Our Sweet Animals Love Us So!

Over the years I've had many sweet gifts from my animals (can you feel the sarcasm yet?).
What kind of gifts, you ask? Many of you animal owners will have had some of these yourselves...

(live variety)
Lizards. Frogs. Mice. Baby Possums. Snakes

(half-alive variety)
Lizards. Frogs. Raccoons. Moles

(dead variety)
Lizards. Frogs. Raccoons. Moles. Rats. Mama Possums. Chickens (yes, chickens). Various Birds. Snakes. Fish. Bugs.

(dead and in the house variety)
Lizards. Bugs.
Until yesterday lizards and bugs were about the only critters that had actually been brought inside the house for us (or killed while in the house), most of the others (ie: the bigger ones) have been left at the doorstep or somewhere in the yard. But yesterday, I had a critter in the house that beat all critters....

Dead bird. In the middle of the carpet in Julia's room. NICE.

And it was a fledgling - still had pin feathers. I'm thinking the dog (who can hide all kinds of things in her very gentle, Labrador mouth) must have brought it in with her as we came in from school.

Just thought I'd share. (Have you had similar gifts left for you?)

Happy 11th!

Happy, Happy day to you, Julia! We all love you very much...there is no way it has been 11 years, has it? You are growing into such a wonderful young lady (of course you are, you were already a wonderful little girl).Happy Birthday!

Go Scorpions! Go Julia!

My American Girl is Named Julia

I picked her up from school early. She was brought to the office not knowing I was there to pick her up...she wasn't really sure why she was in the office, she was just going with the flow. The receptionist pretended to be on the phone and handed her the American Girl magazine to look through while Julia waited for her to get off the phone. When I came around the corner this is the look I got when I asked her if she was ready to go to the American Girl Bistro.
This is what happened when she realized we're leaving RIGHT NOW, and on a plane! (a few happy tears in case you can't tell in the picture) . . .


This is the first time she can remember being on a plane (she was about 15 months old during her last flight). She was very excited!

When we landed I took her to eat at the Benihana's Japanese steak house that was down the street from our hotel. This is the birthday hat they made for her and had her wear as they sang Happy Birthday.


The next morning we woke, showered and got ready to go eat breakfast at the Bistro. The empty (clean) table was ours. Notice all of the pink and shades of purple. Any girl's paradise.
Here are some shots of the cute lighting fixtures around the restaurant. . .
This is us enjoying our breakfast. We (and Melanie - the doll) had complimentary strawberry muffins. Julia had the largest chocolate milk I've ever seen served to a child (already cleared in the picture).

The doll even got her own chair and menu too. Then after breakfast, Julia was served a birthday ice cream sundae, complete with chocolate sauce, sprinkles, a Happy Birthday song from everyone in the restaurant and two spoons (yay me!).



This is Julia waiting on her doll, Melanie, to get the "do" of the month and her ears pierced. That's Melanie in the pink/orange outfit almost behind Julia.
All finished with hair and ear piercing (the dolls...Julia's were pierced several years ago - not on this day). Now we're ready to shop in the Boutique!



An hour or so later, we were all finished shopping. Birthday presents included a new doll "Julie", a new winter outfit, shoes, and new earrings (all for the doll of course). The sticker on Julia's shirt was from breakfast and says "It's My Birthday" (it's really this coming Tuesday). I might add that "Julie" is the new historical character from 1974. She has all of the things I had as a child. Makes you feel kind of old when the new historical character is from your childhood. I am not historic! (ha)



Now we're ready to go hit the mall and kill some time before a late lunch and time to travel back to the airport.




There was a beautiful carousel in the mall. The cute frog and it's duck, lady bug and flowers caught her eye. We laughed and said this was the AFLAC frog.

So she rode it.

This is us trying on cute feathery headbands in "Icing" and taking our pictures in the mirrors over head. We had fun pretending we were divas in these things.


This is just a cute shot of her coming out of one of the stores - I just couldn't resist posting this one.



When we went back to the Bistro's dessert counter to have an afternoon ice cream treat. The store allowed Julia to pick a doll to join us since our bags were already in the car. Julia chose this cute thing. She got her own muffin again. Julia didn't eat it this time...her ice cream float filled her up.




This is Julia enjoying her "Black Cow" root beer float. One scoop vanilla, one scoop chocolate, chocolate sauce, and of course root beer. She loved it.



At the end of the day, we drove back to return the rental car and patiently waited for the shuttle to take us to the airport. Julia enjoyed caring her big red bag with her new stuff in it. We both truly enjoyed ourselves. We laughed, we giggled and we tired each other out. This was the best gift ever! And it wasn't even mine. Seeing her smile and glow from excitement these two days was enough to warm my heart for a long time. I highly recommend something like this. Start saving those sky miles now!

Give Me The Keys, I'll Drive

I have been quite busy with plenty of things to do, keeping me away from here...laundry (I've actually done an ok job keeping it up to date this week), a trip to go see the Tigers play this past weekend, and lots of looking and re-looking at the e-receipts for this Friday's quick trip to Atlanta (I'm really getting so excited and I think she has no idea). In admiring the rental car reservation I was actually able to secure a new, and lower rate! So, good stuff is happening to all the re-looking I'm doing.

This past weekend up at Clemson was a fun one. We got there early and pretended we were still college students and graced downtown with happy hour and games of pool before we went to have supper at Calhoun Corners (where we actually got to see Danny Ford enjoying a meal - very exciting for all of us 40 year olds! Seriously.).

