Snail Away

 Walking in the house tonight after picking Kira up from daycare, she tugs on my shirt and says "I really like this" and proceeds to tell me what I should name my blog tonight.  I told her I planned on calling is Snail Away and she loved it.  She told me how that was a good name for it since I was wearing snails and my necklace had a boat theme going on.  I may have created a monster.

 You can't tell from the pictures, but the pants are actually jade green.

 See?  The snails are subtle and look like polka dots, until you get up close!

I'm off to deal with the cable repair guy and to work on some CPE!

Smiles!
Lori

Minnie Mouse

I tend to stay away from red polka dots due to the whole Minnie Mouse effect.  However, when I was in Talbots last month, the store manager knows my tastes really well and brought out this skirt for me to try before it hit the floor.  Must have!  It took me a while to wear it because I kind of forgot about it, but I really do like it!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Monday!

Smiles!
Lori

Sunday Fun Day

As always, our Sunday was busy.  After church, we came home and ate lunch quickly and then I raced off to the mall to return a bunch of uniform shirts that were just a little too small for Kira.   Then stopped and got gas for the car and went to Kira's soccer game (girlfriend scored a goal - hurray!)  Then, to the bakery to pick up cupcakes for work because we're celebrating one of our co-workers becoming an American citizen, and then to urgent care to see if Kira had a bladder infection (she's ok).  Then to the grocery store, raced home, ironed clothes, cooked dinner and now we're watching the Olympics.  Phew,  I am tired!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Smiles!
Lori

Experience the Ohio State Fair

Dave and I love the Ohio State Fair.  We've been going since we were dating back in high school and the fair holds fond memories for us.  There's always something weird and interesting going on at the fair and we try to go each year if the weather cooperates.  Unfortunately, over the past few years, it's been too hot to drag Kira to the fair, so we haven't went.  Saturday's weather was perfect, so off we went!  The fair is one of the top 10 fairs in the country, so it's a pretty big deal in Ohio.

I spent three hours Saturday before we left getting my hair colored and highlighted.  Not for the fair, I'm not that insane, it was just time to do!  Today, I actually wore lipstick.  It's honestly Dave's fault that I don't wear lipstick often.  In high school, he'd refuse to kiss me if I had it on, so I stopped wearing it. Don't judge!

 I truly do embarrass my family.  They are learning to deal with it.  Here's my fair going outfit.  I didn't exactly blend in, but the checks were sort of farm like!

After arriving at the fair, we hopped on the sky glider to ride to the back of the fairgrounds.  Here's shots from the glider.  It was gorgeous out, so there were a lot of people at the fair on Saturday.

A section of the fairground has been taken over by the Ohio Parks Service and they have all sorts of things back there on Ohio history and the geology that make up the state.  Kira and Dave are standing on a map of all the counties in Ohio and they are stepping on the county we live in in the first picture.

One of the many traditions at the fair is the butter cow.  This year it celebrates Columbus, Ohio's 200'th birthday.  Believe it or not, the butter sculptures are a big deal at the fair and attract a large crowd.  I think Kira thinks we're nuts that we drug her in to see this, but it's pretty neat.  The total display – cake, cow and calf – required 1,900 pounds of butter and 451 hours of labor.  The butter cow made its first appearance at the fair in 1903 and took up residence in the Dairy Building when it was built in the 1920s.  The idea of other butter creations joining the cow also comes from the early 1900s, when Ohio State University and the Dairy Processors of Ohio sponsored butter-sculpting contests at the fair.  There was another cow to the left of the cake, but it was too crowded to get a good shot.

Outside of the dairy building, there were a couple of real cows and a baby calf.  My family didn't want to stop to see them until I sadly mumbled under my breath "noone wants to see the real cows" and Dave took pity on me and made Kira stop to look.  I enjoy cows.  I collect cow sculptures and I don't like to pass up the opportunity to gawk at real ones under very controlled situations.  There.  Now you now my dirty little secret.

Hope you enjoyed seeing parts of our day at the fair!

Smiles!
Lori

Rainy Day

Kira named my blog today. It's been raining off and on for the past 2 days and it dumped just before picking Kira up tonight.  One of my co-workers called me on the way home and she got stuck in a frightening wind shear in Indiana on her way home.  She's ok, but pretty shaken up. 

Happy Friday!

Smiles,
Lori

The Blues

 Today was a casual day for charity and I busted out the blues for today.  I like each piece individually, but I'm not so sure I like them together.  At least it was comfortable!

Pastel Rainbow

 I am failing at my one in one out policy for my closet.  I bought this dress for a steal at Ann Taylor, but there was nothing I was willing to part with in the dress section of the closet.  Oh well.

Smiles!
Lori

Fashion is Personal

 Last night, after Kira went to bed, I was thinking of something to wear on Thursday because we have an extra casual day this week.  Dave was sitting next to me and he says "Wait, wait, I know what you should wear. Let me show you." And he proceeds to draw the picture above.   Great fashion sense, huh? 

The Vultures Descend - Literally

I was walking down the hall on my way to ask a co-worker a question and another co-worker stops me and says "Did you see the turkey vulture?"  I had no idea what he was talking about and then he points outside the window.  Sure enough, there was a turkey vulture sitting on the roof.  Weird, huh?

Today's outfit was a blend of old and new.  The blouse is very old, but it finally fits and is actually a little too big (oh darn).  The skirt is brand new.

Evacuation

Last night, when we took the girls to Scene 75, the giant indoor play place for the young and old alike, we were in the bouncy area and these lights in the ceiling went off.  I was with my two nieces and Dave and Kira were on another bouncy thing.  The workers there told us we basically needed to evacuate due to some unsaid emergency.  Ok, we can do this without panic.  So, I grabbed my nieces hands, went to find Dave and Kira (who by the way gave me an annoyed look) and then shoved our shoes on and went towards the exit.  Then the workers said, nope, false alarm, so we got in line for the bumper cars.  The bumper car workers said, not a false alarm and much confusion ensued.  Then, another worker came rushing through the area yelling that everyone needed to get out NOW!  What a way to actually PANIC the crowd.  People started RUNNING towards the front door.  I made Kira and my nieces grab hands with me and we slowly walked towards the side emergency exit.  People are so stupid in a blind panic and raced passed the closest emergency exit in their need to get out.  There was no smoke, there was no impending doom, and while yes, we needed to leave, there was absolutely no reason for panic.

Outside, we waited for about 20 minutes to see what was going no and we finally gave up and left.  While we were on the highway driving back past the place, emergency equipment finally arrived and I've since decided that if something every truly goes down at that place, everyone is going to die.  It was the most unorganized, chaotic evacuation I have ever seen.  We still don't know exactly what happened, but we had a ball playing mini golf at another venue.

We're going back today....we've got bumper cars awaiting, hopefully with less drama.

Today's outfit was thrown together from my pile of whatever didn't need ironed.  My nieces are spending all Sunday with us too and I didn't want to bother with ironing today. 

 Here's the two story slide before it all went down hill (pardon the pun).  By the day, this slide is scary because it's got a really sharp drop off.

Us with the other evacuees.  You can't tell from this picture, but there were people EVERYWHERE, and way too close to the building if something truly bad was going on inside.