Small Town Iowa

Tonight we attended the annual Farmer's Merchant Picnic - Carnival in Tabor. It is such an all American small town type of thing. It is kind of neat to see all of the people who come to this event year after year. I remember going to it as a child, and several friends also told me the same thing when I told them we were going. We took B last year and he had fun riding on the kiddie rides. Tonight we ran into several friends and enjoyed riding some of the rides with them. Carnival people sort of remind me of circus people so tonights question is did you ever dream of joining the circus? I always wanted to be one of the beautiful trapeze girls.

Birthday Party Fun

B attended his second "friend" birthday party this weekend. My little baby is getting so big and is getting his own invitations to birthday parties! There were a handful of little guys in their swim trunks and a big banzi waterslide thing. B is loving the water and I wanted to share these two pics that show how much fun he is having. I thought the little boys running around in their swim trunks were just so adorable. I wondered to one of the other moms how long they could play out there on that slide going up and down over and over again. Of course, B had a break down when it was time to go (it was 2 hours past his nap) and wanted to "borrow" that slide. As we were walking up to the car, he also said he liked going on that "beautiful slide". This was a cowboy/ water fun party. Do you have any memories of a "theme" party that was your favorite?

Apparently...

You can only post 5 pics at a time and I really want to show you some more of my beautiful butterfly pics. So ... here they are.

What do you like best at the zoo?

Butterflies

Today our family of 3 took a trip to the Omaha Zoo. We are so fortunate to have SUCH a nice zoo that is so close. Today I just thought about how lucky we are to have a season pass and to be able to visit the zoo so frequently. I have grown up visiting the zoo often, and I am sure there are many families who don't ever get to visit the zoo. We are also spoiled because Omaha has one of the best zoos in the country. Today hubby got to visit the new butterfly and insect pavilion. B and I already have been there once with some friends, but it was cool to go again. The line looks long, but it doesn't take too long to get your turn to go in. Here are a few pics of the butterflies we saw today. After the butterflies we visited the aquarium, tigers, bears, and then rode the train. What a great day.

Summer Fun

We have had a few hot days lately and took our first 2 trips to the public swimming pool. The baby pool is awesome and B is really having fun playing in the water. He loves to jump off the side and playing with the toys that the other kids bring. He has been crying each time when it is time to go. It brings me such joy in my heart to watch him have so much fun. What do you like to do on the really hot hot days of summer?

Where have I been?

One goal I have with this blog is that I would like to put a post up nearly every day. I don't want this blog to focus on anything in particular, just random things I have to talk about. I have really found myself lately wishing I had my camera with me and wanting to take pictures of things around me so I can share them with you. I think I will try to start remembering to take it more often. A while back I listed some of my favorite blogs and one of them was http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/. One of the reasons that this was on my top five list was because she posts every day. I love having something new to look forward to reading each day. This summer has been going so fast and I feel so busy each week. I am going to try to get back in to the daily update habit though. What have you been busy with lately?

Gift Cards and Cigarettes

What?!? Does the title of this post make any sense to you? I'm sure not, but I really want to talk about these two things. We attended a wedding shower this weekend of a friend of hubby's and I needed a gift. I vaguely remember seeing that they have gift cards at our local Kwik Shop gas station. (No, Hollie, not the Kwik Trip) I really didn't want to have to make a trip uptown with the price of gas and they were not really registered for much at Target where I usually do my shopping for such things. I headed off to the gas station, and lo and behold- they do have gift cards! Now this is CONVIENCE! They have cards for almost every store you would need. You can do all of your Christmas shopping at the local gas station, fill up with gas, get a pop, and pick up the newspaper. All in one trip. They have such stores as Linen's and Things, Build a Bear, Bass Pro Shop, Lowes, JCPenney, Timberland, Borders and more. They also have a ton of cards to resturaunts such as Chilis, Applebees, Outback, and Visa or Mastercard gift cards. So next time you are in need of a quick gift, remember that you can stop at your local Kwik Shop! It was easy as pie. In case you are wondering, I went with the gift card to Lowes.

