Random Tuesday

Well I survived a relatively bad Monday.  I'm so glad it's Tuesday just because it's no longer Monday.  Now let's random up the place.

• We have really been enjoying the Olympics.  It's nice that NBC is showing different sports on different channels.  I feel we are seeing more of the games this year.  Not just Swimming and Gymnastics, which is all I really watched four years ago.
• The relief of going on our trip by train is tremendous.  Both Nick and I were dreading the drive out there and especially the drive back.  If Bruiser had been bigger (and more potty reliable), I don't think there would have been as much dread about the drive.
• We are actually looking on the trip as a fun adventure now.  Across the country by train.  We get to travel in style.  Someone else is doing the driving, at least most of the way.
• I get to spend the weekend going through little boy clothes.  I need to see what Turbo is going to need for school this year, cull out the small clothes, go through Bruiser's room and reorganize the clothes there so I have a place to put the clothes I'm culling out of Turbo's room.  Sounds like fun, no?  You want to be here for the fun, don't you?
• I think I like the winter Olympics better.  You don't have to watch all the political commercials during the winter Olympics.

Not wildly exciting this week.  Next week will be a frantic laundry and packing blur.  Again, sounds like fun you don't want to miss, right?
Well fun you really don't want to miss can be found at Stacy Uncorked.

Also at Shawn and Impulsive's little get together.

Birthday, Beer, and Laundry

The title just about sums up this weekend.  It was one of those weekends where you do a lot but feel like you didn't do anything.
Friday afternoon, Nick went home to check on Turbo who was home with the dog.  When Nick got home, Turbo had broken a rule and had a friend over.  Because of that, Nick spent the afternoon at home playing warden for Turbo.  He vacuumed upstairs and down, watered plants, cleaned the table off, and dusted.  It was nice for me, half of my weekend chores got done without me.  It was almost as if the elves came to visit.
Friday night we watched the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics and the Olympics have been on TV in our house ever since, one sport or another.  Beach Volleyball is a big hit, swimming is really inspiring Turbo, I'm enjoying the gymnastics--both men's and women's--and we've all had fun watching water polo and cycling.
Saturday started early for me.  My body decided that 5:00am it was done sleeping.  My mind wasn't but I could not get back to sleep and gave up trying at 6:00am.  I did the standard Saturday stuff--grocery shopping, started laundry--and then helped Nick bottle the oatmeal stout that was ready to bottle.  He got a picture of me helping and named the beer Sexy Leg Stout.

This right here was the reason for the naming of the stout.

We basically bummed around the rest of the day, I finished all the clothes, only had towels and sheets left to wash, ordered Pizza Hut for dinner and enjoyed prime time Olympics.  Turbo had a birthday party to go to and he had a blast having a water balloon fight there.

Bumming and enjoying the Olympics.

We are stepping up to unders for potty training.

I slept better Saturday night and Sunday morning came with an adult sleep in--7:30am.  We bottled the other batch of beer--a raspberry wheat that I dubbed Raspy Wheat.  We also put chicken on the grill to slow cook/smoke for dinner with my mom.  Sunday was her -10 (I think) birthday.  She started counting backward at 29.

What you do when a drenching rain storm comes over.

We had to save these beauties.

Beautifully smoked chicken.

We got a flash visit from my uncle--my mom's oldest brother.  He and his wife were on their way back to Colorado and it was nice to see them.  My mom was her usual self--loud and with the obligatory comments that only a slightly crazy mom can make.  We put a lot of work into the dinner and she just took it all as her due and never really said thank you, but she did get a dig in at Nick.  It was typical Mom.

Time to Confess

Hooray!  I made it to Friday again.  Now to make it to going home time.
I confess:

• We have big plans tonight.
• The opening ceremonies are on for the Olympics.
• And the sports we like to watch will be on right away.
• Swimming, Diving, Gymnastics, maybe a little Beach Volleyball.
• OK, so the last one is for the guys in the house.
• Strange to think, four years ago I was pregnant with Bruiser.
• Plans have changed a bit for our major trip this summer.
• We are thinking about taking the train instead of driving.
• It's faster and easier with the boys.
• We are all a bit more excited about going by train than driving.
• There was a a lot of dread about driving.
• The train solves a lot of that dread.
• Bruiser has his good days with the potty and his bad days.
• He still has issues with the potty at the babysitter's.  
• I'm hopeful that he will catch on soon.
• Turbo finished summer school with a glowing report.
• Things were said about him showing more determination to finish projects, more focus, less redirection.  
• All very good things to hear.

