I talked with SC on Sunday - while I was in the process of washing mountainous loads of clothing - and she informed me that plans are being made for a trip to "Penn Hills" (am I correct in assuming that this is Wendi's code name for the place we are going????) She also informed me that I was the only one not cool enough to attend tkd on Saturday morning :( I have a good excuse - other than the fact that I've only ever been to ONE Saturday morning tkd class - and that is that my family, my sister's family, and my mom & dad drove to Ohio to visit my other sister, Lori (not the Lori that comments on my blog though.) Here we are, standing nice and still and not poking each other or giving each other wet-willys long enough for my mom and Dave to have a photo shoot. This is one of the better pictures. I have a bunch of one or more of us in various stages of speaking, pointing, or making a weird face. I have some with 2 of us looking one way and the other one (Danielle) looking the other way - granted, there were two cameras and our photographers were not very clear on who was shooting when...... We're lucky we came up with this picture considering the subjects being photographed :)
In other not so exciting news, Dave went with us to tkd tonight. He decided to take Pixel with him and document the evening. This is Pixel.

He's my/our new Canon Rebel camera. Happy Anniversary to us :) Anyway, Shawn taught, so we all left class sweaty messes. Below are some shots of some of the ways he chose to torture us this evening.

You think they're nothing but innocent pride crushing caterpillars, but they're not! No these caterpillars involve a push-up as well. You can't tell me that Shawn doesn't enjoy this. Just look at his face! He's laughing (not that I blame him.....)

We did sit-ups.... both ways.

Ah, one of my least favorites. The balancing of the pad while doing round kicks. These suckers kill my hip/side butt area. Later we had to do push ups for each pad that fell.... we weren't warned about that little tidbit until after the drill was over.

We round kicked the pads.

We practiced our board break. Here's Cam with the beginning swivel and the break!

Here's my break.

We ended out the evening with some sparring. Here's Ry flying through the air. I don't know about you, but I'd probably give him 3 points for this baby.

And here's my baby.

It was a great class. I love it when Shawn teaches!

Leslie won't be my friend anymore.............

Leslie is threatening to un-be my friend! "Why???" you may ask.... Apparently, it's all because of this:

We were chatting on the phone this evening, finalizing the plans for our "date" tomorrow morning. Don't be jealous girls, you're not missing anything fun.... we're going to have our blood work done early in the morning :( I can't eat anything else tonight.... I'm not sure I'll make it. I have had an irrational fear of having my blood drawn since I was in the 3rd grade. I was anemic and, according to my mom, it took her and 4 nurses to hold me down in order to get the blood! I guess I was a strong and wiry little thing. I mean, geez, I was 3/4 toothpick legs at the time and a head! I guess this just foretold of my future taekwondo butt-kicking skills (oooh, by the way, Dad... I'm sorry for kicking your glasses off of your face the other night. Please forgive me.) Back to the story... When my sister had to get her blood drawn - and I was quite a bit older - I almost passed out in the waiting room just thinking about what she was going through. When I got pregnant with the boys, I got brave. After all, it wasn't for ME that this was being done; it was for THEM - and I'd do anything for them. The last time I had my blood taken was about 2 years ago. I wasn't freaked out or anything, but I did almost pass out after and they had to give me a pumpkin cookie - how embarrassing :( I'm sure it was the low blood sugar! I told Leslie to have her camera ready tomorrow because heaven only knows what will go down (hopefully not me) and SHE'S driving - then we're going to breakfast. That'll be some fun after getting up at the butt crack of dawn and having a foot long needle plunged into my arm while they drain out 87 tubes of my blood!

Ah, but none of this explains why she's going to un-be my friend. Sorry, I got sidetracked. My sister asked if she could bring her kids trick-or-treating in my neighborhood this year. They live in a cute little town, but there really aren't a LOT of houses - and none that she overly wants to go to. I asked Cam if he wanted to walk around with Levi and Savannah. I told him he could just throw a white sheet over his head and I'd cut some holes in it. I said this as I was on the phone with Leslie. She said something about cutting a lot of holes in it and something about a rock. I had no idea what she was talking about! I admit it. I have never seen Charlie Brown's Halloween Special. There, I said it. I said it to her. She said she wasn't sure she could be my friend. Do the rest of you still like me??????? Please! Now that I have friends, I'd like to keep them......

Really???? You need to warn people of this?

My faithful, trusty curling iron gave up the ghost the other day, and I had to get a new one. Thank heavens this tag was on there or I could have really injured myself.

Seriously, when I saw that bright, shiny curling iron, my first thought was, "I can't wait to fire this baby up and put it near my eyes! I wonder how close I can get it to my eyeball before it starts to feel dry? Woo-hoo, I'll be having fun tonight!" Honestly, what kind of moron would try to curl their eyelashes with a 1 inch diameter curling iron? Duh! In the wise, wise words of Squidward Tentacles, "Everybody's an idiot, except for me!"

My New Favorite Phrase

"You are sassy to me."

