…Donella…

So tonight, I made lasagna, with salad.  My boys refuse salad, so they get mandarin oranges and grapes instead.  They also get what they coin ‘Ratatouille’ bread.  Known to most adults as garlic bread.  Oh, yea, and a side of good old cottage cheese.  Did you say you were waiting for pictures?

 I haven’t tried it yet, but the kids claim its ‘ok;- huh, well maybe it looks better than it tastes…. Funny Johnny PICKED this dinner out of the cookbook, and now he says he doesn’t like it, and is refusing to eat it. 

On other matters, does anyone reading feed their kids cafeteria style? I got these plates @ Target after Valentine’s Day, 75% off, so 4 of them for about a quarter… I use these plates every day, I suppose in anticipation of my future career (cafeteria lunch lady)..

And as always, in my house, milk for dinner.  Green, of course, for Johnny- and blue for Jace.

Here’s to hoping your dinner was as ‘ok’ as mine!

Esp. when it looks this good…

So, instead of a traditional ham and potato for Easter dinner, I went with green chicken enchiladas, with spanish style rice, and refried beans.  Bring on the carbs, I guess, but man that was a good dinner.

Anyway, I just thought to share my yummy dinner pics!

Tee-ball that is.  Sometimes I feel so lame, saying how much fun I am having with Johnny’s tee ball team, coaching and all.  Last night, Brian (who the ‘THE’ coach) wasn’t at the game… so I got to be ‘THE’ coach… and let me tell you… That was seriously, so much fun! I was really nervous going into it, because I hate the feeling of letting ppl down- and being on the field like that in front of so many parents, really made my heart race.  I felt like everyone would be watching my every move, just waiting for me to mess up… but once the first pitch was thrown… all of that left me. 

It was me, in the dirt, with my team.  MLB is awesome, but let me tell you… this is baseball in its purest form.  I love it.  My team did REALLY well last night, several hits of the pitcher… some off the tee, lots of nice D, and tons of teamwork.  Best of all, no tears, everyone had a stellar time, and man, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect game.

My son, Johnny, is one of the younger kids on the team.  He is one of three who haven’t ever played an organized sport, before.  He was up to bat last night, and I had Silas’s dad (I can’t remember his name, but its not Eric) pitch the second inning- now that guy can pitch to 4-5 year olds- ok back to Johnny, he was up to bat- and HIT the first pitch thrown.  He’s so damn cute, I was coaching behind the plate, so he turns around to me and gives me the BIGGEST smile, accompanied with a thumbs up.  I was ‘RUN JOHNNY, RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!’ So the kid starts running his little heart out… Straight to the pitchers mound, so I start running along the first  base line, calling to him, and he runs- catches up to me, looks up at me, and man… the best feeling in the world… He knows I am there for him… He was so proud of himself- and he knows I am so proud of him. 

Anyway, like I said, I had the best time last night.  I don’t know if its ‘t-ball’, or just being out, and active.  I have been sheltered in this house for so long, it was just an enlightening experience- amazing, to me, that I can still get that excited.  I love it. 

Ick, that just brought back that awful youtube video… Don’t ask, you really, really REALLY don’t want to know…

 Anyway, I thought I would write about the challenge that I am going to undertake.  I have a friend, I have known her for only a short time… But in the last few days, we have started talking a bit more.  She’s a cool cat.  Anyway, she is more of a natural, holistic person than I am, and that is something that really interests me.  I figure you are only as much a person as you are willing to learn, and with the willingness to learn comes another layer of life and being. 

Anyway, we had this convo about what is in Diet soda… and apparently its ALL bad! I always thought that it would be better than chugging regular soda- no.  No.  Nada. NO! So… since I am a huge lover of my daily diet soda… I have decided to challenge myself to not drink Diet anything for an entire T-W-O weeks. 

Starting tomorrow.  I hope I can do it!

I couldn’t have asked for a better Saturday- seriously, it was the nicest day that I have had in such a long time.  I don’t know if its the amazing weather we had today, but everyone was in such great spirits all day, and that seems to be very sparse these days.  Aside from the normal boy fights, and preteen sighing and rolling of the eyes… Today was pretty damn drama free. 

