...flashback friday's ... SUNDAES!

When my brother & I were kids, every once in awhile my dad would proclaim
"let's have sundaes for dinner!"

To a kid ... this was music to our ears!

Usually this special event took place on Sunday nights (hence, "Sundaes"), and we would often take a trip to the store and pick out the special kinds of ice cream and all the fun toppings.

My girls once spent the weekend with my parents years ago. Well, they've spent MANY weekends with them, but this one particular weekend stood out in my mind.

Katie came home so happy & excited. She was so excited because Papa Rod said for dinner they were going to have sundaes. He took them to the store to pick out their own ice cream, bought bananas, chocolate syrup and whatever else they wanted on their sundaes... and then they made themselves a big old fat sundae. Just.for.dinner!

When she told me that, it brought back fond memories of when my dad would proclaim that special dinner. Now, this special dinner didn't happen often, but when it did, we were in heaven!

I remember a few years ago, we stayed at my parents until late one night. We all hadn't eaten dinner yet, and so dad proclaimed "it's SUNDAES for dinner".
Mike was so startled... it was funny. He enjoyed "dinner".

Sometimes it's fun to get out of the rut every once in awhile.

Try it..... proclaim one weekend night to be
SUNDAES FOR DINNER!

I promise you, it will make an everlasting impression on your kid!

.... food co-ops

Last summer my friend Jen was telling me about the food co-op that was going on in our church ward. She said "you've got to try it! I got _____ and _______ for only $___". Sorry, can't remember what Jen got and how much she paid for it, but I just remembered she got AMAZING stuff for LITTLE money! But I never participated!!

Three weeks ago I get an email saying "sign up for the food co-op!" and I didn't. I'm just too busy to do a food co-op. ::insert snotty laugh:: Well, my snotty laugh ended right then & there when I saw my friend Mandi's goods that weekend. JEALOUS!! and for so little money too!

So, this past week, Mandi sent me the co-op list, and I ORDERED!
::queue Hallelujah chorus::

I was so excited! I ordered! I picked up my goods on Saturday morning and was quite amazed at how much (actually, TOO much) that I bought. Mandi laughed and said "ahhh... you made the same rookie mistake I made two weeks ago!" Yep.

I have no clue how many cucumbers are in a pound. I ordered 3 lbs. Apparently, that's about 6 cucumbers. I ordered 10 lbs of red potatoes. At only .24 cents a pound, surely 10 lbs is a good deal! Yeah, a good deal, but I was giving away my potatoes to Mandi b/c I was done at 3 lbs! Grapes were only .39 cents a pound! Pineapple was $1.69! Romaine lettuce .69! Those HUGE sweet oranges are my favorite.... at only .39 cents a pound. Wish I bought more. They're almost gone! Blueberries were only .84 a pint!! I made blueberry muffins tonight with them!

Anyways, point is, if you have a fruit/veggie co-op around you, HURRY and RUN to it! I was amazed at how much I was able to buy, for such little money. AND best of all! We get to eat healthy! Wahoo!

.. what happens when....

What happens when Katie decides to bake cookies?
and at the last batch that needs to go into the oven,
she throws the cookies on the pan and dashes
out of the kitchen to finish watching some Disney tween show?

Yeah, said cookies turn out like this.

Hold your hand out
now smack your forehead.

Sorry, baking cookies is ONE thing I'm particular about.
and this ain't the way cookies are baked!

...i remember

It doesn't feel like it's been that long ago since I've been a teenager.

It has though.
I'm reminded when I see all the things my 12 year old does... what I used to do when I was a preteen and a young teenager.

I remember my mom taking me to a mall in Kansas City (which turned into the "gang mall" and then no one went there anymore, and now it's empty... sad b/c it was THE mall to go to!) quite a few times so I could spend my hard earned allowance on a store called Hello Kitty.

This store had the scratch & sniff stickers, Hello Kitty pencils, pens, erasers, dolls...
and I'm sure a little of everything that had Hello Kitty on it.
For some reason, I just remember the pencils & erasers.
I was SO happy at this store.

My mom was such a great mom in taking me & sometimes my friends to this store.

