Tag...I'm it

Ms. Bibi at From Misery to Happiness tagged me yesterday in a photo post thing. Here are the rules:

#1 Go to your photo files and select 8th photo folder

#2 Select the 8th photo in that folder

#3 Post that photo along with the story behind it

#4 Tag 8 friends to do the same

This is a picture of my brother (Boyd), his wife (April), my nephew (Connor), sister Kyrstin, and her husband (Nick). We all take a family trip down to Milwaukee (every year) to catch a Brewers game at Miller Park. Last year we tailgated (for the first time) before the game. It was a lot of fun, and we're doing it again this year!! I can't wait. So here is part of the family enjoying the game.

8 Friends to Tag
-I'm not going to tag anybody in particular. If you'd like to do this though, GO FOR IT! :)

Happy Thursday!

Song in my Head

This is going to be short, because I'm in the library working on my group project, but I needed to get a post out to my fellow followers. I know, you're very welcome.

Okay, so you know how you connect songs, or people, or even phrases to a particular memory or something else? And then you get this chain of memories which means something special to you. I'm being vague, but I know you know what I mean.

I have the song "You were always on my mind" in my head and whenever I hear it I think of Practical Magic. Then that movie reminds me of how badly I wanted to be a witch when I was little. Which then reminds me of Hocus Pocus. Then that movie reminds me of my cat Pookie :( RIP little guy!! He died about seven or eight years ago, but he was the only pet I ever had.

I could go on and do a pseudo six degrees of Kevin Bacon sort of thing, but I won't.

So there it is...my pathetic little post.

Two Days and Counting

Thursday is my last day of Pizza Hut. Will I miss it? Yes...and no. I'm going to list, and hopefully not bore you, with what I'll miss and what I won't.

What I'll Miss
1. My co-workers - I love working with people my age! I will miss them the most. I sound like Dorothy talking to the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz..."I think I'm going to miss you most of all."

2. The environment - sure I smell like grease and pizza after I get done with my shift, but I don't have to dress up in a buttoned shirt and sit at a desk all day. I get to wear sneakers, a t-shirt, and I get my exercise...not to mention my toned arms from all that pizza lifting.

3. Food - I barely buy groceries anymore. It's the life...except I'm getting kind of sick of pizza. I've been switching it up though - wings, pasta, pizza, potato wedges, etc...

4. The customers - well, some of them.

5. The tips - it makes my day when someone leaves me a generous tip. Thank you tippers everywhere.


What I won't miss
1. Closing - staying after midnight and cleaning is not my thing. Ugh, and I close a lot.

2. The crabby customers - the ones that don't appreciate you. Hello? I'm serving you food, don't mess with me.

3. The non-tippers - If someone brings you food and comes back to check on you for refills and other things...tip them. I don't care if it's just a dollar. Actually I do. Try to tip 10-15%.

4. The group of high schoolers who come in an hour before close and order water for drinks. I know they secretly want pop, but they're too cheap to order it. Oh, and they don't usually tip.

5. Returning to my table and telling them that the cooks forgot to make their pizza, but it's in now and that I'll take the pizza off of their bill. Then when I give them their bill they wonder why they have to pay for the food that came on time. Are you kidding me? It's $7.00! Would you rather I put the pizza back on the bill and have to pay the $20.00??? No, I didn't think so.

6. The customers who say they are ready to order and then argue about what they want - "What do you want?" "Whatever..." "Okay, we'll have the supreme." "Ugh, not the supreme..." Seriously? So I say, "I'll give you a couple minutes." But no, they are ready now...sure they are...

7. People who order salads and then barely eat any of it. Did you know I had to go in the back and make that salad?? Did you know that I feel like I fall so behind after making you your perfect salad that the rest of my night gets thrown off? Especially if it's really busy, don't ask me to make you a salad. Because you won't get it right away.

Thursday is approaching fast, and I'm happy to be done and moving on, but I'm going to miss working at The Hut. It's been, by far, my favorite job.

Overwhelmed

I have one thing left to do before the semester ends, and I don't want to do it. That is why I'm blogging right now. I would rather tell you about my weekend and Monday, instead of my homework.

So Friday I went golfing with some friends. We played Best Shot, and it was a lot of fun. I'm not a golfer (this was my second time) but I hit a few good shots. This picture is my first "Best Shot!"

