Qu'est-ce que?

I can't seem to get enough of just being at home these last couple days. I haven't gone ANYWHERE and it's been FANTASTIC! So not like me. I'll probably be so bored of staying home tomorrow. We'll see, I guess. At any rate, I did some wallpapering in the kitchen and the roll ran out. Good thing I bought it in Joplin...*groan* I'll see if I can convince my mother-in-law to grab a roll for me before we see them next. I also made a cute notebook for myself to jot down notes while in Chicago. Had a good rehearsal tonight, Roving Imp. The picture is of John's diagram of the longform format "french braid." Looks neat and kind of funky all hastily drawn over the schedule and whatnot. Hans came over this evening to talk with Jason about robot stuff. He was still here when I got home, he and Jason were playing Guitar Hero. Sweet. He left not too long after that and Jason and I settled in to watch a couple episodes of Flight of the Conchords, which Nifer let me borrow when I went to her place. To borrow a phrase from them, I love that motherflippin' show. I also love taking my mind off the fact that I'm folding massive amounts of laundry while we watch it.

Oh that's hot.

It was great just being home today. The girls and I had a wonderful time just goofing off around the house, not going anywhere. This evening I went to Nifer's house while Jason and the girls were at music practice. We discussed our forthcoming Chicago trip, which shows we'd see while there, and of course, how to handle the almighty airport. Nifer hasn't seen the inside of a plane since she was three, and things have changed considerably since. We are getting so very excited. It was sooooo humid today (how humid was it?) So humid that on the way home from Nifer's my car windshield fogged up and turning on the defroster only worked for a bit. I had to keep turning it up and it kept fogging over! Anyhow, here's a picture of my hero, Does Dishes Man. He's so incredible, he doesn't have an alter ego, and declines the use of stretchy protective costuming.

Flutterbye!

After two blessedly uneventful flights we arrived home today about 2:30, this time with all four family members. Yay! It's been nice having the girls go to my mom's but it's even nicer having them back. We walked in the door and I couldn't wait to see Bri's reaction to her room, so I told her to put her toy dog away and she said, "Yeah. I should really put him down for a nap." (you can see the dog tucked in in the bed next to her arm there if you look) She walked in the room, me following closely behind with the camera, put her toy in her bed, kissed it, the octopus, and her baby doll, and started to waltz out of the room. I said, "Brianna, look up!" She FINALLY looked at the wall and a huge grin, complete with dimple, spread across her face. I said, "What do you think?" "Good." She replied, and left the room. Snot nosed punk! :-) There was an earthquake today in the LA area, a 5.8 (moderate, kinda strong) just after I found out about it, my mom called and said, "Your sister is okay." Lynette is traveling the East coast at the moment, and Janina lives in Orange County (obviously) so I said, "Wait, which one? What?" She meant Janina. Apparently she was home alone at the time and felt it pretty bad. She stood in a doorway like you're supposed to do, and she said it shook for like 30 seconds, which is really pretty long, and it knocked some stuff off the walls of the apartment, but she is okay. My grandparents didn't feel a thing. This evening Hype 7 had a guest coach in for rehearsal. His name is Tom Farnan and he used to live in Kansas City, but he moved to Chicago, then Vegas and now resides in LA, chasing the dream. He was a phenomenal coach and had a lot of great things to say. We had a lot of fun and I feel we did some great work. I felt a little bad for Cerrome, though, he's only been doing improv for two weeks and we were throwing around buzzwords like: Harold, la ronde, heightening, and so on and so forth. Poor guy has barely heard the term longform! Tom did an excellent job of filling in the blanks for him, though, and Cerrome catches on so very quickly. We all went out after for drinks and talked about stuff. I mentioned the intensive I'm going to be taking and he got really excited for me and told me a little about what to expect and that it's totally going to change how I look at improv. I'm excited for that, I need a kick in the seat like that right now. Jason went over to Jen and Hans' place tonight while we were rehearsing. He and Hans are going to be building a robot. This should be interesting.

Heavy metal? Excellent!