I woke in a bad mood… Just pissy, because last night Jace decided to wake up at 4 AM, and stay awake until about six.  He is potty training, and like a good friend said today, “I think diaper days are behind me”…He woke up to pee, and then peed again, in about 25 minute increments for the next 2 or so hours.  And its not like I could get angry with the dude, because EVERY time he said he had to go pee, he went.  Granted, 3 or less drops EVERY single time, but I can’t say ‘no’.  But I can growl about it!

So 8AM rolls around, I am still snoozing- and out of the blue… POKE.  On my forehead- Johnny.  Time for me to get up…. Anyway, I was pretty pissy in the morning, but had a very refeshing convo via IM with my BFF.  Ok well, I don’t ‘technically’ have someone (aside from my mom) my BFF, but a very close friend of mine… So annnnnnnnnnnnnnyway… after that chat, my attitude was very much refreshed. 

We decided to take the kids, since we had two free movie passes, to ‘Horton Hears a Who’.  My review of the movie? WONDERFUL! Really, such a great movie for kids.  (Well, at least for the 13 minutes that I got to see it!) The rest of the time we were on 15 minute pee break, and ‘I gotta poo-poo’ breaks.  But I will definitely rent or buy the movie when it comes out. 

With a napless afternoon, Jace was a terror, and coloring eggs for tomorrow… Well, less than stellar results.  But the eggs are colored, well semi colored- the baskets are at the ready… and kids are down for the count.

I just had a nice day. 

You walk by, what catches your attention…? I wonder about people all the time, I wonder where they see beauty.  What makes them smile, or the little hairs on the neck stand up?  The most unassuming of things gets me, a lot.  Like my favorite flower? Definitely daisy… any old daisy, on the side of a dusty road sunkissed, fresh….yet unassuming.  Ok totally off track. 

I sigh, when I say, ‘oh for the love of vintage’… But I found the most happy little surprise today.  I haven’t done any research, but I *think* that its from the 50’s… its an unopened box of PAAS (http://www.paaseastereggs.com/) Easter Egg dye! Its just the cutest little box, and SO well preserved… I just love it.  I am going to contact the PAAS company and see if they can date this box for me.  I am just really interested to know… If I find out conclusively then I will def let y’all know.  (I know, you can all breathe a sigh of relief, because I knoooooooooooooooooooooooooow how interested you are.  Feel free to ‘X’ out of this screen at any time).

The back of the box just makes me totally laugh! Word for word: “Fun galore for anyone in the family.  Packed full of bright, gay decorating and coloring ideas.”

Come on, you know you laughed.  Ok, another super happy surprise- the price.  Of course, I bought this at the thrift store, the Salvation Army.  I love that place, seriously, I think its my favorite store, evah!  Back to the price… I just had a little intermission to google… Easter items were 75% off today.  The price before discount? TWENTY FIVE CENTS! Woot! I would even have spent a whole quarter on it- but nooooooooooooo… with the great sale, it was… 0.1875 of a cent!!! (75% of 0.25 = 0.1875) She rounded WAY up to a penny, but double woot, that rocks. 

Here are some cute pics of the box…

So there you have it.  Vintage sweetness in a box!

I really am an IB.  (Irregular Blogger).  Can you tell I have a thing for… I don’t know what they are called, but I like shorter names for longer things. 

 As I sit here in my quiet house, listening once again to my fave songs on my myspace player- currently Santeria by Sublime… I wonder where the last week went.  I just realized I haven’t blogged in over a week.  It seems like so much happened, but nothing really to report to my peeps…

Ah, OPENING DAY! This was Saturday.  The team was supposed to be at the field by 7:30.  My house, and everyone in it woke up at 7:10.  We live approxiamately 7 minutes from the field, so here timing was key.  I took about a 30 second shower, rinsed all the goodies, and didn’t even wash my hair.  I figured I would be wearing my Asst Coach hat so, it worked.  We were late, but only by 5 minutes.  No one ate breakfast, had anything to drink, or even brushed their teeth.  But we were there.  The team did great! Johnny hit the ball on the second try, off the coach, and not off the tee… He ran, and to FIRST base! Talk about exciting.  Tee ball seems like such a magical time for kids.  Johnny isn’t the best baller I have ever seen, but that kid has mad potential… if he would stop chasing butterflies and picking dandelions long enough to make a play.  I love that kid.  So after the game, my team was in charge of running the cake walk booth.  Man, did I ever make a fool of myself, pimping goodies for a quarter.  Lots of fun, though. I am going to attatch a few pics of this fantastic day!

