Five Question Friday!! 3/16/12

Today might just be any old Friday to you, but to me?

IT'S iPAD FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPEE!!!

It's also "gorgeous March Friday" as well as "Mama has off Friday".

70. That's how many glorious, gorgeous degrees it's going to be today. We need to get outside!! With my new iPad, of course. ;)

Okay, you came here for Five Question Friday, so let's get to it!

Welcome to Five Question Friday!! You've come to the right place if you want a fun, easy post or if you've suddenly discovered your muses are enjoying the warm weather so much that they don't want to come in from playing outside.

Rules for 5QF: Copy and paste the following questions to your blog post, answer them, then watch for the linky post to appear Friday morning and LINK UP!

Oh, and remember (pay close attention...this is the important one)...HAVE FUN!

Questions for Friday, March 16th: (Special thanks to Stacy (@JacksonJsmom) from A Boy Makes 3, harmonysong (@harmonysong) from Harmony Song, Kristina (@kristinascackle) from Kristina's Cackles, Kendra (@kendram) from All and Nothing, and Pam (@trooppetrie) from Troop Petrie for their question suggestions! I would love to link you in a future 5QF, so come on over to my communityor watch for my Thursday afternoon shout out for questions on Twitter and offer up your best question suggestions! Remember to @5crookedhalos me and use hashtag #5QF if you go the Twitter route!)

1. Will you run to the store or to pick up a kid looking a mess?

2. Do you finish a book if it's boring or you don't like it?

3. Beach or mountain vacations?

4. What thing/event says "winter will end and spring is right around the corner" to you?

5. Would you prefer couples or family vacation?

-------------------------------------------------------

1. Will you run to the store or to pick up a kid looking a mess?

Absolutely. It's much too hard to look perfect all the time.

Heck, sometimes, I'll even make a mad dash to the store or pick up the kiddos without brushing my teeth.

My grandma is probably gasping in horror right about now (hi Gram!!). See, she is the ultimate lady. Always looks amazing, always has her "face on"...I'm surprised she'll be seen with me, sometimes.

It's a good thing she likes me.

2. Do you finish a book if it's boring or you don't like it?

Depends on how far into it I am. I started reading some horrible book with "Plums" in the title and I couldn't get through the first few pages.

It was awful.

So I stopped.

I think it might have been the first time I'd ever just up and quit reading a book and guess what? It was EXHILIRATING! So freeing!

It's like it gave me permission to stop reading books I wasn't into ALL THE TIME!

It was like the gateway drug to stop reading bad books!

Try it sometime.

3. Beach or mountain vacations?

Depends on the company I'm with.

If it's a family vacation...I'll go with mountains, or beach if it's a lake beach.

I just, personally, have a hard time with reconciling taking young kids on a tropical vacation destination. Yeah, I know, I know, "the all inclusives have great kid care during the day"...but you know what?

If you're pawning your kid off on complete strangers so you can go enjoy your beach vacation...why didn't you just leave them at home?

Or go to Disney?

One of life's small mysteries that I don't understand. But hey, if it's your cuppa tea...have at it.

4. What thing/event says "winter will end and spring is right around the corner" to you?

The smell.

I'm not sure if it's the scent of the thawing earth or what, but when the weather warms up, the air takes on the most wonderful scent!

Oh, and also, the disappearance of snow.

But, of course, until it's June, I know that we're not completely "out of the woods" for snow here in MinneSOOOOOta. So, even though it's going to be 70 degrees today, it could very well snow a foot tomorrow.

One more reason to enjoy today for what it has to offer.

5. Would you prefer couples or family vacation?

You know my answer to #3? Yeah, that pretty much answers this one.

It depends on the vacay. Tropical beach vacation? Couples only...and preferably just the hubs and me. We're "loner vacationers". Better to reconnect that way!

Road trip? Mountains? Skiing? Bring the whole dang fam! Actually, pretty much any vacation in America is family friendly.

No. I take that back. Not Vegas. WHOA NELLY, NOT VEGAS.

But anywhere else? Sure. I think. No, I'm actually not sure...there are probably plenty of American destinations that are not kid appropriate. I take it back.

Road trip, mountains, skiing, Disney...family vacations. Amen.

-----------------------------------------------

If you hear me pacing the floor, waiting for my iPad to arrive, tell me to sit down and relax, okay? Thanks!

Thursday Night 5QF Sneak Peek!!

Yikes! Late Sneak Peek...I'm sorry! We had a wonderful, full, busy night! Friends over for tacos, kids playing and playing and playing and then "Aw, mom! I don't wanna come in!". Always so good to hear!