Woke up laaaaaaaaaaaate this morning. I swear, have you ever had a "bad day hangover?" I totally had one. Yeah. Luckilly there were no airports in sight today, just Sir Gallahad the Hot. What, you don't think he's a total babe? You suck at deducing babe level. My mom took us into Carson City today after lunch. We went to a couple book stores and had lunch with my dad at Round Table Pizza (I wish we had one of those in KC, too. Pizza with garlic sauce topped with artichoke hearts, mmmmm!) Jason went with my dad this evening, my dad's in a couple of bands and they both rehearse on Monday evening, so Jason got to sit in with them. My mom and I went to a craft store that I love in Carson, then to Joann's to look at patterns and fabric for the girl's Christmas dresses. Yes, it's early, very early, but we figured it would be a good idea to get their input while we were out here because next time we come out it might be too late for sewing two dresses. We chose a cute pattern and some courderoy to go with it. Tres cute! My mom took us to DQ on the way back to their house and we put the kids in bed before settling in for a nice Meg Ryan flick. (Aw, she's cute. Look how cute she is. Isn't she cute? Her has a wrinkle on her nose, yes her does!)

Jessica and the terrible, horrible, no good very bad day

Yup, it's one of THOSE. The days you swear you have been cursed and no amount of positive attitude seems to fix anything. We did church this morning (I ended up singing) then came home, packed, and headed to the airport. We were flying Southwest, an airline I used to merely detest and now hate with the burning passion of a romance novel gone horribly awry. Our flight was late getting out of Kansas City but we thought, "Oh, that's okay, we have a 3 hour layover." We got into Oakland about six in the evening, I fought off a creepy syrupy sweet employee who was the very first person to ever have a problem with me waiting for my family on the jetway (by the way, lady, if your airline doesn't have assigned seats, people are gonna want to wait for their eight year olds they've been separated from once they are off the plane. I'm just saying.) Jason's brother lives in the bay area so we thought to call him and see how close he was to the airport and maybe grab a coffee with him, but he lives about 45 minutes away so we told him not to worry about it (but he was willing to come out, how sweet!) We found our next gate, checked in for the flight, and started wandering around a bit, got some coffee, and people watched. (Airports are FANTASTIC places to people watch.) About 8:30, a half hour before our flight was supposed to take off, they came on the intercom with a bored sounding, mumbled announcement. Jason sat up straight and said, "Wait, what?" I looked at him, turned around, and they were changing the numbers on the flight from leaving at 9:05 to 12:30. Whaaaat??? So we asked what was going on and didn't get a straight answer, but were able to piece together from things they told other passengers that they basically had several delayed flights and were giving the plane and crew who were supposed to fly us out, the one plane that was on time, to another flight. What??? The worst part was that about four flights came in during the time we were waiting, deplaned, then they pushed the planes back to go somewhere else. Seriously, four. Leigha fell asleep on the floor of the airport, Jason and I stared at the windows and tried not to listen to the EZ listening music that was being piped in. Do you have any idea how depressing the combination of grey carpet, fatigue, and EZ listening is? It's pretty bad. Finally they made the announcement that the plane was there, the crew was there, and we were just waiting for the co-pilot to come in from Burbank, about a fourty minute flight. I looked at the 'departures/arrivals' screen and saw that that plane was supposed to come it at 9:40 and was actually going to get in at 12:32. So we waited.....more. About 12:45 we were finally able to board the plane headed for Reno, a 45 minute flight. We waited seven hours for that just because they chose to send our plane and crew elsewhere four times rather than simply flying in an extra crew earlier in the day when they knew they were miserably behind. Way to go.

Fringe is in, man

Today was a bit of a bummer. I nearly finished Brianna's room, it looks so cute! Then I started the wallpaper in the kitchen. After dumping nearly all the water out of the trough and onto the floor, I fell about four times in the slipperiness. It was awesome. After dinner I headed out to the Fringe Festival where Hype 7 was performing. Um........the performance was......dissatisfying. I was unhappy with it. There were a few laughs, but it felt off. I dunno. Oh well, it was what it was. I did get to do a "Wilford Brimley looks like a walrus" bit, and that's always fun. As for the picture, the fact that there was a "Fire Extinguisher" sign and no fire extinguisher just amused the ever living crap out of me. Enjoy my bemusement.