img_3607.jpg

img_3616.jpg

He’s cute, right? Nah, you don’t have to agree, I know he is…

Moving forward, Monday was a laundry day, nothing terribly exciting to report… But Tuesday was the BEST DAY EVER! Ok, well not ever, but two really good things happened…the first, was that Jace told me THREE times he had to poop, and three times he pooped in the potty.  Now this is WHOLLY different from what has been happening.  Normally, I find him with crap all down his leg, hiding like a scared animal and smelling like a porta-potty behind the couch.  So, needless to say, this makes me SMILE! Ok, now on to the BIGGER and BETTER GRANDSLAM kind of news.  My mom had a catscan last week, the doctor called her with her results yesterday.  The cancer is still there, but ITS LESS! The fluid in her abdomen (which is indicative as to how much cancer is there) was less than the last scan a year ago, and there is no new cancer.  This news just literally made me cry.  I love my mom SO much, so this was a huge relief.  So big that I can’t even put words to it, or to how it made me feel.  I wonder, if it feels this way for me, how much it must affect my mom.  So, now you know.  The BEST Tuesday ever.  Even the fight John and I had before bed has been erased and overshadowed by the goodness.

Ah, today is Wednesday.  Not much to report… Yet, its 7:45 and Pearl Jam is on my player, ‘Last Kiss’- I love that song.  My baby bug just woke up- with a dry diaper.  He peed like a champion race horse just now- he is well on his way to being 100% done with diapers.  My baby is growing up.

More, later, faithful blog readers!

So my very good friend Anne Michelle came over yesterday… We had a plan to dress up like rockabilly pinup hot mama’s and take some pics of each other.  I had the best time! It was really, a lot of fun.  AM brought her baby, Parker who is 4 months old- and just delish.  Of course Johnny and Jace were here… So, just be happy that these pictures don’t come with audio attatched. 

Ok, so about our pics… We did make-up, false eyelashes, liquid eyeliner, and pin-up style hair… A word to the wise… liquid eyeliner and false eyelashes are not intended for non make up mamas.  While I do wear makeup nearly every day, its just the basics- a 5 minute face.  Liquid eyeliner and false eyelashes GREATLY distressed my 5 minute face… And made it roughly, oh, 3 days.  First, I applied my regular makeup, just a lot more PINK, and a lot more… well, just a lot more makeup… Then I did the liquid eyeliner.  It must pay to actually purchase the one that wasn’t the cheapest one there, because this stuff was like White Out, only black and sticky-ish.  You know the brush on the White Out, how it gets all crazy after you use it once or twice? Well… That is what using cheap liquid eyeliner is like.  It looked like my two year old tried to draw a straight line on my eyelid, in other words it looked like DOO-KY! Thank God I was able to smudge it quite a bit.  Moving on to eyelashes of death.  Yes… eyelashes that aren’t your own that require GLUE can be deadly.  (Note to any eyelash glue manufacture-ers that may be reading this… you should really make that glue NOT sting your eyes if and when the unsavvy eyelash wearer happens to glop in on her pupil- just a thought).  So I pull these little seemingly unassuming eyelashes off of their little plastic crescent shaped abode, and fir them to my eye.  Easy enough.  Now on to glue.  I am not going to say much… just three things: wrong, bobby pins, Taco Bell drink lid.  Don’t ask!

All this did lead up to a lot of laughs, and some good pics, and awesome memories.  Thanks for the day AM!

Sigh… Sorry faithful reader(s) (HA!), I haven’t been a regular blogger… Hey side note, what a great screen name, Irregular Blogger… Huh.  I may use that… Anyway, back to the OB.  (Ya, I coined it, orignal blog).  So my mood, as you may have caught on to, is a good one…

TWO HOURS LATER……

Yes, its been about two hours or so since I started this blog.  My mood is a little less jovial and a lot more.. ugh, how I hate bedtime @ the Brazo’s.  Ok, so the the point of this blog… someone asked me today where my blog was, and I just wanted to say how NICE it feels to have someone care about what your feelings are.  It definitely made me smile.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo 

Just a quick pic that I took last night, my little baseball baby… I so love him…