Uff Da! Yeah, sure, you betcha!

Woke up nice and rested this morning. Awesome. I really needed that....for my first trip to IKEA! Holy cow........just........wow. It was like a giant toy store designed with me in mind. Cute, functional, and cheap cheap cheap furniture! We had breakfast in the cafe, super yummy and 99 cents for eggs, taters, and bacon. After that we got lost in the maze of the showrooms for about three hours (during which time I was pleased to hear an "Oh, for fun!" which is a variation on a common Minnesotan phrase. Gratifying, as I didn't hear any other accents while there.) emerging victorious with a message board/organizer, candle, oven mitt, curtains for the bedroom, curtain rod for the curtains, two wall sconces for the living room, a cheese grater, and a twin sized bed for Leigha, all for under $150. This is Jason and the girls walking toward me in the warehouse where you pick up your furniture. Notice how flat all the furniture is for easy loading. Isn't that incredible? Go Swedes! We loaded up the car and I sat back in the front seat, all my shopping glands thoroughly sated. Oh yeah. That's nice. After a long, yet uneventful drive we arrived in Kansas City. Yay! It's very, very good to be home.

That's no mall, that's a space station!

Woke up not at all well rested, drove the remaining three hours or so to Minneapolis! We got here about one o clock or so and immediately got sucked into the Mall of America. Now, if you've never been there, I carefully selected this picture for you. Anyone who wanted to see a cute family picture or one of the more urban shots I took of downtown, sorry, blame it on those guys. See the theme park? That's what used to be known as Camp Snoopy (before Nickelodian came in and viciously jacked up the prices) it is in the middle of the mall. The mall itself wraps completely around the theme park on all four sides, making a square. It is four stories tall. The directory takes up three panels of a square column, just to list all the stores. It has at least seven coffee shops. Long story short, this sucker is huge. We have flown in before to go to the mall, but never quite got around to walking the entire thing. Today, after riding the Log Chute (from which this picture was taken) we did just that. It took us a little more than four hours and we only went into about eight shops. (Yeah, it's that big.) After our poor aching feet gave out on us we got back in the car and checked into our motel (yup, after last night, I'm so done camping.) then found some dinner at a great mediterranian place called Shiraz on Nicolette Ave. Best pitas ever, mmm! We drove around downtown after that, taking pictures and exploring neighborhoods. Minneapolis seems to be a very eco-friendly town. There's a lot of wind power machines here and a ton of people were riding bikes. Either that or they're just so relieved to not be in the crushing snows of a Northern winter. Whatever the reason, it was great to see so many people out and about, enjoying the beautiful city they live in.

This is the point where it's not fun anymore.

This morning we packed up, hugged our friends goodbye, and headed off into the desolation that is I-90 in South Dakota. We drove all the way to a little town called Worthington, Minnesota. It's a very cute little town with a small lake. Unfortunately, after we set up the camper we realized how cold and windy it was, and decided that tonight we're going to sleep in a big huddle in the middle of the camper. Cue the banjo music.

Rock and reel

Our last day here in Custer State Park, so we made it an easy one. We saddled up the kids and drove into Rapid City to see "Bear Country USA." It's a drive through zoo basically, except there are no cages. You go along a road and the animals are just right there. They separate them into fenced off sections with cattle guards on the roads to keep them from entering another area. The stars of the show were the bears, hands down. They were everywhere, sunning, walking alongside the road, mating (and right when we entered the bear section, too.), and in the case of one bear, pacing the cattle guard to the next section. It was so cool to see them so close. They had a walk through baby section as well and we saw a lot of smaller animals like skunks and porcupines, but again, the baby bear cubs held everyone's attention. They were so playful and cute! This afternoon we spent at the campground. There is a small lake at the entrance and the girls wanted to go swimming, so we got them all into their swimsuits while Jeff, Selena, Jason and I did some catch and release fishing. I caught a small bass. It was thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis big. (the sad part is, if you took the actual length of that word and held it up to the fish, that's probably about how big it was.) Jason and I took the kids into Rapid City for dinner this evening and I grabbed some Starbucks for Selena and I so we could enjoy some fancy coffee at the campsite. She thought it was hillarious to be sitting next to a campfire sipping an upside down carmel macchiato. We stayed up late tonight to let the kids play, then we put them to bed and sat by the campfire watching the stars. It was perfect.

