New Kicks!

Hey! It's my 200th post! To celebrate, I'm showing off my new Vibram 5 Finger shoes. I thought about just posting a picture of them.. like this..

But then I thought, 'Why not show them in action?' So, here is a quick video for you. Don't laugh.. too much. I'm wearing Aman's hat because 1) it's raining and 2) I'm having a bad hair day. Shut up.

There ya go. Feel free to make fun of me. I have flat wide feet. It is so hard to find shoes that fit without pinching somewhere and/or giving me blisters. I am so glad to have found these (thank you Jess!). I bought the gray pair at a store in West Des Moines and wore them out of the store to do our shopping. I'm looking forward to ordering a black pair of KSOs, but if any of you would like to send me some, I'd gladly post another video of me walking around in them just for you. Because I'm generous like that.

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In other news, I have some awards to show off! Let's get started..

This first bit of awesomeness is from Lisa at Unfiltered Insanity. If you haven't read her blog yet, go check it out. Aman is in the process of designing it, it should be done soon.. I think.






Next up I have a fabulous award that I am most humbled and honored to receive from Kat at the 3 Bedroom Bungalow. Kat and I totally need to get togeter and knock back a few. We've had so much fun getting to know each other online and can't wait to meet in real life.

And last, but most certainly not least! Another from Lisa. She created this bad boy herself to celebrate the unveiling of her new blog design! Check her out, if you like her blog, I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you slapped this puppy up on your own page to link back to her.


I'm feeling stingy today.. after putting my mug on video for y'all. So I'm just gonna leave it at that. For you loyal readers of mine, feel free to grab an award for your own blog. I love you all, and you are what make this place worth while!

One last piece of business for the day: I have been contacted by Jump Start and asked to review their new online world and some of their software. I thought it sounded like a great idea since so many of you are parents as well and could benefit from this. With summer break upon us, who doesn't want some educational software to keep the kids busy, entertained, and learning? My midgets are certainly excited about checking it out. When I post the review, I will also have a giveaway for you all to enter, so stay tuned!

Peace.

Because you never know when you might need to be saved from killer crabs..

As you know I started a contest to win something from Joe's Crab Shack, the awesome-est place to eat when you're in the mood to get crabs. You can see the original post here where I asked you to share about your favorite Joe story.

I know I was supposed to have this done like two days ago, but since I'm pretty sure everyone in my family has the swine flu has a cold, things have slowed to a crawl here once again.

Thank you all for your patience.

Here is the video announcing the winner of our latest Joe's Crab Shack give away!

My Embellished Truth and Polite Fiction - Joe's Crab Shack Give Away 2

Joe's Crab shack teamed up with Embellished Truth and Polite Fiction for a second give away. We have the ChurchPunk Family carving the winners name into Torrin's hair as Aman shaves his shag for a cooler look.

Check out Joe's Crab shack at a location near you http://JoesCrabShack.com

Also check out Family Force 5's new CD and Download "Dance or Die with a Vengence" coming out May 19th.

The winner receives a sweet Joe's Crab Shack t-shirt and $25 gift card as seen here:

Random Tuesday Thoughts: As much as I love Joe's, they're not the reason my daughter is named Jo.

... seriously, it's not even spelled the same.



FedEx just dropped off a letter.. containing the details of my next job..

Agent Sylvia,

Thanks for the satisfactory job you did on the Ivan Stveklavastich assignment. We were unaware that a person's navel could be used in that fashion, nice work. We are requesting your services once more.

Please meet our representative at 3rd and Grand at approximately 1:23am on April 1. Be sure to wear something pink, bring a bag of marshmallows and have your machete at the ready.

Sincerely,
The Russian Government

P.S. If your husband wants to tag along again, please remind him to wear a hair net on his face. It's a good thing we found that stray whisker before someone else did.

