Play Fetch

It seems like I was about Riley's age when I learned how to fetch the Sunday paper.
Dad would open the front door and tell me to fetch. I would happily run down the walkway, retrieve the paper, and hand it over.
We tried it with Riley this morning...

He's on a mission to fetch the paper



YAAAYYYY! He finds it



He forgets to pick it up, but he's listening closely as I'm saying GO BACK, GO BACK!



He gets distracted by all those weeds as he was heading back.



Finally, I retrieve the paper and the kid


Maybe next week! Stay tuned.

Jump Zone

We met Dustin and Becca at Jump!Zone tonight and it was FUN!
Even the commander jumped right in and went down the big slide. Here's a few action shots:




We even brought along the offspring (Riley, Sam, and Sofia) so they could join in the fun.




"i just can't watch anymore of this nonsense"

Afterwards, we all went to Zaxby's where Ross and I made the bad decision to split 20 buffalo style chicken strips! UGH! We aren't feeling so great now.
Riley and Sam had a conversation in which only they could understand. Every once in a while we would hear a "seeeee-uuuummm" coming from Riley. He's my little southern gentleman!

SINGING PRAISES

I ALMOST JUST JUMPED UP AND DOWN, PEE-D MY PANTS, AND SCREAMED HALLELUJAH AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS…
Why you ask???

Well, because I just discovered that Pioneer Woman cuts her bacon in half to fry it…JUST LIKE ME!!!!
Now, let me give you a little history on the relevance of this wonderful discovery. One time Carrie and I were making BLT’s and I think it was Nanny (AKA Carrie's mom) that took over my bacon cooking because they didn’t understand why I was cutting the bacon in half. It just seemed better that way because it fits on your sandwich easier. PW says it fries up better and keeps its shape.
Anyway,
as I was saying...I AM JUST LIKE THE PIONEER WOMAN!!(except I don’t live on a farm, home school 4 kids, or Blog so well i have sponsors), but I'm one step closer and if anyone wants to sponsor my blog please, please speak up! I want to make a livin' out of bloggin' and I'd be most willing to go visit my BBF for training.
I'll be making Marlboro Man's second favorite sandwich this weekend if anyone wants to join us.
Love,
Tool Woman
PS. the commander told me this morning that PW must be single to be able to post all those pics of her recipes. i told him she is super woman! she is not single indeed, no sir REE..no pun intended :)
he did not argue when i told him what was cooking for supper! (I think he too secretly likes my BBF, but we won't tell him that I know).

Busy Easter!

Here are the highlights

Coloring the eggs (after spilling the green...ugh)

Huntin' for eggs:

Found one:



Retrieve the candy


Then toss the egg...


R: Mama, look!
A: What is this?
R: its canny and toys, OPEN IT!
A: who brought you this?
R: Santa did!
A: No, it was the Easter Bunny
(do I really want to add another fictional character like the tooth fairy and confuse the poor kid even more?)


Just a swangin'


And FINALLY...decorating cookies after church

The Pioneer Woman

That's right...the pioneer woman deserves a blog entry in her own right.
Be advised that when you go meet "the neighbor" you're going to be hooked.
I guarandadgumtee it! The stories and pictures will suck you right in like a bad ocean current!
She's the one we all want to be. She cooks, cleans, renovates, picks her toes, takes pictures, blogs often and for days on end, and she has four kids!
Did I mention how funny she is? Who else is going to walk you through a recipe with a camera in hand just so you can be right there in the kitchen with her? She's my BBF (blog-best friend, that is).
Go meet her. You can thank me later for the introduction.
BTW, I'm making her carrot cake this weekend and Carebear made the Lasagna yesterday so I can't wait to hear that turns out!

Out Came the Sun and Dried Up All the Rain

So...we introduced the commander to the slides at Wilson Park.

The adventurous one goes down head first.


"I want more time"


Random stuff:
Washington and Benton counties were declared disaster areas for the flooding.
Thankfully, We didn't have any issues at our house. All that worrying over nothing!

New answer today to an old question:
A: "Do you want to go pee-pee in the potty?"
R: No, thanks.
Gotta appreciate the politness and honesty if nothing else.

Welcome Marce-dogg to the neighborhood! YAY! Looking forward to some good reads from Houston.
And, if your into photography the pioneer-woman has GREAT tips and some of the best pictures I've ever seen. She's very entertaining as well. Thanks for introducing me Carrie.
How's that for some shout outs :)

Quit putting stuff in your mouth!

That seems to be my quote these past few days.
A nickel, an unknown object, all 10 fingers, and numerous toys.
I decided last night that it was happening a little too often and we needed to talk about it. I told Riley that he should only put food in his mouth or he could choke.
He started grinning big and began repeating everything I was saying. He even added a little cough when he said choke. My immediate thoughts were 1. how does he know the word choke and 2. don't laugh..its serious and he has to quit putting stuff in his mouth. He just kept grinning so...I caved. I cracked. I laughed. I hugged him.


