The Franklin Institute

Our last day of vacation was spent in Philly, the city of Brotherly Love. It really is a nice city. As far as historical cities to visit, it is #2, in my opinion. Only second to Boston, which is amazing.
Anyway, we spent the entire day at a science museum called the Franklin Institute. It is a hands-on museum targeted towards children, although Dave and I learned plenty of stuff, too! The downside, for me, was that it was very well air-conditioned and I was FREEZING the entire time in my t-shirt and shorts. I actually had goose bumps for about 5 hours straight, I think. Having goose bumps for that long is exhausting!

On the way into the museum, they had a guy making balloon animals, or whatever you wanted him to make. Sam got a spear.




Caleb got a, um, well...it's a "hat".







And Peter got a sword. Here he is throwing it up into the air.
Personally, I think it looks strangely like something other than a sword. But this is a G-rated blog so we won't go into that.









But I have to say, what IS it with little boys and their phallic symbols?!

p.s. Keep in mind that this was on the way INTO the museum. They had to carry (or wear) these things for the entire day!

Jersey Shore

Oi! I can't seem to get my feet back on the ground now that we're back from vacation. I've got everything washed (a.k.a. sand removal) but still have some bags yet to be unpacked. Ugh. I have just been too busy lounging by the pool all week to get anything done around here. Yeah, you heard right. Lounging by the pool. And I'm not even kidding. The kids beg me to take them to the town pool EVERY DAY. I don't actually mind taking them; it's just that I can't get anything done at home when I'm sitting by the pool all day. I know, I know. It's a hard life!

OK, so here are some pictures of the Jersey Shore. It was wonderful! Actually, the drive there wasn't great since everyone from NY, CT, PA, and NJ were headed there. But once we got there it was terrific. The condo we rented was squeaky clean and just right for us. We were right on the beach and had a small swimming pool right outside our door. The above picture was taken on the morning of July 4th. It started out sprinkly but then cleared up to become the most beautiful day ever. What you can't see in the picture is just a smidgeon above the top of Sam's head is where we saw many many dolphins swimming by. They weren't much further out than the swimmers were and they would sometimes flip up completely out of the water! It was a real treat to be able to watch them.
So right after I took the above picture, I switched to video mode to tape the kids playing around on the beach. Then the weirdest thing happened. All these guys that were running on the beach just dropped down right in front of me. See for yourself:

I'm assuming it was some sort of boot camp something or other. I caught a few of them cheating and wanted to yell at them to drop and give me 50 more...but I was on vacation and was SO trying to relax and let go...
During the video, Peter brings me the first of many many many shells that we HAD to bring home and that are still sitting untouched in a bucket in our garage almost a week later.
Caleb caught several live critters but knew he wouldn't be able to keep them. I think he knew they'd be much happier in their natural environment anyway.After a wonderful day at the beach, we ate giant ice-cream cones (after a healthy, nutritious dinner of course) and then stood in the rain waiting for 4th of July fireworks that never happened. That's OK, there's always next year. On the 5th, we headed back inland and stayed at a hotel near Philadelphia. We saw the movie Wall-E
which was really good and somewhat thought-provoking. I've noticed kid's movies nowadays are often slightly thought-provoking. When I was a kid, Disney movies mostly centered around the thought, "Gee, what would I do if my mother died?" Helloooo, you know what I'm talkin' about. Bambi. Cinderella, Snow White. Scary stuff. Anyway, it was a great movie and gave us some time out of the sun. I'll post about the next part of our trip REAL soon. I gotta go lounge by the pool again...

And the answer is...

So that you won't have to spend your holiday weekend wondering incessantly about what's in the package from China, I will tell you now. They are duck feet. Chicken feet is a good guess and in fact, Grandpa told us they were chicken feet but the package says in English on the back: pot-stewed duck paws. And if you play with the feet (still inside the package of course) and look closely, they are clearly webbed like a duck's. The description on the back reads:

Fresh duck paws are used as raw material and stewed with spice and bittern through the cooking of Sichuan dish. It is good in color, smell and taste. With tasty flavor and tender quality, it is a good leisure food for the old and the young.
Ingredients: duck paws, refined salt, rock candy, white granulated sugar, gourmet powder, flavoring, sodium nitrite, sorbic acid, trace amounts of bird flu.

OK, so I added that last part about the bird flu. But let me tell ya, these suckers feel SLIMY. No way, no how, am I opening this package! Incidentally, this company has a website if you are interested in any of their other "delicacies". They make more than just candied duck feet!

