Cheers!

Jason, Leigha and I had a pretty chill day. We ran a few errands but nothing terribly intense. It was great to sleep in a bit. I love Summer and being able to do our own thing at our own pace. Tonight's rehearsal was also really low key. We were down to four people tonight so we did some mirror excercises and talked about the plan for the troupe's future. One thing we all agree on is that we need some new people to flesh out the group a little, especially now that Zak is gone. (Miss you, buddy!) We decided the best thing we could do to help the discussion process was to go out for a post-rehearsal beer. Yay! If there's one thing in this world I love, it's the post-rehearsal beer. It's not about the drink. It's about the coming together of minds and discussing this thing that we all love mutually and have completely different ways of approaching, and in the end, it's all about what works for you. Very few things in life work out that way. Improv is seriously hippy dippy when you think about it.........Oh well. Hippies brought us Ben and Jerry's so they can't be THAT bad I guess.

Chica, let's go!

We looked at the calendar this weekend and realized we had a day and a half of free time in our schedule before Bri comes home, so we decided to do something fun and special with Leigha by herself. We came up with a list of a few cities we could easily get to, get around, and not have to travel for more than an hour or two by plane. We presented the list to Leigha and she chose, surprise surprise, Chicago. She loves the American Girl books and dolls (there's a huge store of them on the Mag Mile) and we've been there many times before. So this morning we found ourselves on a bright and early flight to the Windy City. We took the El to the loop and walked to Grant Park. Jason and Leigha haven't seen Buckingham Square Fountain yet. (I know, right?) Unbeknownst to us, the Taste of Chicago was going on in Grant Park. Cool! We didn't get anything there, but it was neat to see all the stuff. We had already planned (at Leigha's request) to have lunch at Giordano's. So we walked North from G. Park, snapped a few quick pics at The Bean (above) and had our awesome deep dish pizza that tastes like magic. We walked up Michigan Avenue to American Girl Place and Leigha indulged herself on staring at the dolls for a bit. She had some money burning a hole in her pocket, so she picked up a souvenier there, a box full of doll accessories that say 'American Girl Place, Chicago.' She has the twin baby dolls from their doll collection. (No, I'm not crazy or rich, I actually won them about three years ago in a drawing and gave them to her for Christmas that year.) After that we headed up to Oak Street Beach to splash in the chilly water of Lake Michigan. (seriously, that town has it all!) We continued into the Lincoln Park neighborhood for some coffee before turning around and walking back down to the loop to the El, and back to Midway for our flight home. I love that Chicago is only a 50 minute flight away for us. I plugged our walking route into the website that I use to log my milage while running and found out that we had walked about 5 1/2 miles today. Sweet!

1991

We had a potluck after church today. Church people food=the most incredible stuff on earth. Seriously. Keep your five star pastry chef, I'm getting some church deviled eggs and roast! Don't cry, everyone brought enough to feed an army and you're invited, too! We went to Target this afternoon then I went for a run before Jenny and Jason came over. We watched The Simpsons, and to comemmorate Michael Jackson's death, they showed a special 'Do the Bart-Man' clip at the beginning of the episode. After some TV we decided to play Super Mario (yes, yes, YES!) on the Wii. Jenny got all the way to the end of level 8-4 and was killed a mere milimeter from reaching the end of the (LAST) level, and on her last life. It was sad. After some more hang-outage Tommy got a tad squirrely and we were all tired so they left. Jason and I decided to crack into the Netflix DVD that came in the mail a couple days prior, and it just happened to be 'Kids in the Hall, Season 3, disc 1.' Uh, yeah, 1991 called...........it wants it's EVERYTHING back.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to crimp my hair and wear a floral, ruffled neck peasant blouse.