So what are you confessing?  Write it up and link up with Mamarazzi.

Spin Cycle--Comedy Kids

This week the spin cycle is all about comedy.  Any kind of comedy you want--jokes, anecdotes, Comedy Central, comedy clubs, comedy movies.  Anything you want.
I have two boys who continually crack Nick and I up.  Turbo has been making us laugh since he could talk.  Bruiser started about the time he could walk.  I'm going to share a few stories that we still laugh about.

When Turbo was about two and a half, he had learned to count to 5.  One evening he was standing in the door from the living room to the kitchen and was proudly counting to five for us.  Nick looked at him and said, "OK smarty, that was great, but can you do it backwards?" 
Turbo looked at him for a moment and you could almost see the wheels turning in his head.  Then he whipped around so his back was to us and proceeded to count to five again.  Nick and I cracked up.  But we had to give it to the kid.  He was backwards when he counted.

Bruiser has taken to bowing when we praise him for going to the bathroom.  He puts his hand to his chest and bows saying thank you, thank you. All with perfect tone and pitch for an actor taking a bow.

Bruiser has been having issues with going to the baby sitter's.  He cries and says he will miss me.  Small amount of separation anxiety mixed with a healthy dose of manipulation.  This morning he calmed when Nick put him in the truck and was beginning to groove to the music from the radio as they got to the sitter's house.  Nick got out of the truck and went around to get Bruiser out.  When he opened the door Bruiser met him with, "Dad, are you really going to make me do this?" 
Nick said yes while trying to contain his grin at the perfect delivery from a three year old. 

So that is a peek at the funny our boys bring us each day.  And really if they didn't make us laugh, I think we'd have given them away by now.
Go see Gretchen for more comedy this week.

WWTK--Celebrity Edition

We Want to Know time is here once again.  Cause it's Wednesday everyone!

So The Lovely One asked this question:

{1} What Disney character do you most resemble and why?   I really would have to go with my favorite Disney Movies from way back and say Angela Landsbury's Mrs. Eglantine Price from Bedknobs and Broomsticks.  She's earnest and does her best in a tough situation.  And she is a witch. How cool would that be, not to say I'm a witch.  While I don't look much like her, I'd like to think I'd do my best given a tough situation.

Or maybe Sarah Jessica Parker from Hocus Pocus.

And it got Mamarazzi wanting to know...

{2} Who was your teenage celebrity crush?  I was a teen in the late 80s.  Tiger beat and Teen magazines like that were easy to look at and created many a crush for me.  The one I remember the most was Tom Cruise, circa Top Gun.  Not fond of him now, but back then...

{3} What celebrity would you love to be BFF with?  Sandra Bullock.  She seems like a fun person and really nice.

{4} Who is your celebrity look a like?  This one always stymies me.  I don't think I look like any of the currant stars in Hollywood.  But if I had to choose one from when ever, I'd go with Meg Ryan circa When Harry Met Sally.

{5} Which celebrity/celebrity couple would you want to portray you/your honey in a movie about your life?  Matt Damon and Sandra Bullock.  I like Matt Damon and Nick has a bit of a thing for Sandra Bullock.  It works for me.  The movie might be a bit dull, but the the leading couple would be nice to look at.

Go see the other linkers and see who they would want to have portray them.  Mamarazzi and Crazymama have some great answers.
(all images came from Google)

Random Time

Time to random up the place.  It is Tuesday after all. Which isn't Monday and that's a good thing.

