Off We Go To Milwaukee!

Earlier this summer I had a crazy idea that we would drive over five hours to Milwaukee. Lucky for me I am married to T-Bone and beyond my giving him grey hair he is a pretty good sport! How many husbands would agree to a 36-hour trip that 10+ was driving? 

It would be a surprise visit to Summerfest for my child to see Billie Eilish. 

p.s. I agree it was an amazing show and her brother was also fantastic to watch. I'll give my review later...

But along the way, we found other ways to amuse ourselves. 

Me - I looked for license plates (after I saw Alaska!) and I found:

I got a lot of problems with you people and now you're gonna hear about it.

I am of the opinion though that Illinois has FAR too many variations of their plate & that people have plate frames that oddly cover a large amount of their state name. Which I can't believe is legal. 

Then, of course, there was Sunday Brunch & watching USA Women's Soccer KICK A$$!

Rose Bowl @ Wicked Hop

We wrapped up our weekend in a place where T-Bone could be happy too. 

The Harley Davidson Museum! Who goes to Milwaukee & doesn't do that? 

We took a guided tour - heard about plenty of motorcycles (and other motors!) and went into the limited run exhibit "Daredevils! A Century of Spine-Tingling Spectacles" that had everything from Buffalo Bill Cody to Joie Chitwood & Evil Kenevil. Plus, some idiot that tried to build a loop-de-loop & mountain bike it...ugh! Do NOT try this @home. 

And now we are home again - jiggidy-jig!     

How is your summer? 

I broke my rule....

Due to an accidental drowning - Boo Boo La La lost her iPod.

She didn't even have it a whole year and she was totally crushed.

Daddy promised her a new one, but the first one that came was a dud. You could not set it up and it didn't hold a charge for more than a few hours anyway.

Then we got busy and she had tablets she could use that Mommy and Daddy use, but not as much as their phones.

We toyed with the idea of a phone to replace the iPod until I found out how much it would be each month to get her service.  She is ten - she mostly texts her friends on a free texting app over our WiFi and she can get Xfinity WiFi almost everywhere in our neighborhood.  So, that was out.

Then I happened to Google, "Best deal on an iPod touch", and voila - Target.

The closest ones to us had VERY FEW IN STOCK and they, of course, were open.

So, Mommy broke her rule.

She shopped on Thanksgiving.

How about you?  Are you shopping, decorating, or just snuggling in for a long-overdue break?

No matter what - 'Tis the Season and our family wishes you well.

Memories of a Mommy Blogger - Revenge of the Fifth!

At one point during the month I went to my local Heartland Chevy Dealer and they talked me through EVERY DARN FEATURE OF THE TRAVERSE.

Riveting if you don't have one....



Your Chevy Heartland Dealer Can Teach You Cool Stuff! from Lisa Scherber on Vimeo.

Phun with the Phone

We had decided last night to watch the Seahawks/49'ers game in the living room.

Let me just say two things about that: Stupid rain delay. Stupid Harbaugh - should have pulled Kaepernick.

Anyfantasyfootballupset. 

Boo Boo was on the floor and called up to me, "Mom, how do you spell THIEF?" 

T, H, is it IE or EI T-bone?

"I before E, except after C." *smart ass*

Next thing I know she is grabbing T-bone's iPhone and...

She was next going for ME, but I said I did NOT fit the crime indicated so it went to the cat.

And Roofis was his name-O

T-bone decided Boo Boo's Crime

Not a real poo.

And then Boo Boo decided J-Dogg was a criminal as well....poor J-Dogg.

I just sat back and laughed. Oh and posted these to Facebook, natch.

Robbinsdale Eggstravaganza!

There are a lot of fun events in Robbinsdale - Whiz Bang Days, the Lighting of the Christmas Tree, but the one that Boo Boo likes best - probably now more than ever - is the Eggstravaganza!

The first year my husband saw something about the event he just took Boo Boo there on a whim.  She came home with stuffed animals and candy and a huge smile.  So the next year I went along...she got some candy and a couple dollars in cash.  She was happy and smiling, we got CANDY and she got to hang with us doting on her for a few hours.

