The good run...

Me and Deb..one of my most favorites...ever!

I'm not a runner..nor do I profess to be. I do however, on occasion...enjoy running. Saturday was one of those days. Weather held out, small amount of participants, fabulicious playlist, and just a straight up fun and determined running partner. In fact, said running partner somehow set her Ipod on the trunk of her car before the race..couldn't find it..was literally looking in her car when the 15 second warning bell sounded....started late with only a set of jingling keys to serenade her through the entire 5k. What a champ! It feels so good to accomplish something I really wanted to do. I got my best time in months and now have a goal for my next race. It's kind of addicting. Not like someday I want to run a marathon addicting..or even a 1/2....more like....3.2 is perfect for me. However, a 10k has kinda got me thinking...hmmm.

A real life conversation with Cole...

*After slaving away once again preparing dinner for my starving off-spring, I tried for the 4th time no less to get some movement out of this kid and help set the table. Our conversation went a little something like this:
 "Hey, Mr. Cole....could you please throw your gum wrapper away and pick up your markers and paper off the table?"

 -Remember..4th time, no joke.

Finally some response- "What did you say to do mom?"

"I said, spin around 5 times and then do a perfect handstand..with your eyes closed."

Completely serious response: "Why would you say that...it doesn't make any sense?"

And that folks about sums it all up.

It's a toss up...

I can't decide what little mundane event from my week was more awesome.....

#1-Brody insistent upon pouring out his OWN Ranch dressing at dinner. (I've banned Costco sized Greg's Ranch from any future purchases). Plus, there was no yelling in the clean up process. Just an unwanted camera click and lots of under the breath laughing at my four year olds expense. Poor Batman.

OR:

#2- Spilling my entire 24 oz. package of BLUEBERRIES on the floor in the checkout line at Costco this morning. Those babies rolled on FOR-EV-ER!

Good, good times!

the goings on....

These are a few of my favorite things......for the last 2 weeks:

A divine Cinco De Mayo party (complete with Cafe Rio pork salad, a homemade pinata, pina coladas and stuffed jalepeno thingys) with our favorite friends the Roberts.........

my crew's new favorite hang-out...
they all gather around including the little lady who just chills by the printer on the floor playing with cords, wires, and dust....

my 3 year old who is at a prime stage of life right now.....HI-LAR-I-OUS. (pictures taken about 20 minutes apart....what?......)

Fabulous in-laws ......who sent tulips (my favorite) ...a LOT...of tulips for Mother's Day. I so enjoy having fresh flowers in my kitchen which doesn't happen very often.....

Mr. Kindergarten himself....I had the choice opportunity to attend a mini "back to school in the spring" with Cole. It's fun having kind, funny, and smart kids. Plus, he FINALLY pulled his OWN tooth the other day. It's been a pathetic...I mean painful process to watch.

Almost perfect pizza crust even though I don't have a pizza stone..........I used to have one but somewhere in the 4 moves in 9 years....it's gone. However, considering this was just a cookie sheet attempt...I'm pretty happy with the results. Finally a good recipe along with the heavenly combination of olive oil, cornmeal, and fresh mozzarella.

Winner winner chicken dinner if I do say so ma-self!

Yet another reason to put down the cell phone...

Today is National Teacher Day. I love teachers..... for the most part. I was a teacher many moons ago and I miss those days. One day when the kids are all in school I'll be back at it in some capacity. Until then it's my duty to make the fellas' teachers feel appreciated! I had THEE best teachers growing up and hope that my kids will also be so fortunate. We've been lucky so far.

I found an idea online: Buy some A&W root beer and attach a note reading: "Thanks for being an AW-esome teacher!"

Perfect!

I set out to the store and en route got to talking to my darling pal Emily. I must admit that I'm not a fan of talking on a cell phone in a store. I understand that at certain times in must be done but normally, I don't do it. Keeping children happy, occupied, and in my field of vision out way the need for conversation.

Fast forward to my conversation with Emily. Against my better judgement I headed straight to the "pop/soda" aisle while talking on my phone.... to find the A&W root beer. I even discussed the idea with Emily who in turn was headed herself to the store to find her own A&W root beer. We ended our conversation so I could concentrate on my most important grocery list.

