Dress Help

Ok kids, I have this dress. It needs color. Big belt? Necklace? What are your thoughts?

Charity just told me that I've been forgetting to remind everyone about the Friday Freebies for many weeks now. Here's the link to last Friday's Freebies. Enjoy.

Still having issues with Flickr, so here's a few from Vance's birthday partay. Yes, I misspelled party on purpose. That's how crazy I am.

So, I'm grocery shopping this afternoon and I see a young guy walking around with a pretty serious looking sling on his arm (and painfully tight looking jeans, but that's besides the point). I think nothing of it until I'm checking out. An older guy walks towards my checkout lady and starts chatting. No big deal, just a friend saying hello. Turns out he's the dad of the guy with the sling. "Yeah, he hurt it riding his bull...just joined the rodeo last week." I think Daddy was proud of Junior.

I've never heard anything like that in my life. How do these rodeos work? Do you have to have your own bull to ride or do they provide one? Too late to Google rodeos. Maybe tomorrow.

A List

Stuff That I Need To Do (STINTD)

1. Make appointment to get new pics of Vance taken
2. Find real photographer for family picture
3. Clean up and add music on iPod
4. New passport
5. Update family pictures around house
6. Organize downloaded pictures into neat, tidy, categorized folders in computer
7. Get above mentioned pictures printed out
8. Create picture albums of Vance and work on his baby book

I'm sure there's about 20 more things, but that's what's on my mind right now.

Red Drums

I took Vance for his 2 year checkup today. I wasn't expecting to walk out with a prescription for antibiotics, but that's how it ended up. He has fluid in his ears and his eardrums are red. He had a bad allergy day yesterday, so it could either be just that, allergies, or the onset of a virus. He hasn't been tugging on his ears, no fever, just a bit cranky. So, back for another checkup after the meds. If they don't look better after a month we'll have to go see an allergist.

I'm working on adding pictures from the weekend but I'm having a few problems with Flickr, so be patient.

My apologies, I've been boring lately. Must be the weather.

• Daisy got micro chipped today.
• Vance and I took Justin to lunch. Chipoltle. It's my favorite.
• The wind here is a little outrageous. Gusts up to 42mph today. Yesterday it was 35mph.
• When we got back from lunch, the umbrella (ella, ella, a) for our patio table was in the grass, halfway between the old grass and new sod. The table was legs-up in the grass. The heavy iron base for the umbrella had slid to the edge of the patio and the grill cover had blown off. So tired of wind.
• Plus, with all of the construction around us, everything is dusty. It's a hazy mess out there.
• I filled up the car today. Gas is $3.39 here.
• GD! I'm like an old man! Weather and Gas prices! Must stop before I start giving out directions and talking mileage!

Miss Ryan Bray graduated last night! Everyone click here to see how cute she is!

This is so not how I envisioned this going. The idea was to promote new commenters, not scare them away. All scores have been deducted by 7 points and 2 gold stars.

In other news, I have no real news. A baby bunny scared the crap out of me last night. I was outside picking up toys, bent down to grab Vance's shovel and saw two eyes looking back at me. At this point I didn't know what kind of eyes I was looking into. So, I took off screaming for Justin.

Oh, I did make a hair appointment. I tried to get an appointment with Pebbles, but she was all booked up, so I went with the safer option and went to the place where I've had spa services done before. When I called I was put on hold and had to listen to a recording of a lady with a questionable English accent explain about services of the salon. She pronounced it "SALLLLon". I wonder if they had to pay more for a lady with an accent to do their recording? Is that supposed to impress me?

Since I have never been there for a haircut, the lady asked me what level of stylist to I want. Level? Excuse me? They have 4 different levels - from Associates to Masters. Is that another ploy to charge me more? I told her I wanted someone who does quality work and that can get me in by the 6th. I forgot to ask what level Gina is, but I'm sure it will be a memorable experience. Whatever...

Atta Boy Commenter Challenge

Sorry Ashcraft, The Glasser's are still in the lead.

I promised Vance a walk after we got home from the grocery store. While I ran upstairs to grab a pair of suitable walking shoes, he reached onto the counter, grabbed the bread, took it to the table, climbed onto the chair, took it out of the paper sleeve, and helped himself. My camera was nearby, so I snapped a picture while trying to contain my laughter.

At the end of each Little Gym class, everyone sits in a circle, sings a couple of songs, and Mr. Bob tells us what to expect for next class. Vance was practicing his independence and was sitting across the circle from me, next to Mr. Bob. After the song singing, Vance didn't want to sit down. That's fine. He's just standing next to Mr. Bob. (I'm already nervous.) He takes a few steps toward the middle of the circle....and starts picking his nose! I start saying his name, but nope, doesn't stop. It was a full class too, around 25 kids and their moms or dads. Everyone starts giggling and finally Mr. Bob grabs him and plops him on his lap while he's finishing his speech. My son, the exhibitionish.

