It's Party Time

"It's Just a Phase"

Tip for the day:

Never take a 22 month old to 2 funerals in one day.


And if any of you say "you think this is bad...just wait until he is 3!", I'm going to cyber-slap you!

Looking for Adventure?

Has anyone ever tried tracking down geocaches? Seems like it might be a fun thing to do - but I've never tried it. Just wondering if any of you guys have tried it. Let me know! (It sounds like something I can imagine KK and Lindsey doing...)

Pacified x 2

I just feel better myself looking at this picture!

Yes...that is a PINK paci that Blake has. It came in a two-pack with the manly blue paci. It's an at-home-only paci!

I want Blake to be in touch with his feminine side...but a pink paci is pushing it!

His paci brings him such comfort, I'm thinking of taking up the habit myself!

In Case You Haven't Noticed

Yes, I do love Fort Worth - cannot imagine living anywhere else - but IT IS SO HOT I can barely stand it. My Weatherbug says it is 95 with a heat index of 98, but my trusty at-home weather station says it is 103.2 in my backyard (sorry...I'm a weather geek/nerd). No heat index on the weather station - but I'm thinking it must feel like 108 out there. I'm not sure I will last through July and August.

Blake and I ran errands this afternoon, and it just wasn't much fun. Haulin' around a sweaty, squirmy 25 pounder, plus diaper bag (loaded with all of the snacks except the one he really wanted), plus purse in the Target parking lot is not my idea of a good time. Why can't we get valet parking at Target? That would be so nice. As you walk into the store, you get a nice blast of cool air as you think "alright, this is not going to be so bad." Have you noticed how quickly that cool blast wears off? Yuk. And how much heat do you think is radiating up off that hot pavement? By the time you get back to your car, get your car started (you have to do that first or the baby will melt), get the baby buckled in the car seat, purchases in their place, diaper bag and purse stowed, and get settled in, you are soaking yourself. Now that's what I call F-U-N! As you gasp for a breath of cool air and try to position one A/C blower just right so it will blow up your sleeve, through your shirt, and onto your back, you position the other vent right on your face. You decide not to call 9-1-1 because you may pull through. You finally realize you aren't going to faint, so you give in and back out of your parking space headed for errand #2 - Lowe's - and get there just as you begin to feel like a human being once again. And then...it starts all over again. F-U-N!

All I can say is, glad there is a snow cone waiting for me at VBS practice.

Green Stuff

Blake calls it "green stuff." Kelly calls it "Guaca-mucky." I call it "Yummy!"

I love guacamole. Unfortunately, Blake has realized he does too. (Is this any surprise for the kid that loves just about all foods? How many almost 2 year olds do you know that like radishes and eggplant?) So, this presents one of the greatest challenges-to-date of my motherhood. I have to share my guacamole with the boy. I know, I know, it's a small sacrifice to make...but have you had the guacamole at Nacho's restaurant in Crowley? It's second only to Dr. Toot's...but more on that later. Now, rather than savoring the green goo throughout my dinner, I basically have to eat it first just to get my fair share. ("Fair Share" - not sure there is such a thing once you become a parent.) Blake does, however, think getting a tiny bit of the green stuff on his spoon is good enough...he doesn't require huge quantities...which gives me the upper hand in getting my share.

But..even though Nacho's has some really great guacamole, if you've never tasted Steve's guacamole, you are missing out on the best stuff ever. Fresh, green, smooth, delightful, lemony...yummy...I think I may go buy some avacados for Steve today and see if he'll take the hint.

Oh...and one more thing...another reason I love Nacho's is because they love Blake! When they bring out our tea and water, without being asked, they always bring out a bowl of shredded cheese for Blake because they know how much he loves it. Blake always doles out the hugs when we leave the restaurant. He loves them, too!

Gotta go call Dr. Guacamole...

When I Grow Up

I have the greatest job on earth. When people ask me about motherhood, one of the things I tell them is "it's the greatest job I have ever had and it's the HARDEST job I have ever had." You stay-at-home moms (or former stay-at-home moms) know what I'm talking about...but that's another story for another day.

But...if I wasn't a stay-at-home mom, then I'd probably be an accountant for someone (go ahead - yawn - it makes me yawn too!) BUT, what I really want to be when I grow up, if all that other stuff falls through, is a weatherman. I'd probably be fairly happy researching and preparing the information for the T.V. personality, but there is a part of me that would want to stand in front of the camera and impart weather knowledge to the masses. But with this face for radio, maybe that's where I should go in my little dream world. For those of you who endured my pitiful attempts at a skit at this year's Ladies' Retreat, you may remember that I played the part of a weatherman interrupting the T.V. show. Of course, I had to work the whole skit around my getting to do that one specific part.

Last Christmas, I had what I called a "Very Meteorlogical Christmas." I asked for a certain book on weather and got it, and asked for a weather radio and got it, and then got a mini-weather station that I did not ask for. Incidentally, it is 71.7 degrees in my house with 45% humidity. Outside it is 87.6 degrees with 52% humidity. I don't have a barometer reading, but have a section that translates the changing pressure to indicate upcoming weather. As it stands right now, we are headed for some rain in the near future. Good information to know. When I am awakened during the night by bad weather, it's all I can do to keep from getting up and turning on the local T.V. channels to see if there's anything I need to be updated on.

Inclement weather actually scares me sometimes, but I get such an adrenaline rush, I love it. I'm a storm warning junkie. I'm not brave enough to be a storm chaser though.

