It was a very good weekend. Sometimes, when you experience something that moves you and entertains you and is wonderful and sad all at the same time, it’s hard to put it to words to tell people about it because there is no way to do it justice. It’s one of those “you had to be there” things. We really enjoyed each other’s company. There were 15 of us that were there for the whole weekend and one couple joined us on Saturday and Saturday night and another couple joined us just for the day on Saturday. All total, there were 19 of us who floated for at least a 5 hour trip down the river.

One of the cool things about the weekend was that we had two couples who were new to our experience. I cannot remember if I have talked about it before, so forgive me if I am repeating myself. As a result of the website that I did for my brother-in-law with regards to his ALS and for the benefit we had for them, another couple in our area who also had a recent diagnosis of ALS, found us and came to the benefit in April. Kip was diagnosed in October of 2007. His wife, Shannon, was 8 months pregnant at the time. Kip and Shannon also have an amazing spirit and they are an inspiration to everyone they come in contact with. This year, they joined us with another couple that they are best friends with. It was awesome to all sit and joke about the funny things about ALS (yes there are funny things) without people getting all uptight and feeling all “oh this is taboo, we shouldn’t say that”. It was awesome. It was just a good time to kick back and sit and gab about anything and everything. (Hi Kip and Shannon, Kane and Rian, if you’re reading, too. Love you guys!)

It went really well getting both Kip and John on the river and the people at River’s Edge were so awesome helping us get them off the river and then back to our campsite. I cannot say enough good things about River’s Edge. If you ever find yourself in the area, or if you live in the area and want to tube down the Apple River, please use River’s Edge for whatever your camping and/or tubing needs are. /end commercial/ They really were so awesome, though, and I am not sure we would have been able to do it without their help.

There were a few tears and a little bit of speculation for what the future holds, but, for the most part, it was just laughter and fun and enjoying the moment. I wish I had pictures that I could share with you. I can’t because they are either too, um, not for my kids to see or they are on the water camera that we haven’t brought in to the photo shop for developing. I’m not sure that there are photos on there that I would want my kids to see either. We’ll see.

Our kids did come on Sunday afternoon and they all went down the river again. I skipped out on that excursion by taking my daughter’s car back home. Saturday’s 5 hour trip was too much sun for this girl. I couldn’t do it another time. On my way home, although I have been to the river a gazillion times, I somehow managed to get lost. Luckily, I had my handy dandy Blackberry which, along with Google Maps, found where I was and told me how to get home. Gotta love Blackberry and Google Maps. It was totally awesome. When I got home I took a long nap.

I’m still exhausted. I may sleep all day tomorrow, my one day off this week. Then I work Thursday and Friday and then I am on vacation! Hurray!

Every year, for as long as I can remember (well, that isn’t very long, but you know what I mean), we have taken Emily and a friend, or two or three, to the Twins home opener. Usually it falls a day or two before or after her birthday. This year it was a whole week before her birthday and it was last night. At nearly the last minute, her friend canceled because she was sick, but one of her softball team mates was able to fill in, thank God. Not that the nose bleed seats that we had were very expensive, but still, it would have been a bummer for Emily had she not had a friend to come along.

Emily is a HUGE softball freak. If there was a professional softball team in our area, she would be a huge fan. Instead, she is a HUGE Twins fan. She rarely misses a game. If she is playing, she gets score updates when she can. She knows a LOT about the game. More than I do and I have been around longer than her. She even listens to or watches the pre-season stuff.

Me? I am definitely a fair weather fan. But I did grow up in a house where it was ALWAYS on. There are just too many games for me to follow it fanatically. I have too many things to do and not enough time to do them to be a fanatic. I do love to go to a game or two and I can get into it while I am there, too. I really love the tradition we have of going for her birthday and I love the joy it brings to her. I know it will be something that she treasures forever.

My view of the game:

Waaay above home plate. But it was fun anyway. As it always is.

Okay. Tonight I went out with 2 of my SILs and a couple family friends. I had an awesome fucking time. It was 2 for 1 from the time we got there (7:45) until 10. I think we had 5 rounds (multiply that by 2) by the time 10 came around and several after that. After 10 t5here were only 3 of us. I am no longer coerrecting typos. Just so you know.

Let me just say, my SIL is fucking awesome. she really is an inspirationg. I don’t know how she does it, having a husband with ALS. I wish I could take away some of her pain. She is amaizing. We really had a great time and I am so thankful that we could take her out of her situation for several hours. It was her 40th birthday, too, so doubly great. She was having a good time.

Fab wanted me to sing karaoke tongight and record it, but none of us sang, inspite of the fact that 2 of my SILs are music teachers. There was way too much music to cooose from. Plust htere were only about 10 people in the whole place. What the lell is the poing? Seriolusly. We played darts. That was fun, but we didn’t finish our game before they ckicked us out. That suckedc.

