Blog Stage Fright

Sometimes I think I write funnier emails than I do blog posts. I however, have found a cure:

Dear Pioneer Woman,

I simply cannot live up to your blogging standards, and I feel that I should either A) retire completely or B) come and live with you in your better life. Nevermind that I sort of detest riding horses, and am not fond of any level of cow manure in the house, and I can't cook. Aside from those aspects, I think I would make a great Ranch Wife. If this letter sounds at all like I would like to run away from my current home responsibilities, then lets just keep it between you and me. I won't tell anyone that your 3d child is your favorite, and you can keep it a secret that I am addicted to reality tv.

Your humble servant,
Andrea - Woman of not much...really.

Accomplishments

This are the top 5 things I accomplished this week:

1. Painted a rock
2. Wrote this post
3. Organized my sharpies
4. Watched the Olympics- probably a day after they happened live. NBC stinks.
5. Counted the dust bunnies and decided they add a "homey" touch to the house.

Who else thinks I should go back to work?

Haircuts!

Izzy and I had our hair done today! Izzy's looks really cute- how could it not?

My hairstylist convinced me to work with the wave in my hair- we'll see how that goes!

Diary of Today, 1:04pm

I got out the camera! The first thing I found was the cat watching Animal Planet - something about how to keep dogs at bay.

I went downstairs to find Isabelle eating lunch. Notice she is halfway done with the sandwich. However, she is ALREADY done with the black container in the background. It contained Dulce de Leche Cheesecake.

Maria was outside climbing a tree. It looked so much fun that a neighbor kid - who I have never seen before ran out and started climbing as well. I just hope this other girl doesn't fall out of the tree and then sue me.

I wanted to take picture of Maverick the cat. Annie the dog felt that she should be the main focus of the shot and butted right in. I hope she is happy. My next goal is to take my camera to the soccer games this weekend! I know, I know, you are as excited as I am by the prospect. You are welcome.

What can I say?

I think after a certain amount of time away from the blog, to come back is just embarassing! I haven't picked up a camera in a while and January was just not the best month we've ever had. I might even rank it up there with one of the worst months ever with Aaron being sick.

We are in full swing with the Spring Soccer schedules, and both girls also play indoor (which is just a casual for fun type of atmosphere). By casual, I mean the most brutal "I'm afraid someone will die" type of environment at the U13 level. Luckily we've escaped with only a sprained wrist so far. Actually, we need to leave in about 3 minutes for Maria's indoor game and she is upstairs watching tv in her jammies. Why jammies? She already played an outdoor game today and everyone was fully dressed. Somehow, she reverted back to jammies when we got home. This girl needs some sweatpants! We have a sweatpant shopping trip planned soon.

I swear, I will pick up a camera this week! It's my one goal. Can't guarantee what kind of picture you will get, it may be just of the drawer that I keep the camera in, but it's a start!

Neices are great!

We were so glad to have Sam home at Thanksgiving, it had been far tooooo long since we had seen her last. She had the nerve to go away to college, Gonzaga no less - which I am sure my kids will now idolize and expect me to cough up the change to get them there! This is right after she walked in the door!

Maria was awfully glad to have her back as well.

This is Sam's "before" photo. This is on December 23rd, when she was feeling pretty goood. She was a seasoned college person, and had triumphed over her first trimester and had loads of gifts in front of her to open!

This is Sam's "after" photo. It was taken the evening of December 24th, when she felt pretty yucky. I don't even have a picture of her on the 25th, because she felt sooo yucky she couldn't even open her gifts. This is what our Christmas was like. We all looked ok on the 23rd, and by the 25th several members of our clan had fallen ill.

By yesterday, the 28th, we had 10 of the 17 family members struck down with the flu. It was not exactly what we all planned on when we decided to get together for the first time in years- for Christmas. Next year, maybe we'll just meet in August.

Humanitarian of the Year

For Maria's birthday, the big thing, the one special event she wanted to do was to have a sleepover and make blankets to donate to a cat shelter. Done! She and her friends made 9 blankets to donate and then delivered them to the cats themselves!

These cats are making sure we use hand sanitizer after each cage we open!

She is one animal loving - dog sympathizing - begging for a kitten - wants a horse kid! Now both my girls are in double digits and I feel this represents a huge shift in our life. It is much different than all the time we spent 10 and under! I hope I am ready.

Post Script: I can't change the background yet, I got a virus last time I tried, so we will have to make do with the Halloween background for a while. Sorry I haven't posted much recently, it's a direct effect of my hours at work. Boooo!