Smile, And The World Smiles Back At You!

Look what Val found when she was outside with Mighty tonight! It is so cute, wanted to share!

If I Blinked, I Would Have Missed It!

Last night, was Nancy's BFF's Retirement Party. She worked for the school district at East High for 16 years. That is a lot of detention slips! She retired after this school year ended.
Sharon has 2 kids and 2 grandkids. Todd is the proud father of Lily and Luke, and lives in Chicago and Michelle lives in New Orleans. They came as a surprise. Nancy and the kids set up the evening, and Nancy had to get Sharon there without catching on. She was successful!
Mark and Emily went and were there the whole time. Val had Leapfrogs~summer pole vault club~so I took her to Maize High, then called Mark to see if it was "worth it" to drive from Maize to 13th and Webb then back to Maize. He said to come over, so I did, and was there maybe 4 minutes before everyone decided to leave. Oh well! I just turned around and drove back to Maize....
Wouldn't have missed that hug from Sharon for anything though!!! Now she gets to spend some time with her kids, and that will be the greatest gift of all for her!!!!!

Even Big Kids Love The Zoo

These are some of our pics from our trip to the zoo. Mark loves to go to the zoo, and of course, the girls are happy to oblige, so each year, we get a membership, and go as often as we can. We skip the petting zoo now, don't mind doing it either, I have never been a fan of petting the animals.
We do hit all the other exhibits, and were really happy to get to see the tigers. It wasn't too hot the day we went, and stayed most of the morning. Emily loved the bald eagles, and Val loved the tigers. The monkeys weren't very active. There were only 2 of them inside on exhibit and none outside, but we mostly went to see the Tiger Trek, which is really pretty awesome. They did a really good job on it. I was a little disappointed in the Penguin exhibit. I thought it would be bigger, but they are fun to watch too.
We will go again on Father's Day. Buddy and Mark love to look at the cars, and the kids will be distracted by the animals, so it's all good!

Half Vegetarian

This is for Austin, he will get the joke!
Austin is one of Val's friends, he calls her an anorexic vegetarian, so she took this pic to prove to him that she does like some meat. Her fave though, is Denis's beef jerky. BBQ chicken, is second place. I guess she could always be a Chicken Model if nothing else works out for her....haahaa!!

Drive In

Val and her friends have been wanting to go to the drive in. So, on Saturday, they got it together and planned to go. They wanted to see LAND OF THE LOST, DRAG ME TO HELL, and TERMINATOR, but Mark wanted to see NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2, so Mark took Emily to one side,and I got to take the High Schoolers to the other. I know, you are thinking, "But Michelle, how is it that you got so lucky, and got to take all the kids, and Mark just had Emily?" heehee!
First, we went and got Julie, and her niece Tham. Julie is a NOW sophomore at Kapaun~I know, but I love her still~ and Tham will be a freshman at East. After that, we swung over to the East side and got Jacob~also Kapuan~so now Val was outnumbered, it was a good thing that Jared did not flake out, and went with us too. We ended up parking next to Joe Ast, who had Montana~freshman at BC and his little brother Mason, who spent the 1st 2 movies in the van with the kids, but they were good sports about it!
Jason McNeal and Hoang Tran also showed up, one each from BC and Kapaun, and they hung out too.
It started raining at the end of DRAG ME TO HELL (excellent movie, by the way, and my pick for the night), so we moved everything into the van, and I promptly took a nap, because TERMINATOR has never interested me.
I did wake up toward the end, to find the drive in practically deserted, because it started to rain pretty hard, and Julie and Jared outside of the van, Julie trying to teach Jared how to turn a cartwheel. Guess, they didn't like it much either.
After we packed up, Jared wanted to go to McDonald's, but the one on Hydraulic was closed, so I took Julie and Tham home, then noticed the one in Park City (where Jared lives) was open, so they got to eat after all, took him home, got to Kellogg and Rock Rd, to find out he left his phone in the car, but it was ok, he could get it later (duh), got Jacob home, went to bed for about 2 hours, to get up, return the phone, get a new phone charger for Val, pick up party invites for Nanny, deliver some of them, went to bed last night at 9, got up at 5, so I am very well rested, and looking for stuff to do now.
But, maybe not the drive in again for a while. haha!

Mush Mouth

Emily and I went to the grocery store this morning, and she saw Corn Dogs, and wanted them. You all know of my hot dog aversion, but the rest of the family likes them, so we bought them.
Of course when we got home Mark, Val and Emi all wanted corn dogs for lunch, so I set about putting them in the toaster oven while Val was unloading the other bags.
This morning, she cut her gum on a Dorito, and it was sore, so while we were shopping, we bought some Orajel for her.
As I was preparing the corn dogs, Val was opening her Orajel, and unknown to us, the cap must have flown off, and ended up under Mark's corn dog.
He took his, and was eating them, and found the cap, and as he was examining it, his tongue started to go numb. So, we figured out what happened...I am thinking about adding it as an ingredient to things they don't really enjoy eating, that way, their mouths will be too numb to complain about my cooking.....HEEHEE!

Dress Code

The girls have always gone to private school, so they have always had to adhere to a strict dress code. Baggy, not form fitting, red polo, skirt to the knee, tennis shoes, their only rebellion is wearing No Show socks instead of anklets, and since most of the school does this at St Margaret Mary, they let that slide.
Val's is a little different. Still, the skirt to the knee, but with a white button down collared shirt, and knee socks with leather shoes. They don't give an inch there.
So, what is my point? Well, the girls are used to a dress code that has them "cover up", so imagine Emily's discomfort when Raeann has decided to impose a dress code on them in summer dance, and it is not to cover up, but to actually show more skin.
They are now required to wear form fitting tank tops and something like spandex shorts. It is because the stretches and moves they do now, when wearing loose fitting clothes, can sometimes cause certain body parts to be seen, so now they are going to be banned from loose fitting t shirts, shorts, sweats of any length, etc.
Emily was like whoa!!!! but, after thinking about it, I do see her point. Some of the stretches and poses they do are very revealing, if wearing the wrong kind of clothes, so I guess tomorrow, we will be going out to look for a pair of spandex shorts. She has only a zillion tank tops, so we got that covered~or uncovered as the case may be (;

Ice Ice Baby

If you really know me, you know how much I hate hot things. Not just heat, but hot drinks, hot tubs, too hot of food, not only temperature but also spice.
Anyways, my point is, that I love the cold, so as many of you know I love ice. I love to drink a pop, then eat the ice, and my favorite ice is from Sonic. I actually will buy bags of their ice to enjoy at home. Really, it is like $1.60-something, but well worth it! I also like the ice at Quik Trip, but only the crushed, and since you can get a 32 ounce Dr Pepper with crushed ice for 49 cents, well, that is quite a deal!!!!
Back to the point, Aunt Sherry called, and she wanted to talk to me about ice. She told me that Braum's also sells their ice, which is crushed just a bit bigger than SOnic, and that I should give it a go. Well, me and the girls are going to go get some ice soon. Aunt Sherry said that she likes Braum's better, because it is not so clumpy.
I like all ice, and am planning a blindfold taste test soon. Carol knows how much I enjoy those, from my days in the kitchen.I will conduct this very scientific experiment, and then will post my results as soon as it is done. I am sure you will all be on the edge of your seats~haha!
Until then...