So far, my summer has been one long vacation! Starting with Memorial weekend in Indy, New Orleans, Wisconsin, the beach, St. Louis and now tomorrow, we leave for a week in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. We're all looking forward to it. We've rented a house with a pool and cook, maid and houseman! Sounds and looks too good to be true. We'll see.....
I'll report when I get back---maybe even while I'm there.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
A Few Photos
1). Jackie's engaged. Greg and she have set the date for September 19, 2009. Notice Jackie's beer---she just pretends to drink!
2). Truly the most beautiful ring I've ever seen and huge! The picture doesn't do it justice.
3). The cutest little pregnant couple---Jessica and Mike. Baby Max is due to arrive in October.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
St. Louis is Not a Vacation Destination
Here's how it went down. I arrived yesterday afternoon. I was reminded that I had to get "stuff" out of the trunk in the garage. Well, last time I was here, mom "enticed" me with the knowledge that there was genealogical stuff I might like to have in there. I took one look at the trunk with stuff piled to the ceiling on top of it, completely boxed in around it, also piled high and decided that even if the Shroud of Turin was in there, I wasn't going for it.
Jeanne came over for dinner and went out with me to get to the trunk. Turns out, it wasn't so hard after all, because most of the boxes were empty! Seems like I inherited my box issues from my mother. We unburied the trunk and started hauling the stuff inside for mom to go through. Jeanne and I discovered what is going to be our family competition on Saturday. Mom had prom pictures for each one of us---and are they hilarious!!! Talk about hideous dresses---oh wait, that's a category for the competition (but Janice is going to win that one "hands down" for her floor length purply plaid floral number).
After Jeanne left, mom said, "yeah, I've been meaning to clean out my garage". Translated: "Barb, will you clean out my garage"? I learned a long time ago, my mother never asks for what she wants, just hints as in "I've been meaning to hang these pictures, move this stuff, inventory my safe deposit box---translated: "Barb will you, blah, blah, blah. Since I live away, I always take the hint as my sisters, Jeanne and Jennifer have to do everything else.
Fast forward to today. Bright and early this morning, I started on the garage. Mom was a little nervous about what I was going to do. She was hovering until I made her go inside. I promised that I wouldn't throw anything away (I lied about the boxes). I also promised that I would not look at the private papers she had stored in another box (okay, I took a peek---I really don't care about the make and model of the phones she has). Don't get me wrong, my mom is the queen of organization---always has been. She doesn't keep a lot of junk. It wasn't that hard of a job except that it was a garage. Thank goodness it was only a one car garage. Sweep, sneeze, drip (as in sweating), sweep, sneeze, drip, etc.---you get the picture. I also discovered little mouse droppings, but won't tell her that. When I finished, I had a pretty significant pile of crap and crud. Now what should I do with it---no dustpan. Even unbelievable to me, but I scooped up a bunch of it with my BARE hands. With the rest of it, I have a choice, sweep it into mom's grass, or the neighbor's grass. I chose the neighbor's. Not really. Okay, yes, really. What the heck, they were still sleeping. By the time they see it, the garage will be closed and they'll have no idea where it came from.
I've also been assigned lamp shopping as Jeanne has reached her frustration level with that and Jennifer has reached her---I'm going to jump off a cliff if I have to take mom shopping one more time---level. She had the unfortunate task of taking mom mattress shopping a while back and needed two stiff gin and tonics to survive the ordeal---with nary a mattress bought.
Okay, sure, I can get the lamp. Then Jeanne hits me with all the stipulations---can't cost more than $64.00, can't be made in China, has to be the correct shade of antiqued brass to match the other lamp and so on. I must say, I'm pumped for the assignment and I have an ace in the hole! Jennifer has some Made in the USA stickers to only be used as a last resort. We wouldn't want mom to catch on that all the stickers look alike!
I get along shopping with mom pretty well. I just treat her like a little kid. My last assignment was shoe shopping for my niece, Jessica's wedding. I took her to ONE shoe store (none of this driving all over tarnation for me). I found a place and told her to sit down. I asked her what size she wore and proceeded to find shoes---not too tall of a heel, no sling backs or open toes, no made in Taiwan, not too slippery, ivory---not beige, white or taupe, preferably cloth since they look more formal, etc. She found two pairs she liked and couldn't decide between the two. She asked if I was taking her somewhere else, I said "no" and made her buy both pairs. She returned the pair she didn't wear the following week.
I've also taken her bra shopping---should be pretty simple----doesn't need anything sexy, just utilitarian. Took me about 5 minutes. I just tell her what she has to buy. End of story. I predict the lamp shopping will be pretty much the same. Maybe she complains about how bossy I am, what do I care, I'm gone.
