Ok, I am officially ready to chuck the stupid computer, after we get the pictures off. Ya'll are just going to have to use your imagination about India's b-day pics. She sat on my lap, and picked at a cupcake. No diving in, no money shot. Sorry to break the news. Anyway, now that that is out of the way, we can move on and I can not feel guilty about not posting the pictures.
Last week I experienced some serious hormones combined with some S.A.D. Call it me being sick of the wind, and feeling like all I ever do is pay bills, wipe butts, take care of a teething baby, and pick up the damn Yo Gabba Gabba dolls 60 times a day. I was just exhausted and feeling more like "Spanky the $12,000 Grand Champion hog" from the Stock Show. My lack of energy and motivation to do anything combined with a serious Panera bagel binge and Bachelor reruns left me feeling literally like a hog. It was obvious I needed to do something. So I put the bagel down and ordered some new exercise clothes and videos. I also figured it would be a good idea to make some cookies to tide me over until the stuff came. Shopping always helps to motivate me and so do cookies. Besides the "I just had a baby" excuse at the gym wasn't working anymore since India is now 1 and everyone knows I lost the 14lbs I gained with her 1 week after she was born.
Moving on to this week of actually doing the damn videos. Calla and I started out with some Zumba and then moved on to Jackie Warner's Crunch Free Xtreme Abs. I figured if you spell the word extreme without the E it must be harder. Calla was as eager as a Miss America contestent to get started. She ran around the house before hand with a tutu on and a Denver Nuggets sweatband on her head shaking the Zumba sticks yelling "lets move it people, we have some exercising to do!" Seeing as she has like no body fat, it is obvious she will be sporting her 6 pack abs in 2 weeks doing the videos, and will be ready for her Toddlers and Tiaras debut. Me, I am still walking like I have a stick up you know where thanks to video # 3 Tracy Anderson's Method. Now being a dancer, plies are not hard things for me to do. However Tracy's method is to do, and I am not kidding you, 100+ plies in a row. Effective yes, but walking through Target like I just pooped my pants is just asking for people to stare at me.
So this week I don't feel like poor Spanky anymore who is probably now bacon and ribs for a high end restaurant in LoDo. And as much as I don't like exercising, it does get me 2 hrs of alone me time to watch Ellen and Oprah at the gym 3 days a week. I am trying to commit to doing ballet on Saturdays and on Tues and Thurs when Miss Pre School Colorado is home, we'll do a video.
Because I know some of you will ask, here is the cookie recipe. It is somewhat healthly because it is made with all of the cereal that is leftover when you come home with a new box from the grocery store and your kids and husband have to open the new one to get the toy out and never finish the old one.
Rough and Ready Cookies
In a HUGE bowl, Cream together 1 cup Crisco, or butter with 1 cup white sugar and 1 cup brown sugar. (I said somewhat healthy) Beat in 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 2 eggs. Once combined, add in 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 cups of oatmeal, 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of coconut, 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, and 2 cups of cereal.
Stir together until all incorporated. (Aren't you glad I suggested a huge bowl now)
Mold into small balls and press down on an ungreased cookie sheet, or if you are lazy like me, spray a large 13x 9 pan and make like a rice krispy treat or brownie bar instead. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 min, or until it looks done. Note: pan takes longer to cook then balls.
Now you can make this healthy by adding dried cranberries, kashi, wheat germ and other things that make you poop easier if you like. Using smart balance butter sticks helps too. But you know me I used real butter. I also had on hand chocolate chips, cheerios, rice krispys, grape nuts, and some mystery cereal, so that is what I used. Everyone including India will eat them for breakfast.
Enjoy!
XOXO, Cara
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Technology is becoming a royal pain in my hiney butt
I know some of you are just dying with anticipation waiting for the pictures of India's birthday last weekend. :) I promise you I am not being lazy for once in my life. It appears I have somehow managed to piss off the technology Gods.
While our computer didn't technically crash, our accounting software and photo software files have somehow become corrupt, and will not open. Dave swears he was not buying weapons from the Mexican drug cartel, or opening emails from someone named Svetlana in Russia promising a good time if you watch her video on You Tube. Oh sure, you can still surf the internet and design multimillion dollar landscapes no problem. But seeing as I am not supposed to be shopping for things like the latest Spring fashions or even clearance sweatpants from Victoria's Secret, because no one is calling us in the middle of a recession in January to design multimillion dollar landscapes for their property; those programs are useless to me. No I need to finish the accounting for the last quarter of 2010, and get all of my photos dumped and updated. I am not exactly sure what is wrong, but I am sure it will require a complete hard reset of the entire mothership / motherboard thingy, a roll of Tums, a bag of Cheetoes and a large Slurpee to fix.
