what she ate for lunch

To continue my entries of guest e-mails. This one arrived from my sister:

Subject: Please look more closely!

Peachy Keen

I sent an e-mail today to Kyle with a simple question, "How is your day going?" I wasn't expecting the following response,

I was attacked by a peach....
I had my pile of fruit on my desk. I reached over to grab my peach but got momentarily distracted by something I was working on. the top of my hand lightly touched the dry stalk of my banana so I glanced at my desk...thought the stalk was a bug. I flinched and hurled the peach into my forehead which then hit my desk and made a lovely splat mark.
The partially mashed peach did manage to roll off my desk and onto the floor....Does any of this surpise you?!

I am laughing so hard that I have tears in my eyes. My co-workers must think I am crazy.

a birthday and two new family members

What a fun weekend! We had a fun birthday party for Mr. Alexander which was great since it could have been a bit disastrous. We were scheduled to have a party at the Jump'n Spot in Eden Prairie on Saturday. On Thursday, I had this weird feeling that I should call and confirm our spot. I pulled their webpage up, www.jumpnspot.com and retrieved their phone number. I dialed and my heart sunk when I heard the "do-dah-do...this number has been disconnected. Please check the number you dialed." *gulp* Did they go out of business? It couldn't be! I then drove over there and sure enough - the place was EMPTY and there was a sign up "For Lease" After several curses and expletives, I calmed myself down and called my Martha Stewart friend - Heather. She calmed me down and told me to call all of the Sam's Clubs in our area to find a jumper that had been clearanced. I attempted that as soon as I got home (thank you, Kyle, for pulling the list of phone numbers together), but no luck. They were all out of stock. I then pulled up inflatables on the internet and started calling. The first place that I called, USA Inflatables, he said, "Wow. This weekend is bad. I have turned away 20 people. BUT, I just had a cancel." I took it! They came to our house, setup the jumper AND the best part is that it cost less than going to the Jump'n Spot!!!

Here is a picture of Alexander blowing bubbles during his party with the jumper in the background. The kids had a great time and they were all great. Each year, the parties get a little easier as the kids become more independent.

The birthday fun started on Friday night when we took a family trip to PetSmart. Alexander has been asking for a cat for a long time now, but Kyle and I just weren't ready to make that commitment. I stopped by the Animal Shelter on my own that afternoon, but I still wasn't ready to make the jump to be a cat owner. So, we headed to PetSmart to see what types of critters they had. We spent about 2 hours there playing with the cats, playing with the chinchillas, but we still didn't feel a connection with any of the animals. Then, as we were walking out, we noticed signs above the small animal display that detailed out the temperament, whether the animal is diurnal or nocturnal, and what the minimum age that the human owner should be before owning one. That is when I noticed the Guinea Pig sign. Temperament: social, loves to cuddle; Diurnal (daytime); minimum human age: 8 (most were around 10+). We decided to give it one more try and that is when we met the great sales associate, Mackenzie. She stepped us through the process, helped us pick out things (yes, she was even good about telling us the difference between necessary items and items that were more fun for the humans to buy). That is the day that GEORGE entered our family.

Here is Alexander with his new friend, George:

Well, we did a little bit of reading (okay, Kyle did the reading, not "we") and found that the Guinea Pig lives in packs of 5-10 in the wild in South America. They are a hierarchal structured pack. This made us think that George might be lonely. Perhaps we should get him a friend? Yes, that is how HENRY joined our family. He was stored in the back at PetSmart while George was out front. He had been at PetSmart for 5 months or so and he hadn't sold. Poor little guy. He is more than double the size of George.

Here is Henry:

the inner workings of Minda's mind

at 3 am.

Check out Minda's Blog today. I love that girl!

How Marcy and Kyle deal with the Mall of America

READ! Kyle and I decided to take the boys to The Park at MOA, previously known as Camp Snoopy, since I am still not feeling well enough to do the State Fair. It turned out to be a great afternoon. There weren't many people when we first got there, but within a couple of hours, it was packed. The longer lines just meant more reading time for Kyle and me! I started a new book (The Winner by ?, recommended by Nancy Rygg) and a good ways into the book. It was really interesting to see people's reaction to us reading. It took quite a few people aback. At one point, I was making sure the boys made it onto a ride while Kyle was reading. One man walked within 2 inches of Kyle and was staring and smiling at him. It was really disconcerting when I made eye contact with him and he continued to stare and smile and me. He laughed, pointed at Kyle and said, "Quite focused" or something like that Okay, so he wasn't some freakish pervert; he was just trying to be nice to us and was just making an observation. Then it hit me like a lead balloon. I, me, Marcy, often start up odd little conversations like that with strangers! OH MY GOD! Do people think that I am some freakish pervert!?!? Yikes. Okay, note to self, if you are going to smile and stare at people, make sure you tell them why in a timely manner!

flood pants and weekend activities

Well, it is true - both Ethan and Alexander grew this summer. It is quite evident that Alexander grew, but I didn't realize how much Ethan has grown. This morning we decided to try on jeans so that we could hit any necessary Labor Day Sales to round out the boys' wardrobes for school. Last year, Alexander wore size 6 regular and Ethan's last size at the end of the school year was 8 slim. Those sizes are finished in this house!! Alexander fits perfectly in the 7x's that were purchased by mistake last year. Ethan's 8 slims are flood water pants! Where I am going to find long enough pants that won't fall off my willowy guy's waist? Do they make a 9 slim? I can't imagine a 10 on E. He would be swimming rather than looking like he is ready for some wading.

We have decided to do some fun, historically-centric activities this weekend. This morning, we are off to the Mill City Museum. They have a Farmer's Market outside from 8 - 1, so we are going to visit that, too. We are also going to head over to Fort Snelling again. They have another weekend of special activities planned with the theme being "Family Life on the Frontier".

It looks like we might pass on the MN State Fair this year. I am a little sad about it, but I am still not feeling 100%, so I don't think that it would be fun if I'm not feeling well. I do know that the fair isn't fun if you aren't feeling 100% - the first year I went to the fair, I was 9 months pregnant with Alexander!