• We've hit that part of summer where the days all sort of blur together.  We were so busy last weekend that relaxing was sort of shoved off the plate.  Every day is hot, nights are cool, work, home, routine, rinse lather repeat.  I'm beginning to look forward to our vacation, even as I kind of dread the car trip.
• Yesterday afternoon Finding Nemo was on TV.  We only watched the end, but Bruiser got caught up in it anyway and was so worried about Nemo.  It was cute to see him go "Oh, no!" and "yay!" for various parts of the movie.
• You know you're an adult when sleeping in until 7:00am is wonderful.  When you can joke to a friend about menopause.  When you get satisfaction from a clean kitchen or bathroom.  When you morn all the missed naps from when you were a kid.
• I'm still running.  I don't like it, but I'm still running.  I'm beginning to see results.  Nothing huge, but my clothes aren't so tight.  
• Insomnia is selfish.  Last week it wanted my company.  This week it seems to want Nick's.  Not getting sleep when there's no good reason just makes it that much harder to handle.
• This is Turbo's last week of summer school summer science camp.  The schools here make summer school more like a summer camp and sneak the continued learning in on the kids.  Makes going to school in the summer easier to take.
• Bruiser has progressed on the potty front but pooping success still eludes us.  At least he will pee in the potty without protest.  He sometimes even goes on his own.  Small steps, right?  I'll take it.  It's better than changing diapers constantly.  Now to get him to go potty when we aren't at home.  One day I'll look back and joke about the issues we had potty training him.  Some day.

So what's your random?  Write it up and link up with Stacy, she of the Random linky.

Also link up whatever you have with Shawn and Implusive.  Talk To Us Tuesday has no rules.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, it was a busy but fun weekend.  We made progress on the potty front.  We had a visit from a close friend and her kids.  We made beer and root beer.  Full busy weekend.
For starters, Bruiser has gone potty on his own and he made it through today with only one or two accidents.  I'm not thinking about the troubles he is having pooping.  It will come.  At least he will go on his own some of the time and goes with prompting without arguing.  Small steps.

Friday, Turbo had a friend over all day and it turned into a sleep over.  They got along great and Turbo had a blast.  C is a good kid and we really enjoy having him over.
Saturday nick brewed up an oatmeal stout. He is very excited about it. It's one of his favorite types of beer.  It looks like it will be a good beer.
Saturday afternoon our friend M came to town with her kids.  Nick was grilling ribs.  While he was out there we had a rain storm come through.  Nick just had to stand in it. We all had dinner--ribs done dry rub and sticky--and then M and her kids settled in our living room for the night.  M and I did take a walk and have a drink downtown so it was a nice evening.  We got to have breakfast out on our back deck.  It was fun. 

Grilling in the rain.

Tasty TABs

Breakfast al fresco.

Sunday M took her kids and Turbo up to Veedauwoo, a local hiking and climbing area.  They had rain, but got to hike anyway and saw a moose in the trees that ended up crossing the road in front of their car.  Exciting for them.
After they left, Nick and Turbo made root beer.  They mixed up extract with sugar and added yeast so it would carbonate.  Turbo is looking forward tasting it later this week.
So what did you do this weekend?

Confessions

Hey, hey, hey it's Friday!  Just about the best day of the week.  It's also the day of the week we get to confess with Mamarazzi.
I confess:

• I'm staying home from work today to continue the pooty training work with Brusier.
• We've had some successes.
• It's still slow going.
• He's been bare from the waist down since Tuesday.
• I'm hoping we can try unders on him tomorrow.
• At least he is sort of voluntarily going to the bathroom now.
• Because I'm home, all the niggly little household chores are getting done.
• I cleaned the kitchen floor.
• I vacuumed.
• I cleaned kitchen counters off.
• I'm really over the potty thing.
• I wish I could find the right motivator for Bruiser.
• Nothing has clicked quite yet with him.
• It's been hot here.
• The only saving grace we have is that it cools off at night.
• I got a girls night out last night.
• It was awesome.
• We haven't had any get togethers this summer where we got to use our tiki torches.
• We really need to do something about that.
• As busy as this summer's been so far, I really feel like we have had a summer so far.

So what are you confessing?

Link it up with Mamarazzi and check out the other confessions.

Spin Cycle--It's My Favorite

The Spin Cycle topic this week is favorite--can be your favorite anything.  Vacation, food, trip, activity, movie, book, kid, friend, store, candy, drink, whatever favorite you want to go with.  This could be awesome, or it could be troublesome.
I don't really want to turn this into a list of my favorites.  How boring.  So how can I make this fun?  I know, lets do anti favorites, or maybe I'll call them favorites with a twist.

