Multiple Choice

So much to talk about, so little time! How about a little multiple choice to speed up this blog entry? Here's a little hint: not all of the answers are "B", like we all chose in school....afterall, this isn't rocket science!

1. Last Tuesday (July 22), ribB and I celebrated what?
a) Community Days in our new home town
b) our 13th wedding anniversary
c) the kid's first night of going to bed at 6pm simultaneously
d) none of the above

Answer: B! Ok, I soft balled the first question for you. Thanks to the babysitting of a local gal, Tori, (who's the granddaughter of the folks we bought our new house from)we got out for dinner to celebrate the big day. RibB planned the night out--dinner at a mysterious supper club we've noticed for years. Then, he did the big surprise--he's been planning and saving for a trip to Mexico the last few months! Wow. I was floored and he even said he'd go on an airplane for me (I LOVE flying, he doesn't--that one time to NYC made him stuffy & popped his ears...silly, really). We had a great time and the little supper club was a hit.

2. This past Saturday (July 26) was another celebration. What was it?

a) Rose's surprise 50th birthday party up north
b) My Aunt's famous fish fry/family get together
c) The local lake association's boat parade
d) Chantal's birthday

Answer: A! This was quite the party. Rose had no clue that her husband, Carl (aka Blender Boy), bused family and friends up to their cabin from their hometown (3.5 hrs away) to celebrate the big day with her. While Rose was taken out for a boat ride, we all piled into their garage and family friend, Murray, brought Rose in to see the "antique" he had found her for her birthday. And, with that, 50 of us said "SURPRISE!!!". So much fun. Carl had planned this event out for months and really thought of everything (with help from Bart and Donna)--right down to where they'd hide the coach bus and getting porta potties. We had a blast celebrating the original WILD IRISH ROSE or, as our t-shirts proclaimed, Rosa-a-palooza.

3. What recent visitor proclaimed once, "I have smaller eyes than you!":

a) Lucy Liu
b) my mom
c) Jacqueline
d) Bingo the dog

Answer: C! Jacqueline and her family came to see the new house on Thursday night after we joined them for dinner at "the restaurant" in town. It was so nice having them over for a visit and getting a chance to catch up. That Jacqueline is one busy gal--she makes me tired! No, she makes my eyes smaller! No, she makes me tired when she reminds me how much her kids sleep in! Ha. Anyway, I've known Jacqueline since Kindergarten and in HS we had contests to judge who's eyes were smaller...I guess you had to be there. I can say that our sons seem to get along just great as they played and played while we caught up and showed them the new house. (Carly was away at camp, otherwise she and Kdee would've been doing some serious playing, too!)

4. What does Bucky Badger, supermodels/Sephora, Sardine(s), wine and hospital food all have in common?

a) You can enjoy such things in Madison WI with 2 of your best buddies
b) These have nothing in common! What are you thinking?
c) They all relate to the newest Sweet Dreams book I'm reading
d) I give up.

Answer: A! A couple of weekends ago I ventured down for a night in Madison to see my dear friends, Michelle and Linnea. Linnea had to work at the Senior Citizen's Bingo Night (ha ha, UW Hospital) a bunch, so Michelle and I whooped it up with makeup at Sephora, dinner out at Sardine (yummmm!), lots of wine (yummmm!), jazz, and way overdue amounts of uninterrupted conversation. SO GREAT! I'm always amazed by the amounts of parallels in our lives since we've known each other from grade school on (great buds since Swegarden's study hall during her senior year and then summers at The Drive Inn...yummmm again!). It really is a blessing to have friends that have known you "since then" and I appreciate her Miranda side keeping it real for me (otherwise I think I could lose my mind once in a while!). From bikes to NYC revivals, we shared it all in less than 24 hours. Wow!

On Sunday afternoon, I ventured onto Ms. Milly's domain and shared a lovely cafeteria lunch with Linnea. It had been a long time since I've seen this amazing friend, too, and we made the most of her lunch hour (plus--tee hee!) We can easily pick up where we left off and I always feel like I just saw her last week, which is so fun! I've known Linnea for 12 years now and that just blows me away. We knew our visit was meant to be when she heard "her Dave" on the radio (Matthews) right before I arrived. Awww....

5. What visitor did ribB make a venison meal for?

a) Uncle Bart & Aunt Donna
b) Ben & Emily, baby Blake
c) Our neighbors, Lewis & Martha
d) What visitors? Isn't that a typical meal at the ribclan household?