I have to tell you, from a parents perspective this event is not all that awesome.  You stand in line, it is usually cold, your child runs around some, complains about the wait some.  Parents who are first timers get WIDE EYED at the line, they don't understand.  Why is there a line?  Isn't this an Easter Egg Hunt?

Nope.

It is the Eggstravaganza.
 

I need to give this to the Easter Bunny!

It is not a hunt.  Here at the Eggstravagaza the kids wait and dance to the dj - parents sipping their free hot chocolate.  Then at 1pm all are ushered into City Hall, family by family.  Children are shown where to select their four plastic eggs from a laundry basket festooned with ribbons and spring-y touches, then swooped up to one of the many volunteers behind the counter who help them open their precious plastic eggs.


We got it down now.  T-bone goes up about noon.  We join him later to minimize the whine.

She LOVED my egg.

Boo Boo read her Captain Underpants book and waited.

Out came The Easter Bunny - giving all the kids Twizzlers and waving and hugging.  She was SO pleased to get the hand drawn gift - she waited for us to get the right picture of the hug.  :)


We then went inside.  The room was already buzzing with sugar and joy.  Cheers going going up from the volunteers when certain colors of tickets were revealed.  I mean, how fun to give a kid a scooter or a bike, or the biggest stuffed bunny you ever saw?

Boo Boo selected four little plastic eggs held together with tape.  Then we went up to the counter.

A nice lady bubbling with excitement said, "Should we see what you got?"  And she and Boo Boo began to open them.  She SHRIEKED!!!!!  "WE GOT AN ORANGE TICKET!!"  and suddenly we were pretty popular.  A lady behind said, "Is this the girl who won a BIKE?"

Boo Boo was in shock.  A bike?  And I have three more EGGS??? She could barely speak.

Lots of pictures were taken after Boo Boo surveyed all the bikes on the platform and selected the cute white one with pink and blue swirls.  She barely remembered she got THREE OTHER prizes including two stuffed animals and a pencil case.  

Would you if you were seven?

Did she need the bike?  No.

Do other parents complain that this is a zoo and kids from other towns come?  Yes.

Do I care?  No.  Because my Boo Boo had just as much fun the year she won two dollars and some candy as she did when she won the bike.  

How can you argue with that?

I wonder who's turn it will be next year to be so lucky.

P.S. There are other fun things at this event.  Cookie decorating, Easter Egg craft, people to talk to from the community.  Our Chamber does a great job of it - and I personally would love to be in their shoes making so much joy.

Her name is Uni-que!

For Mama Kat's Pretty Much Famous - Writer's Workshop this week I selected.

5) Share how you came up with your kids names!

Which is weird because I don't think I usually pick prompt five.  Hmmmm.

Anyrandomthoughtlater.

We had a boy name for our dear Boo Boo - cuz ya know I was sure I would have a boy.  My SIL thought so too.  We had discussed it!  It would be a boy because I am not girly enough for a girl.  And I will tell you that name it was Adin, after a relative of my husband's who served in The First Infantry of Minnesota and has been researched heavily by my FIL.

See about that Adin here.   Oh yes, you get history here with the goofiness.

When we asked Sair and J-Dogg if they would like a boy or a girl, they both said, "I hope you have a girl." Sair thought that any boy would gang up on her with J-Dogg (Ummm, you will be 13 when this kid gets here!) and J-Dogg, I didn't ask, but I think he likes being the only boy.

And for the life of us, T-bone and I could NOT settle on a girl's name.

Nope.

It went something like this:

T: Karen?
M: Veto. Greenleigh?
T: Veto!  Debbie?
M: Gag. Veto.

I wanted unique - he wanted pronounce-able, spell-able, and not tease-worthy.

Then, we found out.

Dum.Dum.Dum.

She's a girl al-righty.  Shit.  What are we going to name her?

T: How about Grace, didn't you say you always wanted to name a girl Grace?
M: You didn't listen to the next part when I said  - but, that was BEFORE every other moron named their kid Grace.  Ugh!  (Pregnant hormones!)

