Yee-Haw! I've got cowgirls!

So last week our little girls spent the week, 20 hours worth, at horseback riding camp. How awesome is that??? Bittersweet Ranch...it was a little girls paradise! They rode horses, cleaned stables, played games, chased cats, ate their lunch on a mountain of hay and just plain lived the country life for the week. It was grand. Check out these cowgirls! And don't forget you can click on any picture to make it larger...

This is Emily with her favorite horse, Otis. The teacher, Mr. Jason, called him "bomb-proof" because he is such an easy going horse.



And this is Grace's favorite, Boy. Look at that huge horse! And do you know that on day 3 of camp Grace fell off him, got right back up, dusted the dirt from her boots and got right back on!









At the end of camp each girl got a beautiful medal (no cheapo plastic thing either) with their names engraved on the back and a cute little tee shirt.



Oh! And check this out! There was a newborn horse that week! Check out beautiful Triton:

Fair Warning: This blogpost may contain some language not suitable for young audiences.

Boy, I hope I can find some humor in the story I'm going to share with you. Maybe it's a little early for humor, you see I am sitting here with an inch long section, actually three of them, of skin scraped off of my forehead. I can't raise my eyebrows or lower them because of the pain. And, the best part of all? They're self inflicted. You see, I got it into my head that I was going to conquer my life long fear of flying. Today. My friend has a son who is a pilot, and a darn good one at that and he wanted to take me flying, to help me. Poor kid...he couldn't have known. And BTW, he is as young as he looks. And that is a Harley shirt.

So I got to the airport and was feeling...alright. Not the best, but I certainly wasn't having the shortness of breath, dizziness, and tightness in the chest that usually hits me every time I hear a plane flying over my head.

After a bit everyone else arrived. We decide to go out onto the tarmac to pet the plane, maybe sit in it a bit. Maybe just get to be friends with it. OK. No problem. It was a little thing. Technically a 4-seater but I remember it more like the size of a tic-tac shaped coffin. The wings were weird and threw me for a loop because they were on top of the plane rather than under the windows like they are on a jet.

So, I get in (THE FRONT FREAKING SEAT WHAT WAS I THINKING???) and we just sat there while dear Mathew (the most mature 23 year old I have know to date) shows me all the dials, tells me this is the safest plane ever made, assures me we won't be going very fast. Maybe 60MPH top speed. So, alright, I think to myself, I can do this.

I
COULD
NOT
HAVE
BEEN
MORE
WRETCHEDLY
WRONG
ABOUT
ANYTHING
IN
MY
ENTIRE
LIFE!!!!!

At first when we got in we had the windows open and a lovely propeller induced breeze was filling the cockpit. I had my arm dangling out the window. It was all pretty comfortable. Even though this AIRPLANE was the exact width of 2 people butts!!! And...did I mention it was still on the ground? And not moving? That was the part I like the best.

Then dear Mathew decides to ruin the serenity I so wanted to wallow in by saying it was time to actually fly. So, he reaches over, CLOSES THE WINDOW!! which immediately locks out any chance of oxygen coming into the cabin. I was struggling to breathe. The whole thing was going downhill real quick. So we're taxiing down the runway and the instant the wheels went off the ground you could feel this soft air under you instead of the hard ground and I. LOST. IT. Now,I don't know if you've ever seen anyone lose it before. It's not for the weak, or the young. I just wanted him to land the STUPID AIRPLANE!!! To please let me out!!!

Now, I will be seeking treatment for this but right now I'm just going to lay it on the line for you. I wanted out of that plane. I wanted out more than I wanted to live. I can't explain it to you, I can't try to make you understand. I don't know that I need anyone to understand. Maybe I do, I don't know. All I know is that discovering this little factoid about yourself while 1000 feet in the air is a pretty scary place to be.

Now let me tell you how thankful I was to have in the backseat and coming in loud and clear on my headset was the intrepid Becky Callender. As I'm begging our dear pilot to land the FREAKING AIRPLANE Becky is chattering away to me all about scrapbooking supplies...all to keep my mind busy and my hands off the door. Becky, I don't know how the whole thing sounded and looked from your vantage point but I would love to be a fly on the wall when you tell your version. Except of course flies fly and I will never again be making that mistake.