Me, Slams the Door, and Riley

That night my friend Andrea and her roommate Brooke came down to Winona to visit me. We all went out to the bars and then took a taxi to Wisconsin. While in Wisconsin, apparently this woman lifted up her female friend's shirt and started sucking on her ta-tas!!! I didn't see it happen...I was too busy dancing to the horrible karaoke singers. But GROSS!!!!

I worked on Saturday and then on Sunday. Now I have one more day of Pizza Hut left. It's on Thursday.

Today in my last Pilates class it smelled like feet. Sick. Like really smelly shoes. I felt like I was exercising in the 19 Kids and Counting's shoe closet. By the way, that's a lot of kids. I'm just saying.

So as I'm in the shell stretch position, I'm trying hard not to take deep breaths in and out and in and out. Then I thought it would be better to breathe than die, so I sucked it up and started breathing again. You would think I would have gotten used to the smell, but I didn't.

Well, there's my weekend and stinky Monday for you. Now I have to read through a bunch of Curling rules (yes, the sport), because that is what my group decided to make a website about. Curling. I know nothing about Curling and they use weird words like sheet, stone, skip, hack, hog line...what the heck did I get myself into??

Everyone has a Twin, and Mine Lives in Winona

Everyone has a twin...or someone who looks just like them, right? That's the rumor I've heard.

Lucky for me, mine lives in Winona. Yep, she sure does. A guy I work with has a sister who he claims looks just like me. Even his daughter thinks I look like her aunt.

His family came into Pizza Hut one night and they all said that I resembled her. I kept thinking, "Yeah, right." The next time they came in I asked to see a picture of his sister. He pulled out his cell phone and believe it or not, it was like looking in a mirror.


OH MY GOSH!!! I have a twin. She looks just like me...not even joking. I seriously need to meet her in the flesh, and take a picture with her. It's crazy!!

So then a couple of days ago, I ran into this guy on campus that I know and he said, "I was out this weekend and I kept running into a girl that looked exactly like you."

My first thought was that he ran into my Pizza Hut co-worker's sister. I'm guessing that is who he ran into...unless I have another person who looks like me. What if I'm a triplet? What if there are more Kinsey look-a-likes out there? Freaky....haha, freaky Friday. (Okay, that "Freaky Friday" was lame, but whatever, I'm leaving it in)

May you all have a freaky Friday.

Wednesday Musings: Take Six

I'm watching Away We Go and I love it. John Krasinski is such a cutie, and Maya Rudolph can do more than just SNL. I would buy this movie...it's that good.


I feel like I need to see a Brewers game really soon, or else I'm going to hurt someone. I hate not being able to watch their games on TV. I can watch all the Twins games I want though...yay *sarcastic*

My sister and her boyfriend gave me a Lego Ewok figure for my keychain. His name is Wicket, and I think I love him.

Since VideoLand is going out of business I bought three more DVDs: Fanboys, The Savages, and Sideways.

I've been actively applying for jobs and I got an email from a Dental Office in Woodbury saying that they are currently in the application review process, and they will be contacting "highly desirable candidates" for an initial phone interview in the next two weeks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!!

I am making fat people fatter

It's true, it really is, and I want to stop it.

Here's my plan. I think that restaurants should close before 11:00 pm, because people shouldn't be eating after 8:00 pm anyway. It's not healthy.

Since I waitress, I am serving people large pan meat lovers pizza at midnight. I am making them FAT!!!

I need to write to Obama and have him pass a bill or whatever to close restaurants earlier.

We need to join the fight against obesity!!! I don't care if people get the munchies or need drunk food after bar close. We can leave Erbert's and Gerbert's and Jimmy Johns open, because when you eat it you're not compromising your arteries.

As an added bonus...I wouldn't have to work until 1:00 am on Friday and Saturday nights. Which will make me very happy.

Am I a Bad Driver??

I never thought I was a bad driver until this year.

I've never gotten in a car accident...knock on wood, so therefore I must be a sensible driver in some way or another.

On Saturday night I was driving to my sister's house and I accidentally left my brights on while a car approached me - oops.

Yesterday I switched lanes without using my blinker. I also cut off the person right behind me when I did it - sorry.

Last night Slams the Door and I went to DQ. On the way back to our apartment I almost hit a bike rider - I didn't see her. Luckily, Slams the Door did. The female bike rider gave me the stink eye. My bad.

