First, my brother and sister in law didn’t get their dogs fixed in time, and so there were 3 adorable 2 week old puppies in the house. Second, my sister in law’s entire family (almost) came- her niece, her parents, her brother and his wife and their son, her aunt, two cousins, and the cousins’ nephew and niece, and her brother brought his two dogs (so there were 4 adult lap dogs and 3 puppies whose eyes haven’t opened yet) (this is in addition to their 3 kids and my parents). Her family is awesome and fun, but what really, really made my day was watching one of her cousins playing with my 5 year old playa nephew. Please note that he’s 5 years old and has a 6 year old girlfriend. And makes a point of introducing himself to every pretty girl no matter her age.

Now, my SIL’s very pretty cousin who is probably around my age seems to be as taken with my nephew as he is with her. They danced together, she listened to his philosophy on life, and even took the time to figure out what on earth a “white thunder suit” is (turns out they’re police car themed shoes with blinky lights on the front). In fact, at one point, he had my SIL’s SIL packing his vitamins in a ziploc bag, and when we asked him why, he said “Because I have to take my vitamins every day, and I’m going with her.” as he pointed at SIL’s cousin.

So, at the end of the evening, I’m sitting and chatting with my brother as my nephew continued to woo a woman approximately 5-6 times his age… I forget what he did or said, but my brother laughed at him and said “You’re incorrigible.” My nephew paused for a moment, then said “No, I’m lucky!”.

I hope everyone had a Thanksgiving as good as mine.

You know, I usually look forward to holiday weekends because it gives me a chance to really focus on my websites while hubs is at his family’s, but that’s not what I did this weekend.

Tuesday was our 3rd anniversary (that would be May 19th if you didn’t feel like doing the math) so we took Friday off as a vacation day. Now, since we’re in save money mode, we had trouble figuring out what to do to celebrate. So, we eventually settled on doing what we did last year and spent the day in York. Yeah, I know.

So, Friday we hit both malls in York (York Galleria first because I hate crowds and I wanted to hit it before people got out of work). Got my hair cut (Weird tradition, but I’ve gotten my hair cut ON my anniversary every year since my wedding day- this year I was a bit late), bought a couple Veggie Tales DVDs, 2 Celtic music cds, 2 Disney shorts DVDs, some stuff for hubs, and so on. Had breakfast (at 1pm) at Round The Clock Diner which is da bomb. Best club sandwiches and croissant sandwiches around (also the best clam strips but we skipped those this time). And hubs insisted on hitting Toys R Us and Ollies (discount store where ya never know what you’ll find) and I insisted on hitting Borders. Duh. Me + allowed to buy anything I want = books.

OK, so it was almost 90 degrees out and high high high humidity. I had about 20 oz of water during the course of the day and hubs had a glass at breakfast, so by the time we got home we were sick as dogs from dehydration but then ordered out for filet mignon and lobster tail anyway. Oh yeah. Cuz that’s how we roll. (and that lobster tail was so good that I didn’t even use the butter!).

So, we’re still pooped from Friday, but Saturday hubs went to his brother’s to play board games. I, however, spent the whole day running around. I had to get birthday cards for both mom and dad, an anniversary card for them, and a father’s day card for pop.  Spent about an hour wandering around the local Christian bookstore debating whether I really wanted to spend $25 for that cute pink camo LTV (or is it LTC? Living Translation something) Bible or not (decided against, hoping it’s still there for my birthday- seriously, too cute!). Did the grocery shopping for the drinkables since I knew I’d be lugging in all the groceries myself later on, got home with just about enough time to eat Bagel Bites before church. Ran off to church, went straight to the grocery store and finally got home and could rest at about 10pm. Not counting putting the groceries away.

Then Sunday we went over to his parents’ house. Played frisbee in the backyard for about 45 minutes while we waited for his brother to get there. Sit down to eat only to realize that the AC wasn’t working and it was 85 degrees outside. So after dinner, hubs and I took a walk (a long walk- probably a mile or so) while we waited for the repair man to show, and then sat outside enjoying the pre-storm breeze while waiting for the house to cool off after the AC got fixed. (Note: one major problem with central air is that when it blows- you don’t have 3 other units sitting in other rooms). Up till about 3 am playing board games and then….

Today was Dad’s 68th birthday, so I rolled out of bed and went straight over to parents’ house. We went out for a nice (not fancy, just good) dinner about 45 minutes away and then spent another hour or so tooling around all the back country roads. Afterwards, mother and I went to visit my great aunt in a nursing home (she recently had a stroke, and she’s living there while they’re doing therapy with her), and then went to see either another great aunt or possibly a great great aunt, or possibly the cousin of a great aunt, or… Some other relative who was in the same nursing home whom I’ve never met before.  I’ll tell ya what, though, her room was CUTE! Loads of storage, kitchenette, huge bathroom (has to be big enough to accomodate a wheelchair), and she was pretty sweet too. I totally loved her! I wouldn’t mind being like her when I grow up. Sweet attitude, gets around pretty well, goes to all the activities, and was concerned about the other residents who went to the wine and cheese party (because of their medications, you know).  What a shame that I wasn’t introduced to her sooner.

