Oh! My Aching Shoulders!!!!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Sarge is trying to kill me.

Thursday at the gym we did this workout. I think my time was something like 17:35, but I substituted a 25lb dumbbell for the kettleball, and had about 110 on the pull-up weight stack. Since I couldn't do a pull up to save my life, seriously. Then we played about 20 minutes of tennis. Man, we suck at tennis, that's the reason we play tennis, we are equally sucky, so nobody gets mad, it's fun and not competitive. But COME ON!!! That was a combined run of .75 miles, 63 dumbbell swings, and 36 pull-ups.

The previous day I had been working on this for a friend:

I guess her church is having some kind of singles luau/dance.
So my shoulders were pretty achy already. That freaking thing was bout 9 feet tall, and 12 feet long.

Thursday afternoon after I had gotten the approval on the finished mural, the friend reminded me that I was going to do a Tiki mural as well. Well, crap. So I got started on that one as well. As I was finishing up with the coloring and shading of that one, a PTA friend called an let me know that the dance Piko deGallo's school was having the next day needed decorations. I agreed to show up for that after dinner.

I show up at the school, and the only person there to decorate the cafeteria besides me is the friend who called me. Dude, we must have blown up about 500 balloons that night. Thankfully she had these little hand pumps that did most of the work, but AGH, again with the aching shoulders. We get mostly done there at about 9:30, and I head home.

Crap! The Tiki still needs detail outlining. Shoulders again! I wish I was ambidextrous. But it turned out freaking awesome! I want to paint one of these in our house, but Sarge says not. Though as you can see, it is totally Piko approved.
This gives you some idea of the scale I was working in.

Back to the school on Friday for the "dance". Pre-K, and Kindergarten are first, so Sarge and I attend. Balloons popping galore. I guess we have to replenish the stock for the other classes. Which means more using of the hand pump. Ow, OW! OW!!
But the kids had a great time, (however the DJ kept playing that damn "Apple Bottom Jeans" song, which is another rant entirely!) and by the time the 2nd graders got into the dance there was less popping of the balloons. Thank goodness.


So I guess I'm blaming Sarge, but it looks like he was only about 25% responsible for my current state of pain. My own stupid volunteering self is responsible for the other 75%.

Though last night, he was trying to convince me to do the split jerk workout. Um, NO.

Maine Photolog

As you can see, there was quite a bit of snow built up. Piko deGallo is standing at the top of a snow bank (or "snow hills" as she calls them) on the edge of the in-law's driveway.


Funny enough, I checked the weather in Sarge's town this morning, and guess what?! IT WAS SNOWING!! LOLerskates!

Piko deGallo and Sarge put up a pretty impressive snow person in the front yard. And then that was pretty much the end of the outdoors for us. It got very cold overnight, and rained, so that nice snow turned into slick ice.


The first of some wonderfully fresh seafood we had. Though this was the only bit that was not battered and fried, as is the way in Downeast Maine.

Yum, fresh steamed clams!


Piko deGallo learned to ride a bike without training wheels. Thank you so much Grandpa deGallo!!! She only dumped seriously once, and I got it on camera.

And then I couldn't go a week without being a tad bit crafty. I reeled Piko deG, and her cousin off of the computer and we created some very festive Easter egg trees. I didn't feel like blowing a whole bunch of eggs, so I bought a bunch of fun foam and cut out egg shapes, then had the girls decorate them. I then cut out some cute birds from some cheap scrapbooking paper. So cute!

Holy Crud!

Well, we're back!

And we're leaving in a little more than a month!

I've officially had to start thinking about the fact that we're really moving to Germany, and all that entails. Crud. Packing, yard sales, last minute appointments, dealing with the dog, cleaning my house. All things I thoroughly enjoy of course.

Maine was pretty good though. Lots of snow, fried seafood, chocolate milkshakes, Piko deGallo milestones, and family. Low on privacy, high octane coffee, companionable silence, and privacy, did I mention privacy? I'll post some pictures later.

We also drove up (in 13 hours!! a deGallo personal best!!) in our Sienna, and drove back in an Outback! Seriously, Maine must be the Subaru capital of the universe.

We're off! Yay?

Maine ho!!!!

Woo-freaking-hoo. It's finally starting to get warm here, and we're heading off to the land of 6 foot snow drifts.

It's better than here though I guess. Monday night the PTA imploded, the new board cut funding for almost all of the student activities the previous board was supporting. They blamed the previous board for mismanaging the budget, and for sabotaging the latest fundraiser (whhhaaaa????). I did get my money for the Science Fair refunded though, so there was a plus for me. I'm seriously hoping that the next school we're at has a PTA that can actually work together, and do, you know, work.

So away from here, to the frozen north. It's going to be a great visit, I can already tell. The other night Piko deGallo tells Sarge.

"Do Grandma and Grandpa have more than one TV? I don't want to have to watch CRAP IDOL with them."

I swear, Sarge must have peed his pants from laughing so hard.

I'm looking forward to going to the discount fabric store. Thank goodness we got our tax return!

Snip! Snip!

Snip!

Hey-ho! We all have short hair now! I bet the inlaws are going to haaaate it! MWAHAHAHHA!

We're Fancy

Piko deGallo presents her spring after school line of lounge wear for the active pre-tween.

Best show EVER!!

We watch it on BBCAmerica.
TOP GEAR
Seriously. Sarge and I spent the night laughing on the couch. We watched the episode where their challenge was to fly to Miami, buy a car for $1000 and drive it to New Orleans, and then sell it. Yeah. So, of course, hilarity ensues. Suffice to say, one of the car dealers shows them his gun(s), they "eat" road kill for dinner, and almost get killed by rednecks while driving through Alabama. Meanwhile they mercilessly bag on James May's choice of car and hit it with their cars as often as possible. Cue immature giggles from Sarge and I.

Honestly though this was just an episode of them in the US. The show usually takes place in Brittan and the rest of Continental Europe. Equally as hilarious.

But, it really made us think. How interesting to get an idea of how Europeans, the British specifically, view America. It was both funny and sad. Of course they were afraid of getting shot, well, the car dealer showed them his gun. Jeremy Clarkson found a blood stained shirt in one of the pockets of his car. Then as a "challenge" they wrote funny(to me, and them at least) slogans on the sides of each others cars as they drove through Alabama. They almost got killed. Seriously, "the boys" started pulling up in pick up trucks and pelting them with rocks. "Yew betta git otta heah!" It was funny. But also not. Here is what Richard Hammond's car looked like, to give you a sample of the things they wrote.

So British dudes driving across the American South in $1000 beaters. Funny. Horrible American stereotypes brought to light. Also funny.

Happy Birthday!

Tomorrow is DR. SEUSS's birthday!!

Of course I'm a huge dork and made this for Piko deGallo's kindergarten class.
What the?
"That's great Mommy!" Piko deGallo says. "It will be better when you put the face in"
The action shot, with the "face"!



Check out SkipToMyLou for some awesome Dr. Seuss activities.
Like making your own Cat in the Hat hat.
Have fun with Ooobleck!