Wanna hear a secret?

You already know I'm a nerd. I don't hide that. In fact, to prove my point, I'll tell you that I had my first Robert Pattison inspired dream last night (in my defense, I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night, so it was more of a Cedric dream than an Edward dream). And what happened in my Robert dream? I was in class and everyone was taking turns picking someone to draw a house. And he picked me to draw a house. So really, it was more of a nightmare as my drawing skills are abominable and drawing in public would cause a slight panic in a conscious Melisa. So, I have Robert nightmares. Told you I was nerdy.

I've been wanting to share this for awhile, but there were too many other posts needing to be written! But I'm not leaving the house today, so I can't be shocked by Philly traffic. So I have my chance to tell you about the website that takes my breath away nearly every single day. I audibly gasp every time I go there. It is my closet obsession. Very few people know how obsessed I am with this. It is my desktop background on my laptop. But I do put some of the blame on Brad's Uncle George for feeding this obsession and giving me this website. Ready for it? No, it isn't my obsession with Oreos. Here it is:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

Want a sneak preview?




Did you gasp too?! Aren't those spectacular?! I love all things star and nebula (okay, not the physics part). It is impossible for me to look at images like this and not see a bigger scheme and a higher hand in this world of ours. God is amazing.

Calling it a day

Well, after walking around for 3 hours yesterday (without a knee brace) picking blueberries, my knee has decided it hates me again. Oops. At least I have a gallon bag completely full of delicious blueberries. I am at peace.

Today, despite my protesting knee, I decided to take my kids (also protesting) to the Mann Center for a drum/rhythm concert. Oy. My laptop freaked out before I could get the address, so I tried to see if I could find it without plugging the address into my GPS. Duh. I was close, but as we all know, "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades."

I eventually did find it, but then there was the parking issue. And by parking issue I mean the hundred-some-odd buses and cars. It was a mad house. I'm not big on crowds. Or dragging 3 whining kids through big crowds by myself. Too easy to lose one. But, I decided to push my comfort zone a little and force them to go.

The entire first song (which lasted probably 20 minutes) was accompanied by my kids whines of:
"There isn't enough shade"
"You forgot the sunscreen, mommy"
"I'm so hooooooot"
"SNACK!"
"Hungry!"
"Mommy, I'm soooo thirsty"
"I can't see anything!"

By the time the cry of "Potty!!!" was introduced, I decided I was done. There was no way I could save my seats (like I'm leaving my stuff unattended in Philly) and there was definitely no way I was leaving a child behind. No, potty excursions were every kid or not at all. So, off to the potty we all trudged as our empty seats were pounced on by late arrivers. And then we continued right on out to Odie. After 20 minutes. At least I tried, right? I just know how overwhelmed I get with crowds and 3 small children. I'm too outnumbered! I just didn't realize it would be as crowded as it was. Anyway...

Here is a benefit to leaving early. I got to take a picture of this:

Classic, Philly, eh? I know I've said this before, but I have got to find a way to keep a camera in my vehicle at all times. These crazy things keep happening while I'm driving! (No, I was not actually MOVING when the picture was taken. I was stopped in the parking lot. Again, I'm not trying to contribute to the problem.)

Blueberries!

Wow! I'm a posting machine!

We had a blast picking blueberries today. It was just a little drive (relative in Philadelphia) and it was worth it!

We got almost 6 pounds of blueberries. mmmmm, I love blueberry pancakes! The kids had a blast. Jamo was a super fast picker and got two buckets by himself. He did awesome. Roo got tired after 1 bucket and spent the next 30 minutes asking when the hay truck was coming to take us home. "Do you know what time I think it is? Bedtime. Daddy is probably home by now." Sure, kid. ;o) SugarPea ate anything she got her hands on, so I had to keep her bucket stocked with ripe ones or she'd go around spitting out the purple ones. She managed to keep herself busy at one point by digging in the dirt, which she ended up covered head to toe in by the time she was done.

