Weekend O' Fun

I need to catch up. Rest assured that I have been having fun. I have just been too lazy to post about it. 

On Friday, for day 16, I walked to the park after work and read a book, while lying on a bench. This was my view: 

On Saturday, for day 17, I went to the Puyallup Fair with Alice and her kiddos! LOVE this fair. I had yummy fair food, got my fill of cute kiddos, and walked enough that my calves are still a wee bit sore.I failed to take my camera, so no pictures of cuties or fair food. But here's the cow outside on the entrance...



On Sunday, for day 18, I had a lazy day and did very little. There are no pictures of this. :D

Camp Attire 101

When camping, it is important to look your best. You never know when the paparazi will show up. It may look like Auntie Holliberry, but...

To dress up a day look for the evening campfire, a side ponytail is always in good taste. Some call it retro. Nothing like a shout out to the eighties. People liked camping then. It was huge. Like Madonna or Cyndi Lauper huge.

In the evening, when the bugs come out and threaten to mar those runway legs, denim is fitting. Just throw on that pair of jeans and let your campfire chic shine through.

It's important to put on your face at camp. Use the resources around you to enhance your natural features.

Why I Hate Children

So, for those of you who know me this will come as no shock. I hate children. They giggle and they're loud and sticky and opinionated and they think farts are funny. I'm just saying. But mostly, the reason I hate children can be illustrated by my time in the theatre yesterday.

I went to see Alice in Wonderland, which I'm pretty sure was super good. From the parts that I heard, that is, over the incessant giggling coming from behind me. Over nothing. There was nothing funny going on. At least not on the screen. Maybe I was missing some neat trick involving Twizzlers and root beer or something. Because, you see, there were about 20 ten-year-olds in the row behind me. About ten minutes into the movie, they got not only The Eye, but I leaned over my seat and gave them the "Girls, you need to quiet down" to go with it. Oh, they were scared. When you are ten and adults yell at you the need to be rebellious fades a little bit. Unfortunately a few rows behind them were 3 twelve-year-olds who found themselves not only hilarious, but beyond the reach of adults' wrath. They are lucky I didn't feel like getting up. Because seriously, there was no whispering going on. I was hearing things like "where are they going?" in their six foot voices. You know, as opposed to their six inch voices. They seriously were closer to death than they possibly ever had been before. My death stares didn't last as long on them. It was dark.

I have realized something the last few years. My mom was mean. And there should really be more mean parents out there. Because she would not let me go to movies, or even the mall, with my friends alone when I was ten. Because I would have annoyed the crap out of all the adults out there, since my obnoxious sensor was turned off, as all children's are in those types of situations. Parents are so intent on being the cool parent, and the parent who is "fair," and the parent who is loved, that they forget they are training their little angels to behave like human beings. And that's why we are starting to see adults that don't know how to behave in the theatre either. Because we need more mean parents. I exhort you, parents: make your children cry more. Because I hate children. And if you leave them at the theatre unattended like that again, I make no promises they won't return to you with death stare marks seared into their foreheads, among other things.

It started as a Sweet Self Portrait

And ended with me in hysterics because Baby Girl is so stinking hysterical. She has the cutest little sense of humor! I didn't realize she was pulling faces until I pulled back the camera to look at the little preview window. Let's just say there are about thirty of these.

I Just Wanted to Say...

That I love you.

What a four year old says when at a loss for words. Because she hearts me. Aw.

Goals: A Reason to Make a List

I don't seem to have posted my New Year's Resolutions last year. I decided to make them all private and meaningful or something. I know I posted them in 2008. I feel the urge to post something this year, although you may not get the whole list. I do like a good list, and I will most likely have more resolutions than all of you combined (yes, all three of you) by the time I'm through. Here's just a smattering of my Resolutions:

1. Exercise, therefore not incurring my sister's mockery and potential wrath for requesting a heart rate monitor for Christmas and not using it. I totally have done this for three days in a row now. As I mentioned once way back when, I'm a firm believer in having unambiguous goals that you can actually reach. So instead of "exercise more" (which I suppose I've already achieved for the year), I shall say, run a ten minute mile. Shut up, stupid in shape people. Also there's more to the goal, but I'm not going to tell you now because you just got lippy. See how you vex me?

2. Spend more time with my teenagery niece and nephew. This will not be very hard, because "more" can be accomplished by one stint of quality time with either one outside of family events. Bad auntie. Also spend some more time with my little squirts. Little Brother is almost convinced it's safe to let me hold him now. I'm making some serious progress here.

3. Quit smoking. Oh... wait... hmm. Well. Check.

4. Find a new way to volunteer. Simmer down, there, Dizzle. I mean in ADDITION to Camp Fire, not instead of. Because my Camp Fire kids love me, as they should. And volunteering broadens your horizons and gives you new skills, as well as sharpening old ones. Also you can put them on your resume. I realized that last year.

5. Read the whole Book of Mormon from front to back at least once during the year. You know, instead of losing my place and starting over all the time. So I can be all religious-like and spiritual. I'm also thinking I shall read the whole Old Testament, since that's what we're studying in Sunday School. And um, just to clarify to my not Mormons, this is in addition to studying the scriptures by topic at church and stuff. I read 'em, I swear.

6. Learn more about the people I work with. Read books about mental illnesses. Learn more about addiction. Read some books on alcoholism. Read some books to understand other cultures. Phew, I need to be reading me some books. Let me know if you have recommendations.

What are your resolutions? Or are you resolution haters?

A Road Trip Through Little Man's Lense

Hey! Little Man here! Mom and me and Aunt Holliberry and Little Brother and my fire engine went on a car trip. I took some pictures so you could see.


Here's my knee:

Here's my nose, and my mouth, and my teeth:

Here's my chin:
It was sunny sometimes, but it was also cloudy and rainy:
We saw lots of nature. Like this grass:
Have I mentioned I like giraffes? Here's our giraffe sticker:

Here's Little Brother:

Little Brother expressing his opinion about something crazy Aunt Holliberry just said:

Or maybe he was just reading this sign:

Sometimes Sacrifices Have to Be Made

Yes, sacrifice. Like the rough, rough sacrifice of looking at this cute face for hours at a time.

Little Blue Eyes, here, smiled, cooed, and was generally adorable. And for the very difficult task of snuggling with him and playing games to make him smile, I got a color, cut, and eyebrow wax.

Isn't it cute? KJ (the girl formerly known as my roommate) made a trade with me. And yes, I covered my face. But you get to see Kermie's face, so it's like a trade. To help you feel like you are here with me, I will tell you that it is very soft, and I can toss my hair around like the Vidal Sassoon girl. Also it smells really really good from the shampoo and conditioner and hair product. Maybe later I will make K take a picture of it in the sun for me to post so you can see all the red.

Exceptional Acts of a Three Year Old

I spent a lovely day with my eldest sister and her two cute little sons. Little Man, who is now three, was anxious to see my house. He had questioned me extensively the other day regarding what kind of toys I had, how many, if any of them were trucks, and if I had any of Lightening and his friends. Also if I had boys and girls at my house. I do not, by the way.

When he arrived at my abode, his three year old toy radar went up and he quickly located pretty much every toy in my apartment within five minutes. As he left, his mother told him to pick up his toys.

The fruits of his labors:

Because, you see, as everyone knows, toys go in the baskets. That's what Little Man has at home, so when he picks up toys they all go in the baskets. I happened to have a basket I brought home from the office with all my little knick knacks in it, which he apparently has declared my toy basket. I'm not certain Fozzy is comfortable with this new arrangment.

The Land That Smells Like Sunshine and Dreams.

As I type, I am sitting in the very exciting Houston airport. The first thing I will note is that Houston makes you pay almost EIGHT BUCKS for their wifi for just 24 hours, while Orlando has free wifi, at least in the part of their airport that has NOT been remodeled. Yes, I paid that much just to use my wifi. But I am on a layover, and the impulse to blog and check Myface was TOO tempting.

I spent two very magical days in the magical place where they have magical sunshine to help grow their magical rainbows and unicorns. That's right, Disneyworld. My feet have still not forgiven me for it.

The Castle.

The princesses.

Baby Girl, in her princess dress. She could totally show those princess how to work that gown. This is taken after Christmas, not in Disneyland. I feel like Alice would want me to clarify that the few pieces of clutter on the ground behind her were recently placed there by Baby Girl, and that the room is not as messy as it might look. Just so you know.

The way I know I came back to the hotel from the Magic Kingdom not a moment too soon is that I got into the elevator, waited for the doors to close, and then found myself wondering why the car wasn't moving. After a minute. A minute of standing there. Thinking about my room. And not moving towards it.

I'm No Snow Hater

Jumping Bean sitting on top of at least 19 inches of snow in the back yard.

When we had the Big Snow of '08 (which, by the way, actually ended up being a foot or two, which takes the fun out of calling it the Big Snow), there were a lot of people who started out excited, and then after a day or two, they were whiney. They wanted it to go away. To which I say, you big wusses!

Here in S******, where I am visiting Alice and the Mad Hatter (previously known as the W's) and family, they have received over two feet of snow in the last month. Alice measured today, and she informed me to today that they only have about 19 inches. This is low compared to what it has been. Rough life for them.

Tricycles make good snow measurement tools.

In celebration of the deep, deep snow Jumping Bean and I decided to have a snow war.

Jumping Bean winds up with a snowball.

Jumping Bean lies defeated in the snow, due to my amazing snow fighting

skills (or because I told him to so I could take a picture. I'm not saying which one.

Best. Gift. Ever.

I got the best present for Christmas this year.

Apparently Little Man (who will be 3 in February and is, in my unbiased opinion, the brightest little boy in the world -except maybe Little Brother, who has already demonstrated his incredible wit by peeing on Auntie A twice in one day, and smiling unabashedly the second time) felt very strongly that he needed to get it for me. Talk about a thoughtful gift.

Exercising Experts Agree

It's important to work off those turkey pounds on Thanksgiving. Note the technique.

As Little Man demonstrates here, be sure to fully extend your legs and arms, arching the back ever so slightly. Next, step up onto the other step of the elyptical, and repeat the extension exercise. After dismount, it's time for pie.

Little Man has a Little Brother

My sister had a baby! Now she has double the cuteness at her house. While the parents were at the hospital with Little Brother, I got to stay at the house with Little Man. It was a good time to test my mommy skills. The good news is, Little Man has quite the vocabulary. Also, he knows were the cereal, soup and snacks are kept. So if he told me he wanted a cat cookie, and I said where are those, he could tell me which cupboard they were in. So he did not starve. And he knows when his diaper is ready to be changed, so a lovely "I'm poopy!" would wake me in the mornings. I consider the mommy practice a success, because he is still alive and in good health. Also he's adorable.

Little Man holds Little Brother

Cutest little baby head


How can anyone resist picking him up and snuggling him?

Eight is Great!

Jumping Bean is 8 years old.

Here, he is rocking out at the park where the live band was playing while we waited for the fireworks. Note the air guitar.

On the Road Again

I'm currently on vacation. I've come to S****** to visit the W's (coincidentally, W is Baby Girl's favorite letter).

Wgirl wanted you to know she does not always look crazy. Yestereday I picked Cookie up from camp. She came home on Da Boata. She had a very fun time, as evidenced by her spontaneously flinging her arms up into the air while she was talking to me as I stood down the docks.

After I picked her up, we drove for a really, really, really, really long time.

It'll be an adventure! We're going on an adventure!

Charlie Bit Me!

Laugh a Little

So today, W's oldest, Cookie (hereby so named because she wants to be a chef, and also is a cute little cookie), did the cutest thing. She was playing with bright orange "space goo" (remember gak?) from the space needle gift shop. She had it spread out into a very thin sheet, about as thin as bubble gum when you blow a bubble. She was holding it up and Baby Girl swung out her hand and "popped" it right onto the top of Cookie's head. It was spread out in a thin coat all over her hair, and she had to work at it to get it out. I haven't seen W laugh so hard in a long time. Cookie was not amused. She does not like to be laughed at. She would not have liked being in my family. She wouldn't even let me take a picture!

What ensued was a discussion about being able to laugh at yourself. W and I discussed the merits of being able to laugh at yourself when you are in what might seem at the time to be an embarrassing situation. Cookie was not convinced, but it got me thinking.

I have laughed at myself in the following situations:
1. When I fell down the steps in the business building in college in front dozens of people.
2. When I gave myself a black eye.
3. When I slipped on the rain-soaked steps at the football stadium in high school in my drill skirt and most likely gave everyone a really good view of what we wore under our drill skirts.

I'm seeing a theme developing here....

Is the ability to laugh at yourself a very important skill? If you laugh too often and too quickly, does that indicate that you don't take yourself seriously enough, or does it indicate that you know enough not to be so serious all the time? I personally think laughing at yourself is good. People should do it more often. Try it right now. I want to hear your best belly laugh. It could make you feel better. It could also make the other people in the room think you're crazy. So it's a two for one.

I'm Going to Be an Aunt!

Again :)

I'm so excited. Little Man gets to be Big Brother, but not in a creepy 1984 kind of way.

I Stopped and Smelled the Flowers. And the Cows.

Every year in Skagit Valley they have a month-long festival called the Tulip Festival. There are flower fields galore in the valley that bloom all throughout the month of April. Of course they can't control the weather so you never know when the best weekend to go is until it is there. This weekend was not the best weekend, although there was still plenty to do and see. Only SOME of the fields were in bloom, thanks to the magic of green houses and people with green thumbs, as opposed to my black thumb. But really I only needed one field of tulips to keep my happy. Here's a sample of the beauty of Washington:

Yes, this is the magic that is my photography skills.

Totally intentional and a sample of my usual skill. Because of what I've been told has been an unusually cold spring, the daffodils were still in full bloom. I'm told this is unusual for this late spring.
There were tourist traps---er, quaint shops galore, with witty people managing them.
There was a field of white we passed.

Turns out, it was a whole field of geese. And they flew away, like a scene out of The Birds. I feared for my life.

Also there were cute children. These ones happened to belong to us. Okay, to W. But I am claiming them anyways.

Baby Girl, Jumping Bean, and their aunt supplied me with plenty of cute pictures.


Not only did we go see lots and lots and lots of flowers, but we went to a barn with actual animals to pet them. We saw a cow, some miniature ponies, chickens and their chicks that were underfoot but managed not to get trampled, at least while we were there, bunnies, baby horsies, and goats. Baby Girl was not having any of this petting stuff. She thought we were all just a little crazy for thinking this was a good plan. But she did point them out and even match some animal sounds with the animals. Jumping Bean and his auntie were dubious at first but soon relaxed and got friendly with the bunnies and the goats. I personally got to touch my first cow head. It was quite exhillerating, let me tell you.

This whole grand adventure happened today in perfect 70ish degree weather. It was a beautiful glorious day and we all were ready for a nap on the car ride back. W wouldn't let me take mine, though. Something about the driver being conscious. So I settled for allowing her to mock my cd collection instead.