Nailed it!

I played volleyball during lunch yesterday and about half way through I came down hard on my heel. I got a stabbing pain and thought “Crap, my shoe is getting worn out.” Obviously there wasn’t anything I was going to do about it right then so I just kept playing. After a couple of games it was time to go and I lifted up my shoe to see how bad it was. My shoe was not, in fact, worn out. I had a NAIL! IN MY SHOE! It wasn’t long enough to go through my shoe while I was just walking on it but once I jumped and landed on my heel it finally pierced through. My sock was all bloody and I have a nice puncture hole in my foot. Awesome.

Yes, it's rusty too. Awesome.

(Sorry for the poor quality. It's from my non-smart phone.)

Lily

Ukrainian Easter Egg-stravaganza - the recap

Every year my mom hosts our annual Ukrainian Easter Egg-stravaganza. It is a time for food, family, friends, and most of all eggs! Yes, Easter Eggs! This year was the 26^th year of the event and it did not disappoint.

If you’ve never heard of Ukrainian Easter Eggs then shame on you allow me to explain a bit about them. It is the art of decorating eggs using beeswax and dye. The designs are often intricate and it can take up to several hours to complete a particularly complex egg (or 10 minutes if you just make polka dots). You apply the wax using a stylus (or kistka) and then dip the egg in the first color. After blotting the egg dry you apply more wax, then dip in the next color. You repeat each step several times, making the design more intricate and colorful. The final result is (usually) very beautiful eggs with multiple colors and designs.

Here are some examples:

My eggs, plus my husbands car egg (he rocks at making cars on eggs...among other things)

Aspiring hand models. I think they all have a future, no?

Just because she can

Jamalee's egg on the left, Wench's egg on the right

How awesome are these??! THAT is talent! 

(please note: Smidge's sister made these, my talent does not extend to bird drawings)

Bud's attempt at an Angry Bird. Not bad if you ask me!

I have hand modeling aspirations too!

Smidge had alien egg aspirations. She just HAD to get polka dots on her egg and if it means getting blobs (the bane of every UEE decorator) then by golly she's going to work with her blobs!

(Smidge, is that the only egg you made? Why do I not have more pictures for you?)

My best egg this year

I made this one for my Godmother

I like the purple

Wench was majorly jealous of my flowers. 

I'll teach you next year Wench!

This was my first attempt at this design. I have plans for next year! Oh, I have plans!

Seeing this in the picture makes me realize how unsymmetrical it is. Crap. Just focus on the pretty colors, k?

Wench's egg

My favorite of Wench's eggs

Well done Wench, well done!

Jamalee's egg

My favorite Jamalee egg! 

Excellent J, excellent!

We all really enjoy making eggs that’s what she said but mostly we enjoy each other’s company. I don’t know how many times I had to run to the bathroom before I peed myself from laughing so hard. (Also, my friends and cousin learned that it is in fact true that after kids it’s much harder not to pee yourself. You’re welcome ladies. Get your trampoline jumping in while you can!) From our hand modeling aspirations to our non-stop movie quotes we barely stopped laughing the entire time. We’ve decided that once a year is not enough for making eggs. We would like to institute more egg decorating holidays. We are thinking Christmas and Halloween are the best candidates. I think I could make some lovely Christmas themed eggs!

Until next year...

Lily

Colon Cancer Challenge

You’ve heard me mention (plenty of times) that I’ll be running in a charity race in April. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a little more about it.

I’ll be running in the Colon Cancer Challenge in New York City on April 1 in memory of my Grandfather. He died in September 2001 (yes, JUST before 9/11 – my Aunt from Seattle couldn’t make it to his funeral because of the attacks) from colon cancer. My cousin J has run in this race for a long time and this year her sister K, me, and my husband will run about 100 yards behind her the whole time alongside her. My other cousin (their sister) and their mom will participate in the walk and the rest of our family will be there to cheer us on and pick me up out of the gutter when I collapse from exhaustion. The Colon Cancer Challenge supports research into the causes and cures for colorectal cancer, increasing public awareness, and educating the public about the importance of early detection.

(Get ready, this is the part where I ask for money.)

The Colon Cancer Challenge Foundation can’t exist without support. The link below directs you to their page where you can make a donation. Don’t be scared by the first options listed. I’m not expecting anyone to give $100 and certainly not $1,200, but you can enter your own amount at the bottom. If everyone gave just a little, we can be that much closer to a cure, that much closer to saving our loved ones.

Donate to CCC

You can learn more about the foundation by clicking the "home" link at the bottom of the donation page. 

I hope you’ll support me in this, even if you can’t give money this time, I hope that you’ll pray that I don’t make a fool of myself send your prayers on April 1 around 9am as we run the hilly (ugh) loops of Central Park.

Lily

Thought Vomit Thursday - Actually ON Thursday! (I know, right!)

I thought I’d continue with all the vomit from this week and give you a second edition of Thought Vomit Thursday. You’re welcome.

