Well that didn't go as planned!

Yesterday my husband tried to be spontaneous and suggested we take a drive up river and go to the beach. Normally I would be totally on board for a beachy day but I was feeling more bitchy than beachy that morning! To say I'm not a morning person is an understatement! I need at least 2 cups of coffee and about an hour or so before any communication should be attempted. So when my enthusiastic husband bombarded me not ten minutes after I woke up I was less than excited about our plans. I tried my best to put on a smile and get ready. The longer I took the more impatient my husband got. Which made me even more cranky. We were off to a great start! By the time I got ready, got Kai ready, and gathered the essentials it was well past noon. We still had to go to my in-laws house, the grocery store, and a sporting goods store (Brandon needed new sandals..). By this time Brandon is getting a little snippy with me which I handled well............

We finally get on the road and everything calms down UNTIL we see how high the river is. There were no beaches at all! The further we drove the worse it got. We finally found one beach but there were about 20 people and 10 cars crammed onto a tiny patch of sand. So that was a total bust! We decided to drive back into town and take things from there. My husband decided we should go the a public beach I had never even heard of. It was PACKED!!!! But he was so determined to go to the beach that we decided to try it.

Ok first things first we unpack the truck and head to the water. We are immediately bombarded by a pit bull that wasn't on a leash. Bear drug Brandon down the hill resulting in lots of swearing and a scraped elbow. This is when I notice the big sign that says no pets on beach. I point this out but Brandon decides to risk it. We found a clear spot and set up. We tied Bear to one of the beach chairs and he was fine. He just laid there and watched all the practically naked teenage girls and very large women in tiny bathing suits. Kai had a blast playing in the water and I settled into my chair to get some sun.

Just when we thought things were finally going well..... parks and rec shows up and asks to speak with Brandon. Everyone on the beach starts to boo. Bear wasn't bothering anyone! He takes Brandon up to the truck and talks to him for about 10 minutes. This part blows me away.... He tells Brandon that we are lucky he is in a good mood and isn't going to give us a $65 dollar ticket for ignoring the pet rule. And says that we don't have to leave but if we want to stay we have to tie bear in the back of the truck!!!! IT IS 90 DEGREES OUT!!!!! So it isn't ok to have our leashed dog on the beach but it is ok to leave him in the back of a hot truck and with no shade. Did I mention this is the only free beach in town not shut down due to bacteria. OR the fact that there has been tons of media awareness about police cracking down on people leaving their pets in hot vehicles. Needless to say we left. People were coming up to us left and right telling us how crappy it was of P&R to do that. But hey that is the risk we took. And he was just doing his job.

All in all it was a pretty defunkt day.

Familiar Faces

Last night I ran into some familiar faces in a most unexpected place. I was walking our dog when he got excited and started dragging me towards a group of people in our apartment parking lot. Usually running into dark figures in the middle of the night is a bad thing. To my surprise it was some people from back in the day. (High School to be exact) I hadn't seen one of them in almost 10 years.

I forgot how nice it is to stroll down memory lane. My 10 year reunion is next year and I have been strongly debating whether or not I was going to attend. I figured everyone I would like to see is still in my life so what is the point. It has only been in the past few months that I have realized how many people I miss. Sure there are a lot of people I don't care to see again but I put up with them for 12 years so what will a few more nights hurt...

I can't believe it has taken me this long to realize that the way you see yourself in high school isn't exactly the way others saw you. I always thought I was rather invisible but I'm finding out that I had more friends than I thought. Just goes to show how insecurity can be blinding. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with all the other friendly faces I may have forgotten about throughout the years. 10 years already! Wow time flies!

Little Mr. Bossy Pants

So Kai is having a bossy day. As we speak he is yelling, "PUT ME DOWN!". He has been telling me all day that he is hungry. Then when I put him in the high chair he takes two bites of his food then tells me he is done. It has been "GIVE ME THAT!, PUT THAT DOWN!, GO AWAY!, YOU DON"T TELL ME NO!!!" all day. I just love this new found independence. If I ignore him he gets mad. If I help him he yells at me.

