Another awesome summer weekend

Yesterday, we woke up and started plotting our day.  After Brett went to work (he spends Friday nights here on his Kameron weekends) we loaded up and headed to KC.  We went to City Market for a while, watching street performers and taking in the sights, sounds, and smells.

From there, we came back toward home, and veered toward Blue Springs to hit Burr Oak Woods.  Kameron was having a great day, and didn't mind at ALL that she had her lunch in her stroller at a picnic table.  We looked around inside and walked a trail.

After taking her to her mom's (to keep her until Brett got home) we came back to the house, and my BFF Tammy called.  They wanted to come visit!  WoooHooo!  We sat outside, drank beer, and had a fire in the driveway.  Yeah, I know.  However, it was wonderful to spend time with Tammy.  It doesn't happen often enough.

This morning, we headed out again.  After gassing up and washing the truck, we went to look for mattresses for the girls.  Seriously.  Theirs were hand-me-downs several years ago.  We found some cheap ones.  They won't last forever, but when your 13 year old has back aches in the morning, you've got problems.

From there, we stopped at WalMart (God help us) and finally came home.  Brett, Kameron, and Cassie (Brett's GF) came for a wonderful BBQ dinner, and we relaxed and visited.  This is why I love summer.  If you wonder why I'm not blogging much, or why I only update Facebook via mobile texts, it's because I'm out and about.

There are so many free things to do around KC, and I plan to do them all this summer.  4 times each.  I'm just sayin'.

A Macintosh fairy tale

Once upon a time, there was a crabby customer service rep.  She grumbled about her needs, and finally told her boss, "I'm tired of only have 2 people that can support Mac users.  We need more people who can support Mac!"

The boss, in all her wisdom, declared that grumpy customer service rep should be assigned a Mac, in order to support customers.  Grumpy customer service rep said:

So, yeah.  Crabby customer service rep was me, and I started learning Mac.  I love it, and I'm getting better all the time, but I often try to think the long way around a problem, forgetting that Mac makes everything easier.

For instance, today Monica got her hair cut.  Remember that she's far from home, at Grammy's house?  Yeah, she asked before she went if she could do something radical with her hair.  I told her that it was fine, but if anything wasn't school-appropriate, we'd dye it back in the fall.  

Her cousin, Courtney, does hair at a hi-end salon in SW Missouri, near Grammy.  They went.  I got a picture message on my phone today, showing Monica's new 'do.  It is cute as can be, but my phone shows images so small.  What can you expect from a free cell phone?

I tried to forward to facebook mobile.  no go.  I tried to forward to an email address.  no go.  I tried everything I knew to make this image big enough to see.  no go.  I was getting so frustrated, but kept trying.

While going through options on my phone, I saw the word "bluetooth" and hesitated.  Wait!  Sweet sweet Mac has bluetooth!  Could I really do it?  Could I send the image directly to the Mac, without trying all of these "jumping through hoops" tricks?  Could it be true?

*sigh*  Yeah.  It was that easy.  The image is lo-res, but it's here.

Why do teen age girls take every image from above and from the side?  Oh well.  I got it, and that's all that matters.  I've asked Monica to have her Aunt Susan take a digital picture and email it to me, so we'll see the full effect soon.  The purple streaks are weaves (I have no experience with these) and can be washed, combed, etc as if it were her own hair.

She's happy, so I'm happy.

I guess we lived happily every after.

SO, where have *I* been?

I know.  I went MIA with no explanation.  This week has been horrid at work.  So busy, and lacking a lot of people.  My coworker found out that she has the big "C" word, and we don't know what's going to happen.  I'm so sad about it, but I don't have time to worry for her.  It sucks to keep moving on through work, without much chance to offer up good thoughts.

I will post this weekend, with some details, but here are some random thoughts:

Kevin fixed the tub drain.  YEAH!

Kameron doesn't ALWAYS sleep through the night, but she'll take a bottle and go back to sleep.

Brett is loving his new home.

Monica is having fun at Grammy's house.

Natalie is at a friend's for the night.  I'm childless.

My house is trashed.

Kevin shaved the cat today.

This episode of Supernanny makes me cry.

I haven't been on facebook for days.

I need a weekend.  A LONG weekend.  Thank you, Memorial Day!

Ciao!

Weekend needed

Monday we drove all day to get home from vacation.  What an awesome vacation it was, too.

Tuesday, went back to work a day early, to help while they were short-handed, and to keep a spare vacation day in my back pocket.

Busy, crazy week, working super long hours, but it all turned out OK.

Kameron is here this weekend, and her daddy has his rental place now.  He'll move in tomorrow.  We won't be helping, because...

Tomorrow is the Grain Valley city-wide garage sale.  That's the best one around.  We'll go see what we can do, and Kameron will join us.

1 1/2 days of school left for the girls.  They're more than ready to be done.

OK, enough stream-of-consciousness typing.  I could go on forever, but it's been crazy this week, and I need to relax.  I haven't blogged, played much on facebook, or surfed the 'net for over a week.  I've got some catching up to do!

Home at last!

