Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a good Easter. We went out hiking again. We hiked three trails yesterday. I am short on time, but I will try to have some more pictures up here later today. I just thought I would start with my family's Easter picture. All I asked for was one nice picture of Rod and the kids. This is what I got!

Rod's Commercial

Rod found another one. He said he watched it four times and then he called me in the room and made me watch it three more times! Enjoy.

Life as a Teenager

This is where this child has been since the beginning of Spring Break! In that exact spot. She only moves to get her food (which she takes back to that spot)

Grandma's House

How Grandma watches little kids.

Our New Camera

I mentioned yesterday in our 13 things post that we bought Rod a new camera. I received a phone call last night that I need to put in more details about the things we get. I was told that my 'viewers want to know." So here it is. Did you know that Ritz Camera is closing? They are having some big clearance sales just in case you're in the market for camera accessories.

It takes very nice pictures. (As I'm sure you've noticed with all of the blogging I have done in the last two days!) It has some cool features too which I can't wait to try out. There is one feature just for taking pictures of flowers. It works great! I took some pictures of Dippy's flowers from his science fair project. There is also a setting for food. I forgot about it last night when I took a picture of Dingy's cake. I could have even taken a picture of our steaks!

Our Ghost??

Ok. So maybe we have a ghost in our house. The kids and I have thought this since we first moved in here. Nothing strange has ever happened. It's more of a feeling. Sometime in February, I was watching Goofy sleep on our monitor and the sun was coming in the bedroom window and it caught my eye. When I looked at the monitor, the sun beams were shining on him and it just looked cool. But look. You can clearly see a white circle over him.

There it is a little closer. I went into the bedroom and there was nothing. Nothing was reflecting the sun. There was just nothing. But it was still on the monitor.

Rod has said that supposedly, these are orbs and are spirits. I don't know if he is full of it or not! He has a habit of trying to scare me and he knows I am a big scaredy cat about this kind of stuff anyway! I MAY be doing some research later on the web, but I might not, since I would probably find a lot of scary pictures!

Here's what happened yesterday while Dingy was blowing out her candles.

Ok. So 3 clear pictures. Everything is good.

Now look. Same camera! Same room. Same everything! The picture is NOT clear, and LOOK! An orby thing! (I saw this on the screen of the camera as soon as I took the picture too.)

Really not clear.

And it's gone and the picture is clear again. These pics are in order.

Not clear...and look...it's going up the steps.

When I looked at this picture on my computer, I was sure that was an orb. Now that I see it little...that one my be a spot on my crappy walls!

So what do you think? Do we have a ghost?

13 Things for Dingy's 13th Birthday

Well....we did it!! I think. Rod threw a monkey wrench into our plans. I had gone to Wegman's and bought some nice steaks for supper. I wanted to eat supper before we took him over to his guitar lesson. I called him shortly before 6 since he wasn't home and we were running out of time to grill the steaks and get to his lesson on time. He cancelled his lesson tonight without telling me!! That was number 13 on the list!! We gave Dingy some mascara and eyeliner in her birthday presents, so she asked if we could go get makeup remover. That became our number 13 item. So we completed it.

1. Cashed the check at the bank
2. Took Sara to Petco
3. McDonald's
4. Ritz camera
5. Claire's
6. L'Eggs Hanes Bali Playtex
7. WalMart
8. Wegman's
9. Orange Julius/Auntie Anne's snack
10. Dinner at home
11. Presents
12. Cake
13. CVS

Nothing too exciting, but hopefully it was a good birthday for Dingy!

And Yet More Birthday

We've done 12 things today. Still need to do one more before we can call it a day. We just finished cake. She picked this strawberry shortcake out at Wegman's last night. (Anyone notice that we've been to Wegman's a lot this week?)

Make a wish.....
Blow out the candles....

Ooops. They relight!! :)

We're off to do one more stop of some sort and then her big day is done.

13 Things!

We haven't done all 13 things, yet. But we are on track to accomplish this goal! Here are a few pics of our day. Not everything. But a few.

This is her THIRD trip to Claire's in two days! She was there twice yesterday. And she purchased stuff all three times!

This is the flower she bought herself at Wegman's. She named it Flower.
This is all the loot from today. Minus the lunch and snack of course.

Here's our list.

1. Cashed check

2. Took Sara to Petco and got her a new harness and name tag

3. Lunch at McDonald's

4. Bought Rod a new camera

5. ANOTHER visit to Claire's

6. L'eggs Hanes Bali Playtex Outlet to purchase unmentionables

7. WalMart

8. Wegman's

9. Snack at Orange Julius and Auntie Anne's

Yet to do:

10. Dinner

11. Cake

12. Presents

13. Take Rod to guitar lesson

And then, number 14, is Mommy crashes!! She is wearing me out!!!!

Dingy's Birthday

Two stops down, eleven more to go!! This day may hurt me! We went to the bank and got her birthday check cashed. (Thanks Aunt Beth, Uncle Kyle, Haley and Laura!) Then we went to Petco--with Sara-- and she bought her a new harness and a she made a new pet tag for her. This is her watching it being engraved. We're hungry now. I didn't eat breakfast and I don't think Dingy took the time to, either. So I think the third stop is going to be McDonald's. (She picked it.)

Dingy's 13!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dingy's 13 today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Think she'll be proud of my !'s?) I have pictures to put on, but they are not co-operating right now. We (ok, I) took pictures of Dingy last night as she became a teenager. That's right. I woke her up at midnight!! It was really fun, too. It was even more fun when I found out Grandma called her at 6 this morning trying to be the first to wish her a happy birthday. Going to have to try harder next time, Grandma!!