When I take my girls to the mall, or shopping in general, it brings back all these memories on the things I just HAD to have. For Maddie, this store is Justice. I literally hate that store. They only sell things in hot pink, hot yellow, lime green, orange & turquoise. It used to be Katie's store as well, and she does enjoy visiting it and looking around. Oh, and it's full of clothes that have the Peace sign on it, and this weird guy that has a name Fred with a backward R and he literally looks like a weirdo. Plus these talking popsicles??? I don't get it.

Katie is at the age where I remember being when I enjoyed the Hello Kitty store. She likes to look in the pen section at Target, and find all the pens that come in pink, turquoise and purple. I remember loving pens. Now, I settle for the 12 pack of Bic pens that are under a buck. Love those cheap pens. They write better than anything else.

Katie also is playing the game of MASH. Remember that one? The one that tells you if you're going to marry either: Chris, Chad, or Greg, and if you're going to have 10, 5 or 2 kids... and if you're going to drive a lamborghini, station wagon or a car... or if you're going to go to Acapulco (that was THE place to go, apparently when I was a kid), Bahamas or Hawaii for your honeymoon... and if you were going to live in a Mansion, Apartment, Shack or a House. There were plenty of things to add to the pile, like a career, what city you were going to live in... and a few other things....

Oh, I remember those days. It was funny b/c not too long ago, Maddie wanted me to play it with her. I didn't know what to say when she said it was my turn to pick. So I said "Greg Wiggle, Barney, Anthony Wiggle". She laughed her head off.
Literally, in those early baby days, those guys were all I watched.

Maddie's completely in love with her fingerless hot pink gloves that are sequined. One is now missing. Too bad. She can't play her jazzy hot pink harmonica without her gloves.

I remember loving my plastic charm necklace.

I remember wearing two different colors of socks. On one foot, the red sock will be on top, with the white sock on the bottom, and on the other foot, the red sock will be on the bottom with the white on top. Not to mention wearing those safety pins on our shoes with beads in them!

I remember my mom & I having our initials (and maybe a butterfly) on our EYEGLASSES! Or, was it just my mom's glasses? I don't remember, but WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!!!

So, I sit back and watch my girls, and see all the things they think is so cool. I wonder in 20 years we'll look back and think "WHAT WERE WE THINKING?" about certain fads we have today. I'm pretty sure the skinny jeans the guys wear is going to be one of them.
At least, I hope it is.

Here is a picture of those scratch 'n sniff stickers. Remember them now?
Ahhh... those were the good days. Glad the parachute pants are gone. Glad we no longer have to roll our pants. Glad those little initials are no longer "cool" to wear on our glasses.

Loved my childhood.

... i'm goin'

As I write this...

in exactly 8 days I will be seeing

be still my heart.

If I could get away with a poster of George Strait in my bedroom,
I would have it hanging above my head on the ceiling.

However, I don't think posters exist anymore of 50-some year old men who are country singers.
Even if they did, Mike probably wouldn't stand for a picture of George in our room.
On my side of the closet, maybe, but not in our room. On our ceiling.

Darn.
I never get my way.
Ever.

...shopping at the outdoor mall

We have a fairly new beautiful outdoor mall here in our city. We live pretty close to it also, and has many of the high end stores at this outdoor mall. The landscaping is just breathtaking also.
One day I took the girls shopping, and we managed to snap a few photos and just be silly!
It's great to be silly every once in awhile!
Then my camera died.
Which is why we only have three pictures to share.

I want to say this is an aloe plant, but really, I have NO clue.
If it was an aloe plant, man, you'd get a TON of aloe out of this baby!
Took the picture b/c it was just so stinking huge!

Bubble blowing blondie.

Say that fast five times.

Some of the pretty landscaping....
Love Maddie's mismatched shoes with her green outfit?
Yep, those shoes are worn EVERY day, regardless if they match.
They never do.
Oh well.
You only live once, might as well do whatever it is that makes you happy, right?

Wow... I have to say I've come a long way since being so anal about making sure my girls have matching shoes, matching socks, matching hair accessory with whatever they're wearing! Nowadays, I'm just glad they're covered in clothes!

...oh, dear

The girls have a new dance teacher, and she is amazing.

They both have taken workshops from her in the past back in Kansas City, so we feel super blessed to be able to take lessons from one of the best in the Highland Dance industry here in the USA.

