The Oldie of the Group

It is strange being the oldest of any group...being raised with 13 siblings, 8 of which are older than me, I always was one of the younger ones around. But, I suppose things must change. Of course I'm still one of the younger ones in my family but in Dave's family, I'm the oldest by 2 years 4 months and 2 days. I've never been comfortable with that but that's OK. Luckily, I act young! The other night, at book club I was the oldest gal there. Yeah, I was...I thought, "Maybe I should start a book club at the old folks home just down the street, just there at Patriots Landing, then I wouldn't be the oldest one for sure!" Then I thought, "Well, no, I mean what would we read? What time would we have to have it? I wonder what type of topics they would want to read about? Probably not vampires or Counts. But ya never know, older people aren't really old on the inside, only on the outside really." Then I decided that it isn't all bad being the older "more mature" one in the group. I'm confident many find my remarks quite enlightening and thought provoking and deep! Uh-huh, Laurie the philosopher, the thinker, the...OK I can't think of anymore words to describe me. :) :) Although, I 'm really not always the oldest one in my book group. There are two ladies (well, one now that the other has moved) that come often and I always love to hear their take on things. Really, it is pretty fun! and being older only means having more life experience and being a little bit wiser than I was when I was...younger! :)

Did she or did she not? That is the question

So the question is: did I wait in line to get my Twilight DVD autographed by him?
The answer is: HECK NO! The line was SOOOO long. Crazy long. I thought the pics. from the night before would suffice. Plus, I think he saw me the next day...yeah, he remembered me out of the hundreds and hundreds of people he saw ...I mean, I am the only one who asked him a question about his beautiful wife afterall. :) Heehee!

The FRONT of the line!

The line right outside the front door of the PX.

A Wider view

Then around the corner towards the commissary!

And you have to realize, I took these pictures 3 1/2 hours after he started signing!! YIKES! Honestly, I truly felt sorry for the guy. He must've had some serious writer's cramp after that! I heard of people standing 10 hours in line! What??? I'm sorry but I really do have better things to do than stand in a line for a signature! :)

Peter...Carlisle...whatever...SOOO FUN!!!

As many of you know, Twilight comes out on DVD in approximately 2 1/2 hours. Well, tonight Ft. Lewis had a huge treat for us Twilight Fanatics! They were showing the movie free and none other than Peter Facinelli(AKA Carlisle Cullen) showed up before the movie to do a Q&A with the audience! It was so dang fun!! Heather and I went down early to get good seats and to see the Q&A. I was trying to think of a question all day that I could ask him if I got the chance!

Well, I DID GET THE CHANCE!!! At first, I just raised my hand and they kept passing me by. So, I decided I'd have to be a little more aggressive. So I went to an isle seat. He walked past me to someone in the back and I decided I'd get a few close-ups so I left my seat to get closer to him. Then the man passing the microphone around was looking for another question and I just loudly said, "I've got a question" This is what I said, " This is a personal question but don't worry, it isn't embarrassing. I was just wondering if your wife Jennie taught you any of the dances that she learned while she was on Dancing With the Stars? He said, "No, but I was able to go and watch her practice and I critiqued her and helped her out alot. It was fun to go to the studio to watch her practice. " He said some other things but I really can't remember what they were because I was a little nervous. But we had a mini-conversation and I had the mic. for abit! I remember saying something like, "So, you can't waltz?" And he said, " No, I can't do the specific dances." I said, "That's too bad cuz I wanted to do the waltz with ya!" I'm glad he said no though because I have no clue how to ballroom dance! We talked a bit more and then it was time for him to go onto the next question.
(Wow, talk about a terrible angle for the photo! I think I need to lose 10 lbs. )

Here is another great picture where I look like a TOTAL idiot! Seriously....idiot.
He actually caught me off guard because I didn't think we were gonna pose for a picture. If I'd known, I would have tried to look...better and that wouldn't have been difficult.

Oh...well...then Dave showed up and this is what he looked like when he saw the above photo!! FUNNY!

Life is short guys! Just go for it! And do the best you can!!! Now I am wondering if I want to go get my DVD autographed by him tomorrow...I don't know. We'll see. Honestly, my husband thinks I should go! Hmmm, but the long lines...

Bottoms Up!

Dave was showing Jenny and Sophie a video ultrasound of Sophie. He is in the process of downloading all of our home videos to the computer.

Dave: And here is your bottom and leg. And here is your head and your little face...

Sophie: I want to see my bottom again.

Lots of laughs...

