FSF: Kids say the darndest things

This post is dedicated to Vanessa and Chris.  As this mainly involves them and something funny our niece Maren said regarding them - but they haven't heard yet.  Just a back story if you are confused - Vanessa's sister is married to one of Jimmy's older brothers and they have 3 beautiful children.  Which just so happens to make Vanessa, my best friend, and I aunts to the same kids.  Fun, huh?  We think so!  And Vanessa and Chris also live in Houston, Texas.  Maren loves them a lot and always misses them (and Hazel!).  But she hasn't been to Texas to visit them yet - but from the sounds of this story, she is ready to go!!! So here we go.

Last Sunday we went over my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house to watch the Chief's game.  Since we were the first ones to arrive, Maren and Norah quickly escorted me into the play room to begin play time.  As we were sitting there ordering some food from waitress Maren (plastic salami sandwich for me, one taco and some broccli for Norah), Maren started talking about Texas.  As when I'm with them, we often talk about Aunt Vanessa and Uncle Chris - because she and I both feel the same way and really wish they lived in Kansas City and we got to see them more.  She started telling me about dinosaurs.  Our conversation went like this:

Maren (M): "Aunt Brittany, you know there are dinosaurs in Texas?"

Brittany (B): "I didn't know that- I thought all dinosaurs were extinct"

M: "Nope, they are there.  They are the dads to horses in Texas.  But they are ONLY in Texas"

B: "Interesting....where did you learn that?"

M: "The other day.  The dinosaurs are big and scary.  I need to call Vanessa and tell her to keep an eye on Hazel - just in case she gets out.  Dinosaurs are ONLY in Texas"

B: "That's a great plan!!"

M: "But Uncle Chris, he is REALLY afraid of the dinosaurs.  He runs away from them, so he needs to be careful.  Especially since he likes horses"

Then Maren proceeds to call Aunt Vanessa on a play phone to tell her to keep an eye  on Hazel.  Norah picks up another play phone and calls to talk to Uncle Chris.

Hahaha.  Lessons learned on this FSF:

- Kids are so funny because my mother in law said that Maren probably heard something about dinosaurs at school (as a science teacher she said that apparently dinosaurs might have evolved to horses??) and she then took that and interpreted them to exist today - but only in Texas.  Because she loves her aunt and uncle there !!

- Chris is terrified of dinosaurs

- It's a good thing that Vanessa found Hazel, her sweet little bull dog, by some construction workers when she got ou the other day and she wasn't eaten by a Texas dinosaur....(she has a facebook post about how she got out the other day!!)

- I need to hang out with kids more; they make life a lot more interesting and pretty much hilarious....

To end this post, here are some funny pictures of Maren, Norah and Jimmy when we baby sat them a while ago that I had on my computer.  It's crazy because this was pre-Will and it's amazing how much both of them have grown up in under a year!  And how funny it is that they like to mess with Uncle Jimmy!

P.S.  Vanessa and Chris - come back to KC soon!  We continue to miss you!

Happy Friday!!!

Strutt with your MUTT!

And with our mutts, we did just that on Saturday morning in Brookside.

Here are Jimmy and Toby ready to go on a 5K walk/run Strutt with your Mutt!

As you will notice, Milly was not able to attend.  A 7.5lb wiener dog would not do so well on a 3.2 mile walk.  We were even worried about Willy making it because he can only go so far!!!  It was very sad to not have our whole family of 5 there, but we have and idea for next year - if someone will let us borrow their stroller!!  Haha - we saw another wiener dog in one on the walk and it was SO cute!

Here they are - ready to go....KU shirt and all.

We got there a few minutes before the race started and there was TONS of vendors there getting their name out to dog owners - even a lady who wrote a book about her family's experiences with a little wiener dog.  She gave Willy a treat and accidentally called him Billy.  But since he got a treat, he didn't seem to care.  They even had a traveling McDonald's van that Jimmy loved.  

