the garden is growing!!!

our first sprout has sprung.

This year we expanded the veggie garden to almost twice last years size, used restraint in our planting to try and prevent last years Jumanji disaster, where we had tons of green but no actual produce due to over crowding, and added flowers to the base of the backyard tree, and a hillside wildflower garden on the side of the house. Hopefully with the 5 fruit trees we planted last fall, we will actually get to eat something home gown this year!

wordless Wednesday - ingenious kids

Not enough chairs to sit at the big table? No problem!! Use the top of the kids table as a bench!!!

The great Rubber Duckie Race

Yesterday we had fun at the 20th annual Rubber Duckie race. Sadly even though our Duckie did not place in the top 66 we still had fun!!!

10 things that make me happy...

As I was sitting here this morning contemplating blogging our hike from yesterday, and perusing my blogs and such folder, I found a challenge thrown out to me by Absolutely Bananas (see??? I 'm not). And any one who knows me knows I am always up to a challenge at least if it is a challenge I know I can do!! So here is my top 10 list: (drum roll please!!!)

watching the Colorado clouds
listening to the wild birds sing and I don't mean these!
a clean house
baby smiles, and ones from little kids too...
comments - lots and lots of blog comments
gossiping (I know, I know bad, evil me)
nicely painted toenails
ice cold farm fresh milk
movie night with Aba after the kids are in bed
gardening.

hmm, well maybe my list is more of a 10 things I enjoy but they all make me happy!!!

TAG you are it !!! (see I can be sneaky too!!!)

Mom, some people are dumb in this town

out of N's mouth, as we are driving home and no one is letting me over, even though I have my blinker on.

also the coolest Tutu ever is being given away over at 5-minutes for mom. Every little girl will want one of these!

wordless wednesday in black and white

His newest "owie"

a pampered evening.

so tonite I finally became one of them, you know, those suburban moms with there little house parties, where all kinds of things are sold from candles to naughty items, purses to kitchen stuff (think modern day Tupperware party). I had a pampered chef party. I know, I know usually these things are boring, and you feel obligated to buy things; and when I was invited to one a friend through a few months ago I remembered the ones I had attended in the past and almost didn't go. But when I got there I had the best time! Jamie our "chef" was so entertaining! and she taught us little things I never knew; I knew that I any show she consulted would be great, so I agreed to host one. Tonite was my first show and her 1199th. I sent out the invitations, bought the ingredients, and cleaned the house. Although only about half of my Rsvped friends and acquaintances showed, it was still great. She made us smile, taught all of a new trick or two, and showed us some great new products!

Apparently May is Breast Cancer awareness month, so some special pink products are available for this month only, and 2 of them are great! a mini spatula with a long handle and a special measuring gizmo. I really want the measuring gizmo, it would be great for shortening and peanut butter. They also have over 40 new items that have just come out. A trifle bowl with a removable base, some fantastic kitchen shears with an herb destemmer, and some bamboo salad tongs that are super fun to play with - Aba was playing with them for like 15 minutes while Jamie was cleaning up.

I bought my first pampered chef item way back in 1997, and still use it constantly. Their items really hold up, and now that I have discovered that it is the Chef that makes the show, I will not be so hesitant to go to others in the future. I mean really who does not love it when someone else cooks and cleans up for you?

** If you want to place an order go ahead and use this link. My show closes on the 29th of this month, and the pink items are only available through the end of May**

The big recital!!!

So Saturday was the big recital and while I admit Aba does off during other children's scenes ( there were 17 plus the finale) he was in charge of the videos during B's turn. TV shows was the theme, so B did Ballet to Bonanza, Tap to Care bears, and looked confused - but said the infamous quote during The Beverly Hillbillies.

Overall I would say all the girls did great, with only one girl stopping to stare at the audience ( not in B's class) and 1 girl having a hilarious costume malfunction ( again not in B's class) but worked through it like a pro.

I used the new camera, but unfortunately I am still working on the settings, the kids setting caught the action fast enough, but with out enough light, and the candle setting caught the correct amount of light but was to slow! So you will notice none of the pictures are perfect, but they are much better than the old camera would have done!

apparently to the internet gurus mommy = porn

Today I decided to take the mini plunge and get a domain name, one that does not go to blogspot but that I can still use blogspot hosting and web tools. Apparently the people in charge pick certain key words to decide which advertisers they put on the page until you either forward it somewhere, or build a page. And Mommymommyland screams PORN SITE to them! Who would have thought? Hey maybe I should switch this blog over to porn, I mean really out of the 12 searches they list, all 12 are adult content sites. So I will refrain from giving out this new address till the porn is gone, and my nice face is in it's place.

I am an idiot...

never grab a mystery bug off of your child and fling it across the room. Either squish it or identify it. Now I having been googling like mad and not finding what it was, and have no idea where in the room ( the room that Aba, Baby B and I sleep in) it is, and I am freaking.

