Wait...What?

Who knew a lifelong dream of mine could be filled at the Renaissance Festival? I sure as shit never knew but lookie there!! I'm riding on a freaking elephant!! It was awesome, fantastic and entirely way too short thankyouverymuch.  I went twice.

Oh people. Where do I even begin with this day? It was a good day. Great day indeed! Let's just cut to the chase shall we? Muey Importante News Numero Uno : My sister in law Fluffy and her husband, Mr. Big, welcomed my newest niece into the world this afternoon. She looks just like her big sister, The Monkey. So damn cute and I can't wait to hold her. The Monkey is staying with us whilst her sister is adjusting to the lovely Minnesota winter weather. Congrats to Fluffy, Mr. Big and The Monkey!! Hey ya know what? Congrats to the newest girlie girl in our lives too! We're a crazy, loud family (well your cousins are, sorry) but we're family and we can't imagine us without you ! Welcome baby, welcome home. Muey Importante News Numero Dos : Mandyland done up and got herself engaged this morning! She's gonna marry herself a cowboy! Yeehaw people! He showed the ring to just about everyone but me. Wonder why. Perhaps he thinks I have a mouth on me and would let it ...

A week ago, the great state of Minnesota was graced with the presence of the one and only Pioneer Woman , Ree Drummond. I was reminded the day before by my niece's mom Linds. I hemmed and hawed all night Friday and even still Saturday morning. I figured I would never get the chance to meet her again, unless I went to Oklahoma and I have to say, I wouldn't mind doing that again. The signing was from 1-3. The Dictator and I would pick up Linds then go get her friend Colleen and head down to the dreaded MOA. Side note: most people who live here do not go to the MOA all the time. :::shudder::: Carry on. We got there around 11:30am. I don't think I'm over guessing when I say there were about 400-500 people there already. We bought our books , got our wristbands, got the coffee, pop and/or cookies. We made nice with some moms in line. The Dictator made a couple "best friends". She had the one meltdown . Thank goodness. When Ree came out, there was a huge cheer...

but it was so I could see this:

Thanks to G and her skills with the scissors, I have myself a new 'do. I haven't had my hairs this short since I was 21. Crikey, I feel old now. Double crikey, I just remembered that I'll be 36 this month. Not old, I know but still. 36? Where the hell did all the time go? :::sigh::: My Peanut told me that I look like Oma*. I had to control my laughing because when I first saw myself in the mirror yesterday, I thought I was looking at my mom as well. People who only met my mom said I looked just like her, people who met only my dad said I looked just like him . I think Oma wins this one.  Ignore the mess on my desk please. I do. (it usually looks a lot worse) *spellcheck would like for us change Oma to Omar. I don't think she would like that.

The newest member of our clan made quite the appearance this morning. I'm too tired to blog the whole story tonight. It'll have to be in segments too since so much happened. Bottom line: she's doing as well as can be for the moment. Mama's sleepy but doing well.

So the inlaws are home. Mom said they would be home early in the afternoon. They rolled in at 12:03. I guess they weren't kidding. They had a great time, a quiet time , on vacation. They were glad to be back home though. The kids bombarded them the second they walked in the door and declared just how much they missed them. You would have thought we were starving them and taping them to the beds. (that only happened once)(I kid, I kid)(maybe) They liked the work that was done on the living room so that made me feel better. There's still some tweaking to be done but the big stuff is over. Well, except for the treadmill going downstairs but I still have to rid us of the sectional couch. Anyone in the Twin Cities area who wants a sectional couch, it's yours. For free . You just have to come get it. It's about 25 years old. The sleeper pullout part is not sleepworthy when, well, pulled out. (well that didn't sound dirty or anything right?) It's a comfy couch, we jus...

So ya'll know that I got a Chrismahannakwanza miracle this year and actually completed NaBloPoMo . The whole 30 days. I know, I'm shocked too. Anywhoo , I was so proud of myself. I was tooting my own horn around the house, though really? The kids weren't all that impressed. My mother in law was though. I love her. So here I was feeling so proud and then I get an email from Ms Eden herself. I won a prize. A NaBloPoMo prize ! Huzzah! I just about fell out of my seat. I won prize #29. For those of you too lazy to click over (shame on you) I won myself an Ugly Monster ! (She's out of the monsters but she has other cool stuff too! Check it out. Do it! NOW. Um ok sorry) Mary Ann asked me if there was any pattern or color scheme and I said pink and brown, ya know, for the new baby. I don't know how to shut up (or type less?)(don't look so surprised!) so of course it took a couple paragraphs of extraneous information for her to get that tidbit. A week later, our h...