For those of you keeping up and reading previous posts, show and tell last week required something from Mom and Dad's work. Of course the Mommy in Calla's class who has her you know what together actually took a picture of the trucks that the Daddy drove. Me, I forgot entirely. It wasn't until we walked into school and I saw the board outside the classroom with the giant "Don't Forget" reminder that I knew I was hosed. So back out to the car we went to find something, because I knew if we didn't find anything it would be a huge mermaid meltdown. Looking around I had my choices......a bag of Dum Dum suckers (ok mommy eats these while she is trying not to scream at Barbara from a foreign country in tech support while she asks for the fiftieth time if I have restarted the computer) some expired license plates (yup time for a trip to the County Clerks office) an empty box from Norton Antivirus 2011 for the stupid computer (are you sensing the trend yet) and the camera. Nothing cool like the ice melt spreader or various power tools like Dave rolls around with in his truck. So in order to make it somewhat fun, I gave her the camera and showed her how to use it, and explained that there were pictures on there of the latest landscaping project her Daddy was working on. Now before you have a heart attack like the teacher did when I explained I sent our work camera to school with our 4 yr old, it is a very hardy "Tough" version Olympus. I have learned over the years when you send something light and slim with employees to a dusty, dirty, and muddy environment, they will break it. This camera like our phones is waterproof and shock proof, and hasn't been run over by the skid steer yet. Show and Tell went off well, and the camera made it home in better condition than normal.
So now I am faced with getting pictures off the computer and onto our hard drive the hard way. Once I do, rest assured pics of the party will be posted. In the mean time, let me leave you with yet another reason why technology is not my friend.
One of the things they teach 4 yr olds in preschool is how to recognize numbers on things like a digital clock and the telephone. Sweet, she can now tell me what time it is when we are running late and how to punch in Dave's phone number when my hands are full. However, she can now also read the numbers on the digital scale and tell everyone how much she weighs and how much more I weigh.........Lovely.
XOXO!
While our computer didn't technically crash, our accounting software and photo software files have somehow become corrupt, and will not open. Dave swears he was not buying weapons from the Mexican drug cartel, or opening emails from someone named Svetlana in Russia promising a good time if you watch her video on You Tube. Oh sure, you can still surf the internet and design multimillion dollar landscapes no problem. But seeing as I am not supposed to be shopping for things like the latest Spring fashions or even clearance sweatpants from Victoria's Secret, because no one is calling us in the middle of a recession in January to design multimillion dollar landscapes for their property; those programs are useless to me. No I need to finish the accounting for the last quarter of 2010, and get all of my photos dumped and updated. I am not exactly sure what is wrong, but I am sure it will require a complete hard reset of the entire mothership / motherboard thingy, a roll of Tums, a bag of Cheetoes and a large Slurpee to fix.
For those of you keeping up and reading previous posts, show and tell last week required something from Mom and Dad's work. Of course the Mommy in Calla's class who has her you know what together actually took a picture of the trucks that the Daddy drove. Me, I forgot entirely. It wasn't until we walked into school and I saw the board outside the classroom with the giant "Don't Forget" reminder that I knew I was hosed. So back out to the car we went to find something, because I knew if we didn't find anything it would be a huge mermaid meltdown. Looking around I had my choices......a bag of Dum Dum suckers (ok mommy eats these while she is trying not to scream at Barbara from a foreign country in tech support while she asks for the fiftieth time if I have restarted the computer) some expired license plates (yup time for a trip to the County Clerks office) an empty box from Norton Antivirus 2011 for the stupid computer (are you sensing the trend yet) and the camera. Nothing cool like the ice melt spreader or various power tools like Dave rolls around with in his truck. So in order to make it somewhat fun, I gave her the camera and showed her how to use it, and explained that there were pictures on there of the latest landscaping project her Daddy was working on. Now before you have a heart attack like the teacher did when I explained I sent our work camera to school with our 4 yr old, it is a very hardy "Tough" version Olympus. I have learned over the years when you send something light and slim with employees to a dusty, dirty, and muddy environment, they will break it. This camera like our phones is waterproof and shock proof, and hasn't been run over by the skid steer yet. Show and Tell went off well, and the camera made it home in better condition than normal.
So now I am faced with getting pictures off the computer and onto our hard drive the hard way. Once I do, rest assured pics of the party will be posted. In the mean time, let me leave you with yet another reason why technology is not my friend.
