More Photos

Sharing mini cupcakes with her preschool classmates last week.

The My Little Pony birthday cake! I discovered years ago that kids think you are an amazing cake decorator if there's a toy or two stuck in the frosting.

This week is parent teacher conferences so the preschoolers don't go to school. We've been enjoying girl time around here. Oh and getting tires and a new windshield for the van. And hanging drywall in the basement hallway. And folding laundry. And reinventing old stand-by meals to make them more nutritious (Last night the spaghetti and Costco meatballs meal turned into chicken parmesan--pasta, chicken tenders simmered in red sauce, and a sprinkle of parmesan). And packing for our spring break trip. And sending out birthday thank-yous. And uploading photos and blogging?!? I'm a weird-o when it comes to time management sometimes. . .

. . . I'm busting out the sepia, too?

And just to prove that not everyone in the family had crazy hair yesterday, I took this picture. Not really. S. just wanted to see if she liked the back of her hair. She did!

Time to hit "PUBLISH POST" and get on with my day. Hope yours is a fun one.

Photos

She's discovered her pockets. C. walks around the house with her hands in her pockets or into the front of her overalls (I've got to get a picture of that). Too cute.

The cub scouts went to a pet store. This is a bearded dragon. They're one of the only friendly reptiles out there. Most reptiles don't seem to care whether they are somebody's pet. Bearded dragons interact with humans, hang out on random shoulders, and these scouts are pretty sure this bearded dragons smiled at them. And no worries, grandma, they sanitized their hands after touching all the reptiles (they got to hold snakes and turtles too).

The kids want me to find out if anyone in the blogging world wants to trade their bearded dragon for our tarantula . Let me know!

Guest Post

Our birthday girl wanted to "Blog about me."

She says: "I like doing my life. I like school. I like playing computer games. I like my first day of school. I remember it. I hope I get My Little Ponies, about eighteen of them. I'm glad that I'm going to have people at my birthday. I'm good at my handwriting. I know that my friends and family love me. My favorite colors are orange, peach--light color orange, and purple. My second favorite and third favorite are pink, yellow, green. . . red is my tie of pink. Blue is my fifth favorite color. My favorite dessert is chocolate chip cookies. I wish I wasn't coughing. I want to be a mom when I grow up. I want a hen. But not for my birthday. When I grow up. I'm going to buy it with my own money. I like hens. And I'm going to buy a cute little kitty. The chicken's going to stay inside. The food and the water that it drinks are going to be inside. It's going to sleep inside. The cat's going to sleep outside 'stead of in. My sixth favorite color is white. I can't wait to play with my playdoh thing that has an apple tree and an apple fell down. I hope my mom lets me play with it today or tomorrow. I have a lot of money. I have about ten of everything. [singing] I like God's plan, I like God's plan. I like it when he listens to us. When God tells me to do something I will always listen. For my own people sing. Amen. [talking again] I like watching T.V. My whole blog is done."

This is what S. looks like today. She says; "I smiled and looked at the dots on the top of the computer. Then the picture taked a picture of me. I mean the computer took a picture of me."

Don't worry if this didn't make sense. She had fun. These ramblings remind me of how Tina Fey put her daughter's expression "I want to go to there!" into a 30 Rock script. (The original referred to pictures of Disneyland.) A cute kid. Too bad she keeps getting older and older. Happy Birthday, S. You're our five year-old "power-packed princess" and we love you.

It's This New Thing

R. made me laugh this morning. He was awake and wearing green before I got up. When I saw J.'s black t-shirt and jeans I reminded him to find something green to wear.

R. (in his best big brother voice) tells him, "Yeah, it's this new thing some kids in my class are doing. If you don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day. . . they're going to PINCH you."

Yup, you may not have heard about it, but kids these days will pinch you if you don't wear green!


Growing up, I was taught strict observance of the St. Patrick's Day pinching principle. I remember wearing green pajamas to bed on March 16th in order to avoid being awakened with a pinch. No, I'm not the type to just pin a bit of green to my shirt. I'm the type to go shopping (yuck) for a green shirt the day before St. Patrick's Day when I can't find anything green to wear.