We are off to the "shore" for the holiday weekend so I am busy packing and trying to remember everything that I will eventually forget to bring with us. We are renting a beachfront condo that is furnished but we have to bring linens, toilet paper, etc. I'm making a nice list for Dave so that I can blame him if I forget anything! Nice, huh. Happy 4th of July everybody! Here's a fun activity for the kids.

Edge of your seats

OK, since you're all on the edge of your seats about the NYC milk expiration mystery, I will ease your troubled minds with the link to the answer here. Most of you have already googled the answer anyway!
Speaking of milk, it's darn expensive, isn't it?! We drink skim milk, which is luckily the cheapest of the varieties but we have recently switched to 2%. Why? That's crazy, right? It's already so expensive so why did I switch to one that costs even more than skim? Wow, yet another milk mystery for you to solve! OK, not really. I'll tell you why. I started buying 2% so I could mix a half gallon of 2% with a half gallon of powdered milk. The powdered milk dilutes the 2% milk to the consistency of skim milk (that we're used to) and luckily the 2% milk masks the "odd" flavor of the powdered milk that we're not used to. So far it has halved our milk expenditure and the kids haven't even noticed. Well, Caleb did raise an eyebrow the other day but we assured him it was okay.

And speaking of Caleb, here he is whiling away his first week of summer vacation. He claims that he hates reading but if you find the right book for this kid, he will sit for hours and read. He has read 4 books on WWII this past week and he also really enjoys books about weird facts or Ripley's Believe It Or Not type books. He also loves books about aliens and unsolved mysteries but we had to cut him off of those as they freak him out and he was sleeping in our room almost every night.

Speaking of unsolved mysteries, here's one for you. Grandpa Capener just got back from China recently. He sent a box of presents to the kids which they LOVED. An authentic dragon necklace for Sam, a stuffed panda for Peter (which he carries around everywhere, even the bathroom), and an Axis and Allies miniatures set for Caleb (which he collects and plays) that was technically "made in China". Anyway, he also sent this package of treats that he grabbed in the checkout line at the grocery store in China. Can you guess what they are?! Note to Grandpa and the Monsons: no guessing/revealing the answer! I will give you a hint: there is NO WAY we are going to eat these, much less even open the package. OK, so that wasn't really a hint. Happy guessing!I just realized it might be helpful to give you some perspective as to the size of the package. So here's a picture with a 1/2 Swiss franc. What? You don't know how big a 1/2 franc is? OK, me neither but it looks about the size of a dime to me.

Take a guess!!!

OK, now everybody play along...

I noticed on our milk containers that they say "Sell by" and then give a date. For example, our current gallon of milk reads,

"Sell by July 1".

And then underneath that it says

"in NYC sell by June 26".

What?!?! Does it spoil 5 days earlier in NYC? I don't know the reason for this phenomena but it's keeping me up at night, I tell you, keeping me UP all night long tossing and turning and worrying that my milk might actually be already spoiled and so on.
OK, not really, but I AM curious and I'm going to figure this out. In the meantime, take a guess as to why it's labeled like this and I'll reveal the answer soon!

Memorial Day Parade

On Memorial Day, Peter was invited to ride on a float with other Kindergartners in the town parade. It was actually a cute little parade. It felt very "small town" which is a funny feeling to me since we're right nextdoor to New York City. Anyway, the float's theme was "The Future of Waldwick" and was loaded with Kindergartners and their moms. I felt a little silly sitting there under the "Future of Waldwick" banner but I wanted to make sure my kid didn't fall off and get run over by the float or a wild elephant or anything. There were a few times we'd pass a group of people and someone would exclaim, "Hey, there's Shelley our Zumba instructor! Hey, Shelley! Go Zumba, woohoo!" And I would sheepishly wave back to my admiring fans. Maybe next year I'll have my own Zumba float. LOL!

p.s. Peter is in the green shirt and the kid next to him is his best friend. They are practically inseparable...he's the one that bought the blue origami shark!

Garage sale?

Peter has decided he'd like to earn some extra money by selling off some of his things. I told him we might have a garage sale this summer sometime but he does not want to wait for me to get ready. He's ready NOW. Here he's gathered a few things and is preparing them for sale. Notice the used post-it notes for 15 cents. Also, he has his used soccer ball there for $5. He originally had it listed at $10 and I told him that was way too much for a used soccer ball when you can buy a new one for $5. So he lowered the price to $5. Surprisingly, the blue origami shark (far left for 10 cents) has already sold to a friend of his who came over the other day. Dave made that for Peter awhile ago...I'm not sure how he's gonna feel about it being sold to another kid for a dime...

Domino fun

The other day, the kids worked on setting up an elaborate domino set. It went pretty well; only one section on the left side faltered. It must've taken time a very long time to set it up. I wonder what I was doing or where I was that whole time. Eating bonbons again, I guess!

