Hula Hoop. Final Orchestra Concert. A Ramble About Some Goals For The Summer.

Cali signed up to hula hoop in the second grade talent show.

And she was determined that I should be there to watch her, because, you know, watching her do it every night in the front yard isn't enough.

Obviously.

I think next year, if she wants to do it, we should get someone to help her with an actual routine.

But being her mom, I was super impressed at her ability to get up on stage and be like "whatever" about it.

Casidee also had her end of year concert for orchestra.

Beauty and the Beast:



And an orchestra cover of Firework:



I'd like to keep The Circus busy through the summer, I'm just not sure how to do it.

I bought some work books for Cali to practice her math and language skills.  I'm thinking I need to read chapter books with her before bed.  I think I'll start with The Last Unicorn.

I bought Cas some violin music for popular pop songs and I hope she'll practice them over the summer.  Brynn will be joining her in the music area next year with the clarinet and I would love to learn to play the cello.  We could start our own band?

Yeah, maybe not.

As for the rest of them...

Maybe I'll sign them up for the library reading program.

Oh, Brynn wants to try her hand at gardening so she's been giving a flower bed in the backyard to be responsible for.  She wants to plant forget-me-nots.  The only thing is, the flower bed is in a shady spot so she's going to have to do some research to see if that will be okay for forget-me-nots.

I think landscape and gardening will be a good skill for her to work on this summer.

I myself have ventured out and planted strawberries in the front yard (they probably won't produce until next year) and I'm going to try a single tomato plant in the backyard.  Actually, I'll be getting that in the ground tonight.  I hope it's not too late.

I'm a known plant killer so we'll see how this goes.

Here's my official goals for the summer:

keep the tomato plant alive
refinish the wood base of my hammock
refinish the back deck
refinish the kitchen table until we can buy a new one
build a firepit in the front yard
not fail summer semester because it's stinkin' hard to want to do homework in the summer, yo
take The Circus up Bell Canyon to the waterfall

this may be a doable list.

I start with the tomato plant and some sanding tonight!

Screw the Mantel, I Don't Even Have A Dining Room Floor Right Now.

Remember to enter for the double book giveaway here.

The Navigator is still in the shop.

On Friday I drove the monster truck.

On Saturday I drove the monster truck.

On Sunday I drove the monster truck.

Do you know what it's like to scrape snow off of windows that are above your head while wearing a skirt and heels?

The Man needed the monster truck today so I'm on my own.  Actually, I was pretty okay with that.  I had some time off saved up at work and I thought, "I can clean up all the messes that have accumulated during the construction of our house and wrap some presents."

So I emailed my boss and told him I still didn't have a car and I would just take a personal day and stay home.

He responded with, "you shouldn't waste your personal days.  You need to use it closer to the holiday when you can be with your kids and be doing Christmas things.  I can send an agent to come and get you."

And I shrugged my shoulders.

Whatever.

I didn't really want to clean anyway.  More dust will be made.

Over the weekend we crossed off two of my December bucket list items (here).  We watched The Muppets Christmas Carol and had a hot chocolate bar.

The pinterest picture I was taking the idea from was this:

{pin}

Let's be real.

My hot chocolate bar was by no means this cute.

And I'm okay with that.  I think we, as mothers, put way too much pressure on ourselves to make the things we do over the top presentable.

I sat the bags and boxes of goodies on the counter and told the kids to have it.

Where they disappointed that it wasn't in individually labeled cups?

No.

And neither was I.

We seriously need to give ourselves a break.  We can't get caught up in the little stuff that doesn't even matter.

My kitchen was full of giggling and excitement as the kids threw all sorts of goodies into their mugs.

This December is starting out on a good foot for me. We only have a Christmas tree up, no other decorations of any kind.  I don't have lights on the outside of my house, I don't even have stockings hung, and I certainly don't have my mantel decorated.

Screw the mantel, I don't even have a dining room floor right now.  (Which is the room where the fire place is).

And yet there is still magic in the air.

The kids laugh together and whisper around the tree.

They randomly break out into Christmas songs at the top of their lungs, or hum them while doing their chores and homework.

They curl up together on the couch while we watch Christmas shows on TV.

They secretly whisper to me about the plans they have for the sibling whose name they've drawn this year.

And it isn't about the decorations.

It's about the feeling.

The feeling of doing things for other people.

The feeling of knowing that we have a Savior.

The feeling that we're a family and we're creating these memories.

*Remember that year when we had to eat Christmas dinner on the office floor around the Christmas tree because we didn't have a dining room floor?*

And we'll giggle because it was the best Christmas ever.

As long as Santa doesn't fall in the holes when he comes down the chimney.

(Also this weekend we tried hot chocolate in the crockpot, another December bucket list item and oh. so. good.  Do it now.  Find the pin here).