Ok. We're off. We are going to go out and do 13 things today. And yes, while we were making our list, I looked at it and added NAP to it!!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow, the last of the 'babies' will turn 13.

Today

The babies today.

Rod Fell in Love

Rod fell in love Sunday night. With a GROCERY STORE!!! Yep. I didn't think I would ever get him out of there! We went to the store to eat dinner. Yes. To EAT dinner. Not to take stuff home to cook. To actually eat there. Let me explain.

At the end of March, Nadine and I had a Relay for Life team captain's meeting. (side note: not too late to donate to our team! see the link at the side) This meeting was being held at Wegman's. A grocery store. I thought this was strange cause I hadn't been all through the place yet thanks to a grouchy Goofy! So Nadine and I went to our meeting and because we were late, we ate dinner after the meeting. The meeting was in the dining room upstairs. We went to the main level and there was a Chinese buffet. Not really my thing, so I told Nadine I was going to keep looking. I walked a little further and found a pizza counter. Well, that's good, but what happens if I keep walking? I found a sandwich counter! They have EVERYTHING! So I bought a turkey sub and only ate half of it. I took the other half home for Rod and he has been thinking about it ever since! And that is how we wound up at a grocery store for supper!



Well, we were too late on Sunday. They had closed all their little restaurants. We walked around and found a sushi stand, too. Rod was drooling throughout our ENTIRE walk! There were rows and rows of cheeses. There was steaks upon steaks for grilling. Rod looked like a dang tourist in a foreign country! (it's just food, honey.) Of course, we had to go through the store even though the part we came for was closed. Rod just kept saying over and over, they have everything here!

They have a train running over head.


And LOOK! They truly do have everything! My marshmallow sundae topping! Although, I did finally find this at Safeway, too.

Dingy was taking pictures for me. I'm not allowed to use the picture of the wines and champagnes that she took. (another side note: she takes pics off of my blog, and Melanie's, and Mrs. B's, but I'm not allowed to use the picture that SHE took) Rod was also all impressed with the fancy beer selection. So much so, that he even called his Dad from inside the store to tell HIM about it! And he was walking around saying, "I've got to bring Danny here!" "Wonder if Danny has ever been here?"

Rodney Broke It!

We dropped off the boys in Breezewood so they could spend spring break with the grandparents. Rod's parents met us there, and we traded cars so that Rod's Dad could do a few things to our van. (good things....not like what Rod did to their car!) Anyway, we were driving down 70 (maybe 270...they all look alike) and there is a horrible sound. We knew something was wrong, but wasn't sure exactly what. Rod slowed down to pull over and that's when we saw the light flapping in the wind! It's in the backseat of the car now. Good thing his Dad is a mechanic, I guess.

For the Blakelys

Have fun on your beach trip. And remember--help each other with that sunscreen!!

Really?

I took Goofy through the drive thru at McDonald's today. The guy in the car in front of me asked the lady if they had the filet of fish sandwich. Can you see the HUGE blue sign on those wood doors? The guy was sitting where that car is, so I'm SURE he could see the sign. (And if he couldn't, he probably shouldn't be driving!) AND, there's a menu board right beside him. #11!! The fish sandwich is #11, dude.

It's All Fun and Games..

...until Mommy gets hurt. That's the rule of our house. Not until 'someone' gets hurt; until Mommy gets hurt. It's always me. And yes, I am sitting here in pain as I type this!

First, on Tuesday, Rod dumped me out of my office chair. I went right over backwards and hit my head on his briefcase on my way to the floor. (Now this was really nothing compared to LB's mishap--he still wins head injury of the year--but it still wasn't fun.) It was slightly funny. Or according to Rod "freakin' hillarious". I was at least able to laugh about it and not retaliate too badly. Yet. I did have a headache for the rest of the night and had to go to a parent meeting for Boy Scout's not feeling my best. And also where goofball Rod starts texting me while we are sitting up front and I DIDN'T turn my volume off cause Dingy was watching Goofy at home and I didn't want to miss a call if she needed something!!

Then last night--yes, we're talking two nights in a row! Rod and I were leaving the office for the night. He was turning lights off and I left. I heard him coming up behind me so I started running so I could get inside and lock him out. (I know, we're so mature over here!) Well, it had rained some yesterday. Apparently, my shoes got wet and/or a little muddy. As soon as my foot hit the concrete of the basement floor, my foot went WOOOO!! Straight up. I reached out to stop myself from falling completely and smacked my hand on the door frame. I was laughing so hard and still scrambling for the door before Rod got there. I DID manage to shut and lock the door just before he reached for it. But I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe, so I didn't get to torture him as much as I could have. Surprisingly, he didn't know what I had done. It took several long minutes to get it out through my laughter. I was only able to keep saying WOOOO and a hand gesture to show my foot. However, I pulled something in the back of my knee. I can't put weight on my leg today without it hurting!! I'm not sure it was worth it just to beat him into the house.

My April Fool's Joke...

No--not marrying Rod! :) Can you se the 'lump' on Dingy's lamp?

Here's a clser picture of it.

That's her cell phone saran wrapped to her lamp! hee hee. That was, like, REALLY fun to do!! I think she got it off a little quicker that I thought she would though. However, I did something else that I haven't heard her find yet! I'm sure she'll let us know when she figures out what else I did! :) She didn't fall for my early morning joke or I would have left her alone.

Guess What

Guess where I was today..........

I'm running out of original ways to announce these things. So this final time will be on the blog!