We’ve been busy since I posted last. Let me see – the weekend of the 11 / 12 / 13 Randy was over in Holland working at the West Michigan MS150 bike race. He had a bunch of late nights prior to that, getting trackers ready and whatnot. Last Wednesday the 16th was dress rehearsal for Angel’s recital. Thursday was the recital. Wednesday was a half day of school for her and Thursday was her last day, so I took half days off work, too! I also took Friday, Monday and today off, too! We left here Saturday morning and drove down to Dayton to see Terry & his fam. So we just got home around 2:30. Currently Randy is napping & Angel is in front of the TV – you know she went several days without watching any!!
The recital was really good, as usual. Pnut messed up slightly in lyrical – oops, but did really good otherwise. Something was extremely funny during ballet, since she was cracking up thru most of the dance. But she looked really good! She was keeping time with Sarah (the studio owner’s daughter who is really good) during the spins & such. Very nice. Hiphop was just a neat dance. It was a mix of probably 6 songs and each one they danced to differently. Jazz had a very Caribbean feel to it. It was just fun. There were technical difficulties during the finale and it was cut in half. The sound just went out. But all the dancers improvised and hurried up & got into their ending positions for when the lights came back up. I had 3 other favorite dancers. One was a tiny little 3 year old black girl who was just too cute for words. The next was her sister who was probably 5 – she really got into the music and most of the time did her own dance – so funny! And the last was the only boy in the recital (there was a grown up guy, too) He was in 4 dances & they worked it so he got to dance with each girl in the class for a few steps. He was pretty good, seeing as it was his first year. I’d say he was 8 or 9. I hope he sticks with it! I know his sister dances at the studio, too. The grown up guy was at Ford Field with them for the Thanksgiving Half-time show. I seem to remember him being called Carlos, but he was in the program as Charles. Anyway, he is of the extreme feminine persuasion – if you catch my drift – but he can dance! He did “Nasty Girls” with the rest of the adults & even wore “Pink” sweatpants from Victoria Secret !! Funny!
Aw crap, I was going to upload pics from dress rehearsal, but it seems to have stalled. At least I already got her costume pics on here!
Thursday was a crazy day for me. I was supposed to leave work at noon, and go right to a dentist appointment for a check up (I’d gone in 10 days before to get a sore spot checked inside my mouth and had gotten a prescription for antibiotics) Anyway, I was working my butt off & got a call from Angel around 945 that she’d forgotten her art portfolio at home and needed it for her final. So I had to run home get it & take it to the school. So that meant I had an extra 45 minutes I had to make up after my appointment. Neat. Anyway, by the time I got all I needed to done, it was almost 2 before I left on my half day.
Friday was a punishment day for Angel but I didn’t torture her as much as I planned. She had asked to walk home from school with her friends on the last day. I told her no at first – since it was recital day. Its 2.7 miles which would be tiring in the heat & humidity. Then I said OK, but she was not allowed to wear flip flops. She had to wear real shoes. So she had on jeans & carried a sweater to put on over her tank top in class. I got a call from her asking if she could go to McD’s for lunch! The only problem is that McD’s isn’t on the way home – it’s in the opposite direction!! So I told her NO and to get her butt home ASAP. She ended up going to lunch at Taco Bell not far from school with her friends & got a ride home from Patricia’s mom. So because she didn’t go straight home from school like she said she was going to do, she had to go with me on ALL my errands Friday. She (finally) got lunch at McD’s out of the deal, so I wasn’t too mean to her. And she got out of going to weigh in with me, since I’d let her sleep in after being up late after the recital. But she went to my eye appt with me, thru the car wash & to stop by KFart to pick up my vitamins. Then i chose to wait for Randy to go to WalMart & to drop Jack off at the kennel, so she got a reprieve.
