My Girls are Not Camera Shy!

I had no idea what an absolute goof-balls my daughters were until I looked at these pictures preparing to post them. At least they are lately. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. My mom and/or dad took these on their digital and sent them to me today. Enjoy.....






And without further ado.....

THE TINY BUM PANTIES!! Yay Grandma!!

Thanks for indulging me today in my journey of pictures from the past weekend. I honestly don't have the energy to write much today after yesterdays novel. Plus, now in addition to sinus woes, I have some sort of eye infection or something. Oh, yeah. I'm a mess. Bleh.

Where Do I Start?!

Man, I feel like it's been years since I've been here, on my own blog, not to mention anyone else's blogs I love to visit. It's not that I don't love you all anymore, or that I've given up on the good 'ole blog; I just haven't been around a computer much the past week or so.

My usual blogging days are when I'm at work; Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Sometimes another one may get thrown in there if I can manage to get to my mom's computer and pound out a post without The Fiester insisting on sitting on my lap and "helping" me. Anyway, last Wednesday, I went home sick from work an hour after I got here with a pounding sinus headache and aches and pains. I felt like an 80 year old woman. Then Friday I took off for my dear daughters 2nd birthday...but come to think of it, I think I did manage to get something out that day. Maybe it hasn't been that long since I've been here, but it feels like it. It's those sinuses, I guess which are still causing me endless amounts of pain. I can't even open my mouth all the way. You think I should maybe go to the doctor? Eh....he'll just charge me $50 to tell me it's allergy related and to take some OTC medication, so I think I'll save my $$ and just go straight to the pharmacy.

I'm just blabbering on and on about absolutely nothing important right now. Let's see if I can get a straight thought here.

THE WEEKEND
The weekend could be a large part as to why I am so out of it today. Friday, after spending the day entertaining my very energetic, newly minted two year old, we headed to the mountains with the folks (my folks, that is) to have the first cook out of the summer. It was a gorgeous evening in the mountains and my little ones thoroughly enjoyed climbing on rocks, wading in the river and playing at the playground provided at the park. Care Bear and Fiesty both attempted to go to the bathroom, however the putrid stench inhabiting the port-a-potty provided for parishoners of the park prevented them from doing so. I nearly vomited on Care Bear when we attempted it. I tried to orient her on the skill of going behind a tree; after all, when you're in the mountains, and there is no bathroom available, (or none that you can stomach entering), you go behind a tree. I learned this skill as a young child; my father had my brother and I in the mountains with him before we were out of the womb.

Care Bear was not comfortable going behind the tree. I think she would have gone had it been potty of the #1 variety, but as she was crouched down behind the tree, she looked up at me with a sad little embarassed look on her face and told me, "I can't do it Mommy. I have to go poopy." Poor little baby. So, what did I do? What any good Mommy would do in this situation: I tracked down my mommy, and made her take the Bear into the port-a-potty. She still couldn't go, so the poor thing had to wait until we got all the way home (a good half hour drive). Fiesty wasn't worried about it. Having just learned the art of going in the potty, she still recalled the ease of going in ones pants. So she did that instead of torturing herself. It's aa-iight. I can handle a set-back of that nature.

The following day was the "BIG BASH". And yes, it was big. I happen to be one of those obnoxious parents who feels the need to invite every friend, family member, neighbor, dog from the street over, etc...to my children's birthday parties. Maybe it's not all that bad, but I do have a lot of family in the area, and I would not want to leave out anyone. I'm not one to hurt feelings. So, in anticipation of the big event, I got to spend my entire day Saturday cleaning. The event was set to begin at 4:00 p.m. And it literally took me until about 2 minutes before 4:00 to get the house to a standard I felt comfortable with having about 20 people over. The party was in our backyard, but you just never know who may happen to decide to wander on in. As it went, I could have probably gotten away with just cleaning the living room and the kitchen and been fine, but if I hadn't cleaned the whole house I'm positive the entire brigade would have wanted a full tour. ANYWAY.....(am I a good rambler today or what?!?!). Fiesty thoroughly enjoyed her big day. In a BIG way. It got even better for her when she opened Grandma's present and had received....drum roll please....tiny bum panties. She promptly insisted on taking off her pants and ran around sporting her new panties, with Dora on the bum, and announced to the whole crowd, "THEY FIT ME!!" I guess I didn't realize that she knew herself that she had a tiny bum. I don't give her enough credit. All in all, Fiesty's 2nd birthday was a great success and she still wakes up in the morning and says, "Mommy...happy birthday!" It must be such a let-down for a young one to learn that "No, your birthday doesn't last forever." Next year, Fiesty, next year.

