Tuesday, September 30, 2008

and the lights go out on Greeley

It was about 6:30 and we had just finished dinner, during dinner I had watch a neighbor boy and his friend throw a football back and forth on our street. This was a new event because this teen usually kept inside and never seemed to have friends over. Anyway, after dinner we heard loud popping noises and then notice sparks flying outside, showering both Brian and my car. The electric wire was sparking and then caught on fire. The fire burned through and the red, hot wire fell onto Brian's car and slid off into the grass. At the same time the rest of the burning wire, hit my car and then landed in the street.

By this time all the neighbor were outside, and someone had called the fire dept., within minutes the large red truck with it's flashing lights headed down the street. Then again, another POP and sparks flew, everyone froze, Colleen picked up her son and ran to the safety of her porch. This time the lights (that had just flickered before) when out, about 10 homes, including us, had no power. 

Amelia was a bit freaked out and grabbed her green blanket and draped it over her head as we stood in the door way and watched the firemen inspect the area. Joey, age 3, came out dresses in his fireman gear, ready for action. We waited awhile then went down the street to a house with power and all the kids played while we waited for AmerenUE to show up. As we were heading home they finally showed up about 8:30. We got the girls ready for bed by candle light and candles placed up high was their nightlight, Anna kept asking me to turn the lights on. 

It was an adventurous night, they think the boy's hit the wire with the ball and twisted the wires, one neighbor thought they were throwing firecrackers up and that hit the wire, either way... Brian's car was scratch a bit from the burning wire, and the power was restored at 10:00 p.m.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Date Night with Ira Glass

Thanks to Brian's brother Dan we had a date night on Saturday, it had been awhile since we had a date night, Dan gave us tickets to see Ira Glass at the pageant in Ucity's Loop. Brian and I had never really heard about Ira but watched some video clips and thought it sounded interesting, so sitting in the front row we were entertained by his stories of the Prison Performing Arts, this is a nonprofit group that teaches theater to prisoners in Missouri and is the group Dan works for. 

I was impressed with Ira's story telling abilities while also mixing sound clips, music and speech on the spot, on stage, he was a sort of juggler of sound & speech, creating a wonderful show that kept me engrossed. I quickly learned that everyone would sound better with some sort of soft melancholy music playing in the background as they spoke. I wish I had this music playing when I had to meet my clients!

Afterward Dan gave us backstage passes to have a drink with Ira, which was a first for me, we headed backstage where they had set up small round tables that people mingled about. There were about 30 people and they all seemed to know each other except us. Since I was new to Ira Glass I felt a bit guilty backstage, knowing that there were teams of fans who paid for their tickets and would truly enjoy this chance to meet him in this private setting. I watched Ira wondering if I should approach him, not knowing what I would even say, it seems as others felt the same way since he stood alone talking with one woman for quite awhile. By the time Dan came around and was going to introduce us to Ira, it seemed everyone had gotten up their nerve to approach him and he was surrounded, oh well. It was a lovey night out with my sweetie, something different than a movie and long overdue.

One more shout out to my parents for always babysitting the girls so we can go out, we are lucky to have them do this for us and lucky the girls love when Grammy & Papa visit. I know this because as soon as they came over Amelia was pushing us out the door saying, "bye mama, have fun tonight, bye".

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle



This is a photo of the mural I painted at the girl's school over the summer. It is for a new recycle, crafting station for the kids to make treasures out of trash. The flash made the blue look a bit odd, overall I think it turned out cute.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Diaper Free!


Yippeeeeee!!!!! We are finally and officially diaper free, Anna has not worn a diaper for over a month now. She is totally potty trained (she does wear pull ups to bed at night) and we are loving being a diaper free family. I gave away both my diaper genies and I am ready to list the potty seat & potty ring on Craig's list. My diaper backpack it so light and I am thinking that might be going soon also. I'm so happy, I could do a happy dance!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Laundry... Spots!

I can't get these spots out... with two kids I am always battling spots! If the spots are on white that's easy... I have my handy bleach gel pen that works great. But on colors I am stuck, spray & wash never seems to get it all the way out. Help... does anyone have any cleaning secrets to send me?

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Project Runway


I am a project runway junky, it's really the only thing I watch right now. Every Wednesday night around 9:45 Brian and I watch and enjoy their creations. Right now they are down to 5 and my guess is that Jerell, Korto & Leanne will go to BP fashion week. My winner guess... not too sure I like all three a lot, but I would guess Jerell, his style always seems so high fashion.

Kenley & Suede have to go, they both drive me crazy, they are both over confident, it's getting annoying!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

One, Two, Three... Slide



A few more St. Louis City museum photos... here the gang is sliding on the skate boarding ramps. They have a great room with all these ramps and pikes, I guess you can bring your board in and go to town. No one was skate boarding so we all started sliding down the ramps, and more & more kids joined in. I figure the girls must have gone up and down this thing about 30 times!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Crazy, Busy Weekend!


