Coming off the vacation high

Reality is slowly setting in.

I have no groceries. Must make a trip today.

I had to unpack my suitcase. Not a fun chore.

My bathroom really needs to be cleaned...or not, I haven't decided.

I actually had a fleeting thought about work today.

But, I've also managed to read half a book so as to avoid all of the above. I'm not willing to let the vacation die yet! :) It was a great vacation, but I'm looking forward to normal life too.

Last Day Events

The morning of my last day in Texas was spent much the same as the others. Except I woke up an hour before the girls...ugh...and I had to pack...double ugh... After that it was normal playing with the girls. At noon when the girls went down for their naps, Danell and I left for Fort Worth. We were going to spend a couple of hours with the family that I nannied for...very exciting because I hadn't seen them in about three years, maybe more. It was great to catch up on what was going on in their lives. I missed seeing Chris, since he was at work, and I still didn't get to meet their youngest son because he was napping the whole time I was there. Yay! Danell and I finally managed to get a picture together! :)

Here is a picture of three of the five boys. Samuel is sitting next to me. He was 13 months old when I moved out! Joseph is next to him. And Graham is on the end. He had turned 4 a month before I moved out. Apparently kids don't stay the same age forever! I did get to see Asher (not pictured) but he left to go on a special date with his grandpa. He is also a cutie!

The girls. Danell, Sara, and me.

Danell and I then took a circuitous route to the airport (don't ask!). I purposely got there a little early to spend some time with Lisa, who I had not been able to see at the beginning of the week like originally planned.

We had to pose in some "authentic" Texas gear. At least I think a pink cowgirl hat with a tiara on it is authentic. Right?

Yay for great friends!

OH NO!

I'm not sure I've ever posted four posts in one day. I guess that's what happens when you have no responsibility and are on vacation.!

Tonight, Clare said "Oh No" once and I repeated it in a high pitched tone. She then repeated it back to me in a high pitched tone. I then repeated it back to her in a high pitched tone. And she giggled. And she said "OH NO!" and I repeated it back. And she giggled longer. And she said "OH NO!" and I repeated it back to her. And she giggled harder and longer. :) And...oh, you get the idea?! We played this game twice...once before dinner and once after dinner. Both times she thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. I think my throat hurts from all the high pitchedness. Or from all the laughing-so-hard-you-start-crying-and-just-looking-at-the-other-person-makes-you-laugh-harder that happened between Danell and I! We drove Ken into the bedroom. He said it was because he wanted to lay under the fan to cool off, but I think that was just his polite way of exiting. I don't blame him. I would have left too. It's hard to believe I leave tomorrow. But more exciting things will happen before I go. I still have one more morning with Danell and the girls. Once we put the girls down for their naps, we will head up to Fort Worth where I am going to get to see the family that I nannied for. They have five boys now, one I've only met once and one I've never met. The oldest that I nannied for is 8 1/2! I can't wrap my mind around that. Sometimes I can delude myself into thinking I left Texas last year, but apparently it has been 4 1/2 years! Then it's off to the airport. I think Lisa is going to meet me there and wait with me while I wait on my plane (she works for the airline, so she can come back to the gate).

I didn't want to leave you without a picture, so here is one for you to say, "Am I really looking at what I think I'm looking at?"...
Danell does not live in the ghetto, nor is she a redneck. I promise. :)

Wanna go to the Zoo?

This is a huge post full of pictures followed by two more posts full of pictures. I just thought I'd warn you...

Danell and I took the girls to the zoo today. It is a completely different experience taking two toddlers to the zoo than say two adults who want to read every sign and ponder how God could create a giraffe to have such a big neck or a flamingo to stand on one leg. With toddlers you're more likely to point out every shade of color on an animal...or be just as excited about a weed growing in the sidewalk as you are about the rhinoceros (possibly more excited). Also, it is a pretty good workout taking two toddlers to the zoo because you have to get them in and out of the stroller at every exhibit and chase them down if they get away. But it was worth it, and I managed to not be too distracted to not take any pictures (I was going to "fix" this horribly constructed sentence, but I just read it to Danell and she said that it's exactly how I speak. I said, "But it sounds better when you speak it" and she said, "I just wanted you to know that when you talk, you talk in horribly constructed sentences." I think only your best friend can say such a thing and make you laugh instead of leaving you horribly offended).
Lucy's ready to go to the zoo.