Speaking of Fiesty, can I just say that I officially have a two year old in every sense of the word?! (read: the terrible twos!!!) Oy Vey!!!

IN OTHER NEWS

My class was set to begin yesterday. The big day arrived. It's an online class, so I had been receiving emails on how to log on once the big day arrived for several weeks already. Wild with anticipation and ridiculously excited to start studying again, I trudged down to my mom's house with my girls to log onto my class and get going. (How un-educated is it of me to attempt an online class when I don 't have an easily accesible computer?! Oh, well...). Imagine my distress when I followed the instructions long ago received to log onto my class and I get the message telling me, "No instructor has added you to a Web CT course." Whaaaaa??? Oh, the distress. After numerous calls to the department, the professor and various other offices on campus, I finally called a friend of mine who works in the Design department. She informed me that it's par for the course for instructors to add students late to their online classes during the summer and that it's, shall we say, more relaxed. (I interpret that: LAZY). Uh, OK. So, basically, just hope I get added to the class sometime before all assignments and exams are due. Good. I like that plan. Lucky for the people in the department, when I logged on later in the evening last night, I was added. I guess persistence works (in some cases anyway). So, here I am at work today trying to take advantage of some computer time and checking out my first lecture, via Power Point. Not sure what I think of this online class thing. It's definitely different. And I'm starting to wonder what on earth I've gotten myself into and how I'm going to function on a daily basis adding this aspect to my life. I guess there's no ideal time to try to go back to school when you have kids; there will always be some reason to say "This isn't a good time". So I'm choosing to say, "Now is as good a time as any." Let's hope I'm right.

I heard a rumor. And if it's true, I could very well be a very happy person tonight come about 7:00 MST when American Idol comes on. Now, this is a rumor, so no blasting me if it isn't true. (Although I will have a broken heart). Hey, isn't that a song? "I heard a rumor....they say you have a broken heart!" Anyway, rumor has it that there was a voting issue last week (surprise, surprise....this happens about once a year) and that Chris' votes were accidentally routed to Katherine and that she was in fact the one that should have gone last week. Dare I get excited? Dare I hope this to be true?! Too late....I already dared. I had already given up. Said no more for this year. I don't care now. But I have renewed hope. (I know, I know....I really need to get a life.) I forgot to mention on Friday when discussing AI that after hearing the devastating news that Chris was gone, I just dropped my head and said to myself, "Not again. Ever year." Fiesty was standing near by and saw my dismay and said, "Mommy? Sad?" Then came over, wrapped her arms around my neck and began singing the Barney song. You know, "I love you, You love me....". Then the next day she turned into a two year old.

I think maybe, just maybe, that was all I have to say for the day. Whew. I feel like I just unloaded on y'all. That's what happens with a full weekend and no way to blog. I have a lot of reading to catch up on everyone else's, so don't think I'm ignoring anyone. I'm just behind. I also have a couple of memes to do that I was tagged for last week, and some pics of the party that I plan to post once my mom sends them to me (no, I don't have a digital camera either).

Thanks for listening to the rambling. I've just got so much stuff full inside my head and now it's clear again. Thank goodness, since I have to make room for this school stuff.

