Little Random Updates

1. Rod got his hair cut. It is short, which he hasn't had since we first got married back in 1999. He's gone over a decade with long hair, so there's understandably an adjustment period. Since Aria has a pixie cut because she decided to take the scissors to her own hair, that means for the first time in a long time, *I* have the longest hair in the house. That's just crazy.

2. My farmer's tan is extra impressive this year. My arms are so dark, my face less so, and my legs are still Reflect-the-Sun white.

3. The current favorite bedtime book is Disney's Nursery Rhymes and Fairytales. We went through all the nursery rhymes and now we read a fairytale a day before bed. Last night was Peter and the Wolf.

4. Introduced Aria to Looney Tunes. Success. If you don't like Bugs Bunny there's something seriously wrong with you.

5. I love Scooby Doo Mystery Inc soooo much! It is currently my obsession. It's so awesome! It has also turned me into a Velma/Shaggy shipper, which I couldn't even fathom, say, a couple months ago.

6. Work is work is work.

7. I love fair season. I love all the fairs that happen every week. I love the rides. I love the animals. I love the incredibly expensive and bad for you fair food. There is nothing about fairs that isn't awesome.

8. I think I have discovered why I keep gaining weight. For instance, yesterday I ate a bowl of cereal with blueberries and bananas added for breakfast. then later I had a smoothie. Then by dinnertime I was starving to death and so I ate FOUR BLT's. Now, the bacon was turkey bacon, and the bread was wheat, but still....I had FOUR of them. I'm a binge eater. I don't eat for hours and then I get hungry and devour the world.

9. Frank Welker is the man. If it is a cartoon I like, or even have seen, Frank Welker is in it somewhere. He's in Scooby Doo, My Little Pony, Looney Tunes, Transformers, just absolutely everything. The man was the Anaconda in Anaconda. You don't get much more awesome than the voice of the killer snake that eats Jon Voight. If I were to meet a celebrity, I'd love to meet him (After Weird Al, of course). Then I'd tell him how he helped shaped my childhood. He may be a bit scared, but probably flattered at the same time.

10. You know, I'd really like to stop owing money. It would be nice. Things we still need to pay off:

*The windows

*The 401K loan

*an old trinity bill

*Car insurance

*The house

Which, compared to some people's debt isn't a lot, but it's still a few thousand dollars (besides the house) that I'd rather have for fun stuff instead of handing it to other people...with interest. The hope is that with next year's tax refund we'll be able to pay off one of those. Probably the windows. Then I'd like to Dave Ramsey it right into oblivion.

11. I love school supply season.

Muscatine County Fair 2011

Aria and I went to the Muscatine County Fair today. She was all kinds of excited, mostly about seeing animals, rides, and cotton candy-in that order. Even though the temperature read God-awful Hot degrees, there was enough of a breeze and enough shade that it really wasn't all that bad.

Our first stop was to the little kids farm they have set up in the barn. It is more or less a petting zoo. Aria took a pic of me petting the donkey.
She was too afraid to pet the donkey herself. She said it was too big and she was not big and brave today.

She did enjoy seeing the chick, though, and they brought a bunny out of its cage for her to pet. She also was big and brave enough to pet the miniature pony and to feed the goat by throwing peanut shells right at him.

We went to the barns next, and I was totally envious of those animals. Although it appeared like they were lazy and hot, the barns were actually cooler than my house. All of the animals had gigantic fans on them. They all had lots of water. At that moment, I wanted to be a cow.

Or a sheep would do too. Baa.

After we saw all the animals, and I was treated to which animals were stinky and which ones were not, Aria really wanted to ride on rides. The first one she went on was her all time favorite-the gator roller coaster. If this is how she is at three, then I can imagine the rides she'll want to go on as a teenager.

Whhhheeeeeeeeee!

The next ride she went on was the elephants that rose in the air. I thought she'd be scared because she wasn't expecting that, but she wasn't. She liked that ride. Afterwards she went on the cars and there was a little girl who was afraid to go on the rides herself. I asked Aria if she would go in the car with the little girl and her grandma thanked us. I told her that last year it was me asking bigger kids if they could sit with Aria, so it was all good.

No reason to fear, Aria is at the wheel.

Aria went on the planes, which was another ride where she got to go high. She absolutely loves that now, though she still wasn't big and brave enough to go with me on the ferris wheel.

Aria the fighter pilot.

It was during this ride that she left her hat and I had to go back and get it from the seat of the plane. I told her that we didn't want to lose her hat and she held it to herself tightly and said,

"I love it.

I want it in my life."

Which was the most hilarious thing she said today.

After that ride, Aria was pretty much done. It was 90 degrees and it was after lunch time so we left the fair. Of course, before we left I got her a huge bag of cotton candy to eat at home.

It's gone now, naturally.

Another Ariaism:

Rod asked Aria today if she was being a smartypants. Aria said, "No, Daddy, I'm not wearing pants. I have a naked butt."