• My favorite way to get up in the middle of the night--to tuck a scared, but cuddly little boy back in bed.
• My favorite way to decide what to make for dinner--follow a menu where the choice is made for me, all I have to do is pick from the choices given.
• My favorite job around the house--cleaning up the kitchen and having clear counters so I look all neat and tidy.  
• My favorite thing about work--that I have a fairly flexible schedule.
• My favorite part of running is the end of the run when I'm sweaty and done running.
• My favorite part of potty training is the small successes we get.  Yay going on the potty!
• My favorite thing about home improvement is the finished product and the fact that it improves our living space.
• My favorite part of summer heat is the fact that I'm rarely cold.
• My favorite thing about being a grown up is that now I appreciate any chance I get to nap.

Well that's a few of my favorite things about thing that aren't really favorites of mine.  You got any favorite things about those thing that aren't so favorite?  Spin it up and link with Gretchen.

WWTK--Food, Glorious Food

Time to avoid what you should be doing and answer the questions posed by Crazymama this week:

{1} Walking down the cookie aisle at the store, what do you pick?  I'd choose Pecan Sandies.  Pecan shortbread cookies.  So good.

{2} Would you rather eat chips or crackers? Which kind?  I lean toward chips but love a good cracker on occasion.  Favorite chip (currently) is Sour Cream and Cheddar Ruffles. For crackers, I like anything garlic flavored.  Pita chips are especially good.

{3} What kind of pickles do you like?  I love a good baby dill.  Sweet gherkins are good too.  I don't do many pickles any more--they have way too much salt in them.

{4} What is your favorite candy? I'm all about salt water taffy right now, but can never turn down a good dark chocolate turtle.

{5} marycate wants to know about your beverage preference.
Coke Or Pepsi? Diet Drinkers?  I lean more toward Pepsi, but will go with Coke depending on what is less expensive, and has caffeine free versions in the store when I'm buying twelve packs.  Otherwise I go for sprite or root beer--caffeine free all the way.

This was an easy week.  Grab the questions and link up with Mamarazzi and Crazymama.

Random Tuesday--Awards and Stuff

So Tuesday is here.  This is good.  It's not Monday and we are one day closer to Friday.  Time to get random.
So, the lovely Jill from Jill's World gave me an award.  The Liebster Award.  Generally this award is given to up and coming blogs with less than two hundred followers.  I don't necessarily fit that requirement, but Jill was nice enough to bend the rules to give it to me anyway.  Thank you so much Jill!
There are some other rules.  Jill asked 11 questions that I get to answer and I'm supposed to ask 11 more for the 11 people I give this to.  However I'm breaking the rules.  I'm not giving it out and I'm not asking questions.  If you want it take it.  Easy peasy.  Just let me know you did.  I'm also supposed to tell ou 11 random things about myself, but I'm gonna skip that too.

1. If you could have a conversation with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose and why? Robin Williams--he'd be hilarious and fun to have a conversation with.
2. How did you come up with the name of your blog?  I live with three people of the male persuasion. I am somewhat out numbered.  Living in the sea of testosterone was taken so I came up with The Testosterone Three and Me.
3. What is your dream vacation destination? Anywhere with a beach and cute cabana boys to bring me fruity drinks with umbrellas.
4. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? (Did you end up where you thought you would?)  It changed yearly.  Even when I went to college I was not really sure  what I wanted to be.  I'm happy where I am now, but this was not on the radar when I was younger.
5. Put your iTunes, iPod, or whatever on shuffle…what’s the first song that comes up?  I don't have an ipod.  If I did it would be something country.  The song that keeps running through my head this morning is Pontoon by Little Big Town.
6. What is your all-time favourite book?  It would have to be The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey.
7. If you could buy anything right now, what would you buy? (Cost is irrelevant.)  I've already got my Kindle, so plane tickets to Michigan?  We could then avoid the epic road trip we are planning in August.
8. What are you craving right…now? An apricot scone from the Student union at the university I work at.  They taste so good.
9. What is your absolute favourite song lyric?  I really like Kid Rock's All Summer Long.
10. What is your dream car?  My dream car is an SUV that can carry eight people and tow a trailer so we can go for drives with family and friends in the mountains and take our toys along too.
11. Beach, pool, or not a fan of the water?  I love the beach--we don't have any here so we make do with the community pool.  I love the water either way.

