Mother's day kitten

Two tired kids

We walked through the Japaneese Gardens



The kids watching the Koi

We followed that up with pizza from Pi Pizza on Delmar Blvd – it surprisingly tastes a lot like Monicals – I think I may have found my new favorite Pizza place in Missouri!

And Austen dyed me beautiful flowers for mothers day that he did himselft!

Mother's day kitten

Ok so the smash up title isn't as creative as I would like but hey - it's the best I could do. I think I posted earlier in the week on FB about how I had something going on every night this past week. I did and my weekend wasn't a lot more open! We started Saturday morning at the farmer's market which had grown exponentially since the last time I had been there. I bought my year’s supply of goat milk soap from the soap lady, saw some friends who were there selling pottery, and picked ups some nice hand lotion from another vendor.

Then we headed to get something to eat followed by a trip to Wal-Mart. Then on to my son's work at Big St. Charles Motor Sports. Big St. Charles was having a car show and Bill's a car guy at heart so we went and checked out all the hold cars (I think he drooled on a few) and we of course got to see my son and his girlfriend who also works there.

Then we went to a softball game - some of the girls from Aubri's old team were playing in a mother's day tournament. It was good to see old friends. Then we headed over to Bass Pro Shop to check out some camping gear. Now in our Bass Pro - there is always someone selling something. I usually smile and keep walking but Bill - being Bill who talks to everyone - stopped. I'm thinking at this point in time "oh now, they've gotten him!" But it turned out ok. We now have our honeymoon taken care of - paid for and everything. You see they were having a great deal on a resort package. $99 and when we get there we will get gift cards for $75 and $25 so the thing is already paid for. Now the real kicker is we were hesitant so they have us an extra $25 (which I spent already) right there in the store. Ok, it sounds too good but I checked it out before we bought and it was legit.... so I'm going to Branson for my honeymoon next September!
And the day wasn't over yet! Saturday night we went to a trivia night to benefit a no kill shelter. Of course they brought puppies and kitties for people to adopt:



No I didn’t adopt her – I already have 4 cats but she was so sweet.

Sunday morning we got up and had brunch at IHOP followed by a day at the Missouri Botanical Gardens:


We started out in the Temperate House (fancy name for greenhouse with cool stuff in it).



Then we moved on to the Climatron ( another fancy name for a tropical greenhouse)






More pics in a second post...

A busy week...

I have Weight Watchers tonight, A discussion group on Wednesday night, The symphony with Erik on Thursday night, New Moon on Friday, Trivia Night on Saturday and Mother’s day on Sunday… I think I might need Monday to rest up!

Erik is taking a music appreciation class at college as a humanity credit and he has to go hear classical music as one of his assignments. Of course he has waited until the last minute (school finals start next week!). So I agreed to go to the symphony to hear Beethoven on Thursday night with him. I like going as it’s an excuse to dress up and go listen to nice music so not really a hardship for mom.

I’m hoping that this Sunday is nice as I’ve wanted to go to the botanical gardens. They are beautiful in the spring (well, all year actually but the spring is especially wonderful I think.) And I’m going to drag as many of my kids as possible with me! LOL

This past weekend we had planned on doing some work out in the campground and getting our shower house built but the weather didn’t corporate and we ended up cancelling our helpers. We took the mule out in the woods just to see how muddy it was and how much rain we had in the wet weather creeks. Here are a few pics:


The campground is looking a little ragged.


A river runs through it...


As you can see by the track of the mule - it was a bit damp.

What we talk about when we talk about pockets

What we talk about when we talk about pockets

I so totally agree! I don't carry a purse - often. I bring it to work because it has my id in it... but really, why am I even doing that? I find that the stuff in my purse is stuff that occasionally I am glad I have but most of the time I leave home without it. I rely on pockets! And yes when I don't have pockets and Bill is with me - he carries my phone, wallet and keys. It's not fair to him or to me that designers of women's clothes cant find it a challenge to put pockets in stuff. Hey - even my Ren Fair clothes have pockets (or I shove it down my cleavage lol) So repost if you like and lets try to get more pockets into women's clothes!

Originally posted by beckyzoole at What we talk about when we talk about pockets over on LiveJournal

Originally posted by kylecassidy at What we talk about when we talk about pockets over on LiveJournal

This post is about pockets, feminism, design, autonomy and common sense. Please feel free to repost or link to it if you know people who'd benefit from the discussion.

A few weeks ago trillian_stars and I were out somewhere and she asked "Oooh, can I get a cup of coffee?" and I thought "why are you asking me? You don't need permission." But what I discovered was that her clothes had no pockets, so she had no money with her.

Mens clothes have pockets. My swimsuits have pockets. All of them do, and it's not unusual, because, what if you're swimming in the ocean and you find a fist full of pirate booty in the surf? You need somewhere to put it. Men are used to carrying stuff in their pockets, you put money there, you put car keys there. With money and car keys come power and independence. You can buy stuff, you can leave. The idea of some women's clothes not having pockets is baffling, but it's worse than that -- it's patriarchal because it makes the assumption that women will either carry a handbag, or they'll rely on men around them for money and keys and such things. (I noticed this also when Neil & Amanda were figuring out where her stuff had to go because she had no pockets.) Where do women carry tampons? Amanda wondered, In their boyfriend's pockets, Neil concluded.

