Iron. Goddess.

The Iron Goddess Duathlon is 25 days from today, but who’s counting, right?  Not me.

Besides this week, I have been training like a MoFo.  However, even with all my training, I still haven’t felt like I’ve been getting anywhere.  Until tonight.  Tonight everything changed.  Tonight I realized that I am an Iron Goddess and I hope those other bitches know what they’re up against.

You think I’m talking shit?  Well, I’m not.  Check this out:

Iron = Blood.  Goddess = French Manicure.  Any questions?

P.S.  Those are my real nails and I did the French Manicure myself.  Do they look legit or do they look ghetto?  Ghetto fabulous is acceptable too.

Our weekend, in pictures.

Except for today, we had a beautiful Memorial Day weekend here in Michigan!  We were busy all weekend, starting Friday night with the Lifehouse/Daughtry concert:

We ate dinner at The Green Well, which is in the “Eastown” area of Grand Rapids.  The food was pretty good, but the service was only so-so.  Don’t worry though, I didn’t fire anyone this time!

This neat building was behind the restaurant:

The writing on the top of the building said “Blodgett Home for Children,” but I’m sure that’s not what it is anymore.  Shawn was fairly certain it was haunted!

Next we went to Sanchez for a Sangria, and then onto the concert.  The first band that played was “Cavo,” and I hated on them the whole time.  They had this wimpy guitar player with greasy hair who kept swinging it around like he was a total rock star:

Lifehouse was next, and they were very good, but more heavy metal than I thought they would be.  Their lead singer is totally hot, and if I had known that I would have definitely put him on my list of people to knock boots with!

Finally my boyfriend Chris Daughtry came out.  He did not disappoint in hotness or in his performance!  My only complaint is that they too were more heavy metal than I thought they would be.  My ears were still ringing when I went to bed on Friday night!

The girls were “camping” with my parents Friday and Saturday night.  I use the term “camping” loosely because with everything going on with my Grandma, they cancelled their camping reservation, and instead camped in the yard at their house.  They still had smores, a boat ride, and lots of swimming, so they really didn’t miss much!  With the girls being gone, Shawn and I decided to head to the beach on Saturday:

Sunday afternoon we picked the girls up, and went to see my Grandma at her new place.  I wouldn’t say she likes it, but she seems to be doing well.  Unfortunately, there are quite a few confused people there, including her roommate.

As soon as we walked in the room on Sunday, her roommate started cussing me out telling me they told her my Grandma would only be there for one night, and it had already been one night!  Nobody messes with me or my Grandma, so I told her there were two beds in that room, and my Grandma was paying for one of them.  To which she responded “Well, I’m paying for that bed too, so I guess they’re gettin’ double for that one!”  By that time my Grandma was getting pissed so she told the lady to “Hush Up!” and then we got outta there as fast as we could!

On a confused-old-person related note, when we were in the sitting room I saw an old man who used to go to my parent’s church.  I didn’t talk to him, and he just sat there staring at us, so I figured he was looney tunes.  Well, later my Mom told me she went up to him and said “Hi Mr. So-and-So, do you remember me?  We used to go to your church.”  I’m not sure if he remembered her or not, but she said he took one look at her and started jacking off! 

Anypervert.  This morning Lainey informed us that today was a holiday, so we had to do something special.  Ok?  Well, it rained off and on all day, so doing anything outside was a bust.  Luckily, this morning I remembered a flyer that came home from school about kids being able to bowl 2 games for free everyday all summer long…perfect!  I checked out the website, and signed us up!  For $24.95, I was also able to sign 4 adults up!  Oh, and I got a $50 restaurant.com gift card for buying the adult membership!  Score, score, and score!

This was Lainey’s first time bowling, and she loved it!

        (In case you’re wondering, her shirt says “Future Mrs. Bieber.”  Barf!  Shawn found them at Wally-Mart, and insisted we buy them!)

We already had bumpers in the lane, but they also gave the girls this little ramp to roll their balls from:

Shawn is all hardcore and everything:

I was just there for the Nachos and comic relief:

 

After bowling we went to price a new garage door…um, who knew those things were so expensive?  If I find the douche bag who ran into ours and broke it I think I might throw that bowling ball through their windshield!

On another note, this is the last week of school, woohoo!  Schools out, schools out, teacher let the monkeys out…

Hope you all had a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Let’s knock boots!

Last week, Laura (aka The Purse Blogger) awarded me with quite possibly one of the best blog awards I have ever seen.  I admit, I haven’t been faithful in accepting awards and passing them on, but this one deserved my utmost attention!  Are you ready?