Does this make me a bad driver? Sort of.

I don't drive like this all the time. I think it comes and goes. We all have those moments, and mine just happened to me all in one weekend.

And when I have my little nieces and nephews in the car with me, I am 3x a better driver. I promise.

P.S. I don't text and drive, so there are worse drivers out there than me. I'm not that kind of stupid.

Miles for Matty 5K

This morning I got up and ran a 5K after a long night of waitressing last night. I was so tired! I didn't get home until 1:15am and I didn't fall asleep until 3:00am. Then I woke up at 7:30am and ran 3.1 miles!! :)

The 5K run/walk benefits Matty's Place: Children's Advocacy Center in Winona.

"Matty's Place will strive to facilitate comprehensive, community based services for children in Southeastern Minnesota, ensuring their safety, permanency and well being, while supporting and strengthening their families. It will provide a neutral, child-friendly, home-like environment where a single, comprehensive investigative interview can take place with cases of alleged child abuse and neglect."

You can find more information here.

So that is what I ran for this morning.

And I ran the whole thing...despite my convincing thoughts of how relaxing and nice it would be to walk. But I didn't. I listened to my iPod and ran, and ran, and ran.

There was this one kid who ran without shoes on! Ummm, hello? That's disgusting and very dangerous. I've seen him run shoeless before in a 5K I ran two years ago in Winona. He's a cross-country runner. I know this because he runs with two other boys (one of which is his brother...I think they are twins) and one was wearing a CC shirt.

They beat me too. Surprise, surprise...

I did pretty well this morning. I ran it in 27:19, and for only running one mile this week and two miles last week, that's pretty darn good. I think I finished in the top twenty-five...I lost track of the number of people who passed me ;)

Barely Missing the Rain

I don't mean "miss" the rain like I haven't seen it in awhile. I mean that I'm literally, "missing" the rain, or it's missing me.


Last night I drove to the library to print off a dozen pages of Nutrition homework. I would've printed it in my apartment but I'm out of ink.

Just as I was leaving the library and walking to my car it started to sprinkle. When I got in my car it started to downpour! Oddly enough, when I arrived at my apartment it stopped raining (in five minutes time).

I went to my room and started working on my homework and guess what happened. It started raining again. Weird.

This morning, Tennis was canceled due to rain, so no winner yet on the roommate vs. roommate game. As I got ready for my 11:00 o'clock class it was raining outside. I switched my flip flops for sneakers, because flip flops tend to flip up the water from the sidewalk and freckle the back of my legs and butt with mud drops and wet spots.

Lo and behold, I leave for class and the sun is shining. What in the world is going on??

Maybe the rain knows that my hair looks horrible after it's rained on, and it was doing me a favor. In that case, thank you rain god.

There once was a man from Nantucket...

Fair warning! I'm going to vent to you all.

There is this girl that I work with. I shall call her Fartha.

Fartha likes to tell the manager that she wants more hours. Yet, I get a text from her about once a week asking me to cover her shift.

I text Fartha, "On."

Then I text her again, "No."

Fartha also wants to become a shift manager. Thank goodness I'm graduating in a couple of weeks and won't be around to see this nightmare come true, if it does.

Somehow, Fartha has become a driver for Pizza Hut. She is not a good driver for Pizza Hut. Maybe she'll get better. I think she should stick to waitressing.

Then again, I like not waitressing with her...so Fartha should drive more.

Nope, nope, I can't even convince myself to like her as a driver, because I have to pick up her slack and do a ton of dishes at the end of the night just to help the poor driver who has to drive with her.

It's a vicious cycle.

Thursday is my favorite night to waitress. Somehow, Fartha got my shift. "I am angry. I'm like a large tornado of anger, swirling about." - Kicking and Screaming name drop.

On top of which, guess what happened!

Fartha texts me this afternoon. She said that she has a wedding to go to on Saturday and forgot to take off of work.

I think, too bad.

She texts, "Can you switch your Friday night with my Saturday night and I'll find someone to cover your original Saturday night hours?"

I think, no.

You see, I have a baptism to go to on Sunday, and I just called my sister today and told her I will be leaving on Saturday night after 8 to drive two hours to her house instead of leaving really early on Sunday morning.