Happy Birthday, Brianna!

Brianna is four today! I can't believe it! We had pancakes for breakfast and I presented her with her first gift, a gorgeous pink princess dress that I've been saving since just after Christmas when it went on sale. She was absolutely thrilled and put it on immediately. We drove to Deadwood today and toured a gold mine, had a picnic, then went to a cool Victorian house museum and a local history museum. On our way back to our campsite we went through Custer so we could celebrate Brianna's birthday in style at the "Purple Pie Place." It's a little old house turned ice cream and pie parlour. If you ever come up this way, so totally go there. Best pie I've had in my life, and I make amazing pie. On the way back to the car I gave Bri a big hug and said, "Happy birthday, Brianna." She sighed back, "Mmmm...happy birthday, Mommy."

Why it's worth the drive.

Today was our Mount Rushmore day. We drove up, parked, and walked to the viewing platform. Jason and I have been here before, but Jeff and Selena have not. They stood there in the quiet awe one gets when experiencing a monument on such a grand scale for the first time. We hiked up to the base and got some great pictures. It was absolutely the perfect weather for it. We went to all the little displays, and the kids participated in the "Junior Ranger" program, and were rewarded with gold colored plastic badges for their troubles. After that we went to the "Cosmo's Mystery Area." I've never been to one of those, it was pretty cool. I've seen them on the Travel Channel before, the house you can't seem to stand up straight in, the concrete platforms that are level but it looks like you got taller when you walk to the other one, and the water that runs uphill. You know, that kind of thing. It was really cool. We had just sat down to roast marshmallows when the clouds rolled in and we got a torrential downpour. We grabbed everything that needed to be try and headed to Jeff and Selena's camper to enjoy some Jiffy Pop. After the kids when to bed we played some cards and drank some beer. Jeff decided to drink his beer from a licorice stick straw. Nice.

S'more Campin'

Another day of driving. We headed out this morning and went all the way (after a slig ht delay to change the spark plugs and wires) to Custer State Park, aka Mount Rushmore area. We started setting up camp and hadn't gotten very far when Jeff and Selena (friends from Denver) arrived with their daughters, Lydia and Zoe. The girls played like maniacs,very aware that they don't get to see each other often and their time would be all too short. We made dinner, did the s'mores thing (with Reese's, it's sooo yummy that way) and planned our day for tomorrow. Right now I'm holed up in the tent trailer listening to the very loud rain. Hopefully it goes away soon. It's so good to see our friends and to be here. This trip is going to be wicked sweet.

While we were driving, we saw what looked like an old ambulance turned camper limping up an exit into a gas station. We exited at the same place, and when they got there, the camper positively BOILED over with coolant. About seven dirty hippy types piled out and were staring at the damage, saying, "Duuuuude!" The liscence plate informed us they were from New Jersey, and the side of the camper informed us that they were the "Dead Muskrats." Band, perhaps? Either way, they certainly smelled like their namesake.

Brianna has come down with dysentary, you lose 3 days

Not much to report today, just a looot of driving. We headed out this morning, due North on I-29 and ended up in a town called Vermillion, South Dakota. The park here allows people to camp for free, which is fantastic. We parked and sent the girls out for sticks for kindling and this is what they came up with. Please note that while Brianna's pile is significantly smaller than Leigha's, she is no less proud of it.

WAFFLES!!!!!!

After church today Jason and I headed into the oblivion that is southern Missouri. Not only did we have to pick up the Suburban (ahhhh! Scary high gas prices!) and tent trailer, Jason's twin cousins Heidi and Holly are in town! We had lunch with them and fed the horses and whatnot. As you can see, Sheila broke out the buggy today. She loves taking people out in that thing. It is pretty fun. That's Ranger, Leigha, Sheila, Holly, Brianna (look closely) and Heidi (I love that in such an old fashioned looking picture she's kicking back with a Coors). Jason and Tim spent most of the afternoon trying to finagle the ball off the hitch so we could switch it out with the proper sized ball for the tent trailer. They finally had to go to the neighbor's and use his tools. No wonder the queen ended up having to fix Humpty Dumpty. (what are you talking about, Jess?) Yeah. No, it totally makes sense. Just think about it.

