Michael Jackson

As everyone knows, the King of Pop passed away last week. I know there's been a lot of speculation about the cause his death, but the one thing I've enjoyed is seeing people put out their tributes to Michael, the mass Moonwalks, etc. I personally felt he got more bizarre as the years went on, but you can't deny he made some great music.

Remember how exciting it was to watch the "Thriller" video? Or where you were the first time you saw it on MTV? I remember the first time we saw that, we were at my Uncle Bill's house, and my brother Tyson freaked out and went and hid in the other room (he was 3 or 4 at the time). I also remember I had the cassette tape of "Thriller", where my friend Joe only had the record. Ah, I felt so cool and technologically advanced to have the tape! :)

I recall the summer I went with my friend Bethany to visit her relatives, and we were both terribly envious that her cousins had gotten to see the Jackson's Victory tour in Kansas City. No fair!!!

And back to "Thriller", in case you can't tell that's a favorite of mine. I loved the scene in the movie "13 Going On 30" where they staged the big dance routine to copy the "Thriller" video. Fabulous! I think that kind of rekindled my appreciation of Michael's older tunes. I'm currently really big on "Never Can Say Goodbye".

How about you? What's your favorite Michael Jackson or Jackson 5 tune???

Natalie's New Bed

After the excitement of the nail polish, I remembered to take a few pictures of Natalie's new (Katie's old) toddler bed. Here's one of the best:



We did rearrange the furniture in her room a bit, but the rest of the photos aren't all that great. They all seem to have a blurry Katie streaking through the shot... I guess that's what happens when you're rocking out to good music while playing upstairs! Katie the whirlwind is always dancing right in front of you. :)

Pretty Pink Toenails

For weeks, Katie has been bugging me to paint her fingernails and toenails. Fingernails, we've done that before, inspired by her friends Hailey and Deanna who often have theirs painted. Toenails? Never attempted that one, mostly because I have a hard enough time getting her to sit still for fingernails! But today we did it. And, since Natalie gets all worked up because she wants to have whatever Katie has, I painted her toenails as well. That was a chore. No fingernails for her, though, because of the thumb-sucking. Here they are, showing off their mani-pedis:




GORGEOUS!!!

Happy Father's Day

For an early Father's Day treat, the girls and I surprised Colin with dessert from Cold Stone Creamery on Saturday night. Yum! It was interesting to take the girls there and see what kind of flavors Katie came up with for us all to eat. Colin really enjoyed it and we all relished in our deeeeelicious ice cream.



(Notice we recently got Natalie a Kaboost as well! It's working fabulously.)

For Father's Day, the girls and I got Colin some new pajama pants, a new polo shirt, and lots of dress socks. This went along with the beautiful artwork the girls made for him as well.

After church and groceries, we were able to relax most of the day and play outside quite a bit. We enjoyed supper out at the Red Elephant, somewhere Colin had been a couple times for work but us girls had never experienced. They have a good atmosphere and super-sized portions of delicious food, so if you ever go, you may want to ask for a take-home box before you even get started to make sure you don't overeat. Seriously.

All in all, a good day. I hope the Man of Honor enjoyed himself as much as us girls did!

Escapee

Last night, Natalie absolutely, positively did not want to go to bed. We've been through this before many a time, leaving her screaming in her crib, going back to check on her and try to get her to lay down again... Last night, Colin put her down and the screaming started as he walked out the door and back downstairs. I was reading Katie her stories and assured her, as usual, that Daddy would be back to check on Natalie in just a second. Then Natalie went silent. Then, another scream, sounding different, more frantic than the previous ones. Colin came back upstairs, and Katie and I peeked out of her room, all 3 of us arriving at the same time that Natalie walked out into the hall.

WALKED out?

What the... ???

We quickly flipped on the lights and all went back into Natalie's room. Colin put her back in her crib and asked if she could show us how she got out. She did, awkwardly the first time, but then she kept demanding to be put back in until she had demonstrated her climbing ability a good half dozen times. Katie was laughing, cheering her on. Colin and I were looking at each other, slightly worried. What do we do now!?!? Her room is kind of tight, and there's a good possibility of bonking her head on other furniture if she didn't climb out exactly the way she showed us. We did the only thing we could think of: we brought Katie's toddler bed in from the garage and moved that into Natalie's room.