Before we knew it, it was time to GO.  As we were crossing the start line, a man was signing along to karaoke that Jimmy very much enjoyed.  It was pretty funny.  We stayed towards the back while all the serious dogs and owners actually raced.

We were on the trolley trail half of the race and I was creepy and took pictures while we were walking.  We also got to see the wiener dog friend that Willy had met earlier.  They really liked each other.  The minute we got off the trail though (in which the trail was equipped with poop bags and trash cans, more importantly), Toby took a huge dump in which Jimmy had to pick up and carry the rest of the race.  The bottom photo showed just how thrilled he was that he got to carry the whole time....

But guess what!??!  We eventually made it to the end and the FINISH line!  Haha - so exciting!!!  This was the first race that Jimmy ever ran, as well as Willy and Toby, so we had to document crossing the finish line.  We were just thrilled that Willy made it all the way!!!  (We cheated after 1.5 miles and crossed to the other side....shhhh...don't tell)

And then of course we had to get some water.  How fun are the big baby pools that the dogs got to drink out of.  However, Willy was not-so-thrilled to be sharing water with other dogs and that back wash.  But eventually I got him to drink something.

So there you have it - the four of us took on the race to benefit Wayside Waifs and we loved it.  Great way to kick off a weekend and a great way to spend time on Saturday morning!!!  Just wish Miss Milly could have made it - maybe next year, right??

FSF: Dog Shampoo

Ok, so our guest bathroom  You know the one that hasn't been redone?  The one that I get ready in every morning and the one that Milly and Willy get their baths in?  Yep, here it is in case you forgot...

Well Lauren used to shower in it, but since she moved out in April 2010, I can count on my hand the number of humans that have showered in it.  Yep.

1 and 2

And their names were Dave and Erica.

Dave showered one day there and came downstairs and commented on his silky, shiny hair.  We both started laughing and giggling.  I asked him what exactly he used.  When he spilled the beans, he laughed too.

Then Erica came in town last Friday night and showered before she and Andrew were off to Lincoln.  And she came down and commented on her silky, shiny hair.  I asked her if she used the Herbal Essence shampoo that I left on the counter?  Nope she said.  She used the shampoo in the shower.  And she thinks it was dog shampoo.

Yep, you read right.  She thought it was dog shampoo.

And guess what?  She was right!  Oh my gosh, what a horrible host I am.  The two people that have showered in our guest shower in the last year and a half have used DOG SHAMPOO to wash their hair!!  I even tried to prevent it with Erica by putting the people shampoo out for her, but it was a little early and I'm guessing she didn't process anything correctly.  But I'm hoping she had a really successful day entertaining her clients in Lincoln and her hair was sparkling and shiny!  For the record, I feel bad.  I do.  But it's still funny, right?

GRR!!

So there you have it for the fun story Friday.

Moral of the story: If you come to our house and want to shower.  Either (1) Bring your own shampoo or (2) Don't shower.

And that's how we roll at the Carter house.

Baby S baby's shower!

So in March of this year, we all found out that our friend Lauren and her husband Cory are pregnant!  And it's pretty unbelievable how fast time has flown by because guess what??  She is due with a sweet little baby boy in just three weeks!!!  Oh my gosh!  So excited for them.  So we had a little shower for her and her baby boy to help welcome him into this world!

There were presents, decorations and LOTS of food!!!

And check out those cake balls - Carly's aunt made them.  They are so so so cute and sooooooo YUMMY!!!

And there were lots of friends and lots of fun conversations.  So good to catch up and see everyone - especially Rachel and Ashley who were in town from Austin and Los Angeles!!

And then there was SWEET baby Kinley.  Lyssa's adorable baby girl, who is not so much a baby anymore!!  She just turned 2 and it's so amazing how fast she is growing up and how cute she is!  I feel like we just were showering baby-to-be Kinley with presents at her shower!!  Time flies.

Kinley had lots of fun with all the toys (step stool and dog toys) and playing with Milly and Willy (really just Willy because Milly is kind of rude!).  How cute is she????

