My husband doesn't care...

but it's Harry Potter's birthday!

Happy Birthday, Harry. You brought me many late nights of reading full of merriment and awe. I thank you.
Also, will you be my friend and take me to Hogwarts? Thank you.

In honor of his birthday, here's a little quiz for all of you. Let me know how you do!

The O.W.L.s

Book Quiz

One more, for kicks and giggles




And to all those nay-sayers or people like my husband who think I and other HP fans are some of the biggest nerds ever, to you I say- have you ever defeated a dementor with your Patronus? I think not.

Go Green!

We are Michigan State Fans in this house, to be sure. Yesterday, we made a trip out to our lovely state's capitol. Remember a while back Dave had to spend two weeks at State completing nine units of credit for his Masters? Well, yesterday the class had to come back and share all their work that they had been working on since then. We'd figured we'd make a family trip out of it and had an excellent time. I'd never been to Lansing or MSU and wanted to see both. While Dave was at class, the kids and I explored the capitol building. This was probably my favorite part of the day. I could have spent all day there, but of couse, it is not the must "kid-friendly" place to expore. I think James liked it too, or at least as much as a three year old can.  Later in the morning Dave's class had an "open house" of sorts where all the grad students displayed their work for people to see. The kids and I went to MSU to see Dave and his group's work. I was glad to meet his professor and see the places where he spent two weeks of his life. He had more class to do after the open house, so the kids and I scurried off to "Impressions 5," a super cool kids museum by the capitol. So cool, in fact, the kids and I spent the rest of the afternoon there until Dave was done. All in all, a great trip. I loved Lansing, loved MSU, and loved seeing my hubby at work.

For your photo pleasure:

Playing on the steps. This lasted for a long time.

Thank you Random Guy for taking our picture. You're so nice.

Super Sweet Atrium.

The kids really liked looking at the Super Sweet Atrium.

They had paintings on the walls of all the previous governors of Michigan. James said this one was Mister Rogers.

Rick Synder's office. Unfortunately, we didn't see him.

Kids and the Capitol

Impressions Museum.

It was such a neat, hands-on museum. Here, James is showing his  "superhero" strength by lifting 50 pounds with a pulley.

My little Delby

I loved that the water area provided Crocs and raincoats for the kids. This might be why I enjoyed this museum so much.

Bubbles. We could have stayed in this area all day!

Classic tuckered out kids picture.

I am so glad we went. Thanks honey for working and studying hard for our family. We all are really proud of you, and are so appreciative of you sacrificing your time and relaxation to provide for us. We love you!

A post that means nothing.

I asked my husband if I should write a new blog post this evening.

He responded, "You know my thoughts about posting."
Me: (In my head) No I don't.
DH: "How vain it is for a man to sit down and write when he has yet to stand up and live." So if you've been doing any living lately, then you should.

I don't have much to say, so apparently I shouldn't write. But I will say it is not fun composing a blog post with your significant other reading everything you type. Not only does he make lots of corrections or "suggestions" to you as you write, he also laughs at you everytime that you misssspelll a word or p.ut in, wro-ng pun>ctuat.tions. He also might utter ,"This is ridiculous, I can't watch."

Now I at least I have one thing to say. Don't blog with your husband around. It might result in a fight. Or sleeping in separate beds.

Just kidding, I'm not that mad.


Only a little.

From our special guest contributor

Hi and thanks for having me. I'm honored to be writing in such a famous place. Clara and Cerissa had "girl time" today which as far as I can tell just meant shopping, while James and I went out on the lake to fish and swim for boy time (what a sterotypical family). I was asked by one of the girls to give an account of boy time on her blog. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking:

We left right after he got up and had rice crispies for breakfast on the boat.

 This was the first of five fish that we caught.  He 'helped' with this one.  He was in charge of deciding whose turn it was and which bait we would use.

 And wouldn't you know it, he liked doing it "all by himself."  It might not have been as effective, but he did a pretty good job.  He could cast with only a small amount of help (timing the release of the button), and he could reel by himself.  He would randomly decide that he "had one" and start reeling in very quickly, but there were never any fish on there when he did that.

 We took a couple swimming breaks.  Somehow during the process of getting into his suit the first time, this pose happened.  Awesome.

This is one he actually did almost all of the work on by himself.  He cast it (about five feet), and a fish started nibling within seconds (just a couple feet under water, we could see it).  I grabbed onto the pole to set the hook and he reeled it in (as I held him to make sure he didn't fall in)!  I'm not sure which one of us was prouder.

 He was very interested in looking at (and touching) every fish.  After he seemed to have his fill, he would let me know that it was time to unhook it.  A couple of times he picked them up and/or threw them back.

Speaking of throwing them back, maybe in the year 2029, James and I will share some beers on the lake while we fish together.  Until then, looks like Meijer Red Pop will have to do the trick.  What a fun day!

Dr. Crentist

Remember when Dwight was gone doing some shenanigans behind Michael's back, and when Michael tries to call him out on it, he says he went to the dentist? When Michael asks the name of the dentist, Dwight responds, "Crentist." Haha. I love it.



"Maybe that's why he became a dentist..."

Anyways, all that to say, I've been spending a lot of time at the dentist. A lot of time. So much time, I'm on a first name basis with the receptiontist Sarah, and really like her. I'd go out for drinks with her if she'd ask. (That's not weird, is it?). Apparently, not going to the dentist for 5+ years means a lot of pain and money for you. I had two really bad teeth. One tooth had this square shaped hole in it for who knows how long. Another tooth just collapsed into itself while I was eating a chip over the 4th of July weekend. Luckily, I had an appointment that following week, so I wasn't too worried. At that appointment, all they did was take about forty-eleven x-rays and told me I had to come back later to have those two teeth taken care of. While waiting for that appoinment, I was chewing gum at church and that square shaped tooth broke. In my mouth. I took out the gum and found a little piece of my tooth in the gum. Wonderful. They fixed it this past Tuesday, and thankfully, I didn't need a root canal! My next appointment to fix the cracked tooth wasn't until August. Yesterday, however, while chewing on a Tootsie Roll, that cracked tooth followed it's broken predecessor and came off in the Tootsie Roll. (Is this too graphic?)
Freaking out that my tooth now had this gaping hole in it, I quickly call the dentist office and got an appointment for this morning. This tooth wasn't as lucky as the other one. That's right, I need a root canal. Rats Bats. They gave me a temporary filling and sent me on my way.

Let's recap:
Not going to the dentist in way to long = 1 root canal, 1 major filling, and a few other cavities. And eating a Tootsie Roll while having a bad tooth is a awful idea. Let's just say it pays to go every six months or whatever to get your teeth cleaned. This my friends, isn't fun.

Sidenote: It probably isn't very fun for my husband because not only is he having to pay for all this havoc I have brought onto my teeth, but I have not been the most brave soldier during all this. In fact, I would say I have been borderline whiny and certainly full of complaints. So kudos to my husband for putting up with me! Hopefully, this will all be over soon!

P.S. If you are a dentist or dental assitant or do anything remotely related to the mouth, please don't pass judgement onto me.