Does This Ever Get Tiring?

Being surrounded by clowns, I mean. In my world? No. It doesn't get old. Just more entertaining each time.

On Wednesday, Texas LAFS had their annual showcase, where clowns from different cities gather and show what they came up with for their October school safety skits. This is a great way for the clowns to socialize, trade off ideas for how to teach kids safety, and just have a few laughs.

Cary and I got to volunteer this year, which included 2 additional days of preparation. We joined with my dad to practice their skit on Monday and Tuesday, loading a prop-filled trailer onto a truck, an overnight stay with 5 a.m. wake up call on Wednesday, and driving up to Denton for the showcase.

Cary and I got the fun of running the desk where registration was held, as well as handing out t-shirts, and selling items (more t-shirts and magic items). We also got to enjoy the shows and give input if we had any.

The worst part of the day was how I just craved to be with Brylee, who was spending her time with her Oma and Opa. Another little one, who just turned one, was there entertaining us with her big smiles and newly acquired walking abilities. Seeing her made me just want to hold Brylee. So once the day was over, I was so glad to see her again!

The overall day (or week) was a success, and a great time. The weather was gorgeous (89 degrees after several days of 103+) and Chester got to spend his time outside at my parents. I also got some great ideas of how to create new skits for Ashes and Radio, or help them remember what they saw there as well.

I really enjoy getting to help out the Lewisville LAFS team, and I hope that we can do it again sometime!

Mommy's Day Out

I could get used to this!

I have been trying to get out of the apartment a little more with Brylee during the day, but realized that when I do, it's mostly just the 2 of us. Where can Brylee get time with other ones her age?

The answer came from the super sweet Jacqueline, a former co-worker of mine (the one who lent me the exersaucer) who has a little boy, Lucas. She has been so helpful with finding a Mom's Club, and then invited Brylee and me to join her and some friends at the Galleria in the kids' play area.

I'm so glad we got our lazy bums out there--it was such fun, and Brylee saw some really cute kids, including little Lucas (I can see why people say they could just eat babies...with Lucas' beautiful eyes and big cheeks, I could too!). She was very reserved at first, but after showing her the giant ladybug, she started smiling and acting more like herself again--even kissing the ladybug (and getting a kiss from Lucas at the end of the day!)

Thank you, Jacqueline for the invite...it was a much needed change of pace, and I can't wait to get to the Mom's Club and socialize more!

Caption Of The Week II

9 Months!

This little cutie turns 9 months today!!!

She's getting around like crazy, and like I have said in emails and other blogs, she crawls to either get to Chester, his toys, or to someplace where she can stand up. There are moments when we see her let go of whatever she's holding onto for just a brief second and then either fall, or grab onto the item again. Not much longer until those first steps happen!

We are working on getting her to say 'dada', or 'momma'. She just laughs at us instead. But I am enjoying these last few days before that talking begins because, like crawling, I know it is only a matter of time before I will never hear peace again.
She is eating like crazy, and I have an appointment with her on August 27, so we shall see how much she weighs, and what percentile she is in!
For once, I think I'm speechless about any updates because I have written so many recently, so I'll just add a couple of captions to the pictures we have here!

Her first carousel ride with her T-Ma

Digging into her B-Pa's ice cream cone after the carousel. She was famished! (or so she thought)

Look at that face!

Wearing the adorable rain hat her Aunt Amy and Cousin Stacy got her. Now we just need rain!

Dora Ponderings...

(photo found here)

This morning, as Brylee and I eat breakfast, I have Dora the Explorer on, because, let's face it, I'm not exactly a morning person. Conversation with a little one is not exactly the easiest to do when you are trying to wake up.

I had 2 thoughts regarding this show:

1) they just had Dora's Birthday video go on sale for around $15. But the last 2 mornings in a row, they have shown it on Nickelodeon. Easy enough to just record and let your toddler watch over and over again. I do understand, though, that it might be easier to have the video that can travel with the toddler, even into the other room for some parent to be able to not have to watch constantly (I babysat, so I know that kids go through a phase of wanting to watch the same thing 20 times a day...)