Now, what does cigarettes have to do with all of this? As I was waiting in line to pay for my gift card and have it activated, I happened to look at the cigarettes behind the counter. HOLY COW! Do you know how much a pack of cigarettes cost these days? They were over $5! I saw many different kinds for $5.35 and $5.45. Who can afford that? As bad as smoking is for you, can you believe that there are still people who pay that kind of money for one pack?!?

The question I will leave you with now is, where would you most like a $500 gift card from? I would have to say my choice is Target. So many cute things there.

Why I love blogging- or reading other blogs, actually

I have found that I have a new addiction. It used to be that I was addicted to Craigslist. I was always looking for that great deal or something I had to have, or I was looking through my house for things to sell. I am now off that crack and on to bigger and better things. I am now in love with the world of blogging. It makes me so happy to follow along with the many blogs I find interesting that other people are writing. I love to check for upddates and it is like a party for me when someone posted something new for me to read. I have a variety of different blogs that I read each day and will soon be posting them on my blogroll. Some of them are craft related, education related, family/ pregnancy/ ivf/ surrogacy/ related, and some of them are just on a variety of different topics. One of the reasons I have discovered that I love reading them, is because it follows someones life and usually the people don't mind sharing lots of details. I must admit that I do have a bit of a nosey streak and this is a way I get to find out lots about people. I will probably never meet any of the people whose blogs I read, but after you keep up with their life, you start to feel like you know them. Recently, one blog family had their first baby. I was so happy for them since I had been following along for months during the pregnancy and kept checking in all day to see if they had any updates on the baby.

Matt calls this addiction of mine "geeking out". Our usual routine is after we put our son to bed, I head straight downstairs to check my blogs. It is so easy for me to lose track of time while I am down here reading. It is also very relaxing. It doesn't take much brain work to sit here and read, and I also like to relate them to reading in bed. I like to do that before I go to sleep a lot, so I don't really see a difference in reading a book, or reading online journals.

For today I will leave you a top 5 list of some of my favorites (not in any order, just top 5 faves) and hope to add them to the blogroll list tomorrow on the side. If you have a favorite blog you follow, post it in the comment section for everyone to see! (well, all 3 readers of this blog anyways!- Shout out to Mo, Ashley, and Laura!)





http://www.toplanb.blogspot.com/

http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/

http://www.sheshavingourbaby.blogspot.com/

http://www.audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

http://www.thelifeofsuz.blogspot.com/

Great Finds at the Garage Sales

Friday is the big day for garage sales. It seems that it used to be Saturdays, but now the earlier the better. I have even seem some sales starting on Thursdays recently. This past Friday, Ashley and her girls spent some time with my son, his friend, and I as we hit the local garage sale circut. Here is what we found. It was a great day for bargains. The pink feathery thing is a dress that I bought for my little babysitting girl to play with. We call it the "Hannah Montana" outfit. It comes with white patent-leather looking boot things you wear on your legs and a matching hat. She loved it. Paid a dollar for it. 8 books for the kids at 25cents to 75cents each. One of them is The Night Before Christmas. I love this book and currently have 2 different versions of it in my Christmas book box. I have always wanted to collect different versions of it, and decided Saturday that I will start that collection now. A roller coster thing my son loves and was 50 cents. Well worth the money on that. It is cute. You turn the crank on the back and it carries a little car around the wheel and then drops it down the track where it returns to the wheel. The saxoflute is the colorful thing with the horn on the end. It has several pieces you can build it in whatever form you want and blow it like a whistle. Very loud, only 50cents and might not have it around very long. It is currently in the outside toybox. We will see how long it makes it here. Wooden Xylophone. Love it. Don't remember the price. Less than a dollar though. Very sturdy and son loves instruments. We are using a wooden spoon to play it with since it didn't come with anything. Two Thomas the Train wooden engines for our track. They were still in the box and $2.50 each. Great deal. One is Duck, one is the Tow Truck. Little Tikes Fire Station with an ambulance and fireman and a bigger (not Little People) fire truck. Both the station and fire truck make noise and light up. Gotta love that. The kids have been loving the Little People stuff lately.

