SPF 50

Kinley and I recently made a trip to the swimming pool to try and beat the heat.  As soon as we arrived, we did the usual pre-swim routine; swim diaper, potty break, sunscreen application, etc.  I had only grabbed Kinley's SPF 50 sunscreen but decided it was probably appropriate for my extremely pasty skin as well.

After about an hour and a half in the pool, we loaded up our belongings, hit McDonalds on the way home, and went home to recover from the outing.  After being home for about 30 minutes, my shoulders started to feel a bit hot.  I began to inspect my shoulders and found a pretty good sunburn.  This sunburn of course began to worsen as the day went on and I even ended up with some blisters.  So my question, mostly to "Banana Boat", how on earth do you get sunburned after using SPF 50???  What does that say about me?  Is it because the majority of my body has not seen the sun in about 10 years?  And why I ask you, did Kinley leave the pool unscathed???

On a some what separate note, to the parents of the 2 little girls that would not leave me alone at the pool.  Please, oh please, teach your children that you should never hang on strangers.  More importantly, please teach them that it is never okay to announce to said stranger, "oops, I peed in the pool" and then giggle about.  

May your trip to the swim pool be less painful then mine.

Still homeless...

I'm not really sure that any additional information is needed after the title, but here goes anyway.  Friday was our big day and what a day it was.  Rich and I head to the apartment offices to sign our lease at noon.  At about 1:00 p.m. we finish signing our paperwork and head to our new apartment.  At 1:05 p.m., Rich and I are trying to put on our happy faces.  Around 1:10 p.m., we both come to the realization that this apartment is just simply not going to work.

Apparently I have a different idea of what "clean" is than this particular complex.  To me, you clean the stove, doors, and walls, and make a good attempt to get stains out of the carpet.  Silly me, right?  So after much discussion and deliberation, we return to the apartment office at about 3:30 p.m. and return our keys and tell them that the apartment is unacceptable.  They, of course, don't seem to care.  The office staff then proceeds to tell us that they had given us the handicap unit (your guess is as good as mine as to which one of us needed the handicap unit) and that they had just been in the unit and thought it was very clean.  I find it very odd that you can have an awesome club house and show this well maintained and updated model unit and then rent out something completely different.

The day was incredibly stressful, but we have chosen to return to our temporary location and we will SAVE, SAVE, SAVE, and hopefully will be purchasing a home very soon.  If anybody needs to know where NOT to live in Idaho Falls, just give me a ring.

Additional thoughts from Wyoming

Dear hitchhikers near Evanston,

I could not help but notice that as I drove past you, you both looked deeply disappointed that I did not stop to pick you up.  Your well thought out sign of "fallen on hard times, need help" nearly had me, but alas, I did not stop.  I would like to take a minute and explain exactly why I did not pick you up.

First, neither of you looked as though you had bathed in a few days and I couldn't help but imagine that there was most likely a certain stench around you.  I am sure that is rude of me, but I'm not big on smells.  The second problem was that there were 2 of you and only 1 little old me...not to mention you were complete strangers and looked a bit "crazy", though that could have merely been the uncleanly appearance about you.  The last, and most important reason, the enormous black dog with you.  If I could give you one bit of advice, it would be to hitch hike without the giant dog, most people don't want a giant dog inside their car with 2 strangers.

In an effort to make you more appreciative of your circumstances, let me tell you what happened shortly after passing you.  My sweet little daughter started pointing to all of the rocks and very loudly proclaiming "wock".  Now you can imagine how long this went on seeings how the majority of I-80 near Evanston is filled with "wocks".  Some how during this fun adventure she learned that if she plugged her ears she could yell a lot louder...so much fun for all of us.

So now I bid you farewell and wish you good luck on your trek, I certainly do hope somebody gave you a lift.

Sincerely,

Concerned citizen in the blue car

Where to start

We have had quite a couple of weeks that are worthy of a few posts (I'll get to them eventually). We decided to move out of our apartment a little early so that in hopes that they would rent it out quickly and save us from having to pay rent through the rest of our lease. Well, it worked. We moved out on Saturday the 24th and somebody moved in on Monday. Yay for not having to pay double rent. We are currently homeless and have been taken in by some very nice friends until we can get into our new place on Friday. You know us, we just LOVE to move, so we thought doing a 2 part move sounded like a blast. May I add, moving with a nearly 2 year old is such a blast, I highly recommend it to everybody, and moving with a really stubborn and bossy nearly 2 year old is even better.

On Friday, Kinley and I packed up and headed to Wyoming for my oldest nephew's graduation and to visit family and meet the newest addition to the Rawlings clan, baby Paige (my sister Nicole's new baby). We had such a great time and I am happy to report that Paige was still alive when we left and Kinley was very sweet with her. I had thought she would want to chuck her around like she does all of her babies, but she was actually very gentle with her. I know, I'm shocked too, she didn't even try and run her over a single time.

We also were lucky enough to catch a dance recital for 3 nieces and 2 nephews. They all did an awesome job and Kinley was clapping the loudest of everybody. I was so worried she would be bored and ruin the whole thing, instead, she was a very captive audience and had a blast. When the girls did their ballet routines, Kinley would sway her arms along with them, it was cute. So I am guessing she likes ballet the most which I am not thrilled about. I can fully appreciate the skill and talent it takes to do ballet, it just happens to be my least favorite style of dance to watch, but if she wants to be a ballerina, you go for it baby doll. The nephews did some great hip hop routines that were excellent as well.

I have other thoughts from the trip that I will share later, but here are a few pictures to get you through. My apologies, not my best post, but it at least gets you caught up a bit.

This is Paige, but this picture in no way does justice to her. She is the most adorable baby, so much hair and just a very happy and content baby.

Kinley taking a swing at her first pinata. She did a decent job, good form, excellent concentration, looks like a future home run swing to me.