Tuesday, May 31, 2011

let's see...

This should be a bullet post.
I have lots to say, but as soon as it is in my head,
it is out again...
tired?
hot?
Both.

Two great commercials:
1. the one where the dog is dreaming about keeping up
with his bone and he runs it to the safety deposit box at a bank...
it is an insurance commercial. :)
the other one...well, it has escaped me now.

I am already tired of politics for the upcoming election.
For the freaking record people, the republicans put a president in office...
{think Reagan, and G dubs} and the guy runs up massive amounts of debt..
Think the 80s and the budget deficit, and think...well, what GW did...
it's the truth...How this leads to them being thought of as fiscally conservative,
I would love to know... Good lord!!
Now everyone thinks that one president later it's all gonna be fixed..
They aren't all Bill Clinton, that magic ain't gonna happen again,
Remember how when Bill was in office he got rid of all the debt, remember workfare etc.????
Does anyone else remember all of this??
To be honest, I am beginning to think they are all just dishonest creeps...
uggh...so sad.

Oh! which brings me to...
Ahnold...
What anyone surprised by his whole love baby thing?
Really?
Is that even news...really?
He is a freaking meat head looking dude anyway..
I mean I wonder if he is even smart at all...
And to bring it full circle..look
how California's economy faired under his
republ!can administration....
interesting.

I wanted to post about being at the beach with my sister...way fun.
BUT the pictures she emailed me will not put themselves up here..
What is up with that?
They just will not.
The computer will not allow it.
We had fun at the beach, though.
it was awesome (the new word to mean great, among the Kindergarten set btw).

bueno, y good night.
I am off to read, now.
My oldest kids are sleeping with me.
Which means I will be squished all night.
Elena is like a squirrel trying to snuggle into any where she can all night,
and V-man is always so hot, ,that he kicks away anything that could
be called covers and kicks and kicks and kicks...
Oh, and don't forget when Eva wakes up in the
middle of the night and wants some frosted flakes... ha!

Nighty night...

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

una maravilla

on sunday, i went to bed.
my chest muscles were hurting from the romp
in the water that Elena and I took.
You know, holding the forty lbs. of kid does not hurt
{in the moment}
On Sunday...it HURT.
So, I went to bed.

Then, as I lay there, I heard something so grand.
Music to my ears!
Eva vino corriendo por el pasillo--
hablando frases completas en Spanish!
Eva was running down the hall talking y talking y
all of it was in Spanish.
To Andy it was babble.
If I had been looking at her or holding her,
I might not have focused my ears so much.
That is how {almost} two year olds talk.
She said this:  Enenenenena (Elena) vente pa ca, Enenenenana
One tas? Enenenananenena {Where are you? Elena?}
Then, she spied that the door to the bedroom was closed, and I heard:
Mama, Mama??? Tas mi mi?  Tas mi mi Mama?  {Mama, are you sleeping? }
Yailin alli tas?  Tas mi mi Yailin--She got confused, b/c usually if the door is shut
in the day time, her little friend is asleep in there..
This was music to my ears.
A mystery solved.
Eva does talk to Camelia all day, and Yailin too.
She is just like Victor and Elena were.
They spoke Spanish too, at one point.
Sentences, and now, NADA!
But this mystery continues to unravel itself.
Elena will listen to me talking to Camelia, she listens and then
about a week later she will give commentary of some conversation that Camelia
and I have had.
How did she know what we said I think to myself???
Maybe she understands some words and picks it apart?
This is all a very interesting little linguistic situation we have here.
I do not force any of my interests on my children on purpose.
If they want to learn Spanish, they will listen hard.
If I want to listen to music in Spanish etc. I do--if that bugs them, well
sometimes I let them pick etc.  (I try to keep it somewhat even, vamos)
But whatever Spanish they get will be driven by their interest or what is unavoidable,
or what their brains do, sin ni pensar--
stay tuned....

Monday, May 23, 2011

A picture's worth...

A day all to ourselves



These are pictures from
Saturday, when Elena and I went to the beach all by ourselves.
Victor had some other goings on, and Andy went with Victor.
Eva stayed with my Mama and Daddy.
This left me, with my big girl, going to the cottage.
We stayed one night.
We spent all day on the beach together.
The picture of her with the outfit on, that is the outfit that she chose
from the manequin...the entire outfit.
She wanted to look like the manequin, so we found
all of the pieces and bought the outfit.
We went out to eat at the restaurant that she chose, and we fell
asleep on the sofa watching HGTV...
ahhh paradise! ;)
Oh, and don't forget, we went to the bead store and bought stuff to make shell
necklaces.
So girly. ;).