Saturday night on the town

Tonight was one of those extremely rare Saturday nights where we had nothing going on. Naturally, we decided to hit the town! We went to the 39th St. neighborhood area and had coffee and went in to Prospero's books (thinking of you, Jen!) We walked around a bit then decided to head to Brookside to see what there was to see. After a breif time there we decided to hit the Plaza and we walked up and down Brush Creek. Leigha caught some lightning bugs and I took some great pictures of the dazzling sunset. There were gondolas on the creek, which was cool. I didn't know we had that here. After a while Jason's knee was bothering him pretty bad so we called it a night. As we drove home we were treated to some fireworks from an unknown source. A perfect end to a low key night out on the cheap.

Mile One...

Inspired by Leigha's recent track success and my own past as a long distance runner, I decided to take Leigha to the track at a local high school tonight after dinner. Running on a treadmill and running out in the actual world are two very different things and climate control has little to do with it. I doubt anyone knows why for sure. My theory is that on a track you have to pace yourself instead of relying on a digital screen to do it for you. You push yourself harder when you say, "I'm running for [x distance here]!" As opposed to "I'm running for [x time here]!" Not that anything's wrong with treadmills, on the contrary, I used to easily knock out a good fourty five minutes plus on one when we had our Y memberships. I'm just saying you're more determined to get to the finish line a little faster when it's a tangent, visible thing rather than time, which you can't hurry, slow down, or reverse, much as humans may want to or try to. Either way you slice it, I took Leigha to the track, determined to run at least one mile. I ran one mile. Yeah, baby! It wasn't so bad at all, but when that little firecracker of mine took off my competitive nature took control of my inner wheel and I sped up. It wasn't until nearly two laps in that I realized I was going to have a serious asthma attack if I didn't MAJORLY cool it. (Oh yeah, sports induced asthma is part of the reason I stopped track and cross country in the first place! Perhaps I should have been more careful? Nahhhh.....) so I did. I still finished with a respectable time (roughly eight minutes) for a gal who hasn't run a mile on a track in about ten years. Oh, again, it wasn't so bad at all, but I figured I'd ham up the drama for the 'after' picture. It was seriously taken about 20 minutes after I got home. Don't I look like I'm miserable? Awesome!

On an unrelated yet still relevant note, happy birthday, Brianna! Today is her actual birthdate. She is five. God help us all. We called her today and after two minutes on the phone the little stinker said, "I'm done talking on the phone." And left. Punk kids these days.......

Menagerie

Leigha came home from camp today. She's incredibly tan and full of stories now. I'm glad she had a good time. I forgot to take a picture today until it was bloggin' time, so here she is, in all her stuffed animal world-filled glory. In case you're wondering, yes, there is a matress under there. Oh, and the My Little Pony pillow (look hard, it's like finding freakin' Waldo.) is one that she sewed herself. P.S.-it's not a cage, the girl has a daybed. Oh, and the walls aren't dark green, either. Check my 366 blog and you'll see that it's the hills I painted last year. Not a whole lot went down today beyond that......I had a brief rehearsal and Jason and I started making tentative plans for a quick trip somewhere, but other than that and Leigha coming home, not much happened. It's cool, some days are just like that.

Playing hooky

My parents left this morning just after Jason went to work. Brianna went with them, she'll be gone for a week and a half. Some kids get separation anxiety or start to cling on such occasions. Brianna gave me a hug and said, 'Okay, go away now.' She's going to have so much fun. The cool thing is that Leigha is still at camp until tomorrow afternoon. A full day without kids? Can you say PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARTAAAAAAAAAY!!!! Jason and I both had obligations this evening so we had a quick snack when he got home from work and then around 10pm we went out to Jazz for some late night date-ness. It was great. I love being able to linger without worrying about having to get home to the kiddos. Unfortunately Jason has to work tomorrow so we still weren't able to stay too too late, but it was nice to have that time alone together.

Sweet relief

Hallelujah, our air conditioner was fixed today! Jason bit the bullet and called a repairman. While the boys waited for him to show, my mom and I went out to check out a campsite for next Summer's family reunion. It was really nice, I think we're going to book it. We also got some lunch and went to a book store. When we got home, the house was blessedly cool and we all basked in it for a while. After dinner we got some ice cream and went to Legends. I love that there's a yellow brick road there, I really do. I hear there's a Legends in Reno, too. I haven't been there yet. I bet they don't have a wicked cool yellow brick road. We came home afterward and packed Brianna for her trip to my parent's house. I am going to miss that little stinker.

