Thursday, December 17, 2009

Bad Habits

It's official, I've passed on some bad habits to the rugrat. Well, they aren't REALLY bad, but probably inappropriate in a social setting and I think I need to stress situational appropriateness. The habits I'm talking about relate to bathroom humor, so if you don't like it, just stop reading now because I promise it'll be too much for you if you don't find fart jokes funny.

Last night we hit up Zoo Lights at the Hogle Zoo with my best friend Allee and her husband Matt. This would be the infamous Aunt Allee to those of you Malia has shared with. Anyway, it was pretty cold, but apparently rugrat's butt stayed nice and toasty all night long given the amount of gas happening. I do not exaggerate, she spent nearly the whole time farting it up. Each fart was followed up by a giggle and an "excuse me". So, at least she's polite about it. She also dropped a few while we were at Olive Garden and I'm glad that when she was doing it, there weren't people sitting way close to us. I'm sure I should have at least pretended to be embarrassed by it, but she's 6! It's not like she's any good at holding it in at this point in time. At least she owns up to it to. Frankly there isn't much worse than a farter who won't own up to it.

The fun is not limited to farting, but also to the bathroom. Oh, I'm not going into the details of what happens between her and the toilet because that's too much even for me, but more her attitude towards it. How many 6 year old girls do you know who have reading material for the bathroom? Well, technically, it's mine, but she's partial to reading through cooking magazines so she regularly steals my Taste of Home from the kitchen to peruse while using the restroom. She also likes to mark her place so she can continue. I swear that girl is in the bathroom for like 15 minute stretches because she forgets what she's in there for and just starts reading. Yeah, she's her mother's AND grandfather's kid.

The last piece I attribute to her Uncle JC because even though she probably picked it up from me, he's more infamous in the family for doing it. Nearly every time she poops, she announces as she comes back into the living room: "Do No-ot go in there" a la Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura. Yes, I find it to be hilarious and I crack up every time she does it.

So, either I'm the best mom ever for being able to find such humor, or the worst role model ever for allowing, nay, encouraging some of this behavior.

Oh, and this is the type of posting you get when I make a personal vow to post more because people keep harassing me about wanting more entertainment. So, you asked for it.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Trio of fun

I've been looking through some pictures that I have handy and thought I'd share with you. The first is my current favorite picture of the rugrat and it's also my desktop picture at work. Every time I see it I just chuckle because it's so very her. That's her "Moe face".

This was my father's Halloween costume last year and I know I've shared it before, but man it makes me laugh. She really enjoys the Three Stooges cartoon that is on Boomerang and the plan is to introduce her to the real thing courtesy of my fathers DVDs when we're up visiting over the holidays.

Speaking of my father, I must share my current favorite picture I have of him. It's going to be next on the desktop rotation when I get sick of Molia. Haha, get it? Moe/Malia. Yeah, I'm easily entertained. I thought the following picture was taken at a friends wedding reception. The one where my two worlds collided due to my sister Krissy's best friend from when they were kids marrying one of my best friends. Technically they are both my friends, but it was just weird to attend a wedding of a friend of mine where my family was also invited. Anyway, upon reviewing it a touch closer, I don't know if it was at the wedding or another get together involving BBQ of some sort. Regardless, it's fantastic imagery.

This picture rocks because my dad should be moonlighting as the Colonel. I'm pretty sure he could make some money if he just bought a nice white suit and got the beard a touch more pointy.
I'd like to point out that he made that bolo tie and I wish that I liked them as a fashion statement for myself because he's made some beautiful ones. The man loves a good rock!


The third picture is of my niece Hannah. My sister Kami recently had my other sister Krissy take some family photos. Yes, my parents named us Kelly, Kristen, Kami, and yes, my dad never gets our names right when more than one of us is present. =) This picture is my favorite of the bunch because it just captures, to me, the "essence" of my niece. Big old grin, but the attitude is apparent in the hands on the hips.



Thursday, December 10, 2009

Just call her shark girl

As many of you know, I am obsessed with sharks. Shark Week on Discovery Channel is just about my favorite time of the year. I'm still undecided if I like Christmas-time or Shark Week better. Christmas has family and friends and spending time with them, but Shark Week has SHARKS!!! I mean, come on, SHARKS! As a result of this, ye olde rugrat also has a love of sharks and we watch many a show on them. She's decided to be a Veterinarian and a Marine Biologist so she can study and help all animals. I realize she's only six, but this isn't something new. It's pretty much been the theme her whole life, with only minor references to wishing she could be a princess when she grew up, but only if she still got to play with boy toys like Legos.

