MK picked this Father’s Day card out for his dad. The inside reads:
My weird years
should be over
any time now, Dad.
We should all be as weird as you, kid.
Month: June 2008
A New Addiction
I have found a new addiction. It’s going to be expensive and time-consuming, but I’m afraid I just can’t help myself. I can feel myself being sucked into the sheer habit of it and I’m powerless to stop it.
I don’t want to stop it.
My new addiction?
Reading “Unofficial Guides” to fun new places.
Okay fine, just one unofficial guide for now, but I can see many more trips to the bookstore for these babies! I can just feel the heat from my pocketbook searing a hole in my purse right this very minute.
The hubs and I went to Barnes & Noble last night. Actually, it was his idea. In fact, he has a bad habit of just suggesting off-the-wall spontaneous things all the time. “Let’s go play tennis … Want to have a nightcap at that new sport’s bar? … Let’s fly to Vegas … Let’s go for a ride on my motorcycle …” and on and on.
Most of the time, I just laugh him off. He’s rarely ever serious, he just suggests those things because he’s been programmed to think that if every single waking moment of his life isn’t filled with something to do, or if he’s not being productive, then he’s not making the most of his time and to him, that’s one of life’s most deadliest sins.
RELAX DUDE! Enjoy the fruits of your hard work. The man doesn’t know HOW to relax – it drives me batty …
Where was I …
Oh yes, my new addiction.
After dinner, the hubs and I started talking about our upcoming trip to Washington D.C. What were we going to do? What sites did we absolutely have to see? So of course, we sat down to research places online when he suggested, “Why don’t we just go check out the guides at B&N?”
My spine immediately stiffened. My eyes lit up. My breathing became erratic. Make a run to the bookstore?!
Are you insane?
I grabbed my purse and panted like an eager dog for a long overdue walk.
I think my husband had time to get in a blink or two before I zipped out to the car and impatiently waited for him to catch up with me.
I’m quite sure that will be the last time he suggests an impromptu trip to the bookstore. *big grin*
I had to force myself to slow down once we got there and wait for my aging (HA! Kidding honey!) husband to catch up with me. When I’m anywhere NEAR a bookstore, my pulse quickens and I find myself having to consciously slow my speed-walking stride down to a more normal pace. My husband laughs at me when I get like this. “Are we in a hurry?” he asks.
At which time I laughingly shrug him off and say, “Well duh! Of course! There are BOOKS to buy.”
Silly man.
Where was I …
Sorry. I’m getting sidetracked just THINKING about making a trip to the bookstore. That’s how pathetic I am when it comes to books. Oh heck, who am I kidding, I’m just pathetic, period.
So, we’re at the bookstore … *Homer Simpson voice – Mmmmm, bookstore* and we head to the travel section.
I must admit, the travel section is not usually where I hang out when I go to the bookstore. We don’t travel much. In fact, it’s safe to say, we DON’T travel. We’re homebodies and are quite satisfied to BE homebodies. So the one time a year we DO go anywhere, my usually organized, controlled mind takes a vacation because I’m out of my element. I’m not a seasoned traveler and yet, I want everything to go smoothly and of course, I want to make sure we get our money’s worth and aren’t blowing money on unnecessary things …
It’s a nightmare for someone like me – having no idea what to do or how to control the situation. So I like to arm myself with all sorts of information whenever we go anywhere … just in case we find ourselves in a horrific travel-induced situation we have a backup plan, you know? Of course, then we DO have a terrific story to tell afterwards. Like that time we got stuck in Dallas …
ARGH! I’m getting sidetracked again. I’m having trouble staying on target today. I have so much on my mind right now I’m having trouble compartmentalizing it. (Whew, that was a long word to type).