We rented a movie that Friday - I was hoping to god I would not fall asleep before it was over.

And suddenly - Diane Keaton speaks and says, '________?' (you didn't think I would type it would you?) and the daughter says, 'Hmm?' and then she asks her what she would like for desert, in French?

T-Bone and I both sat up from our prone couch positions and said,

"That is it!"

It had the correct combo of uni-que and normal.

Then, of course, there was the battle over the middle name.  T-bone insisted that it be a one syllable name and brought up Grace again.  But I wanted my DAD's middle name.

Claire.

Yup - my Grandmother named him and it is a boy's name if you spell it correctly. C-L-A-R-E.

But she didn't.  :)

The battle over that name ended on the day Boo Boo La La was born and I had her with NO DRUGS.

Cuz apparently, if you do that, you win.


P.S. Diane Keaton won a Golden Globe for that performance.

P.P.S. To learn how we named Roofis - click here.

T-bone stepped in something...

In the car on the way home from the Y:

T: I almost forgot to bring her doll with us - she walked over to the table and picked it up and gave me the eye.

(This is the eye)

ML: Oh poor Daddy.

T: Then in the locker room she told me she thought I lost her dolls dress.  I told her it was in the bag and she gave me the eye again.  Like she had doubts that I knew what I was talking about. So I had to fish around in the bag for it - I found it and I told her - Here it is...

B: No Daddy, you said "See I found it".

So Daddy got it back.  Nyah.

Have you seen my Boo Boo has lost her first tooth?  It is so cute.  She helped me edit this for you.

She wanted to be purple.

And please give me strength...It is the last day of Kindergarten and I cannot believe my BABY will be a First Grader next fall.

Did you smell that?

So we are a family of farters. 

 

My mother used to say to me "Ewww. You are such a piggy girl.  Who do you think is going to want to marry a girl who burps and farts all the time."

 

My brother one time laid down gas so horrific, in a car, with NO WAY TO ROLL DOWN THE WINDOWS, in bumper to bumper traffic with no exit is sight that cause my father to WAKE UP from the back seat and say, "Good LORD PETE!  What died up in there???"

 

I have imagined my own restaurant - TOOTS! - where we serve food that makes you gassy, but is delicious, and has a special glass VSP* dining area with filters!  All kinds of fun cartoons on the walls and "Pull My Finger!" as our tagline. 

 

But I digress.

 

You see I met my husband, T-bone. 

 

He is Legen - wait for it and don't forget your Lactaid as it will be very - DAIRY! in his gasious emmissions. 

 

And he does not discriminate to whom he farts around either - except my mom, he hardly farts around my mom. 

Anysmellygashole.

T-bone relayed this small tale to me the other night.

You know when you left?  Boo Boo and I went downstairs to put away the stuff in the freezer.

Uh-huh. (not really paying attention)

Yeah, she was handing me stuff and I was putting it in the freezer, then - I let out a big fart.

(WHY is he telling me this??)

So Boo Boo paused, sniffed, then took the bag of peas that were in her hand and covered her face - told me I made a BIG STINKY FART, made faces and dramatically fell to the ground, flopping.  

OMG - that is funny!

Yeah, she is a pretty funny kid. 

________________________________________________

Yes, Boo Boo La La is a pretty funny kid.  Who loves her farts.

How about you?  What kind of family are you?  Farters? Or Corkers?  

Let it all out.  

HELP! She is going to kill me...

Oh no Mama! Not ME!?!?!?

Yes, you!  That's who.

Dear @Iambooboolala,

Just because you decide to wake up at 6:49 am on Monday morning does not mean your 12:55 pm bus is going to come sooner.  It is HOURS my dear child before Bus Man Scott will arrive at the corner to take you off to school and the wonder that is Mrs. E's room.  

I know, I know, it IS a school day today.  But honey!  School starts at 1:05 pm, not immediatelyfollowinglunch that you have been begging for since 10:22 am. And for the record Bubba, we are not eating until noon at the earliest so you can stop badgering me with the whine of "I AM STARVING." because you are NOT starving.  You got bacon and cocoa crispies for breakfast - AND juice too.  