MST3K-prov

When I was in high school I was absolutely IN LOVE with a TV show called Mystery Science Theater 3000. I see a few of you out there nodding your heads in recollection and understanding. For those of you who don't know, it's a show where a guy and three robots sit in a theater and make fun of really really bad scifi movies. It's hillarious and so cool. *takes out her retainer* Tonight we did it at the Imp! I wasn't there for rehearsal Thursday (obviously) so I couldn't participate in the movie-prov, but I did get to perform in the 7pm show. It was a great show, too. One of my favorite scenes from that show involved me and Nifer sitting on an island in the lion cage at a zoo. (the penguin habitat had melted, duh) We were the last two people on earth and we had a sophisticated government system, complete with a congress, constitution, and ammendments, for our tiny island. At one point we were discussing one of the "laws" on the island that was really unfortunate for Nifer and I said, "Yeah, well I voted for it and you kind of half voted for it, so that's 3/4 majority rule so I won!" Hee hee! There was also a fun scene with Salvatore and Julie. They were Frenchmen, complete with handlebar mustaches, baguettes in their pockets, and riding unicycles. It was fantastic. That is what French people do, you know. Anyhow, after that was the movie prov. The movie was "Teenagers from Outer Space" and it was pretty much legendarilly bad. We had much fun destroying it. The monster in the film was quite literally a lobster silhouette superimposed so it looked as though it was giant. It wasn't even disguised or anything, it was quite simply a lobster! Oh, and I think it's great how it says 'Pause' right over John's head in this picture. Makes it looks like he is paused.

It really IS fun to misbehave!

This is Megan and I and AHHH! I never could remember his name! Megan was the songleader at camp, I ran the words on the screen. We hit it off pretty quickly. Today was the last day of camp (really a half day) so it was sad, but we really all said our goodbyes last night. Mostly we just cleaned and took pictures and stuff today. (Dora is exploring my forehead, fyi) I loaded up mine and the girls' stuff, Becky and her stuff, then Josh and his stuff and we all headed back to KC. Five people in the car, five people's weeklong packing in the car. The car is a sedan. We get back to my house and unload and there was a pillow on top of everything right in the middle of the trunk, so I took it out first and there was a huge black mark/hole in it. Through the pillowcase, outer layer, and into the stuffing. The pillow had been right under the brake light. My car could very easily have caught on fire! And there was a lot of fuel to keep it burning back there! Eep! I got home around four in the afternoon, caught up on some blogs, email, and facebook, pretty much just zoned out. When Jason got home we fed the kids and Becky came back to babysit for us. Jason and I happily made our escape to Westport where Scriptease and Tantrum were playing a show together at the WCH. I hadn't gotten to see Tantrum before so I was really excited. They didn't dissapoint! The show was absolutely fantastic! I really enjoyed it a lot. They worked really well together and I saw them really listening, like, REALLY listening. There were a couple scenes where the people were talking about something and someone said something on the sidelines that completely MADE the scene, it was fantastic. After we all went to McCoy's and Jason was a bit flabbergasted that everyone knew who he was. I guess he didn't realize that improvisers read blogs. ;-) He was really stunned, it was pretty funny.

Wham-O!

It's the last day of camp and all around me campers are still very much awake. Playing card games, singing songs, shaving a staffer's head, you know, the regular stuff. It's been a great day. I drove home this morning and walked in to help put the song lyrics on the screen and Megan (song leader) squee-ed and gave me a big hug. I was only gone overnight! It's good to know I was missed. Today a giant slip 'n' slide was constructed down the side of a hill, complete with a mud pit at the end. So fabulous. In the afternoon they had an auction to raise money for the missions speaker. Up for bidding was the chance to throw a pie in the face of six staffers. Nice. They told Jared to sit down for a picture when he had been hit and he sat, unaware that they had taken the pie and sat it on the seat. Clever little boogers. :-) As part of the auction another staffer volunteered to shave his head once the total bids reached a certain amount. They didn't quite get to the full shaved head, but he definetely has a mohawk now. Our last family group meeting was really emotional. We've been broken into small groups all week and one of the kids in my group had to go home early (medical issue) and we were all thinking of him and made cards for him and stuff. We laughed and hugged and one of the boys actally cried, it was so sweet. I'm really going to miss the kids when this week is over tomorrow afternoon.