Answer: B! ribB's coworker, Ben, and his family came over to the new place for dinner, boating and of course, dessert! Since Ben is a big hunter (and hunts with ribB at times in the year), we enjoyed some good ol' venison with our dinner. We really had a great time hanging out with them. We hope to have many more dinners and watersport activities with them in the future!

6. What friend did I recently say "Skal tej mej fan!" with?

a) Angie
b) Heather
c) Mary
d) Shelly

Answer: D! How I loved going to college with Shelly--we have many fun memories since we became neighbors on our freshman wing at UWEC. I'm so happy that we've always kept in touch, but are now getting together more regularly. She is another friend who is easy to pick-up-where-you-left-off with and our new adventures in life (especially motherhood) have provided us with many more things to laugh at together. She is my Swedish partner in crime (A.S.S. Night--Absolute Super Shot night with the swedes), so it's only appropriate that we meet up at Ikea. I've never enjoyed Swedish meatballs, lingonberry preserves and curtain rods so much before!

7. "Ask, believe, receive" is the mantra of which recent overnight visitor?

a) JoAnne (& Evan)
b) Ann & Kevin
c) Uncle Alan
d) Ivan

Answer: A! ribB's coworker and our great friend, JoAnne, came for a fun overnight visit the night before I left for Madison. We had long talks about "The Secret" (which is really just a clever book title for "the power of positive thinking and having faith"), margaritas, ribs and sunset boat cruises. Just delightful!

Alrighty...yep, we've been busy with fun visits and outings to celebrate others. This coming weekend we will be hosting an "open house" of sorts for ribB's coworkers (and anyone else who wants to come--consider this your invite, just let me know!).
In between we've had some fun kiddo time (Kdee came to work with me one day for a "daycare" break, and we also had some girl time on Sunday afternoon; tonight we played with a frog on our beach--he actually chased & bit at a weed that little B was moving around him!!!) We are very blessed!

Pictures to come tomorrow...

update-o

There's been fun to be had the last few days at the ribclan household! I'm short on time, so here's a quick run down:

*Friday: K's best buddy, Ally & her sister, Payton, stayed at our house overnight. Little B and ribB went up north to the family cabin. The girls had a blast--lots of playtime, hair/makeup, dress up...and a little adventure to little B's closet for the tornado warning. Fortunately, if you give kids hand-held electronic devices and popcorn, they could care less where they are (or what's going on around them). I kept doing "1 minute checks" on the TV in another room so I could have a sense of what was going on without freaking them out (cuz I didn't want to blare the weather radio I had with me). In the end, all was good and we didn't have any damage, etc....and the girls went on to giggle late into the night.

*Saturday: Kdee and I headed north after Ally & Payton went home. The weather was warm...but VERY windy! It actually made watersports cold?! We had a great time catching up with ribB's family, all of whom were there for "their" week at the family cabin. Little B and ribB had been having a great time--including a visit from the ever favorite, Uncle Bart. Bart had a new pair of sunglasses for little B, who obviously loved them (as he fell asleep with them on--sing, "I wear my sunglasses at...(night) naptime"). I headed out mid-evening and eventually made it home to enjoy a DVD by myself! Wow!

*Sunday: And why was I family-less? Because I was going to Ann's bridal shower today! It was so nice to celebrate Ann & Kevin. Her bridesmaids did a great job planning the shower. Funny side-fact: the shower was at the home of the doctor that delivered Kdee. If you remember the story, my regular doc was out of town and her partner doc covered for her--he's the one that asked if he had enough time to take his family to the fireworks before he came to the hospital. Fortunately, the epidural worked way better for Kdee's delivery than little B's and I still thought that was funny at the time, too. After the shower, I spent some time "pulling weeds" on our beach and hanging out before ribB and little B came home. Kdee was invited to stay up north for a few more days and she was quite excited! We were/are so grateful...she ended up having a GREAT time (and is so tan and muscular from all the water sports!) She loves playing with her cousins, especially Dylan (who's 6 months younger than her). They even had a raft to hang out on and jump off of...and, I hear, they also had contests to see who could push the other off first. She is one happy gal!

*This week...very busy, of course, but lots of one-on-one time with little B, which was nice. The bridge in Stillwater is now closed for repairs (long story short: a truck got stuck on the rafters, busted it up...and now...). No worries, though...I've done my research and have found a pretty efficient way to come to work even without the bridge. Cross your fingers it continues to be a smooth commute (which is about 50 minutes-1 hour each way).