Plus, I didn't want to give up my Friday night. I make glorious tips on Fridays.

So I texted her "no."

Fartha hasn't texted me back. Oh well, not my problem.

You Probably Don't Even Want to Know...

But I'm going to tell you anyway.

Ever since I learned how to text using T9, I've had some texting troubles. Like today for example, I tried to type "tied" and it typed in "thee." In what century does my phone think I'm in where I would use "thee" in everyday texting conversations??? Another one that bothers me is "on" and "no." When I try to write "Heather," my phone interprets her name as "heavier." That's not good.

I think I'm dehydrated. Actually, I know I'm dehydrated. My urine isn't a Country Time Lemonade color like my Nutrition Professor says it's supposed to be. TMI?? You betcha!

Erbert's and Gerbert's think my name is ODENBURGH, KINZ. I spelled it for them too. Come on people.

I refilled my Best Buddy at Kwik Trip yesterday with Diet Dr. Pepper. It didn't have the same effect on me as the Mountain Dew, thank God!!

Slams the Door and her doubles partner played me and my partner in Tennis Class today. We are tied 3 games to 3. Our Set will continue on Thursday. Who will be the winner?? Honestly, I don't even know.

This One Time in High School...

A few posts back I mentioned that I was suspended from high school for two days. Not my proudest moment. You can find the little tidbit here: Terri Clark, I Wanna Do It All Too

So here's the story...

It was the annual FFA/SSS Lock-In at our high school. I was a senior hanging out with my guy friends, since none of my girl friends were able to attend. I blame those girls for my downfall.

The night was spent playing Halo in the Agriculture room, until Kory got mad at me for not being able to kill enough animated war lords, or whatever. I couldn't handle two toggles at once, give me a break! I grew up playing NES, Sega, and N64 - My Yoshi could do laps around you in Bowser's Castle, so stop yelling at me for running around in circles with my gun in the air!

Before I get too far with my story, let me describe the guys that walked the lonely hall with me to the principal's office at 5:00am :

Mitch - my boyfriend at the time. A junior.
Kyle - Senior. Mitch's cousin.
Gary - Senior. Strong football player.

We were all good students and we all have never been in trouble before. I belonged to SSS, as did Mitch. SSS stands for Students Supporting Students. Our group is about making good decisions to lead a healthy and happy life. I was the president. Ironic.

Kyle and Gary belonged to FFA. It used to stand for Future Farmers of America. Now I don't think it stands for anything, but you get the idea.

So the night progressed and I played Scrabble with Mr. Fred (the chaperon for the night and adviser for FFA), and a couple other students. The boys kept busy in the computer lab playing poker or something.

But then that got boring, so I joined the guys again and played online poker. Later, we moved to the gym and played half-court lightning, 3 pointer lightning, and then regular free-throw lightning. The gym emptied (since it was around 3:00am) and Kyle and I started a game of badminton. We volleyed the birdie back and forth when all of a sudden things got interesting.

This is where the story gets fuzzy...someone (either Gary or Scott-who you don't know about because he didn't take part) said, "Hey Kinsey, you know how to get above the locker rooms right? We should go up there."

"Sure!" I said without thinking. I mean, hello, I've been up for almost 24 hours. I'm past the point of making smart decisions. Did you know that someone who has stayed up as long as I have is almost as dangerous a driver as a drunk person?? Well, now you know.

So Mitch, Kyle, Gary, and I went to the laundry room and found the crawl space that leads above the girl's and boy's locker rooms. I've been up there before with some friends during high school (doing nothing but innocent things - HONESTLY! I swear. We were immature, but not stupid. My friends and I would go up there after school and talk about how we would leave a keepsake time box and fill it with our pictures and other memorabilia) so I knew how to enter.

It's a small opening in the ceiling, so Scott couldn't come up with us. The boys hoisted me up first and then Kyle, then Gary, then Mitch. I warned the boys to stay along the brick path and Kyle and I made it to the girl's side.

Then it happened. My heart stopped beating when I heard Gary say, "Oh shit!" That mixed with the sound of drywall breaking didn't mix well. Gary's foot went through the ceiling of the girl's locker room. Unfortunately, there were two girls in there screaming as they watched this gigantic foot hanging in front of them. Obviously, Gary didn't stay on the brick path.

