wiiiiindy!

My goodness it is windy today, I hope our trees are well rooted!

It looks like Isabella is either sick again or depressed. She woke up crying this morning asking for daddy and hasn't snapped out of it all day. She is still in her jammies, hasn't had a bite to eat all day and barely could choke down her favorite gummie vitamins. Hopefully daddy coming home will help her out of her funk.

my awesome husband!

Got us tickets to go see Wicked! He lined up his parents to babysit so we can have dinner after the show! How amazing is he? I am so excited!

pic-a-nic

The weather is SO beautiful we had a picnic on the front lawn today. I made PBB's and pretzels for the kids.





They ran:





I brought out the Dora tent but they didn't want to eat in it.



We saw airplanes (I think she got that face from me).



Found a .... dandelion? Is that what they're called?



She takes my breath away



So sweet...



Come on over for a picnic, It'll be fun.

Oops.

I guess I should stop weight lifting.

I'm too sexy for my hat, what cha think about that...

Here's my model, Silver. I'm so surprised that he hasn't bit me yet!

here kitty kitty


here comes the bride


just clownin


Here's another photo of him, not related to his shoot. He is such a sweet, loyal dog:


He loves to rest his head on you, he even closes his eyes! So sweet.

crafts

We made Valentines for Isa's friends at school. My intention was to make some custom Valentines but once I saw the kits at JoAnn I was sold! They were fun to make, Isabella had to use tweezers to put the eyes on the glue dots and she did so well...time to buy her Operation!



She had to write her name on them but she can't write small so she had to just write Isa.



Zach wanted to "wash" his cars...LOL!






Our mess:



I bought the little gift bag things at JoAnn also, inside we put a ball with a heart inside and an eraser that lights up when you use it. We got them from abc distributing

We also made this shirt using her feet and fingers for the dots. She loves it! Poor thing has got her mama's feet...huge!

stay away from my house!

All of us have the flu. We were up most of the night with Isabella, she had a 105.4° temperature. We gave her a lukewarm bath and that dropped it a bunch, poor Isa was shivering. Donovan stayed home from work today (which is a VERY rare occasion) I went to the doctor this morning and got some meds but now Zach has it too! Say a prayer for my family, it's so hard to take care of little ones when you don't know what's going on and you don't feel good yourself.

On a happier note I was hired at LA Fitness today! I will be working 2 hours a week, tough huh?! I will get my membership for free, make a little bit of money and lose weight at the same time!

I'm sick...again.

I keep getting sick! I feel like I never really got over my last cold, if I took a deep breath it made me cough. Now I have this crappy cough again, my chest just aches!

On another sucky note my Ipod broke. It hasn't been a good Mac month. Donovan thinks it's the battery, I can have it fixed for $40 or buy a brand new MP3 player that is way cooler for $40! Hopefully I can get the new one. Life sucks without technology, I am used to cleaning my house to the sounds of Wicked...now I have to clean to the sound of nothing! It's not much fun.

Anyway, sorry I'm complaining. Thanks for listening...orr...reading.

Here is a cool shirt...

I like this shirt

too bad it is only available in size 0-2! What is up with that?!

coffee review

So I like "coffee" not straight coffee but coffee with lots of stuff added to it! I also love Chai tea and espresso drinks. So here is the rundown on my favorite local places.

1. Coffee Depot in the old Santa Fe Depot in downtown Riverside
Delicious coffee, great ambiance, excellent service

2. eeer...I don't know what it's called but it's the itty bitty drive through place on Indiana between Madison and Adams.
Delicious Chai and they gave Zach a free cup of chocolate milk once.

3. It's a Grind (now Jazz and Java?) in Mission Grove
although the customer service sucked they made a yummy drink and had some really creative choices

4. Java Bliss on the corner of Arlington and Magnolia
not many options and the service was sorta slow but the drink and pastry (shhh!) were delish and the place was so cool. There was also so amazing artwork on the walls.