And of course baby boy was showered with lots of toys, books and clothes.  But these KSU Pi Phi's could not pass up an opportunity to make sure he had some CUTE Wildcat gear when he goes to the games with his parents or visits his grandparents.  Love these little outfits!!

Miss Kinley also helped Lauren open her presents and wanted to play with all of them.  But then she knew that they were for the baby that was in Lauren's tummy.  She even waved bye to him when she left.  Oh my gosh.

And then we all signed a frame that says "Pi Phi's love Baby Strathman" and are going to put this picture in it!!  Not all the girls were able to make it, but they were there in spirit.  It was a great time and such a blessing to have all these girls together to celebrate the first baby boy pi phi!!!

And then because we are awkward and weird, we had to take this picture.  Haha.

Overall, it was such a fun afternoon and we are so lucky to have each other in our lives.  Baby boy Strathman - we are ready for your arrival!!!!!!  We can't wait to meet you!!!

China cabinet enters the 21st century

Ok, so a long time ago.....we bought a china cabinet off of craigslist.  This is a reminder of what it looks like (or looked like).  

Last week...I got an itch.  With a baby shower coming up at our house (pics of that soon!) and a new table purchased and set up AND a new rug, our little china cabinet that was stuck in 1970 needed a makeover.  So I did just that.  

Since all the china that previously inhabited it was already packed away from when we got our hardwood floor refinished, it just took Jimmy and I's muscles to get the top and bottom of the cabinet outside and some bottles of black spray paint (again the specific kind that sticks to wood, metal and plastic - same kind I used on our chairs).

And wa-la!!  How easy was that?  Well, I had to take the glass out too which is super sharp, but still, not too hard.

After I was done with the top, I had to empty out the bottom and take off all the doors and drawers.  And figure out what I wanted to keep in the bottom.  It was a good fall cleaning exercise :)  Oh AND - the hideous 1970s hardware.  Yeah - that had to go too.

Check out the doors before, during and after.  Also - look in the first picture at the new rug and check ou the new table.  Both fun.  I like them a bit.  Or a lot.

All right, in the midst of all this spray painting (see my FSF post about what I ended up looking like after spray painting all day), I had a little bit of hinge problems after the doors were all painted and dry.  I obviously couldn't keep the old ones and had bought 2 different types at home depot, but none of them fit.  Then I went to Locks and Pulls aka the mecca of hinges/knobs/pulls and found some.  Excellent and I was so happy. 

What I was even happier with was the end result.  I cannot tell you how much I love the black china cabinet.  I even accessorized it with some different things than our china.  Something a little more fun and a little less formal.  I love our china and will be happy to display it someday in our formal dining room probably in another bigger house :)  For now - I found some pictures and accessories that were hanging around our house and made them look pretty.  

Loving loving loving this view from the kitchen.  

Spray paint = works magic and saves lots of $$!!!

Labor Day trip to Iowa!

I have to start this post off with this picture.  Just because it's funny and maybe it will get your attention.  This is what Jimmy's dinner looked like when we ate in Iowa.  He's a crazy fool.  But I love him.  Love him more than words.  And I got a bite of it....but seriously, look at how big that is!

So the real point of this post is to tell you about how we drove to Iowa over labor day weekend to visit my grandparents!!  We left early Saturday morning all driving up in Jimmy's car.  I had to sit in the middle and it was very uncomfortable.  But I was finishing the 3rd Hunger Games book so didn't care.  I was just so intent on finishing the book to see what happened.  After I finished it - I started noticing/complaining that my back hurt.  So it was fun.  Haha.  Not but it actually was fun being in the car with the whole family.  And eating at McDonald's in which I ate some of everyone's meal!

So when we got to Iowa, we did some of this:

Which equates to hanging out with the family and talking.  And it was nice to catch up and see one another after a while!!  My grandpa has been sick and they found cancer for the THIRD time, but he is sure the fighter and has been doing well in chemo so far.  He is always in great spirits, which I'm sure helps a lot too!!  So that made it even more nice to see him in person and talk to him and my grandma about what they have been up to lately.

