I won!

This bag is now coming to live with me! I "won" it off of Ebay, at the wise suggestion of my friend Chelle. Can you believe it?! The exact bag I was dreaming of, was just waiting there for me to adopt it. And I got it for about $25 LESS than I would've paid had I bought it retail. Total scorage.

Not sure why I didn't think of looking on Ebay myself. I mean, I'm totally on friendly terms with Ebay and spend quite a bit of time visiting there, but sometimes my brain just isn't capable of UN-fixating on something and looking at alternative sources. Sometimes ya just can't see the forest for the trees.

Dinosaurs and Butterflies and Vomit, Oh My!

It's Spring Break! Having a school-aged child for the first time, this week-long reprieve from having to drive back and forth to school, pack lunches, track down hidden library books and adhere to some semblance of a schedule is a nice break for me! My only goal for the week was to do some fun and "special" activities with the kids so that I we didn't end sitting around the house in my our jammies all day reading blogs watching cartoons.

Yesterday we headed down to the science center. My co-worker and friend, April the Amazing Shrinking Nurse, joined me for the field trip, along with her little boy, G-man. There were some really neat things to see and do, although I have to admit, some of it was geared towards kids a bit older than our's. We would have loved to have visited the Planetarium, but alas, children under 4 were not permitted, which ruled out 2 of our 3. And we didn't have a stroller so we couldn't just strap the two little ones in, throw them a handful of crackers, and go enjoy ourselves. JUST KIDDING!! Who would do that?

Instead we totally took advantage of the tot area, letting the kids run and play, climb and explore. Of course, Zoë aka "Little Miss Soggyshorts" was only interested in the water trough, where she managed to thoroughly soak her shirt and sleeves in about 2.7 seconds. The girl is part otter, I swear. She spent the next hour holding her shirt away from her stomach and up under her armpits in order to keep the cold wetness away from her tummy.


After that, we headed into the dinosaur exhibit, which was pretty cool. The lighting wasn't great anywhere in the place, and since I'm still learning how to turn my camera on and off, configuring the Nikon to suck up what little light there was and capture clear and detailed photographs while trying to keep track of two children who were running in different directions was just slightly out of the realm of my parenting capabilities. Ever heard the term "herding cats"? Yah, try doing it in the near dark.

Instead, I turned my lens on the large inanimate exhibits and they cooperated quite nicely.

Next we headed over to the Butterfly House, giving my two hoodlums-on-foot very strict instructions about NOT touching the butterflies. The House was really very beautifully done - lots of lush greenery, a touch of humidity...I almost forgot for a minute the drizzly grayness outside that is spring in the Pacific NW. I've never seen so many different butterflies in my life! And so brilliantly colored and intricately detailed. I could have stayed there for hours, watching them flit around.

Sadly though, partway through the Butterfly House G-man started throwing up. And if that isn't bad enough, April was carrying him and ended up covered in vomit. So we hastily exited the tranquility of the Butterfly House and made a beeline for the bathroom, where she attempted to get herself and G. cleaned up as well as possible. We then bid the science center farewell and headed home. All three of the kids fell asleep before too long so the drive home was quiet and uneventful. Even with the abrupt and unfortunate ending to the outing, it was a lovely day.

Wordless Wednesday

The Love of a Daddy

Check out more Wordless Wednesdays here.

Incoherent thoughts

I'm still working my way through my first cup of coffee so bear with me, but since it's been a few days since I checked in, I thought I better throw ya'll a bone. Because I know you've been anxiously awaiting my written word. Ha. All two of you that read this. (Hi Heather and 'Chelle!)

So my day with Dad was wonderful. And as suspected, I didn't get any pictures. We spent the day talking, laughing, and playing on the computer. I let him read the Day with Dad post and he got all teary. "You put this out on the internet? Why'd you do that?" He wasn't upset, just curious as to why I felt I had to share it with the world. But like I told him, if you love someone and are blessed with having them in your life, don't you want to tell everyone about it?

Like me not too long ago, Dad was completely clueless about this blogging world. He also read my post about the acts of kindness that happen in the Blogosphere, and again he got teary. (Have I mentioned my dad is a big softie??) So I started "showing him around" the blogosphere, some of my favorite blogs, and some of the stuff that goes on amongst us bloggers, like this, this, and this. He was amazed that all this had been going on and he didn't even know about it! But what really got him hooked was when I told him there were blogs about hunting, shooting, etc. I showed him how to search for them and then he pushed me out of my computer chair and told me to go cook something.

