August 6!

Curiouser and Curiouser! 

Sorry.  Couldn't help it. 

So, today the Curiosity Rover landed on Mars and delivered its first pictures!  Today is also my brother's birthday!  What a cool thing to happen on one's birthday, no?

Here are some songs to listen to in honor of Brother's birthday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNT8SMlqLJA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4zRe_wvJw8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT4RainY-lY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzV9QExGFQs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzF3wMVWHs0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXhc3VHRdK0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlDGFrP4NgI

We arrived safely home from our trip to Tan-Tar-A resort at The Lake of the Ozarks.  My favorite part might just be the breakfast buffet.  Serious yum.  Anyway, we got in on Friday, took a walk in the heat to find out where everything was located, and settled in.  There were two rooms with a communicating door.  The rooms were huge.  Bub read some of Hugo to the kids, and then we pretty much went to bed.  In the morning, we had breakfast.  I had potatoes, eggs, and pound cake with strawberries on top.  Abbie had oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar on top.  Grant had a waffle with blueberries and whipped cream.  These are some examples of the yumminess.  I don't know why, but we had the birthday part right after breakfast.  Yay for cake and presents.  Then, we went to the pool by the lake.  It had a big slide, and the pool itself was 3'6" all the way across, and had waterfalls in one part.  The water was freezing, though, so after a while we went to the indoor pool in our building.  Very fun!  The hot tub was especially nice.  Then we went to Sbarro for lunch.  HUGE, greasy pizza.  Yum.  And then we walked back to the rooms.  The boys took the kids to play mini golf, and mom and I watched The Prince and the Show Girl with Marylin Monroe and Laurence Olivier.  I'm probably going to make someone angry now, because I know how people feel about Marylin....but she was so ridiculously untalented.  After that, it was off to another swimming pool until dinner.  Dinner was the low point of the whole trip.  I told my parents that my kids would be hungry about 5:30, so about then we went back to the rooms, but even though we voted and the majority wanted to send someone out into "town" for fast food and eat it in the rooms, it took so long to search the phone book and such, that at 6:30 I just gave the kids leftover pizza.  Then, after it was too late, the boys went to burger king.  Me and mom took the no longer hungry children to play at an indoor water park.  They had a great time, and we didn't leave until bedtime.  Dad finished reading Hugo to the kids, and we went to get some well earned sleep.  For breakfast, I had an omelet, and more pound cake and strawberries.  We all had hot chocolate as a going away gesture.  Then, we fed toast and biscuits to the many, many ducks down by the dock.  They were pretty great.  And we saw some HUGE carp, too.  There is no fishing there, and so the carp grew the size of small children.  Back in the rooms, we taught the kids to play Battleship - my mom gave it to Grant for his birthday, and then it was time to check out. 

After I drove home, I went to get school supplies for the kids.  I am trying to block that out of my memory.  There were cute little grandmothers violently pushing the carts of total strangers out of the way, shouting, swearing, and lots of complaining.  One thing there was none of, however, and that was No. 2 pencils.  I got everything else, and then gratefully removed myself from the store.

Today, I am about to call my brother and then take the kids to music lessons.  I wonder what I should cook for dinner.

Well, I can't wait to see what Curiosity sends us!  And we might be able to get some Olympics on our TV today.  Josh says we get one channel by antenna.  We shall see.  Wishing you all a wonderful Monday - or as close as  you can get.