clogs, gonzo and other stuff

I won these clogs from a blog giveaway a few weeks ago.

The UPS man brought them a few days ago.

I love them.

I've always wanted clogs.

These are fancy schmancy clogs with European sizes.

I feel like I have really big feet since I had to order a size 40.

I actually do have really big feet but wearing a size 40 makes them feel even bigger.

I wanted the clogs in leopard print but they were out of my size.

I settled for shiny marbled brown.

Even Scratchy likes them.



Danny came home from preschool Tuesday with the letter bag.

He had to find items starting with the letter E and bring them to school today.

The teacher takes stuff out of the bag and the kids guess which letter they all start with.

I found a plastic Easter egg and our mini Etch-a-Sketch.

Then I asked Danny to look in his stuffed animal collection to see if he had and elephant.

He told me he did have one elephant with square pants.

I told him to go get it for me because I really don't remember any elephants with square pants in this house.

Here's what he brought me.



Dan has a chair by the closet where he tosses his clothes before they make it back into the closet or into the dirty clothes.

It's a chair closet.



I came up with an extra closet of my own this week.

Baby Ray Ray sometimes naps over at my house.

I left the play pen up from a few days ago when he slept here.

I tossed all the clean clothes in it one night so we could go to bed and I wouldn't have to put them all away.

I could get used to this.

Too bad I bump into it in the middle of the night and our bedroom isn't really big enough to leave the Play Pen Clean Clothes Dumping Spot up all the time.

And check out Cate's purple butterfly undies on top.

UNDIES!

No diapers during the day for quite a while.

I'm beyond thrilled.

Really.

It's the little things like purple butterfly undies that are making me happy these days.



This is what grandmas are for.

They stayed like that for a good two and a half hours yesterday.



Grandmas are also good for taking your kids over to your sister's house in the morning so that you can have a few hours of PEACE and QUIET since you pretty much never get that kind of thing unless you stay up late.

Grama Bama is a good woman.

Just don't tell her that when she was watching my kids so I could have peace and quiet and get the ironing and dishes done I watched tv and blogged about clogs and Gonzo instead.

burnt tomato soup

Grama Bama is here!

I tricked her and sent her brother (Uncle Norb) and his wife (Aunt Emma) to get her.
She thought I was actually going to drive to the airport, park and find her all by myself.
Ha! I don't think I've ever done that in my entire life. Why start now?

I asked Norb and Emma to go get her instead. I love surprising my mother.
She called me a rascal for it. So be it.

She's currently coloring with Cate and telling her stories about the plane ride.
Apparently, some guy was in her seat and he smelled like burnt tomato soup.
She was very happy that he got up and moved.

She's told Cate that story 3 times so far.
Now they've moved on to talking about rain and drawing cats and dogs (that Cate thinks are cows).

We sure love that Grama Bama!

the butter to my bread

Remember in the movie Julie & Julia when Paul Child tells Julia
that she's the butter to his bread and the breath to his life?

It's one of my favorite parts.

Here's my very own tribute to my lovely mate
on this 13th anniversary of our blessed union.
{inspired by Paul and Julia}

To my darling Dan,

You are the hot fudge to my sundae,
the chocolate chips to my cookie,

the pb to my j,
the bl to my t,

the lime to my Diet Coke,
the red beans to my rice,

the honey to my cornbread,
the cheesy to my grits,

the chicken to my pot pie,
the strawberry to my shortcake.

And just so it's not all about food...

the high-speed to my internet,
the bandaid to my owie
and
the free to my shipping.



See? You're everything that makes me better.

{found here}

date night

My favorite Dan and I went on a date tonight.
Same place we went on our first date.
(on Valentine's Day fourteen years ago)
We're celebrating a special day tomorrow and figured we'd get a head start.

Pretty sure I ate my entire day's allotment of calories in one meal.
It's ok.
I only ate cereal and celery leading up to it.
And I did share those fries.

At least the Coke was diet.
And we walked around Costco afterward for a little exercise.
Very little exercise.

I'm full.
And happy.
Dan's my favorite.
He let me have the last 2 fries.
They even had a little bit of cheese stuck on them.

That's true love.

make-up for my little girl

My little girl seems to think it's her duty in life to be all up in my business when I'm putting on my make-up in the morning. Danny too. I know. Easy solution is to lock the door so they can't get near me right? Somehow I think every new day is the day they won't care about my mascara and eye liner. Every day I'm wrong.

I came across this tutorial for make-up for little ladies and I knew that could be the answer to all my make up pesteroni problems. (Know what a pesteroni is? I believe it's Italian for pest. It's a nice way of saying that your kid is driving you bonkers.)

Off I went to the dollar store to buy stuff. I picked up a pill organizer and some nail polish. Pretty sure we also bought stickers, dinosaur trading cards and a cheap plastic toy or two while we were at it.


