Tag

I've been tagged to write seven interesting things about myself. "Interesting " is in the eye of the beholder, so you can decide for yourself how interesting these things are.

1) I am notorious for passing out as the sight, mention, even thought of blood. There doesn't have to be blood present, just someone telling a story about an accident, seeing a bad scar, or learning first aid at girls camp. The most embarrassing time was when I was getting my nails done. For whatever reason, if it was the pressure on my hands, if she nicked me a little with the grinder and made me bleed, I passed out right in the chair. I had enough warning (my ears ringing, getting cold and shaky, and my vision getting black around the edges) to tell the girl I was going to pass out and to just leave me alone. Being woken up freaks me out and scares me even worse than the actual passing out. You have no idea where you are or what happened. Amazingly, the girl just left me there until I woke up on my own. She was very scared and didn't know what to do, but she handled it well. Needless to say, I haven't gotten my nails done since.

2) I will choose a fruity dessert of chocolate any day. If chocolate is the only thing available, I'll pass on dessert completely. It just doesn't do anything for me.

3) I don't camp. I hate to be dirty and sleep on the ground. Camping usually means eating hot dogs at some point, and I will not, under any circumstances, subject myself to the disgusting taste/texture/appearance/smell of them. Ick.

4) Given the chance, I would sleep for 10-12 hours every night. I've always needed a lot of sleep. I function better, and am definitely nicer to be around when I'm rested.

5) I took piano lessons for about 8 years. How much do I remember now? Maybe 10% of everything I learned.

6) I am a reality TV nut. Anything from American Idol, to The Amazing Race, to silly shows on VH1 like Rock of Love. I eat all that stuff up. My favorites are So You Think You Can Dance and America's Next Top Model.

7) When I retire (Ken has already given his approval!) I want to train service dogs. Seeing eye dogs, hearing dogs, or any other kind of dog that provides a service to people.

I tag...

-anyone born in a month with an "R" in it

-anyone who has ever been out of the country.

The Miracle of Life - Painted Lady Style**

For Christmas, Ken found a really cool butterfly habitat for Syd. You order some caterpillars that come in the mail, and watch them grow and change. When we got them, the caterpillars looked like 5 black grains of rice. By the time they were ready to make their cocoons, they were each 3 inches long, fat and spiky. It took about a month for them to get from the grain of rice stage to the cocoon stage, and they came out of the cocoons while we were in Florida. We were all bummed that we hadn't gotten to see them emerge as butterflies. The cats sure were intrigued by them. The habitat had been knocked off the counter to the floor when we got home today. Poor butterflies.

Five caterpillars come in a cup with enough food to make them grow big enough to become a butterfly.

When the caterpillars are ready to make a cocoon, they climb to the top of the cup and attach themselves to the top.

The cocoons are so fragile, but you have to transfer them from the cup to the actual habitat so the butterflies can come out.

The habitat all ready to be home to some Painted Ladies.

Because there are no flowers outside, the butterflies will live in the habitat for 2-3 weeks until they die. (That is the normal lifespan of a butterfly in the wild). They eat sugar water, but I'm sure they would like flowers better. When it gets hot enough, we'll get more butterflies and release them after we watch them transform.

I snatched this picture from the internet. It was too hard to take a good picture through the habitat. Painted Ladies look a lot like Monarchs, but with scalloped wings and a duskier orange color.

**For any of you thinking this would be the kind of miracle of life post about myself, sorry to disappoint. Winter will become my favorite season, hot dogs my favorite food, and pink my favorite color before I make that kind of post. In other words, it ain't gonna happen.

A Day at the Beach

Lauren and Syd looking for treasures.

There are some awesome islands and inlets a 10 minute boat ride from the marina where Joel and Christi's boat is kept. I'd never seen a beach with so many cool things washed up on the shore. We walked all along the shoreline finding shells, crabs, and old pieces of rope.

Syd, Cindy, Christi, Lauren and Jack walking along the beach

Syd found half a starfish. It was the only one we found, but it was too stinky to bring home.

There were a ton of these horsehoe crabs of different sizes.

This crab was still alive. Joel and Ken had a hard time figuring it out how to pick it up without getting pinched. It was so strong!

Got it.

We dumped out the bag of stuff Syd found to decide what was worth bringing back with us. We found some great stuff. Look at all the sand dollars on the right side! They are my favorite.

The boat ride to and from the island was very chilly and windy. Ken found the best spot -- out of the wind and spray.

Jack, Lauren and Syd all wrapped up for the ride to the island.

Back at the marina, while the boat was getting cleaned up, these pelicans saw us standing by a fish cleaning station. They sat there and stared at us, hoping we would throw them something tasty.

Busch Gardens

Busch Gardens is a great place. It was a totally different experience with 3 kids. We did more of the rides and kids stuff instead of focusing on the animal exhibits.

The one animal exhibit we had to do was feeding the Lorikeet birds. They are not shy at all, and as soon as you walk into their enclosure, you are swarmed by birds wanting the food you have. It freaked Syd out a little bit as you can tell in the video.

Jack thought the birds were pretty cool. He wasn't scared at all.

Syd and Ken looking at the flamingos.

Lauren, Syd, Jack, and Joel on a ride. Jack wasn't too sure if he liked it very much, but the girls went on it 4 times in a row.

Syd went on her first upside down roller coaster. She and Lauren went on this one 4 times in a row too.