Now that you have some background, I present to you shark girl:


Yep, those are her grownup teeth coming on in behind her baby teeth. The middle two are very loose and the side two are starting to loosen up. In fact the middle one on the right of the picture is only hanging in her mouth by a thread because the bottom of the tooth sticks out of her gums at a weird angle. We're giving it until after Christmas, then if at least one hasn't come out we're going to have to visit the dentist and get those baby teeth yanked.

You may ask, why "shark girl". Well, that's how the majority of shark's teeth work. They have multiple lines of teeth and when they lose one another one moves up to take it's place. As seen here:


I would like to point out that she is the one that started telling people that she has shark teeth. She remembers so much from the different documentaries that as soon as she noticed what was going on in her mouth she told me she was excited because she must be part shark. Man, I love this kid!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

I'm behind again

Well, once again I'm totally behind on pretty much everything. For your entertainment though, here is a pic taken of the rugrat and I in full costume while visiting my work. She had wings and a wand with her costume, but left them in the car. Also, she decided to be a Skull Fairy after we went to the doctor for her flu mist and they gave her the sticker that's in the middle of her shirt.

Take note that she's holding my hedgehog and I do have my handy flamingo for any impromptu games of croquet someone would like to play with the queen. If you look closely, you can see the card suites on the material of my dress.And yes, that is the costume I made myself last year, but I don't care because that puppy took me like 15+ hours of sewing. I'm using it until it either no longer fits, or falls apart!




Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I'm an idiot

I know how much everyone loves my text only posts, but trust me when I say this one is worth it. Believe me, the title really says it all.

It's no secret that I am pretty smart. I'm not going to even pretend modesty because anyone who knows me knows it would be a load of crap. I do, however, believe this intelligence is balanced by a healthy dose of instances of absolute idiocy. I'm sure many of you have heard stories of this, the most recent, outside of today's story, is the one involving hemorrhoid cream being purchased and used instead of hydrocortisone cream. The packaging looked the same, and frankly, it worked just as well, if not better. I still haven't bought hydrocortisone cream, but I have had bugbites since. Yep, I've been using the hemorrhoid cream and you know what? It works, so there.

Anyway, on to today's instance of absolute idiocy. In attempting to balance my lazy parenting when it comes to meals, I've been trying to at least make breakfast every morning. I figure that will somewhat balance out the fact that 90% of the time we have cold cereal for dinner. This morning I opted to make egg muffins because I had all the ingredients. Another attempt of mine is to try and be a bit more healthy so I recently purchased the olive oil pan spray instead of the regular kind. Yeah, olive oil is still fatty, but it's one of those fats that is also good for you. Anyway, if you are familiar with these cans, they have a little red dot that you are supposed to line up the spray thingie with. Yeah, I'm technically inclined. Thingie is close enough. So, because I've not used this one before, it's not lined up. I make my move to turn the spray thingie and instead of just turning it, I pushed it down a little as I turned it. This resulted in spraying myself from the right to the left right across in my eyes. Brilliant, aren't I?

After I rushed to the bathroom and spent 15 minutes rinsing out my eyes and attempting to clean my contacts off, I managed to finish cooking breakfast even though everything was a touch blurry. Good thing that I have backup glasses. Normally I only wear them in the evenings and weekends at home, but now I get to wear them to work. I will give the olive oil one positive though. It doesn't burn. There isn't any stinging or itching or anything like you would normally have happen if you sprayed something in your eyes. My eyes seem to move more easily as well, so maybe it's a good lubricant. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure I've not gotten it all out and that's why things are a touch blurry. It's getting better as the day progresses and I use more eye drops though, so I'm sure it will be fine in the end.

Well, there you have my idiot story of the day. I hope I've provided you with entertainment to start off your day.

Friday, August 7, 2009

FINALLY!!

I know it's not super exciting but I have wanted one of these forever. My mom has one and I have coveted. Yeah I know, commandment #whichever says not to covet, but that specifies a wife so I think I might be okay.

The main reason I have wanted one is because of space. Not the final frontier of, the lack of in my condo and especially my kitchen. I now have somewhere that is not a countertop or fridge drawer to put fresh veggies and fruits. Woo!

