She's Back!!

We got Salty back from the shop Tuesday and she looks so much better than she did last month.

Welcome Home!

Remember this?

No way that just happened!

Well she has a brand new windshield, repairs and fresh paint on the hood and roof, new headliner and some sexy raised lettering.

Rowr!

This is what she looked like before...

And that oxidized spot is now gone! Yay!

Looking forward to tooling around the town on this long Memorial weekend, running errands and hitting some yard sales...

We're hosting another roast at our house (lechon) to start off the weekend (my nephew is graduating high school!). In addition to the fun family celebration time,  I'm hoping for some quality time in the pool and finishing my book (11/22/63).

I hope you guys have a fabulous Memorial Day weekend!

Babes' Mouths and Heavenly Provisions

David talks a LOT. Sometimes I don't think he takes a breath when recounting a story or event. Lately, he's been saying some things that really catch us off guard.

The other night Salty (our Disco) leaked coolant in the driveway (bad automobile!).  We were concerned that maybe our cats might've helped themselves to some of the sweet nectar. David overheard us talking about the cats and what we'd do if they died (bury in the back yard) and he began to recount when Brown Sugar died, going into great detail about the hawk attack (which he did not see) and then he said "It's not fair!" We totally agreed ....I mean they were both birds of roughly the same size but one was much stronger, quicker and equipped with better eyesight; in the end, the less-gifted bird lost. I had never really thought about things that way - only thought about the Circle of Life lesson learned (and also that everything in nature prefers chicken!).

Speaking of British cars, Scott just told me a quote from Cars 2 regarding them:  'Mater said "if there ain't any oil under 'em, there ain't no oil in 'em" (The same can be said about the coolant?)

So last night we dropped Salty off at our mechanic's garage and immediately followed our neighbor to an estate sale site (she organizes estate sales!) so that we could check out the car that was up for bid.  We were amazed at the immaculate condition this woman left her home and possessions, including her car. She had recorded each time she'd filled up with gas to keep track of mileage and kept all her service records. So this car was driven by one owner, a little old lady (who only drove it on Sundays?). While we checked out the items for sale and talked about the previous owner's meticulousness of her car and home, little ears were listening in...

David quietly asked "Did someone kill the human?" (Note: I have suspected for some time that David was an alien. It started soon after he joined our family and would magically heal up overnight from some very serious cuts. That plus the Jedi thing.) What an interesting way to ask how she passed... Our neighbor told us that the old woman died suddenly months ago....we were still in awe about the condition she left things (so suddenly)...and how things would be found in our homes if we were to suddenly pass.

So we are now the proud owners of a Buick (Thank you, God!). We also got our Salty back with minimal damage to the pocketbook (cracked coolant reservoir). Now we need to come up with a name for our new (to us) car. Any suggestions?



Here she is...

Scott and I spent my first RDO together taking care of business, running errands and we got to hit a garage sale AND an estate sale. Here are some of the other items we brought home:

My $5 Haul - drink tray, soup ladle, citrus juicer and earrings...

The deceased was the owner of a restaurant near my middle school way back when and I figured these cool items had some good juju! Plus the $2 earrings were just my style.

Scott came away with a cool vintage flag (jumper cables and 2 albums not pictured)

Rock the Vote, Baby!

And I found the perfect sweater for the contest next Christmas!



I actually thought the sweater was pretty and for $3, how could I resist?



All in all it was a good first RDO.  I got to spend the day with my honey, we finally got that new (to us) car that we've been needing, we visited my old workplace, we took Emi to the podiatrist (orthodics are on order) and we got our girl Salty back.

Looking forward to the rest of the weekend with my family...

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend too, friends!

Souvenir

Salty suffered the one casualty on the road back from Florida...

One Less Lonely Girl - That Should be Me...

Ok, maybe it SHOULDN'T be me...I just have a mild case of "Bieber Fever" at the moment.

I meant to post 2 weeks ago but I was recovering from the Haunted Forest and losing my BlackBerry (and mind), car troubles (drive shaft on mine and windshield wipers from hell on his)...then Halloween! My BB was found so sanity was restored. Then I meant to post last week but I was recovering from a soccer tournament, basketball game, Trick or Treating THEN Justin Bieber, Aubri's birthday, Goatfest 2010, etc.