Then... The Home Haircut
I like to give Riley a little trim now and then. I know NOTHING about haircutting, but it seems like it can't be that hard. Well, that's not quite the case! Even the commander has made mention of stopping the home hair cut. Well, I'm determined. I can get it. I had compliments on the last one. Even if it was only..a hesitant "well, its better than the last one".
He usually does pretty good for me and not so great in the salon so I try to avoid the salon as much as possible.
Well, last night I tried the trim around the ears cut and Riley put his foot down by throwing a full blown tantrum! Scissors + tantrum = NO, NO!!! So, good bye for good home haircut. Here we come salon!
Look, its not so bad! I almost had it. One more chance and I think it would have been great! (I was able to get those stray pieces this morning, but its officially handed over to the salon girls from here on out)

Rain down on me....

I think we might float away with all this rain! The hot tub was emptied before all this rain started. The cover blew off one side and now it is half full so I think that means our yard has received about 250 gallons of water in two days.

I have never been able to sleep when it's storming.
(Note to self: research fear of tornadic activity during sleep)
It makes my brain RACE.
12:45am: thoughts of the 2 inch french drain overflowing underneath my bedroom window
1:30am: check drain, it appears OK.
2:15: how about the hot tub...the side panels aren't attached. Oh, its very WET. prop the panel up against the tub
2:20: change clothes, very wet from rain
3:00: check little man and french drains again. Same amount of accumulation so must be ok. REALLY MUST SLEEP!
6:00: alarm goes off..ignore it.
6:40: The Commander calls from Little Rock
6:45: rush out of bed, grab the little man and his rain boots, head out the door.
7:30 large area of water with turbulants flowing across babysitter's dirt road. It's down from the artificial flower planted in a toilet..focusing...go against the weather man's advice of "turn around, don't drown" and cross the water. (I don't think my old car would have made it).
Whew!
8:00 finish diet coke and pop a B12 to start my day.
10:45: Code blue!
That hasn't happened since I've been there, but thank goodness for quick actions taken by our staff! I think she's going to be OK.
So now, here I am (9:50pm) with it still raining and my brain still racing.
My brain must learn to slow down so my body can catch up!
OH, I found this for your enjoyment while I'm waiting on the 10pm news.
This picture was taken in Oct '06...I think they are still trying to grow this flower.

Everyone have a good Rest of the week! I'm off to grab a tea (decaf) and make an attempt at training my brain to sleep!
P.S. Thank you local FOX station for replacing M*A*S*H with I Love Lucy after the 9pm news broadcast.

Weekend happenings

Friday night we finally got the chance to meet up with Becky (a friend from work) and her kids Ashley and Matthew. We went to Jump Zone in Bentonville and I think I had the most fun! They put pledge on the huge slides so they are super fast!!

Saturday, We saw Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who...cute movie. I think Riley enjoyed it. He sat patiently through it anyway.

Then today..Sunday. Riley tells me after church "Mama, Chee-jus up dere" I think this might possibly be the best age yet. Why can't someone just bottle this child's giggle up and make it last forever? There is no better sound in the world!!

blog-aholic!

I am a blog-aholic! I LOVE to read blogs.

I love the anticipation of sitting down at the computer and checking for new posts. My love for blogging has grown from only reading Perezhilton.com, to reading my friends' blogs, their friends' blogs, and local blogs. I love to think about what is going to be "blog worthy" for that day/week.

Some people don't get the whole blog thing, but that's OK. It took me awhile to catch on too and now it's my most favorite thing! I love getting layout ideas, recipes, and suggestions from other blogs and just reading about everyday stuff.

I found a blog where the owner listed quirky things about himself/herself (I don't know the person to reference him/her so I won't...poor blogging etiquette?) anyway, I thought it was really funny so here some quirky things about me.

1. I like to get gas in even amounts: $46.00 not $46.03. Sometimes, if I'm feeling lazy then I will fill the whole thing up and let it stop where it stops. Then I'm broke!

2. I count toys to make sure all the pieces and parts are there (that's self awareness of OCD so we are working on that one, but there are 31 cars, 2 MAC trucks, 2 shake and go cars, and 1 large Dynaco helicopter)

3. I like white plastic hangers

4. I don't like to be late for work, but I know if I leave my house at 7:18 then I will be exactly 5 minutes late.

5. Riley and I wear coordinating colors on most days. Usually it's by accident, but I still like it when it happens.

TAG Natalie, Carrie and any other willing participants with amusing or quirky habits.

This is the day!

It seems everything that could go wrong this week did.. starting with the time change. When it rains, it pours...but... I'm grabbing my hypothetical umbrella and pulling out of this 48 hour funk that I let myself slip into. There are too many mountains of blessings in life to let the mole hills get us down.
So, with that said, I'll finish out this week with an awareness of a better outlook on things.

Spring has sprung! A quick visit to the park, my favorite pizza place, and a new addition to the family helped complete my dose of humble pie for this Wednesday.

