Looking for Buffalo

And I found one! Several actually but here's a pretty good pic of one. I actually had a pic of one much closer but it turned out blurry. We saw him on the side of the street so I had Mike pull over so I could click a pic. I climbed over Mike to take it and the Buffalo started towards the car so Mike took off darnit! That would've been a really close picture!
We drove up to the Wichita Mountains for the day. Everyone had fun but it was so hot! We saw a lot of buffalo and some deer. We saw some really cool bugs too. Here are some really neat butterflies we saw that don't seem to mind people too much. There were several of them by a really pretty little lake. I really like that lake because the water's crystal clear. you can see all of the little fish and everything really clearly just by walking along the edge. The lake that we live by is just the opposite. It looks really dirty. I'm really not much of a nature girl at all. I don't mind going for walks or bike rides by the lake or even going up to the mountains once or twice a year but that about covers it. I'm not in to camping or anything of the like. We went and ate lunch at the Meers restaurant that I mentioned in my last post. Check out the size of this burger! No, I didn't eat the whole thing for those of you who are wondering...LOL! That place is always busy. We had to wait about 45 min. for a table and then another 45 for our food.

Cassie's sleepover with her friend went well last night. They didn't seem to want to go to sleep though. Boy, there's a shocker! LOL! Little girls are grouchy in the morning when they didn't get much sleep. Pretty dramatic too. Not my fault....I told ya to go to sleep...lol. I'm sleepy too. I stayed up until I knew they were sleeping just make sure they weren't up to anything...lol.

Sleepovers

Cassie's got a friend staying over tonight. She should be here in just about 2o minutes so I thought I'd pop on here for a few minutes while I'm thinking clearly..lol. Little girls are loud at night. Especially 9 year old little girls. Or maybe it's just all of them. They think we can't hear them in her room snickering late at night but we can. Have you ever noticed they giggle about everything? Even things that aren't funny. Ya ask them what they're laughing about and they just can't tell ya....lol. I hope they go to sleep at a decent hour because Cassie's not sleeping in tomorrow...lol. I think we're driving up to the Wichita Mountains tomorrow. Mike's been wanting to go eat at the Meers Store. You wouldn't beleive the size of the hamburgers there. They're close to the size of a dinner plate. They have to cut it in to quarters so you can pick it up to eat it..lol. I think the high tomorrow is only supposed to be 89 so it'll be a good day to go up there.
I took the kids Father's Day shopping today. Cassie had fun but Joshua just tolerated it. He really dislikes shopping unless he's shopping for himself...lol. We got their Father's Day gifts for Mike all wrapped up and put away in Cassie's room. I'll be in Chicago Father's Day morning so I'll have to call and remind her of that the day before. We didn't do much else other than that today. Just ran a few errands and then came back home. I cleaned a lot but the kids mostly just hung out. Since I've finished stitching on all of my commitments and such I'm gonna go dig through my stash and see what looks interesting to start on tonight. That Blackbird book is calling my name again. I've really been in to stitching their pieces the past month or two. I've definately gotten my money's worth out of that book. Good thing too because it wasn't cheap..lol. I still need to kit up something to stitch in the airport and on the plane next week. I might go do that here in a bit as well. I still can't beleive there aren't any needlework shops in Chicago. Apparently there are some in the suburbs but I don't have the time to go searching for them. Oh well. Maybe on my next trip..lol. I think I'm pretty well over freaking out about flying. I mean I'm gonna do it so no sense in going batty over it. I've never been to Chicago and haven't looked at a map of where O'Hare is so let's just hope when my plane lands it's not too terribly close to Lake Michigan..lol. Well I better go...the doorbell's ringing....boy, she's right on time...let the fun begin..lol.

Boy, did I procrastinate on this one.....

I finished up stitching on a round robin today. I've had it for quite some time and should've finished it a long while ago. I really don't have a good reason for not finishing it sooner. There just always seemed to be other gifts and things to stitch. It belongs to a good stitching friend of mine and I don't think she minded too much. At least if she did she didn't tell me...lol. Anyway, it's really beautiful and I know she's gonna love it once she gets it back. All it needs is a house stitched in the center and then there's some beading to be done. It still needs a pair of snails as well. I stitched a portion of the bottom left. She's gonna add thesnails for me as they require french knots and I don't know how to do those. I've tried to teach myself with no luck. I know how to do every other stitch under the sun except for french knots. It's a mystery to me as to why I can't do them. When they're required in something I'm stitching I usually use beads instead. I have quite a collection of Mill Hill beads so finding the right color isn't much of a problem.

