Going to the Dogs...

Well it's official. My Mother in Law just got a new puppy! I don't think I mentioned on this blog that she was planning on getting one because I wasn't sure if it would actually happen. There's a lot of back story and drama with all of it that I'm not going to waste my energy typing... needless to say I think now that she has the pup it will be good for her.

Little Sophy is a Porky (Pomeranian/Yorkie) and we're hoping against hope that she didn't get the pom barking tendencies. She does have hair (vs fur) which will be great for those of us with doggie allergies (mild though they may be) and she'll be a very small dog when fully grown. I took a couple pictures but the little thing refused to show me her face and most of them came out blurry. Still you can get an idea of her size and how adorable (I think) she is. I'm envious as anything, I really miss my Cali and I can't wait till the day when we're in a place where we can have dogs again.

mmm Coffee...

Yep still sick. Sorry for the extra super boring light posting week here everybody, I know you tune in daily (multiple times a day even) to catch up on all the wonderful things going on in my life so this black hole of nothingness has got to be driving you crazy... at least I pop in now and then to link you to an entertaining news story or some such thing...

Todays random news story is one about loosing weight and getting a flat tummy. Not that I think y'all care about those things specifically but see in my quest to eat healthy and what not I have been working very hard to limit my intake of coffee to one cup a day. One cup, a splash of cream, and that's it. mmm coffee... there are even days I skip, yes I said skip, my cup!!

Well today I was reading that article I mentioned... one titled "5 Things Keeping You From a Flatter Stomach" and I came across this little gem:

"...there are tricks that help, too. Drinking coffee—when part of a weight-loss diet—may also trim the stomach slightly, and the caffeine may speed up the metabolism. Roberts suggests one to three cups of coffee a day..."

One to Three cups a day!! Really??!! *doing as energetic of a happy dance as the stuffy head and impaired balance will allow" ... Now, ahem, I'm off to read the rest of the article just to make sure they don't also tell us that eating great piles of chocolate is okay too.

In sickness and...

not in health. I'm sick folks. The Man flew back home on Saturday afternoon and we spent a great day relaxing and getting used to having him back in the house. Sunday the Kiddo came down with a really bad cold (fever, runny nose, and general icky'ness). Monday it was my turn (and thankfully the Man took the kid with him to visit his parents so I got to spend the entire afternoon sleeping).

Today I'm feeling about 50% better, though I'm still a little off. So it's a short post to say that yes I'm still alive, but apparently my sense of humor isn't... You wonder what I'm talking about? Well this morning as I sat and browsed the news I came across this story. I laughed for a good five minutes, possibly due to medication induced sillies.. or more likely because I've got a mean streak and it was just plain funny.

Note to self, when it Beijing don't threaten suicide unless you actually WANT to end up dead... Though technically this guy didn't die, he landed on a air bag. Still it's worth a mental note I think.

hmm

One more day till the Man gets home. I'm actually rather excited. Today I shall spend the day scrubbing the house (as it is always nice to come home from a trip to a clean house).

Anyway that means there is very little for me to talk about... but I did read a news story this morning that had me chuckling.

It was a story about a soldier who apparently didn't think he could dress fast enough so went to back up his buddies in his sleep wear. I'm all for comfy sleep boxers, and I even love pink... but uh I bet he never EVER lives this down. I should add that if the story is accurate then I'd like to give him a pat on the back as well, sometimes the most important thing is not how fast you can get dressed but how fast you can get on the line to take care of business.

A Mom Quiz.. just for kicks

Apparently I'm a smarty pants mom .. "you respond to your kids antics with intelligent wit and banter that lets them know you love em' but they'll have to get up a lot earlier in the morning to sneak something past you"

*click the picture to take the quize

good things and bad things

I just remembered why I hate summer here... Here being the apartments we live in. Which usually I don't mind at all. The reason I hate it, is the lawn... the great big green patch of grass that they mow at friggin 7am every single Wednesday morning.

In an attempt at a positive mental frame of mind today, as I crankily woke up to the noise of the mower AND the kid sitting on my head (since the mower wakes him up too), I thought to myself... at least I'm not on the ground floor! If it's that loud and intrusive on the third floor how ticked would I be if I lived right down next to it!?

Nothing much going on, I really should go do a news story browse in an effort to entertain you all. But I probably wont. The last time I did that I ended up reading about the 66 year old woman who got invitro in order to have a child. I'm all for adults making adult decisions but are you kidding me??!! When that kid is 15 the mom is gonna be 81! I'm not so optimistic about her ability to parent a teenager. Let alone the being made fun of that kid is going to go through in school when the other kids find out how old his/her mother is. Some people just take selfishness to a whole new level.

Instead of leaving you with that note I'll leave you with this... Technology is great! The Man has been gone for a week and a half at this point, home in four days. The kiddo crosses off days on a little printed out calender every day after breakfast to help him count down the days till daddy comes home. He also gets to talk to the Man on the phone nearly nightly... but the best thing?? The web cam. The Kiddo and his daddy had a very nearly hour and a half long conversation the other night, all via the internet. Just before saying goodbye the Kiddo ran to his room and got his camera so he could take a picture of "talking to daddy in the computer". The quality of the photo is crap, but that's because it was taken by a four year old with a 3 mp digital camera... you get the idea though ... I Love my Kiddo and my Husband.

