Three Minutes and a Rainbow

Have to brag

2011-09-09T17:14:00.003-05:00

It's Friday. On Fridays after school, we try to do something fun, which is USUALLY a trip to Tutti Frutti. However, HRH is still adjusting to the demands on her body and psyche of starting back to school, which means she is also seriously testing the limits of Mommy's patience. Therefore, today, I was less than inclined to sit in "get out of Houston for the weekend" traffic on I-45 coming home from Conroe, and more inclined to try something a little closer to home. We hit the local BBQ joint for Marble Slab ice cream sandwiches (yum!). Little did we know that, due to the wildfires, our local high school football game had been moved from "away" to "home" and we dropped right into a pep rally! We walked in and the girls are "ooooooooooooh, there are CHEERLEADERS here!!!!!" Big Ben's oblivious, as he was trying VERY hard to stick both hands down my v neck shirt right then. We get ice cream, sit down, and one of the GORG cheerleaders comes over and asks the girls if they want their faces painted. Well, DUH.
Then after that, the cheerleaders (who have these FAB huge bows with glitter stripes running down the middle of them that the girls were DYING over so if you know where I can find them, let me know, K?) started warming up and doing some little chants. At this point, the girls were SO focused on them that ice cream was dripping down arms and I didn't even care b/c they looked so cute. And THEN Ben noticed them. The sweet little sweetums was literally staring at these girls with drool running out of his mouth, LOL! (Teething, we'll say). HOW FUN IS THIS!?!?!?!? I love small town living.

We stayed for a couple of cheers, then had to run home b/c Ben was about three shades beyond ready for a little nap. On our way out, the girls saw a sign that said "fire donations here". They asked about it. I told them that I had already gone and donated a couple of times, mainly water from Sam's (did you know that you can get a 32 pack of water for less than $4? That's $20 for 5 HUGE things of water, people.... jump on it and go donate it). As we had already talked about the fires this morning due to all of the smoke around, they are pretty up on what's happening. But what they DIDN'T realize is that there are people out there who have lost everything. Their houses burned down and they don't have anything left. The Hurricane's eyes welled up when she said "even KIDS?!?!?!". And here's where we get to my brag. They are upstairs of their own accord in the playroom, packing a bag or two of toys to take to drop off for kids who have lost everything. We're hitting their closet later, b/c they have so many clothes that it's sinful, and before we drop off at Zach's we'll go to the store and grab a few more things. Here's what my princesses are doing right now :
Again.... don't judge me. It's a PLAYROOM. They PLAY in it and I don't even go up there to look at it. Those playrooms that are totally organized with a place for everything and everything in its place kind of creep me out. What kind of playing goes on in those? Not OUR kind of playing, I'll tell you. We play, we mess, we destroy, but we also GIVE. SO proud of my beautiful (inside AND out) girls :*)

I'm BACK!

2011-09-08T11:54:00.006-05:00

And better than ever! (always wanted to say that). I bring surprises, if you don't know me. Meet Big Ben :

Isn't he scrumptious? Don't you want to just eat him up? We call him Big Ben because he's my mongo baby. I'm so original. We should have called me "Big Mama" when I was pregnant....
but then I might have thrown something at your head and blamed it on hormones.

Life is fabulous. HRH is in the SECOND grade (Mommy cries a little), the Hurricane is in kindergarten (Mommy cries a LOT) and Big Ben is 10 months old (inconsolable). We finally moved into our dream house about four months ago and I'm still unpacking. Don't judge me. I have babies. I'll get it all unpacked and organized when they go to college. For right now, THIS is more important :

Anywho.... I have discovered Pinterest. Consider yourself warned. This is probably going to turn into a 99% crafting/cooking blog, b/c I don't have time to sew anymore. I don't even know where my embroidery machine is :::::shocking gasp::::::. I'm working on a project or two.... will post soon. :) Hope there's still one or two of you out there who care!

Hello?!?!?!?!?!??

2009-01-31T10:20:00.006-06:00

Is anyone there? Does anyone ever even check here anymore? There's cobwebs in the corner of this poor blog, it's so neglected. Someone's going to call WPS (Weblog Protective Services) on me. I suck. I know this about myself and I TRY, but to be honest, this holiday season was SO crazy I was just too busy and too tired to blog. I should have, though, because then you, my adoring public, could have oohed and aahed over the DARLING and AMAZING things I made this Christmas season!! And Halloween and Thanksgiving, too, for that matter!!

Thanksgiving outfits:

Christmas skirts:

Quilt for my mother:

Also managed a bunch of little pillows for the girls' school, and I'm trying to get started on the supercool class pillows for the school auction in February. I'll try to do better about posting. But I'm not making any promises.

What not to wear..... Wings over Houston edition....

2008-10-26T19:25:00.008-05:00

So we went to the air show this weekend. Prince Charming has been campaigning to go to this for YEARS now, so we finally went. After my fifth "Why the HECK would someone wear that to an air show!?" the thought struck me that I should take pictures for my adoring public to enjoy. (Ok, ok, so for Lara. And maybe Hayley :) And my loopie buddies :) Not sure anyone else actually reads this.)

Exhibit A:

Not sure you can see clearly, but Miss Thang has on 4 inch espadrille platform wedges with the ribbons that lace up her legs. This was at like 10:00 AM and she was already limping. NOT the smartest thing to wear to an air show.

Exhibit B:

A slinky sundress and heels? REALLY? I mean, REALLY? It's like 90 degrees outside and we're going to walk and sweat and be all stinky in an hour. Everyone else is wearing blue jeans or shorts and t shirts and flip flops. When you were thinking about what to wear this morning, THIS is the outfit that struck you as ideal? Really?

I pondered the ridiculousness (ridiculosity? Ridiculity? Help me here, teachers!) of this for approximately a minute, and THEN I saw the Air Force guy she was "asking questions about the aircraft" to....
Oh, sweetie. You're forgiven :)

And the t-shirts..... My number one was almost a (read dripping with sarcasm) REALLY attractive and cleancut guy who had on a shirt that said "I'm not a gynecologist, but I'll take a look." I threw up a little in my mouth because of that shirt. I couldn't figure out a way to take his picture of him without him noticing, and I didn't want him to realize he was the object of my attention, so I was bummed. And then I saw this guy (cover the kids' eyes)....
LOVELY. And don't you know she's as proud as she can be of her man? Ick. At a family air show! I swear, some people just shouldn't be allowed to buy their own clothing.

We also went to a family wedding down in Houston and on the way home today I stopped at IKEA for the first time ever, but THAT'S a whole 'nuther post. Maybe tomorrow. ;)

Shiny fingernails!

2008-10-20T21:11:00.003-05:00

::::::::polishing fingernails on shirt:::::::::::
Yep, I've got them! And a bruise on my back from where I've been patting myself ;) I'm proud because I made a dress FROM A PATTERN! Those of you who know me well know that I SO do not use patterns. They skeeve me out. I think they're always so much more complicated than they should be. But I wanted a specific dress for the girls to wear for sister pics on Thursday, and found some material I like, so off I went to cutting out a pattern. It's one my mom had bought and cut me a copy of in both of the girls' sizes. Well, I neglected to get the DIRECTIONS on how to sew the dress together. Of course, those of you who know me well also know exactly what I said at the point I figured this out. (no, not THAT.....) I said "how hard could this BE?". (So I've never claimed to be a genius!) I'm happy to say that after only four phone calls to my mom and one to my sewing guru friend Neile, VOILA!!!!!!!!

It still needs to be hemmed and have buttonholes put in, but I'll do that tomorrow! What do you think? Now to make it in a size 2, lol! By Thursday! I have to sneak in a gypsy skirt for HRH's individual pictures on Wednesday, too, but those only take about 20 minutes, so that's a no-brainer.

A shoutout and I was tagged!

2008-10-17T19:09:00.003-05:00

My very dear longtime friend Angela sent me this DARLING banner for the top of my blog!! How precious is that!? Thank you SO much, Ang! I am so grateful, as I have absolutely NO talent for that sort of thing!

And she also tagged me.....

Here are the rules:

1. Open your pictures folder.
2. Go to the sixth folder.
3. Open the sixth picture.
4. Import into your blog and tell the story.

So here's the photo:
Look at my babies!!! This is from September of 06, so the Hurricane was more of a Tropical Depression at that point in time ;) She was 5 months old and HRH was 2 years and 5 months old. This was back when they were both still full time sleeping with us every night. As little as that bed felt those nights (we only have room for a queen in our long narrow bedroom), I sure do miss those days! I just love how Lu has her arms wrapped around HRH's arm and her face smashed up against her. My sweet little babies! I can't believe that Lu is as old now as HRH was in that picture! That doesn't seem real!

My turn for tagging people! I usually tag my loopie email friends, but I'm going to shake it up a bit now and tag Lara and one of the coolest teachers from the girls' school Hayley. :)

RECHARGE!!!!

2008-10-17T08:09:00.003-05:00

OK, so we've been feeling a little harried and crazy around here lately. It's HARD having two in preschool, making lunches, making sure they have something adorable to wear every day, making sure they have non-flip flops to wear, convincing the Hurricane that if she wants to wear big girl panties to school then she has to start going poopoo in the potty and that dumping poo from her panties into the potty herself isn't sufficient, just waking up on Tuesday through Thursday in time to do everything. And we only live about 2 miles from the school, lol! I can't imagine how fun this will all be when we finally build and move! Anyway, we were needing a family recharge. It's Prince Charming's fall vacation week, and the girls were begging for just two things. To ride on a big airplane like Daddy flies, and to go swimming at the beach. My requirement was a short flight, family friendly place to stay, and booze. Prince Charming went to work and next thing I knew, he had booked us a long weekend in Cancun! LOVE him! We rode down there on vacation passes, which means standby, and it's not really easy to get to Cancun on standby, but we made it. The girls were FABULOUS at the airport waiting through several full flights to finally get on a plane. People movers, people. Best inventions EVER! I think we rode back and forth and back and forth no less than a hundred times. I had a bag full of tricks from the Dollar Tree and gave them the LAST one as we boarded our flight. They both did beautifully. HRH's ears hurt her a little as we were landing, but we made them pop (she says crack) by opening her mouth BIG to see how many tacos she could fit in it at once. A shuttle to the resort and within 30 minutes, Prince Charming decided we needed to stay one more night, so he took care of that while the girls and I stood on our porch and looked at the ocean, which was literally 50 feet or so away.

So we had four days and nights of swimming, beach time, nachos, theme shows, a ferry ride over to Isla Mujeres..........

Isla Mujeres is amazing. The water is so blue that it seriously looks like someone dumped food coloring in it. We didn't take a tour or anything, just rode the little local ferry and stepped onto the island with no plan. SO fun. We rented a golf cart and puttered all around the island.... there is a sea turtle farm that is so much fun! The girls got to pet sea turtles and sharks and the people are SO nice. They treated the girls like little princesses everywhere we went. We drove around while the girls took a nap on our shoulders and just admired the beauty of the island, then found a hole-in-the-wall cafe and had the best meal of our trip. Two shrimp tacos, six cheese quesadillas, four beers, two bottles of water..... less than $20! Can you tell how relaxed and happy we are?

The night before we came home, HRH went to bed saying "I want to stay here forever all my life" and in the airport back in Houston waiting to go through customs there were several amused looks from people listening to the girls begging to go "BACK TO MEXICO!!!" HRH has been browsing through the Continental Airlines magazine, asking about where certain pictures were taken, and has decided that she wants to go to Vegas now. :) I told her to give me a few months to catch up on laundry and stuff first!

The Hurricane, the SEQUEL?!?!?

2008-09-26T19:50:00.003-05:00

After witnessing an exchange between my little Hurricane and our cable guy last night while he was dropping off a new remote (at 7:30 no less! Yay for Suddenlink!.... and by exchange I mean that the Hurricane kept jumping in between our cable guy and Prince Charming while they were discussing remote controls and yelling "hey, SIR! I a pincess! I Awiel! Tister is Seeping Booty. I Cinnerella! Tister Tow Wite! I pwetty! Watch me dance like-a-rella! I a Cheetah Girl! I Aqua. Tister Dowinda and Mommy is Chanel!". :::::sighs::::: At least she said "sir", right?) and realizing how many people say that she acts JUST like me (Okay, okay, it was mainly my mom, and mainly when the Hurricane was in Category 3 or higher mode), the thought occurs to me that I should send my mother flowers fairly often. Okay, really I thought I should send her Vodka and Xanax, but I don't think I can really do the Xanax bit, and the vodka alone would just be sad, right?

On a brighter note, this kid is so freaking smart! She knows all of her colors, has sung her ABCs for over a year now, has been able to spell her name for about that long, too, can count to like 16, knows 0,1,2, and 5 by sight (I still can't figure out how she learned that one), can count to 10 in Spanish, is peepee potty trained (we're working on the other bit), and has a memory like an elephant (they're the ones with good memories, right?). She's also one of the MOST flipping adorable children I have ever seen, has joy radiating from her pores (most of the time :X) and has has the sweetest little voice. I could listen to her talk all day long. Most days. Who am I kidding, that IS what I do most days, lol!!

2008-09-25T15:19:00.002-05:00

Well, if you're a semi-regular reader, (or have read more than once or twice) you know that you can never trust me if I say I'm going to blog "tomorrow". Here in JuliLand, "tomorrow" means sometime after I've slept. I never say how many TIMES I will have slept, lol! To be honest, I COULD have blogged, but I'm known as something of a procrastination queen, and I instead chose to make a nap mat cover for someone at the girls' preschool, do some embroidery, make my very first brisquet ever, blow up the bouncy house and let the girls have some friends over to jump, buy some Halloween fabric, plan some FABULOUS H'ween skirts and dresses for the girls and a few kids I sew for, and be online searching for a new dining room table and chairs that will eventually be my breakfast nook, and trying to figure out something to blog about. No wonder I'm tired!

DWTS, I won't do a HUGE recap, but let me just say that it looks like a fun season! The girls are excited about "Jake Ryan" from Hannah Montana being on there, and HRH thinks that Misty May-Treanor looks "kinda like my teacher!" LOL! DH thinks Misty May-Treanor is pretty, and I think MAKS is pretty, so we're all pretty thrilled around here. Although, I will say that I'm a little irked that they're allowing curse words on it. I'm no saint, and I'm no prude, but it was nice to have a show we could watch together without having to worry about crap like that. Eh, well, I guess we'll just have to say "you can't say that" when we hear bad words, but it still irks me.

Exercising, for anyone following my saga, lol. Prince Charming got me back to the Y this week. I reminded him that LTG wants me to just do the treadmill or elliptical, yet he managed to sweet talk me into some weight machines. Damn those gorgeous eyes of his @@. So ever my biggest cheerleader, he conned me into doing WAY more than I should have done and NOW I'm sore. I'm not sure what muscles are sore, they're in between my collarbone and my armpit. NOT a fun muscle to have sore. (I thought I had heartburn or something, I didn't know WHAT the heck was going on. Stop laughing, Lara.). Then the NEXT day, he had the nerve to get me BACK to the weight machines again. (I know, I know, it's technically MY fault, but I don't really do technicallys) After one too many "work THROUGH the pain"s, I convinced him I was done (and I'm sure it had NOTHING to do with the mathematical equation I was forming aloud that correlated the length of time I had to do those cotton-picking exercises to the length of time until he would see his wife naked again, right?) and we stopped and all was right with the world again, lol.

I'm in a blogging funk. What should I talk about?

p.s.- I realize the ridiculousness of me complaining about the language on DWTS right before I'm cussing about my husband's bedroom eyes, but it's MY blog so get over it ;)

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.................

2008-09-22T19:41:00.002-05:00

I will blog tomorrow, I've started exercising again, with my drill sergeant, oh, I mean Prince Charming. But for tonight, I'm going to sit here on my couch with a nice glass of Merlot and some M&Ms and wallow dreamily in the return of Maks and Alec on DWTS. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::sighs::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Reasons that GaGa's house is better than ours

2008-09-20T14:19:00.003-05:00

According to HRH:

~ "Ducks. And geese. And we get to feed them with corn out of a milk jug. But not the swans, they're mean and I don't like to feed them"

~ Dixie Doodlebug is here (My mom and stepdad's little princess of a dachshund)

~ Tea parties and ironing (my mom has her ironing board toy from when SHE was a little girl with a toy iron and the girls adore playing with it.... wondering how old they have to be before I can let them actually iron REAL clothes :X)

~ Because of how close we are to Aunt TeTe (Keri) and SaSa (Sara) and their families and dogs and cats.

~ Because we made an apple pie all by ourselves here

~ Because we go to Texarkana and Shreveport

~ Pop is here and he will have tea parties with us and feed the ducks with us.

~ Walking down the driveway to get the mail (we have a mail slot at home).

~ Doing homework (with school being out, HRH wanted to do school, so we bought some workbooks and she is BLOWING through them. This kid drinks in new things so fast!

~ Falling asleep with Piper (our dog) in the rocking chair every night

~ Sleeping all in the same room at night

~ Going to visit Grandmere at her "villa" (My 98 year old grandmother who lives in a nursing home right down the road from GaGa's house)

And I have to say, I pretty much agree that these are all wonderful things, but Lord almighty, I am DEFINITELY ready to get back to my own house and my own bed!!!

Ike, the update

2008-09-16T09:05:00.003-05:00

So Prince Charming went to check on our house on Sunday. We're still living here in GaGaLand, the girls are in heaven. We did manage to draw Ike this way, and lived with no power HERE and no telephones for a day or so. But all is back to work now and we're all happy. Prince Charming was TRULY a Prince for going home, cleaning up, and most especially cleaning out the fridges and freezers for me! We were very lucky, in that we had only VERY minor damage to our house. There is a small hole in our roof, looks like a branch speared it in one small spot. It is already patched, though, and can hold a few months until the people with more major repairs get theirs taken care of. We lost two big trees :*( But all in all, we are SO happy. We should be without power there for a while, though. They're telling us 3-4 weeks, so we're just taking it day by day. I am NOT going back there with two small children and a nervous and hyper dog with no power while Prince Charming jets off to Honolulu every week. I know this much, lol!

What have we learned this week?

* If we evacuate and bring about 5 days worth of summer clothes, we can pretty much guarantee a cold snap, temps in the lower to mid 50s in the morning, where the girls say "Mommy, we're brrrrrrrrzy" over and over again. This calls for a trip to Texarkana to Target and Old Navy.

* Lucky Charms make EVERYONE happy, no matter if you're 2 or 62.

* Who needs power when you have a little ceramic picnic set and mini sterling silver tea service?

* Swans will hiss at you if you get too close to try to have them eat out of your hands, but Canadian Geese and some ducks WILL get close enough to eat out of even a 4 year old's hands. (HRH's contribution)

* Having no cell service at a place you're staying when you are a cell phone junkie is HARD. I make the 100 yard walk down GaGa's driveway several times a day to check my messages and check for texts.

* My girls, in their never ending quest for total domination of the toy world, have discovered that when I am suffering from a lack of sleep, I am more likely to buy them things rather than risk having to deal with a mini-meltdown at the store. I never SAW their little pow-wow, but they teamed up and now the Hurricane is staying awake until 11:00 or so, while HRH is waking around 6, which leaves Mommy with ZERO alone and down-time during the day.

* It is NOT a good thing to have a fall-on-the-floor-and-bang-your-forehead tantrum on a tile floor (Hurricane's contribution)

* The lovebugs can see a Redbox from approximately 2.1 miles away on the open road.

* When choosing to evacuate our house, it was quickly discovered that the only irreplaceable things to me in our house were HRH, the Hurricane, and Prince Charming. Everything else is just frosting on my life's cake.

* Mommys should always keep in their purse : hand sanitizer, an extra pair of panties for each child, peanut butter crackers, Tic Tacs, and a small container of the mini M&Ms.

Feeding the geese:
Our tree (taken with a cell in the rain, so not the best pic, but so sad to lose such a beautiful old tree :*( )

*************************ADDENDUM***************************
One more item to the list occurred to me at WalMart just now

* Even when evacuating from a natural disaster, you can trust me to find and buy fabric. Sunday, I found some zebra cotton, which is SO hard to find, I think I bought a whole bolt, and today I scored some Disney Princess print for $2/yard and some Hannah Montana satin for $3/yard on the clearance rack. The girls can have new nightgowns when I get access to my sewing machine again :)

Oh! And!

2008-09-12T20:09:00.002-05:00

FYI, in case you're following my exercise regimen, you can rest assured that I, in my never ending quest to slack off and avoid exercising if I think I can get away with it at ALL, did NOT go to the Y on Thursday and exercise. Instead, I moved all of the mobile things in my backyard into my garage (gas grill, charcoal grill, big plastic slide, Cozy Coupe, Little Tikes picnic table, plastic Adirondack chairs, etc.) and then wrestled my patio furniture to the HUGE pine trees in the backyard (that are probably going to fall on my house tonight or tomorrow) and tied them up. In case LTG is reading this.... OMG I am SO caught up. I could skip exercising for two weeks (and I might :X) and I would STILL be caught up! My legs, back, shoulders, and arms hurt! It sucks! I guess that'll teach me to slack off, huh?

Safe and Sound

2008-09-12T17:54:00.003-05:00

After MUCH discussion (and eyerolling and childish sighing and stomping feet on my part, I eventually just said "I don't CARE if a tree falls on my house, but I don't want us and the girls to be there when it happens" and that worked.) we have safely evacuated to my mother's house. The girls are in heaven because we're at GaGa's. :) They've already fed the ducks, and to their delight, Pop has one so tame that it will come and eat right out of their hands! I will definitely be getting pictures of that as soon as the rain lets up.

We didn't have the horrible traffic that we expected, mainly because we took back roads. The highlight of the trip HAD to be when Prince Charming and I, struggling not to laugh our butts off or even dare to look at each other, because we would have totally lost it had we looked at each other, discovered that we had downloaded the NON-radio version of "Hollaback Girl" a little too late and were trying to convince HRH and The Hurricane that Gwen Stefani was saying "Oooooh, that's my ship that's my ship" you know, like she has a cool boat! And then that "this ship has bananas.... B-A-N-A-N-A-S", because she's so nice that she uses her ship to take bananas to monkeys at zoos all over the world. I'm 85% sure that they bought it. We'll see what they say in front of GaGa. Because you KNOW if they figured out that was a bad word, they'll be using the heck out of it while we're here. They're diabolical like that.

Prayers for all of our friends and family who are riding the storm out in the Houston area.

Eek!! Ack!! IKE!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-10T19:49:00.003-05:00

So judging from the increasingly frantic phone calls by my sister (not Lara, another non-blogging one), and a few "concerned" calls from my mom, it seems that Hurricane Ike might be heading our way. If I was able to watch anything on the television besides Noggin or Disney, I might know this. and if I spent my online time reading news rather than emailing and checking blogs and Perez Hilton (I know, I know, but I can't help it), I might also know it. I really haven't been THAT worried about it. However, Houston ISD is canceling things right and left starting Friday morning, and Brazoria county seems to be evacuating now, so maybe I should start thinking about things.