Both girls have learned so much in the few weeks they've been with her. A lot of fine tuning has been going on. Maddie has chicken arms, meaning when she dances, her elbows point towards her back. So, Miss B (her name is Mary Beth) places a yard stick through her arms to keep them straight. Maddie starts dancing.... and snaps the yard stick in half! So, a sword went in its place (no worries... a dance sword).

They dance with cans in their hands.... and they walk in heels when they're not dancing.
Yes, heels. They have to dance on their tippy toes, and to help their feet get used to this, they walk in heels. Miss B had a pair of heels that surprisingly fit Maddie's size 2 feet perfectly!

and get this... Maddie LOVES wearing these heels. She wears them ALL the time.
Wears them when she does chores (HELLO! Mrs Cleaver!)... wears them when she watches TV
... wears them whenever she can. In fact, last week for church, she asked to wear the heels. It was a resounding "NO" from my mouth.

....roses

Katie went on a shooting spree with my Rebel a few weeks ago. We have a few rose bushes in our backyard, of which I'm really surprised they're still alive. As much as I love flowers, I just don't know anything about them. Sadly, I have really no desire in learning as well.
I hope to change that this year.

These are the pictures Katie took.

Pretty, huh?

and then these...
these came from the store.
Mike bought me these for our anniversary last month.
I took these pictures b/c Katie hasn't grasped that the middle button needs to be positioned appropriately before you can snap the picture, therefore we have about 100 pictures of my red roses that are all blurry.

I will say roses are beautiful, but they're not my favorite.
I'd prefer daisies or tulips. Now THOSE are my favorites.

Daisies are what Mike bought me and planted a few weeks ago when he planted tomato, about 10 jalapeno plants and a few pepper plants. Too bad he didn't plant onion & an avocado tree b/c we could've had guacamole every day!

....dancing

A few weeks ago, it was time for the Highland Games here in San Antonio.
So we spent part of our day on Saturday dancing. I say we, but I mean .. the girls.

Upon arriving at the grounds we see this ... man? Scary person? He's got BONES in his helmet! I have NO clue what this has to do with Scottish history (not that it does but makes me wonder if it DOES!). People were putting money in his elastic around his arms and posing for pictures. He didn't flinch or move. Not even when my girls stood right in front of him just staring with their mouths open. Just a little intimidating, I have to say!

It was perfect weather for this day. Not hot, a little breeze blowing. Just perfect!

It amazes me to see my girls together and see how much they look alike, but at the same time, how much they DON'T look alike.

Maddie's eyes can be so mesmerizing sometimes.
Yes, they both have makeup on, but just mascara.
It was for performance only.

I managed to find a place under a great big ugly tree to watch and take pictures
(none of which really turned out... b/c Katie has all these weird funny looks going on when she dances, and Maddie clenches her mouth)
So, this tree was my subject. I finally got a good picture of the sun's rays.

After my tree's photo session, the group opened their dance session up to the audience. I got a kick out of this cute Irish dancer coming up to dance with Maddie. So we've got the Irish & the Scottish dancing together. If only those kids moved the water bottle & sippy cup out of the way I could crop some more!

Had a great time. Love going to the Highland Games. I would strongly suggest going to one in the future if you haven't. It's truly an amazing, fun thing to go see and do.

....farts

Many many years ago, before I had children, I found a book in the prestigious area of Kansas City called "The Plaza". It is a beautiful, breathtaking part of Kansas City. In the middle of this huge square of beautiful stores (expensive stores!) was a "Nature" store. In this store, you could find Canon in D with the ocean waves in the background. You could find cool gadgets that imitate the rain forest. You could also find books.

It is here that I found the book "Everyone Poops".

This is a hilarious book... teaching kids that it's OK to poop, and that literally everyone poops. It was a great gag gift for some friends..... Have you read it? I brought up that book because I think they wrote a book called "Everyone Farts", which is what we're going to be talking about today.

I have girls.... not boys. Namely, one would think that girls should be young ladies. I mean, don't most of us excuse ourselves and move to another room to let the gas pass? Isn't it just the icebreaker one needs in a relationship, when you've finally farted in front of your special person?

Well, I have ONE child, who thinks it's hilarious to .... break wind... toot.... or fart (whatever is the special word you use in your family). She laughs hysterically at the noise it makes. She cries and covers her nose when the silent ones are emitted.... and laughs hysterically some more. I mean, the word FART is hilarious in itself! Fart.... I remember Colin Firth saying "I don't give a flying fart....." in one of his movies..... and I, totally in love with Colin Firth, don't really care if that's a bad word in the English society or not, but I do say that phrase here and there in our house. When I'm mad at Mike. It's just so much more cooler to say "I don't give a flying fart".

