Thingamabobber for Troy's work

Today we went to a thing at the fairgrounds for Troy's work. They had rides, a lunch, and a show. We had a good time, and the weather was nice and warm (hot!). Here are the kids on a swing ride. The first time Ethan went around, he was saying "wee" the whole time, but after that he had a bored look on his face. He must have liked it, though, since he screamed when we took him out.

This picture was of the first time around.

Kevin was really getting into it, and swinging his legs like a crazy person. At least he was having fun. If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you can see Ethan in the background, about to fall asleep.
Kaitlyn may have been too big for the ride. In fact, I think all the rides were aimed at a little bit younger than her age, but she was a good sport and had fun anyway.

They had a show with Polynesian dancers. We sat on the grass and watched, and it was neat, but I think Ethan was tired and hot, and not at all interested.

Ethan put all these around his neck, and I scrambled to try to get the camera, and barely got a picture before he took them all off again.

Troy and Ethan.
Me and Kaitlyn
Here's Kevin. They had a face painting booth, and there was a place where the parents could paint their own kid's face, if they didn't want to wait in line. So I painted a basketball on Kevin's cheek. And then I decided I should not get a job as a professional face painter.

Here's Kaitlyn and Kevin, getting ready to go on the spinning ride.
And here they are spinning. They were going really fast, and Kevin couldn't even sit up. And then he looked like he just might puke, so we had to yell for Kaitlyn to stop spinning.
Troy and the kids riding on a little train.

P.S. I Love You

Troy and I watched this movie the other night. I had read the book awhile ago, and really loved it, so I kind of thought that the movie wouldn't be as good, and I was kinda right. If I don't really think about the movie at all, and just think of it as another romantic comedy, it was a pretty good movie. But I tend to think about things, and the more I do, the more I think I didn't care for this movie.

For one thing, I really like Harry Connick Jr. I thought he was excellent in Hope Floats, and he is not unattractive. Except in P.S. I Love You. He was horrible. His character was annoying, with very few redeeming qualities, and I think they kind of expected us to root for him and Holly (the female lead) to get together.

But I wasn't rooting for that. At all. In fact, I don't know what I was rooting for. It's been awhile since I read the book, so I guess I was rooting for the likeable guy that I vaguely remembered from the book. But that likeable guy wasn't in this movie. Instead we got unlikeable guy, so my brain didn't know what to do.

Which brings me to Hillary Swank as Holly. It just didn't work for me. The person playing this character needed to be a very expressive person, who is able to show a lot of emotion, and I didn't get that out of Hillary Swank. Not even a little bit. She's very pretty, and I have no doubt that she is a good actress, just not right for the part.

You see here in this picture, she looks kind of sad. This is about the extent of her sad facial expressions. Maybe I'm not remembering everything. It has been a couple of days since I've watched the movie, but I pretty much think I'm right here. And then we have the part where she takes a trip to Ireland, and sleeps with some guy. Some guy she just met. It just doesn't work with the story. Maybe the movie version of the story. But not the book version, which was, you know, actually good.

And then there was her mother. Her bitter, angry mother, who basically kept telling her to just get over it. Because at least she (the daughter) had a husband who didn't WANT to leave her. Because, you see, the mother's husband had left her. So every time she was in a scene, it was kind of all about her. Forget that her daughter's husband had just died. Her own husband had left her a long time ago, and that's what really mattered.

But then I think, when I was watching the movie I didn't really feel like it was that bad. I think that's mostly because I expected that something was going to happen. That it was going to get better, but then it never did. And then certain things did happen in the movie, and I thought "That's it? That's where you're trying to go with this whole thing?" And then I turn off my brain, and stop thinking about it, and I think the movie wasn't that bad again.

Pretty Girl

I don't get nearly enough pictures of Kaitlyn on here, so here are a couple. Isn't she pretty? She obviously takes after her mother. ;)

Where should I live?

You Should Live in a Small Town

You prefer a close knit community to the bustle of the city. You like locally owned businesses, local flavor, and friendly neighbors. There's nothing boring about a small town!

Where Should You Live?

I saw this on my friend, Melissa's blog. I like small towns. This sounds about right.

Bathtub Fun

Playing Outside

On Saturday the boys were outside with Troy while he was mowing the lawn. The dog in the first picture is Drake--the next door neighbor's dog. Ethan is not quite sure about dogs. He used to love them until the other neighbors dog scared him. He's warming up a little bit. At least he's not screaming.

That was . . . different

I decided to take the boys to the new Chick-Fil-A in The District for lunch. Usually I go through the drivethrough, because I don't particularly enjoy trying to juggle two kids who don't really listen while trying to do lunch. But I need not have worried, because they were there to serve me. And I mean it.