I jumped down through the closet in the locker room. Kyle followed. Mitch escaped the way we entered, and Gary finally made it down. The piece of ceiling drywall hung there like a hangnail.

Gary quieted the screaming girls down, but it was too late. Students started pouring in the locker room. We panicked, but got them all out. What were we going to do??? I thought we could tape it back up with white athletic tape. We tried, and failed.

We decided that I needed to tell Mr. Fred what happened. We would lie instead of tell him we were up in the ceiling, because that would be much better and he will never find out. Ugh, boy were we wrong.

The worst part was our lie: "Ummm, Mr. Fred. I was in the locker room walking to the bathroom, and um, well, the ceiling, the ceiling just fell. Yeah, it just fell," I told my blank-faced teacher.

"Show me," he said.

So I did. I knew he didn't believe me. My stomach was in knots!!! After he excused me from the locker room I went off with Kyle and Gary to the computer lab. Mitch went to the gym.

Mr. Fred caught up with me in the hallway as I went to the bathroom (for real this time) and said, "Do you think I have stupid written on my forehead?"

"No," I whimpered then broke down and cried. Apparently Mitch told him the truth. Which is what we should've done in the first place. Then I told him the truth. Mr. Fred called my SSS adviser and then the principal.

Our principal had to come in at 5:00am and gave each of us two out of school suspensions. We also had to pay for the damages done to the girl's locker room ceiling, and do janitorial community service after school. It sucked. Big time.

The funny thing about it (besides the obvious funny incident of Gary's foot going through the ceiling) was that my SSS adviser mentioned to Kyle earlier that night that he reminded her of Bender from The Breakfast Club. Although it was Gary's foot that went through the ceiling and not Kyle's, the comparison was uncanny. If you've been living under a rock and aren't familiar with The Breakfast Club Bender falls through the ceiling. Now go watch the movie.

And when we walked down the quiet hallway, the four of us, we sort of felt like the group from The Breakfast Club. It was a little comforting.

William Hurt and Courtney Cox want me to READ!

Last day of the City Wide Book Sale in Winona!!!

I bought tons of books. Lots of children's chapter books...for only five bucks!

The last two columns of books are for me. Sorry mom, tell dad I didn't see any Vince Flynn books.

They were pretty picked over.

Then I got these two treasures for FREE! I can't wait to hang them up in my room. Yes, that's William Hurt and Courtney Cox circa mid nineties.

So Videoland is going out of business, because the big bad Family Video is doing so well. We stopped there and I bought Stir of Echoes, and rented a few scary movies. Ari bought My Bloody Valentine 3D. We watched it with our awesome 3D glasses.

Me

Ari

We're pretty cool, you don't have to tell us :)

Three Dollars for One Movie and Two Books

What a deal, what a steal, what a great way to spend $3.00 on a Friday afternoon.

Winona does an annual city wide book sale in the spring. I've gone every year for the past four years. Paperbacks = $.50 Hardcovers = $1.00 and Media = $2.00. On the last day (which is tomorrow) you can pay $5.00 for anything you can fit in a paper bag.

Last year I loaded up on children's books for my nephews and nieces. I came across Bunnicula - my favorite book when I was in 5th grade.

Tomorrow, I plan on doing the same. They have a ton of books this year, and I'm going in the morning so hopefully it won't be too picked over.

So what did I get today??

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve. Oprah picked it for her book club, so there's no going wrong with this book. When I checked out, the lady who took my moolah said it was a really good book.

Christmas Magic by Patricia Hermes. It's a children's chapter book. It looked cute, and I thought it would be nice to keep for my niece Caitlyn, since it's about her reading level.

Last but not least, Tim and Harvey In The Great Outdoors movie...it's a VHS. Haha! Yes, they do still exist out there. Luckily, I have a TV with both DVD and VHS player in one :) I really loved Dorf Goes Fishing when I was younger which also stars Tim Conway. My neighbor and I watched it all the time. If you've never heard of it, it's worth a look.

I'll let you all know if I find any good books/movies tomorrow.

ps - It must be deal week in Winona. Tomorrow night is $3.00 movie night for college students. My friends and I are going to see Date Night or Hot Tub Time Machine.

The Library "Hurts So Good"

I don't like the campus library very much. I feel like if I stay too long I'll get sucked in to a library-like-black hole.

