Dallas Aquarium

On Tuesday I took Ry, May, Hay and her friend Raymie to Dallas. We were going to check out the Dallas Aquarium and play at Six Flags on Wednesday. When we stepped out of the car at the aquarium's parking lot, the girls were just amazed with the big city and the murals on the buildings. They were saying ~ this is cool...this is awesome.

When we went into the entry-way...it was all jungle. Then when we stepped inside we saw baby penguins playing. The girls loved this! One would swim and wave the whole time. When we went in, it was amazing! When you walk through the rainforest, you walk through its different layers. There were different animals and aquatic life shown in the layers. Hay and I had a bird swoop right past our heads. We saw manatees from above. Monkeys playing in the trees right in front of us.
In the shark aquarium, there were so many different types of sharks swimming above us and around us. It was amazing! In another aquarium we saw HUGE manatees, fish, catfish, sea turtles. We saw a sloth sleeping in a hammock ~ that was hilarious. We saw crocs with piranhas, sting rays and manna rays. We were surprised how bright the flamingos were. We watched the lady feed the penguins fish (it smelled smelled heavily of shrimp).
Then the girls got to shop in the gift shop ~ which was fun for them! We loved the Dallas Aquarium!

Just B and Me

Well the girls have been with their dad this week, and I've really missed them. We are using this time to be somewhat productive...I just can't seem to quite break the lazy mode though. Our driveway floods every time it rains, so Brandon got our yard dug up and a drain put in! Yay! With the help of our neighbor and a buddy, he got a hefty size drain put in. I was able to get the house cleaned up again (mopped even) and laundry caught back up. It's running around the century mark here (hot as hell), so we treated ourselves to a matinee and watched The Dark Night. OMGosh ~ it was awesome. Heath Ledger did an incredible job in his role. They say he got so into his character that he had trouble sleeping, which led to his overdose. I can see that ~ I would say his character did the best acting job. It was just so sad watching the movie knowing that - that was it. I've never been gaga over actors or rock stars...but I really did like him.

After the movies we went by Mom's to pick up some peppered noodles that you can only get in MO. They are so good. So we fixed Alfredo with grilled chicken, salad, and fruit. I've been on a kick the past couple of days that my plate needs to be colorful. haha Today (7-26-08) we're going to go to church in Tulsa and attend B's cousin's daughter's baptism. We've been asked to be the godparents ~ so we said sure. It will be nice to see his family, and we'll pick up Hay at the same time.

Magician's Camp

This week I had taught Marvelous Magician's at Rose State College. This turned out to be a real fun camp. My students were 6-9 years old, so we tried to do more of the simple tricks. The first thing we did was make magic wands using pencils, black paint and foil. They turned out pretty cute. After doing research to teach this camp ~ now I know how the magicians do some of their illusions. Everything is pre-arranged...so the trick is figuring out how they do it. Part of me is sad because a lot of the tricks are ruined for me. ;-) We had our magic show today at the end of camp, and the kiddos did a really good job! I wish May and Hay could have taken this class, because they would have loved it! It just didn't work out that way.

Whew!

The past few days have been interesting... My car has been acting up for the past couple of weeks-acting like it won't start. Well Wednesday morning it decided to die. Thank goodness it didn't die on my way to and from Tulsa Tuesday~that would have been a nightmare. My guardian angel was watching. It still didn't start this morning, so for the past two days I have been driving an unairconditioned service van in 100* weather. Nice. I bought a battery today after work, so hopefully Brandon will fix it.

Tuesday...now that was an interesting day. I had to work, so I brought Hay with me. I'm teaching Marvelous Magicians this week (6-9yo) so she fit in and had a good time. We left straight from Rose and took off for Tulsa. Too long later I met Jes at the Double Tree where my meeting was. The positive thing was that I got to see my travel buddies from last year, and it was a nice reunion. We met with a lawyer from Cali ~ then one from here. It was a nice 5 hour meeting ~ so afterwards Pat and I decided to have drink. She ordered a Cosmopolitan...I had never had one, so I had one too. It was pretty stiff (I deserved a stiff one) and it was good too! Then I met up with Ruth to get B's microwave back. It was 10:45p.m. before I made it home. Talk about exhausted. ~

Dad's 60th birthday

Friday we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday. Karen and Jimmy flew in from CO on Thursday, so we went to Wes Watkins Lake. The girls rode the tube, boated, and swam. Dad, Karen, and Jimmy fished a little later. We cooked out and visited. It was fun. Then Friday we came over and had NC BBQ ymmm, corn on the cob, etc. Finished it off with an ice cream cake to celebrate dad's bday. We opened presents. I had made Dad a t-shirt with 40 or so pics from birth to 60. I had also made a photo show, so we watched that after he opened presents. I put a Carrie Underwood song to it, and everyone was teary-eyed. Dad really liked it. Dad surprised Karen and me with a Wii. He came in with a big bag and said, "Christmas in July." We all had a lot of fun playing with my parent's wii, so we were pretty excited. The girls were VERY excited. Saturday morning the boys did some early morning fishing, and we all met for bfast at Don's Alley. Brandon had invited everyone over to our house to fish (100*) and eat brats. So we did that and set up our Wii...lol Karen and Jimmy left for the airport about 4:00. It was a really good weekend.

It's Jennie's fault!

Okay, I'm starting this blogger here, because my friend Jennie has one too. lol And I had to go through hoops and loops to leave one comment on her blogger. Plus this looks pretty fun and easy to do.