Lydia Unplugged III or IV (I forgot)

This is what I get to see and hear almost on a daily basis. I love it!!! I have to post them for you to believe me because she will NEVER do this when there are other people around. She gets shy and embarrassed.
Look out Taylor Swift.
You've got some stiff competition coming down the pipe in a few years...

(You'll have to scroll down to the very bottom to pause the music so you can hear the audio on the video. Sorry.)

Seeing Red {Green}

Soooo, a couple weeks ago (OK, more like 4-6, but who's counting?) Red Green came to town. Never heard of him? Well, he's this crazy Canuck with his own show on PBS. And Cade loves it. I mean, if he misses it by accidentally falling asleep before it starts, he's super bummed!
We weren't able to get tickets to the show, but we thought we'd surprise Cade and take him to see Red up close and personal at the local Ace Hardware Store. When we told Cade that we were taking him to see his favorite handyman (and 'handyman' loosely defined here), he went as giddy as laid back Cade gets. Since Red's modus operandi is fixing anything and everything with duct tape, I thought (quite cleverly it seemed at the time) it would be HYSTERICAL to have Cade take a roll of duct tape for Mr. Green to autograph.

Waiting anxiously with his roll of 'the handyman's secret weapon.'

Ha ha. See what they did there? They're on to his duct tape schtick.
Hhrrrmmm...so maybe I wasn't as clever as I originally thought...

Now, if you've ever seen Cade's head, you know perfectly well that it is, in fact, quite capable of doing this kind of damage.

This, of course, was Cade's idea of a sight gag. Didn't realize we had an audience until we were taking these pictures and got a pretty good chuckle from the crowd around us.

See, now, I'm totally second guessing my perspicacity regarding the whole duct tape thing. Clearly these Ace people have seen the show, too.

I have no words. Just thought the picture would be enough. I'm thinking he's a fan of the show as well...

Oh. Right. Well then.
{Major eye roll directed solely at me.}

Cade went right up to him, shook his hand, answered his question ('What's your name?') and asked Red if he would write 'Keep your stick on the ice' on the paper.
Oh yeah.
And he also signed the duct tape.

When I look at this picture I think 2 things:
1. HA! Duct tape sign. IN THE PICTURE! And
2. Surely I've had Cade's hair cut since then?

Pretty sure Cade enjoyed this more than just sitting in the crowd, god knows how far away, listening to Red's practiced 'wit and wisdom' that really only most adults can appreciate. Although I'm sure it would have been pretty cool to have heard him recite the Man's Prayer live and in person. And I would've loved to hear him say my favorite quote from the show:
Remember, you may have to grow old, but you don't have to mature.

Backlogged (Read: LAZY!)

Been meaning to post something. Anything. Lots of pictures. Lots of memories. Lots of funny 'Lydia-isms' to report. Cade's been busy, too. It's coming. Sometime. Soon. Promise.

11 Years Down...

...and forever to go! Today Rusty and I celebrate 11 years of putting up with each other! No wait, that doesn't sound very romantic does it? But the truth is, who else could've or even would've put up with me for this long? He's a real champ, that Rusty of mine. I mean, the massive amounts of long black hair all over the place alone is enough to send most men running. Not my Rusty. He seems to have hunkered down and is ready for the long haul, despite my many gaffs and eye-rolling moments that might have him second guessing his vows.

Anyway, here's a look back at the story of us...or at least a snippet's worth. Some of my favorite pictures of us way back when.
Happy Anniversary, Rusty! Love you!

This is from our first date! Seriously, folks. How many people have a picture from THE VERY FIRST DATE???
(Just give me this one, people. If you have one, keep it to yourself!)

Not sure why I like this one do much. You can practically see up to my brains from my nostrils and I'm sure if you look close enough you can see my uvula.

Martha's Vineyard. Honeymoon.

Bam-BAM!

What? I was hot!

The South Park years. Anybody recognize who we were?

Sure wish this was possible these days!

Our official engagement photo that was in the papers.

