In a Nutshell

I have been negligent . . . in a nutshell.

We have been sick with flu, pnuemonia, and flu again . . . in a nutshell. Alaina says she found her flu bug in the toilet the next day!

We are well now - I hope . . . in a nutshell. Once Matthew started feeling better he decided it was too much of a good thing (feeling well that is) so decided to get up close and personal with the fireplace and cracked his front tooth. Luckily his tooth appears to be as stubborn as he, and is hanging in there for now.

And if you can imagine all the stuff that must fill in these gaps you will gather my nutshell is pretty big!

I really got tired of looking at my last post so had to put something else up here . . . in a nutshell.

Merry Christmas! I make no promises toward a renewed dedication of keeping this updated. Under promise over perform!

Mattatoullie Birthday

He is 4. . . 1, 2, 3, FOUR!

I can still remember when he used to suck on his fist. . .thumb side. . .till is was chapped and raw. I can still remember when he used to call his big sis NAUNIE. Cute little boy. Now he calls his big sis by her name minus the first A, he still needs a cup of strawberry milk before bed, and Big Fat Monkey is still a bosom buddy.

Now he loves trains, and volcanos and can't wait till the snow sticks so he can go skiing and sledding. Loves loves loves his bike and can't wait to go back to Yuma to visit Nanna and Papa!

Here's the birthday boy.

Here's the cake:

Here's where we went:

First Day of School (A Whole Month LATER)

Well now is a good time to get caught up. Here are the little Riddles on their first day of school.

VERY READY.

VERY EXCITED.

VERY MUCH NOT ANY TEARS. (from me or them. . . does that mean I am heartless?)

I think it means we were all VERY ready for this. The last couple of months have been absolutely crazy and scrambled up. School means schedule and stability. Both VERY good things!

And don't forget their 1st Day of School Breakfast Requests:

Green Eggs and Ham (sans the ham)

Purple Eggs and Ham (sans the ham and a little more grayish blue than purple)
Nothing like a good nutritious morning breakfast!

Catch the Drift

Well I was actually online looking for fall discounts. . . and stumbled upon this wonderful little blog. She is chock full of great giveaways and such. Check her out for a chance to win some passes to Thanksgiving Point's Barnyard Boo, or Cornbelly's Corn Maze and so so so much more!
Or just click on her cute button to the right!

I Love Your Guts!

Funny story. Mom and Kaycie and a few lucky others. . . accept my apology for telling this story yet again. But somethings are worth a few tells.

Me to Matt: "Matt, I love your guts!"

Matt to Me: "Mom. . . you love my guts? Why do you love my guts? Do they smell good?"

Me to Matt: "Um. . .ok. . yeah they smell good!"

Matt to Me: "Mom, do my nuts smell good?"

Me to Matt: choke, cough, cough. . ."Your nuts? Matt, where are your nuts?"

Matt to Me: "Right here!" pointing to his knee caps in a very matter-of-fact tone.

I laughed my guts out!

Canning these. . . gonna use these!

My mother-in-law is gardening queen. We are canning tomaters tonight. . . and peaches very soon. I am going to use these lovely labels/tags on the ones I manage to canoodle from her pantry when we are done to give to some lucky ladies!

p.s

canoodle –verb Slang.
caress, fondle, or pet amorously.

While the word canoodle can be appropriate regarding the goodness of home=made treats such as canned tomatoes and peach jam or applesauce (which we will be doing very soon as well), it does not mean 'sneak' like I thought it did. Learn somp'n new everyday!

No Place Like Home!

I think I am the last one of anyone who knows me to see this. I read the book last summer. . . loved it and looked forward to seeing it on stage. Quite a bit different, but so enjoyable. If you haven't read the book --- DO!

I know I know. I have been so WICKED. It has been since MAY!!! But life has a way of throwing you curve balls. . . nasty ones.



But then I can't really say for certain that it has been really nasty. . . maybe the ball was magnanimous pitch. . .one that would help me move forward in the game and take a base or two.



What did we learn from this marvelous musical. . . most times things aren't how they appear to be. Always another side to every story. . . maybe the Lord is inviting me to see His side.



Nonetheless, we find our little farm house, upside down and alll disheveled, but in a warm and happy place; that we can be greatful for indeed. In my heart of hearts I always knew we would land in Utah again . . . didn't anticipate the twister that would drop us down here. But we are greatful for the adventure, and are waiting to find our yellow brick road. Well. . . maybe we are already on it. . . the gold is just a bit faded, so I have to look harder for it's happy hue on the path beneath my feet.

