Category: Family

Making lemonade

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I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. We had a bit of that situation recently. Nothing earth shattering, but we had made plans for Fourth of July, completely forgetting that this is Joe’s year to have the kids. We were kinda bummed at first, not because we don’t want them around, just because we wouldn’t be able to do what we had planned, plus having them one day during the week requires a lot of commuting which sucks. But what can you do?

To avoid having to drive all the way to our place just to drive the kids back home (can’t keep them overnight since we leave for Indianapolis the next day), we decided we should take them to see my parents. My mom loves her role as step-grandma and never declines an opportunity to have us over. Except instead of her making tons of food for us, we’re going to bring steaks, hamburgers, and hot dogs and grill for everyone. I even bought some corn dogs this weekend.

I’ll admit, we do have an ulterior motive – we don’t want my dad manning the grill because he tends to ruin the burgers by cooking them far too long. I like my meat nice and juicy and I’m getting better at grilling all the time, so I relish the opportunity to show off a bit.

Now I’m looking forward to the 4th instead of dreading all the driving around.

Boy is my face red

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And I do mean that literally – I got some sun today. And yes, we all wore sunscreen, but we didn’t reapply so eventually it stopped working. We spent six hours at the amusement park and it was hot, humid, and extremely sunny the entire time. I ended up wearing a cute double-layer white tank top with green capris. Both were fairly light-weight, but I was still sweating up a storm.

Indiana Beach

The kids hardly seemed to notice – they were busy running from ride to ride and going on the same one over and over and over again. We were so ready to leave after four hours, but they wanted to keep riding, and who could blame them? So we sucked it up and let them have their fun.

But let me tell you – I’m getting old. Yep, 31 and I feel like my grandparents no doubt did when they’d take us to Indiana Beach. I was so tired from just standing around and I got a huge headache which is only now just starting to go away. So messed up! I wasn’t even that interested in going on many rides. Not sure if it was our first ride, which was awful because it was so jerky and fast, or if I’m at that point in my life where I’m not that thrilled with rides anymore, but I enjoyed the sky ride the most. It was relaxing and gave me a bird’s eye view of the boardwalk. Check out Flickr for all the photos I took!

Frankly, I’m glad that annual event is over. I’m all set: I got my taco and Skeeball fix for the year. Although I will say this: my idea to go on a Friday was brilliant. It was so much more relaxing because there weren’t any big crowds or long lines. The only downside was they seemed to be understaffed so many rides would be shut down temporarily so the operator could manage another ride for awhile. Something new this year – designated smoking areas instead of people smoking anywhere they please. That was nice; I only recall smelling smoke once and it was when I passed the designated area. But I’m still glad it’s over. Don’t think for a second the kids won’t ask for us to go again later this year. And to that I say, “Go ask your mother.”

Tomorrow it’s Shrek 3. Can’t wait!

Kielbasa x9

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I almost forgot to write about this! I was relating my Butterball turkey sausage saga to my mom yesterday when she said she was pretty sure a grocery store in Indiana, called Strack and Van Til, carried it. She called over there and sure enough, they had a bunch in stock. So while I was battling my brother on Tetris, and Joe was working on the DSL issues, my parents ran to the store and bought 11 packages of the turkey kielbasa. My mom kept two and we took 9 home.

I’m so happy! I wonder if they’ve only discontinued distribution in Illinois. I sure hope so! Hell, I’d be willing to drive to Indiana every few months if that means I get to keep eating my favorite sausage. At the very least, we’ll get to enjoy it for a little longer. I put six in the freezer and three in the fridge since they are good until June 23rd.

Isn’t my mom nice?

Memorial Day

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I had to say something about the chirping birds in my last entry, didn’t I? They would not shut up this morning. For whatever reason they were more obnoxious than usual.

I just ate the most delicious dinner. We grilled two t-bones and made two huge baked potatoes to go along with them. The steak came out very tender and flavorful; didn’t even need the A-1. I think we get better at grilling every year.

Earlier Joe dyed my hair… twice. The first time there were a few spots that didn’t take. We went to Sally Beauty Supply to pick up more hair-dye and got some tips on how to re-do it from the helpful staff. I should shop there more often – they have good products, reasonable prices, and great service. After Joe did the touch-ups, the coloring is much more uniform. Overall it turned out a bit darker than I was expecting, but it looks good, so I’m happy.

Didn’t do much else today except clean and do laundry. We got up a little later than usual and did some grocery shopping, then spent a good part of the afternoon dealing with my hair.

Yesterday we brought a bucket of chicken and corn-on-the-cob to my parents’ house for a pre-Memorial Day celebration. I’m guessing that no one is going to want to play Pictionary with us anymore since we kicked butt at it, as always. It was fun, even if Joe spent hours trying to figure out why they are having so many problems with their DSL connection. I’m so frustrated with it that I think they should switch to cable and be done with it. We never have issues with our cable internet connection.

I’m sad that we’ve reached the end of our three-day weekend. I could get used to staying home and never working again. Who wouldn’t, right? At least we’ve got another extended weekend coming up since we took Friday off to take the kids to Indiana Beach. I think I can handle working only three days this week.

Hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday!

Bowling

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We took the kids bowling this morning thanks to the coupon I found for 2 hours of bowling (including shoe rental) and a free pitcher of pop for $19.99. We’ve been wanting to go bowling for awhile but it can quickly become very expensive, so the coupon was a nice incentive to finally go.

Brunswick Zone

We went to our neighborhood Brunswick as soon as they opened and they were already pretty busy (although you can’t tell from the picture above because by the time I took it the leagues were gone). We got the last lane and there were a bunch of empty ones between us and the leagues which was perfect since I’m not the best bowler and didn’t want to look like an ass in front of anyone but my family. The kids actually beat me the first game, although they had the benefit of bumpers. It’s pretty cool how you can choose that per player. The old bowling alley in the town where I grew up had these big foam bumpers they laid down in the gutters so everyone had to use them.

Bowling ball

I only bowled two games because I seemed to be getting worse instead of better and my hand was hurting from trying to keep my fingers from slipping out of the ball. I even dropped it once which was embarrassing. I still had fun, though. I haven’t bowled in years and it’s nice doing something different.

We’ve never been to this place before and in addition to bowling they have pool tables, a huge arcade, bumper cars and some other ride, and laser tag. The laser tag prices are insane, though. It’s $6.99 per person for 15 minutes! I’d be lying if I didn’t say I want to do it, however. Maybe one of these days.

They're looking at me!

After we played some games we went to a place called Augustinos for lunch. We drive past both locations all the time but have never been inside. Their menu is diverse, so everyone found something good to eat. I had the best sandwich ever – oven roasted turkey on a buttery croissant. The sandwich was so huge, I only ate half of it. Everyone enjoyed their food so I’m sure we’ll be back again sometime soon.

In all, a nice morning and afternoon. We got a movie from Blockbuster and will be watching it later. It’s called Happily N’Ever After. Never heard of it before, but it looked cute and it has a lot of familiar actors doing the voices, so hopefully it will be as good as Hoodwinked was.

— Update: Don’t bother. The movie sucked. I started doing laundry, I was so bored.