Yikes! Where have I been?

It's been waaaay too long since I posted an update.
What a slacker!

It's my birthday today! I'm now 20-12 aka 32. Boo.
I wish Bob could be here to celebrate with me. But alas. He is working in NorCal. Which is good. Very good.
The kids and I are still stationed at mom's house while we save money to move up to Vacaville.
Good times.
Liz has started first grade! WOW. Time flies.
Dylan starts preschool on Sept. 20 and Benjamin is pathologically obsessed with dinosaurs.
Maybe obsessed isn't the right word. Consumed. His every waking thought is about dinosaurs.
I taught him how to say Happy Birthday to me this morning and immediately after saying it his eyes lit up and he said "Dinosaur party!"

Oy.

Tonight I am having a sushi dinner with mom and friends and some champagne and prosecco. It's my tradition to have champagne on my birthday, even if I secretly hate my birthday. I think I even more secretly love my birthday.

Elizabeth's Accidental Birthday

My daughter will turn six next Tuesday.

Naturally we are in the midst of throwing together a princesses pizza party in the park to mark the occasion and scrambling around town to every toy retailer trying to find the very specific Polly Pocket set that she has so fervently and repeatedly requested.

Her birthday dinner menu has been firmed up. Chicken. Rice. And Broccoli. But not chicken with sauce, or onions, or crust. Ew.

In addition to the Polly Pocket stuff, I've pulled together a little "spa" basket for her with all the pink and purple pampering items I could find that were appropriate for a kindergartener. Including fuzzy purple spa socks.

I even bought her a special new outfit and a little ribbon to wear to school on her birthday that says "It's my 6th Birthday!"

In short, all of our attention in the last two weeks or so has been focused on the date of my little girl's birth. March 9th.

Imagine my surprise then when I picked Elizabeth up from school yesterday and she strolled out of her classroom wearing a giant birthday crown on her head.

"Why are you wearing a crown? It's not your birthday," I said.
She shrugged.

Her teacher said, "It's not her birthday? I must have written it down wrong!"

Whoops!
Apparently, 4s and 9s look more similar than any of us could have possibly anticipated.

"Did the kids sing Happy Birthday to you?" I asked Elizabeth as we walked back to the car.

"Uh huh! We did it at circle time," she said.

"Honey, why didn't you tell your teacher that it is NOT your birthday today?"

"I dunno," she said.

Sigh.

I guess we just call that one a practice run and go on with our celebration on her ACTUAL birthday.
I wonder if they'll sing to her again or if that's just too much. I feel bad for her! Now her real birthday is gonna be a real drag!

Benny's Birthday Bash!

This pic is late but worth the wait!

Elizabeth's Fifth Birthday Party

It was fun and fast! Exactly what you want in a kids birthday party. Noone got bored and we were all cleared out of there about two hours after we first arrived. Not bad!

Here's some pics of the party


>


and afterward...

March? Already?!?

This time next week Elizabeth will be turning five years old and I will be crumpled in a heap sobbing and wondering where the time has gone.






March has really snuck up on me this year. Last weekend I was talking about getting her party details together and I said "you know we have time, it's like three weeks away."
No no, said my mom...it's NEXT WEEKEND!

WHAT?!?

So yeah I'm a little unprepared for this, plus it's supposed to rain so that kills the whole party in the park thing we were planning. Sigh.
Now I have to scramble to find an alternate location, probably the go-to party place up here, the pizza parlor.






Whatever we end up doing it will be fun and great, because Elizabeth is fun and great and she carries that spirit with her in all she does. Except cleaning up after herself, she does that with a spirit of vengeance and furious rage.

Dylan Is Three!

Can you believe it? I cannot believe it!

He had a nice birthday day of celebration. Starting with waffles for breakfast...or rather syrup for breakfast and a side of waffles. Then we went bowling where he drew the ire of the very shady alley attendants. He has very poor form. I'm being kind.
He crossed the foul line at least six times, dropped the ball twice, tried to bowl down the wrong lane, got the ball stuck halfway down the lane twice (one time the ball actually started rolling BACK to him) and SOMEHOW still got a strike and beat his sister by three pins.