SOLD. . . Wait, WHAT!?

well there isn't a sold sign on it yet because the sign has only been up one day! First people through made a full asking price offer.

Guess the timing was right.

We found a small place to rent until we figure out what to do in San Diego. Chuck will be working over there starting the same week we close on the house. I am hoping the answers will come quickly after that. I don't want to be separated for long, and I would like to get settled before Alaina starts kinder.

Wish us luck!

A little Advertising

I have been an Independant Beauty Consultant for Mary Kay for a little over a year now. Totally wish I could really dive into it, but I am already a little thinly spread. . .

I just started up my personal MK website and have challenged myself to the 24 buy $24 in 24.

24 customers purchase $24 in product in 24 hours

Want to help me out? Browse my website, upload a picture of yourself and do a virtual makeover! The new Coastal Colors are absolutely awesome! (These colors are not available until the 16th so make sure you check out the website then!) If you send me a picture of your virtual makeover (which you can do through my website) I will give you 10% off your order.

MARK THE DATE : March 16, 2009 ALL DAY.

Tell your friends and Help me make my 24!

Life is Beautiful!

i had that sweet aha moment today at the park with my 3 little riddles.
My daughter laid down on the blanket under the shade of the mesquite tree, a small breeze ruffled her red hair, and she said

'oh mom this feels good. laying here ont he blanket i just want to go to sleep.'

my son was burying cars in the sand, suddenly he gets up. . . tromps over to me, still laying on the blanket and gives me an unsolicited kiss,

and my baby boy pulls himself to his feet using my hip as his point of balance and says a determined, 'MA'.
SO simple, so sweet, so true and so forever!

thanks to this man who takes beautiful pictures. . . (must come from his beautiful perspective on the world). . . I was reminded to rember this moment.

Winners!. . . & losers. . .

FOR THE WINNERS:
Ok. . . i didn't forget.
I just got way way busy!
After inputing all of my FOUR entrants into the sophisticated hat random integer picker doo dad the LUCKY winner is. . . . .
da da da dum. ..

MY SUPER RAD Sister KAYCIE!

I wish I could say I had enough time to put something together for all ya all. But I am not that sophisticated or organized. Thanks for the hits though!

FOR THE LOSERS:
well loser (singular), which would be ME.
I totally crunched a parked car 2 days ago. Ran right into it and totally gave my car a super big munching.
Any guesses on the lucky number involved in this one?

2500. . . yep

2500 buck-a-roos. And not a scratch on the other car. So i guess that is good.

So here is to a better next couple of days. Hopefully no more stupid hitting-parked-cars-days!

Little-Bit o' Home-Made Goodness

So I WON! Thanks Jessi!. My cousin Jessi hosted a giveaway on her blog and I won! (Well all four entrants won!) And so now not only do I get to wait in anticipation for her homemade goodie, which I am totally interested in getting -- it will be awesome I know-- But now I get to host a give away of my own. Here are the rules:

Peruse through my blog entries. . .go way back to inception if you choose.

Pick your favorite blog entry or picture.

Leave a comment on this post (Little Bit of Home-Made Goodness) telling me your fave.

I will pick a winner on Sunday March 8th at about 5:00pm.

The lucky random winner will then get a home-made treat made by yours truly!

Taco Tuesday

One of our new traditions is something we like to call Taco Tuesday. Thanks to Del Taco's three tacos for 2.09 and our desire to have dinner with Daddy after Mutual, we zip on over to the local Del Taco most Tuesdays for dinner.

I must admit I love this family tradition, unhealthy fast food aside, it is something my kids really look forward to. And often-times, come Saturday or Sunday they are already talking about the upcoming Taco Tuesday.

Alaina and Matt prefer no cheese, no lettuce and soft.

Chuck and I have recently added their Crunchy Fish Taco to our order. And don't forget the Cherry Coke for Chuck. (Don't worry I will be nice to the drive thru employee and you won't have to drink pee again sweetheart. . . to understand check out John Caparulo's Meet Cap for explanation -- long and short, the last person you want to get nasty with is the drive thru guy. . .who knows what he will do to your drink!)

And I think tonight we added to this fun family tradition. . . heads up and out as the kids get to drive down our street with their heads out the sun roof!

Do you have a favorite family tradition? What is it?

Gangsta SPT

Just as a disclaimer. . . this picture is horrid! But Alaina wanted to take a pic of mommy at Josh's wedding, and she loves the gangsta pose. So there you have it. Not very flattering.

The wedding on the other hand, was awesome. It was a beautiful day for December 20th. . . where else but AZ could you have a nice outdoor wedding in the middle of the winter?