A Duck! A Duck!

Oh my goodness! It's water! Really there is a bird that she was looking at :)

Lucy pointing at the crocodile.

The fish were so exciting. The girls got to run around in this room. Lucy would run up to the glass and babble incoherently but very excitedly about the fish. When she gets really excited, her hands start to shake as she is getting ready to point.

This is my favorite picture of Clare even though you can only see half of her face. She LOVES frogs. "A frau, a frau" She would keep repeating that until you acknowledged, "Yes, a frog!" Every other glass window, she would back up if something was that close, but the frog didn't bother her at all.

This was almost a really cute picture :) Apparently, that happens a lot with toddlers. She was sitting in the corner looking at a bird as happy as can be. But I took too long to get the camera out of my pocket. Shucks!

Possibly the highlight of my zoo experience. This zoo has a giraffe enclosure and the sidewalk is on the second story, so the giraffes are at eye level (or slightly higher if you happen to be a short person).

Danell and Clare.

And, of course, you can't be Teresa, go to the zoo, and not take at least one picture of a turtle. :)

Wow...we sure are thirsty after a HOT day at the zoo. Notice, there were no pictures of Danell and I from the zoo. We had originally talked about taking a picture at the zoo because we are bound and determined to have a picture of us together this trip (last year we never took a picture together).

When you want them to sleep...they don't

But when you are desperately trying to keep them awake...good luck :) Clare can wake up from a nap because she hears the click of the bathroom door. But if you are trying to keep her awake, even if you are squeezing her thigh, tickling her, shaking something in front of her, and have two people calling her name like a football chant, she may go limp during the midst of it all! No joke.

The were taken while Danell was shaking/tickling her thigh. She found it amusing, but it didn't keep her awake! And she didn't fall asleep a few minutes after Danell did this. She fell asleep WHILE Danell was doing this. But if we had had a bathroom door to click shut, we might have kept her awake for the last 15 minutes of the drive home!

However, aren't they SO cute while they sleep?

Look at the cute pigtails and the pouty lip!

Let the games begin

One of mine and Danell's favorite things to do is play games. We can amuse ourselves with just about any game. During naptime and bedtime, we have been playing these two games almost every day...unless Clare decides that naps are silly...or we take too long with lunch.

We are SO excited to play Dominion we almost can't stand it!

A first look at our cards.

Danell thinks she is going to get the first set when we switch to playing "Set."

Look at those looks of concentration! I think I see a set! Almost a set. Sssss...just kidding. Fancy set. Squiggle set. Triplets. Nantucket Set. SEEEETTTTT...and a race for the set at the same time. Oh, don't you wish you were playing too?!

A post full of pictures

I haven't done a post with pictures in awhile. Maybe because I don't normally have such cute subjects to take pictures of. This morning Danell and I took the girls outside to play in their pool. I think they spent more time outside of the pool. They love to pick grass and are really good at entertaining themselves while they are outside. Here they are playing with the hose. It looks like Clare (in the purple suit) is helping Lucy, but I think at the time, they both just wanted to be playing with the hose.

Lucy kept putting her head in the water just enough to get her bangs wet and then would do this, sometimes drinking the water that would drip off of her hair. She also is usually in the squat position in the pool.

Playing with some toys.

Clare had been playing with a leaf in the pool. I think it's still in her hand. I'm not sure what she was staring at.

Danell was making them both laugh, but Clare is much harder to catch smiling than Lucy is (Lucy is on the right).

Clare walks around most of the day with the bear and dragon in her hands. They don't stop her from doing most other things she wants to do, she just tucks them under her arms and goes!

Lucy was having fun!

Tonight I went to Game Night with Danell at church. We played Bingo and I won two prizes!

Danell and I have also been laughing a lot...sometimes uncontrollably...sometimes Ken looks at us like we're crazy....sometimes we look at each other like we're crazy! :)

We have also been playing a lot of games. Danell and I have to fit as many games as possible into my time here. Why? Just because!

And that's how it's supposed to work...

I got to the airport at 6:20 am, checked my bag, went through security, and got to the gate by 6:35. We boarded at 7:10. We landed in Dallas 10 minutes early. Danell and I left the airport by 10:00.