So you might not know this about me but I think about some really random crap. (I know! Hard to believe, right!) Most of the time I spare you guys the details but I have come across the perfect platform to spew my mind vomit all across the Internet. 

Thought Vomit Thursdays was brought to my attention by Josey over at “My Cheap Version of therapy”

 (Go ahead and click the link. She’s fun. The first link will bring you to her home page, the second will bring you to her first TVT post.)

Here goes…

Someone found my blog by searching for “nude kettlebells..” Bet they didn’t expect my site. (I love Blogger stats!)

Having three of your friends away from work all at the same time makes for a really long week.

We have parent/teacher conferences at Bud’s school tonight. My only prayer is that there have been no more fish carpet incidents I’m not already aware of.

I took the kids to open swim last night. It was the last night of it so I figured it was safe to bring them because no matter how much begging they do I can honestly say “No, we can’t go back.” I’m a good mom like that!
(Why does the water have to be SO COLD?)

Prepare yourselves for a very colorful photo dump on Monday. It’s Ukrainian Easter Egg weekend. What? You don’t know about Ukrainian Easter Egg weekend? Oh just you wait!!

SO! Being the ultra-organized person I am, I had a TVT post all set to go for February 16. Yeah, it never got posted. BUT! Don’t despair! I saved it and now you’ll get to enjoy it only 1 month late. You’re welcome.

********FEB. 16*************

Have I mentioned that I’ve been working out? Yeah, I’m really obnoxious about it. I know this but I can’t stop being obnoxious. Like when I’m standing in my kitchen and I start doing a scale

 Via

Picture this but with a lot more exuberance and much less skill (and my leg not nearly that high). 

Or how I stand in front of the mirror and flex my barely there muscles. I’d like to shut up about it and stop obsessing but it seems to be all consuming and I don’t have back fat anymore. Did you hear that? I DON’T HAVE BACK FAT ANYMORE!

And I ran 2.3 miles the other day (the .3 is a very important part and must be included in every conversation) and I didn’t die. I didn’t even trip and have to be pulled out of the gutter by a stray dog. This is what I call success people!

(Side note: I am now up to 3.1 miles, thank you very much. Again, the .1 is very, VERY important.)

So what if it took me 25 minutes and it took my husband only 19 minutes to run the same distance? He’s a foot taller than me and has legs that come up to my chest. I think we should start assessing handicaps like they do in golf and bowling. (Side note: I also need a handicap to beat him in bowling. Why is he always better than me? Damn him and his tallness!)

Ok, I suppose I’ll stop talking about working out for now.

Ok seriously Word Captcha’s? You need to have TWO words now? Because I didn’t feel stupid enough not recognizing the letters in one word, you have to mock me with two words? Fun.

Hope your week is as vomit-filled as mine! 

Lily

Glory Days

Last night my friend gave me her daughter’s size 3 hand-me-downs. Babe was in her glory, she was on cloud nine, she was soaring! (Words can’t even qualify how happy she was!) She had to try on EVERY SINGLE article of clothing! There was probably 50 things and each and every one had to be adorned and then she had to do a twirl, even if it wasn’t a twirly dress (but a lot were). I have a feeling I better start saving for more than just college. This girl is a clothes horse and unless the child labor laws revert to the early 1900’s it’s going to be me stuck with the bill. Yikes!

I’m not sure how I got saddled with a girly girl. I’m not a tomboy (anymore) but fashion is definitely not my forte. Babe has outfit changes approximately every three hours and it usually involves a dress. There is no explaining that it is still too cold for sleeveless dresses, Babe is insistent on wearing her twirly dresses as much as possible. The real trick will be to hide her Easter dress for another month! That girl is like Houdini when it comes to clothes. She finds the bag no matter where I put it, pulls off all the tags immediately, and has it on all before I can even ask what she is doing. 

This isn't from last night but it's one of her favorite "outfits." 

So while she loves clothes we may still have some work to do on her "fashion."

Lily

Thought Vomit - Monday Edition

Sometimes I don't think Thought Vomit should only occur on Thursday. Other days deserve Thought Vomit too, no? 

So you might not know this about me but I think about some really random crap. (I know! Hard to believe, right!) Most of the time I spare you guys the details but I have come across the perfect platform to spew my mind vomit all across the Internet. 

Thought Vomit Thursdays was brought to my attention by Josey over at “My Cheap Version of therapy”

 (Go ahead and click the link. She’s fun. The first link will bring you to her home page, the second will bring you to her first TVT post.)

