Oh, The Places I'll Go

Yeah, that really doesn't have any bearing on anything I'm about to say, but it's running through my head right now and it seemed like maybe getting it OUT of my head will free me from it.
Or something.
I don't know.
It seemed like a good title.
So, where have I been going lately...let me think.
Well, I went to the Mom & Me camp out with Declan this past Saturday, despite the fact that all week long, the weather men kept saying that SEVERE WEATHER was going to hit on Friday and last all day Saturday. I don't know if this happens where YOU live, but here in Oklahoma, it's not uncommon for the weather men to predict SEVER WEATHER or HUGE SNOWSTORMS or SOMETHING BIG LIKE THAT and then nothing happens, so I pretty much ignored them. (Friday weather was perfectly clear, BTW!) This led to us heading out to camp on Saturday morning, setting up our tents in sprinkles, getting rained on off and on all day, and then packing up our two tents and some sopping gear at 6:30 on Saturday evening, in a torrential downpour, after nearly getting blown off the path by what felt like a mini-tornado as we walked (sprinted!) up to dinner. Fun times, fun times, let me tell you. I kept telling him, "Hey, it's an adventure!" I also told him that the lesson that we learned from all of this was that if the weather men predict SEVERE WEATHER and we're going to camp out, just plan to stay for the day. Just in case they're right.

This morning, I went for coffee with a friend of mine, which was fun. I think that the biggest milestone that we're at right now is that I can leave The Kids to do schoolwork at home while I run errands...or have coffee with a friend!...and they actually DO their work!

Right now, speaking of school, I'm going to go and give Declan his spelling test. Have a great day, y'all! I know I plan to!

My Future Plans

Here's something you may not know about me: when The Kids are out of the house, I want to begin to build and furnish an extremely detailed doll house. My vision, actually, is that it would be a four or six room apartment house, with each apartment having a very distinct owner. The old lady's apartment would have doilies on the backs of the arm chairs and probably a tea service sitting on the antique coffee table. Maybe a tiny bottle of Maalox or some itty bitty false teeth in a glass beside the bed. There would be a  young couple's apartment, possibly with a baby crib in the corner and some toys scattered about. I see a bachelor pad, complete with dirty clothes and pizza boxes strewn about and a BIG T.V. dominating the scene. There could also be a student's apartment with thick (well, thick by doll house standards!) textbooks on the table and tiny cans of Red Bull.
I have had this vision since walking into a miniature shop in Colorado on our honeymoon, sixteen years ago, and I can see it as clearly today as I did back then. I just hope that I get to do it some day!
(This is what got me to thinking about all of this this particular morning! The Blogess's Haunted Dollhouse)

Supey POD

The Kids are currently in Colorado with
Troy's dad and stepmom, which is quite a change. All told, by the time we go and pick them up, they will have been gone two and a half weeks! Before they left, Reilly said something about how she was going to miss Schmoopy, which is one of probably a dozen nicknames for the cat. (Supey us his REAL name, and it's short for SuperCat.) So I told her that I would email her pictures of Supey, and have done so, faithfully! I decided if share a few here, since they really kind of capture how weird cats really are.
This one was on the first day after they left. Supey was up on Deco's top bunk, just like he owned the place!

Bullets

No, this post isn't about shooting. Although maybe it could be. No, wait, it couldn't, because I don't know all that much about shooting. I mean, I know how to load a hand gun, and I know where the trigger is and that you don't point the end with the hole at anything that you don't want damaged. I know how to hold the gun in the "safe position", which might possibly be the most important thing to know about a gun, and I can (sometimes) hit a target when shooting. But, this post isn't about guns.
It's about stuff that's been going on in life. And, since there's been quite a bit of days since I said anything about stuff that's been going on in life, I decided that bullet points would be easier because that way I don't have to tie the things together. That would tax my brain too much.

• When we started P90X, I could do one guy-style push up. Yes, that says ONE. Uno. As in a single push up without my knees on the ground. Since push ups seem to be a staple in several of the workouts, that's how I did them - knees down. A couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time to step it up and switch from girly push ups to manly push ups. I did one hundred ten push ups through the course of the workout that day. ONE. HUNDRED. TEN. As in 110 times more than when I started. Yeah, that felt good. 
• Troy has lost fifty pounds! WOOT!
• In a week and a half, The Kids are going to Colorado with my FIL and MIL to spend two and a half weeks with them. I alternate between being excited about all the free time I'm going to have and feeling a bit of panic over how much I'm worried I'm going to miss them!
• I want to repaint the bathroom while The Kids are gone. It's covered in this fairly busy wallpaper which is peeling over the shower and, really, all it would take is a couple of gallons of paint to do the job. Well, paint and peeling of wallpaper and stripping and sanding of cabinet doors and fixing of a hole in the wall that's hidden by the wallpaper and, basically, lots of elbow grease and time. But, since The Kids will be gone, I'm thinking I'll need something to fill the time.
• We spent last weekend in Branson at Silver Dollar City, which was LOTS of fun. We realized that it was the first time we had been there with just the four of us in a long time. Last year we took guests each time we went, which was also lots of fun. But it was nice for us to just hang out together for the weekend.