YIKES!

Yikes! It's June 10th and I've been lazy at this blogging thing. Like everybody else, sometimes I just feel like I don't have anything interesting to share. So now I'll share all the somewhat uninteresting things that have been going on around here.

Back in May, I was in charge of hosting a Zumba "master class" at the YMCA where I teach. A "master class" is not with someone like me; I'm not a 'master' at anything yet but it was taught by international Zumba superstar and goddess Tanya Beardsley. She is the host of the new Zumba dvd series and she travels all over the world promoting Zumba and training instructors like myself. In the Zumba world, she is #2, second only to Beto Perez himself. Anyway, it was a lot of work to pull it off but it went swimmingly. We originally hoped at least 75 people would attend but we ended up having over 150 people! Many of them were my students and I had the luxury of dancing on-stage with Tanya for some of the program and then having my students later tell me that I was just as good, if not better than her. (Ha, they exaggerate). Here's a picture of me and Tanya after class when we're completely sweaty, gross, and makeup-less. Notice how I'm extending my neck so I don't have a double chin. Hey, she's 10 years younger than me; I gotta do what I gotta do. And on the right is a picture of me and Tanya with my friend Missy. Missy was a student of mine who I encouraged last year to go get certified in Zumba so she could sub for me! She is a pro now and can hardly ever sub for me because she has her own Zumba classes! I'm so proud of her...she has worked really hard. She and I have been scouring the area to find our own place teach Zumba out of. We haven't had much luck, except we have found a small dance studio that I am renting one day a week to teach Zumba. I've only had two classes so far but the second class had double the attendance from the first class (8 people, then 16 people at $10/each) so I think it is going to take off. It can only fit about that many people anyway so if it grows any more the 3rd week I'm gonna have to start looking for a bigger place.

I am also in the middle of renegotiating my salary at one of the local gyms where I work. It has been time consuming and stressful and I'm still waiting to see what's going to happen. It's hard because I'm already the highest paid instructor around these parts but other places are offering more than this place so I have to at least try. If it doesn't work out, it's OK because I know I'm standing up for myself and doing the right thing...even if they tell me to take a hike! Maybe that's the nudge I need anyway to find a bigger dance studio to rent. In the meantime, though, I don't think I slept a wink last night. I tossed and turned all night seeing images of my boss and the gym owner in my mind and with phrases going through my head like, "I'm worth it!" and "My proposal is more than fair!" Tonight I may just take a Tylenol pm.

Some other non-interesting things around here: the bus line that Dave takes to work everyday went on strike for a week and a half. When the strike began, we were completely clueless so poor Dave and a whole bunch of other commuters were standing out at the bus stop one morning wondering where the heck all the buses were! The whole thing was highly annoying and inconvenient because then he had to take the train which is slower, much less convenient, and more expensive overall. That darn strike wreaked havoc on our lives for a week and a half!

Another thing I forgot to mention before is that while Dave was gone in Switzerland, he lost a drawer. What?! I can almost hear you guys being confused. What I mean is that while he was gone for a month, I noticed one of his drawers had like 2 socks left in it. I cleared it out for Steph to use while she was here for a week and then after she left I decided maybe I'd like to have that drawer for myself! It is, after all, the biggest drawer in the whole dresser. Strangely, when Dave got home and I informed him of this, he didn't seem to mind much so I just kept using it as my own. I don't know where he put his other stuff...maybe that's why there's a pile of socks on the chair nearby, but I'm just gonna keep hogging it for as long as I can. Every once in awhile when I open it and peer in, I fear that my stuff will be gone and his socks will have reappeared. But so far, so good!

One more uninteresting thing. It has been HOT here. Yesterday was 100* and today is almost as hot. That is super hot for us at this time of year. The kids still have 2 weeks of school! They were released early both today and yesterday because of the heat. Why? Because many of the classrooms don't have A/C so it is state law that once the temperature hits 90*, they have to be released! I remember one day last year (on a day that was not nearly as hot as today) I visited Caleb's classroom to read a book to his class. All I did was sit and read a book and I was sweating buckets. It was SO hot in his classroom. They had fans going everywhere but all they did was blow the kids' papers all around! I don't know how they got any learning done in there because it was miserable. His already cranky teacher was even crankier and I found myself quite cranky after one book! The heat is supposed to break tonight with severe thunderstorms so hopefully we'll be back on schedule tomorrow, high of 85*!

Happy Shared-iversary!

