Spring Break Week

Me with a whole week off work=really long blog post. So get ready to read, or skip it if you don't wanna read a long time. lol :)

Saturday night we went to a cookout at Mike and Cheryl's house in Redwood. They built a bonfire and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and cooked hamburgers and sat around the fire talking til about 9:30 I guess. It was really nice, been years since we've been to a bonfire and I forgot how relaxing and pleasant it is. We are going back again this Friday and we'll take the kids this time. The kids stayed at Mom's house because we were going afterwards to see the D7 band play at the Loft. I had used myspace to invite an old friend of ours (Lysa) to meet us out there, and asked Donnie and Terri to meet us there also. We ended up having a blast. We stayed there til 3 am. And with the time change that ended up being 4 am. Not something I can do too many times in my life I don't think - geesh.



Here are some pics of us all at the Loft:




















Two of last weeks activities have turned into something interesting this week:
1. Our trip to see the "Big Hair Affair".
2. My evening on myspace.
The combination of those two things has landed Rusty a new playing gig it seems. When we watched the band play that weekend, we briefly met the singer and spoke with him. Then the other night when I was lost in the myspace fun, I found the band on myspace and added them to my friends list. The singer messaged me and thanked us for coming to see them. He asked if Rusty was still playing with D7, etc. I messaged him back and said no, that he had something else going, etc. He messaged me again and gave me his phone number and asked for Rusty to please call him right away because he wanted to know what Rusty really really thought of the show last weekend. It was nearly 11:00 but Rusty called him. They talked for about an hour. To make a long story short, the guy was interested in having Rusty in the band and Rusty is interested in being in the band. It's just right up his alley - dressing up in 80's gear and playing 80's music! I'm totally excited! He met us out at the Loft Saturday along with everyone else to discuss it further. Looks like it might become a thing here in a month or two, or maybe sooner. I'll keep it posted.

SAturday Tanner made another ebay purchase - this time it was a more sensible one. TWO lego men for a total of about $10.70.

Sunday was a pretty day. Tyler, Tanner, and me went to church - the teen band was going to be playing at the adult church session. They did a good job. I had to force Tanner to go, he hates to sit still so long. Rusty bought all of us and Mickey a steak and we cooked out on the grill. Rusty made Tyler wash both of our cars (with Tanner's help). Tyler ended up having to wash Rusty's twice - thought he and Rusty were gonna go round and round the WHOLE DAY. Rusty worked on a guitar amp all day long just to find that it was not fixable without more parts or more electronics expertise. So Steve T. is supposed to come help him with it soon.

Monday Tanner and Drew went up to the hospital all day to wait on Drew's baby brother to be born. They didn't even know if it would be a boy or girl, the parents did not want to know before hand. But they were excited when it was a boy, that is what Drew and Tanner were hoping for. He was a 6 lb. 11oz. "Sebastian Marquis". Of course the grandparents are just beaming!


Tyler actually left his room and went outside and played some football in the street on Monday. I took lots of pictures to try to inspire myself to do some spring cleaning, then I thought of doing an entire blog entry about my efforts - kind of a before and after thing. Just trying to find a way to make it fun for me lol. So later in a week or so there should be a "spring cleaning" edition in the blog. Then Monday evening we had Mickey and Buddy (the singer previously mentioned) over for dinner, and Lisa and Russ came to visit also.


TUesday Tyler forced me to go to the gym. He's terribly worried that he will lose all the strength, agility, and stamina that he has built up since Christmas if he does not work out all week. So we went, and he found that he had a hard time hanging with me on the elipticycle thing. Mom's not so outta shape lol. He made it for 25 of the 30 minutes though. THen we lifted a few weights and such. He wanted me to get the gym owner to give him some advice on some certain things he wanted to tone up on so we went and asked him what excercises or weight lifting he could do to tone up the chest and abdominal area. He said not to worry about the weight lifting, just do the weightlifting - but the thing to be concerned with is NUTRITION. He told Tyler to write down every single thing he eats for 4 days then bring it back to him and he'll discuss it with him, and he also gave us a copy of the "Wyatt diet" that he would be putting him on. ACtually, the Wyatt diet looks kinda good. It's for body building as well as fat loss, but it's very close to Atkins. I might do it with him, what the heck.