Oh yeah, pretend you can't tell how badly my window is in need of washing. I'm lazy, sue me. Or not because if I am this excited about getting a hanging basket for my window, I probably don't have anything worth winning in a lawsuit. Except maybe the extensive smut collection and that you will have to pry from my cold dead hands.

Happy Friday or whatever day it is when you read this.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Family visits are fun...

A few weeks ago my Uncle Lee came for a little visit from the almost Great White North, Port Angeles Washington. We mainly sat around catching up and chatting but we did head on out to Maddox Steakhouse for dinner. Mmmm, turkey steak. Anyway I took this picture, but apparently I'm not that good because you can only see parts of who was there.

It was great to see Lee since it's been almost 5 1/2 years. Here's to hoping I can make it up there for some deep sea fishing next summer!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Summer family addition #1 is here and I'm melting

Despite her efforts to the contrary, my new niece joined us this past Monday July 13th. I am SO jealous of the birthdate. I wanted to have my kid to someday be able to have a Friday the 13th birthday party, but NO, stupid hospital had to be all booked up on the 13th for inducements, so I had to go in on the 12th. I'll forgive her eventually for hanging out so long they had to remind her to come, but I'm expecting to be rewarded for doing so with her first smile or my name as her first word. I'm cool with either.

All joking aside, I'm way excited for my sister and her husband. They are thrilled to finally have her here and I am too. I'm sure everyone knows my thoughts on kids, but dangit, family is different and I'll be sure to hold her before she's six months old. I can hardly wait until this weekend to see her.

Here is a link to my sisters post with the initial pictures that are just so dang cute. I know, I'm making you all click extra to see pics, but I'm far too hot and lazy to get pictures posted here. Why am I hot in addition to my normal laziness? Well, once again the swamp cooler gods have taken out their wrath upon me. For whatever reason, the fan portion of the cooler will not actually start fanning. It sounds like something is wedged preventing it's movement. It'll be sometime next week before the handyman can come and fix it. I really hope it's not what I fear. There have been some problems with birds nesting in most inconvenient places in the various buildings in my condo complex and I worry that they've done so in my swamp cooler. The odds are slim, but we all know how I like to worry.

Meanwhile, I have improvised my very own swamp cooler. Never let it be said that I cannot produce moments of brilliance, because I'm pretty sure my jimmy-rigged swamper is beyond everyday genius. Luckily I have crappy sinus cavities. Because of this, I always have a mister running to add humidity to the air, except during the summer when I am running the swamp cooler. Well, I've moved that cool mister into the corner of my living room, just in front of an oscillating fan, creating my own version of a swamp cooler. I wish I'd thought of it yesterday afternoon, but it's been fantastic this afternoon. I think it is actually below 80 in my condo right now. That could be that the sun is starting to go down, but I prefer to attribute my genius pseudo swamp cooler.

I leave you with this. Skip to 0:55 for the punchline.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Sometimes they write themselves

A conversation I just had with the rugrat on the way back to my parents after her cousin Hannah's birthday party:

Me: I don't feel well. I will probably go to bed soon after we get to Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Rugrat: You must be pregnant.
Me: No, I am not pregnant.
RR: Are you sure? Aunt Kami doesn't feel well and she is pregnant.
Me: I know she is, but I am not pregnant.
RR: How do you know? You could be.
Me: Trust me, I know I am not.
RR: Are you really sure? You never know.
Me: I know. Look, you are 5 and I am not explaining how I know until you are older.
RR: When will you tell me? When I am 12?
Me: Sure. I have a book or two I'll let you read.
RR: Oh MAN! You always make me wait so long to tell me ANYTHING.

I dread her teenage years.

Picture is of my niece, Hannah, in her birthday princess crown.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

End to an era

The hospital where the rugrat was born is no more. I knew it was coming but I noticed after my doctor's appointment this morning that the specific labor and delivery wing has been torn down. The rubble in the picture is the remains of where I got my little bundle of joy and insanity. I'm surprisingly sentimental about it.

Farewell Cottonwood Hospital.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Testing 1, 2, 3?

This is just a test. I am seeing if I can get my email blogging to work. Bonus picture of my burned wrist.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Not a whole lot a shaking going on

The only truly exciting thing happening right now is that I'm almost done with this semester! Only a couple weeks left and I'm so ready to be done. It's still up in the air when I'm going to go back because I've determined that I'm too old to work full time, go to school, and run after a 5 1/2 year old. I'm worn out and I'm pretty sure no one wants to come to my house until the end of May when I catch up on the last 3 months house cleaning slack.