A good Saturday

The first car show of the year!! That was Saturday. I love LOVE going to classic car shows with the inlaws. We didn't do very many of them last year, I'm not sure why... it seemed like they didn't do many and maybe it was for the best. The Kiddo wasn't quite to the point where he would completely listen and be able to sit still for as long as is required at those things.

Let me explain a little. Going to the car shows with them isn't like just going to a car show. My father in law owns two classic cars so we go, set up an ez-up and sit under it for the entire duration of the show. We pic nic for lunch and eat all sorts of crap food, and walk around several times looking at all the cars. That's easy for an adult but for a 4 year old?? He has to be able to sit calmly, to entertain himself for hours, and to never EVER touch any of the very cool cars that he sees.
Saturday he did amazing, he kicked his feet and chatted with all the people that came by to visit. He held my hand while we walked and always stopped several feet from whatever car he was looking at. If he wanted to see inside he would stand there and look over his shoulder at me and ask me to pick him up so he could see.
I hope he keeps up the good behavior, it will be a really fun summer if he does! Check out the flames on this thing... that's my favorite style, I call them ribbon flames. I know it's not as "classic" looking as the other styles but if I ever get my cream car I'm getting this style flames on it, just in silver and blue (since my dream car would be black).
(A mustang, fastbacks aren't my thing but I promised to take a pic of a mustang for my bro and I think I remember him saying he liked em this way)
That's not copper plated, that's actually made of copper. can you imagine polishing that thing!!??
My favorite, baby blue and WITH a matching Indian. How can you not love it.

THE park...

Not just the park, but THE park... the one and only big fancy park that is like a castle, with misters and a special section for the younger kids. It's only maybe 6 minutes from where we live and yet we hardly ever go. We don't go because it's always so crowded, I get nervous enough with the Kiddo playing on things he can fall off of w/out him playing around a hundred strange kids who could push him off...

Which is the paranoid mom speaking but jeez he's clumsy can you blame me for worrying? Today his little cousin (henceforth known as the Princess) was there to play with him, she's 6 and acts like it *chuckle*. Still she can do very well with keeping an eye on him and today she was amazing playing with him, he slows her down and you could see the frustration in her face but she stuck with him the whole time. Hopefully we do several more of these types of park play dates this summer, I know it would be an amazing growing experience for the Kiddo, and it would be a good one for me as well (being forced to just let him play vs hovering).

The coolest Dentist..

Took the Kiddo to his first dentist appointment today. I waited an extra month to get an appointment at this dentist vs the other one less then a block away. I'd read some really good reviews on how well they treat the kids and how cute their office was.

It was definitely worth the wait!! The waiting room and office areas are sooo cute and the Kiddo adored every single one of the staff. He cooperated and was perfect with the girl who took xrays of his teeth, top bottom AND sides (I guess most kids his size/age don't handle the side xtrays very well and they usually have to skip them).

I took a few photo's for you to check out, one of the waiting room area.

And one of the Kiddo in the exam chair. There is a tv in the ceiling above him so when they laid him down to look in his mouth he got to watch Bolt! He didn't want to leave.

I wish I'd gotten one of him in the xray apron, it was SO cute it covered him from head to ankle so just hit little head showed. But I felt silly taking so many pictures so didn't take one.

Photo prompts catch up

Phase one of my HSMSHS photo prompt catchup... I've got two of them for this post.

Guard: To watch over or keep safe.

Rock: The solid mineral material forming part of the surface of the earth.

hi ho hi ho

it's been a loong week and I haven't posted at all. Didn't mean to leave you hanging I've just had nothing to post about really.

Today on the other hand... I'll probably be putting up a couple posts. We went to the dentist, after that we went to the park with the cousin, and I even took a couple of my photo prompt shots. That's two shots out of the 5 I need for the week isn't bad. I'll catch those up either later today or this weekend.

I also died my hair a normal color this week. I loved LOVED the blue but the responsible thing to do was go back to normal. So it's auburn now :D

Oh my sanity...

sorry folks I'mma kill the world today... I've been sitting on the phone for over an hour, on HOLD with work force services. I don't think there will be a real post today just this brief wine (because being on hold makes me crazy tense).

The worst part is I've got some place I need to go (grocery shopping) but I can't hang up now, that would mean I wasted the entire last hour and *checking the phone* 10 minutes and 54 seconds.. ..

The Candyman Knows..

Most of you have probably already seen this but I hadn't and thought it was pretty neat. My friend in Nevada sent it to me.

YOUR AGE BY CHOCOLATE MATH It takes less than a minute. Work this out as you read.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10)
2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50 -- I'll wait while you get the calculator

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1759 ..If you haven't , add 1758.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week).

The next two numbers are YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

This song was running through my head the entire time I was doing this.

a quick note...

