Saturday, September 27, 2008

The Election Draws Near...

Ever watch Leno's Jaywalking clips? It's amazing that there are people out there who can't name the Presidential candidates. Even Zachary and Lauren have a clue about our potential fearless leaders, although I'm sure they would readily vote Spongebob into office.

There's an effort to elect an unknown random person as President, and it's someone we know! Watch this online video about the surprising new nominee:
Click here!
Let us know if you're ready to jump on this bandwagon (and thanks to Krista for alerting us to this candidate).
~D, M, Z, L

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

This Past Weekend from A to Z

A - All four of us piled in the car and...
B - ...Bloomington was our destination.
C - The Cheesecake Factory is often on our list when we're passing through Indianapolis. We ate there for lunch on Sunday. The blueberry white chocolate cheesecake was delish!
D - Drive, drive, drive...thank goodness for the DVD player, satellite radio, and stacks of books in the car.
E - Eating is always a highlight of any road trip. The most interesting morsel: the fried macaroni and cheese appetizer at the Cheesecake Factory!
F - Zachary had a flag football game on Saturday so we headed toward Bloomington after his game.
G - IU's game time: 7:00 p.m. Saturday. That gave us enough time to check into our hotel in Plainfield and drive on to Bloomington.
H - Hooray for the beautiful weather we had this weekend!
I - We had great seats at the IU vs. Ball State football game. Too bad IU forgot to play.
J - Junk food is an integral part of any football game! The hot dogs were especially good. Zachary and Lauren got some Dippin' Dots.
K - IU looked promising at kick-off time, but they lost some steam as the game went on.
L - Lauren liked IU's band and the cheerleaders. Zachary watched the football game quite attentively. He still says he's going to play college baseball though, just like his uncle.
M - We went to the Indianapolis Zoo on Sunday. We enjoyed watching several members of a monkey family fight over who got to hold the baby monkey at the zoo. Apparently monkeys aren't much different from humans when it comes to baby holding mania!
N - The baby monkey wasn't the only new creature at the zoo. We also saw a baby giraffe and a baby elephant.
O - Our next trip to Bloomington will include a basketball game. We've been on IU's season ticket waiting list for eons. In the meantime, we've had some luck getting tickets to games scheduled when students are away on Christmas break. We've also gone to some of the IU games in Indy.
P - We love the Fort Wayne Zoo, but it was fun to see some different animals at Indy's Zoo, including the polar bears.
Q - The car was quiet on the way back to our Plainfield hotel after the IU game. Thankfully, Zachary and Lauren slept since we got back to the hotel after midnight.
R - We have fond memories of our first apartment at Redbud Hill in Bloomington. We often walked to the stadium and to Assembly Hall for games.
S - We sat in the "Splash Zone" at the zoo to watch the dolphin show. Had it been 90 degrees, I would've been overjoyed with the shower we got.
T - We inched along in post-game traffic for about an hour in Bloomington. We never examined Grant Street so closely when we actually lived in B-town!
U - We lucked out with the weather this weekend. Umbrellas were unnecessary!
V - We stayed overnight in Plainfield because there were no hotel vacancies in Bloomington. I guess that's what happens when the freshman family weekend, business school induction, arts administration alumni symposium, and a home football game all occur in the same weekend!
W - David, Zachary and I ordered cheesecake for dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. Lauren was content eating blobs of our whipped cream.
X - Walking around the zoo was good EXercise (yes, I'm cheating poor letter X). When Lauren wasn't begging to be carried because her little legs were tired, she was sprinting ahead of us, instructing us to time her!
Y - We've taken a lot of weekend trips this summer/early fall. We hope Zachary and Lauren will look back on them fondly for years!
Z - We had fun at the Indianapolis Zoo. (We had to point out Zachy Zebra, much to Zachary's chagrin.)

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Another 4 going on 20 conversation with Lauren

Lauren and I were watching a commercial with a baby talking on a cell phone. Lauren commented that his mom and dad shouldn't let him have a cell phone since he's a baby. We continued with this following conversation:
Me: When should people get a cell phone?
Lauren: When they're grown up.
Me: How old will you be when you're grown up?
Lauren: About 13. Then I'll get a cell phone.
Lauren: When were you grown up, mama?
Me: I don't know; about 18?
Lauren: You had to stay with your mom and dad until you were 18???!!!???
Me: Yes, then I went to college. Will you stay with me until you're 18?
Lauren: [sigh] I guess, but that's really far away and I don't know what I'll be doing then.

Playhouse Disney

We went to the Playhouse Disney Live show today. You may be able to tell from the high quality cell phone picture (ha) that Goofy, Mickey, Donald, and Minnie are on stage. The show also featured Pooh and Friends, Little Einsteins, and Handy Manny. Lauren enjoyed it and Zachary thought he was too cool to be there. They both enjoyed their cotton candy though!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Lauren's Latest Line

Overheard as Lauren was taking a bath last night...

Lauren: Mommeeeeeeeeeeeee! I need you to rinse my haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaair!
Zachary: Why don't you rinse it, Lauren?
Lauren: Zachary, that would not be appropriate. I don't know how to do that.

(Lauren is four going on 20.) :-)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Busy lives, procrastination, etc.

Yet another few weeks have gone by since the last post. That usually means I have a ton of pictures on my camera that I could post and a gazillion things on my to-do list. The blog often gets moved to the bottom of the list! How could it not, when I get requests to play Webkinz online as soon as I pick up the laptop?
:-)
Anyway, here are the things that have been taking up our time: 3rd grade, soccer, flag football, preschool, work, the lake, cleaning, picking "stuff" in the garden (weeds and actual food), laundry, cooking, reading, camping, procrastinating, etc. Pretty soon our Bible study group will be starting back up for the school year so we'll add that to the list!
David and I have been reading the Twilight saga, a series of four young adult books by Stephenie Meyer. They are fantastic! I finished book four and David is working on it now. If you have the means...
We finally picked one of our watermelons. It was quite tasty! We're still waiting for our corn. The plants are as "high as an elephant's eye" (any Oklahoma fans?) but the ears themselves are slow to grow. We're now overwhelmed with a good supply of cherry tomatoes. Good thing I have a recipe for a tasty tomato/cucumber salad!
Work is going well. We have been busy since the day I started. It'll be interesting to see if the number of patients varies by season. There have been plenty of interesting, enlightening, and entertaining patient encounters so far.
David has been doing a lot of work for an upcoming trial. Will it settle at the last minute? We'll soon find out!
Zachary is enjoying third grade. He likes his teacher and has been bringing home the usual stellar spelling tests and math homework. He has also started the PEAK program, which is a talented and gifted program with fancy new initials.
Lauren has a new pre-K teacher this school year and has been having a good time. The letters, sounds, numbers, colors, and shapes are all review for her, but she still likes it. We've been working on reading at home and apparently have yet another child prodigy on our hands. (Yes, the extra-thick bragging is intentional).
So, that's our mini-update for now. Hopefully pictures will be coming soon. Just make sure you're not holding your breath though! ;-)
~D, M, Z & L