My mom, sister and I were itching to get out and walk on main street, so we took a short walk from their assisted living home to main street and went into a few stores and found some fun things.  Including some awesome cups for our smoothies :)  Check out their cute little town!

It was funny because my grandma at one point called my sister my name.  And she was like "well you girls look so much alike".  And any other day we would have said, NO WAY.  But then after examining ourselves in the mirror, we quickly realized why there would be a cause for confusion.

Purple shirts.  Same hair.  Same glasses.  Same smile.  Sisters - wow, you can tell!

Jimmy, Lyndsay and I made a trip to Wal-Mart as well and on our way back we stopped at Godfather's pizza and went through the drive thru to order 2 orders of Monkey bread for my dad.  Because he loves it.  And we had a lot of fun.  We like each other and that's good, right?!!?

So when it was time to go out to dinner, I googled on my phone and suggested we try something new.  We usually go to Lakeshore cafe every time we visit Storm Lake, but Boz Wellz was close and had such great reviews so I convinced my grandparents who don't like to stray from a routine to try it out.

And what a success it was!!!  We had a great dinner and it was a great menu with lots of good food and different types of food too!  Check out the picture we had a waitress take of the whole group.  Love it!

It was great conversation and fun to hear the stories that my grandma and grandpa were telling.  I was asking them about when they met, got married, etc.  And then they started talking about their weekly trips to the Fairway (local grocery store) and how they always go in together but split up because my grandpa takes the motorized wheel chair around.  And then manager (who of course he knows their name!) always sees my grandma and asks where her other half is.  And they say that he's off roaming around the store - because she gives him a list to find things and roams the aisles until he finds them for her and then meets her at the front.  I love it.  I mean that is true love.  They celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary that next week.  I love them.

After dinner, we went back home and watched football games.  Really they watched football and I blogged.  Remember how I had a steady stream of blog posts the week after labor day?  Yep, I wrote those that Saturday night.  I had no blog posts last week.  I had something to do the last Saturday night - haha see a trend?  I write posts of the weekends and schedule them for later because I have no time to write during the week!! AH!

But then we went to bed and woke up to a delicious breakfast the my grandma cooked up and then were ready to head on the road back to KC.  But not without the window wave.  This is famous in the Bruns house.  They used to stand at the window in their farm house when we were leaving and wave.  And then walk out the door and stand in the gravel driveway and wave until we were gone.....and guess what?  Even though they moved into an assisted living home?  That tradition still stands and always will live on through my dad because he does it every time Jimmy or I ever pull out of the driveway at my parents house.

On the way home - I shot some pictures of the beautiful Iowa landscape.  The crops, the farms and the windmills.  Gorgeous day and gorgeous landscape.

You would think that was the end of the post right?  Well - it's not.  Because something REALLY exciting happened on the way back.  What happened was the entire way to Iowa, I was searching for a Pizza Hut buffet.  I LOVE Pizza Hut buffet.  Like so much.  The last time that I went to one was the summer between my junior and senior year of college.  I know.  That was like 5 years ago.  Sad city.

We couldn't find one on the way down (my mom even tried to call and ask) and then on our way home we were discussing lunch possibilities and.......

BAM, there it was.  Oh my gosh.  I freaked out and made Jimmy pull into the parking lot immediately even though it was only like 11AM.

Look at all that pizza.  Wow.  It's like amazing.  And it was so delicious!!  We were all satisfied!

And THAT my friends, finally ends the trip.  It was filled with fun, family, lots of good conversations and lots of good food!!!

FSF: Project mishap

Ok - so in light of a baby shower that is at my house this weekend, I decided to take on a project that I have been putting off for too long.  Painting my old craigslist china cabinet.  Since I liked spray paint when I did my chairs, I thought I would give it a try.