Please take another looksey at the pop/soda I purchased.


That big giant bulldog didn't even phase me. You see, I was talking on my cell phone at the store... and I usually don't do that..... because things like this happen.

I made it work. The new phrase for my "MUG" root beer:

" I'm feeling pretty sMUG having a great teacher like you! Thanks for all you do.

And that's how I roll around here.

A summary of this and that....

It has been so long from my last post that I really don't know where to begin. My cast of humble readers has dwindled down in boredom so I write this post today for me.

First off, this kid right here, Mr. Cole, lost his first tooth without even trying and boy are we grateful. Hot dogs are amazing like that. He aslo turned the big- SIX. I will redeem myself and post a separate blog for that special occasion!

Good things from this very Tuesday and as of late :

-Kate slept through the night which was a special treat for her eternally sleep deprived mother. She's still a delicious doll baby but those top two front teeth (which are taking For-Ev-Er to arrive) have been preventing her halo from shining.

She's also holding her OWN bottle and I truly thank her for that.

-My sheets are changed ('cause it's Tuesday) and last weeks are already clean and put away.

-I have crossed off #s 1-3 on my morning to-do list.

-I tried Fiber One cereal this morning. Beautiful Bob Harper said it's a great cereal blah blah blah. Not bad with a whole lotta raspberries and a banana slice here and there. Not good plain, the texture is atrocious. I don't know Bob.

-I had my treadmill time, limited and repeatedly interrupted but done none the less.

-I ate lunch that consisted of protein. Always hard for me and so important.

-Got the big boys off to school with happy attitudes, non pukey stomachs, and less snooty filled nostrils. I took Jack to our ENT dr. who confirmed that yes indeed his ears, nose , and throat are all on the fritz and his tonsils and adenoids need to be removed with a little ear re-tubing on the side.... Awesome. It's a small price to pay if it will finally put an end to his snot MADNESS! Everyone is all cute at Costco till you zoom in on the poor boy's schnozz. And if you think it's fun watching him eat and not be able to breathe....try listening to it....for weeks. Thumbs up for surgery!!

-Listening to Brody role play with his action figures and legos.... the potty talk continues even with Buzz Lightyear.....and it's funny. I do enjoy a funny 3 year old.

-The rug I've been dreaming about.... the one that would be perfect in every way... except for the the gigantic price tag.... the one I would purchase instantly if I had a lovely wallet full of rug buying money.... is sold out. Ah, in a sad, pathetic sort of way......makes me feel better.

So for today I will leave you all with this little diddy that Brody is currently singing while playing upstairs,

"It's better to be baaaaad, or good, or bad"

"It's better to be baaaaad, or good, or bad"

We always leave ourselves options around here.

Christmas in March....

This was Jack's smiling giddy face on Christmas morning. His pearly almost eight year old off whites were on display for all to see. This morning, I saw those big smiley teeth again. But it wasn't Christmas. It's March 26 you see and Kyle is out of town. I therefor have the extreme privilege of being the sole provider of food for Chance the wonder pony.

The horse really is a sweet animal. Key word in that sentence....animal. I don't do well with animals in general. It's just not my thing. Especially the ones that are young, hyper, hungry, and weigh....oh, say, 850-900 lbs. I had been trained in the ways of the horse feeding force by Kyle before he left. Just stick the hay in the top of the feeder so it stays clean. Well the feeder is in his little barn which is obviously in his personal space.

It rained sideways last night so the ground was soppy wet and his pasture was just mud and poo. That's right, mud and poo. Two more of my very favorite things. Especially when you combine that with a 850-900 lb animal.

I entered his "space" with positive thoughts and determination (they sense fear ya know) to just get the hay out of the storage side and into his feeder without him eating it right out of my hands. Well, that didn't exactly happen and the hay began to break apart..into the mud/poo mixture, a big no no. "Ah, crap" "ah crap" it's fallin everywhere...Chance the wonder pony is now in MY space sensing all my fears and eating the hay. Jack now comes out to "help" and it's just nervous nelly me trying to salvage the morning feeding. My last straw (literally) was when I grabbed a pile off the barn floor to put in the feeder (which is over my head) and half the pile disintegrated into my hair. It was awesome. It was then that I unintentionally and very unfortunately let a forbidden word in our house fly. And yes, it was immediately heard by this guy:

....who immediately went in with this face to tell....

this guy.

