Here's Your Sign

Grandma left our house (sad face) and headed to Colorado to visit. She was greeted by these two yahoos holding these signs when she got off her airplane. The first one says "Welcome to crazy town. Enjoy your stay." The other says, "Mrs. Parsons, your limo is waiting." Heehee.

What to have?

When you're hungry, everything at Applebees looks good!

Summer Friends

It's always good to have friends!

Ally and the prince.

The princess and Madison.

Internet to the rescue!

On Thursday the king found out he would have help at work from out of town and that he needed to make a hotel reservation for this person for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Easy enough, right? WRONG. He started calling hotels, choosing the ones closest to work first. All were booked. He finally asked why and was told there was much going on in town including the PBR, fair, and oil spill workers. He then started calling hotels on the other side of town. Still no luck. Econolodge did have a room, but they wanted $268/NIGHT. Yes, you read that right. $268/NIGHT. Yowza! I happened to be on the computer at the time so went to Travelocity. There were 5 hotels listed that still had rooms available. He was able to secure a room for all 3 nights for $165/night at the Hilton. Phew! The internet saved his employer some money, and really, where you rather stay? Econolodge or Hilton? That's a no-brainer to me.

Wall Street Madness

Yes, the market's been crazy for a couple of days. And yes, I'm sure it's not done, but I am glad that, as I post this, it is showing gains over yesterday's losses. I just read something that really cracked me up, and is, in my opinion, spot-on:

"The market's got ADD," Rebecca Patterson, chief markets strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Institutional, told CNBC.

ADD--Love It!

Baseball

Last night was our final game of the season...there are more games, but we ran out of tickets. It was a good time, as always, and we were even able to finally win last night. Go Mustangs!

NO MORE BRACES!!!

Today was the big day, and luckily for all of us, it went off without a hitch!

Before our 11AM appointment.

And after our 11AM appointment!

She says this day is better than Christmas! ;)

July Was A Good Month

July was good! I read three books, and they all got three stars! Yippee!

Sisties!

This summer both my sisters came to visit. It's been a GREAT summer!

Gotta love 'em!

Jajuan

The mullet hat!

Lemon Meringue Pie

We always benefit when Grandma decides to bake! :)

Waffles

Last night the prince said he was going to make waffles for breakfast. I figured he would use the box mix...just add water. Nope. He looked up a recipe on the internet.

That seems like an awful lot of ingredients. He was commanded to clean up his mess too, which he did.



The finished product. He made three but was only able to eat one. His sister had one for breakfast and then smothered the other in peanut butter later in the day for a snack.

The chef!

Swing With Me Baby

I found this on my phone the other day. I don't think I ever posted it. One of my favorite dances too!

Final Skabelunditto Shots

The princess was watching a movie with us!

Before the haircut.


Cousins--Andy was already in bed.
Can't wait to see them all again!

Get Well Soon, Mark

Cousin Mark had emergency surgery yesterday. He's on the road to recovery now, and we wish him a speedy recovery. Wasn't he so cute here? He's all big now!

Get well soon, Marko!

Forcast: 97* Today

Smokin' Hot!

About Blind Your Ponies

I just reread Blind Your Ponies. (It's the summer of rereading for me.) I loved, loved, loved this book the first time I read it and even gave it away for Christmas. I was afraid to reread it for fear it wouldn't live up to my glowing love for it. Rest assured, it was as good the second time. PHEW!! In fact, maybe better as I was able to keep the characters straight sooner and read for pleasure more. GREAT BOOK! Let me know if you want to borrow it!

Happy Birthday GRANDMA!!

Borders

In case you haven't heard, Borders Book Stores are closing all their stores. A chapter 11 didn't work, and they are going out of business. Since I have a gift card for there, I headed out yesterday. I might now know why they are going out of business:

Me: Do you have the book _______ by _______?

Borders Dude (BD): I don't know (throws up his hands), and I have no way of checking!

Me: (Looking dumbfounded) It's a fiction book. Any ideas?

BD: Well more than half our store is fiction. It could be anywhere. We have... And here he starts to list the various types of fiction.

Me: (Walking away) OK. I'll just look myself.

We did not find the book, in any of the fiction sections. We later heard that their computer system was down. Why didn't he preface his first sentence with that? Then I wouldn't have thought he was such a moron.