I DID manage to post pictures from most of these events to my Flickr Acct so I've sort of kept up...

So, to recap: We had a nice Fall Break towards the end of October, we were enjoying some down time together as a family when out of the blue the Disco decided to start acting up...not getting enough attention I guess. We ended up getting her in to the shop just in time, so that the drive shaft didn't fly off and take some expensive prisoners with it!! So we were down to Scott's truck and his window wipers decided to stay ON for all of our Friday and Saturday driving pleasures. It was a little rainy but by Saturday night on the way to the Haunted Forest, it was dry and the scree-scree-scree was driving me and the kids crazy. But we pushed through to enjoy being scared and eating some Halloween treats out in the country. Emi was a Zombie Hippie, David was a Monkey (in the Middle) and Aubri was a Bumble Bee. They were so cute in their costumes.

Emi had been to this Haunted Forest before and she's 8 now so basically an Old Pro at not getting spooked and maximizing candy and treat collections. David and Aubri were not so sure. They were both scared by the Robot, which is funny because he is the least scary prop in the forest, but he did have red eyes and he was, in fact, doing The Robot. The next day Aubri kept telling everyone that the "robot 'cared her". We assured her that the robot was just a friend in a costume but she wasn't quite so sure.

The following week Emi wore her Hippie costume to school but because they were not allowed to dress up scary or use fake blood, we had to ditch the zombie part of her costume. On Halloween night when we took the kids out for actual trick or treating, the zombie make up had dried out so Emi went as a dirty hippie. We should have let her run around barefoot in the mud to get the full effect of "hippie feet". I noticed that she also wore some purple vampire teeth so I guess she was improvising along the way. A group of us met at a friends house for collective treating and we took the kids around to a haunted garage. When we took the Little Ones through they were supposed to hold off on anything scary, but one of the "technicians" darted out to fix a prop and scared little David. He lived to tell about it...

After we got the kids into bed we got to watch the premier of  The Walking Dead. It did not disappoint. Afterwards I had to watch the news to sort of rinse my brain of the undead images of the "walkers".

This past Wednesday night a few of us soccer moms and our daughters went to see The Biebs...

And the next night we celebrated Aubri's 2nd birthday with the Little Ones' birth mom and grandparents (via Skype):

On the weekend we had another party for Aubri's birthday and went to Goatfest 2010:

It's been a very full last few weeks with lots of gatherings, games and fun...

Weekend Warrior Prose

So I crafted a nice draft blog entry Monday to provide updates on the items listed in my last entry and while the e-mail system showed that the draft was sent (twice actually), it was not. Nevermind that I cleaned out my "Sent" folder of senseless garbage and even purged my e-mail trash. When I logged in to Blogger last night, the draft entry was not there and I wanted to cry. Maybe I need more sleep or exercise, I don't know but I will try to recreate the "magic" that was pre-created on Monday.

Emi survived a week at church camp... and she won 2 (almost 3) awards: Messiest Camper and The Kid Who Ate the Most Candy. I DID tell her to live it up while she was at camp so who can blame her having so much fun with her first camp experience. The awards were presented at church on Sunday after the counselors assembled the kids on stage. Emi's eye got as big as saucers when a counselor described the Least Hygenic Kid Award and then announced that it went to a boy who didn't shower the entire time (his dad said if he went swimming every day he didn't NEED to shower). Emi had one shower on that kid...

We were going to drive up to the camp to have dinner with Emi on Wednesday but Emi didn't want us to "embarrass" her by showing up to check on her at camp. We were sure she'd be crying for family by Wed but the only whining came from her spending all of her snack money at the snack shack. She went from "Mom, it costs MONEY for you to eat dinner with me! Please just let me have this one week for myself." early in the day to "Could you guys please bring me some snacks and my goggles? You guys can have dinner with me while you are here." later on, when we'd already made other plans...