People talk too much and loudly! Shhhhhh!!! It's the library...

It's really hot in here too. Yes, I'm in the library right now. The printers go off every 10 seconds and it creates a very warm atmosphere. HOT PAPER!!

The only reason I'm in the library is so I can print off my papers for my English Portfolio. Which is now done. Thank God.

We have to turn in a digital copy too, and I didn't have all my papers on my computer. A few of them were just hard copies. So I had to re-type some of my papers just to save them on a CD. I tell ya, it's not fun to rewrite a paper on Clarissa Dalloway's soul, or lack thereof. It's very drab.

Anyway, I'll be out of this place in ten minutes. Don't get me wrong. I love libraries. I could spend hours in them searching through books. But when I have to complete assignments or read for class...I don't want to be at the library.

When I was in elementary school Library was my favorite class. Well, besides recess and lunch and gym...and music and art. I liked everything :) But Library was my favorite. The Dewey Decimal System and I had an understanding. It was good.

Anyway, if I was on the second or third floor of the campus library it would be much quieter. I'm on the first floor and it cuts students a little more slack. I think they should still talk a little softer though.

I guess I shouldn't be talking. Last semester I was up on the third floor (where you can hear a pin drop) and I cracked open a can of Dr. Pepper then resumed to eat a bag of Doritos. CRUNCH CRUNCH! I almost busted out some John Cougar Mellencamp, but I contained myself.

Wednesday Musings: Take Five

I want to see Date Night so badly! I've known about this movie for about two months now...thanks imdb.com

My one credit Application Letter online class gave me a fright on Monday. I forgot to do my last assignment and take the final quiz on Friday when it was due. As of two days ago I had a total of 40 out of 80 points for my final grade. I freaked out, did my assignment and took the quiz, then quickly emailed my professor.

To think that this stupid one credit class could have held me back from graduating....ugh!

I got an email yesterday from my professor and she said it was alright. YAY! No more worries.

The latest craze seems to be dressing up in nerdy attire with nerdy glasses. I don't like it. If you're trying too hard to look like Steve Urkel, then something is wrong with you. "Did I do that?" Yes, yes you did. Now stop doing that.

I've been craving spicy food all week. My mouth is on FIRE!


I watched Law and Order: CI last night, and I'm sad that Goren and Eames are gone. Did I cry? Ummmm, maybe a little bit. Okay, jeez, I cried through the entire last scene. Then I watched it again at midnight. It was a very good episode!!!

Sometimes I browse random blogs by clicking the "Next Blog" button at the top of my screen, and I somehow got a string of Spanish blogs. I couldn't read them. No Habla Espanol!

I Can Bend that Way Too

Psshhhh, yeah right!

I was watching Regis and Kelly this morning since Tennis was canceled due to rain, and they had three contortionists from the Ringling Bros. Circus perform live.

I've never seen anyone bend their body that way.

It was disgusting, but I couldn't stop watching these three women from Mongolia or Malaysia...I can't remember where they are from, but that's not the point.

They started out in this clear small box and then slid out with no problem. I tell ya, if I was stuck in a box with two other individuals, someone would have to pry me out with ten foot pliers and a little help from Mr. Petroleum Jelly.

Then they start doing things that I can hardly begin to describe. But I'll try, for the sake of this post. One of them gets on her belly and curls her feet up behind and over her head. Another one gets on top of her and bends in an unhealthy way while the other one climbs on top of the second one and they don't fall over!

CRAZY!

I can't even hold a headstand for more than 10 seconds. My sit and reach flexibility is me barely touching my toes.

My pilates class has improved some of my flexibility, but Regis and Kelly won't be calling me up anytime soon to perform Abdominal Preparation.

This is what these insane contortionists were doing on the show, except this isn't the woman from the show, just someone on google images. Ouch!
Sick. Sick. Sick. It looks like she is giving birth to her own head.

Not cool.

Lamb Cake for Everyone

What??? You've never made a Lamb Cake before? You've never even heard of a Lamb Cake? You're only familiar with Lamb Chops the show with Shari Lewis?? This is different, sorry to disappoint you. Well, here's a lesson in Lamb Cakes. Try to hold in the excitement.

