A Cindy Quickie

Tonight for dinner there were two options for Cindy to choose from- neither of which she liked. At all.  But as a good dose of tough love, Jacob did not give in and give her another choice. Through her tears, she choked down a few bites of the lesser evil and called it a night.  Later that night while we were at the store and it was just me and her walking down an aisle she said, "Dad is treating me like Andi or Bruce from Hotel for Dogs. They were forced to eat horrible food and had no choice! And it isn't fair because I am not even adopted!"  .....Or are you????

Getaway

My brother Dave and his daughter Addie came down for a visit this past week.  So good to see them again!  And even though I had to work a few days, there was still time to sneak in a little fun. The highlight of the week was a quick overnight hotel stay in Orlando. We bought a Groupon deal for a hotel that had a waterfall and slide and crossed our fingers that it wouldn't suck. Or be so full of tourists that we wanted to jump off a cliff.  And while there were many field hockey teams staying there for an apparent tournament at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex, our stay was actually really fun. Our room was far away from the riff-raff and the pool really delivered!  For anyone interested, the hotel was the Radisson Resort at Celebration.  (Here is my official TripAdvisor review.)  It was so close to Disney that the Yelp app on my phone kept showing every restaurant inside Epcot as the closest place to eat dinner.  We did not eat there.  But here are some pictures....

Cindy was so excited about pictures she couldn't even stand it...

Mom loves her a good waterfall.

Friday morning we got to the pool at 9am and the slide didn't open til 10.  Cindy would do nothing else but wait.
She was the first in a line that did not exist.  Happy?

This hotel likes large games.  Super checkers or jumbo Jenga, anyone?

Wish you were here!

Here is a picture of the cousins: Luke, Addie, Cindy and Raji.  

The kids had an absolute blast. We swam our guts out and my kids were absolutely wasted for the rest of the day.  Cindy came home and slept for three hours and Luke creepily slept with his eyes open for most of the car ride home.  Exhibit A:

So weird!!!

During this adventure I also took the greatest picture ever taken of my mom.  Ever.  But I am awaiting approval on posting it.  So if I ever get the green light, Sweeneyville will be the first to know.

The Coolest Way To Kill A Fly

A friend of a friend of a friend of an enemy of an acquaintance shared this video on Facebook.  I just might need to order one of these.  But then again maybe not because I don't really know how to set up my camera in slow motion to record all the fly deaths with sound effects, which is pretty much the most appealing thing about this product.  But still, everyone can enjoy some good old American ingenuity. Watch and enjoy!

Knowledge is Power

Six Things I learned this week:

1. Cindy is actually pretty good at ping pong
2. The Great Mouse Detective is kind of a sucky movie
3. Going scalloping has officially been added to my bucket list
4. Wedding receptions should never, ever be more than three hours long
5. It's impossible to frown while playing air hockey
6. If you need Luke to put shoes and socks on, you have to get him at least two hours notice

Why We Aren't Taking A Summer Vacation This Year

Sure, the World Cup was going on, and yes, I got shot down by my boss for the week I tried to take off, but I guess that ultimately, the real reason we aren't going on a summer vacation this year is because of this:

It was finally time to trim the trees.  

And give away half of our life savings.

My advice to anyone reading this: Don't buy a house with trees.  Indeed they are shady, lovely, of good report and yes, sometimes even praiseworthy, but do not seek after these things.  They are dirty, expensive and apparently, full of beetles.  Aesthetically, I was sad to see them go, but I can't even believe how much LESS raking we are going to have to do this fall.

After the first tree was trimmed, Luke ran out to see it and said, "Holy cow you can see the sky and it looks like winter!"  It was a cool 89 degrees, so it did feel like winter just a bit.

Seems appropriate that this final "after" picture was taken on a rare day when the rain lasted all day long.  Definitely makes it look like the tree is now sad and humiliated. 

But don't fall for his act.  He's feeling light as a feather!

And speaking of awesome things in my yard, the pineapples are coming along nicely...

Only four more months until they are ready...Seriously, let's move it along, pineapples!