It is days like this that make me want to turn off my phone, run to the nearest day spa, and hide until the urge to pull all my hair out passes. As a matter of fact I think there should be a government program that gives mothers a free spa day once a month. Lord knows we need it!

Beware of Random Crafting!

I wrote earlier about getting the craft bug again. While going through my craft box I found some felt left over from the baby booties I made for Niki's baby shower. A light bulb went on in my head and this is what came of it.

Mod meets underwater adventure.... LOL
This is what happens when I stay up late and watch Planet Earth...

Got the craft bug again!

Lately I have put my felting projects on hold. I tend to get discouraged easily. Not a good trait when learning a new craft! I got all excited about this really cute french market bag pattern. I picked out fantastic colors and off I went! It looked amazing before I felted it.... but the finished product was horrible! I had totally forgotten to look at the size of needles required and I didn't test my gauge. The bag was completely useless. Then I realized I had also forgotten to do the same thing with the computer bag that was almost 75% knitted.

When I realized that I was going to have to start over I got upset, buried it in my sewing basket, and forgot about it. For some reason I decided to go online and try to get some inspiration yesterday.

I found a couple of felting patterns that I want to try. I'm dying to go to Jo-Ann's and get what I need. It seems like whenever I find a pattern I like I don't have the right size needles. I guess I need to bump up my collection! I'm hoping these ones turn out better than the last. All I can say is Pay attention to gauge!

At first I had grand plans to start my own little bag company. Now I'm being a little more realistic. I would just love to be able to spoil my friends and family with absolutely fantastic bags. That's enough for me!

Looking forward to posting pictures of some fabulous finished projects!!!

Birthday party at the park

Kai's 3rd birthday party went really well. I would like to take this time to apologize to all the friends who weren't invited because we thought we were short on food. Turns out we had WAY too much! Kai got lots of great presents. He wasn't as excited about his four wheeler as Daddy thought he would be but it is only a matter of time. Overall it was a beautiful day spent with family and friends!

Problem Resolved

In case you have tried to leave a comment and ran into problems... I fixed it. So comment away!

And a Bear update: He seems to be perfectly healthy other than a small bacteria problem in his small intestines. The Vet gave us some pills and special dog food. All should be back to normal within 24 hours or so!

Good to Know!

I'm realizing that you learn very valuable lessons in times of crisis. Like for instance I can handle the sight of my own child's blood (aside from the initial moment of panic) we learned this when he split his eye open on the entertainment center. But I can not handle seeing my own child's bone. I learned that when he smashed his head into the coffee table. Let's just say we had a love hate relationship with our furniture for a few months. Boys will be Boys I guess.

First thing this morning I learned another valuable lesson. My husband is COMPLETELY USELESS when it comes to dog poop. If you have been reading my posts you know that yesterday our dog Bear started having some issues. I called a vet and he recommended we give him an Imodium AD tablet every four hours and see where we are in the morning. Everything seemed fine last night so my husband thought it would be okay to let the dog sleep in our room like usual.

***WARNING*** This next part may be a little TMI for the squeamish!

I woke up to the alarm clock and the faint smell of poo. I looked over to find that the dog had left us another "Split Pea Soup" surprise all over our bedroom floor. My husband seemed fine at first. He took the dog and put him back in the guest bathroom and we sat down for a cup of coffee. We decided that my husband should take him to the vet first thing. Now I think the next part is hilarious but then again I tend to be the kind of person that giggles a little when I see someone trip on a sidewalk. My husband proceeds to continue our current conversation as he walks to the master bathroom (he has to step over the poo in order to do so). Why haven't we cleaned it up? You may be asking yourself. #1 it is 4:30 in the morning #2 I haven't had a cup of coffee yet and #3 I'm hoping that my husband is going to volunteer to handle this one since I was knee deep in it yesterday. What happens next pretty much answered #3 for me.

