Great Weekend

Friday my mother and her husband got in, and they admired the grandkids, and we all munched on pizza and watched a movie. Mary and Keith got to pick the movie--Mom and Barry got subjected to the super-silliness of the Spongebob Movie.

(HAVE to include the background story of the silly Spongebob Movie. We took Mary and Keith to see it opening night: November 19, 2004. That day was my last full day of work before my maternity leave for Izzy [then known as the Isabelle or Ian "mystery bump" in my belly]. I didn't want to go [so, SO tired] but John talked me into it--we knew it would probably be the last movie I'd get to see in a while. Exactly ONE HOUR after we walked out of the theatre, I went into labor. So instead of getting the "few days to rest" before baby "I" came, I got NONE. So even though the movie isn't nearly as funny and even more silly than a typical Spongebob cartoon, I still had to buy it just for posterity's sake.)

Saturday Mary had a t-ball game. And except for the slight temper tantrum at the bottom of the sixth where she suddenly decided that she "didn't feel like batting," she played very well. Later we took the whole gang to the High Falls district and checked out the waterfalls and all the old buildings/mills here in downtown Rochester. And we ate barbecue.

Sunday I had to come in to work a few hours (@#$% holidays). After that we were originally planning on going to Niagara Falls, but we opted out as it was supposed to thunderstorm all day. Instead, we took the crew to the Corning Museum of Glass. It's a very nice museum and I could get lost in it all day (and did--stay tuned...), but it's not the most exciting place to take three young kids. Mary especially was pretty vocal about being bored. So John would keep wandering with the kids while my mother and I peeked at exhibits, and then my step-father was tagging way behind--reading every freaking place card in the museum. After a bit, I look up and say, "Hey, where are my husband and kids?" No one knew. I started running around in all the nooks and crannies trying to catch up with them. It took me twenty minutes to find them. When we finally joined the main hallway--where I'd just left my mother and her husband--THEY were now gone. John and I started going through the rest of the museum looking for them--while quickly glancing at exhibits on the way. We didn't see them ANYWHERE. Finally, the kids were getting hungry, so John took them down to the cafeteria. While they were there, I kept on my search for the illusive parents. I went all the way through the museum and still didn't find them. I finally gave up, ran back down to the cafeteria, bolted down a bowl of potato soup (pretty good soup, too), and then we all started the search again. After a while, we finally caught up with them--in the part of the museum where I'd lost them in the first place. I must have kept just missing them as they'd already been through the whole museum--and even in to the glass-making show. I swear--you can't take them anywhere! We headed outside, caught another glass-making show (the only thing I think the kids can say they legitimately enjoyed), stopped at the coffee bar so that the "old folks" could get a drink and snack (as they'd missed lunch!), and then headed out. We wanted to stop at Letchworth State Park on the way home, but we were just too, too tired.

Monday the folks headed home (although they had to make a quick detour back after 20 minutes into their trip as John had left our garage door opener in their car), and the rest of us headed downtown again. Mary and I got to march in the Memorial Day parade with the Girl Scouts. It was a beautiful, sunny, breezy day and just perfect for a parade. It was fun, and I'm glad we got to go.

I spent the rest of the day Monday PAINTING KEITH'S ROOM. That's right. I brushed the dust off the old rollers, cleaned up the cobwebs off his walls, and settled in to do 2 more coats of dark blue paint. Three of the four walls STILL need one more coat of paint. Sheesh! (My father keeps teasing me how we're just making this tiny bedroom smaller and smaller as we add more and more coats of paint on it.) I'm confident that one more coat oughtta do it--but then we'll still have to paint the closet--and THEN we have to clean up the mess--and THEN we've got to put some furniture in there--and THEN the room will be done. It's taken 10 1/2 months to get this far. I wonder how much longer until the poor boy finally has a place of his own????

Monday night I started up the charcoal in the ol' grill and made corn on the cob and sirloin steak. The steak was absolutely perfect (I humbly think even MR would approve).