Do you love it?  Apparently, now I am supposed to tell you 5 Characters with whom I would choose to knock boots with.  Awkward?  Maybe.  Funny?  Definitely!

1.  Dawson (or as my husband calls him, “James Vanderbeek”)

Seriously, who wouldn’t want to knock boots with that?  What was Katie Holmes thinking?  She should have snatched Dawson up instead Tom!

2.  Pacey (aka Josh Jackson)

Ok, honestly I didn’t know Pacey was going to be on my list until I saw this picture when I was searching for Dawson.  As soon as I saw it though, I thought “Shut the front door!”  Ooh la la, who wants to grab a cup of coffee with him?!

3.  Jasper Jax (aka Ingo Rademacher)

I have been lusting after him since 1996 when I first saw him on General Hospital.  Do you remember my post about how we named our daughters?  Well, the boy name we had picked out when I was pregnant was always Jaxson (to be called Jax) after guess who?!  On a somewhat related note, while I was looking for a picture for this post I found out that Ingo has a son, and according to Wikipedia, his sons name is Peanut!

4.  Taye Diggs

Do you remember Taye in “How Stella got her groove back?”  He was definitely the best part of that movie!  Who wouldn’t want Taye to help them get their groove back?  By the way, the words by the arrow on the picture say “Rub his chest to smell Taye’s sexy scent.”  Apparently, that doesn’t work on a computer screen, so don’t even bother:(

5.  Chris Daughtry

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I realize he’s not really a character since he isn’t an actor, but whatever.  I had to put him on the list though, because tomorrow he is going to be my free pass.  Why?  Because tomorrow is finally the day of the Daughtry concert!  Woohoo!  Should I make a sign that says “Hey Chris, let’s knock boots!”?  I kid, I kid.  I don’t think Shawn would approve. 

 

And now…to pass on the award.  Let’s see…

1.  Contradictions of an Obsessive, Over-Analytical Dreamer

2.  The Doll House

3.  Adventures of a Yankee Girl

4.  Confessions of a Semi-Slacker Mom

5.  You're lucky I don't have a gun...

  (This is not the actual name of her blog, but rather her username, but it cracks me up every time I see it!)

 

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!  I can’t wait to see Lifehouse and Daughtry tomorrow!  We will also be busy this weekend with yard work and maybe going to the beach.  If you remember, could you please say a prayer for my Grandma?  She was in the hospital, and was moved to an assisted living facility today.  At 87 years old, she has always lived on her own, so I have a feeling this may be a difficult transition for her.  Your prayers would mean a lot, thank you! 

No Penguins Allowed!

Last Friday Lainey and I went out to lunch before we did our marathon grocery shopping run.  I was busy formulating my plan of attack for the store, and she was busy coloring when she suddenly stopped and excitedly said:

“Look Mom!  NO penguins allowed in here!”

What?  Penguins?  We don’t live in the zoo Antarctica, so I was pretty sure there was no need for signage to keep penguins out.  She was adamant though, pointing at a sign and exclaiming:

“See!  No. Penguins. Allowed. In. Here!”

Well, I’ll be damned, she was right.  Sort of.  When I told her I thought the sign meant “No Smoking,” she went and took a closer look.  When she came back she declared us both right and proudly stated “Mom, it must mean no smoking penguins allowed.”

Weekend Update: Ice Ice Baby!

I haven’t done a weekend update in awhile, so I thought what the hell?  Why not?  Not to mention, I actually did something this weekend, as opposed to my normal weekend which consists of watching Wifeswap, going to church, getting groceries, and complaining about Shawn’s Xbox addiction.

I digress.  On Saturday morning Alivia had a Build-A-Bear party with her Daisy Troop, so we headed to the mall for that.  Have I ever told you that I think Build-A-Bear is the devil?  Well, I do.  Lainey of course was totally bitter about Alivia building a bear, so I promised to let her pick out something at the Disney store.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the Disney Store is gone!  G-O-N-E, gone!  Yup, it was replaced with:

 

Has anyone ever shopped there?  I used to get the Delia’s magazine when I was a teenager, but I assumed that store was long out of business.  Apparently not!

Since the Disney Store was a no-go, Lainey decided to get a Zhu-Zhu pet.  As far as I can tell, Zhu-Zhu pets are also the devil.  I guess it’s kind of cute, but I’m not sure what all the fuss is about these things?  This is the one she got:

It has an ice cream cone embroidered on it’s back, does anyone know WTF that is all about?  Anywho.  While we were at the mall we also ate lunch at Olga’s (yum!), and went to Old Navy to get some $1 flip flops.  Did anyone else cash in on that deal this weekend?