Oh. And the Grey Goose? Yummy. He had accidentally picked up a bottle of Grey Goose a l'orange which he apologized profusely for, but I assured him it was no problem. It went quite nicely with my tonic and lime, thankyouverymuch. I managed to keep my consumption to a minimum, attaining a nice fuzzy warm glow with none of the harsh after-effects.

Our dinner was divine - the ribs were amazing. So meaty and tender, and the rub and sauce were perfect. My baked potato salad was scrumptious, if I do say so myself, and once the ribs came out of the oven, we dove into eating, standing at the kitchen counter around the food like a pride of lions around a fresh kill. I wish my fingers hadn't of been covered in barbecue sauce because I would've loved to have been able to grab my camera and snap a few pictures. We had sauce and rib goo all over our faces! Quite civilized. But there's really no tidy way to eat ribs, is there?

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I want this bag please. It would be perfect for holding my camera and other goodies on outings. I know this because my BFF Brooke has one and I covet it. If she weren't one of my BFFs I would totally wrastle her and take it away and make it my own because I'm bigger than she is. But since we have plans together for eternity the next few years, I'd like to stay on speaking terms with her. That and she has a very large sheriff husband. Who I'm kind of afraid of.


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Sam is on Spring Break this week and fortunately, after tonight, I am off work for the rest of the week. My job instead will be keeping him busy and getting out of the house. We have some things planned, with a list of other possibilities, so it should be a fun week. Tomorrow we are heading to the Science Center in the Big City. My friend April the Amazing Shrinking Nurse and her adorable son will be joining us for the adventure. Pictures to follow.


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Sam restarted his swimming lessons this weekend. He's now a Preschool Level IV. If the little spaz would just calm down and slow down, he'd actually make some forward motion. It's so funny to watch him flailing around in the water, looking more like he's drowning, when in fact it's his "swimming". But at least he can float!

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And finally, a sweet picture of my kiddos. Zoë is finally letting me put her hair in piggy tails and she just looks so stinkin' sweet! And Big Brother is looking so grown up. I love these little rugrats.

A Day with Dad

In my post the other day, I mentioned that a possible delayed Opening Day Celebration with my dad would be taking place soon. Well, that celebration will be occurring tomorrow.

After chatting and perusing the baseball schedule, we found that Friday's game between the Seattle Mariners and the Baltimore Orioles is scheduled for 4:05pm. Perfect! In making plans with my dad, he mentioned that he had found some nice beef ribs at the local grocery store and would be bringing those out. You see, we have been dreaming of summer for many long, cold months and in our dreaming of summer we dream of barbecuing. We have perfected our marinating and barbecuing of steaks over the last few years, and now we are moving on to other slabs of animal flesh. Dad dreams of succulent, fall-off-the-bone-tender beef ribs, while I aim to conquer the cooking of brisket. So far, we've attempted both with fairly successful results.

In our first attempt at ribs, we tried two different rubs and two different sauces. The weather was completely uncooperative so we cooked them two different ways: in the crockpot, and in a cast iron Dutch oven in the oven. The ribs themselves weren't very meaty, and we found a few things we'd like to change in the rubs. My first batch of brisket actually was very tasty and quite tender. I tried a different rub, which I really liked, and a BBQ sauce that was perfect. So ribs are on the menu for tomorrow. They will have my rub massaged into them tonight, and then we'll probably use my BBQ sauce too after slow cooking them all afternoon. The rest of the menu is yet to be determined.

Work is a bit slow for my dad right now and he isn't one to just sit around and do nothing, so he is looking forward to tomorrow and spending the day with me. We are much the same in that aspect. Both of us like to be busy and we actually just had a discussion yesterday about how anybody could ever be bored. There's just so much to do and learn and try and explore in our world, that we are just bewildered at how anyone would ever be bored. Anyway....tangent. (That's just how my mind works. Try to stay with me.)

So my dad called me this afternoon to make sure we were still on for tomorrow and that I was going to bring my rub for his ribs by. Yes, I'll be doing that after I pick up Sam-o from school. Then he asked me if I had any vodka. Yes, yes I have a bit of Smirnoff. Then my fabulous father, who knows me SO well, informed me that he had bought a bottle of Grey Goose for me. My little heart started to pitter-patter at the mere thought. It's been awhile since the Goose has come to visit and I always enjoy his visits so much. Sometimes too much in one night. I have a feeling tomorrow will be one of those nights.

