Dear Mr. Cheese,

Do you pride yourself on being a mini Vegas for kids? We visited our local establishment for the first time tonight. Don't get me wrong. We had a good time and will probably return, but the similarities to a Vegas establishment were astronomical.
Besides the waitresses being substituted for teenage pizza delivery kids, there were no clocks, lots of lights, and LOTS of noise. Do you really need the tempting coin pushing machine to tease the kids? I too almost caught myself wanting to give in to the temptation. The coins were SO close to the edge, but they just weren't budging. Finally, an awkward teenage girl hit the jackpot. I also think your games are fixed. I broke a sweat on the "whack a mole" to get 5 tickets. I know that I hit more moles than the toddler who waited for me to finish to also get five tickets.
Your sketch a picture is so good that it included my eye wrinkles. Thanks for that detail, Mr. Cheese!
Your jeep ride scared Riley, but the school bus and red fire truck were a hit.
I'm sure we'll see you again... next year for another fun experience.
A.B. et al.

I'll be waiting....

Sad news!

Fox has announced that you 24 fans will have to wait ’til January 2009 to get more Jack Bauer.

Fox execs say that a January 2009 start seemed the best way to give viewers what they want — a season that goes from beginning to end without interruption.


Why don't they just show an abbreviated season or keep airing shows into the summer?

Eight episodes of the new season were filmed before the writer's strike. It's not like they have to start from scratch!

[Image via WENN.]
(this blog post obtained and edited from Perezhilton.com...so it must be true)

Valentine's day

There's nothing like a good Valentine's day tatt.
Thanks Aunt Tracy for the Cars Tattoos.
Riley asked for the Peace Van on his tummy cuz he's tough like that.

A Happy Birthday to ME!

What better birthday present than Ross's return? It was such a blog worthy day that I don't know where to start. I guess from the beginning.
I started my day by being the 99th customer at Chick fil A. They started ringing the cow bell and I thought OH, Wow! I'm the 100th customer, but I was quickly informed that I was the 99th so Congratulations to the person behind me for their free meal (on my b'day) :)
Then we headed to Ozark to pick up Ross and meet "Red the Fire Truck" (from Cars).
They were escorted by Police cars, a fire truck, and the patriot guard riders. It was so exciting to see the escort with all the lights and sirens.


Once they arrived, Ross addressed an audience of about 2000 people. I knew he had excellent public speaking skills, but he really out did himself this time. They traveled about a million miles (literally) around Iraq to some of the scariest places and detonated over 40 road side bombs. We are so happy to have them home!





It took about 5 minutes of being home for me to become the second favorite parent. Riley is Ross's shadow! I asked him if he wanted to go lay down in Momma's bed and watch Mickey Mouse and he said NO, DADDY's BED! Too funny. This morning he wanted to eat breakfast in Ross's lap. Normally, its a requirement that you have to sit in your seat to eat, but we let it slip this time. The first thing he did was start telling Ross the names of his Cars. (I took the Cars away the other night for him not minding and I witnessed a temper tantrum for the first time). Thats for another blog.
It was completely annoying at first and then it just became pitiful!
Anyway, Mom and Dad sent us home with a pork loin and dad's awesome homemade BBQ sauce. I think he should start selling it. It's YUMMY! Mom made some Valentine cupcakes for my b'day so I had two! Thanks mom! I put 3 candles on one of mine and Ross informed me that I was missing a few.
Thanks to everyone for the calls, gifts, and cards.

Did you hear it?

Could you hear the loud "SHAKE YOUR BOOTY!" coming from the toddler in the produce section at Walmart tonight? It never stopped. My apologies to anyone who was between the produce section and the Mcdonald's in the back of the store who was demanded to shake their booty. Thankfully, it lessened when we got an icee.

That's right...3 posts in 24 hours! It's been a blog worthy day (and I've remained mostly indoors with little adult conversation).
I need to add an addendum to my tools blog. I was telling Carrie tonight about feeling proud that I was able to get the bolts loose from a bench tonight. I worked on it all weekend and finally recognized that I was stripping them with my wrench. I found Ross's tool kit with those cylinder things and figured out how to attach them to the wrench. I got the bolts loose and felt so proud! I was put in my place for calling them "cylinder things". I don't know the correct terminology, but I know how to use them. It requires an attachment. If anyone needs any services that require tools and no one is around to help. Call me and we'll figure it out! I'll explain the shape of the tool for you.
I have to draw the line at laying tile. Lori and I tried this one time and it was more than I could handle. If it involves renting large equipment then it requires professional assistance.