Kansklahoma?

It's hot. Too hot to stay around in a house with crippled AC. We left. We went to my parents' personal Mecca, Costco! We are out of coffee beans and my dad said, "Hey, we can get those at Costco." This is seriously how addicted they are: When my mom said, "Oh, I need gas." My dad said, "Hey, is there a Costco nearby?" When I need gas my first thought is never 'Where's the nearest [brand x] station?' No, that's what you call dedication. Either way we went and got coffee beans, then my dad dropped my mom, Bri and I off at the mall. We rode the carousel (Brianna was on a seal. She named it Chelsea.) and went to a few shops, including the Disney store, where I got something for Bri for Christmas 'cause it was on sale. If you're thinking to yourself, 'Holy cow, she's already started Christmas shopping?' The answer is yes, of course I have. I started in February with a few things I picked up in Germany. I'm awesome like that. And usually done before black Friday. After the guys were done at the guitar shop they had gone to while we did fun things, we all went to Oklahoma Joe's for a late lunch. Mmmm........Kansas City BBQ. Awesome. For the record, my dad preferred Jack Stack, but he held up his fingers to show that it was only 'by that much.' We came home and chilled in the basement until the sun went down, then sat outside watching fireflies again. My mom had gone in the house when we saw the first one, so I said to my dad, 'Should I go tell her it's on?' The guys looked at the AC this evening and found ice on the lines. Hopefully we can figure out what's going on and get it fixed.

Happy Birthday, Brianna! (observed)

Happy father's day to anyone out there who is male and posessing of offspring that they take care of on a consistent basis or have done so for many consecutive years in the past! We celebrated here by grilling steaks and corn like good little Americans. Leigha headed to camp today so before she left, we celebrated Brianna's FIFTH birthday so Leigha could be a part of it. Brianna is going to be heading out with my parents for her annual week alone with the grandparents, so we wanted to be together for the occasion since we can't be on her actual date of birth. It happens when you're a summer baby. In fact, the last time we were actually in town for her birthday was on the day that she was born! After the strawberry shortcake Leigha left for camp and Bri opened her presents (Jason and my dad got gifts as well) before we all chilled out and/or snoozed for a couple hours. This evening my mom, Bri and I went fabric shopping for Brianna's first day of school dress. We all came home and had a light-ish dinner, then headed to Culver's for some ice cream. A lot of people had the same idea, just FYI. We put Bri to bed before watching fireflies for a spell, (ayuh, you heard me) then watched Taken. Good movie. Oh, and it's miserably hot and I am extremely mad at my air conditioner for being stupid.

Narnia Business!

For Jason's birthday, my dad had bought tickets to the Eric Clapton concert in Omaha. (Ohhhh, no wonder her parents are visiting this particular weekend!) Tonight was THE night, so the boys took eager leave of us for the bulk of the day. Can you say 'Epic girl's night out?' That's right you can! We started by enjoying coffee and a friendly game of Yahtzee at my favorite coffeeshop in the Crossroads district. Leigha won, Bri dropped out and read The Three Little Pigs. That's hardcore. We then proceeded to drive the party wagon over to Union Station. Apparently there's a Narnia exhibition there at the moment. I didn't know! Did you? Jerk, I wouldn't hold out on you like that! It was great. We started in 'London' then proceeded to the attic and through the wardrobe into the (movie) snow of Narnia. There were props from the movie that you could see up close (so much detail! The weaponary was especially impressive.) and they had a bunch of interactive exhibits. We ended the tour in the gift shop (totally my favorite part of the books AND movies) where we bought and split a piece of Turkish Delight. Not bad, that. We decided to get some dinner at that point so we went to Crown Center and ate at Fritz's, the restaurant that delivers your food by train. My mom chased the train around the dining room to get a picture of it carrying a tray. I said, "If Lynette was here right now she'd be SO embarrassed." My mom paused and said, "Probably." (You would have melted under the table, Lynette.) After that we walked around a bit in Crown Center. While we were on the top level I saw a lady wearing a gold outfit outside near the fountains. She was doing some incredible tricks with hula hoops on a raised platform. We watched her for a while before deciding to go out and see what was going on. Apparently there's a 'Chalk Walk' at Crown Center this weekend. A bunch of sidewalk chalk artists came together and made the most beautiful drawings on the bricks that make the walkway near the fountains. It had rained earlier, but they had tarps handy for just such an occasion. There were pieces of chalk lying on the ground with a drawn encouragement to 'take one!' So we did. Leigha and I each made our meager (in the face of brilliance) contributions on the ground. I signed mine. Dare you to find it! It was getting late at that point so we headed back to the house, put the kids to bed, and my mom and I watched 'Get Smart' while eating peanuts. Aw yeah!