I did not have fun bowling with him, but he had fun, so I suppose that's all that matters.

After one game (I really couldn't take any more) we (me, Dylan, Elizabeth, Ben and my mom) went to lunch at Mateo's Mexican. Very good food. For $3.75 the kids each got a huge basket of fries and 10 chicken nuggets. We brought almost half the nuggets home with us!

In the interest of full disclosure...I had grilled fish tacos, mom had a shrimp enchilada, Ben had beans and rice and chips and fries and whatever else got sent his way.

Dylan flirted with the waitress, of course, and told the whole restaurant "It's my BIRTHDAY!"

When we were sitting waiting for our food Dylan said "Look at all these people! They're all here for my birthday party!"

It was quite cute.

Then the party continued on with an ill-advised stop at WalMart. Remind me please that I never ever can go to WalMart on the first Friday of the month. It's NUTS. Everyone got their Social Security checks and food stamps and went buckwild.

There were like one million people just in MY line. And I was in self-checkout!

PS to the families who feel it's necessary to bring EVERY member of the family to WalMart to grocery shop...it's not necessary. Grandma would rather watch her programs. Those sulky teenagers have whippets to do. Leave everyone home.

I actually saw a teenager racing through the store pushing two kids in a shopping cart. Then I saw a dude throw a nerf ball at some lady. He hit her in the back. I'd have slapped a fool.

It was chaos.

I was on line for 20 minutes to buy ONE Thomas Train set toy and a pack of rechargable batteries. Twenty minutes!

We also bought Elizabeth some standard headphones for her walkman. She's very happy now. She calls them phoneheads.


After ChaosMart, we came home. I frosted Dylan's birthday cake (with custom colored blue frosting) and decorated it with leftover cookie gels and Cars candies.
I debated whether to write Happy Birthday P-O-I-S, but ended up with plain old Dylan.

The family came over for pizza at 5 pm and by then I was starting to get a cold, so I was less friendly than I normally would have been. Plus, my brothers in law were talking about homosexuals and Barack Obama and hunting...snore.


The house cleared out at around 7:30 and we started putting together Dylan's new Hot Wheels! He loves it. His grandpa bought it for him, calling me from the store to inform me that he was picking "the noisiest one I can find"
He succeeded!


The kids stayed up until around 9 pm, pestering their Nani with the 47 Matchbox cars that Dylan got.

Then the blister that Dylan got from touching the woodstove popped and blood got everywhere and he FREAKED out.
Then everyone went to bed and I stayed up to watch "Mr. Brooks" with Kevin Costner as a psycho killer.
Bob wanted NO part of it. I'm still not sure if I liked it or not. I'll get back to you.

And that was the birthday day! Exciting and eventful.
I can't believe my boy is three.

Just something I like

I found this gal on Etsy this morning and fell in love with the cute, funny, witty, whimsical prints she has for sale.
Her main site has an even larger selection...everything is super adorable. These are my personal faves...






Not to mention....Ninja Giraffe


I'm totally getting some for the kids' birthdays and Christmas presents...you should too!

Somebody's having a half-birthday today!

I just said to someone yesterday ~"I'm 30"~ and a chill went down my spine.
It's really real now. It's out there.
Gah!
Obviously I'm still not quite recovered yet from the shock of having turned 30, and now this!

Elizabeth is exactly 4.5 years old today. That's crazy.
There's NO WAY that she's four and a half. She's just a baby.
Look!



And this kid...he's going to be 3 years old in four months? No way.


That's just his bili blanket tubing!

Time is flying!

And the Universe said, No!

My friend and fellow Karaoke-ist Christina and I have been planning to go out tonight for about two weeks....
We would go out, sing some songs, have some fun, celebrate my birthday (and hers! We both turned 30 this year) and just have a great night out away from the kids and husbands....

What was that they say about the best laid plans....

I left my house at around 9 pm tonight to head out to the Little Bit Saloon for Karaoke! Whoooo hoo!
First I had to stop to get gas...mission accomplished.
Then as I'm heading back out of town, blam!

Blew a tire.

Caca.

