Hi, howya doin?

Not sure why exactly, but I feel compelled to share my weekend.  Friday was one of those days for me that I get NO sleep.  Like literally.  I don't sleep from the time I wake up Thursday morning until I go to bed Friday night.  Except for sometimes I take a quick nap Friday afternoon.  So of course, which day would my new book choose to come?  Friday, you guessed it.  I can't believe I didn't start reading it right away!!  But, I have started now and I have laughed, out loud, at every single page.  I want to loan this book to every person I know, as it will make them infinitely happy.  But don't worry Amy.  You are first.  Saturday started off with a blood donation.  I like to plug blood donation whenever I can.  Plus I love doing it.  Then a hair appointment with Katie.  We always have the best chats, whether at the salon or on a bike ride.  Saturday evening we had dinner at our house with our high school friends.  We all try to get together once a month for dinner but somehow it seems like it had been several months.  It makes me kind of sad that life is so busy that its hard to get together.  But, even if its just a few times a year, they are some of my most favorite people and I look forward to our dinners immensely.
Today, we did the church thing, then we did the lazy-Sunday-afternoon-nap thing.  THEN, we did something totally uncharacteristic for us.  We cleaned out the garage.  I'm talking, moved everything out and threw away a ton of junk that the previous owners left and rearranged and organized and all!  It looks so good.  So good that I forgot to take a picture.  I guess you'll just have to come over and see!  So that was our technical weekend.  But we VanBoening's often like to extend our weekend to Mondays (as most Star City Motorsports employees probably do) and so tomorrow the plans include the Omaha Zoo, dinner at McFoster's, buying a spare tire from Craigslist, and probably me reading hilarious stories aloud from the book in the car to my poor family:)

If you need a little teaser..."Also, I just want to clarify that I don't mean "without my vagina" like I didn't have it with me at the time.  I just meant that I wasn't, you know...displaying it while I was at Starbucks.  That's probably understood, but I thought I should clarify since it's the first chapter and you don't know that much about me.  So just to clarify, I always have my vagina with me.  It's like my American Express card. (In that I don't leave home without it.  Not that I use it to buy stuff with.)"  And this was just the first page of the first chapter.

Food from a truck is way yummier than it sounds

Short and sweet.  If you haven't visited the food truck GUP yet, you really should.  Follow them on Facebook to find out where they will be each day.  I had some curried cashew tacos that were genius.

Easter Celebrations

These pictures are from the Easter Egg hunt party at my cousin Jackie's house, the day before Easter.  They have a fantastic Easter party every year, since all 3 of their kiddos have birthdays right around Easter time.  Willa had so much fun at the party!  She loved petting the bunnies and talking with the baby goat, and then she got her first shot at hunting the eggs!  We came to the party 2 years ago, but she wasn't even walking yet then so this was much more fun.  She also got to see her cousin, Dax, whom she talks about non-stop.  Its so weird because we don't see Dax that often, maybe once every 3 months or so, but she seriously talks about him all the time.  Any time she finds a toy that she hasn't played with in a while, she tells me we need to give it to Dax.  We bought new toothbrushes the other day, and she wanted a 2-pack so that Dax could have the green one for when he spends the night at our house.  Which he has never done, btw.  I don't know where she comes up with this stuff.

The rest of the pictures are from our house, on Easter day after church.  That darn Easter bunny came while we were at church.  He isn't a morning bunny, just as we are not morning people.  He brought waaaay too much candy, a kite, a new movie and some cotton candy lip gloss.  What a nice bunny.  Don't you  just love our family picture, at the end?  That is what you get when you have a 2 year old, crashing after a diet of only sugar for 2 days.  And that was the best one!

Again, nothing to do with Easter really, but Willa has a new favorite movie.  The Fantastic Mr. Fox.  If you haven't seen it, you must.  Even if you don't have kids or don't watch it with kids, it is a great movie.  If you HAVE seen it, I have to tell you that Willa has been quoting the movie all over the place.  People are going to wonder about us.  She keeps saying things like "Mom, I don't want to live in a hole any more.  It makes me feel poor." And "Are you cussing with me?"  And "I don't have beagle ticks.  Or pelt lice."