Ups and downs

This afternoon my parents took us to see 'UP' as part of Brianna's birthday present. It's a super cute, fun movie! The previews did not do it justice at all. I kept hearing good things about it from other people, though, and my parents said, "Don't see it, we're all going when we come out there." Awesome. Go see it. After the movie everybody else left for Hutchinson. We found out a week ago that Leigha qualified for the state track meet (follow up from the meet I posted a couple weeks ago) but with such short notice, I couldn't get out of a commitment I had and I was unable to go. I was pretty dissapointed and sad as I watched the car leave without me, but at least Leigha had Bri, Jason, and two of her grandparents there to support her. It was just Bri and I at the last one. I dinked around the house for a bit before driving to Westport for my commitment, which was a Sketchy Thoughts show. It was part of the 24 hour comedy marathon to support the Alex's Lemonade Stand charity. We ran a quick tech rehearsal at six, I grabbed some dinner at Jerusalem Cafe, then came back to the theater. The marathon started at nine pm and our show was at 11:30. We performed okay, it wasn't super tight like we normally are, but three quarters of the audience seemed to really enjoy themselves. The stage was like, 110 degrees or something, it was HOT! We were positively dripping as we left. Gee-ross. In case you're wondering, Leigha did really well. A full ten seconds faster than at the last meet! She came in last, but it was close. I'm so proud of her.

Yippy kai-ay!

This morning the girls and I got up early and drove to Lansing (Kansas). I had an improv gig for a library thing there. It was at the high school auditorium (um, hello, massive and awesome! Why wasn't my high school theater half that cool?) which was large so they gave us inconspicuous wireless head mikes (see??? Cool!!!!) which was just weird. Awesome. The show was fun and I broke a chair (or finished.......it seemed to just be incredibly tired and finally just sort of slowly leaned over during a scene) but it was cool. Oh, and it was an audience of daycare aged kids. So different from what I'm used to. On all fronts. We came home and had lunch and then my parents showed up after having driven all the way across Kansas. (and Nevada, and Utah, and the entirety of Colorado, including the half that's brown, dead and gross.) Let's all take a minute to give them a hand, shall we? *waits* We had some dinner and then my dad, Jason and I went to music practice. By special arrangement, my dad is playing with us this Sunday. He pulled out his wicked Martin accoustic and tuned up, then played about five notes before Eric jokingly said, "You're IN!" They all seemed impressed with his mad skillz. My dad is awesome. (on a related note, so is my mom.) We came home and my mom was just putting the girls to bed, so we said goodnight to them and went out on the deck to watch fireflys. My mom has never seen them! Now I don't feel quite so bad about never having seen them until I was in my twenties. It was really windy, not the best night to view them, but we managed to see a bunch. Oh, and when we came back in, Spartacus ate a june bug. Yay!