It was FANtastic!! Christmas morning all over again, minus the legos.

Finding something to smile about...

It's Sunday night and I've successfully avoided eating the bowl of cereal I've been craving for the last 2 hours. That's right... now that is something to smile about.



Kids in St. Patty's day green, expressing St. Patty's day love and eating St. Patty's day green jello...I can smile about that too.

Katie cutie smiling on cue...then puking....I'll smile for that.

Trying her first bites of ice cream......come on.....!

Wrapping my mind around the disgraceful sham that is "Obamacare," I cannot smile about. I'm a political junkie. I always have been. This past week for 3 straight days I called congressman after congressman who were supposedly "on the fence" about where their vote would lie. I got through to a majority of offices and expressed my heartfelt opinions with firmness, yet I still was polite. I kept updated reading all sorts of news blogs, tracked vote tallies and called those congressman who could potentially save America from this mess. I did tell the aide to congressman Gordon from TN (who voted "No" last time on the bill and switched to "Yes" after his state was promised millions in medicare money to build new hospitals...hmmm) that he should really help the congressman find or grow -either one- a backbone. He just chuckled. I didn't find it very amusing.

Ya know, I probably made 100 phone calls over those 3 days. Over and over again, one office of obscure congressman after another, busy signals galore. I had my phone numbers with a list of enormous concerns. This could not happen and I had to do something. America is a nation of individual freedom and personal liberty not government run anything. Obama promised a "transformation of America" on the campaign trail- and with enough corruption, lying, rule bending, stealing, and threatening.....the transformation has begun. And it can be ours for just $940 billion dollars. Is that where the latest CBO #s are at.....$940? I don't even know how many zeroes that is?! Awful, just awful.

-Side note: Not only did I call pathetic congressman after pathetic congressman this week, I also threw caution to the wind and called into a certain nationally syndicated radio show which sounds a lot like Fawn Pannity.... to talk healthcare. Aren't I exciting? I knew I would never get
through so when his producer answered the phone I was speechless. She said that he was all full for the day and took my number so I could be on the next day. Well how about that?! I called my sister immediately to discuss exactly what I was going to say. I had the night to stew about it and hopefully formulate something coherent to discuss.

Fast forward to the next morning. Very polite producer calls my cell phone and says, "I will call you in 45 minutes." Awesome. I'm really going to make my talk radio debut on this very day. I go fold a load of laundry to keep my mind on the prize....45 minutes....o.k. I then of course call my very favorite sister to share the news....."Fawn Pannity's producer called and is calling back in 45 minutes." We go over what I should say, the latest from DC and other juicy tidbits from our fascinating lives.

From here can I just say 2 things:

#1- I have never figured out how to retrieve incoming calls on my cell phone....probably should have.

#2- I wasn't a good steward of my time

Yes.. yes indeed, while talking to said favorite sister, phone beeps once and goes directly to voicemail.

This is what I heard: "Hi Kari, Linda from Fawn Pannity trying to reach you....." click.

Yes, I was talking healthcare and the Fawn Pannity show on the other line with my sister and missed the call.

So I did what any other normal gal would do, I went to the mall and purchased anti bacterial soap and a candle that smelled divine. I also popped into the Tmobile store to find out how exactly I could have accepted producer Linda's call. Well all be, that application was never activated on my phone. "That's crazy!" said the energetic T mobile worker. Awesome.

What's crazy is that I STILL have not eaten that bowl of cereal (ugh, Kirkland Macadamia Nut Cranberry cereal with natural flavors) and I am going to bed hungry. Yea for self control. Now, please excuse me while I go snuggle up in bed with some DVRd "Celebrity Apprentice." I can take no more Obama. I'm choosing Brett Michaels and his glorious and greasy headband tonight.