*Funny side story: Last week, little B surprised ribB and myself around 9:30pm with waving to us under his bedroom door (there is actually a decent clearance at the bottom of his door, so his little arm & hand fit nicely there). We thought he was asleep, so imagine our surprise (and laughter) when we saw a hand waving to us!

pictures: Kdee, Ally & Payton; little B sleeping with his sunglasses on; the bridge (picture taken after the truck accident, when large semi's, etc., were forbidden to cross the bridge, now remember...this was the worst bridge in Minnesota to begin with--uff dah.)

disc camera, circa 1985

Remember the "cool, new disc camera"? Seems like a million years ago now.

Here are more pictures taken via digital, not disc, camera: little B tying up the dock; our nieces--Kirsten (blond) and Brooklyn (brunette); a peak at the firework technicians ribB and Kevin (can you see them? look hard!); Kdee modeling her spikey hairdo after mom & me make-up/hair time.

Click The Camera

If you know Diego, then you know "Click". We have our own way of singing the Click song at our house, but I won't include it here. Ha.

More pictures: swimming, a new version of an older picture (see May 2006)--although a bigger--and longer--Kdee made this toss much harder this time; dining at the cabin; little B with a "snap"; the kiddos, etc., watching the Kin-Lew firework show.

Lost/Found

The whirlwind of moving and birthdays has created a vortex for losing items. You may recall, I noted a couple of such things on my previous post: iPod (now found), ribB's work pager (not found), camera USB cord (found). We've also had to look for a checkbook (eek), iPod usb cord (still searching), scale (really didn't want to look, but...it was found last night), HSM2 movie...funny how it's all the little things now. This is the kind of stuff that can drive me batty (cuz I love organization and quick memory recall); however, it's almost become funny at this point. I'm hopeful that my patience has increased in this arena.

So, with the found camera usb cord, here are photos from the big b-day & holiday weekend. I know there will be more than what I can fit in one post...so hold on for the ride o' photos.

Busy weekend ahead of us...cabin/family time, k's friends overnight, Ann's bridal shower, possible fireworks with my mom/Paul...whew!

Photos this post: Kevin goes drag, courtesy of Kdee and her witch wig (kdee took this picture); Kdee with special gifts from Belize (thanks JoAnne, Evan & Denni!); b-day cake time; opening gifts from Gma/pa R (she's realizing they gave her a digital camera--wow!) and cousin Megan!

Freedom '90

Alrighty...it's only appropriate to kick off this blog entry with a nod and wink to Mr. George Michael. Jac, Ang, Heather, Jessie...you all know how incredibly AWESOME the concert was Monday night. I'm not going to lie--I was downright surprised at how great his voice sounded, how fun his stage/presence was and how much I danced during the 2 1/2hour concert. I think it's easy to forget how many hits GM has and how timeless his music really is. This concert easily became one of my most favorite concerts for a lot of reasons. Add to the fun a little bite to eat at WA Frost's patio with Jac, Ang & Jac's younger, but albeit GM supportive, sister Shelly. GM's concert was the perfect "ending" to the 4th of July Holiday/Birthday weekend!(If you're looking for a fun, fun, fun "dancy" CD for the summer, then your top pick should be the "25" CD. On a sidenote, I'd also like to give a holla! to Michelle...you were so there in spirit when he sang our combined fave, FREEDOM '90, and the old supermodel video played in the background...ah, the memories!) Gotta say, though, my fave song of the night was "OUTSIDE"...too, too awesome (yes, I said it again!)...

Now, what you might have been "WAITING" for...the birthday weekend news. Ms. Kdee is now officially 8! We celebrated with lots of loved ones here and there, but overall the event felt very low-key and relaxed this year. I suspect the move and "late" feeling of summer contributed to the vibe. That said, we still whooped it up. Thursday night, Ann & Kevin came to see the new house and stayed overnight with us. ("Babysitter Ann" and her fiancee'.)I swear we could have stayed up all night talking and hanging out...but we knew we needed some sleep! Kdee got to open their gifts early and LOVED the Subway gift card that was part of their gifts. (It's one of her faves, obviously!)Little B, excited for a "cabin day!!!!", woke up at 5:30am. Kdee woke up to breakfast out, dressing Kevin up with a wig & glitter and dressing in all of her July 4th gear. ( BTW, I won't be surprised if she marries her own version of Kevin in the future...I think he might qualify for a first crush!)

