Monday Funday?

This week is going to be a fun and busy week en mi casa...

Today is the Minnesota Twins home opener.  While that in and of itself is super exciting, they happen to be palying the Boston Red Sox, which is ALWAYS a really great game....  And if that wasn't enough, all of this is happening at a BRAND NEW STADIUM!!  Outdoor baseball, WELCOME BACK TO MINNESOTA!

Target Field photo found on Google Images

Better yet, courtesey of The Man, my super fabulous friend Miss Lucinda and I will be enjoying all of the opening day action from section 221 at the beautiful Target Field!!!  WOOT!!!

So while you're busy being jealous, I'd just like to let you know that on Thursday, the beautiful June from 3! A Charm will be here, live and in the flesh for TWO WHOLE NIGHTS!!  That's right!  Juney and That One Mom will be living large for two nights!  (Did I mention there will be some Spotted Cow and my kids' school family dance...  Not at the same time!  Geez, who boozes it up before a school function!)

Anybaseballgame, I will be thinking of you all while I watch the boys break in the new field!  Maybe I will tweet some pictures of the inaugural game!!!

And if you're not sure why YOU should be excited about the Minnesota Twins, I have four great reasons right here!

Surprise!!! It's Friday, January 8!

That's it!  That's my surprise!  Not only can I make a slideshow (Travis and Think Tank Momma both know that alone is an amazing feat!), but IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

I'm so excited!  It's the first year in many, many years I get to spend a birthday with a certain someone special.  The Man has made reservations at a bed and breakfast in northwestern Minnesota AND there is a murder mystery dinner!  He arranged someone to stay with my monsters children and planned the whole weekend himself!

Tonight, he and Miss Lucinda are going to take me out on the town to get my drink on.  I don't have to work,  I don't have to sober cab.  And I don't have to come home until Sunday night!!!! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend and I will be back on Monday!!! 

It's Raining Men!!!

Miss Lucinda and I hit the town on Saturday night.  After I did the Trick-or-Treating rounds with 10 kids.  She dressed as a 50's housewife (think I Love Lucy, red hair and all!) and I dressed in 50's rockabilly. (It's Minnesota, folks, not the west coast.  It's the only time of year I can get away with rockabilly around here!)

Soooo, Miss Lucinda recently moved from the small town where I grew up to St. Paul.  We decided to take advantage of this and hit the St. Paul bars for Halloween.  We had so much fun!

First of all, it was so nice going out and not knowing everyone in the place! (Having grown up in and now bartending in said small town, it's difficult to move 3 inches without knowing someone.)  We were able to talk without interruption, dance without everyone jumping in, and have a "girls night" without any local drama.

The best part, though, was the new variety of eye candy!  I've decided the reason dating has been so difficult is because the majority of fish in my small pond are totally undesirable, familiar faces.  Boy, was there ever variety!  We met men from Morocco, Spain, Finland, and America.  The conversations were interesting and about way more than the stupid World Series (I'm a bitter Twins fan that LOATHES the Yankees.) and football (Yes, I love football, but there are more things worth talking about.).

The night ended with Miss Lucinda giving her number to super hot college Spanish teacher from Spain and me giving mine to The Karate Kid (Yummy lawyer that teaches American law in Spain part of the year.  His Halloween costume was the shower from The Karate Kid).

While we have both been talking to our respective Spanish speaking hotties, neither of us have solidified plans to seem them.  We were talking the other night about it and we both really want to, but....

As you all know, I have been spending time with a man I met at work.  While things have not been intimate, I know that he would be hurt to know I went out with someone else.  We haven't ever discussed "relationships", or where we are headed.  He has, however, made it very clear that he is very interested in me.

Miss Lucinda has also been spending time with someone else.  They too have not set any relationship boundaries, but she wants to be cautious.  She's not the type to be careless with someone's feelings. 

So for now, we choose to tread lightly...  But heres to yummy Spanish speaking men that want to take us out.  YUM!!!

Miss Lucinda

Confessions

I have a confession to make.

Although I have been fighting The Sickness, I haven't exactly been doing all I can to expedite the healing process.  A week ago Saturday, Miss Lucinda had tickets to go see an amazing band called The Gaslight Anthem at the Cabooze in Minneapolis.

As I had already taken the night off of work and Miss Lucinda already had tickets to the sold out show, I couldn't see not going.  It was amazing.  There were three opening bands, Frank Turner, The Loved Ones, and Murder by Death.  If you've not heard any of them, I recommend checking them out.

We were crazy close to the stage for The Gaslight Anthem.  I had the unfortunate experience of getting caught up in the first mosh pit I've experienced since sometime in the 90's.  I'm not really sure why, as The Gaslight Anthem isn't really a moshing kind of band.  Check out this link below for thier song "Great Expectations".  It's one of my favorites by them.



And of course, what super close up live music experience is complete without a few pictures....

Need to Get My Butt Moving

Today finds me in a funk.

Sunday was a difficult day.  I had been out with the girls until late.  We had a fabulous time dancing!  Our volunteer (badgered into submission by his loving girlfriend) DD dropped Miss Lucinda and me off at my house around 3 a.m.

