Clothing Choices

What would you wear if it were 85 degrees and you wanted to play outside?
Emma's choice: leotard, sunglasses and most importantly, the fleece hat.

7 Years: She's Tougher Than We Thought

Allison and I recently celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary, thus proving all my gambling friends wrong...she DIDN'T leave me before 7 full years! IN YOUR FACE!! We're perfectly balanced time-wise: 3 1/2 years without kids, 3 1/2 years with kids. Since that second half is a lot harder than the first, we decided to do a "no-kids" extended date to celebrate.

My sister kept Emma & B last Thursday night until Friday afternoon, giving Allison and I roughly 18 full hours to ourselves. Sadly, we had to sleep, so that cut it down to about 10 hours of awake time to hang out. We went to dinner Thursday night at Theo's in Fayetteville. We had heard good reviews of it and wanted to try it out. Apparently, our friends are idiots. We weren't overly impressed with the food, but were extremely fond of the wine and dessert! Next time, we'll go for dessert and wine only. The atmosphere was OK, except that in the dining area, you're pretty much assured the beautiful scenery of the kitchen. Not sure if that's the way "fancy" places are nowadays, but I'd prefer not to see the mustached dude staring at my mediocre plate of food before he sends it out to me. Afterwards, we went to the house and watched Ocean's 12 and enjoyed having the house to ourselves.

Friday morning, we got up and went hiking at Devil's Den. It's been YEARS since either of us had been there. We took Belle (the dog) with us to make up for the 3 1/2 years of ignoring her. She loved it! Took a lot of pictures down by the dam and let Belle wade through the stream. Then we headed back to pick up the kids. Both of them did really well for my sister, which was a huge relief for both Allison and me.

It's been an amazing 7 years! Allison is easily the best part of my life and I look forward to a lifetime of anniversaries with her.

FYI: 7 years is the same thing as being with the same person from 6th grade until graduating high school. Crazy!!

Slip & Slide Action

Sunday night, the Jason & Jaime hosted a Neighborhood Hangout at their place. Lots of folks and lots of kids came. Chilling, eating, and playing. It was really fun. A slip 'n slide was pulled out and the games began. Shortly after this video, I became the first and only adult to hit the slip 'n slide. In full clothing.

Daddy's Girls

Princess in Training

My parents gave this tutu to Brooklyn for Christmas and we had not tried it on in a while. Emma found it yesterday and asked if we could dress B up. I love my girls!

Baseball Heroes

Luke (9) and Isaac (7), our nephews, were on the same baseball team this year. Sam (my brother in law) was their coach. They were undefeated all season and playing in the championship game, so we rolled the family out for a late night at the baseball field. I am not a huge fan of baseball (to slow for me), but I believe my mind was changed last night. I have not had that much fun in a long time. It was so fun yelling and cheering for them! The game tied at the end, so they went into an extra inning. The other team batted first and went ahead by 2 points. We were up next. Isaac hit the ball and got on base. Luke was next and hit a home run to send himself and Isaac home. Tied. WOW! We were all freaking out and so excited that the two of them had just had this brotherly moment and tied the game. Next guy up hits another homer and they win the game. AMAZING!
I had a really rough morning today and the thing that has pulled me through the day has been many deep breaths and reliving the win from last night. Check out how cute they are!

IDK, my BFF, Jill?

Ok, Cingular has a commercial out right now that I absolutely love! It really cracks me up every time I see it..especially when the girl says "IDK, my BFF Jill?" Here's the video:



Which brings me to my next talking point. The other day while having my car fixed, one of their courtesy drives comes in and is talking to a co-worker. The dude TOTALLY reminded me of Lafe...except a 50-year-old version of Lafe. His humor, looks, and the way he talks were identical! So I text Lafe at 8:15 in the morning:

[Me]: I just met the 50-year-old you.
[Lafe]: I bet he was a handsome sonofabitch.
[Me]: He was! I had an immediate man-crush.

I'm not sure if I got any weird looks or not, but I was laughing so dang hard at Lafe's response! It's just shy of pure genius.

Fun with Food

Brooklyn loves to eat and has not met anything she doesn't like. I am hoping this is a sign that she will be a better eater than her sister (and her Dad). Tonight, I gave her one of the Gerber biscuits to gnaw on while I fixed Emma's dinner. The sticky vegetables plus garden vegetables. Lovely combination for the complexion!

How Not to Be Seen

One of my favorite Monty Python skits is "How Not to Be Seen" (Flying Circus). Below is the YouTube clip of the show. Watch it now.



Can you improve upon this? Never. Can you make a Halo version of it? Absolutely. Can it be funny? Of course! Watch it now. It's genius.

Where have you been?

We realize it's been a while (a WHOLE week) since either Allison or I have posted something. Sorry Kara! Nothing much has been going on, so blog content is scarce. I'll try to recap some minor things happening in the lives of the Nelson's.

• I finally got my license plate attached to my car (after 6 months of owning the car)! I win the dumbass award for yanking off the screw bolt from my car, thinking it was "twistable". It wasn't. I finally took it the body shop and had them weld it back on. But not after Todd and I tried to JD Weld it back on ourselves. That didn't work very well. Now I won't be pulled over by every cop in Johnson and hick town for improper display of tags. Punks. Thankfully, no tickets were issued...only thick-hick-accented warnings from dip-spitting cops.
• All of our TV shows are over for the summer. While sad, it's also kind of freeing. More time for parks, photography, and mowing.
• We're going to Disney World! I really wanted to take Emma to Disney World while she was still young, mainly for selfish reasons: I can't wait to see the pure joy and excitement on her face when we eat dinner with the Disney Princesses! I'm actually giving up my iMac reward (for quitting dipping) and taking Allison & Emma to Disney in September! So fun!
• It's been almost 2 months since my last dip! I'm still using the Nicorette gum, but I'm weening myself from that. Since I'm giving up my iMac reward for Disney World, I will be rewarding myself with a new camera lens. Makes for better pictures at Disney!
• Work rocks. I love my job. It's been a long time since I've been able to say that. Job happiness and satisfaction is SO crucial to my joy levels.

That's it. Not much else is going on. If you're free for some park time and sno cones, give us a shout...we're always up for that!