So, here's one of the stories I was writing about when my computer froze up yesterday.

Vacation. Justin was planning a secret vacation for us, early July. I knew 4 things about the vacation until last Saturday.

1. I knew it would be someplace hot.
2. Justin suggested that I bring 2 swimsuits. (I don't have 2 swimsuits, in fact the suit that I bought last year has never been worn. Justin back pedaled when he heard that. "No, don't go buy another suit, I just thought if you had two...". The last thing he wants to do is promote more spending by me.)
3. I knew we would be flying and I didn't need my passport. (Which is good, because I never renewed it after we got married and did the whole name switcheroo.)

Rewind to last Saturday when I opened the mail and found our confirmation letter. The envelope had the hotel's logo on the front and we have received information from them before. I just thought it was another one of those. Justin was still out of town, so he wasn't there to intercept the mail. I thought about hiding it, but I knew he would need the letter and get worried if it never came, blah, blah, blah. I was crushed because I knew he was wanting to keep it a secret. But, even if I hadn't opened it, I still would've asked him about it when he opened it. Again, it had the logo, so I knew where it was from. Guess he should have gone with his first instinct and sent it to his parents house. But, it totally makes sense why he kept asking me, "So, you don't mind going somewhere hot during July?".

Here's where we're going. The Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. I've heard nothing but amazing things about it and am really excited. I want to be there right now! I'm sure it will be here before I know it. Better get looking for that new swimsuit!

Okay. It's on. Because getting an unexpected comment from Ashcraft totally made my day, I'm throwing this out there for you lurkers. I'm offering up a prize for the best commenter starting now. I can't tell you what the prize will be, but I can tell you it will be handmade by yours truly. (Wow, what an incentive!) My family members are not allowed to play. You have a week.

So, I was in the middle of a post talking about stuff that happened during the chaos of the patio. Then my computer froze and I had to shut it down, hard style. Gasp! Again, the silly fucker froze up as soon as I re-booted it. Had to shut it down again. Now, I'm totally off track and and all I want to talk about is that John Ashcraft commented on the patio post. But, I've wasted all my time waiting for a computer to boot up and now I have to get finished getting ready before Vance wakes up. Until naptime.....

I saw a truck today with this phrase on the tailgate, "Cummin Stroke This". It was written in a pretty cursive font and was also flanked on either side by the ever-so-classy seated naked lady. I'm sure you know the one.

About a month ago, I saw an old SUV with this printed in the back window, "Unless you're a hemorrhoid, get off my ass!". What really got me is that the driver used those peel and stick letters that you can buy in craft stores. Could he not find a bumper sticker that expressed that same idea? I admire this kind of passion.

About time, I know...

Fun Facts:

• One more layer of sand needs to be swept in
• When they came to do this the first time, they totally forgot to do the steps
• We are waiting until my dad comes up to take off the board behind the steps and to cover it with more glorious, vinyl siding. (He does not know that yet. Hi Dad!)
• Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the utilities for our house are smack dab in the middle of the back of our house. Beautiful! Need to get something potted and tall to hide them.
• Some of the said utilities (I'm guessing) forgot to come back and clip off their wires, so for some reason, we have feet and feet of wires coiled around each other. So much fun for Vance to play with!
• There's also some very attractive white! PVC tubing that's coming out of the house by the utilities. Vents or something like that. Thanks to someones clever thinking (Thanks Aunt Dee!) I'm going to try and make them blend in more by spray painting them with the special plastic paint.

I'll have to post more pictures when we're really done with everything. Vance and I spent a lot of time out back yesterday and it was wonderful.

While unpacking the groceries, I handed Vance a plastic bottle of peppercorns, thinking it would distract him from "helping" me for a few minutes. Who knew that he can unscrew the lid and peel off the protective paper seal*? I spent the next 7 minutes trying to quickly retrieve peppercorns from the kitchen floor before Daisy and Vance could get them.

*Still not sure how his chubby little fingers did that. I can't even do it. I have to stab it in the middle, then tear it out.

I've been put in charge of keeping the sod and seeded areas alive until Justin gets home. This type of responsibility makes me a little nervous. I can handle Vance by myself (totally questionable), but the watering of the grass is what gets me.

I've seen Justin set up the sprinkler before. The way he positions and re-positions it and fine tunes the water pressure makes it seem like an art form. I have no experience in this department and I'm a bumbling idiot when it comes down to it. My problem is that I totally over-think everything. Is it spraying the neighbors yard too much? Is it getting too wet? Is it the right time of day? Are the neighbors watching from their windows and totalling heckling me?