Here is a preview:

Ok, so that's not the funny story.  The funny story/thing was what I looked like after spray painting it with like 5 cans of spray paint outside and a mask on.  Apparently it has blown back on me and landed just in the right spot on my face to pretty much look like I had got in a fight the night before and lost :)  As I was literally getting ready to walk out the door to go to the hardware store (of course not even thinking to look in the mirror - I was working people!!), Jimmy stopped me and started laughing and then insisted that I take a picture.

So here you go:

It actually took me awhile to get the paint out of those "crevices" and actually it was in my nostrils - which is weird/disturbing and probably not good for me.  But the things I will sacrifice for a home project :)

PS Thanks Emily for reminding me!  I usually write these during the week and didn't have time this week.  But your facebook post made sure I got it in :)  If you are interested, check out Emily and her husband's fun home projects on their blog!

Happy Friday everyone!!

FSF: Anonymous "hate" messages

I decided to give Jimmy a breather this week in terms of my FSF posts making fun of him or talking about the silly things he does. Don't worry, there are plenty more......

Have you ever had a wrong number call you or text you something not-so-nice??

A friend I was having lunch with this week had a funny thing happen to him. While we were sitting at lunch he pulled out his phone and showed me that he just got 8 text message in a row from an unknown number with some "hate" messages. So random.

He told me that previously this week he had gotten 8 text messages from a number that he didn't know saying "Andrew is here" or something of the sort. He was trying to be nice and called the number back to try and let them know that they had the wrong number and really that he didn't care or want to konw if Andrew was wherever he was. After that call, they sent a text message back saying "wrong number". Then my friend just sent one back saying something like "no problem, thanks for the 8 text messages!"

A day later (while sitting at lunch with me) he gets 8 more that all say:

"I hate you.

I hate you.

I hate you.
I hate you.

I hate you.

I hate you.

I hate you.

I hate you."

Random and hilarious if you ask me...but then I got a little disturbed wondering what "normal" person would make a mistake in sending hate messages to another person. Let along EIGHT of them in a row. Talk about hitting the send button a few too many times. As for me, I tend to lean on the "nice" side and would probably have apologized 8 times vs. profess any sort of hate/dislike towards my unsuspecting recipient! But to each his own, right!?

Have you ever been the recipient of anonymous "hate" messages? If so, I'm hoping that they were a little less aggressive than this person was!!! I feel like this is something that I would get upset about.

On that note - wishing you the HAPPIEST of all Fridays and a wonderful weekend!!!!!

Married: Jay and Sara!

Remember when Jay and Sara got engaged on New Year’s Day??  Well, in addition to celebrating my birthday a few Sundays ago, prior to that on Thursday; we headed to Baltimore, MD for their wedding festivities to begin!!  Even with the news circulating about the potential for Hurricane Irene, we headed off early and made it to Baltimore to make our fist stop at a local bar where all the other folks from Kansas City were already gathered.  It was so fun for all these people to be gathered together again – especially for such a fun occasion!!  A few diet cokes into it, I realized that we had not eaten lunch, so Jimmy ordered a delicious appetizer of crab tater tots….sounds gross??  Well I assure you that it wasn’t, and hey, when in Maryland, right?  However, I’m pretty sure that should have been our entire caloric intake for the weekend-  so good!

Thursday night had a beautiful rehearsal and rehearsal dinner at a nice Italian restaurant hosted by Jay’s parents.  It was so great to see a slideshow of the bride and groom and recount how their chance meeting at a bar in Dewey beach just 2 July’s ago had turned into such a great love.  Jay’s dad gave an amazing speech, which was complete with his own song to the tune of his harmonica.  So awesome!!  It was also great to get to meet Sara’s family and especially her four sisters that we had heard so many great things about!

And we had a little bit of fun after the rehearsal dinner!!

Friday was the wedding day but we did have some time to play in the morning and got the group together to go to a delicious breakfast at Jimmy’s (a fun restaurant in the harbor area) where the 7 of us learned was scrapple was (to quote old man Jimmy himself, “it everything on the pig except the oink grinded together and fried”) and enjoyed a great meal and even better conversation.   After that we all walked to look over the harbor and that is when it set in that this Hurricane Irene was real.  There were mounds of sand all over with people everywhere trying to fill the bags.   Check out a few pictures that I got of the harbor and the sand!!