So Friday, my birthday, was a super crazy day! It started with a play date at the neighbor's house at 10:00 then home to clean & cook for the big couples shower at my house for my brother Brent & Helen. Lots of wine, yummy food, family & friends...it was wonderful fun!
Then Saturday we spend the whole day at the St. Louis City Museum, which is a fun playground for kids & adults! Here Brian gets sucked into the ball pit, it was fun until Brent lost his phone. Luckily it didn't take too long searching under the balls for the phone. After the museum we when home for a quick nap and then went over to my parents house for dinner and a night swim.
Sunday was the family picnic, but it got rained out and moved to The Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch, of course by the time we left the sun was shining. On the way to the spaghetti factory we were telling the girls where we were going and Anna said, "After the spaghetti factory can we go to the pizza factory"? Brain asked her where the pizza factory was and she said, "I don't know Pops, you're the one driving!" We both chuckled over that one!

After a late lunch we head back home where I worked on a new product logo till 11:00 pm which had to be done Monday. 

Monday, ahhhh nothing to do, no where to go, staying home and do a post party cleaning of the house and recuperate from this jammed packed weekend!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

More Photoshop Fun

I love photoshop, you can do so much to enhance any photo... here is a sweet photo of Anna and me from last October. To really appreciate the work, you should know my shirt is really a dark gold color. Anyway, a bit of fun... isn't my Anna just darling! Spoken like a true mom I guess.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Halloween project

My latest project, some hair bows for the girls... Halloween is coming, I can't wait, I love halloween. And with Anna's birthday the day after halloween we always throw a halloween themed birthday party. This year she wanted a duck party, so we are having a vampire or mummy duck party. I am looking forward to seeing all the kids dressed up.

I remember always making my costumes. One year, I guess I was in 4th or 5th grade, I made a robot costume. I took two boxes, cut out arm & eye holes and covered them in foil. Then I painted bottle caps and buttons to glue them on for the knobs. It was a bit bulky and I had a hard time seeing out of the head piece, but I was very proud of it!!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Anna & the Beetle

Just a little photoshop fun... fairy Anna takes a ride on a beetle!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Memories - college no.1

I ran into an Alpha Xi Delta sorority sister last week and seeing her made me think college and how my sorority was very involved in inter mural sports. I remember playing indoor & outdoor soccer, softball, flag football, volleyball, even water polo (we played sitting in inter tubes wearing the funny numbered caps to protect your ears) I wish I had a picture of that!

 I remember how much fun it was, except one day I had a softball game after dinner. I had eaten a turkey sandwich from the school's cafeteria and went to the game. After awhile I felt very ill and one of my sisters took me back to the house. I ran inside and threw up and continued to throw up for 2 days straight. I had food poisoning and that was the sickest I had ever been. I was up all night shivering and sweating through my clothes. My parents were hours away and so my sisters took care of me. It's always nice to know you have sisters to look out for you.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Chalk


My girls love chalk, 8 out 10 times when we play in the backyard they are drawing something with chalk. They draw people, hop scotch, houses, flowers, etc. Amelia got a 100 piece bag of chalk for her birthday, so I think we are set for life. The photo below shows Anna's jelly bean style people and Amelia's drawing of me, purple curly hair and a two toned dress. These things make me smile!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Gymnastics



We started taking gymnastics, the girls look so cute in their new leotards. It was really hard finding some nice leotards that were not crazy colors with rainbow sparkles all over. Luckily we found these (sweet & simple) and they both loved them. Amelia took the 4 year old class and Anna & I took the 1-2 year, mommy & me class. They both had a fun time, Anna loved jumping on the trampoline and swinging from the rings. It is a great way to get their energy out, it wore them both out, and they both took long naps! Great for me... we love gymnastics!



Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Carnival - Maplewood Days





Our girls are getting big enough to do the rides at the carnivals and they love the kiddie rides. We went to Maplewood Days Saturday night with my parents. After riding a few kid rides they wanted to ride the bigger, faster rides, so we gave it a try. We picked the scrambler, Mom, Amelia and me were in one car, Brian, Dad and Anna in another. Main objective... don't crush the kids! It was fast!!! I don't remember this ride being that fast and it was really long. I guess since it was early and really no line they let the rides go longer, I thought it would never end. Amelia did not like it and cried a tiny bit then just kept asking me to stop the ride. Brian said that Anna did not cry, but did not laugh either, maybe she was frozen with fear? After the ride Amelia really wanted to watch the scrambler, maybe to see what just happened to her from another angle?

I think we will stick with the kiddie rides a bit longer.