You Got the Wrong Blog, My Friend

To the person who arrived at my blog by searching on picture of cousins having sex, I hope like hell you didn't find what you were looking for.

Camping Report

We went on our first family camping trip last night. We had a GREAT time! The tent went up very smoothly, which totally amazing since we have no tent skills. We only made two trips back into town: one for water and juice, and another to get all that water and juice out of our systems. (Yes, we drove 5 miles to pee.) We played bocce ball, went on several hikes, made smores, did a lot of visiting. It was a great family bonding moment.

On our way home this morning, we all sat in silence. Then I heard Green say, "Wow, that was fun." That's what it's all about.

Pictures will be posted as soon as I find my camera!

Money and Camping

Tonight I had planned to go all "Dave Ramsey" on Pool Boy, but instead we blew money on going out to eat . I think there's something wrong with that. Anyhoo, we didn't have our kids with us tonight and we always celebrate that by doing something crazy and wild, like eating and going to Target. Which brings us to our next topic...

We are going camping tomorrow night. Unfortunately we are not camper-types so we have no equipment. A Target trip was in order. We got to the air mattress aisle and proceeded to pick up the cheapest ones they had. Then Pool Boy summoned a Target worker and asked, "Do you have any other stuff we might need for camping?" Pros, I tell you. Camping pros.

So we left Target with two air mattresses, a wedding card, a Snickers bar, an 18 pack of eggs, toothpaste, and hand wipes. I think we are now well-prepared for a night of roughing it.

PhotoShop Virgin

As if I didn’t already have enough things to do, now I’ve got PhotoShop loaded on my laptop. I haven’t even opened the program yet for fear of being sucked into the black hole of severe time wasting.

All of my pictures from the past few years are on my laptop and my old PC, which is now in the hands of 3. I need to take some serious action and get these babies stored in a more official manner. Now I’m afraid, though, that I will need to edit each and every picture over the past few years, therefore prolonging my picture organization by several decades. I’m picturing my family at my funeral: lovely bouquets surrounding the picture table. But instead of pictures, there are 4 hard drives and my digital camera sitting on the table.

So send me your cool links to PhotoShop sites. Or your PhotoShop tips and tricks. I’m all ears inbox.

We Want to Live Like No One Else

I've recently become aware of Dave Ramsey. I'm hooked. For those of you who don't know him, and those of you who are too lazy to click on the link over to his site, he's all about getting rid of debt.


I subscribe to his podcast and listen to in while driving to and from work and when I walk in the evening. I've totally bought into his system of getting rid of debt. Now the hard part - actually doing it.



Pool Boy and I really only have three debts: the house, my car, and this totally unnecessary purchase:

We have no credit card debt, which is good. We have one vehicle paid off, also good. But can you imagine if we had no debt at all? Dave Ramsey, I'm all ears!

I have purchased his book and workbook. Once they arrive, I'll jump in feet first and figure out what needs to be done. Then we will be living like no one else so that we can live like no one else.

Wordless Wednesday - My Life

Yeah! A Meme!

Finally! Something to write about. gawd...

Chili tagged me for a local restaurante meme. Here are the rules:

1. Link to name of person that tagged you.
2. Include state and country you live in.
3. List top 5 favorite local restaurants
4. Tag 5 other people and let them know they've been tagged.

Alrighty then.

I was tagged by the blogmighty Chilihead.

I live in Iowa, which is in the United States in case you didn't know.

I live in a small town, so I'll call Ames "local" since it's pretty close. The last entry is from Jefferson, though.

Hickory Park - This is a locally owned bbq place. It's known for the ribs, but I think eating ribs are a waste of time. My favorites are the Saucy Southerner, French Dip and Patty Melt. But if you are going, and you rarely get there, you MUST save room for desserts because they rock. I must leave a disclaimer here - I worked here in college. And no I don't get any kickbacks for promoting them.

West Street Deli - This is a small deli on the west side of Iowa State's campus. I'm hating myself for not finding this place while I was in college. They throw your sandwich together and then grill it on one of those fancy panini grill thingys. It's so yummy!

Downtown Deli - An Ames sandwich landmark. Always good for a reasonably priced sub, but they don't take debit cards yet. That's the only downside. But they DO have Pepsi products so that cancels out the debit card thing.

Battle's BBQ - Another bbq place, but this one is...well...more of a real BBQ place. I could eat their Texas Toast all day long.

Excuses - I'll give this place a plug since they are new. This is actually in Jefferson, but their pizza is awesome. The crust has honey butter dripping off it, and who wouldn't want that? Subs are good too.