We knew this was coming. We actually expected to blow the tire on the way back from Utah, but never did.
This is my 87 millionth blown tire while driving -- AND not even the best shred yet incidentally -- so I calmly pulled off the road, turned on my hazard flashers and called my husband.

Actually, first I texted Christina who was already at the Little Bit to tell her, egad! I just blew a damn tire, standby!

Bob was empathetic but helpless since I had the car with all the carseats and he had all the kids...oops!
He DID tell me to take his truck when I left...dang it!

I figured, well, I'll sit here on the side of the road until Christina shows up...

Then a DPS (Arizona Department of Public Safety aka Highway Patrol) officer showed up! Whoooo weee! The Cavelry!

"What's the trouble?"
"I blew out a tire," I said through my opened passenger side door.
"Do you know how to change it?"
"No!"
"Is someone picking you up?"
"My friend is coming."
"To help change it?"
"No....she doesn't know how to do it either!"

He laughed and told me to step out for a tire changing lesson...

As I stepped around the rear of the car he said "You do have a spare, right?"

Thank goodness, yes, I did have a spare.

I opened up the trunk and pushed aside a 24-pack of Pepsi, a jacket, an opened up emergency kit (totally useless in this emergency) and I notice that we've left the BB gun in the trunk. And I'm standing there on the side of the road in the pitch black dark with a cop. A cop with a REAL gun.

"It's just a BB gun," I said as I pushed the board hiding the spare tire upward.

"Oh, I didn't even see that," the cop said.

Hmmm, first day on the job officer?
Anyway, we get out the tire, the jack, the lug wrench....and the officer gets to work on my tire.

He gets all the lug nuts off and the tire won't budge.
It. Won't. Budge.

He kicked that tire, shook that tire, kicked that tire again. The whole car was rocking around. That tire did NOT budge.

He must have kicked that tire for 10 minutes before Christina pulled up and through the magic of Friendship the tire finally just knocked loose.
Whew!

Turns out, it was rusted to the wheel...wow.

So we get the very flimsy and lovely donut tire on the car. It's about 40 pounds per square inch BELOW the recommended pressure. Lovely.
The cop reminds me to go no faster than 45 on the donut.

"Oh, sure. I never speed anyway. Don't let my driving record fool you."

We all had a good laugh at that.

As he's putting my exploded tire into the trunk I said "Can you believe we made it back from Utah on that tire a few days ago?"
He said he could NOT believe that at all, it was so badly thrashed.

"Yeah, we knew it would go. We just figured, eh, if we blow the tire we'll just start our new life in Kanab or Page."

Ha ha ha!
I am a freaking laugh riot in an emergency.

So Christina and I decide to stash my car about a mile back down the road at the gas station and ride together to the bar.
I locked the doors and tossed the Book of Mormon on the dashboard to ward off gypsies, tramps and thieves.

Christina and I then headed out to the Little Bit.
She played some pool. We both sang a karaoke song.
Then her husband called and said her youngest daughter had a fever and she had to come home.
Are you kidding me!? After what we've been through already for this night??!?!

But, the call of the Mother is strong and we left the Little Bit very very shortly after we had arrived.
She took me back to the gas station and as she drove off toward a sick baby I went inside to get a 6-pack of beer. This is my birthday celebration dammit! I'm having some beers!

I aired up the donut and took off for home. At 45 miles per hour.
The whole way I was thinking, boy, this just really wasn't meant to be tonight....and then....three streets away from my house...it happened.

The '80s flashback radio station started playing "Hangin' Tough" by New Kids on the Block...
And somehow, the whole night immediately became worth it...

"Ohhhh ohhh ohhh oh ohhh. Hangin' Tough."

Are you tough enough?

Just a quick update!!

We made it safely to SoCal.
The kids are having a blast with their Nani and Uncle Greg and Miss Krisy.
Last Friday I drove with Benjamin up to Calistoga, Calif. with a brief stopover in Davis, Calif. to pick up the inimitable Julie Pepper!

Julie, Ben and I then ventured to the fabulous Roman Spa Hot Springs Resort where we met up with seven other of our college gal-pals for our eight-year reunion/30th birthday party en masse.

