Meeting our Newest Family Member

Tracy had a chance to post some pictures so I feel like I can now too! Yahoo!

Saturday, amid our craziest schedule ever, my mom called to say that Tracy had her baby - it was a girl! Riley Beatrice Runchey was born around 3:30pm and weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 20 inches long. We weren't able to head over there on Saturday, though Maddie and Jake did along with Grandma and Grandpa, Austin & Ellie. Tracy said that they hadn't really had Riley's name picked out until about a week ago (at least the Riley part)! Beatrice was my grandma's name (mom's mom).

I knew that the scavenger hunt on Sunday would take us to meet Riley too, so I was excited to be nearing the end of the hunt because I got to meet my new niece! She's super cute and even has a little bit of fuzz for hair...a rarity in these parts!

Okay - now I've discovered that my pictures didn't all transfer very well, so this is the only shot I have of the five that I took. Frustrating. But, at least Riley looks great! So congrats to the Runchey family! We can't wait to watch her grow!

The Mystery is Solved!

On Sunday I picked the kids up from my parents' house and as we drove up we noticed another envelope addressed to "M&J" on our door. Another scavenger hunt.

This was quite a poem - and once we all started reading it, Maddie noticed that some of the letters looked different. So she and Jake went through and found all the funny letters and realized they were being sent to Target. The poem basically said that they were being sent on a scavenger hunt to this person's favorite places - and the end would "mark the spot" where they would need to be to meet said person.

So, off to Target we went and I managed to steer them to Guest Services (I may have received a hint as to where to look...). Sure enough, there was a message waiting for our detectives there.

This message was a little harder to decipher for our heroes. M&J were told to go to a city that started with "E.P" to the mall there and one of their mom's favorite stores. Maddie and Jake really had a hard time coming up with this city - the mall reference didn't help. So Mike helped by saying, "is there a city that starts with Eee...dennnn......" Maddie blurted out "Eden Prairie!" and off we went. On the way they were trying to think of what store I could possibly love there. Jake suggested Target, Maddie suggested JCPenny's. Then she had an "aha!" moment and yelled, "Archivers!" Once there the nice ladies asked their names and found two bags for them...orange for Jake and blue for Maddie - this person knew their favorite colors! Inside these bags were a small scrapbook for them to document this summer adventure and some candy! Then they were told to finish this sentence... "over the river and through the woods......." The end of that was where they were instructed to go next.

At grandma and grandpa smith's house we had to move fast (their house is for sale and they had a showing in under an hour). The Archiver's bags also contained a swimsuit for each of them (Maddie thought this swimsuit actually contained a swimsuit that was "exactly like" one she already had. It actually was one she already had.) Anyway - on grandma's door was another envelope that told them to dive for the next clue. In their pool were puzzle pieces sunk to the bottom that they had to dive in and retrieve then put together. Austin was over and helped them put the puzzle together.

When the puzzle was put together it was a map from grandma and grandpa's house to where this person was....the hospital! They had figured by now it was Tracy, but this confirmed it. Mike tried to throw them off by saying maybe it was Rob...but they both agreed that Archiver's and Target were not places Rob loved, but Tracy did.

So the mystery has officially been solved. I would post pictures of us at the hospital, but since Tracy hasn't posted pictures yet of little Riley I don't think I should. We'll save those for later.

But, I must give a hat's off to my sister. This was a really fun scavenger hunt - and she put it all together in the last week of her pregnancy. She contacted the stores and my parents dropped off the packages/notes at Target and Archiver's on Saturday night and Sunday morning. The whole summer has been fun with these surprise visits from this mystery note-leaver. Maddie and Jake had a blast and even managed to learn some things along the way.

So much to tell...

This weekend was insane. Seriously, I'm not sure we've had a weekend this busy...ever. But Mike tells me these posts are too long, so I'll be breaking it down over the week - or posting several smaller ones over the next couple days.

