mm hmm.

first off, a special shout out to facebook for the anniversary reminder i received days in advance. forgetting after only three years would have been terrible!...but seriously, a reminder? for the day i was married? really?

we had a sleepover at the nielsens place for easter over the weekend. grandpa of course was there, and so i have a couple of stories to share. actually...this first one happened a few weeks back and i failed to mention it.

are you familiar with those bracelet/ hologram things that people wear with pride and claim that it takes all of their aches/pain/weakness/stress/unhappiness away? perhaps not, but several individuals in the family have bought into that craziness sweet husband included and find joy in trying to prove it's power through simple balance and strength tests. greg's uncle expressed his skepticism and so the bracelet wearers in the family had him stand up so they could perform their mind blowing tricks of the brain tests on him. grandpa watched in horror as they pushed on his arms, spun him around, had him try to balance their weight among other silly things. he shook his head in disapproval and stated "i don't know, this is looking pretty gay!" that, coming from grandpa, make us all burst out in laughter!

on easter evening we, as a family, were discussing our many special talents. that sounds vain, but when i say special, i mean special. magic tricks that rarely work right, gleaking as in squirts of saliva exiting the mouth on command...and yes, you guessed it. that is of course gregory john's speciality, dance moves never before seen in public unless of course you've spent time with michelle, and many other unique qualities that we'd be more than happy to share if you want to come hangout with us sometime! greg's dad was performing one of his famous magic tricks. we were all seated to watch, grandpa included. chuck needed a penny for his trick. grandpa claimed he had pennies coming out of his ears and handed chuck two. we waited for him to get set up. and waited and waited and waited...as time passed, grandpa grew slightly confused as to why he was seated and what he was watching. finally, chuck was ready. he got us all fired up with anticipation. we were on the edge of our seats annnnnd, magic trick fail. this happened a few more times. grandpa grew bored, and maybe a little bit annoyed. he shook his head, as he stood up to leave. "i want my 2 cents back!"

grandpa found his ipod over the weekend. yes, grandpa has an ipod. he nearly sprinted out of his room in excitement to show us his find. ear buds in ear, he starts swaying back and forth to what i assume was the music blaring. he nods his head and smiles with his eyebrows high. i gave him a nod and smile of approval in return. he continues swaying noticing my lack of dancing and asks if i can hear the music. i shake my head no and his dance moves come to an abrupt stop. "no?" he asks at an insanely high volume. i'm assuming the music is fairly loud in his head. "no", i explain. "only you can hear the music from the ear buds. it doesn't play for everyone to hear" my attempt to explain the situation was useless when dealing with a partially deaf man with music at maximum volume blasting into his brain. he removed a bud. "you really can't hear this music? naahhhh, you're just fooling me. you can hear it! right?" the blank look on my face indicated otherwise, but he just thought it was ridiculous that i could not hear this wonderfully loud music that he continued to dance to and ignored me. i then noticed that he had the wall charger plugged into his ipod and the part that would normally plug into the wall was just in his hand. he noticed my curious glances at the object in his hand and explained "isn't this just great! i'm so glad i found this! and look! it's charging right now as we speak!" that's when i could no longer contain my laughter and i needed backup to help explain things to dear old grandpa. i hope patti was able to get through to him.

and with that, i'd like to leave you with well wishes received from a sweet asian waitress to patti at her birthday dinner last year. words i now live by and you should too!

insert your best asian accent now "i wish for you...more money, more happy and more sexy"

have a lovely week!