And some things don't...

On an advertisement email that I just read it said:
"Some things go together, like peanut butter and jelly, and skinny jeans, and flat sandals.."
All I can think is...and some things DON'T.
Like,
Hot summer weather and skinny jeans!!
good lord!!
Who wants to be 90 degrees and have some freaking tight jeans sticking to their legs...
ughh...

Friday, May 20, 2011

Music in the Streets...

So, every third Friday from April til October, there is music in the streets here
 in the l.dubs....
and it is fun.
no matter how you pick to enjoy it.
Main street is closed to traffic.
There is popcorn, pizza, snow cones, beer,
people..everyone you know, and don't.
This is the kind of thing that is a draw, to me.
To us.
We can go up and down the road, no
one gets rowdy {so far}.
Your kids can pick what they want to dance to, and dance.
Stay tuned for Mrs. Potts, playing her accordian.
She is becoming famous for this....
Clowm make-up..whatever, come and play with her!
What a treasure, for sure...
In a small town.
We went with several families tonight, and we
ended up, carrying children, ALL THE WAY back
to where we started from....
But you know what I said?
Vale la pena {it is worth it}...to let our children hear the music...
To let them see the people having fun....
To participate, in our own way...
Vale la pena!   y we had fun.
All the children are in bed now,
bellies are full of cotton candy, hawaiian ice,  and popcorn...
Hopefully they are dreaming of their compadres, dancing in the road...

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Mom {guilt}

Okay, so i just clicked on one of the blogs on my sidebar, and the blogger
has all these fotos of her precious son's face....
Guilt!
I just had a row with my middle child tonight.
Probably one he will remember {forever}.
One of those, life's little lessons learned kind.
eeekkkk!!
No glove at t-ball {equalled}
one very upset little boy, who proceeded to show his little
behind...and make a scene
which, I just {cannot} support.
I could see the defeated/frustrated look in his eyes.
He is four.
He wanted {HIS} GLOVE, not the one that was generously offered
by Whatchamacallit (if there was ever a time for an introduction).
I wondered...where in the WORLD is that glove...oh! if only one could just appear..
HIS ONE.
He acted very ugly.
We left t-ball --no practice.
I spanked him and sent him to bed.
Sometimes, this mommy thing can be so hard/heartwrenching.
I wonder if that {other mother} has these rows with her children...
Or is it always big sky, and bliss.....

I can hope that he has learned his lesson, and he knows not
to pull that one again....
That is why we teach these lessons, no?

I did go into his room and give him hugs and kisses while ago, and he
did smile in his sleep at me....

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Off the {hook}

That is what my phone has been for the past two evenings.
Andy has gone out of town to work.
Yesterday, when I got home, I decided that things were going to be extra calm in my house.
What could I eliminate...????
Oh! I know, the thing that rings at the {worst} moment every time it rings...
Baby just fell in the tub....ring...
Got three minutes to yourself to do a number two??? {RING}!!!
The door bell is ringing and the puppy just had diarhea all over the floor in the middle of the living room rug...
{RINGEDY RINNNGGG RINGG.....!!}

So, last night I decided to use my Mama's old trick, of simply taking the phone off the hook.
We do not have hooks anymore, really.
But I pick it up and dial lots of ones...then it goes busy without the bonking.
Last night was so entirely peaceful.
ahhhh...
So I have done it again tonight.
I think the phone will be off the hook all week long!
It is fabulous!

Friday, May 13, 2011

No joke (public health disaster?)

Many of you probably remember the song, "Poison Ivy" from the 50's...
Well, late at night,
when  I was sleeping ...
Poison Ive came a creepin' around hound hound hound hound...
It is NO JOKE.
I would post some pictures --if you know my Mama, she took them...
They would be so gross, you might stop reading FOREVER.
Somehow, or another, I got poison ivy, and I had a TERRIBLE REACTION.
Did I get it in New Jersey?  That was a big yard, with lots of ivy...
Did I get if from my yard?  I did do yard work two weeks ago.