2) How did Dora's head get to be bigger than both of her parents' combined? Wow!

And now, after seeing the show 2 mornings in a row: I know it's the big release, but why must you show it on Nick 2 mornings in a row? What about the parents? Don't you want them to keep their sanity? (See parenthesis in point #1).

Otherwise, I am enjoying this cute show, and so does Brylee, so I guess that is what matters!

Happy Birthday Dora!

Another Game Night Weekend

Wow...just...wow. What a weekend!

Sick family, busy family, visiting family...does this sound like a typical weekend for us? Yes...minus the sick family.

Poor Opa was not feeling well this weekend, so Brylee didn't get to visit with him. I say Brylee didn't get to visit, but I think all four of us (including Chester) missed our time with him. We did get to have fun with Oma, though, when she came over and fixed lunch (meatloaf and sweet potatoes!) and played some games with us on Sunday. It was interesting to have the change of pace where we were at our apartment, but I would have still loved to have Gary as well.

Backing up a bit, Friday night, my parents got to enjoy little Brylee's company, and she loves that special time with them. With a heavy heart of not having our child, Cary and I ate dinner (Cane's...very good!) and then went on a geocaching adventure, where we found 12 out of 18 caches. 3 hours on the dot from when we started and ended.

The major searching was because Cary decided to create some fun competition between our friends on geocaching.com, to see who had the highest number of caches. The fun competition got both of us wanting to get ahead of the game. And not to mention, the heat got us hopefully sweating off some pounds!

(and a 30 minute stop in Coppell to enjoy an outdoor concert in the midst of our hunting!)

Saturday was another fun game night. This time, we were celebrating August birthdays, which means that Bill was up for wearing the silly (non-existent) birthday crown. We decided to make the theme smiley faces. You know...the kind? Bill likes yellow and black together, so it was either that, or bumble bees....

What a great night! After getting to pick up my cousin Stacy from the uber-crowded Grapevine Mills Mall (stay away...I beg you! You may never get out!!!), we started of the night with Wii games, and once everyone got there, dinner of hamburgers, dessert of cupcakes and Lemon Whippersnap cookies. After dinner the games started. Well, more or less, THE GAME.

SPOONS. You may have heard of it? No? Then take a look here. There were 8, then 9, then 8 again, then 9 again...all before the first one went out with S-P-O-O-N-S...And by the end of the night, I think about 6 casualties (of the decorated spoons, not people). And who did the winner turn out to be? Bill....again. I guess being his birthday, he did deserve the win. But maybe next time, it will be me...

Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

Including a short game of Apples To Apples, the night was another success!

Happy birthday to my dear Uncle Bill, as well as Aunt Deb, Cousin Sondra, and family friend, Regina. May there be many more (and fun game nights)!

Did I Forget To Mention The Rest Of The Weekend?

Yeah. Well, in the excitement of the crazy busy day, I forgot to mention how the rest of the weekend went. Get ready for more fun stories!

Last Tuesday evening, Cary and I went to visit my parents, which lead to a quick geocache trip for the 2 guys to find a treasure box that dad was intrigued by. When they found it, dad deposited a Travel Bug, a dog-tag sized object that has 'missions'. This particular one has the destiny to have its pictures taken at the 4 corner states...

So on Friday, Cary and I got sneaky, deciding to grab the cache and get it closer to the airport to help it on its way to its destination...(I know...we're wild and uncontrollable, aren't we?)

Stormy weather was on the horizon as we stepped into the woods to find the ingenious cache, so we wanted to search and find quickly. We found it (microwave...clever!), and as Cary was pulling the container out, I saw a flash of lightening. As I wondering if I was imagining or not, my answer came: a loud bass sound resonated the sky...we worked a little more quickly to get out of the woods and back into the safety of the car.