Little Tykes blue boat. Only a dollar. Totally a steal. Son is way too big for it, I got it for the daycare babies to play with but they all have loved it today. Air Hockey table- $3 I think. missing the battery compartment cover, which I didn't see until after we got home, but lots of fun. It works good and hubby and I enjoy playing it with son, as well as the daycare big kids today. Golf clubs- we go through these quickly here. This one seems to be a little sturdier than our previous ones though. It was 75cents. Baby doll stroller. Another great deal, a dollar. We don't have our stroller anymore due to excessive crashing into things and broken wheels from the crashing. The carrier part comes out and they can carry babies around. The stroller changes into a bigger doll stroller instead of an infant carrier too. Little Dr. Seuss book 50cents, this was just the teacher in me reading some cute litte quotes. The little tiny plastic potty was 50 cents and I thought the big kids would think this was funny and could but the barbies or little people on it. That was about it. I have two more things I guess, I will try to get a pic of them up soon because one of them was a total rip off!! More on than another day.

Post a comment and tell me what was the best deal you ever got at a garage sale?

But I don't know how to work a grill!

Welcome to the first entry of my new blog. You might be wondering why or what the title, "Everything except the grill" means. It is pretty simple. I have a lot of opinions and think I know how to do a lot of stuff, but working a grill is not one of them. I have wanted a blog where I can share what I think about books, favorite toys, things I like and don't like, and other general information in general and this weekend an experience with the grill gave me the idea for this blog title. Here is the story....
My husband and I were getting ready for dinner. We had planned to have corn-on-the-cob and hamburgers on the grill. We started the corn on the stove and he started the grill. I got the hamburger ready and made the patties. The cheese and buns were unwrapped and ready on a plate. Then he got a fire call. It was only to assist the rescue squad, so I didn't figure he would be gone long. Here is where the real story starts. Well the grill was warming up on high and I didn't think I should just let it run. I thought to myself that I could probably cook them myself so I went out and opened the grill. Hot! That is really hot standing in front of it! The flames were on high so I looked at the dials and turned it down to low. They were still shooting up over the grates. I didn't know if I should put the hamburger patties on the top or bottom grate where they would be touching the flames. At this point, I thought I could just shut it off and hubby could start it again when he gets home. I called my friend Ashley, who happens to be a good cook, and asked her. I told her I have never grilled anything and that there was no off button to shut it off. She said grills don't have off buttons, you just have to be smarter than the grill! What kind of equiptment dealing with fire and propane doesn't have an OFF button?!?! How safe is that? When I told her about the flames being still a little high, she didn't think they should still be touching the grates if I had it on low. She had the good idea of taking a picture of it on my cell phone and emailing it to her. (giggle, giggle, we didnt' actually do that though) Her and her husband suggested that I try to turn it past low to get it to shut off. It wouldn't go past low, and I even tried pushing it in and turning it. Next, they suggested I turn it past high to shut it off. I was a little leary about doing this because this means that I would have to turn it to/past the start button. I was thinking to myself, "what if this causes a big explosion?" At arm's length away, I reached and tried that. It worked. The grill was now off. (Not the propane, just the grill part) There a felt better. Our 3 year old son and I sat down to eat our corn and wait for daddy to get home for our hamburgers. One of the funnier parts was when he asked me, "is this what we're having for dinner is one corn?". Oh the wisdom of a 3 year old.
Hubby returns. Not happy with me. Can not believe that I didn't grill them myself. Reminds me that I graduated from college with HONORS and that I can't even figure out how to run a grill. EXCUSE ME!!!!! They don't teach grilling in elementary education classes where I went to college!!!! I have never in my life grilled anything (unless you count my counter top George Forman Grill) and don't have any plans on doing it soon- it was hot standing there!
So, I would like to invite you to post a comment and let me know if your grill has an off button! I checked on my grandpa's grill this weekend, and his did. At least I would know how to turn his off then without fear of burning my eyebrows off!