Saturday the 13th was my birthday. It was great! The night before it I heard a knock on the door, and found this on my front door step:
(This is my bro Kevin and my sister-in-law, Becca)Hahaha! I love this picture. Seriously. This describes these two so well! They surprised me, and brought a huge basket of silly dress-up stuff and spa-like items (manicure set, lotion, etc). I know that the spa-themed gifts had to be Becca's idea, because I'm fairly certain I've never gotten a "serious" gift from Kevin in my life. But seriously, it was the PERFECT thing! Not only that, but they then took us out to the drive-in movie theater, where we watched the new Wolverine movie and then Star Trek. I haven't had that much fun in one night in a long time!! I'm so glad that we have Kev and Becca around. These two are just a riot (if you can't tell).
Saturday came and it was a great day. My old work buddies and good friends, Sheeba and Amanda, took me out the the fancy cupcake place and then to the Pita Pit for lunch. It was so good to hang out with them! For dinner Ben and I ate the chicken & sausage gumbo I had put in the crockpot the day before (and it was soooo good, I tell you what!). My old roommate, Alisha, stopped by after she got off of work and brought me some birthday presents: some play-doh, a coloring book, stickers, and some tasty almond kisses. :) Can't go wrong with chocolate!! It was a fabulous birthday. Thanks to everyone out there that wished me a happy birthday via phone/facebook/email! You made it even better! (This picture is Alisha wearing the silly dress-up stuff from my Kevin&Becca birthday basket o' fun, and playing with Malcom)
Last Saturday (the 20th) Ben got his annual free tickets from Melaleuca (where he works) to the Idaho Falls zoo. A bunch of his coworkers invited us to meet them at Olive Garden for lunch. It was a great time! Not to mention that Olive Garden is one of my most favoritest places on earth! Seriously. I could go just to eat the bread sticks and salad and be happy. After lunch we all
headed to the zoo. It was pretty much the same as it is every year- birds, squirrels, and a few mangy lions and tigers. The primate building was memorable however... As we had just gotten to the last exhibit it was apparently lunch time for the animals. The monkeys closest to the area where the zookeepers were preparing various fruits where making a ton of racket! I was standing there, next to the glass of some type of black, especially lanky-armed ape and absent-midedly looking behind me in the hungry monkeys direction.. when SMACK!! An ape, that had been loping around his area came full speed at the window, and hung there starring at me not more than 6 inches away. It gave me flashbacks to that movie Congo.. ? With the killer apes?! In any case, it scared the bejeezes out of me and everyone around me. I think there was a chorus of screaming children and females.. haha.. I've named the ape "Spawn of King Kong" with good reason. Cheeky monkey. I bet it does that multiple times a day, just waiting for a new victim to scare. I bet Ben would be good friends with that cheeky monkey, had Ben been born an Ape in the zoo.
After we got home from Idaho Falls, we headed out again to catch some frogs for a jungle terrarium Ben is building at his work (those of you who are familiar with his last project there that involved aquaponics, will remember the 55 gal. fish tank they used to keep tilapia in, next to the french teams...? Anyway, they ate most of the fish and now the tank has been transformed into a terrarium. Ben always has to have his experiments!). We took our savvy frog-hunter Sarah with us to the local golf course, where we searched the pond scum for life. Pictured left are the two frogs they found in their new home (it's a lot bigger than it looks).
If you're wondering what happened to the remaining tilapia, the ones that weren't large enough
to grill up yet, Ben brought them home in a wastebasket from work where they lived in our bathroom for a few days. This was an interesting experience. Why, you ask? Have you ever awoken at 4:00 in the morning to the sound of a flopping and flipping, slippery fish slapping your bathroom floor tiles in a desperate attempt to find the wastebasket it just hopped free of?? After a few moments of sleepy confusion, I'd remember about the fish and have to wake up Ben to put them back in the water. The conversation usually went like this:
Me: "Ben, the fish are out again"
Ben: *Muffled Grunt*
Me: "Benny, the fish *mumble mumble* again"
Ben: *Silence*
Me: "Beeeen. Fish!"
Ben: *Muffled grunt*
Me: "Ben! Wake up! I don't want dead stinking fish on our bathroom floor now get uuuup!"
(This is where I implement what I like to call "body nudging", which involves using every limb and occasionally your entire weight to"gently nudge" your spouse awake and out of bed. Always works and I am fast asleep by the time he gets back. :)
In case you were curious about where this fish ended up, you can rest soundly knowing they are living comfortably in an algae-covered, rustic bath tub in our friend Sarah's back yard. Originally, Ben planned on releasing them into the fish-less ponds in the campus gardens. This, however, would have required the cover of darkness, the honor code-induced curfew (for everyone else), and breaking a tiny law... or two.. The old bathtub may not be as nice an environment for our scaly friends, but at least we're keeping them on the straight and narrow, so to speak. (This is a picture of Ben emptying the wastebasket of fish into tub behind Sarah's house. You can't see the half-dozen or so fish, but you get the idea...)
Father' Day was great as well. Malcom and I did our best to spoil Ben rotten. We gave him a massage and made him "man food" (anything that gets cooked on a grill, this time referring to hamburgers). Ben works so hard I think every Sunday should be Father's Day. I'm so glad I married him, he;s the best friend I've ever had and I look up to him. He's only had three months of being a daddy so far, but he is magnificent at it. I think back to my single, pre-Ben self and remember hoping to marry someone as wonderful, but not thinking it was possible. I'm grateful for everything he is not only as my husband, but also for his fathering abilities. Not only will he love and discipline Malcom, but he'll also be able to show him how to kill make-believe zombie-nazi-pirate- dinosaurs. I can't wait for that!
