Clippers!

We went to a Clippers game a couple weeks ago. Here are a few of my favorite pictures...

Random things about me

I've seen others do this in their blogs so I thought it would be fun to do here. Part of the purpose of the blog is that my kids will get a chance to know me in non-Mom mode. I might scare them a bit but here we go:




1. I think Luke's funny.




2. He secretly scares me




3. I don't enjoy my job and it makes me sad to think I've been there so long.




4. Don't worry, I have an exit strategy.




5. I listen to the radio in the car and think "this would make a good blog title" and then forget about it 2 seconds later.

6. I'm not warm and fuzzy (surprise) but I do consider myself to be kind and nice.




7. I don't like holding babies. This is no surprise to anyone who really knows me.




8. I hate dogs. Yes, this means your dog.




9. I enjoy laundry.




10. When someone doesn't like me, I enjoy making them make polite small talk with me. I once cornered someone in the bathroom at work for about 10 minutes with this strategy. This is what I call "entertainment."




11. Speaking of the bathroom, I have issues. When I open the door to the bathroom at work, I literally cross my fingers that it won't have a weird smell or mystery stuff on the floor.




12. I tend to nickname everyone and everything. I went through a phase where I would only call Aron "Larry" and greet him with "Hey Asshole." No reason.




13. I don't enjoy the responsibility of a purse. Too much carrying and what not. If I could have an assistant to carry it, I would be a happier person overall.




14. Speaking of purses, I don't care about them. I have no desire to have a Coach purse or any other expensive brand.




15. Being in the dark freaks me out.




16. I cannot watch a 48 hours Mystery or Dateline without getting too creeped out to walk upstairs to bed by myself. I make Aron go upstairs, turn the lights on, then come back down to get me, then I walk upstairs into the lighted room, then he follows me up after turning off the downstairs lights. True story.




17. I hate being outside. All these kid field trips with outdoors stuff: hate it.




18. Fairs are not fun.




19. I remember weird, random stuff from childhood. Like the fact that I threw up orange juice on my special dress for the Christmas program at school in kindergarten and that a girl in first grade used to eat her snot when she had a cold. I could give you her name but I choose not to (be thankful, Clarissa Bradley).




20. Aron asked me to mow our grass once. I said ok but purposefully did a bad job (like big bald patches in the middle of the front yard and no true pattern to my mowing).




21 .I don't feel bad about my passive aggressive nature.




22. Until a couple weeks ago, I had never eaten a meal by myself in a restaurant.




23. I've never been to a movie by myself




24. I hate ketchup and non-melted cheese.




25. When in a dark parking lot by myself, I'm paranoid. To counteract this, I tend to put my keys in between my fingers as a "just in case" defense mechanism and tell myself I could totally poke someone's eyes out if I had to. (I coudn't really)




26. My right foot is significantly smaller than my left and I kinda like it that way.




27. I have one really long eyelash that it gray and I trim it periodically so it doesn't hit my glasses.




28. Why won't super rich billionaires just give me some money? It's impossible to use it all so why not just give every person in the United States 1 million dollars? YOU STILL HAVE PLENTY LEFT OVER!




29. I remember watching Good Will Hunting for the first time and thinking "Wow, you totally can't even tell that Minnie Driver is British! Her American accent is so good!"





30. I want to know how to play the bagpipes.




31. I let the kids use straws to eat their applesauce.




32. I'm more like Ella than I let on.




33. Once in a parking garage, the person in the car ahead of me couldn't get their credit card to work so they could pay to get out. I got out of my car and tried to help her but I couldn't get it to work either. I went back to my car, grabbed 2 bucks and put them in the machine. She thought I was being nice. I just wanted to get her out of my damn way.




34. I think friend break ups are harder than boyfriend break ups.




35. I don't get our budget crisis. If we don't have money, how can we spend it? If I have $25,000 of income, I can spend $25,000 not $256, 746.




36. I don't enjoy talking about myself.




37. When driving on the freeway, I alternately sing really loud to the radio and scream at other drivers to "Get out of my way, asshole!"




38. This cannot be attractive in any way.




39. I enjoy acronyms like PITA and KMA.




40. I think that everyone I meet looks like someone else. I asked Aron the other day if the woman we had met had a Marisa Tomei quality to her. His response? "If Marisa Tomei had 4 kids hanging on her legs and looked a little scraggly like that then sure."




41. I think Larry's funny.




42. He secretly scares me.

Scioto Mile!

We finally made it the Scioto Mile. It was nice and steamy hot that day so it was extra refreshing. My creative juices are just not flowing tonight so I'll just let the pictures do the talking...

Columbus Museum of Art

This week's field trip was to the Columbus Museum of Art, the Scioto Mile, and a Columbus Clippers game.

