I'm Losing My Head

This Sunday will be our semi-annual 4th of July party.  I say 'semi-annual' because we didn't have a party last year as we were at a friend's wedding, but we had a party the previous two years.  That's neither here nor there.  I'm beginning to flip out a bit.  Let me paint you a picture...

An artist I am not, bu you can get the picture...  This is my small house.  It is actually a townhouse, or technically in this neighborhood - a garden house.  I have neighbors connect to my left which is why my house is (somewhat) straight on that side.

Let me paint you another picture...

(photo credit)

This photo is aptly named "Forty Three Separate People In A Crowd" as that is roughly the number of people who I am expecting...  You know how when you plan a party you should count on something like 80% of the people to show up?  No.  Not in this case.  Everyone we invited stated they're coming.  Several are bringing additional people.  Craig & Beth alone invited several of their neighbors and children, as well as Craig's extended family!

I'm flipping out because my house hasn't been deep cleaned in a while and I have a lot of cleaning to do yet.  This is the difference between men and women.  M thinks that we can just put some burgers on the grill, open a bag of chips and call it a day.  I know I still have to: 

Clean the kitchen

Mop the floors

Clean the windows

Wash the walls (thanks to dogs who lay in the same spot.  Every. Freaking. Day.)

Clean out the closet so I can actually put things away in there

Grocery shop for "snack stuff" because I just KNOW people are gonna show up empty handed (but I'll be dammed if they think I'm supplying them with alcohol!  My friends are lushes!!)

In addition to all this I also have to go to my mother's house on Saturday afternoon for a Family Dinner because her friend from high school is in town and my mom wants to parade us all in front of her.  It's not even a Family Dinner because Eric won't be there.  Mark and I will, and the girls will.  M said there was no way.  He had enough of my family during graduations.  

Aaaarrrrggggghh!

Random Thoughts...

We played poker last night with Beth & Craig. We were only down $1 between the two of us so we did pretty well. Beth came back from something like $1.50 to cashing out at $40.
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I'm watching Toddlers & Tiaras (don't judge - I'm bored) & there's a girl who is 4 yrs old & her mother bribes her with beef jerky to practice. I'm reminded of when Ki was that age & I'd have to bribe her with pepperoni to eat her veggies. "Eat three peas & you can have a pepperoni." It worked. She'd eat her veggies.
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I just decided that I'm not feeling the whole cooking dinner thing today so we'll use our Restaurant.com $25 certificate to Rocco Vino's tonight. I've wanted to try that place for a while now so I made the decision.

I highly suggest you try out www.restaurant.com. Registration is free, you enter the zip code for the area you'll be eating and you can get AWESOME certificates for good restaurants! They're usually like $10 for a $25 gift certificate, but sometimes you can get even better deals.
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That's all for now!

And We Shall Call Her....

Kiley has the misfortune of being saddled with nicknames.  Multiple nicknames and none of them that she particularly enjoys.  Does anyone really have a nickname that they enjoy though?  Aren't most nicknames detested?  

When Ki was a toddler my father decided to call her Kiley Ann Marie Louise.  I'm not sure were the "Marie Louise" came from but he added that onto her name anyway.  She never really minded that nickname as she was too young to voice any displeasure anyway.  When she was about 3 or 4 she asked my brother, Eric, for a drink of his soda.  He said yes (don't ask me why he'd think it was ok to give a child that age soda, but lets just say revenge will be sweet) and she proceeded to guzzle the drink.  He wasn't paying attention to how much she drank because when he reached for the can next he realized it was empty.  He told her she was a little piggy.  She looked at him, smiled her sweet little smile, and said "I Kiley Ann Hungy Pig"!  (Hungy is how she said Hungry.)  She was then known around our family as Kiley Ann Marie Louise Hungry Pig.  This is a nickname that has stuck.

(When Kiley was about 1 or 1 1/2 we lived in Indiana.  When we would come for family gatherings my Uncle Dan would call her Princess Chin Down because she was very shy and would refuse to talk to or look at anyone.  She'd get over it after about 10 minutes of being in the house, but he'd still call her that.)

