Have NO fear...Bryleigh is here!

I was sitting at the kitchen table just minding my own affairs

when all of a sudden a Tyrannosaurus Rex

and this funny looking cat appeared in pairs.

The cat scat a scared, but little did T-Rex know but,

I am not only Indian, but I am one smart Indian

And I know how to kick some dinosaur butt.

T-Rex STOMPED in with a

Wicked gleam in his eye –

He’s mean, he’s bad, he attacked me

And tried to make me cry!

I begin my plot after I finished my meat pie

I considered starting with the three pronged attack,

But decided with the stare down eye to eye

for a moment I thought he was going to fight back.

Before T-Rex had a chance to respond

I sank in my teeth and gave him a slobber jaw

And grabbed his big nose with a tight and secure bond

It was funny because he was crying, “Maw! Maw!”

When I heard him cry, “Maw! Maw!”

I stopped dead in my track

I begin to hem and haw about his Maw

But deep inside I decided, “Nah!”

I will go with my final and most successful assault

Which is a big ole’ scary ROAR!

It’s my best move by default

Leaving my opponent crying on the floor.

Spending time with Bryleigh was the perfect way to end Spring Break. She brings us so much joy! As you can see we play all kinds of fun things, Darya and Jay are loving their new titles of Aunt and Uncle!

2011 Spring Break - Toy & Action Figure Museum

With Darya spending time with friends at a birthday sleepover, we used our super powers and headed south  to a place we've never been right here in our backyard…The Toy & Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.

Before we launched on that scene we had to refuel so we had lunch at Janet’s Eats & Sweets. If you have never filled your belly with her delish home cooked meals and treats you are missing out! They have daily lunch specials, where you get a choice of two of the following items: soup, salad, quiche, or ½ sandwich plus dessert. The last time I ate at Janet’s it was nestled in the back of an antique store. I must proclaim my loyalty to the Lion's Feast Salad and the No Bake Cookies! Afterall I am a Superhero!

With energy restored off we headed to explore the only Toy & Action Figure Museum in Oklahoma and possibly the world! Jayden is fascinated with what Darryl and I had growing up, restaurants, toys, television shows, everything. He was amazed when he learned we only had seven channels on TV and that cartoons only came on Saturday mornings. In his young eyes that must have been torture, but in my eyes it was beautiful. Jayden is full of questions about how we grew up and on this trip we were able to show and share a little bit of our childhood with him.

Disclaimer: Superhero Jayden has been on mission, thus the poofy hair
just think of it as a helmet.

There are 10's of thousands of Action Figures,
but these full size GI Joes captured Jayden's attention the most.

The GI Joe display was really cool, especially with Captain America on scene!

WWE Wrestling Figurines

We spend alot ot time here playing, "I spy...." They had everything you could
imagine even Felix the Cat!

I found my husband's undies!

Many Superheros I have never even heard of.

The only Mickey Mouse display that outdoes my Aunt Naomi's.

Star Wars Chess Game

Spidey will always be a family favorite!

As we left through the gift shop, our son was ready to spend away! However, those toys and gifts were just a little too much IMO (in my opinion), so we left empty-handed, but God who has preordained our steps as His redeemed children had a special treat for his son Jayden that He would bring across my path the very next day at a fraction of the cost of the toys he was interested in.

A 12" full size desert GI Joe, complete with his own desert dune buggy,
boots, hat, guns, grenades and even dog tags! All for $12 from Once Upon A Child.
Now he wants an Army, one solider just isn't enough, Mom.

What about you and your family? Have you ever visited the Toy & Action Figure Museum or Janet's Eats & Sweets? Who is your favorite Superhero and why?

2011 Spring Break - OKC Zoo

It's true!

We just aren't that smart!

Well except Darya she stayed with a friend.

Why in the world did we suggest going to the Zoo during Spring Break?

Didn’t we know that the Oklahoma City Zoo, spring weather and returning elephants would mean record setting attendance during Spring Break?

Jayden wanted to go see the lions, tigers and elephants! Well apparently so did the rest of Oklahoma City! Police directing traffic and having to park at Remington Park should have been our first clue of what was to come.

When we reached the admission area and saw the winding line to purchase tickets, we decided, "You know what? We don't have to do this. We home school. We can pick another day, preferably a day when everyone else is in school." So we turned around and started back to our vehicle, but Jayden’s shoulders dropped down past his belly button and his knuckles were draggin’ the ground. For a moment I thought a four-toed sloth had managed to escape the zoo and follow us home. There was no amount of pleas, bribes, justifications or common sense that would convince my eight year old son that any other day but the present was the best day to explore the zoo.

