what i did today

We’re back from Wilmington and I documented way more than you probably ever wanted to know about the last 24 hours, over here.

We were back about 7 tonight.  When I got home, we went out to eat with J&J and then took the girls to spend the night with MIL.  I hate I’m not with them again for another day but they have places to be and people to see!

Tomorrow Scott and I are planning to do some major outside yard work if the rain holds back.  Tomorrow evening we’re going to one of our graduated youth member’s birthday parties at her house.  She’s having several of the other youth leaders and a few youth over.  Should be a good time.

So, just today I decided to go to Wilmington, NC with Heather (actually, drag Heather with me to Wilmington is more like it).  Why, might you ask?  Wellll….One Tree Hill is the simple answer.  The long answer is Wilmington is having a spring festival this weekend and some of the cast is supposed to be around.  Also, there is filming scheduled for downtown tomorrow that I want to try to see.  And if nothing else, we can check out all the filming locations around downtown and enjoy the festival.

We’re going early this evening and headed back tomorrow evening.  My mom is going to keep the girls tonight (yay, thanks mom!) which is not un-normal for a Thursday evening.  Scott will be staying with them tomorrow and I’m taking the day off work!

I’ll be blogging about this more on the OTH site so check it out there…assuming we don’t have issues posting there.

I’m going on vacation..yippee!!

I’m trying to do my last minute Interneting so I can get to sleep at a decent time tonight.  I have to go into work and that means getting up waaayyy before I normally do.  Work also = no blogging tomorrow.  I know I have my handy-dandy iPhone and it would work in a pinch but I highly doubt I’ll have anything blogworthy enough to type 200 words on that little keyboard.  I love my iPhone to death, but it has its limits.

Scott has a breakfast planned at McDonald’s in the morning with the girls to pass the time without Mommy around which I think is super-sweet.  They’ll be headed off with MIL by 2ish and then I won’t see them until after AWANA’s at 8.   I will miss not seeing them all day terribly but I can’t say I’m not looking forward to a little break.

OK, I totally mean no disrespect to the hearing impaired.  I actually have known a few deaf people in my life and have loved learning sign language since I was in my early teens.  I don’t know why I need to say all that to share this little tidbit from Emma tonight but here goes…we were watching Dancing with the Stars tonight and Marlee Matlin came on and they were showing her interpreter.  Of course I jumped at the teaching moment to show Emma a deaf person “in action” and the use of sign language.  I’ve already been trying to teach Emma the alphabet.  Anyway, I tell her that she’s deaf meaning that she can’t hear what people are saying and Emma says matter-of-factly yet a little confused: “She’s got ears!”  …as if all deaf people would be walking around without ears.

And the only way I could put it plainly so that curious mind of hers could understand it is yes, she has ears but they don’t work.

Yep, I’m one of those people..one of those girls-turned-30ish-women that is secretly excited about the return of NKOTB.  I can’t help it.  As far as I can remember, they were my first (and probably one of few) tween band crushes.

My first memory of them?  5th grade, 10 years old, picking out a song with my small group of friends (which included my second boyfriend which lasted a whole year) to sing in the talent show.  I remember looking at the cassette for the first time in the grass behind the school near our class window during recess.  The song we chose?  The Right Stuff.  I recall the talent show clearly.  When we sang “You’ve got the right stuff…baaby”, we stuck our thumbs in the air.  The two guys in the group ran from the back of the stage to the front, falling on their knees for a big ending.

Heather and I were just talking about this and she clearly recalls us kissing the TV while they were on TV.  I remember that but wasn’t sure it was them.  And I’m pretty sure we had posters on the wall and I sort of recall some wearable items like maybe socks or pajamas that had their stuff on it.  Twenty years ago is kind of fuzzy.