Jeanne came over for dinner and went out with me to get to the trunk. Turns out, it wasn't so hard after all, because most of the boxes were empty! Seems like I inherited my box issues from my mother. We unburied the trunk and started hauling the stuff inside for mom to go through. Jeanne and I discovered what is going to be our family competition on Saturday. Mom had prom pictures for each one of us---and are they hilarious!!! Talk about hideous dresses---oh wait, that's a category for the competition (but Janice is going to win that one "hands down" for her floor length purply plaid floral number).
After Jeanne left, mom said, "yeah, I've been meaning to clean out my garage". Translated: "Barb, will you clean out my garage"? I learned a long time ago, my mother never asks for what she wants, just hints as in "I've been meaning to hang these pictures, move this stuff, inventory my safe deposit box---translated: "Barb will you, blah, blah, blah. Since I live away, I always take the hint as my sisters, Jeanne and Jennifer have to do everything else.
Fast forward to today. Bright and early this morning, I started on the garage. Mom was a little nervous about what I was going to do. She was hovering until I made her go inside. I promised that I wouldn't throw anything away (I lied about the boxes). I also promised that I would not look at the private papers she had stored in another box (okay, I took a peek---I really don't care about the make and model of the phones she has). Don't get me wrong, my mom is the queen of organization---always has been. She doesn't keep a lot of junk. It wasn't that hard of a job except that it was a garage. Thank goodness it was only a one car garage. Sweep, sneeze, drip (as in sweating), sweep, sneeze, drip, etc.---you get the picture. I also discovered little mouse droppings, but won't tell her that. When I finished, I had a pretty significant pile of crap and crud. Now what should I do with it---no dustpan. Even unbelievable to me, but I scooped up a bunch of it with my BARE hands. With the rest of it, I have a choice, sweep it into mom's grass, or the neighbor's grass. I chose the neighbor's. Not really. Okay, yes, really. What the heck, they were still sleeping. By the time they see it, the garage will be closed and they'll have no idea where it came from.
I've also been assigned lamp shopping as Jeanne has reached her frustration level with that and Jennifer has reached her---I'm going to jump off a cliff if I have to take mom shopping one more time---level. She had the unfortunate task of taking mom mattress shopping a while back and needed two stiff gin and tonics to survive the ordeal---with nary a mattress bought.
Okay, sure, I can get the lamp. Then Jeanne hits me with all the stipulations---can't cost more than $64.00, can't be made in China, has to be the correct shade of antiqued brass to match the other lamp and so on. I must say, I'm pumped for the assignment and I have an ace in the hole! Jennifer has some Made in the USA stickers to only be used as a last resort. We wouldn't want mom to catch on that all the stickers look alike!
I get along shopping with mom pretty well. I just treat her like a little kid. My last assignment was shoe shopping for my niece, Jessica's wedding. I took her to ONE shoe store (none of this driving all over tarnation for me). I found a place and told her to sit down. I asked her what size she wore and proceeded to find shoes---not too tall of a heel, no sling backs or open toes, no made in Taiwan, not too slippery, ivory---not beige, white or taupe, preferably cloth since they look more formal, etc. She found two pairs she liked and couldn't decide between the two. She asked if I was taking her somewhere else, I said "no" and made her buy both pairs. She returned the pair she didn't wear the following week.
I've also taken her bra shopping---should be pretty simple----doesn't need anything sexy, just utilitarian. Took me about 5 minutes. I just tell her what she has to buy. End of story. I predict the lamp shopping will be pretty much the same. Maybe she complains about how bossy I am, what do I care, I'm gone.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
The Worst Kind of Shopping is....
All together now----Swim Suit Shopping! Ugh! Never have liked it. I found the perfect way to do it a few years ago. I sent Mindy and Steph with these instructions---get me anything in black, size *** (surely you didn't think I would give that away)! Perfect solution---they brought something home, I put it on and have been wearing it ever since. The catch is that I have never, repeat NEVER, actually looked at myself in it!! If swimsuit shopping during the best of times was depressing, you can imagine how it would make me feel now. Well, I've taken my new concept one step further. Today, I went and bought my own suit (s) without either trying them on, or looking at myself in them when I got home. I figure if I'm not going to see myself in a suit, I can at least not see myself in a cute one! Wink ;)!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Tanned and Relaxed!
Last week at the beach was AMAZING!!! Considering I'm not much of a beach person (don't really like the sand), I can't think of one thing I would have changed. The weather was fabulous---just a bit humid the first two days, but no humidity Wednesday and Thursday. I "let" (yes, I'm the boss of my friends too) my friend, Pam plan the schedule. It went something like this: 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. walk, 7-ish, breakfast, scrapbook to 11, 11-1 beach, lunch at the Smiling Fish Cafe, 2-4 pool, then scrapbook the rest of the night. We brought bagels and cereal for breakfast, I made sloppy joes to eat twice and Pam made chicken salad to eat twice. We ate out once a day either lunch or dinner. We can't wait to go back---probably next summer. I got 11 double-page spreads done. Check them out below!
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