First Friday

Leigha and I had a good shopping day. We got ALL her school supplies in one place, as opposed to the usual 3 due to everything being out of stock (I did get the last of a few items, though) and then found a cute Jansport backpack for only $15! I also snagged cute shoes, a fantastic deal on a couple hair items, and an ubercheap slipcover that was just the exact size and color I needed! It was shopping magic. Mmmm. Tonight was the first Friday night Roving Imp performance. This is Josh, me, Nifer, and Julie. We are having a family conference and I'm watching the TV on her tummy. (Duh!) We had a relatively small audience, but it was a lot of fun. Also, one of the audience members was an improviser and he bought us a cake from DQ (My Little Pony!!!) to celebrate! We all stayed after and hung out, it was awesome. Jason and Hans are cooking up a scheme to build a robot. Perhaps it was not the best idea to get those two together. All I'm saying is you may want to check how stable your family's bomb shelter is. You may need it.

Whoopsie!

So I forgot to take any pictures today until I was on my way home for the evening...nice. Today I did the trim painting/room painting/try to figure out the mandolin thing again, then Roving Imp rehearsal. After rehearsal John invited anyone who wanted to stay to play some board games, so Nifer and I decided that we would. We played a game called Therapy (interesting...lots of fun) and then an epic battle of Phase 10 began. John won. Denise decided to order some pizza. Here is the pizza box, a list of school supplies, my purse, the toe of Brianna's baby Chuck Taylor that hangs from my rearview mirror, and other random assorted crap from the inside of my car. I promise tomorrow's will be better. Sorries!

Droppin' some mad beatz, yo

A plethora of random things today...

*Ran to Wal-mart to grab some crap
*Painted some trim in the kitchen
*Began work on Brianna's wall mural (it starts.....again!)
*Strung and have begun to learn how to play my mandolin (wo0t!)
*Music practice. Not singing, didn't have to be there, but I had nothing better to do so I figured I'd run sound board. Here's me looking fly, dawg. Oh, and in case you're wondering, the W's I'm making with my hands stand for "Wiki wiki."

Jetting and setting

We got up early and flew home today, arriving late afternoon. Leigha opened the door to her room and just froze for a while, looking at the walls, then she turned and said, "I LOVE it!!" She spent the rest of the time I was home before rehearsal putting horses on the hills and making elaborate stories with them. Rehearsal was good, we had fun. Nifer and I got some lemonade and chatted, then went to her house so I could get Spartacus (he's gotten bigger!!!) She was playing with him for a bit, it was so cute. She got on the floor and made pouncy motions toward him and he'd come charging out and bite her sleeve. Cute! Her cat, Zoe, was pissed off he was there, though. She hissed so hard she snorted. It is great to be back and even better to have the cat and, most important, Leigha back.

I'm the hip-hop-opotomus, my lyrics are bottomless.....uh......

After a big breakfast this morning we said goodbye to my grandparents, parents, and Bri (it's her week now) and drove back up to Orange County to see my cousins and younger sister, Janina. We had an awesome lunch at In-N-Out, went to the coolest music store I've ever been to (got a bridge for my mandolin, yay!) and took in some sips at The Coffee Bean. Mmmm. This is Halley, Janina, and I. We are flooded in light because everywhere we go we're so pretty that angels crowd in to see us. Oh yeah. We spent some time this afternoon with Kelsey, Halley, and Kelsey's boyfriend, (Nina had to go back to work) then had some dinner. Our waiter was fantastic, probably the best I've ever had in my life. We came back and Halley dyed and cut my hair while we watched Flight of the Conchordes. (LOVE it!!!) It's really cute, I'm excited about it. Both the hair and the show.

I'm frond of you!