So we met the fam at Mom’s at 9 am on Saturday. We had room in our car, since we only had the 3 of us, but everyone else (Mom, Laurie, Lisa & Catie) all chose to ride with Linda. Pppft. OK by us! We ended up getting to the hotel about an hour before Linda, and were able to get the only available room in our block, so we were already in the pool when everyone else showed up! Once they got checked in, we went to Terry’s house (cute place with a ton of space located on the side of a hill above the river – with 2 back yards! One right behind the house & the other down a path by the river bank). We went to this cemetery where Erma Bombeck & the Wright Brothers are all buried until they closed & kicked us out, and then we went to the Mexican restaurant with the giant margaritas. I set the trend & only got a 16 ounce one – that’s what everyone else got, too. But 2 of those on an empty stomach was a bad choice. But my grilled tilapia tacos were really good! Then we went back to the hotel & went in the pool.
Sunday we went to this giant flea market called Trader’s World. That was an all day excursion! It was huge! But we got some fun stuff. Catie got a pair of stress balls that look like boobies. So those made a few appearances. We stopped at one of those old time photo places & got Angel’s pictures taken. They loved her! We ended up getting a leather portfolio with an 8x10 and 4 3x5s and 2 more 5x7s and a sheet of wallets, plus the CD & copyright so we can make as many copies as we want. Oh yeah – that was Father’s Day, so we got Randy a new Mr. Bill to replace the one he left in Arkansas, A DVD of the Jeff Dunham TV series & a pound bag of Tim Horton’s coffee. Mr. Bill & his girlfriend Pat, the crazy cat lady were quite the hit. Sunday night after dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse, we went back to the pool & Terry emptied 2 little bottles of hotel shampoo into the hot tub while it was bubbling. It was pretty funny! It was like a weird family bubble bath! By the way – it still bubbled last night!
Not my favorite setting.
This is one of her favorites!
Monday we braved the rain (& Waffle House for b-fast) and Terry took us on base to the Air Force Museum to see the Presidential Exhibit and the Research & Technology Exhibit. Personally I like the Research part better. You could really see where the current aircraft started from. It was like airplane evolution! And we could go thru Air Force One that carried Kennedy’s coffin, etc. They had it all blocked off with plexi-glass so there was only a really narrow walkway thru these planes, but they’d put dummies of the Presidents in there and FDR scared the crap out of me & Laurie. The walkway was really tight & we had just compared it to a funhouse with all the twists & turns. We had just stopped in a passageway next to the bulkhead of the plane to look back at Linda & when we looked in front of us, there was the FDR dummy & we just weren’t expecting a see a body, so we both screamed. Moving on, this was cool because there wasn’t hardly anyone there, with it being both a Monday and being on base. When we went to the regular Museum, it’s open to the general riff-raff so it was more crowded, but not too crazy. It was really cool. There were 3 huge hangars to go thru & they had it broken up according to era in time. From the Early Years, to Vietnam & Korea, to the Cold War. There was the Aviation Hall of Fame section, one on the Holocaust, a section dedicated to Bob Hope, and a Space gallery & missile area. It literally took all day to go thru this all. Here’s a really cool map…. http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/podcasts/index.asp I don’t think I could have done the actual podcast, since we preferred just to go thru at our own pace. We had dinner at this bar & grill called Tank’s. The food was excellent, but MAN there was a lot of it. We just got burgers & stuff. Angel got a PB&J Club, which she thought was pretty neat.
I'd make an awesome first lady!
Yes - I laid on the floor in the middle of the museum.
Apollo
Sputnik I
Mr. Bill at Tank's
So anyway, it was obvious everyone was tired, since each night we were there it got tamer. Saturday night much alcohol was involved and we were all rowdy & loud. Sunday night wasn’t as much so. Last night we went in the hot tub because it felt good after all that walking, but we didn’t stay there long.
Terry, me, Linda Laurie
Mass Spoonage
The kids - Lisa, Angel, Catie, Alex
But we’re home now. Aaah! I don’t know why it just so much nicer to sit around in your own home than in a hotel.
Whew – I need to go switch out laundry since I sorted thru the bag from Ohio right on the kitchen floor outside the laundry room. And we have very little food in the house, so I’ll have to figure out something easy for dinner until I can go grocery shopping tomorrow. Yay!
Later!
Stained glass window in the Museum - "Lord Guard and Guide the Men Who Fly"
"We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain"
Gives me shivers!
The Defcom levels