Sunday Pallet

Riley and I have made a little tradition of making a Sunday afternoon pallet.
Today, I home churched on the pallet (BAD, I know) while he played with his Cars.
It's so great that it might replace our weekend afternoon Target trips. Well, maybe only on cold or rainy days.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY CARRIE AND JARED!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LORI!

Lawn and Garden, Tools, and Equipment

I like yard work (for the most part, except picking weeds). I have been like that for as long as I can remember. When I graduated to a house in the ghetto instead of the apartment on Moan St, I often volunteered to borrow the neighbor's lawn mower and mow our yard. Sometimes, I mowed while running and considered it my work out. When I came inside to everyone laughing at me, I didn't understand why. It was a great work out.
I've been known to put Riley in his stroller and mow the yard with all the other neighborhood husbands outside. I would secretly wonder if this caused family disputes. Was I raising the bar for housework? I have my very own weed eater, edger, and blower and Ross has his.
I prefer electric. He prefers gas.
One day Ross called when I had just mowed. After a few minutes of convincing him of my technique with Riley and not using the yard guy this particular time, he believed me. I asked for a new lawn mower and had to explain that our lawn mower, while great in its time, needed to be retired. It puttered along...literally. PUTT, PUTT, DIE! The neighbor was mowing 3 rows to my 1 and I'm leaning forward trying to get another inch out of the thing. I think it was back firing too. Ross found the whole thing to be hilarious. I was not seeing any humor in the situation, but agreed to table the request until he got home. In the mean time, Bob picked it up for repair. Mom and Dad came up Saturday and brought me their power washer to clean up some mud around the driveway and pool. Well, there wasn't much power in the power washer and we couldn't figure out why so I decided to go buy one. I was feeling quite proud of myself for picking out my new purchase and getting it set up to run. I used it for 30 minutes all the while thinking this is cool. It's gas so Ross will approve and it's high powered (also a plus). I'm thinking it's working really well when all of a sudden water starts spewing like California's old faithful geyser from the long cord.
The machine shuts itself off and I find a melted spot in the cord. I look a little closer to read the words "keep away from heat". Apparently, it had come in contact with the metal box.
Fortunately, Walmart sells these cords and it was an easy fix.
I guess I wasn't quite as cool as I thought I was and now I'm wondering if all the malfunctions are operator errors!!
My recent request was this hanging extension cord (Thanks Bob!). This was my request for Ross's Christmas present. I think it's the coolest outdoor extension cord ever! It's like 50 feet long so I can take my power equipment all over the place. Don't get me wrong. If it comes down to laying mulch, blowing the driveway, or shopping I'm shopping and then I might need a mani/pedi for all that hard work back at the house.
I was going to add little tools decorated with flowers and such to my birthday list thinking Ross would be happy to keep me out of his since I'm not good at putting them right back where I found them, but after some consideration I think it might be best to leave the handy work to the handy people. I have battle wounds on my hands from trying to unscrew something outside from a tight squeeze. I'm quite happy to hand over the handy work on Tuesday and who knows maybe there will be a new lawn mower for me to enjoy here and there this summer.

WELCOME HOME, ROSS!

Ross and the guys arrived safely at Ft. Sill, OK around 10:45am.
He was able to sit in first class and slept comfortably most of the way home.
We'll pick him up in Ozark on Tuesday!

HOW 'BOUT THOSE GIANTS!

CONGRATULATIONS ELI! That was a great game (from what I watched in between magazines) and good commercials too. The half time show deserves some discussion. THANKS JANET AND JUSTIN for ruining future half time shows for your "wardrode malfunction". We are now what seems to be eternally stuck watching old men performing boring half time shows. Come on FOX! There has to be some sort of middle ground to provide better entertainment without having to resort to old guys with chi ironed straightened hair! That's my rant for now.
Did anyone else notice Simon looking better with every American Idol commercial. Maybe it was because he was smiling?!?!
Good thing Riley was around to provide an entertaining half time.

Motto

I have a motto or theme for this year. "Its try new things and Meet new People". I look forward to blogging about my new theme and I think everyone else should have one too, but that's certainly up to you. I'm going to try new restaurants, go to new places (checked Vegas off the list) and just do different things in general each month. I have already found it to be pretty fun.
There are lots of things right around here that we haven't done like visit the new cabins on Mt. Magazine and take a hike.
I decided Ross's theme last year was visit different countries, he's definately changing it this year!
By the way, 4 days until he is in Oklahoma and 10 days to HOME!!! WAHOOOO!