I Touched It.

On Sunday I responded to Sean's message in the fridge:

Because I was feeling sassy.

On Monday I noticed:

Because our family is awesome like that.

I probably take more amusement out of this than I should, but it really made me giggle when I saw that.

I think you need a sense of humor to survive a family.

To survive anything, really.

Employee Discount.

This was originally posted on December 5, 2011.

We need an oil change on one of our cars.  Badly.  Burt Brothers would be ashamed at how behind I am. 

Yesterday I mentioned to The Man  that we don't get an employee discount for our oil changes anymore.  In fact, I don't get any employee discount for anything anymore. 

I made mention of this at work this morning to some of the investigators and their reply was no, there weren't any employee discounts.  The very most I could hope for would possibly be a "get out of jail free" card.

I'm actually thinking that may not be so bad.

I'm going to tuck this away for future use. It never hurts to have one of those cards hanging around.

You never know.

Hay Nabur.

Have you ever noticed this particular billboard?

(The new grilled chicken is excellent, by the way)

"Hay" means "there is" in Spanish.  I know.  I took a whole semester of Spanish recently.  It was a vocab word.

Being the dutiful student that I am (OCD much?) when I saw this billboard I saw the word "hay" and thought, "I know that word!"  And I tried to figure out what "nabur" meant in Spanish as well.  What was Chick-fil-a trying to say?  There is... what? Is that a verb?  I didn't know of any verbs that ended in "ur."

Guys, I seriously contemplated this billboard for an entire week, trying to figure out what "hay nabur" meant in Spanish before I realized that it wasn't even Spanish but stupid cow spelling.

Speaking of cows, this recently happened.

Their tongues are about the same texture as sandpaper and it was at about this point that I was glad I had taken my wedding ring off before hand.  Otherwise I might have been having a conversation with Makenzie's cousin that went something like, "Call me in a few days when a sparkly thing shows up in a pile in this particular pen.  Thanks."

As it is, apparently "I can do hard things" is also equivalent to "I can do gross things under peer pressure."

More on that tomorrow.

Am I The Only One Who Hears It?

Am I the only one who hears this song:



and immediately thinks of this move? (Just watch the first 23 seconds... you'll know what I'm referring to.)



Anyone?  Anyone? (Bueller? Bueller?)

Or is it just me?

Chicken Enchilada with Avocado (Peppermint?) Cream Sauce. A Pinterest Recipe.

A little tid bit about me: I hate cooking.

For reals.

As a teen my dad (Dick) would try to teach me how to cook and it just made me ornery.  As a new stay at home wife I tried to make sure I had hot dinners ready when my husband came home and for the first year of our marriage it made me ornery.

And then I had kids and I was still trying to have hot dinners ready when my husband came home and that was chaos that made me feel not so much ornery, but frazzled.

And then I became a single mom who worked full time and still had the kids and come dinner time I found I only had so much time between work and baths and homework and bed time and cooking made me stressed.  Nightly.

Now I still work full time and I still have the kids and I have an amazing husband who gets home before I do, so there's no way I'm having a hot dinner ready for him when he gets home, but I feel I need to get on it right away because they're all home and hungry, plus I've added school to the mix and ya'll, dinner sometimes gets skipped at my house.

Find what you can kids, this mom's had it.

Or I order pizza.

And thankfully my husband is a gem and never complains.

But the ironic, fateful twist to all of this is that I love to eat.

I love good food.

So when I sit down to make my menu and shopping list, and I get onto pinterest to see what recipes there are because I have no culinary imagination or talent, outside of following a recipe to the "t," my tastebuds start dancing and I go all Betty Crocker on that menu and shopping list.

And then I've locked myself into actually having to make all of these meals throughout the next two weeks because it's what I went shopping for and I'm not over exaggerating when I say I have no culinary imagination outside of following a recipe.

Once it's on the menu, and I've purchased the ingredients, I'm locked in.  Because what else am I going to do with all of this stuff I just bought at the grocery store?  I have no idea.

