I was reading Isabella a bedtime Mickey Mouse Clubhouse story tonight. She saw a picture similar to this one,
(source)
and said, “Look Mommy! Mickey has jazz hands!”
If you liked this, you might also like:
Annexed Revisited
Ah the good old days of breathing in mold and running away from crazy men on Scooters.
Today I returned to Southroads for an afternoon career fair our company was holding. I’m not gonna lie – I was really excited to go back. As dumpy and creepy as that mall can be, it will always hold a special place in my heart.
Beautiful isn’t it? Don’t you wish this was your home away from home?
Yeah I didn’t think so.
Nothing has changed there. Walking in the doors was like entering a time warp.
Albeit a blurry time warp (I took this pic kinda fast because there were people watching me and I felt silly).
I headed down the hallway, my mind set on where my first stop would be. On the way I noticed one new addition –
Apparently the Greater Omaha Bowling Association has added this museum. However it doesn’t appear to be open for business yet.
I continued on my way down the hall and the escalators that don’t work to my main destination – John’s Grecian Delight!
John was there frantically serving up gyros and burgers (it was actually pretty busy). The food was just as good as I remembered it – greasy and full of love!
I took it upstairs with me to eat in the “Food Court”. I had been in there no less than 5 minutes when who do I see but Scooter!! He was zipping through the room headed out the back to the creepy bathrooms. I tried to get a pic but wasn’t fast enough. I figured he’d be back through shortly so I kept eating my lunch. 10 minutes went by, then 15. Finally it got to be time for me to leave and Scooter hadn’t returned. He was either having a major bathroom moment or had escaped by way of the elevator. I decided to investigate.
I headed back there with the rouse that I was using the restrooms too, as if anyone was paying attention to me. I turned the corner and nearly walked right in to him. He was sitting on his scooter in the middle of the hallway. I said “hi” and then ducked in to the loo. I waited the appropriate amount of time and then came back out.
He was gone.
Damn!
I reversed my footsteps and went back through the cafeteria and out in to the mall. I saw him zooming away. I tried to get a decent pic but I was too far away. This was the best I could do.
He’s the green blob just behind the short brown wall. See the orange flag attached to the back of the scooter? Also, notice that he is looking right at me? Yeah, he turned around just as I was snapping this pic.
Or is that the Loch Ness monster?
From there it was time to head in to the office and get to work. But just in case you were wondering…
The t-shirt store is having an inventory reduction sale! Hurry before everything is gone!
Nothing too exciting today. No ceiling drips or fainting. Just another day at the Annex!
Master!
Finally. FINALLY!!
We have the curtains up in the master bedroom!
You may recall that they’ve been on backorder for 2 months! Well they arrived Friday and we hung them up on Monday!
I was worried at first that the dark color would be too much for the room. In our old house it would have made the bedroom look like a matchbox. But in this house, the room is big enough to handle it. And the cool pattern gives them some added interest.
Also, these are blackout curtains. Personally, light filtering into the room doesn’t bother me. But CJ is very sensitive to it and insisted we get light-blocking drapes. I actually bought 2 other sets and took them back before landing on these. The other ones were from Target and didn’t block the light at all. These are from JCPenney and do a great job.
Here’s what the room would look like at night if we didn’t have the curtains.
I kept the lamps on because otherwise I couldn’t get a good picture.
Here’s the room with the curtains closed.
I know from the photos they don’t look all that different, but trust me, they are.
We really love them both for how they finish off the room nicely and because they make sleeping that much easier. And really, anything that does that is a winner in my book!
In other news…
I mentioned a couple weeks ago about going on a flower potting expedition with some girls from work. I had left my pot at the garden center because the owner of the shop keeps them and fertilizes/waters/etc. to make sure the flowers get over the shock of being replanted.
Well I got it back yesterday and here it is!
I took a pretty little white strawberry pot and put Begonias around the side and a Batface Cuphea in the middle.
The Begonias are already starting to fill out and grow.
The Batface Cuphea is on its regeneration phase. In other words, most of the flowers fell off and a new batch is growing in!
They are called “batface” because some people think that the flowers look like little bat faces, with the top petals being the ears and the purple fuzzy inside being the face.
I put the pot outside near the back corner, so it can be seen from the back or side of the house. I put some hanging baskets next to it to create a pretty little grouping.
Ten bonus points if you can spot the sad faced Labrador who’s sick and tired of having to wear his leash every time he goes outside. Sorry buddy, 3 more weeks…
I think as the flowers grow and fill out, this will look really pretty.