I also found out that I do not have Diabetes. It's such a relief. I have what's called PCOS and a severe Vitamin D deficiency. I've been prescribed 20 minutes of sunlight a day. No, I'm not joking, and yes, it's HILARIOUS. The PCOS can still lead to Diabetes, but we're trying some new medication and I'm continuing with the diet/exercise plan I've been doing since before Thanksgiving. This alone has made this week the best ever! Even though it took getting an ear/sinus infection to get me back into the doctor. Once she had me, she dragged me through all the tests. I didn't want to do it because I didn't want to know how bad things were. Well, they aren't really bad at all. I will most likely never be able to have more children, but since I'd already decided on that option, I'm totally cool with that.

It's nice that the weather is getting warmer and the rugrat and I starting back in to taking short walks after dinner. It's nice for me because it burns off a bit of that extra energy. It's also zoo season so look for more lovely picture slideshows from the rugrat. We're going to try some bigger hikes this summer as well, so you might even get some entertaining slideshows of the mountains. That's if Malia slows doen long enough to let me catch up and to take some pictures. I look forward to the extra sleep that summer brings. Mainly just due to wearing ourselves out. Yeah, it's going to rain for the next few days, but at least it's staying warmer. We're heading on up to the parents (who won't actually be there) for Easter weekend, so look for sewing project posts. I'm hoping to finally get maternity shirts made for my sisters. You know, before they actually give birth. We may even run up some quickie princess costumes for the girls. I wish I'd taken pictures of Hannah trying on all her new princess clothes. Malia outgrew some that Grandma & Grandpa Brey gave her for Christmas a couple years ago, and since Haylee got the same thing, Hannah got rugrat's set. It was so adorable. She had to go through all of the outfits and try them all on. The best is that she poses and walks around with her shoulders back. Because, you know, that's how princesses roll my friends.

Anyway, look for more fun in the coming months!

Monday, March 16, 2009

I'm leaving the club...

For those in the know, I've been a member of the Harlequin Book(s) of the month club for a couple years or so. I am going to have to quit though. When I joined up I got to select the type of books I wanted to receive. Unfortunately I couldn't specify Pirates, Vikings, or the Scots, but it did let me select Historical. Over the last few months it has apparently become optional to send me selections from the ONE group I specified I wanted books from. It started with a contemporary romance thrown in now and again. I didn't mind, because they were actually quite good and I enjoyed them, so I let the slip pass as the other 2 or 3 books were historical.

Then I got a book that was about a deformed girl with no face who never knew her family and the aunt who finally found out about her because the girl had been hidden by some crazy government/corporation thing. It was an almost thriller and I kept reading hoping for some sort of smut-related happening. I hoped in vain. Sorry to spoil the end for you, but the aunt ends up as a hostage and when the dude goes to shoot her, forces the gun to her eye so that her face could be given to her niece. Yeah, it was sappy but it was a fairly entertaining book. However, it was NOT smut. I complained and the historical romance started coming again, in fact I believe the next shipment included "The Pirate Bride", so I was satisfied once again.

Then I got a NASCAR themed novel. Are you kidding me? Not only are you sending Contemporary when I requested Historical, but now it's about car racing? I like pirates and vikings and knights and sword fighting and whatnot. What the crap do I want to read about car racing? I read it though. I figured I should at least give it a try. Well, it wasn't good. I mean, the smut parts were really good, but I could have done with the rest of the story and it dragged the whole thing down overall. This was nearly the last straw. However, I decided to give them another chance because once again, it came with historical smut too.

This however has now changed. Mid last week I received the second set in a row with NO historical smut. This is not acceptable. Additionally not only were they not historical, but they could barely be termed romance. Especially in the largest of the three books. The main character is a widow and she has a little widow's group where they make lists of their wishes. 2 of the characters fall in love and all that jazz, but it's very tame and peripheral to the main story. The main character just wants to go to Paris with someone she loves and it's something she never got to do with her husband before he died. Well, of course she doesn't fall in love, she ends up adopting a little girl and they plan to go to Paris because now she has someone she loves to go with her. Puke. Seriously, they should not be allowed to send this crap out labeled with romance because it's not. They should label it something like "Super sappy make you cry oh and there are dudes, but the women aren't focused on them they are focused on their loving friendships and parenting crap".