Dave and I celebrated our anniversary last Saturday. I actually forgot all about it until earlier in the week he asked me what we were gonna do on Saturday and I was like, I dunno, why? And he informed me it was our 15th anniversary. Oops.
We call it a sharediversary now because we are friends with two other couples (from when we all lived in Lansing) who have the same anniversary as us and sometimes we'd even run into each other on our anniversary(s) at a restaurant or something. We gave up and finally just decided to stop bumping into each other on our anniversary and just all go out together. Unfortunately we're all spread out across the U.S. so now it's just me and Dave. But that's OK, that's probably how it should be, right?
Anyway, last Saturday we got a sitter and went out for like FIVE hours. It was so great! We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. It was 'classic' Indiana Jones with all the action, corny lines, and even a snake thrown in of course. We then ate at a restaurant called Houlihan's. It is a chain and my friend Nichole took me there over a year ago in Virginia. It is YUMMY! They have such a variety of food that anyone would be happy there. I ordered brie as an appetizer. I don't think Dave had ever had brie before. I LOVE it. It's soooooooo good...I just try not to think about how fattening it is. I couldn't quite finish my dinner but was able to find a way to fit in some dessert anyway. Hey, it's not everyday you're celebrating your 15th anniversary, right?
We actually went out earlier in the day so that evening we took the kids to meet some friends at the race track. I thought it would be fun to take the kids to see the horses and watch the races, etc. The kids were able to hang out right at the fence to watch the horses go by. Umm, one problem, though. It was not what we were expecting. It was harness racing which, sorry, is not quite as exciting as watching normal horse and jockey racing. The horses are only allowed to trot, not gallop or run. I kinda felt bad for the horses too as the riders were whipping them to go faster and faster during the race. I seriously doubt it was hurting the horse but I could almost hear the horse thinking, "Geez, buddy. Give me a break! I can only trot! I'm not allowed to run!"
Overall, the kids were unimpressed and we left after 3 or 4 races. I'd really like to go back sometime when they have the "real" horse racing. I'll bet that's exciting to watch. Maybe we can find that next year on our Sharediversary! Here's to the next 15 years! Woohoo!

I Love the Zoo!

OK, not really. We went to the Bronx zoo recently as our "year membership" was almost up and we are not going to renew at this time, maybe later. Anyway, unfortunately for us, we chose to go to the zoo at the same time that EVERYONE ELSE was going to the Yankees/Mets game, which was being held at Yankee Stadium, which we all know is in the Bronx. Yeah, not such a great idea. It wasn't horrendous, though, and once we got past the stadium, the traffic wasn't bad. We stopped at a McDonald's because I thought it would be cheaper than eating food purchased IN the zoo. I may have been wrong. Apparently McDonald's is more expensive in NYC than in Jersey. The Bronx isn't especially affluent so I don't know how these people afford to live there AND eat at McDonald's. Maybe that's why McDonald's wasn't very crowded. Or maybe they were all on their way to the baseball game. I digress...
The good news was that the zoo wasn't crowded. And hey, I like the zoo, for the most part. I used to love going to the zoo. When we lived in Lansing, I took the kids all the time. They were younger then and I think I had more "say" in how we spent our time at the zoo. Here's the problem: I'm a female in a family full of males. While at the zoo, I want to sit and gaze at the giraffes, flamingos, and zebras. But when we go to the zoo we spend most of our time, if not all, blazing past the giraffes where I get a cursory glance at them as I walk by on our way to: the monkey house, the reptile house, or the "world of darkness" a.k.a. the bat house. Here's Peter in the reptile house.















Here's me in the reptile house:
























I swear I wasn't just tired or lazy or overwhelmed with reptiles. For some reason, the zoo employees thought WE were reptiles and I swear it was like 110* in there. I was absolutely melting. When we stepped back outside it felt like we were stepping out into the arctic. I was never so happy to get out of the reptile house.
We did, however, get to spend a little time in the butterfly house so that's at least something. Oh wait, I just remembered. We went in after we had blown right past it and I said, "Wha-?! Wait?! What?!!! We're not going into the butterfly house!?"
And I admit the monkey house was pretty cool. It's actually a gorilla house at the Bronx zoo. And this time the gorillas were out and about, as opposed to hanging around napping far out of sight. There were a couple baby gorillas, too, and they would come up to the glass and "play" with the people standing there. Then they would run back to their moms and start nursing. They were really cute. What is it about gorillas that I, personally, find so daunting? I swear when one of the moms turned towards me, it felt like she was looking right at me. Her eyes and face seemed so wise and knowing. I felt like she was saying, you guys are so stupid, we're the ones who are older and wiser. We know what's really important in life. And then she started picking her nose and eating it and I thought, hmm, maybe not so much. OK, so that didn't really happen, but you KNOW it could've!

