A South Beach Wedding

My best friend Karalee, got married this past weekend. We were inseparable from the pre-school through high school. I left the kids with Tom and went by myself to South Beach, FL. It was quite an experience. I really had a great time. I was gone for 48 hours, but that's longer than I've ever left both the kids and been on my own since we've been married. I kept feeling like I was forgetting something everywhere I went. I did a lot of sight-seeing on my own. It was nice to have some alone time, I must say.

Karalee's husband, Sid, is from Conn. He is Jewish and they had a very traditional Jewish wedding. There were quite a mixture of people there. I'd say about half of us didn't know what we were doing during the dance where they have the couple up on the chairs, but then later they played "Hang on Sloopy" and all of us Buckeyes got out there and put up our O-H-I-O's. I've never felt so much Ohio pride! I got to reconnect with friends from high school and all of Karalee's extended family that was there. It was really fun. Congratulations Karalee, you were so beautiful!

I was happy to get home after though. I really missed my family! Meg was mostly excited for the presents I brought back for her (which I had to find at the airport, because South Beach isn't very family friendly, it doesn't exactly have a Toy R' Us on every corner, let's just say!). Tom and the kids had gotten me my favorite lilies and made me a beautiful card. I have such a sweet family and it was nice to be missed!

Tom loved being a stay-at-home dad for the weekend and would like to take over my job! They went to see a movie, went to the mall and played at the playland, ate plenty of chicken nuggets and played with their cousins. Tom had Meg doing quantum physics and Charlie writing his dissertation by the time I arrived, of course!

Austin

Last weekend we took a trip to Austin. It is a beautiful city. Tom had to go to a conference all day Monday so we drove up on Sunday and stayed in a hotel there. The kids and I love stuff like that! We were able to swim in the pool and eat some great Texan food! We went to a real Texas BBQ Sunday night. It was in the middle of nowhere outside of Austin. We had just had the time change so it felt like midnight to me but it was just before 8pm. We walked in and the place was packed. This was the day after Texas lost to Texas Tech and I could feel some tension there. Tom, of course, had an OSU shirt on and I was pretty sure the entire Texas football team was at this restaurant. It was a little scary! Tom found a Texas jersey to put on Charlie to protect us though, :). The food was delicious. We also checked out the outlets there. They are famous and have every store imaginable. Daddy spoiled his little girl with a beautiful Christmas outfit. Meg is dying to wear it, but were making her wait until we go home for Thanksgiving. Sunday night when we got back to the hotel, Daddy, Meg and Charlie were all wrestling on the bed like usual and of course someone got hurt. Meg fell on Charlie and her mouth collided with his head. The snap I heard was one of the scariest sounds I ever heard. I thought for sure it was Meg's jaw breaking. Luckily, however, it was the sound of her teeth crashing together. Both kids were screaming and then Tom found a little piece of porcelain on Meg's lip. Her teeth had snapped so hard together that the front part of her canine tooth broke off. Needless to say, after I calmed down and realized we weren't making a trip to the hospital that night, the tooth fairy paid us a visit while we were sleeping. As my dad says, "the price of porcelain is going up!" Even for half a tooth! Meg was so excited that the tooth fairy was coming that she forgot about the trauma and all was well.

The next day the kids and I were on our own and we did some exploring. We found a great park south of the city. It was enormous. There was a natural spring there that people swim in all year. You can see it behind Meg in the first picture. Meg also loved feeding the birds which were everywhere there. We played there for a long time and were all completely covered in dirt by the time we left. After picking up Tom that night we found a little Mexican restaurant to eat at before our trip home. Charlie was so exhausted from all of our excursions that he ended up screaming the entire meal and we had to take turns taking him outside. I had my first experience with a very rude person that night who was upset about Charlie's crying. An older lady cursed at us when we had first sat down and were trying to comfort Charlie. She later stomped out of the restaurant after we quickly took Charlie outside. I have never felt that feeling before and feel bad for those who have had more experiences like that. Why in the world would someone be so unsympathetic and mean?

Anyway, overall we had a great time and enjoyed seeing a new part of Texas.

Trick-or-Treat

For Halloween we went over to the Lyman's and Trick-or-Treat'ed with them. We had a great time. Their neighborhood gave out some sweet candy! It pays to live in oil country! Non of those marshmallows shaped like peanuts over there! Meg was Ariel and Charlie was Captain Hook. In the rush to leave our house however, I forgot Charlie's bucket and his puffy, ruffly shirt collar that was so cute. I was not happy! Everyone thought he was Prince Charming because I knew he wouldn't wear an eye patch or hat. He made a cute Prince Charming too though. Meg picked out her Ariel costume. We were hoping she would want to be Tinker Bell to go with Captain Hook, but she really like this outfit. She made a beautiful mermaid! They loved walking around Betsy's neighborhood. It was a perfect weather. Luckily Cameron and Makena were there, or else Meg would have been too shy to go up to the doors. The challenge of the night was getting her to say "Trick-or-Treat" and "thank you". She eventually did, even if the people couldn't hear her. Charlie mostly enjoyed all of the Halloween decorations people had up and kept talking about them. Instead of saying goodbye to the people at each door he would say goodbye to whatever decorations they had like, "bye pumpkins, bye lights, etc". They did great though and we got all the way around their loop without Charlie getting a single mosquito bite!

Tom's 29!

Unfortunately our camera battery was dead on Tom's big day (I wasn't prepared!). So, I went through and found some fitting pictures to commemorate his day! The first is back in our old house after his new bogey board arrived. He wanted to test it out! (I miss our old house after looking through all those pictures). The next is fun Daddy, taking Meg for a ride on our dune buggy out at the Kiehl's. Tom is the most fun dad I know. The kids worship him! The third picture is at my cousin Jason's wedding. I'm pretty sure Meg took it and I thought he looked so handsome. The last picture is on the Kiehl family vacation two summers ago after a long day. Tom is such a wonderful father to our kids and a great husband to me. He works so hard to support us and still has the energy to throw the kids around all night when he gets home. We love him very much!

For his birthday, I thought I would clarify...It was on Sunday so we had the Lyman's over for dinner. I made a pot roast, rolls and Lori Beckstrand's orange/banana/pineapple jello (yum!). Also, a German chocolate cake for dessert, Tom's favorite. (Mom Kiehl had written in her letter that we went to the Lyman's for dinner on Tom's birthday and I thought that made me sound like kind of a loser wife who made Betsy cook for all of us! HA!) We had a great time. The kids and I got him Rock Band and Seth and Tom rocked out the rest of the evening. It was hilarious. Betsy joined in at the end, we were all laughing so hard. Tom loves the drums and is already excellent at them, thank you George Edge! The kids love to play on the drums with Daddy, but the fight over who gets to hold the sticks. We all had a great time and I think Tom really enjoyed his birthday.

Meg's Storybook Parade

Meg's preschool had a storybook parade for Halloween (as not to offend those who don't celebrate Halloween). We felt that Ariel is also a storybook character and I was not about to try and come up with another costume. After stressing about whether or not Ariel would be appropiate for a storybook parade or not, we got there and found such storybook characters as "Stormtroopers" and "Power Rangers". Why do I worry?!?

Meg is by far the shiest kid in her class. As you can see, she goes to a very small school (only 7 kids in her class) but we love it. I'm not sure if she's actually spoken to her teacher yet. When I come to pick her up all the kids yell, "Bye, Meg!" and she doesn't say anything and just runs towards me. I hope she grows out of that (a little). We love our little Meg though. And I'm glad she likes going to school and doesn't give me a hard time about that.