Things on my mind...

The Kiddos at the Blank Park Zoo, 2008

One of our favorite places to visit.

Congrats to my friend, Mikey and his new job.

Congrats to my friend, Jeremy for buying his first house.

Big time reunion this weekend. Not sure what craziness that will bring.

Need to make time for a spend over with my niece or at least movetime.

Need to clean my disaster of a house. Not looking forward to it after cleaning sorority house on Wednesday night. (Becoming mean old grouchy alumn that I remember so well from my college days.)

Loving the weather right now in Iowa. It's absolutely perfect. Haven't run my air conditioner in a while. My checkbook thanks you Mother Nature.

Sad that summer is coming to a close. Students will be back on campus in about two weeks. Everything changes when students are back.

Missing the kiddos. Really need to plan something fun to do with them before summer is over. Maybe a day at the zoo followed by McDonald's.

Nothing much....

I have nothing to tell you about today....no major plans for the weekend...baseball games are over so I won't be seeing these kids. Which is probably a good thing because they wanted to paint my dog blue to match their uniforms.

What the hell is this crazy girl wearing? I might have to take her to a movie or something but I'm not taking her if she looks like this! What a weirdo!

Boys of Summer

I have never been a baseball fan yet you will find me in my hot pink chair cheering on my nephews whenever I can. Johnathan has quite the extended-blended family so he usually has his own little fan club at every game. It's been fun watching him and his teammates grow up over the years.

This crazy girl just goes for the hot dogs and candy.

Happy Birthday!

These two are "Birthday Buddies" as Isabelle would say. Their birthday is actually on the 3rd but we had a little breakfast birthday party this morning.

Every year Isabelle wears something to celebrate Independence Day and the Birthday. Notice the crazy flip flops?

Isabelle was most excited about the Hershey chocolate bars she received while Johnathan was thrilled about the money. He's saving for a trip to Washington D.C. so all he wanted was cash. (This boy has quite the blended-extended family so collecting $1000 by spring shouldn't be a problem.)

Rite of Passage

Hello Braceface!

(Notice the rubberbands match his uniform.)

Weekend Update

Oh it was a gorgeous weekend. My niece, Isabelle decided she having a "spend over with me" last week. I think she starting packing for it last Monday.

We had a great time. She was a little annoyed that I didn't arrive in a timely fashion so she called to ask me what was taking me so long!

She is such a funny girl and I love her dearly!

The Art Festival was fantastic this year. So many great artist came to our humble little city. Free music, great food, wine and beer. I didn't go to the free concert with Gavin DeGraw and I am totally kicking myself right now.

Cali Hobgood-Lemme was my favorite this year. I really really wanted to buy something but I just couldn't justify it this year.

This was another favorite. I forgot to pick up a card from this artist. The booth was super busy since tons of people were intrigued by the art work.

Downtown DSM is growing so much - I have no idea what this new building is. It could be new condos or a new insurance building.

Ouch!

Poor Isabelle! Here's some pictures of my crazy niece after the baseball bat incident. We are quite the DIY'ers in my family but I am glad my sister D decided to take Isabelle to Blank Children's Hospital to get stitched up. We aren't ones to get worked up about these things. My mom was a OR nurse and blood and gore just didn't faze us as kids. Nor did we get any sympathy from mom for minor things like cuts and scraps. Unless you lost an appendage...that might warrant some sympathy.

Weekend Update

Bought this chicken for $5 at the Brass Armadillo. I love this place for funky finds.

This crazy girl informed her mom and me that she would be spending the night with me this weekend and proceeded to change all the clocks in my house when she got there. Don't ask.

Watched this guy play some baseball. It was a bittersweet weekend because Johnathan's grandmother passed away. (Not my mom - Johnathan's paternal grandmother.) BTW - the kid's on Johnathan's team call him Mac & Cheese.

Again - Don't ask.

All in all it was a lovely weekend.

Conversations

Hanging out with the kiddos, eating candy out of the Easter basket in the kitchen...

D: Watching Jack's ball games is like watching paint dry.

K: Why is that?

Jack (slightly exasperated): No one knows where to throw the ball!

K: What are ya' playing with amateurs?

Jack: Yeah.

Older and wiser brother: Do you even know what that means?

Jack: nope.

Hello?

Summer 2008

Yesterday my four year old niece decided to call me. Not entirely weird but usually I'm the one who calls or my sister is the one who prompts the kids to call me. Not yesterday - Isabelle out of the blue decided we needed to chat. And chat we did - for an hour and 15 minutes! And what do you talk to a four year old about? Isabelle's pups, Daisy and Bo, Barbies, the zoo and our favorite animals at the zoo, what was the rest of the family up to, and of course she sang me a song or two. In order to sing the songs, she needed to change her outfit. The funniest part of the whole conversation is when she denied her older brother access to me.

J: "Can I talk to Aunt Kara?"

I: "Nope, I want to talk first."

J: "Please?"

I: "Nope."

and repeat.

This was after an hour of talking.

And the very best part of the conversation?

"I just wanted to talk to you."

Weekend Haze Part 2

Weekend Haze

It was a "shoe-buying-flower planting-hamburger eating-beer drinking-baseball watching-bubble blowing- soccer watching-bullfrog finding-barbie playing-dog walking" kind of weekend.

Isabelle and Minnie

Minnie just loves my niece, Isabelle. She is a one crazy girl. Isabelle just turned three and will not give up her binky. Or as we call it in my family the 'baby'. Why you ask - I don't know. Johnathan started it when he was little and somehow all the other kids have done it too.

Isabelle

Minnie is growing up so fast but she is still so sweet and cuddly. I'll have some new pictures later this week. Here's Isabelle until then.

Just Jack

Minnie is such a little drama queen. She yipes to holy heaven when I come home. I know I wasn't home much this weekend but she is much too little for me to be dragging her around everywhere. And she hasn't had all of her shots yet.

All the little boys on Johnathan's little league team keep asking me, "When are you bringing the white one?" And I have to keep telling them, "Not for a while."