Schthweet

Cleaning, fixing, cleaning, phone call to parents to see where they are (Vail for lunch, Goodland for the night, you say? Cool!) cleaning, fixing, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Thank goodness Jen and I made plans for coffee! As you can see we both went for the 'blended ice' beverages. Go figure, it's bloody hot out there! We enjoyed each other's company and Scooters' air conditioning for a good solid two hours. Nice. The even better news is I managed to get the house up to 'semi-presentable' status, even with a half finished bathroom. Bring on the parentals!

Meemeep!

I enjoy driving home from rehearsal at night. It's dark, I can crank the music or enjoy the quiet, and I have ten gajillion different ways to get to and from, just in case I get bored of the journey. Two things to notice: One, Tiffany, notice the little bracelet on my wrist there? Ayup, I'm still wearing it. Two, yup, my check engine light is on. It's the oxogyn sensor. It happens. Today was all cleaning and fixing. Yup, still. We let the kids hang out in the wading pool for a while and they treated us to a rather unique rendition of 'If you're happy and you know it.' They're mine, all right. Rehearsal was great, we did some character and short form work. I really, really wanted to do some long form and stuff, but it just didn't happen tonight. Next week. When I got back Jason and I downloaded Super Mario Brothers onto our Wii and battled for a bit. Yeah, he's better than me. The one thing I had on him was that I know the trick to getting fireworks at the end of levels and he doesn't. Mua ha ha! Yeah.......I schooled him on that. Booya.

Phleeehhh.....

The gang left this morning at 5:30 am. Sad to see them all go, but it's good to have a break. We're pretty much running full tilt these next couple weeks, so I allowed a lot of down time today for my little family. I set up the wading pool outside for the girls and they had a blast while Jason and I had some coffee and chilled out. Later we all watched Return of the King while eating pizza. Mmmmm.....nice. This picture was taken around 7pm today; a testimony to how crazy everything has been. We have fixed up a few spots in the bathroom and did simple tasks like the dishes, but for the most part.....it's been a pretty chill day. Just what we all needed.

The hardest part

This morning the 'children,' Rita, Sheila and Paul, got together to discuss the estate. We amused ourselves by making more flower wreaths (these were incredibly elaborate, Victoria had gotten flowers from a store in town and we went foraging for tree branches. Awesome.) and then the girls saddled up the horses and the boys went to shoot guns at rocks or whatever. (um....woo hoo?) We came back to the house to discover that Paul and Rita (Sheila had helped us get the saddles on) had gotten boxes and bubble wrap and were beginning the long, painful task of dividing up stuff and deciding who was to get what among the stuff that wasn't explicitly stated in the will..........which is most everything. Everyone was crying and finding pictures and little things that were special to them. We had one last dinner of leftovers from all the food from the weekend before we loaded everyone up to bring them home with us to Kansas City for their flights in the morning. Oh yeah, and since everyone had 'one last night of freedom' without their kids, we stayed up LAAAAAAAAAAAATE and sang songs and drank wine and laughed very, very hard. Good times.

In loving memory....

Today was the funeral for Jason's grandma. Everyone dressed in black and read poems composed for the occasion. Leigha wrote one that went:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
There is no one as sweet as you
My heart will always be with you.

It was very sweet. We ate and talked and laughed long after all the friends and well wishers had gone home.