I will be cancelling my subscription and apparently I'm just going to have to create my own Smut of the Month by hitting up the Barnes & Noble one payday each month.

Now, for those of you left reading after that, I give you the rugrat portion of the post. We hit up the zoo on Saturday with Aunt Allee and had a great time. We were there for almost 4 hours and were able to see Muke. She's the gorilla that has cancer and isn't expected to live much longer. Malia was very happy to be able to see her, and then very sad when we got to the reptile house and the Anaconda that was her favorite animal in the zoo was gone. It passed away in January. She bounced back after we discovered that the crocodile is nesting, so there will most likely be baby ones fairly soon. Well, I don't know how soon. I'm no crocodile expert so I really couldn't tell you when they will be here.

After the zoo Malia got to go back and hang with Allee and her husband Matt while I went to my cousin Jessica's wedding dinner. It was a lovely dinner and the highlight for me was the little girl sitting at the table next to us who kept saying "ew" everytime Jessica and her husband kissed. I also enjoyed the stories the boys told about Jess. I don't envy her growing up with 5 brothers. I much prefer the 3 girls to 1 boy ratio in my own family. HAHA JC!

Anyway, rugrat and I have been discussing getting a cat again for some time. We had to give up the 2 siamese cats we had when we moved because our condo is just too small for two cats. I didn't want to split them up because they were from the same litter and had always been together. Every time we've discussed a cat, I've told her that I wouldn't be getting one until she finished cleaning her room. Well, on Saturday after spending a few hours at Allee's playing with her cats, Malia asked again. I told her that if her room were clean, I'd buy her a cat the next day. I didn't think much of it and we headed home and went to bed after the long day.

I dragged my sorry behind out of bed about 9 Sunday morning. I had been awake since about 7:30, but didn't want to get up so I stayed burrowed into my covers. I got up and while I was trying to get my contacts in Malia kept harassing me to hurry so I could come see her room. I didn't think much of it because she randomly moves stuff around or sticks pictures on the wall to show me. Well, that's not what she did. I don't know what time she got up, but she managed to clean her entire bedroom and put EVERYTHING away. Outside of needing a good vacuum, her room was spotless. She reminded me what I'd promised the day before. So, we got a cat. His name is Butch and he's from the Summit County Friends of Animals. He's 5 and completely black with green-yellow eyes. He's also a ton of fun and likes to cuddle, but not too much cuddling. Anyway, here's a link to the only picture I've managed. The little bugger runs off everytime I break out the camera. Yes, he's really that dark. He doesn't have any white spots or anything, he's pure black.

Now we're back in Adventuring season, I'm hoping to get posting a bit more often. It's hard to post when your adventures consist of cooking spaghetti casserole and reading a smut novel.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I nearly killed a woman in Walmart last week

Now that I've grabbed your attention, I'm going to caveat that with a "nearly killed her with laughter". Ha!

Today's post comes as a result of my linability to have a solely inner monologue and my inability to refrain from answering my daughter honestly when she asks me questions. Apparently this is delightful for those around me. I related this story to a friend at dinner last week and she mentioned that I provide a lot of entertainment. I'm taking that in a positive way, though I'm sure part of the entertainment comes from watching me slowly descend further into insanity. No complaints though because I'm enjoying the descent as well.

On to the story. Some time ago, someone on Twitter (@sarahbellum) mentioned that her deodorant smelled like cookies. This intrigued me and even more so when I found out that the scent of it was called Vanilla Chai and it's made by Secret. I decided that I needed to look into this because I always wear vanilla scented perfumes and this would not clash with that. In fact, a friend of mine thinks it's me every time she smells vanilla when she's out shopping. I also like to think that anytime she's baking and has to use vanilla that she also thinks of me, but that's just because I like to think I'm more important in the day to day stuff of other people's lives than I really am. Occasionally I borrow someone else's perfume when I am going to her house, so I can sneak up on her and she doesn't know it is me. I know, I'm like a 12 year old.

Okay, really onto the story. The rugrat and I were in Walmart last week and since I needed new deodorant, I decided to check it out and see if I might like it. I picked it up and smelled. It did indeed smell like cookies. I determined that it was a little too much for me and place it back on the shelf. Here is where the crazy starts. Malia asked me why I wasn't going to get it and I replied that I didn't think I could handle my armpits smelling like cookies all the time because it was just too much. Unbeknownst to me, there was a lady standing behind me who started laughing so hard she started choking. After a few minutes she had gotten a hold of herself enough to sniff it for herself. She agreed that it did smell like cookies. She offered the advice that vanilla is an aphrodisiac to which I replied that I didn't think I wanted anyone getting the urge to do THAT sort of thing to my armpits because I was pretty sure it was inappropriate. That set her off again. I'm pretty sure that I was the highlight of her evening. She even told me that I was.