I then noticed that none of trillian_stars' running clothes had pockets. Any pockets. Which is (as they always say on "Parking Wars") ridikulus. Who leaves the house with nothing? (It's not a rhetorical question, I actually can't think of anybody).

We fixed some of this by getting this runners wrist wallet from Poutfits on Etsy -- it holds money, ID, keys ... the sort of stuff you'd need. Plus you can wipe your nose on it. It solves the running-wear problem, but not the bigger problem.




Clickenzee to Embiggen!

The bigger problem is that people who design women's fashions are still designing pants and jackets that have no pockets. In fact, this jacket we got last December has ... no pockets. It's not a question of lines or shape, it's a question of autonomy.



Clickenzee to Embiggen

So I'm asking my friends who design women's clothes to consider putting pockets in them, they can be small, they can be out of the way, they can be inside the garment, but space enough to put ID, and cash and bus tokens. And maybe a phone. (And if you can design a surreptitious tampon stash, I'm sure Neil & Amanda & a lot of other people would appreciate it as well.)

Texas Road Trip

Bill and I took a road trip over the weekend to Texas to visit with his brother in Ft. Worth and my son in Killeen. We started out on Thursday morning with overcast skies and sprinkles here and there. The biggest parts of the storms were to the north of us until we got past Little Rock then we hit wave after wave of hard rain and wind. We had rented a car for the trip and our little Chevy Cruze did great! We broke out of the weather just the other side of Texarkana and had sunny skies all the way to Ft. Worth.
We stayed with Bill’s brother and his wife Thursday night then got up Friday morning and drove down to Killeen to see Tom. He took us on a tour of the base, put Bill in his kit:




This was taken in Tom's room. I didn't give you the view from the other side for a good reason! LOL

and out to eat at a true Texas BBQ place (wonderful food!) We took a trip that evening down to Austin to Bucca de Beppo (one of our favorite Italian restaurants)




and then stayed at Killeen overnight.

Got up Saturday morning and drove back up to Ft Worth and then to Wachahachi for the Scarborough Renaissance Faire. It is a really big fair – like KC or Bristol in Wisconsin.


From left to right: Bill's brother Richard, his wife Carol, Bill, Me, and Tom

Stopped to watch a show on the road

Bill on the drive home.

A couple of things came out of this trip. I am thinking about trading in my Escape for a Cruze. We want to go back next year for the faire. We ate ‘round the world’ (Italian and Texas BBQ on Friday, Mexican on Saturday and Chinese on Sunday!) Texas weather in April is unpredictable (It was 81 when we left Missouri on Thursday morning – it was 46 when we got to Ft. Worth that evening.) I had packed shorts and sleeveless shirts because the forecast was for 80’s and sunny. It was sunny but certainly not in the 80’s!

Beautiful weekend - Blustery Day

This weekend was beautiful - a bit windy but the sun was out and it was in the high 70's.  My weekend at the farm was a bit shorter than usual - I went down Thursday night, then left work early on Friday to go car shopping for Aubri.  We found a few possibilities but will need to bring her back down weekend after this coming one to test drive a few.

I left early on Saturday to come into town for a 16th birthday party.  My freind Amanda's daughter had all of her family - birth, step and chosen - there to wish her a happy birthday and welcome her to the adult community. 

Later than evening Erik, Meghan, Meghan's neice and Meghans' friend and I  (along with Meghan's dogs) went to the disc golf course with Erik.  It's a course that is layed out in the woods - up and down the hills so it's a really nice walk.  We did the front 12 holds then went to McDonalds.  They brought me home after to a very quiet house!

Sunday I did some laundry, read my book and then Erik, Meghan and I did the entire 18 holes at the disc golf course again.  It's great excersise and much more fun than the gym.  But alas I think I'll have to go to the gym today since it's raining today.  I woke a few times last night to hear thunder and it's looking pretty blustery out there.

Bill and I will be leaving on Thursday morning to go to Texas to visit with Tom and Bill's brother who lives in Ft. Worth.  I'm looking forward to digging out my shorts and tank tops cause it's gonna be in the 80's and 90's over the weekend!  We are also planning on going to the Ren faire while we are there.  I know I'll feel underdressed since I won't be dressing in period clothes but I didn't want to drag all that along with.

All my comments go into the Never Never...

I have done everything that I can think of to fix this problem with Blogger but ever since I changed my email address I no longer get email notifications when someone comments on my blogs or on a comment I make on their post.

And now the comments section of my dashboard is broken too - I don't see any comments in the last month.  So as I trudge slowly through some of my old posts - I may comment on your comment.... This is almost as confusing as my autocorrect mishaps!