happy VD to everyone.  i, personally, spent the day bonding with my BIL.  earlier in the week i had made an eye doctor’s appointment for today.  see, the only provider on my vision insurance in our area is sears and, as we all know, sears SUCKS!  so, since i’m still boycotting them, i needed to find an optometrist in orlando.  when BIL heard this morning that i was going to the eye doctor, he asked if i thought he might be able to tag along.  i made a call and, though all of their appointments were filled, they agreed to squeeze him in with me.  so we left the house around 14:00 and got there early enough to fill out our paperwork and help each other pick out frames before they blinded us.  the whole appointment took so much longer than my last eye doctor but we finally were both seen, dilated, and had our glasses ordered.  we then went into the blinding sun with our saucer-eyes and grabbed some food over at the mall while waiting for the glasses to be made.  i joked with BIL that it was wrong to take a girl to the mall on VD and not buy her diamonds.  about an hour later, we picked up our respective eyewear and finally got back home around 18:30.  with whom did you spend your VD?

and i don’t want to hear any noise about how overdue this is.  Read the rest of this entry »

as promised, i am posting thanksgiving pix before i post anything about Christmas.  and, since i’ve been dragging my feet for so long about it, i choose to take the lazy route:

they just left. they’re actually heading west an hour or so to drop their boy off with friends and then they’ll head back home. sadly, it seemed like a very short visit. but we had a great time. saturday we had a fun time at the beach and pool with boogie boards and my duckie. my duckie was a huge hit amongst all of the chilluns. there was then some afternoon nappage followed by a nice evening of walking around our favorite shopping plaza and dinner at a place we had not yet tried. there was even some late night rock band jamming.

sunday was a more adventurous day that started out with sissy and the chilluns flying around.

the boys thoroughly enjoyed taking a dip or three.

the girls were happy hanging out together.

it was then time for maiden voyage – the sequel. our new kayaks with their matching life vests were anxious to prove they were better than the other ‘yaks.

the whole family got in on the action after hubby and i had our fun. bro-n-law was a fierce paddler.

he even tried to t-bone his son.
nephew² enjoyed surfing.

sissy braved the deeper waters a bit.

and even niece caught a wave.

and sleep in all day long! oh, to be fifteen again, without a care in the world! (wait, no, i had a job at fifteen and had to work when i wasn’t at school)

in one weekend wii have already unlocked 45 of the 63 songs. clearly, wii are going to need more songs.

it’s been a great way to pass the time.

last night we tried out the concert in the park gig. i was a bit disappointed. it was a great venue filled with groups of people picnicking and having a good social time. it was terrific people-watching. but the band was pretty awful. it was supposed to be classic rock but it was just a bunch of tone-deaf geriatric guys. seriously, it was sad. even the couple of songs that i knew were barely recognizable after being butchered by a tone-deaf singer. of course, the girls were bored out of their minds a quarter of the way through the first song. they immediately asked for the iphone and stared myspacing. we stayed for about an hour, until a break, and then left before they could come back and butcher some more. i’m sure hubby and i will try it again because it really could have been much more fun with slightly better musicians. and a picnic. we should have picnicked. i’m not sure if we’ll be doing the cinema under the stars tonight or not. they’re doing bee movie which i never really cared much for seeing but i love outside movies and i think we could have a good time if we picnic and do it right. anyhow, after the first set, we put our chairs back in the car and walked around the mall a bit. i ended up getting a new outfit that i was coveting the other day when we were there. i love the shirt. and i love the idea of the shorts but they are outside of my comfort zone so i’m not completely sure yet. i don’t think my hubby likes the shorts but they are what all the “kids” are wearing these days and i’m trying to stop looking like the curmudgeonly old woman around here. stop judging me! anyhow, after stopping in a few shops, the girls wanted to go to target so while they were shopping around in there, we headed to the electronics department. kids, i cannot tell you how pained my husband was when he saw rock band for wii sitting right there, just as pretty as could be. he paced back and forth in front of it for a good two minutes. then he put his head in his hands and walked up and down a couple of aisles. then he picked it up – just in case – since it was the only one there. he found a cart to put it in and walked around the store asking what was wrong with him. finally, he ended up at the register with it and told me to do the deed while he went to retrieve the car from the other end of the plaza (honestly, i think he just couldn’t bear to witness the purchasing). it was quite amusing. he has been dying to have this game though, so i was glad that he decided to go ahead and get it. it’s only money, right? the girls were pretty happy about the purchase, even if a little disappointed that we deemed it far too late on a work night to be opening the box to set it up and play. hey, i said we’re trying to be young, i didn’t say we were succeeding. so, regardless of whether we make it to a movie in the park tonight or go walking down the strip, there will definitely be some rocking going on around our house!