SO, WE’RE IN THE TRAVEL SECTION AT BARNES AND NOBLE. And we’re looking at the half million travel guides to Washington D.C. Now we have a fresh problem, which one do we want to shell out $20 bucks for? They all look the same. I pick out the “Unofficial Guide to Washington D.C.” 
handbook and start flipping through it. I’m liking the tips I’ve seen thus far when my husband holds up a book, his face animated and eager and says, “Let’s get this one. It has pictures!”
*SIGH*
I swear, men are such children sometimes. So, in my consoling mom voice I say, “That’s great honey. But does it have any useful information in it?”
He shrugs and like a dejected puppy who has been denied his favorite chew toy, he reluctantly puts it back on the shelf. He nods to the book I’m holding, “I’ve heard the Unofficial Guides are pretty good.”
And I have to admit, I like the tone of the book. It’s informative, but not stuffy and I really dig the little tips sprinkled throughout the book.
We buy it. And I’LL be the one to read it because you see, there are too many words for my husband. He requires … visual aids when he reads. *cough*
I devoured half the book last night. And I would have finished it if I my family hadn’t physically pried my butt from my chair and forced me to go to bed.
It was fascinating. I learned so many things about Washington D.C. that information is oozing from my ears and dribbling down my neck. For instance, here are some fun facts:
Moment in Time: Flood
I nearly got electrocuted taking this video.
The things I won’t do for you people. 😀
*Warning: There is a LOUD clap of thunder in this video so please, don’t turn your sound up too high.
Father’s Day Journal Winner and More Fun Announcements
Are you ready?
The winner of the Father’s Day Journal is …
Jo!
Jo was the third person to express an interest in the journal and that so happens to be the number the random.org generator spit out. Congratulations Jo! (Check your email!)
Also …
I NEARLY forgot that the next Buy a Friend a Book Week (BAFAB) is coming up the first week of July! Whew! Good thing I remembered. 😀 So … you know the drill. Beginning June 27th, leave your name in the comment section of the BAFAB post and if I draw your name July 3rd, you’ll receive a FREE BOOK of YOUR CHOICE from Amazon.com ($15 max). If you would like to know more about the program and grab the promotional button above to post on your blog, please read this page.
Also …
Because of the craziness that came with my blog move, the June photo contest was postponed … until July 27th! The photo contests have been pretty popular in the past and I have so much fun hosting them so don’t miss out! You can find out the rules, guidelines, prize list and pick up this promotional button
There is a lot of fun stuff coming up so don’t forget to mark your calendars, or put me in your RSS feeds or keep track of what’s going on in Twitter!
(By the way, if anyone would like a Twitter button like the one I made above, just email me [email addy in sidebar] and I’ll be happy to make one for you, FREE!)
Weekend Snapshot(s) – Flooded
When it rains, it pours …
And how true that was for us this past Friday.
We had a low develop right over Springfield so that we had a line of storms continously pass over us for nearly 24 straight hours. Just when the storms looked like they were going to dissipate, they gathered strength and reformed and it continued to pummel us all day. As a result? Our city flooded, including us.
I had to battle the storms to pick up my nephews. I had promised them they could come over and spend the night, come rain and high water.
I had no idea the heavens would take me quite so literally.
The boys and I set out around 10:30. We had to go all the way to Willard, which is about a thirty minute drive from our house. I drove almost the entire way with my windshield wipers at full blast and still couldn’t see that well.
The rain let up a bit as we drew closer to their house, but we saw a wicked streak of lightening directly in front of us and it was within a mile – a bit too close for comfort.
The thunder rocked my car.
As we drove into the driveway and I got out to help my nephews put their stuff in my car, another bout of lightening zapped so close to me, I heard the sizzle/crackle as it made contact. Split seconds later, I remember thinking, “Shit. I’m standing under a tree with an umbrella. I’m a human lightning rod.”
The thunder was so loud I couldn’t hear for thirty minutes afterward. And my heart was pumping so hard I felt light-headed. It was that scary.
We all made it back to our house safely, but the rain continued to fall in heavy sheets. I began to get nervous when I noticed standing water, about six inches deep, all around our house. Even though my husband had had the foresight to dig out vent wells, I was afraid there was so much water it would go over those vent wells.
