Happy 3 Day Weekend!

Work has been insane.  Red got promoted to the other side of the room (haha, AKA loan officer) and while I'm extremely excited and happy for her, I'm sad for me.  She won't be on the other side of the wall from me anymore (but still will be on the other side of the walkway :).  So, we are short her and a couple of other people.  It has been busy as shit.  SO, I'm keeping this very short today and when I get back on Tuesday, I'll get back on the bloggy business. 

Home has been insane this week too.  We had several birthday's in a row at work.  Red and I share the birthday duties but she has been in loan training so I have been trying to help extra.  Plus one of the birthday's was hers....

She likes owls. 

Happy birthday, Red!!  We love you!!!

So, for 3 nights in a row, I have been going home, making dinner, exercising and baking goodies.  

Dazzle helped me by making a little sign for Andrea's bday cupcakes.

Everyone went crazy over the cupcakes and several people said they were the best cupcakes they ever had.  I'll keep my cupcake baking secrets to myself.  LOL. 

I also made Supa a birthday cake.  Chocolate on top of chocolate with Reeces pieces.  I tried to spell out "H.B Dad XOX" in candy but it was hard.  I didn't think it looked too good but I know it will taste amazing. 


Haha!!  Looks crazy but I know he loved it.

I made Red her favorite cupcakes (Funfetti), gave her a card from our department that everyone signed, a card from Supa, Dazzle and I that had a gift card in there!  She loves smelly stuff so I knew Bath and Body Works would be a win. 

Red's surprises!

I couldn't get the cards in the picture since her real name is all over them!!  LMAO!

I have been wanting to buy a bike for myself so that I can ride it for exercise (another one of Red's awesome ideas- she's getting one too so we can ride together) so we went to look at bikes and....I got one!!  

I like Supa's hand in the picture.  LOL

I was so excited to ride it when I got home!!!!

We took Supa to Olive Garden for his birthday meal after we looked at bikes since yesterday was his official birthday.  They had endless pasta going on and that's what we had.  I didn't eat very endless though...I had one plate and was stuffed.  I wished I took pictures but as usual, I forgot.  Poo! 

We got home and I got to go ride my bike.  I rode for an hour and I was shaky and freaked out at first (hey, it's been almost 20 years since I rode a bike) but I had so much fun and it was so therapeutic!  I foresee a bunch of riding it the future.

Purple sparkle nails

You know I still had time to paint my nails at my desk!  :)  

Gotta go!!  We have some fun weekend plans.  I love Labor Day!  SO, since I'm off on Monday, I'll be back on Tuesday.

Apple

Carowinds

Supa said he wanted to go to Carowinds for his birthday.  I made it my personal mission to make sure this trip would happen. 

For anyone that has never heard of Carowinds, you can check them out here.  It's an amusement park that is like Six Flags.  I have been there many times when I was younger, but Supa had only been once or twice maybe in his whole life.  (Remember, sheltered more like neglected but we won't go there right now.)  We had never been to an amusement park together since we met so this trip was going to be interesting. 

The park is in North Carolina so it only takes about 1 1/2 hours to get there.  That's a hop, skip and a jump to us!  We don't mind driving distances to get to cool places. 

We decided to invite our very special family friend, Dark Special to go with us.  We knew that the kids would not want to ride all the big coasters and Dark loves them!  Supa needed a solid riding buddy so I'm glad that we thought of Dark. He was more than happy to accept our invite so we picked him up on our way out of town. 

We decided to go on a Sunday because it was the only day near Supa's birthday that he was off.  We walked through the gates when they opened. (10AM)  We haven't been there on a Sunday but we quickly realized this was the "slow" day.  I'm sure it was also slow since it was the weekend after school started back.  We were really excited that there were NO lines to wait in for rides.  We ended up riding everything we wanted to ride TWICE since it took no time to get on each ride.  FUN!!

The first thing we did was ride the sky lift.  You sit in a round booth (pretty big too) with lots of other people and go straight up (300ish feet...) slowly.  The booth turns all the way around and then goes straight back down.  I felt like we just rode it so that we could get a sky view of where we wanted to go next.  It was really cool and I got some good pics: 


This was the Nighthalk.  The nets under the coaster were freaking me out a little.  What do they need nets there for?!  Later on, we realized it wasn't for bodies.  It was for the spare change that people lost from their pockets.  LOL



And, there are the people in the car, laying down, riding the ride!  This was a good shot of this half of the park.



This is The Intimidator.  More info about that one later.....



This is The Cobra.  Supa and Dark rode this one first and said it was awesome!  This picture does it no justice.

