out.)

Garden progress. I'm getting impatient. Grow, mofos! Chloë calls the zucchini greens "lettuce." It amuses me. Just because it's leafy and part of a vegetable, she think it's lettuce. Hee.

Friday night, Rob went to a meeting while I took the kids to Mt. Trashmore for the free movies in the park. We watched Shark Tale, which is always fun to watch, and the kids conned me out of some cash for cotton candy AND popcorn AND drinks. Oh well, they were hungry, and what's money for if not to feed your kids totally crappy junk food?

 

I only have pictures of the Littles eating their spun sugar, because Chloë went down to the food kiosks all by herself to get that and then the drinks. I was pretty proud of her. Normally, that wouldn't quite be something she'd do by herself. She'd want Mom or Dad to go with her. At nearly nine, she is showing signs of emotionally maturing, but she goes back and forth between tween and little kid mode pretty darn quickly. Growing up is hard, and she says so herself!

This is from the other day. I was being silly and wearing a bunch of stuff I'd gotten for my giveaway blog, Fishing and Wishing: necklace was a review item, the make-up is a review item for an upcoming post, and so is the flower in my hair. I added more after this picture - earrings and a nose ring - and was told by Chloë that I had too much jewelry on. Pretty soon we'll be at the point where I'll be asking her if I look good or not. 

 

Sophia's 4th birthday Crepe Myrtle Hopi is growing like a weed! It's way bigger than even this, already. Do you know, can we clip the flowers off and put them in a vase inside, without hurting the plant? She always wants to do this, since seeing me do that with some of the lilies in the garden...

 

A girl I kind of know through blogging and Ravelry and Facebook posted on her FB wall that the 400th person to place an order through her Etsy shop would get a free gift with the purchase. So I quickly jumped on it and spent literally a couple bucks on the so-cute "geek" and "nerd" stitch markers (for knitting), and she gave me the "handmade" stitch markers, worth several dollars more, as a gift! I love fun stitch markers - and so does Sophia, who is always walking off with mine - so I'm glad to add to my collection. Thanks, Kala!

Before the doody hit the fan, Rob got me a new motorcycle helmet. I think someone he works with gave it to him? Anyway, it fits (even if it does squish my face up a little), so one of these days (weeks/months/years?) I might actually go for a ride with him. I'm skeered, though!

Welp, I guess that's all I have for pictures I'm behind on, so... back to work on Fishing and Wishing. Stop over and try to win some goodies from me, will ya?? ;) There's awesome alpaca yarn up for grabs right now!

Fin. 
 
  

Isn't She Lovely?

If you're just catching up, here is the new treasure in my life: we traded in Vanna for a new 2010 Honda Odyssey EX-RES. She has been 'home' since Thursday night, but she remains nameless as yet. It's really important to me, for some reason, to come up with the perfect epithet, but I have been unable to put my finger on it so far. I would prefer it to be something ocean-related, maybe something sharky, but I haven't come up with the right one just yet.

For now, even though CARE Package will be defunct by the end of this calendar year, I'm keeping the plates. I don't foresee giving them up, either, because the name has come to have a dual meaning for me: I mean, it's probably pretty obvious, since I'm driving around a minivan full of small children, right? Most people think that's what I mean, since they know nothing of the charity. And that's fine with me.

 

I LOVE this vehicle, which is why I wanted to drive and drive both Thursday and Friday nights after getting her. We spent hours Thursday and the ENTIRE night Friday (until 0600!) roaming around all of southside Hampton Roads, even considering going down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and back. Thank goodness we have the RES (Rear Entertainment System, ie, built-in DVD player with wireless headphones for the kiddos), because the children were able to sit back, relax, and watch a bunch of rented movies while Daddy and Mommy talked about a myriad of issues, both weighty and light. It was good for us.

Thank goodness Max, our beloved Hall Honda salesman, remembered to get my Navy Wife and UM Hurricane Alum license plate covers off Vanna, because I never would have remembered. Good ol' Max! I'm going to bake him something as a thank-you. He treated us so well; we couldn't have asked for better.

So there she is. Tried and rejected names so far include: Trixie, Ramona, and Sierra. I really love Trixie, but I associate that with a redhead, and since I didn't end up with the dark cherry red one after all, I can't use it. Ramona would be the new favorite, but I unthinkingly christened the white loaner Ody we had for a few days "Mona the Loanah," so that takes care of that. And I just don't like Sierra enough.

That's my seat. Don't get in it. Don't change my seat settings, don't move my steering wheel, and don't even THINK about changing my radio pre-sets!

 
  
  
The kids live back there. We'll be getting new carseats for The Littles, because booster seats just aren't cutting it for us. I can't wait. (Thank you to J, my carseat tech friend, for helping me figure out how to make my bebes ultra-safe on and in our new Odyssey!)

Look! The back floor is totally clean. I predict that will last for less than a week, which is why I took a picture of it.

So. Names? Help? 

Fin.