The other night I was locked into making a chicken enchiladas with avocado cream sauce recipe from pinterest.
Pinterest link here
Original recipe here

{pic source}

Cas, Tayler, and The Man were all right there with me helping me to chop vegetables and stir sauces and stuff tortillas and once it was in the oven we were even all in good moods still.

I might like cooking now that my Circus is old enough to help out with it.

So this recipe, five of us ate it and it gets five votes.  In fact, five of us went back for  seconds so there's that.

But the strangest thing happened: after the avocado sauce was all made up in the food processor and Cas and I were getting ready to fill and roll tortillas we were struck by the prominent scent of peppermint.

So much so that it was making me nervous.  How do you add avocado, cumin, and lime juice and come out with... peppermint?

But we put the enchiladas together, threw them in the oven, and even then other members of the family was commenting on the peppermint smell.  How does that happen?  I didn't even know.

After 20 minutes we pulled dinner out of the oven and everyone dug in, exclaiming how even if it smelled like peppermint, it sure didn't taste like peppermint, and I was beyond baffled by the whole thing.  We went about our evening, cleaned up dinner and went to bed.

The next morning I reached up to open the spice cupboard while I was making my morning eggs when suddenly it felt like someone had poured a small cup of liquid on my hand.  Our spice cupboard has a shallow spice shelf with a second door on front of the main door of the cupboard.  Something had definitely poured onto my hand from the outside shallow part when I went to open the entire door.

I opened the shallow door and found a bottle of peppermint extract was tipped over without its lid on.

Which would explain the amount of liquid that had just poured onto my hand.

Which would also explain the smell of peppermint at dinner the night before.

I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I was to find out that my avocado and cumin sauce did not, in fact, smell like peppermint.

Brynn's Phone Frustration

Sometimes I get shocked with how far technology has come, even from when I was a kid, which wasn't that long ago, thank you for asking.

Our kids today are being raised in an instant gratification, information and access to people right now and at my finger tips day and age.

Which has its pros and cons so don't get me wrong, I'm not here to say it's bad.  And regardless of the pros and cons, it is simply amazing how the world of communication has changed.

I see it blatantly when I watch my kids trying to process technology.  Brynn was trying to call a friend with my cell phone and she kept huffing in frustration.

Finally I asked, "Did you get a hold of her?"

"No!  The phone's broken, something's messed up and it's not working."

"Let me see it," I took my phone from Brynn's hands and dialed the number, putting the phone up to my ear to hear what was going on that had her so frustrated.

And I heard it, "Beep beep beep beep beep..."

I started to laugh.

"Brynn, the phone isn't broken, that's a busy signal.  It just means they're using their phone already so your call can't go through."

"So I can't call her?"

"Just call back in a few minutes."

{pic source}

The whole concept, that I grew up on, completely blew her mind.  How archaic, to have to wait for someone to hang up their phone before your call can go through.  What in the world?

Who Can You Trust, Padawan? Professor Trelawney. A Birthday Post.

I was threatened with cadaver parts today.

And threatened with bodily harm.

I laughed in his face.

"Bring it."

Except severed fingers on my desk is kind of a disturbing thought.

Yesterday I climbed into a car with a few of my co-workers and we headed to the gas station for a quick drink run.  We'd hit the afternoon lull and needed a pick me up.

(A pick us up?)

As I climbed out of the front passenger seat I threw my door shut and then...

I was stuck.

My index finger of my right hand had some how become lodged between the two doors in the process of us closing them.

I stared at my finger crushed in the crevice of the doors and felt the pressure and I glanced at the others.

They were blissfully unaware and were starting to walk to the gas station.  I did the only rational thing I could do in this situation and started yelling, "Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

That got their attention.

I looked at the co-worker who had closed the back door that had trapped my finger.

"The door, the door, open the door, open the door!" I cried.  I couldn't get any other logical thing out of my mouth.  My finger was beginning to pulse and I might have panicked a little.

Just a little.

Finally he realized that my elbow wasn't tweaked up in the air for the fun of it and rushed to open the door and release the car's grip on me.

My finger throbbed and grew hot.

And I repeatedly told them I was fine though I was struggling not to cry.

