Love Man and Sadie

Sadie is not as good as a hiker as she is a neighborhoood walker.

She got tired and had to sit down.

We watered her up and she was back in business.

Desert View

I love this photo.

I could send it in to weather bug.

Desert Desserts

Love Man in the way of the photo op.




Sadie thinks she is fabulous.

Our neighborhood view from Shaw Butte, trail 361.

Hiking

Love Man and I went hiking yesterday.

Miss Brunette and Love Man went earlier today.

The desert is in bloom and it is beautiful.

I do love wild flowers.

They were everywhere.

The Fun Begins

I used to love Saturday when I was a child.

Now, not as much.

I am still trying.

I have so much laundry to do and cleaning to catch up on.

I usually have to go to the grocery store.

You know how it is.

I am still trying to love Saturday.

I like Friday nights, especially now that we don't have soccer practice.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday.

I do not enjoy church around Easter season.

The crowds of people are too much.

One year, at Easter, there were so many people, we were not in the church.

We were not even in the entry area, is that called the vestibule?

We were on chairs outside of the church.

We could not hear.

It was nuts.

I said to Love Man, "let's just go and eat breakfast".

Love Man said, "this still counts, right?"

When you are a CEO like Love Man, the E for Easter is very important.

It means he is in compliance.

CEO stands for Chrstmas Easter Only.

Sam is on a Playdate

My diagonal neighbor to the back of us,

has borrowed Sam for a walk.

Her little daughter just loves him and he rides in the stroller with her.

He has a great time.

Miss Thing covers him up with a blanket and they ride.

And, even though this isn't the greatest picture,

he is still cute.

The Daily Grind

I am so glad my week is almost done.
We have been busy.
Love Man worked all last weekend and has gotten home really late a couple of nights.
He has been given Friday off.
He plans to go hiking.
TTYL

The Girls are Bummed

Miss Brunette has tests and more tests.
Blonde Girl has the district speech and a book project.
Not, to mention the daily homework.
Our classroom was evaluated today,
which is always nerve-wracking.
Two of our boys dog-piled on each other!
One child politely refused to participate in anything.
The snack helpers spend most of the time body-slamming each other.
One child cried as it was the first day back from break.
OMG.

Another Day

Miss Brunette had me look on the "lunch calendar" as it is the be all and end all.
Seriously, it is the most accurate and we live and die by it.
Besides telling us what is for lunch and BG makes her decision to take or buy lunch,
it lists all the days off for holidays and breaks.
Sadly, we have no more days off until school ends on May 25.
Love Man calls these days the "dog days".
OMG.
I didn't tell her that MY school ends May 20.
Have mercy.

We are Tired

We are tired from all the sun and fun.
Blonde Girl misses Beloved Niece.



I guess it is good that we are going back to school.
I guess.

Going Back

Evidentially, Beloved Niece and Sister are going back to cold and snow.

Sister was delighted with this fun fact.

Blonde Girl has moved back in and sang with her microphone, most of the night.

Another Win

Blonde Girl and Miss Brunette won the bucket race in the second round.
You run across the pool,
fill up the bucket and carry it on your head.
They lost round one,
but rallied in the second race.

Yes, She Is

This is Sister's back.

Yes, she is that tan.

Another Day in the Sun

Blonde Girl has spent every night with Sister and Beloved Niece.

Re-entry may be difficult at our house.

She seems to get just about anything she wants.

A new pair of shoes,

Adam's animals, icees and Panda Express.

I think she had to beg for Panda Express

Panda Express is her favorite.

I am really mad at Sandra Bullock's husband.

Men, men, men.

The Pointe

We are still spending a lot of time at The Pointe.
TTYL.

Kierland Commons

We generally sun by day,
shop by night.
Sister is a sunshine vampire.

They do have the cutest topiaries here.

The Winner

Blonde Girl won an icee playing shark attack.

Just as well, as the icee's are $4.

Sorry for the blurry picture.

It was so sunny,

it looked fine when I took it.

How are We Spending our Days?

We are spending most of our days at the Pointe.

We love it.

It is very family friendly and not too fancy.

Springing

We made this bulletin board in class over a few days.

It's really turned out cute.

Going for a Dip?

The AE dip that I require you to bring me,

if you visit me from the state of Iowa,

was taken away from my sister in Denver.