(Also, we made these mini peach cobblers.  Like a snickerdoodle with peaches. Do it now. Find the pin here).

December Bucket List. And Easy Christmas Cards

Hi.

My name is Stephanie...

and I'm Pinterest-aholic. (Follow me here).

My issue with this stuff is that I pin it, and then it taunts me. 

You know you actually want to try and recreate this.

You know it's not good enough to just let the idea sit here.

Yesterday I was collecting Christmas craft ideas off pinterest for my boss who claims that every year his family Christmas party is dry, boring, and lame.

So this year he's in charge of it and this year it's going to fun.

So... would I be willing to give him ideas for a craft for the kids?  One that doesn't involve any baking.

While I was looking at my Christmas board I realized there were a few things on there that I really wanted to do this December, so I made a December bucket list.

I tried to keep it small so I don't overwhelm myself.

This December we are going to 

Watch The Muppets Christmas Carol 

Watch Mickey Mouse's Christmas Carol 

Try peppermint popcorn

Have a hot chocolate bar

Egg nog french toast for breakfast

Make hot chocolate in the crockpot

Watch the Grinch and make Grinch Punch

Cut out fancy snowflakes and hang them on the mantel

Use tickets to surprise the kids and drive to see lights

Decorate sugar cookies for Santa

Send out a few Christmas cards (it's been years since I've done Christmas cards)

Do the 12 days of scriptures with my church going kids

Also, if you want a crazy easy way to send cards that's crazy cheap.  Like, so cheap it's wrong, then you need to check out Send Out Cards.  They're advertising on my sidebar also.  

Guys, just for Christmas they had 58 pages of possible card choices.  And I added a family picture to it.  The hardest part was entering my addresses, but now that the address are in there... from now on I can send a card with our family picture in literally minutes and dimes.

So give yourself a gift this season and do cards the easy way.  They're high quality and so fun to make.

And I didn't even get anything for saying that.  I just really feel that way.

crane to plank

Sometimes when you have an awesome friend named Stacy, who's getting her certification to be a yoga instructor, you get to go to free yoga classes on Saturday mornings.

As in, not just free to me because she's my friend, but free to everyone because Stacy has to fill some volunteer hours.

You should come.

Also, sometimes when you have an awesome friend named Stacy, who's getting her certification to be a yoga instructor, you get to do crazy group yoga in someone else's front yard in the middle of the night (here).

Casidee trying out her first taste of yoga

Here's why I like going to Stacy's yoga classes.  And I'm not just saying this because she's my friend, I'm saying this as an impartial yoga class goer.

Stacy is personable and makes you feel comfortable, no matter what your level in yoga is.

When I've gone to other yoga classes, and I've gone to a handful of different places, it turns out the same.  The level of difficulty is the same no matter where you go.

But what if we in the class aren't on the same level?

Here's what's cool about Stacy's class.  She goes through her class, same as everyone else, but when we come to poses she'll say, "if you want to take if further you can do this..." or she'll say, "if you want something harder then add this..."

I'm learning and trying new poses that I never have before because Stacy is willing to let you take it one step further.

Sometimes that one extra step is really hard and it gets into my yoga junkie blood.  Like this new one that I can not do, but heaven help me I will.

Watch this, she does two moves, I'm looking at the second move, crane to plank.



Sometimes when you're learning how to go from crane to plank, you do a face plant or a belly flop or two...

Putting a pillow on the ground under your face is recomended when trying to learn this move, take it from me, I may or may not know a thing or two about this point.

Stacy's classes are great in that she'll show you, if you've never done crane before (or crow), how to start yourself out with how to learn the balance of it, to showing someone like me the possibilities of a harder move.  All in the same class. 

No matter your level in yoga, you'll walk away feeling satisfied with Stacy's class.

I can't thank Stacy enough for it.

And hopefully by the end of summer, I'll be able to post a video of me going from crane to plank.  Put that on my summer bucket list and smoke it.

Our Anniversary AKA New Year's eve AKA My Penguin encounter

The Man has been teasing me for a week that we had an appointment at 1:00 on our anniversay (which just so happens to also be today, New Year's eve) and that it would take about an hour.  And I, for the life of me, couldn't think what it could possibly be.  Couples massage?
At 12:40 we got in the car and he started driving.  We chit chatted and just generally enjoyed being together when he pulled into the Living Planet Aquarium...
I almost cried.  There would only be one reason for him to take me there.
I have been in love with, and even slightly, okay maybe more than slightly, obsessed with penguins since the age of 15.  Should I date myself and tell you that this means I have loved them for 17 years?  That's over half my lifetime already.
And it has been my dream for the past 17 years to someday be up close and personal with a real live penguin.  The chest high blow up penguin I have hidden under our bed hardly counts.
The aquarium has gento penguins.  Gento penguins are easily frightened and have huge personal space issues, so we weren't allowed to touch them, but we got to sit in the room with them for an hour.  And they still interacted with us.  Yeah, this was SO much better than a couples massage!

