Adventures in Bucket List Completion

So, if you have been following my adventures in bucket list completion, I checked a few off this past week and that is why I have not been posting as much. I plan on getting caught up soon, I promise!

Here are a few pictures from our visit to the zoo, which was a bucket list item.

Emma Claire and my little cousin, Isabel


kangaroos. They are one of my favorites. I love that the devoted mama carries them snug as a bug in their pouch until they are ready to face the world.


Joeys of our own


"Is this event black tie???"


Evelyn Rose. She's my animal lover. You can tell by THIS photograph.


Izzy's face painting. Set her mom back FIVE DOLLARS!!! Wowza! I think I should learn the art of face painting!


Emma Claire's horse ride. Cost: Four tokens. When she has a horse at home to ride for free. Note to self: Charge people to ride horse.


Best buds. Sometimes. Other times, can't stand each other. They fight like sisters, but love like sisters too.

Piggy Tales Thursday...on Friday

I know, I know! I'm late! And I apologize, but I took the girls swimming yesterday
(I'm going to use this post for double duty so I will put them...
here.








and the day just got away from me! Regardless, here I am for Piggy Tales Thursday...1st grade edition.

First grade came and I was all set for my first day of school. Bag: check. Lunch: Check. Mom...no check??? I had gone to kindergarten, but this??? This was a whole 'nother dinosaur!! But Mrs. Bixler made it okay. She ushered me in and nurtured my love of reading. She was, and still remains, one of my favorite teachers! I remember my mom used to come in and help some days, and those were always my favorite days!

I remember my first sleepover party was for my 6th birthday. My best friends, Allison, Ashley, and Sara were invited. My mom and dad thought that homemade pizza would be a great treat. I remember making it ourselves. Then...for dessert...ICE CREAM! We were allowed to fix it up any way we wanted.

I also remember the time that my mom dressed up like an elf for my class. I don't remember much of this, just the green elf shoes with bells at the tip of her curled toes! Christmas time was always fun. I recall a Christmas bazaar with all kinds of crafts and good food. Even then, I was into crafty things!

Speaking of crafty things, I used to spend a good bit of my childhood coloring. I was always sort of a loner (until probably...middle school???), and coloring was one of my favorite hobbies. I also loved to read. Dr. Suess was, of course, loved by the entire household. My favorite books of his were In A People House and Put Me in the Zoo. My mom says that, to this day, she still remembers the antics of Hooper Humperdink, Marvin K. Mooney, and Young Yolanda Yorgensen. These days, I have nearly every one of Dr. Suess' books, and my girls love them just as much as I do. I mean, did. ;o) Well, I suppose that is all that I can recall specifically about first grade.

Tune in next Thursday for 2nd grade. Hopefully, I can make it on time then! I also hope to add some pictures to these posts, so you may want to stop back to check and see them.

Link It Up Wednesday

Linkin' it up! I wish that I could stay and chat but I am on my way to use some of my spare Weight Watchers points. Yay!

And if you are visiting, I strongly encourage you to look at another one of my posts since this is not one of my more interesting posts. OOOOOR, you could just take my word for it that I am one cool chick, follow me, then try again on a more exciting day! I am sure that there will be plenty more shenanigans this summer! Oh, I just remembered! i have splash pad photos! Those are...well, not boring anyway!

The Before I Kick the Bucket List

Who remembers this amazing, fun, moving movie?

I was inspired by Melissa's post at A Family in Love to make a Summer Bucket List of my own since the summer usually slips through my fingers like sand from a pail.

Make an address planter (like this one at Cap Creations)
Make my own salsa
Learn the art of canning
Organize the pantry (again...and again...and again)
Take the fam to the drive in
See Eclipse with the girls (Yes, I'm a Twi-nerd)
Learn how to use the Singer (Anyone offering lessons???)
Take the girls for a hike at Ouabache (the local state park)
Take Emma Claire canoeing
Make these cute little ladies for the garden
Take the girls to the Children's Museum in Indy
Make the garage a usable space Done! Well, it's clean anyway!!
Start a little Christmas shopping (Be quiet. I'll be the one laughing at Christmas.)
Build a playhouse for the girls
Paint the house (I'm shootin' high on that one.)
Build a kitchen (for said playhouse) like Kristen's that was featured here at Knock Off Wood
Hang clothes on the line (The line that doesn't exist yet...)
Make this chore system for Emma (from Making the World Cuter)
Visit the in-laws in Tennessee
Take Emma Claire to Pine Lake We had a blast!!! Hubs even took a day off (this hardly EVER happens) and even HE had fun!!
Take Emma Claire to see Junie B. Jones (this isn't until November, but I thought that I would include it anyway) at Amish Acres
Go to the flea market at Shipshewana (If you are ever in northern Indiana, go there! It's WONDERFUL!!!)
Have Aunt Delaney come for a visit.
Camp out. Even if it's in the backyard.
Stick to Weight Watchers.
Run a 5K. Starting small.
Join a Zumba class. See what the hype is all about.
Make a new friend.
Find a batting cage.
Shooting range. (Yes, I am a self-proclaimed hillbilly. I shoot.)
Convince the hubby to get a dog (This may take more than just the summer). (Yes, this was the first one accomplished of the summer!!! I have no clue what got into him!!!
Sign Emma Claire up for a dance class.
Finish the Summer Reading Program that we never do. We always read, we just lose track).
Go on a mini-vacation to the Sandusky area.
Cut down on soda to one a week.
Take the husband to the Cord-Deusenburg museum in Auburn
Convince the husband to take me to see Steel Magnolia at Three Rivers Festival.
Take Em to Johnny Appleseed Festival
Convince Mom to go to the Country Living Fair in Columbus
Go to the zoo.
Go to the zoo.
Go to the zoo.
Go to the zoo.
Go to the zoo.
(Yes, it's on there multiple times so that I can check it off MULTIPLE TIMES. We love the zoo.)
Take the girls to Science Central.
Convince Emma that there are not any robbers in her room and that she can sleep the whole night long in her OWN bed.
Complete MY summer reading program. (8 books in two months. REALLY?!?!? Come on. So far, I am three and a half in. One month remaining. Odds are not looking good to me.)
Take some photos of Magic Valley. (Stay tuned to find out what this is.)
Fine tune my photo skills.