I hope everyone had a wonderful mother's day! My family gave me the gift of a nap when my husband took the kids to the park with my dad for two whole hours. Pure heaven. Thanks for the birthday wishes for Fiesty and the Happy Mothers Day wishes everyone! :-)

3rd weekly award and Randomness

Well, here I am at May 12, 2006 currently re-living 2 years ago when I was in heavy labor with my precious little Fiesty. In 29 minutes (2 years ago) she was born. I can't even believe how quickly time flies. Little did I know that the three months following her birth would be such difficult ones. Care Bear was only 20 months when Fiesty was born and she had a difficult (to put it mildy) time adjusting to no longer being the princess baby. Add to that the fact that she had just been diagnosed with amblyopia and was sporting brand new glasses that she had to adjust to. We had also decided that we could no longer co-exist in the small 2 bedroom townhome we were living in with five of us and found a home three doors down from my parents.

New sister+
New Glasses+
New House= Unhappy Care Bear. For several months.

Fiesty also decided to add to this distress by being a colicky baby for the first three months of her life. I just know she did it on purpose to make her new mommy's life that much more miserable.

I can not count the number of times that I ran the 100 feet down to my mom's house with my screaming, crying infant to seek her help in calming her down. She would sometimes take her from me to give me a rest for a few minutes and walk the street, up and down, up and down, over and over in an effort to calm her down. Suffice it to say, at this time of year for the last two years, I get a little sinking feeling in my gut when I remember how miserable I felt at that time. And that made me feel guilty, because I shouldn't be miserable! I have a sweet, wonderful new baby girl in my life. I can't be miserable, for cryin' out loud!

Now two years later, my daughters are the best of friends (with the sibling rivalry mixed in there every once in awhile.) Care Bear dotes on her little sister, and Fiesty never thinks of doing a single thing in her life without her big sister. At that time I never thought life would be comfortable again, but it is (although very chaotic most of the time.)

All of that to say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FIESTY. My sweet girl. You are a big two year old girl now, and I am so proud of you and I love you so much, baby!!

Now, I can not let a Friday randomness post go by without mentioning American Idol. You all knew it was coming. CHRIS. I am still mourning the loss of Chris this week. I was truly in shock and a little bit mad at America when I heard Ryan say that Chris was out this week. I really thought it was a joke. I thought Ryan was going to do an AI first, and turn around and say, "Just kidding. You're out Katherine". Yes, it would be a cruel joke, but I would've been happy. I have nothing against Kat. I think she is a beautiful girl with an outstanding voice and talent. I also love Elliot and Taylor as well. But for some reason since the audition round, I had a thing for Chris. He seems to be an upstanding guy; married an older woman, took in her children, loves them and works hard for them. This was his dream. There was just something about him that made me want him to win. But, I should have known. Didn't I say this always happens to me?! Oh, well. I'm sure someone will pick him up. I just wanted my favorite to win. FOR ONCE. I'm done. No more AI for me. until next year.

Alright. No more rambling on. Time for the Friday "I HELPED KRISTEN COOK" award. This was a great recipe that my whole family enjoyed. My husband is actually looking forward to dinner time now to see what new concoction I will come up with. Of course, I always give credit where credit is due. He knows about you people. Oh, yes. He knows. Today's award goes to:

KEP

from

Holding the Mirror Up to My Soul

I'm copying and pasting the recipe she submitted straight from her comments to me. Thanks again, KEP!

Fry a pound or so of hamburger with some onion and green pepper if you like it that way, then add a can of tomato sauce, 1/4 tsp each of garlic salt and cumin, and a can of green beans.Let that simmer a few minutes while you take a tube of crescent rolls apart and put them in a pie pan to make crust. Beat an egg and smear it on the crust with a handful of shredded cheese. Pour the meat mixture on top, put more cheese on top of that, and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.

It was soo good! Thanks again!

And I'm out. Hope everyone's weekend is fabu-loso!!

No More Diapers?!

Could this possibly be true?! I don't know. I hate to get excited about things like that because I always get excited prematurely, and then get disappointed when things don't stay that way. Case in point: this post. I don't wanna talk about it.

