Zoo days!

I might be on Vacation, but I do know how to prepost. Here is a Zoo pictoral from our local Zoo.

Okay, I totally did not notice the fashion faux pas going on in this picture when I took it! Somebody pull that kid's pants up already!

Maybe next time we should read the sign that says "feed the goats on the other side of the fence". Just maybe.

Jacob enjoyed the goats about as much as he enjoys all interactions with animals!

All Drew could say about this pig was- "look at all that poop!"

Yeah, I'm showing Drew how it is done. Mr. Bee was NOT supposed to take a picture.

Wait, do tigers make faces? No...

Tigers ROAR!!!

Drew is showing us how big the fish is....

Or he is dancing a robot dance.

Better view atop Mr. Bee Mountain.

Seriously Potter Park... WTF is "Snag"?

Here is an exciting exhibit. It's bad when this is an actual exhibit. Michigan Zoos are definitely suffering from the recession. At least it's still open... and cheap!

Send Me to the Zoo and I take pictures of butt cracks, poop, sticks, rocks and signs that say "snag".

Maybe I can redeem myself with this one. Cuteness squared.

Awards?

Okay, So I had an award post all ready to go... which I love to write them and thank everyone, but they take a LONG time. All I had to do was put the award pictures in. Well, one of them had a virus which screwed up the post, (and I don't even want to say how long I spent on it, when I should have been packing). So I am just going to thank you all instead of following the rules, sorry but I just can't try to do another one!



Thank you Bibi at Bibi Has the Last Word for the Adorable Blog Award (also Amanda and Katie at Crafting in Laymon's Terms), and the Sexy Blogger Award (oooh!) and the Vespa Friendship Blogger award.

Thank you Carma at Carma Sez and Lucy at Lucy's Life in Suburb World for the Queen of all Things Awesummm Award.

Thank you Tina at Talking with Teenie and Lucy at Lucy's Life in Suburb World for the Mom of the Year Award.


Thanks to all of you! I loved receiving these, thank you for thinking of me. I'm sorry if I forgot anyone, I lost everything when I put the pictures in so this is all from memory!

I will put them in my awards page as soon as I have time! Now off to finish packing!

In the Absense of Friday Favorites

Time issues and Mr. Linky issues will make this a Friday Favorite-less day. Please feel free to do them, and let me know in the comments. I hope you all have a RELAXING Memorial day weekend! We are making shish ka-bobs, preparing for our vacation next week, and celebrating my MIL's Birthday. (It's always someone's Bday, right?)

See you (write you?) soon.

Er, Um, well....

I am actually not here today. Nope, I am guest posting on My Rambling Thoughts. I absolutely adore the Rambler, she is one of the first blogs I started reading, and the Rambler is incredibly nice and funny!

Oh, and um also, you know my last post? Disregard it. (I've removed it.) Apparently I was very wrong on who would win American Idol. I loved Kris Allen, but I saw Adam Lambert as more AI material. I was forced to do all the dinner dishes because I lost my bet to Mr. Bee and I was at work during dinner- I didn't get to have any of the dinner I was cleaning up! That sucks! I guess upsets can happen. Anywho...

So go over to My Rambling Thoughts and check my post out! I swear it has NOTHING to do with American Idol.

PS Anyone else who watches that show relieved that it's over? It's such a time suck! Anyone who doesn't watch it, are you glad it's over so people can shut the hell up already? I'm feeling both ways too.

Not Me! Monday!- Birthdays, Cuteness and Woodchuck Babies!

Woot, more Not Me! Monday!

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Thank you for all of the Birthday Wishes this past week. I did NOT have a great birthday, getting together with friends and family all week and weekend for all my Birthday celebration. I also did NOT drink too much on Wednesday AND Saturday in celebration. Ahem. I so did NOT promised to never drink again on Sunday. I am NOT NOT sure I will stick with this promise.
(Also I did NOT totally break my diet in a hangover funk yesterday. I am getting back on the horse today, so to speak.)

Jacob learned the words, "Thank you", "please", and "love" yesterday. I did NOT come pretty close to passing out from the cuteness when he said "thank you, Mommy" and "Love Dew". (Yes, he calls his brother Drew "Dew" and Drew calls him "Jakey". Feel free to throw up from the cuteness now.)

