Facebook Friday

I feel incredibly guilty about not having any real blog posts in a number of weeks now. Every time I sit down and think, "I'm going to blog today!", I remember how all my photos and videos are still sitting on my camera. And then how I'd have to upload them to the internet. And then link them and organize them on a post. And then type my typical book to go along with all of them. And I just .... ugh. I'm not up to it yet. I HOPE I will get around to blogging *something*, at least, very soon. But for now, you'll have to settle for this week's edition of Facebook Friday.

Saturday, April 25
9:38am
Becky was woken up much too early for a Saturday morning. By *Alex*, of all people- the one who usually sleeps latest, and the one who needs supervision. Whatever happened to sleeping in??

11:12am
Becky is taking the kids to swim class again. Alex is napping, and Jesse's staying home with him. Avoiding the situation of an over-tired screaming baby at all costs, today.

8:32pm
Becky is cracking up - Just overheard Jesse singing "More Than a Woman" to the kids for bedtime. What a goof!

Sunday, April 26
1:47pm
Becky is wearing shorts for the first time this year, and avoiding turning the A/C on. It's so hot outside- 89 degrees!!

Monday, April 27
11:04am
Becky is shaking like a leaf, but conquered one of her most major fears: A wasp in the house. 1st try resulted in me cowering on the floor, crying in anticipated fear. 2nd try, wasp got out of bucket/paper lid trap, and I ran out of the room screaming/slammed the door behind me. 3rd attempt, got the water sprayer out, and saturated the dang thing until it could hardly even crawl. Smashed it. Success!! But shaking still!!

4:40pm
Becky is melting. Turned on the A/C earlier to get it back down to 79 inside... Resisting temptation to turn it on again at the current temp of 82 is not going to last long, once I turn the oven on for dinner.

Tuesday, April 28
8:55am
Becky totally called the "twist" in last night's episode of Castle, a good 15-20 minutes before it even crossed the characters' minds. Yay me! I'm getting good at this crime show thing!

4:00pm
Becky can't find her swimsuit anywhere. But in my efforts to check every nook and cranny of my bedroom, it's now the cleanest and most organized it's been since we moved in 8 months ago.

6:39pm
Becky knew that the Baltimore area was plagued with water main breaks, but this one tops them all!! Busy downtown streets turned to rivers, tons of businesses closed. Insane.
http://www.wbaltv.com/video/19312007/index.html

9:05pm
Becky is voting for Adam Lambert. He amazes me *every* week!

11:03pm
Becky is soooooo thankful for the lovely mild breeze blowing in through the windows right now. Feels absolutely heavenly.

Wednesday, April 29
10:17am
Becky is thinking it's probably time to re-think my aversion to breakfast foods.
http://www.naturallyknockedup.com/2009/01/what-is-cereal-good-for.html

3:30pm
Becky's wedding anniversary is today! Thinking about what a pleasant 9 years it's been, even if we're not where we thought/hoped we'd be by now. ♥

6:56pm
Becky thinks Jacob is pretty cute when he gets super enthusiastic about eating "wacky tails", which is the name he came up with for asparagus all on his own. And then repeats "I like wacky tails!" about 20 or 30 times throughout dinner as he snarfs down as many as possible. ♥

10:16pm
Becky stood in line for 45 minutes for 31 cent/scoop ice cream at Baskin Robbins, but it was SO WORTH IT.

Thursday, April 30
12:47pm
Becky helped a friend pack for her move to Texas this morning. Now back home and scrounging up lunch for the kids and working on naptime for Alex.

8:53pm
Posting from an ipod at the mall. so cool!

12:00am
Becky had such a great time going out on a date with her husband. It's been too long, but it was a lot of fun. We got the entire outdoor patio at Cheesecake Factory to ourselves - everyone else was apparently more willing to deal with a long line than a chance of rain (which never happened). Good food, fun conversation, and window shopping afterward. ♥

Friday, May 1
9:30am
Becky wishes all her children slept in until 9am like Jacob does. Takes after his mommy- so not a morning person.

1:41pm
Becky thinks Maryland is absolutely gorgeous in springtime. So many various blossoms, and so abundant...

10:27pm
Becky had a long but fun evening, one-on-one with Jacob at the Mother-Son Fiesta. He enjoyed himself. Right up till the end when a bigger kid broke the pinata before he ever got a chance to whack it. Oh, how we waited for his turn eagerly, only for that disappointment. He was, however, happy about the candy he was able to gather.

Facebook Friday

My friend Jenni just made up this new meme.... At least, it's her own idea, whether or not it exists out there on the 'net in some form or another. And I love it so much that I'm going to participate.

The idea is to share a synopsis of the week through the little mini-updates I've posted all week on Facebook. A lot of you don't follow me on Facebook, and I haven't been in the best frame of mind to deal with big long posts on my blog, so this is perfect! You can catch a little glimpse of what's been going on with me for the past week. :)

I'm going to start from last Friday. Feel free to join in, if you use Facebook, too!

