August 26, 2010

Don't you think it should be illegal to be forced to work on a beautiful day such as this? I took this picture on Hazel on my way to work.

August 25, 2010

Jon and I and my parents drove up to South Haven today to hang out. Originally, we were planning on driving to Chicago to see the tall ships. But it was going to be expensive, and we didn't want to leave Duke home inside for that long. Since we all had the day off, we decided to go up to South Haven for the world's best burger. This burger, the Jerry Burger, can be found at Maple Grove Tavern. It's a hand pattied fresh burger, served on Texas toast with bacon, caramelized onions and Swiss cheese. It is truly a masterpiece.

We had lunch. We walked out both piers along each side of the marina channel. Then we went shopping for a little bit downtown. We got home about 5pm. Duke sure was hungry. But he didn't pee in the house! Yay!! See, one of the meds he is on for his allergy problem is Prednisone. If you know anything about Prednisone, you know it's a steroid. If you know anything about steroids, you know that they shrink tissue. (Hence, all the jokes about guys on steroids with small nerts.) Well, they certainly do a great job of shrinking his bladder. And we have had about 6 accidents in the house in the last week. Thank God for Arm and Hammer Pet Stain and Odor Remover with OxiClean!

August 24, 2010

I must resist drinking my Spotted Cow before we go to Ludington. I have two cases, which is just about enough for me and Jon to enjoy on our 4 day weekend next month. So I'm not even putting one bottle in the fridge for fear that I will drink it all and not have enough in September

Today I power washed the house. It gets ugly green pollen stains on the north side every year. It's such a pain in the ass to clean, but thankfully I only have to do it once a year.

August 23, 2010

Mowed today. I need to win the lottery so I can hire a lawn boy.

August 22, 2010

Duke's medicine is working! We noticed an immediate change. See? No cone. Yay for drugs!

August 21, 2010

It's the beginning of Hell Weekend. Actually, I think the weekend started on Tuesday. This week, Notre Dame opened the dorms for incoming freshmen. And all the high and mighty elite were in shopping today. I won't dwell on the negative and give details of my encounters. But I just don't understand how some of these people think that its okay to talk to other people the way they do. I have never in my life been in a store or restaurant or any other place of business and treated a worker like shit.

Anyhoo, the picture above is a spider web on the deck just after the rain. It looks a little crazy, doesn't it? Like Target shoppers this weekend?

August 20, 2010

Standby.

August 19, 2010

Finally! Here we are waiting for Dr. Rob. Duke has a double ear infection. So we got some steroids for the inflammation in his feet, a strong antihistamine for the allergies and some ear drops for the ear infection. All in all, we left the vet only paying $140. I was actually surprised. I thought we would walk out of there paying at least $250.

August 18, 2010

My poor Duke. He has an appointment at the vet tomorrow to get some much needed relief for his allergies. At least he is finding some comfort laying in the shade outside. And he's not even embarrassed about his cone. Bless his heart.

August 17, 2010

I think I can completely rely on a great sunrise photo opportunity every morning before I go to work. If I fail to get a good, funny, interesting or weird picture throughout the day, I can always go with the old standby.

August 16, 2010

My poor Duke. His allergies are really bad right now and he is wearing his E-collar just about at all times so he doesn't chew his leg off like a Toluca Legs Turkey Co. turkey leg from Disney. He's certainly getting used to it, though. Here, he's laying in his favorite spot on the deck, facing the driveway waiting for Dad to come home.

August 15, 2010

Cracker. Ants.

August 14, 2010

Stella is getting so big. Jon and I went over to let her out again today. After that, just a lazy Saturday.

August 13, 2010

Today, my mom and I took the girls to Indiana Beach. It's the last Friday before school starts and we wanted the girls to have a last summer hurrah. We met at McDonald's at 8am for breakfast. We got on the road and arrived at the park right at 11am, when they opened. To our surprise and delight, it wasn't that busy. We only had to wait in line for 2 rides. Otherwise, if we waited, we were the next group to go. I haven't been to IB in about 10 years, and it has changed tremendously. There are a few new big roller coasters. We had a hard time getting Morgan to go on much of anything other than the kiddie rides. Lauren was a little more brave. For a little bit during the day, we split up and Lauren and I went on rides by ourselves. We went on a small roller coaster (Lauren's first roller coaster), the dragon boat swing, the gondola ferris wheel, the log flume and the sky lift. The sky lift was Lauren's favorite and we must have gone on it about 10-12 times throughout the day. All day we kept trying to talk Morgan into going on it, but she was scared. All of a sudden in the early evening, she said, "I'll do it." So her and I went on it while my mom and Lauren walked to the other end of the park. We yelled down and said HI to them when we passed over them. And can you believe it? Morgan loved it, didn't want to get off and said she wanted to keep doing it. She ended up going 3 times all together. It was really hot all day, but we're glad the weather was nice. It's always my luck that we would plan something like this and it would rain all day.