I don't know what they have planned for me, but if I don't show up for work blog much in the coming weeks, please contact my husband. I hope this isn't another April Fool's joke, my pinkie finger still twitches everyday at noon for five and a half minutes from last year's.

Actually, it was just a gift card. From Joe's Crab Shack, for being an awesomefull customer and blogging about what a fantabulous restaurant they are. Keep your eye balls peeled and be watching for an upcoming giveaway from them! (I like my version better.. and don't lie, I know you did too.) Oh, and the gift card? It says: 'Crabs, the gift that keeps on giving.' Because Joe's is awesome.

Do you like my new layout? I think it's pretty rad. Look up in that corner over there.. no, the other one.. yeah, see that? I have navigation now! So you know.. I don't get lost and stuff. Oh, and for you too.. so you don't get lost. You're welcome. Click around, get to know the place, make yourself at home.. Here, have some coffee.

My daughter is clumsy. She's really freaking cute.. but dang, she is clumsy. She has a habit of somersaulting down the stairs. It's not pretty. She also trips on her own feet, bumps her head on doorknobs, and runs into my butt several times a day.. Of course, that last one isn't totally her fault.. I mean, my butt is pretty big these days.

I'm working on it.

Shut up.

Seriously. Quit laughing, it wasn't that funny.

I forgot that March had 31 days. Not only was I waiting for my archive to shrink back up when I stayed up past midnight last night.. but we woke up this morning thinking it was April Fool's Day. I had a great idea for a joke to add into my post today.. but then we realized it was only March 31st. I was sad. I may have even cried a little.

Last night, I got the camera out to show Aman (he'd prefer I refer to him as Aman instead of J, so as to reduce possible confusion) some awesome blackmail photos and we found that Aidan had made a 17min video of.. nothing. He likes to set up the camera in random places when he gets up in the morning (he's up before anyone else most days) and record himself playing.. it's... odd.

The other night, while we were working on my site layout, we also discovered that Aidan had added $1,150.37 worth of pirate crap to Aman's Scamazon.. I mean Amazon.. shoppping cart. Awesome. One of those moments we were glad he's not so good with the reading yet.

Aidan is awesome.

So Aman is my husband.. in case you all hadn't figured that out yet. Apparently, on Twitter, our PDA isn't enough to give it away. My relatively new friend Niel was a tad bit confused. Especially since Aman had apparently proposed that they be each other's wingmen at BlogHer and made no mention of a 'wife'. Heh. I let Niel know that he should watch out.. as Aman was more likely to encourage him to hit on me and then later actually hit him. He's a sneaky one, that man of mine.

A couple of weeks ago, we were at Target. I know, right? We shop too much. Anyway.. we were on our way out and walking past the make-up department. There was an end-cap display of some new schmancy mascara that was just clever enough to catch the attention of even my 7yo.. Guess which ones he couldn't resist touching..

Today, the wind is blowing like a $2 hooker. How's your weather?
Go check out Keely. She's rad.. and random. C-ya!


I'm gonna go watch my new MxPx DVD with my kids, who are almost all (except Torrin, who's waiting for his) wearing their new MxPx threads. Enjoy your day.. here's some real coffee.

Life sometimes changes our plans.. and sometimes it's for the better...

Last Saturday J and I planned a date night. Neither of us is quite sure when the last date night was.. just that it was so long ago that we both forgot when it was.

Though I suppose that's not really where the story begins...

I mentioned that we weren't able to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with my family, right?

My father's hometown in southeastern Iowa has many Irish people in it. His family took up residence there only a few generations ago. They came over from across the pond when the railroads were going up along the Mississippi. Yep, my gramps worked on the railroad.

Um.. where was I? Oh yeah. St. Patrick's Day.

There are several parties and events that take place on the weekend nearest St. Patrick's Day in and around my dad's hometown. Including a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner with music from McNamara's Band (a Big Band that my grandfather helped start, he was one of the original members back in his baritone playing days.. or was it tuba? I can't remember now.. my dad sings with them now and a few of my cousins play..). This year there was also a performance at the Grand Theater with traditional Irish music (my dad sang at this too), bagpipes, and my dad's cousin's Irish dance class dancing.

