Summer Vacation...

Just wanted to let you know that I am taking next week off from the blog.

 

We are off making some summer memories and creating stories that will need to be shared, I am sure! Enjoy your week!



A Selfie!

So I was going through the pictures in my camera and came across this one!

Moose! Did you take a selfie?

Summerfest Fun...

Our town has their carnival the weekend after the fourth of July and it is an event!  I have been participating in the event in one way or another since I was just a little girl!  It's fun to now take the boys to the carnival, which has changed in many ways (including what the teenage girls are wearing now days!  I actually found myself saying, "How can their parents let them out of the house dressed that way?" Sounded just like MY parents!!) The carnival was PACKED!  When Jack saw this ride, the Zipper (AKA the Eggroll in my day and age) he immediately said, "I want to ride that!"

That statement was made on Wednesday.  All he talked about Thursday, Friday and Saturday was how he wanted to ride the Zipper. Well, the only person that would be able to ride it with him was Jason. There was NO WAY that Sam or I would get on that thing. Sunday night came and Jack finally got his wish.

 

We waited in line...I mean Jason and Jack waited in line.

And then at the last second, Jack tried to split! He looked at Jason and said, "I can't do this." He tried to run, but Jason caught him...

And he was trapped! Look at his little sweating hands!

"I LOVE YOU!" I yelled from afar!

And off they went. During the entire ride Jack kept repeating,

"Oh my gosh."

"Oh my gosh."

"Oh my gosh."

"Oh my gosh."

"Oh my gosh."

"Oh my gosh."

"Oh my gosh."

"Oh my gosh."

"Oh my gosh."

"Oh my gosh."

He then looked at Jason and said,

"I hate myself."

 

Well, much to his happiness they finally touched ground. He got off, ran over to me and said, "I'm trembling."

I knew exactly how he felt.

 

Next ride up, the "Round Up." It is exactly like the Silly Silo that use to be at Adventureland. It spins, the floor drops a bit and it spins faster. Instead of the Round Up I think they should have called it the "Throw Up" because that is exactly what I would have done if I had ridden this one!

On they went...no straps of bars to keep them in. That's a bit stressful for a mother. Oh yea...they are only going to have 500 gazillion G-forces on them... they'll stick to the wall. No problem!

Oh yea...did I mention that the ride then tips sideways?

Can you spot Jack's neon yellow tee on the ride? He's on the left side. Happy to say that the boys didn't get sick, but Sam looked like he just got an amazing face lift!

Another year of carnival fun in the books.

 

Happy 9th Birthday, Jack!

Happy Birthday!

Right now Jack is:

Jack is reading more than one book at a time.

He loves graphic novels and comic books.
 Jack loves monkeys, action movies, Minecraft, Legos, his uni-brow and Sam (sometimes.)

Jack has been watching the 1970's Planet of the Apes movies and you tube Minecraft videos.
 Jack's biggest fear is heights. (Though he says he is over that fear now.)
 Jack is looking forward to making new friends in third grade.
 Jack would like to get a new video game called "Doki, Doki Universe" for his birthday.

Jack has been eating lots of brats this summer.

Jack can't wait to be 9 years old because he is bored of being 8.

In ten years Jack will be 19 and thinks he will be driving to his job on his birthday.

Yesterday I pulled out his baby book and pictures of the day he was born. He was amazed this little band fit around his ankle!

"I could wear this?"

You could...and it was a little big, too!

Aww...his little feet have grown so much!!

Happy 9th Birthday to my favorite brown-eyed boy!!



Some Strange Things...

Every once in awhile I check out the pictures on Jason's phone. This time I came across some interesting/stange ones...

While in Vegas, Jason got his picture taken with Chewbacca. I asked him why he didn't share this picture with me. "That picture is horrible! I got mauled by Chewbacca and didn't really want to share!" I did ask him if it was ok to share on my blog!!

 

Came across the floating cookie...

We had some premade cookies from the local grocery store and Sam pulled out this one...attached to a big long hair!! (gag) Jason dared him to take a bite of it. Sam acted like he was going to and then...

...closed his mouth as the last second!

Good boy, Sam!

 

It's always fun to look at Jason' pictures...you just never know what he has captured on "film!"

 

 

New Books!

Nothing better than a trip to the bookstore and that is exactly what the boys, my mom and I did on Tuesday and boy did I hit the jackpot!!

The top three book on the stack, I have had on my to read list for some time. So, you can imagine my excitement when I saw them in paperback!  The last two books, have been at the top of my to read list, so I just couldn't pass them up!! Why not get them at the library, I sure could, but the wait list is sooooo long!! And I can be impatient at times!! I can't wait to start reading this pile!!!

 

Sam and Jack scored a couple new books each, too. I love that the boys love to read as much as I do...especially Jack. He gets a new book and his nose is in it until he finishes it! My mom suggested, that I just have him read the books at the book store! Would save me some cash!