Now for the few bits of random I have:

• Both Nick and I had a ball at his reunion. We got to reconnect with old friends and be grownups. It was a great weekend.
• I really need to clean the living room, but I can always find something else to do.
• We are heading into an intensive potty training session with Bruiser.  He stood in front of his daycare provider, denied flatly that he was wet and ended up peeing his pants yesterday--cause those diapers only hold so much.  He is naked from the waist down at home with my mom today.  He will be this way all week if I can manage it.  Hopefully he will be back in unders by say Sunday.  Wish us luck.  We will need it.  That or extreme amounts of patience.

This boy?  Turbo?  I love him to death.  All the gangly, knees and elbows and goofyness included.

So that's my random.  Go see Stacy for other random--it's all random like that.

And link up with Shawn and Impulsive for no rules Talk To Us Tuesday.

Reunions and Good Times

So this last weekend we had a very full, fun time.  So much happened and Nick got quite the blast from the past.  The adult time we got was fantastic.  The boys had a really good weekend too.
So to start, we got to go to the new swanky sky box at the football stadium for the opening mixer for Nick reunion.  The venue was wonderful, even if the air conditioning was working overtime.  Nick got to see several of his classmates he hadn't seen in years.  After we finished there we went downtown and enjoyed some street dance/drinking in the street normal good times for Laramie Jubilee Days.
Saturday, Nick was in the parade so I went and picked up the boys from my mom's house, which is conveniently close to the parade route.  We set up and waited for Nick float to come by.  Nick saved a few water balloons to toss at the boys and later the little league teammates came by and soaked Turbo and Bruiser with water guns.  Since it was hot out no real objections to the soaking were made.

Waiting for the candy parade to come.

Giving a thumbs up to dad on his float.

After the soaking from the little leaguers.

After Bruiser's nap, we took them to Papa and Nana's house for their over night and we went and had a drink at the local bar.  Like grown ups.  It was so nice we decided that we need to do it more often.  We then headed home and got all dudded up for dinner and dancing.  Nick, who does not dance, danced with me twice.  We had a wonderful time and headed down town for the last of the street dances (even if the "street dance" was in a parking lot this year).

Adult time rocks!

Sunday morning we got the kids back and I got the grocery shopping done. The last of Nick's reunion functions was a family picnic at the park a block from our house. Nick has been semi nominated to help organize the next reunion in ten years.  Not sure he's excited about that but he will most likely help.  After the  picnic we spent the rest of the day being lazy and recouping after the hustle and bustle of the weekend.
Whew, we almost needed a day off to recover from the weekend.  I think that means we did it up right.
How was your weekend?  Fun, boring, too exciting for words?

I Confess...

...that I am so excited it's Friday.  Let's get to the confession:

• I'm not happy.
• Nick rearranged the furniture.
• Not just in one room, but pretty much swapped out the living room for the family room furniture.
• He totally dismantled the cozy spot I loved in the living room--the one I showed you guys on Wednesday?
• That space now has a sectional in it.  
• No more cozy reading/TV watching area.  
• He explained why he did it, but he did it without telling me he was going to (other than a cryptic "I'm going to do something Mom won't like while she's at the movies")(and a firm statement later that he told me 2 years ago he was going to do this.  The man can't remember things I told him 2 weeks ago, but expects me to remember he told me 2 years ago he was going to rearrange the furniture for remodel purposes)
• I don't like it.  
• I don't have to like it.
• I just have to live with it until he's done with another project in the basement.
• Then negotiations will commence for another rearrangement.
• Speaking of movies, I did go see Magic Mike.
• I'm...impressed by the dancing--oh hot hot hot.
• Less than impressed by the story line they put with it.
• It had it's dramatic parts, but it really didn't do much for me.
• There's also the issue I have with Matthew McConaughey.
• I have never really liked him as an actor. 
• He always seems greasy and smarmy to me.
• But I do like Channing Tatum.
• Overall, this movie reminded me of Aspen Extreme.
• Only with hot male dancers instead of ski instructors.
• I really am excited for the weekend.  
• No kids for two whole nights. 
• Adult time at Nick's reunion.
• Yeah, it's gonna be a fun weekend.

What are you confessing this week?  Link it up with Mamarazzi and confess away.