The Nighthalk from down below.  It was REALLY high up!!!  :)



Supa is in this picture!  He is riding the coaster with Dark and they are having a ball!  The kids decided to sit this one out so I'm on the ground attempting to take photos.  LOL



We packed a cooler lunch to eat in the van so that we wouldn't have to spend our money on expensive amusement park food.  (It's all usually bad for you, too.)  So, we spent no money in the park BUT there was one thing I had to have.  See,  I'm addicted to Icee's.  I go to Burger King all the time to get an Icee because I LOVE THEM!!  Supa told me they had a "Icee Mix Up" kiosk and that you could mix and match any flavor Icee that you wanted.  They even had 12 flavors.  WHAT?!!  My dream!!  I was all over that shit!

$10.99 for the first 32 oz. collectible Icee cup with Icee.  $5.00 for each refill.  YES!  I think I spent about $26 on Icee's alone :)  I had watermelon, coke, white cherry mixed with coke and my favorite one.....Orange cream!  YUMMMMM!!!  I was in Icee heaven!



This was the orange one!  I could barely stop gulping it to take a photo. 





Supa cried when Dale Earnhardt died.  We had to visit his car and this plaque on the ground.  I think he was really happy to take a picture standing beside the car.  (See Facebook) 

Supa and Dark saved The Intimidator for last.  Dark rides everything and anything so when he told Supa he was worried about riding The Intimidator, Supa got worried.  LOL, they did it together at the end in case it messed up their tummies.  They did just fine and got off with huge smiles on their faces.  Google it to see why they were worried.  It looked bad ass. 

Dark was on this ride all by himself. 

None of us were interested in the swings that went up 300 feet.  No thank you!  When Dark got off this ride I asked him how it was and he said, "Actually, it was kind of boring."  LMAO!  Only Dark Special would say something like that. 



And, after I got a close up of the people landing, it did look like everyone was bored.  LOL!!



We had an amazing trip.  We all had so much fun and experienced so much.  Neon got over his fear of riding rides and we shared many hugs, kisses and screams! 

Supa is trying to convince me that we need to buy season pass tickets next year so we can go every weekend.  I don't think it's going to take too much more convincing on his part.  ;)

Love,

Apple

More random bullshit.....

I had more randomness to discuss last week but I ran out of time.  I'm dedicated to finishing the haphazardness so we can move on to this past weekend hopefully tomorrow!  Here goes:

Last weekend, Jade and I went out on Saturday night.  We thought we had plans but they fell through and since she already had permission from her Daddy her spouse to go out with me that night, we should still do something just to get away for a while.  Supa stayed home with the kids and Cat Mama (who was spending the night).  They were having a Hunger Games movie night since we just bought them the DVD that day.  BTW, they very much enjoyed themselves.

Jade and I went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then to Ross for a little shopping.  I was looking for work khaki's and of course they didn't have any.  But we did come across these:

These cannot be called shoes.  Imagine stabbing one of these suckers through a bad guys eye socket.  Now, that's what I call a weapon.  Who the fuck wears these?!  Gross!!

We found some fingernail design kits for Cat and Dazzle that looked pretty cool.  I put mine up for Christmas...Yes, I'm already gathering Christmas gifts.  It's around the corner, people!

I found Supa a cute pair of boxer briefs and since he still doesn't read my blog, here they are!


Heehee!  They are SO cute on him too!!  I like the pocket in the front that is supposed to give good ball support.  LMAO!

While we're looking at underwear, check out the ones that Uncle Darling found:

Yeah, so um, those are fucking awesome!  I think Supa needs a pair of these AND should wear them to work!  Just squeeze your crotch to make it sing!  Hells, yeah!!  LMAO!  I have never seen underwear that sings so this is making me really happy.

I thought that I should post some new pictures of the dogs since I haven't in a while.  I couldn't locate Odie at the time I was trying to take these photos.  He was probably in one of the kids beds buried under the blankets or somewhere else hiding.  He HATES the camera!  Anyhow, I TRIED to take a few pics of Copper who refused to stand still.  This is what I got:

You can still see how cute his face is.  LOL.  He LOVES his toy!! 



He decided that shaking his head violently would keep me from taking his photo.  NOT!  LOL

I'll try again soon for better pictures.  I have since found my other little dog.  LOL. 

Red contributed a couple of funnies that she said reminded her of me.  She always finds the best ones!

Yep, you got that right!!  I have babies to live for but if it's just in the leg, I can handle that!  :)



I ALWAYS talk to my friends about my poop.  I mean, it's a huge part of my life.  When you have intestinal problems, you tend to talk to your girlfriends about it.  Shit, everyone poops!  LOL!   