Every Easter at my Grandma's the girls gather around the kitchen table and frost Lamb Cakes. They are made from molds and they hold a typical (I think) cake batter recipe. We each get a pastry bag with a star/flower like tip at the end. *I'm not a baking type gal, so I don't know all the terms for stuff, hence the word "stuff."*

I came into the kitchen late, and apparently my older sister Kyrstin (See What We Did Today) decided to make it a competition. See who frosts their lamb the fastest! GO!!! Well, she was a good four rows ahead of me...and my mom (Look at it as an Adventure) and sister-in-law (she doesn't have a blog) had smaller tips than us. No competition with them.

Me and Kyrstin

I finished second after a few bouts of hand cramps and elbowing my sister. She elbowed me too. All is fair in lamb and war. Too bad I don't have a picture of the finished product, but we used jellybeans for the eyes and nose. Then we sacrificed Kyrstin's Lamb Cake for our Easter meal, and it was delicious.

That takes skill right there.

Easter was a success!!


Sorry I've been MIA since Friday, but I literally woke up and drove from Winona to Elk Mound to get home. Then hopped in the car to Menomonie to see How to Train Your Dragon with my mom, sister, nephew, and niece. A kid next to us spilled his entire bag of Skittles...it was funny!! The movie was pretty good too.

Then it was off to my grandma's for Easter weekend. I got a cold overnight and now I have a ridiculously stuffy nose. Luckily, I took some medicine before my Pilates class. I was afraid that snot would slide out of nose during the "shell position."

It didn't.

Saturday I sort of helped my dad, brother, and nephew in the field. They were pitch forking hay, or grass, or something yellow, into a manure spreader machine. *I'm not familiar with farm lingo either* Then my dad and nephew drove the tractor and spread around the hay. My brother and I walked down to the river and we spotted a Bald Eagle! It was a perfect day to be outside.

I had a wonderful weekend and I hope the temperatures stay nice. Oh, and I won a giveaway on Sam's blog "Thoughts, writings, coffee..." I'm so excited to receive the prizes!!!

Dedicated to the Easter Bunny

So here's a little blurp from one of my short stories called "Believe." The story is about a son asking his mom about Santa Claus. The story within the story is filled with flashbacks relating to Santa from the mother's childhood. One of her flashbacks include the Easter Bunny. Enjoy!


-The Death of the Easter Bunny-

Unlike Christmas, the other holidays fell short. The closest holiday to it was Easter and the Easter Bunny. The believability of one tiny bunny hopping to every house on Easter morning and hiding eggs and Easter baskets wore thin over the years. Sure, I believed in the Easter Bunny, but not as long as I believed in Santa.

We were on our way back from Easter Services at our church. There we sat in the backseat - me in my pink and yellow Easter dress, Tonya, buckled next to me, with her white tights and white shoes, and my brother, on the other side of me, with his neatly combed hair.

My mom hummed “He Lives!” as my dad tried to find a good radio station.

“Greg, watch out!” my mom yelled.

My dad swerved and that’s when I saw it. A tiny white bunny in the middle of the road. It was like it all happened in slow motion. That poor little creature didn’t stand a chance against our baby blue four-door Pontiac Bonneville.

THUMP!

“You killed the Easter bunny!” I screamed.

My dad kept driving.

Everyone grew quiet as I continued to scream.

“Honey,” my mom turned around, “that wasn’t the Easter bunny. It was a different bunny.”

“No, it wasn’t! It was the Easter bunny. Daddy killed the Easter bunny!” I cried.

My brother chuckled next to me, “Way to go dad. You killed the Easter bunny, and you crushed Christina’s heart. Two-fer! High five!” My brother’s hand hung in the air without a slap to conclude the act of success.

My mom pushed his hand down. “That’s enough!” She looked at me, “Don’t worry, you’ll see that the Easter bunny already visited our house and hid your baskets.” She looked at my dad, “Right, Greg?”

“Ahhh, shit,” my dad grumbled. That’s the only memory I have of my dad swearing in front of me. When we got home, my mom told us that we had to run around the house three times before we could go inside.

Tonya wasn’t happy about that, “But why? My feet hurt.”

“Because,” my mom said as she shoved my dad into the house, “you need to burn off all that energy before you search for your baskets that the Easter bunny hid inside the house.” She closed the door behind my dad. That year was the fastest I ever found my Easter basket. Easter was never the same after that year. My dad, my own dad, ran over the Easter Bunny.