Prince Charming volunteered to reposition airplanes if they need him to, and if he does that, the girls and I will hitch a ride. But if he doesn't, we're staying here I guess. So, tomorrow, I guess I'm off to the store for necessities. Should be fun (NOT). I sat in line this evening to fill my gas tank. Ugh. So far, I'm planning on grabbing stuff like water, beef jerky, peanut butter, snacks for the princesses, baby wipes, paper plates, matches, can soup/pasta, etc. Any ideas?

Holy crap I just googled:

*****addendum*****
The thought occurs to me that maybe this would classify as a good excuse to not exercise tomorrow? I wonder what LTG would think.

Good Trainer/Bad Trainer

2008-09-09T19:31:00.003-05:00

So I met with my little trainer gal (LTG) today. She's darling. She's perky. She's like 12. She calls me ma'am. And I'll bet my eating a big bowl of lima beans that she doesn't have an ounce of cellulite anywhere on her body. I freaking HATE lima beans. I'd rather eat just about anything in the world. Except maybe hot dogs. Don't ask. I can't explain it. It's just one of those things.

So anyway, I meet up with LTG at 10 this morning. (It takes me an hour to drop the Hurricane off at school and convince her that she wants to stay and play. For some reason, she's always sure that she doesn't. Never mind that on Wednesdays, when HRH goes to Pre-K and Hurricane is with me, she gripes at me all day about "why come tister go to school and me not get to?" She's nuts. Comes by it honest, though) My friend J was meeting her trainer (let's call her Lucifer) at the same time. OMG I am thanking my lucky stars that I got LTG rather than Lucifer! She's a freaking monster! J works her rear off. She's so much more dedicated than me. I'd stop going and start screening phone calls. LTG is a doll, she has me fill out paperwork about why I'm there.

* Reason for starting an exercise regimen : to shut my husband up.

* What was your reason for stopping previous exercise regimen : apathy and I never liked my shoes.

* What would you like to accomplish with this exercise regimen : world peace, my children sleeping, $2/gallon gas and fewer dimples on my ass.

* Do you have any physical conditions that would keep you from exercising? : unfortunately, no

* Has a doctor ever warned you against physical activity? : No, but in elementary school Mrs. Carlton told my mother "why bother" when it was time to sign up for dance classes. And I imagine there are countless yoga instructors who will want to throw me out of their nice, peaceful classes b/c I can't keep my trap shut.

And so on and so forth. LTG seemed to be amused, but all answers were the truth! She set a goal for me to work out 3-4 times a week for 20 minutes. WHOA there Nelly! Prince Charming has been busting my butt for 40 minutes on the elliptical this week! I've been hoodwinked!!! I SO cannot wait for him to get home from this latest trip so I can tell him I have it on authority I shouldn't go more than 20 minutes now. :) :) :) She then proceeds to show me around the cardio room. (listen to me all throwing out the lingo like I'm all that! Are you impressed?) I heard "this is the treadmill, you push this big green button to get going". Seriously? Do I look that dumb? Did I fall down walking down the hall to meet you? What's up with that? So I say "Oh! You mean the one that says 'start'?" Just to make her aware that I can read. Then I met my old buddy the elliptical. I told LTG that we were friends. I'm not sure Elliptical is doing anything for my glutes even though I'm doing glute workouts, though, b/c I'm not sore at ALL. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, which might justify LTG treating me a little like an idiot.

She leaves me to exercise. I decide a trip to the car to grab my headphones is a good idea, so I can watch The Price is Right and moan at the bad guesses with the septuagenarian on the reclining bicycle next to me. As I'm walking out, I have the thought that my friend J is working out right in front of the windows with Lucifer. I'm sure she sees me skipping down the stairs while she's lifting 80000 pound weights while hopping on one leg and reciting the Declaration of Independence and thinking "THE HELL she's leaving!!!" I was SO tempted to turn around and stick my fingers in my ears and waggle them and stick out my tongue at her, but then I remembered that I'm 33. I grab my headphones, head back inside, work on the elliptical, record my time (I only padded it 5 minutes) in my little record sheet in LTG's binder and then head home! No harm, no foul! This isn't hard! Next up? YOGA!!!!! I have to find out when they're doing classes.

p.s.--> Can you believe that the spell checker doesn't recognize lima beans?!?!??! I guess I could capitalize it, but that would make it Lima beans, and I'm not sure they're from Peru, you know?

p.s.2--> Upon further reading, I'm not sure it's apparent in the title that the "good trainer" is LTG and the "bad trainer" is Lucifer. I suck at blog titles. But now you know, so it's all good I guess.

Random Sunday

2008-09-07T16:12:00.002-05:00

I got featured on Good Mom/Bad Mom's BS Sunday again! Yay me! Thanks, Jenny and Mindy! You gals rock! :)

I read a LOT of blogs, and see so many neat pictures of people's daily activities. They'll talk about a Saturday evening spent in their backyard watching their children playing, etc., and it will show a view of a picnic table worthy of Martha Stewart. I wonder if people really LIVE like this? People with small children, that is. Here's what MY Saturday night in the yard watching the kids play looks like:
Ahem.... take note, if you will. Extension cord left for children who don't listen when I tell them not to run to learn a valuable life lesson :X, naked baby doll who has been abandoned by her fickle two year old mother, playhut balls all over (not showing the ones in the road that we leave for people driving down our street to dodge, we do this as a public service to amuse them.), the thing that looks like a fuzzy pink spider halfway down the middle of the left side of the picture is actually HRH's hair accessory choice of the day (it's a flip flop clip, she LOVES them), lovely half-painted/half-chipped toenails on yours truly, and what you can't see is my dear daughter who decided to jump "nakey bo" meaning that she didn't feel the need to put her pants back on after going potty 5 minutes before this. She had on panties, though. And a shirt. We're not HEATHENS! Oh, and this is our FRONT yard, not the back. Way to drive up the property value, no? Bet the people on the end of our street who are selling LOVE us :X

I haven't exercised since Friday. Was that Friday when I faced the evil elliptical machine? I think it was. Anyway, I haven't had a chance since then. Come on, people.... who DIDN'T see this one coming?

And as a final note, I just have to say I love my friend Dianne. There aren't many people who would laugh at me saying I'd show up at her house if she died suddenly and tragically with a UHaul to steal fabric before her extended family got there. :X But, hey, I also offered to get rid of anything she needed me to before kids and parents got there! That balances things nicely, right? Right?

Have shoes, will ellipticate?

2008-09-06T21:50:00.005-05:00

Or whatever it is that you call what one does on the elliptical machine. I found some shoes. With MUCH help from HRH (who was gunning for some hot pink and black shoes with skulls and crossbones on them, plus rhinestones) and the Hurricane (Lime green wedge espadrilles with ballerina laces up the leg...... girlfriend has STYLE!), I found some nice little Asics. I've been told those are good for people with high arches, and I've also been told I possess a pair of high arches. Before now, the only arches I really concern myself with are the golden ones. Both for their fries and for the newly discovered Redbox. Anyway, I got those, found a couple of cute little workout shirts on the clearance rack at Kohl's (best sales hands down of ANY department store), and headed home for a rest. It's hard work gearing up to exercise!

We get home and Prince Charming is like "Alright! Let's get changed and exercise!!!" I reminded him ever-so-nicely that I had already walked all over Kohl's, but he didn't seem to think that counted. Nevermind the skill that it takes to find and try on a pair of sneakers with a sleeping two year old lovebug and a four year old who demands to know why she can't buy a few pair of shoes "since we're already here".

So, we get changed and head to the YMCA. The girls happily (shock!) prance into the child care area, mesmerizing all around with their beauty and charm (not a shock). We leave them holding court over the rest of the group and head to the room with treadmills and things. Prince Charming says "let's try the elliptical". How hard could THAT be? Really! I'm such a good sport that I jump on and get moving. He watches me for a few minutes, then reaches over and turns my machine on. Oops :X I got my headphones plugged in so I could watch some news and start exercising my little heart out. I feel the burn in my legs. I'm thirsty, I'm sweating, my legs feel like jello. I glance down at my little monitor to see this:

Ye, ladies and gentlemen, I had burned exactly 13.9 calories. What kind of racket is this?!?!?!? I'm busting my butt and I worked off 7 Tic Tacs?!?!?!? Nuts. I stopped ellipticating (I'm going to assume this is a real word) to take a picture and the evil machine beeped at me and said this:

How rude!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, we did that for 35 minutes, Prince Charming kept turning up his volume on his headphones. I think maybe I whine a little :X

We did some random torture machines. I have weak deltoids (I think that's what it was), but very strong shoulders and back and surprisingly strong abs. (note: I did not say FLAT abs @@).

Picked up the lovebugs, where they were proud to show off the necklaces they made in our absence. They did great :*)

The girl who's going to be my little "trainer" and help me learn what to do called me today. We're meeting Tuesday morning while the lovebugs are in preschool. This should be interesting :)

Confessions of a LAZY person

2008-09-05T12:44:00.003-05:00

Those of you who know me well are fully aware of my extreme aversion to exercise (I'd probably rather just not eat). I've gone through phases of my life where I occasionally exercise, and it doesn't KILL me, but I'm just not a fan, let's say. Prince Charming, on the other hand, is a supreme exerciser. He bikes, swims, runs, etc. He says it's so he can eat what I cook and not gain a thousand pounds (I do NOT cook low-fat, lol). He enjoys it, though. He trains to do the BP MS150, a 180+ mile bicycle ride to raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis. (Why they don't call it the BP MS182 is beyond me. It SOUNDS more impressive, no? I certainly wouldn't shave any miles off of it, I'd want credit for every single inch. I should start calling the walk from my room to the kitchen the JB MM80 feet... or however long it is, I'm not a great judge. Wonder if people would pledge money to fund my M&M addiction?)

Anyway, I digress. Prince Charming managed to catch me in a moment of weakness and "what the heck am I going to DO with my time while the girls are in preschool" to convince me to join the YMCA so we can go work out together. While doing the facility tour, I drew some amused looks from the tour-giver when she was all excited about showing me the "cardio room" (or as it looked to me the "torture chamber with brightly colored blow up balls and catchy pop music playing". PC told me those are called exercise balls. I always called them dodgeballs.) and I told her "I'm just here for the yoga". I could do yoga, right? It's stretching and stuff. Looks peaceful. Cute pants. No shoes. Lara says I have good balance, I can do some freaky windy tree pose she showed me and balance for longer than she thought I would be able to. That's an accomplishment when you've got these freakishly long limbs, too!!

After we signed up, they offered us this thing where a personal trainer will go around with you and show you how to use all of the equipment like elliptical trainers, stretchy machines, pushy weight thingies, dodgeballs, etc. Stop laughing, Lara. For 12 weeks, they'll keep in touch with you and "check on your progress". Prince Charming signed me up. I have a feeling I'm going to be my trainer's favorite person EVER (NOT!). I'll keep you posted.

So now he's all "When are we going to work out? Let's go exercise! Come on!! FEEL THE BURN!!!! WORK IT WORK IT WORK IT!!!" (he's a little crazy, but he sure is nice to look at, so I'll overlook it). My exercise project for today? Go buy some shoes to exercise in. Seriously. I don't own a single pair of sneakers. Well, I have some cute blue ones, but they're totally just cute to look at and would be mad at me if I sweat in them.

I will report in tomorrow on the great shoe hunt.

Special Blog Award?

2008-09-04T11:05:00.002-05:00

I wonder if someone would like to nominate me. I'm guessing I might be eligible for either "Worst blogger EVER" or "Most inconsistent blogger of the year". Sorry :X We've been busy!

We spent a long weekend at my parents' house for my big sister's birthday. The girls LOVE going to GaGa and Pop's house. They get to see their cousins, who are quite possibly the most adorable boys on the planet (no offense to anyone reading with sons)

The cousins just adore each other, and there are many tears on our side when we have to leave. I've heard no fewer than two or three times a day "When can we go back to GaGa's house?" since we got home. They are trying to convince us to let them have a sleepover at GaGa's "with NO mommy and NO daddy". ACK! We've never done that before. So Prince Charming and I are thinking we might just try it. Maybe a weekend at The Arlington is in order for us. :)

We also started school. HRH is in Pre-K and the Hurricane is in two day Mother's Day Out. They both did GREAT the first day. I told them they looked too stinking cute to be sad and that seemed to work. HRH wouldn't have been sad regardless, she has been ready for this for over a month. She loves it, and she has a fabulous teacher.

I made the skirts kind of from this pattern : http://grandrevivaldesign.typepad.com/photos/ruffled_skirts_tutorial/index.html . I modified it a little, but it made a big difference, IMO. If you're interested in how, just leave a comment and I'll email you.

The Hurricane did much better than I expected her first day. A dear friend is working up there and checks on her a lot (::::::::::::smooches to Neile::::::::::::::::), so I can rest easy knowing she's with people who love her. :)

There are more pics at their other blog, if you're interested (or there will be as soon as I get both class "room mom" letters written and ready to send home today and get their blog updated).

And now.... a conversation with my two year old......

2008-08-19T19:18:00.003-05:00

TH (the hurricane) : Mommy, I go 'lympics. I be nimnist. I do niministastics. I be pantassic. (fantastic)

Me : Oh, baby, of course you can, you can do anything, you're great.

TH : I not great! I TWO!

Me : you're right, you ARE two. You're a big girl

TH : I not big girl! I PINCESS! I LULU!

Me : Ok, you're a princess. Whatever.

TH : YOU NO WHATEVER ME MOMMY! I a PINCESS!

Me : What kind of princess are you?

TH : I a LULU PINCESS! I PWETTY!

Me : You are GORGEOUS!

TH : No, Mommy, I PWETTY!

Me : I give up.

TH : Why you give up? What give up? I no give up.

Me : No, you NEVER give up. You get that from me. Sorry.

TH : Dat's okay, Mommy. I love you big much.

Me : I love you big much, too, Lu. I love you seven hundred and forty five jellybeans and three thousand six hundred and eighty two teddy bears.

TH : Mommy, you silly.

A conversation with my four year old

2008-08-18T19:39:00.002-05:00

HRH : Mommy, I told Tyler when we get big I might marry him.

(Tyler is a friend's 8 yr old son)

Me : (choking a little) Oh, really? What'd he have to say about that.

HRH : He said no, he's not marrying a girl. Especially a little one.

Me : When was this?

HRH : When we went to Incredible Pizza while you were at your meeting.

(PTA meeting, Prince Charming met a friend and they took the kids to IP as friend's wife is on the board with me)

Me : Hmmmm, what did you say to that?

HRH : I told him, "we'll see" (said with a sage nod of her head).

Methinks Tyler might ought to watch out in about 15-20 years ;)

My Sunday.....

2008-08-17T18:30:00.003-05:00

My day started with getting a mention on Good Mom/Bad Mom's BlogShare Sunday..... Woo hoo for me!

You'd think that would be the start of a great day, wouldn't you? Yes? Well, let me fill you in, LOL! After a night of ENTIRELY too little sleep, thanks to watching Nim's Island with the lovebugs and then Treasure Island 2 with Prince Charming (side note - when did Nicolas Cage morph into someone kind of creepy looking?), then a molar-teething toddler who wakes up during the night demanding all sorts of things....
~Owie, my legs hurt
~Owie, my teef hurt
~I want to snuggle my daddy
~I want to snuggle my sister
~I'm hungry
~I'm thirsty
~I want milk
~I want water
~I need to go peepee
~I need to go peepee again
~I want my mommy
~I ready get up
~I want a breakfast bar
then her saving grace, the reason I don't toss her out in the backyard and lock the door:
~Mommy, I sowwy I not sleepy. I love you so much. I love you like this (big hugs).

Fast forward to said sleepyhead (once she fell back to sleep) wakes up at almost 9! WOO HOO! Wants a Lunchable for breakfast, but whatever. I'm not going to fight her to eat Lucky Charms.

We get a phone call inviting us to lunch at Papi and TiTi's house, NICE! I don't have to fix lunch! Prince Charming is leaving this evening for Rio de Janeiro (all together now.... awww.... poor thing), so dinner is easy too! I'm having Sam's brand Cajun trail mix and chocolate pie. HRH opted for peanut butter crackers followed by a Danimals drinkable yogurt and the Hurricane swears she just wants strawberry yogurt. Great day, no?

I take them to make a QUICK run to Hancocks (stop laughing at me, I'm SURE it's possible. Maybe not for me, but I really thought I just had to run in and grab some purple embroidery thread, as NONE of the seven shades I already have match an outfit I'm monogramming for someone). Well, they're having a MASSIVE sale! I thought we'd browse around a little, giving Prince Charming some time to take a little nap before he leaves on his red eye tonight. Five minutes in, the Hurricane starts crying pitifully because I choose to NOT buy tacky-looking Hannah Montana fabric that costs almost $10 a yard. I get her calmed down by letting her choose some patchwork woven fabric (adorable) for $2.69 a yard! SCORE! Works for about 45 seconds. Then she finds something else to be upset over. Fast forward a few minutes and she's so mad that I really expect an employee to come and ask me to leave (or call CPS). Doesn't want in the cart, doesn't want me to hold her, doesn't want to walk. I'm not quite sure what options she's leaving me at this point. She's escalated to telling me (And I'm saying "telling", while what I really MEAN is screaming at the top of her lungs to me) that "you NOT my mommy! Sister is my mommy! I no LIKE you! I go HOME!" but she doesn't want me to drive her home. At this point, I flat out tell her it's a 4 mile walk so she'd better get started if she wants to be home before dark @@. She's thirty seconds away from a full-floor tantrum, when she suddenly decides *I'M her mommy again. This is probably due to the fact that she just pooed in her panties and her NEW Mommy (HRH) has declined the option of cleaning her hiney-bo and figuring out what she's going to wear as her lame-o REAL Mommy (yours truly) forgot an extra pair of panties. The Nose of the South (HRH) loudly proclaims her displeasure at the aroma emanating from our little Hurricane's drawers. ALL the way across the store to the yucky employee bathroom. Lovely day I'm having. Really. Banner day in mommyhood here!

Get her cleaned up, then get back out and some strange virus has affected my lovebugs. They've been stricken and are unable to hear my voice! Odd! Something tells me that the Hancocks employees might not appreciate me screaming my fool head off at my little ingrates like I FEEL like doing, so I take deep cleansing breaths and calm my racing pulse and rapidly rising blood pressure. At this point, HRH is doing something (I still am not sure what) that causes her to fall, her flip flops flying across the aisle, hitting her head on the wheel of my shopping cart. REALLY?!?! SERIOUSLY?!?!? I'm a good person (generally, just don't drive slow in front of me), what the HELL is the universe trying to tell me here?!?! I stop browsing through all of the cute fabrics on sale, quickly get my two measly selections cut, check out, and go out to the car. I have to enforce the "you weren't good listeners and making good choices at the store, so you don't get the popsicle we talked about, you were WARNED!" rule, which means they're going to gang up on me and yell at me for a while. But they're tired. No naps, so it shouldn't last too long, right? Oh my GOODNESS!!!!!! My lovebugs are half German and half Mexican. Yep. I think today was a record-setting 45 minutes of crying anger to the meanest Mommy in the world. Get home and I've never seen Prince Charming pack his flight bag quite so quickly. Can't say I blame him, but he'd better bring me one HECKUVA present back from Rio, LOL!! At what point is it too early to add vodka to your iced tea? :X

So, the high point of my day was Mindy and Jenny deeming me worthy of a mention. They're so cool, I'm honored. I wonder if this will up traffic on my blog? Maybe I'll start getting lots of comments? I can dream, right? Regi says if I REALLY want a lot of traffic, I need to be controversial. Start talking about penises (penii?), my inlaws, things like that. Guess I'm doomed to mediocrity ;)

How I spent my summer........

2008-08-16T12:35:00.002-05:00

My friend Dianne , in honor (celebration?) of four of her kids going back to school, posted a "what I did this summer" blog entry. This got me thinking..... how in the world can summer be almost over? This is only a technicality here in Southeast Texas, as we probably have at least three more months until we have to break out cool weather clothes..... but I digress..... What have *I done this summer? As busy as I've been, you'd think my list would take a few hours to read.

~ Swimming. HRH figured out swimming with no floaties and no lifejacket this summer. All by herself! We are so proud of her! She went, in about two weeks time, from not wanting to get her face wet, to standing on the side of the pool yelling "CANNONBALL!" and jumping in and swimming to the stairs all by herself. :-)

~ Cleaning carpets...... the Hurricane decided she is a BIG GIRL and will not wear panties any more. After much discussion (discussion meaning Mommy saying "let's put on a dipey so we don't peepee on the floor" and Lu yelling "NO! I BIG GIRL! I WEAR PANNIES! PRINCESS PANNIES! HANNAH-TANNA PANNIES!"), it finally clicked in her gorgeous little head and she's fairly successfully pottying like a big girl! Some day, no accidents at all! Yesterday was a banner day, as after a nice meal out for Mexican food, we were strolling around Office Depot picking up the last few things on our school supply list, and she stops and all of a sudden yells at the top her her (very impressive) lungs "MOMMY!!!!!!!! I NEED GO POOPOOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I think everyone was sufficiently proud ;) We ran to the bathroom and she made it! No poo in the panties and all the poo in the potty!! She got lots of special attention for that, even a high five from the nice lady waiting in line!

~ Beach trips. We spent a week in Gulf Shores with Mommy's family , a long weekend in Port Aransas with Daddy's family, and many an afternoon out on Lake Conroe at the little beach area by the dam. The girls call it the "dam beach" :X I actually have a tan for the first time in probably 15 years!

~ Watching my babies grow up entirely too darn fast for my liking. This summer, HRH started swimming and actually WANTING to be away from me, like hanging with her Dad or her grandma or cousins or the neighbors. I'm still not sure how I like that. She's beyond thrilled that she's starting Pre-K in a few weeks. She can't wait to meet her new teacher and see her new friends that are going to be in her class. She's morphed into a teenager it seems some days. Evidently, we're going to have quite the little fashionista on our hands..... for our week at the beach in Gulf Shores, she packed 10 pair of shoes. On the trip, she bought 5 more with her allowance money. ACK!

The hurricane has potty-trained (more or less), moved into a big girl bed, and started looking WAY too old! She says she's excited about starting "school", she's going to go to Mother's Day Out two days a week, but I'm not suse she realizes that Mommy's not staying there WITH her, lol!

All in all, a highly successful summer, albeit one that has flown by so fast and been so busy I still feel like my head is spinning!

Now whatever am I going to do with myself when they start school?!?!?!?

Skype is the coolest thing EVER!

