Month: May 2008

  • Taken!

    If you haven’t been following Laura’s African adventures, you should definitely check it out. If nothing else, it’s fascinating to me the differences in cultures. We don’t eat chicken feet for dinner, for example…   

     

    One such American cultural point-of-interest struck me this weekend while we sat in the crowded theatre waiting for Indiana Jones to start. The show we intended to see (at 1:20) had sold out, so we waited around for the next one at 1:40. The ticket girl helpfully suggested we go ahead and get seats – so we wandered in to the theatre around 1:10 to find it already nearly full. We found 2 seats on a row that kind of stuck out in the aisle enough that they weren’t behind other seats, but WERE behind a little bar I could put my feet on – perfect! We soon began to notice there was somewhat of a commotion behind us. There were 2 people attempting to save 11 seats in the row directly behind us. 11! That is almost an entire row in the movie theatre – and for a movie that was likely sold out! That’s gumption. 

     

    So it’s one thing to attempt to save 11 seats in a movie theatre during opening weekend of the 20-years-in-the-making fourth installment of Indiana Jones. But what blows my mind is that people respect the idea of “saving seats”. What is that?? What is it in a person that makes them heed the phrase “These seats are saved.”??

     

    We sat by and watched poor sap after poor sap spot the mirage of empty seats from the floor of the theatre – only to climb the stairs to engage in the following:

     

    Seat Saver: Sorry – these are saved.

    Poor Sap: All of them?

    Seat Saver: Yeah, sorry.

    Poor Sap: (Walks away – defeated – to find a less desirable seat.)

     

    No argument. No protest. Crazy! I decided right then and there that I would not have tolerated this nonsense. There is no movie theatre rule about saving seats and if I didn’t already have a seat and needed one in that row – you better believe I would have sat there. I almost wish I had had the opportunity to prove this to myself.

  • Finally an update!

    There are 3 parts to this update – as I realize it’s been “forever” since I’ve posted an update. If anyone is still out there… and still reading… enjoy!


    1. Bump is officially fully cooked! We are 37 weeks and counting – and are open to any and all suggestions/secrets/old-wive’s-tales for “naturally” inducing labor. Bring them on! I’m going to the doctor every week now and hope to find out tomorrow morning that I’ve made some sort of progress. I was crossing my fingers yesterday since it was both the official 37-week-mark AND a full moon. But alas… still pregnant.


    2. Happy Mother’s Day! Mom and Dad ventured up to Arkansas last weekend (8-10 May) for the presentation of the first 1LT Tom Martin Memorial Scholarship at CHS. Becky and I drove down to Cabot to meet them. We really enjoyed meeting Jared and being part of the presentation.

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    We all drove back up to Fayetteville for the weekend – celebrating Becky’s early BD, Mother’s Day, and finally putting furniture in the baby’s room!

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    (More pics in the “Baby” photo album.)

     

    The nursery has truly been a labor of love – my sweet Mom made all of the bedding and curtains and accessories for Bump (note the pillow ) and recovered the rocker, my handy and patient Dad built the changing table shelf and refinished the crib for the little guy, and Dad/Jeff/Mom/Me (mostly Dad and Jeff) have spent endless puzzled moments poring over assembly instructions for things like highchairs, Pack’n'Plays, and strollers. The room is still in-progress, hopefully I’ll be able to post some “officially done” pictures someday soon.

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    Laura: This terribly flattering picture of me is just for you. I am trying to lure Keebler out from under Becky’s bed — though Dad tells me it looks like I’m trying to lure the baby out! We eventually got him (Keebler not Bump) out by showing him a picture of you!

     

     

     

     

    We had a great weekend together, but Mom and Dad had to get back in time to regroup for their trip to Alaska this week. They were able to attend the dedication of the memorial at Ft. Richardson in Anchorage. Pictures are HERE. Mom is in #5, Dad is in #48. I wish we all could have been there.


    3. Happy Birthday Don!

    Don turned the big 4-0 on Mother’s Day and Keith threw a bash this weekend at the house. It was a Hat Party – so we all got gussied up to celebrate Don’s big day. This collection of photos reminds me of Party Pics…

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    First, Second and Third place winners of the “Coolest Hat Contest”.

     

     

     

     

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    And this is one of my favorites from the evening — GK! When are you due??

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    Happy Birthday Don! (More pics in the albums.)

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Play ball!

    For those of you out-of-towners, Northwest Arkansas recently acquired a minor league baseball team – The Northwest Arkansas Naturals (formerly the Wichita Wranglers) – a AA farm team for the Kansas City Royals. We play in the same league as San Antonio’s team – The San Antonio Missions!

    Nats

    Anyway. They played their first game here in early April – and it has quickly become THE thing to do on the weekends. So of course, we had to go. We watched them beat the Tulsa Drillers Saturday night with friends Nicholas and Angela.

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    It was a little colder than I anticipated, and Bump is used to going to bed around 9 — so we skipped out during the 8th inning — but it was a lot of fun. I’m sure we’ll be back – especially when it warms up a little.

    Instead of going home, we decided to drop by the soiree taking place at Keith’s house.

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    Got to see a few folks we don’t see that often – and visit “my” dog, Ace!

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    Jeff even managed to snap a picture of the elusive Toby. This picture makes me laugh – he looks absolutely terrified. Toby is Keith and Don’s pomeranian – who is scared to death of people and spends most of his time and energy running away from people trying to pet him… but he’s cute.

     

     

     

     

    Good weekend – cleaned house on Sunday – getting ready for visitors this weekend. Mom and Dad are coming up – should be fun! We are NEARLY under 30 days to go until Baby Day!