As my husband is talking I hear, "They said **gag** that we **gag** should **gag gag**....." He couldn't even STEP over it without almost contributing to the mess himself! My big manly husband couldn't even walk near dog poo without gagging. I began to laugh uncontrollably. This happens three more times at least before it is time to take the dog to the vet. Each time he gagged I laughed. Yep apparently I am the kind of wife that laughs at her husband's weaknesses.

So now we have established that I am "Captain of the Poop Patrol" and I'm a big meanie. All in all a very educational morning!

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse!

If you have been following my week you are well aware of my pension to wait until the last minute. My mother is going to be here tomorrow and I just finally started making progress on cleaning the house. Everything was going well UNTIL....... Our lovable horse/dog Bear got sick. Before I knew it there was ....well... lets call it "split pea soup" ALL OVER the house! Including all over Kai's new Aqua Doodle. I grab the dog and Kai and go outside to make sure Bear is done. Everything seems to be fine now. So we head back into the house. I put Kai on the couch and Bear on the balcony.

Thinking that the worst is behind us I start cleaning up. NO! We haven't even begun! Next thing I know Kai is yelling NO BEAR! I look up to see that now the balcony is covered in "split pea soup". GREAT! I'm sure our downstairs neighbor is pleased! I call my husband (like he can do anything about it) But at this point I am loosing my mind. So once again I stop what I'm doing and redirect. Bear goes into the bathroom and I don the rubber gloves, put my lavender eye pillow over my nose, and start cleaning the balcony. One disgusting disaster taken care of! My next business of order is to go down and inform our neighbor of the "incident". To my immense appreciation he understands and tells me that he will take care of any resulting messes on his balcony. Time to head back into the house. After some spot cleaning (and a lot of gagging) I can vacuum the carpet and shampoo. Thank GOD we have a carpet shampooer. I can't even imagine what I would have done with out it!.

So here I am sitting on the couch waiting for the carpet to dry. Everything else has been put on hold. The Kitchen is still a mess, the laundry still needs to be done, the master bedroom needs to be cleaned from top to bottom, and the bathrooms need to be cleaned.

But at least when my mother gets here and sees the mess I can tell her.........
Yeah, well at least it doesn't smell like shit!

Kai's 3rd Birthday... What a circus it was!

So my little munchkin turned three today! Well.... technically yesterday (it is 12:38 A.M.) I am still reeling from my cupcake sugar high. I had some bizarre notion that he would understand what was going on. Based on how our morning started I was sadly mistaken. Our conversation went as follows:
.....
Me: Happy Birthday Kai!
Kai: No it not!
Me: Yes it is silly! Don't you know that you are three today?
Kai: I don't tink so.
Me: Well you are so Happy Birthday!
Kai: Okay! Happy Birfday Mommy!
Me: No no no it is YOUR Birthday. You were born three years ago today.
Kai: Nuh Uh....
Me: Okay fine.... do you want pancakes or oatmeal for breakfast?
.....
After breakfast I cleaned the kitchen and prepared to make Kai his birthday cupcakes. THIS part he understands. Well the cupcake part anyway. The time it takes to make them on the other hand..... not so much. After all the ingredients were mixed he wanted to taste it. When I told him they weren't ready he threw a fit. After I poured them into their cute little paper cups he wanted to have one. Again upon hearing that they weren't ready he threw fit. When they came out of the oven he wanted one.... Big fit! Once they were cool I lined them all up and turned my back for a second to grab the frosting. I turn back to see one cupcake has a HUGE bite taken out of it and there is Kai with chocolate crumbs on his face. He gives me this innocent look as if to say "What? That one was already like that!"After the cupcake battle was over I tried to frantically clean house... Why? Read THIS and you will see. As if I didn't have enough distractions both Kai and our 90lb Chocolate Lab Bear follow me everywhere I go. So as soon as I stop there is this chain reaction like you see in cartoons. Kai runs into me, Bear runs into Kai... I am trying to make some sort of progress before my husband gets home since I know he is going to be tired and we still have to go to "Wal-Hell" and pick up a few presents for the birthday boy (Yep I married a procrastinator as well).