Spin Cycle--Artsy Craftsy

I've never been all that artsy.  I grew up with a mom who could do,  and still does, amazing things with thread, yarn, and material.  She always said that if her car could be repaired with a needle and thread, she'd have the best running car in town.  After growing up around it and knowing the fundamentals I really have no inclination to do most of it.(Although I might, just might take up crochet this winter.)
I enjoyed my art classes in high school, but never really pursued it.  Then I met Nick.  He is an artist.  He started painting with oils not long after we moved in together.  I've been surrounded by art ever since.  Still hasn't rubbed off all that much.  I manage to do creative layouts for scrap books and that about covers my creative bent.
I do like taking pictures but even that has changed since having kids.  I just don't have the drive that I used to, it's more about capturing moments of and for the boys.  I still love taking pictures, my subject has changed.
I guess my creativeness has moved to the kitchen.  There is an art to taking raw ingredients and making edible food out of them.  It's one I'm getting more and more into.  It can be thankless when dinner is presented and I get a chorus of "I don't like that" from the short people in the house, but mostly I enjoy it and get good feed back (no pun intended).
Baking especially makes me feel good and we get awesome food stuffs to consume.  I just have to be careful.  If I bake too much Nick and I will weight 500 lbs. and that doesn't look good on anyone. 

Yummy spent grain bread.

I've gotten good at adapting recipes for the ingredients I have on hand, even if it's not necessarily what the recipe calls for.  About two weeks ago I mad a tasty shrimp dish with a cream sauce.  Sunday night we had left overs from the kabobs we had done Saturday.  I threw the meat in the pan and once it was cooked I added the left over zucchini and peppers so they were crisp tender--really just warm, not limp and then poured cream--about a cup over the top, similar to how I'd made the shrimp the week before.  Since the meat had been marinating in a mesquite sauce, the resulting dish had a creamy mesquite flavor and went wonderfully over spaghetti noodles.  It was sort of like a mesquite pasta primavera.  Everyone but Bruiser ate it up.
So my artistic leanings have moved to the kitchen.  Maybe one of these days I'll get back my scrap booking mojo and my artistic leanings will come out that way again.

So are you artistic?  Do you do creative things?  If you do spin it up and go let Gretchen know--she link you up for the Spin Cycle.

WWTK--Orgainzed--Not so much

Time to avoid what you should be doing and answer Mamarazzi's questions for the week:

{1} What is your go to spice/seasoning when cooking?  Garlic powder.  I put it in almost everything.  Except maybe sweet stuff.  That wouldn't taste good at all.

{2} What room in your house best represents your personality? (brownie points for a pic)  My personality?  Hmm, I'd like to think it was my living room or bedroom.

The living room area I love the most.  See bookshelves even there.

Truthfully it's probably the bookshelves I have.  Not really a room, but the varied selection gives some insight to what I'm like.

The romance shelves--I'm a historic Romance junkie.

Mystery, true crime, fantasy, humor, I got some of everything.

The non fiction and hard back novel shelves

{3} On a scale of 1-5, 5 being VERY, how organized are you?  I'd say around a 3.  I'd like to be more organized but I live with small people and they bust organized all to heck.

And two from YOU!!

Amanda wants to know:

{4}What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?  To enjoy working, do what you are interested in.  If you aren't at least interested in it you won't last at it.

Scriptor  wants to know:

{5} Do you keep any little (harmless) secrets from your significant other?  Who doesn't?  he doesn't need to know everything.  Who I have harmless celebrity crushes on, what I think of...oh yeah, he reads these--Hi Nick!  No secrets here.  Nothing to read here.  Love you!

Now go answer the questions yourself.  Link up with Mamarazzi and Crazymama.