Tastykakes make me a happy Jessica

Today went by so, so fast. The special activity for the evening was skits, so most of the day was spent in either free time or writing and practice sessions, and another trip to the local pool. Before I knew it, dinner time was upon us and Jason arrived back at the camp to have dinner, then take me and the girls back to the house. Why? Because my Aunt Wanda, her sister Gaylyn and my cousin Daniel (remember DC in March?) are moving from Washington, DC. to Colorado Springs. Guess what's on the way? We happily invited them to spend the night on their way through, and since Aunt Wanda is the best, she brought me Tastykakes for my troubles. Mmmm, butterscotch krimpets!!! She also brought us my cousin Marissa's dollhouse from when she was a little girl. It's absolutely massive. So much so that when Marissa was a little girl she would curl up and take a nap inside it. We are going to renovate it (we've gotten used to the act) and give it to the girls for Christmas.

Here come the waterworks

We're all starting to settle into a routine now. Everyone pretty much remembers where they're supposed to be and when, and they do it. We have a good bunch of kids. We did an activity where the kids trie to run from the chapel to the fire pit (about a half mile) without getting wet. In between the chapel and fire pit was us, the staff, armed with water balloons and squirt guns. Mua ha ha. Unfortunately I did end up breaking a toe running after some kids. Oh well, it doesn't hurt that bad when it's taped, which it is. Jason had to go home this evening because he has work in the morning, I hated to see him go, but vacation days are precious and he's taking next week off as it is. Our late night activity tonight was everyone's favorite year after year, the staff hunt! Basically everyone meets at the chapel and the staffers arrive dressed in black, camaflauge, or even dressed like a ninja, and hide out on the grounds in the dark. We are given five minutes to hide then the campers come out in groups and find us. Me and another girl hid in a dark wooded hollow. We snuck back to the brush, put a blanket over ourselves, and branches over the blanket. We were there for the longest time before anyone ventured near us and I heard a, "Whoa, what IS that? You guys, I think someone fell out of a tree and knocked themself out!" I was laughing so hard inwardly. Finally a brave camper kicked me and I knew they weren't going to go away so I said, "Ow!" and sat up. They went, "Ooooohhhhh!" Then the other girl laughed and sat up and they said, "OOOOOoooohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" It was great. When the day is over and it's lights out we staffers gather at the main building and play cards/listen to music/eat cereal and ice cream. It's fantastic.

Why I hate noodles

First full day! We started out by playing a fabulous game in which we blindfolded the campers then sent them out on the basketball court. The object of the game was to find and pick up one of the various pool noodles lying about and attempt to whack the other blindfolded campers with them. If you were hit you were out. The last group to have people still playing won. Yeah, my group totally won. We then played a round of staff v. staff. I did pretty alright. Much fun. The big activity for the day was an outing to the local pool. It's actually a really great pool, it's zero entry (it has a concrete beach) and has a kiddie slide shaped like a frog and a huge waterslide. I got Leigha to go down for the first time ever. She was freaked out but I wouldn't let her chicken out (like every other time she's been to a pool with a slide, I think this was the fourth time or so) and finally she went down. Before she even rounded the curve she was grinning bigtime. She was still making her way out of the sectioned off area where you leave the slide when she yelled out, "I wanna go again!!!" Sweet. Shannon and I went to Wal Mart for a bit to get some stuff. Seriously, smallest Super Wal Mart. Ever. This evening we watched a movie after campfire then sent the kids off to bed and the staff got a special treat-pizza! There's nothing like clandestine pizza at church camp.