Did your parents, like mine, offer a generous helping of green food coloring at the breakfast table--green scrambled eggs and green pancakes? Or green milk in your cereal bowl? Join us and injest some green today for St. Patrick's Day!

Who Thinks Thumbs are Than-Tastic?

"Where's your thumb, baby?" will soothe owies, cheer her temperament (when I say "no"), and help her drift off to sleep. Most of the time I can't see the downside! My mom, who turned out okay, was a thumb sucker. I remember her telling about how she'd lick the sour anti-thumb goo off every time grandma would apply it. And Ben, who also turned out okay, sucked his fingers until the third grade. I've heard the biggest drawback is orthodontics, but she's got crooked teeth in her genes and will most assuredly need braces anyway! At what point do I try to take this girl's thumb away from her? I think it's a big part of why she's been my best baby. Any thoughts?

Some good news: Ben lost 3.2% of himself this week. He won $29.70, which is a better deal than those Jenny Craig places. Yay Ben!

Been There, Done That, Bought the T-Shirt

Something to add to your blog tags (leave me a comment if you do one, so I can peek at your list). I tag YOU.

"X" marks the things I have done during my lifetime:
(X) Been to Canada
(0) Been to Mexico
(X) Been to Florida
(X) Been to Hawaii
(X) Gone on a blind date
(X) Skipped school
(0) Watched someone die
(X) Been on a plane
(X) Been on a helicopter
(X) Been lost
(O) Been an extra in a film
(X) Been to a TV show taping (Full House, so stay down)
(x) Visited Washington, DC
(0) Traveled by San Francisco trolley
(O) Traveled to Europe
(X) Traveled to Asia
(0) Went to the top of the World Trade Center
(O) Been to Notre Dame (Cathedral)
(0) Been to Jamaica
(X) Swam in the ocean
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
(X) Played cops and robbers
(X) Recently colored with crayons
(X) Skipped a final exam (not on purpose)
(X) Sang Karaoke
(X) Watched the birth of a child
(O) Paid for a meal with coins only
(O) Been to the top of the St. Louis Arch
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't (eat one more brownie today)
(X) Made prank phone calls
(O) Been down Bourbon Street in New Orleans
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(X) Danced in the rain
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus
(X) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(X) Watched the sunrise with someone
(X) Blown bubbles
(X) Gone ice-skating
(0) Gone to the movies in 2009
(O) Been deep sea fishing
(O) Driven across the United States
(O) Been in a hot air balloon
(0) Been sky diving
(O) Gone snowmobiling
(X) Lived in more than one country
(X) Lay down outside at night and admired the stars while listening to the crickets
(X) Seen a falling star and made a wish
(X) Seen the Old Faithful Geyser
(O) Seen the Statue of Liberty
(O) Gone to the top of Seattle Space Needle
(0) Been on a cruise
(X) Traveled by train
(X) Traveled by motorcycle
(X) Been horse back riding
(X) Been to Disneyland, Disney World, and Japan's Disneyland
(X) Been pulled over by a police officer
(O) Gotten a ticket
(X) Truly believe in the power of prayer
(O) Been in a rain forest
(X) Seen whales in the ocean
(0) Been to Niagara Falls
(X) Ridden on an elephant
(0) Swam with dolphins
(O) Been to the Olympics
(O) Sat on a jury
(X) Learned to juggle
(0) Walked on the Great Wall of China
(0) Saw a glacier
(0) Been spinnaker flying
(O) Been water-skiing (nope, tubing once)
(X) Been snow-skiing
(0) Been to Westminster Abbey
(O) Been to the Louvre
(0) Swam in the Mediterranean
(X) Been to a Major League Baseball game
(0) Been to a National Football League game
(0) Been to a Professional Soccer game

No Way!

This little guy will be eight years old in less than a month. I keep trying to squeeze him so he'll shrink back down to be a baby, but it seems he is growing up whether mommy likes it or not. J. was the Star of the Week in his class. He brought in photos and wrote about his favorites.

We had such fun this week looking at old pictures!