You can't cry when you're the only girl.  

That makes you the silly girl.  

My finger swelled to twice the size and looked like a little sausage.  There was no feeling to it on the outside, though there was plenty of feeling to it on the inside.

I continued to assure them that I was fine.

Last night Cali complained of a stomach ache. 

(This ties in, trust me.)

And then Brynn complained of one.

In the middle of the night Tayler also complained of stomach pain.

So when my alarm went of this morning I called in with sick kids, figuring with three of them I should stay home.

I sent an email letting various people in my office know I would be home with sick children, but if a certain co-worker asked, to let him know that I was out with a hurt finger.

(See?  It tied in.)  

He's the prankster of the group.  It's fun to prank a prankster.

Turns out this morning the girls woke up and felt fine after all.

So I sent them to school and headed in to work.

Turns out the office had played my hurt finger off well.  One person telling him my finger had been hurt so badly I had to stay home.  The chief investigator told him that because it had happened in a State vehicle he needed a memo explaining what had happened.

He was feeling pretty bad and agreed quickly to write a memo about it.

Then he was called into the Director's office.

He began to understand what was happening at this point and after the Director mentioned it, said that I had been speaking badly about the Director so he slammed my finger in the door.  He said I'd deserved it.

And the Director actually believed him for a split second.

My co-worker said he knew where this was coming from and not to worry, I still had nine fingers left that he could go after.

When I arrived at the office he smiled at me and said he knew someone and had access to cadaver parts.  

Don't be surprised if I find extra fingers lying around.

The moral of this story is: it may be fun to prank a prankster but be warned, it only fuels them.

The rest of my birthday was fun.

Aside from the creepy gas station clerk who called me Padawan (is it bad that I know that's from Star Wars?) and then sang the afro circus song to me while dancing.  

I just wanted to pay for my drink.

And he was egged on by my co-workers who told him while doing this that it was my birthday.

Thanks again for that guys.

Thanks to everyone who drove my house honking.

And thanks to our family who showed up for dinner.

 

P.S.  It's not Padawan, thank you very much.

Professor Trelawney is in the house.

P.P.S.  Thank you to my husband who knew that the funny party dress ups would be hilarious.

He gives the best presents.

You Don't Have To Handle Dad. And A Lip Sync.

I saw Kody Brown and his wives on TV.  It was a little news story about how they're suing the State for the right to be married as a polygamy family, being of age and consenting and taking care of their family and what not.

So I decided to check their show out on Netflix.

We watched a couple of episodes and learned that they had (at the time of the episode) 21 people in their family.

Cali's jaw dropped.

"Whoa.  We only have six!  Good thing you don't have that many Mom."

"What are you talking about?  We have eight in our family."

"There's only six of us."

"Yes, we have six kids, but we have two parents so that makes eight."

Without any hesitation she responds with, "Yeah, but you don't have to handle Dad."

To which I could do nothing but burst out laughing.

"You just wait Cali, you're in for the shock of your life when you get married."

The Man just grinned and shrugged.

Last night I was treated to a lip sync.  By the time it was finished I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face.  That may just be because they're my kids and this is the sort of thing that only a mom can really appreciate, but I'm going to share it anyway.

Please watch for the accidental fart in the middle.

I'm not usually one for potty humor of any kind but Brynn's reaction had me.  I died. (1:05)

And watch near the end when Tayler accidentally pokes herself in the eye.  I died again. (2:57)

Oh, and that would be a sticker face on Tayler's forehead.

And I have no words for Cali.  None.  I promise it wasn't me who taught her to dance like that.

I swear it.

Believe me Cali, I'm certainly glad we're not a family of 21.  I have more than I can handle with just the eight of us.

For All The Casidee Fans In The House

Ladies and gentlemen, she'll be here all week.

Phineas and Ferb Sums Up Motherhood. And Pinterest Recipe Reviews.

Last night we were watching Phineas and Ferb on Netflix.

I love that cartoon.

That and Wizards of Waverly Place.

That's pure entertainment right there.