So then off we go to the next destination: dinner. You can't expect us to continue to be mischevious without a full belly, can you?! I'm thinking Arby's!

Afterwards, we headed out towards Irving and DFW. Cary had found a geocache that was regular sized, and not a micro (which is extremely popular around here!) that would fit the travel bug inside. The weather was very threatening still, but by the time we got to our spot, it was raining, but the lightening had subsided. However, despite the threatening weather still in the distance (and a rainbow!), we dug through poison ivy and oak to find....nothing!

What a crazy time, hunting all over the meadow that the GPS showed was the location and didn't find anything. It was glorious weather now, with drizzling rain, the sun shining beautifully through the field, and get this...80 degree temps (!), and it made for ideal caching. And now that I realize that I am not allergic to poison ivy or oak (let's hope!), I want to get down and dirty to find those treasures! We just need to remember wipes for our hands so that the cars don't get nasty.

Ok. I kind of got off the point there. But since we didn't find anything there, we went on and hunted for another cache, which was only a micro, but nearby and easy to find. Unless you are short...like me. We found it, signed it, and drove back towards home. With a stop at 7-11 for ice cream (can't resist!) and then...another stop to look for another cache...that ALSO wasn't there! Shame, because this would have been the first one for me to spot on my own...but I went home still not knowing the joys of finding the cache first...but should I even mention that the shower was wonderful that night?!











On Saturday morning, Cary and I still wanted to get the travel bug on the road, so he found the next potential cache for us that would hold this travel bug...it didn't take long for us to jump in the car and drive to our next destination!

More woods, more thorny trees, more spiders...I know it sounds crazy, but it was such fun! AND I got my first cache this time!!!! I found it! I found it! And in this particular container, there was a geo coin that was placed there after someone purchased it to signify their 100th cache. When we checked out the tracking number online, we found it to have started in Maryland, get to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and now Texas...I can't wait to watch where it goes in the future, the same as my dad's travel bugs!

Ok. Now I think I've covered the major excitement from the last weekend (except for the AWESOME hamburgers that Gary made for us!), but no worries. There will be much more next weekend!
























(can you see the yellow garden spider we passed along the way?)

*If you are interested in learning more about Geocaching, go here, or talk to my dad or Cary!

Caption Of The Week

What is she saying?

Cutest answer gets....um...a hug from the cutie herself!

And yes, that is drool spilling down from her lip.

Enjoy!

How Geocaching And A Baby Shower Go Together

What a day!!!!

I'm so tired after this crazy day. Actually, the craziest part about it was driving 635 and 75 to get to Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. But that's not what this is about. Not really. Ok. Maybe just a touch...

The morning started out with Cary and I going to my parents house, where we decided to go hunting for some geocaches. 7 hunts, with 5 finds, some very easy to find, while others were near impossible to find in the woods and creeks. Mom and Brylee even joined us, mostly spending some time in the car while the little on slept in the nice a/c.

My favorite cache? The one that was plotted by dad, Cary, and myself to get mom to drive to Sonic for some nice cool beverages...we called it the Cache 44...which mom caught onto because she knew the '44' meant Route 44...

After those fun searches, the cool beverages, a quick lunch, and a stop at Sam's (48 hot dog buns for $6!!!!), we all went home where mom and I got ready for the baby shower.























This baby shower was held for my cousin's wife, Monica, who is 32 weeks pregnant. One of the nicest, friendliest people I know, Monica has been in the hospital on bedrest for over a month now. We are all rooting that her little one, Mileena, will hold on for another 5 weeks at least so that she will be born healthy.

The shower was held in 1 hour increments with at least 3 groups of people coming to see her, hoping to not over crowd the hospital room. Thankfully, I had gone to visit Monica and Mileena last Monday, so I knew how to navigate around Presby Dallas...which is very large and can get confusing easily!