One of the workers walked past with this really cool sloth. He was very nice and let us pet the sloth. The sloth seemed to really like the attention when we were petting on him.

Ken and Jack walking around. Jack did so good walking around all day. He didn't complain or even seem very tired.

At dinner after Busch Gardens Jack ate 2 whole mini pizzas. All that walking around made him hungry!

Playing Outside

It was so nice outside while we were in Florida. Christi and Joel's neighbordhood is perfect for playing. We broke out all their toys and everyone got to enjoy the sunshine.

I think Ken likes the toys as much as the kids. He had to try out the Green Machine to see if it was as fun as the one he had growing up.

Lauren and Syd on the inflatible slide. It really wasn't warm enough for the cold hose water, but they stayed in there for a good hour. Crazy girls.

Joel made this "Ghetto Pong" table from some plywood left over from the last hurricane. We had a tournament going. Joel beat everyone.

Joel found a cool firepit at KMart. We had a good time being pyros and throwing all kinds of stuff in the fire. Christi even sneaked one of the prizes the kids won from Busch Gardens and threw it in the fire. Who knew plush animals melted like marshmallows?

Jack playing next to the fire.

Ken playing Paul Bunyan chopping up some wood for the firepit.

Hanging out by the fire. It was cool enough to want to be close enough to it.

Christi and Joel being hypnotized by the fire.

Expanding the Family Tree

We found some cheap tickets to Florida, so we went down to escape the cold for a few days. While it wasn't as warm as we would have liked it to be, it was definitely better than the 20 degrees we left in Michigan! Ken's cousin Christi and her husband Joel were nice enough to let us invade their house and show us some of the cool things around Tampa. We were also able to meet Christi's mom, sister, brother-in-law, and neice. I never know the terminology for describing the relationships between cousins and their kids. We decided 18th cousins sounded pretty accurate :)

We all had a good time, and we're very much looking forward to going back in a couple months for a longer visit.

Syd, Lauren, Jack, Christi, Joel at Busch Gardens.

The Girls

Syd, Lauren, Allison looking at picture books

Christi and Cindy at Busch Gardens. I was a little chilly, but couldn't resist wearing the shorts in January!

The Boys

Jack and Ken aka The Other Guy. Jack loved Ken and was always loving and hugging on him. He couldn't remember Ken's name, so he just called him the other guy.

Joel and Ken throwing the football in the road.

The Dogs

A family isn't complete without the pets!

Me and Skippy the 9 year old Collie. I love this dog -- he is the exact dog I've wanted since I was a kid watching the old black and white Lassie show at my gramma's house.

Me and Mandy -- the 3 month old Wheaten Terrier. For being so young, so was so calm and sweet. She loved to snuggle and be as close to people as possible.

Can You See Me Now?

A while ago Syd went to the eye doctor for a routine checkup and ended up needing some glasses for reading. She was able to find some stylish ones she liked, and they came in yesterday. They are actually bifoculs, with the prescription in the bottom half, and plain glass on the top. She tried them out last night before bed and the difference was very noticable. She didn't stumble on any words, and could discern all the letters without any problems. I was in 1st grade when I got my first glasses, and I have to say, Syd's are much cuter than my first pair were.

Being the Pack Leader?

I love the show The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Milan. He goes to people's houses and fixes their crazy dogs. He is amazing. He always talks about being the pack leader; that your dog has to know you are the leader of its pack.

Try as I might to do what Cesar says, Storm still listens to me only about 60% of the time. The rest of the time she does whatever she wants. But she always listens to Ken. Maybe now I know why...

Sledding

At the top of the hill ready to slide down

Just the other day Syd commented that we hadn't gotten to go sledding at all this winter. The snow we did get didn't hang around long enough for us to have the chance to go sledding on the weekend. That all changed last night. We got 12+ inches during the night, and the weather report says it will keep coming until tomorrow sometime.

Our neighbors called us this morning and asked if we wanted to go sledding with them. Ken and Syd made a quick trip to the store for sleds and we were off. We went to Grand Mere Park -- the same place I walked with Storm on Thanksgiving day. It was quite the process to blaze a trail through deep new powder, but we made it to the hills. It snowed the whole time we were there, but if you kept moving it wasn't too cold.

As soon as we got out of the car, Ken tackled Syd into the snow

Syd's wearing a hat Brian brought back from Russia. It's the warmest hat ever!

Syd trying out the Zipfy sled.

Being buried in snow doesn't sound very cozy to me.

Oh So Exciting New Year's Eve

After Halloween, New Year's Eve is my least favorite holiday. Ken and I are not the type to go hang out in some smoky bar watching everyone drink themselves stupid, and we also don't love having 20 people in our house till all hours of the night, either. For Christmas we got a gift certificate to Tosi's -- our standard special night out restaurant. If you're going out on New Year's Eve, you might as well get free food out of it right? We got out of work a little bit early, so we went to dinner early to avoid the rush we knew would come. When we got there, we were the only people besides the restaurant staff under 70! Talk about early-birds :) But it was nice to have a quiet dinner. We went home, watched some TV shows we'd recorded on the DVR, and went to bed at our normal time! Ken did happen to wake up about 12:30, and made sure he woke me up to say Happy New Year.

The highlight of the night -- dessert! I got a wonderful creme brulee, and Ken got an edible chocolate cup filled with cake and mousse.