Friday, April 17
1:03pm
Becky had two nights in a row with some major insomnia issues. Wonders if the kids would let her get away with a nap on such a gorgeous, sunny day. Hmmm. Not too likely.

6:58pm
Becky finally got a new hand-blender, and has been mixing up full meals for Alex to enjoy with us now that he's 1 year. He really loved blended-up Rachel's Pasta tonight, saying "aaaaaaahh" after every bite, asking for more!

Saturday, April 18
12:25pm
Becky got back from the kids' swim class and is getting some lunch ready. More sun today, in the 70's.... perfect Saturday, yay!

1:33pm
Becky is taking the family out to the NCR trail.

Sunday, April 19
5:30pm
Becky just woke up from a lovely, uninterrupted nap.

Monday, April 20
10:12am
Becky is listening to Karen Carpenter's "Rainy Days and Mondays"... But truly, this rainy Monday isn't affecting me as much as they usually do. I was just in the mood for the song. ;)

10:41am
Becky is doing ShrinkyDinks with the kids.

4:22pm
Becky is thinking about what to do if Jesse's car is declared totaled from the recent minor accident. Buy a cheap used car? Buy a much-needed recent-model van despite good job security? Go back to the life of single car living?? Get him a bike for work? Ugh. Not a happy thought process overall. Don't like being forced into these decisions.

Tuesday, April 21
11:15am
Becky needs to grocery shop but is once again having a hard time thinking up a meal plan for the coming week.

4:11pm
Becky just *loves* already-exhausting grocery trips when every potty-trained child just HAS to go potty at the most inopportune time. Sigh. At least it's over for another week!

10:47pm
Becky should probably go to bed now... but where's the fun in that?

Wednesday, April 22
12:19pm
Becky paid her library fine today. It was even worse than I thought. $.20 per book (NOT $.10), 26 books, 4 days overdue: $20.80. VERY expensive forgetfulness. I could kick myself a very long time over that....

8:26pm
Becky can't believe her husband never read Sideways Stories of Wayside School as a child!! Got a few giggles out of Melinda at bedtime while I was reading it, though! :)

Thursday, April 23
3:09pm
Becky wishes it were Friday. I'm beat.

5:09pm
Becky and the fam are walking down to try the new South American Grill instead of cooking dinner tonight. Yay for Brazilian food right down the street!
Update:
Well dang, it was oddly closed during their advertised business hours. No info available at their phone number, but I left a message at their email. I was very excited to eat there tonight, too.

Since we walked all the way down there, we decided to try a little Mexican/Salvadorian grill that we hadn't ever noticed. Looks like it was family run, food was authentic and very tasty. Loved it. If I had to settle for something after getting my hopes up for Brazilian, this was the thing to "settle" for. :)

Friday, April 24
2:13pm
Becky can't get Alex to take a nap at his regular time on the one day this week that it actually matters.
(Had to cancel plans with friends on this beautiful sunny day, since he took his nap SO much later than normal. This was the one thing I planned all week that depended on his nap happening normally. Not cool.)

4:47pm
Joy. Jesse's car has been officially totaled. For $600 in parts and $2000 estimated labor, just some dented body work and a busted headlight, and they're taking our car away. They're giving him a very "generous" $1400. Like that'll get us even close to a reliable a replacement. Looking at options. Ugh.

The Circus

I had known about the circus being in town for a little while, but I was having a hard time deciding whether we should go or not.  The best time would be to go on April 1st... My little sister Kaija would be here to enjoy it with us, but the biggest problem was that it wasn't scheduled to even start until the time that we normally put the kids to bed.  And April 1st was also Alex's birthday, so it would be an active day.  I wavered back and forth about it a lot, almost purchasing tickets two separate times before I talked myself out of it.  Jesse wasn't a lot of help in deciding - he recognized the same drawbacks as I did, and also hesitated to put the whole family in downtown Baltimore in the late evening.  But in the end, I decided it would be fun, even if the timing would be tricky.  So, off to the circus we went, after rushing out the door after Alex's birthday celebrations.

We arrived just as things were getting started, and an usher lead us to our seats.  We were on the highest open level, on the back row against the wall, but it still seemed like fairly decent seats to me.  We could see most everything easily ... the exception being high-rise stuff that was sometimes blocked by the basketball hoops.  Melinda, Jacob and Alex (and the grownups, too, I think!) were all instantly mesmerized by everything going on.  A whole song-and-dance routine, with clowns by the dozen, dressed up girls, prades of animals... what a sight!!

In this first picture, sort of front-and-center is a guy on GIANT stilts.  I was absolutely amazed by him.  He was hopping around, dancing, and later on even did a limbo sort of move, putting his body completely horizontal to the ground, backwards.  I can't imagine how he didn't ever fall over!!

Just more busy activity in the grand opening of the circus!  It was hard to watch everything happening - there was so much going on at the same time!