The weekend kicked off like this...magnums of Mumm champagne. Need I say more?

The answer to that question is obviously, yes! The time for that answer is later gators!
You'll have to wait for Part 2 of the weekend vacation, wine tasting day!

Happy Birthday Bob!!

Today is Bob's birthday!
He is now 28. Another year older, though as he'll remind me over and over again, still younger than me.
Thanks hon.

In lieu of any gifts, he's asked for chicken fajitas for dinner and an ice cream cake. Can do.

Elizabeth told her dad this morning at my insistence "Hmmm, you look OLDER today dad!"
Ha ha! I got a good laugh out of that. What can I say, I'm simple.

I will now enjoy the next four months of being only a year older than my husband, until I turn *gasp* 30 in September.
Puke.

Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's celebration...
As per tradition, I stayed up late enough to celebrate New Year's eastern time (10 pm here) and promptly adjourned to bed around 10:30 pm.
No fancy champy for me! Just snoozing in the sheets, baby jumbling all around.
Tomorrow is Dylan's 2nd birthday! Amazing!
We're having an at-home pizza/cupcakes party. Don't tell Dylan, but he's getting a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV that we got on clearance for $25! I'm excited about that.
We're making chocolate AND vanilla cupcakes. And some swirlie if I can figure out how to do it.

Then on Friday afternoon I have my ultrasound appointment. I'm really excited about that.
Keep your eyes peeled for posts on Friday!

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas Blur

This last week has been a total blur of presents, wrapping paper and cookies...my GOD THE COOKIES!!!

My mom came into town Saturday with her dog Maggie. The dog is at least 15 years old, so she's slow and low. That is her tempo. She mostly sleeps all day, but my kids adore her shaggy self, so that was an early Christmas present for them!
Sunday we spent ALL day making cookies. Sugar cookies, coconut macaroons, gingerbread cookies, cream cheese cookies...and on and on...it was a Cookie Party! Without that Silverman chick.

Monday was even more cookies to make, and it being Christmas Eve, Bob took the kids to his dad's rural homestead in BFE nowheresville for a lovely Christmas Eve lunch and present opening. They ended up arriving back at home after 6 (well after darkness fell) so Mom and I enjoyed seven fun-filled hours of present wrapping, cookie making, dish cleaning and watching HGTV. Fun fun fun!!
My brother arrived Christmas Eve around 10 pm. The boy runs on his own clock, what can I say. His big adventure was clipping an elk's antler on the way up from Phoenix. In his ex-girlfriend's car! Good times!
Soon after he arrived, everyone went to sleep dreaming of sugar plums and Santa and wrapping paper and cookies...dear Lord! The COOKIES!!

Christmas Day we opened a slew of presents. The most puzzling of which was an Easy-Bake Oven for Elizabeth (she's not yet 4, the E-B O is for age 8+) from my FIL and his wife. Strange. Can I closet it for four years without incident. Perhaps.

I put a turkey in the oven and we awaited the remainder of our company (my BIL and his wife and child). Nice and low-key. While the turkey roasted, Dylan took a nap and Bob and my brother went up to the ski resort to snowboard. Bob used to be an instructor, Greg had never been before. It was about 10 degrees up there. Needless to say, they weren't gone long and it's about an hour drive to get there.
They claimed to have had fun, but we'll never really know!

Everyone else arrived around 3 pm. We opened another round of presents and watched holiday shows while we snacked on hors d'oeuvres (that's OR DERVES).
Then we broke for the evening around 7 pm. My brother left to go back to Phoenix around 6, just after the turkey feast-o-rama.

Since then it has just been hanging out at home, playing with the new toys and going to the grocery store. We're chilling.
There is football to be watched today (damn Patriots!) and a Prime Rib to be made for New Years Eve. Last night we had a big ol brown sugar glazed ham. I think I've gained three pounds in two weeks. Ugh.
At least I can blame it on the blossoming child.
This week is even more fun in store with Dylan's second birthday on Wednesday and my ultrasound appointment on Thursday.

I've just been handed a poopy diapered child, so I guess that's all the update you get for now.
Peace out. Peace on Earth.

