Blogging Failure

I realize that I stink at blogger this year. So, here's a quick overhaul of the major happenings lately:

I got a new car!


I graduated college.
...and so did my sister, so she went to graduation and I stole her cap and gown to take my own pictures as if I went to mine :)



B and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary! 2,000 miles apart. He sent me these pretty flowers:


And Brady started playing soccer. For approximately 2 minutes a game. And then she picks flowers and plays in the dirt. What can I say...she's 3.


And that's about it! Maybe I'll get back into this soon...

Tidbits and Things

Not too many exciting things have been going on lately. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! Exciting! Unfortunately, B and I aren't even in the same state so it will kind of be a bust. Maybe I'll hang out with my single friends? I think that's a viable option.

However, I get to see this shining face ALL next weekend:




B just went to Alabama for a training, and that's a minor 10 hours from here compared to the 18 hours Wyoming is, and I have a 4 day weekend so I'm going to see my hubby! I'm excited!

In other news...

Brady was sick not this last weekend but the weekend before that, slept with me, slept on my face, and I STILL have some of her illness.

I've decided that I need to move my chapstick because Brady knows it's location too well. When I cleaned yesterday I found three stray chapsticks stuck around under furniture and stuff. Usually, she just gets some out, holds it up and says "Mammay did you buy this for me?" My thought is usually something like ...yes, and that's why I put it wayyy back in that drawer so it would be easily findable--surprise! But I just say "yes" and she goes "thank you for buying this for me Mammay. i love it." And then we go shopping and she tells me everything I try on looks "beautiful" on me while doing this...




And all is forgiven.

I got a new smartphone. Much different than my basic slider with no keyboard was. However, it's autocorrections are simply fantastic. I tried to type something about my mom being home to take someone to the airport today and it replace "mom" with "abduction".....good times!

And, lastly, I discovered that I'm missing a Reba CD and a Sara Bareilles CD case. I'm pretty sure they are together having a super awkward party. But, in any case, I'd like to rediscover both of them!

See what you haven't missed in my seriously pathetic lack of posting?? ;)

Make it Melt

This post is part of Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.

Prompt: The last time your heart melted.

Exactly 2 weeks ago, the midget and I both turned another year older. Brady turned 3, and I turned...well, another year older.




Now that she's three, she constantly says things to me that just make my heart smile. I save messages she, somehow, manages to leave on my cell phone because there is just nothing that's much more adorable.

But, the last time she really caused a full on heart-melting was about a year ago, after she had just turned 2 years old.



She had gotten up a little before me. I could hear her playing with her toys in the living room for probably about a half an hour before I joined her. I should say that this is not unusual...she gets up before me all the time.

But, on this day, I walked into the living room. She heard me come in, turned around, yelled my name and ran to me with her arms up. I should also say that this is quite normal, as well.



However, her royal cuteness wasn't done acknowledging me. She put her two tiny hands on each side of my face and exclaimed, "Mammay, I love you."

This is the first time she had said this without someone prompting her too. She then wrapped her arms around my neck tight and put her head on my shoulder. And my heart was lava.

I just love my midget.

What Labor Day at the Lake Looks Like

Our last labor day at the lake looks like:

Cuddling in the early morning cold...


Laughing and swinging...



Bubble blowing...


Smores...


Babes sleeping on the boat, one in a lifejacket that is not accurate for his gender because we just used Brady's old one...



And water slides.


It wasn't too shabby at all :)

Smelly Fish, et al

You know I only have one blog post for July? One? That's horrid.

I have definitely decided that if anyone ever tells you that they are planning on taking 10 credit hours full of literature and foreign language in one month, you should repeatedly smack them in the face with a smelly fish until they come to their senses. Logically speaking, I'm a pretty good student with a pretty good GPA and a fabulous knack for last minute papers full of nothing but well-phrased bs.

This summer month of classes is kicking my ass.

So here's a little post of what's been happening around here this month around classes and schoolwork:

Jess over at Jesstagirl and her Officer sent me these lovely peaches and cobbler mix for winning a give-away! I made the cobbler for July 4th and it was the easiest thing ever, and absolutely delicious! (Jess, I have a thank you card sitting on my desk stamped and ready to go for you...sans address, because I forgot to take it off the box before I tossed it. Please drop me an email and I'll send it out!)