I laughed when I realized that it was Saturday and all of this had happened before I would normally be out of bed and showered on a Saturday morning! That's a slight exaggeration, but not much of one!

Because I flew in this morning instead of yesterday, I was also able to stop by LifeWay to see Stephanie. That was fun and unexpected. I think she is only one of three people that are still working there from when I worked there 4 1/2 years ago, so she was the only one I got to see, but it was still fun.

Then we had an early lunch at Wingstop. Funny conversation. We were leaving the airport and discussing lunch options. Danell said, "what sounds good to you? We can do whatever you want to do." And I, of course, said, "Chick-fil-a or Chipotle sound good." Slight pause and then Danell says, "How about Wingstop?" I laughed and said, "Or Wingstop!" Wingstop has fond memories for us because Danell and I had known each other for over 2 years (possibly closer to 3 years) and had eaten a bazillion meals together by that point when we realized for the first time that we both liked wings (which several of our friends didn't) and we could have been eating wings together for 2 years! Oh well, better late than never!

We got back to Danell's house before the twins woke up from their naps. So, when they woke up, they came running into the living room where I was sitting on the couch. Lucy stopped in the doorway, smiled really big at me and ran over to the couch, wanted to be picked up, and sat right in my lap. It was so cute. Clare sat a very safe distance away in her daddy's lap and frowned at me for at least an hour if I looked at her or talked to her. :) They are so cute. Both babbling a lot, but Clare is talking a lot more and will repeat most of what you say (sometimes you can understand her and sometimes you say flower and it sounds like she said supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! But it doesn't matter because she's cute when she does it!)

Where, O Where is Carmen Sandiago?

I don't know if any of you remember that show or the song that goes with it, but I feel a little like Carmen today. I am supposed to be landing in Texas in a few minutes. But, no such luck. It has been an eventful day, but I have only visited half the towns I was supposed to and now I'm back in Peoria. :)

I can now say I have been to the Springfield airport. I can now say I have been on an airplane at the Springfield airport. However, I cannot say I have flown out of the Springfield airport.

I left my apartment at 9:30 this morning, got to Springfield in plenty of time. The airplane landed right on time. The guy got on the speaker right on time to announce...nope, not boarding, but an hour delay until "the next update." So, I was supposed to be flying to Chicago, have a 35 minute layover, and then fly to Dallas. Guess I wasn't going to be making that connection! The good news...flights leave from Chicago about every hour to get to Dallas. So, 1:10 roles around and the guy gets back on the intercom to say the other flight waiting to leave was delayed until 2:45 and my flight would receive another update at 2:10. Yikes! Good thing I brought a good book along. Five minutes later a lady gets on the intercom to say we have a small window of opportunity so "let's move fast and get our butts in the air!" Literally, her words. At least I got to laugh. Turns out there were thunderstorms in Chicago all afternoon. So, yay, I'm on the plane, seat belt in place, driving around to get in position to take off...and the engines shut down. "sorry folks, but we were just given an update. We should be able to leave in 20 minutes. Just sit tight." 15 minutes later..."Sorry folks, but we're headed back to the gate. They just shut down Ohare and are diverting planes to other airports." That flight sure was short lived! So, then I had to make a decision...do I keep trying to get to Chicago, or do I make other plans? I make other plans. Peoria has a direct flight to Dallas that leaves tomorrow morning. I get to sit at my own home instead of passing the rest of the day at the airport, and I don't have to fly to Chicago. The best part is, I was able to get him to switch my flight home as well, since I would no longer have a car in Springfield. Now my flight home next week is a direct flight from Dallas to Peoria! The irony of it all is that the whole reason I was flying out of Springfield is because the ticket was almost $200 cheaper. Now, I get to fly the way I wanted to for the price I wanted to pay and I'll be getting there about 18 hours later! Not too shabby.

So, this Carmen is home for now!