Okay. I have a headache. Jason came and pickedc ups up. I dinnt drive. Jason broght then home and then brought me back there. I mean here. Now he wants me to come do betd. I thin k I better go.

Did I mention that I have 6 13 year old boys here for a sleep over for Sam’s bithday? Yeah. I got a headache alrday.

Some of you may not know this, but I have my very own dictionary. It’s true, check it out. Over there on the right under “My Words”. Come back when you are done. What do you think? Pretty cool, huh? It’s kind of a cross between dictionary and encyclopedia since it does carry definitions of my family members and some of my friends and their relationship to me. It started, though, because of me just making up words to fit my needs. I think I am really important and I think everyone else should think so, too, so I made my own dictionary. Maybe some day it will be as popular as Merriam-Webster.

Anyway, the following are words that I am thinking of adding to my dictionary. I have either used them or heard them or read them over the last several weeks. Don’t worry, I am not taking credit for them if I didn’t make them up. I am all about giving credit where credit is due.

Firecy: This one just came to me. I was talking to my Mom and she asked me if I could look at her chart at work and tell her the results of a test. I said, “No, we aren’t allowed to do that. It’s immediate firecy.” What the fuck? It just spilled out of my mouth. Like it was a normal word. It might be now.

Homemakery: I can’t really remember how this came about, but it had something to do with Martha Stewart and her being the queen of homemakery. This one was in my cute little head, too.

Sure-Shing: Say it as if it is one word. Say it out loud. What does it sound like? Isabelle asked me what this meant. When I couldn’t fathom what it meant, she said, “I think it means when you are looking for something.” SEARCHING! She meant searching.

Uh-right: This is absolutely the most redneck thing that I have ever heard one of my relatives say. This is supposed to be alright, but it sounds like uhright. When it’s said as a question, it is even more hilarious. Isabelle says it all. The. Time. I got a video post of her for tomorrow and in it I tried to get her to say it, but it still doesn’t sound exactly the way she usually says it. The funniest thing about this is that I kept wondering where on earth she could have picked this up, until the first time I asked her, “Alright?” Yeah. It’s me.

Shmorcasting: He did it! He finally made a word that I could actually publish on this blog. Shmorcasting. I am not sure what the hell it means, but I had to put it here.

Firstively: It’s obvious what this one means. Well, it is to me. The lady who says it all the time is my co-Minnesotan and, I swear, she is exactly like me, Suzi. Suzi has a blog called I’ll Tell You What It Shwas. She is very funny. Did I mention that she says firstively?

Freka: This one was started as a typo in the chatroom of Fab’s radio show one night. It was supposed to be freak, but we all liked freka better and vowed to use it often. Now we add all sorts of other words to it, like mutha (mutha freka) and get my (freka) on, etc. I should really keep copies of the chatroom dialog because we come up with some funny shit in there. Well, mostly everyone else does. I just laugh. This one can be attributed to Vulgar Wizard. The entertainment in the chatroom. It’s her birthday today, too. Go over and wish her happy. Please.

Sheddy: This is one of my favorites. I hear this a lot. I heard it a lot when I was doing daycare. It melts my heart. The other night I heard it while I was taking care of a friend’s child. Sheddy is often the way that kids say my name when they are first learning to talk. Before they can pronounce the sh part, it’s usually Ah-ee. This weekend it was, “Sheddy, comin’?” or “Sheddy, c’mon!” Oooh, I just wanted to eat him up.

Do you have any words that Merriam-Webster won’t include in their dictionary? Maybe I will include them in mine.

**I am addicted to my new phone. It is like a mini, hand held laptop. I can even surf the Internet with it. The other night, just to see if I could, I surfed to Fab’s blog and commented with it. It was really awesome. I think I am going to name it Jason II. It’s the second best thing to have in my hands.

**I am addicted to watching The Sopranos. We have been getting it from Netflix. We get 2 discs at a time and usually there is 3 or 4 episodes on a disc. We usually get through both of them during a week. We still are only at season 5. Probably only a little more than half-way there.

**Scrabulous. On Facebook. I know I have talked about it before, but I am still addicted.

**My newest addiction–NEMQ–The Never-Ending Movie Quiz. It’s just what it says it is. A never-ending movie quiz. You are ranked and there is a friends leader board that shows how you rank against all of your friends who are playing it. I went from being ranked somewhere in the 4,000,000 range to 365,503.

Score & Rank: 4409945 quiz players worldwide

Your Points: 5520 Rank: 365,503

Friends Leaderboard

This Week:
Shelli Miller 5290 points
My Friend 4740 points
(name removed to protect his/her privacy)

Yeah, baby! Who da woman?

**Of course you know this one, although it has taken a little bit of a back seat to all the other addictions, blogging. Blogging addict. That’s me. Sometimes I know I should give it up, but I just can’t. It keeps sucking me back. No, that’s not how I really feel. Sorta.

Finally, it’s Mel’s birthday today. She is 47. I want her to have 47 comments today. Please go wish her a happy birthday!