You will survive.  

Really?  Really?  Daddy HAD to come home and say, "Why aren't you at the bus yet?" at 12:38 pm.  Sigh.  

Now...to keep myself calm and not checking for the bus every second until 3:58 pm when they deliver her home.  

How is your school year so far?

Why, YES, I did camp over Labor Day Weekend.

Yesterday my husband set up our new tent to put seam sealer on it.

Then he wanted to try blowing up our new air mattress, just to make sure it worked and didn't have holes.

Then my child convinced him to sleep in the tent in our backyard.

Now they are sitting up and playing, "Skunk in the barnyard, P U!  Somebody farted...."

My family is so weird.

I am the worst blog friend EVER!

So remember Spring of 2010 when I had a cool guest post from Michelle at So Wonderful, So Marvelous?

Yeah, she asked me to guest post while she was on maternity leave and DUH

*smacks forehead*

I TOTALLY MISSED SHE POSTED IT JULY 21!!!

I suck.

But you, you can save me and go read it now.

p.s. its Boo Boo's Birth Story so you best go read it!

Thanks!

Boo Boo is iCarly!

I don't think I ever forced you to watch this before...

I found it interesting because of two things.

1) Boo Boo is still afraid of the gorillas at the Como Zoo.  She finds them "angry" - but lions?  Oh they are COOL.  And she was so excited that it ROARED while she was there.

2) I don't have that rocking chair or pile of crap in my hall any longer.  Nope.  A beautiful wicker chair my father painted brown for me and that hall is repainted and looks beautiful.  ;)

Happy Saturday - Boo Boo and I got nothing going on and Daddy is golfing in The Bastard Open - follow them on Twittah! 

Heard around the campfire

T-bone: You need to eat those beans.
Boo Boo: NOOOO.  They are yellow - I don't like them.
T-bone: They are exactly the same as the green one's next to them, just yellow.
Boo Boo: No.
T-bone: Eat.those.beans.or.tomorrow.you.get.peas.
Boo Boo: *poke bean* *pick-up bean* *eat bean* ---- *smile*
T-bone: SEE! I told you. *hmpf*

Well played Daddy, well played.

Boo Boo & Frosty The Snowman

Mommy?  When can we build a snowman? 

Ahhh, ask your Dad.

Daddy?  When can we build a snowman?

The snow isn't quite right to build one honey.  Maybe next snowfall.

As the heaps and mounds of snow began to melt...

Mommy!!  I didn't get to build any snowman!

Oh Boo Boo, I am sorry - maybe it will snow again.

DADDY YOU FORGOT TO HELP ME BUILD A SNOWMAN!!

I am sorry sweetie-pie.  We might still get a chance.

So, despite the fact the snow wasn't quite right for making a snowman

Daddy got Boo Boo outside on Wednesday night before dinner

And Frosty* was born.

Complete with sparkplug nose, Chistmas light eyes, and a Harley hat from Las Vegas!

Make a funny face for Mama Frosty!

*While Boo Boo is smart, funny, and very cute. The girl is not too creative with the names.

Her panda is Panda, her bears are Beary and Claire Bear...so fogive us the Frosty. ;P

The Party

We got there early, but I was still nervous someone had arrived before us that we had invited and they would be standing there.
Waiting.
But that was not the case, we had arrived in plenty of time to greet our guests.
It took awhile to get our hands stamped and find the party planner to guide us to our table and give us the run-down of what was to happen next. 

And it was LOUD at this party so it took a bit for the planner and I to understand each other.

"Did you look at the menu?  Do you know what you want to order?"
"WHAT?  I ordered online, don't you have that on your sheet?"
"Oh yeah.  Do you still WANT that?"
"Ummm, yeah."

not boding well for this party.

"Can we get her in the ticket blaster asap?"
"Sure, I will be right back."

~15 minutes later

"Okay, we can get her in the ticket blaster now!"  smiling
"Uh, now I have to go FIND her."

And on and on it went - being pushed and pulled around by our party planner at Chuck E. Cheese.  I mean, really?  You can't do some of the stuff WHEN I want it done?  Why? Why? Please tell me why?

