Playing Catch-Up (in mostly pictures)

Phew!! It has been a very busy week in these here parts.

Got our stuff back from Star Glazers:

Complete with pants-less Santa:

Went to Chocolate World (also known as CW at HP with a side of RR):

Carved Pumpkins:



(the top one is Chris’s–It is Delmar and Roxanne’s initials and a ribbon for cancer. Isn’t he just too sweet?)

We went to Chuck E. Cheese’s for Avery’s real birthday:

Went bowling:






(Ron Weasley came with us)

Unwrapped Presents:

Ate more cake (complete with trick candles):

Went Trick-or-Treating:




(we had a three adults to one child ratio)

And most importantly…ate candy:

Oh…and watched very good movies:

Phew…I’m exhausted.

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Avery’s Birthday Party

I swear we just celebrated her third birthday…how can it already be her fourth?

This party was for all of her little kid friends.

We went to a local fitness center that has an awesome set-up for kids too. We spent 45 minutes in a bouncy thing, and then 45 minutes in a climbing maze. Followed by pizza and cake!

Here I am trying to help the little kids get up the “ladder” to the top so that they can go down the slide.

Here I am losing my footing and falling instead of helping the little kids get up the “ladder” so that they can go down the slide.

After that fall I realized that I should just hang out on the little end and help Delaney bounce instead:


Delaney did get to go down the slide once with Daddy…but she wasn’t too impressed. We were much more impressed with Daddy and Avery going down the slide…

In the climbing maze Jenn, Lyz and Delaney had a blast in the ball pit. I never did find Avery to get a picture of her in there!

After the party we headed to Avery’s soccer practice.

And then to CLAD’s to watch Avery open her gifts!!

Now, I understand that I am an adult. I understand that in my kitchen is a real normal size oven that I love to use to bake. I understand that Easy Bake ovens make crappy food. But I am totally jealous that Avery got an Easy Bake oven for her birthday. Do you know how many years I spent begging Santa Claus for this very gift?? Let it be known that part of my gift for Avery (on her actual birthday) will be things that I can *help* her make in the Easy Bake oven.

Mingo Monday and another request for good thoughts.

While out shopping a few months ago I came across some very angry looking mingos!!

They look so angry in fact, that I didn’t even buy them even though they were only $1.49.

But I do know why they are angry. They are angry at cancer. If you remember a few months back I asked for good thoughts for Chris’s step mom. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She has been undergoing chemotherapy and is taking everything a day at a time.

But last week we got the news that Chris’s dad also has cancer.
Delmar and his namesake Delaney:

He is under going surgery today to remove the tumors. Please send Chris, Lyz, Delmar and Roxanne all the good thoughts you can muster up. Cancer sucks. And to hit this family so hard in such a short period of time sucks even more.

We are with you today Chris and Lyz. Today and forever more.

Happy Birthday Joni-Mom

To celebrate we went to a pottery painting place called Star Glazers. A perfect outing for Joni who is a crafter extraordinaire!!

I did the Santa and Flamingo (Just noticed that I never painted Santa’s boots, don’t I suck!!), Jenn did the snowman. Avery did the Unicorn and Lightswitch cover. Lyz painted the bowl. For some reason I didn’t get a picture of Joni’s awesome creation. She did a toothbrush/toothpaste holder that she is going to use for a scissors holder!! The bowl Lyz made will be Joni’s garbage bowl for her craft table!!
Avery made Baam a beautiful painting to match her bedroom too:

If you don’t like snakes…

please back away from this post. This includes you Dad. I don’t want to be responsible for nightmares.

It all started out as some simple harmless fun. We had stopped at CLAD’s house to pick up Joni for dinner. When we walked up the front walk we were greeted by the cutest little ribbon snake in the whole world!! Avery wanted to hold him so I scooped him up and we went inside. I love snakes. Jenn on the other hand hates them. I hate spiders, Jenn hates snakes. Its okay.

I asked Lyz to close her eyes and then showed Jack (I’ll explain his name later…) to her. She may have squealed a little. Then I let Avery hold him. He wiggled and jiggled and squiggled in her hands. I took him back and he bit me. His little tiny mouth tried so hard to eat my whole finger.

We decided to bring him home to our neighbor Mike…he likes outdoor animals. We wrapped him up in a tupperware container with a saran wrap and rubberband lid. We put him in the backseat of my car and headed off to dinner.

You know where this is going right??