Also on Tuesday, Tyler's shoes that he designed himself FINALLY came in. Took exactly 4 weeks. He went to converse.com and designed his own pair of shoes, special order - it was lots of fun. Here they are, special order!


Also on Tuesday, Tanner and Drew got to put the sprinkler on the trampoline for an hour. THey did yet another hour on Wednesday also. Drew has been here the whole week, thank goodness. Drew's severe allergies have been awful this week, but the waterhose actually seems to offer some relief. I've never seen a kid with allergies that bad. THey may both be sick as heck next week from being out in the water, but they've had tons of fun.


On Wednesday I had so much fun demolishing my laundry room. Demolition is therapeutic, I suggest it to anyone for stress relief. I ripped out old delapidated shelving and I primed and painted the ceiling and walls. I also went and bought all new state-of-the-art shelving to replace the 1964 shelving I had ripped out. Man, I've been wanting to do this for a LONG time. We also put some stuff down the drain pipe to clear the clog that we've been hoping would just go away. Still not sure if it's completely gone.... Also, I replaced the dryer vent hose all by myself. I used the leftover primer and paint from my bathroom and had just enough for the laundry room. And - note to self - the name of that awesome thick really good paint I bought was Glidden "America's Finest" paint, white, from Home Depot - gliddenpaint.com. Anyway, more on this week's home improvement and spring cleaning in the special "Spring Cleaning" edition of the blog that I post, if I EVER get finished with my spring cleaning.


I've gone myspace crazy this week. I've found a couple other friends now. And we leave little funny notes to each other each day. And we're planning a pool party for the summer, and possibly a girls night out sometime if a few can make it into town at the same time. Myspace is cool. lol. It occured to me this week that in 2009 I will be attending my 20th year class reunion good LORD. As old as that makes ME feel, it should make the rest of you feel REALLY OLD!


Wednesday evening our neighbors (Drew's grandparents) came down to visit and give us the news that Angie (the grandmother) is retiring effective today and she will be home all the time like her husband now. She offered to keep Tanner any time he is home sick from school and talked about all the cakes she intends to bake and the cleaning she intends to do lol. We're excited for her.


Thursday I did odd jobs around the house. I"m kind of at a stand still in the laundry room until Rusty has the time to put up the shelves. The kids got in the water hose yet again - no telling what my water bill will be. I've been totally enjoying mom's blog she FINALLY made about the lakehouse. http://the-lakehouse-smk.blogspot.com/ Now if we can just talk some other folks into starting theirs! We could all have weekly updates from each family in our emailboxes every weekend, that would be awesome lol. Candie (old roommate from Gulfport) called and we talked for 2 hours. She has been on the exact same cruise that we went on, and we're discussing going together some time. She told me her Hurricane Katrina story, and we made plans to go to the Gulfcoast Marching contest together next fall lol.


Today is Friday, sadly my last day of Spring Break. We will be going to another bonfire cookout at Cheryl and Mike's tonight, then on to see "Scum Gumbo" play at the Loft. Tomorrow Rusty meets with "Big Hair Affair" to play together and discuss everything - I'm so excited! THen Sunday I'll probably cook all day and whine about going back to work.

Was gonna wait and spring this on ya during a time when I didn't have much to post, but what the heck. Before I started this family blog I toyed with the idea of a creative writing blog but I lost interest at first. But while off this week, I went back and picked it back up and decided to put it on again for fun. I like finding writing prompts, or especially LISTS of stuff. Doing a lot of that with friends on myspace right now too. So - anyway - as if I have not given you enough stuff to read thus far - here is the link to my goof off blog http://summerof71.blogspot.com/
These are the couple of things I wrote last spring, but hope to add some current stuff as I get the inspiration or find an idea lol. I love lists - it's an affliction.