"Yay! Kiddie rides!"

August 12, 2010

I'm working out again. And doggone it if it doesn't work. I don't want to overwhelm myself with a gigantic goal of weight loss. So I'm taking it one week at a time. I've given myself a goal of 2 pounds per week. And that's not a lot. I started last Wednesday. So today, I'm down 6.4 pounds. In 8 days! Awesome! I've been Wii Fitting and trying to watch what I eat. I discovered frozen yogurt smoothies. Not like I haven't had one before. But I wasn't one to make my own on a regular basis. They're fantastic. I put extra strawberries and bananas in mine today. That was my lunch. I can't believe that I still lost weight even though we went to Red Lobster last night. But I guess that's what regular exercise does for you. Boosts your metabolism a little and you can splurge once in awhile and it won't destroy you.

August 11, 2010

Tonight we went to dinner at Red Lobster for Mom's birthday. It was so good, and we all had a great time.

August 10, 2010

Happy Birthday to my Mom! Love you!

Silly Banz are all the craze with the kiddos right now. Lauren and Morgan are all about them. The last time I saw them, they had tons of them on both wrists and both ankles. And they had to take them all off and spread them out on the table and show me all the shapes. I bought them some Disney ones, since they are going to Disney World next month. Under one stipulation. I got to have one. It turned out that I actually got two, since there were 24 in the package and they had to be split up evenly between the girls. I opted for a Mickey and Daisy Duck.

August 9, 2010

Ethan is playing Pop Warner football this year. Tonight was his first full-contact practice, pads and all. He is playing right tackle and did an awesome job blocking! He didn't stop, even after the coach blew the whistle! He is focused! Grrrrrrrrrrr.

August 8, 2010

On the way to work this morning.

August 7, 2010

Didn't take a picture today.

But I did have a thought. I saw a guy standing on the corner of 31 and Cleveland today, panhandling and smoking a cigarette. Now I understand that these people don't want jobs...this is their job. They make more money panhandling than working. And it's tax free cash. I get that. (That's why I never give them money, and think that anyone that does is a sucker.) But from a business standpoint, don't you think you would have a better chance of swindling people into giving you money if you weren't smoking a cigarette?

August 6, 2010

Mel at work showing off her bright green shoes.

August 5, 2010

Well, I didn't do much today and didn't get inspired to take a picture. This is a random picture I took of Duke in the kitchen. Ho hum...

August 4, 2010

Today, I got to go over to Jay and Jen's and do a little babysitting. I stayed for about an hour and fed and played with new baby Stella. She's getting bigger, even in the last week since I saw her last. I love how she can be a ball of energy one minute and then falling asleep the next.

August 3, 2010

Today was the 27th annual National Night Out.

The most exciting thing to happen while we were there, was the Memorial Hospital MedFlight helicopter landed in the softball field. The kids all got to get in and check it out. Lauren had no problem getting in and taking a seat. Morgan, however, wanted nothing to do with it. After the helicopter tour, we got some free Kona Ice snowcones. ♪Fabulous!♫

August 2, 2010

Well, I haven't posted a hair picture in awhile. It's getting long again. I think I want to grow it out again. I still don't like the layers that are in it, but if I cut the layers off to get one length, it would be pretty short. And I'm just not willing to do that on purpose. But I did finally find a proper volumizing hair product that I like. Normally, I hate my hair long because it's so straight and has no style that it just lays there like a cheap whore. But I'm finally getting a little ooomph in it now.

There is much talk about who is going to be the next new judges on American Idol. The rumors are Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez. I'm not a big fan of J-Lo. I could totally see her criticizing with her holier-than-thou attitude and how no one is going to live up to her standards or expectations. Or I could be totally wrong. I was really hoping for Harry Connick Jr. He was so good with those kids. He didn't just listen to them and tell them whether they were good or not, he actually guided them. And he is SO funny. That show could use a little comedy. The ratings aren't exactly killing anymore.

August 1, 2010

Today we went to Jon's parents' house for a cookout. We brought Lauren and Morgan along too. The girls wanted to spend most of the time feeding the koi fish in Fred's little pond. And I kept telling them to quit jumping around on the rocks around the pond, or someone was gonna fall in. Well, someone fell in. Lauren's shoe slipped on a wet rock and she fell in and got wet all the way up to her waist. Told you so!