 

We then went to the local toy store so Jack could give us some ideas on some things he would want on his birthday. I wandered off and when I came back I found this...

The three of them playing and racing with wind up toys!

So not focused on the task at hand!!

 



So True...

 

 

 

I Have a Hangover!!

I just finished an incredible book and I have a hangover...not a beer hangover, but a book hangover.

What book did this to me? Eleanor and Park.

First, I guess I should tell you what this amazing, heartfelt, funny and sad book is about.  First love. The first love that makes you giddy all over and so extremely worried at the same time. I don't want to give away too much, but this book would definitely be on my top ten list.

 

From Amazon:

Set in 1986, Eleanor & Park is funny and sad, sarcastic and sincere, and above all geeky. The title characters are both 16-year-old misfits in their working-class Omaha neighborhood. Park is half-Korean in a mostly-white part of town, and is into alternative music and comic books, unlike his brother and dad who are into sports. Eleanor is big (she thinks of herself as fat) and awkward and poor, the oldest of five kids with a painfully difficult home life, and defiantly flaunts her crazy red hair and weird clothes.

They find themselves sitting together on the school bus every day. Over time they're reluctantly drawn together by sharing Park's X-Men and Watchmen comic books. Eventually, they become each other's everything.

 

 ***************************************************

 

The next book I read was Until You Are Mine.

 

From Amazon:

Claudia Morgan-Brown finally has it all. Pregnant with a much-wanted first baby of her own, she has a happily established family of two small step-sons and a loving husband with a great career. But she is also committed to her full-time job as a social worker, and her husband travels often. So when Claudia hires Zoe to help her around the house in anticipation of the baby’s arrival, it seems like the answer to her prayers. But despite Zoe's glowing recommendations and instant rapport with the children, there's something about her that Claudia cannot trust.

Moreover, there has been a series of violent attacks on pregnant women in the area, and Claudia becomes acutely aware of her vulnerability. With her husband out of town for work and her family far away, who will be there to protect her? And why does she feel unsettled about Zoe? Realizing appearances can be deceiving even in her seemingly perfect world, Claudia digs deeper into Zoe’s blurry past and begins to wonder – how far would someone go to have a child of her own?

I must tell you, it is a thriller and based on a person killing pregnant women which is gruesome and stomach turning, but it you can hang in there through those pages, you are in for a ride. There are times where I thought, "I really don't know what is going on." But I promise, it will all come together in the end. The last 50 pages BLEW MY MIND!! You will be asking yourself, "What just happened?"  This book, too, left me with a bit of a book hangover and has stuck with me the last couple of days! Great read!

 



Oops!

We recently got a new lawn mower. It has cut (haha..get it) our mowing time in half! It is fast and has a true zero turn radius. I have been doing the mowing lately, but I am not sure Jason will allow that to continue after I got stuck.

I thought I would go to the top of the lane and mow around the mailboxes. My mower is fast and I have extra time!

 I flew between the street sign and the mailboxes, slid, panicked and I was stuck! 

No..I have zero turn radius! I tried to go forward. No go. I tried to go backward. No go. I even tried to push the mower by hand. Yea...that really didn't work!

As you can see,  My front wheel became stuck right against the mailbox..there is actually a little indent where my wheel is up against the post.

My back end? Well, that wheel was stuck right up against the post of the street sign. There was no moving back or moving forward. What's a girl to do? She hung her head and asked her neighbor if he could help her out. He actually had to get his old tractor and a chain. He hooked the chain on the mower and pulled verrrryyyy sllllooooowwwwly and I became unstuck! Yea!!  I jumped back on my fast mower and headed down the lane...never to be heard from again!  Except to tell my neighbor that I will mow his lawn for getting me unstuck.  He didn't hesitate with his reply, "Oh...you don't need to do that!" I wonder why he said that? Doesn't he know I have a fast mower?

 

Lego Shopping...

For my birthday, the boy's gave me the Lego Shopping Center. We started work on it right away. I am designated sorter and the boys build. We got two of the three floors completed and then stalled out...for four months! Well, the other day, the boys sat down and finished the third and final floor!

We brought it up to my craft area and carefully displayed it in a proper viewing conrner!

The front just makes me want to run in there and start shopping!

There are lots of little details in the building. Even mannequins in the windows!

 

No shopping area is complete without dressing rooms!

Jack got such a kick out of the little dressing room!

"Where are his pants?"

Even a check out area!

The boys soon came back with a mini me! Shopping bags and all!

 



Well, no shopping trip is successful without a shopping buddy!

So the boys made my sister to join me!

Soon Jack came running in, "Don't forget Nanny!" My mom is about 5 inches taller than Meg and I, so he did create her to scale!

Though, I must say none of us would be caught dead in shirts like these! :)