After getting our berries, there was a great park with lots of equipment, a maze, and animals to see. It was wonderful. I can't wait to go back!

Check out cookie for all the pictures! Of course, there are lots of pictures for the grandparents, but even the non-grandparents will appreciate #16 with Sugar covered in dirt. :o)

And for you non-Cookie people, here is a picture I took driving home. Yes, I was stopped at a light. I'm trying to not contribute to the problem. Can anyone tell me exactly what this car DOES? Crash research??? YIKES!!! I need to keep a camera in my car!

What is it with cats?

Ya'll know I'm not the biggest cat fan out there. Nothing personal kitties, but my mom is allergic, and we will never own one of you. That doesn't mean that cats don't try to adopt us though!

I was sitting on the couch, minding my own business, when next thing I know, a cat walks across my living room. Uh.... It's happened before. In Lansing. I'd left the basement door open after running inside to answer the phone and I forgot to shut it. But here in Philly, I was quite sure all the doors were shut (and locked and deadbolted). Okay, I'm not that bad. I leave the front door open during the day since I sit right in front of it. But he came from the other direction, from the kitchen.

So, I put him outside and went to the kitchen. He had ripped open the screen in the kitchen window. Grrr. And he was now banging on the screen door. Man, he really wants in! This wasn't some random stray cat. It was our friend Cricket the Cat who lives a few houses down according to his tags. He is always very nice and friendly to my kids. And this isn't the first time he's tried to break into my house, though I will say it is his most successful try.

Sugar really loves him, so I ended up watching her play outside with him for about 30 minutes before he'd had enough and gave up trying to get back in my kitchen.

On the Cookie blog is video of Sugar with Cricket. And pictures of her sleeping in the saucer yesterday. And pictures of her playing with water (probably her favorite activity ever). Oh, and more of her attempts at taking pictures.

You want honest?

A few weeks back, Alyson awarded me with the Honest Scrap award. I figured today was a very fitting day to do it. You want the truth? You can't handle the truth! Okay, you probably can, but it is going to get ugly. You've been warned.

1. I am a champion procrastinator and have been for as long as I can remember. I really did get this award weeks ago, and I'm just now getting to it.
2. We had cereal for breakfast tonight. For real. I was (am) having one of those days. Then, to put me over the top, Brad called at 4 to say that he was on his way home to get Odie. He didn't trust his car, seriously on the verge of death, to make it downtown. The problem is that Mondays are my day to eat out since a) Brad has meetings every Monday night and b) he doesn't like eating out anyway. It gives me a chance to eat out and him a chance not to. But now I didn't have a vehicle. Or the motivation to throw something together after doing the laundry. Hence the cereal.
3. I let Sugar sleep in her saucer chair for over almost 2 hours today. I tried to get her to take a nap earlier, but nooooo, she wasn't having it. She finally fell asleep watching Baby Einsteins and I didn't want to wake her up because a) I needed the peace and quiet and b) I didn't have anything to give her for dinner anyway.
4. I was bringing the trash can back up the drive today and noticed it had about 20 maggots in there. GAG! I told you that you couldn't handle the truth.
5. I accidentally killed the flowers my neighbor gave me. The 'flower bed' near my door is apparently not a flower bed and merely an inch of dirt and rocks not fit for plant life. I'm sure my neighbor is looking at his dead flowers and thinking what a loser I am.
6. I have gained a lot of weight since moving here but I don't know how much since I don't have a scale and Brad doesn't want me to buy one. Apparently I can be a little obsessive when I have a scale in the house. It really sucks not knowing how much I weigh. I haven't been on a scale since May. I just know my clothes aren't fitting anymore. Boo. I was going to use the scale at the gym, but with my knee issues, I saw no reason to join a gym yet. Double boo.
7. Sugar woke up from her saucer chair and is now sleeping in my lap. While I continue to blog. That's stellar parenting people.
8. I've played Bejeweled on Facebook for 90 minutes today. (see #1)
9. When I checked this morning I had 126 blogs on my Google Reader. And that doesn't count all of the private blogs. Yikes!
10. Going along with 9, I have an announcement. I'm no longer going to be the blogger I once was. Back in the day, I loved reading everyone's blogs and leaving little comments. Now it is getting to be a full-time job I can no longer juggle. You've probably already noticed this change since my life has been a bit nutty the last few months, but I'm finally giving myself permission to give up on keeping up with it. I'm sure I'll still check in on blogs from time to time, but it can't take up the time in my life it once did. I've been here 6 weeks and I'm not done unpacking. Is that number 11? No, I'll lump it with 1. In the famous words of all high-school boyfriends, "It's not you, it's me." Only this time it's true. :o)