It did.
When the worst of the storm finally moved past us, I went outside to take some pictures. I was SHOCKED to see the amount of water gushing down our streets.
This was our neighbor’s driveway.
It’s a good thing they didn’t try to come home during this time period or they might have been swept from their own driveway.
The water traveled around the corner and entered a huge pipe. The pipe goes under our street and exits in this large drainage system.
This drainage system is about four feet deep. As you can see, we got VERY CLOSE to flooding our ditch, which would have been BAD NEWS for the houses lining that ditch. In fact, you can tell it was already starting to saturate another one of our neighbor’s yard.
I actually took a video of this and will post that tomorrow. While filming, another streak of lightening zipped right over me and you can hear the deafening clap of thunder on the tape. I nearly had a heart attack and high-tailed it back to my house shortly after that.
It began raining pretty hard as soon as I reached my house. After discarding damp shoes and making sure the cameras were still dry, I walked to our bedroom to look out of our window to see how much rain we had gotten up to that point:
In case you can’t read that? It was FIVE INCHES. Of rain. In less than 12 hours.
I thought we had broken a record, but after talking to my parents yesterday, they told me that back in 1999 we had gotten EIGHT INCHES of rain. Their backyard and storage shed flooded and they had just moved to town and a lot of their belongings had gotten soaked. We must not have gotten as much rain over here or I would have remembered it but I can guarantee I’ll remember June 13, 2008 when we received five inches of rain and had to put fans in our crawl space to dry it out.
Getting this much rain this fast is pretty unusual for this area. I was pretty stressed about water making it under our house (and washing away the new driveway we just had REPAVED the day before – luckily, it held up pretty well and we’ve packed some dirt around it to try and prevent any more water getting underneath it), but any damage we sustained was NOTHING compared to some areas of our city.
You can see photos here, if you wish.
Monday Morning Meme – June 16th
All you have to do is answer the questions below either in the comment section, or on your blog. And elaborate! Make these questions show your unique and special personalities. This meme entry will post at 12:01 every Monday morning and will be the first postentry listed on WFK all day Monday morning. (This is an all-day Monday meme, so please, play all day!)
June 16th Questions:
1. Do you think that gift cards are suitable gifts to give? Do you find them to be impersonal? Do you like receiving gift cards? If so, from where and do you cash them in right away, or do you wait for the right item/price to come along?
2. Have you ever counted up all the pills and/or vitamin capsules that you take every day? How many are there? What do you take on a daily basis? Do you give your children vitamins? If so, what kind?
3. What five things would you put in a time capsule?
4. Would you rather be overdressed or underdressed for a party? Why? Tell us about the last time you were overdressed and/or underdressed; what happened? Did anyone notice you were over/under dressed?
My Answers:
1.
monday morning memeDear Husband …
Dear Husband,
I thank God for you every day. I thank God for blessing me with a husband who loves, cherishes and puts up with my moodiness. I thank God for blessing me with a husband who is kind, patient, smart, resourceful and who is the model father to our children.
I couldn’t have asked for a better father to my children. Thank you for being firm, yet understanding. Thank you for being there when the boys need you and for guiding them when they’ve lost their way. Thank you for taking an interest in their activities …
… even when I know you’d rather be doing something else.
Thank you for communicating with them and never being afraid to hug them or tell them that you love them. I appreciate how you have high expectations for them, and yet, you keep those expectations realistic so they will (hopefully) grow up and be secure in the fact that we’re proud of them as people and not just because they happen to share our DNA.
Thank you for showing them about what being a man is all about and that it’s okay to display emotion and still maintain a “manly” demeanor.
But most of all, thank you for your willingness to just be silly and enjoy these fleeting moments we call life.
Have fun with your gift today.
We’ll be your pit crew. 😀
___________________________
Write From Karen 