Category: Family

Fun Center

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I am pooped! We got home past the kids’ bedtime tonight because we were out in Indiana at the Fun Center with my family. The kids had a blast, of course, which is why we stayed out later than we normally would. I am soooo exhausted though. Winning at miniature golf is tiring! Well, I won if you only count Joe and the kids’ scores. I got two holes in one! Interestingly enough, so did The Boy. In fact, we got them at the same holes. Weird.

Fun Center

After golf it was already getting late, but since this is the last year of operation, (the owners have sold the Fun Center to Walmart), we probably won’t be back again and I wanted to make sure the kids had a good time. So they played games, went on the bumper cars, ate pizza and hot dogs, and got lots of candy with all the tickets they won.

By the time we left, it was already The Boy’s bedtime. They both went to sleep easily since they were so exhausted, and I’m going to go make myself comfortable on the couch now.

Popcorn

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Football Since it was so gorgeous out today (it’s about time!), we took the kids to the park where they tossed around the football and ran around the playground. Then we had lunch at Pizza Hut. I can’t tell you the last time I actually ate inside a Pizza Hut, but it’s been a very long time. We shared a family order of breadsticks, the kids got pasta, and Joe and I got personal pan pizzas. I only ate half of mine (Hawaiian-style) because those bread sticks are filling! I really wanted to try the cinnamon sticks but was way too full to contemplate shoving any more food in my mouth. In fact, I only had one little taco for dinner. It didn’t help that my reflux is still acting up.

After lunch we went to Petsmart and I came extremely close to getting the cutest little Chinese Dwarf hamster. Joe and The Boy were getting impatient with The Girl and me because we couldn’t stop watching this little hamster and all her acrobatics. She was hanging upside down and cracking us up. Her sisters weren’t nearly as interesting. I even had another cage in my hand at one point but then reconsidered because we don’t have much room for another hamster cage, as small as this one would be. Plus I felt like it would take my attention away from Peanut and I felt guilty about that. So as hard as it was, I had to walk away from little Popcorn (the kids named her).

I do plan to have several pets one day when we have the room, and there are a lot of different animals I wouldn’t mind owning, although not necessarily at the same time, including a dog, cat, rabbit, ferret, frogs, and a turtle. Joe might have a heart attack when he reads this!

Black Friday

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It’s official: the holiday shopping season is finally upon us. Did you get up at the butt-crack of dawn, race to your favorite store, and fight the other shoppers to get great deals? We didn’t.

Hell, we didn’t go to bed until the butt-crack of dawn! Then I got up at 10 am and ordered presents online. I’m not totally against Black Friday shopping (although I can’t tell you the last time I participated), I’m just never in the market for anything that’s on sale. Besides, I admit that like this article over at MSNBC states, I’m more towards the side of viewing it as “an obnoxious and distasteful display of unrestrained consumption.” Just the thought of all those people clamoring like animals over DVD players gets my heart racing. The closest thing we came to that insanity was last year after Christmas going to Target to buy wrapping paper 50% off. That was enough stress for me, thank you.

Do you budget for Christmas present-giving? We do, although it’s not a rigid budget. Typically we spend between $100-$125 on each of the kids, $25-$50 on each of our parents, and under $100 for each other.

My mom gave us money yesterday to buy presents for the kids and one other for her. I guess when you get to be her age the joy of giving is surpassed by the aggravation of finding something to buy. She gave us $30 for each of the kids so I ordered a GBA game for each of them. At least that’s taken care of! I couldn’t believe she gave us $100 each, however. I don’t have a clue what I’m getting Joe since I used up all the good ideas myself. I’m shocked because I don’t think she gave us that much last year. Besides, it seems so … wasteful. Not to mention the fact that I feel guilty since I make more money than my dad and I’m not supporting five people. I’m inclined to spend $50 on Joe and use the other $50 to buy a gift card at Target which we’ll then use on groceries. My mom hates when we do that, but that’s what usually happens as we have a hard time spending money on gifts just for the sake of it.

I know many of you probably have your Christmas trees and decorations up by now but I can’t do that until after Thanksgiving. Poor Thanksgiving doesn’t get enough respect as it is. All the stores put out Christmas stuff right after Halloween as if Thanksgiving doesn’t even exist. It’s so sad. Besides, I get so sick of the Christmas stuff that by the time the actual day comes around I’m already over it. Therefore, this year we’re not putting up the tree or decorations until December 17th. Oh the horror, I know!