One of the things they teach 4 yr olds in preschool is how to recognize numbers on things like a digital clock and the telephone. Sweet, she can now tell me what time it is when we are running late and how to punch in Dave's phone number when my hands are full. However, she can now also read the numbers on the digital scale and tell everyone how much she weighs and how much more I weigh.........Lovely.
XOXO!
Friday, January 7, 2011
10 things I learned this week just because I know you are sick of looking at vacation photos already.
1. Children will throw everything out of a shopping cart just for fun over and over and over and over again if you put them in the cart part in an attempt to make it harder for them to climb out.
Exhibit A. Sitting nicely before entering store.
(Who Us....... We don't do bad things in the grocery store, we are innocent and perfect children.)
(Ha! Don't let the ears fool ya. I am Super Bad the Toothless Wonder! Able to chuck things from the cart faster then you can say Hamburger Helper.)
2. One can not truly appreciate having a mudroom until it is actually covered in mud from living on a farm with or without animals.
3. I am considering the 40 lb mudflap of a dog and her owner Mr. Doyle farm animals since they are the largest contributors of the mud in the mudroom.
4. Teething sucks, but evidently Fritos and Double Stuff 1/2 and 1/2 Oreos help.
5. However..... the Fritos mixed with Mexican food, purple carrots and blueberries make for quite possibly the nastiest and smelliest combo of baby poop the following day.
6. My chickens are terrified to leave their coop since the mysterious Chupacabra came and ate into one of them last week. On a side note, the incidents of Chupacabra happenings must be on the rise because when I logged onto Yahoo today it was the # 2 most searched item between Raven Symone loosing weight and Mike Tyson. Wait....Mike Tyson is not the Chupacabra? :)
7. I am floored at how the 4 yr old can teach the 1 yr old how to shop and download apps onto my phone, but can't figure out how to use the tv remote to change channels between Nick Jr. and PBS Kids every half hour.
8. I can make some pretty fabulous food for my family, but I can not get Jello or any Jello product like tapioca to harden to save my life.
9. I still can't figure out why if I make a dedicated shopping list to go with my meal plan for the week and take a day to shop for everything, I still have to make daily trips to Target, Wal Mart or King Stupids.
10. I just found out that next weeks theme for Show and Tell at Calla's preschool is to bring in something your Mom and Dad use all the time at work. Um.....Houston would you like to take your pick from the skid steer, weedwacker, truck snow plow, or paper shredder? Perhaps Mr. Doyle will be taking her to school next Fri in a work truck. It will be like a mini field trip.
Have a great weekend. The toothless wonder turns 1. My God where has the time gone. Check back for photos of the mess next Fri.
XOXO!
Cara
Exhibit A. Sitting nicely before entering store.
(Who Us....... We don't do bad things in the grocery store, we are innocent and perfect children.) 
(Ha! Don't let the ears fool ya. I am Super Bad the Toothless Wonder! Able to chuck things from the cart faster then you can say Hamburger Helper.) 2. One can not truly appreciate having a mudroom until it is actually covered in mud from living on a farm with or without animals.
3. I am considering the 40 lb mudflap of a dog and her owner Mr. Doyle farm animals since they are the largest contributors of the mud in the mudroom.
4. Teething sucks, but evidently Fritos and Double Stuff 1/2 and 1/2 Oreos help.
5. However..... the Fritos mixed with Mexican food, purple carrots and blueberries make for quite possibly the nastiest and smelliest combo of baby poop the following day.
6. My chickens are terrified to leave their coop since the mysterious Chupacabra came and ate into one of them last week. On a side note, the incidents of Chupacabra happenings must be on the rise because when I logged onto Yahoo today it was the # 2 most searched item between Raven Symone loosing weight and Mike Tyson. Wait....Mike Tyson is not the Chupacabra? :)
7. I am floored at how the 4 yr old can teach the 1 yr old how to shop and download apps onto my phone, but can't figure out how to use the tv remote to change channels between Nick Jr. and PBS Kids every half hour.
8. I can make some pretty fabulous food for my family, but I can not get Jello or any Jello product like tapioca to harden to save my life.
9. I still can't figure out why if I make a dedicated shopping list to go with my meal plan for the week and take a day to shop for everything, I still have to make daily trips to Target, Wal Mart or King Stupids.
10. I just found out that next weeks theme for Show and Tell at Calla's preschool is to bring in something your Mom and Dad use all the time at work. Um.....Houston would you like to take your pick from the skid steer, weedwacker, truck snow plow, or paper shredder? Perhaps Mr. Doyle will be taking her to school next Fri in a work truck. It will be like a mini field trip.
