Eclipse at Midnight

It is entirely possible that my sisters and I kinda like Twilight. Which of course meant that we had to see Eclipse last night/this morning. (We did not, however, dress up or window paint the car or do any of those other crazy things). My good friend Erin also came with us :) Here's the story:


Waiting in line to get into the theatre. We were NOT there at 9am, unlike some of the people waiting to see it in IMAX. Crazy, right?


We were pretty excited once we got into the theatre. That died down after about 20 minutes or waiting, when we realized that we still had another hour and a half of waiting to do.


About 5 minutes after that last picture, Erin and I had gone a little crazy. Here we are pretending to be vampires. Because we are cool.

Adventures in Target

Because various skincare items were needed, so Soph and I adventured over to Target this afternoon and had an adventure. We found some pretty sweet stuff, too. For example, a tamagotchi.


When was the last time anyone saw one of those?!! We also discovered a whack-a-mole game, which Soph really enjoyed.


You can tell she liked it by the way she's viciously assaulting the poor guys in this picture. lol. We also found a pretty awesome cowboy hat, which I kinda liked.


And, to round things off, we also got a picture of these lovely fluffy clouds on our way home:


They put me in the mood for cotton candy. Sadly, I have no idea where to get any other than at an amusement park.

New Roses

Ok, I know I JUST posted about the Sweetness Rose, but this is really exciting for me. More of the roses have started blooming, and they looked lovely this morning with the rain drops clinging to them after last night/this morning's showers.


I thought this one was particularly lovely. I like the softness of the pinkwhite color, but I also think this fiery orange is really pretty:


I don't remember which types these two are, but I'll look it up and post them sometime in the next couple of days.

Laundryland

Today is an exciting day. For the first time in four years, Jon's parents are visiting him in Wisconsin! Of course, that meant that he had to clean his apartment and do dishes and wash his clothes and do all of those things that you want your mom to think you're doing while she's gone. Which meant that a good chunk of our morning today was spent looking at this:


Exciting, right? It did give us time to play some Magic though, so that was cool. And the apartment did get fairly clean and organized before everyone got there, so mission accomplished on that one :) Now he just has to figure out what they can do while he's at work. Tomorrow, though, we're going to show them around Madison. Lunch with my family at home, and then walking around downtown. (Ice cream at the Union maybe??? I hope so!)

More African Mammals

You've seen my hippos, and I just posted about the giraffes at the zoo last week. So now it's time for elephants!


Apparently, when I was very small, one of my uncles gave me these. Soph has a little one, too (but this was way before Bren). I didn't actually know about them for a long time, but we found them when we were unpacking some boxes several years ago. Since then, they've graced the top of my jewelry box and added to my little collection of creatures :)

Roses!

Remember way back to my Weekend update post about Dad's rose bushes? We got our first blossom last night! A very exciting affair :) Mom found a cute little vase for it this morning:


Isn't it pretty? Looking at it straight on, you can hardly even see the vase, the bloom is so big!


This particular rose is a Sweetness Rose, and smells incredibly wonderful. I can't wait for more blooms :)

Silly sisters shopping

Yesterday, the weather finally seemed to get a little nicer, so my sisters and I went to the mall. We were going completely stir crazy after having been stuck at home during the storms. Of course, we don't really go to the mall to shop. We kind of just try on whatever weird things we find and then take pictures of them

Example: my sisters found some floppy hats at Gap


Sometime we try on cute accessories, too. Like this headband that B found at Francesca's:


Stay tuned- once prom season hits we'll be find some interesting dresses, too! lol

Thunderstorms

We have had a TON of storms the last few days. Not to make excuses for my lack of updates, but it's meant a lot of internet outages. Monday and Tuesday pretty much both looked like this:


The only reason there's any light at all in that picture is because there was so much lightening. Since Tuesday was basically a repeat of Monday, I didn't take a picture. Instead, I drew a happy flamingo enjoying the sunshine wherever it is that flamingoes live. Because another storm picture would be depressing.


Yay flamingo!

Father's Day

To celebrate Father's Day yesterday, my family met some of our relatives for brunch, went to a rose show at Olbrich Gardens, and then met some more relatives for dinner. All in all, it was pretty fun, and we had a lot of family time.


The picture, of course, is from the rose show. I had wanted to get a picture of the whole room, but I didn't want to disturb everyone else while they browsed. This particular rose, as you can see from the bit of red ribbon in the corner, won second place in one of the competitions (the aptly named, "Rose in a Bowl" from one of their challenge classes).