we’re starting to put some sketchy plans together for the weekend. tonight, we’ll be doing concert in the park (free) at the waterford-like plaza. tomorrow, we may be doing cinema under the stars (free) at a different park. at some point, we promised we’d walk the girls down the strip a little (probably to the waterford-like plaza) so that they could experience the cruising and cat-calling that happens on the weekends. we drove them down the strip a little piece tuesday night and they had a good time rolling down their windows and hollering at boys. teenage girls are funny. i think a movie they would like is coming to the $1 theatre in town this weekend so that may be on the agenda as well. hubby and i went to that theatre tuesday night while the girls walked around the mall. it was one of the old theatres sans stadium-seating and it wasn’t very comfortable at all but it was a dollar so it was worth it. i haven’t been to a dollar theatre in years. anyhow, we’re trying to come up with decent activities to keep the girls entertained and out of trouble. although last night we just stayed around here. i had a headache so hubby took the girls down to the beach and pool for a bit. when i was feeling a bit better, i started dinner and went down to join them at the pool. we came back and ate dinner and sat around and looked at pics for a while before going to bed. i hope they’re having a good time.

lazy teenagers who sleep till noon. those two are the only ones left and we haven’t heard a peep out of them yet. hopefully they’re still breathing. apart from some moments of frustration, i honestly enjoyed having the family here this weekend. i’m not sure if we’ll try having the entire family at one time again as it was just too many people to agree on stuff but i’m hoping that individual family units will feel welcome to come back and visit again. it was particularly nice to spend time with bro-n-law’s family since we don’t see them often. unfortunately, yesterday turned into a hellacious day. no guest behavior issues – just a truly unfortunate circumstance that couldn’t be helped but wreaked havoc in our home. it was 02:00 before i got to bed and i was not able to rest well after all of the commotion. fortunately, i can thank my sissy for cheering me up with her fun sunday ordeal:

puppy found out the hard way that the tasty looking blue liquid in the pen isn’t as yummy as it appears. she said the sofa came clean for the most part. you know, considering she’s got three kids, two cats, and a puppy anyhow.

i think the wii has been more popular this weekend than the beach. good investment on our part. the pools have been pretty happening too. other than the headaches of deciding where eleven people want to eat, it’s been a good time. we’ve gotten to spend some quality time with his brother’s family that we never really see except on holidays and funerals. speaking of which, his sis-n-law was telling us a cute story about niece (she’s about six months younger than my niece). her and her mom were getting a shower yesterday in our bathroom and niece kept saying that “this doesn’t feel right; it just doesn’t feel right”. th asked ag what didn’t feel right and ag basically explained that she felt guilty because they don’t see us very often and she felt like they shouldn’t be in our house and using our stuff. i thought it was very sweet.

well half the family got in a little after lunch and the other half arrived a little after dinner time. unfortunately, my sis-n-law, who got here in the first bunch, is already just about home. not long after getting here, she got a call from her husband (the only family member that was not able to come) stating that he had broken his leg and was on his way to the emergency room. she fretted about it and fretted about it and finally got in the car and headed back north. please think happy thoughts in dw’s direction. in the meantime, the rest of us have had a very nice time. we didn’t end up going to the concert in the park gig but we did spend some time on the beach and at the pool. this is our youngest (two year old) niece’s first time at the beach so it was a momentous occasion. she isn’t taking to it quite as quickly as her sister did but she did seem to enjoy digging in the sand (as long as it didn’t get on her – ewww). i think she had a better time at the pool though. she laughed and splashed and had a great time. tomorrow should be fun for her. the mushroom fountain will be on for them to play in (it was too late this evening when we were down there). we came back up around sunset and broke out the wii. so far, the nephew, niece, and sis-n-law have created their miis and played around. i boxed the nephew and came close to beating him but alas, ran out of steam. i didn’t feel too bad though since hubby got ko’d by him in the first round. i at least made it most of the way through the second round. this is the most fun we’ve had with the wii yet. it’s great for us old folks to be able to play with the youngsters, on the same level, and have a good time.

at least half the family is on their way. they called a while ago from about two hours away so we’re expecting them shortly. which should be interesting since we still have to work for four more hours. i think we’ve got everything ready for their arrival, including, of course, a freshly baked cake. no word on the other half. they may all be together but we just don’t know. it should be much easier to host them this time since we are in our own place with our own stuff. it was pretty difficult hosting in a rental. it’s going to be a big crowd this time. the whole immediate family – ten of them – with the exception of the bro-n-law whose spot is being taken by the niece’s friend. that’s a lot of people for this little condo but i think we should be able to make it work for a few days. tonight if free concert in the park so the first night’s entertainment is already lined up (at the right price, no less). i hope that your weekend is as fun-filled an adventure as ours is sure to be.