I'm Thinking Random

Time to get all random cause I'm too tired to do much else.  So let's do this:

• Summer has sapped my energy.  Or maybe it's the fact that we have been busy.  Swimming in the evenings, running in the morning, work, chasing active boys... yeah, busy.
• Sunday night Bruiser decided that he didn't want to go to bed so he snuck out of bed and explored our bedroom, turned on my clock radio, and then got his blanket and fell asleep on the stairs.  I almost stepped on him when I went downstairs to go to bed.  (Yes, both his and our bedroom are in the basement.  That's just how our house works.)  Anybedroomplacement, he looked pretty comfortable sound asleep there. 
• It doesn't matter if I've eaten and am totally full, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives always makes me hungry.
• I'm looking forward to the adult time Nick and I get this weekend.  Grandparents are taking up the slack and watching the boys so we can enjoy Nick's 20 year reunion without worrying about kiddos.  I'm really looking forward to it.  Far more so than my 20 last summer(which I ended up skipping).
• Looking at the household chores that I keep having to do exhausts me.  Bruiser can create a tornado effect in 10 minutes flat.  Turbo is learning how to shed as he goes through the house.  At least I can get him to pick up--mostly.  I'm working on Bruiser, but he has a real obstinate streak.
• I never knew how much Curious George got into.  I'm reading the classic stories with Bruiser before bed.  Curious George gets around.  Trip to outer space, kite flight, bike rides with circuses, window cleaning, museum crashing.  Busy little monkey.

So what's up with you?  Got any random?  Go link it up with Stacy.

And link it up with the no rules girls Shawn and Impulsive for Talk to Us Tuesday.

We Got Rain

After washing the truck, planning to stain the deck, and setting up a barbecue, we finally got rain.  Almost 3/4 of an inch of rain on Saturday.  We made our kabobs under the broiler since we couldn't go outside without getting drenched.  But thankfully the fire that is closest to us in the mountains is almost contained.  Yay rain!
For the rest of the weekend we really just lazed around.  Nick went swimming--laps and he's oh so sore right now--I cleaned the kitchen.  The boys watched A Dolphin Tale and Rio.  I battled a migraine.  It kind of won.
So to recap:
Friday evening we took the boys swimming.  Then went and saw some friends' parents who were in town.  Got the boys home and then we sort of dropped after a long, strange week.
Saturday I grocery shopped, took the boys for haircuts, cleaned the kitchen, got things ready to have our friends over for kabobs and then tried to nap.  Napping was mostly unsuccessful.  And it started to rain about 2ish.  It didn't stop.  We broiled kabobs instead of grilling them, but they were tasty anyway.  The son of our friends stayed the night here with Turbo and the boys had a ball.
Sunday started earlyish.  I made sausage pancakes for everyone.  Then N came and got T so he could head home.  We really just bummed around most of the day.  I got a migraine and tried napping it away.  I wasn't successful.
So, really, we had a bummy weekend and didn't accomplish much at all.  It was nice.  Oh, you want to see pics of the boys' new haircuts?  Here you go:

He wanted a buzz cut.  He almost got it.

Looks so much more like a little boy.

Next weekend promises to be much more exciting.  There is a high school reunion, the boys are with grandparents both Friday and Saturday night, and Nick and I get some much needed adult time.  I'm so looking forward to it.  The week is going to be busy too.  Magic Mike on Wednesday with the girls, there is a carnival in town to take the boys to,  swimming, a little bit of looky-looing at the fire damage, and some where in there we are going to have quality family time.  Maybe at the carnival...
How was your weekend?  Is your week looking to be busy?
P.S.:  Go check out the giveaway on Stacy's blog--it for a handmade bag and card keeper--so cute!

Confessions for Friday

Time once again to confess with Mamarazzi. Here we go:

• I have started running for exercise.
• I hate running.
• But it's easy to do on a daily basis.
• Crawl out of bed, put on running clothes, shoes and go run around the park.
• I hate running, or did I say that already?
• I've done OK at making meals for the fam this week.
• Meal planning really works when you actually plan it out.
• Who knew?
• Bruiser does a mean air guitar.
• Turbo isn't bad on air drums.
• Both boys rocked out watching Katy Perry sing on the New York Fireworks show we watched.
• We also watched the big fire fighting helicopter take off Wednesday morning.
• The boys thought it was pretty awesome.

Waiting.

Goof ball.

There it goes.

•  This has been the strangest summer so far.
• Fires and smoke and heat--Oh my.
• I don't know if I'm looking forward to what comes next,
• Or if I'm scared of what will come next.
• Either way what this summer has in store is coming.
• Both boys need haircuts.  
• We are going on Saturday.
• And I'm out of confessions.

Go link up with Mamarazzi and confess away--I bet your confessions are more fun than mine.