Dinner with Marie and other Doll Friends

Dinner with Marie and other Doll Friends, originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

Dedicated Husband (that's a doll he's holding)

Dedicated Husband (that's a doll he's holding), originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

Yes...there were other husband's there too! He was just in my camera view.

Duck Heaven

Duck Heaven, originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

CUTE

CUTE, originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

Guarding the White House.

Wash. dc Marie O. 046

Wash. dc Marie O. 046, originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

Washington Monument

Washington Monument, originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

Bon, Marie and Deb

Bon, Marie and Deb, originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

All dolled up

All dolled up, originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

Friday night dinner, don't we look great! Bon did my hair and her own....which took her several attempts even though we kept telling her she had it.

Marriott in Georgetown

Marriott in Georgetown, originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

The hotel we stayed at Thrusday and Friday night.

Bon Deb and Tracy

Bon Deb and Tracy, originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

This was the day Tracy got sunburned, even the back of her legs!

Korean War

Korean War, originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

WHITE HOUSE

WHITE HOUSE, originally uploaded by beautiful brat.

We also managed to almost get lost trying to find this place! But we stopped a man (homeless, I think) who for a minute wasn't going to help...but he got us there. We were only about 5 or 6 blocks off in the wrong direction.

SUMMER'S GONE

I don't know about you guys but this summer has flown by.

Mandy has been busy with sports since she got out of school,so she hasn't had much of a summer. Softball went until the middle of July with the girls winning one championship and coming close one other time. We also had one week-end in Holland, kinda a mini vacation but it consisted mostly of ball games. She also has played basketball all summer with practices, camp, and tryouts. Her first JV game is tomorrow against Grass Lake. We also attempted to color her hair...the first day was okay but then it turned a red color. So we have learned it's best (I knew this) but Mandy has figured it out also that it's best to let the pro do it. So today we visited the pro(Bonnie) and she added some highlights which also toned down the red in Mandy's hair. Thank goodness especially since today was picture day at the high school for sports. Mandy is also grounded for the week because she chose to stay over to her friends house without letting me know...I told her to be home at nine. She must of thought she could get away with it because mom was suppose to work but I got staffed and she got caught! So she's stuck with just mom on her last week of vacation.

Nick started at Siena Heights College today and his first Cross Country meet is Sept. 9th...stayed tuned for more on Nick!

Bon, Tracy and I went to Washington D.C. Aug. 18th through the 20th. There was a dinner in honor of Marie Osmond for her dolls and since we all collect her dolls, and we all love to eat dinner and play dress-up, away we went! No kids, no husbands...
We got brave and took the subway into the city to see the sites. That was fun! Confusing at first but fun...then we got turned around in the city and added a few extra blocks to get back to the subway station, in flip flops no less! I'm the only one who did not get blisters on her feet! Tracy ended up with a sun burn because she doesn't tan...needless to say none of us noticed until she put her dress on for the dinner. YIKES!! She had quite the farmers sunburn going on. I was one of the 15 lucky women to win a proto-type doll from Marie...and I got to talk about my favorite doll with Marie plus other things. It was the first time I had ever won anything!
We had the doll expo the next day, and Marie signed dolls for about 3 hours for all her fans. Then we headed out to go back home...but we added over 2 hours to our trip because we decided to go to a QVC store to buy some more dolls...like winning one and getting 2 in a gift bag was not enough. Oh well...
I can't think of the name of the town that we stopped in for dinner (somewhere in Pennsylvania)but all I have to say is...we never got dinner. We sat in a Perkins for 45 minutes and never ate except for a salad that we had to ask for and our drinks which we also had to ask for...dinner we just plain got tired of asking for! So we walked out and went through the Taco Bell drive-thru and Bon drove another 2 hours because she was so steamed about the slow service. Plus we really didn't want a 8 hour drive on Sunday. OH and we also got turned around and ended up in Pittsburgh! Thank goodness Bon's husband drives truck and has a cell phone! All he said was get the hell out of there! Why I don't know...but we did get to see the Steelers Stadium all lit up, thank goodness the game was still going on...who knows what the traffic would have been like. Well Brian tried to get us to drive all the way to Youngstown, Ohio...but the very next exit I insisted Bon take it...one Hotel and it had our name on it!
We finally made it home Sunday afternoon, after a slight detour (only 5 min) in Ohio because needless to say we took the wrong exit again! And once again thank goodness Bon's husband has a cell phone and use to live in Ohio. We were taking our time because it was race week-end in Michigan and I live right in the middle of it all, so traffic does get heavy. But we timed it just right for Bon and Tracy to continue on their way home. And needless to say I came home to an empty house...nobody thought it was important enough to stay home to greet mom. (big sigh)

Well, Prison Break is on...I'll be back later!

NEVER LOOK AWAY

Not going to say much about this because I'm still stunned at how close we came to losing two kids. All I have to say is they move fast and NEVER take your eyes off your little ones. God and Jesus thank you!

I have'nt posted in awhile except for pictures...Dylan keeps me busy as does his sister. Mandy has had a summer of sports. Between basketball practice and camp, open gym for volleyball and softball her summer is just about done before it even gets started. She doesn't start school until after Labor day but she has two basketball games at the end of this month with the next two weeks being tryouts and practices!

She's over at her best friends house right now, we spent the day there yesterday borrowing their lake. My sister and I along with Dylan and Izzy decided to get in the paddle boat and go for a ride. Before we knew it we were heading around the lake! and it's a big lake. We made it about 3/4 of the way when Mandy, Kelsey and Allison showed up on a jet ski...we begged for a tow but they just laughed at us and couldn't believe we had peddled so far. We really were serious about that tow...
Dylan was bored and fell asleep for a short time and Izzy was just...Izzy and our knees were ready to blow and we had sand on the seat (ouch) and the back started to complain because it had no cushion to lean back on and even though it was only 83 degrees we were without water (to drink) and the sweat was poring down the face and I really thought I was going to cry, but we did it and yes we are 46 and still strong!
but we really wanted that tow...

Nick was there and he met us part way on the kayak, the girls tried to flip him with the jet ski...he's yelling at them that he didn't have a life jacket. He hates deep water when he can't see the bottom! hmmm wonder where he gets that from.

We headed back home just before five, Bon and Nick stayed for dinner...it was a beautiful day.

I went to the fitness center this morning and yes my legs hurt! bad! peddling around the lake and then trying to run the next morning...ouch. But I did my three miles and worked out then ran a mile on the track besides, and yes once again the sweat was poring down the face...if this stomach doesn't go away soon, grrrr.

Well...Dylan is going to keep me busy already this morning. I have a messy diaper to change! I'll post again soon.

Have a sunny and happy day, Deb