Sleep

Why is it that the more we sleep, the more tired we are? My teenagers have been the sleepiest things this summer... I have no idea how they can sleep that much, but somehow they do. If they go to bed at midnight, they want to sleep till at least 10 a.m. because "they're tired." If they go to bed at 10:30 pm and get up at 7 a.m. - "they're tired" cuz they had to get up so early. Both of them have been having trouble getting to sleep at nite, then sometimes they even wake up in the middle of the nite or really early a.m. and it takes them a while to get back to sleep. One day last week, Ciara got to bed late, slept in until about 9 or so... then napped in the afternoon. You guessed it... she couldn't sleep at nite so she was tired again the next day. (Dejavu from when my babies had their sleep schedule all mixed up!)

It's a vicious cycle. I've got to figure this sleep thing out. Here is my my motherly assessment. The kids are tired because they aren't doing anything. The more they lay around, the tired-er they get. :) Maybe I have the solution... MORE CHORES!

Yay... I love it when I'm a problem solver. ha ha.

I think I'll put out a survey on sleep... I'd love to hear what you have to say about the subject. *smile* Please participate ok??!!

Hairspray? Yes, thank you!

SO MUCH FUN! Ciara and I saw Hairspray last nite and loved it! John Travolta is a hoot.My goodness, how they convinced him to dress up as Edna Turnblat I'll never know, haha, but he was great. I wasn't sure what to expect from the movie, but the music was good and not overdone. I've never seen Hairspray before, so the whole movie was a surprise for me. I thought it was fabulous how Tracy's dream goes from being "Miss Teen Hairspray" to integrating the Corny Collins show to include black and white dancers, and to help people understand that even if you're not a size 2 Barbie Doll, you can still acheive your dreams. We laughed and laughed at some of our favorite actors; Christopher Walken (as John Travolta's husband - it was outrageously funny), Jerry Stiller as Mr. Pinky, Michele Pfeifer - the racist TV station manager, Amanda Bynes as the best friend and of course John Travolta as the Mom. Interestingly enough, Ricki Lake shows up in the audience in the movie and she was in one of the original Hairspray productions.

We couldn't convince Luke to go, but I think he really would have enjoyed it too. He and Brandon stayed home and watched a (grunt) "guy movie" - Braveheart.

Anyway, Ciara and I give this one 2 thumbs up... so go see it if you can, I think it's sure to please.

Bargain Shopping Get Away

Okay, so Luke had meetings in Wichita this week and Brandon was going to go and hang out with his dad at work. My little resourceful brain started workin' and I thought... "if Ciara and I go, we can go shopping." We have totally been missing all the good shopping and other fun stuff in Wichita, so we tagged along. We had to get up and be ready to go by 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, but you know girls will do just about anything to get their shopping fix - so we made it. We really did have a great time, it was just nice for me to get away from work for a day or 2, we also got to stop over at my brother's house and spend some time with him and his family. It was fun. Abbi cried cuz she wanted to come home with Aunt Jami, you can't imagine how sad that was. :( I felt bad I couldn't bring her along.

So Brandon hung out at work with Luke at the office all day Wednesday and Ciara and I had a blast. We first visited a friend of hers that was in the hospital at Wesley Medical Center. I had a consultation to see if I would be a good candidate for eye surgery and they said I could have PRK which is basically where they go straight into the cornea and correct the astigmatism and reshape the cornea. I'm going to do some more research, but the idea of waking up and seeing the alarm clock sounds pretty good- it would be the first time in nearly 30 years. I'd really like to have it done.

Then we proceeded on to Krispy Kreme. YUMMY. (I needed donuts like a hole in the head), but anyhoo... OH HOW I LOVE KRISPY KREME. Only when they're fresh and hot though. Then we went shopping and got some fabulous bargains. Ciara got 2 formal dresses for around $50 total. They are beautiful, so she is all set for Snoball and Prom this year. (sigh) We also got some really good deals at Old Navy, American Eagle, Abercrombie, Famous Footwear and Gordmans. A good chunk of the school shopping is done, so that is a really good feeling. Best of all... I didn't buy anything that wasn't on sale or clearance. YAY for bargain shopping - I love it.

Last night we had supper at Sal's Japanese Steakhouse. It is more than a meal, it's entertaining. We had a very witty chef. They cook the food right on your table, and do all kinds of cool stuff. Luke and Ciara both caught a shrimp in their mouth when the chef tossed it to them. It was really fun. These are the kinds of things I miss about being closer to the city - but ya know there's a lot to be said for the simple life too. It's pretty quiet here in the prairie lands and I can drive just about anywhere I need to go here in less than 15 minutes. Today Brandon did a little shopping with the girls and managed to get a some new things for school including 2 cool pairs of shoes - 1 cool pair of brown suede converses and a neat looking pair of black canvas Rocket Dogs. He didn't last long though... he was shopped out by lunch and we took him for a half day at the office with Dad. *smile*

I'm glad My honey let the girls tag along, and now when Brandon's classmates talk about what their dad's "do" ... Brandon might just have a little better answer than, " I don't know, he mostly talks on the phone all day." :)

For Your Viewing Pleasure....

Have you tried Live Links?

Ok.. this may sound kinda mean, but it's oh so funny! My almost 16 year old daughter has a friend that is a guy. They love to chat about the most ridiculous things and he is a fairly intelligent, and fun conversationalist. The problem is that he would love to date her, but she just wants to be friends. (Even though he is a cute kid). Ok... so in this wonderful age of technology he asks her out on a date via text message. Here's how the conversation goes:

The guy: "I'm looking for a woman to take to a movie tonite"
Witty daughter: "Have you tried Live Links or the Personal Ads?
The guy: "I meant you... you should go with me"

Just for those of you who haven't seen the commercial, Live Links is a personal dating service company where you call in and meet people and talk to them over the phone. The commercial is ridiculous and usually has some scantilly dressed young girl having the time of her life talking to a complete stranger. So of course witty daughter is just being silly... but he proceeds to beg her to go with him. She says something about not leaving the house because she has a nasty cold sore. As luck would have it, it's a midnite movie. She tells him that her parents wouldn't let her leave the house at midnite and he tells her to sneak out. She says "NO WAY! besides, you know I'm a good girl" He pauses, then asks her, "why are you a good girl?" Here's the best part - her response is:

"I don't want to disappoint God or my family." YAY!! This opened up a huge conversation about faith and the bible. She shared the truth with him, I'm pretty sure he hasn't ever heard it. She was very honest and open about it and he was interested. Not sure if he completely understood or believed it all, but he listened and she shared.

Praise God for getting it right as a parent. Apparently somewhere along the line her Dad and I did something right. She is such an awesome young woman and I was sure to tell her how proud I was of her for being so bold.

Here I go again...

I tried the blog thing once before and wasn't sure about it... but here I am again as a result of wanting to comment on my sister-in-Law's blog. I guess it's kinda nice to be able to pour it all out somewhere, somehow. This just might be good therapy. I've tried journaling, but never seem to be able to keep up with it. Maybe this will be easier, it would seem that this generation cannot write a full paragraph without complaining about writer's cramp. ha ha. Are we spoiled with our technology or what? I prefer a keyboard over pen and paper any time... it's so much easier and faster to type. So my ramblings begin. I was supposed to be entering an invoice but instead I'm setting up a personal blog. Oh well... this is way more fun!