We totally do NOT have wild kingdom going on at our house. We caught a woodchuck and released her into the wild last week. I say "her" because I know it was a "she"- and no, I didn't see lady woodchuck parts. I saw her babies (!) on Thursday- 3 of them. Mr. Bee caught 2 of them in a cardboard box and released them in the same area as their Mommy was released. Hopefully we catch the next one and that is all of the babies. So in case anyone is keeping track, our woodchuck capture and release tally= 6. Yep, we have caught 6 woodchucks under our deck. I would so NOT pay a lot of money for good woodchuck repellent! I'm beginning to think there is a Woodchuck disco underneath our deck. I think they should at least give us a portion of the proceeds, if that is the case.

PS... I'm NOT totally psyched that Kris Allen is in the American Idol finals. He so was NOT my Friday Favorite last month... I am so NOT psychic...

What are your Not! Me!'s for this week? And do you know of any good ways to keep woodchucks out of underneath your deck? Leave in the comments please!

Friday Favorites #14- 15 Minutes

It's Friday Favorites time! Oh yes it's time to pay homage to all the things that got us through the week, and give credit where credit is due! Here are my Friday Favorites this week....

I have only a tribute for my Friday Favorite- My Papa George. My Papa and I were almost born on the same day. Fifteen minutes was all that separated us from sharing May 15th as a birthday. I used to always see him on/around our almost-same-birthdays. Today would be his birthday if he were still around. I miss him so much. He was a wonderful, spirited, loving Grandpa, and I always felt lucky I got to spend so much of my life sharing our almost-same-birthdays with him. I wish my children could have spent time with him, but sadly he passed away a little over a year before Drew was born.

Of course now my children have their own spirited, wonderful, loving Papa. And this makes me very, very happy. Love you, Dad.

Okay all- now tell me- what are your faves? You can blog some FF's and then link back if you so choose, or leave them in the comments!

My Last Day

Today is my last day in my 20's. Tomorrow I will be (gasp) 3 decades old. I used to think that 30 was "damn old". I always assumed when I reached the mature age of 30 I would know where my life was going, what path I was taking.

So, if I am assuming this, I guess tomorrow is the day I grow up, right? Because right now I am "winging it" every single day. I am playing at the role of adult, and I cannot believe no one has called me out so far. When I am sick, I still keep thinking that my Mom will come over and take care of me. Yet I keep taking care of the kids, and in the back of my mind, I tell myself, this is only temporary, she'll be here soon and she will make french toast. I pay my bills each time, thinking that I can't believe I am allowed to touch this money, even though I (and Mr. Bee) made this money. I made a decision about getting my son circumcised for gods sakes. WHO put me in charge of that? I shouldn't be in charge of anything serious. I can't even believe that I am paid a salary over $5,000. ($5,000 was my big "you have all the money in the world amount when I was 8 years old.)

I always wonder when I will feel mature, when it will sink in that I am not playing adult and I AM an adult. I think I will always expect to have more knowledge and be more mature all of my life, and that is a good thing. It will challenge me to try harder. The only thing I can do is keep learning, keep working (a popular phrase for this is "fake it till you make it"- well I will always be "faking it") and every once in a while sit back and enjoy the journey. And try not to think of 30 as "damn old".

In addition, I hope to never be too old mature to enjoy stupid comedies, outdoor concerts, roller coasters, and beer.

** As I wrote this, I realized that Tooj wrote a similar piece about Motherhood. I wanted to highlight it because it is similar and kind of my answer to that.

Sappy Mom Musings

In Honor of Mother's Day I decided to write a post about what being a Mother means to me. Warning: If you don't like the sappy, you might want to skip this one!


Being a Mother means to me that:

The best days of my life are when my boys were born, and that will never change.

I have new found respect for my Mom. I am really appreciative for her letting me live past the age of five (totally stealing this from Holly's FB status)!

While they annoy me sometimes, I really do believe that my children are perfect.

I heart baby butts! (This is probably universal, though.)

I love even the simple strange things about my children, including especially the back of my children's heads. I don't know why, I just find something so endearing about Jacob's asymmetrical ears, and Drew's pronounced cowlick.

I will be in a constant state of worry for the rest of my life. There will never be a time in which I am completely at ease.

I will always struggle to get a picture of the kids smiling together.

I will unconditionally love my children forever. I used to ask my Mom if she would love me forever, even if I did something really, really awful, and she told me yes, always she would love me. Now I know she was telling the truth.