2008-08-13T10:16:00.002-05:00

So our new computers came with webcams, which we were SO excited about. We've been using Skype to talk to Prince Charming when he's overseas on a trip, since we don't have worldwide cell service. Coolest invention ever, in our minds! The girls LOVE it, we set the computer down on the floor in the living room and all cram into the little camera area so he can see all of us at once. They take turns doing goofy stuff for him (all the more cool because they can see themselves in the bottom corner of the screen) while I follow them around with the computer so they stay in screen. The Hurricane, of course, feels the need to act out her latest "niministastics" feats for him, while HRH mainly just strikes pretty poses like she's "vogue-ing". Hey, whatever our God-given gifts, we have to embrace them!

In our Skype-induced euphoria, we thought it would be cool to see what other family members we could video-call. So I emailed my uber-cool and up-to-date on all things neat sister Lara to see if she had a webcam. She emails back, something to the effect of "I thought those were only for pervy things". Kind of makes me wonder what the salesman at Fry's thought when we both mentioned webcams as a must on our new computers :X

p.s.--> It's 2008.... why does spell-check not recognize the word "webcam"?

p.s. 2 --> Oh, evidently it's supposed to be spelled as two words. Whatever. I'm sticking with my way!

You can do it, you GO, GIRL!!!!!!!!

2008-08-12T10:30:00.003-05:00

So at Christmas, Papi and TiTi gave the girls a "Get in Shape, Girl" Gymnastics set, which consisted of a pink plastic balance beam, a ribbon wand, a super cool pink and purple gymnastics leotard, and an instructional DVD. The Hurricane has become QUITE the little gymnast the last few months. We literally watch the DVD at least 2-3 times a day, even in the car. When they watch it in the car, it trips me out b/c it totally sounds like a SNL skit, Amy Poehler really could nail imitating the gymnast, Lindsey. I'd LOVE to see that!

~Hi, girls! I'm LINDSEY! I'm a GYMNAST! I can stretch, balance, and twirl! I can teach YOU to be a gymnast, too! You'll feel like a champion in NO TIME!

Anyway, the DVD goes through the workout, from the opening song "Gymnastics are FANTASTIC! Gymnastics are FANTASTIC! Balance, turn and twirl, be a gymnast, give it a whirl..... balance, turn and twirl... you can do it, you GO GIRL! You've got talent, you've got shine, just follow me and you'll do fi-i-i-ine!!" sung to future Olympians twirling around and hamming it up a bit. My favorite is the slow-mo video clip of Lindsey doing what seems to be a version of The Wiggles "do the monkey" dance while the camera goes around her in a circle. Her ponytail (which shows what I believe just might be crimped hair) bounces perfectly! Wonder how many takes that took :)

to the stretching song "stretch, stretch, REACH REACH! Come on, girls, do it with ease! Stretch, stretch, stretch it out, gymnasts are the BEST no doubt!" during which you stretch everything from your arms to your wrists ("Roll your wrists, side to side.... right to the left with gymnast pride!") to your legs ("lunge, lunge, steady now.... get a good stretch, feel it WOW!") to your ankles to your neck (this can even be done in the car, as we've discovered here)....

to the post-stretching song "Shake, shake, shake it out, we're all warmed up, there is no doubt", at which point you jump around acting like a crazy person, shaking your arms and legs and giggling maniacally. (More than a little awkward if you're doing this while the gas meter reader guy is in your backyard and catches a glimpse of you :X At this point, you have two options, drop to the floor, pretending to be having a seizure, but realize that you run the risk of him calling 911 for you, or just going with it, you can even throw in a wave and blow a kiss.... we chose this option. I think he's probably going to request a route change.)...

Now on to the REAL gymnastics! We're reminded by Lindsey that gymnasts have to be flexible, they need to be able to stretch and bend and reach in all different ways! She also warns that it takes a lot of practice (we've definitely got that covered here!) but it's a lot of fun! She teaches us how to present ourselves, the Hurricane can do this one perfectly :) She goes through some "gymnastics for dummies" which, is nowhere NEAR as fun as the warm ups and the shake it out. boooooo-ring. gymnastics, mount the beam, turn, yada yada yada...... Lindsey is very conscientious to tell us "good job, girls!" when we do something to her satisfaction. We do a whole routine! Another great song! "You're graceful, you're poised, you have finesse, you've got what it takes to be the best!"

Then we move on to the ribbon wand..... nothing spectacular, a lot of getting whacked in the head, across the back, fighting over who gets to have the actual wand and who has to use the one Mommy made (which by all accounts sucks), etc., at our house. It totally makes me think of feature twirlers... you former band people know what I'm talking about! The Hurricane's second favorite part of the DVD is in this section (her first is the "shake shake shake it out" part), the ARABESQUE! She does this anywhere and everywhere she can find an audience. She'll say "hey hey hey HEY! Watch me do my niministastics!" and do an arabesque, and then follow it with her "superstar" pose (similar to Mary Katherine Gallagher's):

Freaking PRECIOUS, I tell you!... anyway, now we do a ribbon routine! How these songs didn't win any awards is beyond me! I wonder if it's Lindsey singing them..... I wonder where Lindsey is now. This video has to be decades old, LOL! I googled, but couldn't find anything on her. Lindsey reminds us at the end of the video that when she first started gymnastics she couldn't do everything perfectly, and to not get discouraged, and to practice practice practice!!

"Practice, practice, stretch every day! Practice Practice, reach, hey hey. Practice Practice, have some fun! Practice, practice you're number o-o-o-o-o-ne!" at which point, HRH feels it necessary to remind the Hurricane that technically SHE'S number one, and the Hurricane is number two. Insert lovely pictures of girls holding the enclosed score cards (10s, of course) and gold medals, which were NOT included, and I have to hear every freaking day three or four times "where are OUR medals, Mommy?" Thanks a bunch, GISG people @@.

Being that the Olympics are on right now, we're really enjoying watching ACTUAL gymnasts (no offense, Lindsey) do routines. Of course, the favored events are the balance beam (the girls want to know why the Olympians don't get a pink one and they feel sorry for them about that) and the floor routine. The Hurricane attempts to mimic the floor routine, which is just about the best entertainment EVER. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do when the Olympics are over. And what really sucks is that the local rec center doesn't do gymnastic classes for kids under the age of 3. Ugh.

Future Ina Gartens

2008-08-08T16:26:00.008-05:00

Ok, ok, maybe more like Sandra Lee, lol..... we like to take shortcuts! Lara and her supersweet boyfriend Jeff walked me through how to make this as this was our first time. I'm sure you can make this with homemade pizza dough, and I probably will next time, but THIS time, we used frozen bread dough, the Mrs Rhodes brand, or maybe it's just Rhodes brand, where you get three loaves of white bread dough for like $2 or something ridiculous like that! Set it out in the morning and let it thaw and rise during the day...... it basically doubled. Then you roll it out (use lots of flour for sticking, and don't forget to cover it while thawing or spray it with Pam or something. We forgot that :X

Anyway, roll it out into a big rectangle, then cover it with preferred toppings. Prince Charming and I had pepperoni, black olives, and mozzarella cheese. HRH and the Hurricane had just the olives and cheese. Next time we're trying italian sausage, bell peppers, onions, green olives, pepperoni, etc.... the works! Then you roll it up in a big jelly-roll style roll and bake it. We baked it around 350 for like 45-50ish minutes. I also brushed the top with olive oil a little before I baked it. It was SOOOO yummy! The only problem we had is that we had a big bubble in the middle of the roll..... any suggestions for how to prevent that? Inger?

My budding cheftastic geniuses :*)

Also, in hindsight, I'd use WAAAAAAAAY more toppings..... I'd stuff that sucker full of them, lol! But overall, WAY yummy. Major thanks to Lala and Jeff for the idea :) :) :) I'm sure we'll be having this probably weekly from now on.

Things I do NOT (and will probably never) understand

2008-08-07T14:02:00.003-05:00

~ How my newspaper delivery person can manage 50% of the time to make my paper land in an ant bed @@. Also on the subject of newspaper people, why they will double bag my paper almost every day EXCEPT for days that it rains. WTH is up with that? I called and asked the paper once and no one had an answer for me, lol.

~ What would possess someone to pull out in front of my car on a two lane road when there is like half a mile of NO traffic behind me.

~ How my kids survive on so little sleep. And also how *I survive on so little sleep!

~ Sleeveless turtlenecks. I mean, really.

~ Why automakers don't put one of those hot wire thingies from the rear defroster at the bottom of windshields to speed up defrosting your front windshield. Who do I have to write a letter to about that!?!?

~ How I can spend $200 a week on groceries and never have anything to eat in the house.

~ Doctors/nurses who warn you that (men can stop reading now if they're squeamish) checking your cervix might be uncomfortable (while you're in labor). Come ON. That's like saying the Biltmore is a pretty little cabin. They could at least be honest and tell you "this is going to hurt like a sonuvab*tch and you're going to hate me, but guess what? Worse things are coming!!!"

~ How I can be 99.5% certain that my children have morphed into little demons, yet they fall asleep and 5 seconds later I want to just eat them up in adoration! Bedtime SUCKS in this house right now, I know it will get better soon, and I am SO ready!

Child dice

2008-08-06T12:03:00.004-05:00

So I've been trying to think of something interesting to blog about (other than the fact that we had our first successful diaper-free outing today, yay Hurricane!!! A movie, and we only had to make eight potty runs! Woohoo!!! I AM intuitive enough to understand, however, that this is probably not as earth-shattering to those of you who have NOT been following my precious little lovebug around with carpet cleaner repeating every 30 seconds "need to peepee?" But believe me when I tell you it's a big freaking deal here at the castle ;) )

A few weeks ago, Good Mom/Bad Mom had a post about these dice for teenagers. The sides shown read "watch a video", "play loud music" and "argue". That also led to a discussion about the singular of dice (die, if I'm not mistaken). Anyway, I digress...... they were tossing about ideas as to what the other three sides of the dice might say. Seeing as how I'm 9 years away from teenagedom (HALLELUJAH!), I had to think about what my toddler/preschooler dice would show.

1) Loud sigh, foot stomp, yell "You're not being understanding of me" and run to your room

2) Say something Mommy doesn't understand (which sounds identical to something she DOES) and then yell the same word at her over and over and over and over. "No, PANNIES!!!! NO! PANNIES! NO! PANNIES!!" (I really think they might be just messing with me for amusement at this point)

3) Demand a snack. But not any of the 15 snacks I've recommended, in decreasing nutritional value... grapes, yogurt, cheese, goldfish, gummies, etc. Finally demand fried chocolate dipped in whipped cream and if I don't give it to you, start yelling things I don't understand (and probably don't want to)

4) Argue with your sister over the pink doll. Nevermind that there are 3 IDENTICAL replacements within 5 feet of said battleground, YOU WANT THAT ONE!!! Don't give in! No one likes a quitter!

5) Ignore Mommy (blissfully!) ALL DAY until the phone rings and she has a chance for adult conversation for the first time in about ten hours. Immediately when you hear "not much, what are you up to?", run over to her and say "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy" (while poking her in the butt with a finger) increasing your volume until she is convinced you need an ER trip. When she rushes to get off of the phone, say "watch me do something!" and jump 2 inches off of the ground, then run off.

6) Defy all odds and snuggle up to Mommy and tell her you love her and give her kisses and break her heart with your perfection, ensuring a baby #3 someday.

I DO realize that these would either be some of the largest dice in history, or maybe the tiniest writing on dice in history. I've decided I'm okay with that.

So what would YOUR lovebug's dice say?

I'm back!! And better than ever!

2008-08-04T15:50:00.002-05:00

Thanks to my SUPER creative friend, Angela, who made me this adorable banner!! How cute is this?!?! She rocks! Thanks, Ang!

So, I've been like the world's slowest blogger lately. I think of things to blog about, then I think "Oh my word, no one wants to hear me talk about THAT" and talk myself out of it. I'm a goofball. BUT, my sweet Prince Charming bought me a laptop yesterday, so I have a feeling I'll be blogging more frequently now that I can do it from the comfort of my couch while I'm watching Suite Life with my girls!!!

On the potty news front, I'm happy to report that the Hurricane has been wearing big girl panties all weekend with minimal accidents! She finally GETS it! My baby is growing up! :*)

TWELVE YEARS!!!!

2008-07-25T21:42:00.004-05:00

I'll be offline most of the weekend, as Prince Charming and I will be celebrating our twelfth anniversary. How is it possible I'm old enough to be married for this long?!?!? I feel young anyway, LOL! We've lived in Charleston, SC, Groton, CT, Newport, RI, Virginia Beach, VA, Chesapeake, VA, and a few towns around Houston. He's given me the best two anniversary presents ever, circa our anniversaries in '03 and '05, albeit one I'm not really ready to repeat this year just yet, so we're going to just spend the weekend hanging out on the lake with our girls.

"That's called comma!"

2008-07-24T14:50:00.006-05:00

I was watching Reba in reruns last night (yes, Reba. I LOVE that show. If you watched it, you'd love it too. Barbara Jean and Cheyenne? Freaking HILARIOUS!!!!). Anyway, Cheyenne was talking about her sister Kyra (or Kira, not really sure how they spell that name.) and karma. Reba looked surprised that she knew what karma was and Cheyenne said in her inimitable way "Yeah, mom, it's Buddhist for 'I'm rubber, you're glue' ". I laughed my butt off. My mom is half-mortified, half-tickled that my girls get the concept of karma. We're Baptists, but I believe there's nothing wrong from learning that you reap what you sow ;) And it's fun to stand there and say "that's what we call karma" when they get what's coming to them.

So, about a week ago, we were at the mall, playing at the Children's Museum. After an hour or so, we decided to go to the food court for lunch. There were these two ADORABLE little boys with their dad. The older one was happily torturing the younger one, while the blissfully oblivious dad talked on his cell phone. Finally, the younger son got fed up with the torture and yelled "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!", at which point the older boy turned to run away as fast as he could, only he ran smack into a stroller (not mine) and tripped and went sprawling and then scrambled up and ran right into a pillar in the walkway. He was fine, but I almost wet my pants when HRH, walking up on the scene, turned to the older son and said "that's called comma". And nodded not unlike Mary Poppins when imparting some of her infinite wisdom, lol.

My, those words are tasty!

2008-07-21T09:01:00.006-05:00

We've all eaten our words before (except for maybe my big sister Keri, she can't help it, she was made 98% perfect, it's her burden to bear in life, and we love her anyway ;) ). My most flaming examples seem to be in regards to parenting. I was one of those people who knew SO much about parenting before I had children. I HAD, after all, babysat all of my life and taught preschool/daycares as my only real job. So I WAS an expert, right? I thought so! Since the appearance in our little familia of HRH and the Hurricane, I have discovered that maybe (just MAYBE) I was not quite as naturally gifted on this subject as I previously assumed (perish the thought!). For example, these beautiful ditties have come out of my mouth on one (or more) occasion.... generally when speaking to Prince Charming about how WE were going to raise our perfect (cough, cough!) children as opposed to how other people we knew did it.....

~Our children will NEVER sleep with us. That's ridiculous.
..........................um, most nights, we have two little lovebugs with us in our queen sized bed. Yep, you read that right, a queen! We'd get a king, but our bedroom is too small :X HRH began sleeping with us when she was about 4 days old. This is a direct result from my fear that she would not breathe if I wasn't within 4 inches of her at all times. You wouldn't believe the things I can accomplish while holding and nursing a newborn (or toddler, for that matter). The Hurricane? Coslept in the hospital, lol. Cleanest bassinet EVER! A nurse walked in that first night to "check my vitals" (WTH do they do that anyway? It's freakin 3 AM, I just squeezed a watermelon out of my nether regions, leave me the HELL alone!!) and promptly said "oh, dear, you can't let her sleep with you here" to which I ever-so-nicely replied, "begging your pardon, ma'am, but I just gave birth to this little bundle of heaven, I can do whatever the hell I want to do with her, please don't wake me up again and don't let the door hit your butt on the way out". Or something maybe not quite as nice as that. In my defense on this whole subject, I do try to get them to at least start OUT the night in their bed once they hit 18 months or so. LOL!

~Yeah, I'll nurse, for a year, probably. Why on earth would you need to do that longer?
................ I'm nursing an almost-28 month old. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep crappy comments to yourself. I'm not asking YOU to nurse her, so you don't get a vote. I COULD say that I'm nursing her for added health benefits for her and me, as I have a family history of breast cancer, or to strengthen the bond between mother and child, but I'll be totally honest here and say I'm lazy. And a sucker. When she cries and asks to nurse b/c she's sleepy and says "pleeeeease, mommy?" I'm a puddle. Anyway, that falls into the NOYB category for anyone's opinions, so I don't really care what anyone thinks about it, for the record.

~As soon as baby's about 6 weeks or so, I'm finding a good sitter and having a girls' night out. (stop laughing Lara. I can hear you in Houston). Um, yea. I'm a tad bit "attached" to my girls. HRH had never been away from me for more than about 3 hours when I was in the hospital having the Hurricane. Hardest thing for me about having a second baby? Not the pitocin, not the labor, not the delivery, not the afterpains (which SUCK and no one will tell you about so you're wondering WTH is happening to you!)..... it was being away from my 2 yr old overnight. I couldn't sleep at ALL. No one has ever watched my girls for me that wasn't a family member. And I mean grandma or aunt.

and the best one ever?

~I will never let MY child behave that way!
...............I have carried both of my children, usually on separate occasions, but on one memorable day at the same time, surf-board style out of a store, while they were screaming at the top of their lungs at me. Generally this is caused by my refusal to buy a duplicate of a toy that we already have that they do not play with NOW or by my refusal to let them put 7 pieces of gum in their mouth at one time. You'd THINK I'd get appreciation for the fact that I am, in fact, saving their life in advance, keeping them from choking, as the Hurricane thinks gum is to be chewed about 10 times and then swallowed, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. @@ Ungrateful little heathens!

And I have a two year old who bites and hits and pushes. All the while looking like a precious little delicate angel. Here she is, attempting to talk her way out of being in trouble one evening:

How could we stay mad at that precious little thing?

I'm sure I have more, but those are the biggies. :-)

Lara's "weird" sister

2008-07-20T20:22:00.005-05:00

So, my uber-cool little sister Lara:

has blogged about her weirdo personality traits.

As her sister, I can safely say she's got NOTHING on me, LMAO!!!!! I'll save some of the more "out there" ones for another day, but here are some easy ones:

~I hate hate HATE for anyone other than me to load my dishwasher. Drives me so crazy that I will reload it after a "helper" has loaded it for me. And by "helper" I don't mean a two-or-four year old helper, I mean my husband or mother-in-law :X

~I am adamantly opposed to children's movies being sad. I edit the movies HRH and the Hurricane watch, lol. I swear, my kids are going to grow up like Phoebe on Friends, they think that Finding Nemo starts at chapter 3, where Nemo wakes up yelling "First day of school!!!!"

~On the rare occasion that I have cash in my wallet (don't ask.... I pay for everything with my debit card. It works MUCH better that way for me. Cash is like Monopoly money to me, it's play money. Blown easily at Starbucks, Taco Bell, whatever), the bills all have to be face up, right side up, in ascending monetary value.

~I hate feet. HATE them. I don't want to look at them, don't want anyone to touch me with their feet, etc. The only exception is baby feet. And my children's feet. And HRH's are starting to skeeve me out. The very thought of pedicures, which most women ADORE, repulses me.

~I am the boogie nazi. I can't stand for my girls to have yucky noses, or even sleep in their eyes. They, after a lifetime so far of this, must have clean noses and eyes when they wake up immediately.

That's about it for now. Surely that's plenty for you to feel a little better about YOUR idiosyncrasies. I know Lara does ;) And as far as how our family "brownie is baked"? I think brownies are ALWAYS better with nuts!

Fire! Fire! Think fast!

2008-07-19T19:44:00.004-05:00

So, MommyTime over at Mommy's Martini asked in a post, "what would you save if you had to run out of your burning house"? This assumes that all humans and pets and computers are safe. I've been meaning to post about this, as it takes me for-freaking-EVER to get anything done around here (even thinking), I'd probably be a big pile of ashes by the time I finished deciding, so kudos to MommyTime, you just may have saved my hide! ;) Having pondered this for a few days, as I haven't had much computer time lately due to our sudden devotion to "stay-cations" at Papi and TiTi's lakehouse, lol..... I think almost everything in my house is replaceable. I have some paintings that my great-grandmother painted, three so far (I'm hoping to score more once I move into a bigger house, lol). I also have this absolutely super cool quilt that she made:

Please excuse the laundry on the floor :X (don't tell Prince Charming, it's a pet peeve of his and I generally try to keep it under control when he's not on a trip). And there seems to be a fuzzy spot. Huge orb? Anyway, you get the picture. It's gorgeous. :*) It IS, however, fairly secure in its attachment to the wall. The hanger on the top is bolted to the wall, the quilt is sandwiched in there and then the sides and bottom are nailed to the wall. (HRH and a rather wild game of peekaboo, long story)

So the rest of my "stuff" is pretty much replaceable. I mean, I'd be sad to lose the gowns the girls wore home from the hospital, and my wedding gown and all, but I'm not so sentimentally attached to those things that I'd run BACK INTO a burning house for them. My wedding pics? Momma has copies. My wedding video? Mom and inlaws both have copies. Birth certificates and passports are already in a fire-safe box, so if those are lost, I'd be smelling a lawsuit in with all of the soot.

The only other things I'd even think about grabbing are OneBaby and Bubba Baby. The world's most well-loved Madame Alexander Huggums dolls. OneBaby is HRH's. She also has a TwoBaby. She was very creative with her names. She's branched out a bit, as she now has Barry the Bear (a tribute to Hannah Montana's bear) and Tilly the Turtle as bedmates along with OneBaby and TwoBaby. Bubba Baby is the Hurricane's. When she was about one, she started calling her Huggums "bubba", which cracked me up, so I encouraged it. Well, Bubba got lost or stolen, we're not sure which, during her overnight stay at Texas Children's Hospital in October (double superinfected and abx-resistant chalazion). After explaining to Prince Charming the importance of her HAVING a Bubba, (the $40 price tag gave him pause), I quickly ordered a replacement, as they are practically IMPOSSIBLE to find in real life (they are the "pink check" huggums dolls, FYI). So, when NEW Bubba gets here, we were surprised to see that she could tell it wasn't her real Bubba. That's when she began calling it Bubba Baby. Bubba Baby has since lost her pink check outfit, I'm 85% sure it happened during the Hurricane's "nakey nakey bo bo" phase, where she insisted on being "nakey bo" as often as possible and trying to recruit other nakeys, too. I'm sure it's somewhere here in the explosion of a playroom, we'll probably find it when we move. But for now, Bubba Baby is nakey nakey bo bo.