Daisy Culture

Jason's family flew in today for the funeral. First his aunt Rita and his cousin Barbie. Tim had driven up to bring us down to the house, so he picked up the first batch of people (the girls and I included) and we set off. Jason stayed behind to wait for Heidi, Holly and Kai who were stuck in Denver waiting on a flight out. My group got back to the house and we talked and caught up with each other for a bit, then made some preparations for dinner. Jason's uncle Pete came next with his aunt Eva and cousin Victoria. They had driven in from Memphis. We had a nice family dinner together. After dinner Rita, Sheila, and Pete all started talking about what to do with the estate, so the rest of us kind of quietly disappated to the outside to give them some room. We went for a walk and visited the horses. While walking we noticed a bunch of daisies lining the fence inside the pastures and the girls started picking them. Eva is from Sweden and she taught Victoria, who grew up in America, all the traditions and the language and stuff. Victoria saw the daisies and thought it would be neat to teach the girls how to make traditional Swedish flower wreaths to put in their hair. Apparently, on midsummer's day all the girls in the village would choose seven different types of flowers and weave them into a wreath. After they had chosen all seven kinds of flowers, they weren't allowed to talk for the rest of the day (Victoria said, "That's the hard part.") and then you wear the wreath to sleep and you will dream about the man you will marry. Neat, huh? We all thought it was cool and pretty soon all of us (Leigha, Bri, Victoria, Eva, me and Barbie) were on the porch weaving daisies into wreaths. Leigha also made one for Sheila to wear. Don't we look pretty? Heidi, Holly and Kai finally got a flight out in the evening and Jason drove them down. They showed up around 1am after everyone was in bed, so that kind of stinks, but at least they made it in.

I wish they all could be California girls

A suicidal possum made Jen take her car to the shop today, where she found semi-extensive damage that she had missed as a result of a spinout from the previous winter. The result? RENTAL CONVERTIBLE!!!! We like to drive together when rehearsals are downtown, and today we rode in style! Or at least more than we usually are. One thing we found out: It is IMPOSSIBLE to stop smiling when you're driving in a convertible with the top down! Oh, and Jen's not upset in this picture, that's her, "Great......what is Jess doing while I'm trying to concentrate on my driving?" face. Rehearsal was fantastic, Anomaly Orange is seriously bringing it, and the it stands for huge amounts of funny! I'm so excited for where this group is going. Jason is on bereavement leave right now. After several years of decline, his grandmother died. It happened about two weeks ago. We did most of our grieving while she was alive so we're not terribly broken up about it. It's different when it's not a sudden, tragic event. At any rate, he's taking a few days off so we can play airport shuttle for his aunt and cousins who are flying in. All day long was spent on the phone telling various relatives which flights looked best and what airports to go to. They are all flying standby and we are conducting the whole thing. It's nice to be able to help out in situations like this.

Snoredom

Despite having 2 seats and part of Brianna's to lay across and sleep, I didn't manage to get much. Certainly none with quality. So when we finally arrived back in Kansas City this morning around 10:30 I put Bri to bed (she was happy to go) asked Leigha if she was tired (no, can I watch a movie instead?) and crashed. I'm the kind of person that feels gross if I don't change out of my jammies and have never understood why people lounge around in theirs all day. Today I didn't care. I was too exhausted to care. We had to go out this evening for basic supplies (cat food, milk, etc.) so we headed to Target. On the way out I realized it was getting late-ish and I still hadn't taken a picture, so I said, "Hey, Leigha! Give me your best tired face!" Ta da! She'll be so great at acting, I can feel it.

Mavrick, mavrick, mavrick!

I'm sitting in Anchorage International Airport as I write this. We are taking the red eye out of town so instead of waiting for the end of the day to blog, like I usually do, I'm writing now. Today will not end for me for a long, long time. Jason's dad has to work tonight so he gave us the keys to his car so we could go exploring while he got a little extra sleep. We went around downtown Anchorage for a bit, getting pictures of things I didn't quite catch on our first buzz through, then we headed out of town. A few people had asked me before the trip if we were going to Wasilla, home of governor and former VP candidate Sarah Palin. I had said no because I had no idea where it was, but since we got the car and Bob's blessing to 'Get lost so I can sleep' (ah, such a charmer. Hee hee, he was totally kidding...ish) we decided to go. FYI, it's about 40 minutes outside Anchorage. I had Jason take this picture of me winking and pointing. We got a few looks from the locals, so that was fun. I swear, everyone up here has tourist radar. We were just walking through a park and everyone stopped what they were doing to look at us, it was weird! Everyone is extremely friendly, but it's uncanny how they can tell you're not from around these parts. Maybe there's a 'lower 48' tell that I'm not picking up on. Either way, it's fun to talk about where we're from and stuff, and hear the person you're talking to brag about which states they've been to. It's a sobering thought: It's exactly as hard for them to picture coming to the rest of the states as it is for you to picture coming to Alaska. We came back to the house, had dinner, and Jason's dad dropped us off at the airport a tad early so he could get to work on time. I am already planning our next trip out here.