Fast forward several years and we have moved in with Mike.  Mike loves to tease Kiley because she gives him such a reaction.  He calls Kiley "Booger Cookie" or BC for short.  Kiley's nickname is now Kiley Ann Marie Louise Hungry Pig Booger Cookie.  

On Sunday we were at Justin & Jessie's for a Father's Day BBQ and swimming.  After dinner Jessie and I were sitting in the dining room with Jessie's mother (Grandma Candy),  Jessie's Grandma (Gigi), and Justin's Grandma (also Gigi).  Jessie was asking Andrew, her son who is 2 1/2 and is having some trouble talking, who everyone is.  He went around the table saying everyone's names as best as he could.  Jessie then asked Andrew to say Lianna and he called her "Lili-ah"  Jessie then asked him to say Kiley's name.  He said, clear as day, Kaka!  The five of us about died laughing!  

Of course we had to call Kiley into the room and have Andrew say her name!  She pretended to be mad at him and chased him around the dining room table.  He just laughed and kept yelling at the top of his lungs "Kaka!  Kaka!  Kaka!"  Later last night I had to explain to Kiley that we didn't tell Andrew to call her Kaka; that he'd tried to say her name and that was how he said it.  I also told her that she's never going to get rid of that nickname.  She will be 26 years old and Andrew will still be calling her Kaka!

I also told her that she'll be getting married and in someone's speech to her they will refer to her as:

(Photo credit - My brother,Mark's photo of Kiley 2009)

Kiley Ann Marie Louise Hungry Pig Booger Cookie Kaka

I Thought Exercise Was Supposed To Be Good For You! OUCH!!!

So my dumb-ass decided that since I quit smoking in October 2010, and as a result had gained back all the weight I'd lost up to that point I was going to start changing the way I eat, and was going to get more exercise.  I didn't want to just walk my dogs because, well... Let's be honest - Walker doesn't let us walk him so much as he drags us where ever the hell he wants to go.  Sometimes that's down the sidewalk, other times it's into oncoming traffic.  (For a medium sized dog he's freakishly strong.)  No - walking wasn't for me.  I was going to transform myself into a runner.  


I'm such an idiot.


I have never been a runner.  Except that time in Middle school when I decided that I was going to participate in Track.  That lasted all of 1 month and 3 meets.  Even in High School when we'd have to "run" the mile in gym class I'd walk it refusing to run.


In my defense I have dislocated both knees several times.  I can no longer sit "Indian Style" on the floor because my knees don't bend that way anymore.  There have been times that I have simply turned a corner and my knee has dislocated.  This has something to do with the fact that the tendons and ligaments that hold my kneecap in place are stretched out from popping out so many times. 


Yes, I'm an idiot.


I had heard about this program called Couch to 5K.  According to the website if you follow their program they will prepare you to run a 5k in as little as 2 months.  I have a cousin who followed this program after a serious bout with colon cancer and she swears by it.  I have an uncle who also followed the program using his dog as his training partner.  Finally I have a friend who is in week 3 or 4 of this program and is all about it.  I figured that if they can do it so can I.  


I know myself enough to know that if I'm doing any sort of exercise that requires commitment in any way shape or form, I must have someone who will make me accountable.  In steps my friend Jessie.  She is huge into running for "fun".  (Note to self: Be leery of anyone who runs for "fun".  They're not sane.)  Bottom line is she decided that we're not going to follow the Couch to 5K program we're just going to run.  I only ran two days last week and Sunday of this week and I think I have done permanent and irreparable damage to my knees.  They hurt so bad even today - Wednesday - that I have to make an appointment with my orthopedic doctor.  I can't sleep and I can't hardly walk with out excruciating pain radiating from my knee to my ankle.  The weird thing is that my knee feels better when it's bent than when it's straight, and the pain isn't in my kneecap so much as right below where the bones end and the joint begins.


Couch to 5K program: 
You work your way into running by walking for 1 1/2 minutes then running for 1 and repeating that for 30 minutes slowly increasing your running time, and decreasing your walking time over the course of 8 weeks.  (Or something very close to that.)