I love ewe

After a furious afternoon of packing we left our house and drove an hour and a half to our church's camp. It's Junior high week and they needed major help with staffing, so our pastor asked us if we could show up, kids and all, to help out. I enjoy helping out a lot. Junior high is such a neat age, still children but trying to figure out how to be more adult. My girls are having a blast, playing in the sandbox, playing tetherball, running around like monkeys, and tormenting the preacher's kids. In fact, when the camp had a bowling outing this evening, Leigha conned the pastor's oldest son into asking his mom for a quarter for the claw game machine. She saw a lamb toy she desperately wanted and asked him to get it for her. He got the quarter, sweet talked a camper who had been playing the game earlier, and got Leigha that lamb toy. When Leigha went to bowl she had Brennan (the pastor's son) watch the lamb for her. Shannon (Brennan's mom) is freaking out. "They're moving too fast, they have a kid together!" Innacurate, duh, since a lamb is a baby sheep, not a baby goat. Ba dump ching. (yeah, I'm tired.)

Prep talk

This is the Roving Imp's green room. As I explained to Leigha the other day, "It's where actors wait before coming onstage." Tonight it was where we met Corey Rittmaster, a special guest improviser from Chicago. He used to live here and comes back every so often to do stuff. He mentioned on the KC improv forum that he wanted to get in on something tonight so John invited him to play. This is Julie, Corey, the newly installed TV with live feed from the stage, John, Ryan, and Nifer's hair. We only did one show tonight, the 9pm one, because John is changing things up a bit. It was nice not to have to rush right off after Jason got off work. In fact, this evening our friends Erin and David invited us over for dinner and we were able to oblige them, though I had to leave a tad earlier than Jason and the girls. We had a blast. It's nice that they live right in our new neighborhood. Tres convenient. When I got home from the show I immediately started packing things, and I'll finish tomorrow. Jason and I are going to help with church camp again this year (yay!) Oh, and I doubt I'll have internet access. Fear not, loyal readers, I will still bring the laptop and write each day so when I am able to post you can read my thoughts and see my pictures while they were still fresh, as opposed to me coming home and banging out a chunk of crap just to have something.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Ran an awful lot of errands today, spent too much money. Yay. Came home and spent a lot of time cleaning for a makeup party that exactly one person showed up to. I'm going to go ahead and use that as an excuse to not feel obligated to reciporocate when invited to other's shindigs. Yay liberation! My aunt Laurie is an amazing gal. We have a running joke on the Smith side of the family that has to do with ants. Started with plastic ants in people's stuff at family reunions then escalated. Anyhow, aunt Laurie is amazing at finding unique ant stuff, and she always gets it and sends it out. We got a package in the mail from her that contained a housewarming gift for me and Jason (aw!) and a little gift for each of the girls. Bri was taking a nap so I gave Leigha her gift. She opened the tissue paper and it turned out to be a "marshmallow ant colony." Nice. Leigha was a little dissapointed when she realized they didn't do anything, (the box said, "Watch their ant-ics.") but consoled herself with the understanding that she could still enjoy eating them. For more information on what the subject line means, see Wikipedia.

City of fountains

I went to high school with Amie. While we were living in Denver we got an invitation to her wedding, so we went (durr.) Denver is about 4 hours away from where I went to high school so I had fallen out of touch with everyone in the town, pretty much. We showed up and people I knew when were so surprised to see me, it was great. At that point we knew we might be moving to Kansas City and we were surprised to learn Amie and her brand new hubby lived in Olathe. We got their number so we could stay in touch. A couple months later we were heading back to Denver from Jason's mom's house, and we used to drive right through Kansas City on our way. We called Amie and Mike to see if they wanted to have lunch with us. On our way there the car broke down and lunch turned into a five day stay. They saved us hundreds of dollars in hotel fees, thus heightening their awesome status with us. Every so often we get together and catch up. We went to Legends today, and there she is walking her son, Daniel, around the big fountain. We had a good time, got some lunch, it was nice. Tonight while at rehearsal we had another tornado warning, this one came really really close to being the real thing, too. Eep! Rehearsal was great, I applied some of the stuff I learned at the workshop and made John do one of those "Yessss!" fist pumpy thingies. Sweet. Those are pretty rare.