Have a great weekend. The toothless wonder turns 1. My God where has the time gone. Check back for photos of the mess next Fri.
XOXO!
Cara
Friday, December 31, 2010
For the love finally!
As many of you know this year my Mom and Dad gifted us with a trip to Disney World in FL for Christmas. We had a wonderful time, and for the most part it was pretty uneventful. Especially with 4 kids 4 and under. Thankfully everyone who had the nasty 24hr flu crap puked before we left and India waited until last night at home to cut her top 2 teeth.
It had its highs. Such as seeing lots of characters like Rapunzel who is very popular now. How they decorated the park for Christmas was spectacular. And just the coolness that is Disney itself and everything it offers is phenomenal.
It had its lows. Dave and I rode quite possibly the most nauseating and claustrophobic ride known to man, and paid for it for hours afterwards. We lost the keys to the car briefly in the Goofy parking lot on Christmas day, and after 45 minutes of crawling around with our butts up in the air under rental cars (can we say suspicious looking!) we found them in the stroller. We got stuck on the Pirate's of Caribbean ride for a 1/2 an hour while they fixed it. If I never hear "Yo Ho Ho" again I will be fine. And last but not least, it took poor Rachel 26 hrs to get to Seattle with the girls from Orlando. Fog in San Fran, and all the snow in the East made it just a cluster #!*% to get home.
But in the end it was a really good time. We spent a total of 6 days there with 4 1/2 days dedicated to the 4 different theme parks that make up the entity that is Disney World. To put the picture order in perspective......
Day 1: we travelled from Denver to Orlando and spent the rest of the evening in the Magic Kingdom watching various parades, and fireworks. What.... like we were going to sit in the hotel and watch "The Santa Clause" for the 100th time on tv. Chip and Dale performed the Chinese variation from Nutcracker on stage. I guess it is official. I can now quit my day job and work for Disney. I am highly qualified for that position and it doesn't matter how much I eat before performing, my costume would always fit.
Day 2: we went to the Animal Kingdom where we went on Safari and had dinner with the screeching monkeys at the Rainforest Cafe.
Day 3: was our Epcot day. So many cool places and countries to visit in Epcot. Dave and I agreed we could have done without the awful horrible spinning space ride and spent more time in the countries shopping for overpriced tchochkies and eating funnel cake.
Day 4: was Christmas day and we went to the Magic Kingdom along with the entire population of Orlando and 1/2 of New Jersey. So not kidding. Forget the Mickey sweatshirt, evidently high heeled cha cha boots with skin tight textured leggings and an animal print top are what is in style for a trip to Disney World. :) I wore a $10 Mickey top from Target. Guess I am not fashionable. Bootylicious yes, but not Jerseylicious.
Day 5: was Hollywood Studios, and we were glad for the opportunity to watch indoor stage shows and take it easy. The weather was actually colder in FL that day then back home in CO. Dave and I rode a roller coaster that went 60 mph while Aerosmith blared from speakers. Much much better then Mission to Puke at Epcot. Only wish we got more pictures of stuff at the "Walt Disney The Man" exhibit. So cool, and narrated by Julie Andrews.
Day 6, and 7 for some of us, was travelling home.
Like I said we only did Disney itself. We didn't even attempt Universal Studios, Sea World or Busch Gardens. That would have required another week. We couldn't even get to shopping at the killer Factory Outlets because the highways were so crowded with people the day after Christmas that the traffic didn't let up until 10 pm that night. I guess all those people from Jersey had to go shopping somewhere.
Train Station @ Main Entrance to Magic Kingdom
Cinderella's Castle lit up @ night
Dumbo!
Electrical Light Parade w/ Alice
India loved the Small World dolls
Tree of Life completely carved with animals at Animal Kingdom
As Indie would say "Roar"
Giraffes!
Drummers in Japan at Epcot
Mary Poppins in England
Alice also in England
Mulan in China
Snow White in Germany
Pascal and Norah
Calla in her matching costume with Rapunzel and Flynn
Mom and India
Mickey and Minnie
Winnie the Pooh and Dave too
Loving Piglet
Main Street decorated and hoards of people
Beauty and the Beast stage show
Backdrop at Indiana Jones
Stunt show for Indiana Jones
Here is to wishing you all a Merry Belated Christmas, I hope the New Year brings you Peace, Happiness, and Love.
XOXO! Cara
PS. Yes, I am wearing a sequined Minnie Mouse ear headband!
It had its highs. Such as seeing lots of characters like Rapunzel who is very popular now. How they decorated the park for Christmas was spectacular. And just the coolness that is Disney itself and everything it offers is phenomenal.