So far, Red has handled my poop stories just fine :)

The kids and I ran to Bilo the other night to get my coupon stuff accomplished.  When we got out of the truck this was right beside us:



This picture does it no justice.

The sun was blaring and I couldn't really see what the fuck I was doing but if you look closely, you will see the gigantic spider about half way in the middle of the bushes.  OMG, it was HUGE!  The web (which you can't see at all) was really big too.  Scared the shit out of me!!! 

I'm so glad that we saw it instead of walked into it.  I almost told the manager in the store that someone needed to go outside and exterminate! 

Saturday I took Neon to the eye doctor to have his eyes checked.  He has never had any problems with his vision and this was his first appointment ever.  He did really well and his took that puff of air in his eye like a champ!  (I told him that was the worst part)  He had his eye exam and got his eyes dilated (for Neon, this was the worst part).  Come to find out, he did need glasses.  He only needed them for reading, homework, TV watching, video game playing and school.  Any other time, like playing outside and sleeping, he wouldn't need them.  WTF?!  That's ALL the time pretty much!  His vision isn't bad but slightly incorrect.  He does have astigmatism just like his Mama and his sister.  He wasn't excited about getting glasses but he did have fun picking out his frames. 

These sort of look like the ones he picked out. 

Now I just need to make an eye appointment for myself (so that I can get a new contact prescription) and Supa also needs an eye exam.  He has "perfect" vision and has NEVER been to the eye doctor in all his 36 years.  WHAT?!   I told him that he still needs to get his eyes checked even if he does have so called perfect vision because they can detect other things like glaucoma, MS and diabetes!  He said he would go so I am making us appointments soon.  I don't want to have to get him glasses but I kind of secretly hope that he at least needs reading glasses to show him that most people don't have "perfect" vision.  LMAO, I know, I'm stupid!

Until Tomorrow,

Apple

Random-Palooza!

Get ready for the most random post to date.  I have been keeping side notes of things I need to post after the vacation blogging was complete.  Buckle your seat belts folks!  It's going to be a crazy one.

This ecard came from Red.  It fits us perfectly.  For example, she came over last night for our usual:  Dinner, exercise, TV (we ended up watching Teen Mom - GARY, get a fucking bigger t-shirt already!)  I had been holding in a couple of family horror stories to tell her when we finally got some non-work, alone time and when we got back to the house, I realized I needed to apologize not for mouth vomiting all my issues on her but for talking the entire hour!  Sheesh!  Luckily, she didn't mind one bit and completely understood where I was coming from and how I was feeling.  I LOVE YOU, RED!!!  :)  Where have you been all of my life?!

One of the fun things that we do together in the call center at work is email the entire department things that members say that are absolutely insane.  It breaks up the monotony of the day and gives everyone a great chuckle.  I'm going to try to remember to save the best ones for posting.  You'd be surprised at how many weird-os we talk to on a daily basis.  I always think to myself, "These people drive cars.....".  That thought always makes me want to stay home.......

I'll call this one "Like, Like":

My co-worker: 

"Thank you for calling State Credit Union!  This is blah blah speaking and how can I help you today?"

Member:

“Ok, like, I’m calling to like see, like, my Grandma had die right, like, I’m calling all the banks in Clemson, like, to see, like, cause she was supposed to had, like, left me some money, like, but she died a long time ago, like, so I’m like, calling to see, like, if the money is, like, at this bank, like, cause I need it.”

Um, wow.  No, I take that back.  SUPER wow.  I think that's about 13 like's if I counted correctly.  Like, for reals?  Bahahahaha!!!  I'm telling you, we have the most interesting members ever.  Like, maybe you should like go back to school for like an edumacation!!

My sweet, hardworking husband knows how much I love cheese.  In fact, almost every kind of cheese, with the exception of Swiss, rocks my world.  Especially Parmesan!!  SO, when his boss ordered a huge wheel of cheese that they didn't need, he knew I would appreciate it even though his boss was cursing the very expensive, incorrect order.

Supa's hand is demonstrating how large the cheese really is.

My husband weighed the cheese and it was 100 lbs.!  HOLY CHEESE WHEEL!  I wished he could bring it home but he said the retail value was about $1000.  I told him to leave that wheel right where it was sitting.  LOL

I posted how I didn't get any coupons from the dumpster right before our beach vacation and how I was going to pray that Uncle Darling sent some while we were gone.  When we got back from vacation, there were no coupons in the dumpster either!  I was sure to start having coupon withdrawal before too long when I checked the mail and retrieved these:

Uncle Darling to the rescue!!

Every single coupon helps and I put them all to good use.  I share the ones that I don't use with Red.  Another win, win between friends and one awesome Uncle!  Mwah!