Shearing the sheep

Leigha has been asking for a haircut for a little while and I can't blame her. Our hair is super thick, especially at the nape of the neck, and it's like growing a sweater after a bit. It's starting to warm up and her mewlings have grown more frequent, so today I decided to just get it over with. I grabbed some scissors and we headed into the bathroom, placed towels all over the place, and I started cutting. Brianna came up to the door to watch. "Mom, I don't want a haircut." "You do or you don't?" "I don't." Okay then. I continued to cut, added a couple cute layers, and as the job was nearing completion Brianna chimed in again. "Okay. I want a haircut, just don't hurt me." Here are my proud childrenlings sporting their new looks. Leigha's hair freaked out for about the first hour (as you can see) but then, true to adaptable curly haired form, it settled down into a cute pattern of soft waves. Bri's hair is a lot more fine so it settled immediately.

Beddywinkles and cuddlywunkins!

Hype 7 had auditions tonight. When they were over we went to Danny's Bar and Grill to discuss stuff, including troupe business and the possibility of sharing shows (we would like to). It was a fun evening. I love how you can only see Leigha's eyes in this picture, it's cute. Oh, yeah, I called Jason and told him to come out with us, btw. 50 cent taco tuesday. Woo! Jason took the girls home about 10 minutes before I left so when I got home they were already in bed. For some reason they seem to enjoy it when I do this really annoying high pitched baby talk voice. It's serious giggle central when I do. I don't mind. Let's just hope they let me stop before they reach college or else I'll have to call them and leave messages that would make an elephant vomit due to syrupy sweetness. Why an elephant? I don't know. Why not?

The play's the thing

Leigha loves to put on plays for us. This afternoon she had Brianna come out and hand us each a ticket to the show. (Dave and Buster's tickets. Nice.) We walked in her room and found this sign (note that it includes credits and she hung it on the light switch since we didn't allow her to tack it to the wall) along with some semi-elaborate cardboard sets. Brianna absolutely refused to do her part, which was hillarious. Leigha kept saying, "Bri, get in the bus. Bri, say your line...etc." and all Bri did was hand us lots and lots of tickets as we stood there laughing. This morning Jason and I went to the airport to see Tiffany off. We hung out with her and her parents and said goodbyes and there were more hugs and tears. She looked so small as she walked down the jetway, which is strange because she is like 5' 9" or something like that. I know she'll be just fine, but wow. Germany for a whole year. Wow. We've been tracking her flight and right now she just passed over Nova Scotia and is over the Atlantic Ocean. I hope she's sleeping. Have an amazing time, Tiffany, this is your moment, seize it! I am feeling better today than I was yesterday, so I hope this is just a fly by night virus or something. I managed to sneak in a nap before meeting Elsbeth for coffee after dinner. It was great seeing her, I haven't seen her in a while. We talked about this and that and she gave me helpful advice about my plans to get me some learnin' of a higher education nature next year. (that's right, I haven't done college yet. Sue me.) I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also scared that I'm not as good as I think I am. *shrug* Guess we'll see, won't we?

Rule 98

Took my very first improv workshop today (yesss!) To raise money for the KC improv festival the community is running a series of workshops. Todays was Ed and Jared's "Becoming comfortable with longform." It was really really helpful. Like, seriously beyond helpful. They seemed to have the same basic philosiphies as the Annoyance theater in Chicago, which is my favorite of all the improv books I've read (3) so far. We did some neat excercises and talked about each one after it was done, then they gave each of us super personal notes. My apologies for the darkness of this picture, the flash bounced off Jen's tattoo (sweet, huh?) and my batteries were too low to snap another. Jason and the girls went to the Y while I was there and they swung by and stalked me after it was over. Simultaneously sweet and creepy, Jason totally gets me. ;-) I'm coming down with the icky sickies again. Sore throat and uber tired. Hopefully it passes quickly.