They took and threw away $6 worth of dip.

All Party and Chive dip.

The humanity.

I am more than sad.

(photo from Anderson Erickson website)

In the Pink

We are trying to wrap up all of this school stuff.

Blonde Girl had two homework packets and is working on her district speech event.

Bless her teacher, she also has another speech and a book report.

We are trying to get as much done as we possibly can.

Miss Brunette is just doing homework.

She has some letter due for vocabulary.

She is pretty much self-sufficient at this point.

I am in pretty good shape at my school.

Conferences are done, licensing came last week and our auction was also last week.

The tiles went for $60.

And, after all of that - who cares.

The Count Down Has Begun

We are getting ready for Spring Break.
And, the arrival of sister and beloved niece.

Post Oscars

I was pretty close with my picks.
I did not think "Hurt Locker" would win.
It is very hard to watch,
but it does stick with you and is life-changing.
I thought that best picture would be "Avatar".

What do I know?

The Truth is in the Pants

Here the story and it is absolutely true.

I was on a routine cruise at the Gap.
My fave store.
That is, my favorite store besides Old Navy, Banana Republic, Ross or TJ Maxx.
I was looking for some khaki pants.
Sort of capri-ish.
They had pants that are patched and some that you are supposed to roll up.
The pants (pictured here) have splotches of white paint on them.
White paint!
According to the Gap web-site,
the perfect touch of paint.
OMG.
I spend the better part of MY day trying to avoid that perfect touch of paint.
That is why I wear an apron.

I went home,
found pants that had been dried (which makes them too short for me) and rolled them up.
I wore them to school.
Apparently, khaki boyfriend pants are all the rage.

If you want to send me some pants and I will get them distressed for you at my school,
please let me know.
There will be a nominal charge for this service.
And, you will get that perfect touch of paint.

Oscar Picks

Best Picture - Avatar

Best Actor - Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart"
Best Actress - Sandra Bullock, "Blind Side"

Best Supporting Actor - Stanley Tucci, "Lovely Bones"
Best Supporting Actress - Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Crazy Heart"

Best Director - Kathryn Bigelow, "Hurt Locker"

Best Costumes - "Coco Avant Chanel"

Best Screenplay - Quinten Tarantino, "Inglorious Basterds"


If Sandra Bullock doesn't win Meryl Strepp will.
If Maggie G doesn't win, Monique will.
If Stanley Tucci doesn't win, the "Inglorious Basterds" guy will.

The Garage Sale of All Sales

Today is the MV Garage Sales!!!!!

BG was taken to soccer by Love Man

and will phone MB and I when she gets home.

We are to pick her up.

Even she, knows deals are to be had.

Life Giving You Lemons?

I still haven't harvested the lemons.

I have single handedly eaten all of the oranges.

My family is crazy,

they were delicious.

The limes are gone.

Sadly,

I have made that key lime pie a few too many times.
But, I still have juice in the fridge,

so I can make a few more pies.

I have picked lemons and used them as needed,

but I still have a lot.

Although, much less that last year,

as Love Man really, really pruned that tree.

It was FINE with me,

we still have tons of lemon juice in the freezer.

Like A Rolling Stone

My yard is a mess from all the rain.

TTYL.

Channeling Alice

It was dress as your "favorite character from a book" day at LOM.

As Blonde Girl is already a combination of several literary characters such as Ramona, D.W. and Junie B. Jones - she went as Alice from Alice in Wonderland.

She just happens to have that costume from Halloween.

We re-read "Alice" last night,

not the real "Alice" but an abridged children's version.

BG had a dream that she went down the hole twice,

got into a fight with the Queen of Hearts and hit her with a stick.

The Queen's head exploded like a pinata and heart candy came out.

Actually, her dream was better than "Alice in Wonderland".

It's in the Mail

I mailed our tax info to our tax guy.

Yippee!

That stuff is no longer hanging over my head.

Another Tree and Flower Post

It has rained on and off all weekend.
It really started up on Saturday night and continued most of Sunday.
One of our trees dumped a lot of its leaves.
Of course, the fine folks at MV Nurseries said it was the kind of tree that didn't lose leaves.






The petunias are good. Love Man just added the dark purple,
I believe they are called blue in the petunia biz.