What I'm trying to say is that I've been too busy sprinkling to take and post new pictures. I know you're thinking, "C'mon lady, setting up a sprinkler takes like 5 minutes!", but I've got another excuse for that too.

The boys finished on Thursday, late afternoon and claimed that they would be back on Friday to do the final sweeping of the sand. They instructed me to keep the pavers dry for 24 hours, to give the glue time to set and so that they could sweep sand in the cracks correctly. Water + Sand = Paste. Paste is not sweepable. They also scared the bejesus out of me telling about the water. "Keep everything wet!" "Everyday!" "Water, water, water!"

So, I had to hand water the sod. Multiple times a day. There's a lot of sod. And all while making sure Vance stayed close by. Remember the Seinfeld where Kramer relives the story of being attacked while driving the bus? While fighting off someone, he keeps making the stops because the passengers keep ringing the bell. That's how I feel. I'm watering...Ok, Daisy wants to go inside. I'm watering...Crap! Vance stay out of Daisy's poop! I'm watering...Vance takes off down the sidewalk.

Stay with me, I'm almost done.

The effing landscapers didn't show up on Friday. Which means if we move our furniture, grill, etc. onto the patio we're going to have to move it right back off. So, hopefully they'll be back on Monday to finish.

I'll get pictures up soon.

Sorry, 10 votes now. There's one vote from the Normal, IL. area. This is driving me crazy. Who are you?

Here's what the troops did on Wednesday. We originally opted to have the area seeded, but because more grading had to be done than thought, we have upgraded to sod. Only money, right?

I have 3 minutes to type until Lost comes on, so I'll make it fast. Vance peed on the potty again tonight (I know everyone appreciates these updates). I made a wonderful dinner yesterday, I'll have to talk about it later. I don't call 9 votes "Rocking the Vote", but thanks to all 9 who voted. We opted for Table 1 and it is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. It's actually an early birthday present for Vance from my parents. (Thanks Grandad and Me'me'!) I think he's going to love it!

It's slowly getting there. The boys worked until 5:00 yesterday. I was home for the majority of the day and it totally sounds like work is being done, so I'm guessing they're just tedious. At one point when I looked out, Michael (That's not his name. He looks like Vicki's son, Michael, from the Real Housewives of OC.) was using a paintbrush to brush sand and pulverized rock in between the cracks of the stones. I'm thinking today is Paver Day. I'm anxious for it to get done and to not have 3 men in my backyard all day long. At least country isn't their music genre of choice.

Productive day today! The landscapers actually put in 8 hours or so and got some work done. About time! Not sure if they'll be able to finish tomorrow, but if not, I'm guessing on Wednesday.

Because I forgot to mention it yesterday, Vance has peed in the potty twice now. Peed is a strong word, more like squirted. Vance has squirted in the potty twice. Yea!

I'm kind of surprised that they left the tractor here overnight. Guess it's a good sign that they're coming back to work!

Oh, and thanks to all 4 that voted. Really impressive.

Ok, so I'm having problems with my poll. Working on it.

Rock the Vote!

Today is Day One of Project Patio. I think it's time for another Poll.

I think it would be nice for Vance to have a table of his own outside. Obviously, for eating, but he could color, or do whatever out there. It would also be nice for when Vance entertains the neighbor kids. Gives them a place to call their own, so they're not climbing on the big table and chairs.

For fun, I priced furniture from PBK. Hah! A little too pricey, so I've found 2 alternitives. And I can't decide. Table 1 has the Green Umbrella and Table 2 has the striped. I won't tell you which one I'm leaning towards. I will tell you that Table 1 folds flat for storage and is a little bigger than Table 2.

One Step Closer

Our utilities were flagged this afternoon, in preparation for the patio. Just waiting for the call from Big Bad Dave.

Here's what I'm thinking about:

• Sippy cups. When is it time to make the move to a real cup?
• Real bed for Vance. We're going to do this soon, but I'm a little nervous about the transition. I heart sleep. And I heart Vance's nap time.
• Need to be more consistent with potty training. Half of me just thinks he isn't ready. The other half wants more chocolate cupcakes, but that's besides the point.
• Would you let someone named 'Pebbles' cut and color your hair? I'm considering it.
• I have no idea when and where to use these " and these'.
• Our landscaper, Dave, communicates as if you can read his mind. This always makes the conversation lead to one direction: Me looking like a jackass. Hopefully, despite the rain, they'll be able to start tomorrow. But, what do I know? I'm a jackass.