Technology is Cool, I'm a Dork

Okay, call me a dork, but I absolutely love our dentist.

Instead of chomping down on horribly uncomfortable x-ray plates while they shoot you from twelve different angles, our dentist has the neatest machine. You just stand still, stick your head on a chin rest (like the optometrist) and BOOM, the x-ray machine circles your head and takes one full set of x-rays in about 30 seconds.

Plus, it's digital, so there are no nasty chemicals to process the x-rays and by the time you park your butt in the chair for your cleaning, you can see your teeth on the tv screen.

Here are K's pearly whites . . . I love how you can see both the baby teeth AND the grown up teeth. Even her molars show up (in the back) and we won't see those for years yet. Too cool!

I Got My Baby Back . . .

Today couldn't have been more of a Gilmore Day if it had been filmed and broadcast on the WB.

It was a whirlwind weekend and every bit of it was fun. Friday morning I dropped off the mower at the repair shop (again) and hit the road to Pittsburgh. My best friend Jennifer and I pulled into the Dunkin Donuts parking lot about 10 minutes apart, headed to her house got dolled up and headed out for a girls night on the town. I met Jennifer at freshman orientation the summer before I started college and she's been like a sister to me ever since. Meeting up with Marla, who I haven't seen since we tailgated at a Steelers game two years ago, was the perfect way to start off the night. Add in having pierogies as an appetizer option and a salad that comes with french fries on it, and you know you're in the 'Burgh. I even let Jennifer talk me into going to the crappiest bar in Pittsburgh and dancing to hip hop, but we all make sacrifices for our friends.

Saturday morning I ran Jennifer into work downtown and we hit the strip to stock up on Steeler's gear. Kaitlyn and I are now completely ready for football season as we are in possession (finally) of two black and yellow feather boas and enough temporary tattoos to last us until Superbowl Sunday. With the preliminary shopping done, I headed up to North Hills for lunch with the Bouceks where I finally got to pick up K for good. It was a very long (albeit quiet) six weeks with her gone on the Summer Fun Tour. K and I headed back downtown, got a quick tour of Jennifer's office and hit the strip to finish our shopping. At $5 a pop, we were able to complete outfit out VB neighborhood for the entire season.

Then it was back to Jennifer's for the Steelers preseason game against the Redskins (we won't talk about that) and a nice visit with her mom who stopped by.

This morning we hit the road on schedule and had a great trip home. My mom is here for the week and luckily pulled in the driveway about an hour before we did. It will be the only hour of peace and quiet she has all week. A few hours in the neighbor's pool, some grilled cheese sandwiches and one showered kid later and we are settled in for the night.

Sometimes, life is very, very good.

Things I Don't Understand

Since I actually have plans to leave the house after 7:00 tomorrow, tonight should have been spent doing laundry and packing for my Pittsburgh trip on Friday. And finishing up all the stuff it's so much easier to do while K is gone.

Instead I spent the evening doing one load of laundry and not packing a thing. What can I say, I'm easily distracted. I'd love to post more, but it's 11:30 and I still need to take my trash out.

Slim Pickins

I've always said that K has a far more exciting life than I could ever hope for. Well, it must be true because ever since she started the Summer Fun Tour of 2009, I haven't had spit to blog about. But to avoid losing any of the entire three people who actually read this, I figured I better post something.

When we were in school, our schedules revolved around semesters, summers and "when will Friday get here." Then we grow up and get jobs and lives and our calendar is split into two parts: work week and weekend. Then we get pregnant and have children and our frame of reference changes again. First we count by weeks, "Oh, I'm 17 weeks along." Then we switch over to months, "She's 18 months old."

Well the parent of a school-ager has a whole other frame of reference: school year and summer vacation. I can't believe how fast this one has gone.

SUMMER FUN TOUR 2009:
Weeks 1-4: Summer Camp (glorified term for "Make your kid think daycare is fun.")
Week 5: At the farm with Daddy who just got back from a two month trip
Week 6: Grammy and Pop Pop's house in the Poconos
Layover: Great weekend w/Mommy in Washington, DC
Weeks 7-8: Back at the farm for two weeks of Daddy, Nae Nae and the horses
Weeks 9-10: Pittsburgh and Camping with Grandma and Grandpa
Layover: Weekend w/Mommy in Pittsburgh
Week 11: Finally home in Virginia Beach, with Grammy visiting
Week 12: Spending various days with all her friends she missed this summer (glorified term for pawning her off on various neighbors so Mommy can go to work)

The Summer Fun Tour also included a visit with Uncle John at Daddy's house w/a Mommy and Me day thrown in because, well, four weeks is just too darn long to go with out a little love from my little one. And, we'll probably throw in a Day trip to Busch Gardens in Week 12, just because we can (and our passes expire on Labor Day).

As the Summer Fun Tour winds down (three weeks to go), I can't believe the summer flew by so fast and it's already time to pick out backpacks and school clothes. But it sure will be nice to head to Pittsburgh on Friday and bring my little LoveBug home. I'm even starting to miss watching the Disney Channel and listening to Miley Cyrus in the car.

**visit ww.facebook.com/browneyedgirls to see all the great pics of the Summer Fun Tour.

Hanging with Rory

Today was definitely a Gilmore Day . . . probably because I got to hang with my Rory.

K has been out at the farm ever since I picked her up from my folks in DC two weeks ago and she'll be heading out this weekend for two weeks with Grandma and Grandpa B. Deciding that four weeks without seeing my LoveBug was just too long, we scheduled a Mommy and Me playdate for today.

In true Gilmore fashion, the last 24 hours included a Bachelor Auction for me (cleverly disguised as a benefit for the American Cancer Society last night), a one hour workday Friday, a road trip to see my girl, too much food at a diner (okay, Cracker Barrel), a movie and me being too technologically inept to locate the cord for my camera to actually share all the great pictures I took. I think we may even have thrown in some pop culture references for good measure.

Now if I could only go have a cup of coffee with Luke, it would be the best day ever. Of course I don't drink coffee and I don't have a Luke, so I guess the Gilmore reference ended when I left the farm. But keep your fingers crossed, I did give my number to Bachelor #1 before I left the fundraiser last night.

As an added bonus, Bill's parents and brother were all at the farm when I went to pick up my girl. It was great to visit with K's Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle John.

It's a Birdie Kind of Day

Around here we have two kind of days . . . Gilmore days and Birdie days.


Anyone who's ever seen Gilmore Girls can figure out what a Gilmore Day is . . . it might be weird, it might even be crazy, but it's always fun. Even if we're handed lemons, somehow we make lemonade . . . usually with a lot of laughs and a little vodka.


Birdie Days are a whole different story. They're the days when I feel like Sandra Bullock's character from Hope Floats (before she gets to start sleeping with Harry Connick, Jr.). A must see for any divorced woman (if for no other reason than to give us hope that our second husbands might actually look like Harry Connick, Jr.). For anyone who hasn't seen the movie, Birdie was the homecoming queen who married the football star and went on to be his trophy wife. He dumps her on television to be with her best friend. She packs up her young daughter and moves back to her hometown with her tail between her legs to live with her crazy mother and figure out what the hell she's supposed to do with the rest of her life. Mostly she just looks around like "How the &%$# did this get to be my life?!?!?!" At one point, she just looks at her mother and says, "Mama, I used to be somebody."


Most days around here are Gilmore Days, but not today . . . today is a Birdie Day all the way.