A little help, please

2008-07-15T09:04:00.002-05:00

So, I've been trying to figure out which is easier....

A) Trying to convince the Hurricane that she NEEDS a diaper as opposed to "juss pannies" because she obviously does NOT understand her body's signals yet when it's peepee time. (this can take upwards of 45 minutes out of every hour. I kid you not. The kid has staying power in her debates. I say it's the Hispanic in her, Prince Charming claims it's the German.)

or

B) Just following her around with a spray bottle of vinegar water and roll of paper towels and making her go sit on the potty every 5 minutes. (to which she replies "NO, Mommy. I not need go peepee. My belly no have peepee in it. I just drop a cookie". "drop a cookie" is our family's way of saying "pass gas". MUCH more appealing than hearing "MOMMY, I TOOTED!" hollered across Target or Chili's. :X)

Besides, she's so teeny tiny and looks SO freaking adorable in her little Dora panties. :*)

big fat reminder than time goes FORWARD!

2008-07-14T16:28:00.002-05:00

I love my girls. I love the age they're at right now, no matter WHAT I tell you in a sleep-deprived grump some days. They are so much fun, they're so deliciously girly(all painted toenails and sparkly body powder and bows and glitter), so sweet and little and yet I can see the girls they're going to mature into one day. Then once in a while, something comes along and smacks me in the face and reminds me that they're growing up ENTIRELY too fast for my liking. I am one of those dorky moms who is SAD the first day of school. When they're not with me, I feel like I'm a little lost, I'm not quite sure what to do with myself for the first few moments (then I taste the sweet freedom of shopping ALONE and not sharing my Frappuccino!!!!!). When HRH started Mother's Day Out (two days a week, from 9 until 2:30) after she turned 2, I cried the night before her first day. I even went so far as to tell Prince Charming I had changed my mind and she wasn't going to go because she "really didn't need to". He ever so kindly pointed out that I'm her mommy, and I probably know best, but she was AWFULLY excited about "school" and HE was not going to be the one to tell her she couldn't go. Coward! Me, too, evidently, so I bucked up and prepared for the tears I just knew she'd shed as I prepared to leave my baby for the first time with someone who wasn't me, Prince Charming, or her grandparent. Imagine my surprise when she pranced right into her classroom, waved over her shoulder, and shouted "see you after nap, Mommy!". !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to beg her to come back and give me a hug, lol!!

Anywho, the Hurricane is starting MDO this year. Same as HRH did, two days a week. A good friend will be working the main desk there, so I feel comforted knowing that. (And I'm hoping she'll run interference as often as she can when we have discipline issues.... not that I'm expecting THAT. Nope, not with MY child. Never. She's going to be a model student, I'm sure :X). HRH is going either three or four days, we're still waiting to hear what the teacher I really really REALLY want has decided to teach. So I picked up their registration packets last week, and in it were their supply lists. Standard stuff, tissues, nap mat for 2 yr old class (no naps in pre-K!), etc. Then I see pencils listed on HRH's list. PENCILS!!!! My baby isn't old enough to use pencils! She's a baby! Do they not KNOW this?!?!?! I teared up thinking that my BABY is going to be using pencils to learn how to WRITE this year. How is this possible? I feel like she's supposed to be tottering around here, barely able to balance herself. Time flies entirely too fast. I keep bugging Prince Charming to figure out some way to slow this all down for my mental health. He tries to tell me that it's just not possible, but I've seen his diploma! It says right there under "Texas A&M University"... "Aerospace Engineering". Rocket scientist my left foot. HMPH. What good is that degree if he can't help ME when I need it!??!!?!?

Finished!

2008-07-14T10:53:00.002-05:00

I finished it Thursday morning, but we've been out of the house since then at the lake, so no chance to update.

So, I ended up making the bias tape. Once I figured out what I was doing, it wasn't so bad. Although, I AM going to pick up the little ironing guide at Hobby Lobby, the bias tape maker, when I go today b/c that REALLY would have sped things along. Anyway, I am SUPER pleased with how it turned out. What do you think?!?! :)

In hindsight, it's not PERFECTLY square, maybe, but I'm hoping the fabrics are so cute she won't notice ;)

Pieced and quilted!

2008-07-09T20:31:00.003-05:00

I got it pieced all last night. It went SO fast! Of course, it helps that the whole thing is only 36 inches square, lol!

Even got the baby's monogram on the bottom corner :*)

Then I got it quilted this evening, while the girls were having catch up play time with Daddy :)

The lines aren't PERFECT, but I figure she'll know for sure it was a handmade gift LOL!

I was telling some friends that a part of me really, really, really wants to try to make bias tape with the pink polka dot material and use it for the binding. And then another part of me is screaming at that part to shut the heck up and buy some white cotton bias tape, LOL!!! I'm going to do some Googling tonight when HRH falls asleep and see how hard it looks. We'll see! Stay tuned, I know you're waiting with baited breath!! ;)

Baby quilt ::::::::sighs::::::::

2008-07-08T15:53:00.002-05:00

There is something so stinking sweet about baby quilts. I haven't made one in AGES b/c I don't know how to quilt on my machine, I've always done it all by hand, and I CERTAINLY don't have time to quilt by hand with the lovebugs around, LOL! HRH's teacher from preschool last year is expecting a baby girl any day now, so I'm plunging in to machine quilting. I absolutely LOVE Beki's quilt on the top of her page, and it was the inspiration for the layout of this. I used a bunch of my extra scraps from the dresses and skirts the girls have been wearing all spring and summer and some deliciously soft quilter's cotton for the white. I'm going to back it in the same white and I'm still not sure what I'll bind it with.

But anyway, I've got it all cut out and ready to piece, I'm going to work on that tonight. I'm so excited, lol.

I think it's going to be really sweet. :)

Home sweet home!

2008-07-06T18:02:00.002-05:00

Aaaaah! There is NOTHING like sleeping in your own bed after a week of being away. HRH said, near Baton Rouge, "Mommy, I can't wait to go sleep in my bed tonight!" and the Hurricane piped in "Mommy, I sleep-a my CWIB!" LOL! So, after two drives from HELL (14 hours from Houston-ish to Mobile, AL, on the way down there.... I kid you not. And 11 hours from Gulf Shores back to the castle. ALONE. Me and the lovebugs. Prince Charming was "working" in Honolulu..... grrrr....he had to leave the beach on Thursday), we are BACK! Tan and sandy! The girls LOVED the beach. I have to say that by FAR the favorite activity of the week was our nightly crab hunt. We bought butterfly nets from the Dollar Tree (pink for HRH and purple for the Hurricane) and declared them to be crab nets. SO much fun. Also a good lesson on the fundamental differences between the sexes, as we went crab hunting with my stepsisters' two boys, who are a hoot and a half. They would run around, screaming their heads off, chasing the crabs with flashlights and then throwing themselves, nets and all, at the crabs, essentially bodyslamming them into submission. HRH would glide along the beach gracefully, spot a crab, then do a few little graceful pirouette-style turns, slowly and quietly come up to the crab, and gently float her net down over the top of it. Then she'd call out "Bucket boy! I caught another one!" LMAO!!!! My BIL would come over and she'd add her crab to the stash:

at the end of the hunt, we let all the little crabs go back to their holes to tell their mommies and daddies about their big adventure ;)

It's good to be home. I'll update the girls' blog (link to the right) tonight if at all possible. Also nothing like a beach trip to remind you that your Prince Charming is quite a hottie ;)

Hasta la Vista, Baby!

2008-06-27T06:37:00.002-05:00

Well, we're off. Driving to the beach today, we plan to leave in about an hour and a half. Of course, I'm the only one up at this Godforsaken hour of 6:30 AM. We are NOT early risers these days in the castle. My girls are notoriously anti-road trip. They love the destination, but most assuredly do NOT love the drive. And have no qualms making that known loudly every five to ten minutes. Anyone in southeast Texas, southern Louisiana, and the tips of Mississippi and Alabama? You might just hear us screaming through if you listen closely. I have lots of tricks up my sleeve today, though. I have three movies they've been BEGGING to watch, and Prince Charming is hitting Blockbuster for another one on the way out of town, I have little notebooks and pens (pens are usually not encouraged here, as my girls think EVERYTHING looks better with their handiwork on it :X), fruit roll ups, and a cool little plug-in game that they can play on the dvd player in the car. That ought to last us until we hit..... Louisiana. @@. SO, I also have the Queen Mother who will be waiting in Alabama with wine :)

Not sure if we'll have net access there or not, we're really hoping we do, but if we don't have a great week everyone!

Recent projects :)

2008-06-25T14:15:00.002-05:00

I've been a busy bee lately! I found this awesome tutorial on how to make hooded towels and decided to make some for my girls and four of my nephews.

Also, I managed two nightgowns for each lovebug, these DARLING 4th of July dresses:

post-embroidery (it was really hard to find an fireworks design I was happy with. Who'da thunk?!)

Made matching dresses for a friend's daughters (pre-embroidery):

Made special pillowcases for the girls for our beach trip:

One more dress for previously mentioned friend's younger daughter:

and a boatload of embroidery. Whew!!!!! I have two more swimsuits to monogram for the girls and I THINK I'm done...... ::::::Crossing fingers::::::

We hit Target and WalMart (our two favorite non-fabric stores, lol) this week to buy essentials for our 10+ hour drive to Gulf Shores this week. I let the girls pick out some new movies for the car. The hurricane picked an Eloise cartoon movie, it looks darling. I LOVE Eloise! Lara, stop reading here. HRH picked a (gasp!) Barbie movie. :X Now, the girls in my family are notoriously anti-Barbie. I even am, to an extent. But, to be honest, if it keeps my two little lovebugs happily ensconced in their carseats for an hour or so, I'd let them watch just about anything! HRH, of course, is over the moon. She cannot WAIT to watch this movie, LOL!!! I don't even care if Barbie is a good role model for girls nowadays. Who cares if she wouldn't be able to stand up b/c of her proportions if she was a real person. Who cares if her hair could never be achieved naturally. Aren't there all sorts of Barbies, like lawyer Barbie and teacher Barbie and Doctor Barbie? Something like that, anyway. So I'll stand right up and say it now. If my little princess wants a Barbie movie, I'm going to buy her a freaking Barbie movie. Keep all pissy comments to yourself, please. ;) On second thought, no....don't. I need comments. I LOVE comments. Not enough people leave me comments. I want to see comments NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday?

2008-06-25T11:24:00.004-05:00

I see a lot of blogs out there who do "Wordless Wednesday". I thought I might try it out myself, but let's be real.... I'm not very good at being silent :X Just ask anyone who ever taught me or grew up with me (no comments from the peanut gallery, Angela, LOL!!). I HAVE gotten better about it, though. I DID decide, however, to use today as a picture post. :) I just adore my girls. I think there is something so special about sisters, I have three myself, you know. We may not always agree on everything, and we may drive each other crazy sometimes (except for me, of course, I AM practically perfect in every way, you know. Hush, Lara), but don't mess with one of us unless you want to tackle ALL four of us, LOL!!! Anyway, I thought this pic was just precious :)

I'll be back on later with pics what's been keeping me so busy this week :)

::::polishing knuckles::::

2008-06-23T12:50:00.004-05:00

Woo hoo! Get a load of me! I got an award!!!!!

My friend Angela gave me a "you make my day award"! How sweet is she? Her blog is SO cool and fun and I'm so not worthy of this, but I'll shamelessly take it and pretend to be worthy!! Random thoughts before I award ;)

~We spent the day out on the lake yesterday. Lake Conroe, to be precise. It's so pretty. Crowded, but pretty. Some of our friends are always out the same time as us, so the kids just love playing together and we get to have grown up conversation! Win win! As we were hanging out, I saw something weird looking floating in the water. I floated over to it in my AWESOME float (I can't find it online or I'd link you. It was $5.88 at WalMart, though) and it was a coconut! No kidding! How random is that? It was really heavy for its size, but it was floating. Very cool. I'm sure there's some super technical explanation, but my friend's 9 yr old and I decided that just thinking it was neat-o was good enough for us ;) Anyway, then you KNOW we had to try to crack it open. After 30 minutes, we did it. The coconut milk was a disappointment. Very watery looking. And yucky tasting, LOL! And OMG the little outer shell smelled SOOOOOOOOOOO bad. Ew. I think I'll be passing on the pina coladas for the near future.

~I got Prince Charming a Palm Centro. He had a Treo and wanted a smaller phone. This Centro is SO cool. I highly recommend it!

~I am sunburned, yet again. But I actually look tan underneath it! I can't believe it. I think this is the first tan I've had in probably ten years!! I am expecting some After Sun Spray in the mail today or tomorrow. I promise that you have NEVER felt anything this good after a day in the sun, lol. Added bonus? It works as a detangler for hair, too!

~My mission before we leave for the beach on Friday is to get a good picture of each of my girls from above. I saw this on Mommy's Martini and love the idea! If y'all get pics, be sure to post them!

OK, my "you make my day award" goes to my sister Lara. I SHOULDN'T give it to her, b/c she doesn't post often enough for my happiness, but I'll forgive her because I love her and she's such an amazing aunt to HRH and the Hurricane! Love you, LaLa! :::::::::smooches::::::::

Thirty THREE?!?!?!?!?!?!?

2008-06-18T08:52:00.001-05:00

Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday dear MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy birthday to me!

:-)

Dating AGAIN?!?!??!

2008-06-17T19:06:00.002-05:00

No, not really dating, but do you ever feel like when you're getting to know new friends that you're pretty much "dating" them, just without the kissing? You hang out, talk on the phone, spend time together and getting to know each other. Add kids and husbands into the mix and it's a whole 'nuther ballgame, too! LOL! I've been doing some friend dating lately. I was, once upon a time, before Prince Charming came into my life, quite a dater. I loved it, and I was darn good at it, if I do say so myself ;)

I've never really talked about it on here, but those of you close to me know that it took a while to have HRH. I'm talking years and years and years and tears and tears and tears. Like decades! (well, okay, not DECADES! Almost half a decade, but it sure did feel a heckuva lot longer than that. The tears were there, though.) All I ever wanted was a baby, to be a mommy. I honestly feel like that's what I was put here to do in life. And I LOVE it. I am definitely doing what I was put here for. Well, when her Madgesty finally deigned to come along and grace us with her presence, I was on cloud nine. She and I and Prince Charming lived in our own little world for a couple of years. I didn't need anyone outside of my family, my baby, my husband, my parents and sisters and inlaws. What more could I want? Then a Hurricane came and life got even more crazily wonderful!!! A little whirlwind of giggles, hugs, and broken household lamps.

Well. NOW these darling little lovebugs are growing up and going to preschool and leaving me all by my lonesome self. Hmph. The nerve! Ungrateful little ingrates! I COULD have another baby, but Prince Charming has vetoed that until we get into our bigger house, in the next 18-24 months, hopefully. So, I've become friends with a few people. And it's so funny to me that the people you were friends with before you have children might be SO not the people you would be friends with AFTER you have children. Or is this just the case in my world? I mean certainly not everyone we knew falls into this category, but some do and then some REALLLLLLLLY do, if you know what I mean.

My whole point to this strange blog is that it feels weird to be testing relationship waters at my age, even if it is just a friend relationship. I don't tend to have lots of super close friends. I have TONS of people I'm friendly with, but people that I honestly consider a true friend come few and far between to me. I know you're never too old to make new friends, but golly gee, it seems like it's kind of hard work! You have those little mis-steps, where you misjudge someone's character and find out later that they really aren't the kind of friend you thought they were going to be, then you get disappointed (or I do, b/c I get my feelings hurt easily about some things). But then again, you meet a couple that you like, your husband likes, and your kids all play well together and it's like oh my gosh! How FUN is this?!?!?!

Happy Father's Day :)

2008-06-14T15:04:00.003-05:00

I'm fairly sure I won't be online tomorrow, we're spending the day on the lake and the night at the lakehouse. So, let me say Happy FATHER'S Day!!!! To my dad, who I didn't have NEARLY long enough. To my step-dad, who, bless his heart, had to live with ALL of that estrogen (me, my mom, and three sisters and occasionally even my step-sister!). To Prince Charming, who I love more than chili cheese covered fries from Sonic and who is an awesome dad. And to my father-in-law, I guess we'll call him King Charming, who wished for grandbabies and got 4 in less than 4 years, lol. I am blessed to have you all in my life. Happy Father's Day out there to all of you dads, dads-to-be, and anything of the sort! Have a wonderful day!

:::::::yawn:::::::: part 2

2008-06-13T18:04:00.002-05:00

As my day progresses and my headache grows (thank you very much, lack of sleep @@), I had a thought. I remember hearing once on the news about how sleep deprivation and interruption of sleep is used as a torture method. Waking someone briefly every 2-3-4 hours can evidently really mess with their heads. I'm trying to remember a time when my girls might have been out of my sight long enough to get their training from the CIA. I haven't had more than 6 hours in a stretch in over 4 years now, LMAO!!!! It really only gets to me when I have nights like last night, where the TOTAL from getting into bed to waking in the morning is about 5 hours, not taking into consideration middle of the night requests for water or potty or snuggles or nursies or "HOLD you, Mommy!". Those can actually be pretty sweet.

I wonder what the chances are of me getting them to bed by about 8:00? (she types as she laughs hysterically in her mind because laughing hysterically out loud would hurt her brain). I love summer, really, I do, but nights like this make the 8:00 sunlight really tick me off, LMAO! My girls can NOT be convinced that it is bedtime if "the sun is still awake, Mommy. We go to sleep AFTER the sun goes to sleep, REMEMBER?!?!?".

::::::::::yawn:::::::::

2008-06-13T06:59:00.004-05:00

I'm not exactly sure what it IS about my children that causes them to not sleep. My mother-in-law, who is a doll, has instructed me to take her method of explaining things that drive me nuts about my children as "it's the Charming in them", as SHE always does, being that she and I aren't Charmings by blood, but merely marriage. Genius! So, I'm blaming the non-sleep gene on the Charming DNA. Not sure how accurate that is, though, as Prince Charming can sleep through ANYTHING, including a Princess fighting the pea under the mattress (she's our super restless sleeper, she takes up every bit of her full-sized bed every night) and a Hurricane at Category 5 level.

Case in point.... For some unknown reason, BOTH girls took super long naps yesterday, like from 2 pm until 4:45. I merely THOUGHT I knew what I was in for, being a late bedtime. So, we headed to our local WalMart (my favorite store. I know, I know, people have all sorts of ethical issues with it, but you just can't beat it for convenience and price, so no snippy "anti-WalMart comments, please), to kill some time.

Story within a story time:

They're getting rid of our store's fabric department, which makes me sad. I know that the fabric isn't the best quality, but it's great to be able to grab a few yards of the $2/yard stuff to practice an idea on, as I don't really sew from patterns, but more from the pictures and voices in my head, LMAO! So, the girls and I perused the fabric selections. I told them to each pick out some fabric and we'd make a nightgown, they need new nightgowns anyway. HRH chose (surprise, surprise) a pink princess material, and the Hurricane chose the purple version of the same. Super cute, and I grabbed a couple of tank tops to make really quick nightgowns. I LOVE their Garanimals stuff! Anywho..... we cruised through the dairy to grab some yogurt and cinnamon rolls and then head up to the cash registers. Yay! We're able to go to the Express lane. We finally get up to the front, and as the cashier (who could NOT have been less friendly) was about to start ringing me up, I realized that I left my wallet in my car. CRAP! I explain the situation, apologize profusely, and ask if she can hold on to my stuff while I dash out to the car and get my wallet. Not unreasonable, right? She heaves a HUGE sigh and says "I'll send it to the Customer Service desk". Now, I don't know how many of you have ever had the pleasure of standing in a WalMart Customer Service line on a Friday evening in southeast Texas, but it's a JOY, let me tell you. :X I'm slightly less than thrilled that she couldn't hold on to my stuff for the literally 3-4 minutes it would take me to run out to my car and grab my wallet. Nonetheless, I take a deep cleansing breath and head out in the heat (95ish) and humidity (just less humid than the Amazonian Rainforest, I'm guessing) and reach my car and run back, returning to the store in about 180 seconds.

yet another side note..... you'd think that since, upon arrival at said WalMart and noticing that someone had left a bag of groceries in the buggy I grabbed from the parking lot, prompting me to drop it with the greeter lady, you know, the one who gives the kids the smiley face stickers:

(not actual greeter)

That Karma would smile kindly on me for doing a good deed, right? Evidently not. I've got a bone to pick with Karma, and if something nice doesn't happen to me today, I'm gonna give her an earful!

Back to your regularly scheduled story-within-a-story.....

So, the evil cashier lady, let's call her Cruella, looks over at my sweating, panting, pathetic self, shrugs her shoulders (!), and goes back to scanning items as slowly as she can (b/c she gets paid by the hour, of course). I head over to the Customer Service desk, practicing deep breathing exercises as I walk to lower my blood pressure. Mercy of mercies! There is NO line! I walk right up to the counter and say "I need to pay for my things, I forgot my wallet and Cruella on register 3 sent them to you". Super nice CS lady, we'll call her Pollyanna, says "why, SURE, honey! Let me grab it off the counter over here and we'll get you taken care of!" :) So, she rings up the tank tops I grabbed, the Yoplait Whips, the Hannah Montana Danimals yogurt, the cinnamon rolls, and the straws, and then gets to the fabric...... She asks me if I have the ticket that shows the yardage and pricing of the fabric. Um, no. Why would I? Cruella had it in her hands when I dashed out the door to get my wallet.... I'm not sure why it's not with the fabric. (5 different cuts of fabric, probably 7 or 8 yards total). She rings Cruella... "Cruella, this is Pollyanna over at Customer Service, do you have the lady with the darling girls' ticket for her fabric (I do not tell a lie, lol! And my girls ARE darling.... most of the time :X)? What? Now, Cruella, why would you do that? What are we supposed to do now?" Oh, crap. What happened NOW?!?!!? Seems Cruella, in her infinite friendliness and helpfulness (typed with sarcasm dripping from my fingers), TORE UP the freaking ticket!!!!!!!!! The only thing I could do was go BACK to the fabric department and have everything remeasured and get a new ticket. Joy. Not getting the fabric was not an option, either, b/c both girls would NOT let me forget their promised nightgown. Is it Happy Hour yet?!?!??! So we schlep BACK to the fabric department, where Flo (real name, I swear, and she's a doll) had already heard the story (gotta love WalMart, LMAO!) and was waiting for me. She said "honey, just tell me how much of each you got, I trust you!". She whipped out a new ticket, the girls and I checked out and headed home finally!!!!! An hour later, they were sporting their new nightgowns:

HRH in full "we are NOT amused" mode and the Hurricane biting those blasted nails!!!!

Anyway, back to my original story (if you can remember what it was about, LMAO!)