I pulled into my parking spot, and I was barely out of the car before a nice gentleman with an umbrella (it was sprinkling) came to keep the rain off us. Then after we got inside, and I ordered our food, the cashier said she would carry my tray to our table. Following that she went to get me straws, and grab a highchair for Ethan.

You would think that would already be above and beyond for service in a fast food place. But it wasn't. Someone came by to see if we needed our drinks refilled. And after we were done eating, another girl stopped by and took my tray with our garbage on it. It was like full service, except I didn't leave a tip.

Then, in an uncharacteristic display of niceness, I decided to let my kids play in the playplace. It was not my favorite part of the experience. There is no place in there for a parent to sit down, and there was about 20 (or more) kids in that little playroom. Really, it's not very big. It was madness. But I let the kids get some energy out, before grabbing them and making an escape.

There was no one out there waiting for me with an umbrella to escort me to my car, but I guess you can't have everything.

Women's Retreat

Last weekend I had a women's retreat with my church. It was one of the best weekends of my life. It was at The Homestead, which is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It was so relaxing, and refreshing. But on top of that, it gave me a spiritual lift that I really needed. I had personal prayers answered while I was there. I got to worship with a bunch of awesome women. I just can't say enough good things about it.

On Saturday we had some free time, and one of the activities was a olympics type thing. We were split into four teams, and we had so much fun. We may have been out in the sun a little bit too long, because I'm still feelin the hurt from my sunburn, but my team won, so I feel okay about it all. :) The picture below is some of the women that were on my team--there were three others that I didn't get in the picture.

In the picture: Laurie, me, Shalise (I don't know how to spell her name), Debbie, and Dana.
On the registration card, we had the option to put in people we wanted as roommates. I just left mine blank, because I was really looking forward to meeting some new people. Then my good friend Tracy was actually going to be in a room with me, but as it turned out, her daughter got sick and she wasn't able to come. Our room only had three, and some rooms had six women in. In a way it was nice, because it was less crowded, but it would have been nice to have more and get to know more people. I'm sure it turned out exactly as God intended it to, though.

Karyn, Teresa, me

This was the main building. There were a ton of different buildings, with rooms in each one. I would love to take a tour, and see what all the rooms are like, but I don't think they do that.

Here's the building that my room was in. You can't see it very well, but with all the trees and stuff, I couldn't get a clear picture. Oh well, the trees make it even prettier.

We had a great speaker, Grace Calbaka. The scripture theme of the retreat was Revelation 2:4:

4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.

It was all about loving God, and His love for us. I was uplifted more than I thought possible, and I definitely did not leave the retreat unchanged. I'm so thankful I was able to go, and that Troy was good enough to watch the kids so I could. I loved it!

Mother's Day

We went to Troy's parents house for Mother's Day. Kaitlyn was at my Mom's, so she wasn't there to take a picture of. The boys had fun playing outside, after we had yummy hamburgers.

Kaitlyn's Play

Kaitlyn has been in Up With Kids all year, and last Saturday they had their performance. She has been working really hard all year, and she did really good! Thank you to Mom and Dad, Scott and Robin, and Steven and Chanell for coming to see her. I'm sure it made her feel good!

It seems like almost every picture we took was either dark, or blurry. If we had it on the regular setting, the flash only helped for about 5 feet in front of us (obviously, as that's what it's designed for), and the stage was dark. If we tried other settings, they were blurry. Our camera probably isn't the best.

Here's Kaitlyn in her drummer costume. She is the third from the right. Her skirt was way too big for her, and you could see her trying to hold it up most of the time.


Here she is in her damsel costume. She said she really liked this dress, and I'm sure she'd love to take it home and wear it all the time. She's in the orange dress, right in the middle of that group of girls.

Here's her angelfish costume. She's in the purple one. They were dancing here.

And here's her pirate costume. She's in the blue, in the middle. She played the part of Catwoman. I don't know exactly where Catwoman fits into the story, but I guess they had to give every pirate a name.

Here she is dancing. They had a cute little dance they did, and although Kaitlyn tries her hardest, she was always about a half step behind all the rest of them.

Here are a couple of videos of her speaking parts.

Interesting . . .

What type of Fae are you?

Ready for the Heat!

We made a trip to Old Navy for flip flops, and now we're just waitin on the warm weather. I love going there to get flip flops, because they only cost 2 for $5, so we got a bunch. Kevin got one pair (because I wasn't sure if he'd like to wear them or not) and the rest are mine and Kaitlyn's. Her feet are almost the same size as mine, but not quite there yet.

I also found that the patterned flip flops in the women's section were twice as much, but the ones in the kid section were the same as the solids. So I got some for me from the kid section. That'll teach them a lesson.