Every penguin that wandered in was fascinated with the fray on West's jeans. 

And the tab on the back of his shoe.  This penguin, Ghost Rider, is the black sheep of their penguin family there. (Every family has one).  He wasn't afraid of anything.  After he was done chewing on West's shoe, it went for the underneath of his leg, and kept on going until he bit West's leg.  West tried really hard to hold still, but it kept biting harder and harder until he finally yanked his leg up.  The penguin ended up hanging from his jeans because he wouldn't let go! Brian, the penguin guy, finally had to shew Ghost Rider away. I SO wish I had gotten it on video.

 In this video Ghost Rider hates the squeegie that they use on the floor.  He knew that the squeegie was kept behind the door, so he kept "an eye on it".  He'd keep going back to the door and burrying his beak  there and just watching the squeegie.

At one point Ghost Rider was hiding underneath the bench, I have to admit, after what he'd done to West, I was a little nervous to have him out of sight and underneath me.

These two penguins are one of the two established mated couples at the aquarium.  We got to see them bow to each other which is a courtship move and then they stood and "held hands", which with the personal space issues that they have, is as much contact they'll stand, and they only stand it with their mated partner.  I have another video here that shows them "fighting" with each other, because one of them got too close, but they don't actually touch other because that would be getting too close.

I love my man for making this dream come true for me.  Love him.  I can't even express it enough.  That he cares that much about me to want to do this for me. Dreams do come true.  Even if it means almost feeding your man to a penguin.
The aquarium is building a bigger center, and they're going to expand in their penguin center.  My favorite type of penguin is a rock hopper penguin.  Guess what they're going to be getting? I can't wait!
You can also check out the aquarium's website and watch the penguins live here.

Every year we're going to take a picture on our anniversary, holding the picture that we took the year before.  It's going to be fun to see how we change year to year, and to have the depth of pictures grow in each one.

Bucket list for 2012

Pinterest is inspiring.  It really is.  But there are so many ideas and so little time!
I've gone through my boards, I've checked them twice, and I've created a bucket list of sorts of the things that I will do, make, or visit in the year of 2012.
Are you ready for this?

1. I'm going to read "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey.  And not only read it, but explain it the The Man as I go, and then we're going to apply it to our finances.  Our total goal (that won't happen in 2012, but we'll at least start it)? Debt free. Can we do it? Yes we can! But I have to read this book first.  I hear it helps you get in the right frame of mind to actually want to follow through with it.  Yes.

2. We have a pretty awesome job chart system going at our house.  But it's just boringly written on a dry erase board.  I need cuteness.  Our job chart is going to be converted into cute form.

3. Also in the name of converting to cuteness, instead of hanging my handwritten menu on the side of the fridge, I want to paint our cabinet end with chalk paint.  It's in a prime position to look awesome.  It hangs where the bar starts so it would look like a cafe menu board. I get giddy just thinking about it!

3. We will finish the blasted bathroom.  Which means I get to do all these fun details in it.

4.  I looked at my "Please take me there" board longingly.  *sigh*.  But in the name of getting out of debt I suppose I ought to visit a new place that's close to home.  Arches anyone?

5. I'm going to try my hand at bleach pen shirts.

6. And I'm making this shirt.  Because I love everything about it.

7. As well as this skirt.

8. This one kind of scares me to put on my bucket list. But I would like to have my six pack back.  Not a big six pack, just a slightly there cute girly six pack.  I had one a couple of years ago.  I want it back.  Yikes.  Now it's on my list.  So I have to do it.

9. I'm going to make a quilt.  Maybe not all of these, but at least one them.  Or maybe not even one of these per say, but I will end 2012 with at least one quilt made by my hands.

10. Because I can't stop laughing about this.  I need this in my house and my parentals will probably receive them as gifts.  Because I can.

I think I better stop there.  I actually want to do/finish this list so I need to keep it realistic (and I've probably already over shot realistic).  Okay, wait.

11. Run another half marathon.  But this time actually complete a full training for it.  Besides, I have a time to beat now, and my cousin wants me to go to San Diego to run one with him.  Done deal.

12. Go diving in the ocean.  I have been a certified scuba diver for... 15 years and have never gone diving in the ocean.  Sad.  Is it cheating to add this to the list if I know I already have the trip planned for March to do this?  Plane tickets are already purchased. (This also includes seeing my brother Nick get married and going to Universal Studios Orlando (both of them)).

Okay, now I'm done.  Time to get started!

We still have a week and a half before 2012, and perhaps I should be writing this post on New Year's day, but I'm not one for "resolutions" on the first of the year, I do them when I'm ready.  I happen to be ready.  Let's do this.