Anyway, Phineas and Ferb.  This scene happened and I cracked up.  As in giggled myself silly because this scene right here explains exactly what it feels like to be a mom.  Watch how Baljeet reacts to Buford:



I died.

Not 15 minutes after watching that show I was in the kitchen with The Circus talking about "The Muppets Christmas Carol" when someone asked Tayler if she even knew what we were talking about and she replied, "Ihop."

Baljeet ran through my mind.

I feel that way much too often.

Today we wanted to tell you about some more pinterest recipes we've tried out in our home.
There's some seriously good stuff on that website.

Forgotten Chicken
pinterest link here  original link here

{source}

This recipe was easy with a capitol E.

I also heard once that if you want to switch your family over to brown rice instead of white, you should use brown rice in new recipes, not established recipes, because then they don't notice a taste difference.  So I tried that with this recipe.  I used instant brown rice instead of white rice.

I don't think my family has a clue.

Out of 9  votes (Papa Mike at it with us once too) it got...

all 9.

We've eaten it two Sundays in the last month.  It's already become a regular dinner at our house.

Go pin it.  Go make it.

Baked Penne
pinterest link here  original link here

{source}

I usually avoid baked pastas.

As much as I love them, The Man needs meat.  And baked pastas are usually just pasta and cheese, and sometimes veggies.  So when I saw that this baked pasta called for meat I sang with the hallelujah choir in my head.

Out of 8 votes it got...

all 8.

Again we've made this twice in a month's time and then a third time on left over night.  When The Circus found out I was making if for a second time they got excited.

Huge hit.

I skipped the green peppers in it and used regular ground hamburger.

Amazing Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili
pinterest link here  original link here

{source}

We didn't cover ours with Fritos.

I can't say enough about finding really good recipes for the crockpot, especially as a working mom.

Out of 8 votes it got...

7

Sort of.  The first time I made it Tayler claimed it to be too "spicy" but she ate it perfectly fine the next time I made it.

And The Man said it was "okay," but when I told him it a healthier recipe he said in that case it was really good.  He likes it when eating healthier tastes good.

I've made this repeatedly and there haven't been any other comments "against" it.

I'm also planning on making for my work party coming up in a couple of weeks.  I think it's good enough to share.

Baked Spaghetti
pinterest link here  original link here

{source}

Spaghetti has been a fall back out our house for years because I'm lame and use jarred sauce.  It doesn't get any easier than boiling noodles and opening a jar.

Needless to say The Man is sick of spaghetti.

I decided to try this and see if I couldn't change it up a little bit.

Only 6 of us were home that night and out of 6 votes it got...

5

The Man is still sick of spaghetti.  So I don't really think that counts against this recipe.  It was super fun to present spaghetti in a different way like this.  I found it a little dry when I ate it so I just poured a little extra sauce on the plate and dipped.

Also, when I do this again (after a few months.  Let The Man get his spaghetti vibe back) I'd like to make it more garlicky.

Lime Chicken Tacos
pinterest link here  original link here

{source}

This recipe was for the crockpot, but I just did it one night in a pan.

Out of 6 votes it got...

5

The Man had an aversion, for some reason, to the smell of it as it was cooking and thus refused to even taste it.

I wonder if I did it in the crockpot if it would smell better to him?  Because the rest of us thought it was fantastic.

This weekend I get to take The Man on an adventure for his birthday.  Which is still two weeks away but I'm working with an expiration date here, what do you do?  You do it early, that's what.

I can not wait.

Also, I read this article and fell in love with it.

“Let us ask ourselves the questions,” he (Pres. Thomas S. Monson) has said, “‘Have I done any good in the world today? Have I helped anyone in need?’ What a formula for happiness! What a prescription for contentment, for inner peace. … There are hearts to gladden. There are kind words to say. There are gifts to be given. There are deeds to be done. There are souls to be saved.”


“The prayers of people are almost always answered by the actions of others.”

And this one too.  (Thanks Evonne).

For that, good intentions are not enough. We must do.

Let us resolve to cherish those we love by spending meaningful time with them, doing things together, and cultivating treasured memories.