It was small and round and flat and black, and all of its legs were the same size and splayed out like a kids picture of the sun. I do know what it was not though: a cockroach, a stink bug, a bed mite a scorpion or a tick. Great right? Nope not to me, maybe it is a black grass bug - but it didn't quite match the picture. Okay that's it calling Bampa.

UPDATE: okay Bampa (Aba's Aba - an etmediologist for a Large County)said not to worry, but then I pestered Aba anyways and started looking for it again, and found it! It was a tick after all. A wood tick that had apparently not eaten in a very long time!!! It has been squished and flushed, and tomorrow the yard will be sprayed. Good thing I finally advantaged Master Hunter, huh?

just giddy with excitment...

my Birthday camera is almost here, the Fed-ex website says it is en route, I am so excited I can't sit still!!!

But here is the problem, signature is required, so do I cancel my walk with J's girlfriend? or do I go and hope they don't come till later! Ooohhhhh it is almost here!!!!

Wordless Wednesday - mommy's littlest helper

how was your night?

mine did not go as planned, or hoped. I hoped I could go to the Jewish women's circle, I planned to go to the schools PTO meeting; tonite was election night for next years officers. I planned on making an early dinner of Hamburgers and french fries and enjoying it with my family. I hoped to pick up our new patio table after the PTO meeting.

What did I do instead? Well I think this picture explains it fairly well

or perhaps this one explains it better,

yep stitches.

We got to make an impromptu visit to our Pediatrician (the best pediatrician ever!) who said we needed a plastic surgeon and to head on over to Swedish (who knew not all ER's have a plastic surgeon on staff? I thought childrens would for sure...) Where J got prompt care, even though he refused to speak, or even move more than 6 inches from me. Well until the drugs kicked in a dropper full of day glo yellow liquid that was described to me as Vicodin for kids. They said it would knock him out, and the plastic surgeon would arrive within the hour. Did it knock him out? That would be a big fat NOPE!! He became a chatter box, started pushing buttons and talking back, jumped up and down on the gurney, insisted I call Aba no less than 4 times to laugh at him, and when the surgeon did arrive they had to wrap him like a burrito since he was giggling and rolling around and kicking at the air.

But in the end we are done another scar on another kid... Hopefully he will be as proud of his as N is of his!

a conundrum...

when planning a road trip and you find an awesome pit stop, but when you call to inquire they are rude, do you still make the pit stop? or do you plan to go somewhere else instead??

A perfect Mothers day?

Is it the same forever or does it change as we (and our children) grow? I remember the Mothers days of my young childhood, the day was marked with Going to a fancy brunch at a nice restaurant, where I was dressed in my nicest dress, their were white linens on the table, and tables and tables of buffet to choose from, an omelet station, hand carved roast beef, silver platters of iced shrimp and crab legs, fresh made crepes and Belgium waffles with ice cream on top, tables of desserts and strawberries bigger than my hands and sweeter than the sun shine. Presents nicely wrapped for Mom from fine boutiques, jewelry, and robin figurines.

Well as the years past and I became a mother myself this is the kind of Mothers day I wanted, that I thought mothers were supposed to have, so when N was born I insisted we go Hotel Del , but it was not the same.

Over the years I have yet to figure out what I truly expect Mothers day to be…

A fancy brunch? Maybe, but not until the kids are much older I mean who wants to have them complaining they are hungry and spend a weeks pay then watch them not eat and constantly remind them of manners and get up and down and up and down taking various ones to the different buffets? Nope doesn’t sound fun.

A breakfast in bed? Maybe, but only if it is edible… and the kitchen magically cleans itself afterwards… I picture eggs on the ceiling every possible dish used, flour dusting the floor, and being served a cold runny egg with blackened toast. Nope doesn’t sound fun.

But here is the thing my kids are little, I thing N might have an idea of what Mothers day is, a day to thank your mom for all she has done for you, to show your gratitude and how much she has sacrificed to make your days go smoothly and your desires come true. That she took the time to listen to your stories, and scare the monsters (or dinosaurs) away; to mend your pants 5 minutes before going to school, for cleaning your throw up up 5 times in one night and make sure everyone got writing on there slice of cake.

What I really want,l at least this year, is not a fancy brunch nor breakfast in bed, but for my husband, the father of my children to acknowledge all I do for our children on behalf of the little ones who are to young to understand, much less to say thank you. Oh, and it would really be nice to have a day to myself, at home with no mommy chores to do, well except for the nursing, no one can do that but me!

You would have thought it was a monkey…

The way everyone was carrying on, actually J said it was a monkey (or maybe he said my tree, it is hard to tell with him a lot of the time still). Kids yelling Mom you gotta come see! Mommy come outside! Moooom Aba wants to show you something, all over a squirrel, an ordinary squirrel (well a Boy squirrel if we need to get specific) sitting in the top of our tallest tree, which is only like 15 feet and spindly and young. You would never know from this conversation that these children are avid hikers, go camping often and see all kinds of actual wildlife on a daily basis.

