State Fair of Texas 2008 Admission Discounts

The State Fair of TX is going on right now and we're planning to take the kids after school next Wednesday. Why a Wednesday, you ask? Check out these great deals you can receive on your admission price (I got this via email from the PR office of the Fair, so I definitely consider this reliable). Next week you'll be able to read about all the fun, food and swollen feet we had while we were there! HA! Oh, the pics are from our trip the the fair last year...

State Fair of Texas 2008 promotions:

Participating North Texas KROGER stores
Advance purchase General Admission tickets are $12.50. A Season Pass is
$29.95. They may be purchased at the check-out counter or at the service
desk.

Opening Day-Sept. 26--Bring a full 20 oz. Coca-Cola product for donation
to the North Texas Food Bank containers at Fair admission gates and
enter the State Fair for $4 per donation per person.

Dr Pepper $3 Tuesdays--Every Tuesday, bring an empty Dr Pepper can and
enter for $3. Most rides (excluding the Thrillway and the Texas Star)
are 5 coupons.

Kroger "Three for $1" each Wednesday--Admission is $1 for each visitor
bringing 3 cans of food for area food banks.

Coke $4 Thursday--Bring an empty 20 oz. bottle of a Coca-Cola product
and enter the Fair for $4 admission.

Mature Texan Magazine sponsor of Seniors FREE Thursdays--Senior
Citizens 60 years and older get in to the State Fair FREE each Thursday.

FREE Thursday admission with a Cinemark Theater ticket stub.

Any Day--McDonald's offers $3 off General Admission with one of their
State Fair coupons any day of the Fair. The other coupon McDonald's
offers with one general admission ($14.00) at the gates you get a child
in free. Offer may not be combined with any other offer.

Wide awake...

I'm wide awake again during the middle of the night. I spend all day feeling really sleepy and then can't sleep at night. What is that about? I'm thinking about how the baby is breech with only 5 weeks to go. I tried something new today, I went to a chiropractor to see if she could help make some room for the baby to turn around on his own. I do think that it helped, but am pretty sure that the baby is still breech. If this fails, I'll have to go into the hospital and see if the doctor can turn the baby around in order to avoid a c-section. I'm trying to stay positive because I don't think the baby is that big and I do think he can still turn, but I also know that time for that is running short. If anyone has suggestions on what I can do to help, please send them my way!

Enough of that. Claire is back in soccer and her team is (slowly) improving. She's really quick and has nearly endless amounts of energy, so she's in the right sport for sure. Plus, she loves it! Aaron is helping to coach the team this year and I think he really likes doing that too. Ava and I wander around watching during practice and games. Mostly we pick flowers and marvel at the outdoors (tree balls, pine cones, ants, sticks, etc.). We're all ready for the weather to cool down; it's back in the 90's this week and after a long, hot summer, we could use a break. That's all for now...

Heading North . . . Fleeing IKE and Baby Room Remodels

Well we’re preparing to head for drier ground this morning. Houstonians have actually been fairly calm so far. Having grown up (safely inland) in Minnesota I am not quite so calm. I have to say, Houston is now my home but I prefer a blizzard to a Hurricane any day! Many of my fellow Houstonians are “hunkering down” as we like to say here. Not me! I’m headed to Dallas. Here in Houston, the old hands at this play it very cool. They are un-phased and many refuse to admit any concern at all. Texans are just too tough to be bothered by Ike. A good friend of mine is planning a hurricane party – it will no doubt be a fabulous get together. Mention of good last minute party will normally stop my in my tracks and have me touching up my lipstick while making a u-turn in traffic to make it to the festivities. Not this time. Indeed, I’m a scared-y cat. Luckily I was already planning to head to Dallas this weekend because I promised Jill long ago that I would help her paint her baby room. So, I have an excellent excuse and I can flee to the safety of DFW, all the while pretending I would love to be here for the action if only I didn’t have a prior commitment.

So, back to this baby room. After having a pink house for the last seven years - and I do mean VERY PINK (Jill’s little girls are as girly as can be! I don’t think Claire wore a pair of pants – or at least not without protest – until she was 5 or 6) we are preparing for baby number three and, get this . . . IT’S A BOY!!! So, the mission for the weekend – after escaping Ike, that is – is turning a very pink nursery BLUE! How exciting. Jill still thinks this baby might surprise us and come out a girl. If so, Jill has instructed me to throw some pink pillows and blankets into the room before she gets home from the hospital. Her emergency procedure in case of gender mix up has relaxed considerably since baby number 2. Had Ava come out a boy, I was under strict instruction to (very quickly) re-paint the nursery with a cute farm/cowboy motif before the baby was released from the hospital. Thank goodness that didn’t happen! I’m quite sure paint fumes are bad for newborns.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. Hurricane prep is really a crap shoot. What do you buy? How much? If you load up on the big cafeteria sized spaghetti-o’s you’re in good shape right? But how do you get those giant cans open anyway? And the thought of eating spaghetti-o’s at all is just a tad yucky – and much more so when there’s no power (meaning no microwave). One of my friend’s husbands headed to the store to stock up on essentials for the grown ups this morning. She had already stocked up on diapers and formula. He came home with a case of wine and a jumbo sized can of chili. I’m not even going to make a comment on that. I’ll just say, hurricane prep is an interesting time. I’ve seen enough. See you in Dallas!

The List of Things We Thought We'd Never Have to Say...

Oh, Ava, please don't lick the cat.

Honey, don't sprinkle cheese on your baby sisters head.

I told you a hundred times not to tug-o-war with the jump rope.

Honey, don't put your hotdog in the guitar like that.

How many times do I have to tell you Emily, please don't lick another person on the face!

Please don't eat off the bottom of your foot - I'll get you some new lunch meat.

Oh honey, please don't put that stick up into the ceiling fan like that.

Eat what I gave you, not what's in the trash.  Honey, you can't eat trash.

Julia, three and a half eggs is enough for breakfast, you're only one year old (as she cries "mo, mo!" over and over again pointing to her empty bowl).

Please post your own...add a comment!  

P.S.  Check out this cool review of our site:  www.thewiseyoungmommy.blogspot.com

State Fair, Second Grade & Labor Day Weekend

So, Claire and I made our annual trip up to MN for the state fair.  Mom, Kevin, Steve and Dad were there.  It was great!  We ate snacks galore (favorites include fried cheese curds, french fries, snow cone, chocolate milk and lefse), Claire rode rides and spent tons of time in the Miracle of Birth center.  She came home with 3 tiny caterpillars who grew and grew and made a cocoon.  Now we wait for butterflies to emerge.  The whole thing was great and we can't wait until next year!

We got home just in time (with 1 day to spare) for Claire to start 2nd grade.  Aaron and Ava had attended "Meet the Teacher" while we were gone.  She's doing great, has a locker on top this year, art (her fav subject) is on Tuesdays, and best of all, they get a snack in the morning this year!  When her teacher asked her where she was during "Meet the Teacher" Claire told her we were at the MN fair.  Ironically, her teacher is from the same town in MN where I grew up.  It's a small, small world...truly!

After only 5 days of school, we had a long Labor Day weekend.  Scheels and Kuhs joined us out at the lake for a nice, relaxing (minus the occasional kid drama) weekend.  It was good just to be out of town and overall, the kids (all 5 of them) really were good.  We did lots of fishing, swimming, cooking, eating and a little boating, too.

So that's what's up for now.  I'm trying to get Jennie to post this list she's been keeping.  It's a list of things we should never have to say to our kids but end up saying anyway.  Stay tuned...