My mom and Paul made a quick stop on the way to Paul's family's festivities and gave Kdee her gifts, which have a funny story. Here goes. A while back, my mom asked Kdee what she'd like for her birthday. Kdee told her, "Oh, Grandma Honey, my mom and dad told me I couldn't have what I really want". So, my mom asked, "Well, what is it?" and Kdee told her, "A dog. But, since I can't have that, I'd like a wedding Barbie & Ken doll. If you take me to Target sometime, I can show you which one.". Pretty cute in a funny way.

The cabin was lively as ever. Lots of swimming, waterskiing (for all of us...boy,I need to work out some more but was glad I could drop a ski on my first run of the season), camp fires, cards and the annual fireworks. This year's display was the best yet and I think the Kin-Lew cabin out-did the others on the lake. A special thanks goes out to Kevin 1st Pyro Assistant and Christina, assistant to the Pyro Assistant in time of need. We also went "green" for the holiday! Blender Boy announced that in lieu of the blender this holiday, he was mixing Brandy Old Fashioneds in a large cooler. This was quite a surprise, but upon having my first BOF of my life, I was quite fine with his environmentally friendly choice. Yum!

As always, Kdee got incredibly generous and thoughtful gifts for her birthday. Everything from a digital camera & accessories to towels, stock, American Girl books, bean bag toss, scrapbooking kit, webkinz...you name it! She has been one happy camper with all of the nice gifts! She is very Blessed by all of the loved ones in her life, and we are Blessed by the love and support you all give to her (and us). I'll keep the blog updated with any dreams she has for the upcoming "new" year--I'm sure there are some fun ones!

On Monday, I was a lucky mom who got to stay home with the kiddos (as they didn't have daycare). We had a great time and I swear the hours flew by. I didn't want it to end! (But then George Michael began to call....what's a gal to do?)

We're one month into our new home and I think we're fairly settled now. What a month it's been! I must admit I'm a bit "homesick" for the routine and familiarity of our past hometown...it's been more change than I realized initially and a lot for us to manage on our own. Yes, it's been exciting (and good), but now the adrenaline is wearing off. I'm anxious to feel more connected to the future here, but that takes time, patience and definitely FAITH. Always FAITH!

**I was all set, or so I thought, to add some fun pics from the birthday weekend...but the usb cord is currently missing. Along with my iPod. Along with ribB's work pager. Ahhhh, moving....so much fun....

So, here's the photos I do have: a pic of me & the gals at the concert (courtesy of my cell phone); Mr. George Michael (see also: link of concert review, with slide show of pics--http://www.twincities.com/ci_9813192?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com)

quick update

Here we are...the day before Kdee's 8th birthday. I still can't believe she's a "4th of July" baby--true firecracker. What a memorable and happy first baby story hers is. She is very excited for her special day and has asked for 1)TV and 2)dog. Both of which she is not getting (unfortunately for her, good for us!).

Last weekend we had her friend, Ally, up to our house for the weekend and they celebrated, goofed around, tubed/swam and stayed up late giggling. One amazing thing? They camped out on our deck in a tent Saturday night and stayed out there all night alone. Wow--we parents all had bets at how long they'd last out there and we all lost the bet! (ribB was close by, mind you...). Little B had a playdate with his buddy, Brennan, and that was a relief to this little guy who saw his sister having so much fun with her friend. It was wonderful to see Kdee so, so happy around her pal!

This weekend will be full of birthday cake, fireworks, family & friends...and sun/fun. I'm guessing we'll be in the water for most hours of the day. Tonight Ann & Kevin are coming over for a stay at la casa Ribclan and then tomorrow we'll all head up north to the family cabin. ribB plans to do another fireworks extravaganza...he's got the pyro license and all. (Ok, it was only $1 and needed for transporting...but he likes to claim it as the "real deal".)

After the weekend, the kiddos and I will be home on Monday (no daycare) and later that night I'll be heading to the George Michael concert with my good friends, Jacqueline and Angie. What a blast the next few days will be!!!

Pictures from last weekend (in no particular order): Kdee and Ally dressed up for their "movie theater" (where they announced the movie, where the concessions were, etc.); decorating bday cakes together; the cake decorated by Kdee--oh my!; happy friends; jumping into the water!