It had its lows. Dave and I rode quite possibly the most nauseating and claustrophobic ride known to man, and paid for it for hours afterwards. We lost the keys to the car briefly in the Goofy parking lot on Christmas day, and after 45 minutes of crawling around with our butts up in the air under rental cars (can we say suspicious looking!) we found them in the stroller. We got stuck on the Pirate's of Caribbean ride for a 1/2 an hour while they fixed it. If I never hear "Yo Ho Ho" again I will be fine. And last but not least, it took poor Rachel 26 hrs to get to Seattle with the girls from Orlando. Fog in San Fran, and all the snow in the East made it just a cluster #!*% to get home.
But in the end it was a really good time. We spent a total of 6 days there with 4 1/2 days dedicated to the 4 different theme parks that make up the entity that is Disney World. To put the picture order in perspective......
Day 1: we travelled from Denver to Orlando and spent the rest of the evening in the Magic Kingdom watching various parades, and fireworks. What.... like we were going to sit in the hotel and watch "The Santa Clause" for the 100th time on tv. Chip and Dale performed the Chinese variation from Nutcracker on stage. I guess it is official. I can now quit my day job and work for Disney. I am highly qualified for that position and it doesn't matter how much I eat before performing, my costume would always fit.
Day 2: we went to the Animal Kingdom where we went on Safari and had dinner with the screeching monkeys at the Rainforest Cafe.
Day 3: was our Epcot day. So many cool places and countries to visit in Epcot. Dave and I agreed we could have done without the awful horrible spinning space ride and spent more time in the countries shopping for overpriced tchochkies and eating funnel cake.
Day 4: was Christmas day and we went to the Magic Kingdom along with the entire population of Orlando and 1/2 of New Jersey. So not kidding. Forget the Mickey sweatshirt, evidently high heeled cha cha boots with skin tight textured leggings and an animal print top are what is in style for a trip to Disney World. :) I wore a $10 Mickey top from Target. Guess I am not fashionable. Bootylicious yes, but not Jerseylicious.
Day 5: was Hollywood Studios, and we were glad for the opportunity to watch indoor stage shows and take it easy. The weather was actually colder in FL that day then back home in CO. Dave and I rode a roller coaster that went 60 mph while Aerosmith blared from speakers. Much much better then Mission to Puke at Epcot. Only wish we got more pictures of stuff at the "Walt Disney The Man" exhibit. So cool, and narrated by Julie Andrews.
Day 6, and 7 for some of us, was travelling home.
Like I said we only did Disney itself. We didn't even attempt Universal Studios, Sea World or Busch Gardens. That would have required another week. We couldn't even get to shopping at the killer Factory Outlets because the highways were so crowded with people the day after Christmas that the traffic didn't let up until 10 pm that night. I guess all those people from Jersey had to go shopping somewhere.
Train Station @ Main Entrance to Magic Kingdom
Cinderella's Castle lit up @ night
Dumbo! 
Electrical Light Parade w/ Alice
India loved the Small World dolls
Tree of Life completely carved with animals at Animal Kingdom
As Indie would say "Roar"
Giraffes!
Drummers in Japan at Epcot
Mary Poppins in England
Alice also in England
Mulan in China
Snow White in Germany
Pascal and Norah
Calla in her matching costume with Rapunzel and Flynn
Mom and India
Mickey and Minnie 
Winnie the Pooh and Dave too
Loving Piglet
Main Street decorated and hoards of people
Beauty and the Beast stage show
Backdrop at Indiana Jones
Stunt show for Indiana Jones
Here is to wishing you all a Merry Belated Christmas, I hope the New Year brings you Peace, Happiness, and Love. XOXO! Cara
PS. Yes, I am wearing a sequined Minnie Mouse ear headband!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Disney pics coming soon!
Hi y'all! Hope everyone had a Merry Navidad. I know you are waiting to see pics of Disney, but it turns out I am missing a card with the pics from day 2 on it. So as soon as the roads clear up or I can can send Dave up to the house with the snow plow then I will get things posted. On a side note thank goodness it is finally snowing. I was begining to wonder if we would ever get any seeing as it was warmer here in CO than in FL while we were there. Global warming aside I need to pay some bills, so let it snow let it snow let it snow.