So. Now I’ve got about an hour before bed and I’m finally online, even though I’m also cooking at the same time. And now, I’ve got to go and do some link building. Yeesh. A woman’s work is never done- even on a holiday weekend.

But coolest thing so far this weekend? Just a little bit ago my husband told me I was looking “particularly scrumptious today”. Good boy!

While I only got to spend one day with them all, it was so funny to see them doing things that we did at their age.

It started with the middle child (the youngest is absolutely adorable, but not yet into this stuff). Remember doing the special handslap tricks? When I was in school it was something like “when Billy was 8, he learned to roller skate, skate Billy, skate Billy, half past 8, cross down and…”. Well, she and my niece got along soooo well, and all day that’s all they did. No chanting, just the hand slap thing, but all day.

Next thing you know, one of the oldest (twins- boy and girl) starts with the “Johnny, Johhny, Johnny, Johnny, whoops, Johnny, whoops, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny”. Tapping each finger as he goes and sliding between thumb and forefinger. I definitely remember that.

This gets his sister (the other 12 year old) to get me to say “Owha tagoo sam-I”. Say it quickly now!

And then “If this is a pencil, and this is a pencil, is this a pencil?” Um, yes? “Okay, if this is a pencil, and this is a pencil, is this a pencil?”

Then on to:

M R Ducks

M R Not

O S A R

C M Wangs

L I B

M R Ducks

What a trip! Some things just never change I guess.

Friday night (our grocery night) my husband decided that he wanted breaded veal as a treat. I however, didn’t feel like cooking. I suggested that we save that for another week, and he agreed and returned the veal to the refridgerated case that it had come from. Or so I thought. A few minutes later he returned with a smaller piece of veal, plopped it into the cart, and declared that he would make it himself. Now, this did not bother me as A. he’d been making Better ‘n Egg omelettes every morning for several years- and only burned them twice. To be fair it was generally due to an inopportune phone call, or something unexpectedly compelling on TV. And B. he’d actually made breaded veal before- quite well.

I’m not entirely certain what happened Friday. I, secure in my knowlege that he knows how to not burn things, sat upstairs undergoing the horror that is known as publicizing your blog (Technorati and such). After a while I smelled something burning. However, since I could hear him moving around in the kitchen and not screaming, I decided to leave well enough alone. After all, he was using his own pan (I’ve banned him from using mine). Sad to say, I have no wonderfully horrific ending to spring on you, but I did find the situation rather amusing.

He’d put the breaded veal in the pan and decided that it didn’t have enough breading on it. Instead of re-dipping the veal in the breading, sprinkling a little breading with his hands or a spoon over top, or even shaking a bit out of the cannister, my husband decided to pour it out from the bowl. The very wide mouthed bowl. Breading went everywhere, into the pan, out of the pan….. on a gas stove. Luckily there was no fire aside from the one that was supposed to be there (burner), but it took a long time to get the burned smell out. The veal was good though.

As for my nephew… My niece and both of my nephews are quite possibly the cutest kids on the planet. I’m not biased. Really. But my youngest nephew has always been a bit precocious. Today I was at my brother’s house for Easter lunch, and my husband was going to his parents’ to watch the Masters. Wrangling my niece and nephews to the dinner table is a trial in itself, and there was about a half hour of “everyone shorter than 5′, sit now!”. Ten minutes into lunch my husband called. To keep from interupting the dinner conversation, I walked over to the living room to talk to my husband who had just called to say that he loved me, and that he was heading over to his parents’ house. Aww….

Anyway, before I could barely get “I love you too” out of my mouth, my just-turned-three-in-February nephew comes trotting over to me, right hand on his hip and left hand shaking a finger, and saying (quite firmly) “TiTi Lori, Come. Sit!” I giggled, said a few more words to my husband, and my sweet little nephew kept repeating “Come. Sit!” over, and over, and over, until I closed the phone and sat. Ach, but he’s cute.

And now onto the strange best man. My husband and I have a mutual best friend- he and my mother were the only invitees to our J.P. wedding (yes, we love everyone else, but once you invite more than two or three people, you have to invite everyone). Apparently we (strange best man and myself) have now begun a “who can find the weirdest link” war.

A few days ago I sent him to this link. The next day, he responded with this link and the comment “Top This!”. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to top that… It’s just too weird. Anyone have any suggestions? (Gross and Graphic are out. Weird or hilarous only please.)