Today we went to Balboa Park. I just love it there, we've been going since I was a kid and it was so great to get to share it with my kids. We went to the science center there and took in an IMAX movie (narration by Robert Redford, nice!) then walked through the art village and rode the carousel. We left around lunchtime and headed toward the harbor to grab a bite to eat at this awesome Mexican place. I wish we could get real carne asada in Kansas City, I really do. From there we drove to Point Loma, my parent's alma mater. We walked the campus while they told us stories about when they were there (my dad had a second floor dorm room and they strung surgical tubing between two windows to launch water balloons to the floor below) and showed Jason where they had had their classes. One summer we had held a family reunion there (stayed in the dorms) and I think at least six of us, cousins and siblings, decided we were going to go to school there. Our motivation was probably linked to the fact that the college sits on the cliffs that overlook the Pacific. We drove back to my grandparent's place at that point, had some dinner and chatted about old times. They kept bringing up embarrasing stories from my dad's childhood. He said, "See, didn't I tell you this trip was a bad idea?"

Learning from Don Quixote

We finally made it! Jason, Bri and I touched down at John Wayne International around 10 this morning. We headed out of the secure area to be greeted by my mom, dad, and an ecstatic Leigha. Picked up the rental car, ate lunch at a seaside road diner, then drove down to San Diego where my grandparents live. I love being back in my home state. Everything feels right here to me. We got in around 3:30 or so and spend the day visiting my grandparents. My mom complained about how my grandma always opens her birthday presents before her actual birthday and said, "I wrote do not open until your birthday, isn't it a federal offense to tamper with mail?" I said, "Yeah, but it's addressed to her, so she's not. Maybe you should address it to grandpa next year." My mom said, "Yeah, I should do that!" There was a pause and my grandma said, "Oh...don't do that." One thing that bugs me about close proximity to past generations is the insistance that anything vaguely resembling woman flesh must clear dishes and make beds and do all the grunt work while the guys sit outside and gab. There's a very real difference between willing helpfulness and indentured servitude. I'm so glad Jason isn't like that.

Release so complete it's like popping a zit.

It's done. Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh. I might go back in at some point and put some flowers up and such, but for right now, it's over. The clouds look much cooler in real life, just so you know. I plan on putting up curtains for her at some point and instead of doing a valance, I'll hang her show ribbons at the top. Oh, and the hills are so she can play with the moveable horse wall clings my mother in law got for her. We were supposed to leave tonight for California, (my parents are going to San Diego to visit my grandparents so we figured we could go down as well, pick Leigha up and drop Bri off for her week) but the flight loads were full so we leave early tomorrow morning. This means I am not going to see my little sister as much and I missed Spartacus all day, but at least this gave us the opportunity to fix a few things up around the house. Slowly but surely this thing is starting to come together. It's a good thing.

Do not want.

So that's my mandolin, and as you can see, it is fully intact....ish. Visualize strings and the bridge that we will be putting on when we find one. That's the yellow wall of my kitchen (awesome, no?) and a candle on a candlestick that I have had forever (the candle is new, candlestick old....ish) I thought they looked cool together, so voila. Enjoy. (or don't I'm not your boss. Cookie?) I ran to Hobby Lobby (we should totally start making a trend of calling it "The Ho-Lo") to get MORE paint (grah!) which I am going through at an alarming rate, but the good news is it was on sale (yes!) so I grabbed it and went to checkout (aside to the ladies behind me in line, PERSONAL SPACE PLEASE! I don't want to feel your breath on my neck. It's creepy.) and the lady told me to have a happy and safe Thursday. I replied, "Yes! I love Thursday!" She seemed to think that was amusing. I painted like a maniac this afternoon and finally succeeded in finishing the base coat for the hills and most of the shading (take THAT dark forest green!) so I'm almost done. Almost! After rehearsal Nifer came over to take Spartacus away. *sniffle sniffle* We're going out of town and he has gotten this food addiction since living here that I'd like to keep going for him, so she's gonna watch him for us. I miss him already. His food dish isn't in my kitchen! And since I seem to have run out of parenthesis, I'm going to go see what more I can finish painting. Buh-byesies!

Oooh, ooh, wait!!!!! I would like to give a shoutout to my little sister, Janina. Happy birthday!!!! I know it's a good one because I called you earlier and you were at Disney's California Adventure with Leigha, who is awesome!