Our original flight and plans included not leaving until Sunday morning because we were going to hang out in Baltimore that day and go to the baseball game.  When we heard lots of folks weren’t coming because they were scared of not being able to go home, Jimmy and I decided that it would best to see what kind of flight change we could get.  After 45 minutes on hold with United, I finally got in touch with someone and they changed our flight to the only option left, which was 6:50AM on Saturday with a connection in Charlotte, NC.  Seems odd that they would route us through North Carolina, right?  I thought so too because it seemed as if that is where the hurricane was heading, but she said they were saying Charlotte was far enough in land that it wouldn’t be affected.  With no other choice, we said ok.

While the boys headed off to go to an upscale barber shop (so funny…), us girls hung around the harbor and walked around in cute little shops to kill some time and ended up buying the guys all a koozie of their favorite new Baltimore beer, Natty Bo (short for Natural Bohemian beer).   We also ate some delicious oysters that Julia really enjoyed and so did I!!

And then it was almost time for the wedding and we were back to the hotel to get ready.  To celebrate the newest Mr. and Mrs. Cullinan.  Check out the fun present that I got Sara!  And those 2 cute guys that I got to room with a few nights….

The wedding was beautiful.  The church was breathtaking .  The bride was stunning.  And the love was everywhere, you could just feel it. 

Sara and her dad….

Special moments during the wedding that I was able to grab with my new zoom lens.  They were so happy!!

Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Cullinan!

This might be my favorite picture that I grabbed of them on their drive by the church.  Love how the background is blurry and Jay’s fist pump.

After the wedding we headed towards the reception, after Julia has a quick wardrobe change.  She let us know that she wasn’t a diva and I told her she was the last person I would deem as a diva.   The reception was held at the Belvedere, which was gorgeous.  It was topped off with a delicious crab cookie to commemorate our time in Maryland!

What a beautiful couple.

And what a great group of guys.  Look at how handsome they are.  I really do love them.  Each and every one of them.  With a preference to Jimmy, but really, these guys are one of the many reasons that my husband is so wonderful and caring and nice.  They have great morals, values and value their friendships more than anything.  Oh Heble.

And what fun we had traveling and hanging out with these folks!  Ben and Julia – set to tie the knot in Austin, TX in October and then Danny and Kristin – tying the knot next June 30, so lots of fun wedding to come.

And Jay and Sara (btw, Heble took this picture if you cannot tell.  I tried my best to make it look normal!).  Oh how I wish they lived in Kansas City - all the fun we would have!!!  But until then, we will have to build lots of trips in our calendar to Baltimore to come visit them.  Until next time Baltimore….

I didn’t get any good pictures of what might have been the best part of the night that included Jay dancing to The Dougie.  His dancing is amazing.  And to top onto that, his dad and 3 brothers joined in the fun and the whole wedding did a dance circle around them.  It was pretty amazing.

 We went to sleep at 1:30AM and were up again at 4AM to head to the airport and make the long trip back to Kansas City and finally arrived around 2PM.  Turns out, we were very lucky that we rescheduled our flight because all the flights were in fact canceled out of Baltimore on Sunday and the happy couple had to post pone their honeymoon until Tuesday because of the crazy weather!!!!  Overall, it was a fun weekend filled with good times with GREAT friends – even though it was cut short.  I am just so thankful that their wedding was on Friday because when I was driving to work on Tuesday they were talking about all the damage Irene caused over the weekend and one of the main things that they mentioned was all the weddings that had to be canceled over the weekend and all the money that was lost.  How devastating that would be if you were the couple that was getting married!!!!   So I have come to the conclusion that it was a great sign and start to Jay and Sara’s marriage that everything worked out just perfect!!

Congrats to the happy couple and we love you both!