GNO, Vacation and Alone Time - The Trifecta

Last Friday my little sister, my little Godsister and I went out for a much-needed Girls' Night Out. We ate at a Thai restaurant (which was a little scary for me because I am not an adventurous eater), listened to some great jazz (even though I'm not a fan of jazz, it was good) and laughed till our eyeliner was just a memory.

Saturday I took Kady to a birthday party at the Maccaroo Gym in Joplin, MO, where she bounced and bounced and bounced herself nearly into a 7 year old frenzy. That place is CRACK, I'm tellin' ya. It is truly an amazing place to take your kids and if you're in the area you should check it out. They are very safety and security-conscious and it was clean and well, it was just CRACK.

This week is Spring Break for the kids, so Monday morning Cousin Courtney, Nonner, the kids and I headed for Oklahoma City (or "The City" as we hicks call it) to see my uncle, the state representative, in action. (Tater's tots were supposed to go as well, but TotOne got sick with strep throat overnight and they had to stay home, bless their hearts) We picked up with Aunt Janet at the Capitol, headed to Bricktown, ate at Spaghetti Warehouse, walked around awhile, checked out the canal and water taxi, sight-saw (sight-seen? sight-seed?) and then went to the Capitol just in time for the afternoon session to be adjourned. We knew it was going to be a short session, so we didn't hurry to fly back over after Bricktown. Uncle Larry took us onto the floor, we got some pictures, then I had my first ever "tweet-up" with Leslie Blair who was the most famous person we met all day. (See, Leslie, you're not just "neat" - you're still famous!) We visited with her awhile then Uncle Larry took us up to his office where he loaded up the kids with official Oklahoma State House of Representatives pencils, autographed copies of the photo-roster thing (autographed at Sam's request), gave Sam a OK state flag (I thought the boy was going to faint he was so excited) and then Uncle Larry took us on an amazing tour through the Capitol building. Sam declared that he will work there someday. Hopefully as Governor so his momma can live in the mansion with him. I don't think his wife will mind. I could be their nanny. Yeah.

And Monday's trip was my first experience driving with a talking GPS. I dare say I think I love that woman in my cousin's Garmin.

Tuesday and Wednesday were Paul's days off so we drove to Springfield Tuesday around noon, visited Dickerson Park Zoo, left the zoo and drove around for another hour because he didn't like my motel suggestions on Glenstone where pretty much the majority of motels are located, ended up going back to Glenstone to find a motel (I promise I didn't say "told you so" even though I really wanted to) and then we crashed. We were going to go to Bass Pro that night but by about 7:00pm the drive to OKC the previous day and all the zooing and driving that day caught up with the kids and I. Paul and the kids were asleep by 8:45.

We got up yesterday morning and went to Battlefield Mall where we went directly to Build A Bear Workshop to build new critters even though I had previously put a moratorium on building anything new. We left with a lamb named Mary, a turtle named Duuude and an emo-bunny named Coraline. Guess which kid made which animal. G'head, just guess. (If it gives you any clue, Abby left for our trip on Tuesday wearing a shirt with skulls all over it, skinny jeans, four metric tons of eyeliner beneath her gorgeous brown eyes and blue hair.)

After the mall we visited the High Temple of Redneck, aka Bass Pro Shop. We saw a 100+ year old snapping turtle, bought spring-loaded fly swatter guns, a camouflage visor, and my husband a new redneck t-shirt. Then we rounded out the entire trip with a visit to Incredible Pizza.

All I wanted to do today was sleep until I stopped, but noooooooooooooo Abby and TotOne had to be at a Red Cross Babysitter Training course at 9am. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they're taking it, but dude, I need some sleep.

I dropped Kady and Sam off at Mom's this morning while I took the girls to the class. They said I could stay if I wanted, but none of the other moms stayed so I left, too. I called Mom to see where she was so I could pick up my other two kids since I wasn't obligated to watch the two tweens diaper dolls and learn infant CPR, but she said Pops had the boy and she had KD and that I should go home. The only thing she asked was that I didn't sleep the day away, but instead do something constructive.

Blogging is totally constructive. So is Facebook.