Paint and my vacation

I have noticed that each time we move - and we have moved a lot! - that it takes me about a year before I start to decorate or make changes.  Well, here we are one year later (can you believe it!) and we are going to paint the interior of the house.  We found a good painter through some friends and he is helping us pick out some colors now.  The nice thing about construction in Nebraska is that it is really good quality, but what the house has in quality the builders cut back in other areas.  The walls are painted a nice color but the paint is flat and it was just applied to the walls with no base.  Every finger print, every water splash or dirt mark shows.  It looks like we have lived here for 10 years with all the scuff marks and handprints.  So, Monday we paint!  Yippeee!  Let's hope I like the color better than what we did in the bathroom a few months ago.....eeeeeewwwwww!

As for my vacation, well, Ian is in California for two weeks and while I do miss him it is so quiet with only one kid in the house.  With no one to antagonize the other and no arguments about what show to watch or who touched who first it is peaceful.  : )  I got about a million calls from him yesterday - I gave him a spare cell phone.  Not a good choice apparently since he called me at 11:30pm last night!  Last night he went to the Galaxy soccer game and watched Beckham, which he says was amazing.  Today he is going to the movies with his uncle and then tonight he is off to his dad's house.  I think he will have a good time but it is hard to keep a pre-teen entertained these days.  Better them than me!!!

I am off to enjoy my part time freedom, enjoy a coffee, take the little girl shopping and pick out some more paint!  Wish me luck!

The Zoo

We went to the zoo on Sunday.  We have not been in quite a while...maybe last November.  We have a family pass, why you ask would we go to the zoo that much? Because it is SO cool!  We have one of the best zoos in the country.  The exhibits are just awesome.  Just ask Krittiya!

This May the zoo opened its newest exhibit, the Butterfly dome.  When you walk in the building you have to wait for an attendant to open the sealed doors for you.  First you walk into a small room the size of an elevator that seals you inside the exhibit so that no butterflies escape.  After the first door is sealed the other set of doors open and you can walk out to the jungle of exotic plants and hundreds of butterflies flying around your head.  All the butterflies in the exhibit come from other parts of the world, there are no indigenous specimens just foreigners.  So that makes it even more special.  I had one in my hair and they kept trying to land on Ian's red hat.  These are HUGE butterflies some the size of a playing card.  Just crazy!

We just love going for a few hours to see the new babies or revisit an exhibit we haven't seen in a while.  The zoo is great about bringing in new species and trying out new exhibits to keep us happy.  With Rosenblatt closing - yes we are sad about it - the zoo has bought the property and will expand in the next coming years.  It is sad to lose the stadium but I am happy the zoo is taking over the property instead of another developer.  I cannot wait to see what new animals they will bring to us.

Enjoy the photos!!!