Make it cute, this one's for the blog!

These two gals are so cool and stylish, I don't know why they'd want to hang out with me all day, but they did! Jen had to take her car in for a tune up (that took FOREVER) and I needed more paint but had already bought up all the Delta Ceramicoat in dark forest green that my closest Michaels had to offer, so I decided to go to Lawrence to get it, and conveniently hang out with Jen at the same time. We had a great time shopping, eating lunch, talking of life, love, and improv, and drinking coffee. On the way home I was very nearly creamed by a guy (dude, you may have an SUV, but it's a KIA. Quit thinking you're hot stuff 'cause you totally negated it yourself.) when he randomly decided to cut me off, no blinker. I honked as I was slamming on the brakes, and I saw him casually glance in the rearview mirror and flip me off out the window. It made me reminisce about driving in Denver and I figure he must have been a transplant from there because it's typically just NOT DONE out here. I had the pleasure of passing him and making him eat my DODGE* dust. V6 baby, don't question it. (unless you have a V8. *shrug*) I painted furiously this afternoon and didn't realize the time until Jason texted me on his way home, whereupon I immediately switched gears and cooked dinner furiously. We ate and went to music practice. We're not going to be around Sunday, so I got to run the soundboard, which always makes me feel cooler than I am. By the way, Jason glued the neck of the mandolin back together and is now glueing (?) the neck to the body. Yay! I shall have a new task before me shortly. Can't wait. Aaaaand now I have to paint furiously again, the deadline for surprising Leigha with a fully completed wall mural is looming over my head.

*not that Dodge is all that spectacular but......dude, it's not a Kia.

And I don't eat meat 'cause I'm a vet-inarian!

Today was Sparticus's first veterinarian appointment. Poor baby. He sat on the stainless steel slab, quaking with cold and fear. :-( Oh, and that wall color is strikingly similar to our living room color. Weird. They gave him shots, de-wormer (you can see that on the table. Banana flavor, mmmm.....) and cleaned about a pound of gook out of his ears. He was pissed for about three seconds, but then he seemed to get over it. We brought him home and he was sleepy for the rest of the day, although Brianna kept trying to get him to play with her. We got some pizza this evening then I went to Hype 7 rehearsal. We had a couple auditioners this evening, so it was different, but it was a really fun night. We went out afterward to discuss things and whatnot. I love our group so much, we have such an amazing group dynamic and genuinely enjoy just hanging out together.

Turn it up to 11!

We went to the Musician's Friend wearhouse today with our friend Jarod. It's awesome. They have bashed in guitars and instruments that look like they've been runover with a truck, and some that just don't work our sound off, for super cheap. Not to mention catalogue returns and such. If you're handy with glue and a screwdriver or just indiscriminate, you can pick up some wickedly cheap deals. Jason had a $15 credit with them and needed some strings, and Jarod needed a few items as well, so we all went together to save gas. The guitar Bri is holding in this picture was absolutely adorable, it had mother of pearl daisy inserts on the fretboard. I have no idea what Jason was looking at...probably the guitar wall that was behind me as I snapped the picture. In the course of browsing the merchandise Jarod discovered a poor little mandolin that's neck had snapped off. It's price? $6. Yup. I had to. Oh, and no, I don't know how to play. But I will either learn or (if it just can't be fixed) it will be a super cute decor object. I hope I get to learn to play it, I think it would be so cool to know how to play mandolin. We made our purchases and drove back. Jason and I grabbed a few things from Home Depot and came home to eat dinner, put Bri to bed, then do some more painting. The second coat on the kitchen is up and I'm a little more than halfway done with the wall mural in Leigha's room. I can't wait to see what it will look like when it's done!

Sunday, lazy Sunday

Today was your basic lazy Sunday. A little bookstore browsing, some coffee, then a brief struggle bringing a couch into your basement from the garage. Jason and I sat down to rest our newly attained hernias as both Brianna and Sparticus joined us downstairs. There must have been sleepy dust in the air because they both fell asleep, and quickly. My favorite part about this picture is that their heads are cocked at EXACTLY THE SAME ANGLE! Jason did some yardwork, we talked to Leigha on the phone (oh, and by the way, I know the plot of Wall-E thanks to said conversation, and now I don't have to see it to find out.) put Brianna to bed, then collected some food and got a little painting done. Mmm. Tomorrow I get to sleep in.