All I know is I had a nagging itching, that climbed its way up my legs,
and I waited for two days...
On Tues. at that point I could not be at work, b/c I did not know what was oozing and swelling on my
legs...
It was disgusting...
One shot of steroids later, one twelve day prescription of steroids later, one prescription of Adirax,
to quell, the anxiety/itching/not sleeping later..
Well, it still looks terrible.
I still itch!!!

Crazy to me is,
I have played in the woods my whole life,
I have worked in the yard...
Have I never come into contact with this before???

Hope you never get this...
it is my idea of torture for a terrible enemy..

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Ay que ciudad!

 This is Andy
in Grande Central Station, which is, in a word, {grand}.  It is actually breathtaking.  It is amazing that we will either ride trains out of building that are so majestic, or out of .... a strip mall...I guess it depends on who's fronting the money, in this case, it was the Vanderbilts I think (among others I am sure).
 This little gem--one of my favorite places we saw, was called the Church of the Transfiguration (wonder what they put on their bumper stickers???).
It was soooo cute--beyond belief!  It was built sometime in the early 1800s by some Episcopalians.  We spotted it while we were walking {and walking and walking} up Madison Ave.
I just had to go over to it and investigate...so worth the extra blocks....

 Glass and copper awning over the door
at the Church
 Cute leetle pagoda thingy out in front of the church...

 Now that (check background) looks
like something important....IT WAS!! --that was Grand Central Station from Madison Ave.

 In Bryant park
right beside the NYC
public Library where Carrie
Got hitched--no..ditched..
The tall building behind me was one that I liked a bunch...
 Checking out the
guidebook, which did not do me alot of good...I have no internal compass, turns out (just like
Reader's digest {etc.} has been telling us all of these years...I navigate my way using store fronts and homeless guys' feet issues...
"Let's see...we went in a circle, b/c
I KNOW we passed that shop just while ago..."
 Andy being Posey--for the camera--at my request...hee hee..
looking up at the ceiling in the g. central station...the ceiling is painted one of my favorite colors and it has astrological signs painted at the top.
My leg squished into
the freakin plane on the way home...
that is how I rode from Newark, NJ to Charlotte, NC...eek!
What do REALLY TALL people do???

Monday, May 9, 2011

on goog!e today...

There is a tribute to Roger Hargraeves..
the man who writes all of the Little Miss and Mr. ___ (fill in the blank)
books.
They are some of our favorites, and b/c I could not resist
we have sort of a {collection}.
They are so silly!
You have to be a good read aloud(er) for the kids to understand them.
I am not sure why the tribute is there...
but it piqued my interest for sure.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

stay tuned....

Andy and I are in Montclair NJ.
We spent the day yesterday in NYC.
I will be posting more when we get home.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Princess





I am not sure if this video is going to put itself up here.
...another taylor swift song...what can i say???
it is about NOT BEING A PRINCESS! :)

Eva, for one, dreams of them....This is {close} to the way her face looked all morning the day the princess got married! She watched so intently!!
She could detect how special it was...this is amazing to me.
I tried to take a picture that would capture the look in her eyes...could not get it...

Monday, May 2, 2011

Bloggy Fusion {moment}

This weekend,
at a wedding,
Bethany (borderland) and I got to hang out!
We had a great time, and our children had fun playing together too.
If we meet in person it has to be after an 8 hour drive that one of us has made.
So far she has been the one to make it,
her family lives here. :)

Hope you all made it back safely, Bethany!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

I hep! I fee pah!



Her other very {sassy} trick...
AFTER you take the picture...
She says, "Chee!!"

She isn't called {hambone} for nothing...

Garden {love}





Yesterday we worked outside.
First I went to Lowe's and bought the plants.
Another thing I bought this year, 
Black Kow.
Yes. Cow sh*t is for sale at Lowe's 
in a bag.
So, we have five tomato plants
of three varieties
cucumbers
carrots
peppers.
And for myself only 
I bought some plants to go in my giant pot out in the front yard.
This is the spot that I cannot keep stuff alive in.
Neglect.
So, we're off!
Hopefully, with the help of the
cow manure that
I bought at Lowe's
we will be eating some tomatoes!

Happy Gardening.
Oh! And Pictures of the garden are coming.
What happened was, the camera battery ran out....
The pictures above are before pictures..
after we had the stuff all planted, Elena and Victor went 
around the garden and kissed each plant...
Ahhh..be still my heart...

Spot on!

Spot is our family's chihuahua.  He is what we call, "an evil dictator/stuffed animal come to life".  Sometimes, after he has ...