5. The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Alessandro near Wood
The service was outstanding, the coffee eh. I also had tea leaves in my caramel espresso thingey (machiatto at the bucks). Zach's chocolate milk was really good though, I may get that for me next time!

6. Starbucks on Day street
I rate this last because almost every week they mess up my order. It's about 50/50 there. Other Starbucks do a much better job but that's the closest drive through so I take my chances!

Let me know if there are any local coffee places that you know and love, I am always down for something new.

this made me giggle

new piano

My grandma bought this for my aunt and uncle about 10 years ago for my cousins to learn on. Now that they are in college my aunt passed it along to us so that my kids can learn on it. Then when my kids are too old for it I will pass it along to a cousin of mine so we can keep it in the family. I called a teaching service that comes to your house so once Isabella is out of pre-school we are going to start that. I hope she takes after Donovan, he is the kind of person who touches a key and says "that sounds like the key from so and so song" and then somehow figures out the entire song within a few minutes! It's beautiful, huh?

My fridge.

I went shopping and cut up all the celery, cucumber, grapes and carrots and bagged them so the kids and I could easily grab them for a snack. I also bagged up olives, pretzels and caramel rice cakes. I am going to try to do this every week to keep me on track. It was really easy too!

I was so happy with my fridge so I took a picture, silly huh?! Yogurt, V8, fruit cups, bagged veggies.

WW weigh in #1

Down 4 pounds!

DELISH!

My friend Sunny gave me this recipe last year and I filed it away and never tried it until today. It's so easy!

1 bag of o'brien frozen potatoes
4 cans of low fat chicken broth
1 package of country gravy mix

I added:
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1/3 cup of diced onions
1 cup diced ham from a hamsteak

I softened the onions in olive oil, added the ham then the broth. Then threw in the gravy mix and made sure to get all the lumps out then I threw in the potatoes and lotsa pepper. I let it boil for a few minutes and then turned it down and let it cook for 10 or so minutes.

YUM!

BEST dog trainer

Our dog Silver is WILD wild wild! We finally took him to obedience classes starting yesterday. Almost immediately we saw a difference. Silver is doing amazingly well after 1 class, 7 more to go...I can't wait to see what's next! Anyway, here is the trainer:

my mac is back

I have been having issues with it for about 2 weeks now but Donovan deleted and re-installed everything. It is working fantastically again, yay! While it was funky I couldn't get photos off my camera. Funny it feels like I have weeks and months of photos on my camera but really it's like 2 weeks worth! I am just used to dumping them daily. So, here is what I have wanted to blog about for 2 weeks.

I love this feeling, it's like a badge of honor walking through the gym with a soaked back.



Here is Isa talking on the phone to my mom about having a sleepover, she was elated!



I have met like...5 women in my entire life that were taller than me, seriously do the talls need to be this long? I may have to have my pants shortened for the first time in my life.


We have always fought Isabella with meals but this time she actually fell asleep at the table! I made a meal that she used to love, chicken satay and rice pilaf and she refused to eat it.





We had a fun picnic at Shamel park on Wednesday, the kids loved it. I think we will make it a weekly thing.








Ok, here is the last random post. Do you get excited when you make a yummy meal? I made wraps with turkey, lettuce, tomato, cheese, ranch dressing and avocado. It was delish! Oh, and am I the only one that gets excited about finding the perfect avocado? That one was a thing of beauty!

SO brave!

I took Isabella to the doctor for her 5 year checkup today. I was so nervous and fully expecting tears and screaming and she did AMAZINGLY well! My doctor had a student PA and she did all of the tests and Isa loved her. She tested her muscles, eyes, ears, belly, checked for a hernea...she was such a cool doctor. She got 3 shots and didn't shed a single tear.




We got her this cool Barbie house as a (bribe) gift for doing so well. We spent almost an hour putting it together! She loves it and hasn;t left it's side in over 2 hours.

What can I say?