yay, i get to see my hubby again today and he’s taking me home! i’ve missed him so much this month. this week he’s been at a conference at disney. it’s been very sad for me to know that he’s so close but not with me. i’ve gotten to do some extra visiting with my cousin, which has been very nice. and i finally got to see katie for the first time in the four weeks i’ve been here. but i’m ready for my hubby to take me home. it’s really just time to go home. and i really hope he’ll stay with me for a while.

we decided to give my sissy and bro-n-law a day off so we asked my dad and his wife to get us and the chilluns into disney yesterday. we packed up the kids and left the house right before 10:00, met up with my dad, and were in the park by 11:00. we did the muppets at mgm (it will forever be mgm, i don’t care what they say) with the grandparents and that was enough for them so we parted ways back at the park exit and we five headed over to animal kingdom, which has become my favorite park. we immediately headed over to expedition everest to get our fast passes and were pleased to discover that the girl child is tall enough to ride. we did the asian jungle trail, ate lunch, watched the bug show (which was some welcome a/c and misting effects on such a bloody hot day), and then went to ride everest. the kids had a blast on it. next was the african safari and a parade before we left to go back to mgm. at mgm, we got our fast passes to tower of terror. while waiting for our time, we watched about half of the beauty and the beast stage show. when it was time for terror, the younger nephew was disinclined to do any dropping so hubby took him for a nap on the great movie ride while i took the oldest and youngest to the tower. though the girl child squeezed my hand ferociously throughout the line and during the ride, she proclaimed afterward that it was not even scary. we grabbed five fast passes for rockin’ rollercoaster before going to meet up with the other boys. we walked around a bit, did the backlot tour, and made our way back for our scheduled aerosmith limo ride. the was the first time for both younger children and they were both a bit dubious about wanting to ride something that went upside down. when it was all over, they both loved it. they didn’t even notice the upside down loop. *sob* my chilluns is all grown up *sob*. we had a snack outside the coaster and decided on the animation class to kill time before the big fantasmic show. we were only able to do the first little movie before making our way to the show to ensure we got seats so we figured we’d go back and do the actual drawing class after the show. fantasmic was fun and we headed back to draw as planned when a cast member stopped us and told us to go try out the not-yet-opened toy story ride. we did as told and i am so glad because it was the perfect end to the day. it is like the buzz lightyear ride/game at mk but much more fun, imho. of course, it does help that i totally whooped the kids and randal. both times through (since it’s not “open” yet, there was no line at all). the second time, i heard randal proudly proclaiming his score of 147,500 from his car, which was a significant increase over my first score (132,200) when i beat them all. however, he was not happy to hear that my score the second time around was 158,700. yep, i creamed them. i may have even gloated… just a smidgen, of course. throughout the day we took iphone pix of the kids in front of their various conquests and emailed them to the parents and gparents so that they knew could be jealous of what a fantastic time we were having. after toy story, we left the park and went in search of a quick, light dinner (yes, at 22:30 – the parents would kill us). we successfully made it home, ordered showers, allowed each child a two-minute visitation with the dog, and had them in bed by 23:30. it was a long, tiring day but worth it. i think the kids had a great time too. and they were absolutely wonderful the whole day, no attitude or sniping at each other. which i found impressive because as hot as it was, it could have been ugly; i can’t be the only person who’s temper increases with the temperature. in the meantime, my sissy didn’t get home until after 01:00. they had a nice day sans les enfants. and they used the blue man tickets we got them for Christmas. naturally, today is going to be a very lazy day for all of us.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, HUSBAND!!!! he gave me the most fabulous gift, too. he called last night and said he was at the airport on his way home to me! that’s a whole forty-eight hours sooner than i expected him!! i was so excited, i completely drove past the mall i was headed to and had to u-turn several miles later when i realized that i wasn’t paying any attention to where i was going. when i asked if something was going wrong with work he said no, he just told the customer that he wanted to be with his wife on our anniversary. what a wondereful boy i’ve got! after getting this terrific news, i finished my shopping and headed over to my cousin’s for friendly poker and guitar hero night. i then less-than-patiently waited around for my hubby to call requesting his airport pickup. he called just after midnight and he was in my arms by 00:30. it is so, so nice to have my hubby back. he snuggles so much better than a pillow.