D's class went to the zoo yesterday and I got to go with them!

While we were waiting to go in, we saw this giraffe sculpture that we noticed had a nest in its nose.

That had a bird in it! (Couldn't quite get this one clearly.)

Funniest thing I've seen a giraffe do #1

Funniest thing I've seen a giraffe do #2

This poor clipped-wing bald eagle was sitting right by the fence of his open air "cage".

This guy had the funniest smile.

Sorry, SKH. I did leave off the pictures of US feeding the birds, because the other lady did a really bad job with them.

This was THROUGH the glass of the monkey cage. Say what?!

This guy kept giving me the stink eye.

Scary alligator snapping turtle through the glass of his tank. Again... what?

"D, frown at the large cost of our small lunch!"
(Grilled cheese, corn dog, 2 bags of chips and 2 drinks: $12)

Then I got a great shot of his beautiful eyes looking up at the ceiling. (His nose is kinda dry and cracking right now. Kinda gross.)

The old lady brigade was also eating at the zoo cafeteria that day.

We ended up staying for five hours and he was exhausted. (We got to meet his class there, who stayed for only two hours. We ate lunch and then stayed two more hours. The old lady brigade greatly increased our time in the cafeteria.)

Posted in: camera, D Man on Thursday, April 17, 2008 at at 10:18 PM 2 comments    

In honor of us being home from the hospital for a whole week, I offer this:

Posted in: American Idol, hospital visit, husb on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at at 11:44 PM 4 comments    

Not mine. I do however know SEVENTEEN people who are currently pregnant. Not exaggerating. There are probably more I don't even know about! Are you one of them?

Anyway. I helped hostess a baby shower for Sally, a girl in our Sunday School class. The other hostesses were talking about cake and stuff, and I said it would be cheaper and more awesome to do cupcakes. So I unfortunately volunteered. Never again will I make two dozen each of two different kinds of cupcakes with two different kinds of icing. They were delicious and popular, but a heckuva lotta work.

The cookies and creme cupcakes had an oreo on the bottom!

The baby, Ryder Ray Reynolds, will have a construction theme in his nursery so that was part of the theme of the shower.

My table layout

Sara made a beautiful bouquet for the table.

Sally scored a bunch of presents!

All one million hostesses.

Which brings up a discussion I had with my mom last night. I was talking about how I felt bad for Sally since there were eight hostesses and that was a bunch of gifts to have to buy. She not only had never heard of this tradition, but was also appalled by it. She said maybe it's an Arkansas thing, but I remember going to showers in the past where the hostesses received gifts from the person for whom the shower was being thrown. Here's a poll about it.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Posted in: baking, poll, showers, Sunday School on Sunday, April 13, 2008 at at 11:10 PM 3 comments    

Wow. It's been a while. Jon went back into the hospital on April 2nd and we finally came home on the 9th. He had a third blood patch and a variety of different medicines tried out on him. His head still hurts, but it seems to be getting better very slowly. He's been drinking a lot of caffeine (They were giving him that at the hospital in his IV.) and taking some of his SIX medicines they sent him home with. He just needs to get all better. You can keep up the prayers on his account.

So much has happened that I've wanted to post about in the past two weeks, and I'll gradually put it all up over the next few days. I'll start with last last Thursday (the 3rd). D and I were taking C to tae kwon do and I looked down a side street near the TKD, and there was the Weinermobile! We dropped him off, and even though D looked like this:

I drove back and parked nearby. We got out and I took this picture of him by the back:

We were headed around to the side to take a picture with it, but it closed up its door and started the engine. I was upset that we missed it, but they (they being the firemen who were out taking pictures of it too) said that it was just pulling into the fire station to get cleaned and we could come in with them!


It was a pretty unique experience that probably not many people can say they've had. We did obviously end up getting some pretty cool pictures.


Then the firemen said that D could get up in the truck.

Which led him to want to sit on any other platform or shelf on the whole vehicle...

The firemen were really nice and were answering all of his questions and explaining things to him. And then he got to try on one of their helmets:

Usually we just have to sit in the car in the parking lot bored while C is in class. This was the best tae kwon do day ever! :)

Posted in: awesomeness, D Man, hospital visit, husb on Saturday, April 12, 2008 at at 2:24 PM 3 comments    

I can't tell you how much I LOVE my new camera. (It's a Canon Digital Rebel XTi, if you care.) I've been having so much fun with it as I try to figure out all it can do. Here are a few of my favorite pictures I've taken in the past few weeks.

The road outside the house I work at is COVERED in cherry blossom petals. It's really pretty right now.

Got pollen?

A cool shot of their piano

Playground rocks!

The boys' grandparents' dog

D at the park

C actually took this one and it came out really well

Posted in: camera, D Man on Tuesday, April 01, 2008 at at 11:23 PM 0 comments    

I haven't talked about American Idol in weeks and weeks! It's about time I share my current rankings. They've stayed about the same the whole time. I know that my rankings are definitely not with a lot of yours, but let me know who you like. I'll listen and not be too judgmental.

1. Carly Smithson
2. David Cook
3. Michael Johns*
4. Brooke White*
5. Jason Castro* ^
6. David Archuleta**
7. Syesha Mercado
8. Ramiele Malubay
9. Kristy Lee Cook

*These three routinely rotate among these three spots, but they're always really close to each other in rankings. Some weeks are better than others for each of them. This was their ranking this particular week.

**Ok. The kid's good. He's just not my favorite. Or top 5 favorite.

^ Why I like Jason Castro even more:

Posted in: American Idol, tv shows, video on at at 10:36 PM 2 comments    

Having been in the hospital with the husb since last Saturday night, I haven't been able to post these pictures yet. (He's still feeling pretty sick, by the way. Keep praying please.) We had Easter on Saturday evening (before all of the excitement started) at Jon's parents house. We ate the ham and Alyssa Kate hunted her eggs. Then we celebrated Jon's mom's birthday which was that Friday. Here are a few pictures.

Lots of eggs for one little girl

I adore her hair in a ponytail!

Scooter checking things out

Showing off what she found

Candice and Wes' dog Scooter - She's pretty cool.

Jon's dad shooting a foam egg at me - you can see it in the corner of the picture!

Playing with her Easter bowling - just like Jesus played!

This one is blurry for some reason, but it's really funny. She and Pop were playing catch and he threw the bowling ball from the last picture at her. She closed her eyes and it landed in her hands. You can see it floating right by her hands.

Offering me one of her eggs

And finally... enjoying some of Mimi's birthday cake

Posted in: Easter, niece, the fam on Monday, March 31, 2008 at at 11:55 PM 1 comments