So, I'm going to tackle Saturday. Saturday was crazy busy, but also a ton of fun. It started off with Mike heading down to Cedar Falls, IA to pick up Jake from Grandma Murphy. I didn't see him until 4:15 again. I spent the day cleaning our house top to bottom (I know! Pick up those dropped jaws!) then I was trying to get set up for our neighborhood party that night. One of the bunco ladies had a sister whose neighborhood sponsored a progressive golf night, so we copied it. Basically everyone teamed up with a neighbor and created a mini-golf course/hole in their backyard. We teamed up with the Schroeders across the street and had such a blast planning our hole. We went with a decades theme - 50's - 80's and had food/drinks to match each decade. If people got low scores or landed in sand or water they had to don a piece of clothing we found that matched one of the decades. The final loser ended up wearing the four pieces of clothing from that decade. Some of our items were an afro, Elvis glasses, a poodle skirt (my mom whipped this up in one night...), saddle shoes, jelly shoes, tye-dye shirt...you get the picture. People looked goofy. Mike and I (mostly Mike...) managed to win a really nice bottle of wine on one of the holes. I'm honestly afraid to drink it...hopefully we can figure out a meal that ends up being just as nice!

Mike got home and I headed out to play for a wedding reception until 6:30 and then I raced home to join the game already in session. I'm pretty sure Mike was already slightly inebriated by hole #1. Then we went around and everyone seemed to really get into coming up with drinks for their hole and there was no lack of thirst quenchers. Everyone ended up at our house at the end to swim and hang out and it was such fun! We are really fortunate to live in a neighborhood with great families!

Sunday morning...that was a little painful. I managed to get to church and survived the service - I even played the right hymns. Survival was probably helped along by the fact that I play in the balcony where no one sits during the summer so I laid down and rested my eyes during the sermon.

But...that's Sunday and for a different post.

Skol, Vikings!

Last night Mike and I had the opportunity to head to the Vikings Preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks. My dad and brother were also going so we all headed to the game together. Now, being a preseason game, I didn't expect much; they'd play the starters maybe one quarter, then the rest would be their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th string (if it got that far...and I believe the quarterback did). But still - it's the first game - I thought there would be a little more build-up to it all. But nope - they kind of ran on without much lackluster (or cheering) and the game started. I almost missed it all. The lack of cheering was probably due to the lack of people - there were still quite a few empty seats.

Anyway - miserable game. The starting quarterback was the only starter to play at all...and I'm not even sure he played the whole first quarter. By the end we all had agendas: at 2:00 minutes left, my brother yelled out, "TAKE A KNEE!" The lady in front of us had her binoculars zoomed in on a t.v. showing the Twins game. And the guy sitting next to my dad was trying to zoom his camera in on the cheerleaders. Then at 12 seconds in the entire game left the Vikings prolonged the misery and took a time out. I believe at that point it was 34 to 17 - but I guess only seasoned pros know the reason as to why we couldn't have just called it a night.

Still fun to be at though. Slightly into the first quarter a lady showed up to sit next to me; she was wearing one of those funny little Vikings hats with the braids, but wasn't dressed in all purple and gold and looked fairly quiet. Then she started watching the game and took every opportunity to yell out instructions. She was frightening...her voice was a good, solid baritone, if not a little lower into the bass section. And she would yell out, "INTERCEPTION!!!" just about every play. My brother said he turned around to see who the guy was that was yelling and when he realized it was a woman he turned back to the game quickly - he didn't want to be caught staring. Why she thought the team would catch an interception when we couldn't even catch our own passes, I don't know.

I also got to people watch which is a favorite past-time and Vikings games are great places to do this. I noticed a family resemblance between my brother and dad.

I showed my brother and he took my camera and took this picture...proof he isn't so bad.

I only show this because we were all discussing Brett Favre's career and Dan and I disagreed over whether Brett ever got a Superbowl ring. Dan bet me $5million that Brett had. I lost, but I think I can finagle my way out of this bet because I don't remember saying, "you're on!" and we definitely never shook on it.

Girl's Afternoon

Since Jake is in Iowa this week, Maddie and I decided to have a "Girl's Afternoon". It started with lunch. I gave Maddie the choice of where to eat - I completely expected her to say "Red Lobster" because this is a favorite place of hers. To my complete surprise (and quite frankly, disappointment) she picked the Old Country Buffet. If I had to find a bright spot, at least I had a coupon for a free meal for her there. Because we are incredibly generous ladies, we asked Mike if he wanted to tag along so he joined us for lunch.