I really hope that this weekend the dumpster has some goodies for Jade and I.  This coupons shortage is KILLING me!

I was chillin in the fax room the other morning, attempting to send a fax to a member, when my boss came told me a pretty funny yet random story....

Boss:  So, I was on my way to work the other day and I saw a dead cat in front of one of the houses in my subdivision.  I really wanted to stop but I couldn't because I was on my way to work and I couldn't be late....I felt really bad for the cat/owner. 

Me:  Oh, no.  That sucks.  Which house was it?

Boss:  It was about the 3rd or 4th house on the left when you enter the subdivision.

(My bosses subdivision is almost across the street from my house.  She knows that I walk in her subdivision sometimes when I want to get off the main road so it wasn't weird that I was asking)

Me:  Oh, wow.  I think that's the "cat lady's" house.  

Boss:  Huh, what?!

Me:  We call her that because every time we walk by that house there are like 10 cats on the lawn and in the driveway.  I always see cats hanging around that house.  If there are that many outside, I wonder how many are inside?!  <animal hoarder much?>  I feel bad for the cat because the owner should have kept it in the house so....I don't feel bad for the owner. 

Boss:  Yeah, I know what you mean.  This story gets better....

Me:  Oh, really?  Do tell....

Boss:  WELL, I drove back by that house on my way home from work and the owner posted a hand made sign in her yard saying that whoever ran over her cat should have stopped so she could have saved the cat or something like that.....

Me:  WHAT?!  Oh, I have to see that!  I might just have to walk over there and have a look see!

Boss:  Oh, you should!!  It's crazy! 

The very next day, I went on my daily walk with Jade and I told her the story.  Of course, we had to walk over there and see the sign.  I stood in the lady's front yard and took a photo with my phone.  Her front door was open and Jade just kept walking, telling me to hurry up before we get arrested.  I told her to not worry because if the lady came outside screaming, I was ready to become a cat advocate and totally tell her how upset I was about the injustice that happened to her cat.  (I know how to lie when necessary - like in instances where the police could get called)

And here, for your viewing pleasure, is the crazy cat lady's sign:


Wow.  Fucking wow!

The part that got me was "Her name was Peanut."  BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  Nice sign lady!

I will admit, I am sad that the cat died.  I love cats, don't get me wrong.  BUT, keep your cat inside!  Be responsible for your pets!  And never, never, ever, make a ghetto ass hand made poster board sign.  It makes your yard look trashy.  Neighbors will come to take photos!  Then it will end up on some blog somewhere where someone WILL make fun of you!  This sign isn't going to bring Peanut back and the person who ran her over isn't going to stop and apologize.  I am a good person (for the most part, lol) and honestly, I wouldn't have stopped either!  It's 2012 and you might try to sue me for running over a cat that was running free through the road!  I would have went home and cried about running over your cat but I still wouldn't have stopped.  Who blames me?!  

Ahhhh....Gotta love an epic dead cat/boss story.

I am still painting my own fingernails.  I love doing it now too.  I'm going to rank not biting my fingernails anymore and not paying someone else to paint fake ones for me right on up there with quitting smoking.  Best.Thing.Ever. 

**BTW, today is the 6 month anniversary of being a NON SMOKER for Supa and I!!!!!!  Here's to NEVER going back to that old life of nicotine prison!!**

Back to the fingernails....So, I paint them at my desk (a lot, heehee!) and I try my best to remember to take photos.....


Orange sparkly nail day



Hot pink nails!

And for the grand finale:  Uncle Darling sent me a Pinterest idea for my nails twice so I figured he really wanted to me to try it out.  Well, it worked.  I call these:  Word nails:




This was the best photo I could get.

You paint your nails a light color, dunk your finger in vodka (which I just so happened to have on hand....who drinks vodka?!  heehee), press a piece of newspaper to your nail, peel off carefully and paint with a clear top coat.  I couldn't believe it but it really works.  This is a shitty picture.  They looked amazing.  I even got Snoopy's nose on my second finger!  Good job, Uncle Darling!! I will be doing this to my nails again in the near future.



A guy goes up to this girl in a bar and says,
"Would you like to dance?"
The girl haughtily says, "I don't like this song, but even if I did,
I wouldn't dance with the likes of you."
The guy says, "I'm sorry, you must have misunderstood me,
I said you look fat in those pants.".

