Advice for Teenagers

I love this! We always talk about how the curfews that are implemented on the Plaza and in Westport are dumb, because the teens will just find somewhere else to hang out, or get into trouble. But this is really the better answer!

Tickle the Moon

At S's baseball game the other night, Baby R and her friend, L, were playing together. R shared her coloring pages and markers, and encouraged L's artistic work often: "Good job, L!" She offered to share her fruit and other toys as well.

After awhile, they started pulling the weeds around the bleachers. They waved them at each other, saying "Tickle, tickle!" Baby R inched over to me and brushed the green, fuzzy plant against my arm. "Tickle, tickle, Mama!" Then across my round belly. "Tickle, tickle, Baby!"

She looked up at the evening sky. "Look, Mama! There's the moon!"

"Yes, baby, there it is."

She stretched her chubby arms up as high as she could, waving the weed. "Tickle, tickle, moon!"

Crazy Catch Up

So after Serve Day, things got crazy hectic. We went to a surprise birthday party for S's first daycare provider with all the kiddos from when she was there. So fun! Then it was time for M.A.D. Camp at church - Music, Art and Drama. I signed up to help, not realizing it was from 6:15pm - 9:00pm every weeknight. It was fantastic but exhausting, and I missed my munchkins. S was old enough to participate, but had baseball Monday and Wednesday, so it didn't make sense to have her miss two of the five nights.

Then it was Father's Day. It was pretty low key, we got DH a couple of collectable baseballs he'd asked for and a framed photo of him with Baby R for his desk at work. The downside of the weekend was that he spent a fair amount of time car shopping. His 10-year-old, 200K-mile Accord started dying at stoplights. He thought it was the catalytic converter. We considered fixing it, but with the baby on the way, we were already planning to replace his car with one that would better fit 3 carseats in the back. We talked about a crossover or SUV since we didn't really want another minivan, but they're so expensive, he ended up getting a new Camry. It has a slightly wider, flatter backseat, so the carseats fit a little better.

Then Monday he took a daytrip to Omaha for a college World Series game. S had baseball Monday and Wednesday nights, and then Thursday I had my glucose test. Sigh. Wednesday and Thursday nights, DH was getting ready for the Lenexa BBQ this weekend.

We had planned to go to Colorado for July 4th weekend, but since we had to buy the car six months early, we can't really swing it. I'm bummed, but also looking forward to just a long weekend to chill at home after all this nuttiness!

What If the Church?

The pastor of our church along with a few others in our area decided a couple of years ago to see what it would be like if the church did what it was intended to do in the beginning. Serve together, worship together, pray for each other - regardless of denomination. They started "What If the Church?" Today there are more than 50 churches in the metro area who participate. A few weeks ago was our annual serve day, and over 3,000 volunteers helped with projects at dozens of locations in the city. 

One of the places that needed fixing up was an elementary school where one of my friends attended when we were kids, and her kids go there now. The teacher's lounge was badly in need of updating, and the landscaping needed to be - well landscaped instead of just dirt and dead plants. I helped pick up leaves and plants outside for a bit, and tape off and paint a bit inside. With a mask of course! It was fun meeting new people from other churches and seeing some old friends there. 

There was more to do than could be accomplished in one day, but we put a huge dent in the project.

So thankful to have been able to be a part of such an amazing ministry!

Bachelorette Parties

http://www.beforetheidos.com/Bachelorette-Sash-p/hbh-35402.htm

One of my best friends from middle school got married Saturday. I had so much fun over the last couple of weeks going to her shower, bachelorette party, and, of course, celebrating at the wedding. There are seven of us who bonded in 8th grade, and we all still keep in touch. We may not see each other as often as we'd like to, but we always pick up right where we left off. All but one of them was able to make it back to town for the wedding.

They're a conservative bunch, so we had a seemingly tame bachelorette party, but it was so much fun. We went to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. (Our chef was hilarious and made some interesting shapes with the fried rice). Then we went to an entertainment center where we bowled and played laser tag. We ended up back at my friend's house where we had a cake decorated with "Much Hap-penis" and watched The Princess Bride.

My husband was giving me a hard time about there being no naked men involved. It got me to thinking that I've only seen strippers twice, and neither time was for a bachelorette party. So here's a run down of the various things I have done at bachelorette parties..

Improv comedy show
We went to a family-friendly place, but there turned out to be a bachelor party there, too, so they came up with a fun skit about marriage that had plenty of suggestive humor that was appropriate for the occasion.

Camping
We burned mementos of old boyfriends in the bonfire, had a penis piñata, and told funny stories.

Riverboat casino
This was a great option because there's not only gambling there, but also restaurants and other fun activities.

Barhopping
I love going out dancing, but though this is the most common way of celebrating, it's also my least favorite overall. It's not original, and it's hard to talk to everyone.

Great Wolf Lodge
After swimming, we went back to our room, ordered pizza and played games.

Road trip
For my bachelorette party, we went to St. Louis for Mardi Gras. For my sister's, we went to Memphis and partied on Beale Street.

Slumber party
I actually had two bachelorette parties. Since my sister lives in St. Louis, Mardi Gras was reasonable since we could stay with her for free. But most of my friends from high school had kids already, so going out of town wasn't easy, and they don't drink, so Mardi Gras wasn't all that appealing to them anyway. We decided to have a slumber party at my parents' house like we did when we were kids. We played spoons and pounce, ate junk food, talked about boys, and watched a movie just like old times.

Appliance Ailments

Apparently I haven't been paying enough homage to the appliance gods because we've had a run of bad luck with them lately.

Towards the end of April, our dishwasher died. It came with the house, so we weren't sure exactly how old it was. The silver lining to that was literally silver - we bought a stainless steel one a week-and-a-half ago; now it matches the stove and fridge.

Speaking of the fridge, the day after DH installed the dishwasher - Monday morning - we were getting ready for school and work, and noticed water dripping from the ice dispenser - and a huge puddle on the floor. We frantically moved all the food to the beer fridge in the garage (thank goodness for that option since I had just bought groceries the day before). He and I were both upset about it; we bought the refrigerator 14 months ago. I was stressed out the whole day wondering if we'd bought the extended warranty on it. Beware my fury if it had just been a one-year, and we'd barely passed it!

Thankfully when I got home from work, DH had had a little time to fiddle with the settings and got it working again. We'd had a power outage the night before, so we're thinking it just didn't completely reset correctly for some reason. And he also told me he'd found the receipt and he'd gotten the extended warranty just in case it wasn't really fixed. Whew!

Having just dodged that bullet, disaster struck. The next Saturday evening, I was doing laundry. I put in a big load of towels and a blanket, and the washing machine started making a terrible grinding sound. DH lectured me on having too big of a load, but I do that size all the time. Apparently almost 4 years of it was too much. He was not pleased. Especially when he couldn't find the receipt and, therefore, the warranty info. Our friends were on their way over to watch a movie and hang out, so we put the search on hold until Sunday. Thankfully, we realized that we'd bought the washer at a different store than we were originally looking for in the receipts, and he found it. And we have a five-year warranty. Whew! But they couldn't get here to fix it until yesterday. Luckily I had finished all the clothes last week, so we barely made it through. Guess what I'm doing tonight?