Rambling

Warning: These are just random Lisa thoughts and updates. Boring. No pictures involved. Opinions are also just opinions and happen to be where I am right now, they are susceptible to change.

This week I got excited, really excited over something so very stupid. I love the area where we live for lots of reasons. However, I do feel that there is an abundance of office supply stores and Mattress stores. I mean everywhere I look there is an Office Max, Office Depot, Staples, Mattress Firm or Giant! I know that work and sleep are very important, but come on! I often lament the fact that there is not a crafty type store or a Marshall's, TJ Maxx or Homegoods on my normal everyday, Triangular, driving path. I have contemplated writing to city planners of my surrounding communities, but have convinced myself it would not make a difference. But today, I saw that a Nordstrom Rack store is coming soon to the old Circuit City on Brentwood. The world seemed a little brighter to me! No, they do not sell ribbon, paint, fabric or yarn, but at least if I am looking for a new shirt or dress I will have a new option. I will not have to walk all over the mall from end to end looking for a cool shirt. I will enter one store and likely find one rack of my size shirts and browse. It seems easier. I do hope if opens soon, unlike the Nordstrom at the mall which I do not believe is ever going to open due to our ever slow economy.

Which brings me to my next random thought...Are malls going to be obsolete in less than a decade anyway because of online shopping? If so that is a lot of land that would be available in the very area of St. Louis that I want to live. Maybe that would drive down the price of real estate! I know, I am crazy. Hopefully crazy! Maybe the fountain at the Galleria could turn into the swimming pool the Smouts have been wanting.

I am back to running and things are going well. I signed up for the Nashville Country Music half marathon on April 24th. I am excited about the run, but the training has been hard. It is hard to want to run in temps below 30. Yesterday was my speed work day and I met some friends at the track. It went well, I know this because I hurt today. Scott got us a family YMCA membership that we are all very excited about. He can work out there when he is away in Jeff Co and we can use it there or here. I went there on Tuesday for the first time and I was impressed. Although there is nothing more boring than running on a treadmill though even if you do have a TV right in front of your face!

Last random thought, I think. I DVR'd Oprah yesterday. It was thought provoking. It was all about food, processed horrible food we are eating and what it is doing to us. How a Twinkie will keep in it's cellophane bag for 2 years without changing. The man on the show had recently done a documentary on food in our country and I want to see it. It all made a lot of sense to me. I have always said that it bothers me that to eat healthy it costs so much more, but the fact is that when we spend money on food we will save it on health care costs in the long run. EAT HEALTHY PEOPLE! BUY FOOD THAT WILL ROTT!

The flies are gone! We have had flies in our house this winter for some reason that I don't really want to know. But, they are gone. I think I picked up the last dead, on his back fly, yesterday- Yeah!

2 points

This winter Sam has been playing on a kindergarten basketball team. They have a small team, 7 boys and 1 girl. The girl happens to be their star player, followed by Miles who sacrifices his body for the ball! That would be great except Miles is also the smallest player on the team! Things in kindergarten basketball defy what most of us would think of as normal...in more than these 2 ways. The refs are super patient and act more as instructional coaches than whistle blowing rule enforcers. A small amount of traveling and double dribbling is allowed but fouls are called so there is a pretty strong hands off policy which I find funny because most of them are actually afraid of the ball!

Today was Sam's big day. He scored his 1st basket!! It was very exciting for our whole family. We had to call Daddy as soon as we got to the car. Sam was excited to score 2 points but disappointed that his team still lost. Maybe next time.

Here are some basketball photos of Sam. These were taken at his last game, not today. Today we were too excited to take any photos!

do-si-do!!

The girls had their square dancing assembly at school today. Sam and I had to hustle to get there in time and lucked out to get a seat on the floor really close to Emma's square! I am still new to putting video on the blog and I probably won't do it often because I won't ever be able to print it out. As my grandparents know best, I am not one to carry around a video camera, but I am putting my iphone to use here for it's cool video function. I need to figure out if I can get a zoom for it. I am sure there is an app for that!

New York Winter Weekend

Since the kids had a long weekend off of school we took a trip to visit the Smouts in Rochester. We had 5 days of fun with cousins and grandparents. It turned into a belated Christmas celebration and an early birthday party for Brendan. As always, the house was full and so were our stomachs :)

The girl cousins had a great time styling each other's hair throughout the weekend. Emma wore as many clips as possible in addition to an old petticoat she found in the dress up bin in the basement. She looked like a can-can girl most of the time she was at the house!

Oh, please help us when she is a teenager!

The main event was our brand new baby cousin Jillian. She is 3 months old and Claire loves her. I mean LUUUUUUUUUUVVVSSS her! She could not keep her hands off of her. She even changed her diaper, voluntarily. Since we have been home there has been lots of talk about Mommy having another baby! Good thing we won't see Jillian again before the summer. Maybe by then she will start crying a lot, talking back, pooping on the kids and grow an unsightly horn because otherwise I have a feeling we are going to have to revisit the baby topic, again! She is very cute and very sweet.

Brendan turns 6 the end of January so we celebrated early since he wanted Sam at his party. Grandma made him a tiger cake complete with chocolate covered coconut--yummy! It is really bad when I blog about a cake topping.

On Friday Scott and I got to go shopping for everyone's Christmas gifts and birthday gifts. Brendan wanted a radio control car and we got this huge yellow Camaro! I think everyone was happy with their gifts. I know my kids were happy and an extension of Christmas is always good. January is officially the most depressing month of the year according to Scott so presents are always helpful!

Brendan and Kristina admiring "the wheels"

Grandma Smout is a wonderful seamstress and made all the girls and their dolls matching PJ's. Jilly got left out on this. I guess grandma doesn't do sleepers!

Emma, Kristina, Claire, Jillian, Ashlyn, Haley

Brendan, Madison and Sam

On Saturday we went to a tubing hill with man-made snow because the temps were warm enough to melt almost all of the Rochester snow. We went tubing for 3 hours and it was so fun!

We tried most days to have an outing outside of the house for Grandma's sanity. In addition to the tubing we also went to the craft store and spent Sunday at Sheryl and Randy's house. When we were at home we played a lot of games of SORRY. PaPa is a master at SORRY.
On Monday, our last day together, we went to the local YMCA to swim and play. Since it was MLK day the pool was packed. I managed to not have to swim...did I mention the chocolate covered coconut?? yeah!

Brendan and Sam

The kids had so much fun on this trip! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for all your hard work and mornings of getting to sleep in :)