I can't help it though. I am prematurely excited, and maybe this will turn out better than the sleeping thing. Yesterday morning, my girls decided to sleep in super late. We're talking 9:30. I'm talking, "YEAH!" I didn't have to take Yoda to school yesterday morning, and we didn't have anywhere in particular to go, so there was no big hurry. Imagine my massive disappointment when I realized that Fiesty was out of diapers. Crap. That means I have to get them in the bath, clean up their grimy selves, and get them out after all to buy Fiesty diapers. And hope that on the way to the store, there is no accident.

Then a lightbulb went off in my head. "Wait a minute. Fiesty will be 2 in three days. Fiesty likes to do everything her sister does. Fiesty has gone potty on a few occasions, she just needs the incentive to do it regularly. Fiesty has no diapers, and Fiesty has a mom who is in no.mood to go anywhere at this point in time. Fiesty is gonna get potty trained today! After all, wet jeans and underwear never hurt anyone."

So, I went and told Fiesty the news. "Guess what baby! You get to wear underwear today!!" She took the news very well. Problem, though. When you have a child as little (petite) as mine, underwear can be a hard thing to find. I found a few pairs that Grandma P sent to Care Bear when she was underwear wearing age that never really fit her, and tried them on Fiesty. They sagged in the bum a little, but for this purpose, they would work. We'll concentrate on finding more snug fitting for the tiny bum under-panties later.

After the saggy bum underwear was on, and the jeans that were a little too large now that they don't have 10 lbs of diaper under them were on, we started the training. I obsessively reminded Fiesty about every 10 minutes, "Now Fiesty, remember to tell Mommy if you have to go poopy or pee, OK?" The first few times I told her, she was sweet and patient, but after about round 10 she wasn't taking it anymore and very adamantly and forcefully told me, "O....K!!!" I left her alone after that. But sure enough, about 10 minutes later I hear a little voice yelling, "Mommy! Potty" and look up to see her grabbing her saggy bum area and crouching down. With speed I didn't know I posessed, I picked her up and we hit the stairs two at a time in an effort to reach the potty on time. And we did. And she went. And there was clapping, and singing, and kissing, and overuse of toilet paper, and it was great fun. So much fun was it for her, that every 10 minutes or so afterwards, she decided it was time to go again. And again. And again. She remained in her underwear all day, until bed time, when she christened her first pair of training pants. Hey, I'm not THAT optimistic. On deck for this weekend: Tiny bum under-panties shopping.

Oh, and lest I forget:

THIS IS YOUR OFFICIAL CALL FOR RECIPES. YOU KNOW THE DRILL! :-)

Mother's Day Stuff

My husband called me at work yesterday and told me that Care Bear had written me a mother's day story. Of course immediately, a soft hand clutched my heart and beads of water collected in my tear ducts. She had taken her notebook of paper and squiggled lines through about half the notebook and recited the story to my husband. Naturally, I could not wait to get home and hear the first story my daughter ever "wrote" for me.

Upon reaching home, the first thing I did was ask Care Bear to please read me her story. She proudly got out her notebook and began to weave her beautiful tale:

Care Bear: "Mommy and I were going through the woods picking blueberries. There was a big scary monster with sharp teeth and the monster was going to eat us. My mommy killed the monster. THE END!"

Ummm, beautiful story Care Bear. Just what I envisioned. Hubby's reaction? "That's not the story I heard earlier."

I guess it's the thought that counts. So, thanks Care Bear for my first Mother's Day story. I will treasure it always.

Friday Award Time and some Randomness

Well, here we are at Friday again, which means it is time to award another "I HELPED KRISTEN COOK" award. I just realized that I forgot to make a "call for recipes" on Tuesday. Cool. My brand new award and I'm already goofing up on it! Hey, this is new to me, too. It'll take time. :-) So, consider this your call for recipes. If you wanna submit one, be my guest either via my comments, or via email. If you do send one to my email, let me know in the comments, though, because I typically only check my yahoo email account once a day or so, unless I'm expecting something to come there.

