the circus is in town

wednesday night we went to the circus for the first time. since you all know me well-enough, i have to start with a disclaimer: being a card-carrying member of peta, i've been very leery of the circus for their reports of animal abuse. it seems that quite a while ago, ringling bros, barnam & bailey circus really changed their position, even opening up an asian elephant conservation. they have gone entirely to positive reinforcement, their violations (if any) are minor- more cosmetic than anything) and seeing them in person would help me to formulate my own, current opinion on the health and well-being of the animals.

so we attended "over the top" which really was over the top! it started at 6:30 with a free all-access pre-show which allowed you to get up close & personal with the clowns, the strong men, and some of the fancy ladies. everyone was super-friendly and the kids loved trying on the actual costumes. tegan and i stopped for a quick photo. you can see them here (images 21-25). as the show started, we were blown away- every act was better than the one before: motocycles on tightropes, contortionists, trapese artists and ladies hanging by their hair, clowns, and clowns and more clowns. it was like a vegas style show- with a booming ringmaster and tons of sequins.

kylinn stood up the entire time, though tegan was exhausted after intermission. the show is 7:30pm-10:00 pm with a one hour pre-show. it was a long night, but definately worth the money. honestly, we loved it and we will probably go back next year. i appreciated that the animals appeared to be well taken care of. the tigers were on the chubby side (in stark contrast to the sleek muscular ones at the zoo) and one elephant had a significant limp. since detroit sent our aging elephants to california, my kids have never seen one, let alone nine amazing elephants. the circus was really awesome, and absolutely worth going. the best part? possibly seeing seven motorcyclists in one of those round cages. it was absolutely insane. it was a really awesome night.

there are more photos and videos in our flickr. enjoy!

peach festival fun

after the bike decorating contest,
kylinn placed third in the bike race!

we love our friends

and you're right, guys... being 30 is way more fun than being 20-something.

a fabulous fourth of july

we spent the long weekend up near caseville in a lakehouse with a huge private beach.
pure relaxation.
moon at dusk why can't we ever just all be ready at the same time?
for melissa: toes, campfire & sunset= priceless
the lakehouse on sand pointe

To quote my neighbor...

From Aimee:

Yesterday my lovely city issued an emergency water ban until further notice. This means no watering grass, flowers, gardens, washing cars, or swimming pools this summer. Are you serious? So my lawn we have worked so hard at to get in good shape is now going to burn??? Does New Haven really need help loosing home values with something like this? Houses are already going for HALF of what we paid 6 years ago. Do I understand that some people in the village are having water pressure issues? Yes. Has this been going on for 6 years and yet city council has failed to do ANYTHING about it? Yes. Mike Barnet, I understand you have a job to do and accept you have to make unpopular decisions. Who am I mad at? The Village. The Village of New Haven has let internal political turmoil dominate the landscape and only rarely addressing true issues of importance. We have pushed the water system to its breaking point and now we are forced to make quick decisions to rectify the situation. Guess what, I don't care. I'm sorry if the Village doens't want to feel pressured into making a decision, but guess what, you have brought it on yourself. Fix the system and allow watering again. This is now VERY personal. Click here to see the story.

damn this country living

due to unforeseen circumstances, i had to take the scenic route home from ky's school yesterday.

in the distance, i could see something in the road.i stopped and waited for it to cross. i waited. more things crossed. i waited. i scooted the car up and lo and behold- it's an entire rafter of wild turkey hens. now, i've heard that turkeys are stupid, but let me tell you: turkeys are really stupid. they were bumping into my car (i was parked) and gobbling so loud that the kids could hear them over the heater/radio/etc. so we sat for about two minutes thinking that they would continue on their way, but no. they were going under the car. no seriously: they decided to sit under my running car!

after waiting for enough of them to moved past my door, so i attempted to get out to shoo the rest away. this feat took several minutes, and i had to push a couple of them because apparently, people and running cars are no match to a turkey.

as i was finally clear, and back in my car, a truck passed us and was sure to laugh at the mayhem. damn poultry.

we are thankful

(summer on the beach in lexington)

thoroughly enjoying global warming

what better way to spend a november afternoon than with ice cream at the park!

post election thoughts

what else can i say than that i'm disappointed.

it's not obama, really, we just knew that he would win (did you see his following on facebook alone?) and if you recall, i was considering voting for him myself, a while back. it's nothing personal, but the bottom line is that we're a military family (my brother-in-law usmc sergent (now, right?) evan vanover did two tours of iraq post 9/11) and that really changes your view on politics. okay, yes, i've always been a liberal republican, but i do agree with the war, and i do not think we should bring troops home. they need to be there. they are defending our freedom, we will not accept defete. perhaps i should also mention that i am still one of the very few bush supporters left. yes, obama, i will support you, too. i may complain, but i do not bash presidents. (now, governors, on the other hand...)