I am no longer repulsed by poopy diapers. Now I am just annoyed by them.

I appreciate all of the little luxuries in life.... like pooping with the door closed. Really.

I am in a constant state of me vs. the children. We all have needs and sometime I have to weigh the options because they never correspond to each other. Guess what? I almost always lose.

Sleep was WAY underrated before I had children. How I miss it so!

I will never take a vacation without my children and not think about them and miss them terribly.

I want my children to grow up right now, yet stay little forever.

The years are flying by. This makes me sad, although I do always wish for the week to go by quickly.

I am SO jealous of stay at home moms, yet I know I would be stir crazy and frustrated if I was one.

I have unconditional respect for Mothers everywhere. I know that there is no right way of parenting and the most important thing is to love your children unconditionally.

On that note.....

Happy Mother's Day Everyone! If you are a Mom, please take the time out to pamper yourself, even if it's just for a minute. As for me? Well my children took 4 poops so far collectively and I have not wiped a single butt! It's a good day! Gotta love Mr. Bee.

Friday Favorites #13

It's Friday Favorites time! Oh yes it's time to pay homage to all the things that got us through the week, and give credit where credit is due! Here are my Friday Favorites this week....

This has been kind of weird week at work and in my personal life. Work has been very stressful and I have been busy worrying about others in my personal life. So I am not sure where to begin. I am digging deep for these!

My Diet and Exercise routine. Finally all my hard work is paying off! I have been doing the shred (almost) every day, walking 1/2 at lunch and doing a very loose- phase 2- ish version of south beach and drinking tons of water. I now am 5.5 pounds lighter than 3 weeks ago. I hope this means that I am finally jump starting the weight loss. My bras are looser (yep, I lose it first in my chest- which is a good thing for me)! Now only 25 more pounds to go (groan)! My goal is to have that loss by Lollapalooza, which is 3 months away. That is reasonable, right? I have to set goals or there is no way I will stick with it.

Warm weather. Thank goodness. I have never felt as cooped up as I did this winter. I am so happy for Summer. I am hoping to really keep active with the kids and spend as much time outdoors as possible.

My Hair. I got it done Thursday night and I am officially blond again! Just in time for summer. I took a picture but it looked scary (seriously why can't I make a normal face in self portraits- I always look crazed) so you will just have to trust me. I love my friend who does my hair, even though I had to hold one of her twin boys while she did it to get it done. She does a FANTASTIC job.

My Mr. Bee. I do love him so and I am very excited that he got his Mom to babysit for most of the weekend so we could go to Cedar Point in June. We haven't been there in 4 years! (Yes, I am a big kid at heart.)

My Mom. My Mom is the best Mother you could ask for. She is sweet, funny and non-judgemental. Um, yeah, you heard me. She never once has told me how to raise my children. It's pretty awesome. She is one of my best friends, and I know that she will always be there for me. I can't possibly count the number of times she has heard me cry or break down and yet she never says anything judgemental, she just listens until I calm down. (Seriously, if Mr. Bee only knew how often that happened, he might give her a medal.) What would I do without her? Plus omigod are her apple puff pancakes the most awesome thing in the world.

That's my Mom and I on the left of our family pic circa 1983(?). Love you Mom!

Okay all- now tell me- what are your faves? You can blog some FF's and then link back if you so choose, or leave them in the comments!

False and True

Everyone I know is on Facebook now, including relatives and (gasp) Mr. Bee. FALSE
Everyone I know is on Facebook except for Mr. Bee, who still isn't using email! TRUE

All these same relatives are reading my blog now. FALSE
80% of these relatives are reading my blog now. TRUE

Which means that I will no longer swear on my blog. FALSE
Damnit, I can't give up swearing on my blog! I have a fondness for my potty mouth.TRUE


I have a fondness for Drew's potty mouth. Especially when he calls his car seat a "fucking car seat". FALSE
I am not fond of it, not at all. But I still love him and think it's kind of funny. TRUE
He got that phrase from me. FALSE
He got that wonderful little phrase from Mr. Bee. TRUE
I never swear in front of Drew. FALSE
I never say the "F word" in front of Drew. TRUE

Collectively Mr. Bee and Me might want to cool it on our potty mouths/quick tempers. At least in front of the children. TRUE
My temper never gets me into trouble so it is not something I need to work on. FALSE
I still know that we are good parents, no matter our tempers/potty mouths. No one is perfect. TRUE

PS This is my BEST POST EVAH! (oh, so FALSE!)
I thought this post up while exercising today- it totally sounded better in my head. TRUE

Not Me! Monday!

