A Full Weekend

What a great weekend we had! It started out on Friday afternoon when the girls and one friend each and I went to Notre Dame to watch the marching band practice. That was awesome! They march down the front steps of the Golden Dome and across campus to this roped off parking lot where they go through their entire game day routine. And let's face it, the best part of college football IS the marching band.

Then we headed over to the bookstore at Eddy Street Commons where Grandpa works. Turns out Notre Dame legend Rudy Rudinger was there signing autographs. He and my dad had connected over a purchase Rudy had made a few days prior to this so Rudy asked my dad if we would like a picture with all the kids. Pretty cool, except I didn't have my camera. So...

After we left there we headed over for some Hot Box pizza. Delicious. Then we met up with my dear friend Carrie and her family and we all walked around the campus for a bit. It was great. The whole campus was alive with the excitement and preparations of a home game the next day. 

So, Saturday morning Emily had her horse lessons so while she and daddy were off doing that Grace and I did a little shopping for a wedding we were going to later that day. Boy, did we have fun! We had our first ever visit to Charming Charlie's! Oh My Word! We had sooooo much fun! Grace is such an accessories girl! We bought 2 headbands, a purse, a coin purse, and some perfume. What a blast!

Then the wedding...beautiful!

And to top it all off, Sunday was my mom's birthday. Can I tell you how much I love her? I don't have the words to tell you how much I love my mom. She is truly my best friend. She always mends my heart when it is broken. She always listens, without judgement, when I call and rattle on and on about school. She always laughs at my vain attempts at humor. She tells me she's proud of me, that I'm a great mom. She's brilliant, patient, kind, a model of conservative values. And...and this is the part that baffles me...she likes me!! She thinks I'm great! My hero likes me. It simply doesn't get better than that.

Rethinking Things

                                                                                                                                                                                              Found these beauties while doing some online Christmas shopping for my girls. A sign for those of you young people who don't have children yet to run, don't walk to the nearest deserted island when you have your children, lest they be infected by this ugliness!! And, you can have this picture of feminine beauty for your TODDLER for the low price of $170.00!!!

Seriously, with what outfit do these shoes work? And where does said toddler wear these, the library for story time? ArGgGGHHhh!!! Oh, wait, I know...the rest of the outfit looks like this...silly me...now I remember.

Ya know, I have to say, it's so great raising little girls today. I mean, they really can be anything they want! But, I'm concerened. My oldest daughter wants to live on a ranch with 50 horses, will this outfit work for that? My other little girl shows signs of a budding architect. But, I dunno, maybe we should rethink things. Maybe vampire slut is the right choice for our family. Man, there are just so many choices today. I've said it before and I will say it again: We've come a long way, baby.

                                              

Amazing Acres

After church today we went up to our favorite fall spot...Amazing Acres in Edwardsburg. There is soooo much to do there! Last year the girls loved the zipline but it appears we have become zipline snobs ever since grandma and grandpa put a super fast one up in their backyard. But, there was still the huge slide built under a hill:

A giant 16 ft. spider web thingy:

Gem mining.Your choice, gems or arrowheads:



Photo Ops:

 Hayrides:

Cow Train:

Corn Box (the girls favorite activity, by far):

Indoor kid maze thingy:

Ingenious goat feeding system, see that little tiny silver bucket going up to the top? It's full of food that dumps out and slides down to where that goat has his face buried:

Not to mention, a 4 mile corn maze! Mark and Emily made it through almost a mile, but Grace and I forged ahead to the end. It was great. We had a blast. All in all, we spent 5 hours at the Pumpkin Patch today. 5 hours!

PSA

Years ago when I worked for the best grocery store EVER we were trained thoroughly on customer service, how to make our shoppers want to keep coming back. Well, one of the big things I took away from that training was this. When giving a customer their change, hand them their coins FIRST then their bills. Don't hand them a stack of bills with coins floating around on top.

This afternoon I was in line at a drive through and I saw the car in front of me get handed their change and then I saw coins fall to the ground. Then, when I pulled up the lady handed me my change with the coins floating around on top and of course it's rainy and windy and the coins slide off and onto the ground. When I opened my door to get my coins there was more than $1.50 in coins down there! She'd been dropping peoples money all day. So, just to recap:

1.) Coins

2.) Bills

You're welcome.

I love the conversations I have with my husband...

Him: Glad you finally got rid of those raw cookies in the fridge.
Me:  Have you been eating them...raw?
Him: Yeah, at night with a glass of milk.
Me: Raw?
Him: They're delicious!
Me: What!!!
Him: (arms thrown up in triumph) You can't kill me with a raw cookie!!


What Mark Sees...Yummy!

 


What Alice Sees...Salmonella.

 

Hee Hee

Grandparents Day

So, my last post had a little anger in it. What can I say? I was angry. School has that effect.

But today? Today was lovely! Today, I got invited by my fully awesome 4 year old neighbor to go with him to his preschool Grandparent/Special Friend Day! It was sooooooo much fun. We read 2 books, almost drew a picture, and got sang to. It made me want to teach preschool! For about 5 minutes. Then I came to my senses. (Anne, I don't know how you do it!)! Anyway, it was so sweet. Afterwards was when I really was able to get a taste of what grandparenthood must be like. We went to McDonalds and then I took him to Martins to buy him a little stuffed puppy! OH! I love that little guy! Thanks for the special day today Braeden!

 

I

HATE IUSB!!!!!!!! I HATE GOING TO SCHOOL!!!!! I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT!!!!!!

These...

I must have...

LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE