Patty Johnson's Blog

Well, we loaded up the car this morning..and boy do I mean LOADED. It was so full that I had to sit in the middle of the back seat and then a bucket of toys was on the other side of me. Not soo comfy I tell you. Then we had to run around town running errands. Adam had to run inside everywhere since I was stuck in the back. We just got to Stratford now so Adam could watch his precious Soccer game. Sounds like we are leaving for Minocqua tomorrow at about 11am. I don't know if I'll have access to blog/email...it all depends on if I can find a local number for AOL which I have free on my laptop right now. So, if not I'll blog all about vacation when I get back on July 8th.
Have a happy 4th of July Everyone!

Well, the totes are pretty much all packed up. The new plan is to go to Stratford on Friday since Adam doesn't have to work and stay the night. Then, Saturday we are just going to Ride with Adam's dad in the truck because they are taking 2 cars anyways so it's really not necessary for us to waste gas money on our car. Woohoo!
I spent most of tonight at my parents house. Adam was playing FIFA 06 and watching baseball so Lily and I left. My Aunt Sally and Uncle Jim are in town (along with Ron and Billie too) and we all had dinner then went and saw Grams and then came back to their house for some super yummy Strawberry Shortcake! Yum.
Well, I should be packing so tata

Well, I saw an old friend today, Ian. We've been friends since back in the day when we both worked at wal-mart and we suffered the joys of working in the snackbar. I also went to Winter Formal with him...the year after I graduated high school. I haven't seen him in years and because we unfortunately lost touch. Last Thursday, Adam told me he met Ian at Joe's bar. Talk about a blast from the past! Today, I went over to the Frankliners and Ian was there too so we got to catch up which was really nice.

Today, I had quite the rude awakening from my darling daughter. Last night we had gone to Wal-Mart because the PS2 Controller we bought was broken so we bought a new one. Adam and I were trying to play the game and about every minute it would pause the game and say that the controller was disconnected. Anyways, as always we got an icee and split it between Adam, Lily and I. Well, we didn't finish it all and Lily woke up today before we did and she dumped the RED Icee all over me (and my WHITE blanket) So, I ran put the blanket in the washer after a bit of shout-it-out.
We played some more FIFA '06 (the game Adam got) and hung out. Then, Adam wasn't feeling that well so Lily and I decided to go to my parents house because Ron & Billie and Aunt Jackie and Grams were all there too. We hung out there until about 8, indulging in KFC and some Apple pie that Jackie made. Dad wasn't around much though tonight because he didn't feel good either (and Adam and Dad both had the same dish at Grazies last night...coincidence?)
So, after leaving there I cleaned out my car (including getting everything out & scrubbing the seats, doors and dash) It now smells really good and all I have left to do is vacuum it out. We are also going to get an oil change this week in preparation for our big Minocqua trip next weekend.

Well, after a long night of partying, Adam was in no shape to really do anything for the majority of the morning/afternoon. So, we just kinda hung out and watched TV. We tried to get Lily to take a pre-dinner nap but that didn't happen. She really doesn't like to nap when her daddy is off of work. We went to Grazies at 4pm to beat the Friday night rush. Yeah, there was only 2 cars thee at 4 which made us think "are they open?" of course they were though. I had a delicious Chicken Alfredo Pizza there which I can't wait til I'm hungry again so I can finish it. After dinner, we were off to my parents house for cake. Mom helped me make Adam a turtle cake for his birthday. It's German chocolate cake (Adam's fav) with caramel, chocolate chips and walnuts in the middle. It turned out really good even though we were all really still full from dinner.
Then we went on a little shopping spree to Shopko & Target to get Adam some new shorts and a game. Now, he's playing the game and I'm deciding whether or not to take a nap since Lily is already asleep...

Well, here I am at home. Adam is out at Joe's with the rest of our friends celebrating his birthday. Lily is asleep on the bed. I'm super glad that Adam is out tonight though because most of our friends that are in town are ditching him and going to the Twin Cities for the weekend (a trip that was originally an idea for Adam's birthday but he said he didn't want to do that and they decided to just go ahead without him). I wish I could be out there celebrating with them but then again I'm sure we'll do something fun later this weekend. I actually just got home a little while ago because I was at my parents house working on a birthday surprise for Adam that I really hope he likes. Tomorrow Adam has the day off and we are going out to dinner with my parents to wherever Adam finally decides on...currently he is thinking of going to Grazies.
Lily's cute moments of the day: While flipping through one of her favorite books "My puppy playtime" she pointed out the objects and said them including 'puppy' and 'ball'. Later today, we were looking at clothes at a garage sale and she saw Elmo on a couple outfits and said 'Elmo' each time

Well, Adam and I have had like 3 big garbage cans full of misc garbage and recyclables. Most of the stuff was bagged, but not sorted so it has been out there for a while. The tops have fallen off a few times so they cans were full of water too. Last night, I was preparing the garbage and recyclables because today was Garbage & Recycling pickup. Let me tell you old wet garbage is really disgusting. Adam helped me and we drained the icky water out of the cans and then I went to Wal*Mart at midnight so we could buy a hose to spray the water away. Then, once we rebagged everything I rinsed out the cans and let them air dry. Now, it is SOOOO much better out there...and after washing my hands about 10 times the garbage-water smell is finally gone!
Moral: Throw away garbage as often as possible

Went to Rapids with my parents today. Mom had to do some stuff at the Social Security office so Lily and I wasted time playing in the toy department at Wal*Mart. We ended up getting a couple of playballs and a pretty bead play necklace and a bouncy stitch ball. I wish our Wal*Mart was anything like Rapids or Wausau...compared to theirs our 'super' Wal*Mart sucks. Like our Wal*Mart only has like 2 pairs of shoes in Lily's size and Rapids Wal*Mart today had about 30 to choose from. We got her a pair of sandals and some water shoes which should come in handy for vacation which is coming fast.
Adam's gone sport-crazy these days. He usually only watches baseball and football, Red Sox and Steelers respectively. Now, he's been also watching Soccer, Basketball and Hockey. He seems to be only really watching Basketball and Hockey because they are in the finals and Soccer is his new addiction mostly because he finds it facinating how hard it is to get a goal.

We woke up this morning at 9:30am and then went to Breakfast at Golden Corral. Our first choice was Smiley's but they didn't have any openings til 11:30 at the earliest. Breakfast was really good and filling. When we got back from there, Lily and I took a nap for about 2 1/2 hours. Then, went to Wal-Mart and came back home again to make Trivia Pasta. I planned on going over to my parents house to give my dad his presents, but after dinner Adam was watching both Baseball and Basketball so Lily I again nodded off for another 2 1/2 hours! So, that probably explains why I'm still awake at almost 4 in the morning.
Oh, I saw a survey about how much percentage Wisconsin you are. Well, I'm 70% according to the silly survey, but it got me thinking. When is the most time you FELT like a real WISCONSINITE? The memory that pops into my mind is when I was in New Jersey and we had to explain what a "Cheese Curd" was...and they thought we were totally crazy.

We finally took Lily to see her first movie today, "Cars"

It was really cute and Lily seemed to like it too...she kept saying "Car-Car" She sat facinated at the big screen during the previews and the beginning of the movie in a little booster seat. After that she was still good but sat in either Adam's or my lap during the rest of the movie. Towards the last 10 minutes or so she was a little sick of sitting but a little root beer helped that out ;) Afterwards we also went to Belt's and got ice cream. It was very humid and windy out so after the umbrellas on the picnic tables at belts started ripping out and flying down the street, we decided to go home to the a/c.

Took Lily to get her bangs cut again today...her hair grows really fast...but then again I don't really get it cut too short, just the right length so she can see and still looks cute. Mom & Dad got haircuts too so I spent most of that time chasing Lily around in the mall. She particularly liked going to the pet store to check out the puppies, kitties, turtles and fish. We also went to JcPenny's and got her some adorable tennis shoes that light up and a few summery outfits. Lily was exhausted after that so we came home and took a 2 1/2 hour nap which was super nice.
We had Italian Fries from the Wharf tonight which has lately been a little tradition for us to eat the night before payday. They were really good tonight and we gobbled them up quickly. Didn't do too much the rest of the night...Adam played on his computer while I tried to clean and Lily tried to help which of course just made things messier.
We just hit 1000 on our collection of movie notes which is awesome. I've currently been on a crazy movie kick trying to find good movies on both movie channels and on demand. I took notes on 13 movies in the last 10 days!

Well, I noticed my wedding ring was broken on Saturday. Nothing terrible just the ring had a little crack in the band - but hey it is 42 years old what can you do. Oh, if you are confused my wedding ring is actually my mothers first wedding ring (she's done a few upgrades since then...Mom loves her jewels) Anyways, I took it to the local jeweler where I had it sized and they are going to fix it for only $18. It's going to take a week so my finger feels a little naked. It's not too terrible because I still have the wedding ring part of it, just not the engagement part of it with the diamond.
My uncle Ron and aunt Billie are in town starting today. They are probably going to be here for about a month which will be cool. Mom, Dad, Lily and I met them for lunch at Hilltop which was yummy of course. Then, we went to visit Grams at the Nursing Home. We were there for quite a while and Dad and I took turns chasing Lily around. Needless to say she tired herself out pretty good and fell asleep the minute her head hit the pillow when we got back home. Now, I'm blogging because Adam will be home in a few minutes.

So, I've had headaches/migraines constantly since Saturday night. I have this killer knot in my back which I'm sure is the culprit. It's such a pain to do anything because the migrane sucks out all my energy and motivation. So, I really didn't do anything today besides watch a couple of movies. Adam and I made tacos for dinner. I had to buy a different taco kit because Copps didn't have the kind we usually buy...bad move the taco seasoning was pretty terrible and made the meat all slimy. eww. Luckily I found some nice thick tortillas like we always had in Houston so dipping those in queso made up for the taco madness.
Movie review of the moment: I watched the original "Cheaper by the dozen" today (from 1950) I would not recommend it. Not much of a plot really and you don't get to know the kids at all besides the oldest daughter because she goes on a date to a dance (and her Dad goes with her to keep an eye on her...and the boy she meets at the dance thinks that is great - um yeah) I usually don't watch older movies and this is just another example of a movie that turns me off to old movies. bah.