Uncle Darling has an awesome sense of humor and if I was a dude, hitting on girls in bars, I would SO use this line.  I would also expect to have multiple drinks poured over my head.  ;)

Have a fabulous weekend, bloggy readers!  We are taking Supa to Carowinds this weekend for his birthday so I will be sure to take many interesting pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Over and out,

Apple

Vacation Day 7, 8, 9 & 10:

Day 7:

After we returned home from the beach, I knew I still had things to accomplish while I had some time off of work.  Both Dazzle and Neon go back to school (tomorrow actually) so I had things to prepare. 

To start, we decided to go shoe shopping and get it over with......

We took the kids to Rack Room shoes.  I went with Dazzle to her section and Supa took Neon to his.  We regrouped a little while later, both kids had picked their shoes of choice and I wasn't too shocked to see that they had picked out the same exact shoes.  LMAO!  They couldn't be more twin-like if they tried.

Dazzle's school shoes she picked out.....



Neon's school shoes....

We ran to The Shoe Department (right down the road a piece) and got Dazzle some Sperry's...Thankfully, they were having a back to school sale so I didn't pay an arm and a leg.  I was going to get Neon some but he said, "No, thanks, Mama.  I will just stick with my tennis shoes."  Alrighty!  I love it when they save us money!!

We went back home to eat lunch and then it was back out for Round 2:  Clothes shopping....

Red took me to two different thrift stores recently and I knew that was where I wanted to go shopping.  These thrift stores only carry name brand clothes (think from the mall without the over the top prices) and specialize in children only.  PERFECT!  They are super organized and clean, everything is marked and I didn't have to "thrift store dig" for anything.  Neon is so hard to find pants for so we started there.  He walked away with 4 pairs of designer jeans and one pair of khaki's.  Dazzle found 2 pairs of long shorts (the only ones she can wear to school) and it only set us back $49.  Wow.  I was impressed.  All the clothes were almost brand new and they have nice dressing rooms too so the kids could try on the clothes before we purchased them.  Win, win, win!!!! Thanks, Red!!

After we finished with the clothes shopping, (BTW, I previously cleaned out the kids closets and I knew exactly what they needed so that I didn't over buy clothes they didn't need.  I know, I'm a smart Mama!) we went back home and I played Dance Central on the XBox/Kinect for exercise.  That was so fun!  Then I got on the treadmill to finish kicking my own ass.  That was a little less fun but still effective.  ;O

My dear friend Super Bass text me and asked if Supa, Mama, the kids and I would like to go have dinner with herself and Patient Woman.  WELL, I wouldn't miss that for the world!  She said that we should ask the kids where they wanted to go eat and that would be where we went (How sweet was that?!  I have a huge respect for people who don't have kids of their own but care about other people's kids.  Because to me, the kids are the most important thing on the planet!)  Thanks for offering that Super!  It got you big brownie points with Supa and I!  :)  Not that you needed the points anyway, but it can't hurt right? LOL  The kids picked Fuddruckers.  YUM!   I guess they felt the need to have a big, juicy burger and none of us minded at all!  We met Super and Patient there and had a wonderful meal full of juicy meat and balloon animals.  YEP, I sure did say balloon animals!  There is a man there that walks around making animals for the kids as you eat dinner and Neon needed a penguin.  The guy actually did a really nice penguin and I was pretty surprised.  I mean, how many kids do you think ask for that animal???


Haha!  Pretty good, right??!!  I love his sweet little nose!  ;)

We had a great dinner together and I'm so glad we got to spend some time with my girls!!  ;)

Once we got home, Nearly Perfect came over to meet Mama.  Jade, Cat Mama, and Bean all came over to visit and we had a great time just hanging out and enjoying each other's company.  Good times!

When everyone left, I had a date with the couch and the remote.  It was time for a Big Brother marathon!  I fell way behind on BB while we were on vacation and it was time to catch up on my favorite show.  I think I fell asleep while in BB land and that was fine with me.  Go Team Boogie!!

Day 8:

Supa and I got up and decided to go run our errands and get it over with.  We left the kids home with Mama Darling and ran to Walgreen's, Walmart and the library.  We picked up Subway yes, again, it's easy, cheap and we love it for lunch.  I did a bunch of laundry and tried to watch more Big Brother but I fell asleep and ended up turning my TV time into nap time which was fine with me!

We had my favorite meal ever for dinner, tacos!  I went for my daily walk with Jade and watched more Big Brother before passing out for the night.  It was a pretty routine day.

Nothing too exciting happened but I was starting to get the "end of vacation blues". 

Day 9:

Mama left that morning.  I went outside to get the grass cut (back yard) (and get my exercise out of the way for the day) while Supa swept and mopped all the hard floors in our house.  When we were done, the yard looked fabulous and the floors were all shiny and gleaming.  Go us!  Supa looked at me like I was crazy when I told him we had chores to do but he realized that you have to get things done while on vacation sometimes too.  We felt good about it when we were finished. 