Minnesota has been blessed by unseasonably warm winter...and I LOVE it! Oh, how wonderful it would be if this became a trend!

Anyway, I better get a move on and get this sneak peek up for y'all!!

Welcome to Five Question Friday!! You've come to the right place if you want a fun, easy post or if you've suddenly discovered your muses are enjoying the warm weather so much that they don't want to come in from playing outside.

Rules for 5QF: Copy and paste the following questions to your blog post, answer them, then watch for the linky post to appear Friday morning and LINK UP!

Oh, and remember (pay close attention...this is the important one)...HAVE FUN!

Questions for Friday, March 16th: (Special thanks to Stacy (@JacksonJsmom) from A Boy Makes 3, harmonysong (@harmonysong) from Harmony Song, Kristina (@kristinascackle) from Kristina's Cackles, Kendra (@kendram) from All and Nothing, and Pam (@trooppetrie) from Troop Petrie for their question suggestions! I would love to link you in a future 5QF, so come on over to mycommunity or watch for my Thursday afternoon shout out for questions on Twitter and offer up your best question suggestions! Remember to @5crookedhalos me and use hashtag #5QF if you go the Twitter route!)

1. Will you run to the store or to pick up a kid looking a mess?

2. Do you finish a book if it's boring or you don't like it?

3. Beach or mountain vacations?

4. What thing/event says "winter will end and spring is right around the corner" to you?

5. Would you prefer couples or family vacation?

-------------------------------------------

Okay, see you in the morning (when my iPad will arrive!!!)!

Coming soon...

I had something in mind to try on Baby Girl's hair the other day...my best bud, Dr. J, did something similar to it on Belle once, and I was trying to replicate it.

Instead, I got this:

Isn't it pretty?! It didn't take nearly as long as it looks and isn't nearly as intricate as it looks!

Vlog tutorial coming soon...(for those of you waiting, I'm sorry it's taking me so long!)

We Didn't Get a "Before"...

Let me tell you a little story...sit back and grab a cup of coffee, or a diet coke, or a plain coke if that's more your style, or a glass of milk...

Once upon a time, a handsome young man and his (younger, I just have to add) bride sold the first home they lived in together as a couple. They had no home to buy, just a grand vision of somewhere in the country in which to raise their kids.

He wanted acres and acres of land.

She wanted a nice, clean, new house.

Their two visions were non-existent in one property, so they settled. The both of them. He for 8 "measly" acres, she for a clean, older home with her "bare minimum requirements" (three main floor bedrooms and main floor laundry).

She always hated the bathrooms and what she dubbed as "campground showers" (I kid you not...plastic shower stalls, like what you find in campgrounds) and her goal was to tackle those first.

Well, *insert pregnancy* and *insert pregnancy* and *insert raising a houseful of small children* and time just got away. Then, one day, a few years into living in their new home, the shower head broke off the main floor bathroom. "Perfect!" thought the (younger) wife, "Now we can remodel the bathrooms!"

Fast forward 5 or so years and one extremely high bid from a plumber and that shower head was still broken. That shower unused. The bathtub now leaky because it "choked" on tub toys and needed resuscitation and was never quite the same after. That wife was out to lunch with some blogging/twitter friends and she came home to this:

"GAH!! I didn't take before pictures!!" she exclaimed, like any good blogger would.

Her handsome husband looked at her with a look that said, "Before pictures? We've been waiting 5 years to do this and you want BEFORE pictures? How 'bout FIVE YEARS AGO?!" and promptly swung around and ripped out more sheetrock.

Thankfully for them, they have a functional shower in their basement, or people wouldn't really want to be around them much, seeing as how they're doing this project on "spare time". (HA! "Spare time"...what's that?!)

Okay, done story telling...back to first person.

So, our home was built in the 70's and needs major updating. The bathroom is step one of that updating! Let me try to explain the layout of the "before bathroom"...when you walk into the bathroom, you enter what we call "the sink room", a carpeted (gross...kids, toothpaste, and carpet are not a good mix) entry to the "guts" of the bathroom.

Sink on the right with open (i.e. messy) shelving, dated cupboards and ugliness all around. Opposite the sink are floor to ceiling, wall to wall linen "cupboards". Huge. Awesome storage space, if a bit difficult to get to the back of. (They're really deep.) And ugly, 1970's stained, awful cupboard doors.

