Summertime Fun!

In an effort to keep Maddy busy, we've been doing lots of fun stuff so far this summer. Miniature golfing was a blast, although Maddy and her friend were not the best scorekeepers. Those girls had some creative counting going on -- somehow, it only took them 2 strokes to get the ball in and they said it took me at least 5! Hmmm -- do those girls really know how to count???

Cousins Daniel and Grace and Maddy on the carousel at the Omaha Zoo. That was loads of fun, and oh, so much walking. Luckily, my nephew took pity on Maddy and carried her on his back for a while. Even so, she had blisters on her toes from her flip-flops ---- ouch!!

Maddy and I also visited our smaller local children's zoo. One of my coworker's fav bands (The String Beans) were playing and the zoo had other kid friendly activities as well last week on Wacky Wednesday. Maddy made an elephant mask out of a paper bag -- very cool!!

And then we saw the String Beans again at the Children's Museum where Maddy and her friend boogied down. Look how hot they were! We were lucky enough to move inside to the museum just before it started to storm again! The weather remains questionable around here -- with stormy weather on one side of town and blue skies on the other. No matter, we're still having a fun and busy summer!

A Bicycle Built for Two!!

I doubt that the world wide internet knows this about me . . . I am a champion bicycle rider! Yes, when I was 10 years old, I won the "Girls 10 and Under" bicycle-riding contest in Omaha, Nebraska. It was a tough contest and my second year in the finals -- having lost the year before. Anyway, I won (yay me!!) and received a huge trophy . . . which my brother broke in the car on the way home! Of course, that was naughty Tom who accidentally kicked the lovely bicycle off the top of the trophy. Anyway, we've been trying to teach Maddy how to ride her bicycle without training wheels. OY!! This is a difficult task. She did ok on her bicycle with one of us running alongside helping her stay upright. First Connor, then me and then Rick all took turns -- whew, that is tiring and harder to do than you would think. Then we remembered that we had this cool bike with kid bike add-on I guess you'd call it. First, Connor took her for some spins around the block and then me. It was SO FUN!!! She loved it and I figure it will help her learn how to keep her balance. Putting bike-riding at the top of our list of things to do every evening!

Connor and Maddy taking a break --- my turn next!

And don't worry -- I would normally have a helmet on too, but this was a quick ride to see if I could do it. And we must say Thank You to Rick's brother who gave us the ride-on after his daughter finished with it. Thanks Robin -- we love it!!

And so it goes,

Everything seems to be settling down a bit. The rains have stopped, the basement isn't a flood zone anymore and there are no pre-wedding or wedding festivities to gear up or get in shape for. Oh, don't worry, I'm continuing my workouts and some of my beauty routines . . . maybe not the eyelash extensions. I liked them, but they seem to require quite a bit of maintenance. I have noticed that I'm eating more and more chocolate again -- which I always do when I'm stressed and/or bored. Drat -- I thought I had that monkey on my back beat!! Guess not -- but I'll keep trying. Time to stock up on more Diet Jello -- which is really rather yummy if you haven't tried it yet.

The newlyweds are home from their honeymoon. Did I tell you that they went to Rome??? As in Rome, Italy??? Whoa, what a honeymoon, eh!! They are so sweet -- I love having them back. Even though we don't live in the same city, they are fairly close by and they are about the cutest couple ever!!!!

Rick and I spent our "honeymoon" driving a u-haul truck to Philadelphia where he was about to start law school. It broke down in the hills of Pennsylvania -- which was the first of many events that would send me to the phone calling my mother and crying!! I'm not kidding. And also not kidding that she told me that she wasn't sure the priest actually signed our marriage license, so we were probably not really married and I could come home immediately!! Funny -- I'll have to ask her if she remembers that -- I sure do!

And although the water stopped coming in, the house is still in semi-disaster mode (I hate the basement) and that along with a few other things are starting to stress me out a bit. Have gotten some bids on putting in drain tile and a sump pump -- just what you want to spend money on -- NOT. Insurance guy is supposed to come next week -- it's probably not covered. Good thing I'm giving up those eyelash extensions, think I'm going to need that extra cash!