Facts #16-24

16. I like lists, and when I'm at a loss for what to say on my blog, lists work. Things are more manageable in pieces.
17. I have to hold my breath when throwing away leftovers. The smell makes me gag.
18. I also have to hold my breath when smelling wet peanut butter (as in, I have to wash a knife that I used to make peanut butter and jelly.).
19. I have to make a packing list every time I'm going somewhere. Even if it's just somewhere overnight. In college I made a master list of things that had to go back and forth every weekend and would print it so that I wouldn't forget anything.
20. Scratching things off of lists gives me a sense of satisfaction. I have a running grocery list on the fridge, a running to-do list on my desk at work, and often have a list on my medicine cabinet mirror.
21. I miss my roommate. She is at youth camp. She gets home Friday evening, but I leave for a week on Friday morning.
22. I only have one more day of work and then I am off for 10 glorious days!
23. I get to go to an airport on Friday that I have never been to (at least to my knowledge...I'll let you know when I get back if I was wrong).
24. If plans work out, I will get to see the family I nannied for while I am in Texas. When I lived with them they had 3 boys, now they have 5. I've met the 4th but not the 5th.

Wedded Bliss

What an adventerous day! Wedding #2 of the summer went off without a hitch today. Okay, if I was speaking this, you would know that "without a hitch" was stated with a tad bit of sarcasm. Here is how the day went. Kari asked me to help this morning with set up. Kristi's wedding was at the new church with a tent reception afterwards. I arrived at the church at 9:30 to help set up. For those of you not from the area, I'll let you in on a little secret. It rained last night and this morning. The ground was a soggy mess. But set up we did. We had that tent looking great. Tableclothes, chairs, flowers, silverware, votives, salt and pepper shakers. In the middle of this, it started raining pretty steadily. We were half-way through putting flower packets at each seat, when Kari comes in to announce that the decision has been made to move the reception inside. We mad-dashed to clear the tables, get everything secure, run it through the rain into the church, unload it, and begin re-setting it all up. We again had everything almost set up, with the churches burgundy chairs at the tables, when a decision was made that the burgundy chairs were not the look that we were going for. Put all the chairs back where we had gotten them from throughout the church, bring up the original white chairs from the tent, hose them off, dry them off, put them at the tables. The groomsmen got to leave the church at 1:05. Pictures were supposed to start at 1:30 :). I never heard how that turned out. Most of the set up was done by 1:00.

I must say, the wedding was beautiful. The reception, while not what Kristi had envisioned originally, was beautiful. And air conditioned. And not soggy. And a really good thing because at about 7:30, the storm watcher guy (I didn't even know there was such a thing) sent us all to the bathrooms because a tornado had touched down in a town about 20 minutes away. Talk about memories for your wedding! I felt bad because there were some non-midwesterners in the group who were really freaked out about the tornado. We all stayed safe.

My place setting card said "Miss Teresa Turtle". :) That's what Clay, the groom, calls me. Every time I introduced myself to one of the bridesmaids, they would say, "Oh, you're Teresa Turtle!" I was glad to know that they did not think this was my last name!

All in all, like I said, it went off without a hitch! :)

Irrelevant Truths About Me

It's a random post day. So, here are a list of truths about me, that will give you a tiny glimpse into my last couple of weeks.

1. I have mastered the art of cooking chicken breasts on the George Foreman grill. I could cut it with a fork today!
2. I love Chow Mein Noodles.
3. I always get the weirdest burn lines (notice I didn't say tan lines!)
4. I often "reply" to emails in my head as I'm reading them and forget to do it in reality.
5. I currently sleep with two fans blowing on me at night.
6. Because of number 5, if a tornado were to really hit Peoria, just look for me under the rubble, I apparently can't hear anything!
7. My toes are no longer turquoise. They are now bubble gum pink.
8. I'm going through NCIS withdrawal and it's only been one week since the finale.
9. I have been saying for 2 months that I was ready for school to get out so that I could have my evenings free, but now I'm not so sure. The last two days have been crazy. I forgot how packed my 8-5 gets during the summer. When did I get paperwork done last year?
10. I have increased my water intake to almost a gallon a day.
11. I dressed up for work today (heels and everything) but only because I had to go to court (about a client) this morning.
12. I seriously contemplated bringing a change of clothes so I wouldn't have to wear the skirt all day. I compromised and switched to flip flops half way through the day.
13. I really can eat lunch in less than 10 minutes if I have to.
14. I have recently perfected the art of doodling my name in bubble letters. I avoided it for many years because I could never figure out how to do the "s".
15. I feel like I have to end this list on a number divisible by 5.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!