Rhymes with steward, sounds like sewer.

It is midnight and we are waiting for the sun to go down so we can sleep. Trippy, right? Today we went to a wild animal preserve and saw a ton of big dudes. Leigha fed an elk, that was pretty cool. We jumped back on the highway and kept heading south on Alaska state highway 1. Jason said, "Highway one?" Bob replied, "Well, sure, Jason........we only have five highways!" We took so many pictures, it was insane. Every inch of this state was made for beauty. You know how sometimes you have expectations about a place based on pictures, then you go and it's totally different? Alaska is exactly what you think, and THEN some. Oh, it's literally breathtaking. It makes my heart beat just a little bit faster! We went to the small town of Seward, Alaska and caught a couple slimy scaly things. I took a picture. Then we went to an aquarium and made friends with an otter named Skittles. (Awwwww!) I want one. And a moose. They are cute. We had dinner at a great seafood place right on the shore by the dock where all the sailboats were kept. It was neat to see the boats coming in and people bringing the day's catch in in a wheelbarrow. On the way back to Anchorage we stopped to hike up to a glacier. Oh, btw, Alaska totally has mosquitos. And how.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh-laska!

This picture pretty much sums up our day. We got up and drove to the airport this morning, then hopped across the country: Kansas City-Denver-Seattle-Anchorage! Lots and lots of flights and planes and whatnot. The cool thing is, due to short(ish) layovers, three time zone changes, and a fairly direct route, we were able to get in at about 3 this afternoon. Jason's dad is a contract nurse and is currently in Anchorage. Since he's only going to be here a short while we had to jump on the opportunity to visit Alaska without having to pay for a hotel or rental car. It's gorgeous up here! We saw a ton of sea planes landing on a water runway, and before we even got to Jason's dad's place, we totally saw a moose. Being exhausted kind of makes everything hazy, so we did little beyond drive around sight seeing in town, stopping at interesting parks along the way. This is too cool.

Axis Askew

Today was an off day all around. I seemed to hit things at the wrong time, end on the wrong note, and more or less flubbed through the entire thing. Weird. I tried to help out with the taking down of VBS things from the church but ended up showing up just as everyone was leaving. I planned to check on a vacationing friend's cat and call to let her know the cat was fine (she worries) but she called before I had gotten around to it, so I felt like a loser as I explained that I was planning on going later. No biggie, but still. All that off kilter energy did not help with my improv show tonight. I just felt so.....off! Anyhow, here's a picture that pretty much sums up how I feel/felt today.

Little squirt

Today was the last day of VBS. All week long the kids have been bringing money to purchase chickens, goats and rabbits for the impoverished people of India. There were three buckets, each with a picture of one of the afforementioned animals on the side and the kids would drop their money into the bucket of their choice. Each bucket was also assigned to a person in our church. Whichever bucket had the most money raised throughout the week, the person who the bucket was assigned to would have to go into the fenced in playground area while all the kids threw water balloons at them. Nice. In the end, our friend Joe (zookeeper Joe as he's been known as this week) ended up getting creamed. Here he is exacting a little revenge on Leigha. I had a lot of fun and got a lot of complements for my acting and puppetry skills this week, but I am so glad it's over. I'm exhausted!