Wanted: A Good Book. And Not Wanted: A Bent Fork. Plus Other Random Wanderings.

Confession: I have no idea what to write about today.

Do I come up with some funny story that I haven't put up yet?
(Like Cali pounding down the stairs from her bedroom screaming and yelling at the top of her lungs, "MOM! David Archuleta is REAL!  My favorite rock star is REAL! I've only heard him on my CD, but I just heard him on the real radio and that means he's REAL!"  She seriously went on for a good few minutes about it and I was just baffled by the fact that having his own CD didn't already make him a real person in her mind. I'm also baffled that she called David Archuleta a rock star.).

Or do I tell you about how yesterday Cali had me ready to be done with the day, I'm climbing into bed with a mint hot chocolate and not do anything else today done by 8:30 in the morning.  Which I should have just called it quits at 8:30 in the morning because she picked up and continued with her stubborn self until she had The Man and me out at 9:00 at night at the Middle School searching the snow for her white coat which she took off while sledding and didn't think she needed to bring home again.  Let me tell you, that seems like a small thing but it was just the icing on the cake of a very long day with her.

That girl can do stubborn.

To the extreme.

So we get to practice doing our responsibilities in a timely manner, with a good attitude for the next three days.  (Which loosely translates to "girlfriend, you have tested my very last patient mother nerve and now you're grounded and doing chores for the next three days").

I could tell you about how the mysterious pain in my joints has worsened in my shoulders to the point that it's waking me up at night because it hurts so bad and it's worrying me a bit because it's started in my wrist now. (Joining my knees, hips, and shoulders.  No it's not arthritis or lupus.  I've been tested for those.  And I'm debating on trying to go to the doctor about it again now that it's spreading to a new joint, but I'm fighting with the fact that they don't ever seem to know what it is and I don't want to start building up doctor's bills to figure it out, because it's apparently going to be a bit of a process to figure it out).

I could show you the picture of the fork I found in the silverware drawer.

I couldn't unbend it.  I have no idea who did it, or how it happened, or why they thought to put it back in the silverware drawer.

Maybe Mom and Dad won't notice if I just put it back in the drawer...

Guys.  If you're going to express super muscleman capabilities on my cutlery at least hide it in the garbage can.

And good news on the remodeling front.  There is no more navy blue carpet in the TV room.

Can I get a hallelujah?

Hallelujah.

Oh, I know what I can post about today.  One thing I do need is a good book to read, so if you have any good suggestions, please kindly leave a comment letting me know.  When there's snow outside and hot chocolate and peppermint cookies inside, you need a good book to read.

Thanks!

Unicorns, Jesus, and Fat Hamsters

Last night while carving jack-o-lanterns The Man was watching zombies on TV in the next room.
Brynn says, "Great.  Now I'm going to dream about zombies."

Cali replies with, "Not me.  I dream about unicorns, Jesus, and fat hamsters."

Either Cali really loves animals, fat hamsters in particular, or she's going to be a loyal Kia customer.

Only time will tell I suppose.

An Interseting Fact About Scones

'Tis the season:

Last night the house phone rings, which is a general indication that the phone call is for one of The Circus since anyone who needs to get ahold of The Man or me is going to call our cell phones.

"I bet it's for Casidee."
"I bet the caller i.d. is from the P----- residence..." (That would be her boyfriend).

Poor Casidee.  She inherited my ability to blush completely crimson.

It was for her. 

But it wasn't fromt the P----- residence.  Not yet anyway.

If you're going to go out with a boy in our house, you need to get some thick skin because we're not going to be subtle about it.

Good thing she's a good sport.

I mostly appreciate that she's open about it.

Last night we tackled Navajo Tacos again with no power outages this time.  I was frying the dough and Tayler was being my helper.

I would take the browned scones (fried bread) out of the oil and place them on a plate that had a paper towel on it.

"Why do you need to put them on a paper towel?" Tay asks.
"So it can absorb the oil from the scones."
"That's an interesting fact about scones."

Indeed.

 It's a kidless weekend at out house.

When the mice are away the cats will play?

