Thanksgiving Holiday Highlights

Well, there were many adventures during our Thanksgiving Holiday. For the sake of all our sanity let’s skip the details of the drive from Virginia to St. Louis, MO via Indianapolis to see family. Paul’s tolerance for the “mommy, mommy, mommy” from the backseat always seem to wear out about two minutes before mine did but he was doing all the driving so that’s ok.

We had a wonderful visit with family in Indianapolis and St. Louis and we actually did some new stuff in St. Louis even though I have been visiting there since childhood. We went to the City Museum for the first time and it was totally cool! It is a huge building (an old warehouse or factory) that has been completely redone on the inside with recycled materials from other factories that have been shut down. Apparently the builder/designer was collecting this stuff for decades! The stair spindles are old conveyor belt rollers and some of the newel posts are old acetylene welding tanks. There is a mass of rebar, tiled mosaic floors with dragons and turtles, tunnels and slides. The ceiling in one room is a wire mesh upon which shredded silk material has been sewn. There is a bank vault door, a human sized hamster wheel, and an indoor skate park. We did not even go into the aquarium or on the roof, there was too much to see in one day! Oh, and did I mention the indoor 10 story slide made from old chutes in a shoe factory? Awesome! I have added a new flicker bar on the right side of the blog and have included some of the better pictures.

One of the other highlights was a family gathering on Friday night before we left. One in which my husband and Chris, my cousin-in-law, spent the evening trying to get Chris’ four year old daughter to say, “Fork & Spoon”. Of course, since I have promised to spell things phonetically, it comes out “fokin spoon”, “fawkin spoon”, or even “fuckin spoon”. So every now and then you would hear one of the guys say, “hey Claire, what’s this?” while holding up the aforementioned cutlery. My friend Lisa and I have decided to name our first bar, “The Fork & Spoon” which would be right next door to our bakery, “That Place With the Stuff”.

Stupid Criminal File

I have discovered that if nothing else, my son is a really bad liar and no where near a criminal mastermind.

After dinner last night, some of the kids were doing their reading homework while others were coloring at the table. I was in the laundry room right next to the table when I hear Sarah, “Awh, you’re gonna get in trouble, you got it on the tablecloth.”

Marty immediately denied with, “No I didn’t”. I turned slightly to see what was going on and there is my son; four years old, holding on to an orange marker and I see some orange on the tablecloth (vinyl, of course) between the two kids. Sighing heavily, I finished grabbing the clothes out of the dryer and come out to see what is going on.

Marty, still holding on to the orange marker, assures me that he “didn’t do it”. As I approach the table I can see that it is not just a line gone astray but something written on the tablecloth. I have to stare at it a moment and flatten out the tablecloth to read it. It read “martin dilick”.

Mr. 'I didn’t do it' wrote his own name and denies it with the marker still clutched in his hand. My son is either the worst criminal ever, or a future politician!

Atta girl!

I am not sure how we got to this point in our dinner conversation on Saturday but Paul interjected a comment on how someone we were talking about was "hot". Sarah rolled her eyes and I believe may have even 'tsk'ed when she responded:

"Daddy, how could you possibly think another woman is hot when you are married to my mother!"

I may be paraphrasing slightly because I don't remember the exact words but you get the gist of it don't you?

I love my kids!