We attended the last Brooks & Dunn tour :( B had a small conflict with the drunk idiots next to us, who thought it was okay to reach over and grab the back of my best friends shirt and attempt to dump alcohol down it. Uh uh, not cool--choice words were used and after awhile the drunkards decided weed was better and stopped talking to people around them. Concert was good, though.



We made the decision to stop "sharing" drinks with Brady. She now gets her own cup.


We discovered that 1lb of meat on Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza is about double as much as one can stand to eat.


And, lastly, we discovered that Brady's tendency to throw herself underwater last year at 18 months old in a 1 ft pool did not end last year. Now it's just in a bigger pool and with more emphasis. But at least she can swim!


I swear I'll be back soon!

Sure, I'll Hand-Cancel 162 Envelopes

Any guesses as to what we've spent our entire week doing?





...any guesses as to what headed to a million different states and two countries today? ;D

In other news...I've decided that no one is pretty when they yawn. Really. Even babies. Even Brady looked like a small lion when she yawned as an infant...and she was normally pretty ;)


Lastly, a friend of mine just found out on Monday that she was selected to travel to the Republic of Congo for a missions trip. I'm trying really hard to be excited for her, but really I'm just deathly worried. I know this is hypocritical, since I dropped myself into Kenya in the middle of a genocide...but the war in Congo, it's just different. I remember saying a few years ago, "There are a lot of dangerous places I'd go but, as a woman, I would never go to Congo." It's not changed. I don't know why I know stuff like this, but if it's a country in Africa I'm pretty familiar with what's going on. Those of you who are not aware of the issues in Congo, do just the tiniest bit of research and find out. It's not good, and it's not changing--it's kind of being ignored, and that's really sad. I'm super worried for Tiff, but glad she has the guts to go.

I'll post about the bridalshower(s) gift explosion in our living room soon.

Camera Shopping & Baby Stevie Wonder

Friday night my camera died. It was a sad day. I've had that camera for 5 years. It was not an expensive camera: just a little point and shoot kodak easyshare. Within the first month of me owning it, Little Man threw it down the stairs. It lived with no issues. After that I let the kids play with it. Brady chewed on it all the time when she was little. I've spilled things in it. Not long ago I accidently took it for a swim while taking some photos. Last year it lived through many rough and tumble Kenyan children who have a love for taking photos, particularly with my camera since I was the only one who would let them touch their camera.

But now it's gone. It actually still takes photos, but the screen is busted so you can't see them. It was really time for a new one anyway, but it's just so sad. Especially for the kids, because when I get a new one they will not touch it. Sorry, lovelies.

I think I'm going for a canon this time. The only issue I had with the kodak was it's lack of close focusing. The canon, even the point and shoot, seems to do a pretty decent job of that. Of course, not nearly as well as any SLR will do, but B has a canon SLR and we really can't afford another one right now nor do we really need one. A point and shoot will do. I'm hoping to rope my mother into getting one for me for Christmas :)

Onto more exciting weekend things!

This weekend was my first born nephew's 9th birthday. This nephew and his sister will hereafter be referred to as Tile and Noodle. These are not nicknames I gave them, just for the record. Tile gave Noodle her nickname, and Brady gave Tile his. Other than these two I do actually call these children by what I call them on here--I hate real names, they are boring. Brady is called Brady. Little Man is called Little Man occasionally, but I usually call him E. I call Boo by Boo and Cabbage by Cabbage. Tile and Noodle have other nicknames that they are called, though. But I won't use those on here because they are too close to their actual names.

Anyyyway. B (who I do call B. there is another person in my family with the same name as him, and it makes it easier to use "B" to clarify) and I took Brady to this party for Tile. Tile doesn't usually celebrate his birthday here, as he lives a state away, but this year he did. Brady and Tile do not belong to the same side of my family: my parents are divorced and Brady is my niece by my mom and Tile is my nephew by my dad. Therefore, Tile and Noodle had never met Brady. So what did they think of her?

Instant Love.



This is Brady sporting some sunglasses she found.
Noodle is here and was thoroughly attached to Brady all night.
That thumbs up for approval? That would be Tile.