Wicked-er at the Desert Star Playhouse with some friends is all I have on the books for now so we'll see how the rest of the weekend plays out.

Don't forget LDS General Conference.  It's going to be amazing.  I love listening to that.  Without fail it fills with me with joy and peace.

Hey, this weekend I think I should tackle some Halloween costumes.  The only question is should I start with the tutus or with the capes?

Black Eyes and Breaking and Killing Potatoes (also, recipe reviews from the circus)

We're full swing into spirit week at school.  Yesterday was pajama day, today is fake an injury day.

No blood allowed.

So we settled for black eyes.

That's much more fun than sticking fake bandaids and wraps.

I've been trying new recipes this week, mostly off of pinterest so I thought I'd let you know what we think of the food pins that are floating around on that site.

(My food board is here if you want to follow it.)

Last night I asked to Brynn to help me with the potatoes and handed her the bag.

She asks, "do you want me to break them?"

"Do I what?"

"I mean, should I kill them?"

"You want to break and kill the potatoes?"

Turns out she was asking if she should grate and peel them.

I think it's going to stick around though.  "Hey, will you break and kill the potatoes for me?" 

Here are the three food pins that we've tried out within this last week:

Chile Colorado Burritos
Pinterest link     original link

{source}

This is by far one of the easiest things I have ever made.

Seriously. 

Dump three things into a crockpot and walk away.  Come back at dinner, wrap it all up in a tortilla and do a quick broil to melt the cheese.

Papa Mike joined us for dinner that night so with nine people having dinner that night it has a possible of nine votes.

How many votes did it get?

Nine.

We loved it.  It was easy and had great flavor

This will be a frequent repeat recipe at our house.

Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti
 original link

{source}

A fairly simple crockpot recipe.  I didn't end up doing it in the crockpot because it calls for you to precook the chicken and then put it in the crockpot for only a couple of hours, and being at work that day, that wasn't going to happen.  So I just precooked the chicken and then threw it all in a regular pot to simmer together while I boiled the noodles.

6 of us were home for dinner that night and out of 6 votes it got...

only one.

I couldn't bring myself to eat this.  Tayler loved it, but she was on her own in that.  Maybe it was the fact that it just had an overwhelming taste of Velveeta.  And nothing else. No other flavors stood out in this recipe.

I had a big pot of it and ended up just throwing it all out. 

I'll be deleting this from my pinterest board.

Ranch Crock Pot Pork Chops with Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
Pinterest link    Original link

This recipe was also a crockpot recipe, but I did it in a regular pan after I got home from work. 
I ended up mixing the gravy into a smaller pan and adding water to thin the consistency and the flavor out.

This is the recipe we made last night where Brynn helped me break and kill the potatoes.

6 of us ate dinner last night.  This recipe got...

6 votes.

The flavor was delicious.  It took a little effort with the potatoes but it was so worth it.

We'll be eating this again soon.

Africa is a state, Toma Toes, and staying home for a day

Yesterday Tayler woke up with a headache.  Normally I question headache claims, especially in the morning.

But Tay's eyes were ringed with red and even before she told me about it I was asking her if she was okay.  She just seemed... not herself.

So I sent her to bed and called my boss.

I love my job because I don't get guilt trips handed to me when I need to stay home with a sick child anymore.

Some days I desperately miss being a stay at home mom.  I look forward to the days when I have an excuse to just be home.

I changed out of those pesky slacks and pulled on my jeans.  I sat down and made my to do list.  Half the fun of staying home when you're not the one who's sick, is making the home nice to come home to for everyone else.

I sent The Man a text letting him know I was staying home and that I planned and doing a lot of decluttering. 

He asked if I was decluttering between my ears?

I replied that if he weren't careful I was going to throw out all of his stuff.

I love to banter with that man.

It wasn't too far into the morning that Tayler woke up and decided that her headache was gone and she could go to school.  I walked her to school and she told me about how her class is studying geography and learning the continents and the states.

"I'm learning about Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho... these are states, Mom... Colorado, Africa..."

"Tayler, Africa is a continent, not a state."