SO, after a harrowing 9 minutes in the air we finally got low enough to where I could open my eyes. Right about level with the tree tops. I felt the blessed feeling of ground under us as Mathew maneuvered a flawless landing. I also started feeling a bit of pain on my forehead and noticed what turned out to be skin and blood under my fingernails. Turns out I was busy clawing the skin off my face in an attempt to keep myself from jumping. Why I'm smiling here I don't know, except that...wait, what's that I'm standing on? Oh yes, THE GROUND!!!

Well, all in all it was pretty much the most horrendous thing I have ever attempted in my life. It was by far the most terrifying thing I have ever put myself through. The pilot was great, and I'm sure that by all other measures the flight was great. But alas, it was indeed a flight. And, as my dear friends Anne and Carrie and my wonderful mom said "maybe aviation just isn't for you."

Kindergarten Graduate

Well, my baby graduated from kindergarten. I'm not sure when or how this happened but dang, she went and grew up! And her daddy and I are so proud of her! Can you hear me talking in a southern accent? I'm not sure where that's coming from...maybe the show Merkle is watching
right now about the Big Foot Creature living in Kentucky!
Anyway, Grace had a great year. In fact her teacher recommended her for the DEEP program at Twin Branch for 1st grade! So we sent in an application and Grace was tested and she got in! Yay! And, she didn't freak out when we told her about going to a different school next year. So 2 different schools next year! Yikes!
Grace had THE BEST teacher! Mrs. Johnson is the sweetest most perfectly fit kindergarten teacher on the planet! I'm going to miss her soooo much!



Now here's momma braggin':

Grace with her first of many diplomas that I'm sure she will receive in her life...



With her I Love To Read Certificate, check it out 1,567 minutes in the month of February!

And, my proudest moment of all...Grace's Citizenship Award. Her teacher chose a boy and a girl from her class to receive this award. I believe she made a great choice!

So how about a nonsensical post for you to consider...

My Top 10 Least Favorite Songs:

10 through 8. Fill in the blank with any song by Phil Collins

7. Shout by Tears For Fears. I may just hate this song because of the ridiculous name of the band. Tears For Fears? Really? Now that's just silly.

6. Convoy by C.W. McCall. Now if this song doesn't produce images in your head of a denim clad Burt Reynolds, oh dear, or better yet a NAKED Burt Reynolds sprawled out on a bear skin rug...
Eye Bleach Stat!!

5. Dancing In The Street by Anybody really. But for the sake of argument let's focus our attention on this shall we.

4. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place by The Animals.

3. Cherokee Nation by Paul Revere and the Raiders.

2. That Smell by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Ok, at first I hated this song because the title is just gross. BUT, upon further review...it is now my favorite song. I think it has a great message and I might suggest it as a college course at IUSB.

And without further adieu. My #1 least favorite song of all time is:

Blue Jean Baby Queen by David Essex. P-UKE! If you are unaware of this truly hideous song and you think you can stomach it, click here. Fair Warning!! Don't do it!! This song provokes feelings of violence in me. I can't explain it but it makes me want to hit the wall, or the speakers, or my husband when he starts humming the first hideous bars just to watch my reaction. And it didn't help when Michael Damien thought he could improve it. Now, if President Obama wants to turn us into a socialist country the only area in which I could support him would be in the banning of this song.
Trust me, it's for your own good America. You'll thank me later.

Da Polls

So, I got to work the polls on election day. First time ever. I remember kids in high school like getting to miss a day of school to do it and I actually thought, wow, I'd rather be in class than do such a totally geeky thing. Duh...

OK, I obviously underestimated the potential for fun at the polls so many years ago. We had a blast!

So at 4:45 in the a.m. (hello! 4:45 comes twice in a day? whoda thunk it?) Anyway at 4:45 in the a.m. my dad comes knocking on my door. We were in the same polling location, the two of us plus Anne. Yeah, can you imagine?