I'm sure a normal person would have just gone to bed.  However, Miss Lucinda and I haven't seen each other in over a month.  Which is FOREVER in our worlds.  So we had some catching up to do.  In the midst of catching up, my text message start going off.  At 3:06, I get a message that says, "What are you doing?"  It's a local number that I don't have assigned to a contact.  I didn't give my number out at all, so it must be someone I know...

"Who's this?"  is all I reply.

"Mr. Fun-and-games, again."  Ahhh, Mr. Fun-and-games....  I deleted all of his contact info out of my phone months ago, when I finally decided after years and years of his nonsense, that I couldn't deal with him any more.  This was the 2nd time this week he'd contacted me.  I didn't save his info then.  I'm not going to now.

If he is anything, he is consistent.  Mr. Fun-and-games wants to "hang out".  I have to get up at 6:00.  I told him, if he can deal with sweat pants and sleep, he's welcome to crash.  I would, however, be gone when he woke up.  Hahahaha....  From my own house...

So Sunday morning came too soon.  Mr. Fun-and-games parked behind me and I had to dig through all of his pockets to move his truck.  I had to go pick up The Girl from her friend's house and take her to church.  She was singing on the youth worship team and had to be there for all of the services.  I took a nap in the car during the second service.

I got a text from Miss Lucinda around 9:30 letting me know that Mr. Fun-and-games had just left and I would find her crashed in my bed when I got home.

After church, we picked up The Boy and came home to get Miss Lucinda and take her home.  My poor little head was THROBBING!  We were all starving, so we took Miss Lucinda home and went out to eat.  I was in bed by 3:00 p.m. for the longest nap ever.  When I woke at 6:30, I still had a killer headache.  The Girl was sound asleep in her room and The Boy was in his room watching a movie.  The house was silent.  It was amazing.  I fell back asleep until 9:00, watched The Break-up, and went back to sleep until 6:00 this morning.

As I sit here, it is almost 1:00 p.m.  The kids are at school.  I have a HUGE to-do list.  And I'm still in my jammies...

I need to light a fire under my ass and get my house cleaned.  Ugh....  Like I said, I'm in a funk.

Big Fat Family Roadtrip

I know it seems that Spring Break is a long, long time away, but really it's right around the corner.  Last year, I had the insane great idea to plan a roadtrip with the kids.  Yes, just me and the kids.  Alone.  In a car.  For 12 days.  (Insert horror film music here.)

We had a GREAT time!!!  We drove from Minnesota...

(Hahaha, this is in Miss Lucinda's front yard in Bemidji.  WAAAAY north of me.)

To my Dad and Step-mom's in Chicagoland...  Thru Indiana...

(That's the water tower in Crown Point, IN.  I was born in that town.  I took the picture as I was driving by on the interstate.  The kids thought I was crazy, but hey, I came from there...  Many, many, many years ago.)

We drove through Kentucky (I had no idea it is so pretty there!), and ended up in Nashville for a night. (Definately a place I'd like to take a grown-up trip!)  From there we went to Chattanooga, TN/Rock City, GA. 

We went to Atlanta and saw Stone Mountain, which is super cool!  If you've ever seen Mt. Rushmore, you HAVE to see Stone Mountain!  It is so much bigger!  And the coolest part is taking a Swiss cable car to the top of the mountain and walking around!  (Despite what Hollywood tells you, you can't do that at Mt. Rushmore.  Disappointing, I know!)

(Three important Confedrate guys.)                   (1,683 feet above sea level!)

From there, we spent 2 days in Orlando.  We did the usual, Disney World!  We had been there once before as a family and had a great time.  This time was equally as amazing.  Even at the ripe "old" age of 31, I LOVE Disney!  And from Disney, we headed to FarAwayGrandma's house in Ft. Myer's.

We went to the beach, spent time with MY grandma, played at FarAwayGrandma's pool, drove the golf cart, and the piece de resistance....  Went on a pirate ship!!!  Ok, so it was a commercial pirate ship manned by men dressed up as pirates, but we really went for a ride in the Gulf of Mexico, and it was super cool! (And they had a full bar and my mom was driving!!!  So I got to have a couple beers!)

On the trek home, we drove back through Georgia, through Alabama (I saw Talladega!), and Mississippi (on a road that doesn't exist, according to my dad's GPS), to Memphis!  In Memphis, we went to Graceland (which was awesome!).  Sadly, I have no pictures of that, as the aforementioned camera was new and I didn't know how to turn off the flash...  Sad panda...

We were going to stop in St. Louis to see the arch, but I decided that I was ready to get home and sleep in my own bed.  So, in all of my insanity brillance, I decided to drive straight through from Memphis (we left at 2pm) home.  Somewhere around Peoria, I decided I was probably going to need some help staying awake.  I stopped and purchased 3 Monster drinks (I don't drink energy drinks.  Yuck!) and 4 rolls of Spree candy.  I pulled into my driveway at 4am and was sound asleep in my own bed by 4:15!!!  (I had gut rot for a week after all of that sugar!!)

So, after all of that, the point of this story is to tell you that I've begun to toss around ideas for a 2nd Annual Big Fat Family Roadtrip.  The Girl wants to go to Ireland (cough, cough).  I told her if she can come up with money for airfare, I'd be happy to pay for the rest.  Otherwise, I'm trying to plan an equally exciting roadtrip for 3 to somewhere in these great United States!  Wish me luck!