Keep them monkeys movin'...

Jeremy and I are pretty big fans of Taco John's, a fast food restaurant that we first discovered here in Casper. I'm not sure why, but they don't show commercials for Taco John's here. So, the first time I heard of Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey, it was from this paper bag that Jack's kid's meal came in. Jeremy and I were thoroughly amused. As I just sat down to blog about Whiplash, I googled the little guy to see what I could find. I'm a little sad but also a little delighted to find that Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey isn't just some random thought for a mascot, but an actual dog-riding cowboy monkey!





(You'd be surprised how depressing it is to see "West-Mex" where it would otherwise say "Tex-Mex.")

Significant date

I was about to get ready for bed when I realized I hadn't blogged about today's significance. Today marks mine and Jeremy's four year wedding anniversary! (See photo for reference.)




In countdown news, today is also exactly one month from our daughter's due date (which, I recently discovered, that in addition to being the day before my birthday, is Father's Day too)



This means that it's now only a matter of weeks until my little niece's due date! This is a picture of Charlotte from a week ago, so she was as far along as I am now! It's amazing how much more pregnant she looks, just from our height difference (I feel bad that the only profile picture I have of Charlotte at 36 weeks is one of her blinking-- so here's a pretty picture of her being pregnant.)

17 months later...

Jack used to sleep in this little rocker chair when he was a newborn. The other day, we laid him in it after he fell asleep on Jeremy's shoulder. I don't think it is as comfortable for him now as it once was.

Le-mon!

I just saw these pictures for the first time. Andrea found them on my mom's camera and sent them to me. They are from November-- my mom had given Jack a lemon wedge from her tea, and even though he seemed shocked by the taste, he contintued to eat the lemon wedge, and then ate another one. I am mainly posting these so you can see the last photo. I think you'll like it.

Show?

Jack is obsessed with this.

"Have I possibly gone daffy?"

Really, nothing says "Happy Cinco de Mayo" like a foot of snow.

Dude, where's YOUR car?

When I took Jack to the park on Wednesday, I came across an interesting group of people. There was a rather large lady (maybe late 30's), a guy and a girl (both about 22 or so-- the guy: not wearing a shirt), a younger guy (around 18), a little girl (around 4) and a little boy (possibly Jack's age.) At this particular park, there are only two picnic tables under the small pavilion. The three older people were sitting at one picnic table. I was going to set my bag on the other picnic table, but the younger guy was laying down on one of the benches. (Here's a picture of the park for reference, but those aren't the crazy people. That's Aubrey, Jack and Andrea):



So, I just held onto my bag and walked with Jack around the play area. No matter how much I watched this group of people, I could never figure out who the parent(s) were or how they were all related. They would all randomly shout out things like "so and so, get your butt over here" or "so and so, get that out of your mouth!" Anyhow, after I had been there for about 5 minutes, the larger lady, noticing my baby girth, said "when are you due?" I said "June." Then she said,"Do you have a car?"

(If you're thinking "I wasn't expecting her to say that", then we are right on track with one another.)

"Um, yes."

"Do you think that maybe you could take my son (possibly the guy loafing on the bench) to the mall, pick up his friend and bring them both back here?"

I was so shocked at such an inappropriate request, that I just stood there for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to respond.

"Well, I just got here and I was going to let my son play for a bit."

"Well, I didn't mean right now. Just whenever you get ready to go."

Now I'm thinking to myself "there is no way I'm going to take some random guy to pick up some other random guy-- and I'm especially not going to do it with my son and my unborn child in the car."

She then said "I would do it, but I have to wait here for my boyfriend."

(?!)

I didn't really say anything else, she just kind of started talking loudly to (her daughter?) the 20 something girl next to her. (She talked loudly the WHOLE time we were there and a lot of times she was swearing about something.) The rest of the time, I felt really awkward because I knew I would have to say something to them when I left-- and what would I even say?

Meanwhile, Jack was having lots of fun around the play area-- and I would have enjoyed it a lot too, but I just felt so uncomfortable around these people (we were the only people in the park, and it's really small.) Fortunately, Jack started showing interest in the green outside the play area, so we spent a lot of time looking at the trees (when jack sees a tree he says "tee!") and at one point Jack had a pretty good time chasing a squirrel all over the park.

Eventually, Jack wandered back to the play area. Then the shirtless guy came over to the play area, sat on the jungle gym, and started SMOKING. They were all smoking the whole time I was there, but at least they had been smoking under the pavilion. So I'm feeling pretty annoyed and I'm ready to leave. Just then, some guy (late 30's) shows up, so I'm feeling better about leaving-- thinking that maybe he is the older lady's boyfriend. Jack started showing signs of being tired, so I picked him up and started heading for the car. I walked by them and said "well, I really need to take my son home so he can take a nap. Did y'all figure something out?" The older lady said "Yeah, see this guy? The guy that showed up in the suburban? He's my boyfriend, the guy I was waiting for, so we're going to go to the mall together." Uh, ok.

So, I said "y'all take care" and started walking towards the car. Just then the 20 something girl came up to me (closely followed by the shirtless guy) and said "do you have any baby clothes?" I said "yes." She said "oh, well, I have to get all of my stuff out of my brother's garage soon, and I thought maybe you could take my baby clothes off my hands."

"No thanks. I'm all set."

This concludes the story of my strange park encounter.


Something else that is strange-- I just looked at Weather.com to see what the weather is going to be like this weekend: winter storm watch*. Oh, brother.


*Changed from "winter storm watch" to "snow advisory"