Roadtrip!

As you can tell, I've been absent for some time. Please blame the 2 year old who resides with me. So I was thinking, no time like the present to start again! But, what to write about? I have to ask myself, "Self? What do you want this blog to be? To do for you?" And I answered, "Well, self, I think it should hold memories and share stories. No matter how boring that may be for your painfully low number of readers." And really, who am I to argue with myself?

This past weekend we took a Roadtrip! We got Liam all pumped up with the promise of fishies, birdies, froggies, etc. We were going to go to the aquariam in the Mall of America and to the Minnesota Zoo. This meant a night in the hotel with Liam. No problem, right? I mean, we've taken him places overnight before...just never in a hotel. We always had friends or family silly enough to put us all up.

The trip started off nice. We stopped at the Medford Outlet Mall and we all got a little something. I spent way too much money, but hey, what are roadtrips for?? Liam loved the aquariam, of course. No suprise there. And then we get to the hotel. We walk in our room...the bottom lip comes out, it starts trembling, and silent tears roll down his checks. "Bye-bye, home, mommy truck." Ugh.

But then we had a quick recovery. Which was great! He's flushing the toleit and looking out the window and in all the drawers. I explained that it was bedtime and we needed to get some sleep so that we could go to the zoo. This worked long enough to get PJ's on. Then we remembered we did not have the binkie. Oops.

Now let me insert here that we ONLY use the binkie at night-night time. It does not leave his room (apparently not even for overnight trips.)

So, we explain that the binkie is at home. He says, "Binkie, home." And proceeds to punish us by refusing to go to sleep for over an hour. But, he does eventually and sleeps all night, no issues with the MIA binkie. (You can imagine my plots to get rid of the thing completely now that I have his number.)

The next morning we hit the zoo right as it opens and have a blast, staying until Liam was falling asleep in his stoller using his new stuffed turtle as his pillow. We said bye-bye to the monkeys for at least 10 minutes and then headed straight home. Liam was asleep before we were even out of town.

I was dozing on the way home, reflecting on our successful trip and daydreaming about some wonderful things to come and all of a sudden I feel the truck start to lurch. Luckily, my wonderful mechanic husband is driving and obviously nothing could be wrong and even if it did he's going to fix it without even slowing down. No worries, right? Wrong.

Next thing I know, we're walking down the highway - with my 2 year old! - AWAY from my truck and towards a bike shop that we think is open. Luckily it was open and a wonderfully patient man helped us pick a trusted tow truck company, talked the owner into letting us park at the shop overnight, helped me call car rental places, got us all bottles of water, gave Liam stickers to play with and let us loiter in the store for over an hour.

So, in short, our unplanned expenses were as follows:

Cost of towing us a QUARTER of a mile down the road: $90.00 (Highway robbery if ask me.)
Cost of renting a (kick-ass) car: $42.00 (I think Chris flirted with the Avis girl.)
Cost of part to fix truck: $300.00 (Apparently Chris can't flirt with the parts guy.)

PLUS, a two hour delay getting home, 6 additional hours for Chris and the neighbor to go get the truck and bring it back, 3 more hours for Chris to track down and pick up the part we needed in order for me to have my truck back by Monday morning and the additional gas for all of this.

This TRIPLED the cost of our roadtrip. Ahhhhhhhhh, memories.

A Proud Day for Iowa

"In a precedent-setting ruling, the Iowa Supreme Court today upheld a lower court decision legalizing same-sex marriages in Iowa...The unanamous court decision is expected to carry national implications as Iowa becomes the first Midwest state to grant full legal standing to gay and lesbian couples and only the third state nationally to confer marital status beyond traditional one-man, one woman unions."

It is time that we take a step back, look around, and take giant leaps forward. It is time that we remember that all people are equal and deserve equal rights in all areas of life. What a proud day for Iowa! I hope many states follow our example.

As always there are negative feelings toward this step in the right direction. Let us remember that any church can deny a marriage request for any reason. This will not change and we should not expect it to. This will not "re-define" marriage for, say, the Catholic church. Or for any other church that does not feel the need to recognize the rights of all people. There is a reason that church and state are separated.

What other argument is there? Either your definition of marriage is shaped by your religion or it's not. If it is, continue to move forward living your life as your religion dictates that you do. I will continue to disagree with you, in respectful silence.

Before & After ~ The Haircut

So, I got my haircut tonight. Big time! Here are the before and after pics...

BEFORE (And YES, I see the smudges on the fridge. I need a new stainless steel cleaner.)

AFTER

Now, the big test is how it will look after I style it!

Wordless Wednesday

Beautiful Day!

Today was such a beautiful day! It started off just swell when I woke up feeling good for the first time in a week. Then after breakfast and some play time Liam took a two and a half hour nap....which brought us to 11:30. By the time we ate lunch, got dressed and got out of the house it was almost 1!

We went to Kohl's - where he throughly enjoyed riding in the stoller carts they have. (Yes, I have made a mental note of this.) Then we moved on to Target...where he was again wonderful. Then, after dropping off the frozen foods at home, we went to Hy-Vee and enjoyed a very early dinner - just the three of us!


He was perfect. He couldn't have been a better baby. He waved to all the old ladies, he waved to all the cute girls, all the other babies. He pointed at everything and called everything "Da da." (While I said "Ma ma.") Then we came home and played in the backyard...














Ahhhh....what a beautiful day!

Random Picture

This week's challenge, brought to us by 4 Little Men and Girly Twins:

February 2009 or 1st folder

FIRST picture of something other than your kids

I have about 10 pictures this entire year that aren't of Liam. But, this is my husband and our beautiful dog Kenya getting ready to go outside and shovel/play in the snow!

Wordless Wednesday