A hot fudge sundae with Midol sprinkled on top.
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More pictures!
I’ve spent the last hour and a half trying to get these smaller. It just ain’t happening right now. Sorry. (eta- obviously some of the resizing worked. I still give up though.)\
My parents’ house is really lovely. Everything I could wish for in a house. Maybe one day when I am an empty-nester, I can have nice things too. I don’t really have any pictures of the decor, sorry. But I do have pics of the bathtub. All of the kids had a great time taking turns in their jacuzzi tub.\
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I took pictures while the kids made brownies. The pictures came out really well, proving what a genius I am. Ok, some of the following occurred spontaneously, while others were totally faked. You decide which is which, hee:\
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I’ve been slacking in the vacation wrap-up posts. I blame the weather. I forgot where I was, so let’s just start sort of at the beginning of Miss, ok?\
The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and extended relatives, and that was the most important thing. I had fun too. We went to a waterpark; on a swamp tour; a picnic by a small river with boating, swimming, and more waterslides; Chuck E Cheese followed by trampoline/bungee jump-up “ride;” a 3D movie. Plus the kids just had fun making brownies, splashing in grandma’s jacuzzi tub, playing board games, playing with legos, making bubbles, playing with five different dogs, coloring with sidewalk chalk, and just generally hanging out. I made sure to capture as much of it on film as I could. Rule #1: No having fun unless Aunt Jen was there to take a picture. It was an exhausting trip, for everyone. But fun!\
With my niece and nephew (12 and 13 years old, respectively) in Miss, I got to play Best Aunt Ever by taking all of the kids to Chuck E Cheese by myself, getting tickets to go on the trampoline/bungee jump-up thingee, and buying gifts including colored hair extensions. I was looking forward to playing best aunt ever in Va too, but my other niece and nephew (6 and 1, respectively) didn’t want anything to do with me. By that point of the trip though, I was fine with that. :)\
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A tip about the Pledge Drive
See Kevin’s post to the left?\
The way the pledge drive works is that if the goal isn’t meant, none of the money pledged will go to Ficly and no one will be charged. At this point to be so close to the goal is great, but Ficly continues to need that extra little bit to reach the ultimate the goal.\
I just wanted to clarify things, since I don’t think the process is intuitive.\
Thanks to everyone who has pledged! -
News of the Mundane
(Exciting title, right?)\
Last week in Virginia, I burned the tip of my index finger while making a craft with a hot glue gun. It became a normal blister, with a squooshy, liquidy middle. It hurt immediately, so I stuck ice on it all night. By the next morning, it stopped throbbing but would hurt if I bumped it. It stayed like that for a few days and then slowly formed a hard brown cover. The liquid was reabsorbed into my skin and the pain went away. Now it looks and feels like a small piece of chocolate jellybean has been superglued to the tip of my finger. It’s weird. Weird, I tell you! I keep making jokes that I have leprosy or the plague. I just find this very odd and had to share. Aren’t you glad I did?\
My mother-in-law was tickled with my craft, btw, making it all worth it.\
Have a great Tuesday, everyone! -
SxSW and the Pledge Drive
A couple links for you to click if you’re into that kind of thing:
- My SxSW Panel submission – Called From Doer to Manager, I hope to talk about making the transition from individual contributor to manager and the steps in between. I don’t know who’s going to be on the panel yet, but the first step is to get votes! So, if you think it would make a good SxSW panel, I’d appreciate a click.
- The Ficly Server Support Project – We’re 13 days from the deadline and still \$76 dollars short. You can pledge as little as a dollar and it all goes towards paying Ficly’s hosting bills for the next year.\
There you go…
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A peek of posts to come
My niece and Brian:\
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More pics, yay!
Kevin is posting the rest of pics in a willy-nilly fashion, so the Mississippi vacation update will depend on what he uploads. He posted the swamp tour pictures today. The tour was really cool- no mosquitoes, only a bit of humidity, we went fast enough frequently enough that we stayed cool and comfortable. We saw half a dozen alligators, dozens of turtles, and some pretty birds. We also saw some crazy-ass fishing shacks, that looked like a medium gust of wind would knock them over, but most had satellite tv, lol. The tour was a bit staged, but I had no problem with that. The captain of the boat would draw the baby alligators to us by throwing them marshmallows. At one point, he actually petted one of the large alligators several times, grabbed its lower leg and lifted it out of the water. To get the large alligators out of the water he put a hotdog on a stick and teased them gently:\
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Kevin’s posted more pics, yay!
On the last day in Virginia, we prettied the kids up and sent them off to the mall to get their picture taken together. It came out really cute. Then Tim, Kevin and Grandpa Larry took the kids to the Air and Space Museum. Babba finagled the day into a flight theme and talked Grandpa into putting on his old flight suit and helmet. Brian made him pretend to be Darth Granpda. (Yea, I don’t know.) The kids had fun! In some of the pics, I can’t tell the difference between Max and Brian!! Big kudos to Grandpa for being able to get into his flight suit after more than a decade of retirement. :)\
Our visit to Virginia was short, but we packed in lots of fun and chatting time. Everyone got to play with the baby, meet the new girlfriend, and start planning for Thanksgiving, yay.\
In the next set of pics: Mississippi madness! -
Summer Vacation Entry 1
Last month, the boys and I flew to Mississippi and spent 2 weeks cavorting with grandparents and cousins, and then we flew to Virginia to cavort with even more family. Since Kevin is posting the last batch of pictures first, that is how I will start my vacation wrap-up.
- We went to the National Zoo, which was a huge disappointment to me. (No penguins, woe.) The kids had a good time, though a good deal of it was due to riding in the zoo’s two-kiddie stroller. Best \$4 spent ever.
- The kids played at an indoor bouncy and slide playground. It wasn’t cheap, but it was air conditioned. This activity got a thumbs up from everyone and resulted in some really funny pictures.
- Babba, aka Kevin’s mom, put together a huge pirate-themed scavenger hunt. The clues contained pictures, so Brian could lead the group during his turn. At each clue, the kids had an activity to do: throw water balloons, cross “crocodile lake,” dig through “brains” for gold coins, have a bubble fight with other pirates, capture enemy boats, etc. It took about three hours and the kids LOVED it. Some things didn’t go as planned, like when the kids were attacked by evil pirates with water balloons, the kids immediately and without remorse attacked back! Ha. Apparently that thought never entered Babba’s mind. Digging through “brains” for gold coins ended up in a huge food fight in the backyard. The littlest pirate, age 1 year, balked at having a hand print made, so we stuck his foot in the cement mixture before he could wiggle away. 🙂