Well I believe this post has been way too long and I have a unhappy baby I need to take care of. Love to all! And happy Dad's Day to all the father's out there!
As always:
Bizkit the Sleep Walking Dog
Crazy Rabid Pug
Saturday came and it was a great day. My old work buddies and good friends, Sheeba and Amanda, took me out the the fancy cupcake place and then to the Pita Pit for lunch. It was so good to hang out with them! For dinner Ben and I ate the chicken & sausage gumbo I had put in the crockpot the day before (and it was soooo good, I tell you what!). My old roommate, Alisha, stopped by after she got off of work and brought me some birthday presents: some play-doh, a coloring book, stickers, and some tasty almond kisses. :) Can't go wrong with chocolate!! It was a fabulous birthday. Thanks to everyone out there that wished me a happy birthday via phone/facebook/email! You made it even better! (This picture is Alisha wearing the silly dress-up stuff from my Kevin&Becca birthday basket o' fun, and playing with Malcom)Last Saturday (the 20th) Ben got his annual free tickets from Melaleuca (where he works) to the Idaho Falls zoo. A bunch of his coworkers invited us to meet them at Olive Garden for lunch. It was a great time! Not to mention that Olive Garden is one of my most favoritest places on earth! Seriously. I could go just to eat the bread sticks and salad and be happy. After lunch we all
headed to the zoo. It was pretty much the same as it is every year- birds, squirrels, and a few mangy lions and tigers. The primate building was memorable however... As we had just gotten to the last exhibit it was apparently lunch time for the animals. The monkeys closest to the area where the zookeepers were preparing various fruits where making a ton of racket! I was standing there, next to the glass of some type of black, especially lanky-armed ape and absent-midedly looking behind me in the hungry monkeys direction.. when SMACK!! An ape, that had been loping around his area came full speed at the window, and hung there starring at me not more than 6 inches away. It gave me flashbacks to that movie Congo.. ? With the killer apes?! In any case, it scared the bejeezes out of me and everyone around me. I think there was a chorus of screaming children and females.. haha.. I've named the ape "Spawn of King Kong" with good reason. Cheeky monkey. I bet it does that multiple times a day, just waiting for a new victim to scare. I bet Ben would be good friends with that cheeky monkey, had Ben been born an Ape in the zoo.
After we got home from Idaho Falls, we headed out again to catch some frogs for a jungle terrarium Ben is building at his work (those of you who are familiar with his last project there that involved aquaponics, will remember the 55 gal. fish tank they used to keep tilapia in, next to the french teams...? Anyway, they ate most of the fish and now the tank has been transformed into a terrarium. Ben always has to have his experiments!). We took our savvy frog-hunter Sarah with us to the local golf course, where we searched the pond scum for life. Pictured left are the two frogs they found in their new home (it's a lot bigger than it looks).If you're wondering what happened to the remaining tilapia, the ones that weren't large enough
to grill up yet, Ben brought them home in a wastebasket from work where they lived in our bathroom for a few days. This was an interesting experience. Why, you ask? Have you ever awoken at 4:00 in the morning to the sound of a flopping and flipping, slippery fish slapping your bathroom floor tiles in a desperate attempt to find the wastebasket it just hopped free of?? After a few moments of sleepy confusion, I'd remember about the fish and have to wake up Ben to put them back in the water. The conversation usually went like this:Me: "Ben, the fish are out again"
Ben: *Muffled Grunt*
Me: "Benny, the fish *mumble mumble* again"
Ben: *Silence*
Me: "Beeeen. Fish!"
Me: "Ben! Wake up! I don't want dead stinking fish on our bathroom floor now get uuuup!"
(This is where I implement what I like to call "body nudging", which involves using every limb and occasionally your entire weight to"gently nudge" your spouse awake and out of bed. Always works and I am fast asleep by the time he gets back. :)
In case you were curious about where this fish ended up, you can rest soundly knowing they are living comfortably in an algae-covered, rustic bath tub in our friend Sarah's back yard. Originally, Ben planned on releasing them into the fish-less ponds in the campus gardens. This, however, would have required the cover of darkness, the honor code-induced curfew (for everyone else), and breaking a tiny law... or two.. The old bathtub may not be as nice an environment for our scaly friends, but at least we're keeping them on the straight and narrow, so to speak. (This is a picture of Ben emptying the wastebasket of fish into tub behind Sarah's house. You can't see the half-dozen or so fish, but you get the idea...)Father' Day was great as well. Malcom and I did our best to spoil Ben rotten. We gave him a massage and made him "man food" (anything that gets cooked on a grill, this time referring to hamburgers). Ben works so hard I think every Sunday should be Father's Day. I'm so glad I married him, he;s the best friend I've ever had and I look up to him. He's only had three months of being a daddy so far, but he is magnificent at it. I think back to my single, pre-Ben self and remember hoping to marry someone as wonderful, but not thinking it was possible. I'm grateful for everything he is not only as my husband, but also for his fathering abilities. Not only will he love and discipline Malcom, but he'll also be able to show him how to kill make-believe zombie-nazi-pirate- dinosaurs. I can't wait for that!
Well I believe this post has been way too long and I have a unhappy baby I need to take care of. Love to all! And happy Dad's Day to all the father's out there!
As always:
Bizkit the Sleep Walking Dog
Crazy Rabid Pug