Which leads me to the update on Salty: It was the crank sensor and we got her back Wednesday after work with minimal damage to our budget. (I love my mechanic!) I couldn't be happier to have my wheels back. While I appreciate that I can drive Scott's pickup when the Disco is in the shop, I don't feel as competent a driver in the truck. Parking is very humorous to watch - seriously like driving a boat. In my Disco I can see everywhere and the turning radius is really tight so I can whip in to parking slots easily. In the pickup I feel like a little girl in need of a booster seat whereas I can crank the seat up high in my car and ride like royalty. The kids seem to like the Disco too because they can see all around them (love the Alpine windows!) and mommy is much happier in her own vehicle.

Our pool plumbing sprang a leak recently too...right around the pump. So we dug up and hammered a few areas looking to replace plumbing and then 3 work days, 3 different game plans, 5 pits, concrete saw and jackhammer later, we had a fix! Saved about $1,000 and we have a plan to put a cabana in to replace the hammered pool house and hot tub (which REALLY needs to go!).

Emi and I got to take an hour long bike ride around the neighborhood while the above carnage ensued and I can't tell you what a joy it is to be able to ride bikes with my little girl (who is trying to grow up way too fast). We also enjoyed tomatoes fresh from the garden and time with extended family and friends.

Ty(p)ing Up Loose Ends

I was reading through the past few months' entries on my blog trying to figure out where 2009 went and realized that I have some loose ends to tie up around here.

Back in July I was reminiscing about my youth and the first camera I owned and how I was on a quest to find one just like it. Well, my better half scratched that off my list for me...as an early Christmas present he surprised me with an Argoflex 750...and this one comes with a flash! Not that we will be able to locate a bulb for it, but still!

In September, Emi and I are started the Move for Life class at the hospital and we never went back to finish the class. Emi was bored and I felt like we already knew the information they were trying to tell us. Plus, we already have great menus/recipes. The class was not going to help us out in the motivation department and it was a big time stealer. So we punted it. We introduced Emi to basketball instead and it seems to be working.

Before Christmas I was having some anxiety over my (finally paid off) SUV that was in need of a 3rd axle! I am so very happy to report that that last time took care of the problem and we owe our mechanic Big Time for coming through for us. No more squealing or grating sounds!

Also, remember after Thanksgiving when I was feeling very overwhelmed with combing and rebraiding Emi's hair? Well we are all better now. I was able to get her hair rebraided over the course of a couple of weeks without causing any further psychological damage and in time for the numerous Christmas gatherings. Crisis averted.

Glossified

So I totally glossed over the Thanksgiving holiday. It's because the weekend that followed Thanksgiving was Notso Great. Actually it was just mostly Sunday that sucked....and I will get to that in a minute.

Thanksgiving was very nice.

Tuesday Night: Scott and I opened up a bottle of red wine and we: painted the freshly texturized Sun Room walls, shampooed the Living/Lounge carpet, laundered the tablecloths, mopped the floors and wiped down all flat surfaces. The place looked good and cared for...(for once) and Emi had a night of debauchery at her Grandma Babe's house.

On Thanksgiving Eve we: took a load of stuff to the Tip (Dump, Transfer Station), purchased extra white plates (more plates, not more white) from the Salvation Army Store (and scored some pants for the kidro), grocery shopped, picked up the Disco from the shop and managed to not make it to the liquor store before it closed. ;.( The Disco had received another left rear axle and yet it still squeaked on the way home (Aaaiiiieeeee!). Emi and I baked Lemon Zesters and Pumpkin Swirl Brownies that evening and prepped the veggies for roasting and Scott saw Ninja Assassin with his best friend. Girls Night In!

Thanksgiving Day: Scott's family came over and we had dinner potluck style. I wasn't responsible for the turkey so I was relieved. Yet I made gravy which was very labor intensive considering I had to roast turkey parts to get the "brown bits" for the authentic flavor (with love, of course). I made mashed potatoes (yum!) with lots of help peeling from Scott and Christy; and I roasted veggies (cauliflower, brussels sprouts, butternut squash, and asparagus) and punted the corn casserole.

Friday was hard for me because I had to schlep in to work. I guess I could have taken the day off, but then I'd be 8 hrs lighter in the Leave Area and I would have had to clean up the mess that was my home. A quiet day at the office it was. That evening we worked on detangling Emi's hair in preparation for an appointment with a local braider. I was having a hard time with combing out her hair because my CPS flared up with the Weekend Warrior projects we'd taken on as of late. Rat tail comb in hand for an hour combing out the dredded braids (only had 4 left at the time) made my right hand numb and tingling so Scott and Emi helped me out. [We will be SO, SO, SO happy when Emi can do this feat on her own....]