the bigger upset, was in my local politics. at my precinct, i heard the most discouraging comments from those waiting in line- a few, first time voters at 25, 40, 50 years old. there were saying things such as "this one really counts," and "we need to Change, you know." a few were turned away for falsifying documents, some for failing to change an address, and others for not registering. "you know, you have to register every year to vote" someone else chimed in. REALLY? REALLY? so when there is a calling to vote in a historical election, people suddenly jump in our little democratic community- needing to Change. and that just pisses me off, since this record-breaking turnout in over a century was still only at 64%. where the hell is everyone else? frustrating. but at least it was above forty percent. but i digress. as i stepped up to the table to receive my ballot, i realized that they gave me no instructions. the ballot was long and complicated. there was no bold black line dividing the straight-ticket voting area from the rest of the ballot. because i usually vote mixed-ballot, i didn't think much of it, but i then wondered how many irregular voters marked the democrat straight-ticket area, and yet still proceeded to color in all of the other ovals. again, frustrating. i fault the volunteers, though i am certain that the outcome would have been the same.

the worst of all, came in my local politics. namely, the position of village president. we were afraid that our candidate would lose to village family, because a third candidate (with poor spelling and a lack of world history, mind you) would split his votes. indeed, that's what happened. and the village will be forced to be run by the same damn family members that have been running it for nearly a century. the good news, is that we have a killer board, and of course, an embarrassing level of experience with village president recalls, should there be any issues.

my man john accivitti also lost his run for state representive, a significant loss that i feel was created by all of the dirty, negative media that the michigan republican party was flooding my mailbox with. it sure seemed downright nasty. it probably even crossed the line, and yet, the ads were coming from the mrp, and not john himself. i did get a nice letter opener out of the deal, though, but i am incredibly dissappointed.

and finally, stem-cell research passed by an unnerving margin. will someone please put in some serious guidelines to this? though we surely need cures to disease, we don't need clones, and fetal testing. we need ethics.

perhaps that is really the bottom line. we just all need ethics.

god bless america.

that good old highland fling thing

last weekend we attended the 159th annual highland games. for the first time in about ten years the weather was -dare i say- enjoyable, and our kids had the best time ever. we finally bought them kilts in the anderson tartan (adam is trying to talk me into buying my own mcgreagor kilt, but i'm still holding out) and they were talked about wherever they wandered. we even met the most darling man, thomas anderson, from california who had to get a picture with the kids in all of their cute matchy-matchyness. kylinn thought his scottish accent was totally fascinating and showed off some of her sweet dance moves.

*btw, we also have a girls jumper in the same anderson tartan in 1/2T if anyone ever wants to borrow it. i totally forgot about it during grandma's funeral.

freaky

i accidentally drove past a major crime scene around noon today. i looked over at this old farm house because there was a zillion cars parked when i noticed that it was also flooded with news vans, cop cars, mark hackle and surrounded with police tape. now, i come to find out that they had the child murderer at the scene while my kiddos and i were cruising along i really need to quit driving around convicted felons. it scares the crap out of me.

another wild night

hmm. a lot of bar habits as of late. oh well.

so last night was our monthly 'mom's night out' (yes, we do that) so we went to check out cliff erickson performing live at the new cheli's chili.

we had a rockin' good time out. cliff likes to talk to the audience and lord knows that i like to talk back so we were all having such a great time singing along to some neil, cat, elton and johnny and shouting out requests. allegedly, yours truly was at the mike with cliff singing, "landslide" because, seriously... (who doesn't love stevie nicks?!) but i'll believe it when i see some photographic evidence. supposedly there is video to back these claims up, but i don't know if i am willing to let all of america witness such a spectacle yet. melissa told cliff that it was my birthday so he wrote me a song with lyrics along the lines of, "meg meg meagan, you're a hot steaming chic like a hot pocket." hilarious. i think it was actually more embarrassing than the 1989 chi-chi's sombrero incident.

interesting. i seemed to have omitted the best part of the evening:

waitress: may i see your id?
me: sure (fumbling.... hand id to waitress)
waitress: woah! you look really good!!!
me: um. thanks.
waitress: no, seriously. you look really good.

so wtf does that mean? a) 29 now constitutes an old hag or b) or was she simply shocked that i personally look a lot better now than in my license picture? or c) something else. hmm... points to ponder.

anyway, today the kiddos and i went to a bridal shop because i have finally selected my dress for sarah w's wedding. i basically had free choice, which actually is significantly harder than one would think. it took some thought and effort- two things that i do not ordinarily do, but yay! now i just need to figure out what to wear for the black and white party.

so what else? not much! getting ready to bunker down for yet another storm.

fun on the farm

ice ice baby

day out with thomas

more pictures to come!

Swine Lake

a day at the beach

berry picking @ blakes

me: "ky, what do you think if the raspberries?"
ky: "there's jam inside!"

fish fly festival fun

we spent wednesday evening up at the bay rama along with the paweleks. we all had a great time- the kids loved the train ride and kylinn was able to see her current obsession, rosco the clown, yet again.



adam, jeremy and i competed in the "chicken chucking contest" and yours truly won first place for the women's group. that's right, forks, the vegetarian scored a family-size bucket o' chicken from kfc.