We get home from WalMart, let them play while I'm making their nightgowns, have a snack, and then a bath, and snuggle in to fall asleep while watching The Cheetah Girls 2. Cheetalicious! ALL of CG2 goes by and no sleeping angels. So we turn off the TV and just lay there for a while, every few minutes I hear a "Mommy, I can't go to sleep" LOL! Finally, HRH falls asleep. It's 10:30. The Hurricane must be close on her heels, no? NO! 11:freaking:30!!!!!!!!!!!!! By the time I get a bubble bath (sacred to me and must be taken every night, no matter HOW late I have to stay up) and get into bed, it's after midnight. OK, logic says that we should probably sleep late. 8:00 or so, right? Um, not my Charming children! HRH is up at 6:00, yes, 6:00, the buttcrack of dawn, asking for Cocoa Puffs. I am sleepy, grumpy, and probably another dwarf or two today all rolled into one. They HAVE to sleep tonight, don't they? DON'T THEY?!?!?!?!!??

Girl Power!!!!!!

2008-06-12T16:38:00.002-05:00

WooHoo!!!!!!!!!! Ok, I'm beyond thrilled that Stephanie won TC (does anyone else think Tom Colicchio decided to name the show "Top Chef" so it would have the same initials as him?). :) :) :) I'm so happy that I don't even care that my girls have both been napping for over 2 1/2 hours right now, so we'll undoubtedly be up until 11 or so tonight. I haven't read Dust's recap yet, I'm saving it for tonight, lol. A few thoughts.... What the HECK inspired Lisa-of-the-rice-disasters to make freaking rice pudding for her dessert?!?!? I can't be the only one who thought she'd go down in flames on that, right? (I'm ashamed to admit that I was a little disappointed when she didn't, lol. I'm a horrible person, though.). Richard looked so out of sorts, I kind of got the impression from the start (well, at least from the point when he lost his sous chef, which he SHOULD have expected, and as far as TC surprises go, that wasn't all too bad, KWIM?) that he was not at the top of his game. I really think that when they griped about the leeks at judges's table that Stephanie thought she was out of it. And freaking Lisa was all chest-puffy and proud about her soup. (Yes, I know, I'm bitchy today about Lisa, but I really just don't like her). I was so happy for Stephanie, I think she seems like such a nice person. I feel sorry for Richard, though. He was super cool and a great cook, but it just wasn't his night. And it was about freaking time that a woman won!!!!!

On a totally unrelated note, Prince Charming is famous, don't you know? His picture is on the Continental Airlines website :) on the right side, where that have that little banner that changes pics, he's #4 for now :)

Finale!!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-11T19:10:00.004-05:00

Top Chef finale TONIGHT!!!! Mark your Tivo/DVR! I will most assuredly NOT have two sleeping angels at 9:00, so my beloved DVR will record it for me. I'm seriously hoping to stay up and watch it tonight with a little bowl of M&Ms and a Shiner Hefeweizen (although I really like it with a wedge or orange rather than lemon like the good folks at Shiner recommend). However, due to HRH's random fever, which resulted in a spur-of-the-moment pediatrician trip this morning to rule out a UTI (hallelujah!), I have not slept more than 30 -45 minutes at a stretch for 4 nights now. AND don't you know that the Hurricane picked LAST night to sleep through the night without waking for the first time?!?!? Yay for the lovebug! I know that's not impressive to those of you who have the children who sleep through at 8 weeks and such, but for us here at the Casa-of-sleep-through-the-night-after-you-turn-4, we're in awe! She got jellybeans with her breakfast, LMAO!!! Anyway, I couldn't even enjoy it b/c HRH was so restless and hot and sweaty and wanting Mommy in her room and snuggling and burning ME up in the sweetest droopy cuddly fevered baby way that I was up most of the night.

SO......... I will most likely have to wait until tomorrow to watch it, for the sake of my mental health. I believe I'm getting a little snippy. The people at the collision center, where I picked up my darling car, who was having a little nip/tuck done, might agree. When they asked me how I wanted to return my rental car and I informed them that I just did by handing them the key (as opposed to taking my kids to the rental satellite office, loading carseats and sleeping toddlers into THEIR car to go BACK to the collision center, and then reload everything into MY car.). I mean, REALLY, people. Is it so freaking hard to have a brain? And a little sympathy? Ever heard of Karma? She's coming to get you some day, LMAO!!!!!

Anyway, for tonight, repeat to myself "I will NOT stalk David Dust's blog for finale recap....I will NOT stalk David Dust's blog for finale recap....I will NOT stalk David Dust's blog for finale recap....I will NOT stalk David Dust's blog for finale recap....I will NOT stalk David Dust's blog for finale recap....I will NOT stalk David Dust's blog for finale recap....I will NOT stalk David Dust's blog for finale recap....I will NOT stalk David Dust's blog for finale recap...." It probably won't even be up until tomorrow, right? right? someone tell me I'm right!!!!!!!!!

Post script - I just realized I haven't ever expressed who I think will/want to win...... I have been pulling for Stephanie since day 1. Although, I thought Richard would take it from the first elimination challenge. And the pics I saw of him with his little newborn daughter are just deliciously sweet! So, as long as Lisa (UGH) doesn't win, I'm golden, lol!

Pork Chops and Apples a la Dianne

2008-06-10T20:08:00.002-05:00

My friend Dianne makes these, and they are SOOOOOO yummy. Yeah, it may sound more like a fall-ish dish, but trust me when I say that they certainly taste fabulous on a 95 degree day in the Houston suburbs, lol!!!! Here you go, Jennifer :)

Spray crock pot with Pam or the like (I use the cheap WalMart Great Value brand, lol). Layer think boneless pork chops, then peeled, sliced apples, then cinnamon, then butter pats (if you're making a lot, you can do two layers of each, that's what I did b/c I was feeding 4 adults and 2 kids). Cook on low all day (I put them in around 10 and we ate around 6). I served with brown rice, fresh bread, and baked sweet potatoes. Super yummy. I baked the sweet potatoes a little different than I usually do (this is how I do regular baking potatoes, SO yummy). Wash skins, then prick with fork. Rub oil on skins (I just use canola), then sprinkle pretty heavily with kosher salt (coarse). Bake directly on the oven rack at 400 for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Make sure before you do this that you line the bottom rack with foil to catch any drips, b/c they will smoke you out of your house the next time you turn the oven on. (Voice of experience speaking here).

Desperate times call for desperate measures

2008-06-10T15:54:00.002-05:00

So the Hurricane bites her nails. Religiously! Like all the dang time. And saying "don't bite your nails!" generally either makes her yell "NO! I bite-a my fingies NOW!" or start biting her toenails (all together now.... EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW). Any ideas on how to help her stop? HRH bit hers for a while, and all it took was her getting a piece of a fingernail stuck in her throat for a little while to stop. She'd cry and pretend to gag and say "it's CHOKING me!!" while I sat there and said "gee, I guess you won't bite your nails anymore, now will you?". :X And the Mother-of-the-Year award goes to ..... me! I know, it's evil, but I despise fingernail biting. I used to do it, I'm reformed. Must be why I'm so militant about it. PLEASE give any tips! I'm begging you!

HRH has one of her random fevers. She's famous for them. She'll be totally fine, insist she feels good, and then you notice when she climbs in your lap that she's burning up and when you check, you find that she has 102.5 fever. No symptoms. She gets this from her daddy, he's the same way. We were at the lakehouse last night, swimming in the pool, when she said "Mommy, I'm really cold!" The pool wasn't all that cold, I mean, this IS Houston, right? She was burning up! Well, nowhere near her own personal record of 105.7, but at a respectable 103.2. So needless to say, she and I didn't get much sleep last night. :(

Prince Charming got a phone call right after we got back home (we spent the night out at the lake) from a friend and former flight student who has a float plane. He was invited to go fly the float plane for a while with said friend. So, the two of them set off, giddy as schoolboys at the prospect of scaring the crap out of boaters and skiiers on Lake Conroe while delighting small children and grown men with the hearts of small children out on the water today :) Float planes make me nervous, though. I'm glad he called just now and said he's on his way home :)

Made pork chops with apples and cinnamon and butter in the crock pot yesterday. SO yummy!!!! And SOOOOO easy!

Chalazions and other things of importance

2008-06-06T19:58:00.004-05:00

So, we have finally diagnosed what's been plaguing HRH for the last few months. She's having recurring chalazions. They're basically like a stye, but a little different. LOL! Don't you LOVE my obvious talent for explaining things? The WONDERFUL pediatric ophthalmologist we saw with Texas Children's Hospital explained them to me this way. The oil in her body is just a little too thick for her little pores to handle, so they get a blockage and sometimes it gets a little infected, where you get some granulation, and this is what we're dealing with (current one on lower lid, healing one on upper lid) :

The picture makes it look WAY better than it was. Our course of treatment is to take 1 teaspoon of flax seed oil mixed with one teaspoon of peanut butter every day. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that! The girls LOVE it, by the way, they have been waking up asking for their "peanut butter medicine", LOL! Doesn't HRH have the PRETTIEST eyes?!?!?

Top Chef.... Antonia was ROBBED, to quote my friend Inger. WTH is WRONG with those people? Tom, Padma, GAIL!!!!! What are you thinking?!?!? Lisa is a STANK B*TCH (to quote David Dust, best recapper EVER). What is UP with her "you guys didn't even congratulate me... like you don't think I deserve to BE here anymore"?!?!?!?! I got news for ya, Lisa. AMERICA doesn't think you deserve to be there anymore. Ick. I can't believe I have to watch her in the finale. @@ And am I the only one who thinks Padma sounds snot-slinging drunk half of the time?

Hell's Kitchen... Gordo must be under immense stress this season b/c of opening his new restaurant, b/c there is NO other explanation for how incredibly sucky the people in the kitchen are! And Louross going home before MATT?!?!?!?!? Matt made Gordon physically ILL the first episode!!!!! WTH???!?!?!

For those of you with LOTS of free time on your hands:

2008-06-02T09:34:00.001-05:00

I realize I'm probably a year or so behind other people discovering this but OMG so fun. Prince Charming and I giggle like little kids and high five when we open new squares, LOL!!

Funny Farm

Google is your friend. Trust.

Cooking funk

2008-05-31T21:32:00.002-05:00

No, I don't mean the cooking OF funk, but rather the funk that I'm in regarding cooking. I'm just SO not in the mood. I don't know if it's the summer factor or the princess-going-through-an-incredibly-picky-mode factor, or Prince Charming being gone SO dang much factor or what, but I'm lucky to make chalupas or beans and rice these days. I need some new QUICK, EASY recipes for the summer. Maybe Crock-Pot ones! Then on days like today, when a phone call leads to a spur of the moment trip to the lake which turns into 8 hours out of the house (ultimately ending at Taco Bell... I know... I know.... TACO BELL! But we love it. Don't tell anyone), I can have supper waiting when I get home. Lately, my Crock-Pot cooking is stuck on pinto beans, a really good chicken recipe (I'll post below), or pork chops and apples (a la my friend Dianne. SO yummy). Anyone with good recipes or links or ideas is encouraged to leave a comment, please!!!

Italian Chicken with Mushrooms
from 101 Things to do with a Slow Cooker
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
1/4 c. water
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup
2 bottles whole mushrooms (drained) (These are fairly small bottles, like 4 inches tall, I'd say)

Place chicken in greased slow cooker. Combine salad dressing mix and water, pour over chicken. Cover and cook on high heat for 3 hours. In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and soup until blended. Stir in mushrooms. Pour over chicken and cook 2 more hours on high.

Serve over egg noodles.

Two-berty

2008-05-30T10:13:00.003-05:00

Could someone PLEASE explain to me why, when the Hurricane insists on doing everything for herself, she's happy with this scenario?

Hurricane: Mommy, I milk. (Mommy, I want milk)
Mommy: OK, I'll get you some. (Mommy walks to the fridge and grabs the sippy cup full of milk and hands to Hurricane)
Hurricane: NO! Mommy! I RED one!
Mommy: :::sigh::: OK, her you go (puts back the blue sippy and hands her the red sippy, while coming up with explanation for resident princess in her head as to why her milk cup magically changed colors mid-day. Maybe a unicorn did it? And yes, my 4 yr old still gets milk in a sippy, as long as her sister is awake anyway, b/c if HRH gets milk in a NONsippy, then the Hurricane must have milk in a non-sippy and that just spells disaster all around the castle. HRH understands she doesn't NEED a sippy, she's doing it to help Mommy out and Mommy is properly appreciative. )
Hurricane: NO! Mommy! I DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!! YUYU DO IT! I BIG GIRL! NO WANT-A MOMMY GET-A MILK!!! (side note - do all toddlers go through this Italian-speaking phase or is it just mine? I think it's darling :) ) MOMMY MOOSH OVER!(our house's way of saying "move and push together). YUYU ALL MYSELF.

At which time she opens the fridge door, puts the red cup back on the shelf. Closes the door, and gets the red cup, taking a big drink and looking supremely satisfied with herself.

HRH: Mommy, Lulu's crazy.

Upside down plants?

2008-05-24T09:45:00.004-05:00

So, I got the super cool idea to plant some upside down tomato plants. SO cool, right? Especially since I have a tendency to cram WAY too many plants into my little garden patch and then nothing fruits @@. So, I used admirable restraint this year and only planted some grape tomatoes and rosemary in my little garden patch, there's also some spearmint, which jumped out of a pot last year evidently, and is popping back up. I truly believe that if a nuclear bomb went off, all you'd see surviving are cockroaches and spearmint, LOL!!! That stuff is insane! Anyway, I digress.

So, my trusty sidekick neighbor and I and the girls planted one with cherry tomatoes and one with yellow crookneck squash (my girls and I could eat our weight in this stuff!) We sprinkled chives seeds in the top of the tomatoes and dill weed seeds in the top of the squash and hung both pails on an old laundry line that I have in my backyard. It's an eyesore and I keep meaning to plant some ivy at the base to let it at least be covered. I need to do that soon. But, still, it served its purpose well in this. This picture was taken through the screen on my breakfast room window, that's why it's a little fuzzy :

The tomato was a little damaged in the planting process (note to self..... letting a 2 yr old, 4 yr old, and 10 yr old do the actual PLANTING of the delicate tomato plant upside down? Probably not the best move). I had my doubts, but pressed on. The squash looked gorgeous! One week later, the tomato? No bueno. :( The stem had become all yellow and soggy and limp. Sad, sad, sad. I mourned the loss of potential perfect red juicy tomatoes that I was going to halve and skewer with mozzarella chunks and basil leaves and red onion and grill (IF they made it to the grill before I started snacking). A moment of silence, if you will..........

OK, pity party over. We still have our beloved squash! Right? Right! Right?!?!?!??! A week or so ago, we had some torrential downpours in the middle of the night. I was up at 2:00 AM, checking the Weather Channel and Fox News for reports of an ark being built and people sprouting webbed feet, but nothing yet. Anyway, about two days later, I noticed that my squash plant was starting to look soggy. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP!!!! What the heck is going on!?!?! I can't figure it out. I keep reading online about how people are having all sorts of success with these upside down plants, what am I doing wrong?!?!?!? My squash is dead, no hopes of revival! :*( Thankfully, the growing season is so long here that I'm going to grab a plant or two and put them in some large pots I have. We'll still get some squash, by golly. There is no chance of replanting in the upside down pots, either, b/c the chives and dill are growing like crazy, lol!! Oh well, maybe next year? For this year, we'll have to stick with downside-up, I guess.

On a brighter note, my grape tomato plant has two little green tomatoes and LOTS of blooms! Yippee! Now if I could only see some blooms on my strawberry plant!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr............

2008-05-22T14:09:00.005-05:00

We spent yesterday evening at the lake. It was gorgeous, we took Papi and TiTi's boat over to a little island (and by little I seriously mean like as small as a football field, lol) and beached it and let the girls play in the sand. Then we motored around a bit, looking at the insanely huge houses that are going up. Evidently, Montgomery County, TX, hasn't heard about the housing bubble burst. Shhhhh....... we don't want them to, at least until we sell our current casa next year or so. After that, we motored over to Papa's. A huge hot pink and turquoise warehouse looking hangout with those big garage doors that they open so that the whole thing has an open air feel. SO much fun. We met Papi and some friends there for burgers. They have a nice pool, which is for adults only, which sucks for the lovebugs, but someone had the foresight to also build a really cool waterfall area for the kiddos to play in. My lovebugs and my friend's lovebugs were playing over there, as sweet as can be, when after about 15 minutes, HRH comes running and screaming and crying to our table, where said friend, Prince Charming, Papi and I were munching fried pickles and partaking of a nice cold Shiner Bock. I bolt out of my chair and run to her to find out that some snot-nosed punk of a 5 yr old (I'm taking liberty with the child's character, as he HAS just hurt my baby!) has blasted her in the face with sand and water via a water bazooka or whatever you call those. This is where the GRRRRRRRRRRR factor comes in. I am generally a very nice person. I love children, even bratty ones usually. However, if someone, ANYONE messes with my child and my child isn't asking for it (because let's face it, sometimes they do :X), WATCH OUT! I morphed into Mama Bear.

I imagine that, had one looked closely enough, they might have seen steam coming out of my ears and nostrils. HRH had sand in her eyes and was literally screaming because they hurt so bad, she couldn't even open them. Once I used the water from the waterfall to clean her eyes out and get her calmed down enough to put her down, I took a few deep breaths and turned my gaze upon little Punky McPunkface. I'm not sure if that's his real name, but I'm not ruling anything out. I'm ashamed to admit that I got all "Mama's shaking her finger" on him. You'd think I could be more original than that @@. Anyway, I told him, "That was NOT nice. You do NOT spray people in the face! You need to apologize to her, tell her you're sorry, do you understand me?!" In my world, that's pretty harsh talk. Imagine my pride when that lecture from me (who must have looked a LITTLE scary, this crazy storkish looking 6 foot tall lady to a 3 1/2 foot tall 5 yr old) made the little boy stop dead in his tracks, tell me "Sorry." and then have his face crumple up and he started crying and ran around to hide behind the waterfall. Oh, yeah. I'm SO proud. Good gravy, Juli. Way to go. You broke down a kindergartener. Woo hoo. Next let's go beat up a 90 yr old grandma over a parking space or something. I immediately feel like dog poop. I go find him and give him a hug and tell him that I'm sorry he got upset, but that it was not okay to throw sand in someone's face because it HURT her. He's fine, I'm fine (albeit still feeling like a heel), when we go back to play in the water, and I look up and see P. McP.'s father coming over to check on him. Eeek! Imagine if you will Andre the Giant crossed with that biker dude from Raising Arizona

Throw in a dash of Larry the Cable Guy and you get what I was seeing :X Ruh Roh. Where the heck is PAPA BEAR?!?!?!? I steel myself for a confrontation (which I HATE). McP Sr. comes up to me and says "Is everything okay here? I saw him shoot her in the face.... is she okay? He's really sensitive, so don't worry about his crying, he has to know he can't do that". :X Wow. Judge a book by the cover much, Juli? That'll learn ME. He was really nice, Punky McP DID apologize after all, so the kids started playing together again and all was right with the world. ::::Sigh:::: I love summer :)

Hear that little birdie?!

2008-05-21T09:50:00.002-05:00

The one that's following me around saying "Cheap! Cheap!" Yes, it's true, I am a notorious cheapskate. I prefer the term "thrift shopper", though, so since this is MY blog, I decree you must refer to me as that, OK? OK! Anyway, here's my thing...... I have one of those what SHOULD be super nifty Swiffer things. I love it, in theory. In reality? It takes THREE of those little swiffer wet pads to clean my kitchen and office area. Ick. What a pain, not only to have to use up three every time, but also to have to stop midway and change them out. So I decided to research a way to use something else. Preferably something non-disposable, as I do try to live a little greener than I used to. I found tutorials to knit covers (I don't knit, but my dear sister Lara does, and she's the smartest, prettiest, nicest knitter I know!! Think that will score me a cover or two? :) ), crochet covers (this I CAN do, in theory, but isn't always easy when you have HRH demanding to be taught to crochet when she sees me do it, then having to deal with the whole royal indignation "We are not amused" bit when she doesn't pick it up immediately), etc., etc., etc. SO, the thought came to me..... why can't I just use the Hurricane's old prefolds that she's grown out of, soaked in a vinegar and water solution? I also have several old flannel receiving blankets that may fall victim to my experimenting. Right now they're happily residing in the Rose Petal Cottage, so let's not tip them off, the carnage MAY be unnecessary if the prefolds work out. I'll keep you posted.

It's not 100% about the money on the Swiffer brand ones, let's call 40% for the environment, ok? 20% for the inconvenience of having to go to the store to actually get them, and the last 40% for the fact that as I fork over the $3-5 for them, my mind is saying, "this could buy me a yard of Tutti Frutti plisse that's on 50% off right now at Hancocks!!!!!!!!". Fabric.... it's a disease. An addiction. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Juli and I'm a Fabriholic. And I have no desire to be rehabilitated..... Prince Charming, on the other hand, might like to get the stash reduced a bit, or at least not INCREASE it any more, as it now occupies a chest of drawers in the garage, half of his storage closet in the garage, and the majority of open spaces in my dining room :X

On an unrelated note, the Hurricane has fully grasped the concept that I have a name other than Mommy now. We are thrilled, as this would have come in handy during the Great KidzFest Disappearance and subsequent Taking 30 Years Off of Mommy's Life..... but her walking up to me and saying "Juli, I like-a Goldfish peese" isn't quite as endearing as the "Mommy, I weally hungwy" :*)

Yummy!

2008-05-19T15:59:00.008-05:00

The perfect ending to a great Sunday :)

Ingredients:

Two enthusiastic sous chefs:

One Mommy rocking her new apron that the resident princess made at preschool:

1/2 c. Crisco

1/2 c. butter, room temperature

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 c. rolled oats

1 bag milk chocolate chips

Mix first 6 ingredients in large bowl until well blended. In another bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking soda:

Then add to first mixture. Add oats, then either switch to dough hook on mixer or begin mixing by hand, as dough will become VERY thick. Add chocolate chips and blend well. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Guilty Pleasures

2008-05-18T10:53:00.002-05:00

Not much happening in our world this morning (thank GOODNESS!!!!), so I thought I'd do a little post, revealing my favorite guilty pleasures, and challenge anyone who reads and blogs to do the same. No fibbing, no hiding things, and no shame, LMAO!!!!!!

~Perez Hilton. He's tacky, crass, and unabashedly rude. And I can't stop checking out his page. :X

~The GFY girls. (www.gofugyourself.com) It's a totally safe link, sounds bad, but it's fashion criticism done in a wicked funny way.

~McDonald's cheeseburgers. I don't eat them often, and they're barely a recognizable food group, but they are SO yummy to me!