So, that is my tale of almost killing someone in Walmart. I wish I could say that this was an isolated incident, but it's not. I just can't seem to refrain from saying out loud the comments that pop into my head. Like the time when Malia was about 3 and a lady asked me when I was due. I looked at Malia and told her "about 3 years ago". That time the lady didn't laugh, but the cashier had a really hard time ringing me up because she was trying not to laugh at the mortified lady behind me. She was still red as a tomato when I was done checking out. I know, it was kind of jerk thing to say, but it was funny in my head so I'm okay with that.

Side Note, as of this writing, Malia has 7 day's in a row of getting greens. She's informed me that she's trying for 20 days in a row. I'm so proud!

Monday, February 2, 2009

I blame life

As most of you know, I've recently gone back to school. Because of this Malia and I aren't having as many adventures which explains the lack of posts. I keep thinking about posting about the cluster that has been getting back into school and the one surrounding health issues, but then I always decide that that stuff is just too boring and no one really wants to hear it. I figure I've bored you enough with the school issues. Well, that was a pretty long segue into telling about this weekend fun..

Saturday we got up bright and early, hit the Starbucks for some lovely hot chocolate and went and got taxes done, then had breakfast, then did shopping for a bridal shower gift, then went to the library, then got gas, and arrived only 15 minutes late to my cousin's bridal shower. Yeah, the morning felt like that sentence. Just kept going and going and I thought I would never get to the end. Anyway, the bridal shower was my kind of bridal shower. Food, chit-chat, open presents, dessert, then go home. No crazy games or any of that business. For this I salute Aunt Jamie. Also, what says a bunch of chicks getting together more than having a salad bar and then decadent cream filled desserts afterwards? Malia and Haylee were big fans of that part and here they are enjoying their treats. I'm pretty sure these were their third or fourth, but they were happy, so it's all good.


















After the shower, my sisters and I dragged my mom and the girls along to the fabric store so we could get material for some shirts I'm making for them. I even got Kami to agree to let me make her a muu-muu. After which she will no longer be eligible to mock me for my love of them. I forgot to take pictures of the material, but here are the shirts I'm making first. First we have the muumuu, then Kami's shirt, then Krissy's shirt.
























After the fun, Malia and I hit up the grocery store for snacky supplies and then got to the parents. I got up first thing Sunday morning and threw together the BBQ. It was a very simple recipe and it was beef and pork. I went with pork chops instead of pork butt. I'm sad because it would have entertained me to tell the family they were eating pork butt. Alas, Kent's grocery let me down and there was no pork butt to be had. I forgot to take a picture of everyone enjoying the sandwiches yesterday, but I'm having some of the leftovers for breakfast, so here is a picture of the yumminess. Oh yeah, there was football game too, but I don't care who won, it's just a good excuse to have yummy food and hang with the family.


Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Christmas Fun - yeah I'm late.

I'm a little behind with posting the Christmas stories, but in my defense, it's been a rather busy month. Malia and I headed up to the parents on December 22nd and stayed through January 2nd. It was really nice to get to spend a lot of time with the family. I even got to do quite a bit of shopping and just hanging with my baby sister which I haven't done in a long time. Yes Kami, you are still my baby sister, even though you are married with 1 1/4 kids. haha The best part for me over the holidays was learning that both my sisters are having babies! I get to be an aunt twice this year. They were also thoughtful in including my brother and I in some fashion. Kami is due on JC's birthday and Krissy is due the day before my birthday. I hope they both enjoy their crappy miserable pregnant summers. =) Love you guys.

I've digressed as usual. So, the days preceding Christmas were mostly spent wrestling children and baking. I made caramels which kinda went wonky, but ended up tasting all right. I also made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and some sugar/butter cookies. I am pretty sure my mother nearly keeled over with delight after having some of the sugar/butter cookies because they tasted just like Lorna Doone shortbread cookies which are her favorite in the whole world. She even asked me for the recipe which tells you how much she liked them seeing as it's an understatement to say she does not care for baking/cooking. It's a necessary evil to her I think.

