• First and foremost, happy Memorial Day to all of you, and since it is Memorial Day, please remember the reason we have this day off from work (or at least some of us do), is because so many sacrificed their lives for our freedom.

• LG makes me laugh.  She also confuses the heck out of me.  I think kids do that on purpose to their parents to keep them on their toes.  She’s been doing this shy thing for the past several weeks (months?) where she won’t have anything to do with anyone she doesn’t know and even people she does know.  And yet yesterday, when she saw a friend we hadn’t seen in a year or so, she just chatted away with him as if she saw him every day. When his 5 year old daughter showed up, they were immediately best buddies.  And when their other relatives sat next to her at church, she didn’t even bat an eyelash.  She was also to go home with Marlene and crew after Mass so that we could go to see the new Indiana Jones movie with some of the choir young adults and kids.  Normally, this would cause her to tell me no, don’t wanna go (even though I knew she’d have fun).  But she was so excited about it that as soon as we got to the closing song, she trotted herself right over to Marlene to tell her she was going home with her, causing 5 year old friend to chase after her…lol!  It was pretty funny.  So where did little miss shy disappear to last night?  You got me.

• Speaking of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I won’t spoil it for anyone, but I will say that I loved the Indiana Jones part of it, loved the acting and the casting and banter and the comedy.  Not so sure about the storyline itself.  It was a bit out there for me for Indiana Jones.  But it was nice to see Indy back on the big screen.

• I am so ready for potty training.  You have no idea.  In fact, I’m so ready, that I’m about to drop the idea of waiting until June 2 and start today.  SO ready.  If I didn’t have all these stupid pull-ups I didn’t want to go to waste, I totally would.

• Mike’s mom is doing okay.  She has to really take it easy and as such, Mike’s Grandpa has gone to stay with his uncle and aunt for the time being and his other aunt will probably be moving to a group home.  She is to the point where she doesn’t know anyone anymore, and the group setting will give her company and probably be good for her, but I know it’s hard for all of them to have to accept that. But, Mike’s parents need to be able to focus on each other right now.

• Speaking of Mike’s parents, I have realized that even though we certainly don’t take his mom and all she does for granted, we sort of do take the fact that she’s always there and available for us for granted.  We scrambled to find babysitters the last couple of weeks, but we are so very lucky to have good friends who have pitched in for us and helped out with LG.  It’s easier to take her to Grandma’s because it doesn’t take her out of her routine as much, but she is pretty adaptable and she’s done fine.  And we have been blessed that we have so many friends who love her and enjoy spending time with her.  So thank you to all of you who read this!  You are appreciated and loved and definitely not taken for granted.

• What is with kids running cash registers and making change these days? Saturday I went to a fast food restaurant which shall remain nameless but starts with an S and rhymes with Phonic. My total was $11.10 and I gave her $22. She couldn’t figure out how to make change for that. “I’m confused. Is this part of the tip (referring to the 2 one dollar bills)”? I told her to just give me $10 back and tried not to roll my eyes. Then, last night at the theater, we bought a hot dog, popcorn, soda and a bottled water. I didn’t see how much it cost because I went to the restroom while Mike was ordering. As we walked into the theater he was really complaining about how ridiculous the prices were for what he bought. I still didn’t know how much it had cost. As we were sitting waiting for the previews, I finally found out it had cost…$32?!?!?!?! Wtf? I looked at the receipt. The bottled water had been rung up as $17.50 (instead of $1.75 $3.00). Now, certainly Mike should have questioned it in the first place, but don’t you think the person running the cash register should have had some CLUE that $32 sounded a bit ridiculous? I mean, come ON. Obviously, high school math classes are failing at teaching basic math and common sense. Oy. Edited to add: He did go and get his money back after we realized the error.

• The weather this past few days was simply amazing.  We spent so much time outside - LG and I at the zoo on Thursday, and then in the yard the last few days. The hotness is on its way back, but it was such a nice break.

• I will leave you with a few photos from Saturday outdoors…

Mike decided to plant another lemon tree, because apparently he thinks one will not be enough to feed their lemonade addiction. ;)

In the meantime, the other tree is going to produce lemons for the first time this year. Yay for baby lemons!

This is what the sky looked like on Saturday (and Thursday and Friday, too)…

Barrel cactus…

Random insect…

Random shot of barbed wire…

Hope your holiday weekend is awesome!