Vanity Plates

I think vanity plates are ridiculous. Seriously. I once had a friend whose mother drove a Jag, and the license plate said something like "purrrfect." Dumbest thing ever. Just saying. So imagine the fun Soph and I had when we saw this driving home today:


We first ran into it at a stoplight, where we spent a couple minutes debating whether it was a reference to Harry Potter or Neo. Then, as the light turned green and they started to drive away, we decided that it should be the picture of the day, and tailed them for awhile trying to get a clear picture. Lucky for us, they were going in the same direction and we hit another red light :)

Most Wonderful Cookies EVER

When I was little, my great grandma would make these cookies. They were my favorite then, and are still my favorite now. They're also a big hit with most of my friends. So, since I'm going to visit Ben and Jon in their new apartment, I'm making a batch to take up for them. Here's the process, from dough to cookie:


The dough is supposed to be chilled, so it's easiest to make the dough the day before and stick it in the fridge over night.


Once you roll out the dough balls, you roll them in sugar.


The final product! The recipe should make ~3 dozen, unless you have a family like mine, where we eat a ton of the dough before it has a chance to be made into cookies.

Here's the recipe:
Mix
3/4 cup of butter
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup of molasses

Add
2 cups flour
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. salt

Mix well and chill. Form into small balls, then roll them in sugar and place on a cookie sheet. Do not press down.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Do not over bake.

Early Zoo Post

My sisters and I went to the zoo today, and ended up taking over 100 pictures while we were there. We got pretty excited. So here are some of the cool things we found:


An orangutan handprint. Apparently, they have really huge, stretched out hands.


One of my favorite pictures from today. I absolutely love the giraffes. They're my favorite animal to see at the zoo.


My favorite picture of me at the zoo, of course, also features one of the giraffes. And the back of my head. I wasn't overly photogenic today.

Bonus video, because some of the animals were being cute and I remembered I could record them.

Golden-wrapped candy of happiness

Yesterday, I made a short trip to the grocery store with Mom and the sisters. While we were there, I decided that I needed some rollos. There were no rollos in the entire grocery store. Ok, we have have to stop at Kwik Trip, too. I'll get rollos there. Kwik Trip was also devoid of rollos. Whiskey tango foxtrot?!! How can both the grocery store AND the gas station be out of rollos? Fortunately, B had a stash in her room. Which I promptly stole when I got home.


My very delicious, gold-wrapped candies of happiness. How exciting it was to finally have some.

Pink Poodle

Yesterday was rainy and gross, yet again. My youngest sister, B, got to go to an indoor waterpark while Sophie and I entertained ourselves. We ended up at the Pink Poodle, a local consignment store. Some of the things we kind of cool, but mostly we just found weird stuff. Like these strange fish shoes:


Yeah. Cool stuff, right? When the shoe moves, it looks like the fish move. Another great find? The Ruby red hooker heels. Which, for right now, aren't uploading correctly. So perhaps you can see them later.

Edit:
It finally looks like I can post the ruby red hooker heels, so here they are in all their sparkly red glory:


Alternatively, they'd probably also work well in some type of Rocky Horror Picture Show-inspired costume.

Lazylazyboredbored

Icky weather yesterday. We spent most of it lounging around and being lazy while we continued the Unit-athon. Sophie has decided that she's in charge of it. You can tell by the way she gets the big comfy chair and hogs the remotes:


I think the only time we even left the house was to go see Robin Hood. It wasn't as good the second time- too long and not enough action to keep you entertained if you already know what's coming. It was still ok, though. I'd definitely recommend seeing it if you haven't already.

Road trip!

It's close enough to tomorrow to post today's pictures. Also because it's 11:10pm and I don't feel like going to bed. Today, Jon, Soph, and I went on an epic road trip! We had to move Jon back to campus before he moves into his apartment tomorrow. Of course, there are some things a road trip cannot be without:

-Physical abuse (yellow one! ouch! black one! ow! green one! stop hitting me!)
-Music
-Stupid jokes (pee!)
-Funyuns
-Delicious beverages


-Spotting wildlife (we saw a live raccoon, a deer, lots of cows, some horses, and Max, our local crane/heron/wetland bird)


We were also lucky enough to have dinner with our good friend Ben, at a very classy establishment :)

We're going to have to work on this...

This is why there are very few pictures of Jon and I together:


Indeed, we're very happy looking. But we're also missing most of our bodies and heads. Eventually we kinda got the hang of it:


I guess we need more practice or something? I also just discovered that my camera has settings for different types of pictures, self portraits and a two person self portrait included. Something to look into for next time, I suppose.