  Here's what J. said: "My favorite toys are my American-Indian Army Guys from Scouts and Bakugan. My favorite story is The Thief and the Beanstalk. My favorite movie is Planet Earth. My favorite TV show is Sponge Bob. My favorite foods are hot dogs and Doritos. I have a special collection of rocks. My favorite dessert is root beer float with Oreos on top."


 

The Wonderful Wizard of. . . ER

I'll admit it. I am an ER fan. I haven't seen every episode, through the years but I have picked it up again in the last two years. And when the dust settles three shows from now, I will miss my wannabe soap opera.

The past few episodes have been the final curtain call for former cast members. Last night we found Doug Ross and Carol Hathaway (How did NO ONE on the show catch her mispronunciation of Spokane?) working it in Seattle with twins who can spell. And Doctor Benton munching on a peanut butter energy bar, telling us Reese is 13 (how time flies!), and totally saving Doctor Carter's new kidney, thank you very much.

Poor swollen Pardimir/Neela hiding her pregnancy gets to leave the show next week as we bid her and the dead cast members farewell. Let's see, County General has buried Doctors Green, Romano, and Pratt. Oh and that intern Lucy Knight who got stabbed. Oh, and the Iraq war killed Doctor Gallant. My favorite death by far was the helicopter crushing Doctor One-Arm Romano.

It looks like the ER writers are heading down the yellow brick road as they neatly wrap up every storyline. (It wasn't the tin man but Neela did implant a new heart.) So I expect that the abandoned newborn baby will find a home with the Banfields and Doctor Gates (rock-a-hula-baby) and Sam Taggert will get back together.

And Neela better head straight into the arms of Ray Barnett if she knows what's good for her. A girl needs closure.

Pictures

Packed with personality.


From the 2nd 3rd grade concert.  

From Akito and the Dragon

Biggest Loser, Engineer Style

Ben paid thirty cents to his coworker who lost 3.5 percent of her weight last week. Ben lost 3.2 percent. Why? Motivation. That and his WSDOT office is on week two of a biggest loser challenge. And maybe it's just me, but I thought that the set-up screamed math nerd. Judge for youselves:

Day one: Weigh in. Report weight to spreadsheet supervisor.
Day seven: Weigh in. Calculate weight loss percentage to the nearest tenth of a percent (with the following formula: original weight minus current weight divided by original weight). Report percent change to spreadsheet supervisor/creator. Pay 10 cents per tenth of one percent difference between your percent change and the winner's percent change. Repeat weigh-in and calculations every week.

So simple! (I say with zero tenths of a percent of sincerity.)

You're so simple! (My sweet spouse responds.)

Your cut downs are so simple! (I say a couple days later--George Costanza style.)

In Like a Lion

Our laptop is back. And we've all learned some very important lessons about laptops. First, the baby isn't allowed anywhere near it. She yanked the "enter" key off a while ago and a rinky dinky plastic piece broke off. The second lesson we've learned is that it's good to get the Best Buy warranty for a computer even though we almost talked ourselves out of it because in-store warranties generally are a giant waste of money. If you have kids, get the warranty. The final lesson we learned is to really listen to the Geek Squad boy who says "The laptop will be back in four to five days, but it never takes that long." Funny joke (ha, ha, ha, ahem) because thanks to poor listening skills and/or poor pronunciation skills we learned that the estimated wait time was actually forty-five days. One rinky dinky broken plastic piece meant a vacation to a laptop factory. Our laptop joined all the rich people in our town who wander off to exciting, balmy, places in the winter months.

How sad is it that I'm jealous of my jet-setting computer? Wouldn't a tropical vacation be ono right about now? I'm not picky. Anywhere green works for me. Oh, green AND warmer than 50-60 degrees. When we decided to leave Hawaii I don't think we fully comprehended the "joy" that is winter on the mainland.

Yes, I know that March does that lion turned lamb transformation deal. I know the daffodils are starting to come up. I'm just impatient!

Kadoosh.

Sorry for not posting any pictures. Our camera is loaded, nay, as stuffed as a holiday turkey, with photos and video clips. But it won't download with a dead battery. So I'm publishing this text-only post while the battery is charging. And the NEXT post, promise, cross my heart, hope t' die, will be chuck full of photos.