I plan to do more planting this weekend, filling in the pots out front and adding some others to the back.
That’s all for now! Time to wrap it up for bed!
If you liked this, you might also like:
Opportunities
I decided last night that I need to get back to walking on Saturdays and Sundays. I used to do it every weekend at our old house. Samson and I would rise and shine around 7 a.m. and hit the pavement. We got out of the habit when we moved though.
Well, no time like the present to start again!
Only, Samson can’t go with me for a while since he’s still recovering. Guess I’ll just have to go it alone!
Or at least, that was the plan.
I set my alarm for 6:30, in order to get up and going before Isabella. She usually rises around 7. I got up, dressed and was heading toward the stairs when I heard her talking. I now had 3 choices: 1) sneak away and let her wake up CJ, 2) get her up and skip my walk, or 3) take her with me.
I was tempted to do #1. It would be the easiest. But Ceige is recovering from some bug and he needed the extra sleep. Skipping the walk wasn’t an option as I need to increase my exercise. So, that left #3.
It turned out to be a great opportunity for some lovely mother/daughter time (and is another notch in my belt for wife of the year!).
I got the little one up, changed her diaper and tucked her in the stroller, along with some juice and a Scooby Doo Coloring Book (she’s really in to Scooby right now).
Instead of walking around our neighborhood, we wandered to the one behind us. I had never really explored that one before.
Look what we found around one bend.
A lake so quiet and smooth that it looked like a mirror.
Isabella took a break from reading Scooby to give me a big smile!
There was a walking trail around the lake so we hopped on it. The weather was perfect – warm (but not hot), no wind and very quiet.
Ah.
We walked down to the end and then came back down the other side.
This is the tree that you can see in the background of the first 2 pics.
Then we came upon a big grouping of bird feeders.
I don’t know if these are owned by the people in that house or if they’re part of the neighborhood. It’s a cool idea, though I wouldn’t want to live near them. Could get loud and messy as every one of them had a bird in it.
We also discovered this on our way out of the neighborhood.
Some sort of bridge. Not sure if it serves any purpose. You can’t walk across it. Kinda cool looking though.
There were lots of cool houses too, but I didn’t take pictures of those, you know, for the privacy of the owners.
We came home to some beautiful flowers outside our own house!
I just love this time of year!
We went inside and I made Isabella the cinnamon biscuits that I promised her last night. I made some caramel ones too.
They turned out yumm-o!
I’m so happy that I embraced the opportunity to share some special time with my sweet girl this morning. It’s those moments that are the ones we’ll remember forever.
If you liked this, you might also like:
From the Mouths of Babes–A Conversation
I put Isabella down to bed tonight and about 45 minutes later I hear her at the top of the stairs. I run to go check on her. The following is the conversation we had when I got upstairs.
- ME: What are you doing sweetheart?
- ISABELLA: I want to tell you that I’m not going to sleep tomorrow night.
- ME: You’re not going to sleep tomorrow night?
- I: No I’m not.
- ME: Well ok. I guess you better get good sleep tonight then!
- [Isabella runs down the hall to her room]
- I: I was looking EVERYWHERE for you mommy!
- ME: I was downstairs sweetheart.
- I: What were you doing?
- ME: Painting my toenails and watching TV. Remember how you helped me pick out some pretty pink nail polish? Now I’m putting it on.
- I: Can I see?
- ME: I don’t have the color on yet. You can see tomorrow.
- I: Tomorrow I will look and there will be pink all over!
- ME: Yes, something like that…but you have to go to sleep first. And if you go to sleep right away, I’ll make a special surprise for breakfast.
- I: [gasps] What is it?
- ME: You’ll find out in the morning.
- I: But what’s the surprise?
- ME: I’ll make you cinnamon biscuits.
- I: [gasps again and whispers] Cinnamon biscuits!
- ME: But you have to go to sleep right now!
- I: I want to kiss your nose first!
- ME: Ok [leans down toward her. She grabs the side of my face and pulls me close, kissing my nose]
Some of you may think I’m taking poetic license when I type up her sayings – you know, filling in all the prepositions and other words to make a complete sentence.
I don’t.
I type it exactly how she says it. She really does talk that way.
Better go make sure I have everything I need for cinnamon biscuits!
If you liked this, you might also like:
From the Mouths of Babes – Bedtime Edition | From the Mouths of Babes | From the Mouths of Babes
Team Trader Mom 