Free Range Family

This NBC post has been popping up all over my Facebook and Blogger newsfeed all week. Since my family lives in the third best place on the list, I figured that I might as well give into the trend and write a post about it myself. You know, since I have like, personal experience on it and whatnot. If you want to see the full article and countdown, check out the link above. But for now, here is the top 10 Best and Worst Places to Live, courtesy of the Today Show and Best Life Magazine. Top 10 Best Places to Raise a Family in the US 1 Honolulu, Hawaii 2 Virginia Beach, Virginia 3 Billings, Montana 4 Columbus, Georgia 5 San Diego, California 6 Des Moines, Iowa 7 Minneapolis, Minnesota 8 Madison, Wisconsin 9 Colorado Springs, Colorado 10 Santa Rosa, California Top 10 Worst Places to Raise a Family in the US 10  Springfield, Missouri 9 Dayton, Ohio 8 Corpus Christi, Texas 7 Flint, Michigan 6 Columbia, South Carolina 5 Waco, Texas 4 ...

Saturday's birthday party was fun. Unfortunately, the kids were not able to come. Alan woke up this morning saying that his throat and tummy hurt. He had a low grade fever and threw up a little too. So we kept him at home with Lon. But the party was really cool! It was for my co-worker's 3 year old daughter and 6 year old son. The party was Star Wars and Dora the Explorer themed. They had several life size cardboard cut outs too! The kids all had a blast, I wish Alan was able to go! Oh well, there's always next year! I finished my book last night! Lon went over to his friend Jason's house for a bit and both kids were in bed, so I sat down and read the last few pages I had been procrastinating. I am sure glad I did too! What a book! I loved it and cannot wait to read the next one! The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games takes place supposedly in the future, in a desolate apocolyptic United States now known as Panem. Originally thirteen distri...

Lol that sounds more like a oxy-moron than anything, but that was the weekend we had. Saturday I had to work at the YMCA for only a couple hours, so we spent most of our day at home, hanging out and playing with Alan. We practiced Alan's Polar Bear ABC game and watched Cars 2 about a million times lol. It was a great low key day. Then that night, Lon and I used one of our giftcards from Christmas to go out to dinner at Red Robin. My wonderful mother volunteered to watch Alan for us for the whole night, since the rest of my family had gone out of town for the weekend. They had a great "sleepover" together, eating ice cream and watching Muppets Treasure Island. Lon and I had a fantastic date together as well. :) We hadn't gone out kid-less since... Uh his birthday lol? So it was just awesome to get to go out and enjoy our time together. He ordered the Bleu Chesse Burger (ew lol) and I got the Classic Burger with a chocolate milkshake. Oh yeah lol, this pregnant mama...

I did not post too much this last weekend, except for my Memorial Day post and my nomadic walking post, but neither were about our weekend. This was because we had quite the busy weekend. It rained all weekend (has it even ever stopped raining lol?????) so we were stuck indoors, but we still had a wonderful time! Saturday morning I had my last art class for the month of May. We made Memorial Day campsites, Animal Faces and American flags, as well as had our art show for the parents. It was fun and most of those kids won't be back until next fall, I will miss them greatly! :) After my art class, I went home for lunch with my boys (ham sandwiches and vegetable soup yum!) and then we went out to one of Lon's good friend Sean's new folf field to check it out. For those of you that don't know, folf is Frizbee golf. Plain and simple. :) Grandpa Steve had been helping Sean out with the folf goals, or whatever they're called lol, and Lon helped them put some of them up...

Alan is doing tons better this morning, and only had one diarrhea blow out last night. He has two and a half hours left of his liquid diet, and he's no longer contagious after noon today. Unfortunately, that means that he will not be able to go to art class today. :\ But I'm just going to prepare him some "homework" so that he still gets his art projects for that week done. And I'm just thankful last night went billions of times better than Sunday night and that he's doing so much better today. He's starting to act like himself again, which makes me smile. :) Hopefully, he'll be able to go back to daycare by tomorrow. :) And now, for Top Two Tuesday!! Top Two Things I Collect!! #1 Elephant figurines (This photo thanks to http://www.dinodirect.com) I am obsessed, I mean obsessed with elephants lol, and I have been most of my life. I think they are beautiful, brilliant, elegant creatures. <3 I have been collecting elephant figurines as l...

I borrowed this thing from Amy @Our Crazy Beautiful Life because I loved it so much and it looks like tons of fun! :) So enjoy, the ABC's of me! <3 Check out Our Crazy Beautiful Life and see her ABCs at http://www.ourcrazybeautifulife.blogspot.com A. Age: 21 B. Bed size: Queen size C. Chore you hate: The Dishes- we don't have a dishwasher so I do them by hand. Thus, dishes are the bane of my existance. :\ D. Dogs: None yet! Not until we buy our own house! We want a great dane for Alan though. A great dane puppy like this would be ideal. This one is soooooo cute!! (This photo thanks to http://www.321dogs.com) E. Essential start to your day: Snuggling in bed with my boys <3 F. Favorite color: Purple G. Gold or silver: Silver definately H. Height: 5’4 I. Instruments: Played the clarinet, bass clarinet, alto clarinet and some piano in high school. (This photo thanks to http://www.concordband.org) J. Job title: Art Teacher K. Kids: Ala...

Because I've got another blog hop that I just got invited to! Whoo I'm so popular... Just kidding, pahahahahahaha! :D Okay so tonight after I got off of work and had put Alan to bed, I decided to watch The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasuss on Starz because their wasn't much else on tv. And frankly, I really wanted to know what the eff was going on with this movie lol, because I had seen the previews and had been intrigued not only by the fact that it was an unreleased Heath Ledger movie, but by the sheer oddness of the commercial. And let me tell you, having just had finished it, I still have absolutely NO IDEA what happened lol. WTH???? :) I mean, I paid attention and got the idea of the Imaginarium and the Devil's contract and all that good stuff, but I still am super confused as to what really happened, when it was actually Heath Ledger and not Colin Ferrel or maybe even Johnny Depp? So confused!!! Anyone else feel this way after watching this movie? I really need so...