Jessie's Program:
Make Erin run balls out for a mile and back, and every time Erin decides that she's dying yell at her like a Drill Sergent and call her a pussy.


I told her she broke me.  In honesty, Jess wasn't that bad (yes she was), but she didn't like to hear me say that I was hurting, and insisted that I was just a newbie.  That my pain was temporary, and a rite of passage for all runners.  According to her if I could talk then I was ok.  


So, yeah.  I'm an idiot.  I should have known better.

Houston, TX - My Cousin's Wedding

My mom, my girls and I drove to Texas for my cousin's wedding.  We left on Thursday afternoon at about 2pm central time.  We arrived in West Memphis at about 10 pm.  My mother insisted that we were in Little Rock, or right outside of it anyway, no matter how much I tried to explain to her that we were getting ready to get onto the highway that TAKES us to Little Rock, and that Little Rock was actually more like 2 hours away.  Whatevs.  We stopped for the night and got going again Friday morning by 7am.  We came upon Houston at about 4:45 pm and it was HOT.

We didn't even think about how bad traffic would be on a Friday at 5pm on a holiday weekend.  We sat in traffic for a good hour to an hour and a half before we busted off the highway and took a side road...

This is only PART of the traffic... Made me feel right at home!!

We got to my Aunt Jeanie's house about 6 pm or so, we all four took showers (separately of course) and were out the door on our way to the rehearsal dinner by 7:30pm.  It was a mad dash, but we made it in time and we had fun seeing our family and my cousin.  Even though my Uncle Chris forgot my name when he introduced the "out of town guests"!

Saturday was Jolie's wedding to Matt.  The church was GORGEOUS!  Jolie looked GORGEOUS!  Matt was very handsome, too.  The ceremony wasn't too long, thank goodness, and the reception was across the street.  They had a buffet dinner with salad, scalloped potatoes, green beans, carrots & cauliflower, chicken marsala,  rolls, and beef tenderloin that melted in your mouth.  The wedding cake was several tiers and each tier was a different cake - I think.  I know she had a raspberry cheesecake (Delish!) and a chocolate cheesecake, but I'm not sure what else there was.  There was also a grooms cake which was in the shape of a police car (Matt's a police officer) and was a chocolate cake.

We had a great time!

 Aunt Jeanie dancing with her nieces 

 My cousin Jennifer's son Conner with handcuffs on his ankles & wrists!

The "ball & chain" on Matt that literally had to be cut off - they lost the key!

Lianna & Kiley

I realize I'm in trouble after the second time a waiter offered Lianna alcohol.  

My cousin Jennifer and her husband Jason 

My Aunt Peggy, Aunt Cass & my Mom 

It's still hot in Texas.  

My Aunt said to my Mom "it's been a mild summer so far..."  Is she CRAZY?!  It's not even Summer yet, and it's a "mild" summer?!?!?

Jennifer's son Conner caught the garter - and ate the blue fondant off the police car cake...

Jolie's so classy!  (She's flipping the bird!)  I love that girl!!

On Sunday, before we went home, my Uncle Chris was having a Crawfish Boil at his house which is right on the ocean.  Ok, not the ocean ocean, but a canal that goes to the ocean and that's cool enough for me.

I named him Dinner. 

 

Oh. My. God.

These little critters were GOOD.  They are a lot of work for a small piece of meat though and they cut up your fingers!  I was all set to suck their heads, too, but when I opened the first one and took a peak down the hole - no way was I sucking ANYTHING out of there.  I don't care if you filled it with vodka.  It was NOT happening.

By the way, did I tell you it was hot in Houston?

We left my Uncle Chris' at about 4pm and drove until about 10 pm when we got to Texarkana.  We spent the night there, left Monday morning about 8am and pulled into my driveway at about 9:30pm.  

The girls were so tired by the time we left Uncle Chris' that they both conked out!!

Oh, and did I tell you?

It's FREAKING HOT IN HOUSTON!!!