Update

I know I promised pictures the other day - and I would have been delighted to share some with you. The camera is FANTASTIC. However, when we bought it, the sales guy said it came with a memory stick - and it didn't. So Jerry gave me the stick out of his Dell organizer - which, in theory works really well. Except it is not formatted for my camera and I cannot download the pictures off of it. Crappy. He said there is a way to get them off of it, he just has to figure out how. For those of you who don't know Jerry - that means, "Don't count on it happening soon because it's not important to him."
A quick summary of what's happened in the last couple days (without pictures):
Took B-Man to the Fort Worth Zoo Wednesday afternoon. I love having membership to the zoo because it means that if we're only there for a few hours I don't feel like I've wasted $25. It really does pay for itself in two visits. As usual, we spent the majority of time watching the elephants, giraffes, hippos, lions, zebras, monkeys/gorilla and meerkats. The rest of the animals at the zoo are just an added bonus to B-Man.
The connecting joint between my muffler and the exhaust pipe had rusted through (it was owned by someone up in Illinois before I bought it -they use salt on their roads. So the entire under carriage of my truck has rust. Awesome.) and it was making a horrible rattling sound everytime I started up my truck or sat idling. Jerry's dad knows this guy out in Mineola (about an hour 45 minutes east) who was willing to replace them both for $80 - including labor. WAY cheaper than we could have got it done here in the metroplex. So I packed up the kids and headed out there for the day. Wayne and Linda met us at the shop and we went to McDonalds for a couple hours while it was being worked on. I'm not a fan of the snack wraps. Maybe it just had too much ranch dressing in it or something. Whatever it was, not so much something I'd get again. We went back to the guys shop to find that he was able to just remove the rusted out part, replace it with another piece of piping and welded it all back together - charged me only $20. I love small town shop owners. They know their reputation hangs on honesty and good work and do everything they can to make sure they keep your business. Even with the cost of gas and snacks for the kids, the trip was cheaper than we could have got it done around here. Besides, the kids got to spend most of the day with their grandparents - that's important to me.
I probably go out to my in laws twice a month (alone mostly) so my kids can spend time with Wayne and Linda. When I was growing up I didn't get to see my grandparents that often and I regret that now. With Wayne and Linda only living 2 hours east of us, it makes it very convenient to just hop out there. Sometimes just for a day, other times for the weekend. Now that I am able legally able to travel between Canada and the U.S. I plan on making jaunts up to Canada a fairly regular thing. Not only because I miss my family - but because I think it's important for my kids to know family. With all nine of their cousins within a few years older or younger than them - they could have some really close relationships with them. I think that'd be a great thing for everyone.
My allergies kicked in about three days ago -right about the time the weather turned really nice and started enticing us to be outside all the time. Why?!?! Why must you torture me like this? I have to go back to the ENT specialist and get more drugs so I am not in a perpetual state of watering eyes, sniffle-y nose, pressure headache ... I hate you Texas plants!