Canvassing the situation

Today was spent mostly painting. I had to run to Michaels to get some bottles of green paint since I went through one color much faster than anticipated, then came home and put Bri down for a nap and started painting in Leigha's room. By the time I looked up at the clock I had just enough time to get some makeup on and get to the theater. We did a movie-prov tonight, then Hype 7 had a show at nine. Much fun. It was a pretty good show, despite a pathetically low turnout. Jen performed for the first time tonight and I was so proud of her, she did so very well! She didn't seem nervous at all, but when I told her that she gave me "deer in the headlight" eyes that said she was quaking in her boots. We went out after the show to celebrate Jen's first improv performance ever. Here is Nifer the drummer, Cerrome and Mara (not sure if that's one or two r's) who just moved to Kansas City from Atlanta, he's auditioning for the group and came out to check us out, Carl, Hans, and Jen. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get the cat off my shoes and go to sleep.

Tourette's attraction

I started painting Leigha's wall murals today to surprise her when she gets back. I'm doing grassy hills and such so she can play with her repositionable horse stickers on it. It's going to be so neat, I can't wait to see her reaction when she comes home. I ran some errands today and was feeling a little under the weather so I got myself a new pair of shoes to cheer myself up. Whaddya know, it worked! I also filled up the gas tank. Let's see how long I can go before I fill it up again. This evening Nifer and I went to Legends. She wanted some help picking out a carry on suitcase for our trip to Chicago (less than a month? Seriously?) While we were there we were (lot of w's and e's in that last bit.....) laughing at how many tourists come to Legends and take pictures (it's a mall. Seriously.) and how for some of them it's the most upscale shopping they've ever seen and stuff. After she picked up her suitcase she said, "Oh, look, now I look like a tourist!" Here she is, pretending to be dazzled by something completely ordinary. I'm guessing she'll look just like that in Chicago. *ducks to avoid Nifer's left hook*

I can see my house from here!

Woke up bright and early this morning so Brianna and I could catch our plane home. We flew to Vegas, I had an amazing beverage from The Coffee Bean (we need one of those here.), then we flew back to Kansas City, arriving mid-afternoon. I had ridden with Jason to work yesterday morning so my car wasn't at the airport (gas prices!) so Bri and I spent the rest of his working day at the airport with him. I love getting to go out on the tarmac and drive around airport grounds with him. It's so cool knowing most people don't get to do that. Plus, planes are freaking awesome from the ground. Here is a picture of Brianna and Jason in front of the engine of an Airbus 319. Sweet. People who work in an office, eat your heart out. Going to work with him is so much cooler than, "so here's my desk........." After he got off work we went to grab some dinner and he drove me straight to rehearsal, pausing briefly for gridlock traffic on I-70. (Seriously? I don't care who was in town for a concert, it's Bonner Springs!) Roving imp rehearsal was rather off.......Jen was there to practice with John since she's never worked with him before. She was fantastic! As for me, there was little magic in it for the most part. Bummer. Hopefully the H7 show Saturday night will make up for it. Nifer drove me home and came inside to meet Sparticus (he got bigger in one day, I swear!) and it smelled heavilly of weed in my neighborhood. Spillover from the concert, or teenage boys? The world may never know.

Plane truth

This morning the girls and I hopped on a plane to Reno. Leigha is spending the week at grandma's house all by herself, something I myself did with my grandparents when I was a young'un. Here is Leigha, Brianna, and my older sister Lynette sitting in my mom's sewing room. I had a great shot of us walking into In-N-Out Burger where I had a much anticipated super delicious lunch, but it doesn't seem right that the only shots of my sisters on my blog thus far have been when they were on my parent's webcam. So here ya go. On the plane ride this morning I saw a kid who was very obviously the only child of two older parents. The kid was wearing a red and blue polo shirt, glasses, and some khaki slack short thingies, and also a pilot's cap set on his close cropped blonde hair. They sat in front of me on the flight, fussing over him the entire time. When we touched down his mom said, "Oh, sweetie, don't you want to carry your violin?" (note-kid was about 4, if that.) One of those observational experiences that just make you go, "Yup..............." So yeah. Had a great day visiting with my mom, dad, and sister. Watched a movie, ate some pizza, and watched the sun set through the reddish haze coming in from the California wildfires.