Coloring eggs, and Brad's birthday

Easter is my favorite holiday.  I'm pretty sure I like it even more than I like Christmas.  Its biggest selling point to me is the fact that it happens in the spring.  And the colors are so much prettier than any other holiday's colors.  I mean, check out those eggs?!?  This was Willa's first Easter to dye eggs and she had a good time.  She didn't quite understand why we were doing it though.  I am really confusing this girl lately, what with the green pancakes on St. Patty's Day, and now brightly coloring hard boiled eggs.  Its no wonder she has been asking me for purple waffles almost every morning lately.

Another of my favorite holidays is the birthday of my husband.  And I am ashamed to say that this year's birthday was probably a big 'ole let down for poor Brad.  In my defense, I really outdid myself last year.  Surprise party, trip to St. Louis, Supercross and Travis Barker. But, that doesn't excuse the lame birthday this year.  I worked the night before the birthday, then cleaned all day, then thought I could be some sort of sleep-deprived-Wonderwoman and stay awake and take him out for dinner. (Lobster, he always wants lobster for his birthday).  Needless to say, I nearly got us lost driving to the restaurant, didn't make much sense in conversation, almost fell asleep at the table, and didn't even feel well enough to finish my sangria.  You know its bad if I leave alcohol at the table.  So Brad, please accept my blog-apology and lets shoot for making 32 a better birthday, maybe more like 30 was.  Maybe I could make it up to you by taking you to a movie this week?  Maybe Hunger Games?  Oh wait, that's me that wants to see that.  I'll buy you popcorn...And in the meantime, I'll just tell you how much I appreciate your awesome parenting skills, your patience with Willa, you willingness to always have fun, your laid-back personality, your helpfulness, your handiness, and your ability to put up with me!

Growing things again

Willa and I started off the planting this spring!  I am so horribly bad at growing things, for a number of reasons.  Mostly, I forget to water them.  And sometimes its not so much forgetting, as just being kind of lazy.  My hopes for our new home, and all its space to grow things, is that I will improve each year.  Last year's garden was small, and not everything worked out, but it was an ok start.  We had lots of basil and lettuce and squash.  I thought maybe this year we would plant more garden space, but when I got really honest with myself, I realized that I better take another stab at my little garden.  So after today, my little plot of garden soil is planted.  Tomatoes, basil, Brussels sprouts, bell peppers, spinach, lettuce, carrots, kale and peas.  We'll see how it goes.  I'd like to do a few more tomato plants and some cucumbers, maybe a few more types of herbs but first I want to make sure that what I planted today lives.  No sense in killing even more veggies.  Willa picked out the pretty pink flowers that we potted.  She is quite good with plants.  Maybe my plant-killing-genes skipped a generation...

In unrelated news, today was Easter (pictures to follow).  The church service at Southpointe Christian was beautiful.  Powerful sermon, great music.  If you don't know, Brad plays drums with the music team at our church.  Willa was very well behaved, which hasn't happened since she was a tiny infant who couldn't walk or talk.  Maybe I have unrealistic expectations for her, but I don't take her to the nursery, nor do I bring along all kinds of toys and distractions.  I expect that she should be able to sit, fairly quietly and draw or look at a book, or maybe even listen.  I'll give her credit for trying, but some weeks she is just a bit more challenging in church than I would like.  Last week was one of those weeks.  Right after the first round of songs (when it was quiet) she asked me loudly if I needed to go to the bathroom.  Kind of embarrassing.  Then, as the communion tray was being passed (also a relatively quiet time) she asked me if the communion wine was "the kind of beer that daddy likes?"  Hmmm.  Thanks Willa.  And that is why we generally sit in the very back row.