While the rest of the family is in Awe of the squirrel, Neighbor dad comes up to the fence and tells Aba the whole story of how this Big boy ended up in our gangly tree. Apparently around 9 o’clock this morning Big boy was on the fence next to us, when some kids came out to play and Big Boy made a break for it to our yard which looked so safe and empty from his vantage point and hid in the sandbox under the stairs, well little did he notice the Master hunter sniffing around on the other side of the yard, well of course this new smell awakened his hunting instinct and the chase was on… Big boy jumped and ran up the banister to the deck thinking as most squirrels do that they are up high, so they are safe, poor Big boy didn’t realize that next to banisters are stairs, stairs which Master Hunter can easily navigate. So up he came and Big Boy then ran back and forth across the deck rail several times with Master Hunter on his heels. After about 10 minutes of this, Big Boy made a daring jump to the other deck railing and hid behind the grill, thinking he had managed to escape Master Hunter, so when Master Hunter came up from behind the grill Big Boy jumped, He jumped high and far, and managed to land on the gangly tree, breaking a few of its tiny branches on impact but managed to hang on, and there is where he stayed, until I saw him at 3:30 this afternoon, and that is where he was still at 6:30 this evening when Aba and the kids made Big Boys discovery, and of course in true Aba style the first thing he asked was if I had put advantage on Master Hunter, which of coarse I didn’t, why would I actually do something I was told to do? And you all know what’s coming, now don’t we
? Yep, I got a lecture on the plague, guess apples don’t fall far from the tree, now do they???

Wordless Wednesday

Is it Cousin it? Nope, that is me under there, just another reason why I always where my hair "done". Wanna know something cheesy? I was smiling under there, because It was a picture, only no one can see me!

Do you get tornados too?

I get a ton of them, every weekend like clockwork. These tornados (yes there are several of them) rip through the house throwing laundry into every nook and corner, under the beds, and in the sofa cushions. It scatters shoes like breadcrumbs in Hansel and Gretal, plays hide and seek with pots and pans… and measuring cups… and plates… and spoons… and glasses. Toys and coloring books are tossed every which way, and fishing gear (I get up I get the joy of finding the true magnitude of the weekends tornado, and I gotta say It’s a good thing I got up an hour early today, as this weeks was off the charts!

2 ballerinas???

B has decided to teach Baby B ballet! It is so cute! Baby B laying on the living room floor, and miss B gently moving her legs (strait left, bent right) and saying Passe, (switch legs) Passe, switch legs again Passe. Good Baby B! now we do Plie, bends both knees. I always thought you had to walk before you could be a ballerina, guess I was wrong!

Oh, and I am officially a TopMomma, so please vote for me click on the picture below and then click on me to come back! The more clicks I get, the longer I stay afloat. Wonder how long the picture of my kiddos will last??



Aba saw me up on the site last night, but didn't wake me to let me know, can you imagine? and then didn't even tell me till after breakfast! Apparently it is not such a big deal to him as it is to me, maybe he is afraid I will embarrass him in Cyberspace?

A landmark, my 100th post!

and to kick it off right go get your free seedlings to help re-green the planet. I wish I had something more exiting to post about today, seeing it is my 100th post, but it has been a fairly calm 24 hours. Except that my N, my 1st baby is spending the night away from home for the first time ever! Tonight is the practice camp out where the whole class sleep s over in the Gym to practice for their real camp out next month. It is so exciting and scary at the same time, he is excited, I am excited to see what a big boy he is becoming, but on the other hand it means he is growing up, and just reminds me that one day ( sooner than I will know) he will be grown and gone.

An innocent quote

Today after ballet class miss B said something that kinda threw me. A well known saying that is heard often in the south. Where she got it from I haven't a clue, but when the 6 harmless words came out of her mouth this is the first thing that popped into my mind.



Now don't get me wrong I love the Dolly of my childhood, and this is one of my favorite movies ( I don't know something about musicals gets me all the time especially when there are bad boys involved like with Crybaby, another of my favorites) but not one I have seen lately. And even though I was not raised in the south I like to liken myself to a southern belle ( well I was born and raised in southern California, does that count?) and can pick up a southern accent in about 2 seconds flat when I go back to visit the relatives, or listen to enough country music, but that is besides the point. So what would you think if your little one said...

Y'all come back now, y'here?

Wordless (??) Wednesday

notice all the safety gear for this lawn mowing endeavour, jeans, goggles, ear protection, and a hat!

Hey moms,

wanna win your own mothers day gift? 5-minutes-for-mom is giving away stuff for moms for mothers day, like an Ipod!!! Click on the button to enter, and non-bloggers and canadians can enter too.