Anyway...

We were all looking forward to going but, unfortunately, my dad came down with the Man Plague a couple days before. Seeing that my father really needed to be able to acquire adequate rest and we were not so interested in bringing home any illnesses involving regurgitation and defecation.. we decided to stay home. Everyone was sad, but we decided to make it an awesome weekend anyway - after all J had taken Friday off! So a date was planned for Saturday night. Our first in... a long time.

We discussed ideas of what we might like to do.. things like dinner, a movie, bowling, and what not.. Well, we planned on taking the kids bowling over the weekend already, so we decided to skip that. Dinner and a movie? Sure, why not. We planned to see Coraline in 3D at 4:30 and then have dinner afterward before picking up the kids.

We dropped the kids off... at 4:30. Oops. We talked about different movies we could see, but unfortunately finding movie showings during dinner hours is rather challenging - are the theaters and restaurants in league with each other on this? I smell conspiracy..

We decided to just head over to Joe's Crab Shack - our chosen fueling station - and have a long leisurely dinner. Can't remember the last time we did that! (geez, you'd think we have memory problems... ginko biloba, anyone?) After that? We figured we'd wander around the mall, maybe get something pierced or inked.. you know, whatev.

Dinner was fun. Well worth missing a movie for.

I got myself a pomegranate margarita with pop rocks. (actually, J ordered it.. he always picks me drink for me.)

J's drink was easier to pick.. we saw they had a margarita that was not only made with Patron, but also with Patron Citron (J's favorite.. in case you want to send us some..) AND it came with a free shaker! 'Hey, we need a new shaker!' Yeah.. ours broke.. don't ask.



'Hey, babe? What's that thing stuck on your head??'

I swear, he'd only stop staring at my boobs when I'd take the camera out. I think he likes me.

Now, we also have a strange habit.. nay, obsession.. with making fools of ourselves acting silly when we're out in public. We do weird things like stick straws on our teeth to make ourselves look like walruses, tell our wait staff that we have 5 rugrats and don't see the light of day very often, take pictures of each other through the evening and put them on Twitter... yeah, you get the idea.






Our waiter was nice enough to not laugh at us. And even allowed us to take his picture.. while he tied on our bibs. I totally did not tell him I would put his picture on the internet.. so if you see him.. um.. just tell him 'Hi'.













Doesn't J look happy? See.. I told you he totally has a crush on me.

Anyway, we ate a TON of food. Then we headed over to the mall to walk off our dinner and look for a piercing pagoda. Never found one. BUT we did find Glow Golf.

When we first started dating.. well, even before that actually.. we used to play a goofy old 1997 mini golf computer game. I'm not real sure who had more wins.. he'd probably tell you it was him, but I'm pretty sure it was probably me. Because I'm awesome. But I teased him relentlessly about the fact that I'd totally kick his ass on a real flesh and blood course.. (did you know mini-golf courses are made with flesh and blood? yeah.. think about that the next time you swing a club..) Which I did. Repeatedly. While we were dating.. and beyond.


Naturally, we couldn't pass up an opportunity to swing some putters at glowing balls. So we stood by the trash can and chugged finished sipping and savouring our Starbucks beverages (hey.. we tend to be tired.. dates generally require an extra dose of caffeine..) and ran madly sauntered casually over to the golf course for a round of put-put.






He totally cheated, by the way. I mean, I still won.. but he was keeping score. I'm actually not sure who's score he cheated on more though, mine or his.. He's such a gentleman.

(But I would have won even if he hadn't cheated.. I think.)