I want to do something fun with the kids tomorrow but I don't know what. I was thinking of taking them to that new penguin movie. I think it's called Surf's Up. I still want to see the new Pirates movie too. I noticed Harry Potter starts July 11th. I know we'll see that one....at least Mike & I will. I've noticed previews for a rat movie opening the end of this month that looks pretty funny. The kids both want to see that one. I've noticed that every summer they put the really great movies out. Joshua wants to see that new Fantastic 4 movie but I'm not sure what that one's rated. They said something today about wanting to go fishing. They're gonna have to wait for Mike on that one. I don't eat fish and I don't catch them...I just have them for pets..LOL. We've taken them fishing before. They even have their own poles. They think it's great fun to put a worm on a hook. For the most part I just watch the birds or stare at the water..LOL.

Boy it got hot quick!

Up until now we had a really mild start to the summer. It had only been in the 70's-80's for the past few weeks and when the rain stopped it jumped up to the 90's. I believe the high on Thursday is supposed to be 98...yuk! I like 9o fine but it's just not much fun when it gets to be 100 or higher. I see lots of swimming coming in the near future. It's a good thing too..I really need a tan. I usually go to the tanning salon a month before summer starts but I didn't get to it this year. I was so busy with other things it just slipped my mind. We had a pretty good day today. The kids spent a few hours this morning at their grandparent's house so I went out alone and got some things done. I had a lot to do and get it done much quicker when I'm alone :). After I picked them up I bought tickets for myself, my brother, and my dad for The Museum of Science & Industry. Here's a link to their site if you'd like to see what I'll be doing on the 16th while we're in Chicago :) http://www.msichicago.org/index.html I'm really excited about going there! I also got tickets for the ne CSI exhibit...that should be very cool! I also got tickets for the U-505 submarine exhibit. I know my dad and brother really looking forward to that one. The CSI thing was my pick but I know my dad's gonna love it. I bought all of his tickets..they're his Father's Day gift from me :). I wanted to get tickets to see Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs in Omnimax but figured I should wait until we do the other things and see how much time we have left. I'm betting there won't be any time for that after we see all of the other things. I really don't believe I'd care to see the exhibit of the body slices though. I'm really not in to that kind of thing...lol. Another thing I'm really excited about is Hershey's Chicago! Anyone who knows me knows that I support the chocolate industry! LOL!

Tournament night and jumpin for joy

Tonight was Joshua's last ball game of the season. It was the first day of tournaments and they didn't win so that does it for this season. The tournaments were supposed to be last week but it rained so much they had to cancel and reschedule all of the games. Speaking of that blasted rain, they so should not have had our regular parking area open! There's a big grassy parking area by the t-ball fields where we always park. Usually when it's really wet and muddy they block it off and we have to park in parking lot by the larger fields and just walk to ours. Well it wasn't blocked off so I went on in and there was no problem..until I left! These stinkin cars parked right behind me and at an angel in front of me so the only way I could get out was to turn left...well wouldn't you know it, I get to a big muddy sink hole! I was so not gonna get stuck in that so to make a long story short my poor Santa Fe is covered in mud..LOL! It was either floor it and go or get stuck....there are sticks and branches all stuck to it. It looks like I went mudding for fun..lol. Oh well...off to the car wash I go tomorrow..lol. Anyway, back to his game. You know what I don't like about tournaments? All of the parents that come and act like morons. Let's take this guy who has a kid on the team. I don't like him and haven't since I met him. He's very arrogant. He got ticked off because a kid (maybe even his kid I couldn't tell) didn't catch the ball so he kicked the fence to the dugout. It kinda made me wanna go kick him...lol. I think someone needs to remind him that his kid is only 5 years old. Their end of season party was last night. It was at a really cool indoor party place here called Jump for Joy. It's so neat! They have these gigantic inflatable slides and things...very very cool! If I would've had my socks with me (socks are required to play) I so would've been sliding with them! LOL! We're gonna take them back next week during their open jump time before I leave for Chicago and I'll definately have my socks in tow! LOL! Look here at how much fun they were having. This slide that they're on is not the big slide. The big one was huge! After they played they ate pizza, cupcakes, and then received their tropies. Here's a pic of Joshua and his coach. This is the first trophy that he's gotten and he's thrilled to have it.