The kids' reactions:  Melinda is drop-jawed, and Alex is more wide-eyed than I usually see him when he's excited about something he sees.

Jacob was grinning and pointing to things quite a lot.  (Can you believe he told us after the circus was over that he didn't like it?  He was having a grand ol' time!  But it was all because we wouldn't buy him a "glowy sword" that he saw among all the souveniers available.  He had a bit of a fit about that... but who can blame him, after all the sights and sounds, and then being up at such a later hour after an already busy day!)

Nearing the close of the grand opening, a parade of elephants, among other things.

There were so many fun things to see.  I couldn't take pictures of even half of them.  One thing I wish I had taken a picture of was a man who did monkey bar rings way up at the ceiling, upside down, with his feet.  Near the end of his routine, he flung himself, still with his feet, towards the horizontal bar/swing at the end of the rings.  No net under him.  He caught himself, but it was amazing and tense!

There were some lovely more quiet routines - one segment including a few strong men who were balancing themselves acrobatically on each other, all while another girl across the floor was balancing on her head on top of tall poles stacked on top of more tall poles, all while yet another girl was doing an amazing floor-to-ceiling length, twist-herself-in-ribbon dance.  I wish they would have been one at a time - I felt like I was missing something from one of the other two every time I focused on just one!

There was also a segment with girls "dancing" on rings while another couple of people did a ribbon-dance.  This one was amazing.  The ribbon people would wrap themselves up in the ribbon just right so that they would let go, then roll speedily towards the ground from all the way at the top, only to stop suddenly at the bottom.  I can't imagine what must have gone through the head of the person who invented that sort of routine... how they figured out in the first place that wrapping yourself just so would make you roll dramatically but stop just in the nick of time, you know?

During intermission, we grabbed a couple clown-head mugs with snow cones inside.  Jesse had to run Jacob down to use the potty, but the rest of us stayed up.  (Melinda suddenly figured out she had to go halfway through the second half.  That was sad, we had to miss things!!)  Alex liked getting tastes of the snow cone, as his blue tongue will testify.

And look!  I really was at the circus, too!  Photographic proof!

Of course, there was a cage full of tigers, which was neat to see, especially since tigers are one of my absolute favorite animals, but I can't say that I was particular amazed by the routine.  It seemed like they were just being guided from one side of the cage to another.  Cartoons make it more fun, with tigers jumping through hoops and everything, but I suppose just the fact that a single man surrounded by many tigers - who could "turn" at any moment - is amazing in itself.

There was also a fun little elephant routine.  They did a lot more interesting things when I wasn't taking pictures.  Melinda was particularly upset that I didn't get a picture of the elephant that did a "hand"stand, using its trunk curled up on the ground as an extra balance point.

 

 

There were some not-so-interesting things, like a bunch of white ponies that were cute, but basically just ran in a tight circle for what felt like 10 minutes.  They switched directions like a flock of birds... but I've seen horses run before.  The most interesting thing about them was when they were lined up tallest to smallest, the smallest looking like a large dog.

There were also some guys who were hopping all around on giant tire-shaped bouncy balls.  They did some pretty impressive tricks.  One guy's ball popped partway through the routine!  He didn't get hurt, thank goodness, and it didn't seem to impact the routine, either.

But then there were also thinks like trapeze artists (yay!), motorcycles driving on a high-wire with a girl balanced underneath, and of course, the motorcycles in a steel cage.  THAT was cool.  Excuse the shaky video... I was zoomed in as far as my camera could go, and of course tiny movements like Alex bumping me make a big shake on the screen.  ;)


After the circus, we headed back to the car.  That's when Jacob had his melt-down about not getting a "glowy sword", and Melinda was upset that I wouldn't buy her something or other (I think it might have been a stuffed horse).  They were T-I-R-E-D.  Jacob insisted he didn't like it.  Even the next day and the next.  It wasn't until after Kaija went home that he admitted to liking the circus, and asking to go again.   And of course, parking was in a garage, so there was a super-fun line to get out.  But once we did get out, we were home free.  Got home at almost 10:30pm.  Yikes!!  But what a night.  It's not often you get to see a circus.  I know the last time I saw one, it was with my grandparents back in Tacoma, Washington.  I can't have been older than 8.  I'm glad we went, after all- it was a fun time.  Kaija sure seemed to enjoy it, too!  (We miss you, Kaija!)

I asked Melinda and Jacob what their favorite parts of the circus were.  Jacob said something like "the ladies going on the string down to the square"... which might have referred to the ribbon dancers.  Melinda said "the girls with the pink scarves", which againis probably the ribbon dancers.  Though not all of them were girls, as far as I could tell from our distance.  ;)

A few people have mentioned how I haven't blogged in a while.  Sorry about that... we're still here, life still goes on, I just haven't been in a blogging mood, and I haven't been managing my free time well this week.  I'll be busy the next few days, but after that I'll try to get all caught up and everything.  Hopefully.  ;)