Gettin' Down with Shorty

Thursday night Rob and I had the opportunity to see Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue in Stevens Point with our friends Jacki and Joe. I love concerts like this! How fun to go see something different. Trombone Shorty and his band play saxophones, trombones (obviously), trumpets, drums, bass, guitar... It was a hoot! I never knew I would like that style of music so much!

After the concert we ran out to be the first in line to meet the band and get autographs. Jacki brought her cd to have them sign and we bought one and had the band sign the cd sleeve. The guys were so nice!

Today the kids and I listened to the cd for the first time! I loved the music even more!  Now i better get back to the kids who are "fixing" my wall by banging a play hammer as hard as they possibly can!



Master of the Balloon Arts

On our recent trip to the Children's Museum my mother bought all her grandkids a special toy to take home with them. Racyn got a little rocket launcher. FUN! Malorie picked a balloon animal making kit. yeah. So last night Malorie remembered this little gift and decided it would be fun to play with it! Of course being the great mom I am I said sure, go ahead! Little did I know that this "toy" wasn't for a 6 year old to try herself. So, let me start by explaining the contents of this kit. 1 hand pump (the size of your palm, 20 balloons, and directions. I start pumping the balloon up... first try flies off the pump. 2nd try and our balloon is getting bigger! 2 minutes later I am still pumping the same balloon up. My hands are on fire at this point from using the tiny little pump. Another minute later and the balloon is finally pumped up all the way. Now I have to figure out how to tie the balloon! After getting that figured out Malorie tells me which "animal" she wants me to make. A poodle. sure sounds simple doesn't it! (I figured out later that i made a bichon frise instead) Well, I did it on the first try! Oh yes I did! The kids were very pleased with my new skill. So they had fun playing with the dog balloon until bed time.
Now starts tonight. Malorie had to show her daddy her balloon kit and we had to pump up another one and make a butterfly this time. NOT GOOD! A butterfly is much more complicated! I have no idea if it looks like a butterfly... Rob asked me if I just gave up and started making loops wherever I wanted. I explained to him that I thought I was following the directions! Yikes! I will post pics when I can of these lovely animals!
 I have to give a lot of credit to those wonderful clowns who make tons of balloon animals for kids!

Busy Weekend

Saturday was road trip day. Malorie, Racyn, and I invited my mom, and neices Ashley and Victoria along with us to Eau Claire to the Children's Museum. Let's just say it was a GREAT idea! All the kids had SO much fun! We started the trip by stopping in Neillsville at A & W for some great food (and of course Root Beer). Once we got to the Museum the kids could hardly believe the place. There was a toddler park, and a post office and a cafe and a grocery store, and a dentist office... and that was all in the first 20 steps in the door!
Malorie's favorite part was the inside of the body exhibit (even though she wouldn't go through the squishy stomach). Racyn liked the constrcution exhibit where he could be an electrician like daddy and even a plumber.

Grammie enjoyed ordering from the menu at the Cafe from all the kiddos!

We will definitly be back!

Sunday was another adventure filled fun day! Racyn and I hung out (cause Mal was at grammie and papa's and Rob was on a youth group trip) a little and missed church. Of course we got there in time for the soup contest and sunday school. Afterwards, we ventured up to see Great-Grandpa Bravener in the hospital. We got to see him right before he got taken down to get a pheresis line placed as he was started on dialysis this afternoon.  This should get his kidney's working again!!!
We then headed over to my parent's for the Big Event, you know the Packer game! Can we say AWESOME! The boys are headed to the Super Bowl! YAY!

My life lately...

So lately I decieded to take 9 days off of life (not on purpose) and read the Twilight Saga series. I told myself never would I read or watch those movies! Vampires? Seriously? I don't think so! But after reading the first few pages of the first book I was hooked. So 9 days later I shut the covers of the last book! Sorry kids and hubby for ignoring you a little too much lately! If you haven't started reading the books yet, just a warning you may dream about vampires. 3 days after finishing the book and I am finally starting to NOT dream about the characters from the book! Now it is just a matter of waiting for the "Breaking Dawn" movies to come out! Of course I am going to every thing in my power NOT to be one of the people lining up for the midnight showing! Oh and Jacki (this is for you) when you are done with the books go to Stephanie Meyer's web site and she started writing the series from Edward's vantage point and it was leaked so she has it on her website for her fans to read because she won't publish it now. (264 pages worth).  Well, happy reading!