That's what happens when my dad and I get together. No, we don't always get drunk, we just really enjoy each other's company. We always have. We let loose and enjoy life together, rules be damned. (See blog title and tag line.) I am the youngest of three girls, my sisters being 7 and 9 years older than me. I was, and mostly still am, a tomboy. When I was little and we went school clothes shopping in the big city 2 hours away, my mom would be busy with my sisters and my dad would take me to the video arcade and feed me quarters until I asked for ice cream (things my mom would never allow). At the age of 9, my dad taught me how to shoot his .22 rifle and spent lots of time teaching me how to hit the bullseye. In high school, my dad came to my softball games in high school and worked with me on my pitching. Over the years, we've done lots together: fishing, brewing beer, driving cross-country twice, going to the rifle range, watching baseball...the memories are too numerous to count. We've totally bonded and whether we just happen to have many of the same interests, or I like the same things he does simply because he's my dad and I love him, I don't know. It doesn't matter. We just love each other and take every opportunity to spend time together and spoil each other.

So I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow of the festivities, but no guarantees. Because, after all, Mr. Goose will be here and we'll be busy barbecuing ribs and celebrating the return of baseball. Yep, it's gonna be a damn good day.

Acts of Kindness

Fumbling my way through this blogging world, I discover new and amazing blogs, people and information at least 42 times a day. Bloggers routinely link to other blogs' posts that have inspired them, made them laugh, or fit in with their topic of the day and I usually end up clicking the link to take me down down yet another little blogging avenue. It has amazed me at the sense of community that exists out here in the Blogosphere. There are some mighty fine people here and it's been a joy to "meet" them and get to know them thru their blogs.

This sense of community has been further evidenced by the story of a little girl named Emily and her parents, Katie & Brian. The other day, several of my favorite bloggers linked back to her story, and when I finally had time to sit down at my computer for a minute, I clicked the link to see what everyone was talking about. (I hope you'll do the same.)

Today there was a new post with an update. As I read the post and the comments, the tears welled up in my eyes and a chunk of my flagging faith in humanity was restored. The generosity of the human spirit and our capability for compassion sometimes really overwhelms me. If everyone exercised these "emotional muscles" more frequently, can you imagine what kind of world we would live in?

I wanted to write this post for two reasons: 1) To share the evidence that kindness does exist in this world that often goes too long without a demonstration, and 2) To share their story and maybe garner more prayers and support for them.

I hope that Katie & Brian know that there are a world of people out here that are praying for them, for Emily, her doctors and specialists, and for strength for them all. And I hope they won't think of us as strangers, but rather friends they haven't met.

A Few Rays of Sunshine

In stark contrast to Saturday's weather, today is sunny and clear, but still chilly - only about 42°. But you won't hear this sun worshiper complain. As long as the sun is out, I'm mostly content. I realize that by choosing to live in this part of the country, I am not endowed with year-round temperatures in the range that I'd like, but I do at least need to see the sun. So what if I get frostbite or snowblindness if I go out? At least it's bright outside and I can lay on the floor in the sun like a cat. And yes, I do that.

Another little ray of sunshine in my life today is that after tonight, I am off work for three days. Hopefully the sun will wait for me and I can get the kids and I out in it tomorrow. Lord knows, we all need some fresh air and some activity OUT of the house. I'm thinking of bustin' out the double jogger stroller and dragging the kids out for a walk tomorrow if it's not freezing cold. Which should be interesting....Sam probably won't want to ride, which is fine. He's old enough and knows the rules of walking on the roadside, so I have no problem letting him walk along. Plus it saves me pushing 48 extra pounds. But Zoë may go into a meltdown if Brother gets to walk and she doesn't. Which would mean pushing a strapped-down, screaming toddler through my peaceful neighborhood and thereby destroying any peaceful, restorative qualities of the afore-mentioned walk. Hmmm. But it could force me into a quicker pace thereby ramping up the exercise benefits of this walk. I guess I'll wait and see what kind of weather the day brings before I start worrying about it.

Lastly, it's baseball season. Yesterday was Opening Day for the Mariners which always brings a twinge of excitement, wondering if this could be Our Year. Being the baseball lover that I am, I was disappointed to have to miss the festivities (I had to work) but you can be sure I had my radio on and will again tonight at work. My dad and I totally bond over baseball, so of course I had to call him on my way to work yesterday to wish him Happy Opening Day. We'll get together later this week to watch the game together, grill some hotdogs and eat some peanuts. Kind of like a delayed Opening Day party. I'll tell you more about my dad sometime. He's awesome.

Anyway, lots of little bright spots today, literally and figuratively. But for now, I'm off to work.