The old man is snoring

Hype 7 took some publicity shots today. I came up with the idea for this one and I just love it. We also got a few Abby Road-esque shots and one of a Christmas in July tree (????) that was in a window of a bank. Rehearsal was fun, it was a show prep rehearsal, which is always a little more intense than a regular one. Jen practiced with us, which is not unusual, but this is going to be her first show with us, which made it more real. I can't wait to play with her in the show, it's going to be so much fun. Today was rather low key, I'm still not feeling great at all. We got a few groceries and picked up the pictures Leigha took in South Dakota. She has some good shots in there! One of them made me laugh. She was trying to get a picture of a mule on the side of the road but couldn't get it quite right while in the back seat, so she gave the camera to Selena to take it. Selena turned to get the camera, and when she turned back the mule was RIGHT IN THE WINDOW thinking he was going to get a treat or something. I heard the story several times but it was so funny to actually see the picture.

Lots of napping should clear that right up

Feeling under the weather today, but it's nothing a little chloraseptic and sushi couldn't fix. Meanwhile, Jason's being sweet enough to finish priming the kitchen for me so we can *hopefully* paint tomorrow. Ain't he a peach?

Check out the bagel roll pieces, the middle looks like Africa! (the one I'm picking up, you sushi illiterati!)

Security is....

Having a full tank of gas is such a wonderful feeling. Today we drove the gas behemoth one last time to meet Jason's mom halfway and exchange cars. It's so good to have the comparatively little Rav4 back with us. Suburbans are horrid as far as gas goes, and the stupid thing cornered like a river barge. For whatever reason, though, she's crazy about it and it hauls the tent trailer (which also went back.) We had lunch, she bought us gas (have I mentioned she's incredibly awesome?) and we drove back to town. This evening was spent doing odd jobs around the house, like hanging Brianna's butterfly curtains and priming the kitchen. Soon it will be a really nice shade of orangety-yellowish with coffee themed wallpaper. (it'll look great, shaddup, whose the artist here? Oh put your hand down, it's me I'm talking about and you know it!)

Nothing to do, nowhere to go-ah-uh-oh......

Today was one of those endless, boring days that you just wish would end already....at 2pm. Ugh. Leigha was being needy, the cat was being overly frisky, and Brianna.....well, she's just her little ol self. Saturdays suck. I wish Jason didn't work Saturdays. Today Jen and Hans came over briefly to give me an awesome antique desk they were getting rid of. When we moved in our computer desk disentigrated, AFTER we got it off the truck, of course. Craigslist ended up being completely fruitless and I was just going to start Goodwill hunting (hee hee) when I saw it in her basement yesterday. When Jason came home this evening I fed everyone dinner then escaped to Target, solo, to get bread and milk. Holy crap how I needed that. And the Starbucks I purchased. This evening Jason put up my IKEA sconces and they are so much better than the white trash temporary fixtures we had up. Nothing left to say, I guess. Enjoy the blurry picture of me looking bored.