Head injuries, birthdays and homemade salsa

The morning of my birthday eve, Dylan smashed his head into the door frame of Elizabeth's bedroom (we have not ruled out sabotage) and gave himself a wonderful goose-egg and bruise. Very attractive...
I soothed his pain with a piece of homemade zucchini bread made from zucchinis from our garden. Worked like a charm.

That night we BBQed some very excellent hamburgers from Wal-Mart in the backyard...oh wait...

Ok, let me define backyard before I go much further. Our "backyard" is actually a tiny little partially fenced off portion of our property that abuts the house on the away from the road side and contains a swingset and some toys and a bulb garden.
Make sense?
We also have a little wooden table out there and some plastic porch chairs and the kids Dora outdoor table and chair set. Oh, and my very tacky clothesline.
The ground, unfortunately, will not grow grass because of the abundance of trees(though we are going to experiment next spring with bird seed as grass seed) and used to be used as a parking area despite the pine trees in the way, so it's all gravelly with cinders.
OH and there's a giant ditch running through part of the area like the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, a byproduct of living at the bottom of a giant hill...rain runoff...good times!

Now that you've got the whole picture...
We're out there BBQing and the kids are playing on their swings and with their dirt toys and all of a sudden BLAMMO!
Elizabeth whacked into Dylan's FACE with the glider swing sending him flying back about two feet.
He's laying there doing that "my mouth is open but I make no sound" cry and Bob runs over, scoops him up and immediately starts freaking out that Dylan needs to go to the hospital....he's an overreactor...just a bit.

I get Dylan and he just wants to snuggle and not show me his injuries, which I eventually did see...
A big scrape in his hairline, about the size of a flattened out novelty penny and another nice gash on his chin. He also has another bump on the BACK of his head, where he made contact with the cinders.
Nice.

He actually cried more during the cleaning portion of the injuries than the actual becoming injured portion of the injuries.
Tough kid.
Despite Bob's fears, he made it through with no concussion and no spurting arterial blood fountains. Though this time the pain did require something stronger than homemade bread. He got herbal Nerve Tonic to chill out a bit.

Last night for the official birthday meal we grilled steaks and had fried onions and mushrooms over those, with corn on the cob on the side. I fully intended to make a salad, but we had filled up before the meal on homemade (and homegrown) fried zucchini coins (like the ones at Carl's Jr but tastier). Also I had brie and bread while Bob went shopping for my birthday present - a new jewelry box!

After dinner, Bob and Elizabeth had Birthday Cake flavor ice cream and I indulged in a friggin delicious Mascarpone Cheesecake with berries on top...yummmmmmmmmmmy and some Pepperwood Pinot Noir.
Deeeelish!

This morning, somehow, I got nominated to make breakfast, so I made home-fried potatoes, sausage links and scrambled eggs.
Bob immediately complained that there was no salsa for his eggs, so I threw together homemade salsa with tomatoes and cilantro from our garden and store-bought onions.
So easy.
He ~claims~ that he still wants me to buy Pace Picante sauce...I think I can trick him if I can just get a Pace jar. :)

This post was ALL about food! I just ate, but I made myself hungry again!

It's my BIRTHDAY!!!!

It's my birthday, I'm 29 and I've got a massive head cold!
Yay!!

If I can get over it by tonight we're dropping the kids off at their Uncle Todd's and going out for a nice dinner at the steakhouse.
Elizabeth and Dylan woke me up by jumping on me this morning. It was cute though.

Later on, Bob is taking the kids to pick me out a present. If Elizabeth gets her way, I will also get a pinata.
Ha!
Happy Birthday to me!!!

Birthday Party!

*Someone* turned three yesterday and today we had a big party to celebrate the big milestone.

Three candles, one to grow on

There was music, food, dancing, a pinata, cupcakes and PRESENTS!!


Elizabeth got a new bike (replacing the trike I ran over last summer) from mom and dad and a bike helmet and pads to go with it from her Nani.




She got a babies in backpacks.


She also got a Barbie doll and these little girl dolls having a tea party....loooooots of tiny pieces, some of which are ALREADY lost. Yay!



Dylan had fun too!