So, armed with much snackery, we had our family party Christmas Eve. We do all the family presents with all of us kids and our kids and significant others if applicable. Unfortunately JC, Carin and Zenock weren't able to come for Christmas because he just had to use his money/time to come back in August for some crazy dude's wedding. Oh yeah, that crazy dude just happens to be JCs best friend and who his son is named after. I guess that is okay. Just don't let it happen again. You're lucky it happened to be the same time as Malia's birthday so she settled for that. Anyway, we opened all the presents and to my delight Malia went crazy for her computer. She declared it the best Christmas ever and once I downloaded some games spent most of the rest of the holiday playing on her computer. Viva la eBay for finding stuff like this! The picture to the left pretty much sums up about 50% of her Christmas vacation.








The other 50% was split between playing with her cousins and playing with the presents that Santa brought her. Santa brought her some more magnetix and a cupcake baking set. Not one of those where you have to buy all sorts of pre-made packages of stuff, a real set with measuring cups, mixing bowls, silicone baking sheet and a recipe book. We made cupcakes Christmas Day. She was beyond excited to make cupcakes. I helped a little with the mixing and putting the batter in the muffin baking silicone, but she did most of it all by herself.






She also spent some of that time building stuff with her magnetix. She built a turtle and a hot air balloon for a mini-barbie that Haylee brought over.




















All in all it was an excellent Holiday vacation even though Malia wouldn't try my mom's WONDERFUL shrimp cocktail that she makes every year for New Year's.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Malia causes a ruckus

I apparently missed a good time at church yesterday. Firstly Malia (age 5 1/2) voluntarily shared half of her orange with her cousin Haylee (age 3 1/2) because her mom Krissy forgot snacks. That alone should be considered a sign of the apocalype I say. Her good behavior at school is starting to spill over into real life and I find I quite enjoy that.

Apparently Haylee was not happy about being in Sacrament meeting, so she threw a tantrum which resulted in her being taken out by her mom. As she's being carried out, she's kicking her feet. She's wearing slip ons that apparently don't stay on her feet very well so she kicks one off. My daughter, in an attempt to be helpful runs after them picking up the shoe hollering at Krissy that she dropped Haylee's shoe and chasing after them.

Even a day later, picturing this scene makes me giggle. Who knew Malia's newfound desire to be helpful could result in such entertainment.

Color Count from school last week: 2 green days, 2 yellow days and 1 yellow and green day (yeah, the teacher smokes something, I don't know)

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Yet another quickie

Rugrat has kicked off the new year on a good foot at Kindergarten. Yesterday, she brought home Green with four smilies! She ended the year well too with 2 greens in a row that last week of school, with 3 total that week. She hasn't gotten a red now in over two weeks of actual school. I'm really hoping that things finally clicked for her. That or my somewhat snotty note to her teacher asking for her to actually give me details on what the problems were so I could follow up with Malia made her realize that maybe she wasn't carding appropriately. I don't really know, but regardless, I'm happy about it.

I do think part of it is the newest deal we have going. I told Malia that if she got mostly green in January that when I got my tax return I would get her a Nintendo DS. Every time we go to Ryan's, he lets her play on his and she loves it. Also a ton of the girls at her daycare have them. I also agreed to buy her one of the Littlest Pet Shop games so she'd have at least one game. Also, each month she gets mostly green, she can get another game and $5 put in the spending money (for our vacation to DC in June to visit my brother and his wife and kid). I figure ~$25 a month isn't too bad to get her to behave herself. Mainly because eventually she'll get in the habit of behaving and the bribery will no longer be as necessary. The deal ends after school is done, so I'll probably have to come up with something fun for her to earn over the summer. At least I have a few months to think of something.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

I made it home

Yes, we made it home. After two weeks of basically not being online, I have returned. However, I am too tired to post anything. I also realized that I managed to take not one single picture the entire two week holiday visit to the parents. Yes, I am that horrible. Malia did take some, but they are on her computer so I'll have to pull them off so I can post them for you all. I am not even going to pretend that's happening anytime soon. It may be Valentine's Day before I get around to it. Anyway, a grand time was had by all and I'll give the whole story when it's not 6 in the morning and I've already been awake for two hours. Crazy dude upstairs apparently is arguing with himself. I am not sure but there may have been fisticuffs. I know there was at least some hammering which is what woke me in the first place. This dude is starting to drive me bonkers. I wish he could keep his crazy for when I'm not home.