Just go ahead now

Today was incredibly.............scattered. Adjectives fail to describe this day, so frazzling was it. I didn't have to do puppets at VBS today so I had one of two choices: I could A. Show up and be a 'floater', meaning hang out at the registration desk just in case someone needed helping hands. (rarely happens........the biggest job the floaters have had this week to my knowledge is running to QT to get everyone sodas) or B. Take the free three hours away from the kids and enjoy my 'me' time. I won't tell you what I did, but incidentally, I have the cutest new top from Old Navy........ Everything in my Summer is chaotic at the moment. I have fifty thousand things to do and they all want to happen within a two week span. Every time I think I have a handle on it, more stuff gets dumped onto my plate, all falling within the 'red zone' of those two weeks. I just can't seem to iron out all the wrinkles and it's driving me to tears. *sigh* Oh well, the good news is with that much to do it'll go by fast...........let's hope I can do it all. This afternoon Alanna and her flock of kiddos came over for lunch. It was nice to have a friend around. The big kids played outside, the little kids played princesses, and the baby ate cat food. Seriously, she pulled herself up to the cat's food dish like it was her own personal buffet or something. Gross. Funny, yes......but mostly gross. The good news is it was designed to be eaten. This is a picture of Brianna and Clara as beautiful princesses. Awwww. Someday they'll be putting this one in a friendship scrapbook, I think.

Seranade me like there's no tomorrow!!!!

After VBS today Leigha went to Dustin and Alanna's house to spend the night with Cora. With her out of the house, Brianna took a nap and I had a nice, quiet afternoon! When Jason came home from work we went over to Denton and Hannah's for dinner. Denton is in a couple groups with me, so we talked improv and made soup. Awesome. We took in a couple of movies and then Denton and Hannah pulled out the guitar and eukaleile and seranaded us. I believe the song they are playing in this picture is 'Two Princes' by The Spin Doctors. I like that song a lot. I love hanging out with good friends.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrout!

Dear loved ones.

Life on the front lines has become grim. I long for the peace of a finished bathroom. Black powder has hung thick in the air this day and I fear the worst. If you can read this I know that not all forms of outside communication have been cut off, and I beg of you, send reinforcements and supplies, specifically copious amounts of fountain drinks. Please know that I love you all and I hope to return swiftly to the realms of the free world. But until then, I remain. Vigilantly steadfast in the face of nearly insurmountable obstacles, fighting the good fight.

Ever yours,

Jess

Vaycay Beeblay, dawg!

.........And so begins VBS week. The theme for the year is 'If Animals Could Talk.' This is the set for the first lesson. Up in the tree is the serpent and on the dirt part is Adam. (mentally add 'And Eve' and you'll see. Yup, there it is.) There is also a rooster at the base of the tree. Those are all puppets. I got to play Adam today and our pastor was the serpent. I talked to my dad on the phone last night and told him about the pastor's role in the lesson, and he laughed and said, "Wow, typecasting?" Anyhow. The rooms are sooooo cool. I had a small hand in decorating the room the kids go to tomorrow, but today's was my favorite of the five. Today was quite odd. We took Spartacus to the vet for his annual shots and had a conversation about dogs that was hilarious. Somehow we got on the subject of dogs that bite and he said, "You know, the dogs named Kujo and Killer I never have a problem with. But if it's a little white thing named Princess or Angel, you better watch out." (awesome.) I was exhausted when we got home and ended up taking a nap on the couch (weird, very weird for me) and felt blah when I woke up (which is why I don't take naps, like, ever.) so I went upstairs to grab a drink of water and noticed it was umpteen degrees warmer up there, but the air conditioner was on. Greeeeeeeeeeeeat. It just figures that the Summer I decide to let my hair grow out is the summer the air conditioner has issues. To escape the heat we opened all the windows and sat in the basement, and after dinner we went for a walk with Holly. Walking a boston terrier is a little like flying a kite. You point the rope in front of you and let it weave to it's own indecipherable rhythm. We put the kids to bed and I let the dog out to pee, but left the back door open to get some air in the house. I went to do something real quick and I heard a 'Jess, can you help me?' I went outside to find Jason in the back yard with a flashlight. The cat had gotten out and was under the deck, so Jason and I kept trying to lure him toward each other....unfortunately, he was shooing the cat my way and I was shooing him Jason's way. Whoops. Finally we cornered him by the tree near the shed and I was able to pick him up and take him back inside. Victory! I can't blame him for being mad at us, though. He's had a rough day.