This will be a to be continued post...

Glimpses of the Past (Piggy Tales part deux)

I have few and far memories from my preschool years, but I do have recollections of pudding painting, naptime, and show and tell. My preschool teacher's name was Mrs. August, who's daughter I remain friends with still today. She was a sweetheart, and I DO remember loving morning preschool at St. Mark's preschool.

Fast forward two years to kindergarten. One of my fondest memories of kindergarten occurred one day when we were late for school. I don't remember it happening OFTEN, but as a mother myself, I understand how we may have been running a bit tardy here and there. Well, on this particular morning my kindergarten teacher Sister Rose apparently decided that I had been late a couple of times too many because she REALLY laid into me. I remember crying. Little did this nun know, but my mom was right behind me. And you all know Mama Bears when their cubs are wrongfully being attacked, right? Mama Bear was NOT having it. My mom let that silly old nun in a habit know that the blame was to be placed not on me, but her.

Now, Sister Rose has passed on, but I can still feel the protectiveness that I felt that day. So while that memory is not a happy one, the memory still holds a special place in my heart.

Yet another memory comes to mind of kindergarten. This one, from the Christmas pageant, in which the kindergartners played the angels in the nativity. I remember getting all dressed up in white, and then Mom adding that silver, glittering, ironic halo. Just another mere glimpse of times long ago.

The things that come to me from my past just come in glimpses. But it is funny to think back on them, because they seem to be from a completely different lifetime. I feel as though reincarnated (if I believed in that sort of thing). My first life: my preschool years consist of memories of my grandmother rocking me in the wooden rocker that PROBABLY still sits in the same spot in her bedroom. Glimpse...Plucking locust shells from the tree in my grandmother's yard. Flash...the sounds of the bug zapper that seemed to hang in the thick Indiana humidity...flash to picnics at the creek with Mom and little brother...flash...looking at Grandma's collection of wheat pennies...Marshmallow circus peanuts from Aunt Ev (my Evelyn's namesake) ...Glimpse...Peanut butter toast with Grandpa with me in one of his old, white V-neck tees. Flash...Grandma and I watching Plinko on The Price is Right.

It's like listening to a radio station that is coming in and out of range.....CSSHHHH...memory....CSHHHH...another random piece of long ago remembered. Then, my second life occurred in middle school. Memories of my first "monthly visit" (came at my end of the softball season SWIM PARTY. I was dramatic and told my mother, "I WISH I WERE A BOY!"), first kiss (chaste and a little slobbery), and the death of my grandpa (I hit a home run for him while hospice prepared him for his death. He loved coming to my games.) Third life: high school. Ugh. More on THAT later. College was my fourth life. That was a reckless, carefree (or careLESS, rather) life. Fifth life was when we were just a family of three. That life ended one year ago when I entered into this life I am in now. Sixth life, blissfully married wife of five years, mother of two astoundingly amazing girls.

My mother readied me for this life (and all the others too) in that dark kindergarten hall some twenty years prior to when I would have to put those skills to use.

The one thing that I recall and that ISN'T just a mere glimpse is this: No one messes with Mama.

Not even a nun.

Refrigerator Raider

While putting these

and these

away after visiting several of the local fruit producers, this is what the Refrigerator Raider was doing.



She's my little fruit freak. :o)

Life is a Bowl of (Pitted) Cherries

This is a stressed out mom's DREAM!!! This is about the equivalent of my husband's loaded gun at the shooting range. And much cheaper (at $9.97 from Target) than bullets!

And you use it on these:

To make her

one happy baby with a full belly!

Cleanin' House

Here are some pictures of what the best friend and I do when we have a yard sale.

We take pictures. And we play. And sometimes, we get rid of stuff.
(Warning: These pictures do not actually portray ANYTHING yard sale related.)

We take pictures of shoes.


We take pictures of best friend.


(and my Evelyn Rose)


We take pictures of my kids.




We take pictures of her kids.








Mainly, yard sale days are FUN DAYS!!!

So, now you know why I have been M.I.A. lately. This pretty much brings you up to speed!

See you all soon!


P.S. Linkin' up.