Then I got out Grandma's bottle of spot remover to take the letters off the pill organizer. All it took was a few drops and the letters were gone. A gas mask would have been nice too because that stuff is pungent. I'm thinking VAPORS HARMFUL is very much the truth.



See? Nice and clean and ready for little girl make up and an end to my pesteroni problems.



I got busy pouring the nail polish into the little sections. Isn't this a lovely shade for fake eyeshadow?



After a few minutes I was done. I think it turned out quite pretty. Not sure why I chose white though. Pickin's must have been slim at the dollar store that day. All there was left to do was let it sit and dry.

What I didn't realize is the amount of shrinkage involved with nail polish drying. After a few days I filled the sections up again and let them dry. Then I had enough nail polish left to fill them up again. That stuff shrinks down to almost nothing. Next time I'll use something not so deep, maybe spare contact lens containers. I think we've got a few dozen of those in the bathroom drawer.



I presented the fake make-up to Cate one morning last week. I told her it was her very own make-up, just like Mommy has. She saw it and said, "Make-up!" in a tone of reverence and awe. It was adorable.

I let her use a spare mirror and some cotton swabs. She parked it at the table and went to work getting herself all dolled up.



She knew exactly what to do, thanks to all the mommy watching she's been doing.

Check out her serious tongue of concentration in this next picture. She totally gets that from her daddy.



She got Big Baby all prettied up too.



I'd have to say this was a huge success. I don't think she's been a pesteroni at my make-up time at all since she has her own. Thank goodness too because I was this close to giving up on make-up all together. Yikes.

This last picture is a doozy but it's my favorite and it makes me laugh. Don't look if you're squeamish about people sticking things in their eyes.



She hasn't hurt herself so far. It's only a matter of time I'm sure.

the crappy craps

Last week was really crappy for me. Most days I felt like poor Baby Ray Ray looks in this picture. I wasn't physically sick (except for a headache here and there). I just wasn't very happy. And all the mom stuff was totally kicking my trash, as usual.

I think spring is hard. The time changes. The weather changes. One day kids can go out and play and the next, well, they can't. That's no fun. Makes me grumpy. Makes them a little grumpy too.



I didn't say anything about all the crap to anyone except Dan. Poor guy. Or I didn't say anything and just acted like a big grumpy pants. I've got a good man, I tell ya. A really good one.

I did get Cate to wear jeans last week. That was a happy spot in my otherwise grump filled week. Most of it's my fault. I didn't do much to make myself feel happy. Not a lot of trying. Just wallowing and grumping and bemoaning life. Oh, and quite a bit of eating chocolate in preparation for the no shugs starting.



Sometimes I'm sad for my poor kidlets that have to grow up with a mom who's grumpy a lot. They could help me out by going to bed early (without protest), less puking, way less diaper usage and more playing nicely together. They're trying though. One day last week Cate slept in until 10:00 and Danny and I slept until 9:00. That was nice.

I went to bed way too late and way too sad most nights last week. Don't you just get sick and tired of cooking, cleaning, bathing, clothing, feeding, filling sippy cups and what not? Would it kill them to just go get in their beds and take a nap all on their own? I mean really? How many grown-ups would love the chance to take a nap in the middle of the day? These kids don't know how good they've got it.

I was changing into my pajamas on Thursday night and saw this.


Danny had tucked his little puppy into my bed for me to snuggle with. Good grief. He's a good kid.

Maybe that little puppy was what I needed. Most of the grumpy crappy feelings were gone on Friday (it helped that Dan had the day off work). I had a good weekend. Swimming with Danny and pizza for dinner on Friday. Baking, Chick-fil-A and a win for BYU on Saturday. Church and family visits on Sunday. A new garage door, homemade meatballs and pleasant kids (despite no naps) on Monday. Windy, snow flurries and a cooperative preschooler yesterday.

Then last night I read a blog post written by my friend and neighbor. She wrote it Thursday and called it a "light a match and walk away" kind of day. Exactly what last week was for me. She's got a way with words.

Then she listed a bunch of stuff she's sick of. We're allowed to do that once in a while right? Who really wants to read post after post all full of sunshine and flowers? Not me. I want to feel like I'm not the only one who has crappy days (even weeks) sometimes.

Then she finished off the post with the stuff she's not sick of: a good husband, cute kids and gratitude for the blessings in her life (even though she neglected to mention me by name, I think she lumped me in the blessings section).

So I called my friend this morning and told her to bring her cute hellions (her word) to my house for a few hours. I was already tending the 6-year-old nephew and his baby brother. What's 3 more? Seriously, once you've got 4, 7 is a walk in the park. Of course she was hesitant but I insisted. You are not allowed to write stuff on your blog about the crappy crap and then not accept a morning off. You're just not. My rule.

So there we were, ages 37,6,6,4,3,2,1 and 8 months. I didn't know we had so many toys. Somehow they all manage to be out at once when extra kids are here. And you know what? It's ok. The kids were happy and it gave me a chance to take inventory.