So my husband finally gets home and we load the dog in the back of the truck and head off. We get to the parking lot and it is packed as usual. As soon as we get 10 feet from the truck Bear decides to jump out and is hanging buy he measly 6 inches or so of chain.... Needless to say he is a genius. Thankfully he slips out of his collar and my husband heads back to the truck to shorten the chain. We haven't even gotten into the store and we are already having problems. Our "quick" trip to buy a "couple" of "inexpensive" toys turns into a Spoiled child's dream. Brandon (my husband for those who don't know) heads straight for the bike section and starts looking at Power Wheels... Yeah the perfect toy for a child who lives in a third floor apartment...
He begins drooling over the Yamaha Raptor four wheeler even going as far as to ask an employee to cut down the demo so we can see if Kai is big enough to ride it. I can see that this isn't going to end well and I am screaming inside. This thing goes up to 5 miles per hour... which doesn't seem like much until you are trying to chase it down! It costs more money than we brought so Brandon thanks the poor employee for taking it down and tells him we will be back tomorrow to buy it. Now silly me I thought he was just being polite after we made the employee go through so much trouble.... NO! He really plans to pick one up the next day. So there goes our inexpensive shopping and we still haven't picked out what we came for so a quick trip is no longer an option. We finally settle on an Aqua Doodle and a Sock Monkey (Kai is OBSESSED with monkeys). It is now 8:00 P.M. and we still have to go home, do the cupcake thing, make dinner, and take a bath (which is necessary after the cupcake!) Not to mention call Nana so she can wish her grandson a Happy Birthday and hear about his presents.

Two cupcakes later Kai is having a MAJOR sugar rush and dinner is the last thing on his mind. He is clinging onto his monkey for dear life and won't even let me touch it. All the while ordering me to draw various items on his Aqua Doodle... non of which I know how draw. We have a very interesting conversation with Nana where he tells her that he doesn't want her to come see him, then gets mad when she says she won't (I'm thinking it is the sugar talking). Then it is dinner, hose down and FINALLY bed time. Which surprisingly was the easiest thing we did all day. He went to bed contently holding his monkey and wishing me a Happy Birfday.

Just a few of my crafty adventures

Every once in a while I get the creative bug. My husband has slowly learned to just let me be. (I have been known to stay up all night working on something) Here are just a few of my crafty adventures. Nothing spectacular but fun projects none the less!

This is the first felted purse I ever made. I had just learned how to knit only a month before I started it.


My tiny little felted clutch. (the second purse I made) Just big enough for a cell phone, some lip gloss, and a wad of cash. What else does a girl need?


Baby booties I made for a friend's baby shower. Pretty good for a middle of the night project I think!


Wash Cloth bath duckies I made for her shower as well. They have a kitchen sponge inside them and were a hit at the shower.


So far I haven't managed to get any pictures of the jewelry I have made before someone runs off with it!

Queen of Procrastination!

I have come to terms with the fact that I will never be the Martha Stewart type. When it comes to housekeeping anyway. I would love to have a tidy house as long as someone else was the one cleaning it! I found out over a week ago that my mother was going to be here for my son's 3rd birthday. This should have given me plenty of time to clean right? Wrong! I have barely made a dent in all the things that I need to get done in order to satisfy the white glove Nazi. And she is going to be here in 2 days! I start a project and with in minutes something distracts me and before you know it here I am... on the computer. It is a sickness I tell you! Despite my "GET OFF THE COMPUTER AND START CLEANING!" post it on my desktop here I am blogging about how much work I have to do. I have perfected procrastination down to a science. Chances are it will all get done with just enough time to spray some Fabreze throughout the house and wipe the sweat of my brow before she walks through the door. They say the first step towards recovery is admitting that you have a problem. OK! I admit it!..... Now what?