Panic Attack

I had a very scary mothering experience the other day!

We went out to the car to go home from the gym, and Aidan grabbed my keyring. I let him hold my keys while I strapped him in his chair, then I tossed the keys on my seat and went to grab something out of the trunk. Unbeknownst to me, Aidan had pressed the lock button. I shut the door without thinking, and suddenly, I was standing outside of my locked car with no way to get in. My husband was in Minnesota with the spare house key (the spare car key was in the house), and the engine was off, so I knew the car would be heating up soon. Talk about not a good situation!

Luckily, a friend let me use her cell phone to call the cops. Unfortunately, they don't unlock doors any longer since most newer cars have measures to prevent you from picking their locks. They came over to try anyway. At first, Aidan was fine. He waved at me through the window and everything.

But after about 15 minutes, he started to get hot. And he started bawling.

Can I just tell you how much that broke my heart? Hearing your child cry and knowing that you can't do anything about it is the worst feeling in the whole world.

The cop offered to break my window, but the locksmith was already on his way, so I waited it out. Luckily, the locksmith got it open in about 30 seconds. And he wouldn't even let me pay him for it! And thank goodness, Aidan was fine. Very sweaty, but as soon as I picked him up he was happy as a clam again.

Those kind of experiences remind you about what's really important in this world. You can get all stressed about moving, you can get yourself all worked up about money or housekeeping or working out, you can spend time entertaining yourself, but it in the end, your family is the most important thing you've got.

And you better believe I'm more careful about checking the locks now!

Heart Sick

I had to use my flash drive for something the other day. It was the first time I had pulled it out since saving all of my teaching files on it. To my horror, now ALL of my teaching files are gone. Erased, overwritten, I'm not sure how it happened, but they are gone.

Including the last four years of my journals.

And there is nothing I can do or even try to get them back since the computer I saved them from was wiped clean over a year ago.

Heartache.

First Steps

So he did this like a month ago, and now he's basically running everywhere, but here's the video of the first steps. Sorry about the terrible lighting.

The New House!

We went on a WHIRLWIND house-hunting trip. The first 2 1/2 days were spent looking at houses. We didn't love any of the ones that had looked appealing online, so we had to go to the ones that had looked only okay online, which all looked better in person. Then we had to try and keep them all straight and make a decision! At times our heads felt like they would explode, but we finally narrowed it down to one house with a backup in case the first one didn't work out. We put in an offer, and they accepted it! Barring any major complications, this will be our new house at the end of the month!



Here's a view of the front yard and front door.This is the entry way. It's a split level, so this picture was taken standing in the living room.
This is the living room... which won't have any furniture in it for the first while that we live there!
There are two open doorways from the living room into the kitchen area. Here's the cooking side. This picture was taken standing in the dining area. You know, where our card table will go. (Ha!)

The dining area has a door that leads out to the deck.And here's a view of the deck from the backyard. (It's already fenced - hooray!)

Going back inside, if you down the split rather than up, you arrive in our family room. It's kind of L-shaped, so this picture only shows half of it.

There is also a large laundry room that I didn't get a picture of. This is the master bedroom, but it's quite long. You can see that the previous owners had their young baby's crib set up in their room - it's even deeper back than that!
And one of the best features is the master bathroom! :)

There are 2 more bedrooms upstairs, as well as a bathroom. It also has a 2 car garage. We are so excited to become homeowners!

Visit to Mayo (aka Bird Chasing)

While we were in Rochester house hunting, we stopped at the Mayo Campus to get a taste of where Mike will be going every day. It has beautiful, well-cared-for grounds. We stopped to get a picture with the founders: the Mayo brothers.

They had statues, and Aidan particularly enjoyed the cool water on the hot day.

This one's for my family. You get the inside joke.

And here it is: the promised bird-chasing video. I think this bird couldn't fly. I wouldn't have let Aidan get so close if I had known - I just thought the bird would fly away! Oh, well - it makes me laugh.

Play Pictures

Here they are, the promised play pictures.

I played Betty Meeks, a 70-year-old widow and owner of the lodge where the play was set. I ran in and out with this tray of food during the entire show. I don't have all of my wrinkle lines on in this picture, but you get the general idea! I also had really ugly old lady shoes - they were great! (ha)

Kollan was our makeup artist and hair stylist. Katie played Catherine, the spoiled fiancee of the minister. Don't worry, Katie was one of the good guys at the end of the play. She hated the 80s clothes... and they just brought back memories for me!

Amy was our stage manager. She helped prepare my tray and all of the food. She was especially invaluable during tight turnarounds!

Ethan played Ellard, the younger brother that wasn't all too bright. I was especially impressed by how well he did considering that he is only 13!

Shawn in the fatigues played Froggy, the army man who brought his friend to my lodge. Scott in the red played Charlie, the very shy friend. The basic idea of the play is that Froggy decided to tell everyone that Charlie couldn't speak English so he wouldn't have to talk, but Charlie ended up overhearing a lot of things he shouldn't have since everyone thought he didn't know English. Very funny show - go see it sometime if you have the chance!

Jared wearing the red shirt played Owen, mean guy in the KKK. He was one of my favorite people to work with! Hal in the white played David, the reverend. They're acting out one of their confrontations here.

And this is the stage. This picture didn't have the lights on, so it doesn't look quite right, but that's the basic idea. We all worked together painting the set, and it was really fun.

What an awesome experience! I have officially been bit by the theater bug and want to do another play sometime soon! :)

Which One?

My old swim suit died. Since suits are now on clearance, I am trying to buy one. And buying one is hard enough as it is without trying to find a modest one, let alone in a cute pattern! So I bought 3 and will return 2 of them, but I need your help. Which suit do you like best? (The third suit is just plain navy blue.) Leave comments PLEASE, and be sure to vote on the sidebar, too!