Random sunshine

It's 65 degrees and the sun is brilliantly shining. I adore days like this, not too hot, not a fan of being hot... with just enough breeze to keep it shall I say....coolish. Love it! I came outside to check on my 3 year who loves the dirt and mud that is my side and back yard. Someday we'll have a yard once again, someday. Then it hit me......he stunk.....again. That's stinky Mcstinky pants #2 just today with this kid -and the day isn't over. Are you kidding me? I didn't feel like wiping a 3 year old's gigantic bum once again so I took his picture instead. Might as well be filthy and atrociously stinky if you're gonna get a bath. It's hard being 3.

I also took a picture of Batman's newest mobile.

2 nights ago at the dinner table Jack (in all sincerity) smelled the bite of pork chop with ranch gravy on his fork and looked at me and said, and I quote: "P-U, this smells just like Kate's poop diaper." Now normally if I was to hear some smartalicky punk kid say something like that I would be horrified, but for some reason I just looked at Kyle in awe and silently laughed. Amazing. Jack went on to taste it and in all seriousness said, "It sure doesn't taste like it but for a second there, wooh!" Another shining example of the fantastic dinner conversations we have around here. And yes, the recipe can be yours upon request.

Kate the little lady can do no wrong. She is perfect in every way.

I looked in Cole's mouth to check on his teeny tiny teeth-just curious. The bottom 2 front teeth were totally loose. How did I not know this? How did he not know this? Aren't 5 year olds into losing teeth? He even had a tooth coming in behind one of his baby teeth. When did all of this craziness happen? The kid is going to be 6 next month.....6! He's banking on $10 buck for 2 teeth. Maybe I should have him gnaw on some pork chops with ranch gravy.

Thoughts from this very Tuesday

Would it surprise anyone to know that this kid right here is playing me? He's so capable of being "A Big Boy" with the whole using the potty and all and yet......today, he's back in diapers and totally cool with it. I think he's on to the fact that his mother is tired and sleepy and a tad bit exhausted and frankly not in the mood to check on his bladder status every 15 minutes or pay for super cool and super pricey pull-ups.We'll pull out the big guns again when we're both serious about this delightful issue. And so, we'll try again another day.

On another note: Guess whose $6.29 container of cherry tomatoes opened and spilled while she was loading her items at Costco leaving 1/2 its contents either on the parking lot floor or strewn throughout her shopping cart....gingerly hanging between each individual plastic criss cross hole and randomly dropping onto the ground below before they could be salvaged? Yup, MINE.

It was Awesome!

the day

It's already after 3:00. Where has my day gone? I had such high hopes for accomplishing things. Instead I'm casually perusing blogs trying to find :

1. a dresser. My bedroom is still holding onto a few boxes. Boxes which contain random pairs of pajama pants, a gazillion pairs of tights(I don't know how I have accumulated this many seeins that I only wear them in winter...sometimes) old swim suits, Kyle's long johns for hunting, ya know...those crucial pieces that make any outfit complete.

2. rugs. Our lovely new home has heated concrete floors. I have always loved the rustic look of concrete floors and agreed to them on the terms that they wouldn't be freezing. They are not freezing, they are coldish. Thus, I need rugs.

3.earrings. I don't need earrings, I just love them and would love to buy them everyday. But I don't. grr.

I did do 4 loads of laundry, that's impressive. Especially now that the timer on my dryer went out and I have to set another timer and make sure I hear that one so my clothes don't burn up or shrink to smithereens. Neither would be cool.

I did do my Biggest Loser workout again. I'm on a roll. Well, trying to avoid literally being rollish is my goal. Getting to my happy place "gym" isn't in the cards right now with the family schedule so I've got to do something and beautiful Bob is my something . It felt good. On the BL topic my feelings are this: I do not enjoy Tracy or Daniel or the old obnoxious southern lady with yucky painted nails who just rubs me the wrong way every time she opens her mouth which is far too frequent. I'm done with all of them.

So now the bus will be here shortly and the older fellas will return and "my day" will be over. I have successfully not gotten to the store, returned the movies, or mailed off bills. However, I did find some fantastic earrings on Etsy and Brody found some yogurt and Kate finally found her napping place. All is well.