Bike rides and mini golf

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I can’t believe I managed to drag my butt out of bed this morning at 8 am considering we didn’t get to bed until after 1 am! Yesterday was quite a day!

It started with a trip back to the forest preserve we had discovered a few weeks ago with our bikes in tow. This place has a gargantuan trail. We didn’t have a set plan, we just took off, stopping at the various intersections to decide which way to go next. The thing about this trail, however, is once you get to a certain point, it doesn’t make a loop, which means you have to come back the way you came. Well, we kept going and going and eventually realized we had gone over three miles because it connects to the Danada Forest Preserve and Equestrian Center. We rode around a bit so I could take pictures of the horses and the half-mile oval racetrack the forest preserve district has kept in tact.

In total, we rode 7 or 8 miles. Not bad considering that we haven’t ridden our bikes at all this year! Hell, I think that’s the most exercise we’ve gotten all summer. What a high, though! Sure, I thought I was going to die on that last mile, but it felt damn good too. My legs don’t even hurt that much today like I was expecting.

On the way back home we stopped at Subway to grab lunch. Afterwards we showered and took off for my parents’ place. We got there around 3:30 and hung out for a bit and had dinner. My dad had grilled some burgers and hot dogs, or more like murdered them ten times over. I told my mom I will grill them next time. He keeps the burgers on the grill for ten minutes each side!!! That is way too long which is why they are dry.

My mom wanted to go to this place in Indiana where they have go-karts, batting cages, an arcade, and miniature golf. She had free coupons for the golf and we agreed to go, but weren’t exactly looking forward to it. I’m glad we went, however, because we had a blast!! My brothers can actually be fun to hang out with when they want to be. I even got two holes in one without even trying!

We played air hockey, skeeball, and some other pointless games at the arcade. Even though it was very crowded, it didn’t feel overwhelming which was nice. When we got back to my parents’ we all played Aggravation, including my younger brother’s new girlfriend. You should have seen how mad he was getting earlier in the day when we were teasing him for meeting her on MySpace. He has mellowed out, though, and now you can tease him without him storming off to his room. It’s nice because who wants to be serious all the time?

We didn’t get home until 1 am which means I’m going to have a hell of a time getting back into our sleep schedule for work tomorrow, but it was worth it.

Gambling

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Despite not feeling completely up to it (I called in sick to work on Friday, in fact), Joe and I went to Resorts East Chicago Casino with my parents last night. My mom had been wanting to go for awhile now, but something always came up, so I didn’t want to cancel on her particularly because my Dad took the night off from his second job just to go.

We met my parents at their house and my mom drove us to the casino, which is actually in Indiana. Yes, that would be East Chicago, Indiana. Don’t ask. The area surrounding the casino is a huge steel mill and possibly a refinery as well. The expressway runs high above this area, which alone gives me the creeps, but add to that the lights from the mill at night and it reminds me of something out of A Nightmare Before Christmas. I wish I had my camera on me to get some shots as I haven’t had any luck finding some good ones via Google. So you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was/is quite creepy.

Now, you need to know that I’m not a big fan of casinos. In fact, the last time Joe and I visited one we lost $40 and I haven’t stopped bitching about it since. I just don’t see what’s so thrilling about putting money in a machine and pushing a button. It’s boring as all hell, but you wouldn’t know it from the crowd of people just feeding their hard-earned cash into the slot machines. Joe saw one woman feed $100 into one! I’m guessing the Roulette or Blackjack tables would be more fun, but I had no intentions of spending more than $40, so we didn’t bother with those.

So why even agree to go? To make my Mom happy, of course. Plus, since she is allergic to cigarette smoke, we knew it would be a quick visit, and we were right – within a half hour she was ready to go home. Of course, by that time I was starting to see how people could get hooked on gambling. I had found these Poker machines near the back and was playing Deuces Wild which was a lot more fun than the slot machines. I ended up turning my $20 into $27. Overall we lost $22 due thanks to the slot machines we played first. Not too bad I guess.

We went back to my parents, had dinner, and played Aggravation until 12:30 am. By the time we got home it was 2 am and we passed out, then slept til 10:30 am. We didn’t do much today other than buy some insulation at Menard’s (for Joe’s garage project – he is dry-walling the unfinished side and putting up shelves) and visit Target. We also visited a unit for sale across the street that had an open house. Yes, we’re nosy neighbors. I always like knowing how the other units around here are laid out and decorated, so it was fun. It gave me piece of mind talking to the realtor too, who also lives on our block. She said we got our place for a steal and identical units are selling for $20k more than we paid just a little over a year ago.