Saturday was even harder because I thought it would take "just a minute" to comb out the little braids that I had worked on for the past 2 weeks but the dreds that we combed out got gnarled already and the little bitty "yarn strand" braids that I had done were taking a lot longer. At one point we just had to leave to get to her appt. The lady was was busy braiding another girl's hair when we got there so we learned a bit about the process. She added synthetic hair to the natural hair in sections, then braided box braids, then she lit the end of the synthetic hair with a lighter to seal it. That part was a little alarming to Emi and me, but she assured us that she was not burning her real hair.

Not wanting to burden this woman with combing out Emi's hair, I stayed for a bit and detangled some, then the woman said it would be better if I left. I was excited for Emi to have a new hairstyle not created from my amateur hands and I left. I had to peel Emi off of me in the process because she wanted me to stay and I promised her a meal at Pop's and that we'd get her Style Lab Jewelry Design for her DS if she was good. An hour later we were on our way to pick her up because she had changed her mind. Her scalp was tender and she wasn't giving the new lady any chance at combing or braiding. Emi has a very strong will so I guess we shouldn't be so surprised.

I was very disappointed because I had high hopes with this hair endeavor. The last time I let anyone attempt to work on her hair didn't end so well...

So we took our girl home thinking we could get her hair combed out and braided into big soft braids enough to get her back to the stylist. That's what we were thinking Saturday afternoon. We decided to give it a day so we could rest and recoup, so Emi went to bed in her satin scarf and we watched Slumdog Millionaire (I know, finally!) and all was good.

The next morning I really got a good look and feel and her hair seemed even more dry and gnarled....(think Buckwheat). I was definitely not up for the task of getting her hair conditioned and styled any time soon. I was upset that the 2 weeks of work I had done was erased and I was way further back in this task than I was 2 weeks ago. I sprayed some leave-in conditioner into the matted mess and sectioned (as best I could) 3 "puffs" of hair into rubber bands. That was as good as it got before she went to see her MeeMaw and PeePaw.

Later that evening, I shampooed her hair and slathered in a blob of the Khoret Amen Hair Smoothie to start loosening the knots. I combed out some tresses in the front and made 4 braids, only wanting to attack this chore in smallish chunks for both of our sakes. It's a slow going process but we got through Sunday (which is a HUGE deal considering the funk I was in). I got a few more braids in the other night and it's looking better and more manageable each day.

I am so thankful that her hair is natural and healthy and growing out. I don't want her to think she has to have straight hair to have "good" hair. I still don't quite understand the adding of synthetic hair to the mix so maybe it was a sign for her to not go through with the braiding the other day. But I truly do understand why I should braid....

Happiness is a Warm Seat

I got my Disco back from the shop in record time yesterday (Thanks, Charlie!) so today was a Good Day. I was having some important work done (rear axle replaced) and some other Very Important Work done (replacing the driver seat) so this winter I can once again enjoy a heated seat. Last year I was rather distraught when the driver seat heater stopped working. So we're back in business now...
Tonight was really great. After school Emi's birth mom and sisters came over for dinner, some play time at the park and to witness Emi's first basketball game. It was so much fun to watch. Emi's played soccer for 3 years and already with just 1 game we are inlove with basketball over soccer.
Some things b-ball has over soccer:

• Indoors
• Four 6 minute quarters
• Short season (like 5-6 games in toto)

Why soccer is better than b-ball:

• Fresh Air
• ??

I love that our daughter is into team sports so soccer is great for that, but I do not like that the soccer fields are situated just so that we get all the inclement weather that occurs in Normantown. Cold and wet seem to converge onto whatever field we are currently on and there is no windbreak (currently). Guess it's good for building character? Doesn't help MY spirit, but it's not about me. Besides, I have a functioning seat heater again! (Yea, me!)
I tried to capture video while still watching the game (as is very obvs in this here video) so this is the best of the batch. Enjoy!