About ten seconds later Brady turned around and was showing her sunglasses to all the adults and they were telling her how pretty they looked. She lifted her arms in the air and said: "Thank you, audience!"

Brady will only be two years old just after Christmas. She's got the most ridiculously awesome personality!

My nieces and nephews are simply the best ever. Sorry, but it's true!!

Wax Lips: Play Now, Chew Later

I'm so tired.
Just worn out.
The weekend was good...
Save the rain.
But I'm tired.
And going non-stop for as long as I can see.
It'll take just a few weeks to get used to my new schedule(s).

...I hope.

Because I am exhausted.
And it's only Monday.
And a holiday.

But this...



...this always gets me from one day to the next. Always.

One Week

Over the last week I...

...was not drunk during the taking of this...


...bought, made, and decorated this in two hours for my sister's July 4th birthday...


...spend two hours talking to my grandma about how getting a german shepard mix puppy would not be the right dog for her and how she knows that, and then came home and found this...


...and then went next door and found this one, his sister (literally)...


...watched Brady's Mozart skills...


...set off some of these...


...bought this for our large group of partiers this weekend...


...and purchased these for B for the weekend in my hopes of turning him into a sandal-wearer.


And this weekend will rock the socks off the past week :)

Lakes and Bathing Suits

The weekend was...interesting...to say the least. Friday I went into work early and then we headed to the lake again, this time with Little Man (E) in tow. I love the dude, I do--I had him with me every day for five years, I changed his diapers, I fed him in the middle of the night...I love the little dude. But, these last couple years where he's (finally) been with his mom the majority of the time has pretty much turned him into a prissy brat and I've had him since Thursday so it was rather challenging. Does it make me a bad aunt if I say my nephew is a prissy brat? I have a niece who I also think is a brat, just a super spoiled one. I love them both, and being the (sometimes stupidly) honest person I am I'm willing to admit that they are brats, even if that does make me a bad aunt. (...does it? ha!)

But, anyway, Saturday we went out on the boat and Cabbage got her first taste of the lake life in Brady's life jacket from last year pictured here with her fabulous self:


Cabbage sported it a bit differently, seeing as how Brady was in the top 80% for height and weight and Cabbage just got on the bottom of the scale at her last checkup. It basically swallowed her whole:


She was not happy about it. She also sported Brady's float from last year--she was better with that. And on the way in Little Man got to drive the boat (shh!):


Saturday night I took all 7 (potty trained) kids, aged 12, 12, 9, 8 ,7, 6, and 4 to play putt putt on the sorriest course you've ever seen in your life with just a cousin of mine who, bless her heart, has zero authoritative power with children because she's really still in the stage where she'd like to "outsmart" or argue with them rather than the "because I said so" stage. So it was me and all seven kids basically, which wasn't actually bad but I was ready to go back to the campground by the time that was over.

Sunday we hit the cliffs. The Cliffs is an area of the lake where there are, surprise!, cliffs. It isn't an advertised tourist attraction or anything, you just have to know about it. And I'm very, very surprised they haven't shut it down yet. You basically have to jump over trees. They range from 5 feet to 40 feet in height, and higher when the water level is low. We kept the boat kind of far from the cliffs to be safer with the kids around so the shots I got were pretty bad, but here's the best one, as blurry as it is:

That's the highest one. And I know what you are thinking, and yes I did jump off of it. Once. Once every two years is about my quota for that jump. My 6 year old cousin jumped off the second highest one last year (at 5). My 8 year old Little Man? Wouldn't even jump off the boat.

We got home at 1030 sunday night, I had a load of laundry to do so I went to bed around 1215 and got up at 530 this morning and then worked 730am-6pm today. I'll be sure not to volunteer for that too often from now on :)

BUT. My bestie is back in town for the summer, and we went bathing suit shopping tonight. Total failure. However, I did get a $4 ballcap for the water and I put it on when I got home and said hi to my puppy. Chase HATES this hat. The first thing he did was bite the bill and rip it off my head. I thought maybe he just didn't want it on me, but I had to pull it out of his mouth. He hates it so much he'd really like to rip it to shreds. I mean, it's just a ballcap!