I think that's it for now. Wow, that was fairly painless, wasn't it? Wasn't it? Helloooo? Are you still there?

Unsolicited Parenting Advice

John Acuff, over at Stuff Christians Like, which is one of my FAVORITE blogs, wrote a post today titled "The stranger at church who has never had kids but yet is compelled to give you unsolicited advice on how to parent yours"
The actual post says, "Quit it."
This literally made me laugh out loud! (LOTS of his stuff makes me LOL, though. Really, you should add him to your Google reader. What? You don't HAVE a Google reader? Oh, it makes keeping up on blogs so much easier! You really should sign up!)

I don't know that I've had this happen, but I HAVE had little old ladies at random places like the grocery store tell me that Declan really should have a coat on. When it's, like, 60 degrees out. Yes, he's probably in shorts at that temperature, which I think freaks them out, but he's a hot-natured kid. He's genuinely comfortable in shorts at that temperature. I've made a deal with him that if it's over 55 degrees and sunny, he can wear shorts.
I have my reply all ready the next time it happens. Wanna hear it?
Little Old Lady with Blue Permed Helmet Hair: "It's COLD out here! He should have a coat on! He's gonna ketch his death of cold!"
Me:  "Oh, have you raised kids?"
LOLWBPHH: "Why, yes, I did. I raised me fourteen children through the Great Depression. They had to walk to school barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways..."
Me: "Good, then you're finished, so let ME raise MINE!"
(I'm not sure I'd have the guts to actually say that...but it makes me feel better to say it in my head!)

DIY, Taken to a Whole New Level

I would consider myself to be fairly crafty. Not in a "Oh, she's always up to some nefarious plot" kind of way, but in a "Yes, I have the ability to make some cute stuff" kind of way. I've recently joined Pinterest.  I love seeing all the wonderful recipes that people pin, and the organizing ideas, and the funny captioned pictures and cleaning tips. However, there are sometimes things that people pin that make me think, "Nu uh! You're not going to do THAT, are you? Really?"
This is one of those things:
Panty Tutorial: How to Sew Underwear
Now, while I don't do a huge amount of sewing, I do enjoy it when I get the chance. I can even see the benefit of recycling an old t-shirt for some project or another, although my I do tend to wear my t-shirts until they're so worn out they are only good to be used as nightshirts. (I'm sure that Troy LOVES that! "Oh, look at me, so sexy in my stretched out Perry the Platypus shirt! Woo hoo!" *insert sexy shimmy here*)
The thing is, I think that the $8 that I would spend on a pack of Hanes at Target is completely worth the amount of time that it would take me to actually MAKE a pair of undies out of an old t-shirt. Plus, the ones from Target would actually fit.

Disneyland!

Natalie and I have known each other since fourth grade, when we would talk together under a tree outside our elementary school while waiting for our moms to pick us up after school. We became best friends in sixth grade. Ours is that wonderful brand of friendship that can allow us to not talk for weeks, or even longer, but pick up right where we left off when we DO get together. It's wonderful! Even better is that her mom and my mom are also very close friends, and her kids and my kids love to play together.

Back in November, Natalie came to me and said, "Lisa, I want to take you to Disneyland. We will fund your airfare, your park tickets, and the hotel. All you have to do is buy food." It was all I could do to not jump up and down with excitement, but I managed to contain myself long enough to talk it over with Troy and decide that this was something that I really wanted to do. So, back in February, she and I headed off to The Happiest Place on Earth.

And, BOY was it fun! Oh my goodness, we were like 12-year-olds again, laughing 'til we almost peed our pants and talking virtually non-stop for the entire four days we were together! We had beautiful weather, light crowds at the park, and an absolutely fantastic vacation. I don't think it could have been more perfect!

I gave Natalie a Mickey Mouse watch as a thank-you gift!

We were first in line to hug Sully at California Adventures

Natalie treated me to Breakfast with Minnie

Wee little Mickey Mouse head waffles!!

Natalie also treated me to lunch at The Blue Bayou, which is the restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It was awesome, but I couldn't get any really good pictures because it was dark and I didn't want to ruin the ambiance with my flash!

A picture of our picture that was taken
on Space Mountain!