While you wait for photos let me humor you with our own 12 Days of Christmas, Smith, Martin, Doyle style in reflection of our trip. For the sake of everyone's sanity I'll just start at 12 and go backwards. Feel free to hum along the tune. I prefer the Muppets version personally. :)
On the 12th day of Xmas my true love gave to me - A 12 Hour Flight
11 Million People
10 Different Mickeys
9 Shopping Sprees
8 Disney Princesses
7 Monorails
6 Stage Shows
5 Golden Funnel Cakes
4 Theme Parks
3 Mylar Balloons
2 Meltdowns
and 1 Missing Set of Car Keys
XOXO
While you wait for photos let me humor you with our own 12 Days of Christmas, Smith, Martin, Doyle style in reflection of our trip. For the sake of everyone's sanity I'll just start at 12 and go backwards. Feel free to hum along the tune. I prefer the Muppets version personally. :)
On the 12th day of Xmas my true love gave to me - A 12 Hour Flight
11 Million People
10 Different Mickeys
9 Shopping Sprees
8 Disney Princesses
7 Monorails
6 Stage Shows
5 Golden Funnel Cakes
4 Theme Parks
3 Mylar Balloons
2 Meltdowns
and 1 Missing Set of Car Keys
XOXO
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Santa Baby
Dear Santa,
Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It has been 355 days since my last confession. For the most part we have been pretty good around here this year. We'll just leave out a few details about some of us and all will be well.
The girls and I attempted to mail you a letter with what we wanted for Christmas. I know the Post Office would have been the most logical place to drop off the letter to be mailed, however I needed some makeup and I am all about taking the least amount of trips into town with both kids these days days, so Macy's it was. As we approached the mailbox to mail the letter a very nice older sales associate saw what we were doing and asked Calla what she was asking Santa for. Calla responded back something about Olivia. Because she is all about Olivia the pig these days. The lady looked at India and said what do you think she would like for Christmas. I quickly responded "her two front teeth!" The lady laughed and said "of course, how cute!" This is the point when I realized I should have kept my pie hole shut, because I chimed in again and said, "yeah, and I am willing and ready to trade Santa favors for her to get the teeth, just so she will sleep in her own bed again." Lets just say it was pretty obvious that the favors I was referring to didn't involve building a new pergola and paver patio for your employees off the side of the Elf Workshop at the North Pole. So, Santa if you could put some extra candy in Betty, the Sales Associate at Macy's Ft. Collins, stocking this year for me I would appreciate it. Her poor ears are still burning.
Anyway, moving on. Like I said before we are trying to live a bit more simply and don't really need much. For me I would like either a Personal Chef who cooks like The Pioneer Woman, and is also willing to do the dishes. Because we have a serious case of no one wants to do the dishes around here. Or I would also be happy with a maid who does the laundry and doesn't complain that I change outfits 3-4 times a day.
She is also pretty content playing with her silverware and the dog bowl, so toys are not necessarily needed
As far as Calla and Dave are concerned, well.....We kind of need to have a chat about that. Calla of course love anything that has to do with Olivia the pig, and also loves to draw and color. Dave is not as obsessed with the pig, but also loves to color and draw with Calla usually while Olivia is on tv right before bedtime. He also loves his tattoos and recently finished his 2nd arm sleeve outline. However, he has been super busy and hasn't had time to get it filled in, colored, and finished. This morning I did a double take before he left for work, because something looked a little different.
Santa if you could please bring Dave a gift card to have Ish finish coloring in the tattoos on his left arm, because El Cheepo is resorting to other means. Calla on the other hand will need some new markers and more coloring books because she is obviously bored with her old ones. Oh well, I guess it could be worse. The markers are washable and my walls are clean. Besides how could you resist a face like this.
But you already knew that. Because you know everything.
I am attempting a Christmas party this weekend. Since I am not doing Nutcracker this year, I figured I could handle a small dinner for family. So if you could also help me get through that then perhaps I can forgo the personal chef and make Dave do the dishes, but I still need the maid to do the laundry.
Safe travels
Love always,
Cara :)
Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It has been 355 days since my last confession. For the most part we have been pretty good around here this year. We'll just leave out a few details about some of us and all will be well.
Anyway, moving on. Like I said before we are trying to live a bit more simply and don't really need much. For me I would like either a Personal Chef who cooks like The Pioneer Woman, and is also willing to do the dishes. Because we have a serious case of no one wants to do the dishes around here. Or I would also be happy with a maid who does the laundry and doesn't complain that I change outfits 3-4 times a day.
Exhibit A:
Bet you can't guess which pile is mine?
Like I mentioned before... Indie needs some teeth. She eats like a hoss and hasn't figured out that she only has two, but is really good at gumming things and getting them down. She has her sing a ma jig (which only has a couple of teeth too) and really loves it.
