New Jersey Here We Come

Today we are heading to New Jersey.

820 miles - so roughly 13 1/2 hours in the car, with a 5 year old & an almost 2 year old. What was I thinking??? Just kidding! Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Thank goodness for portable DVD players, little toy laptops, & Leapsters. Those are going to be life savers. I can't help but wonder where all of those things were when I was growing up & taking vacations driving places with my family. I am sure Jarrett would agree.

We will drive about half today & half tomorrow. That means we get to stay in a hotel. Olivia is so excited about that. She is even more excited to get to see her Grammie & cousin Brooke. Everyone there will be excited to finally see Little Miss Rachel in person. Jarrett is excited to get to see all of his family. And to check on the crop he planted when he was back in New Jersey earlier this year.

Me, heck, I am just excited to get away from it all for a few days. You know, pretend like my washing machine STILL isn't out of commission. Or that I don't have a stack of bills to pay. Or that I won't be able to take anymore time off of work until after the 1st of the year. Just forget about all of the funk-inducing things. And to eat some Frank's Pizza!!! Oh my mouth is watering just thinking about it. And maybe shop a little. No sales tax in New Jersey...may get some Christmas shopping done.

Oops...I forgot

This conversation took place the second I walked through the door last night. I hadn't even put my purse down.

Olivia: Mama, you forgot my dime for milk today at lunch.

Me: Sorry babe, I did forget your quarter for milk today.

Olivia: dime, quarter, whatever there was no changes in my lunch bag.

Me: I am sorry, I just forgot. Did the school let you have a milk anyway.

Olivia: Well, yea. They didn't want me to be thirsty all day long.

Me: That's good. I will remember for tomorrow.

Olivia: Good, they said to tell you to send 2 dimes.

I ♥ Weekends - especially long weekends!

Hope everyone had as much fun over the long holiday weekend as I did. Amazingly, I didn't do a whole heck of a lot. And even better, I didn't spend one red cent!

Fun Frugal Living at it's best!

Of course, Grandma & Grandpa don't charge us to hang out at their house. My friend Haley certainly didn't charge a cover to get into her "Girls Night In" at her house. My Dad footed the bill when we went out to lunch on Sunday. And I didn't even leave the house all day on Monday.

That was my kind of weekend! (And I am not referring to how it was free, but the fact that it was free was just the icing on the cake.) Here is the blow-by-blow of the weekend.

Friday night was the football game & Olivia's debut as a M-Squad dancer. She loved it...although she was a little hard to convince to leave my Grandma & Grandpa's. Begrudginly, she came with us. And I think if you ask her now she is quite proud of her little performance. She was so stinkin' cute out there with her little pink t-shirt. Busting out the choreographed routine & shaking her little booty like a pro! It really was the cutest little dance. Here are a couple of pictures. We were a ways away from her since they had them smack dab in the middle of the football field. But I kept my eye on her the entire routine,she is in the 2nd row. All of the girls did so well.

Saturday during the day, the girls & I headed off to my Grandma & Grandpa's for some good ol' fashioned family fun. Olivia ran around & played with all of her little cousins. I let her play in the rain, I know shame on me. She had a great time. Rachel was my lil' buddy all day. She didn't want to be too far from me for the first couple of hours. So, she was my team mate in the friendly croquet match. Let me tell ya, it must have looked like something out of a Stooges cartoon. Rachel picked my ball up, I said "Oh no, you need to put that down" and she did right that very second & it bounced off the top of my foot. At least she listened to me & everyone got a good chuckle. Jar wasn't there to see it though, he was at the Farm Equipment Auction selling his older combine & disc. Raked in a whopping $1050 total. Let the good times roll!

Saturday night was "Girls Night In" at my BFF Haley's. Soooo much fun!!! Definitely something we need to make a regular occurence. We decided against going out to a restaruant because, well, quite frankly, we are a rowdy & loud bunch. And I think if we sat in a restarant from 6:00 - 11:30 we would get kicked out anyway. So a potluck it was. Then we sat out on her front porch reminiscing & laughing - alot of laughing. I got to say my good-byes to my BFF Lindsay as she flew back home to Texas Monday :( Very sad to see her go, but she assures us this will become an annual trip home.

Sunday, we had lunch with my Mom's side of the family at the restaraunt at Weldon Springs. It was delicious! I wanted to order the horseshoe soooooo bad I could taste it. (Alas, I had a good weigh-in for the Chub Club the day before so why risk it. No need to funk-ify myself again at my own fault.) Then we let the kiddos run a muck at The Springs. Olivia loves going & playing in the water whenever we are there. But this was Rachel's first experience. So, I let her ruin her perfectly good new new to her outfit by sitting, rolling all around in the big rust stain. Oh, and I also let her chew on a stick, because she is almost 2 & that is what she wanted to do.

And Monday was GLORIOUS!!! I DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ALL DAY!!! Well, I did load & run the dishwasher. But other than that, nothin - nada - zilch. I held down the recliner. I watched A LOT of TV. The wonderful people at TBS stole my heart with the line up of shows!

The Wedding Singer

followed by Mean Girls

followed by a marathon of The Office