Well I am back for more Not Me! Monday!

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I am so NOT thrilled that Stellan is doing great and out of the hospital, so I am NOT celebrating by doing my first Not Me Monday in months. I so will NOT be clicking like crazy to be #1, because my wrist is still hurting and that would be stupid, so I am sure I will NOT do it!

I did NOT have a total FAIL and make us lose our health insurance by not paying attention to a notice we got in the mail saying that we had canceled our medical coverage, which is NOT a total, ridiculous glitch and I am so NOT pissed at myself and mostly the glitch that made us lose our coverage. I am also NOT pissed that I have recently taken my children to the doctors for vaccinations that we will NOT have to pay for because I am sure that the health insurance will NOT make us pay for out of pocket for their glitch. I am so NOT ready to cry over the whole matter and will NOT be on pins and needles until I hear what happens when Mr. Bee goes to correct the costly mistake. Please do NOT think good thoughts for me okay? I should NOT be in charge of sorting mail (for reals).

Oh yeah, and I am NOT doing south beach diet again.... hahahaha.... if I do NOT laugh I will cry....

This is NOT my third meme post. I am NOT addicted to days of the week memes, either (ahem- Friday Favorites).

I am NOT a horrible Bloggy friend who has been lapse in responding to your comments- Sorry! I will try this week?

And finally... I do NOT have the cutest little baby boy in the world, even though he did NOT drive me crazy this weekend by being fussy and whiny the good part of the weekend, no NOT at all!

It's okay, I totally do NOT want to pinch his cheeks either. Thanks to my sis, who I pilfered this photo from. She is so NOT an awesome sister!

The 8 Meme

Apparently I couldn't stay away.....

I was tagged for this meme by Julia @ Sometimes Lucid. It seemed like something fun for a Sunday!

8 Things I'm Looking Forward to:

Vacay @ Great Wolf Lodge
Lollapalooza (you didn't see that one coming)
Mother's Day
My 30th Birthday (2 weeks away)
My 300th post (I have the COOLEST contest planned)
Next Friday Night
Finishing this Meme
Finishing my Data entry BS @ work!

8 Things I did yesterday:

Went to a Bday party
Shredded
Broke my diet (at Bday party)
Ate 4 pickles
Kissed my two favorite little boys good night
Played Word Scrambler (I'm addicted)
Applied for Blogher Ads (They sent me an early app- no more Google Ads BS)
Watched a REALLY stupid movie because Mr. Bee and I had to compromise (A Perfect Stranger)


8 Things I wish I could do:

Go to a Caribbean island
Move to a new house
Get a Tummy tuck
Quit work
Not work out
Be lazy (I think I sense a theme)
Sit in a hammock and drink Coronas lemonade all day
Hire a personal chef/maid/gardener

8 Shows I watch:

Chuck!
The Office
Grey's Anatomy
Desperate Housewives
This is embarrassing- Gossip Girl
American Idol
Okay- who watches 8 shows? Seriously people- this is it.

8 Tags:

Mesa
Carma
Lucy
Gemma
Tina
Kalei
Rambler
Jenners

Although- please don't feel forced.... you don't have to do this unless you want to! Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend!

Friday Favorites #12

It's Friday Favorites time! Oh yes it's time to pay homage to all the things that got us through the week, and give credit where credit is due! Here are my Friday Favorites this week....

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Taking a bloggy break- Thank you to those who wrote to me expressing concern for me, I am okay. With all my blog hopping, writing and now, tons of data entry, I am having trouble with carpal tunnel- like symptoms. So I am taking a bloggy break until sometime next week. I just need to take it easy on the recreational computer usage, since I obviously can't stop working . I will still be visiting your blogs- just not commenting as much. I am putting up Mr. Linky- and I am going to leave you with a cute picture to soften the blow of not hearing from me this week. I know you are sad from the prospect of not hearing from me for a couple days, but please don't be crushed.... ;-)

Applesauce- one of Jacob's all time favorites.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Mr. Bee and I have a Friday date night, then the weekly child's birthday party... This time my niece and nephew's party! Thank goodness for combined parties- there's another favorite!

What are your Friday Favorites? Link up and write a post or leave them in the comments! I will get back to you next week, I promise!