Aaron, Vanessa, Eric, George, and Shaun all met us at Adam's parents house at like 5pm. Then, we hung out for a while outside and then went to Leroy's last cast (the bar down the road) for a drink. Adam and I went back to his parents for dinner and they stayed at the bar. Then, we remet them there and went to heritage days (after a stop at "The Shack" where Vanessa and I played a sweet game of pool) We watched the Bed Races and then everyone else was hungry so we went to the food tent for a bit. Aaron, George and Adam went to the beer tent while Vanessa, Eric and Shaun and I went to the fair. Shaun and Vanessa split an Elephant ear and I had a pickle on a stick. Then, Vanessa played a few fair games and we topped off the fair experience when she ordered 6 fried oreos with cream cheese frosting. Very strange sounding but very yummy. Then, we met the guys at the beer tent and just sat around most of the night. My plans of having lots of fun that night were killed when my slight headache quickly increased to being a HUGE migraine. I felt really nauseaous because of it so at about midnight Vanessa, Adam and I went back to Adam's parents house while the rest of the gang went to Marshfield. I took some ibruprofen and went to bed.

Got to Stratford at about 6pm Friday. Adam's mom and sis took Lily to Brandon's ballgame while Adam and I met his dad downtown. They were having ATV pulls. This was probably one of the strangest things I've ever seen people excited about watching. Each type of vehicle tries to pull this weighted trailer and see's how far they can pull it. The trailers weight progressively moves up and up while they drive, making it harder to pull. Well, anyway it was loud and smelly so we didn't stay too long. The bar there had mixed drinks for only $2. So, I had to malibu OJ and Adam had 2 whiskey sours. The game had been rained out so the rest of the crew met us there too. After a little bit we hunted down Lily who was with Michelle and her friend. It was raining a little so we didn't go on any rides or anything yet. We wanted to take Lily on a merry-go-round but decided to wait til tomorrow. Lily did have lots of fun at the playground there. It was really cool...instead of sand or cedar chips the playground grounds were made of tons of little pieces of tires so it was really bouncy. Lily liked a teeter totter they had there and even bounced on it with a little boy for a while. She also liked throwing the tire pieces around. It kept on raining so we ended up going home much earlier than planned and were in bed before 10:30.
Lily's cute moment of the day: While watching "Play with me Sesame" they were explaining what echos were...she was in the room by herself and was running around saying "Echo! Echo!"

Well, Grams is in the hospital again so I've been thinking alot about her today. She went in because she was having chest pains and the nursing home thought she might be having a heart attack. She ended up having some sort of liquid by her lungs but they keep running more and more tests. They were also talking about doing a blood transfusion tonight. I'm hoping she'll be okay and they figure out what's really wrong with her for a change.
On a lighter note, Lily is getting smarter every day. Today I held up a flash card of a cow and said "What does a cow say" and she responded with "Moooo" It's amazing how all these little things just make your heart melt. She is addicted to books these days and her favorites are Goodnight Moon & Fox in Socks. I have Goodnight Moon memorized now and parts of Fox in Socks too...but that one is crazy and tongue twisting so you just gotta look at the words!
Plans for the weekend: We are going to Stratford for Heritage Days. Not sure what our friends are really doing but it sounds like most of them will be going Saturday night for sure so I don't know if we are just going to hang out at Adam's parents house Friday night or go down to the little bar that is a couple blocks away from their house if nobody is going to the Strat til Saturday.

Well, tonight was fun and entertaining to say the least. Shaun invited us over for a cookout. After that we played some Rodeo Golf. Lily hadn't napped yet so I took her inside and she fell asleep for a while. Then, we played some poker where it came down to just George and I out of everyone. George ended up winning. Then, the beer games began. I'm not a beer fan so I was a spectator of the madness. They played "Ride the bus", "F the Dealer", "Horse Races", "Quarters", and then "Cup Races" This got most of them nice and drunklike. The highlight of the evening would have to be when Sarah said she'd give Aaron $10 to eat a Junebug that we found on the couch in the garage. Now, keep in mind that all Aaron did to kill it was punch it while it was crawing on the couch. He agreed, being easily swayed while drinking. He drank some beer threw in the june bug and drank some more. All of a sudden he spits out the beer and the June bug. Turns out that he had swallowed the junebug but then the little guy crawled back up his throat which obviously was gross so he spit him out. That earned him the right to his life so the june bug was sent free in the lawn. The whole thing was hilarious but disgusting. [Click Photo for Video]

We ended up leaving shortly after that when the smashing of beer cans began. Lily fell asleep quickly while on the way home...and Adam shortly after laying down.
So, now here I am and it's 2am and I'm bloggin' away. Woohoo.