Boogie fever!

Still one of my favorites of all time.

Hilarious Website

While flipping through the channels the other night, Rusty stopped on E! and we saw Joan Rivers talking about some celeb's outfit. I said, 'Man! She looks like that puppet, Madame!' Joan has had so much plastic surgery she now resembles a puppet popular in the early '80's. I immediately got online to try to find pictures of both of them to compare and apparently, somebody has had the same thought! Don't believe me? Check it out:

You might not see it right here, but believe me. When she's talking, she's Madame's doppelganger.

This is my new favorite website!

It's not easy being green.

Like, fur surely, they're sisters, right?

Whoa man...that's like looking in a mirror, man.

'C is for cookie and cookie is for me!'

'Dance your cares away {clap, clap}, worries for another daa-aaa-aay!
Let the music play {clap, clap}, down at Fraggle Rock!'
{You're welcome. Now you have that song stuck in your head, too. Don't you? Sadly, I also had hair like Tina back in a day, only black. And probably twice as much!}

Shout out to all my Star Wars fans out there!
{Cade, I'm talking to you, buddy!}

Awww...this one is just cute!

Many Hail Marys for this I must say.

Blago!!! Yes! I've always thought this in my head!

Not so much my favorite as it is just a little bit creepy.

Val, Kevin, Tammy, Nancy! What does this mean???

Talk about freakin' scary!

Man, I thought the Phil Collins pic was creepy. Nope. THIS one is creepy.

This is funny to me because I am constantly doing this. You know, saying if so-and-so were morphed together or had a kid it would like what's-his-name. This one is spot on!

This one is for Rusty. We saw this musical on our honeymoon when we were in Boston. Think I'll talk more about that later this week.
That is all for now. You really should check out this website. It's good for a few good laughs and hours of wasted time. Enjoy! BTW, this reminds me: I have a niece that totally looks like Dakota Fanning. Maybe we should submit a comparison pic, Steph.

Happy Birthday, Hanna!

Happy Birthday, Malachi!

And we love him very much!

Labor Day Weekend

Last weekend was the start of football season for the Dennis household. We started off with a little tailgating at Washburn for the Bods' home opener.

Believe it or not, dear readers, about 15 years ago, this was me, posing with some old alumni's kid, living vicariously again through their offspring.
(And you see the blonde in the second row, middle? Her name is Jordan. She was close to Lydia's age when I was wearing navy and white. Her mother worked in the athletic office and was in charge of the cheer squad and try outs until we got a new coach right before school started. Now THAT was like a cold bucket of water in the face of a gal momentarily disillusioned by nostalgia.)

Admiring each others uniforms.

Big man on campus.

Cade's bud, Riley came along with us.

Lydia saw Cade and Riley playing catch and she had to play football, too.

Cutest QB you ever did see!

Touchdown! Oh yeah! Woot woot!

Junior Bod Squad.

The team walk through.
You know it's a little hot in the locker room when the game hasn't even started and the players are already smelling a bit ripe.

Lydia enjoyed getting hi-5's from the players.

Lydia (and maybe her mother) couldn't stop watching the cheerleaders.

TOUCHDOWN!!!

This blew Lydia's mind.
They just tossed a girl backwards that was being held by the two girls up top.
Pretty impressive stuff to a two year old!

The boys wandered around to the other side and rolled down the hill.



Sunday we went to Wichita to celebrate our niece Sophie's 5th birthday. She got to celebrate with one awesome castle bounce house.

Lydia LOVES bounce houses.

Even Cade enjoyed the girlie fun house!

Just a couple more inches...
(story of my life!)

Man, check out Lydia's face. She loves swinging, too.

This is what Lydia calls 'the countdown.' I myself could hardly believe that this has been going on for a little while now.

Pretty princess.

The birthday girl lovin' on a new toy.

Makin' a wish.

The day after. Although you can't really tell by this picture, ALL of them were beyond tired. Hope everybody else's ride home was more pleasant than ours was!