We were out of town for a week, attending a wedding, spending time with my Dad (who recently returned from Iraq), and seeing my brother off on a mission. Crazy busy, with all the activities and all the shopping we needed to do. Since we leave in a rural area, trips to "town" require a lot of planning as far as purchasing needed supplies and groceries.
Last Monday we went to Lagoon (an amusement park) with my family. I was so surprised how well Smudge (9 months old) and my nephew (21 months) did. They were such happy little boys and barely cried. And thank goodness Lagoon has quite a bit of shade. We were there most of the day. Dad wanted all the guys to be able to do some drag racing there (which you have to pay extra for). They had it all set up--3 groups of 2, and the winner from each group would get to drive in the final race. However, only 2 of their 4 cars were running. And Mom had already bought the tickets. And my bro-in-law's friend was still at Lagoon-a-Beach with his fiance, so my oldest sister got to ride in his place. They still ran the 3 groups of 2, deciding that those who got the best times would get to go again (two of whom would get to ride at the same time, and the last person would have to race against one of the workers).
My sweet husband was one of the winners, and he gave his ticket to me so that I could have a turn. I was the lucky driver who was going to get to race one of the workers, but my Dad decided to buy an extra ticket, and I ended up racing against my brother. You get 3 runs. (It's relatively safe and simple. No steering required, as the car is on a track. And you only get to shift once before you reach the finish line and it automatically brakes for you.) Before I raced, my sister had the best time out of everyone. I didn't care what times I got--I just didn't want to look like a fool. I tried to follow the advice of my dad (and brother, and husband, and sister, and brother-in-law). As soon as the light flipped green, it was left foot off the brake, right foot slamming on the gas. And I ignored the "shift" cones, instead listening to the engine for when I should shift. (I use to drive a stickshift, so I'm not an idiot.) I did all right on the first run, barely beating my brother. We were going almost 70 mph when the automatic brakes kicked in. What a rush! I have to admit, I wasn't paying close attention on the 2nd run, and my brother totally beat me (which was probably good for his ego). But on my 3rd run, I was determined to do AWESOME. I didn't shift until probably 3/4 of the way down the track (way past the "shift" cones). The resulting speed slammed me back into my chair--HOLY COW! Not only did I beat my brother, but I also got the FASTEST time (of our family, anyway). Although I know my brother was disappointed that he didn't win, I don't think it bothered him too much, because he was so PROUD that I got the fastest time. He kept reminding me how fast I was the rest of the time we were visiting.
Hopefully, I'll have some pictures to post soon.
My brother is so awesome. I love him so much, and I'm going to miss him and his sense of humor while he's serving his mission these next 2 years.
Next up--purses. Oddly enough, given my gender, I am so not a purse person. I can never find one that I like. I tend to forget them. And they just get in the way. I've had 1 or 2 that were close to perfect, but just not quite. I got in the habit of just carrying my credit and debit card in my back pocket. Not safe. So then I bought a man's wallet. But I soon discovered that the pockets of women's jeans are mostly for show, and entirely useless in functionality. This year, I decided to get more organized, so I've been using a planner as my wallet. But it's hard to shop while you're carrying a planner. And I didn't ever want to set it down in the cart (mostly because I was afraid I would forget it, and slightly because I was afraid someone would steal it). So while we were in town, I set out to find a purse. Once again, I found one that was almost perfect at Wal-Mart, one that was casual and could fit my planner. Since it was on clearance, I decided to go ahead and purchase it, thinking it was the close I would ever come to finding the right purse. Boy, was I wrong. While I was shopping at Ross for some jeans for dh, I happened to wander through the purse collection (just in case), and there, hanging all by itself, was the purse of my dreams.
(Well, almost. I would have preferred a dark blue to bright red, but color isn't really that important.) Since I really hadn't used my new purse, I bought the red one, and hoped that I could take back the other to Wal-Mart. I didn't have the tags for the Wal-Mart purse, so I was fairly certain they wouldn't take it back. But they did! And that's why I like shopping at Wal-Mart. And now I have the purse I really, really want that I really, really like that I'll really, really use (and hopefully never lose).
Haircuts. This is about Smudge, not me. So my little boy has the most adorable curls. But his hair was getting so long and unruly. I was adamant that I wasn't going to cut it until he turned 1 year old. So I started using hair gel to keep it curly and out of his face. That worked for a while, but his hair continued to grow, and soon even the gelled curls were hanging in his face. And then it started losing some of the curl because it was too heavy. So I broke down Sunday and gave him a trim. It's still long, but at least it's manageable. I'm fairly certain he'll need a few more trims before his 1st birthday, since it's almost 3 months away.
To end this super long post, I just want to share 3 LOs I've done recently.
This LO features Sara Amarie's newest kit, Namaste:
Credits here
I think this next LO is my new favorite. It was for a scraplift challenge. I used Amanda Heimann's new collab with Eva Kipler, A Mojito Kinda Day:
Credits here
And this is another new favorite, using Amanda Heimann's collab with Lauren Grier, First Bell (and stealing Snickers' advertising slogan):
Credits here
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