6 years and having a ball

Birthdays are a big deal around our house. And while less hectic schedules have allowed for a little more planning in the past, we didn't let Zoe's sixth birthday go by without a proper celebration. It started with a trip to the park where Craig let her run her heart out. I then joined the three of them for dessert a little later. The cake was peanut butter, her favorite, and came from a local bakery. I never told the bakery anything about Zoe, but I guess the secret got out about her royal status.

We know Luka's birthday is sometime in February, too, but we don't have a date and we've decided to celebrate his big day on the day we adopted him (in May). Still, he wanted a piece of the birthday action. As usual, he had no problem helping himself.

So what do you get the girl who was practically born with a tennis ball in her mouth? A tennis ball, of course. But this one has a Shocker handle that's perfect for Luka to grab and take from her. After all, that's what little brothers are for.

Happy 6th Birthday, Zo Boogie! You are always the life of the party.

Carrie

Happy Birthday Boogie!

Today is Zoe/Zo Boogie's sixth birthday. It's hard to believe that our little girl is all grown up.

A complete report of tonight's festivities will be posted tomorrow.

Catching our breath

Between recovering from the flu, attending wedding showers, hosting the bachelor/bachelorette party, work, planning Zoe's 6th birthday party (ok, just ordering a cake), and attending to other matron of honor and brother-in-law duties, we've been busy. Thank goodness we have an extra day this month to catch our breath.

More to come soon!

Carrie

Time flies when you've got the flu.

No … not really. In fact, when you have the flu, time actually seems to stop. You know those times in your life when you wish everything would just freeze so you could enjoy that moment forever? Well, the next time you feel one of those moments coming on, lick a doorknob or something—then, weeks later when you're curled up in the fetal position, moaning because it feels like someone is shoving toothpicks in your ears, you can still be enjoying that moment (as long as the wailing and moaning doesn't distract you from the aforementioned enjoyment).

So, today is day five and a half of my life with the flu. Most of the symptoms have now subsided, but I just don't have any energy which means I've spent most of the day sleeping in the spare bedroom bookended by Zoe Nightingale and her disorderly.

Work at this point is sounding really good. Of course if I went, that would mean I would have to DVR Tyra and it's just not the same when you do it that way.

Queen for the day

We never really made Valentine's plans because after five years of not really doing anything (see earlier blog post), why start now? I figured we'd pick up some take out for dinner and call it a day. However, Craig scored some major Cupid points over the lunch hour. I came home for a quick bite to find my Valentine: a CD of Queen's Greatest Hits. Yes, I'm a closet Queen fan, and I only realized it late last year. To top it off, there was a bonus surprise ... a Wii! This was something we had intended to be an anniversary gift to ourselves back in November, but due to high demand by Santas across the globe, there was no Wii to be found. So here we are with good tunes and fun games to play tonight, and over the course of our one hour break, Craig starts feeling congested, weak and feverish. So much for what could have been the best Valentine's Day ever. Looks like we're destined not to celebrate.

Happy Valentine's Day to you.

Carrie

Since you asked.

For Valentine's day, Carrie and I are planning on breaking out the TV trays so that we can enjoy a big vat of chili while watching "How It's Made" in HD on the Discovery Channel. Should be pretty romantic, on this week's episode we're going to "find out how automotive fuel pumps, cricket bats, change machines and ductile iron pipes are made."

Obviously that wasn't our first choice, we were really hoping they'd rerun that episode of "Dirty Jobs" where Mike scrapes the flesh off of cowhide and loads it up in a wheel barrel … it just seems to go better with chili.

Nothing says "I love you" like kidney beans and gelatinous cow remains.

Love it or hate it, Valentine's Day is coming

This will be the first time in three years that Craig and I will be in the same city for Valentine's Day. While the last two years had me in NYC or LA for work, the years prior to that typically had us spending the romantic holiday with 10,388 other Shocker fans in the roundhouse -- obviously, the basketball schedule was planned by a male.

So this year we have a dilemma...we're both in town and we don't know what to do. There isn't a Shocker game to attend. We're the last two people in Wichita without dinner reservations. And the only one with a weakness for chocolate in the house is me -- and I don't need it.

While we continue the debate of whether or not we'll even celebrate this Hallmark holiday, we're curious, how are you celebrating Valentine's Day?

Say uncle … and aunt

OK, so we've been holding on to this little "nugget" of information for a couple of weeks as to not let the cat out of the bag (no offense Cheryl), but soon, planet earth is going to be graced by a new little Lindeman as Curt and Cheryl are "with child." They let us know right before we left on the cruise because they figured we'd all know something was up when Cheryl began skipping her 10 a.m. cocktail. (Personally, I think Cheryl just wanted to get word out so she wouldn't have to carry her own bags.)

At the time of the cruise we estimated the lil' Lindy to be roughly the size of a sesame seed (or approximately one-quarter "Curt size") but the latest report has it coming in somewhere around a grape.

Carrie and I are extremely excited to become a first-time aunt/uncle and can't wait to teach it everything its parents don't want it to know.

By the way, this is the real reason why Curt beat me in the half marathon. I just couldn't humiliate him with his fetus watching on. I'll let the kid have a good five or six years before his/her delusions of its father's athletic prowess are destroyed.

-Craig

Venturing off the dollar menu

Having already done the touristy thing (Cozumel) and the beach thing (Roatan), the Lindeman family decided to go native during our last port of call on the Yucatan Peninsula. So, while most of the other cruisers visited the rather whitewashed coastal town of Progresso, we opted to take a 45-minute cab ride inland to the town of Merida. First of all, this probably wouldn't have been possible if Curt hadn't spent those couple of summers in Mexico, because this was the real thing, with out him, there was no way that our pooled knowledge of the Taco Bell drive thru menu was going to get us from point A to point B (and arrange a pick up to get us back to "A" again).

Once we got there, the town itself was much bigger than I thought it would be, in fact, I'm guessing it was probably roughly the size of Wichita. We had our driver drop us off in the center of town at the zócalo which is a large town square found in most Mexican cities, and the hub of all of the action. Together we strolled around the perimeter of the zócalo and wandered through an old church that was once visited by Pope John Paul II, before breaking up to explore on our own.

While Carrie and I should have been terrified to be strolling the streets without our unofficial interpreter, it was a rush. Together we investigated the town's back streets where our white faces—and Carrie's blonde hair—stood out like a pair white patton-leather dress shoes. As we walked, I tossed out "holas" and "buenas dias'" like I had some form of polite Spanish Tourette's Syndrome. We even got confident enough to do a little shopping, starting with the purchase of a couple of cookies and leading up to a hand-made purse we found for Carrie. Before we knew it, it was time for us to regroup with the others for lunch and a little more group exploration.

It was a beautiful city and gave me a clearer picture as to what daily life really is like in Mexico and helped put all of Curt's stories of his days in Puebla a little more into context.