Last night, my crazy family came over to celebrate my birthday. Big Sexy made pumpkin pie - with REAL pumpkins, not the stuff from a can - and chocolate cupcakes with white icing and chocolate sprinkles for the kids and Steve :) While I was teaching my 3 taekwondo classes in a row - one of which was an all ranks Tiny Tiger class that was packed - the boys decorated for the party. Here's a pic of Cam's creation... Notice that the streamers & balloon spell MOM. I'm telling ya, the kid's creativity astounds me!

Here we have a lovely picture of me opening one of my gifts. I think we can safely assume that Big Sexy has a knack for snapping a picture right when I have the most retarded expression on my face. Thanks, Honey!!!!!!

Dave and the boys got me all of the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman DVDs. It's okay if you think I'm a dork.... that's a good show!

My favorite little girl in the whole, wide world made me two beautiful pictures and dictated a note to her mom for me. She said, "I want to come to your birthday tomorrow and see you there when I come...." She also said, "I love you steps. They are bu-ee-ful." She's not kidding about the steps. When she's over here, she goes up and down those babies a million and one times! Here's a close-up of the bu-ee-ful little girl.... notice her tat.I'm not going to mention the really nice, sweet, mushy card that my parents gave me. My sister reads my blog and I don't want to bring back the bad memories of what my mom wrote in the card... you know, about me being the favorite and most loved and all :)

My magical friend, Lady Leslie, got me a crazy card, which Cam has made sure I've heard no less than 27 times today, and a beautiful, brushed-steel standy uppy photo album that says "FRIENDS" on the front of it. Her comment that, ".....now that you have some," made me laugh hysterically. My boyfriend, Alex, is all ready to smile for a picture to go in the album the next time I seem him. I suppose this is better than trying to kick me in the backside which is what the ornery little dude was trying to do during his taekwondo class last night!

Mmmmmm. Chicken Marsala. My wonderful, perfect, handsome, strong, intelligent, person-who-bathes husband made me chicken marsala for dinner this evening - with roasted red potatoes and peppers. When the boys and I walked in the door after taekwondo, the house smelled heavenly. Big Sexy was cooking up a storm in the kitchen: chopping peppers, slicing mushrooms, simmering stuff...... Although he said he was making me dinner for my birthday, I think, really, that he was feeling challenged. See, last night, as we were driving to our anniversary dinner, he informed me that I wasn't allowed to order chicken. I told him that we were going to an Italian restaurant and I was pretty sure that they would have awesome chicken marsala and that that's one of my favorite dishes that I don't get to eat all the time - because he's never made it. The gauntlet had been thrown. After work this evening, he drove to 3 different stores to get all of the ingredients that he'd need to make the dish and it was DELICIOUS. Cam asked when he was going to make it again and, no, there are NO leftovers :)

I want to say a big "Thank You" to all of the crazy people who called and wished me a "Happy Birthday" today. Some of you said it. Some of you sang it. Some of you sang the whole thing backwards.... very impressive! The first call of the day was from my babyist sister, Lori. She was thrilled that she had beaten my mom to the punch. I'm just glad she was free to make the call.... she knows what I mean :) Levi and Savannah called and sang to me this evening.... Steve, I noticed that your voice was absent from the heavenly chorus.... You'll have to sing a solo tomorrow night if you want cupcakes!!!! My grandparents called and sang and told me how I was, and am, the perfectly cherished first grandchild :) It was a good day to turn 29.... again.

Well, we made it home from a beautiful weekend up at camp! We arrived at about 10:00 on Thursday evening after a 3 hour drive and a quick dinner in the car from Sheetz - what a romantic way to spend our anniversary, wouldn't you say????? The weather was absolutely gorgeous! The trees were all changing color and the sky was a pure, crystalline blue. We went on long walks, ate a lot of food, went spotting deer in the back of Danielle and Steve's truck each evening snuggled together under blankets to keep warm, and laughed. What a refreshing, do nothing, no responsibilities weekend! The downside to it all was the outhouse. Princesses should NOT have to use outhouses!

We spent all of Friday hanging out with my sister and her family and then, on Friday evening, my parents surprised us by showing up! They were supposed to be attending a marriage retreat this weekend through our church and, though my sister and I had tried to get them to change their minds and come up with us, they insisted that they could not get out of it. Apparently, they realized that a day in the mountains with the lot of us would be much more fun than a marriage retreat and decided to throw some stuff into the back of my dad's truck and drive on up! I'm sure their marriage will survive!

Aren't they a motley looking crew????

Tee-hee-hee.

Danielle had had quite enough of Paparazzi Dave.

Scuba Steve playing Lazer Tag. He's HOT!!!!

We walked many miles to the top of the mountain to get advice from Levi the Wise Man...........

Cam and his ginormous crayfish/lobster wanna-be.

Ry climbing the tree stand we found on our walk.

Um, yes, we are being dorks. Dave wanted to try out the "sport" feature on the camera that takes continuous shots. We are re-enacting Mary and Laura on Little House on the Prairie running down the hill and jumping.