Sometime I will get around to putting up some pics of the wedding cake I made for the occassion. Amanda was sweet enough to make me feel like I was capable, and it didn't turn out half so bad! What the heck. . . Here's a pic. . .

It was very very simple. Haven't had the time to work much on my skills. But I am looking forward to the next chance I get to make a cake. I remember the night before after I put the first layer of frosting on the lower cake. I put enough on to keep the pesty crumbs from showing themselves on the white frosting. I put it in the fridge to set the icing before I put the next layer on. When I went back to get the cake out. . . it came tumbling out. . . landed completely upside down on my kitchen floor. Which is where I found myself split seconds later (well not upside down). Chuck quickly snapped me out of my despair and helped me get it up off the floor. He saved my bacon. . . and the cake turned out beautiful and none the worse for it's topple!

Cracked Open

A distress call from the far corner of the family room. . . "Mooooommmmm! I cracked my head open". Snot running freely from the nose in the couple of seconds it took for him to cross the room to my side.

Normally I feed into their distress. This time I decided to try a bit of humor; maybe it would assuage the crisis at hand. His head was cracked open! Well you know, not really.

"Matt, your head is cracked open? What happened to your brains?"

"They fell out mom." "What will you do without your brains Matt?"

"I guess I will put them back in." Good idea Matt! And guess what?
. . . You're not crying anymore.

Love 2 Love

So I stole this idea from 2CleverBlog. But I wanted to share some things I love to love when no one else is looking -- or especially when others are looking.

Warm Jr Mints. . . my kids love them too. I love that they love them.

Peeling skin. . .mine or someone elses. Love to pick it off, peel it off. . . see how big a piece I can get.

Hmm hmm. . . the sound my husband makes when he is about to say something he has been chewing on for a while and isn't quite sure he's ready to share it with me yet. I've gotten so I can call him on it.

Post-it Notes . . . eensie weensie, super big, yellow, blue, pink, purple. But only rectangular or square. Forget those annoying shaped ones. . . hearts, stars, lips. . . that bugs.

Pens. . .I buy them whenever I can. But I am particular. . . FINE POINT always. Love the Pilot Retractable and the Staples Brand retractable. I used to hate writing in blue, I don't know why. Now any other color looks weird; 6 years ago when I started working for my dad he insisted on Blue. . . I have since been converted.

Gees. . .did I really waste 5 1/2 sentences on pens?

Well I think that was 5. I'll save the rest for another day!

You got any? Share them!

This One With a Digital Kit

This one was even more fun! I love Shabby Princess!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Ok so this didn't turn out exactly as I hoped. Has anybody else ever used smilebox? Is it worth the 5 bucks a month?

Still it was SUPER easy and well worth the 5 minutes it took me to plunk the pictures in!

SPT

So I had been wondering what SPT meant for a long time. Finally, after my slow turtle power brain finally caught up with the rest of the blogger world, I got it. Self Portrait Tuesday. Take a self portrait, post it, share some meaningful insight or something entirely frivolous. Here is to frivolous:

5 Frivolous Face Favorites:

1. my eyes, up close
2. my round cheeks (both sets)
3. my freckles. . . people call them skin tone imperfections, I call them cute and I don't want to cover them up!
4. my nose - from the front, or slightly from the side. But from a profile angle, my nose is too small for my big cheeks.
5. my lips. . . I had someone tell me I had great lips once (not while I was smooching them either) and since then I have had to agree!

Snap INTO It!

Just bought a membership to one of these! Anyone else have one of these cool little places near you? Open 24/7. Just swipe your card and you are in. I am excited. Put the kids down at night and head to the gym for an hour. And then hopefully my Self Portrait Tuesdays will become something pleasing to look at!

Not to mention this little franchise looks like a great investment. Wish I had just a titch more money and time.

Round These Parts

. . . we're in survival mode. Well have been for the last several months. Thus the long absence. Chuck logged on to read my blog the other day and was amazed it had been so long too. I think he sometimes assumes the the cluttered home and 2 day old laundry still sitting in the washing machine is a result of my web surfing. Which by the way hasn't been something I have enjoyed in FOREVER! He quickly assured me he was not assuming anything, rather the picture that heads my blog was explanation enough.

See, for a while I have been teetering at the edge of that line. Seemingly against the will of my children, my job, my body, etc. And while my body is bent over that line backward like a wet noodle, my feet are miraculously still planted on this side of sanity.

And my kids are happy, my paying job is still largely neglected, and I am always and forever indebted to my husband who comes home from long tedious teenage tending days to make us dinner.