My hypothetical family

The Hypothetical 7 performed at the Roving Imp tonight. Joe, Nifer, Zak, Tiffany and I, Jen on tech. We split the evening into thirds, first we did games, then Nifer and I performed our first sets as Fluffer Nutter, then our "Reality TV" longform. It was a great night. The 7pm show was the best, the 9pm was pretty good as well. Founding troop members Matthew Reiss and Dan Spurgin showed up as well as former troupe member Chad Swofford. We were completely floored, Matt came in all the way from Chicago just to see us! Tonight was rediculously bittersweet, however, as tonight was Tiffany's last show with us, possibly forever. She's moving to Germany for a year on Monday. Salvatore came to the show to see us, but he and Nifer broke up just after. It had been in the works for a few days and tonight it was made final I guess. There were lots of hugs and tears tonight when we went out to celebrate after the show. I will never forget singing Bohemian Rhapsody with everyone at the tables at Yard House, that was a special moment.

3.14159265

All week long the kids have been having a contest with offering money for missions to see which of our pastors (minister or youth) would get a pie in the face. It ended up being a tie and with dual whipped cream splattery goodness, VBS was over. This is Jared (no pi shirt) and Jarod (VBS shirt) smiling over the fact that they literally got creamed. I'm so so glad it's over. It's fun, but I'm ready to sleep in and not paint with 100 kids every day. The girls had an absolute blast and have been playing with their crafts all day long. Jason called me this afternoon to let me know that a guy at the airport would be able to help fix my air conditioning for free so I started driving up there, intending to meet him around 4:30 or so. I got almost all the way there when I noticed all the cars on 435 were stopped, which is unusual. I parked my car and turned it off after a while. We sat and sat for what felt like FOREVER and finally began creeping forward at 2 miles per hour (I checked) and passed intertwining skid marks and a bashed and crumpled van. I hope everyone who was in it is okay, but it just figures I had to sit out there for half an hour in the June sun just minutes before I had working air conditioning. Nice. I got to the airport and we fixed the AC, Jason and I had dinner with the girls, I grabbed some gas and headed to the Roving Imp for Hype 7's tech rehearsal for our show tomorrow night. Due to various reasons only three of us plus Jen managed to make it, so mostly Zak watched Nifer and I do Fluffer Nutter stuff and we played a couple games just the three of us. It was a very low key, fun rehearsal. I'm really looking forward to the show tomorrow night and I'm getting super excited for Fluffer Nutter's debut, I can't wait to see how an audience will amp up our performance level!

Cross your heart

4/5 of the way through VBS, one more day, one more! Today we broke out the paint for the older kids (oy vey....ever let 100 kids paint? It's a gruesome sight to behold.) and the younger kids got to color with markers. Here's Brianna and her fierce intensity at getting the marker JUST so in the little squares on her cross thingy. Note the unibrow of concentration. It flew by pretty quickly and I took the girls out to the car to drive back to the house. I had just pulled out onto the main road when Leigha shrieked, "Ah! A big scary bug in the car!" I looked over my shoulder and a wasp was lazilly floating his way through the backseat. Eep! I told Bri to stay very still and had Leigha crouch down on the seat then opened the windows. It's not very far to our house so I opted to drive straight through instead of pulling over (no shoulder). We got home and I slowly got the girls out and told them to go up to the front door. Leaving the windows open I grabbed Leigha's VBS shirt and beat the tar out of him. That'll teach you to bring a stinger in my car, pal. This afternoon I settled in for my usual "Bri's taking a nap, it's coffee time" routine, and Leigha surprised me by asking for a cup. I poured a third of a cup, filled the rest with milk and added some sugar. She loved it. Sweet, I have a coffee drinker! Went to Home Depot this evening. Not interesting blog material, but there it is. It was nice to have an evening free in such a busy week.

Roving Imp: Your back, we has it.

Day three of VBS. Almost done....grah! As a worker you defenetely have a love/hate relationship with the whole thing. Today wasn't too bad, though. We put together treasure boxes, fun! I swear I helped the kids who were the most "I can't do this, can you put this together for me?" types. Not fun. I watched Melissa's gorgeous baby girl Braelyn today. She's about a year and a half or so. Bri and Leigha entertained her and had the best time. At one point she found Brianna's bonnet (think Little House on the Prarie) and pulled it over her head. It was so big it covered to her chest so I know she couldn't see. Her pacifier was on the ground in front of her. All I could see was bonnet, torso, and legs. Slowly a chubby arm and hand reach down, grope around, find the paci and dissapear back under the bonnet. It was a very funny visual. Practice tonight was fun, we had a ton of people there which is always an interesting experience to say the least. We took some pictures as a group, this is my favorite. :-D