I ran to the flea market with Dazzle to see if the movie guy was there.  NO DICE, damnit!  We spent the better part of the afternoon relaxing (more BB!) and then we decided to take the kids out to dinner for a sort of "last hoorah" since Supa had to return to work the next day.  We ended up at his favorite Chinese Buffet since they have all you can eat sushi and it's his favorite.  We had a blast just hanging out and stuffing our faces (I made sure I kept my food intake reasonable while everyone else stuffed, lol).

I checked Google Images for "Day 9" illustrations and this is what I got.  Well, OK, we'll go with it. 

Day 10:

This was actually Monday of last week.  (Wow, I'm over a week behind?!  Fuck!)  Anyhow, I had things to handle so I requested this day off a long time ago before I even knew we were going to the beach. 

I missed Neon's school registration while we were at the beach so I ran up to the elementary school first thing that morning to get him all squared away.  It took about 5 minutes and cost a grand total of $56.  Not too bad considering that price included his $28 yearbook.  (WTF, really?  For an elementary yearbook?  It's not even hardback for Christ sakes!)  Anyhow, OK so he was taken care of for the year.

I went to Jade's house to pick up Bean and Jade so we could run and take Bean to daycare.  No, I don't usually take him to daycare but her shitty ass good for nothing husband's car was broken so she was carless that day.  I help when help is needed.  :)  The daycare is less than a mile away so it wasn't a hassle at all. 

I took Jade back home and then headed home myself so I could help the kids get their school supplies loaded into their book bags.  We had two lists and we definitely checked them twice.  By then, it was time to take Dazzle to her eye doctor appointment. 

Dazzle has been wearing glasses since Kindergarten.  She is very responsible with them and wears them all the time.  She's been asking me to get her contacts for a few years now.  I have been holding her off and just decided (with Supa of course) that this year is the year for contacts.  She will be 13 soon (OMG!) and I got my contacts around the same time.  She is very mature for her age and I just had the gut feeling that she could handle it. 

I decided to keep the contacts a secret so she could be surprised.  (Heehee!!!)

I was hoping her face would look a little like this!  :)

The surprise went a little something like this:

Eye Nurse:  So, Dazzle, I see that you're here for your first contacts today!  (sounding excited)

Dazzle:  What?  No, I'm here for glasses as usual.  (sounding bored)

Me:  <standing there saying nothing, poker face>

Eye Nurse:  Um, whoever filled out this form circled yes for contacts.....(sounding confused)

Dazzle:  Well, that must be wrong because my Mama said I cannot have contacts.  (sounding slightly annoyed that she is reminded of this truth)

Eye Nurse:  Well, who filled out this form?!  (sounding super, mega confused)

It was time for me to step in at this point.

Me:  Dazzle, it was me that filled out the form and yes, you are here for contacts. 

Dazzle:  OMG, REALLY?!  OOOOO WOW!!!  YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA!!!!  (not annoyed anymore, huh?  LOL)

Me:  (to the eye nurse) She didn't know.  It was a surprise.  Thank you for your participation.  ;)

Eye Nurse:  Oh!  Well, that's lovely, now that we've got that figured out.....


Get used to them girl because unless you're willing to pay for your own Lasik (and mine too!) you're in for this for the rest of your life. 

It was well worth keeping her in the dark.  Once we got home she hugged me for 5 minutes straight and told me what a great surprise that was.  She got her first trial pair and has been practicing putting them in and taking them out everyday.  Win, win!

After the eye appointment was handled, the kids and I got a few things we needed at Walmart and then proceeded to Jade's house.  We picked up Jade and Cat Mama and took the kids to lunch at House of Pizza.  YUM! 

After we were full of pizza and salad, it was time to take the girls to the middle school and get them registered for 7th grade.  Let's just say that I didn't get off as easy at the middle school as I did at the elementary school. 

First of all, Dazzle's yearbook (yes at least this one was hardback) was $45.  Ouch.  Then it cost $68 just for registration.  FML whatever happened to FREE registration like when I was in school?!  That's not all either.  This year, each child is going to be issued an iPad.  Yes, I sure did just say iPad.  They are putting their school books and assignments on them so hopefully that means that their book bags will be lighter.....??  Anyhow, I had to decide if I wanted to purchase the optional iPad insurance.  Um, yes.  That will be $50.  SO, the day ended up being a grand total in case you don't have your calculator handy $163.00.  OMG!!!  In addition to Neon's $56.00.....$219.00 for both kids for one year.  It's crazy, especially since every year the amount goes up. 