So I'm just wondering what YOU want to be when you grow up. What's your crazy dream? For instance, we all know that Lindsey could easily fit into the role of a Vegas Showgirl (if Janu can do it, Lindsey's a no-brainer!), but what else does she want to be? Any takers on sharing your secret dreams?

Oh Harold Taft, how we miss you.

Once Upon a Time on the History Channel

OK, so Kelly is out of town and I’m late-night channel surfing and find on the History Channel or ESPN or Lifetime, Television for Women, or some other channel an interesting show that I have never seen before that really confused the heck out of me.

So, once upon a time, it seems there is this “sport” somewhere in the world – it looked sort of like rugby, but with a somewhat gentler approach, maybe part rugby and part ballet. Maybe it was more like ballet, but the blood-letting made me think of rugby. Anyway, there are two teams and it is really confusing to tell if there ever is a winner. I watched the black team (very nice black jerseys with a splash of bright color on them – made them appear a very dominating team, though I think this might have been their first season to compete) play the blue team (also a very lovely jersey – almost a blue you’d see in the waters in the Bahamas – you know in that nice little cove there by the hotel where we snorkeled – or maybe more of a Caribbean blue – the kind of blue at St. Thomas or maybe even Aruba (is Aruba even in the Caribbean?) – made them appear much more relaxed and not quite as aggressive). I cannot recall the team names – let’s just call them Team Roho and Team Alrightythen. Hey…how did you like that run-on sentence? I could have never made it through high school English without Preston Morgan. Thanks, man!!!! Pork tenderloin…yummmmmmmmm….

So the fairy godmother told them to start to play this game, both trying to accomplish the same task in the allotted time period, and the competition is incredible. What’s odd is the makeup of the teams – brothers vs. brothers, but they are all out for blood…very “end of time” competitive with the families squabbling! This one family’s dad was the coach of the Rohos and his son played for the blue team. Very dramatic. Then there was this one player who lots of folks were a little put out with – apparently he was in a mid-season trade from the blue to the black team – and apparently that caused a big stir. He appeared to be pretty full of himself and acted inappropriately about being traded to the Ro’s (he was very young…so guess he couldn’t help but act like a kid), so I decided I liked the blue team best, which I leaned towards anyway since blue is my favorite color. Does everyone have a favorite color or is that just a girl thing? My eyes used to be blue but they’ve decided to turn green in the past few years. The blue team seemed to have their act together and weren’t quite so cocky about themselves, thanks mostly to their coach who really seemed to have a level head about him, though apparently he had not been coaching for long.

But I digress….

The princess continued - Anyway, it was quite interesting and like I said, I never figured out the rules, it was almost as if they were changing in the middle of the game….or perhaps I wasn’t clever enough to realize the rules were staying the same and just the players were changing. I think the blue team ultimately won the game, but not without a certain amount of wounds and open bleeding on both sides.

Guess I’ll be channel surfing again soon – but honestly, I hope I don’t have to go through the stress of watching that game again – no matter who the teams are. Maybe a nice yellow team vs. pink team would be more fun to watch. It was just a little too much, if you know what I mean.

I hope Blake plays non-contact sports when he grows up...though I’d just as soon him pass on ballet. A run-in at home plate with a wimpy catcher every now and then is fine with me, though – just as long as he doesn’t break a tooth.

And they lived happily ever after.

Following in Lindsey's manicured footsteps....

Following Lindsey's post...I've been reflecting on my fake nail history...riveting reading for all of you, I am sure.

I am always amused after a trip to the nail place. My fake nail history goes back to 1995. Wow...10 years of fake nails...that seems a bit obsessive when I put it in print.

When my Dear Precious proposed to me (actually, we had designed our rings before the actual proposal happened, so this proposal I speak of was the official one), I realized how silly a beautiful ring was going to look on my short, stubby fingers. You'd think someone as tall as me would have long fingers...but no...they are very short...oddly, grotesquely short. So I tried fake nails for the first time and then when then ring came a few weeks later, my newly elongated fingers looked much better, and I've been hooked on the nail thing ever since. I'd always had these thin, wimpy nails - so this was a new adventure for me. My friend Pam recommended a place down in Burleson that she went to. This was long before there was a nail place on every corner, so driving to Burleson wasn't a big deal. The most unusual thing about the Burleson shop is that a WHITE GIRL that did my nails. Maybe that wasn't so odd in 1995, but of course, that is very strange now. This nail place was also a hair place, owned by the lady that did my nails. She also owned a couple of bars where they had the 8-liners. It was always interesting when her bar customers would come in and she would momentarily excuse herself to the back room where she'd do "business" with her 8-liners customers. They usually discussed things like "loosening up the machines" and such, so I figured they were trading their tokens for something besides a stuffed animal. Enlightening, to say the least. But I digress...

I stuck with the Burleson salon until the owner sold it, and then I found a nail place close to home. I have basically stuck with the same place until I was forced into making a change. Basically, I've gone to about 3 salons since Burleson. I don't like going to new nail places...they make me very nervous. However, when you go to a new place where you don't know the people that work there, you can always count on the same questions and comments:

You want round or square?
You want cut down?
You work today?
You have kids?
You want eyebrows done today?
You wait to long for fills.
You come here before?
Who do your nails last time?

But here is what I've really come to know. If you are feeling poor, like I do most days, and are unsure whether or not to spring for the finger nails AND toe nails, hesitate a little, ask the price, go during the week and during the day when they are desperate for customers, and your hesitation will almost certainly get you a few bucks off the posted price. It's kinda like buying a sombrero in Juarez...never pay full price.

That's my tip of the day - hope it saves you a few bucks!