We got back in the car to leave. We pulled onto the highway and Jenn said “Hey…check on the snake!” I reached behind Jenn’s seat where Jack was on the floor. I looked at the container….no Jack. “He’s fine” I replied. Apparently my voice was a giveaway. Jenn screamed “WHERE IS THE SNAKE”. I busted into hysterical laughter. We had been heading home…instead we stopped at CLAD’s to rip apart my car.

We tore everything out. All the blankets, the coats, my purse was dumped…everything ripped apart. We took off all the upholstery we could. The floor mats. In the doors. EVERYTHING. Lyz didn’t help any. “What if he was a she and she was pregnant and has left little baby snakies all over the car. Poor Jenn. Lyz was armed with Jenn’s softball bat.

After searching for at least a half hour, we quit. Chris left to go to his softball game and Jenn and I started putting the car back together. Avery thought it was a blast. We got everything together, hugged each other goodbye and hopped in the car. I reached over to put my seatbelt on. It was then that I heard Jenn say, in the calmest voice ever…”Heidi. I found the snake.” I looked to where she was staring and saw nothing. I started to ask where when POP

Out of the heater vents pops Jack (as in Jack in the Box). I SCREAMED. Me, who let the snake bite my hand, was freaked out by a snake sticking his cute little head out of my heater vents. I was out of that car with Lyz and Avery running towards me so fast.

Jenn on the other hand was frozen. She couldn’t get out of the car. She wasn’t breathing. She wasn’t moving a muscle. She whispered “Heidi. Get him.” When she finally got out of the car I started to reach for him. Joni had heard the screaming and came running out of the house with Delaney in her arms…where, where is he?!?!?!

Oh My Goodness the laughing. My head hurts so bad from the laughing. I wish we could have been part of a reality tv show so that this could all be on video. I’m certain that reading this story is not even 1/1,000,000th as funny as it was as it happened. I mean honestly…who does this happen to? Who has a snake get loose in their car, only to have it hop out of the air vents?

Poor Jenn is traumatized. The whole way home she just kept saying “Oh my god” or giggling out of no where.

I wanted to get a good picture of him. So when we got home I asked Jenn if she would take the picture. She didn’t want me to let him out of the new container we put him in (Pyrex with a very tight fitting lid.) I said fine, I’ll hold him, you take the picture. Only, he escaped the dish before I could pick him up.

Wanna know the sad part? Mike’s girlfriend wouldn’t let him keep Jack. So we went through all of this, just to set him free anyway!!

Mingo Monday

It seems I may have started liking flamingos earlier than I originally thought.

This picture was taken when I was in….um…let us go with 3rd grade:

We were on a field trip to the Detroit Zoo. I’m the second from the left in the purple coat. A little fuzzy since this is a picture of a picture. I remember that trip to the zoo. It was lots of fun, my mommy dearest came with me. She must be the one who took this picture:

Flamingos!!! In the third grade!!!! Flamingos and me, we go wayyyy back!!

WoooHooo Cycle Day One

It only took 73 days to get here.

In other fun news…
Wednesday night we went on a hayride at Funk’s farm with 22 of our closest friends (I totally just wrote closet friends hehehe). It was a total blast!! When we arrived I was absolutley freezing! But with friends and family around, your heart always warms up fast!

Who went? Joni, Lyz, Chris, Avery, Delaney, Roxanne (Chris’s stepmom), Ambre (Chris’s stepsister), Jason (Ambre’s husband), Phoenix (Jason and Ambre’s son), Vanessa (Lyz’s sister), Tom (Vanessa’s husband), Chloe, Sophia and Bobby (Tom and Vanessa’s kids), Dawn, Duck, Dezi and Dylan (friends of ours), Chele, Sean, Shannon and Mac (Shannon was on the softball team that Jenn coached).

A few pics:





Remember me mentioning how much I HATE cornfields?? I wouldn’t go anywhere near them. Chris ran through the corn while everyone was goofing around and scared the CRAP out of everyone! So glad I wasn’t near the corn, I would have needed a fresh pair of pants!

Also this week Chris, Lyz, Jenn and I went to Hollywood Casino for a night out. We had a ton of fun. Lyz won a horse bet…a whole whopping $.10.

We were all so proud of her!!
Jenn and I had wandered over to a Goldfish slot machine for $.02. I had hit a bunch of buttons having absolutely no idea what I was doing and turned the $20.00 bill I had put in, into:

Don’t be too proud, when I officially cashed out at the end of the night I had worn that down to $47.17!
Thank you Baam for babysitting the girls while the four of us went out!!