Saturday night, one of my bloggy (and real life) friends was having a 29th birthday party, so you know I was up for that!  My best cousin, Hillary, was also in town this weekend so we decided to crash the party together.

A lot of fun was had, and a lot of pictures were taken.  I was actually afraid to log into Facebook this morning, for fear of what pictures could possibly be waiting there for me!  Here are just a few from my camera…

Shawn took this picture of me before I left:

The birthday girl, can you guess what she was saying is that big?

Myself, Hillary, Pete, and Stephanie.  The four of us all grew up in the same hometown.

Is this picture creepy, or what?!  This is Matt, Stephanie’s friends boyfriend.  His girlfriend kept trying to take a “normal” picture, but every picture turned out with him looking like a total creeper!

This one turned out pretty good:

Pete kept checking his Facebook all night long!  FYI, Facebook is the devil too.

Hillary and I:

I thought this picture was going to be a “normal” picture, but Hillary sabotaged it with a boob grab!

(If I look sweaty, it’s because I was!  How about some A/C people?  And can anyone tell me what I can do about that vein in middle of my forehead?)

Here are the 3 of us doing our best to look like creepers:

Stephanie and Pete, Stephanie’s eyes looked really squinty in couple other pictures, so she decided to hold them open:

The end of night looked something like this:

As soon as the DJ put Vanilla Ice on, it was all downhill (or uphill) from there!

I hope you all had a great weekend!  It’s so beautiful here today, so am heading out to the deck to enjoy some sunshine and dive into this book:

 

P.S.  Don’t forget to enter my Cafe Press giveaway, tomorrow is the last day to enter!

Giveaway!

As promised yesterday, I’m starting a giveaway today!!  This is actually my very first review and giveaway, so I’m really excited.  Several months ago Cafe Press sent myself and both of my daughter’s a T-shirt, and now it’s your turn to win one (or two)!

Have you been to Cafe Press before?  Wow!  This giveaway is for a T-shirt, but they have much more than that!  They have unique and personalized gifts for any topic or interest you could possibly think of!

Are you dying to know which shirts we got?  Come on, you know you are!  Here’s mine:

It says “Girls Have Guns Too!”  I love it, and I’ve already worked out in it several times.  I don’t usually buy black T-shirts because they tend to fade quickly, but this one hasn’t at all.  Here is the T-shirt my girls got:

Well, that is Alivia’s shirt, and Lainey’s says “Little Sister.”  Don’t go getting any crazy ideas that Lainey is a big sister too!

The winner of the giveaway will actually win 2 T-shirts, one for yourself and one for one of your children!  If you don’t have a child, then how about a niece or nephew?  Ok, here’s the skinny on how to enter (leave a separate comment for each entry):

1.  Follow me, and leave me a comment saying you are a follower (1 entry).

2.  Check out Cafe Press, and leave a comment with the link to one of your favorite T-shirts.  This doesn’t necessarily have to be the one you will win (1 entry).

3.  Post about this giveaway on your blog, and don’t forget to leave me the link so I can make sure it’s legit (1 entry).

4.  If you voted for Blake in the cutest child contest, leave me a comment saying you voted, and also your Facebook username (1 entry).  There’s still time to vote too, just click Blake’s name to learn how!

5.  Vote for Blake’s brother, Max in the cutest child contest too!  Max is photo 12 in the 0-2 age group.  Be sure to leave a comment saying you voted, and your FB username (1 entry).

Good Luck!  This contest is open to U.S. and Canadian residents, and will run until Monday, May 24th 6pm EST.

I’ve got people!

Last week my cousin Cari asked me to tell everyone I knew to vote for her son, Blake, in a “Cutest Child Contest.”  Well, Cari is actually married to my other cousin Justin (it’s legal, I promise), so I thought “I don’t know anyone they don’t know!”  But then I thought, wait a minute!  I’ve got people.  I’ve got my bloggy friends!

So, will you vote for Blake?  It’s super easy, because you only have to vote one time.  First, you have to “Like” nikki.loren.photography on Facebook.  Hopefully that link works, if it doesn’t just type nikki.loren.photography into your Facebook search box.  After you’ve “Liked,” then click on photos, and then click on the first album which is “Cutest Child Contest 3-8 years age group.”

Once you’re in the album, Blake’s picture is the very first one.  It looks like this:

(Isn’t he adorable?  How could you not vote for him?)

Now all you have to do is click on Blake’s picture, and type “Vote” in the comments section!  Remember you can only vote one time!  And for those of you who vote, you just might get an extra entry in a giveaway I’m starting tomorrow!  I’m just sayin.