~Hell's Kitchen. The contestants are idiots. I don't understand how they can work with knives and not cut their own fingers off or something of the sort, but I just LURVE Gordon Ramsay. Even when he's screaming and yelling at them, I swear I'd die if I ever saw him in real life, I'd have to make an idiot of myself in front of him and be all superfan-y.

~M&Ms. I make no secret of the fact that I have a little helping of them every single night in my bubble bath. I have been known to go to the grocery store specifically for them if we're running low. We can do without milk, eggs, cereal, bananas..... but M&Ms? Perish the thought!

~Disney shows. I admit it. I sit with my girls (who happen to be preteens stuck in toddler bodies) and watch Suite Life, Hannah Montana, and life with Derek. And I LOVE it. I love Disney movies, too. I can't wait for Camp Rock to come out. I think Nick Jonas is an absolute doll!

~Reality cooking shows. Like the aforementioned HK, they don't even have to be GOOD shows. I just love them. HK, Top Chef, The Next Food Network Star, and Iron Chef. Although, I admit that I'm not as into the American version of Iron Chef as the REAL one. There's just no comparison, and I miss the real one. It used to come on at 10:00 and I would watch at least until they unveiled the secret ingredient every night. I'd feel a little thrill when they'd have something icky like squid that they had to catch themselves in the giant aquarium. THAT's good tv, lol!!!

~Rush Limbaugh. I know, I know, I know. You either love him or you hate him. He cracks me up. And in high school, I DESPISED him. There was a guy I went to school with, Darren, who read his book and would share snippets of wisdom with me just to irritate the hell out of me, lol. I should track him down and email him to let him know I'm a fan now, lol. Case in point, (if you're not a Rush fan, or you ARE a Hillary supporter, just skip to the next one now, you'll thank me later).....

Every Little Thing She Does is Tragic

~People magazine. Complete waste of my time to read it, when I could SO be doing something a little more productive, but I just love it!

~90s hair bands. Guns & Roses, Poison, Extreme (Nuno..... :::::Sigh::::), Bon Jovi, Skid Row (I was beyond thrilled when Sebastian Bach turned up on the Gilmore Girls, lol!!!), Motley Crue, Warrant, Def Leppard. I'd still rather listen to them than the stuff coming out today. Much to the chagrin of my very music-forward sister, Lara, but she still loves me anyway.

~My little email loopie friends. I've only ever met one of these ladies in real life, but I talk to them on a constant basis. Sometimes upwards of 100 emails a day. Before you gasp, keep in mind that these are conversations akin to girlfriends chatting over coffee. So each email is one little snippet from a conversation. Sometimes it's just a "LOL!" or an "I couldn't agree more". But I love these ladies and would be lost without them. When I go on vacation and don't have access to email, I miss them. Prince Charming can't quite believe it when I get a text message from one that my email inbox is full (meaning I have 1000 emails). I think he sometimes thinks I spend too much time on the computer, but some days, this is the only adult conversation I get and therefore what keeps me sane!

Your turn!

CALGON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-17T19:01:00.003-05:00

Take me away!!!!!!!!

What a few weeks!!! I had a bad case of bronchitis (of COURSE during teacher appreciation week), then HRH was up all night throwing up and had to miss her last day of school :*(. She was crying at 3 AM, saying "I don't want to miss my last school, Mommy".... awwwwwwwwww. That was Thursday. And NOW the Hurricane is throwing up. It's not a really bad virus, they act like they feel fine, and then BLWAH...... throw up everywhere. Lovely, I tell you. And the Hurricane did it earlier and I didn't think anything of it, I thought she had gagged herself b/c she always has her hands in her mouth, and as soon as she finished, she asked for pizza. Let me just tell you now that three slices of pizza is NOT easy to catch in your hands :X Even if you are 6 feet tall and have big old German potato-picking hands like me! Especially if you're simultaneously talking on the phone to your mother and trying to convince your resident princess that she MUST rush to the kitchen and get a towel as fast as she can..... then you have to tell her that it doesn't matter WHAT color towel she gets..... no, you REALLY don't care.... nope, no preference between green or white.... yes, you're telling the truth, you just want a towel as fast as she can bring it, thank you very much.....yes, a yellow towel would be PERFECT! And could you get the phone from Mommy's ear and tell GaGa I'll call her back and press the blue button? What a good helper you are!

Thankfully, I had some Zofran on hand still from last October (doesn't expire until next September, yippee!) when the Hurricane caught a bug at Texas Children's downtown and we hadn't even opened until HRH was sick last week. So I administered Zofran (her) and a Samuel Adams Summer Ale (Mommy). And don't you know that my niece and 3 month old nephew were over today for about 30 minutes. I really don't think she touched him, but I had to make that dreaded "um, my kid's sick" call :X. And another friend came over today with her 9 month old... ACK! If you're reading this, Neile, I tried to call you!!!!!!!

SO......... I have kitchen counters!!!!!!!!!!

Look at Prince Charming working ::::sigh:::: aren't fix-it men dreamy? ;) He even installed our new cooktop, which I'm LOVING......

except now I'm convinced that I need a new wall oven. Him? Not so much.... I'm really proud of us that we did everything ourselves except for the countertops. We still have to glaze the cabinets and do the backsplash. I'm 99% sure we're going to go with a tile like this:

I just have to figure out how to do tile now! LOL!!!!!

Tiered twirl skirt tutorial :)

2008-05-11T19:08:00.004-05:00

************Added 8/8/08 -- I see this entry is getting a LOT of hits.... I'd love to hear comments from anyone who reads. It is clear and easy to follow? What would you like to have seen that I didn't explain or show clearly? I'm working on a couple more tutes and I'd love to hear what y'all think of this one.... and if you made a skirt from this one, I'd KILL to see it :) :) :) Link me! *****************

This will be a LONG post, so if you're not into sewing, just skip it, LOL!! And if you're a by-the-books sewer? For your own sanity, you'll probably not want to read any further. It'll drive you crazy!

OK, I took lots of pictures (I'm adding them in the blog small, but you should be able to click on them to see full-sized ones, I think), and I hope that they help. This skirt has three tiers and a ruffle on the bottom. The waistband is built into the top tier. I made this one for HRH, who has a waist measurement of 20 inches. She's 36 pounds and 41 inches tall. It hits her mid-to-lower calf. Not ankle-length, but not knee length.

I used these fabrics:

I got them at Hobby Lobby. Seersucker/plisse is awesome for summer! I like to use a rotary cutter and mat to cut my fabric, but you certainly don't need one. However, if you're going to make many things like this, you may want to invest in one. You can go to Hobby Lobby's website and print a 40% off coupon and use towards it :) I do that for anything over $10, lol!

This is a three-tiered skirt and ruffled bottom. My top tier and ruffle are the same fabric, the blue floral. My tiers are all going to be 5 inches tall un-sewn. I'll add two inches to the top tier to account for the waistband. So, I cut a 30 inch by 7 inch strip for the waistband. Then I cut a 45 inch (top tier x 1.5) by 5 inch band for the middle tier out of the pink paisley. Then a 67.5 (middle tier x 1.5) by 5 inch band for the bottom tier of the stripe. The ruffle is 135 (bottom tier x 2) by 4 inches. I know that sounds tell for a ruffle, but there's a no-hem trick coming up later :)

You start at the bottom and work your way up. It's easier to attach the gathered layers, and also you get the hardest part out of the way first! Win-win!! To make the ruffle, you're going to fold it in half, wrong sides together, you *can iron it, but you don't have to. I don't if I'm working with anything other than a cotton woven.

You're going to set your sewing machine's stitch length as high as it can go (check your manual, it's different for all machines. I told a friend to set hers to 5 and she almost drove herself crazy trying to figure out what the heck I was talking about. Turns out, hers isn't measured that way, LMAO!). Technically, you SHOULD sew TWO gathering stitches, but I never do. Don't tell anyone. The reasoning behind this is that if your thread breaks mid-gather (and it will one day if you do this enough times, trust me!), you'll have the other one to keep going, instead of having to start over from scratch, which sucks (again, trust me! LOL!). You'll sew a straight stitch (set on the longest length) to close your little folded ruffle. Sew it about 1/4 inch from the edge.... a quick guide is that on most machines, you'll have just a teeny bit of fabric showing out of the edge of the sewing machine foot. I just use the edge of the foot as my guide. You'll notice that my fabric is coming out already a little ruffled. You can do this if you adjust your machine tension as high as it can go, I turn mine to 9. The only thing you need to remember if you do this is to turn it back to normal immediately when you're done.

This is what I ended up with.... the ruffle snake, the girls call it.

You're going to gather this and pin it to the stripe, which is your bottom layer. Here is a great tutorial from YouTube about gathering and attaching:

Explains it MUCH better than I could. Doesn't she sound sweet? LOL!

In order to gather more evenly, I attach the middle of the ruffle to the middle of the stripe, and gather my way in, pinning every few inches. This is best done while catching up on your DVRed Deadliest Catch, in my opinion. While your children run around you shrieking "EW! Crabs! They're yucky! Ack! They'll PINCH you!" and you have to pause every three seconds and throw yourself across the fabric to keep them from stepping on a straight pin. Tip of the day? Teach them a new song and a little something else to keep them occupied. Today was the "Lollipop" song, complete with making the popping sound with your finger. Good for 15 minutes of sheer gathering heaven aloneness.

Now, you need to sew this together. Set your stitch length back to normal, mine is 2.2. If you forget to do it, it's not the end of the world, but you'll need to go back over it one more time with the shorter stitch length. I try to sew right over my gathering stitch. Try being the operative word there, I can never get it perfect, but hey, let's be real.... I'm not a perfectionist, as I'm sure you know by now :)

You'll need to finish off your edges so that they won't become an unravely mess through wear and washing. I'm going to serge mine, but you can just as effectively do a zigzag stitch over the edge of the fabric: (you won't be able to see this probably, unless you click on it to enlarge it.)

This is what you have so far, if you look at the right side of the fabric:

Now you'll do the exact same thing to the next tier. Make a gathering stitch (or two) (don't' forget to reset your stitch length as long as it can go!) in the striped fabric and then pin it to the pink paisley fabric.

Then you sew the gathered stripe tier to the pink paisley tier. Don't forget to set your stitch length back to normal! Finish it off by zig-zagging. Here's where we are now:

Now we're going to attach the top tier, we're going to make the waistband after we attach everything. Do it exactly the same as the other two tiers. Make your gathering stitch on the top of the pink paisley. (Set stitch length long!) Pin to the blue floral. Then sew together (Reset stitch length!) Finish off by zig-zagging. And presto! We're almost done!

Now we need to close the skirt. You'll sew a seam down the side (right sides of the fabric together, wrong sides facing out), making sure to catch the ends of the fabric so there aren't any holes (voice of experience speaking here!). Finish that seam off by zig-zagging. (Mine looks just a little different b/c I serged the seams, but you get the general idea).

OK, waistband time. Fold over about 1/4 inch of the top of the material, and press with an iron.

Then fold over about an inch and press again.

Now we're going to close the waistband, except for about 2-3 inches of it. You have to leave that open to put the elastic in. Stitch the waistband closed, leaving that opening.

Cut your elastic. I like to use non-roll elastic, for this one, I used 3/4 inch. HRH's waist is 20 inches, I cut the elastic 19 inches. I generally do about an inch less than the waist. Get a large safety pin to use to thread the elastic through the waistband.

When you get close to the back end of the elastic being pulled through, I usually get a straight pin and secure it, b/c you don't want it to go through the waistband yet.

Pull the elastic all the way around, the fabric will gather as you do this.

Now you need to stitch the elastic closed. I overlap about an inch or so.

Then I sew it together with a zig-zag stitch.

pull the waistband to get the elastic back in the casing and stitch it closed.

Voila!!!!!

Lettuce Edges!!!

2008-05-11T12:42:00.003-05:00

So I've been wanting to try to use the serger to make some lettuce edge exposed seam knit dresses, but I've been putting it off. I finally found some darling knit at Hobby Lobby and decided to just bite the bullet and go for it. Those who know me well know that I don't sew from a pattern. I just can't be confined like that, lol. So, HRH's dress took a little longer than I expected, as I was kind of making it up as I went along. Still, I think it turned out pretty adorable :) The Hurricane's took NO time at all. That knit gathers so easily just by setting my stitch length long and turning my tension to a 9. It's awesome! I'm having such a blast making these little dresses for my girls. I'm about to take the plunge and try to make something for myself. I bought some material to try to make a cute top, but I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to make it yet, lol.

And the novelty of the new dress wore off after about an hour and HRH decided this was the preferred outfit of the day:

Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms out there! May you spend the day doing whatever makes your heart happy :)

Flo, I'm cutting into a tiered twirly skirt today during the Hurricane's nap :) :) :) Depending on how long she sleeps, I may be able to post pics tonight or tomorrow morning.

Think Happy Thoughts

2008-05-09T18:50:00.002-05:00

This is taken from a girl I grew up with's blog : Bloggish. She made a list of random things that make her happy and asked her readers to do the same :) What a nice idea!

~Summer coming. Today, we went with some friends to their neighborhood swimming pool and it was SO much fun to just hang out with pals and let the kiddos splash around in the toddler pool. It was also the first time the girls have gone swimming this year, and they looked SO stinking cute in their swimsuits!

~Sewing. I'm really enjoying myself lately. I love letting the girls pick out some fabric, and then whipping out a couple of cute twirl skirts that they can wear with tanks for the summer, since they have both declared that they will no longer wear shorts or pants or jeans, they MUST have skirts or dresses. They won't even sleep in jammies, they need nightgowns!!! Here are two of the tutorials I like : twirly skirts , tiered skirts, and pillowcase-ish dresses. The next one I want to try out is this: button shirt to toddler dress . I'm on the hunt for some vintage mens' Hawaiian shirts, I think, lol. If all else fails, I may use a guayabera. :)

~HRH's way of looking at things and talking about things. She has such colorful ways of saying things. A month or so ago, we went to Luby's for supper (that's a cafeteria chain down here), and she was eating fried okra and said "Mommy, these are just MAGIC!" :) She also calls marshmallows "snowmen", which I love. And until probably 5 or 6 months ago, when she counted, she said "eight, nine, ten, love you, twelve, thirteen". And when she smelled something, she'd say "I smell like _______" LOL! It's just so darn cute.

~The Hurricane's ability to make us laugh. She is so adorable. She's a pill, a tornado of a two year old, but oh my gosh, she is such a riot! I can be so frustrated with her that I'm ready to toss her out in the backyard and leave her there, and she'll do something so sweet and cute I just melt! Her daring is amazing, too. Her favorite thing to do nowadays is climb up on one arm of the couch, walk ACROSS the back of it (and no, it's not up against a wall, of course), get to the other arm, and dive head first over the end table to the leather recliner, taking out the lamp most of the time mid-dive. ACK!!!

~$5 pizza. Seriously, if you have a Little Caesar's near you, you just can't go wrong! We're running late coming home from a playdate? No problem! Nothing in the fridge or pantry for supper? No problem! Mommy doesn't feel like cooking? No problem!! And they even have a drive-thru, LOL! PERFECT! And I firmly believe that pizza is a near-perfect food. And good for you! It has grains (crust), fruit (tomato sauce), dairy (cheese), and meats (for those who like pepperoni or hamburger). What could be better? We ate one tonight for supper. And they have this super yummy buttery garlic dipping sauce, too. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

~Prince Charming. Even on the occasions when we're not so thrilled with each other, it's nice to know that he can never stay mad at me :) He works so hard to ensure that I can stay home with our girls, I really appreciate that. And he puts up with me :)

~Farmers Markets. With summer coming, fresh fruit and veggies beware! I'm coming after you! I planted some tomatoes, grape and cherry ones, but I think the cherry ones didn't make it :X I also planted some yellow crookneck squash, it's a family favorite. We're growing them upside down! So cool. I planted dill in the top of the bucket. I also have a lot of fresh herbs growing.... basil (of course!), oregano, thyme, chives, dill, rosemary, parsley, and spearmint. I think I spied cilantro coming back from last year, too, I need to check on that. And the spearmint means my mom's mint tea! YUM!

Mint Tea

3 c. boiling water

12 large sprigs mint

4 family sized tea bags

1 c. orange juice

1/4 c. lemon juice

1 c. sugar

6 c. water

Pour boiling water over tea bags and mint. Let steep until cool. In pitcher, combine orange juice, lemon juice and sugar. Strain cooled tea mixture into pitcher and add 6 c. cold water.

Teacher Appreciation Week

2008-05-06T19:19:00.002-05:00

It's Teacher Appreciation week here in Texas. I'm not sure if it's nationwide, but it should be. I'm the coordinator for t.a. at HRH's preschool. Basically, I make sure the students and parents keep the teachers knee deep in snacks, gift cards, flowers, etc., all week. Right now, I'm mid-40 bag monogramming. The picture is horrid for some reason, but you get the gist of it:

These bags are really big and bulky, so I have to sit in the dining/sewing (LOL) room while they stitch out, and at 30 minutes a pop, I have LOTS of free time for sewing! I've gotten twirl skirts, pillowcase-ish dresses, ankle-length beach skirts done. SO exciting! And I've had this fabric :

for a few months now. I just love love love it. It's Heather Ross, of course. I'd LOVE to get my hands on some of her goldfish in the bags, too, lol. Anyway, I never could decid what to do with it, b/c I didn't have enough to make both of the girls little sundresses, so today, I finally bit the bullet and made this for the Hurricane:

I think I'll use the rest and make HRH a twirl skirt, she has an orange shirt I can do something with surely! Maybe tonight while I'm finishing up these bags (God willing). We'll see!

BIG break :)

2008-05-01T18:32:00.003-05:00

Whew! Sorry it's been so long. Lots of random things.

~My nephew is quite possibly the cutest stinking three month old on the planet right now :)

~Hurricane Lu has fully embraced her inner terrible two-ness. A blog I read somewhere referred to it as TWO-berty. LOVE that, LMAO! And so appropriate!!!!

~Still waiting on the granite. The one we picked was out of stock, so we went to Ubatuba Green. Still love it, and we're on track for getting it installed mid-week next week!!! ::::::snoopy dance::::::

~Teacher Appreciation week at HRH's school is next week. I'm the coordinator, again. I enjoy it, but it sure is crazy. Right now, I'm in the middle of embroidering 40 tote bags with the teachers' monograms. I hope they love them :)

~Top Chef this week..... was it just me, or did they all sound a bit elitist and snobby when they were stunned by the fact that someone could have to prepare a meal for a family of 4 on $10. Whatever. I could feed a family of 10 on $5 if I had to. That irritated me. And I was sad to see Mark go, but it was his time. I'll miss his accent, though. :)

~DWTS - HRH is SO upset that Shannon Elizabeth is gone now. She said, and I quote, "but her boy was the prettiest!" :X LOL! I like her, but am I the only one who thought she looked a little like Baby's sister Lisa in Dirty Dancing when she's practicing for the talent show? :X

I feel bad for saying that, but it's not the first time I thought it :X

~Hell's Kitchen - Gordon has absolutely lost his fricking mind this season. These people are blithering idiots. I wouldn't eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from them!!!! I find it hard to keep watching, but there's something strangely fascinating about it..... kind of like a car wreck.... or PerezHilton... or wrestling. I'll shut up now.

~Thong underwear..... there's just something a little funny about putting some on when you're getting dressed in the morning (to spare the general public from the dreaded VPL), especially when your children look in horror and declare "Mommy, your panties are broken!!!!!!!!!" :X

Break from the kitchen :)

2008-04-25T08:05:00.002-05:00

I'll take a break from the kitchen, we're heading out of town today until late tomorrow night, for our new baby nephew's baptism. I get to be his godmother :*) I'm not even Catholic! LOL! But I can promise that no other Godparent would love him as much as me :) Anyway, the kitchen looks basically the same, we're putting final coats on everything, I still have to paint the baseboards. And my tile looks positively disGUSTing. :X I'll be on my hands and knees scrubbing the snot out of it either today or tomorrow, depending on how long it takes me to make baby Jack's baptism blankie this morning. Here's my kitchen picture today.... HRH helped paint. She was so proud, when anyone comes over, she has to show them the wall SHE painted. And of course, it's unanimous that HER wall is the best looking one in the kitchen!

So my good friend Angela had a great blog about GETTING REAL. About how sometimes moms try to give the impression that they are so together and with it and everything is June Cleaver-y in THEIR household. (My summarization, not hers, lol), and why do we do that? I'll admit right now that I tend to be WAY more patient with my girls in public. But I think it's subconscious. Also, I honestly think my girls ACT better when we're in public, b/c they love being out and about. They get bored and restless here at home, so that's when they act out the most. I always get tickled, though, when people tell me "Oh, you're so patient with them, they're so well-behaved" etc. The well-behaved comment always gets an incredulous "THEM?!?!" in my head, lol. So, for you, Angela, and you, Flo, here are some of my "real me" examples. Will you still want to be my friends? :X

~My house is NEVER clean. I mean never. Well, the day before my mother comes to visit, I frantically run around and clean it up to where *I think it's spotless, and I'm sure she still comes in and wonders how I raise my children in this mess, lol!

~I honestly don't CARE that my house is not spotless. Dust and dirt bother me, but clutter rarely does. It bothers Prince Charming, though, so I make an effort to try to clean for him. Especially when I have to put all of my receipts into Quicken :X

~I say I'd rather be playing with my kids than spend my time cleaning, but let's be real, I'm just a little lazy sometimes. And I'll cop to using the fact that I haven't had more than 5 hours straight sleep in over 4 years to help cover that. It usually works.

~I still nurse my 2 year old daughter for a number of reasons. It's better for her health, better for mine, etc., etc. But the top reason is that I just don't want to take the time to wean her. I'm trying a little now, but my heart's just not in it.

~I use cloth diapers for the girls (well, not HRH anymore, obviously), but since Christmas, I just haven't wanted to deal with the laundry, so she's in sposies. I should feel guilty about this, for the environment, but I don't.

~I don't read to my girls as much as I should. I try, but I can't get them to sit still when I have time.

~I haven't cooked supper for my family in over a week. We're doing the kitchen, but I'm sure I could have found a way to do it. I just don't want to. I'm in a funk about it.

~I have a list of sewing projects a mile long that I say I'm going to do. I swear, by the time I finish them, the girls will be in college. Doesn't stop me from buying fabric, though. (Ang, Emerie's nap mat cover will be made ASAP, though, lol.)

~I let my girls choose their own outfits on days HRH doesn't go to school sometimes. So, we have gone to pick up wings with them in full-on princess gear, or the Hurricane dressed in her sister's swimsuit and a grass skirt and princess heels with a feather boa and my sunglasses. And I thought she looked darn cute!

~Laundry usually gets folded when Prince Charming gets sick of it sitting in the baskets :X and I usually wait to do laundry until we're all out of underwear, so I have a day of doing literally twelve or so loads.