Clearly it's been a while!

Today is a good day to start cleaning the house up so we can decorate for Christmas! Yep, I said CHRISTMAS!! Who doesn't love this time of year? Rob is out deer hunting.... is it wrong of me to always hope he gets a deer right away so he doesn't have to keep going everyday??
The kids are in for a surprise when I tell them in 10 minutes that it is time for them to help me clean! Cause right now they are not playing very nicely!!! Maybe I should mention that Santa is watching them!!!!
Have a great day!

End of August

Can anyone else believe that the month is almost over?? The wedding came and went and here we are with just a few days until school starts! AAAAHHHH! Now that the school shopping is done, we can focus on getting all the stuff together and in the right backpacks! Can't believe I am going to have 2 kids in school this year! A kindergartner and 3 year old preschooler! Wow times sure goes fast.
Kids got new shoes today so of course they had to put them on and go for a little "run" in them. First they ran over to Aunt Cindy's to show her. Then we went around the block to wear a little nighttime energy off.
We have had a very busy couple of weeks so I don't know how those two keep going and going and going. Today we went to a couple of garage sales... Very interesting with two kids along, so much easier alone.
:-) But we made out ok, both got some "new" clothes as well as cousin Austin! It was fun shopping for him. Then we surprised Tanya at work with all the clothes we found for him. After that it was off the church to help mom with her church office disaster. We made a small dent in the area. Oh, it is nearly impossible to have two unorganized people trying to clean a space. LOL!! Now if I could only find the energy to clean the disaster I have at my house.
Of course some crappy news came my way today too. I found an email sent to me last night from the clinic telling me I wasn't getting the medical assistant position I had interviewed for a week and a half ago. It sure sucks to recieve news like that... Just waiting for God to tell me what and where I belong in life. I am trying to be patient but it is getting hard...
Friday night was a blast at Women's Night Out! Nothing like 9 adult women trying to hit open a pinata! What a blast. Lots of smiles and laughing during that. Of course Tanya was the first one to hit the floor running once it did split open! Good times, especially starting the night out with dinner at El Mexcal, yum yum. Same night Rob hit the road with the kids and Kristi and Jackson all the way to Phillips to watch a Pittsville football game. Sounds like it was a good time and of course the kids fell asleep on the way home, I think they finally got back shortly after 11:00.
Well, of to bed so this lady can get up for church tomorrow.

Pre Wedding Craziness!

The past few days of been quite busy! Wednesday night consisted of baking 7 pies, some brownies and some rice krispie bars!! Whew! That was fun! Then Thursday night I took the kids over to mom and dads and we basically watched Deb (matron of honor) do all the flowers for the wedding. She did a great job and all the other people there did a great job cheering her on!! LOL!
Friday morning started out early with Malorie and I meeting mom and Barb at church so we could get it decorated for the big day! We then left around 1130 to quickly run to get Racyn a shirt for the wedding (nothing like waiting until the last possible minute). Then we were in a rush to get to the Richfield Fire Dept since that is where the reception/dinner is and get that decorated. Thank goodness for all the help we had getting that done, it really looks nice and by the time we got done you knew there was going to be a wedding there! Then back to Marshfield for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner!
 I know one thing for sure... I am going to cry at this wedding! I am so happy for Luke and Amanda! Finally, my big bro has found the person he was meant to be with and I think we all know that this is going to be a great marriage! I can't wait to be a part of it today! Oh, and happy birthday mom!!! We won't forget about you today either!
Now, just need to focus on getting everything ready for today! Can't believe I got over 10 hours of sleep last night! Boy did I need that.