THE LOOT

Well, I decided to do a little blog hopping which I rarely do and I went and visited my friend, Heather's site (I also call her Alice every once in awhile :) So, here is her post called, "The Loot". It was all about the Daddy-Daughter Dance that was on Feb. 13th. For us, this was a GREAT date the girls had with dad. This year, the theme was "Fairy Tales". So, I started thinking of all the possibilities and the girls decided that they would be princesses. Actually, at first Sophie wanted to be a fairy but changed her mind when I found some really cute Renaissance dresses. I thought my husband should dress up as Prince Charming. We went up to a costume rental store and he tried on a few outfits only after I supposedly made him feel guilty for not wanting to dress up himself. (Yeah, whatever) Well, he and I decided that Robin Hood would be a great choice instead. So, we took it home and didn't tell the girls that he was dressing up too. It would be a awesome surprise! Right? Well, here they are before heading out to the dance:



Cute right? Robin Hood and his pretty princesses! Oh sweet! What a devoted father!
Well, they get to the dance and Dave could not see a single father who had dress in a costume! No one, nowhere, no how! The men were in suits and a few wore military uniforms. So, about 10 minutes after they left I get a phone call! This is Dave," I need my suit now!! Can you meet me in front of the school in 5-10 minutes?" OK, I just start laughing, like cracking up laughing, the kind of laughing that hurts your stomach! That was so funny!

I was like: "You are the ONLY one dressed in character?"
Dave: "Yes!!! Get down here now!"
Me: "OK, let me go find your suit and I'll be down shortly" Laughing big time!!
Dave: "I'll be in the car, I'm parked at the corner of Palisade and Haskell"
Me: "Where are the girls?"
Dave: "They are in a very long line for food. They'll be fine."
Me: "OK but do the girls want you to change?"
Dave: "I told Jenny I was going out to change and she looked me up and down and then said,
'GOOD'!"
Me: "She did!?!? Alright, I'll be right down!" (I'm laughing so hard I'm bustin' a gut)

So, here they are after the dance: Good thing Dave had a purple tie eh? :)


Well, on to the LOOT! See, we aren't lucky people. We rarely win anything. Every year, they put all the girls names in a raffle and then they give away the center pieces and other decor to the girls! Exciting right? Well, last year they came home with...a couple bottled waters. This year they came home with a poster tube filled with some nice things which all the girls got. So, when they got home Sophie was a little bummed and I asked why. Dave said it was because they didn't win anything this year. Well, they did win something this year but they wanted to give it to me for my birhtday the next day as a surprise!! Well, after receiving my surprise, I can see why Sophie was bummed!! :) Here is what her LOOT was for the night, a little girl's dream come true!

If you want to win a little girl's heart, give her this:

Hmmm, a toad sitting on a turtle, holding a platter. How nice and lovely! All Dave could think was," Am I going to have to take this thing to Germany with us? I told him maybe it could be a bonus to the lucky family that's renting our house!! And we wouldn't charge them if they broke it...actually, maybe we could pay them to brake it for us! :) No, actually, I, honestly, kinda like it! But, Sophie was a bit bummed seeing how one of her best friends has been lucky enough to win two very cool center pieces two years in a row! How lucky is that? But, ya know, it could be that their "Prince" turned into a "toad" when he decided to change into a suit? Just kidding! Dave is not a toad and he found out later that there was indeed one other dad that did dress up!

Disney World Day One and Two

Well, we had a great time! I mean, who wouldn't? Off on vacation, without a care in the world...OK, maybe one like, "Oh no, when I get home, I only have a couple days to prepare a lesson for RS...hmmm, what should I talk about?" I had some ideas but nothing concrete before we left. Well, anyways, everything worked out and we had a BLAST. Really, vacations like this never last long enough, they always go by way too fast! Originally we were going to go to Animal Kingdom the 1st day but then found out that it was only open til 5:00 and we didn't want to waste a park pass on just a couple hours of fun so we went to Disney Quest instead which is a fun place with lots of "virtual games" and such.




On the second day we went to Magical Kingdom and 0n the way there, we saw THIS huge McDonalds. The kids wanted to stop then and there but I said, "We did not come all the way to Florida to go to McDonald's. But, I did promise that we would go to the Mc-a-Dee's one time before we left!

Here is a picture of all the kids including my 5 nieces, Lindsay, Natalie, Emily, Kellie and Annie in front of the Magical Kingdom

Luke and Sophie trying to find their bearings and checking out the map.

Here is my sis, Julie and I in front of THE castle. I really can't wait to see the "real" one in Germany! That is going to be very exciting!

This one is for you Grandpa Duck!!

Here's a picture of Space Mountain that I took from the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse!

My Beautiful Nieces. Emily and Natalie and yes they are twins!

Now, this is a great picture!! This makes investing in a telephoto lense worth it! My sister Julie got this one of us. She didn't use my camera after this...she said there were too many buttons. Yeah, whatever but thanks for getting this close-up of all of us!! WAAAY FUN!