After our rousing round of mini-golf, it was starting to get late. We decided to swing by the Cheesecake Factory and pick up dessert on our way out (our dates don't 'end' when we pick up the kids..) and head back to our sitter's house to pick up the kids. Once slice of pistachio cheesecake and one slice of vanilla bean cheesecake in hand and we were on our way. But not without first TwiPic'ing the 'Ass stance' sign by the pond..

'Need help? Get ASS STANCE!'

And what date night would be complete without asking a random stranger to take a picture of us and giggle at them wait patiently while they try to figure out how your camera works?



It was an awesome night. Even if our Saturday evening wasn't spent celebrating St. Patrick's Day with my kinsmen or watching a 3D animated movie or paying someone to put more holes in my body.. it was well worth all the extra exercise I will have to do to work off the cheesecake and bragging rights on 'I'm still the better putter'.. and some real quality time with my wonderful spouse, remembering all the reasons we love to hang out together.

The End.

10x10 Things Tuesday.. My 100th Post!

So I was mulling, hemming, and hawing over what to do for my 100th post for the last day or two.. Last night I thought to myself.. 'Self, you better hurry up and do that 100th post tonight! Tomorrow is Tuesday.. and you know what that means..' So I wondered.. 'Hm. I wonder. How many 10 Things Tuesday posts have I done? Because, if this is my 10th, then that would make it like.. 100 Things Tuesday.. and how great would that be for my 100th post!'

Well, guess what...

This is my 10th 10 Things Tuesday post. See how clever I am? Stop a moment and appreciate it...

.......

You done? Good. Now.. here are 10 lists for my 10th 10 Things Tuesday.. equaling 100 things for my 100th post.. Enjoy.

10 things I love about Iowa..

1. SNOW! though we aren't getting much this winter.. excuse me while I go cry..
2. neighbors! we actually know our neighbors.. as in, like we know their names! this is a rather novel thing for a Californian.. especially considering we knew them all within a month of moving in. impressive.. I know.
3. home schooling. I know it may sound weird.. but shortly after we left California, it pretty much became illegal for us to home school there.. it's still legal here.
4. 4 seasons.. as in - 4 months of spring, 4 months of summer, 4 months of fall, and 4 months of winter! for real!
   
5. it's slower. case in point? speed limits. the main streets through Folsom had an average speed limit of 50mph. in Des Moines? the average through town speed limit is 30mph. nice.
6. shopping. I can go to Target, on a Saturday, and not walk a mile to get from my car to the door.
7. the malls. I mean.. I'm really *not* much of a shopper.. and I'm no longer a mall-hopper like I was in Jr High.. but HOLY FOOD COURT BATMAN! Have you been to a midwest mall?? the first one we went to was 'the small, old one' in town.. it was like the size of a small city. we got a little lost.
8. it's corny. get it? ha! I kill me.
9. seriously though, we grow enough corn here to feed like... a LOT of people.. but? we make stuff with it. like water bottles and fuel and stuff. corny.
10. the Iowa State Fair! did you know it's on the list of '100 Things to Do Before You Die'? or something like that... morbid, huh? I think it made it on there as a filler 'Hm.. what else can we throw on here, I can't think of anymore..' so... I'm using it as a filler too. I'm awesome.

10 Interruptions I had while I was trying to type up the last list..

1. Ellie wanted chocolate milk.
2. I had a phone call.
3. J wanted me to comment on his blog.
4. Jo wanted chocolate milk.
5. Another phone call.
6. Torrin wanted chocolate milk.
7. Jo fell on her face.
8. Ellie pooped and then claimed to be a mermaid.. 'No, I a mermaid.. I have no poopy. See? I have a tail, no poopy!'
9. Kieran announced he wanted J to stay home from work tomorrow and play Twister.
10. Then I sat and thought about sending the kids to a sitter and having J stay home to play Twister with just me.. clothing optional...

Where was I? oh yeah...