Okay, I must make a mental note to not blog when I'm in a bad mood or I open myself up to an obscene amount of public humiliation. :o) I may have taken the whole 'honest scrap' thing a bit too far. Sorry! Hopefully I'll actually sleep through the night and not be so crabby tomorrow. :o)

Philly zoo!

I can't believe I forgot to say this yesterday, but my appointment with my rheumatologist went great! I don't have RA, though she made it sound like a 'not if but when' kind of deal. Maybe it was my imagination. She did some more blood work with more definitive results and I should hear back next week. If that blood work comes back good, I'm done for 4-6 months. If it is bad, well, I'll have to go back in sooner. My knee is doing great, so her threat of draining it and giving me a cortizone shot doesn't scare me. Much. I'm definitely going to do better about taking the meds! :o)

I just put a ton of pictures and videos on the Cookie blog from the Philly zoo. Grandma Jessie, you are warned that Sugar's favorite animal was the snake and so there are a few pictures of snakes on there. Our theory is that it is because they were at her eye level and very active. Surely she can't like snakes! :o)

But for those of you who don't like going to Cookie, I have some pictures for you too!

Before

After

Before

After

Even cute bunnies like it cleaned up.

Brad got some kind of funky rash from some of the vegetation. Bonus points to anyone who can tell me the plant because it makes me nervous and I'd love to know what to look out for!
This sign says "wait for green". That is what makes me nervous about Philly. Shouldn't that be OBVIOUS?! They have to have a sign telling you to wait?! That is bad, people.

The wedding

Oh, how I've missed my blogging buddies! But I had a blast in NM. I miss it already. If my family had been there, it would have been hard to make me leave!

Of course, I had to have my Chili Works. Sadly, my spicy tongue has decayed from lack of use, and I now have a gringo tongue. Those were some hot burritos! I took for granted that I'd always be used to spicy. I am in mourning.

In a little story of excitement, this one should freak you out a little. My daddy and I were working on cleaning out the ivy from the window wells on the side of their house. Well my dad, being the daddy he is, threw a worm on my leg. I'm not one to freak out about a little worm, so I wasn't upset, but I looked down at the worm and saw a black widow also on my leg. I have never been so grateful to have a worm thrown on me. If he hadn't, who knows how long that black widow would have crawled on me. *shudder* I don't mind worms, but spiders is a whole other ball game. GAG!

I have some pictures from the wedding. It was beautiful. I'm so grateful I got to go! If you want to hear the crazy wedding story, you'll have to read the captions. :o)

Gerrick and Jeremy cricket mud wrestling. Don't ask

I thought there were only 3 Stooges??

Jeremy Travis Gerrick and Benji

We all wore hats with our mama.

Travis Jeremy Benji Aubrey Gerrick Mommy me in front

Another nasty spider. Thankfully this one never touched me.

It was the size of a quarter with legs included. NASTY!