That was a huge bit of excitement in itself. Already up too late, the addition of a new piece of furniture got Natalie *completely* wound up. Katie got tired of it and went to bed, but Natalie just would not stay put. The novelty was too much for her. Eventually, she did go to bed and slept well last night. She also did a little bit better for nap this afternoon, and a little bit better at bedtime tonight. Hopefully the transition from crib to toddler bed doesn't take too long.

As you can imagine, this did not go down as I had planned, or should I say, as it did for Katie. We gave Katie the toddler bed for her 2nd birthday. Colin built it, and he and I painted and decorated it. I carefully picked out the perfect bedding for her. We really put a lot of thought into it, and it was a wonderful birthday surprise. I have a load of photos documenting the entire chain of events. Colin and I had planned to do it much the same way for Natalie, only now, 4 months before she turns 2, she's already in the toddler bed out of necessity. And I have no photos, which makes me feel like a bad mom. I suppose the important part is that she's sleeping somewhere that she'll be safe. I can always stage some photos later on if need be, right?

My Tank

Here it is, in all its welded steel glory:




575,000 gallons of fabulous storage capacity. It was a long haul, but I am just so pleased with the finished product. It looks gorgeous (puts our existing tanks to shame with its shiny newness!), holds water (the important part!), and now has its pumping systems up to snuff. Many thanks to my project team, Larry, Dan, Jason, Gregg, Matt, Robert, Will, and Mike. Additional thanks to Ray, David, Adam, and Joe for assistance with troubleshooting and bringing it online. It is just so satisfying to see a big construction project through to completion, and I'm glad we made it through everything and finished off our successful project.

B + E = 10

Congratulations Ben and Elisa on your 10th wedding anniversary! Really, 10 years??? I remember so much from that weekend, like it just happened a few weeks ago. The dresses, the hair, Bennigan's, South Fork, cheesecake... What a great time!

Congratulations and best wishes for many, many more!!!

Break Out the Bubbly!

Remember how once I said I'd crack a bottle of champagne over my storage tank once complete? Then recanted, not wanting to have to pick bits of glass out of the secondary containment area?

(Of course I can't find that I actually wrote that anywhere... Must've been on xanga and/or I deleted it...)

Well, the time has almost come! We've worked out some bugs with the pumping system over the last week or so and anticipate Substantial Completion this coming Monday! This tank has been a thorn in my side for nearly a year now, so I'm pretty darn excited that we've almost reached a contract milestone date. I'll have to post a photo when I think to pick a good one off the work computer. It's beautiful, and now it's functional. And I'm so happy that I may go back to my plan of champagne. :)

And then off to turn 100% of my focus to the other thorn in my side, the residential community collection center. We're nearing halfway with that one. I also have some good photos of that, again, at work... I'll get to it, I promise, so you can see what I do while standing outside all day long in the sweltering heat!

Making Me Feel Old

This Guy turned 30 today!

Yes, my brother Tyson, pictured here decked out in Katie's tiny hat and sunglasses from a couple years back, is celebrating his birthday. I didn't feel so old when I turned 30. I feel REALLY old now that my younger brother has turned 30!

He hadn't had a great week -- they're dealing with Angie's truck having been stolen and used in a robbery, and also with a sick dog -- but he sounded like he was ready for a great day today. For the milestone birthday, we sent him a pack of Chicago-style deep dish pizzas, which he loved. He was almost as excited about the catalog for additional food items that came with the pizzas, so that's cool, too.

Happy Birthday, Tyson! We hope you had an awesome day!!!

Mom-ism

It's one of those things I never thought I'd hear myself yell, yet I did.

Tired and crabby after a bad day at work and a major traffic snarl on my way to pick up the girls, we were majorly late and I had no patience for Katie trying to get into her lunchbox to dig for leftovers. We're 5 minutes from home! Daddy will have supper almost ready when we get there!

Katie kept nagging. "But I'm SOOOOO hungry. I don't know if I can make it..."

This is when I snapped, "We're gonna go home, you're gonna eat your macaroni and cheese, and YOU'RE GONNA LIKE IT!!!"

You're gonna like it? Ouch. But I think I scared Katie. She was quiet the rest of the way, pleasant to Daddy when we got home, and did eat all her supper. I still felt bad saying it, though!

So, anything you've said that sounded like something your parent would've said that you never thought would come out of your mouth??? I'm sure this won't be the last for me...