Thus off we went to the ticket line. Again.

Surprisingly the line moved quickly. I secretly hoped it would have painfully dragged out and he would have changed his mind, but 10 minutes and we were in and on our way to explore.

This guy eats better than me! Sorry for the blurriness, but I *dislike* reptiles.
I am actually shivering right now as I type this. For a veggie diet he sure has a big gut!

Trying to figure out how to add wheels and turn this
into a piece of luggage for me.

It was a great day! Everyone was moving even the turtles!

I wished I could be that happy with my rough skin and blubber.

This guy stood up, beated his chest and ran full blast at us and hit the glass right
in front of us. I am pretty sure he felt threatened that I was going to eat his bananas.

A tender moment between two sisters "Asha and Chandra".
I snapped this photo because I wasn't too sure
how close we were going to be able to get,
remember *record setting days*? I guess that
is better than *record setting temperatures".

Isn't this sweet? Asha (in the water) is expecting her first calf in May 2011, her big sister
Chandra is comforting her. Seeing this flooded me with my labor days with Darya and how
I wanted to GIVE UP! Completely. Done. But Gaye was there to help me get through it.
Yes, Darryl was there too, but I REALLY didn't want much to do with him at that moment,
after all in my mind at that time he was the one that caused all that pain!

The water must have felt good because she was rolling around in it for awhile.



Just a small portion of the beautiful brand new Asian-themed elephant habitat.
Oklahoma City has one of the best zoos ever!



Chandra came over and did some tricks.

Wishing I was that beautiful when I slept.

This guy was obviously cranky and could use some Cologate Advance Teeth Whitening

Strength. What this bear and my husband have in common.
Oh. And the black hair.

Eagles. Proud. America. Del City High School. Kerr Jr. High...
Majestic. Beautiful. I am a Bald Eagle...your national emblem.

Well as you can tell it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. We did actually get to see most of the animals and they were all ready to give us a show. I saw my beautiful sister-in-law and niece Olivia and despite Darryl and I both getting ran over by crazed mommies in strollers we survived. Outlook does determine outcome.

2011 Spring Break - IKEA!!!

For those of you who have never heard of IKEA….Wait. Screech. Hold your horses. Who has never heard of IKEA? Grant it we don’t have one here in Oklahoma which is a good thing because it seems they have some type of cult following, but just south of us in the big ole’ state of Texas, Frisco to be exact sits one big home furnishing store – 310,000 square feet to be exact. So big they have maps at the front of the store, which you might need because it shows you the “shortcuts” in case you need to get back to the ONE bathroom location in the store; which is necessary when shopping with kids or old folk.

If you ever trek down to IKEA and it is your first trip, may I suggest several things?

• Go to the bathroom before entering. Kind of like when you are going on a long car trip, even if you don’t feel like you need to go….go try!
• Pick up a map when you go in, you may need it if you can’t find employees, which by the way are decked out in blue and yellow uniforms, reminding me of Legos.
• Next grab a big blue shopping bag if you want to burn extra calories or a four wheelin’ shopping cart if you want to have fun, trust me you will thank me by the time you get to the first turn.
• Start at the top level because the checkout is on the bottom floor.
• If you have kids that are between 37"to 54" tall, and potty trained you can drop them at Smaland, a playroom with a giant clog shoe and ball pit.
• If you get hungry they have an inexpensive restaurant, I tried their famous Swedish Meatballs with lingonberry jam which were really pretty good and a perfect portion size. Five of us ate meals, drinks and dessert for $25!

Since there are more than 300 stores in over 30 countries and the store is so big, I am surprised that Phil Keoghan and The Amazing Race hasn’t staged a Road Block at one of these locations with the task of putting together some of their streamlined furniture. Actually, I think if they would put together the lamp that we purchased for Darya’s room could be the task that could sever relationships.

The lamp that took some time to assemble.