Meet TOODLES...

Easter Egg Hunt

I think the phenylket..whatever's from the diet cokes might possibly be eating my brain. That's all I have to say about that. I refuse to quit so maybe I'll flush my diet cokes with water to see if it helps. Thanks for the suggestion, Carrie. I'll let you know if it works (if i remember).
We went to an Easter Egg Hunt today and Riley had a GREAT time!
I wish I would have taken my video camera for the easter egg dig because he was hilarious! I'm taking this kid to dig for diamonds.
He got a little distracted during the hunt when he figured out there was candy in the eggs, but he did pretty good! There were lots of games and face painting.
Then we came home to play in the Mac truck that grandaddy (or the ladies at the bank) made for him...impressive work!

GOOOO HOGS!

Riley and I went to the basketball game tonight.
He only wanted to watch the game, participate in the hog call, and enjoy his popcorn.
He did NOT want to be bothered with forced pictures with the mascots.
Thanks for the tickets and parking pass, Grandaddy and Dodo!

Here is the traditional back of the head picture with Boss Hog.

WHAT IS THIS?

This is a really bad picture with all the wrong camera settings to show that our weather man was WRONG for the Ville.
Congratulations to the surrounding Washington County areas, River Valley, and Dallas area for your snow fall. I especially liked the 8 foot snow man that was displayed all over the news located 60 miles from me.
Now, I'm heading to work with the wrong attitude and unplucked eyebrows. Add some guilt for having a bad attitude over something that I can not control.Oh, I'm officially going to be late now, but must get the blog posted because everyone checks it first thing in the morning...right? I still have a second to grab a bagel and diet coke and attempt to check the attitude at the door.
(While you are looking at the picture with the bad settings, note the crate myrtle in the back ground that the commander transplanted last weekend) kudos for that.

How to make a funny face

ELECTRICAL FUSION AND SNOW IN THE FORECAST

We have snow in the forecast for tonight. It will be the second one in March??!! We haven't played in it ONE time this year so I"m hoping for a big one! BRING IT ON! I hope to go into work late tomorrow. Here is Riley patiently watching the very small snow flakes beginning to fall.













So, the hot tub leak was repaired yesterday and we had an interesting conversation:

Mr. repair man: "the electrician must have bumped something because one of the valves in the front was loose that was not loose before, but i was able to fix it"
A: HMM. Ok, thanks. I will definately ask him if he noticed anything.
A: Ross, are you confident with your "electrician skills" because there was a loose valve that wasn't there initially.
R: it was probably "bumped" during the move. ??
(Begin thinking in my head that can't be very good because it has to be moved again. Start to wonder if we should call a licensed professional, but not wanting to spend the money or offend the commander) I'll let you know how the scenario plays out in reality.
NOTE TO FUTURE HOT TUB OWNERS:
Enclosing a hot tub sounds like a GRAND IDEA until something malfunctions and a pipe in the back freezes!!! At least we left that one side accessible.
The commander's electrical skills involve purchasing some wire and performing some magic so we didn't have to call an electrician back out to re-wire for a temporary move. Being a self proclaimed handy woman, I know that it involves some splicing and dicing.
It's fixed so lets hope it doesn't get "bumped" again during the push back.
Here's Riley expressing no fear by playing jump from the seated position off the cover.
Yes, DoDo the temperature is more like bath water and it was a nice spring-like day.
I wanted to get a hot tub visit in tonight, but the commander said it's not allowed until its hooked back up correctly. HMMMMM.

Weekend MISC

The husband has come home in full force! Its been an adjustment..a good one, but none the less..an adjustment. You see, I like to swing my car in the middle of the garage. Now, I have to practice backing up multiple times to "fit" on my side. I have a certain pillow arrangment when I sleep. It takes up the whole bed so I downsized the arrangement..(although I do sleep much better now that he's home).
He's taken over closetS. Tv's now show the playstation instead of the 5, 6, and 9:00 news broadcasts. Yes, i USED TO watch them all. I have been limited to one now. I have named him....(drum roll)...The Commander! He's taking over my world!!! I can't complain about it too much because I asked for the fence to be moved for my b'day so we could add more space to the back yard (a big request, I know), but the commander is all over it! He and his dad started the project this weekend AND moved the hot tub so the repair guy could get to the leak.


Riley and I sat back and ate yummy brownies! He has his Mama's addiction!!! Riley asked me to take his lid off so he could dip his brownie in milk! A proud moment for me!

(not cool that my pics edited by photo shop will not download..moving on)

Its all fun and games until the dad won't share the controller, the toddler tattles on him, then pulls the plug on the game. (the mom secretly laughs)
Isn't 3yrs old a little too soon anyway?


Its either feast or famine in this house. There is either NOTHING to eat, or there is so much one can't make up her mind. Today was a good grocery day. I'm ready for the taco dinner tonight. It's going to be a good eat week and back to work for me. UGH!!!
I love vacations.