Here goes…

Saturday morning we didn’t have to wake up early and Bud proved once again that he is the best little boy a mother can ask for! Him and Babe woke up at the same time and as I lay snuggled in my bed he took her downstairs and made her breakfast! Yes, he got a bowl, and a spoon, and the cereal, poured the cereal in the bowl, got the milk and poured the milk in the bowl (WITHOUT SPILLING) and served it to her in front of the heater (just as I do every morning). (Yes, my kids eat their breakfast on the kitchen floor so they can be in front of the toe kick heater. It’s a fight I don’t find important enough to have.) I did have to get up kicking and screaming shortly after but those few extra minutes were pure heaven!! This is why I’m done having kids. They are getting old enough to do things like this for themselves and it’s just too good to make me want to start all over again.

We went out for dinner with friends and ate at Uno Chicago Grill. (They have a gluten free menu so it was an easy choice.) Seriously, they served me the best GF pizza I’ve ever eaten! GF pizza leaves a lot to be desired but this one was so good I almost ate the whole thing (it’s a lot for one person). Thankfully I was able to stop and save a few pieces for lunch today! YUM!

Our friend was driving us back from dinner (she has a Tahoe so we all fit in one car – so much more fun!) and about ½ way home (a 40 minute trip) Bud made a weird sound from the back seat. I turned and he was covered in vomit. Awesome! We (living were we do) were in the middle of nowhere so thankfully we had some napkins in the car and I cleaned up best I could then we hightailed it to a gas station to finish the job. I was just going to wipe it all off the best I could until we got home but it wasn’t working out so I just took his pants off of him and wrapped him in my vest to get him back in the car. (He was very nervous people would see his underwear.) (I do wish I had my camera trained on his friend A when he got back in the car. A was VERY weirded out by a Bud in his underwear sitting in his car!) Afterwards Bud was completely ok. He has never gotten car sick and doesn’t tend to throw up (the only other time I can remember was the time I spun him too much on our swing and he threw up red kool-aid and macaroni on my beige carpet. That was a lot of fun.) so I’m not sure what that was all about but I’m just glad he was ok!

As I thought about what I was going to write for this Thought Vomit I couldn’t help but sing (to the tune of Lou Bega’s Mambo #5) “A little bit of Thought Vomit in my life. A little bit of real vomit in my life. A little bit too much vomit in my life.”

So this morning I woke up to the sun shining and the birds chirping. It was great. Until I realized it was 7:30…the same time I’m supposed to be in my car on the way to work! Yeah, I forgot to set my alarm and if it wasn’t for one of the kids coughing in their sleep and me hearing it I would have been even later! I did manage to get myself ready and out the door in a ½ hour (thanks to husband getting Bud dressed and driven to school – of course he missed the bus too!). It was some morning!

So I don’t know if you guys remember but a few months ago (October to be exact) I shared the news that my husband had finally gotten a new job! Well, time to dust off that wording again! My husband got ANOTHER new job! It was a little unexpected but the pay is almost double what he’s making now and the hours are so much better (6am-2:30pm instead of various shifts ending sometimes at 10pm). I can’t even explain how much better this is! We are so grateful he got the 1^st new job because he had to get out of where he was but it was a pretty big pay cut and we knew the hours wouldn’t be the best but it was just absolutely necessary to get him out of his old job. So this newest job (which he applied for the same time as the 1^st new job) finally got their act together and hired him! This job has the trifecta of perks, good hours, great pay, and it’s not a desk job (something that was very difficult for him to adjust to with the 1^st new job). He’ll be working with people he already knows and gets along with and they are all hunters and they even take off during hunting season (like they close up shop for a week) so they can all hunt. (He nearly died when he heard that one!)

I’ll take a little vomit mixed in with good news like this any day!!

Happy Monday Peeps!

(Speaking of Peeps…I could go for some marshmallow goodness! I love Easter candy!) 

Lily

Friday Flashback

This is my 8th grade graduation picture. Puberty at it's finest!

All I can say is thank goodness for lessons in hair product and good posture. 

(Oh, and thank goodness braces are behind me too.)

TGIF!

Lily

Love is...

This was Bud's contribution to the bulletin board outside his classroom in February. I hope this doesn't say something about my parenting.

In case you can't read it it says

"Love is when my Mom lets me play on her ipod."

I think I will just focus on the fact that "love" and "mom" are in the same sentence. 


Lily

They should have played the National Anthem

Ok, this is it for hockey for a while so allow me a hockey post just one more time. 


Bud had his LAST hockey practice on Saturday. What made all the driving, all the early mornings, all the MONEY worth it? This smile right here...

Our conversation after his practice:

Bud: LOOK MOM! I GOT A BRONZE MEDAL!!

Me: WOW, Bud! That is awesome!

Bud: I didn't know I was going to get a bronze medal. It's ok that's its not gold. 

Me: Yeah, it's ok that's it's not gold. It's just really cool that you got one!

A bit later, outside in the sunlight.

Bud: MOM! LOOK!!! It really is gold! Out here in the sun it's GOOOOOLD!!!! I got a golden medal!

Me: Awesome!

Bud: Can a brick break my medal?

Me: What?

Bud: Can a brick make my medal break in half?

Me: I don't think so Bud.

Bud: Good.




Lily