Aubrey Melisa Mom Dad Jeremy Travis Gerrick

The groom's cake. No, seriously.
Aubrey and Abbie, who is a doll
All of us: Mom Dad Melisa Tylerr Jeremy Travis Aubrey Gerrick
Groomsmen
Some of the bridesmaids
awww
How my brothers avoid the dance floor. There were also cards involved.
After the were announced, someone (NOT MY BROTHERS!) set off fireworks. Well, it fell over and started shooting into the crowd. A few people ended up with singed hair, but no one was seriously hurt. Though, we do have this lovely memento of the event. Only at Tylerr's wedding would this happen! LOL! Thankfully there were plenty of firemen around to save the day.

Contest winner!

Congrats, Leann! I'll send your email into the company. You'll have to let me know if the Cool Cats stuff is really cool. :o)

And if you haven't checked it out yet, you really should!

Back to my roots

So, I leave for NM in the morning. Midnight is the last chance you have to get in on the contest for the free month of Cool Cat's service. I'll do the drawing at midnight and probably post it shortly after that since I will be leaving for the airport bright and early in the morning and will most likely be running around like crazy.

Hopefully I will get some pictures at the wedding. Probably not from my camera since I'm leaving it for Brad and the kids for the 4th, but I'll get some from my family. I'm so excited to see my family again and to get back to NM after so long. I've been trying to remember the last time I was in Los Alamos, and I think it was Aubrey's wedding back in '07. Could that be right?! 2 years?! Can't wait to go back!

Counting blessings

Tomorrow at midnight is the drawing for the free month of Cool Cat service at Handipoints! Hurry and let me know if you want to be entered in. After our week with using it, I discovered we need to do some tweaking. The boys earned both a Nintendo DS game rental and a treat at Blockbuster. I'm thinking they need to cost more points so they can't get both the same week. Thankfully, Handipoints is very easy to tweak. LOVE IT!!! Go check it out, even if you don't want to be in the contest. It will help your sanity over the summer. And all moms need sanity over the summer! :o)

Friday, Brad was outside working on his smoking car, Lex Luther. The boys were in our driveway rolling crocquet balls around. Well, one of the balls made it to our street, which is quite a hill, and took off down the hill to the busy street at the bottom of the hill. Despite Brad yelling at Roo to stop, Roo still ran into the street to get the ball and was nearly hit by at least 2 cars. My heart stopped as I ran out the door hearing Brad's screams for Roo to stop and then hearing cars honking, etc. It was probably the worst 10 seconds of my life, not knowing what had happened. Thankfully my unconcious mind registered that there was no screaming, crying, chaos, so my heart resumed beating. After living at the interestion of 2 dead end streets with little traffic, my boys were ill-prepared for the hustle and bustle of Philadelphia traffic. And yes, we were constantly telling them to stay out of the street in MI too, but I suppose the urgency wasn't there like it is here. Anyway, Roo wasn't hurt, but many many tears were shed out of gratitude for his safety and for a release of extremely deep emotional anxiety. I can't even let me head consider the possibility of losing one of my babies. I would be completely devastated. Many prayers have been said in gratitude this weekend for our little Roo.

Saturday was busy, but thankfully lacked the drama of Friday. Want to see our jungle, I mean yard? Here ya go!

The stems are thicker than a garden hose. Insane.

There is only one tree amidst all that foliage. Most of the rest are over-grown weeds taller than Brad. There are shrubs along the fence to the right.

Insanely big weeds

The poor little tree is surrounded!

Those are weeds all the way to the tree. Huge weeds.

And they are between fences and hard to reach.

Nice, stable looking wall. LOL!

I'm going to tranplant these to the ivy patch in the front yard. It just looks weird there.

Flower bed by my front door. So pathetic. LOL!
My neighbor donated the flowers.

Our long and narrow drive way. I have yet to get out of Odie without banging the door on the rocks. Sigh.

The ivy bed I am ripping out. First step was to rip all of the ivy off the rose bushes.

That was just around the roses! It could be awhile before I get the rest ripped out. I still have tons of work to do on the inside of the house!