Cheep-just another catchphrase

You may remember me writing a while back about the "interview pidgeon" of Hype 7 folklore. Meet the baby interview pidgeon! For reasons unknown the origional pidgeon was moved to a different part of the room and the baby was in his nook. Talk about usurption, in your FACE interview pidgeon! Day 2 of VBS went pretty well, we did our flip flop craft which was the big one everyone was dreading putting together. It actually wasn't bad, and it was nice to get the "ugh" factor over with early in the week. I had a massive headache as we were leaving and ended up taking a nap in the middle of the living room floor (?!) while Bri was down for a nap and Leigha was playing at a friend's house. Driving to rehearsal tonight was a really scary ordeal as there was a MASSIVE storm following me down the highway. I arrived early to have coffee with Tiffany and we huddled at Latte Land watching the fat raindrops erode the sidewalk one atom at a time. At one point it began to hail and we saw some shiny thin girls run down the sidewalk with itty bitty shopping bags jammed on their heads to try and protect their hair. It was a pretty funny sight, actually, but I did feel bad for them. The hail was sting-y. During rehearsal Fluffer Nutter got the chance to rehearse in front of the group for the first time. We got a lot of laughs (yes!!!) but we ran a little short of our allotted time. Hopefully we'll be able to fluff (ha!) it up for the show this Saturday. I can't wait! Rehearsal was all around good, we were all wet with rain and in a serious state of heightened crazy, even more so than last week. It was so much fun! The drive home was accompanied by a lightning show that I saw reflected off the glass surfaces of the downtown buildings, then as I turned onto the highway it was all around me. *Whew!* I also saw the huge fire that resulted from a lightning strike to a gas tank near downtown. It was really really big, like, we're talking at least 20-40 feet in the air. Wow. I hope nobody was hurt as a result.

VBS VIP

This very pregnant Biblical gal is my friend Joy. Today was the first day of VBS and apparently she was leading one of the classes...either that or it's laundry day. I was in the craft dungeon all morning, which is kind of nice. It's a lot cooler down there and you're too busy to get bored at all. There are two little girls in the K-1st grade class that were just hysterical. They were talking about the other girls like, "Oooooh, girlfriend, she's gonna git in tr-OUBLE!" It's so amusing to see people that small packing that big of an attitude. Well, in small doses. I'm sure it would be frustrating to deal with all the time. We spent the afternoon fixing trim and trying to move things around now that we finally have the basement free. We have to dig the couch out, though, it kind of got buried in the garage with everything else. Oops. This evening I did nothing, nothing at all. *Whistles innocently*

What, what?

Leigha came home today, yay! It's great to have her back even though it was nice to have a little time just me and Bri, and she had a wonderful time riding. Jen and Hans invited Jason and I to their house for dinner. Jen and I had an assignment for the Improv Festival and we decided it would be best if we got together to do it, and after a few misconnections she just figured it would be easier if we just came over for dinner and did it then. Hans grilled us up some burgers and we ate outside, then Jen showed us her new (ADORABLE!) house, then we got to work. While we were working on stuff the guys took Leigha and Bri to the park near their house and we joined them after they were done. I was pushing Bri in the swing and she kept screaming and yelling, "Higher! Higher, Mommy!" So I pushed her harder and she tilted her little face up to the sky and yelled, "HI, GOD!!!" It was soooooo cute!!! As the evening was winding down we all sat on the side of the sandbox making clover necklaces for the girls. Leigha showed Jen a new technique for how to make them, tying them in a knot versus making a hole in the stem with your fingernail. It was kind of funny watching Leigha teach Jen something. She's a smart little cookie. (both of them.) :-) My mom called while I was there and I called her back. My grandpa was taken to the hospital and admitted for tonight. They're not quite sure what's wrong just yet, but the doctors are concerned with his heart. Hopefully he'll be out and running around again tomorrow, he and grandma are supposed to go with my parents to Europe in about two weeks.