Anyway, so apparently you are not aloud to discuss politics at the polls lest you earn yourself a class A misdemeanor. This was going to be a challenge for all involved parties. First of all my dad is a die hard conservative and...a Kensinger, so he will argue with you till your screaming UNCLE!!! And Anne? Well what can I say about Anne. Dear, dear Anne. Basically Anne doesn't care what anyone thinks about her. If she ends up in the pokey with a class A misdemeanor it was well worth it to have potentially brought someone into the light. I LOVE that about her. Though when she starts it takes me back to my smoke filled childhood and I begin to get palpitations.

Ok, so Anne and I were at our table with our 2 liberal counterparts, one of whom worked for the Teamsters for 30 years and the other who told us during introductions that she was an animal rights activist. Oh, this was going to be a fun, fun day.

Well, me and my liberal hit it off immediately. We talked and talked and talked. At least until 2:30. So I checked the time, yeah, it was only like 8:00. So we decided to pass the time playing games. We drew up a scoreboard with every one's names on it and got started by seeing who could guess the occupations of our "customers". Then we estimated bricks on the wall in front of us. We played "name 5" for at least 4 hours. Then we had 1 on 1 who could name the most whatever: countries (I won with a total of 40 in 2 minutes), presidents, sports teams, and so on.

Oh, so Anne's lib (you remember, the animal activist) was a hoot. Anne had been talking about her pet rabbit and how she should have brought it along and I mentioned that her rabbit was named George, after George Bush, and do you know Miss Animal Rights Activist said it was a good thing Anne didn't have that rabbit with her cause she'd sneak out back with it and snap it's little neck!!!!

The Polls, it was great. It was exhausting. And by 6 we were ready to go BUT! The polls must be closed properly. And the proper way it must be done is for the Inspector to go out front and shout "Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The Polls Are Now Closed!" Well, guess what? They let me do it! Whoo Hoo!!

Okay, so after 13 hours and 84 voters we were completely zoned out! But wait! Jackie won! We have to go to her victory party! Bear with me here, only a little longer to go.

So me and my dad have this curse. The Kensinger curse. We don't ever want the party to end. Sort of like this blog post. So after following our libs to the county city building in downtown South Bend we decided to head to Elkhart for the par-tay. Well, it was supposed to be at this particular restaurant but we didn't know how to get there so we swung by Jackie's HQ and saw that the "open" sign was on so we thought we'd stop in there. We go in on a victory high shouting "JACKIEEEEE" All of a sudden this older lady comes rushing out of this little office area with her finger over her mouth. Seems Jackie's campaign manager Matt Kirby was still on the phone getting results. And the lady who came out to hush us? Jackie's mom! Then Jackie came out and we got to congratulate her and her husband. Man, it was thrilling! And this was just the primary? Wow, they might want to pull the plug on that "open" sign come November cause me and my dad will be hootin' even more then!!!

Part Duex

OK, I know you're just chomping at the bit to get to see how this drama will unfold. Well, sit on down and enjoy the show...
So after eating at Ed Debevics we went on to our hotel, the Hyatt Regency on Wacker. $73 on Hotwire!! Yeah Baby!! So we get our key for our room on the...17th floor?? Hello!! I called and requested 4th and below! Fire, people! Hotels catch FIRE! Plus anything above the 4th floor and I can feel the building sway...it's not pretty.
So fancy Chicago clerk lady gives us a new room key for the 4th floor and when we get up to it we slide our key in and the door only opened about 6 inches. It was locked from the inside. My first thought was wow, how did they do that? This IS a fancy hotel. Then we heard the TV and saw the lights on and clothes hanging in the closet!! AHhhhh, the room was already occupied! So we bolted for the elevator, went back to fancy Chicago clerk lady and told her what had happened and all she said was "Oh, let me get you a new room." Really?
Ok, so our new room had no roommates so we took it. That evening we decided to go for a walk up Michigan Ave. It was a perfect night. We walked about 8 blocks then saw a horse and buggy so we decided to take a ride. The driver talked our ear off the whole time. About everything and nothing at all. She at one point even mentioned "pimping out her horse." Glad the girls didn't hear that. That's just the question I want my 6 year old asking: mommy what does pimping mean?