~I have absolutely NO head for finances :X My sweetie pays bills and tells me "You have $________ for the rest of the pay period". Lord love the man. And he never cares what I spend it on, as long as I stay in between the lines ;)

I could go on for days and days, but I won't bore you. However, if you ever want to feel really good about your own housekeeping and organizational skills, feel free to pop over for a cup of tea any time :)

~

Kitchen, day 2

2008-04-23T09:35:00.002-05:00

We painted until 9:00 last night. A good friend came over with her two kids to help out. Then we spent from 9 to 10 cleaning the playroom, which the kids had completely destroyed, lol, but we didn't care because they played together nicely and let us paint!

The granite guy is coming by this morning :)

Let's remodel!!!!!

2008-04-22T07:26:00.003-05:00

Prince Charming and I have decided to remodel our kitchen in preparation for trying to sell our house in about a year or so. There's really nothing WRONG with it, so much as the fact that it's pretty dated. So I'll report progress here. We're very much do-it-themselvesers (translation : too cheap to pay other people what we could surely figure out ourselves..... it's a common trait among airline pilots.... I believe it comes from the rice and beans years of flight time building and flight instructing). So, on our list is: paint and do an antique glaze on the cabinets, granite counters (we're having someone else install them), tile backsplash (we're going to attempt it ourselves), new hardware for cabinets, new sink,, new faucet, new cooktop. We got new floors a year ago, and we were so surprised at the difference it made! I can't wait to see what this looks like when we're finished! It may take us a month, though, lol!

Before:

That's the only good picture I had on the computer. And of course, don't you know I only thought about doing before pics AFTER we had started taking off the cabinet doors. Yep, I'm really "with it" like that!

This morning:

ACK!!!!!!! Wish us luck!!!!!!!!!

Scariest moment ever

2008-04-20T14:12:00.002-05:00

Imagine your worst fear. Then multiply it time about eight hundred and fifty thousand. That happened to me today. Just about an hour ago. I took the girls to our local kids festival for the second day in a row. Yesterday we went and had SO much fun, I thought today we'd go with the girls' swimsuits so that they could do everything that they didn't get to do yesterday. Great idea, right? It was. We had so much fun. They did bubbles, water slides, played with the puppies from the animal shelter, etc. Then we watched Scooby Doo Live, which they both thoroughly enjoyed. At the end of the show, Shaggy threw out some little mini frisbees to the kids in the audience. HRH ran up to get one, which was fine. I could see her. She finally got one, then decided that we should go get Lucy one (isn't she a sweet big sister? :) ). Our awesome neighbors were with us, so Lucy stayed with them while Madge and I ran up to the stage. I turned around after about 3 minutes (literally..... 180 seconds) and Lucy was no where to be found. She had started following us, and my neighbor thought I knew it, so we both had assumed that she was with the other one. There were probably 200-300 people at this little amphitheatre watching the show, and I could not see my sweet little peanut who's only 33 inches tall anywhere. This is the point in your life where you literally can FEEL your heart constrict and your lungs struggling to fill with air. I'm calling "Lucy!" , which the people around me pick up and start doing, I race up to the stage with a very upset 4 year old sister to find a policeman to report a :::::::::::gulp:::::::::: missing child. I have given birth twice, struggled through years and years of infertility treatments, had all sorts of icky things happen to me, and trust me when I say they PALE in comparison to having to tell a policeman that your two year old is missing. It's like you're on autopilot, reciting what they're wearing, their name, hair color, etc. The nice policeman was getting all of the information ready to send out over his walkie talkie when an organizer from the festival comes up and says "you're looking for a little girl? What's she wearing?" A wonderful angel of a lady took her to the registration tent, which is also the lost and found, it was about 150 feet from where we were. I don't know who that lady was, all I know was they described her as a pretty black lady, but lady, whoever you are, you have my devotion for the rest of my life. I really really wish you had left your name with the organizers. You saved my life. I will be eternally grateful and hope that some day I can help someone out the way you helped me. Lucy was just fine, a little quiet, had some tears coming down her face, they said she asked them for water. And wouldn't tell them her name. She kept saying her name was Juli.

Please let this be a lesson to anyone who reads this. Make sure your children know what to do if they can't find you. Madge has it down pat. She will recite it for anyone who asks. She is to go find a mommy with a baby (we used to say policeman until we realized it might be hard for her to distinguish a policeman from any other uniform, so now we say mommy), tell her "I can't find my mommy. My name is (first name) (last name), my mommy's name is Juli and my daddy's name is David". Lucy, on the other hand, we never really thought we had the need to teach her that so soon. She's just a baby! I know better now. And I pray that I never feel what I felt today again. And that none of you ever have to feel it either.

Go grab your babies, no matter how old they are, hug them, squeeze them, kiss them, and tell them you love them. Let them get away with a little something today. Let them stay up late, eat ice cream for supper, something special.

Quick post

2008-04-13T09:07:00.002-05:00

Just a quick shout out to my sweet hubby this morning. The girls and I are about to head out to drive to Austin to see him cross the finish line of the BP MS150. He biked about 90 miles yesterday, and said he had around 70 to go today. You can read more about it (and donate!) at www.ms150.org. We are so proud of him, and it's going to be so cool to see the riders coming into Austin. I doubt we'll be able to pick him out, seeing as though there are something like 13000 riders. But it will still be exciting. :) Wish me luck wrangling both girls in the crowd! I'm thinking the Hurricane on my back in the mei tai is probably a good idea. Then I can have HRH on my hip. A stroller would probably suck in that situation, no?

Anyway, way to go, Prince Charming!!!!!!!!!!!! We are SO proud of you!

TWO!!

2008-04-12T09:12:00.002-05:00

My baby is two years old now. I guess this officially means she's not really a baby anymore. How can that be? She's supposed to be a little bitty baby! She IS little bitty, she's a petite little thing, which is surprising, given her Amazonian mommy and big sister whose nickname used to be Gigantor. But she's so OLD. She's so mature. It's such a fun age for her. She's so cool to talk to. :) And talk, she does. That girl could talk the bark off of a tree. HRH talks a lot here at home, she even talks in her sleep, but the Hurricane talks to anyone, anything, anywhere, as long as she's not sleep. One of her new things, since we're working on going to sleep without nursing to sleep, is to make up her own bedtime stories. I'm a mean mommy and when she lays there asking me questions over and over again at 11:00, I'll start ignoring her, so she just starts talking to herself. She'll go over her day, then she'll start talking about who's asleep, lol. "Madge aseep, Daddy aseep, Mommy aseep, YuYu aseep..... no!" LOL! After a while of that, she'll start with her stories. "Onca time, petty pincess go sopping. Take-a baby Target. Pocorn". (Guess where WE like to go for afternoon snacks, lol!). It is SO stinking cute! Almost makes me ready to have another baby! ALMOST! I'd like another year, I think. Prince Charming would really like to wait until we have a bigger house, so I guess we'll see what happens when we try to sell our house next Spring. Of course, we had all sorts of plans when Madge was 1 or so. We were going to try to get pregnant after she turned 2, so they'd be about three years apart. Um, yeah. So much for us trying to tell God what WE had in mind, lol! HRH and the Hurricane are 2 years and 10 days apart. Best surprise ever, though :)

Sewing funk

2008-04-09T09:14:00.004-05:00

I've been in a bit of a sewing funk lately. I go in cycles, I'll be a mad sewer for a few months, whipping out stuff right and left, then be completely uninspired. I've been in an uninspired mode for a few weeks now. I finished a patchwork twirl skirt for an auction winner, and embroidered a tank to go with it, I think it was the reason I was in a funk. I think it turned out darling, but I wasn't in love with the materials to begin with. I had envisioned something funky, bright, etc., (I want to make the girls ones with zebra print and hot pink prints with a dash of lime green thrown in), and they picked floral quilting fabrics. Beautiful fabrics, but when you have one thing set in your mind, it's hard to change over happily (for me, anyway). Still, it turned out cute, and with my new serger, It went super fast! (other than the gathering of 320 inches of the ruffle, which would surely take less time if I could figure out my ruffling foot, but I haven't fallen in love with it yet, due to it's bulkiness and noise).

And now that THAT is done, I have been inspired by this darling seersucker print that a friend gave me two yards of:

I just can't decide if I want to make twirl skirts and pair them with bright lime and hot pink or turquoise or orange or yellow tanks, or if I want to make a sundress using the tank as the bodice. It'll come to me soon enough, I guess. I have some solid turquoise seersucker, too, and as soon as I get off of my lazy tush, the lovebugs and I are heading to Hobby Lobby. We have to get thank you cards for the girls' birthday party gifts, and while I'm there, I'll see what they have to go with this.

I also want to pick up some broadcloth to make some super twirl skirts (gathered at triple fullness instead of double). I think I'm going to make some red, white, and blue ones for the fourth of July this year! Broadcloth is so cheap, and those whip out pretty quickly, and the girls simply ADORE them, so I assume we'll have them in all sorts of colors for summer :)

Any sewers out there? What are YOU working on? Got any favorite tutorial links for me?

DWTS tonight

2008-04-07T21:34:00.002-05:00

I actually have time to blog tonight about DWTS because both of my lovebugs are asleep! Can you hear the Hallelujah Chorus where you are? They made it through DWTS and conked out right after. Pre-recap info.... HRH wore a fantasically ugly homemade nightgown that I made her last year, total muumuu style, patchwork fabric and all, I adore it, lol. The Hurricane chose some Hello Kitty panties, a see-through purple tulle tutu and a hot pink satin top with a sleeping beauty applique. The style my girls have, it's astonishing, I tell you :) Of course, they both had to wear princess shoes to dance in. During the opening sequence, HRH informed me that she thinks "the pretty girl in the blue dress" is going to win. "You know, the one with the yellow hair like Collin". (Leads to a story about her obsession with my friend Samantha's son Collin, who she has met one time, almost two years ago, yet is in love with. If you ask her who her favorite boy is, she'll say Collin. She talks about when she grows up how she will be able to be a Mommy with Collin being the daddy. It's crazy, lol!) . Which leads to Lucy insisting that "dat cinnerella win!" (said while pointing at Priscilla Presley) and demanding pretty arms like "dat cinnerella". She liked the flowy sleeves, I guess. Add that to the sewing project pile.

SO..... they start with Kristy. I've been reading so much about maybe some of the competitors and professionals thinking she has an unfair advantage. I think they might be right, and it's more than a little annoying that everyone talks about her like her winning is a done deal. That irritates me. I'm such an underdog fan, too, so I have a hard time rooting for her. Who was next? Priscilla, maybe? She is freaking amazing! And oh my it totally looks like she has a thing going on with her partner, no? They've got great chemistry. You go, girl! Then Jason Taylor. I LOVE him. He looks like a huge ballerina out there, he's so graceful. Just beautiful. (these will not be in the correct order, I warn you!) Adam Carolla.... bless Julianne's heart. He's getting better, though, I guess. What was UP with the unicycle, though? He's a nut! Cristian..... oooooooooh, he's muy caliente, no? Juli likey :) Must be something about me and Latin men ;) Shannon Elizabeth, who as I mentioned before, is HRH's pick to take home the mirrored ball trophy. She did great! Poor Derek's neck. He's such a cutie! And I'm wondering what is going on with the two of them.... can you imagine how gorgeous their kids would be?!!?!?!? LOL! Mario did great! Weird, I was flipping channels today, and saw a movie that he was in, and it was about dancing. He didn't dance in it, though, at least that I saw. Step Up? Maybe? Something like that. Not a memorable movie, but I saw him, and once I figured out that it wasn't Chris Rock, I knew it was him, lol! Marlee Matlin did wonderful, once again. Her partner should win some sort of medal, he's amazing with her! And Marissa! Way to go, girl! I can't believe she could be serious for that long! I'm so proud, lol!!!!

I realize that this is boring to anyone who doesn't watch DWTS, but we love it here. And tomorrow night is Hell's Kitchen and Wednesday night is Top Chef. I'll try to blog about something non-tv related soon, though, I promise!!!!

Reality TV WrapUp

2008-04-03T13:41:00.002-05:00

Ok, I finally finished the reality shows I'm addicted to, lol. DWTS, Top Chef, and Hell's Kitchen. Here we go!

DWTS - Oh, the Gute is gone :*( I just think he's adorable. I'm sorry to see him go. I think it should have been Adam Corolla. (sorry, Adam). And might I add that his "Man"-go was one of the funniest things I've seen in a LONG time! LOVED it. Priscilla Presley just continues to amaze me. I hope I'm in as good of shape when I'm her age. I wonder what she does to stay in shape? Probably something other than me, LMAO! I swear when Hurricane Lu starts Mother's Day Out next fall, I'm going to join a gym. I think I'd like to try yoga and Pilates. Anything else would probably not be up my alley, lol. The biggest plus in my opinion to yoga is that my sister Lara promises that I'd get to be still and silent for like 5 minutes at the end! Try that now in my house, I DARE you! You'd have glitter stickers from head to toe and Sharpie toenail polish, ROFL!!!!

Does anyone else think Kristy Yamaguchi has an unfair advantage? The more I think about it, the more I do. She's doing so well, I just think that it's not really fair to lump her in with some of the others. Although, Marissa sure keeps getting pooed on for "not being as good as she should be". I was surprised to read that she's expecting a baby (via surrogate) right now! So I imagine that the DWTS judges can probably say whatever they want and she'll still be happy. I also think she's the giggliest person on the planet. Seriously. She should get a medal or something. Didn't like her hair Monday, though :X

Top Chef - OK, Spike and Andrew annoy me. I don't know why. Dale SHOULD be the one annoying me, from my past experience, but it's Spike and Andrew. And Manuel a little, although that's a moot point after last night. Wasabi and white chocolate WHA?!?! I'll have what THEY'RE having, please! How on earth could a brain come up with those flavors? I love TC, lol, when he said "I really looked for a reason to not like this dish, but I couldn't find one"! He's so cute. He needs to shave that ridiculous little soul patch, though, or whatever they're calling those lately. Padma, girl, help a dude out! Give him a hint!

HK - WTH was Gordon thinking?!?!?!?! He's surely going to be kicking his own butt after watching that show. Jason goes MIA during prep for dinner service and he sends the adorably geeky SAHD Dominic home? ::::Smacks Gordon upside the head:::: Then Louross should be in big trouble for not even putting Jason up for elimination. I honestly wonder if he was trying to ensure that Bobby got sent home (which totally should have happened). Gee, THAT worked out well for ya, Louross, huh? Ugh! Gordon is going to have to redeem himself with me. You hear that, Gordon? Snap to it and get your head out of your rear.

Alright, I'm lucky I even had time to do that small of a recap. I have a patchwork twirl skirt that HAS to get finished soon, a stack of embroidery, and a double birthday party to throw this weekend. Not to mention some family coming in that I need to wash sheets and clean house for. ::::whew:::: I think I'll sit here and have some M&Ms :-)

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

2008-04-01T12:03:00.003-05:00

How is it possible that I have a four year old?!?!??!!? This morning, she informed me that now she loves me FOUR minutes and a rainbow :*)

Signs my life is back to normal :)

2008-03-30T20:30:00.002-05:00

This is amusing rather than irritating, LMAO! Hurricane Lu got ahold of a blue stamp. Which was fine when she was stamping a sheet of paper and saying "Eenie meenie miney moe", lol. Not so fine when she decided it looked like haute cuisine!

What I love is that she's so dang proud of herself, LMAO!!!!!!!!!! She said "mommy, look! I blue!"

I taught HRH to do the "superstar" pose a la Mary Katherine Gallagher. She added the "L"s herself. We're so proud :*)

The girls and I planted tomatoes today. Two little plants. I think that's all we'll try to start this year! I'm stinky as can be, after lugging around 40 pound bags of topsoil, but they're all clean and jammied and smelling of Face of the Wave's Buttermilk Baby lotion. mmmmmmmmmm........ LOVE it. I'll get a bubble bath after they go to bed. Right now, I'm listening to HRH watch Ella Enchanted. The Hurricane is asleep (hallelujah, praise the Lord, and amen!), and I'm blogging with a lovely glass of Argentinian Malbec :) Life is good! Now if only Prince Charming was on the same continent as me..................

Meanest Mommy in the world.

2008-03-29T15:02:00.000-05:00

Alright, alright, I know I'm slacking in the blog department this week. I'm sorry. Let's call it an Easter Chocolate hangover, ok? To be honest, I'm having trouble thinking of stuff to write about, and I had a rough week.

I'm not quite sure what it was, but I was a crappy mommy this week. I just was cranky and short-tempered, and not to toot my own horn, but I usually am SUPREMELY patient and understanding with my girls. I try to find the fun and joy and "happies" in just about anything I can. This week? Not so much. It felt like life just left a big flaming pile of dog poo on my door and rang the bell. And it wasn't really any one thing in particular, either. That's what's so weird. The girls were a bit whiny and grumpy, but that's to be expected when they get back to our boring old house after a week of fun and cousins at GaGa's house (pics on their blog... link to the left). Anyway, Wednesday, I was informed by none other than HRH than I was mean and she wasn't sure she liked me very much and (my personal favorite.... said with hand on hip and shaking head at me) I'm not being understanding of her. I believe that this was said after she and the Hurricane got in trouble for relocating around 7 or 8 gallons of bathwater to the bathroom floor while I was running to get a clean towel from the dryer. On an ordinary average day, I might have found this irritating, but tried to come up with a positive, along the lines of "oh, thanks! I needed to mop the floor anyway and now I'm half-way done" or something insanely cheesy and Mary Poppins-y like that. This particular night, however, I'm almost 98% sure that steam was coming out of my ears as I walked into the office and informed Prince Charming that HIS children were about to drive me out of my mind and Mommy needed some ME time, and oh, by the way, would he be a dear and mop the bathroom floor? :X Lord love that man of mine, he swept the girls out of the errant bathwater's way, wrapped them up like tamales in their favorite towels, got them lotioned and jammied, while telling me to go check my email and he'd do the floor later. :::::Sighs dreamily::::: Is it any wonder I snatched him up as soon as I could, LOL? After the girls fell asleep (post- "sorry for making waves on the floor, Mommy"), I got to have a nice hot bubble bath with a glass of wine and a little bowl of M&Ms, while admiring my newly clean bathroom tile. (Note to self...... pick up steaks for a nice dinner on Monday when he gets home from Berlin). I think I needed that little outburst, because the next morning, I was back to normal. I have to admit, though, Wednesday night, Hurricane Lu came DANGEROUSLY close to being our youngest child, LOL!

It was also suggested that maybe I'm having a hard time dealing with the fact that in the next two weeks, my BABY is going to turn 4!!!!! And my OTHER BABY will turn 2! How is this possible?!?!??! They're BABIES! HRH will be in Pre-K next year and I'm so depressed. She is so old and mature and big :*( I sneak into her room at night and snuggle up to her and smell her hair and can flashback to the baby I longed for all of those years. Little Lu is a riot. She's grown up all of a sudden. I always was told that second babies grow up faster, but I didn't want to believe it. Now, when she was a newborn and had colic (most miserable thing EVER), I was ready for a LITTLE time to pass, but not like this! We were walking through Target yesterday and she was talking to herself (a regular thing, she's a chatty cathy), and I all of a sudden realized that she was naming off the days of the week!!!!! What is up with THAT? Someone stop time. I mean it. Right now. I keep bugging David to, and he says it's not possible. Why the heck does he think I married someone with an Aerospace Engineering degree? And his nuclear engineering training in the Navy? Completely worthless, evidently, in helping me with this. HMPH.

I'm back :)

2008-03-26T13:42:00.000-05:00

I think that the one or two people who actually read this might have given up on me. Sorry! We were out of town for Easter. We had a nice visit with my family.
I'm back now, though. This will be short, b/c I have a mound of embroidery that I need to finish today and a patchwork twirl skirt to make, too. So, how about a quick DWTS recap? I just finished watching yesterday's elimination round, and America got it right. I feel bad for Monica Seles, but she needed to go. Penn knew he was leaving, lol. How about that Kristi Yamaguchi?!?! WOW! I'm loving watching her. Her rehearsal footage really had me thinking that she wouldn't be able to get out there and let loose, but she did! And Jason Taylor is just adorable! Mario is SO good. And Marlee Matlin just blows me away! Priscilla Presley was a big surprise, she looked SO nervous before her first performance, but she did a great job! And I just think Steve Gutenburg is precious. :) Shannon Elizabeth is really good, but she still looks like she'd be giggly, lol. She and Derek make a cuuuuuuute pair, don't they? :X Who am I missing? Adam Carolla? He's just having fun. He got better this week, but, bless his heart, he just has a touch too much of the white man syndrome. Marissa is getting better, but I imagine teaching her is like training a hyper chihuahua, lol. She's adorable, but it's probably hard to get her to focus, lol. Reminds me a bit of taking my dog Piper to obedience school. It was suggested to us that they could not do anything else and we had improved all we would, LMAO!

Dancey show!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-03-18T08:58:00.000-05:00

Ah! Spring! The flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, and Dancing With the Stars is back on the air! We ADORE this show. HRH and the Hurricane ask me daily "Is the dancey show on today?". We DVR it and watch it countless times during the week, learning dance moves. And this MUST be watched in full-on pretty princess dress. Last night's ensemble? HRH chose a lovely size 2T Snow White top and skirt. Never mind that three inches of belly showed in between the bottom of her top and the top of her bottom, she looked mah-velous! Hurricane Lu opted to wear nothing but Dora the Explorer panties and a pink tulle skirt. This is not a look many can pull off, mind you, but she rocked it. Not that I'm biased or anything, but my girls can really cut a rug! So , for the next few weeks, I have a feeling that my Tuesday posts will end up being DWTS discussions. :) Bear with me, please.

Now tonight, only the men danced. We did get a chance to see all of the competitors, though. Let's discuss the women first.

*******************disclaimer*************
If you're reading this and not from the South, you may not know about our "bless his/her/your heart" saying. This phrase, preceding any statement, takes the meanness out of it. For example, you might hear "bless his heart, he's just dumber than a box of rocks". You're not trying to be mean, just stating a fact. I only bring this up because, well, you'll see.
******************************************
Shannon Elizabeth. She sure is pretty. And giggly. And proud :X And I can't decide if she was being funny or b*tchy towards Marissa Janet Winokur at the end there. Thoughts?

Marlee Matlin. I can't wait to see how she is going to actually do this. I'm really excited about her. I do wonder, why, when she speaks using her own voice for acting roles, would she use an interpreter here? Just strikes me as a little odd.

Priscilla Presley. Bless her heart (see!).... she looks like she's had so much work done that she'd melt in 80 degrees. :( She's such a naturally beautiful lady, why would she feel the need to get all Michael-Jackson/Joan-Rivers-y?

Monica Seles. I liked her! I wasn't expecting to, but she seems so cool and laid-back, like the kind of person I'd want to be friends with in real life.