Let’s take a short commercial break so I can share with you a few things I read on the internet regarding IKEA and since it is on the internet it has to be true, right? *groan*

1. The store wasn’t an immediate success. IKEA floundered in Sweden for thirty years (THIRTY YEARS!) before finding an international audience.
2. It All Started With a Car. The inspiration for IKEA’s design philosophy came when taking the legs off of a chair to fit it into a car. IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was so irritated by the experience that he developed the concept of flat pack design.
3. Kamprad is known as a frugal billionaire who drives a ’93 Volvo, eats at middle-class restaurants, and outfits his home entirely in affordable IKEA products, his legacy is tainted by his past involvement with pro-Nazi organizations Kamprad immediately apologized for his involvement and claimed it was the biggest regret of his young life. He also wrote to every Jewish employee on his staff to issue a personal apology. It appears forgiveness has been extended to him.
4. In the 1980’s, the beginnings of IKEA in America, many customers bought vases mistaking them for water glasses.
5. The IKEA catalogue is the company’s main marketing tool. The approximately 300-page catalogue goes out to over 180 million people in 27 different languages to 35 different countries.
6. The recent trend among urban hipsters is to host dinner parties at the stores and then hang out in one of the many decorated display rooms. My kids would rather play a game of hide and go seek.
7. All US stores have rental cars/vans/ trucks available right at the store for your convenience, should you not be able to fit all those streamlined boxes in your vehicle, which I think is way cool!
8. Finally, all the big items you want to purchase you will pick up on the ground floor right before you get to the registers. It is like a big warehouse with numbered aisles and sections.

A really cool cube storage system that we bought for Darya and Jayden's rooms but in black.

Here is a larger version of Darya's lamp, which I love!

However, this lamp was my all time favorite,
I must have it for my reading nook in my bedroom one day.

Penguins!! I love penguins! Jayden took this picture of a picture for me at IKEA.
See even the penguins are rushing to IKEA

Next stop was the Allen Outlet Stores, Hannah wanted to go shopping at Van’s for new shoes. Darryl and Jayden hung out at Nike and after my short trip to the

Kitchen Place

, Darya, Hannah and I finished the day out at Rue 21. Then it started raining so we had to split like cats getting sprayed with a water bottle because we had items stored on top of our Expedition.

           

Almost home! Hannah and her lovely Nerd glasses, which the guy at Chick-Fil-A loved!
See how packed we were? We barely made it.

Next day we went to Lowe's to get the bottom support for Darya's bed.
We opted for this $28 expenditure rather than the $60 expense for IKEA slats.

Cutting lumber is crazy loud! None of us were expecting that!

The final room. So the reason we went to IKEA was to get Darya a new bed,
because we were tired of Goldilocks complaining, "this bed's too small".











Goldilocks is happy and her feet are hanging off the bed no more!



2011 Spring Break - Texas

Showing our colors as we pass the state line into longhorn country.

After Robbers Cave we drove southward as we passed cattle trucks Darya would say, "Bye Cow! Eat you later!" Although beef was not on the menu but chicken, I know that it is blasphemous not to eat beef when you are in Texas, but we had to check out Babe's on recommendation from the Rosson's.

Babe's Chicken in Frisco, Texas

For two days Jayden called Darya's friend Hannah "honey", not sure if he really has a crush on her or if he is just loving teasing her, but either way he was opening doors for her, pulling out and pushing chairs in for her and showing love to her. Hannah on the other hand would scrunch up her nose and proclaim, "Ewwww, he is too young!" However, I informed her there were only three years between her and Jayden the same amount between Darryl and I. That was followed by another long, "Eeeewwwwwwww!"

Upon arrival at Babe's our waitress asked if we had ever been there and since we hadn't she informed us there are no menus and only five main entrées, fried chicken, chicken fried steak, chicken tenders, wood grilled chicken and pot roast, it is served with mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corns and rolls whether you want them or not!

The scary man who was watching our children eat.

It was funny when the scary man lost his balance and did a nose dive towards Darya.

The girl's reactions when they realized that the waitress
was bringing out baby rattlers for them to see.

In preparation for the baby rattlers she had them sitting on their feet in case they got loose.
That stick there made Jayden scream like a girl when she asked him to hold it for her.

I love Hannah's face! Can you tell she was about to bee line it to the door!?
The baby rattlers were just that baby rattlers that babies hold and shake!

Next critter to visit us at the table was Owen the pet groundhog.

As Hannah peered into the cage she said, "Awh, it's so tiny!" To which Jayden replied,
"Just like you, honey..." then I cracked up laughing which made Jayden mad because I interrupted,
what he wanted to say was, "Just like you honey, it ain't gettin' any bigger."

Close up of "Owen the Ground Hog" a.k.a...1 pound of Owens ground sausage.

Final verdict on Babe's Chicken: thumbs up for the food and the faces for the pranks!

I hit the jackpot at the CVS there, they had everything I went after unlike here in Oklahoma.
I guess the coupon craze hasn't hit Frisco, TX yet. I got all the above for $12.67 with
$6.50 in ExtraBucks so a total of $6.17!
BTW, I really like the Dial NutriSkin replenshing lotion it is very creamy.