She giggles.

I got home from taking her to school and decided that I wasn't about to put those slacks back on so I decluttered my closet and dresser.  I tackled all the random papers in Tayler and Cali's room.  I cleaned the bathroom and the laundry room and rotated all the laundry that had been started by the kids that morning.  I did dishes and vacuumed that entire house.  I put dinner in the crockpot and it filled the house with a delicious aroma.

It just filled my soul to have the house clean and smelling like wonderful dinner for when everyone walked through the door.

And then I watched a lot of Vampire Diaries because season three is finally on Netflix.

I love staying home, but if I'm to be completely honest with myself, I think I would get bored with it really fast, especially now that all of my kids are in school all day.  I think my happy place, would be to have a part time work schedule.  Then I could keep up with my cleaning and projects at home, but still get the personal fulfillment outside of the home that I love. 

Though if I really look at it, my job is so flexible, that it's totally possible for me to take a day here or there as I need it so I guess I really did find the best of both worlds.  I'm going to have to add that to my list of why I love my job.

So that was yesterday.  And being that I was off my usual routine, I never sat down and blogged about The Man's discovery of Toma Toes.

Have you figured it out yet?

We were driving down the road when the man blurts out, "what in the world are Toma Toes?"
I was confused.  Toma Toes?  What is he talking about?
He points at the corner where they're setting up fruits and vegetables for sale and without even seeing the sign that had confused him I knew.

Toma Toes.
Do you mean tomatoes?

I watched the understanding of his mistake spread across his face.

He's special.

In his defense the sign was spelled out on two rows.

toma
toes

But it sure is fun to tease him about it.

He said he thought it was a type of tomato, like Roma tomatoes.  Which makes it even funnier that he was thinking of tomatoes, but didn't realize that it was just tomatoes.

Papa Mike stops by a time or two through out the week which makes us all happy because he plays games with the kids and talks about cars and four wheelers with The Man.

We like to feed him dinner when he stops by.  I love watching The Circus swarm him.  They sure love him.

And last but not least, Cali is was proud of this drawing from school.

I personally love the platypus.

My Tummy Just Burped

{picture source}

Reason number five on my long list of reasons of why I love my job, is that I get to be home long enough in the mornings to do my girls' hair.

I love those moments with them.

For some reason, it's always exciting to have Mom do your hair, even if it happens every morning.

I'm totally okay with this.

I find it's also good one on one time with them. 

We talk about who the cute boys are.  We talk about homework.  We talk about recess.  We talk about what we should do after school or next weekend.  We talk about what they want for Christmas/birthdays.  We talk about being nice.  We talk about the scripture we read that morning.

I love hair time.

This morning I was brushing out Tayler's hair.  She had a specific request for hair that we'd found on one of our favorite hair blogs (here) and I was brushing and parting when her stomach rumbled loudly.

Tayler giggled.

"Mom, my tummy just burped."

I just can't beat that, so I'm going to leave this post at that.
But I'll be back tomorrow to tell about how The Man discovered a thing called Toma Toes. 
That's good stuff right there.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I have a whole list of hair blogs that I like to look at but here are my three favorites:
Adopt A Do
Hair For the Mini Diva
Redpunzel

The Day I Ended Up Wet, On My Back, And Covered In Dog Fur

The other night we had a situation with our dog, Milo, that required us using the hose on his backside.

Milo hates baths and that's in a tub with warm water no less, so take him out into the backyard with the cold hose...

The Man gave me the option.  Hold Milo, or do the job with the hose.

Since the hose job had the possibilities of being "yucky," I decided that I could hold Milo.

I've always claimed that our dog Strider is the Clydsedale horse of dogs.  Apparently, Milo is also, he just doesn't care to exert it as much as his brother.

Milo did not want anything to do with that hose.  The Man had tried to do this job before I got home to no avail.  When we went into the backyard, Milo knew what was coming.

He tried to run and The Man held him in his arms while I got into place.  I watched The Man applying all sorts of muscle power against the struggling dog and knew that I needed to put a lot of weight into this.