Brylee got to go meet Miss Monica, and also got to see 4 of her aunts (mom's step-sisters) for the first time. And boy did she get the attention! Not more than Monica, gladly, but she got continuous compliments the whole time we were there. She did very well, except at one time she got fussy because she was hungry, but also because she wanted so bad to crawl around, but unfortunately the room was a little too full to let her do so, so mom took her to a lobby to let her 'stretch her legs'.

Monica's baby room decorations are butterflies and flowers, very pretty. I really enjoyed seeing a diaper cake that was given to her. So cute! There was also a beautiful tutu and wings that are for little Mileena to play with in the future.

I was also so glad to see my grandma and grandpa. They are such joys in my world, and I don't express it enough. It was great to see them and watch grandpa be goofy for a little time.

While we were gone, Cary and dad hopped into the car and went on a mission to find more geocaches. Total for the day, they found 8 caches...the most in one day for us.

I can't wait to go on more cache hunts with the guys, and I can't wait to meet this little Mileena, who is already very loved and blessed.

Are you as tired as I am just recapping? Have a great week!

***AND I forgot to mention that on the drive to my parents' house, Cary and I saw 5 peacocks wandering about 2 blocks away from their home!!!!! By the time I officially decided to go back to get a picture of them, we couldn't find them anywhere...until mom saw them as we drove around geocaching...but still no pictures!

Randoms...

Chester got a haircut last week. Started with me trimming his ears, and turned into Cary giving him an almost-all shave. Left his tail and paws alone, but his legs, belly, and back are all a little shorter...he looks like a puppy again!

Before

After (the pictures don't do it justice)

Last night Brylee pulled the spacebar off of my (new) laptop. Cary was able to put it back on, mostly because of his repairman talent, but I also think that Dell made the keys removable for reasons like this. However, ever since Brylee did this, I have had to press the spacebar in just the right place, or it doesn't put in a space andendsuplookinglikethis...

Brylee is crawling all over the place now. I have spent this week watching her crawl around the apartment, mostly going after Chester and his toys. I caught her trying to hide his yellow tennis ball under her legs once. I was trying to figure out exactly why she was so excited to be looking at her legs, and then moved her skirt and saw a yellow hint...non-stop fun now!

Brylee is going to be a gadget person, like her mom and dad. From the point above about the computer, she loves playing (banging) on the computers, grabbing our camera, and playing with our phones. She even has figured out that to use a smart phone like her dad's Droid, she has to use her pointer finger to touch the screen. One smart cookie!

Yesterday, there were three (3) witnesses to her waving bye-bye. As her Oma and Opa were leaving, they were waving goodbye to her, and we all saw her wave as well. And more than once because we were too excited that we had to see it over again. Since then? Nothing. She just looks at us like we are crazy...trying to prove me wrong to her daddy...

Facebook stopped putting up my blog posts for some reason. Not really a big deal, but since the majority of my readers have read it from there (3?), they probably think that I have stopped blogging. But this is my big creative outlet, and don't plan on stopping anytime soon!

Because I Haven't Written About Him Lately

Thursday, we took Chester to a new dog park in Irving. It was semi-cool in the morning so Cary thought Chester deserved to get out and stretch his legs a little.

There are 4 fields to this dog park--2 for large dogs, 2 for small ones (under 25 pounds). A couple of times a week, 2 of each of the fields are sopping wet, while the other 2 are dry. Don't know why, but we decided to have Chester go to the small dog field that was soaked in water this time. Maybe it was because in the dry small dog field, there were 2 other dogs, and we wanted to make sure he felt comfortable in this setting before going to the other. Either way, it was a 'smart' decision...



He seemed to have a great time. The fields are so nice, wet or not, and we even found leftover tennis balls to throw for him. He even decided to sniff things out a little, making his dad retrieve the tennis ball for the next game of fetch.



Unfortunately we were not out for very long due to the evil Texas summer, but I would love to take him back out so that he can interact with other dogs, as well as get some needed running and exercise!