I'll tag Iowa Mom (no fast food, Iowa Mom!), luvthebearcats (cause she doesn't have anything better to do), Life in the Castle (cupcakes from scratch? your killing us!), Blonde Chick Bloggin (sorry, I know you are trying to lose weight and don't need to talk about restaurants), and Nancy (because she's in the DC area and I want to know where to go next time I'm there).

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things I Said Yesterday 1. “Your organizational skills are non-existent.” 2. “You absolutely do not have a job yet.” 3. “Talk dirty to me.” **Hold it right there! This was in response to this conversation: Green – Stop! I love this song! Me – No you don’t. You can’t listen to it. Pool Boy – What is it? Me – Talk Dirty To me 4. “Happy Birthday!” *This was said to both Pool Boy and EAK. 5. “I had onions for lunch, went for a long power walk in the heat, had more onions for supper. I’m sure I smell like flowers.” 6. “We are done with baseball!” 7. “I dominated that conversation. I was not about to let him tell ME how it was.” 8. “I’ll have the cheesecake with chocolate sauce, please.” 9. “Dude, that is not a good thing!” 10. “Thanks for watching my boys.” 11. “I need to post a blog entry so people don’t forget about me. Maybe I’ll dream up something for Thursday Thirteen.” 12. “Dammit. I can’t get this Bruce Williams podcast over to my iPod.” **Don’t worry, folks. I eventually got it there. 13. “Is he calling about the new math program we are going to be using for grades 2-4?”

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Ahhh...That's Better

Remember pictures you've seen of this dude?

Luckily we are back to this now.

And while I'm at it, here's a picture of 3 and green in my new garden.

Coffee

I don't know a damn thing about coffee, but I figured some of you might find this interesting.

http://www.coffeefool.com/

I Don't Know But I Can Find Out

I’ve decided that you really don’t need to know anything as long as you have a good Internet connection.

Pool Boy – How would I figure out how big this circle is?

Me – Why would I know something like that?

I couldn’t answer his question, but I could do a mean web search and have the answer to his question within seconds. I’m rarely more than 5 minutes from an Internet connection so I figure there’s no need to keep certain information in my brain. Here are some things I have decided will no longer be taking up valuable space in my brain:

How to find an area of a circle
A majority of the state capitals
The periodic table (as if I knew that to begin with)
What the library hours are
The difference between insure and ensure
Quite a bit of American history
Anyone’s address, other than my own
All recipes

That will free up plenty of space for more important knowledge, such as where my car keys are.

Dear Blog

I know you've been ignored. Even though I like you and enjoy having you around, you are definately low on my priority list these days. But I threw you a bone to keep you satisfied. I added my recipe blog to my IRL (in real life, for those of you not "in the know") blogroll. I also updated my stock balance, as pathetic as that is.

Enjoy -
green3

WFMW: Family Baseball

Sports are very much a part of our lives. The boys are involved in almost every sporting activity that is available for them at this age. When they aren’t at a game or a practice, they still want to be doing sports…all the time…at home…with their parents.

We had to come up with a way for us to play baseball that was fair to both teams, where we could all compete enough to keep our interest, and without the boys fighting throughout the entire game. Here is what we came up with.

Team 1 – Parents
Team 2 – Kids

Team 2 bats the entire game. Each time they score a run, they get a point. Team 1 is in the outfield the entire game. Each time we get an out, we score a point. They can try as hard as they can and the parents can try as hard as we can. The games turn out to be fun, no fighting, and challenging!

Some side rules:
1. If both boys end up on base, the one furthest along must leave their base and go up to bat. They always call “ghost” when this happens, but the ghost runner can’t score.

2. There is no stealing.

3. Once the pitcher gets the ball and they are on the pitcher’s mound, the players have to stay on the base they are on until the next hit.

4. The winners have to pick up the game (bases, bats, balls, etc.).

5. Parents have final say on calling outs, etc.

6. No strikes are called if the player doesn’t swing. This is mostly because Pool Boy and I are not the best pitchers in the world, believe it or not.

7. We play with tennis balls rather than baseballs or softballs.

8. If the ball lands on the sidewalk or past, it’s an automatic homerun.


We play almost every single night if time allows. It’s an awesome family bonding tool, keeps the boys from getting bored, and gets the parents some much needed exercise!

If you are looking for ways to keep your family from being bored this summer, check out other tips at Rocks in my Dryer for this week's "Mom, I'm Bored!" edition!

Send Your Greetings

Even though we've never met IRL, I consider Sandy one of my blog buddies. Her life has not been easy, and these past few weeks have been especially hard on her. Today is her birthday and I encourage you to go over there and wish her a Happy Birthday. This girl needs all the good wishes we can give her.

Mug Shots

Have an hour to waste? Apparently I did.

I guess I have no more excuses for not blogging, huh?