So the next morning we had planned a surprise trip to Navy Pier to see our first ever IMAX movie. And guess what? It was sold out! A 10a.m. movie sold out? The girls handled the disappointment very well. So we hopped on a bus to American Girl. My daughters mecca. They L O V E American Girl. And so do I. The books are fabulous. The dolls are beautiful. The store is pink. What more do you need?
We had lunch there. Well worth it. The AG website does NOT sell it well. I could sell it well. It was the best food we'd had in Chicago the last 2 trips. Mostly because we have to eat at gimmicky places because the kids love it. And that's alright. But it was nice to finally have some good food.





So, that was this years trip. This is turning out to be a tradition for us. Remember last years visit?

Hey Chicago, Whaddaya Say? Cubs Are Gonna Win TODAY!!

Chicago Trip Installment 1:

So we had a great 2 days in Chicago.
On Sunday we took our girls to their very first ever Cubs game. We got there about 2 hours before the game started and found this guy standing on a corner a block from Wrigley Field with a tiny parking sign in his hand. $30 to park, so we follow him to this back ally behind this row of townhouses and park our car right under the sign that reads : "PRIVATE PARKING. TOWED AT OWNERS EXPENSE." I instantly lost all street smarts I may have thought that I previously possessed and asked the guy how we could know if he was legit and wasn't just stickin' us in someones personal parking spot while they're running to the grocery store. I mean this guy parked 6 cars at $30 a piece and could vanish in the time it would take for the actual owner to just begin his navigation through Cubs fans on his way to get some toilet paper.
Well, anyway, luckily my weak little unintended-but-turned-out-to-be-an-insult didn't result in the guy vandalizing our car just to get me back.

Okay, so we get into the park and begin our assent to our seats. Section 514 Row 9. Yeah, guess where that is. THE VERY TOP ROW OF WRIGLEY FIELD!!! Our backs were up against the fence that holds the whole stadium together. You know which seats I'm talking about. The ones where if you trip over one step you'll fling yourself over the 2 balconies below you and out into center field. The ones where you're in a whole different climate from the lucky saps sitting behind the dugouts. Okay, I will say this though. I did find comfort in the fact that we were so high up there was virtually no chance I could be killed by a foul ball flying at my head at 125 MPH. And after I popped a Xanax I really didn't care about any of that anyway. You can see how much Grace loved our seats. Poor kid was as freaked out as I was (pre-medication):



And guess what?? We got a couple balls autographed by (one of) Merkles heros, Ron Santo. AND...the girls got to run the bases at the end of the game!






So after all that excitement we went to Ed Debevics for some mistreatment and bad food but...hey, you can't beat a good counter dance:

A Middle Of The Night Scare

So last night I was laying in bed going through my routine of laying in bed for an hour trying to turn off my head and go to sleep. After about 25 minutes I heard a couple little bang-ee sounds and waited to see if someone was going into the potty but no one ever did. So I laid there for about 10 more minutes then thought I should get up and just check to make sure everything was alright.

So I peek into Emily's room and she's not there. I check Grace's room, not there. I check the potty, not there. OK, time to wake up Merkle. So Mark darts out of bed. Snoring to 60 in less than a second. So he rechecks the bedrooms then all the rooms downstairs. Living room, kitchen, family room, dining room, Ethan's room, extra potty. No Emily.

I'm cowering in the corner of our room on the verge of throwing up when I decide to scan the girls' rooms again and when I went into Grace's room for the 3rd time, Emily sat up from under Grace's covers and said "How did I get here?" Yeah, she's a sleepwalker. She got up and crawled into her sister's bed under the covers and disappeared from sight. And didn't even know it.

Yeah, she thought that was the funniest thing. Oh, my heart...