Gabby's band marched in the Hog Fest parade today in a small town about 40 minutes north of us. This was one of the "entries" in parade.
Don't you think it's - CREEPY! He looks like something out of a horror film.
Along with the "creepy" entry, were about 20 entries of beauty queens and the runners up. And then comes the tractors. Us crazy folks in the midwest have tractors in EVERY parade. Some of them are VERY old and are not used on a working farm but folks keep them just for the parade. So today's parade had 35 tracters in it. NOT kidding! Here is a picture of what I thought was the last one, but had others randomly behind these.
The first picture is what we call the tractor brigade. It looked endless and pretty much was!! We were laughing at all the tractors and queens in the parade. They even had a "You can do it" queen. WHAT?!
Finally, our band cruised through.
And here is our Gabby. She would not crack a smile, even though we yelled and yelled!
I know you have been waiting with baited breath. What did she decide? What phone was it? Which did she choose? It had to be the voyager or was it the glyde? Well, girls, it was neither.
And the winner is.......the Motorola Moto Q9C. It had everything that I wanted AND was made well. I am waiting for it to be delivered. It was cheaper for me to order it through the verizon wireless website than it was for me to pick it up at the store. Not a bad phone for under $60 AND I can go online if I want to on a pay as you use option. Odds are, I won't use it anyway.
Gabby is getting her new phone today. She decided on the Voyager (she got to pay for it too as she did not want one of the free phones - guess they weren't good enough) and it was to be delivered yesterday. I stayed home all day waiting for it to be delivered and knowing that she would love for it to be working when she got home from volleyball practice. My hubs got home and I headed out to Abby's double header in a town about 40 minutes away. Hubs went to get Gab's from practice and guess who tryied to deliver in the 15 minutes that no one was home? You got it - Fedex. Do they have a sixth sense? How do they know to deliver at 6pm when you won't be home on a Friday night?! So......I'll be heading over to the Fedex facility about 10 minutes away to pick it up today. She spent the night with a friend so I'll go pick it up before I pick her up. She has a parade today so she has to be back at school by noon.
We have also decided on our next vacation. For the last year we have been trying to decide where to go. We don't do vacations every year because we just can't get away every year. So we go about every two or three years. Yes, this is a LONG time between vacations but when we do go, we usually spend a lot of money and we just could not do that EVERY year. Would we go to the Dominican Republic (we heard this was a great place to vacation), a cruise, Maui, or just head down to Sanibel Island in Florida, maybe even Disney one last time? We have been trying to decide for the last 9 months. Our only time to get away and not interfere with school and sports activities is during Christmas break. This is frustrating for me because I would just love to head out during the summer and go some place fun in the summer. The hubs says, no, the girls have committed to these activities and they aren't going to miss.
So, being the submissive wife that I am, uuuuummmmmmmmmm
---clear throat here-----
OK, so I need work in that area.
We have decided to go to ........
...........
Hey, if it is good enough for the Super Bowl Champs, who are we to judge? We just must have REALLY good taste! This will be the girls 2nd time. I know they will enjoy it more this time as they are 7 years older. It was the only vacation that we looked at that fit into the budget. I am hoping that before we head home, we will be able to spend a few days at the beach. I know it will probably be too cold to actually get in but the girls would love to see the beach. Gabby was just a baby when we were last at the Pacific ocean and Abby has never sent it. We have a full two weeks if we want to stay down there longer. One week at Disney and the rest of the time will be free for whatever we wanna do. I don't think we will try to get into the park on Christmas day (this may be a great day to hit the beach).
I am so glad that all the major life decisions have been made for this year. That really takes a load off my mind! Now I can sit and think of all the random thoughts that roll through my empty brain ;}
I am so excited! It is time for me to get a new cell phone :} I am sure that folks around me will be glad to hear that I will be deciding on a new phone TODAY!!! I have been asking everyone what phone they have and if they like it or not. Right now I have a Palm Treo. It is fine but I don't use all the capabilities and I usually don't get on the internet with it because it is SO slow. My only stipulation with my new phone is that it has a QWERTY keyboard (because I am so into texting you know) and a calendar that I can sync and print. The calendar is huge because I live my life out of my car and I need to know what is going on to keep me and my girls on time. Here are the phone I am looking at:
I have no idea what I will choose but all of these have what I am looking for and I don't have to sign up for a data plan that costs extra. What a waste of money when I won't use it!!
I am excited to say that I already have dinner underway (never to early to start dinner right?!) I have a turkey breast in the crockpot, will make some real mashed potatoes tonight, applesauce and have whipped up some pumpkin fluff. Love the pumpkin fluff!! This is a weight watchers recipe (did you just turn your nose up?!) I saw it, you did!!! Well, this is a really yummy recipe if you like pumpkin pie. Julie's boys love it and even ask if she will make it for them! How is that for being the cool aunt that makes something even her nephews will eat?! Guess that is not much of a plug as I have yet to see them eat something that they don't like. Anyway, I thought you would enjoy the recipe.
Pumpkin Fluff
15 oz canned pumpkin 1C skim milk 1 small box sugar free instant vanilla pudding 8 oz cool whip free (I use generic fat free if your stores have it) 1t pumpkin pie spice
Mix it all together and refrigerate.
If you count weight watcher points, it says this will serve 4-6. I have found that it feeds 8-12. So, I count it as 1 point because there is no way I could sit and eat 1/4 or 1/6 of it at one time! If you follow what the recipe says 4 servings = 3 points and 6 servings = 2 points.
Now, all you handy gals out there. I have an apple tree that is bending under the weight of all its apples. What do I do with them all? Julie, I'll be happy to bring you as many as your heart desires! Hubs says they are eating apples but I think you can use apples for eating and baking (they both get eaten right?!) So, let me know what ya know!!
We survived Sunday's family reunion. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. We had a semi good time although the girls were bored. This was close to the only form of entertainment there was.
I can't believe my freshman and 8th grader are playing on the see saw but here they are. After a while my neice, Kara, decided she needed to join them. She is two and just a sweetie pie.
Obviously, Gabby is having a good time with Kara. She just about put her to sleep!! Abby was pretending that she was too cool but I got her picture anyway.
How's that for a rockin' good time at the reunion?!
I am exhausted tonight after cleaning the house and going to Back to School night at the high school. I got homework from one of the teachers - what is up with that?! Gabby will earn extra points so I'll do it, just seems a little weird. We get to do Back to School night at the middle school on Wednesday. Whew, we can't wait for that one!!! I am getting a little loopy from taking Benedryl to help control my itching tonight. For some reason, my allergies are acting up and sometimes the only way I can sleep and keep from itching all night is to take a few Benedryls. They are kicking in so I better stop before I start to resemble Julie's blog on Friday night :}
