~~ODNEAL FAMILY BLOG~~Port of Readlyn, Iowa

Yep we spent another Friday night at one of our favorite Menards home improvement places.  Bruce really wanted this chair but I'm just not sure where we would store it at on the houseboat.  How much fun would it be to drag out and set up on the beach every weekend?  I'm thinking it definitely would get stolen.  We should have had Helen sit in it because she would have looked really tiny in it!  We had a good time with Louie & Helen on our "date night" at Menards.  And yes we are cool like that and take care of getting stuff we need and making a road trip out of it.  We got dinner on our way home so I at least didn't have to cook. Turned out to be be a good night all around for me!  Oh yeah I paid for dinner and wrote the check at Menards.  I guess it turned out to be a better "cheap" date night for Bruce!  Everyone have a good week.

Don't think that this picture needs much explanation. This would be Gizmo and her "boyfriend" Bruce. Anytime he picks her up and holds her she wraps her limbs (do cats have those? I guess they do) around him. You should see when he hugs a pillow close to his body at night in bed and doesn't leave his arm open for her. She actually gets back at him by pulling down the comforter around him until he lets loose of the pillow and lets her snuggle in by him. Yep she is a spoiled rotten brat kitty! I think she is jealous of me seriously. But we love her! Everyone have an excellent weekend!

I've recently decided that I have wanted a pair of these rain boots/slickers/golashes/rubber slickers/whatever you want to call them for a very long time. But even at Wally World they wanted around $30 for a pair. I just couldn't justify it because I'm cheap and don't usually spend that on shoes period unless it is my tennis/workout shoes that need to be GOOD shoes! But a couple of weeks ago I went shopping with my friend and haven't been in Maurices for quite a while. Well, they had lots of boots and they were only $29! I just HAD to have a pair for myself. And I love them! Score me and Maurices. Because of course I didn't just buy my new spring boots but I also bought a new spring top ensemble and necklace (which by the way might still go back because when I put it on I felt like an old lady but I refuse to try on crap in the crappy store lights so it is hanging in my closet), and got some awesome discount cards for the next time I'm there. Oh and the ru...

This is a picture that Ashley sent me from a laptop computer Jr. gave them. It is a picture of the "previously little" Gizmo being held by Bruce the night that they caught her in Jr & Joey's backyard. Wasn't she just so sweet looking and cute? Her face is the same but I have to admit that she probably weighed less than a pound here and now the big girl is about 13 pounds and very fluffy. I think she looks heavier than she really is though because when I give her a bath she looks like a pretty skinny drowned rat. I mean cat. Until she dries out and then looks like a plump fur ball again! At least she has stayed fun even though she couldn't stay little! Everyone have a great weekend. I need to spend some much needed cleaning time on my house. Last weekend we played too much and I neglected her!

Everyone says that if you put my hair or Cole's hair on the other we would pretty much look like twins. I guess our faces are pretty much exactly the same. We would both like them to look thinner I know but I have to admit that this picture from last Sunday is a nice one. And we even captured Bruce rolling out the pizza dough for my homemade pizza in the background. Cole and Ashley took us out for lunch on Sunday and we went to Menards to look at their shower surround, and then went to the Isle Casino to gamble a little. I played on the nickel machine for quite a long time while Cole was playing Black Jack but I ended up putting it all back in even though at one point I was like 6 times ahead. It was a very good time though and Bruce and I didn't lose any amount that we would feel bad about. But no we certainly didn't win big either. I'm usually the lucky one and it just wasn't happening for me. But the bonus of the day and weekend for me was that we stop...

A very Happy Valentines belated wish to everyone. The owner/instructor of my Jazzercise brought us all these Monday afternoon when we were doing our ender. If you click on it you can read the neat phrase on it. I brought cupcakes to the guys at work and never ate a one, but as I'm sweaty and finishing my Monday afternoon workout I get given two Hershey's kisses by a very fit Jazzercise guru. Thanks a lot! Just kidding! It was very nice and no harm done. I did great and actually had only one of those kisses on Tuesday afternoon when I got home. It got rid of my sweet craving and made balancing my checkbook a little more bearable (I HATE balancing my checkbook). Everyone enjoy the 50 degree weather we are getting blasted with the next couple of days because come the weekend you will need some kisses to keep you warm and cozy!

I attended Tyler's last JV game EVER for anything Tuesday night. The baby will be a junior next year so I'm very glad that I got to see the game. I've come to really enjoy the game of basketball and am glad that Ty decided to go back to playing it. Their class is so full of excellent athletes that I think the next couple of years will prove to be very exciting and fun watching them all with football, basketball, and track. What an exciting couple of years we have ahead of us before the empty nest. And from what I have seen this year just watching our basketball coach in action at any given game will be entertainment all its own. Everyone have a great weekend. It sounds like here in Iowa we are in for a much needed heatwave the next few days or so. Filling my bird feeders without freezing to death will be great!

This is a new "toy" Bruce purchased that is for sure destined for the houseboat. It is a portable ice maker and we plan on saving a ton of money on ice this summer by making our own and not purchasing 2-3 bags per day from the marina. And the best part? We can sell it to all our relatives and only charge them half price of what they normally pay! Just kidding. I'm thinking our family and us will save a lot of money on ice this coming summer as we will have this plugged in and making ice pretty much all of the time we are in the marina, and every time we start the generator when staying out on the beach. It really worked quite well when we tried it out and makes ice very quickly. The only downside to it is that someone has to empty it out every time it dumps.  But the up side?  The ice cubes are really cute and fun and fit on my pinky!  Yep doesn't take much to amuse me.  Have a happy Monday and a great week!

This is what our upstairs can look like when we get a blizzard and Bruce ventures out to retrieve two of Ty's buddies to come over and game at our house. We had a TV repairman coming to fix Kyle's TV (one of the TV's they gamed with) and I went upstairs to tell them to bring it down before he got there. Well the boys had all left to go play some pick up basketball games so noone was upstairs to carry the TV down for me. I was afraid that I would drop it so called Bruce to come home and carry it for me. After I had grabbed my camera to take pictures of course of the disaster that was Ty's bedroom. The cleanest part of the upstairs (besides the office) was Kyle's old bedroom where they slept. Thank goodness they didn't game and take over both rooms. I cleaned up cans and wrappers but the rest is up to Ty. I'm guessing if I walk back up there right now it doesn't look much different except for the one missing TV that is now downstairs waiting for pa...

You didn't think she could look this pretty all of the time on her own did you? Bruce finally got out the brush and gave Gizmo a grooming and boy did she need it. I cannot believe how much hair our cats shed during the winter months. Aren't they suppose to keep it to stay warm when they go outside? Maybe we could market all of the hair we get off of their brush and sell it to the wig or toupe companies. Yep that would be real profitable with the 5-6 times that we actually brush them per year. I guess we better not quit our day jobs, huh?

So February has sprung. If it is anything like the month of January it will go by very quickly and before we know it spring will be here. Yes these are some more Aldi's flowers that I purchased Friday night when Bruce and I had our "Menards date night". They looked a bit rough when I finally got them home and in vases, but today they looked awesome. Bring on spring please because we are all so sick of this winter and all of the snow!