I remember laughing hysterically at the guys on Blue Collar Comedy... Larry the Cable Guy had a farting machine, and they went shopping. Oh, the looks people gave him when he buzzed that little buzzer were priceless. Some were in complete disdain. Some laughed. I was rolling on the floor with tears coming down my eyes.

Just think of an elevator scene... using one of those farting machines.
Oh, I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face!

Or at work one day when my coworker & friend Angie wrote me an email "Hey... I think ____ just farted!" OK, blew me out of the water b/c it was so unexpected, and I laughed SO hard.

Moving on.... this one child of mine bought this toy. She bought it before, and I finally threw it away. She found it again last night in the $1 Target bin. Flarp. The noise maker. It looks something like this. She found out about this toy from another set of BFF sisters who I never would have suspected to carry this toy.

They did. Maddie found out about it, and this $1 toy has kept her busy for the past 24 hours. Mike said "you would've thought we had boys" every single time they crack up laughing over the noise. ::sigh::

Did you know....

• the average person farts 14 times in one day?

• they also produce 1/2 liter of fart gas per day (what in the world is fart gas?)

• farts are indeed flammable (oh dear... I remember the Dennis the Menace movie)
  

• Termites are the top farter, followed by camels

• farts can come blazing out of your butt at 7 mph!! Whoa!

• you cannot suffocate in a chamber with your own fart... even if you think you would
  

• a person can still fart after they die!!

• and yes, beans do make you fart more, so apply the beano!

For this next set of pictures, let me set up the scene. Big sister is pushing little sister on the tire. Little sister wants off. Somehow.... little sister manages to let one go, and further irritates big sister who by now knows it's not nice to do something like this in public, and around people! I managed to snap right when big sister said "MOOOOMMMM! She just FARTED!" As you can see, little sister is in hysterical laughter, tears rolling down her eyes.

Obviously, I have work to do... teaching said child to be a young lady. Or not. I mean, some guy is gonna love the fact she loves farts. Just don't blame her for farting when she didn't actually do it. She'll burst into tears. Trust me on that one.

...growing up into a young lady

Wow...

I'm so shocked...
That's all I can say about Katie.
She's growing up!
Too fast!
Yep.

Now that I got my little word diamond out of the way, let me set up the night for you.
The girls were itching to get outside and play for a bit, but it was too close to sundown for us to take a walk on the trails, so we headed to the neighborhood's lame park.

I FINALLY captured some beautiful pictures of Katie that are so beautiful!

Enjoy grandparents! (and aunts... uncles? ... friends)

Pictures of the girls playing and having a ball .... coming soon!

.... best friends

My dear friend Mandi is truly a lifesaver for our family. She has graciously picked up Maddie from school every single day for me, while I am at work. She has basically taken Maddie under her wings, just as she is one of her own (Maddie's blonde hair makes it an easy fix to throw in the mix) .... and in turn, Maddie has become close to her daughter, Tressa. I'm so grateful Maddie has a close friend. It always makes life so much easier when there's a good friend. Now I'm sure they don't ALWAYS get along, but who does?

These two giggly little girls are hilarious. When Tressa comes over to our house, you can see their creative little minds working. In this case, the girls took our dance mats, and made a house. I could HEAR the girls, but couldn't see them. They were hiding INSIDE this little tiny house. When I called out to them, both their heads peeked out like in this picture, and it was HILARIOUS! They were playing house.

These two girls are so incredibly smart.... and so funny! They love to build things together. They build incredible things out of blocks when they were here playing. One time I picked Madison up and both girls plus Tressa's brother Brian were all sporting Home Depot aprons and pounding nails into some 2x4's .... it was taking them several days to get just a few nails in the wood, it seems. But they didn't care, they had a blast.

I bought a HUGE bucket full of Tinkertoys at Sam's for only $6.38 (leftover from Christmas, but it was brought back and came down from $50!!) a few weeks ago. Can't WAIT to see what the girls come up with! They truly have some great ideas. They'll go far in life, I predict.

Mandi, if you're reading this, Tressa needs to come over to play!