Afterward we dropped Mike off to continue working and we headed to the nail salon. Maddie had wanted a manicure. Tracy told me that she had a great place for pedicures that were only $25 so I talked Maddie into getting one of these instead of a manicure. She was a little skeptical, but decided to give it a try. Well, when we arrived they were running a summer special - pedicure AND manicure for $35. I was about to say "no" when Maddie looked at me and said, "Pleeeaaaase, mom....manicure??????" Since I had barely convinced myself to say no, this wasn't a hard sell. So, we hopped up in these AMAZING chairs. Massage chairs. I want one for my family room, and I wouldn't share it. The ladies set to work on our feet and we (meaning Maddie) eventually relaxed and enjoyed this experience.


While working on my feet, the woman helping me said, "we do eyebrow waxes too...$7." I said that was great. She said, "Would you like one today?" I said I didn't have time, but I'd probably be back for it. She said, "Really...because you need one." Admiring her honesty, I agreed with her thinking the subject would be dropped. She proceeded to question me as to why I had let it go so long. Apparently I look like a gorilla.

But my feet are pretty. And my fingers too. Though whenever I get manicures it doesn't take me very long to realize why I almost NEVER get manicures. They are just too hard to deal with. I'm trying to be so careful to not scratch off the paint - this is just too stressful. The manicure for Maddie (though really cool...) was a bit of a disappointment for her. The lady did Maddie's manicure while she sat in the chair waiting for her toes to dry. I found out at the end that for Maddie a manicure just isn't a manicure unless she gets to sit at the desk and hold her hands up to be painted. Good to know for future girls' afternoons.

So, here's the finished foot product. It was a fun afternoon - especially if I choose to ignore what may very well have been an insult regarding my furry brows.

Lost in Translation

Recently my kids have both taken to asking me questions, waiting for my response and then telling me, "You don't get what I'm saying." Jake did this numerous times last week; Maddie returned home yesterday and this was the conversation before running errands this morning:

Maddie: What are you going to do if they don't take checks?
Me: I'll pay with a credit card
Maddie: Aaahhh...you don't get what I'm saying.

Now, maybe if I had a regret in life it would be that I didn't learn a second language fluently. I took three years of french in high school - I can tell you my name. I may even be able to tell you how to say "door" or "table". I took a semester of sign language in college. Again...I can tell you my name but I can't even tell you "door" or "table". If there's a language I could learn now, I think it would be Italian. Maybe I'll just look up how to tell you my name in it.

But, despite the fact that I didn't catch a hold of these beautiful languages, that lack of knowledge and time effort gave me the ability to grasp the English language pretty competently. So when my kids ask fairly straight-forward questions and I, in turn, respond with a fairly grade-level answer, then I would think it's not really me that isn't "getting it."

I just had to vent I guess. Merci.

Offer we couldn't refuse!

Tracy called me up this afternoon and asked what was up tonight. She honestly threw me into a slight panic because I was trying to remember what it was that I had apparently forgotten. But, she only meant, what were we up to, and were we interested in her offer: we provide the pool and they provide the s'mores. Seeing as how I didn't have to go out and buy anything or put any other type of effort into this - why would we pass this up?

So, after dinner the Runchey's came over for a swim and treats; our neighbors joined us, but already had their little man ready for bed so they couldn't stay long. Austin is a little fish! He kept dunking under water, only it looked so bizarre because he never really took a breath to hold beforehand. He just simply sunk under water, stayed there and came back up after he had floated a bit toward Tracy. But, he was having a ball and he's not afraid of the water anymore, so everyone was happy!

Then it was time for s'mores. That got Jake out of the water quickly! Delicious, as always! But watching/listening to Austin eat these was something else! That kid cracked me up! He had the gooiest s'more out of any of us, I believe and thought he could hold it one handed - while we all tried to suggest he hold it with two before it all slid out. Then as I sat next to him, I heard this strange sound - and I looked at him. He was actually sucking out the marshmallow from the middle of the crackers. Then I continued watching him and he proceeded to lick his s'more. This I've never seen....

Honestly - I was kind of impressed. But, he just couldn't finish this. I think he broke Tracy's heart - she is a gigantic fan of this dessert and when he handed over his sucked-on-de-gooed s'more and said he was done she just said, "what a waste of a good s'more." I'm sure he'll grow to love them as much as his mom.