I do feel for the many employees who were working there yesterday, as it's gotta suck to go to work knowing you will soon be out of a job. Everything is currently 10-40% off (primarily 10%), and I did prove myself to be every bit as dumb as BD when I went to pull out my gift card and realized it was at home. Guess I'll have to go back. Grrr...

Hanging with the cousins!

Somewhere under there, the prince is about to get a haircut!

Cards...we are big fans of black jack.
Most of us can count to 21,
though some of us are not very quick about it.



Jammin'!

ISCREEEM!

We love the ISCREEM place!

Yummy!

And it was only in the 80*s today!

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

The score board said it was 105* when the game started. Scorcher! But we pulled out a win, which was great for us, but not so great for Andy since we were playing his team!

Another Old McDonald

We have the BEST time checking out the neighbors' chickens!

The offers keep rolling in!

The prince, while off from the Chuckster gig with his arm, applied for jobs at a Veterinary place and Albertsons. Both places interviewed him, and both places offered him jobs. Though the vet place is closer and pays better, the hours were less flexible. In the end, he chose Albertsons...and gave Chuck E his notice. He's a union man now...a union man making minimum wage...

Ah, Vegas. How I've Missed You.

Hi Cousins

Cousin Mark

His parents.

We saw sister Amanda standing on the horse a few days ago.

Back to school time?

I saw that they were stocking the school supply aisles at Walmart yesterday...just sayin'.

No need to go to Mexico.

I do not have a refined pallet. I rarely can discern flavors in food other than to know if it's good or bad. But I can taste the difference in my baked goods (on those rare occasions when I bake) if I use real vanilla. I am also cheap so have spent most of my baking days (again, on those rare occasions when I bake) using imitation vanilla.

Fortunately for those who have to eat my baking, I went to Mexico a few years ago and bought real vanilla for not too many dollars. Yummo! Since then, when running low on real vanilla, I request that someone bring it to me when others go to Mexico. It's worked out pretty well, although I do forbid the children to use the "good stuff" when making smoothies. There's always the cheap stuff for that.

Finally, I get to the point...the other day I was in Costco and noticed a BIG (not sure of the ounces but probably 10 or more) bottle of REAL vanilla for under $7!!!! That's it. No need to go to Mexico anymore. I'm stocking up at Costco!

By the way, the nice lady in Mexico who sold us our vanilla in a plastic bottle told us to transfer it to a glass bottle when we got home (not that I ever did that, since that would constitute me caring about cooking) as it will last longer. Who knew?

4th of July Fun

We had family and friends over for a bbq. It was great fun. The kids went to the fireworks stand and bought the really loud pop-its. No real fireworks to light, but they didn't seem to mind. Special thanks to Kathi and Rick for letting us camp in their driveway for the big fireworks display. It was GREAT!

Don't they all look so patriotic?

That can't be safe!

Two weeks ago one of our smoke detectors starting chirping. We changed the battery, and I suggested to the king that we change them all out. There are 9 in our house, and we've not changed them in 4 years of living here. Now, they are electric, w/a batter back-up, so they aren't apt to need to be changed yearly, but if one's going, it seems maybe we should change them all. The king, being much like me, decided to procrastinate that idea. So Saturday night, at 4AM, the one in the living room--the really HIGH one--started screaming, not chirping. The good news is it woke all of us up, even the princess downstairs, and after a few minutes, it sort of quit. Clearly we were meant to change them all out. But the king didn't know how he would reach the high one. I suggested he borrow the neighbor's ladder. He decided to create his own ladder.

Say it with me: KNUCKLEHEAD!!

The "ladder" held, and he was just tall enough to reach the very high detector. Alas, even with the new battery, it chirped. So he cut the power. Did a little of this. Did a little of that. And eventually figured out that the batter was in backward. He couldn't see it when he was pushing it in there because he was literally on tiptoe and extending his arms as far as they would go to reach it. Eventually it was all fixed up, and we are hopeful we're good for another 4 years.

That's the smoke detector...on the ceiling...so you can see how far he had to stretch.

One sad note: on his way down from the ladder (the second to last time), he stepped funny and tweaked his back. It is slowly healing, but he is going in today to have it looked at. I guess I'm going to have to buy the man a ladder.