1776

Happy 4th, all! This afternoon I went to Sonic to get a soda and was transported back nearly 10 years to July 4th, 1999. It was the Summer between my Junior and Senior years of high school and I was working as a carhop at the Sonic in the horrid little town in southeastern Colorado where my family lived at the time. It was hot and dry (oh so dry) and right about 2 or 3 pm, during the peak heat of the day, I was delivering food to a customer and just as I handed him the paper sack with his burgers, *GOOSH!!!* bloody nose. I grabbed a napkin and held it to my face as I scrambled to get the customer his change. I got a horrified, "Keep it!" Thanked him, apologized profusely, then went into the building. My manager made me drink water and sit in the walk-in freezer until I cooled off. Anyhow, this year was spent at Jen and Hans' place in Eudora. Nifer and Julie were there as well as one of Julie's friends, and we watched Hans' firework show in the backyard then played a little nighttime volleyball. It was terrifying because none of us had any athletic prowess to begin with, and you couldn't see the ball until it was hovering right over your head. Eep! After a while we started playing some improv warmup games, just for kicks. Leigha and Brianna spent most of the time indoors, as Brianna was freaked out by the fireworks and Jen put a movie on for them. Leigha joined them when the fireworks were done. Jason conversed with the boys and joined them out front so they could play war with the little tanks Hans had gotten. Being an American rocks!

We interrupt the regularly scheduled picture to bring you...

I came home from a FANTASTIC Roving Imp rehearsal tonight to find that Jason was being completely awesome and painting my kitchen ceiling for me, because it's all dingified and whatnot from the past 30 years. (We've painted all the rooms, walls and ceilings. The kitchen is the last one.) I took a few pictures of it, fully intending to post a picture of the sweet act, but when I got to blogger I opened the folder with pictures I've taken today and forgot that I took a few pics of Brianna sporting her new outfit she picked out for her birthday. As you can see by her lovely bat-boy smile she's quite proud of herself for it. She is also wearing all three of the headbands that came in the pack. Nice.

Luns

IKEA assembly directions are really beginning to amuse me. All the pieces we bought that need to be put together come with a booklet with little or no words, and the first thing you see is this weird happy blob guy trying to figure out what the crap he's doing. If you click on the picture and look down in the corner, you can see him, although it's a significantly smaller amount than what was in the bed assembly booklet. At any rate, that is my "Luns" message board. In case you're wondering, it was like $14 and it's one of the shippable things, I believe. It comes with weird Swedish chalk, too, just in case you were on the fence. We gave Spartacus his first bath today. He totally hated it. The girls absolutely will not let him down, Leigha wraps him in a blanket and carries him like a baby. I texted Jason today to tell him the cat had lost any and all masculinity, he replied, "Ouch." Brianna had some birthday money from her great-grandmother to spend, so when I went to Wal Mart this afternoon she picked something out for herself...she started in the shoe section, but when she realized she didn't have enough money for the princess shoes, she started asking for an outfit. I kept saying, "Bri, are you sure you don't want to look at the toys?" "Um.......no, I just want an outfit." Okay then. So we found a skirt and tank top for her (she insisted on a tank top) and then a headband as well. As we were walking by the toys she said she wanted to look at them and I told her "Okay, but you have to put one of the outfit things back if you want to get one." She said, "Oh. Then I don't want to look at toys." She's four! Barely four, at that! This kid is going to be hard on Jason's wallet when she hits her teens. This evening we went to church for music practice. While we were there a huuuuuuuge storm blew in and it rained like crazy. During the course of the evening the front door blew open and rain started pouring in the lobby, so I ran down the hallway to shut it, and had a very hard time with it. I was literally being pulled off my feet "like a cartoon character" as Shannon remarked. I was drenched on my back and arm after a brief struggle. Poor Eric, one of the guitarists, had the top of his jeep off today. I told him that on the plus side he wouldn't have to take a shower when he got home.

Introducing...

I would personally like to introduce you all to the newest member of our family! This is Spartacus. He's our new baby kitty, in case you haven't seen a kitty lately and don't know what they look like. Isn't he just adorable? This afternoon we brought him home, and he didn't seem terribly thrilled at first, but then he ate some food, drank some water, and got used to his new surroundings. About six he took a nap, and this evening when I came home from Hype 7 rehearsal he actually came running to greet me! He's been purring, too. It's like he's trying to say, "see how very cute I am? Love me!" And we do. The girls are just ecstatic about the whole thing. We've had to keep them away from him for the most part because they keep trying to pick him up and fling toys at him. They don't get it. We'll teach them. Rehearsal tonight was fantastic. I have missed everyone so much. We did a lot of good work tonight, my abs hurt from laughing so much.