10 Reasons you should read my blog..

1. I write good.
2. I'm funny.
3. It will make you feel better about yourself.. and your life.. and your weather.. maybe.
4. Because I don't mind if you laugh at me instead of with me. I think I'd probably laugh at me..
5. It's highly effective birth control. Trust me.
6. Because you like to look at pictures of my cute kids.
7. Because you have nothing better to do.. and I'm free entertainment.
8. Not that kind of entertainment! Pervs.
9. You need to know where to get free coffee in Des Moines.
10. I'm smarter than the average wombat.
    

10 Things I love about Home Schooling..

1. Flexibility.
2. Tailored learning/teaching.
3. Pajamas.
4. Flexibility.
5. Socialization.
6. Being with my kids!
7. Knowing exactly what they are learning.
8. Knowing whether or not they are 'getting it'.
9. Flexibility.
10. Field Trips!

10 Things I ingested today..

1. coffee.
2. blueberry Eggo waffle.
3. licorice tea.
4. Cars themed Teddy Graham crackers.
5. chocolate caramel pretzels.
6. licorice tea.
7. a microwave burrito.
8. um... something for dinner?
9. hopefully, an alcoholic beverage.
10. maybe some ice cream... maybe not.

10 Things I miss about California.

1. the ocean.
2. my brother and his family.
3. my friend Tonya.
4. the American River.
5. the American River bike trail.
6. Adalbertos
7. In and Out
8. uuummmm....
9. my AWESOME midwives.
   
10. Trader Joe's !!!!!!! *sigh*

10 Reasons we left California..

1. we were watching our credit score get lower and lower.. good for golf, not for credit.
2. HOT.
3. we would never have been able to get a home. (well.. maybe not *never*)
4. lots of work.. not so much pay.
5. did you know that it is now pretty much illegal for us to home school there? yeah.
6. we lived in one house for just over a year.. and never met ANY of our neighbors.
7. the next house? we lived there over a year.. and THEN met them.
8. they were pretty nice though.
9. the TRAFFIC.
10. the expense!

10 States we drove through when we moved here from California..

1. California
2. New Mexico
3. Arizona
4. Texas
5. Oklahoma
6. Kansas
7. Missouri
8. Iowa
9. oh wait.. crap.
10. um... nevermind.

10 Guys I dated in high school..

1. Devon
2. Brayden
3. Kyle
4. Ben
5. Peter
6. Nick
7. Tim
8. Shuan
   
9. Peter again
   
10. Jeremiah

10 Things that were not originally in my house when it was built.

1. the kitchen sink.
2. the toilets.
3. the dishwasher
   
4. the bathtub.
5. the oven/range.
6. the furnace/air conditioner
7. modern electricity
8. some of the doors
9. carpet
10. um.. any other unmentioned indoor plumbing.

Okay, there's my 10 lists for my 100th post.. I hope you enjoyed them! I had planned on telling you the story about how we came to Iowa and all about our '100 year old home' but.. well, instead I gave you some background info as kind of a pre-story teaser.. You're welcome.

Graphic Novel always sounded like some secret code for 'porno' to me..

Cause you know.. porn is pretty graphic after all..

So Saturday night was Date Night. When I use the term 'date night' that way I don't just mean we got a sitter and went out, but rather that our church provided free babysitting and we took advantage of it so that we could do.. well.. nothing. Because our church ROCKS, and after 9 years of marriage, we just don't know what to do with ourselves on the rare occasion that we get out without children in tow.

We fed the kids before kicking them out of the van as we drove past the front door of the church.. I mean, dropping them off with hugs and kisses all around.. and grabbed a slice or two of their pizza for ourselves so that we could skip dinner and have more time to.. you know.. do whatever.

"What do you want to do?"
"I dunno.." feet on the dashboard because there are no short people behind me watching and waiting for their opportunity to copy my misbehavior.. "What do YOU want to do?"

Wow.. our date nights always seem to start off like that scene from Jungle Book.. You know the one. No? Oh. Oh well. Anyway..

"Was Andrew working tonight?"
"Yep... You want to go to Starbucks?"
"Sure, why not."