Dodging Bullets

Every year for Christmas my dad goes on a hunt to find something really interesting for Joshua. Something that'll scare me, crawl towards me, ect...This past Christmas it was something to shoot at me. He bought him a tank. A tank with little pellets that you load up and with the push of a button on a remote control they come shooting out (really quickly!). It stays in it's box when it's not being played with. As soon as he comes walking in with the box the dogs scramble to look for a safe place where they won't become the target of yet another attack. I spent a little while making sure I wasn't gonna be the target of a surprise attack as well. I have to wonder if my dad buys him these things because he thinks it's a great gift, or if he gets a kick out of knowing I'll be the target of an attack. I think that's exactly it because when he opens these sort of gifts I notice my dad lauging quietly in a corner...lol.

This has been a really good weekend! Well most of it anyway....I think I've been fighting off a stomach bug so have felt icky on and off this afternoon. Yesterday I finished up that gift for my stitching pal, Jodi that I'm meeting up with in Chicago. I wish I could post a pic of it here, I just LOVE it! I'll have to wait until after I get back from my trip though since she pops in here once in a while :). Tonight I finished stitching a Blackbird piece for another stitching buddy. This was the piece that I ran out of thread on. It arrived in yesterday's mail so I was able to get it finished up. I can't post a pic of it either until she receives it. I'll have lots of pics to post after my trip! My mom and I went out and did some shopping this afternoon. I picked up 2 really cute shirts at the mall and then we gandered over to Target. I got some things I needed for my trip there as well as a really cute necklace that was on clearance for something like $3 and another pair of flip flops. Speaking of shirts I've had some emails asking me if I translated the French on that shirt I bought a couple of weeks ago. Nope, I haven't. Sadly the poor thing was still in the bag until about 5 minutes ago..lol. It says Vivre Plus and Amoure Plus on it. Translate it if you wish...lol. At least I think it's French. The only thing I know about French and Italian is that they sound pretty...lol.

Chasing rainbows & flight restrictions

We had some really great thunderstorms this evening. I know some people don't like them but I alsways have. I love watching the clouds, especially when they turn really dark. I love lightening shows too. I don't ever wish for tornadoes but I find the whole severe weather thing really fascinating. Except for when it comes in the middle of the night and scares me clean out of my skin..lol. That happened last night. The thunder was so loud the house shook and sent me scrambling across the house because I just knew Joshua was gonna meet me half way. It looks like we're gonna have a repeat of last night so I'm not in a huge hurry to get to bed :). After it stopped raining this evening, we found 2 really pretty rainbows out back. If I'm not mistaken, I believe this was the first time that Joshua has gotten to see a big rainbow. Cassie thought it was really neat that there were 2 of them. Forget the rainbows, I want the pots of gold at the end of them :). I'm also staying up a little later tonight because I'm trying to finish up a gift for a friend. This gift is for the friend of mine that I'm meeting in Chicago in a couple of weeks. Her birthday is the beginning of July but I thought it would be much more fun to give it to her in person instead of mailing it. I'm thinking that I'm going to put her gift in my carry on bag on the plane. If I don't and put it in my suitcase, it'll be my fine luck that they'll lose it. Speaking of checking in your bags, I went to American Airlines website so I could get a list of restrictions on what you can/can't have in your carry on bag and your checked bag. When I got there, there was a link to TSA's website where you can find restrictions. After reading all of it, I'm a little concerned...lol. Get this, I can't have a bottle of perfume or hand cream in my carry on that's over 3 ounces but I can bring a screwdriver so long as it's not over 7 inches long. I have a slight problem with that...lol. You wouldn't believe some of the things they'll let you bring in your checked bag. Frankly, I'm shocked! I'm sorry but I just don't see what someone needs with an ice pick, a hatchet, or an ax in their checked bag! There is something very wrong with these restrictions..LOL! You can't bring pepper spray with you but by golly you can bring your hatchet! Good grief....I may have to bring my screwdriver with me just so I can feel safe on that plane...LOL.

On another note, did you hear about that new theme park they're opening at Universal Studios in Orlando in 2009?! It's a Harry Potter theme park called "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" and will be located in Universal's Islands of Adventure. We're definately gonna have to go back for that! We went to both Universal parks last summer and had a blast. It would've been a lot more fun if Joshua would've been a little older so I know next time will be even better. He did love the whole Jurassic Park thing. He thought it was incredibly cool that he got to see a baby dino hatch from an egg...LOL.