Olivia was in the bathroom tonight getting ready for bed. Suddenly the door opened. "Daddy!" came the hoarse whisper. "Bring me a shoe!" Obligingly, Ben took Olivia my sandal.
"Man, it got away," Olivia said a moment later. "It crawled under the vanity."
A few minutes later I tucked Olivia into bed and she confessed her concern. "Mom, I'm kind of freaked out because I don't know where it is." After assuring her that it wasn't coming into her room that night because she didn't have food or water, I left the room and put it out of my mind.
Thirty minutes later, Olivia had to get up to use the restroom again. She cautiously opened the door, reached in to turn on the light, and scoped out the room like a she was "clearing" it as part of a special forces team. Seeing that the coast was clear, she went in and closed the door.
A few minutes later, we heard a SMACK! and a "Ha!"
I think it's safe to assume the spider is dead now.
My friend, Terri, has been trying to get me to plan a trip to the Jasmine Moran Children's Museum for at least 2 years, I think. Finally, we picked a day and put it on calendar. The day before the day arrived with a blustering storm that knocked out our power overnight for a few hours. Despite the extra stress on my end (my phone / internet modem shorted out) and hers (her A/C unit shorted out), we didn't cancel the trip.
We got out the door on Tuesday morning only 15 minutes late - which is good for us..... Except I needed to run something by Ben's office. And meet his new supervisor. And then when I got back to the car, Maddox had a stinky diaper and my "van wipes" were in my "church bag" in the closet at home. So we went to the gas station. No wipes. Went a couple exits down to the Family Dollar and got the wipes (and an extra snack for the kids), changed the stinky diaper, and were On Our Way. Only another 45 minutes lost.
But never fear, we got to the Jasmine Moran museum in Seminole by 11:15 - enough time to poke around a little, have lunch, and then play some more, right? Right!
Just inside the entrance there's this dinosaur skeleton. Kelsey and Eva had to ham it up a bit, of course.
Connor decided that he wanted to be "the judge", so he donned the robes and called the court to order.
The jurors weren't very well-behaved.
So we moved on to the fun-house mirrors and got a kick out of how fast Connor "grew".
Kelsey even learned how to float in mid-air. It was very impressive.
Meanwhile, Maddox moved on to what he really likes to do - dig and play with big trucks.
Olivia even got in on the action and built a doorway with PVC pipes.
Our indoor adventures were quickly interrupted with the announcement of the 11:30 train ride for which we had gotten tickets. So we rushed outside and hopped aboard.
Maddox was so excited!
Connor wouldn't look at me at ALL. Looking at this picture I realized how much this boy needs a haircut!
After a lovely drive around the grounds (and screaming through the tunnels)...
...we went back inside where the kids just had to play on the Big Thing.
This is easily one of the coolest Big Things that I've ever seen.
The kids climbed up, down, and all around...
...and eventually made it to the slide. Unfortunately, there's no "chicken out" route down (as Terri put it). If the kid gets to the top of the slide and decides it's too big for them, they have to climb up, around, and all the way back down again. Which Eva did.
When we went back into the main area, the kids decided to go shopping at Homeland. This is a lot like the miniature grocery at EdVenture in Columbia, SC, only the name isn't nearly as cool. You just can't top Piggly Wiggly.
Maddox had a great time shopping with Olivia, but after checking out, he left her to clean up the mess. Typical.
One of our favorite rooms was the bubbles. For obvious reasons.
Olivia had a great time making a shrinking bubble cocoon. (video)
And breaching the bubble wall was pretty cool to watch, too. (video)
We finally made it outside for our picnic, and Maddox decided to play "king of the mountain". It was a great hill... perfect for rolling down. Unfortunately, due to a bad experience the LAST time I rolled down a hill, I'm not likely to try it again soon. One day I will, though. But not when there's a recording device nearby. Or many witnesses.
Before we went back in, we headed over to let the kids try their skills at the Castle Maze.
Terri and I went up the ramp with the boys to watch the kids from the top. This was so cool!
Olivia got through pretty quickly, but Kelsey and Eva just got the middle. Rather than keep going, they decided to take the "easy way" up and scaled the slide.
Unfortunately, what was easy for Kelsey was not as easy for Eva. Kelsey decided to lend a helping hand and lend verbal encouragement. To my amusement and Terri's, one of the things she called out to Eva was, "You can do it, Eva! It'll be okay! The Lord is with you!"
Eventually, Eva made it to the top.
After making it back inside for more fun...
...and tire-changing...
...and skeletal biking... (video)
...and my favorite activity of making patterns in sand on a turn-table...
... the kids finished it all off with a puppet show for me and Terri. (video)
It was SUCH a fun day and we'll have to make it out there again in a few months.
No, this isn't a blog post about Ozzy Osbourne's song from his Black Sabbath Days. (And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can listen to it here. It's a great song, and very tame for you non-metal-lovers out there.) But we ARE going through changes and it's high time I blogged about them, don't you think??
The first big change is that Ben started a new job this past Monday. Now, instead of working on the structural engineering plans for buildings he'll be a structural CAD tech for bridges. He's looking forward to expanding his expertise into a new area, working with some more great people, and getting a nice pay raise. It's a little sad for us to be leaving the company that brought us all the way to Oklahoma, but it'll be a good change for him and us.
The second big change is that we have put our house on the market. We love our house, and in some ways will miss it. However, we really need bigger bedrooms, and hopefully a 4-bedroom house, so we are looking forward to the move. The kids have already picked out the perfect house with 2 stories, 4 bedrooms, and a nice deck and pool of course. We'll see. It'll all come down to what is still available when we find a buyer for our home. It's taken a little longer to sell than I'd hoped, but we are working on trusting in the Lord's time table and just trying to enjoy the journey without stressing too much.
The third change is that we have two BIG birthdays this week: Olivia turns 13 tomorrow and Connor turned 5 today. I'll post more about that later, but I wanted to mention it here since I am officially the mother of a teenager. Prayers are appreciated. I'm pretty sure I'll survive, but not sure we are both going to make it through unscathed. But hey, that's what therapy is for, right?
Olivia is planning her 13th birthday party, and she'd like to have some music. Modern music. Apparently her dad and I aren't hip enough. When I protested, the conversation went something like this:
Olivia: Do you know what Party Rock is?
Me: Is that a style of music?
Olivia: No, it's a song. See? Proof you aren't modern.
Me: Just because I don't know one song doesn't mean I don't know the new stuff.
Olivia: Mom. You like Queen. That's not modern.
Me: Just because one of them is dead doesn't mean it's not modern!
Let's just say I'm quickly losing this argument...
p.s. I have since done a Google search for "Party Rock" and found the song. I HAVE heard it before, but I didn't know what it was.