I also have been questioning which guy I really liked.  I knew I didn’t like Joey although he was the most popular.  I knew it was between Donnie and Jordan.  Heather insists it was Jordan and I do remember liking him but I found the button in the picture above in an old button collection I had in a jewelry box I recently gave to the girls.  So, I guess at one point it was Donnie.  I think it was foreshadowing my future, ahem, crush, on his brother.

In any case, I honestly can’t help but be excited about their return. I’ve been enjoying this Heather’s fascination with them as well and will stand tall and be a dork with her.

I opened my iTunes library to a random spot and saw a bunch of 80s music that got copied to my computer from a friend that I had never seen. I promptly started an 80s music playlist and this is going to be a long one. I’m in the D’s out of 380 songs and here’s what’s on my list so far….

Take On Me            A-Ha
Nite and Day            Al B. Sure
Cruel Summer                      Bananarama
Eternal flame            Bangles
Walk Like An Egyptian        Bangles
Strike It Up                      Black Box
She’s a Runaway            BoDeans
Closer To Free            Bodeans
Total Eclipse Of The Heart    Bonnie Tyler
Waiting for a Star to Fall    Boy Meets Girl
Video Killed the Radio Star    Buggles
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybod    C + C Music Factory
Ive Got The Power        C + C Music Factory
Pump up the Volume        C + C Music Factory
Things That Make You Go Hmmm    C + C Music Factory
Just What I Needed        Cars
Lady In Red            Chris DeBerg
I Wear My Sunglasses At Night    Cory Hart
Don’t Dream It’s Over        Crowded House
Something So Strong        Crowded House
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me     Culture Club
I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight    Cutting Crew
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun    Cyndi Lauper
Let’s Hear It For The Boy    Denise Williams
All I Ever Wanted        Depeche Mode
Boys of Summer                    Don Henley

OK, I really do want to try to go to bed early tonight.  Why?  Oh, because I worked until NINE tonight.  Heather and I went to Longhorn’s since I hadn’t eaten dinner the whole time and boy, was it worth it.  But now I’m ready to crash.

Oh and our hardwoods are still on backorder and we have a NEW date of April 14. Doncha know I’m happy about THAT?

I sorta meant to go to bed early tonight.  Since I didn’t sleep well last night, I’ve been pretty tired and worn out today but here it is 11:32pm and I’m still up.  So here are a few things from today…

• The past two days I’ve almost completely taken sugar away from the girls.  I think after getting so lax after Easter they were acting completely out of control this weekend.  I only let them have 1 small box of nerds yesterday.  No juice, no sugary snacks, nothing.  Today I let them have a soda (Lexi) and milkshake (Emma) at dinner and that’s it.  Well, I have let them have a bit of chocolate in their milk in the morning.  But the rest of the day..it’s been all water.  Lexi puts up a fuss but eventually gives in.  And in my opinion, they have been better.
• I also started a chore chart yesterday including getting dressed, brushing hair, brushing teeth, making bed, feeding the dog, and no whining.  Lexi doesn’t get the no whining thing but she was disappointed she didn’t get to fill in that box with a sticker tonight so I told her we’d try again tomorrow.  And as for the getting ready part for her, I still have to help her with that so she gets a sticker if she does it without complaining.  Emma is ALL ABOUT the stickers.  She was asking what she could do to fill in her chart early in the day both days.  It’s funny how kids like rules.  Hat tip to Jaynee on getting that started with hers.
• Tomorrow I take them to their yearly checkups.  Probably some shots involved there.  Should be lots of fun.
• The project at work we implemented over the weekend went very, very well.  My plate is not nearly as full now.  Although I will enjoy those few weeks of OT very much in the next few weeks.
• Tomorrow is the day the floors supposedly come in.  I’m not expecting them at all.
• My head and heart have been rolling around today about what “to do” now.  I plan to do lots of praying about it.  I’ll tell you one thing, my heart is really breaking for all the poverty and pain people are going through around me.  I want to do something about it but I feel a little lost and I really want a clearer vision of how I (we) should be involved.
• Scott is almost certainly going back to Turkey in May.