So off we went to our favorite local Starbucks.. The one in West Des Moines, where my husband is commonly referred to as 'Hi-5 Guy'. And yes, I said West Des Moines. As in the part of Des Moines that is farther west than the Des Moines we live in.. the part where all the rich yuppie types live.. (totally kidding) It just made us snicker when we watched the Olympics and everytime they'd talk about Shawn Johnson they'd say 'from West Des Moines, Iowa..' Cause, you know.. too good for just plain old Des Moines... (again.. just kidding, they really are their own entity over there).

We walk in and everyone in the joint (always a big crowd on Saturday nights..) jump up and say 'Hey! It's Hi-5 Guy!!'... no wait.. It was just Andrew (on break) and Oana (his fiance.. lucky girl).. and a couple more of our favorite baristas behind the counter. So we sat around and chatted for a bit about gay guys in public restrooms, raunchy comedy filled with profanity and how it makes a GREAT birthday gift, and pot, and of course we complained about how the church should have totally done an overnighter cause that way we could have gone to the Showbread concert in Iowa City.. They kind of looked at us cross-eyed at the mention of Showbread and we gave up at that point and moved on (after all.. we went over who Showbread was on one of our previous date night visits to Starbucks to see Andrew and Oana.. if they don't get it by now..).



"So where you guys headed?"
"The comic book store."
"Comic book store??.. Where's that?"
"Around the corner."
"Really?"
"Yeah.. Really. You read comics?"
"Well.. not since I was like.. 9. You mean like Marvel and stuff?"
"Yeah. And DC.. and Image."
"Hunh."

Ok.. so off we take our geeky selves to Mayhem.. our local comic book store to purchase some graphic novels. Because the more sophisticated comic connoisseur (did I spell that right?? cause it totally looks wrong..) prefer to call them graphic novels not comic books. After all, comics are for.. like 9 year olds and stuff.. right?

J picks up the newest issue of Teen Titans (ok.. that one really was just a comic book.. after all it was an issue.. complete with bag and board..) and I get the next book in the Catwoman series that I've been reading. I love Catwoman. I like me some Batman too, but Catwoman? She's my home girl, yo. Sadly, the next issue of Suburban Glamour is still not out, so it was a one book night. Goods in hand, we were on our way.

To where? We had NO clue. And by this time we only had about an hour and a half left. Honestly, it wasn't too big of a deal.. Kind of reminisce of the days when we were dating/engaged. We'd hop in the car and just drive. No destination in mind, no where to go and nothing to do, we'd just point the car and go. We drove around a bit aimlessly, contemplating what things there are to do here. A lot of Iowans will tell you that there's little to nothing to do around here and assume that we must be SO bored here after living in California. Um. No. There's all the same stuff here, plus some other really cool stuff that we didn't have there. AND everything here is closer and cheaper, and thus more accessible. Plus, between the driving, the gas, the admission, the blah blah blah.. with all there was to do in California? we never really got to do much of it (and there wasn't that much to do either..).

Eventually, we decided to go to Gateway Market and Cafe and pick up some dessert to bring home. We meandered through the aisles (since I've been to the Cafe part twice, but never had a chance to look around), checked out the booze.. I mean beer and wine.. selection, and gave the nifty 'wine chiller' a test drive. Sweet. Wine? Not so good.. I smelled it before tasting and it kind of reminded me of Eliana's diaper in the morning.. eeeew..

more the engrish!

Once we'd racked up a decent bill of goodies, we wrapped up our evening of coffee, comics, and cake.. and headed back to church to pick up the hoodlums.

Lesson? We're going to keep a running list of Things to Do on Date Night.. so that we have some ideas at the ready in the future.. Still, we enjoy just being out without kids when given the chance and it's great 'getting to know you' time.. Seriously, after 9 years of being married with 5 kids under foot.. there's always plenty of 'getting to know you' to be done.