I like how having an iPad wasn't optional but the insurance was!  If they broke, lost or had it stolen that will be $450 to replace it.  Uh, we'll take the fucking insurance!  Bastards!

We dropped Jade and Cat off and went back home.  Supa was of course working all day. 

I mowed the grass (front yard this time) and cooked dinner.  At this point, I can't remember what I made....

When Supa came home he asked me how my day was and I said terrible.  He said, "Why? Because you had to spend money?"  YES!  (I'm a saver)  LOL!!!  At least we had it to spend. 

**I would like to send a special shout out to Grampa Darling who very selflessly sent us a check for $100 to help buy the kids clothes, shoes, supplies.  Thank you, Grampa!  We needed all the help we could get with those two kids!  They are expensive!**

That's it folks!  Tuesday, I returned to the hell that is work (just kidding).  It sucked but it was OK because sometimes, just sometimes, I crave my routine.  It makes me feel warm and comfortable and I have time to BLOG!  :)

Until tomorrow....or maybe the next day.....I am glad to be back to my blogger buddies!

Apple

Vacation Day 6:

Day 6:

Since this was the day we were due to return home, we decided to sleep in as long as possible.  We got up at the last minute, got ready for the day and started packing up all of our shit.  Supa went to get a luggage cart so that he could easily load the van (4 floors below) but there were none available and the front desk said they were having issues locating them.  What?!  Okay, so we carried everything down to the van (pain in the ass!!!), packed it all up and headed out to go have brunch. 

The Omega Pancake House was a great choice. 

Supa and I ate at Omega with Jade years ago and it was just as good this time as it was last time.  We ordered one of everything (almost) and all shared our food.  We had eggs Benedict (I tried it for the first time and DID NOT like it at all.  I think the over easy egg was the culprit.  I cannot stand runny eggs!), pancakes, grits, biscuits and gravy, an omelet with all the meats (sausage, bacon, ham & cheese), scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage...I don't think I need to continue...You get the idea.  We ate WAY too much and the food was great!  That was $55 well spent. 

We had been planning on going to play miniature golf with the kids and hadn't gotten to so far so it was time.  We went to a Peter Pan themed putt putt place that was so cool!  There were waterfalls, scenes from Peter Pan the movie and caves that you walked through and putt putt in!  It was hot as bloody murder but we all had such a fun time!  It wasn't too pricey either.  $40 for all 5 of us.  The nice elderly man at the counter said he would give us the "locals discount" whatever that was so he got an extra big smile from me.  :D

Even though we were totally still full from brunch there was no way we were leaving the beach without getting ice cream  :)  When you have super, well behaved kids, you know where your priorities lie. 

We got on the road towards home and stopped at Baskin Robins on our way our of town.  Between the air condition blasting in the van and our ice cream cones, we finally cooled off from our Peter Pan adventure.  I think we all got just a little overheated.  I know I felt like I was really melting right along with my ice cream.  We all guzzled a bunch of cold water from the cooler along with our Baskin Robins and I think that helped too.

We all napped while Supa drove us home (of course we did).  We got out when he stopped to get gas and all had to use the bathroom from all that water we guzzled.  We took another short nap and then we were home! 

Lolly stayed at our house to dog/house sit while we were gone.  She had just gotten home from work when we arrived and I was happy to see her!  You don't realize how much you miss your friends until you leave for a while.  She said that the dogs did really good and behaved themselves for the most part.  She DID have two treats waiting for her when she got home from work one day:

That looks like a wet Copper poo.




Really glad he pooped ON the carpet AND on the rug.  Wonderful.

Lolly said she cleaned up the poop piles but she had to take pictures.  LOL!!  I'm glad she did!  She said that they didn't eat very much while we were gone and from the looks of the photos, Copper was anxious about us being gone and had nervous tummy.  The dogs don't poop in the house but I think Copper just couldn't handle all the wondering where the hell we were.  Or maybe he just wanted to see if Lolly could handle a poop scoop and some Resolve.  Either way, he got her that time! 

Supa and the kids emptied the van while I ran around unpacking things.   I knew I wouldn't be able to properly relax until I unpacked at least some of our stuff.  Lolly hung out and talked to me while I got things organized.  I actually put away everything really quickly and absolutely loathed the huge trash bag of dirty laundry that I needed to get started washing.  After cleaning up and straightening things, we decided on an easy dinner of Subway sandwiches.  I was happy to not cook dinner and just relax for the rest of the day.  

To Be Continued.................. 

Vacation Day 5:

Day 5:

We had breakfast in our room and went straight to the aquarium since we knew what type of crowd would be awaiting us if we waited to go later.  Perfect timing.  Since we already had our tickets, we had no wait to get in.  Yipee!!