I am a super chef. We got a checp turkey in November and decided to cook it this week. I bought a metal roasting pan from the grocery store and here is the label:



I didn't read the label. I just did all the turkey junk and threw it in the oven. I went to throw away the paper from the pan and looked at this little photo:




Oops. So I open the oven expecting a big lid...nope! It was shrinking before my eyes and by the time I got the pot holder and moved the pan off to the side this was what was left!

ebay frustrations

I have been buying/selling on ebay since 1999 and I have had some incredibly rude buyers lately. Why am I getting stuck with these people?! I am done selling for now, it's not worth being treated this way.

getting back on track

I have been slaaaaaaacking majorly for the last uhh...5 months. I keep putting it off, well...I want to enjoy my holidays, I want to enjoy Isa's b.day party...BLAH BLAH BLAH! But I'm done, I have to get back to the way things were, eating right, exercising, fitting into my new clothes!

I found a Weight Watchers meeting about 5 minutes from my class so it will be much easier to get to it. AND I can go alone so I wo't have the kids as excuse. I am going to sign up on Thursday evening...yay!

I am also very excited that my favorite aqua aerobics instructor is not only back but she is back in MV 2 days a week! She really gives me an awesome workout, pushes me to the max. Thanks, Ruth!

no more bees!

We already had a bee issue in a pillar on our front porch well today I found 5 or 6 bees on Silver's new bowl. What the heck? I just got it on Wednesday. Well, I washed it out and wiped it down hoping whatever they wanted is now gone.

Anyone have a way of killing bees that won't kill my pooch if he happens to eat it?

cuteness

There were a few (thousand) bugs at dance class today and Zach was freaked out and wouldn't leave my lap. I kept telling him that I would hold him and protect him. We were driving home and Isabella was talking about how she didn't like the bugs and Zach said that he would hold her. Ready...1...2...3...AWWWW!

Mac issues

I am having problems with my mac, web pages load incredibly slowly. We did a download test and it came back with no problems. I have no clue what to do. Help?

Wicked

I loved Wicked, more than words can say. The sets were amazing, the actors were spot on, the singing was incredible. My favorite was the costumes, I loved Glinda's dresses, I wish I could sparkle like her! I never read the book, I had no clue what the story was, I just knew it was before Dorothy came into the picture. It's an awesome story, I want to read the book now. If you have a chance, go see it. Plays are only here for a short time, it is totally worth the money.

that was the best part of the show.

Awesome site

http://freerice.com/

It's a word game, for every word you get right 20 grains of rice are donated to the UN to help cure hunger! You get smarter, people get food...it's a win win! I plan to play for an hour a day everyday. Go play!

YAY!

Heading out to see Wicked in about an hour. Pray for a safe drive, I hope the rain holds off!

??

So where's this torrential rain they keep talking about? First it was Thursday-Monday, now it's Friday-Sunday. Will it ever rain, Dallas?

I did it!

I was walking throught the Costco parking lot a few hours ago and a lady drove by me with a baby in a sling/infant carrier strapped to her chest as she was driving! Her window was down so I yelled "Your baby would be a lot safer in a car seat". I saw her give me a dirty look and mumble something as she drove off. Well, I tried. Thanks for whoever lent me some...guts.

Why didn't I say anything?

I was at the grocery store walking down the aisle and a family was looking at something on the shelf. A little girl, maybe 2 or 3 was in the middle of the aisle. I had no problem, I would just have asked her to move. The mom grabs the little girl by the hair pulling her in the other direction and yells at her to move. I was immediatly sad and mad at the same time so what did I do...I walked away. =/ Why didn't I say anything?! Kids can't stand up for themselves, we have to do it for them. I just need more...what's the word without saying "balls" well, you get it. As I was checking out I started crying thinking about the little girl and how she wasn't at all effected by it so I assume it happens a lot...and I'm sure worse happens. Poor little baby girl, I wanted to scoop her up and give her a big hug. We won't say what I wanted to do to the mom.