We are finally home.  What a long day in the car.  Now THAT is a lot of togetherness.  We all did fine, and travelled fine.  Our hosts were amazing, and I almost tear up, thinking about all of the special touches that Susie did to make it easy for us.  We did all of our laundry last night, at her house, so tonight would be easier on us.  She packed special snacks and such, set the coffee pot timer for 5:30 am, etc.  Unbelievable.

It rained for the first 3 hours or so of our trip.  Nothing severe, but the sky looked like it could go ugly.  Thank God it didn't.  Sun came out somewhere in Oklahoma, and we cruised on home.  If any of you wondered about the updates from the road, I dictated to the girls, and they sent the text.  I do NOT text and drive.  Just so you know.

I had to ignore 98 facebook updates and gifts.  I turned down animals, plants, drinks, updates, and all sorts of other things.  I just didn't know when I'd ever get through them all.  LOL  Nice to know that ya'll sent them, though.  

I had a ball updating via twitter, but even more fun was coming home and reading all of the comments!  Kevin and I read them and laughed out loud.  You guys are funny.

We're all unpacked, and I traded in my vacation day that I planned for tomorrow, since work is hectic right now.  I'll have a spare vacation day to use later, and I'll be able to help out at work, too.  Worth It!

Good night, dear friends.  That was an AMAZING vacation.  It was relaxing and fun and exhausting and we're all sore and tired.  Yup.  That's a good one.  I'm off to recline and have a cold drink.

Cabin de Fierro

Down at the big cabin, where the main party is, there is no cell service, no internet.  Our little cabin is up on the hill, near the office, and I have a bit of wireless internet here.  No big time online, though.  I'm on vacation!

We've had an awesome time already, and it's only Saturday morning.  It was oppressively hot yesterday afternoon, but with a cold drink and some shade, it wasn't bad.  Also, there is a/c in the cabins, so you can get some relief if you want.

OK, time to get the girls rounded up again.  They swam some yesterday, but they really want to swim a LOT today.  I can't get used to the sulphur smell in the pool, but they seem to not be bothered by it.

Trying to pack

OK, so we're trying to pack.  Honestly, we are!  The problem is that my half.com DVD arrived today.  Yeah, packing came to a screeching halt when Hooper arrived.  Good LORD I love this movie.

OK, on to the trip info.  We decided to take my car.  Sure, the trunk space is limited, but the mileage is better and I wouldn't be driving that far in a car belonging to someone else.  It worries me to drive a borrowed car.  

David (our TX buddy) called tonight, though, and told us to bring Dad's car.  Sheesh, whatever.  I tried to be vague and pacify him, but he was having none of it.  He said he had stuff to send home with us.  Huh?

Finally, he admitted that he was sending a couple of trees home from Texas.  David grows some amazing trees, all organic, and he worries that we have none.  LOL  That will be awesome.  Plus, with dad's car, we have cruise control and more room.

Yeah, I've asked my parents if I can change my mind.  Dear dad, can I borrow your car?  

Oh, and can someone come finish packing so I can watch Hooper?

Kameron takes a ride with Grandpa

We had a great day, accomplished a lot, but played a lot, too.  My arm is tired from throwing the frisbee with the girls!  I had to climb on the roof to retrieve it once, but we were more careful after that.

Grilled out this evening, and it was very good.  The chicken breasts had marinated for almost 24 hours, and they were so juicy.  I don't always make that happen on the grill, and I hate dry chicken, so I was happy.

Laundry is almost caught up, vacation plans are coming together nicely, and the weather was perfect today.  We've almost decided to take my Neon, instead of trading cars with Dad.  His is bigger, but the trunk space is the only thing that's tight, and I think we can make it work.  If we take mine, we get almost 10 mpg more.  Driving almost 1300 miles makes that gas mileage really come into play.

OK, time for my Sunday night ritual of reclining and watching TV, and all my ABC shows are new tonight.  SWEET!

Getting ready for vacation

Picked up Kameron on the way home last night.  She's so funny.  We had fun with her, and there's a video of her new game that will be up as soon as I edit it down a bit.

This morning, we got up and around, then headed to mom's.  She was having my aunt Maxine over for tacos, and we were invited.  It was good to see Aunt Maxine again, and she got to meet Kami.  Lunch was incredible.  Thanks, mom.

We left there and headed to Independence for some thrift store shopping.  The girls have hardly any shorts, and we're headed to Texas for vacation in less than a week.  When we were done, I had three pairs of shorts, and the girls had 8, and Monica had a swim suit...all for under $60.  Oh, and we got a nice stroller, too.   Not bad, huh?

Since we had started preparations for our vacation, I was on a roll.  We stopped at Dollar General for snacks, sun screen, bug spray, first aid items, etc.  Almost everything we'll need for the trip.  I had NO idea how we were going to make it all fit.  Then, Dad offered to trade us cars so we could have more room on the trip.  Rock On!

Back at home, we started on the laundry (lots of "new" clothes to wash, you know.)  I'm getting excited about the trip and making plans and pre-packing, all while watching the NASCAR race.  Yes, I'm cool like that.  Three days of work, and then we're off.  I'm going to try to add the twitter box to this blog, or you can follow our adventures on facebook.