First and foremost let me just say I was super impressed with the Cols Museum of Art. I went in with low expectations for how much the kids would get out of it. Given Luke's, ehem, lack of attention for anything less than hands on (I love him I love him I love him I love him--just keep saying it and breathe), I envisioned him running from room to room like the little wild child he is, ripping paintings off the walls and knocking over sculptures like he's bouncing down the final challenge on Wipeout. Admission for the months of July and August is free (as is parking...giddy up!) so even if I had to whip out the credit card for an art mishap or two, I could still come out ahead.

The museum had quite a few stations of interactive kid stuff to do. First off was the twist tie exhibit. The challenge was to make something creative with the big piles of twisties. (See also below and click on the pic to see some of the things created by other people on the shelves)

They spent quite a few minutes just twisting them around and not really making anything but they really enjoyed it.
This was my creation (psst! If you look closely, you can see that I twisted my ties into the names of the kids. You might have to stand back and squint your eyes a bit)

Art!

One of the next stops was big wads of modeling clay. For the record, Ella made a kitty to remind herself of her kitten that I gave away. She never misses an opportunity. (Click the link to remind yourself to feel guilty again and again and again)

More kitten making...

There was a big playroom where you could make mix-and-match wooden animals.

More mixed up animal parts.

Luke, to no one's surprise, found the display with pretend food and promptly stuffed the asparagus in his ears (*shakes head and smacks forehead*)

There were also numerous stations with questions posed like this one and post its of responses from the various people. Ella's response to this one? Ice cream.

I'll blog the rest in more posts. There was just too much for one.

Why so serious?

**lyrics attributed to to P!nk's "Raise Your Glass"

So raise your glass if you're all wrong...

In all the right ways...
All my underdogs...

We will never be, never be anything but loud...

Nitty gritty dirty little freaks!

I like the night life, baby

She's out there somewhere but I'm not gonna lie, I have no idea where.
Luke was more interested in snuggling with Lindy then watching the game.

To the victor, go the spoils (ok, so she didn't really win that night but whatever)

For one game for each season, the school's softball/baseball teams get to play under the lights and feel like big kids. Ella has been waiting all season for her turn under the lights. She was so excited, she even talked me into providing watermelon for her team. I'm a sucker for a cute face, I guess.

Gorman Nature Center

Welcome to the Gorman Nature Center near Sunny Maaaaansfield (only my local friends will understand that. Heck, maybe just Aron will understand that)
Aquariums full of goodies like snakes, turtles, etc.

The happy trio (Ella looks less than thrilled, doesn't she? Maybe she missed the part where I called us the "happy trio." Mommy said look happy so let's make that happen, shall we?)


Ok, so here she's happy in what she refers to as her Super Ella/Super Kitten pose. Sometimes it's Ella that's super, sometimes it's kittens that are super. Whatever.

Jump, Luke. I will certainly catch you. I will most definitely not let you drop even though you ate all my pie the other day when I got up to run to the bathroom. No, I'm not mad that I reminded you not to eat my pie because I wasn't finished yet and that even though I was leaving it unattended it was not actually yours to consume. Nope. Completely over that now JUMP

Look out below!

We went to the Gorman Nature Center last week on the same day we went to the Ohio Bird Sanctuary. They're pretty close to one another so it was easy to lump them into the same trip. I'm not much of a nature girl (zip it, Tori, I can hear you snickering) but the kids love it so I've been trying to do more of that this summer with them. The Nature Center has trails, a welcome center with aquariums full of turtles, snakes, etc, a look-out tower, and a lake.

We missed the Scioto Mile and Santa Maria last week. I think this week's adventure might be the Columbus Museum of Art, the Scioto Mile, and a Columbus Clippers game.

Ohio Bird Sanctuary

Greetings! Welcome to the Ohio Bird Sanctuary!
There were 12 or so cages with birds in them as well as information about the species.

Mr. Blue Jay! Come sit on my arm!

Seriously. Come and sit on one of our arms!

Here birdy, birdy. I've got an arm for you to land on, too. Kiss, kiss.

Part of this week's field trip was to the Ohio Bird Sanctuary (click link).

Cutiest Little Cutie Pie

He almost acts like he likes me in this picture. It's a miracle.

Hardly seems fair that I get to have this guy. Him sooooooooo cute.

Mr. Swimmer

Luke on the left
Mid-jump

Jumpin in!

Luke's really taken to the water this summer. It's probably because he's tall enough to stand up comfortably in the shallow end. He's doing lessons for the first time, too. He started at Level 1 on the first day but quickly was sent to Level 2 because he was too skilled (i.e. he could put his face in the water, jump in, and didn't need to use a bubble on his back to hold him up). Today, he even got to go to the semi deep end to give treading water a try.

Field trip!

I've been trying to do a field trip with the kids once a week since school let out. We've done quite a few fun places so far but I haven't taken many pictures. Here's a few from our trip to a batting cage/go cart place.

A sweaty threesome
Staying hydrated (always important)

Super excited

Crazy driver #1

Crazy driver #2

Ready to drive some balls.

I believe this week's trip will be to the Santa Maria replica and the Scioto Mile with a quick stop by Aron's work to say hi. Shhhhh! Don't tell him!