There is (was) a pocket door that separates the sink room from the "guts" of the bathroom (we are replacing the pocket door with a "real" door...with the ages and spacing of our kids, we thought a "privacy door" for when they get older and are all getting ready for school might be helpful)...what was a (campground) shower immediately to your left (that short wall of studs was one where the shower was), then the toilet, and a tub to the right.

I always hated that the tub was separate from the shower.

Well folks, it ain't no more!

Shower is ripped out, old porcelain tub replaced by fancy new (deep) whirlpool tub, plumbed for a shower and ready for Durarock to be installed for the tile to go in, extra insulation added for sound proofing (the bathroom is between two bedrooms)! Now we have to find someone to reface our nasty old cupboards/drawers and make a door to hide those eyesore shelves, pick out a slab of granite for the counter, a new sink, mirror, paint and stain.

Goodness. That sounds like a lot left to do when I write it all out.

Help.

Our Night With Lady A...

Good food, great music, a night out with my handsome man...what more could a girl ask for?!

Sunday afternoon (after a much too long stop at Menard's to buy tile for our bathroom remodel...yes, I know, I need to post some pics of the work in progress...) the Mr. and I headed on down to the "Big City" for a loooooooooong overdue date night.

Dinner at Fogo de Chao. *burp* *groan* In an interesting juxtaposition, we initially sat next to a table of...um...chubby dudes. And they ate and ate and ate.

Next to sit at that table? A bunch of CrossFit'ers, prolly just going home from the gym (judging by their attire) and in need of some serious fuel (See his t-shirt? "Embrace the Suck"...it skeers me).

Dudes were ripped. And they ate and ate and ate. In my mind I saw myself with the chubby guys...but really wanting to be like the ripped guys.

In the end, it just all comes down to me wanting to just eat and eat and eat. Have you ever been to Fogo? It's incredible. An endless supply of food that just keeps streaming to your table, over and over and over.

Gaucho chefs walk around with skewers of meat and stop at your table to offer you a piece of meat. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) The salad bar? Incredible. The sides? Delicious...except I didn't try the fried bananas. (Blech.)

And for dessert? Creme Brulee. Stick a fork in me, I'm done...but, at this point, I was pretty much like a stuffed sausage so if you would've stuck a fork in me, I would've likely have squirted grease all over.

After supper, we were headed to the Lady Antebellum concert...lucky for us, the Target Center was a block away. And, also lucky for us, the weather here has been unseasonably warm (like, 60's warm...versus the 30's that we usually have right now) so the walk to the Tarjay Center was wonderful!

Once inside, we found our (not too shabby) seats and caught the very last (our favorite) song of the first opener "Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not".

Next up was Darius Rucker, who will always be Hootie to me. Bonus!! He even sang some Hootie songs! Yay!! He rocked it. I'm debating as to whom I enjoyed more...he or Lady A...he was THAT good!! (And apparently, Hootie gets better with age...dude was lookin' good!)

I told my hubs, as everyone was cheering him on during his Hootie songs, that he was prolly thinking, "Where were you son's of B's when I was Hootie?!"

During the intermission between Darius (I sooooo wanted to type "Hootie" there) and Lady A...my handsome date spied some empty seats up closer, so he investigated and scored us some AMAZING SEATS!! Amazing enough that I even snagged a couple of waves from Hilary and Dave!

The highlight of Lady A was when they sang "American Honey"...they pulled up a little 7 year old girl (well, actually "7 and a half" according to her) to sing with them and she was so stinkin' cute!

I'm such a mom too...I actually got a little teary, thinking of how proud that little girl must be, standing on that stage in front of tens of thousands of people cheering her on. What a wonderful memory for her!

And, one of my favorite photos...the audience acting as a real, live "disco ball"...look at all those phone lights!!!

We had a blast. Got out of the city and headed home in record time with a pocketful of memories to last us forever.

Thank you, hon, for the awesome Christmas present. I love you!

Studious...

Sometimes, I just like taking photos. Unfortunately for my kids, that means they oftentimes have to put up with having a lens in their face.

My middle child is very patient with me. And for this, I thank him.

Homework.

He really is as sweet as those big brown eyes lead you to believe. (Most of the time...)

Thanks, Dubya, for putting up with your Mamarazzi.

Five Question Friday!! 3/9/12

Update: My answers now posted!!

Original post:

Oh, my dear friends...wow. Work was cah-RAZY busy last night and they needed me to stay until 3:30 am...which means that I was left to write this post at approximately 4:19 am...give or take a minute or two.

Writing a post after I get home from work at midnight is one thing...trying to write a post at 4:19? No way!