I know I've been AWOL the last couple of days... that's because it's that time of year again. What time of year you ask? Time to kick the Man out the door to go spend two weeks playing soldier for the Navy. So we spent the last couple days hanging out at his parents (early mothers day for his mom) and making sure he was packed and had everything he needed.

This morning (if you can call 5am morning *yawn*) we drove him to the airport and sent him on his way.

Now it's barely 7:45am and I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. I think (read that as I hope) the kiddo will nap this afternoon and I'll be napping with him.

That has been my last few days, and is my mothers day. Now we start the one week count down to the Kiddo's first dentist appointment (Friday) and the two week countdown till the Man comes home.

Wednesday Photo Prompt (5-6)

I had a point... or maybe I didn't... do I ever?

Todays word prompt over at HSMSHS is Point: A tapered or sharp end, a projection, a dot, a place or spot, directions on the compass, the essential thing, to direct or aim.

I've got a very cool compass around here somewhere but rather then search for it (I'm lazy and odds are very very good it's buried in the storage closet) I found something else. Something sharp..

Dogs life

The little Man has been pretending he's a dog almost non stop lately. Ever since we let him watch Bolt (over and over and over for what feels like must have been a month strait). He scoots around the house on his hands and knees (ow). He barks to talk (and will argue with you, in bark speak, when you ask him to use a people word because you don't understand dog speak). He also constantly demands his food in a bowl on the floor (yeah um doesn't happen often folks).

Recently him and I built him a fort out of his cranium foam tubes. The first one we built was a house (he actually does the cubes, then I put on the tarps for him).. a house that was a bed.
The second one was a giant square play house (no picture). The third day he rebuilt the cubes and I put on a curved roof for him because my neck was starting to get a crink from sitting in these short little houses. This one isn't a people house... I've been told it's his dog house.
He wont let me take it down. Every night he asks if he can eat dinner in the dog house. Every night I tell him no. Last night I told him (since he'd finished his burger) that he could take his water and his carrot sticks in it to eat them. He was over the moon happy. I took a picture :D

Tuesday Photo Prompt (5-5)

I know I missed Mondays photo prompt, it was Mix and I'm still sorta thinking that one out.

Tuesdays photo prompt at HSMSHS was Wire: A flexible thread of metal. How do you get an attractive photo of wires! My friend had a great idea of finding a whole bunch of those colored wires with their copper ends showing but I don't have any. I didn't get out of the house yesterday either so couldn't get a picture of any birds sitting on a telephone wire. So this will have to do, all the wires involved in plugging in the phone:

Sunday S.O.S. (5-3)

I love Sundays as far as picture days go, they are SOS (show off Sundays) and you get to see the most beautiful shots over at HSMSHS and there's really no constraints on what you can post. The hardest part sometimes is picking just one. Today I'm going to go ahead and do two because... well... because I can *grin*
I've been sitting on this one for awhile. I took it and then couldn't decide if I like it or not. But I think I do so I'm keeping it.

The next set of picture (below) have a thought to go with them. You know when people ask you what your favorite season is? I always think about it and usually it's a tie between spring and fall. Then when it IS spring I remember that the majority of my feelings for this season go something along the lines of "holy criminy what the heck is up with the weather, would it just PICK a temperature already! And for crying out loud will my eyes and nose and throat ever stop itching!!" .. .. ..

But the trees flower, and the tulips open, and the grass finally starts to green up.. I suppose those are the things I remember when it isn't spring and I'm thinking about it. So ask me my favorite season right now and I'll probably say fall, ask me in two months and I'll be on the fence again.

So what's your favorite season? (Said knowing full well at least half of you are stuffy and sneezy with itchy eyes).

Saturday S.P.S. (5-2)

Okay rather then skip a day, even though I don't really have any arty self portraits (remember Saturdays are sps over at HSMSHS "someones portrait Saturday") I'm going to put up a shot of the kiddo. It's really kind of a horrible photo (quality wise) but I love it, he wanted (read as demanded) me to take a picture of him and his giraffe. He was given the stuffy a couple years ago and just recently he's named the giraffe kiki and was lugging it around for several hours playing when this photo was taken. Yep he's a full blown ham and if he has to use his Innocent stuffies as an excuse to get his photo taken he'll do it!

Food

As you all know I love to cook.. I really like to do the from scratch stuff (probably a carryover from my childhood as I really can't remember my mom or dad making very many frozen food type meals). I even post a good yummy recipe on here every now and then. Of course the recipes I share tend to be of the comfort food variety, the extra yummy but not exactly super healthy kinds.

My friend Heather has a blog where she really only does food entries. "Foodie" with an attitude. She has some really good looking stuff on there, (spinach strawberry salad mmmm) Healthy and good ... almost sounds like an oxymoron. So if you want some new things to try then I highly suggest checking her out now and then. She does do a lot of fish recipes (Tilapia) and I'm not big on fish, but I know some of the rest of you are. Lady D and expecially you PH, you guys at least need to go look at least once to see about adding some recipies to the pile I have or am sending you for your cookbooks.