Leave the diaper, take the Connoli

We spent last week in St. Louis for Eric's dental school rotation in a clinic. In spite of the rain coming down and the floods coming up, we found a lot to do with Davis - an indoor mall (don't get me started on outdoor malls in intemperate regions) with a play ground, Chuck E. Cheese's, and the awesome Magic House. The Fitz's decided to fly in from Las Vegas and the Detroit Livingston's minivan-ed it at the end of the week. Davis actually loved being around the cousins which is a total 180 from Thanksgiving, but he would still give them a little love push in the head every once in a while. It snowed on Easter, but stopped long enough to have an egg hunt in the front yard. Davis didn't care about the eggs or candy - he just kept running back and forth like a liberated cage monkey. We loved having the whole schlemiel together since we know it won't be easy, but wonderful, with twin-mania on the way!

I had to join the witness protection program after taking a picture of an unruly Miami mob boss, but it was totally worth it. This studly suit made him climbing over/under pews at church completely acceptable (except with his mother).

Our little Tiger and Rat are getting older

This week our niece Kaytlin and nephew Trenten turned 10 & 12 and life is moving too fast. I just hope they don't rush into adolescence and forget who's the boss of them. They are way to precious to miss out on any kidhood - car payments and taxes stink! But they get to go to Disneyland next week and I don't think they'll be doing any growing up on Mickey's watch...

I feel like it's a holiday today 'cause I found out Amtrak goes to Chicago in style (wink, wink Jeannette). Here are some other things I've been excited about (watch out, I'm going to start sounding like an infomercial).

Neti pots - a less attractive thing you can do right in the comfort of your own bathroom... I call it going #3. It's like a nice drowning sensation, but makes you feel like you have extra room in your head to grow brain matter. My sinuses actually thanked me for using it. It was supposedly on Oprah, so it has to be galactically awesome.

Costco.com.tradein/recycleyourjunkthatyouletyourtoddlerplaywithcausetheywanttoplaywiththeexpensivestuff - if you're a member of Costco (or know one), you can figure out if you qualify to trade in old electronics for Costco-bucks (like a Schrute-buck, but GREEN) or just recycle it for free. Stumbled on it while looking for more electronic junk to collect.

Unbreaded chicken nuggets - this one also brought to us by Costco. Davis is a fan, which means I am as well - even if it does look like the creepy skin on a vulture's head.

New outdoor lighting - we have the same lights that the builder installed and, no offense, but I'm sure they weren't pretty when the were new 17 years ago either. We get to do some home improvement over Spring Break, which is what those college kids going to Florida really had in mind. Maybe we'll even be able to barbecue... something CRAZY!

Spending a week out of this beautiful mess - we are all going to St. Louis next week for Eric's rural rotation and get to see Eric's parents, Amy & Ryan, Kevin & Emma & kids, and four walls other than our own. If only it were in a warmer part of the world... I don't think we'd come back.(okay it's not that bad, but give us some hope, local weatherman)

At Costco

Shopping for Eric's glasses:

Eric - (trying on rectangular glasses) What do ya think?

Jenny - Not bad.

Eric - (putting on some ovaly frames) What about these?

Jenny - Not quite right for your face.

Eric - (trying on a ovaly-rectangular pair) How do they all compare?

Jenny - (looking over, trying on glasses as well) Umm... those seem narrower, like they're not wide enough for your head. Are you trying glasses from the kid section?

Eric - (looking confused at me through ovaly-rectangular glasses) These are my glasses - that I've had for the last 4 years...

To be fair, I didn't have my glasses on.

And now it's a miracle. I can wear contacts again. I've always thought that I just had dry eyes and I had to endure discomfort or use glasses. The eye-guy told me that the contacts were over-rotating all this time, whatever that means. But boom! goes the dynamite and I can see without having a blink fest every time. It was very necessary since Davis bent my frames to the point they fall off in my spaghetti when I look down.