So, this is what I'm gonna do...I'll post everything like usual...but my answers won't be here until later this morning, when I can form coherent sentences and stop falling asleep mid paragraph. Stay tuned for my answers!

Welcome to Five Question Friday!! You've come to the right place if you want a fun, easy post or if you've suddenly discovered your muses aren't used to working the late shift and are plum tuckered out.

Rules for 5QF: Copy and paste the following questions to your blog post, answer them, then watch for the linky post to appear Friday morning and LINK UP!

Oh, and remember (pay close attention...this is the important one)...HAVE FUN!

Questions for Friday, March 9th: (Special thanks to Melissa (@Melissa_M80) from Melissa's Scrumptious Treats, Pam (@trooppetrie) from Troop Petrie, Cate (@RndmCrftyGAGrl) from Random Crafty GA Girl, Stacy (@JacksonJsmom) from A Boy Makes 3, and Stephanie (@StephanieLex) fromOn My Mind for their question suggestions! I would love to link you in a future 5QF, so come on over to my community or watch for my Thursday afternoon shout out for questions on Twitter and offer up your best question suggestions! Remember to @5crookedhalos me and use hashtag #5QF if you go the Twitter route!)

1. Are you looking forward to the time change this weekend?

2. Are you getting the new iPad/would you want a iPad?

3. If money was not a problem, what is the one thing you would splurge on?

4. How did you and the Mr. (or Mrs.) meet?

5. Summer is right around the corner. Bikini or one-piece?

-------------------------------------------------

1. Are you looking forward to the time change this weekend?

Um...can I get a "HELL NO"!! ;) I love my sleep too much...and to have someone just...just...just TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME?! It just ain't fair.

Plus, it always makes the kids all wonky. You wouldn't think a measly little hour would make much of a difference, but it does. A lot.

I'm starting to think we just need to permanently change the time. I mean, what...DST used to be just the summer months, then they moved back the fall back time change and moved up the spring ahead time change and now, we've got something like 4 months of "real time" vs. 8 months of DST.

Also, NEWS FLASH! There is no daylight being saved. Farmers have all sorts of technology "nowadays" and stores don't close at 5pm anymore. I say, either do away with DST or permanently change the time.

Amen. *steps off soap box*

2. Are you getting the new iPad/would you want a iPad?

MAMA'S GETTIN' AN iPAD!!!!!

Yes, it's true. I have succumbed to the hype, saved up my money, cashed in some unwanted gold (more on that later) and clicked the "Place Order" button yesterday afternoon!!

So. EXCITED.

3. If money was not a problem, what is the one thing you would splurge on?

A new house.

On a lake.

With lots of land and a hobby farm so my husband would also be happy.

Oh, and unicorns would live there too, since "house on a lake with lots of land and a hobby farm" don't really exist. At least not around here.

Boo.

4. How did you and the Mr. (or Mrs.) meet?

Prepare yourself for the most romantic "where did you meet" story ever.

One dark and stormy evening (okay, it wasn't at all stormy...I just like saying that...), there was a little "shindig" planned for my 21st birthday that had taken place mid week, just a few days earlier.

All dolled up, I headed down to our local bar with my "posse" (coupla BFF's and my parents...).

As the night went on, I found a rather handsome young man looking my way, and by the end of the night, we were slow dancing and I was resting my head on his shoulder. (Hey, it just got heavy. Colorado Bulldogs make your head heavy, it's a known fact.)

Fast forward three years, and we were hitched. Fast forward eleven years from that and we have a house full of kids and a crazy, beautiful life.

5. Summer is right around the corner. Bikini or one-piece?

Depends.

In Mexico, I swore I wouldn't wear a bikini with everyone I knew around. Then I started "Just Dancing", saw some improvements, gained some self confidence, shrugged my shoulders and thought, "What the heck. Who cares." (Course, it could've been the mojitos talking...) and I discovered a bikini wasn't nearly as traumatic as I thought. (At least for me...the other patrons may or may not be scarred for life after seeing me in a bikini...)

So, if I can get my butt moving and get in shape, you can bet I'll be sporting a bikini...I like a sun-kissed tummy!

If not? Then it's a tankini for me. Mama can't do one pieces because I have a freakishly long torso. Honest to Pete. If my legs matched my torso, I'd be like 6'5"...if my torso matched my legs, I'd be like 4'10".

Nice, right?

-------------------------------------------------

Annnnnnnd...GO!! Look for me to post my own answers around 11 ish? Noonish? I'll keep you posted via Twitter!