I got down on my knees, pulled Milo close to my chest, and wrapped my arms around his torso and in front of his chest while I bent over, laying my body weight on him, enough to hold him there without crushing the ever living daylights out of him.

He struggled, but my hold stayed.

So The Man turned the hose on and began to spray.  As soon as that cold water hit Milo's backside that dog doubled his efforts of force.  I ended up covered in water and somehow on my back, arms above my head as I valiantly tried to keep my hold on the run away dog.  He was running on my hair and my face was being licked by Strider who seemed pleased as punch that it wasn't him who was involved in all of the hassle.

After all of that, the job still needed to be done.

So West held Milo.

And I got the yucky job.

And I got the yucky job done.

In wet clothes, covered in fur and dog saliva.

It was my turn to need a shower after that business.

****

Complete change of course, in case that story wasn't enough for you,  here's a beautiful thought for the day:

Jayme's braces and other thoughts that are neither here nor there

Jayme started her braces.

If you ask her to show them to you, she'll hiss at you like a vampire, baring her teeth.

We're a little bit into vampires at our house.

{source}

Over the weekend I may or may not have eaten an entire box of mint ice cream sandwiches.

... all by myself.

Listening to this for a half hour straight was enough to drive me bonkers:

b

Sorry to our neighbors for that.
That ball just did not want to come off.
I blame it on West's dad, Mike.

We're a little off on our kid schedule right now with the winding down of summer, which left us with no kids on a Monday night.

The Man took me to the new Mexican restaurant that's been on my hit list.
Can we say new favorite restaurant?
They had an amazing guacamole sauce to go with the chips, and I got to order a stuffed avacado.

Chicken, cheese, and avacado? Sign me up.

Yesterday I pulled Casidee's class schedule from the school district's website.
Like it or not, Mom, Jr. High is happening.

Except in our neigborhood it's a middle school.

The girl is taking Chinese. 
(How am I supposed to help her with homework questions???)

After writing this post, and letting some people know about it, I received this in my facebook message box:

which is hysterical.

Does anyone else have that problem?  I know that one time I posted this picture of Cali and her ripped pants but I hardly think that qualifies...

{the original post}

Mom Do Not Lose!

What's she trying to say?
Maybe it's because this is the second list that I asked her to make... I lost the first one...

Cheeky little thing.

put it on itube

The man and I have taken up playing Chess with Friends on our phones.
We'll sit there and complain when it takes too long for a move to transfer over.
Because, you know, we couldn't actually pull out a real board or anything.

Stinky West beats me every time.

Yesterday when I stopped to get gas for my car, I stopped the car but left the key in, got out and started to fill my car.

When it was done I climbed back in and turned the key.
It wouldn't start.

So I tried to remove the key so I could get a fresh start at it.
But the key wouldn't come out.

I struggled with it for a minute. 
Turning and unturning and trying to pull that thing out.

It wouldn't start and the key wouldn't come out.
Finally I succumbed to calling The Man.

He started running through a check list.
Is your steering wheel kinked?
No.

Wiggle it back and forth.
It's not working.

Is the car in park?
And I looked down...

You have got to be kidding me.
I knew I had to tell him.

I left it in drive.
Thankfully he laughed at me for interrupting his work morning with the fact that I didn't put my car in park before turning it off.

I retold this to my co-worker, Linda.
We started going off on "what could have happened" scenarios.

Like the car rolling away from me while I was pumping gas, and taking the gas hose, or even the whole gas pump, with it.
Linda says, "you could have ended up on itube! Or, I mean, the ipod."

She doesn't get out much.
After we were done laughing I was finally able to let her know that it's called youtube.

Brynn's faces for freezing six warts from her toes.
There was a method to my madness, taking pictures of her in this moment.

It made her laugh before she was off on her next face.
It distracted her for a moment.

Maybe I should have made a video for itube.
Maybe I should invent itube.

Brynn was good as soon as we left the office.
Other than she couldn't wear her shoe.
She's the one asking for this treament to be done after all, and when that girl sets her mind on something, it set in stone as far as she's concerned.