Busy, busy, busy...

Whew! What a busy couple of weeks I have had!

It all started at Easter, when I went home to spend the holiday with my family. I had the worst time trying to figure out my taxes this year, so I made sure to get home early on that Friday and my sister and I spent the evening getting them figured out. With any luck, they are right. I guess it is too late to worry now though, since they are filed and I await my moola. :) I then spent Saturday morning getting my hair done (short cut, colored a little darker than my natural color) only to rush home, help with some cooking, and then back to Cindy's for Easter dinner. Since I knew I would need to leave in the early afternoon on Sunday, my family helped me out by having dinner the night before. And what a dinner--everything was delicious! Easter Sunday I got up early, headed to Church, and left to head back here to B-more very shortly after Church ended. I was so busy I didn't have the chance to even think of trying to get together with any friends, much less actually do it.

Which brings us to this past weekend. My little niece turned one last Friday, so it was back to WV for another weekend. Let me tell you, making that trip two weekends in a row is tiring, to put it nicely. Pretty much as soon as I got there on Friday, Micki, Johnny and I headed to Hurricane for a little Mi Pueblito. For those of you who are die-hard Rio Grande fans, you seriously have to try Mi Pueblito. It has the same menu as Rio Grande, but their food is SOOOOO much better! Especially the cheese dip, mmmmmmm. But, I digress. :) Saturday was Sophie's party, so I went to Cindy's to make heart shaped foods (the party was Love themed). Poor little Sophie had a stomach bug, so she was miserable for her whole party. To get the idea, go here for a picture and her mom's description of things. She just wanted to stay in someone's arms, and wasn't even interested in eating her cake. I sat her down at one point in the middle of her gifts, and she just fell head first onto them and laid there, not even caring to see what was inside. The biggest reaction we got out of her over her presents was over a little soft baby doll that I go her. She hugged it up close to her and laid down on her mommy again, more than ready to go back to sleep.

Eventually Tricia and I left there and went out shopping for a bit. I bought three shirts that remain in WV, since I am an idiot. We had plans to meet up with Michelle for ice cream at 7:00, and Carla later in the evening to go to the Comedy Zone. Little did I know that it was all lies!!!! When we walked in the door at Maggie Moos, a cow-themed ice cream joint, my whole family was in the back and they screamed "SURPRISE" and shocked the hell out of me. :) My birthday is May 12th, and since I won't be in WV for it, they decided to throw me a surprise party while I was home. It was a very fun, and incredibly embarrassing evening for me. I don't believe that I knew true embarrassment until an EIGHT FOOT TALL COW in a pink dress came out carrying my cake to me. Go here, and you can see the cartoon cow that the costume looks just like. It was such a fun evening! I got a goodie bag and all, with two little cows, some candy, and even a coloring book. I may have nightmares about giant cows for the rest of my life, but it was well worth it.

After that party, Tricia and I really did meet up with Carla at the Comedy Zone, where we saw two really funny comics, Russ Nagel and Scott Oseychik. If you ever get the chance to see these guys, it is well worth the money! There were times I was laughing so hard I was crying!

This past Sunday I had two more birthdays to celebrate, Micki's and my granny's. Yes, I had four birthday parties in one weekend. Like I said, I have been busy. :) I felt bad because once again, I had to rush out of there to head back here. But, even being rushed a bit, I think they both enjoyed their birthday!

You would think now that all of that was over, I would have time to breathe, right? Nope! My friend Christy and her sister and little boy came to visit me for a few days. I took Tuesday off work and the four of us spent the day at Inner Harbor, touring the aquarium and a two tall ships they had docked there, The Cisne Branco from Brazil and The Virginian (couldn't find a webpage). The Cisne Branco was especially cool because it was huge and absolutely breathtaking, and the cute Brazilian men aboard didn't hurt anything. :) Unfortunately Christy and her family couldn't stay but a couple of days. We had a good time while they were here though! Sadly, they left this morning, but now my life is slowing returning to "normal" and I might have a chance to breathe for a minute.

So, sorry for not posting in a while and sorry for this long post, but as you can see, I have been busy. :) This weekend I plan to just chill and rest a bit, then get busy again and see what I can get into the following weekend! :)

Kids.

You know, I absolutely adore kids. I miss my nieces and nephews like crazy now that I live so far away from them!

But, man-oh-man can kids be annoying little creatures!!!!! The complex I live in has a LOT of families, most with little kids. Now that it is starting to get warmer, the kids are out back of my apartment playing all the time. Now, this wouldn't really be a problem except for the fact that they have decided my patio looks like a GREAT place to play. It has short walls built on either side of it which are the perfect place to sit. Lately the kids have taken to sitting on the walls and bouncing tennis balls between them. Oh, and they put their faces up against the glass doors, staring in at me, watching me eat, watch TV, clean, whatever. Again, not really a problem, except for I have the CRAZIEST DOG EVER PUT ON THE EARTH!!! Every time the kids decide to step foot onto the patio Baci goes insane barking, running at the window, trying to get to them. This of course entices the children to taunt her, making her go even more crazy. I have been trying to think of a way to go out and tell them to not play out there without sounding like a mean old lady, but alas, I can't figure out one.

And this evening, I had to become the mean old lady. After having one small kid stare at me eat my dinner, I finally decided to give up and come to my bedroom to get on the computer; they won't bug me in here, right? Wrong!!! My bedroom window is ground level (part of my bedroom wall is below grade), so they followed me in here and stared through this window to see what I was doing. Eventually something else caught their attention for a minute, so I ran and pulled my blinds shut so that I could have some tiny bit of privacy. Then they started poking a stick into my air conditioning unit, making it make a terrible racket and throwing a tennis ball at my window! Luckily they missed more than they hit with the ball, but still. I finally had to be the mean old lady and go out and say something.

It was actually kind of funny. :) As soon as my patio door opened, they all shut up and stood perfectly still, just knowing they were in major trouble. I asked them if something was wrong for them to be bothering the AC unit, to which of course they pointed out the one who had been doing it and told me exactly what she had been doing (how I knew a stick was being poked into it). I was very nice and asked them not to bother my windows or my AC again, letting them know it would be really easy to break, and then went on to ask them to stay off my patio since it drives Baci crazy. They all agreed and I stayed out there and talked to them for a few minutes, so hopefully I didn't come across as too mean. I actually enjoy watching them play, so I don't want them to NOT play out there; I just don't want them to terrorize my dog or break my AC. So, with any luck they won't decide that they hate me and start doing things on purpose just to bother me. *sigh*

Kids--can't live with them, can't kill them. :)