After the game, upon packing up, we realized that at some point during the post-game tailgate I lost my car key (it had been in my pocket and in cup holders). Now mind you, I never left tailgate, but the key was no where to be found. So at 11:30 I got to call AAA to help us find a locksmith to get a key made. The car was unlocked and a window was rolled down, and luckily I had the code for the key to be made, but there was no one on the locksmith list with AAA.

So we decided to tow the car back to the hotel (which is on campus and only (maybe) a mile away from where we tailgate so that we could try to find a locksmith on Sunday morning (Sunday morning of Labor Day weekend, no less).

Well, at 2:30, the tow truck driver #1 arrived and realized we didn't have a key (don't know why AAA didn't tell him that) making him have to wake up and dispatch tow truck driver #2 to come help us out.. Though I'm a bit panicked and kicking myself mentally, my friends had decided to turn this awkward situation into a party. All of them refused to go back to the hotel and let Bryan and I wait out the tow trucks by ourselves, instead, they insisted on turning up the music, tilting back the adult beverages (including some Boone's Farm - told you we reverted back to college days) and enjoying the moment. The tow truck drivers said it was the highlight of their night seeing these wonderfully crazy friends of mine in action. (Imagine lots of dancing and laughter - even some dancing on the flat bed of the tow truck).

At one point, while we were waiting on tow truck driver number 2, driver 1 was telling us he had to get the other truck because without being able to unlock the transmission and put it in neutral, moving my back tires to get it on the dolly would "tear her rear end up!". (said with the nicest of upstate accents). This of course sends Ashley over the edge with laughter. Her reply is (in her best mock, upstate accent), "Well, I know Anne does not want her rear end tore up!". Of course we all roll at this come back (including the tow truck driver) - I think it becomes the highlight of my evening!

So by the time we get my car on Driver 2's truck/hauler and get back to the hotel, it's 3:30 am. Oh, forgot to mention that during all of this, all of the loud music playing from one of the other cars has caused its battery to run low and we had to stop the hoisting up of my car to get my jumper cables so we can jump it off. The battery had gotten so low that Driver 2's "jump pad" didn't work. I got to crawl inside the car while it was suspended in midair to get the cables. Driver 2 did lower it a bit, but it was still UP. It was kind of fun to do this for some reason - another highlight of the evening.

And I know you're wondering, but yes we exhausted ourselves looking for the frickin' key. We unloaded both cars (twice - before and after we called AAA). We unloaded tailgate food. We reopened tailgate chairs. We used flashlights to search the ground. We even went back Sunday morning for one more once-over (I guess this would technically be called the twice-over). Nothing. And nothing now that everyone is home and unpacked either.

We did find a very nice locksmith who only charged us $125.00 on Sunday (Labor Day weekend) morning to come and cut us a key. He even threw in an extra key just because he was nice (seriously - this man was wonderfully nice). There was still some tension until he actually got the car cranked because. . .well you know. . . you just don't know if it's going to work until you know it works. With all the talk AAA had been doing about hoping we didn't have a computer chip on our key we were seriously weighing the options of how to manage the 4 hour ride back home without a car - ha (I don't think the friends we were with were coming all the way home until Monday). So if the locksmith hadn't been able to work his magic we would have been in a pretty tight spot!

So, let's hope I can do better this weekend as I leave the car at the airport. At least if I loose a key this time, I'm just a phone call and 20 minute ride away from having my husband deliver my free key!

P.S. Ashley photo documented this whole event, once she shares I will too.

And the Next Birthday is.....

The Next Birthday is Julia's (Sept. 15).

So this is what I have cooking for Julia's birthday...
She's turning 11 and still likes American Girl dolls. And even though she wants a Nintendo DSi she would love to go to the American Girl Experience or the American Girl Bistro (basically anywhere she can travel by plane I think would be fine too. And since I've driven around Atlanta before, not Chicago or NYC - Atlanta is what I chose for such a quick trip).

So, since we've accumulated LOTS of sky miles over the years of using the Amex, I decided that I'm going to (surprise) take her to Atlanta next weekend to go to the American Girl Bistro. I have booked the plane, the rental car, the hotel and our breakfast at "The Bistro". I have even gotten the teachers to ok a surprise early dismissal from school. The only thing I have left undone is where we will eat on Friday night (there's a Bennihana's right around the corner from the hotel. There is also a gracious plenty other fun looking restaurants around, so there should be no problem to pick something she will think is a fun thing ).

I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I think what I will do is pick her up from school and have all of her American Girl dolls in the car so that she can chose which one to take to have her hair done while we are there. The nice lady on the American Girl reservations line said we should make sure that Julia has the doll out and in the airport (she has an AG backpack to carry the doll in) because sometimes there are AG ambassadors at the airport handing out certificates to the girls with dolls. So we will definitely be doing that.

I have already started putting together some of our travel liquids...shampoo, conditioner (hotel versions are never good for my hair), travel deodorant, travel toothpaste, moisturizer, etc. The one thing that I'm having trouble with is contact solution for Julia.

The TSA allows you to pack 1 quart size zip lock bag per passenger, holding as many 3 oz. containers as you can fit (they call it the 3-1-1 for Carry ons). the problem is, the small contact solution I'm finding is 4 oz. It states (even shows a picture) right on the package that it is TSA approved, but I wonder how that is true with it being 4 oz? The last thing I want to do is buy a special size but still have it confiscated at the airport, causing us to buy another one once we get there. Of course if we do this, we'll just get to hand it over again as we get ready to return 24 hours later. Money well spent, don't you think?

Well I think I will be making a call to either the maker of Opti Free or Delta to see what I should do. I have only been to two stores, so there may be other options for travel sized solutions at Walmart or Walgreens that I can choose from.

Anyway - wish me luck keeping it secret. I can't wait!!