So Long, Brazil

It's over, folks!  The World Cup has officially come to an end.  While some people might be happy about this (*cough*Molly*cough*), I am a little sad.  And not just because I picked Brazil to win it all and they turned out to be only slightly better than the Harlem Globetrotters.  It's mostly because it gave us something free to do almost every day for about four weeks, and well, now what are we supposed to do?  But there were highs! There were lows! There were thrills, chills, missed shots, moments of glory, choking, dives, flying headers, snorkeling raccoons- it had everything!  So in the name of posterity, I present you with:

My Top Ten Moments of World Cup 2014

(But not necessarily in the complete and total correct order because I 

really couldn't rank these if I absolutely had to)

10. Spain's shocking early exit
9. The Suarez bite
8. Chile and Costa Rica playing the part of the little engine that could
7. National anthems sung with such gusto!
6. Debating the best goal of the tournament...
(My list goes 1. Cahill 2. Van Persie 3. James Rodriguez 4. Jermaine Jones 5. Messi)
5. Coach Sabella and his fainting episode of glory
4. The vertebrae heard round the world  (Are you tell me Neymar was actually injured?!)
3. The Men in Blazers post game panic room reports
2. John Brooks' goal
1. Brazil's defensive implosion of the century versus Germany

Honorable mentions: Miguel Herrera's heart on his sleeve, James Rodriguez's gigantic bug on his sleeve and very, very, very, VERY sad Brazilians.

Wait, were you thinking that was going to be one of my usual hilarious top ten lists?  No, that was a real list of real moments.  Here is one of my usual hilarious top ten lists:


TOP TEN LEAST INTERESTING STORIES FROM WORLD CUP 2014

10.  Iniesta was in the process of refinancing his mortgage during the game versus Chile
9.  The coach of Algeria and the coach of Costa Rica have the same sized hands
8.  During training camp Fred tried three different shampoos before deciding to just keep using Prell
7.  John Brooks dreamed he scored the game-winning goal; Van Persie had a dream he worked at a Save-a-lot and everyone paid him in baby carrots
6.  The Brazuca ball by Adidas was originally supposed to be red, white, black, green and fuschia and not red, white, black, green and orange
5.  Bob Ley is Alexi Lalas' life insurance agent
4. At the beginning of the tournament Julian Green bought 4 postcard stamps, but by the end he had only used 3!
3. Manaus is home to a 4 pound cricket named Phil
2. Through the entire group stage, Chicharito's cell phone was never more than halfway charged 
1.  44% of this year's World Cup referees don't like sour cream

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Piles

Really quick I just had to share a Pinterest tip that has actually improved my life in the real world. Let's face it, there are a ton of really stupid ideas on Pinterest.  (Inflating balloons with air from a water bottle filled with vinegar and baking soda, anyone? Yeah, that is way easier than using my mouth.) But every once in a while you find something that is actually really useful. (Okay, magnetic strip in the vanity drawer that holds all your bobbie pins, you win.)  But here is one tip I think we all can use. I have been very overwhelmed lately by the amount of sentimental clutter that I have. (Oddly enough, my latest freak out came right after Jacob watched an episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive. But I digress...) I am a sentimental weirdo and that makes it very hard for me to throw certain things away. Ever. Things like birthday cards, notes from the kids, school work, report cards, Christmas photo cards, etc.  The guilt I have about throwing things away is ridiculous. So I was researching how other guilty people deal with this issue and wouldn't you know that if I just take a picture of it, I can throw it away???  No, no, my friend, not scan it.  That is WAY too much work.  I just snap a digital photo of said clutter, put it on my external hard drive in a big file called "Sentimental Journey," and voila! The clutter is gone and I don't have to keep finding a new home every other day for the letter to Santa from Cindy when she was 4. I just can't stand how easy it is! You're welcome, you're welcome and you're welcome.

Thank you note from Grandma Donna Bingham, circa 2008

Six Things I learned This Week

1. I suck at patching drywall
2. While obviously very contrived and totally scripted, Duck Dynasty is hugely entertaining
3. Chris Wondolowski will never sleep well again for the rest of his life
4. Luke doesn't wear "shirts"; he wears "napkins with sleeves"
5. As long as we own a generator, hurricanes will be magically repelled from Florida
6. Never ask a rhetorical question in Senior Primary

Proud to Be An American (Outlaw)

image

Happy Fourth of July!  

And don't forget there are games at 12 and 4. 

(Which leaves plenty of time for blowing stuff up :)

So Yesterday

I'm still in a post US elimination fog from the game yesterday, but while I sort out my feelings and try to figure out what to do with myself for the next two days, here is a nice side by side for posterity.

I like how Luke appears to be almost the same size as he was four years ago while Cindy has turned into a college student.  I can't believe how fast the time goes by!  Which means the US run to the final four in the 2018 World Cup will be here before you know it! Bring it on.