The Family Pet(Peeve)

Behold, the most ridiculous dog on the planet!


This is the family pet, Trooper. His hobbies include barking at squirrels, birds, and the neighboring dog, being allergic to everything, and napping in strange places (like near the bathtub). For all of his annoying habits and health issues though, we still love him (most of the time). How could you not? He's just too cute :)

Also, as a bonus, here's a picture of me in the Ridiculous Hat of Ridiculousness, which I found at a local JC Penny's (in case anyone is interested in purchasing one)

Thursday

Thursday saw an epic adventure to the mall! I was joined by my faithful sisters/sidekicks and Jon! We had ridiculous amounts of fun at the mall arcade, where Jon kicked my butt at air hockey. It didn't help that I scored 3 goals on myself. Afterwards, my middle sister, S, and I got new super belly rings!


Sophie is channeling the awesome powers of Spiderman, but hasn't yet gotten the hang of swinging from a web. I, on the other hand, opted for Batman:


nanananananananananaBAT-RING!

A Week of Updates

Ok, so I'm really behind. Sorry. Moving out of the dorms and back home and keeping Jon entertained while he stays here for a few days has been keeping me kinda busy. But now we've started a Unit-athon, which is giving me some time to sit down and update.

Thursday
Almost the last day of school. Just one presentation left, and then we get to stuff all of mine and Jon's things into the car. Which will not be pleasant. Anyway, at dinner, my friend Netty found the world's largest banana. He was very excited.


And then he peeled it, and it broke because it was too heavy or something. He was much less excited.

Friday
Last day of interim AND class got out almost an hour early. Thank god. I don't think I could have stood another 20 minutes even. I was pulling my hair out. So while I waited to meet my friends for lunch, I finished up my packing and piled everything on the extra bed.


Yeah. Like I said, we would have to stuff the car. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of that mess.

Saturday
Unfortunately, there was no sleeping in on the first day of summer break. Instead, everyone was up early so we could go to Chicago. Sunday was the Lincoln Park Zoo run, so we were staying at some relative's the night before. It was extra fun because of the reason for leaving so early:


My little cousins had a t-ball game. It was really cute. There was even a cheering section!


:)

Sunday
Sunday we were up early again for the run. Mom and I ran the 5K, Dad ran the 10K, Uncle Joe watched, and everyone else slept. Well, the twins were probably bouncing all over the house with Aunt Pat. Once we got back, we went adventuring to a nice outdoor/ open air mall type thing, where Jon found some koi.


They were pretty cool. Kind of creepy though because they were so big and fish are weird. Also pretty with all of the bright colors.

Monday
Sophie had a Happy Meal for lunch. She spent the rest of the day creeping on everyone with her new friend.


He has quite the unique laugh...

Wednesday
No Tuesday post, since most of Tuesday was spent doing this:


He's trying to sell his Magic cards, so we've been sorting through them and organizing stuff. It's been ridiculous, but I think we're basically done now. Which is pretty much awesome, since I don't think I can keep staring at cards all day.

Now that I'm kind of back on track and a little more organized, I'll work on updating more regularly again :)

Scrapbook Update

I finished putting all of the pictures, ticket stubs, and assorted other things in the book, so now I just have to find some little sticker letters to add captions. I'm really liking the way it's turning out, although the pictures may be overstuffing the little book a bit :P


Here's a sample of what I've done so far (one of my favorite pages- I loved the dino skeletons)

Tuesday

Lately, it's been ridiculously hot on campus. That would be ok if the dorms had AC, or even if the buildings that do have AC would stay open past 7pm. Sadly, it's interim and nothing is ever open. Fortunately, in a moment of brilliance last night, I recalled that they had just installed AC in the main lounge of one of the bigger dorms. Even better, it had a TV and cable, so we could watch Glee!

Hugely wonderful AC unit:


Big shiny TV:


Extra bonus: some of the CA's in the building like Glee too, so they were having a Glee party and we got free snacks :)

Monday

Monday I started work on a small scrapbook type thing of my spring break trip to new York. One of the problems I had with making it though, was what to do with the buttons we got when we visited the Met. We didn't get normal tickets- just a clip to go on a shirt so they knew you had paid. They weren't flat, so I didn't know what to do with them. Finally I decided to attach them to the front of the book to make the cover more interesting.


I think it turned out fairly well :)