Maybe 5 extra kids for the morning added to my crazy. If it subtracted a little from hers, who cares? The level of crazy in the universe is still balanced. I'll take one for the team.

So here's what I'm thinking:

I'm hoping this will keep the crappy craps at bay. I'll go ahead and let the clean laundry sit in a pile, the ironing too. The bathrooms will probably get cleaned some time this month. The dishes will get washed, even if they have to sprout hands and wash themselves.

I'm going to do the stuff I can and not worry about the rest.

Plus, Grama Bama will be here in 6 days, I've got to get my garden ready, my kids are stinkin' cute and Cate is on the verge of getting the whole pee in the potty, not in your pull-up thing figured out. Finally.

Mold-free bathtubs and couch cushions void of smooshed fishy crackers are highly overrated.

the end.

pictures with my mom

{my mom and me last summer}

I recently answered the call to be a part of the 30 Strangers Project. I didn't make the cut. I have no idea why. I mean, I told them that I am exceedingly beautiful, my mom is lovely AND I offered to bring pie to the photo shoot. I also mentioned that my mom is Canadian. That might be what lost it for us. I'll never know.

It doesn't matter though. I received an email from the kind photographer offering to take our pictures anyway. We just wouldn't be included in the big project. That's ok with me. I was just hoping for some amazing pictures of Grama Bama and me. Looks like that's what I'm going to be getting come June 23rd. The best part, it's only $45 instead of 5 times that much. Good deal.

I'm excited. My hair will be longer and I'll be eating sugar again. Maybe he'll work some miracles in the photo editing and erase my wrinkles.


Speaking of mother/daughter pictures, here's my all time favorite of me and my own daughter (taken by the amazingly talented Candis.)

Cate was 5 weeks old and still as tiny as can be. I'm not too proud of my chins, neck wrinkles and ginormous upper arm but at least my crow's feet and gray hairs aren't showing.

Plus, I've never been so, ahem, well endowed in my life.

Just one of the many blessings of having a newborn.

aprons for the kids

Grama Bama has been at it again.
Spoiling my children.
It's ok.
I'll let her.


Yoda's still my favorite.

Now that they've got their fancy new aprons, we'd better get baking.

Here's a few items on my to bake list:

(and since I'm off the shugs for the next 3 months,
I'm obsessed with recipes of stuff I won't be eating...
why do I torture myself?)



cheesecake stuffed strawberries



Nutella mug cake



iced lemon pound cake



chocolate covered funfetti cake balls


There's more.
I'll stop for now.

Excuse me while I go eat some celery for lunch.


And just in case you'd lost track:


Woo hoo!

blue velvet cupcakes for jimmer

The Jimmer cakes are done! Just in time for the big game. And they better taste good because they pretty much consumed my Saturday.

I thought it would look good to have the Y standing up in the frosting.



Then I tried it and it mostly looks like a weird tree growing out of a blue cupcake. Or the handle of a slingshot. Looks better if you can see the bottom of the Y (in my opinion at least).



Blue velvet cupcakes for Jimmer.

And for Dan to enjoy as he watches the game (but just that one I broke open for the picture).

The rest are for the family at Grandma's tomorrow.

Hopefully they'll be stuffing blue cupcakes in their mouths with smiles on their faces.

Go Cougars!

jimmer cakes

The flag is hung. I rigged it with safety pins, metal rings and some pretty heavy duty hooks. It should hold up better than it did last fall. Duct tape and string wasn't cutting it. I wonder if the neighbors are happy to have to look at it across the street again. I like to think they are.

The game is scheduled for some time around dinner. I shall be taking the kids to play at Chick-fil-A for the duration so Dan can watch in peace. I know. He's a lucky man. If she'll cooperate, I'll even make Cate wear her Halloween costume. The shoes almost don't fit anymore but sometimes being cute hurts.

I'm making Jimmer cakes today. Never heard of Jimmer cakes before? You'll have to wait and see. I'm just sitting around waiting for the butter and eggs to come to room temperature and then the baking will commence.

The Jimmer cakes are to take to Grandma's house tomorrow (not sure if Dan told her we're coming yet so maybe I just saved us a phone call). I told Dan about the Jimmer cakes and he said, "What if they lose?" They won't. But if they do, are you a fair weather fan? One who only makes cupcakes in honor of the team to celebrate a victory? Not me. If they lose then we stuff our faces with Jimmer cakes to dull the pain.

Although, I won't be stuffing my face with Jimmer cakes. I'm officially done with the shugs for 3 months (at least that's what I'm telling myself). I've got 3 months exactly until my birthday and a little goal that I'm trying to achieve. Sugar will not help me attain that goal. I got my final taste late last night. I even spared myself the calories and opted for the trial size with the plastic spoon in the lid.


Wanna guess the flavor?

The winner gets the satisfaction of winning.

Just like we're hoping for Jimmer and the boys!