Oh sweet Moses...for the love of all things decadent!

While in Switzerland, Dave had lunch at the Patek Phillipe factory cafeteria. Don't be misled by the sound of "cafeteria food". We're not talking chicken nuggets and tater tots. We're not talking $4.99 "value meals", either. Almost everything he had was wonderful and I don't know how he came back weighing the same. I guess you walk a lot when you don't have a car. Here's one of their weekly menus. It's all in French so Dave didn't always know exactly what he was ordering. Talk about ordering whatever sounds good...
Notice the third choice on Wednesday includes grilled "cheval". Uh, yeah, that's horse. It's considered a delicacy over there. Dave ordered it, even knowing that it was horse, and said it was actually quite yummy. SPEAKING of quite yummy, he also ordered dessert almost everyday. Oh man, if I could only have been there...

The Dream Tisha

As everyone knows, Oprah has a few "favorite things". One thing she likes to talk about is her favorite bra: the Dream Tisha bra by Le Mystere. Well, they run over $60 and I certainly don't need one but I have other, full figured friends, who would like to have one and T.J. Maxx has them right now for $10. So, it took me scouring THREE different T.J. Maxx's but I finally found one in the right size for this friend who shall remain nameless to protect her bra size identity. Before I send it to her, though, I thought I'd take a picture or two just for fun. Man, I cannot even imagine lugging around something like that attached to my chest all day. That must be annoying!? I suppose you get used to it...?OK, so maybe I'm a little jealous...

Mother's Day=Chocolate Day

Dave got home from Switzerland the day before Mother's Day, as everyone knows. He brought home various chocolate treats. A whole bag of Lindt chocolates for the kids, another bag to share at work, and yet another bag to share at the gym with his racquetball buddies. He also brought the kids some chocolate Swiss Army knives...they were really cute. He also brought home a bar of dark chocolate LOADED with hazelnuts and a small box of chocolate truffles. He even brought home a box to send to Steph.
And he brought THIS home for me:





Huh?! What?! Wait...where's all MY chocolates?!?!?! This isn't fair! This is no good at all!
Oh yeah, I ate them. I remember now. I was drunk with chocolatey goodness so it's all a little vague right now...like remembering a dream. A very beautiful dream.

So anyway, most of the chocolate is gone and although I'm tremendously happy with what I got, I should've been a little more specific with Dave. I told him to bring a lot of chocolate home. What I meant was, bring like a six months supply of chocolate home. Maybe that would be too much? As it was, he had to borrow an extra duffle bag from someone to check as luggage...because of all the chocolate. He didn't bring anything else back with him. Apparently they have "weight limits" on these darn planes. Whatever. Don't get between me and my chocolate!

So it was a good Mother's Day this year. I got to sleep in and eat Eggos in bed. I received homemade cards and presents...you can never have too many homemade bookmarks, right? One of my children, who shall remain nameless to protect his identity, gave me nothing and never so much as even said "Happy Mother's Day" to me. I'm not sharing this to be snotty or anything...I really think part of it is that the kids were so excited to have Dave home and were really wrapped up in having "Dad time". At the end of the day when I realized he'd done nothing for me for Mother's Day, I thought to myself, "OK, well, here we go. I guess it begins right about now"...I didn't bring it up to him or Dave or anyone because I didn't want to make a big deal out of it and I certainly didn't want to make him feel bad or guilty about it. Hopefully he won't feel bad if/when he reads this one day. After all, I DID protect his identity, right?! No guessing! (You'd never guess anyway).

Oh, one of the things I did on Mother's Day was work in the yard. I know that sounds crazy but it was a beautiful day and I actually enjoy working in the yard when I have the time. I was trying to clear out the "circle" around a big tree in the front yard where it's supposed to be a big circle of mulch around the tree trunk but instead it was a big circle of weeds and such. It took me a lot longer than I had planned but looks really nice now. As I was pulling up weeds and grass, I realized I was throwing away perfectly good grass. Not a big deal except that our backyard is totally patchy and needs more grass. SO, instead of throwing all the grass away, I decided to transplant it to the backyard to fill in some patches. It was a lot of work and I'm not sure anyone can tell any difference at all! It reminded me, though, of that movie Fun With Dick and Jane where Jim Carey goes around to all his neighbors' yards and the golf courses to dig up patches of grass and put them in his yard. Hmmm...my neighbors should be very afraid...

iGallop

OK, so I found something almost as bad as the Hawaii Chair. Well, maybe it is as bad. I wouldn't really know. But for those of you looking for a quick weight loss solution, this may be your answer:

Notice the chick pretending to shoot her guns. I think you burn more calories that way.