No tissues necessary, pinkies!

I just haven't blogged for awhile so I figured - what the heck?! I'm just waiting for some DELICIOUSNESS to be done in the oven. Caribbean Beach Bread if you must know. I'm having a little Tastefully Simple party tonight - well, actually a friend from high school is hosting it and I'm "consulting" on it. I'm a consultant. Makes me sound knowledgeable in the technical sense. Not so much. I can tell ya LOTS about Tastefully Simple though.

Anyway, on to other things. The youngest parts of the allbluezoo have been with me in Indiana for the past few days and we'll be joined by DevilDoc tomorrow - insert a HALLELUJAH here! - afternoon. He's bringing Nani girl too; *heart thumping* Not sure who I miss more - him or her. Don't tell him that *wink* Seriously though, the kids haven't really been THAT bad it's just that the weather has been LESS THAN cooperative to being outside! Have you ever taken a beast from it's habitat and caged it somewhere mostly unfamiliar and without it's normal comforts? That's what it is like with the ZOO - we are are gammaw's house (my mom) and bopping around to P-Paw & Julie's (my dad/his wife), Matt & Sassy's (my brother/his wife) and other assorted extended family members. Note none of the above people have anyone under the age of 10 living with them full-time, severely limiting the toys and other junk that occupy said children under the age of 10. Thank goodness for the couple of days of good weather that allowed us to hit the pool. Even today, overcast and all we tried for the park. Made it about 10 minutes before it started raining. Ugh. Back inside. Ugh.

My "stuff" is already in San Antonio. Too bad we won't be for another somewhat long while. But, we have things to tend to like Centennial Celebrations at the Navy's only bootcamp and a 4th of July bash that promises to go down in the record books. And then that small concert. U2. YES I AM GOING TO THE U2 CONCERT - F.i.n.a.l.l.y! I swear it feels like we've had tickets for years. Well, that is of course, if we actually had tickets. I accidentally kind of forgot to get them out of the safe before we packed it up and sent it to San Antonio. Woopsie. Yay for Ticketmaster and their infinite wisdom that there will be dummies like me who WILL lose, misplace, send away their show tickets. They are holding another set a will call for us. I figured that was best, God forbid they mail me another set and I leave them in Indiana when we head back to Chicago-land. Duh.

Now you are all caught up on what has been going on around here for the last .... 5 days? Close enough. Whatever. This weekend we have a family reunion. Mmmhmmm, I said it. Family reunion. It's pretty cool actually. It's my maternal grandfather's side of the family and HOLY HELL there are a LOT of us! I'm pretty stoked for the annual BINGO game - those little kids better watch out - I'm hungry for the prizes. Word has it that granny scored BIG on Walgreen's Register Rewards stuff this year and I have my eye on more toothpaste.

JUST KIDDING, sheesh - I have like 1,000 tubes of toothpaste b/c I coupon. Duh.

I really DON'T have 1,000 tubes of toothpaste. But I would be all over some more lip balm or sunsreen. Hope she got in on that deal.

Friends, family and blog stalkers....

The Mele Kalikimaka part is a little late, so just skip over that.

Edited to add: I sometimes forget that people outside of Hawai'i read my blog! Sorry! The bottom part of that sign reads "Happy New Year".

I'm on a roll

okay, so DevilDoc was really busy all fall break AND the weekend after!!! Grrrr, but he did get leave the beginning of the next week so all was right with the world. On Monday I had set an appointment for us to have family pictures taken. I have received a few of them from our photographer and I do have permission to post them :)







www.jacquieryanphotographic.com

Cherry Jams

By just reading the title of this post you may have thought I was going to share a recipe. Sorry to disappoint, no recipes in this post. No, the Cherry Jams I am referring to is the Pookins Suave Shampoo. Last night after my "run" I was showering and kind of just zoning out. I thought to myself, "self, you've used the same shampoo the past 3 days. Why not switch it up?" So, I was going to get out of the shower and tip-toe to the cabinet (leaving wet foot prints of course) to get a new shampoo. Then I realized that there was kiddie shampoo in the shower! Glorious joy; what is more fun than washing your hair with kiddie shampoo?! It has that awesome kiddie smell, shampoo and conditioner in one bottle AND I didn't have to get out of the shower to fetch it! Just a random thought :)

Oh, and the running thing. I know, I know...I always said the only time you'd see me run is if someone was chasing me. Well, I'm fat. Yep, that's right F-A-T! DevilDoc would argue that it is P-H-A-T but he would lose that argument. I have gained 15lbs. since I was discharged from the hospital 3/27! Sooooooooo, I bought a treadmill a couple weeks ago and started running twice a day. Last week I found this awesome training website http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml. I started week 2 last night. I use this podcast http://www.ullreys.com/robert/Podcasts/page4/files/category-7.html to keep me on track. Last night I only cursed him and flipped him off once. Yes, I was talking to my iPod...but it made me feel better. I increased my rate to 5mph and had to cut my last run short 10seconds. I was so disapponted! Then I remembered that two weeks ago I couldn't have walked fast to the mailbox let alone RUN 5mph for 10 minutes!

Packages, we loooooove packages!

For what seems like an eternity my kids have been asking if they got a package EVERYTIME we go to the mailbox. Yesterday there was one for me, today one for my husband...things were not looking good for Pookins and Magoo. But alas; a lovely flat rate priority box arrived at my neighbor's address with Japanese goodies for her kids and mine! Konichiwa Katie (did I spell it right?!) The DevilDoc and I say Mahalo for our treats too :)

P.s. that note is handwritten by the Pookins in PreK phonetic words...sound it out.

Be a leader, not a follower....

that's what my mom always told me. Well, sorry mom...but I'm being a follower in this technological part of my life and jumping on the "blog bandwagon".

So bookmark me, link me, do whatever it is that you need to do in order to get yourself back here; I promise you it will get more interesting. Okay, I shouldn't promise that! I HOPE it gets more interesting.