Exhibit B:
Exhibit C:
As far as Calla and Dave are concerned, well.....We kind of need to have a chat about that. Calla of course love anything that has to do with Olivia the pig, and also loves to draw and color. Dave is not as obsessed with the pig, but also loves to color and draw with Calla usually while Olivia is on tv right before bedtime. He also loves his tattoos and recently finished his 2nd arm sleeve outline. However, he has been super busy and hasn't had time to get it filled in, colored, and finished. This morning I did a double take before he left for work, because something looked a little different.
Exhibit D:
Exhibit E:
I am attempting a Christmas party this weekend. Since I am not doing Nutcracker this year, I figured I could handle a small dinner for family. So if you could also help me get through that then perhaps I can forgo the personal chef and make Dave do the dishes, but I still need the maid to do the laundry.
Safe travels
Love always,
Cara :)
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Adventures in Babysitting
Today the girls and I took a field trip. The library just wasn't cutting it anymore, and India needed a nap longer then 15 min., so when Dave had me call a wrecking salvage yard in Denver yesterday to see if they had a pair of wheels in stock, I jumped on the chance to drive down and pick them up. He also needed a new wiring harness for a snow plow, and I figured what the hell lets get our Willy Wonka on and tour the candy factory while we are at it, since they are all literally within block of each other in the industrial part Denver. I did have to explain to Calla that there were not going to be any Oompa Loompas at this candy factory because they were wintering in Cabo this time of the year getting a real tan not a fake orange one out of a bottle. Nor would there be a waterfall of chocolate awaiting us as we walked in. She was also told that if she was good on the trip down she could pick out a candy cane at the end of the tour. And if she wasn't then she would be hanging with Veruca Salt. Nuf said.
Anywho, first stop on our field trip..... Crushers. We input the address into my girlfriend Gigi who lives in the Garmin like a mini Tinkerbell, and we were off. Gigi of course took us all over the place. Past smoke stacks, and factories, over the river and finally we arrived at Crushers. Well it is pretty much was what you would expect. I made sure we hid the DVD player, the Gigi in the box, the i pod, and all tell tale charging cords and locked the door enough times to hear it beep and in we went. After waiting in line behind Nacho (so not kidding!) from Nacho's Repair, I was able to talk to Bob. Now if Santa Claus went on Biggest Looser and had Jillian Michaels yelling at him for about 6 weeks, then that would pretty much sum up Bob. Bob kindly looked up where my wheels were being held and passed me off to Steve whom I talked to yesterday. Now Steve had a lovely wavy long (to the mid back) blond ponytail coming off his mullet feathered top. Calla said he looked like a boy Rapunzel. All I could notice was his pinky nail was super long as he typed my order in and sent someone off to find them. My guess was it is not for picking his nose.
As I was waiting for my wheels and Nacho was waiting for his fuel pump, and this pompus overbearing foreign Dude walked in and started driving all of the nice people behind the counter nuts looking this up, or that up just to find a car door. Finally Steve was able to pawn the Dude off to someone who would take him out to look at the door. While he was waiting for the golf cart to pick him up, he looked at me and said "Now what is a nicely dressed lady doing with a baby and a kid in a wrecking yard?" I simply told him as I shifted India to the other hip because Calla had pretty much crawled in between my legs at this point, "We are just running our errands." My inner gangsta voice really wanted to respond to him "waitin on my dubs man," but I pretty much figured that would get my car keyed, so I just kept cool. Dude responds back, "Do you take your kids everywhere with you? This isn't normally a place a lady with kids hangs out on a Tuesday and why not try the Zoo, they might like it better?" I just nodded and said, "They are well behaved enough to go everywhere I go and it is good experience for them to be around adults too." At this point I was getting antsy because he was just so damn annoying and my inner smart ass was starting to wake up from her nap. So before I knew it just to shut him up I looked point blank at him and calmly said, "Look, there are only 2 places my kids can't go with me, the bar, and the strip club. The only reason they don't go is because their fake id's haven't been working really well lately!" By this point Nacho had stopped talking to Rafael behind the counter, and was just staring at me. Next thing I knew everyone started laughing hysterically. All except the Dude. Good thing his golf cart had just pulled up because he was made a fool of by a 5'2 chick with 2 babies in a wrecking yard, and he really didn't know how to deal. I wish I could say he said something back, but he just walked out. Inner smart ass went back to sleep and off we went with our wheels in search of a wiring harness for the plow, and a deep need for a sugar rush.
