Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Blonde moment

Get used to this, I have lots of them. I guess it's helpful when I actually set the permissions on the pictures I post to SHARE..... ok, well they should be viewable now. Please let me know if I didn't fix it. 

Monday, August 29, 2011

New pics added

Ok my many fans.... (all 3 of you!) C'mon guys, would it kill more of you to follow me? I know you're reading.... I see you on my stats. Hahaha....

Anyway.... I finally managed to get up off my tush and upload some pics from vacay. I got as far as Dodge City and that's only 1/4 of the pics I took. Ugh. The link to the Picasa album is on the left side of my blog, incidentally titled, "Arizona Trip 2011". If some of the pics bore you, imagine what they did to me while I was there! Enjoy! I will upload more when I've had like 5 energy shots and all night to hang out on the computer. So there.

Monday, August 22, 2011

We survived vacay!

Sorry that I've negelcted my blog, but I was kinda driving across the country and back for the past couple of weeks.  Well, not the entire time, but a good chunk anyway.  The fact that I'm making this new post shows that hubby didn't end up ditching me on the side of the road, but I'm sure he was tempted a time or two.  The children were actually pretty decent aside from the little Princess wanting to stop at EVERY rest stop, yet refusing to wash her hands.  Thank the Lord for hand sanitizer!! 

So we started late at night on a Friday, drove all the way through to Saturday evening where we stopped just a few hundred miles shy of Dodge City.  After that long in the car, we all needed some unwinding time, not to mention that wonderfully underrated sleep thing.  Here's the kids looking adorable in the hotel room....


After some much needed rest and relaxation, we hit the road the next morning with the intent on stopping in Dodge City, due to the fact that hubby and I are such huge Wyatt Earp and Wild West fanatics.
  We're such nutjobs our son is even named after him.....
Anyhow, we had some great times in Dodge City, checking out the sites, looking through the museum, experiencing an authentic "chuck wagon" dinner, and watching a variety show at the Long Branch Saloon, complete with dancing girls.  Princess got to do her version earlier that day.... see below:


The best part was after the pianist stopped playing, and Princess walks to the edge of the stage, looks squarely at her, crosses her arms and says, "Ahem?"  What kind of monster have I created??  After the show, she desperately wanted to be up front with the dancing girls, so I let her go.  They fell in love with her immediately, and even went so far as to put a can-can skirt on her,
 
and show her how to properly lift it. 












She also managed to purchase a souvenir garter off of one of the girls who then insisted that they get their chance to put it on her:

Such a ham I have....

There was supposed to also be a gunfight re-enactment, but unfortunately at the time they were supposed to do it, a freak thunderstorm rolled through, cancelling the gunfight.  My ever-optimistic son was saying repeatedly, "Maybe it's a tornado!"  Hmmm.... it IS Kansas.....

We survived the "tornado" and took our spoils and left Dodge City to head off to AZ....

Got to AZ less than a day later, and then the good luck with the vehicle started.  Sigh.
The following morning, we go to start my truck, and..... it doesn't.  Come to find out, my fuel pump went bad.  Hmmm.... guess I could be grateful it didn't occur in the middle of nowhere USA, but I'd rather stew. 
Several hundred dollars later, we were enjoying the wonderful weather with my wonderful parents and sisters and nieces and nephews :

But it's a dry heat!!!  It's still hot....


Towards the end of our stay in AZ, my brakes start grinding.  Ugh.  They're not supposed to do that.... especially prior to a cross country drive!  Several hundred more dollars, and we have new front brakes and rotors.  This vehicle is not allowed to have any more problems for the rest of its life. 

We begin our trip home with a new fuel pump and new brakes and rotors and everything was smooth sailing.  Until we reached a border checkpoint in El Paso and my children pick that precise time to start muttering in what sounds like Swedish.  My hubby says, "I've never been to jail....".  I find myself telling the children to speak English before we reach the border patrol guard.  Wow.  How often have you imagined yourself saying that one?? 

I took nearly a thousand pictures of the trip, and I will try to upload them to photobucket or something along those lines, but for now I need to get some sleep since I didn't get much on the road.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Countdown to Vacay!

So the time has come for the Douglas clan to venture on our annual cross-country trip to the desert to visit my family...

 I'm excited... and freaked out. It always happens the week before a trip anywhere. Panic mode. What will I forget?? No matter how many lists I make, no matter how beserk I drive that wonderful husband of mine asking if I'm forgetting things, no matter how organized I get, I am bound to forget something.  Hopefully it won't be something too important.....

Now if you thought that I was insinuating that I'd forget my kids.... you were right.  Could I possibly?  No.  My daughter doesn't let me out of her sight, much less let me forget that she's not with me. 

For those that are thinking I just let the whole world know my house is going to be empty for a couple weeks, not so!  There will be someone staying at my house along with my huge, obnoxious, ravenous German Shepherd.  Did I mention ravenous?

So let the countdown begin, and as the end draws nearer, I may have a few hairs missing off my head, my kids will be a nervous wreck from my snapping at them left and right, and my hubby just may be tempted to leave me on the side of the road.