Halloween is my 2nd favorite holiday (Jenn’s 1st favorite)

A couple of weeks ago we went to Field of Screams. It is a local haunted attraction that has been voted one of the best in the country. We went with our neighbors Jen and Mike. We had a pants peeing blast!!

(Pardon the crappy picture of a picture)

Sunday we went with CLAD again to Field of Screams…but the non-scary version called Little Screamers!!

There was so much to do! At first we were worried that there would only be a short hayride through the corn fields. But we were quickly shown that there is tons and tons to do! There was pumpkin picking:

A cornbox (ya know instead of a sandbox)

This cracked me up. Delaney would start to put a piece of corn into her mouth and Jenn would take it away. Delaney would pout, look down and see more corn, pick one up and start to put it in her mouth. Jenn would take it away and Delaney would pout. Then Delaney would look down and see more corn! This cycle happened over and over again.

I’m including this picture because it is a very good one of Jenn…but please forgive the awful look on my face…

Chris, the pack mule:

Avery’s favorite part was this awesome train made out of old metal barrels…I think she rode it 5 times:

Delaney’s favorite part was the soft pretzel…she couldn’t decide which one to eat first:

Now, I am not a big fan of the scary movie. I tend to dwell on the scariness. My senior year of high school my best friend Jennifer and I stayed up all night watching the entire series of “Children of the Corn” movies. The next night Jennifer stayed up all night with me because I was scared to death. Those movies had me so freaked out! A week later we had gone on a trip with our church youth group and had stopped for a picnic lunch. Next to a corn field. Jennifer thought it would be funny to stand a few yards in and scream for help. So. NOT. Funny.

Little Screamers had a short corn maze. Even in broad daylight, with marked paths, I was freaking out. I panicked if I couldn’t see all five other people. Avery thought it was a blast.

More fun fall activities on the way this week…another hayride at Funks, this one to a campfire where we will roast hot dogs and marshmallows and then another haunted attraction trip to Bates Motel! Fall and Halloween rock!!

two years…really?

Two years ago today, I sat right where I am sitting now. Well, I paced back and forth past where I am sitting right now.

Two years ago today, I thought my dreams had come true.

Two years ago today, I had hope.

Two years ago today, I saw those much sought after two pink lines.

Two years ago Blue was in my belly, today he is in my heart.

Today, I am heartbroken. I have kept telling myself that time will make it better. That the gaping hole in my heart will start to hurt less. I have kept up with the faith having and the believing and the hope. It has gotten me no where. I take that back. I am better. The drugs help. I haven’t begged Jenn to just let me die in quite awhile. I’m no longer lost in that deep pit of black overwhelming despair.

It is cliche to say it, but it does seem like yesterday and a million years ago all in one thought.

I thought after his first “Birthday” passed and we had made the rounds through all the holidays that things would start to be easier. I suppose in my head they are (except that one day after Wednesday in November). I’ve told Jenn and Lyz that I am excited for Halloween and Christmas. I think I have Joni to thank for that, forcing us to not only have Easter, but to ENJOY it. But in my heart I think there will always be that empty, swollen, gaping hole.

Tomorrow is my two year blogaversary. The direction that my life and the blog have taken in these past two years is not the one I would have chosen, but it is about as close as it can be. I have friends and family who care about me, I met a great group of people on the internet, and I have a son. That is the most important thing to remember. I have a son.

You are all soooo jealous!

Wanna know what we did today?? We went shopping and to dinner with N&J and Figment!!!!! I did not bring my camera because I have noticed that there are no pictures of them on their blog, so I didn’t want them to feel forced to be plastered across mine!! Now I do plan on harassing them with my camera phone tomorrow just for my own personal journaling purposes!

They are sooooooooo nice! As I have mentioned before, I am really not good at meeting new people, but I think I have figured out the trick. If you want to meet me, you have to meet me first while I am at work. That is my turf 🙂 All three of the internet axe murderers friends I have met this year I have met while I was standing behind the front desk at The Hotel. And I have been way less anxious than I thought I would be.

N&J rock. We had great conversation, yummy food (although we didn’t get to go to Shady Maple because the line was absolutely outrageous!) They promise to come back and visit again soon because they want to meet our other half…CLAD!!

Thank you for dinner ladies! Thank you for coming to visit!! You are even better and sweeter and more fun in real life!