Back To Work.

Let me tell you something... the days sure fly by when you aren't sitting at a computer, staring at the clock all day long. My Staycation (a vacation from work where one does not actually leave to go anywhere) went by in a blur. Allow me to list for you our adventures as I took a glorious week off from work to spend time with my boys and to indulge in some mental relaxation.

-To kick off my time away from work, I decorated a surprise Hunger Games cake for my niece Emily's Birthday sleepover. She hinted that she wanted one, so Rhonda and I collaborated on it. She baked it and I made it look cool. I stayed up until 2am trying to make it perfect. It wasn't perfect by any means but I had a lot of fun doing it (C and Jeff had fun eating the scraps) and the look on her face when I walked through the door made it worth all the effort I put into it. She was ecstatic, as were her friends. They put on their own version of the games while Dennis and I helped a little and it was hysterical and so much fun to watch. The cake was super delicious as well!

-We took Charley to see Pirates! Band of Misfits. It was about The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) and his quest to win Pirate of the year. It was silly and cute and not too long. All things a kids movie should be. In the middle of it, as C was shoving popcorn in his mouth, he said "this is a REALLY good movie". So I guess that's all the review you need of that, haha. We then took him to Barnes and Noble where I saw no less than 4 books that I wanted to purchase for myself... but I did not.

-We tried to take C to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. TRIED. I should have known better. I know my kid has my fear of dolls that move and things of that nature but I had a Groupon for it and showed him a video of the place beforehand and he was all for it and was actually excited to go. Then we pulled into the lot and he was instantly terrified. As soon as we walked through the door, he said "I don't want to play any games here. I want to go home. Now." We forced him to walk through real quick and I kid you not, he was shaking. he was so freaked out. If you don't know what this place is, it's basically an old timey arcade with lots of old fashioned coin operated machines. In other words, there are moving dolls EVERYWHERE. I'll admit, it freaked me out too but I was putting on a brave front for C. He was having none of it. Needless to say, we left soon after arriving. So, Dennis... you and the boys got yourself a free Groupon for there whenever you feel like going!

-I made some homemade cinnamon rolls. This was exciting for me because I have always shied away from the recipes that require too much work. I.E: dough rising. I don't have the patience for it and always figured I would screw it up. I decided to make them at 8pm on Sunday night and an hour later when I went in the kitchen to see if the dough had risen and it had, I actually squealed in delight. SUCCESS! They turned out good and Jeff and Charley liked them, so hooray for that. I also baked an apple pie for my neighbors, for dog sitting for us.

-We went to the zoo and had the best day there that I think we have ever had. Animals were out, it wasn't too crowded, wasn't too hot or too cold. It was just fantastic.

-Drove up to Port Austin for a couple days to hang out with my parents. I realize that this technically makes the staycation null and void but we don't count it because it was only 3 hours away from our house and it was really only for 2 days. The weather was nice for the most part, we ate a lot, we laughed a lot and we walked a lot. It was so much fun.

-Enjoyed a delicious coffee drink from Dairy Queen (a mocha moolatte') on the drive home. Because a vacation just isn't complete without a fancy, delicious coffee drink!

-Took Charley to Comic City in Novi for Free Comic Book Day, where we got to visit with the owner and our very good friend, Jill. It was fun to see all the people crowd around the free books, some dude dressed as Batman and to see how excited Charley was about buying some weird comic book version of the Star Wars movies. In it, Darth Vader looks like Kermit the frog when Luke takes his helmet off at the end. C thought that was hysterical.

-On our last day, Charley and I ran errands while Jeff stayed home and cut the lawn. We purchased some Birthday invitations, which he was very excited about and then ventured on over to the mall to get some Mother's Day cards (it's this Sunday, friends!). C unfortunately wanted to walk around while we were there and "see daddy's work", which broke my heart a little. When I told him that it wasn't there anymore, he said "I know, but I want to see what it looks like now". So, we walked around and by the time we got to the location formerly known as FYE, I was all sorts of choked up and C didn't even recognize it. "That's it? That girl store right there?" he said. Yep. We continued our depressing walk around the mall and it helped me come to the conclusion that between the crappy stores and empty spaces, Westland Mall is a sad version of it's former self and I hate going there now.


And that was that. Not a lot done but it was a good time and went by super fast. Now, I look forward to my next day off, which is this Friday so that we can take Charley to Kindergarten Roundup. ACK.

A few miscellaneous tidbits:

• I have told you all before about one of my most favorite book series of all time, The Enchanted Inc. series by Shanna Swendson which is about a magical immune (she's immune to magic) and a handsome wizard, named Owen Palmer and the goings on of the company that they work for; Enchanted Inc. Up until now there were only 4 books in the series. On my last two Birthday wishlists, I wished for the 5th book to be published and chances were looking mighty slim... until now. Shanna announced on her blog last week that they will be releasing the 5th book in the series and I am absolutely ecstatic! It will only be available through e-readers at first (which means I will be borrowing my sisters since I do not own an e-reader) but I am ok with this as long as I get to read the story. No release date has been set but it should be some time this summer. HOORAY and now I can cross this item off my Birthday wishlist!

• Ben Folds Five is working on a new album at the moment. Instead of doing the usual press tour with talk shows and radio interviews, they are strictly sticking to asking their fans to get the word out and using social media. I think it's so brilliant and shows the fans how much the band cares about them and their input. Just another reason to love the genius that is Mr. Ben Folds. 

• The season 5 premiere of True Blood airs in 35 days. 

• Spoiler alert for any Game Of Thrones fans out there who didn't watch last nights episode... Not only did Joffrey have poop thrown in his face (POOP! LOLZ) by a starving, angry citizen of Kings Landing, he was also slapped by Tyrion. IT WAS WONDERFUL. That character is so wretched, he deserves any and all bad things that are headed his way.

• Lots of season finales coming up in the next couple of weeks! Castle tonight, New girl tomorrow,  Vampire Diaries on Thursday!