Milestones of Sorts . . .

Some little (maybe big, I think) milestones for Maddy lately. They may seem like little or small achievements to some, but are huge milestones in my book. I know, you're probably saying, "well duh, jboo, what ARE you talking about?" Well, I was just thinking about a couple weekends ago (before the rains started and I actually had a thought of something besides the weather and how Mother Nature seems to have it in for me).

Anywho, to set the stage, it was a really hot and humid Sunday. I had to mow the lawn before it rained again and grew another 4 inches! The Rickster was at a meeting and Maddy was kind of moping around and saying that there was no one to play with her. I suggested that she see if our next door neighbor (who is one year ahead of Maddy in school) wanted to play. Oh no -- I didn't mean that she should go over by herself and see if Sarah could play, did I??? Yep, that's exactly what I meant. We chatted a bit about what she should do if Sarah said that no, she couldn't play. Obviously, Maddy likes to have figured out ahead of time exactly what to do and say. So, she went next door, bravely knocked, and sure enough, YES, Sarah wanted to play!!! It was HUGE to me that she went by herself without me clearing the way and asking Sarah's mom. Another neighbor girl was playing with the two of them and they ran through the yards, laughing and screaming. It was such a sweet moment! Even when they came in and had me help them open ice-pops and dripped them all the floor, I didn't mind, it was so sweet to see her playing and having fun in the neighborhood all on her own. Yay Maddy!!!

A River Runs Through It . . .

Yep -- had a river running through the basement last night as Mother Nature continued her pounding on the Midwest! That's not very nice, MN -- you didn't read my letter, did you!! Anyway, tornado sirens sounded last night and Maddy and I headed to the basement. Connor went to take shower because he was going out! OY!! So, I was happily reading some blogs and listening to the weather warnings when the torrential rains started. First, a little trickle of water across the old linoleum (now visible since carpet had been torn out after the last drenching), then more and more and more -- soon, I swear there was a current!!! At one point, the water was up to and just above my ankles! YIKES!!!! We had over 4 inches of rain in a very short amount of time. Luckily, the power didn't go out and we had a little pump thingy so could hook it up and pump the water out through a hose into a sink in the laundry room. We worked on trying to keep up with the water from around 7:30 until 10 PM and used every single towel in the house!

Rick and I took a break at 10 to watch the season finale of Top Chef -- yay Stephanie!! We thought the basement seemed in pretty good shape when I headed to bed at 11:30. Rick stayed up a little longer, and wouldn't you know it, it started raining and coming in again!!!! OY!!!

Normally, I would be wringing my hands (and towels!) and fretting about it. But this year, I have tried to adopt a more zen-like attitude and try my best to be calm and figure it will get taken care of eventually -- probably after we end up throwing a lot of cash at it!

Please, Mother Nature, I'm begging you now -- NO MORE RAIN!

Updated: Heard that some parts of town (mine, I'm sure) had up to 8 inches of rain!!

Dear Mother Nature:

Are you mad at me?? Why are you tormenting us with nasty April-ish weather in June?? Excuse me, but tornadoes and torrential rains are not supposed to be happening now. If you had a problem with the carpet in the basement, it would have been nicer to just let me know -- there was no need to rain so hard and so fast to cause water to come in and soak the basement twice in 4 days! Unfair!! The carpet's gone now . . . are you happy??


And hey, what's with the incredibly high humidity already? Is it because my hair looked fabulous last weekend at the wedding and now you're making sure it will never look like that again? Let's just try and get along, ok? Change that nasty forecast that calls for rain every single night for the next 7 days, and I'll quit saying that winter was miserable, spring lasted all of two days and now summer is not looking so promising. Can't we be friends?



Love, jboo

Let Them Eat Cake . . . More Photos

A few more photos from the wedding -- Philip and Catherine at the reception. Don't you love the gardenia in her hair!!

Rick and Maddy and I before the wedding:

And son number 2, Connor, after the wedding -- he was best man -- too cute!