Supa and I had been to the aquarium on our trip years ago with Jade.  They have one special exhibit room that changes every so often.  (Years ago when we visited, it was all about the Titanic.  VERY cool exhibit.  We enjoyed it very much.)  This year it was all about dinosaurs and that was right up Neon's alley.

<Please see Facebook for pictures of Neon (and some of Dazzle too) sticking his head in the mouth of a huge T. Rex.  They are pretty funny pictures.>

The aquarium was as beautiful as usual. We got to see just about everything. They had mermaids that swam in the large tank with the fish every so often but we didn't get to see them because it was only going to be happening in the afternoon hours.  That was OK with the kids because as Neon said, "It's just a pretty girl with a bikini top and a fake tail".  LMAO! 

The kids and I all tried to reach in the tank to touch a sting ray.  I think they missed out because they have short arms but I managed to touch one.  It went by so fast, I almost missed it!  Very, very cool.  

Dazzle and Neon make the cutest silhouettes I have ever seen!  Pretty fish!!  This was one of the huge tanks we saw.



We even got to say hello to Nemo and his Dad!!  :)



This was Neon staring at the jellyfish.  I think I heard him ask them where Spongebob and Patrick were.  ;)

BTW, I LOVE Neon's little cow lick.  Heehee!


One hell of a big fish!  YUM!!  LOL



I didn't get this guy at the right angle but I swear, this fish had a chin.  His little face was so sweet!!



There was a cage in the tank and the fish were swimming inside, outside, around, all over the place!!!

Neon said, "That, Mom, is a school of fish.  They taught me that at school."  Smart guy!  :)



This picture creeps me out!!!!

I took the above picture while we were in the tunnel with the tanks above and surrounding everyone.  There are tons of huge sharks swimming around everywhere.  This one was super big and somehow he was RIGHT above my head just kind of floating there, like he was waiting for his picture to be taken.  Dazzle said he looks like he has lipstick on in this photo.   

This was another big guy that was swimming right above us. 



A great shot of the jelly fish Neon was checking out.

We returned to the room for lunch and then Supa, Neon, Dazzle and I went for a walk down the strip and went shopping.  We got small gifts for Red, Jade and Lolly, and Cat Mama.  We also let the kids pick out a few things that they had been eyeballing.  Neon picked out a sharks tooth necklace and a bottle of sand and shells from the beach with this name on it.  Heehee.  Dazzle got herself a dolphin necklace and a new purse.  We had a lot of fun looking at the different tourist items and laughing about how each store had the same type of stuff with very different prices.  

We were all tired and were ready to chill out for a while so we went back to the hotel room and kind of napped, watched TV and just rested.  Vacation will wear your ass out!  :)

Since it was the week of Mama's birthday, we took her to a seafood buffet that was absolutely amazing.  I felt like we were having an "experience" instead of just having dinner.  We had a "guide" take us to our table and she gave us a tour of the place, stating that we would be dining on the "pier".  Our table was inside beside a huge window that overlooked the water. We saw several boats on the water while we ate.  That was really neat. 

I give the seafood buffet a A-.  The hospitality was amazing (we made sure to leave our waitress a nice tip).  The food was really good.  Like any buffet you visit, some things were really awesome, some not so much.  I always feel like it's a crap shoot when you go somewhere like that.  The price was STEEP.  $127.00 for 3 adults and 2 kids.  Whew!  Due to the price, I made sure I ate bunches of these:

Holy mother fucker, I love crab legs!!!  I'm not sure if it's the crab that I love so much or the melted butter you get to drink on the side!! YUUUUM!

I never order crab legs when we go out.  They are expensive and not worth the price most of the time because I can eat A LOT of them.  At this seafood place, they were ON THE BUFFET.  So, you could eat as many as you liked.  Dazzle loves imitation crab meat so I had a feeling she would love crab legs. (Neon is not into seafood as much but he found plenty of non-fishy things to eat)  I sat beside Dazzle and taught her how to shuck her crab legs and get as much of the meat out as possible.  She picked up the technique quickly and ate two entire claws without almost no help!  Go, Dazzle! 

I ate 5 claws (Yeah, I'm not ashamed either!  I was making sure we got our money's worth!)  We ate until we were going to pop.  It was really super yummy too! 

This was our last night at the hotel so we made sure we got plenty of pool/lazy river time in after dinner.

I have to go for now.  I'm leaving work early today so that I can go meet Neon's teacher since school starts this Wednesday.  Moving on to Day 6 tomorrow.

To Be Continued.....................