The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful. No more Dudes or even Oompa Loompas in sight, just sweet old Betty at the tour center door. Calla wanted to ditch the candy tour after about 3 min. and we ducked out the side door and loaded up on handmade candy canes, suckers, and about a pound of caramel covered marshmallows. A brief pit stop at Chick Fil A for lunch and she couldn't wait to get home so she take the wheels over to Ed at the CoOp with her Daddy.
My little muffin :)
If anyone would like to join us next Tues. I am thinking a field trip to a shooting range and lunch at a truck stop in WY for a hotdog and a movie is long overdue. Maybe India's fake id will work better across the state line.
Adios Amigos. Vaya con Dios!
PS. In case any of you were wondering, this is what my trunk looked like at the end of today. Stroller, Gerber Sweet Potato Puffs, Bumbo seat for a friend, yoga mat, wiring harness, and wheels. Mission accomplished! The only thing missing was the large bag of candy. I made sure it rode home in the front seat with me. :)
Anywho, first stop on our field trip..... Crushers. We input the address into my girlfriend Gigi who lives in the Garmin like a mini Tinkerbell, and we were off. Gigi of course took us all over the place. Past smoke stacks, and factories, over the river and finally we arrived at Crushers. Well it is pretty much was what you would expect. I made sure we hid the DVD player, the Gigi in the box, the i pod, and all tell tale charging cords and locked the door enough times to hear it beep and in we went. After waiting in line behind Nacho (so not kidding!) from Nacho's Repair, I was able to talk to Bob. Now if Santa Claus went on Biggest Looser and had Jillian Michaels yelling at him for about 6 weeks, then that would pretty much sum up Bob. Bob kindly looked up where my wheels were being held and passed me off to Steve whom I talked to yesterday. Now Steve had a lovely wavy long (to the mid back) blond ponytail coming off his mullet feathered top. Calla said he looked like a boy Rapunzel. All I could notice was his pinky nail was super long as he typed my order in and sent someone off to find them. My guess was it is not for picking his nose.
As I was waiting for my wheels and Nacho was waiting for his fuel pump, and this pompus overbearing foreign Dude walked in and started driving all of the nice people behind the counter nuts looking this up, or that up just to find a car door. Finally Steve was able to pawn the Dude off to someone who would take him out to look at the door. While he was waiting for the golf cart to pick him up, he looked at me and said "Now what is a nicely dressed lady doing with a baby and a kid in a wrecking yard?" I simply told him as I shifted India to the other hip because Calla had pretty much crawled in between my legs at this point, "We are just running our errands." My inner gangsta voice really wanted to respond to him "waitin on my dubs man," but I pretty much figured that would get my car keyed, so I just kept cool. Dude responds back, "Do you take your kids everywhere with you? This isn't normally a place a lady with kids hangs out on a Tuesday and why not try the Zoo, they might like it better?" I just nodded and said, "They are well behaved enough to go everywhere I go and it is good experience for them to be around adults too." At this point I was getting antsy because he was just so damn annoying and my inner smart ass was starting to wake up from her nap. So before I knew it just to shut him up I looked point blank at him and calmly said, "Look, there are only 2 places my kids can't go with me, the bar, and the strip club. The only reason they don't go is because their fake id's haven't been working really well lately!" By this point Nacho had stopped talking to Rafael behind the counter, and was just staring at me. Next thing I knew everyone started laughing hysterically. All except the Dude. Good thing his golf cart had just pulled up because he was made a fool of by a 5'2 chick with 2 babies in a wrecking yard, and he really didn't know how to deal. I wish I could say he said something back, but he just walked out. Inner smart ass went back to sleep and off we went with our wheels in search of a wiring harness for the plow, and a deep need for a sugar rush.
The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful. No more Dudes or even Oompa Loompas in sight, just sweet old Betty at the tour center door. Calla wanted to ditch the candy tour after about 3 min. and we ducked out the side door and loaded up on handmade candy canes, suckers, and about a pound of caramel covered marshmallows. A brief pit stop at Chick Fil A for lunch and she couldn't wait to get home so she take the wheels over to Ed at the CoOp with her Daddy.
If anyone would like to join us next Tues. I am thinking a field trip to a shooting range and lunch at a truck stop in WY for a hotdog and a movie is long overdue. Maybe India's fake id will work better across the state line.
Adios Amigos. Vaya con Dios!
PS. In case any of you were wondering, this is what my trunk looked like at the end of today. Stroller, Gerber Sweet Potato Puffs, Bumbo seat for a friend, yoga mat, wiring harness, and wheels. Mission accomplished! The only thing missing was the large bag of candy. I made sure it rode home in the front seat with me. :)