Marissa Janet Winokur. I have been a HUGE fan of her for a while now. She's done Broadway, so it seems like she has an advantage, but I hear that dancing with a partner is way different. We'll see!

Kristi Yamaguchi. I have to admit, I don't know much about her, you really don't hear about her anymore. She's definitely athletic and graceful, I'll bet she's really good at the classic ballroom stuff. I suppose we'll see tomorrow.

Before we go on to the men, can we observe a moment of silence for Maksim's decision to sit this season out? :*( Me so sad. And no Alec Mazo, either?!?!?! What is the world coming to?!?!

OK, the dancing!

Penn Jillette. Poor Kym. She keeps getting paired up with people who just can't dance! What is UP with that? She's an awesome partner, comes up with the neatest and most original dances (remember Jerry Springer? LOL!). I just wish they'd give her someone she had a fighting chance with!

Jason Taylor. Oh my goodness! What a cutie pie! My heavens, he's a tall drink of water. Looks SO graceful out on the floor, too! I can't wait to see what he does in the Latin dances! ;) LOVED the pink tutu. So did HRH and the Hurricane, they got all excited, then got the giggles "because daddies don't wear pretty princesses!!!!!!" LOL!

Cristian de la Fuente. I had something cute and witty to say about how "fuente" means "hot" or something of the sort. Imagine my crushing disappointment when I googled, only to find out it means "fountain" LMAO! I was a little disappointed in his dancing, as well. He has room to improve, but he's still adorable to look at!

Adam Corolla. Poor, poor Adam. LOL! Not so good. And poor Julianne. But it's someone else's turn to win now. She can concentrate on her album! He wasn't as terrible as I thought he'd be, and I think Julianne's fans will carry them a few weeks, but he won't last, I'll bet.

Mario. He's so freaking adorable!!!!!! Am I the only one who thinks he looks like Chris Rock? BOY that fella can dance, too! I really like Karina, and I'm happy she got a good competitor this year. LOVED his cha cha!

Steve Guttenberg. He is this season's John ratzen-whatever. You know, Cliff from Cheers. Much better than anyone thought, a charmer, and having a BLAST! So much fun to watch :) I think he'll go farther than anyone expected, if only he has the fan base to pull him through.

OK, that's it. I think. Not sure I'll have time for a ladies' recap tomorrow, as the girls and I are hitting the road for an Easter visit to GaGa's house. Daddy will be meeting us there for the weekend. May my one or two readers have a Blessed Easter, safe travels if you are going anywhere, and a great week!

Too cool for school

2008-03-16T19:39:00.000-05:00

Today was such a beautiful day here. Sunny, mid-70s, the kind of day that makes you want to roll the windows down and open the sunroof and blast your favorite music. Which is what HRH and I did, on our way to spend the day out at our property (a couple of acres upon which we plan to build our dream house in a year or so). The Hurricane chose to ride with Daddy and Piper (our nut of a dachshund) out there, so that left me and her Madgesty. We made the 10 minute drive with the wind blowing through our hair, cool shades on, and jamming to my self-burned CD of 90s hair bands (think GNR, Queensryche, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, etc.). She informs me that her favorite song is now "the Jungle one". When I figure out that she means GNR's Welcome to the Jungle, I have to admit that my heart swelled . :) I know what you're thinking..... I'll go ahead and address it. Yep, I'm just THAT cool. And evidently HRH has inherited that gene from me :) She likes Meatloaf, too :)

And this update on Lu is just for you, Ang! She's not pretend pottying in public. Nope, she's nursing her baby dolls, stuffed animals, etc. And let's just say she's NOT a modest nurse-in-public-er. :X And she likes to draw attention to the fact of what she's doing by yelling "SShhhhhhh.... baby cry. Baby wanta nurse. YuYu nurse da baby". Sorry. No pics (yet).

My morning happy

2008-03-15T08:30:00.000-05:00

I have learned to find joy in every little thing I can. In our house, we call them "happies". We have a super busy Saturday today, with a baby shower for a family friend, tons of embroidery calling my name, and a St. Patrick's Day dinner with our very Irish Uncle John. So, here is my morning happy : Hurricane Lu woke up early with me today, so we had a good hour or so to hang out and visit before the rest of the household joined us. She asked to watch "brr brr mah" (which is High School Musical, she calls it that because of the sounds that Sharpay and Ryan make when they are warming up to perform). And evidently, found the need to do some nakey dancing :)

That adorable teeny little tushy twirling around to "Bop to the Top" will make me smile all day :)

Sprung

2008-03-14T16:45:00.000-05:00

Spring has! Sprung, that is. Don't you read the titles? LOL! It's 85 degrees here and sunny and all around one of the most beautiful days we've had so far!!!! I can't WAIT for the bluebonnets, but I'll bide my time with these lovelies:

and my long-forgotten parsley from last summer has gone haywire!

These are my favorite flowers to see. Some call them weeds, but I call them the sweetest bouquet ever :)
We've even bought swimsuits!!! I have a sickness, I tell you :X But how stinking CUTE is this?

And finally..... this is how long I have to wait to eat the yummiest bread! WHO bread, courtesy of SouleMama. SO yummy!!!! My house smells amazing, lol!

Is it just me?

2008-03-12T09:09:00.000-05:00

Or does it seem that on the days when I desperately needed another hour (or four) of sleep, THOSE are the days that chance seems to put the most trying people in my path? Honest to goodness, I ask of the one or two people that might randomly stumble across this blog, what on EARTH would be going through someone's head to see a harried young mother (yes, I'm young..... 30's the new 20, right?) wrestling an uncooperative 23 month old into her carseat while juggling three bags of fabric and a ringing cell phone that would cause them to think "I'm going to pull up RIGHT behind her and wait for my kids/wife/husband/granny/mailman/whatEVER to come out of the restaurant right here. Never mind that the aforementioned nice lady won't be able to raise her tailgate to put in her purchases because I'm so fling-flanging close to her car. {and let me tell you, the lady obviously needed her purchases or she wouldn't have been at Hancock's (what should be a fun place to drift through and dream about what you want to make with all the pretty fabrics) with a child who has morphed into a breed of creature that in our house we call a Grumpalumpagus}. So, after standing by the end of my car with my hand on the handle of the tailgate for literally three or four minutes (which doesn't sound THAT long, but think about it, that's 180-240 seconds. Not awfully short when you're really irritated), I go back to the front seat, turn on the car so the Hurricane can watch her beloved High School Musical (yep, she's a preteen trapped in a teeny tiny body) and go BACK to stand behind my car. Finally, the doofus turns to look at me, feigns surprise (not very good at it, I might add) and rolls down the window to ask me if I need him/her to back up. Ummm...... yeah? Ladies and gentlemen, the award for the morning's most ridiculous question goes to.......... the envelope please....... oh, wow! It's meanie-tailgate-blocking person! UGH!
When I got home, it was brought to my attention that it MIGHT have been an innocent accident, but I'm not sure I buy it. And I'm not unreasonable or impatient. Nope, not me. You must have me confused with someone else.
Oh! one more, from yesterday, too. Imagine that! This one is quick, though, I promise.
I get a cell phone call yesterday afternoon. It was Texas Children's Opthalmology Specialists Scheduling calling to schedule Hurricane Lu's surgery. Huh? What? Are you sure you have the right number? They have the right name and the right child's name. Finally figured out that this was the lady who was supposed to call me in JANUARY (they promised a call that afternoon when I left the consultation) to schedule an appt for early February to clear out some scar tissue leftover from the great double stye that we dealt with back in October. @@@@@@@@@@@@ (those are my eyeballs rolling off of the screen). I kindly said "I'm sorry, but you were supposed to call in January to schedule this. We've decided against having the procedure done, but thanks for the timely follow-up call". What is WRONG with that office? The doc was amazing, LOVE him, if you ever need a pediatric opthalmologist, email me for a recommendation! But the schedulers, come ON! Get real!
However, to end my day on a lovely note, my wonderful mother-in-law brought over fried chicken for supper! Yippee skippy!

::::::::::yawn::::::::::::::

2008-03-11T06:53:00.000-05:00

So it seems that the Hurricane decided that 3:50 was a good time to greet the morning today. All attempts to snuggle her back to sleep were rebuffed, and a little rudely, I might add. ;) She's like the Energizer Bunny, I swear I have no idea where she gets her get-up-and-go, especially at the unholy hour of 4 AM!!!! If I felt more well-rested and steady-handed, I'd head into the dining/sewing room and finish up the latest nap-mat cover I'm working on. SO stinking cute, it's all pinks and limes and white and black and flowers and full of girly deliciousness. But I'd probably serge my finger into the seam if I tried to do it right now. I have a stack of "to do" in my sewing/craft/embroidery space sky high right now. I finished one mat Sunday. How cute is this?

I donated a cover to HRH's school auction and after the auction had several people come up to me and ask if they could buy one! How cool is that?

I also monogrammed a couple of swimsuits for Madge's school's resident fashionista :) I'm blatantly stealing the idea and may even hit the Osh Kosh outlet for the exact swimsuit, as it was beyond adorable. Pink and white stripe with bright orange binding and straps. Mono in orange. To DIE for! HRH and Hurricane Lu must have. :X

Simple Pleasures

2008-03-09T11:52:00.000-05:00

As a parent, we're bombarded with commercials for things our kids evidently MUST posess to be a happy, intelligent, well-rounded child with good self-esteem. From video games to pretend play to light-flashing, noise-making doohickeymabobs, who can keep up with the latest and greatest? When, to be real and honest, all they need is a book of clearance stickers from JoAnns and a willing and able aunt.

Evidently, HRH thinks I'm super :)

Genetic anomalies

2008-03-07T10:05:00.000-06:00

Ok, I'm beginning to think I may have reason to be concerned! My girls just begged me to go back and let them help me make my bed. Granted, it takes me at least 15 minutes to do so when they help, but they're so proud of themselves when they do it! HRH helps me pull the sheet and blanket up and Hurricane Lu hands us the pillows. Now, what concerns me is that this in NO way is a trait that they inherited from me. I come from the general philosophy school of "why make the bed if you're going to get right back into it". I used to only make my beds on the days that I put clean sheets on it (probably not as often as I should, but I digress.....). However, Prince Charming really really really prefers our bed to be made, as opposed to the rumply-sheet coziness that I tried to get him used to. So, out of deep devotion to my beloved, I attempt to make the bed every day now. Which is really something, because HE'S the one who completely wrecks our sheets by being a human windmill at night. He also is a first-class pillow destroyer, too, as he balls them up and flings them around in his sleep. Anyway, my concern is this. HRH looks like her daddy, she SO acts like her daddy, I swear if I wasn't there for the delivery, I'd wonder who her mother was!!!! I'm not sure she got much from me! Hurricane Lulu, on the other hand, is quite the little mini-me. She has two speeds, asleep, and gogogogogogogogogogo.

Sleep giggles

2008-03-06T11:55:00.000-06:00

I was just getting Hurricane Lu down for a nap (literally, like 5 minutes ago), she she got the sleep giggles. I mean seriously, is there anything sweeter in life that that? A warm, baby-sweat-smelling, snuggly little bundle of love, wrapped around you like she KNOWS that you're going to put her in her crib or your bed the minute you think she's asleep just enough to not wake up but is going to give in anyway, and then she starts those soft giggles. :::::::::sighs:::::::::: I swear, I know that she is going to be the cause of 98% of my gray hairs (so far, at least, I cannot even begin to imagine what tricks God has up his sleeve for future lovebugs, LMAO!), but I could not love this child any more even if she was dipped in white chocolate and then drizzled with milk chocolate! I do, of course, realize that this is how the Almighty, in His inifite wisdom, makes one think "oh, I could SO have another baby!!!". I'm not THAT blind, lol. But I don't care. There's no such thing as too much love wafting through our little house. There's always room for more :) On the other hand, there IS this little thing we call sleep. And I would REALLY like for my youngest lovie to sleep a little better before I add another chunka into the mix. (I'd also prefer to not tandem nurse, and Lu appears to have NO intention of giving that up anytime soon. I can't even seem to nightwean her. Shhhhhhhhhhh. It'd probably help if I had her sleep in her own room all night, but let's be real here. If nursing her calms her down and gets her right back to sleep, therefore getting ME right back to sleep, and disrupting her Madgesty and the king of the castle as little as possible, who am *I to change that process? If it ain't broke, ya know? And yes, she sleeps with us. Big deal. HRH has been known to steal into our bed many nights, too. I figure they're rapidly.... waaaaaay too rapidly, approaching a time in their lives when Mom and Dad are completely uncool and all-too-eyeroll-worthy, so I'm going to soak up the snuggles now to make up for the drought later! Is this the longest paragraphed aside you've read lately? Sorry :X)

I'm making the COOLEST thing now. I'm gathering up things to make a quilt to give HRH someday. It's a surprise, so shhhh.... don't tell her! I have some of her artwork that I've scanned and printed onto photo fabric (the coolest stuff EVER!), and yesterday, I had her write her name on a piece of muslin. She's getting so good at it! She's only 3! Alright, alright, she'll be 4 soon, but don't burst my bubble. My kid is the smartest kid in the universe!! :::::ears in fingers:::: LALALALALLALAL I can't heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeearrrrrrrr you if you disagree. Anywho.... I took her to Hobby Lobby (her least favorite store, b/c I drag her and the Hurricane several times a week) and let her pick out embroidery thread that she likes, she chose a lovely pearl cotton in a variegated pinks/corals. Then I used that to embroider the name on the muslin my hand. I blatantly stole the idea from Soule Mama (www.soulemama.com. She has the coolest ideas.) Anyway, I'm going to save up little things like this and make her what I hope will be her favorite quilt ever someday. :) I'll do the same for Lulu once she gets cracking on stuff like this. Next up, I think some stick figures! She can rock a circle, too :)

The really light pink fades a bunch (and her "g" is backwards), but trust me when I say that this IS art.

Parenting Lessons

2008-03-05T08:21:00.001-06:00

HOW TO PREPARE FOR BECOMING A PARENT

Lesson 1

Go to the grocery store.
Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
Go home.
Pick up the paper.
Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already
are parents and berate them about their:
Methods of discipline.
Lack of patience.
Appallingly low tolerance levels.
Allowing their children to run wild.
Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding,
sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it, because it will be the last time in your life you will have
all the answers.

Lesson 3

To discover how the nights will feel...
Walk around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing
approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other
obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
At 10PM, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until
1AM.
Set the alarm for 3AM.
As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink.
Go to bed at 2:45AM.
Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
Sing songs in the dark until 4AM.
Get up. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years.
Look cheerful.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...
Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all
summer.
Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
Then rub them on the clean walls.
Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang
out.
Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Take an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a jar of paint, turn it
into an alligator.
Now take the tube from a roll of toilet paper. Using only Scotch tape
and a piece of aluminum foil, turn it into an attractive Christmas
candle.
Last, take a milk carton, a ping-pong ball, and an empty packet of Cocoa
Puffs.
Make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower.

Lesson 7

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it
out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like
that.
Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
Get a dime. Stick it in the cassette player.
Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back
seat.
Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.
There. Perfect.

Lesson 8

Get ready to go out.
Wait outside the bathroom for half an hour.
Go out the front door.
Come in again. Go out.
Come back in.
Go out again.
Walk down the front path.
Walk back up it.
Walk down it again.
Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes.
Stop, inspect minutely, and ask at least 6 questions about every
cigarette butt, piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue, and dead insect
along the way.
Retrace your steps.
Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbors
come out and stare at you.
Give up and go back into the house.
You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.

Lesson 9

Repeat everything at least (if not more than) five times.

Lesson 10

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can
find to a pre-school child. (A full- grown goat is excellent).
If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat.
Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight.
Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys.
Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having
children.

Lesson 11

Hollow out a melon.
Make a small hole in the side.
Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the
swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
You are now ready to feed a nine- month old baby.

Lesson 12

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street, Barney, Disney,
the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV for at least five
years.

Lesson 13

Move to the tropics. Find or make a compost pile. Dig down about halfway
and stick your nose in it. Do this 3-5 times a day for at least two years.

Lesson 14

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying "mommy" repeatedly. (Important:
no more than a four second delay between each "mommy"; occasional crescendo
to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car
everywhere you go for the next four years.
You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 15

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually
tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the "mommy"
tape made from Lesson 14 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with
an adult while there is a child in the room.

(Author Unknown, but they must have had kids...)

UPDATE

2008-03-04T10:38:00.000-06:00

I just have to brag on myself here. Guess what little old me did? I fixed my embroidery machine all by myself!!!!! I called the shop where I bought it (it's a great little shop, I'm not complaining), and spoke with the owner. This lady is like THE smartest woman ever, b/c she's a sweet little old granny type who makes you feel like you can't argue with her or get irritated with her when she tells you that she *thinks the repair guy might come in this week to pick up machines, but she can't make any promises. All the while your pile of "to be embroidered" items grows by the minute.
Anyway, I digress. So after hanging up and feeling like I'm mad at my own grandmother and feeling guilty about it, I decide to take apart the machine myself and see if I can figure out what's wrong with it. Sounds like a GREAT idea, no? :X I'm sure anyone else you talk to would tell you "don't try this at home". But I got the cover off, started fiddling with it, and saw that a belt had come off of its track! Loosened a screw, popped the belt back on track, tightened the screw, and VOILA! It's fixed!!!!!!!!!

Snoopy Dance - The most popular videos are a click away

2008-03-04T07:55:00.000-06:00

It's Election day here in the great state of Texas. If anyone actually reads this, I hope you take the time to vote! I'll have to go after I take HRH to Mother's Day Out. Our polling place has never seen the likes of my little Hurricane before, so this should be interesting!! I also have to call about my beloved embroidery machine. It's sick :*( The arm will move right to left, but it's messed up going front to back. I'm sure it's something terribly complicated that will take hundreds and hundreds of dollars to fix, but I don't even care. I have a stack of things to embroider, both for myself and for other people, so I HAVE to get it fixed ASAP. David is working in Seattle this week, so maybe I can just get it fixed while he's gone and hand him the bill when he gets home? I'm sure that will go over SO well.... (note to self, pick up all the fixings for his favorite dinner at the store on Thursday and clean the house on Friday). At least it waited until after the Art Show and Auction to poop out! One of my friends suggested that maybe it was tired ;)

It's in the 30s outside today. The weather is positively schizophrenic here this winter. We've gone from the 80s to the 30s in one or two days all winter. It's nuts! No wonder everyone around is sick! Of course, one day of warm temp and HRH is parading around the house in her swimsuits from LAST year, which is interesting, seeing as how she has shot up to over 40 inches now and sports quite the little wedgie on all of her one-pieces. I love little onepieces on her, but they just don't fit. Last year, GaGa bought her a one-piece for Easter and by June it was too short. I had to alter it and turn it into a two-piece.

I bought new towels this weekend! What joy! What's really pitiful is that we've been using towels we got as wedding gifts. We've been married almost 12 years! I'm evidently a simple girl, who gets thrilled by such things as new towels. They're so nice and fluffy. And I'm so optimistic about having free time that I bought some to match the color I'm GOING to paint my thimble-sized bathroom this summer or this fall. They look incredibly ridiculous against my lovely circa-1965 wallpaper with butterflies and flowers, but they're going to look awesome against the green paint I have for that room! Now if only I could embroider "his" and "hers" on them. :::::::sighs wistfully::::::: Oh, my Janome 350E, I miss you already and you're not even gone yet.

I'll have to bide my time getting to know and love this little sweetie, I guess:

But you'll always be my first love. :)

Whew!!!!!!!!

2008-03-03T12:49:00.000-06:00

Ok, the art show and auction is over.... can you hear the Hallelujah Chorus, or is that just in my head? Our school managed to raise (gross) over $41,000!! And several of my pillows went for over $200 each. I'm thrilled :) :) :).

Yesterday was the king of the castle's birthday. 36. Eek! How am I old enough to be married to a 36 year old?!?! Of course, I WILL be 33 soon. I don't feel a day over 18 most days! He is incredibly hard to buy things for, so here is my present to him, LMAO!

Before:

after:

He was more excited by this than any material thing I could have given him, ROFLMAO! I can't help it. I'm not a "neat" person by nature. I tell him that I can either have creativity or cleanliness, and God did NOT bless me with the cleanliness. But he was thrilled and proud of the clean dining room. You should see the garage now, though :X

My mom was visiting this weekend, she just left this morning. We had a nice visit, she bought me a serger! I have shown tremendous restraint and haven't even turned it on yet, but as soon as I finish my lunch of leftover fried chicken and cheddar cheese slices, chased with a couple of cheesecake bites, I'm going to mess up the dining room again :X He'll understand, he loves me, LOL!

We went to a birthday party this weekend, for a little girl who is the Hurricane's age. She's so stinking cute! It was fun :) I've got to get cracking on my girls' parties. Less than a month away! I'm such a slacker. Mom of the year here! I'm so tempted to book a party at this neat outdoor place close to the house that has some sweet petting zoo animals running around, a zipline, toys galore, basically a few acres for the kids to just run free and be kids. HRH and the Hurricane LOVE it there. But I'm having scary flashbacks to last year, when I planned an outdoor party and it freaking SLEETED!!!! ACK! I need to just bite the bullet and figure it out and do something.

First blog!

2008-02-27T09:19:00.001-06:00

OK, I'm going to attempt this blog thing. It should prove tricky for me, as anytime I sit down at the computer, the Hurricane can sense it and comes running, yelling "NUUUUUUUUUUURSIE, Mommy..... PEEZE?!?!?!" LOL! So you'll have to forgive any typos. Just try to remember that I might be typing one handing while nursing a squiggly, squirmy toddler.

So, I'm Juli. A small-town girl who's living in a much-larger-than-I'd-like town now, even though I'd be sad to give up my Starbucks drive-thru and all of the conveniences my town offers, my Prince Charming and I own a couple of acres in a small town near here, and hope to build our dream house there next year.

I have two absolutely breath-takingly gorgeous girls (not that I could be biased at ALL, right?). HRH is almost 4,and the Hurricane is almost 2. Yes, I'm still nursing an almost-23 month old. Big freaking deal. She's MY baby, so I'll nurse her as long as I want! Truth be told, I love the connection time (most of the time), it's good for her health, it's GREAT for MY health, and I'm too lazy to wean :X It's also nice to be able to calm her down in about 5 seconds when she's upset. I miss that perk with HRH. We're not done having kids, no matter WHAT I say in the middle of the night when The Hurricane won't sleep. And no, we're not "trying for the boy". We'll get what we get and we'll be thrilled.

Not much more time to post today, as my mother is coming in for a visit and my house looks like, well, like a HURRICANE hit it. LOL! I've got 8 hours to clean it from ceiling to floor. I'll try to get back on and post during naptime, but there are a pair of overalls calling my name from my sewing stash. I have to finish them by tomorrow.