It's a Xavier hat, though...I guess my dog's a U of Cincinnati fan!

Wonderful Wordless Wednesday

Baby B and Cousin A holding hands.

The girls running away.

Me and Baby B shadowpeople.

Vday cupcakes, made with attitude by me and (mostly) the friends.

Accidental photo failure of me and B's feet...though it's still kind of cool. my jeans are better, though :)


We're currently having anywhere from 50-70mph winds following a nice thunderstorm and tornado watch. I'm almost amusing myself by watching the "power outage" meter calculate failures. So far it's up to 60,437. I figured I'd post some photos while I waited for us to join the statistic, as it's only flashed about 23892 times in the past hour! Enjoy!

A Day of Celebration

Today is an awesome day for several reasons of amazingness.

Reason #1: End of treatment! I rolled out of bed this morning at 6am, and we left the house at 730 to my to my mom's last cancer treatment ever. Today was the last radiation (which, of course, came after the chemo) and she is officially done with her treatment! YAY! She'll still have the reconstructive surgery in March, but that is not required and technically not part of the treatment, so it doesn't even slightly count. Her hair is growing back in very quickly along with her eyebrows and eyelashes :D I took her out to breakfast and gave her a little gift she continued to tell me I didn't need to do, and it was a great morning of celebration.

Reason #2: It's my birthday! My parents got me a GPS system that they gave me last night, and which was speaking to me in deutsch for most of the night but I have now fixed to at least just be a British accent (more fun than you'd think). I decided I'd take my gift card and treat myself to a new haircut, and did. Don't you just love the feeling of getting your hair cut? Though, I must admit I'm looking forward to washing it--the salon products they put in it do not impress me. In about an hour Big B is taking me out to dinner somewhere. I said "surprise me" and I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not haha. Later I'm going out with my sister for drinks and it's bound to be a wonderful night!

Reason #3: It's Baby B's birthday! That's right! We share a birthday and she turned 1 year old today! We had her birthday party early (you've seen the pictures) so there isn't a big gift unraveling today, but next year we'll probably do it on her birthday--this year it just doesn't make a difference! Happy birthday Bray!

:D

Hope you all have a great New Year's this week!

Blogger Confessions & B's 1st Birthday

The 1 and only:

I suck at blogging.

Really, I try to...and I think I'll do it everyday, but here it is a week since the last time I posted a blog.

Next week is finals week, which in turn means this week is the week all the professors dish out last minute assignments (i.e. today we were told we have a test on 11 short stories next class period (wednesday) AND were given the information about the final paper...which is due on Friday in the same class. Awesome). I'm also horribly amused that the final paper assignment seriously says "write a well developed 200-300 word essay"...that's two paragraphs at most. That's insane. I wonder where these people came from, sometimes.

I only have two actual test finals, and they are one after another on Monday morning...which is well crappy. But, oh well. It is what it is!

Turned my final writing portfolio in today :D So glad that's over with. He's one of those professors who can't make up his mind, and doesn't inform us when he changes it so you never know what your marks are really for.

Speaking of writing, I don't know if I mentioned this, but I failed NaNo this year with 31,000 words in the month. Never fear, though, it will be finished. Hopefully by the end of January if I can manage to get any motivation back. Then I can edit until I'm blue in the face...and then edit more.

Big B is talking about getting a new car. He was going to wait a year or so, but I think he's getting tired of having an old car when all his friends have new, pretty cars. I'm all for it, but I'm not paying for it hehe. But his USAA loan became available last month and it's something crazy like 2% financing so it's a pretty decent deal.

We had Baby B's first birthday party this weekend! She's not quite a year old yet--we have the same birthday (yes, odd, yet fascinating) and it's at the end of the month here. But we had it early. My brother dressed up like Hello Kitty (scroll down for pictures) and although she wasn't really having it at first, after about ten minutes she decided the costume was soft and wouldn't let anyone take her from the Kitty hehe. It was a good time, and fun to be all together for the first time since the baby shower.


Loving the Kitty


Getting Hello Kitty on her face. For the record, it's nearly impossible to paint an 11month olds face.


Us. B enjoying a cheeto puff. Me enjoying her facing the other direction so my sweater was safe from cheeto.


Ciao for now!