But - we had wonderful turnout of GREAT friends.
The people ate ALL the food - save a few pieces of cake and celery sticks.
Boo Boo was DELIGHTED with everything and so HAPPY her friend Jordan had joined us! 

So, when I finally got into the car with a tired and happy five year old and my tired and not cranky husband, I was relieved it was all over.

anyone want about 140 Chuck E. Cheese tokens? ;P 

Blast Off!

 This post was written in response to Mama Kat's prompt to write about "A moment you truly felt relieved."

The rest of the story...

Yesterday I played along with Wordless Wednesday and put up this picture of my Dear Sweet Child, Boo Boo La La. 
I got lots of nice comments about how cute she is - Thank you - and I wanted to tell you how it came to be that I found myself paying for a picture with Santa Claus for the first time EVER in her life. 

You see my husband is in a union and every year they have a Christmas Party for all the kids to come and see Santa and Mrs. Claus - she sat on the SAME Santa's lap (or at least near it) every year since she was 11 months old.

The Evidence:

At 11 months

Just about Two

At almost three she didn't think she liked the big guy...

Almost four and starting to get the picture...

This year however my husband had to WORK on the day of the party...and while I would KNOW people there, including my BIL and his family, it was essentially my husband's WORK Christmas Party and who goes to their spouse's Christmas Party without their spouse? 

I thought to myself...you DO have a backup Santa.

THIS is what I call a good backup Santa!

Boo Boo's Pre-K ALWAYS has a visit from Santa!

wah wah wah

Remember what happend at Boo Boo's Pre-K Christmas Pagent?  Snow-maggedon 2010?  The blizzard of SEVENTEEN INCHES OF SNOW that took down a football stadium? 

yeah, no Santa that day either.

So what does a mama do that PROMISED her Boo Boo she could visit Santa?

She takes her to the mall on the COLDEST night in December that is possible and does it on the night they ALSO allow people to bring their pets. 

I am a genius.

But Boo Boo was soooo excited.

As we stood there in line for nearly two hours she was as patient as any four year old could possibly be...having to wait for THREE dogs to sit with Santa ahead of her...hair dirty and in a scraggly pony...not dressed up in her Christmas Best like years past...but you know what?

She chatted with Santa for the longest time.  And this Dear Santa really listened and talked with her on a whole other level than our Santa's of the past. 

And T-Bone still got to watch The Vikings at Applebee's.

To Infinity & Beyond!

Santa Claus will chase you through town....

So on Christmas Morning (thanks to Supah!) my dear Boo Boo La La was handed

photographic PROOF

that Santa Claus came to town.

T-bone felt the need to embelish:

Yeah, Santa was not very happy that Daddy took his picture. He chased Daddy all over the house trying to get the picture back.

OHHHH!!!

Yup, but then I gave Santa the reindeer food. The reindeer were really hungry. He was happy then and let me keep the picture.

REALLY???? Did the reindeer eat the food...

That hubby. ;)

How do you do it? Really?

A friend asked me,
"How do you blog? I don't get it - I could never find that much to write about."

Well, the truth is that some days I have NOTHING....seriously I am drained and can't focus and blahhhhhh! I ignore the blog and facebook and twitter and just am.

So there!

Then there are days like today when I look at an old YouTube video and laugh about how funny T-bone is and that crazy little baby who has blessed us with her smiles...


AND particularly good news came yesterday that

THE HOT TUB'S NEW SPA PACK IS ON A DELIVERY TRUCK AND HEADED TO OUR HOME!!

Oh, sweet hot tub, I have missed you since you froze over in the dark & cold days last winter. You look so sad with your sagging cover just waiting...

About every other day the Boo Boo has had a conversation like this with T-bone or myself.

"Can we go in the pool?"

No sweetie it is still broken.

"Our pool is BROK-DED? Daddy and I are going to have to fix it."

Yup

"Yup, we will get tools and fix-ded it. Me and Daddy."

Honey, you better start while SpongeBob is on or something so she forgets your out there Sunday....love you!

Going to the Zoo --- We like to howl at the wolf!