Let me say that I have already tried several of the recipes that you awesome people have sent to me and they have all been met with great success. I am having so much fun cooking new things for my family and I think they appreciate it, too! ;-) I'm considering awarding twice a week because I have so many. We'll see. I also am working with The Queen to possibly make a banner you can display on your website proving that you helped me cook! More on that to come soon.

In addition today, I will also be throwing in some "randomness". It seems like by Friday, randomness is what I have to offer. Millions of little things that happened through the week all conglomerate together and mush together into a post here.

But without further ado, let me present today's "I HELPED KRISTEN COOK" winner. It is:

SNICKERS

from

Random Thoughts of a Tired Mom

She submitted a recipe to me when I first requested them a couple of weeks ago. She put it in my comments, so I am copying and pasting her recipe directly from her comment to me.

LAZY MAN'S PARMESIAN CHICKEN

"You take some boneless shinless chicken breasts and cook them in the oven with shake-n-bake. Follow the directions on the box of shake-n-bake and about 5 minutes before its done take it out, throw on some spaghettie sauce, some shredded mozzarella cheese and some parmesan cheese, put it back in the oven until cheese is melted and bam, you have supper."

And it was mmm mmm good! So, thanks Snickers!

Some comments from the family on the masterpiece:

Care Bear: "Mommy, this is delicious. Excellent!" (This coming from the pickiest eater on the planet! I kid you not!)

Yoda: "I've never seen you make chicken like this. What is it?"

Me: "Well, it's called Parmesian Chicken. It's Italian. You'll love it."

(Yoda has Italian roots and is very proud of them. If you tell him something is Italian, he'll eat it. And he did. And he loved it!)

Hubby: "This is great. You'll have to make this again sometime!"

Fiesty: (Well, she couldn't talk because her mouth was overstuffed with food.)

So, there you have it. Another success story in my quest to fix my family delicious, nutritious and inexpensive food!

In other news, in my last Friday Randomness post, I talked about my husband having a new job at DirecTV. Well, about a week ago, he got a call for an interview for a job that he really wanted and he got it. He starts Monday and we are all very excited. This job is much more "up his alley" and doing the type of work he is used to. The pay is decent, the hours great, and I am very excited for him. So, yeah hubby!

This morning on my favorite radio station, they had Ace Young from American Idol in the studio to do an interview and a performance of his own music. He's back in town for awhile and it was fun to hear the interview. He sounds like a real nice guy and has some plans in the works for an album soon.

Speaking of Idol, at this point I am sad to see any of them go. I think this is the best season ever so far and I kinda wish they could all just win. I think at this point, I will be happy with whoever wins.

It's rainy and cold today. I think it might snow again. Cool. I'm never going to be able to clean my kids' closet out of their winter clothes. I wouldn't be surprised if it snowed on the 4th of July.

I start my class a week from Monday. I also got registered for my fall class. It appears as though it may really happen this time. Yikes. I'm gonna be a college student again.

I think that may be all I have for now. Stay tuned, though. Maybe more randomness will leak its way out as the day goes on. It is, after all, not even 9 a.m yet. Give me some time! :-)

Thank You!

Thank you so much to those of you who read my post this weekend and sent your prayers my way. They were truly felt, particularly on Sunday, which was "big decision" day in this situation.

The situation is under control, and I feel that the decisions made are truly what God wants for the situation and for my family and myself.

However, when you think of me, your continued prayers would be appreciated as this is an ongoing need, not a one stop prayer shop type of thing.

On another note, I have tried several of your recipes that you have sent me, and have a few more in the works for this week, and let me just say that the ones I have tried thus far have met with great success. I can not tell you how much I appreciate having some new and fun things to cook for my family! It's so great!

So, on Friday, I will be awarding another "I HELPED KRISTEN COOK" award, and I have several more in the works for the next few Fridays! You all are the BEST I tell you, the BEST!.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! It's a nice warm day here today, without being too hot. Just what I like!