Royally Gifted

Was just discussing today with a client the impending nuptials of the Royal Couple.

What would you possibly buy for a couple who has never wanted for anything, for a man who has been said to never once put toothpaste on his own toothbrush?

Then the hubs and I were discussing it tonight and together we came up with some helpful items they might need.

1.) a paparazzi curtain for the vehicle, so that Kate will not hit the same fate. Just pull the curtain and VOILA, instant privacy.

2.) A matching car with a matching license plate so that they can put both on the road and never know which car they are in. Heck, maybe Kate will be in one and William will be in the other?

3.) A new girlfriend for Prince Henry so that all the attention will now be on him and his new girlfriend than on the new "Royal Couple"

4.) His and Hers T-shirts for the honeymoon. "I'm with the Prince" for her and "I'm with the Princess" for him.

5.) A trip to Disneyland to make their "Now that you have married the Prince, what will you do? I'm going to Disneyland" commercial

6.) A new broom, so that any all marital problems can be swept under the rug.

7.) A new reality series so that you don't have to wait for the next style magazine to come out to see what Kate is wearing.

8.) For those nights when there is nothing to do....a brand new edition of Royalopoly to cozy up to.

9.) One of their very own Royal Couple plates with their picture on it, because they are one of a kind and never before made, you can get them through As seen on TV.com for the low low price of $39.95

And last but not least....what do you get for a couple that has everything?
10.) A gift certificate to Walmart.....hey they may want to get in on all those walmart emails going around.

Brought to you by MamaKat

Happy Easter

Here comes Peter Cottontail..... He made his own bunny trail.

The boys' Aunt Tami made bunny prints for them and they were so excited! They got to pet a few Peter Cotton tails....

Christopher wanted to take him home, but would not hold him!

Is anyone else sick of candy? Because OMG they got so much candy that I don't think I will need to buy another piece of candy for a year!

But they had so much fun hunting for eggs and collecting them, and I think they ate nothing but candy the whole day!

And what would Easter be withtout a little brother to brother rock out jam session. They were dancing and Thomas was playing air guitar, his new found skill!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

An Easy Easter Treat!

I started with a premade pound cake to save time. But you could make almost any loaf cake. I thought it might be interesting if it was made with carrot cake, and I might actually try that.

Slice off the end and then slide a "V" into the end.

Using frosting, you put together your "V" pieces and attach them to the end of the cake as shown.

You can use any frosting. I used vanilla frosting tinted with a few drops of red food coloring and a few drops of yellow food coloring to give me the peachy color. I also added a few drops of Orange extract as I thought it would add just a little something to the taste of the cake.

Once you have frosted it all over you can start applying your orange jelly beans, try to keep them as tight as you can. I laid mine end to end, if you wanted to use more you could stand them on end.

Continue all the way down and around the tip and sides. Then at the top place sour apple straws. I pushed them slightly into the cake so they would not fall out.

Easy as pie. And you end up with an adorable Easter treat.

I used tangering jelly's, and had I darkened the frosting to a deeper orange you would not see so much through the jelly beans.

Something out of Anything

My mom is one crafty individual. When I was a kid she made literally everything. I was in blue birds and she was our leader and we made things out of coffee cans, we cut and glued and sequined anything and everything. She taught us how to make paper mache. When all my friends were out buying something she looked at us and said "I can make that".

Of course as a child, that was "lame". Now? My friends want to hang out with my mom so they can get ideas on what to do with their kids during spring break.

I've tried to convince my mom to blog about her expertise, to capture all her knowledge of creativity, who knows someone might make a book out of it someday.

Her response "I don't have time for all of that". No of course not, because she's off being creative and stuff. So if my mom blogged, I know she would never embarrass me with any kind of childhood stories, she wouldn't talk about how she is a world class traveler and been all over the world. She wouldn't even talk about the amazing things that she can cook.

My mom's blog would be all about the beautiful things she can create. I don't have pics of all of them right now, but let me just show you just a couple of things she has made.....

These....bracelets, crystal bracelets, in any color. She's made pink, blue, purple, white, green, yellow, amber. Made with leather, and silver and crystals.....

So comfortable to wear, easy to put on, self adjustable.

Moving right along.....Have you seen the quilts my mom has made for my children? Combining quilting and embroidery, these are her award winning quilts. And when I say award winning, I mean they were entered at the fair and won awards!

The time she took to make these for my boys, the creativity, and the love she put into them will be around for years to come!

Christopher's quilt was just as precious, and personalized. He will have it for a lifetime.

My mom has made so many other quilts, all of which reside in her house. She makes all these amazing quilts and can't bring herself to sell them. Right now she is in the process of making a quilt out of high school sporting T-shirts! I'll be sure to blog about that, since she won't!

So along with her quilting knowledge, her sewing knowledge, and her craftiness, her blog would be about how to make something out of anything. Sounds like a perfect name for a blog huh? Something out of Anything? Hear that Mom?

Brought to you by Mama Kat.

Our Monsters live in the garage

What we are running from in the house these days? Monsters.

Both boys are old enough to realize and be aware of ghosts and monsters. And movies and TV shows don't help matters. I've asked Christopher to tell me what a monster looks like and he can't. I've asked Thomas and he says it has big teeth, and lots of teeth, it makes funny noises and they are scary.

I shared this information with a co-worker and she asked what we are doing to alleviate their fears and I said well we tell them that the monsters are only allowed in the garage and that daddy locks the door every night.

She looked at me stumped and I said "what?" and she said why don't you just tell them monsters don't exist.

I walked away thinking about this....

I don't tell my children that monsters and ghosts don't exist, because for one, I think they do, and they come in many different forms.

For two, I also don't tell my children that monsters and ghosts don't exist because I don't want to discredit what they believe to be real. I don't want them to second guess themselves. The boys don't understand that there aren't exactly "monsters" that are going to come out of their closets or from under their bed.
They will never understand until they are older.

And lastly, We don't discredit Santa or the Easter bunny so why should we discredit monsters? Just because they are "scary"? Can't do it.

So our monsters....live in the garage!

How do you deal with monsters and things that go bump in the night in your house?

The grass is greener

Remember this from last week? Our garden and new lawn just waiting to come into spring. We finally have little sprouts!!!!!!!!!! Our grass is finally coming in!! And who says the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the baby gates?

As you can see, we are easily entertained in this house!

Dog Days of Summer

Ok so it's not quite Summer.....YET! But it was a GORGEOUS weekend here in So Cal! So we enjoyed the beach! It was already 75 degrees at the beach by 11am! They both loved chasing after the waves only to have them chase after them! So running back and forth wore them out!

The water on the other hand....FREEZING! After just standing in the water for a few minutes and your feet were numb!

The boys didn't seem to mind, especially after all the running was chased by a nice ice cold blue gatorade!

After a nice long nap they were ready to go again. The local parks and rec were hosting a drive in theater at the local high school parking lot. So we decided it might be fun! They did enjoy popcorn and sitting in the front seat of mom's car.

My boys, total cheezers! The movie was "How to Train your dragon" I just adore the movie. Once the movie started they sat outside the car the weather was so nice. But by the end they were ready to go!

We also released our painted lady butterflies! The seemed a little hesitant to go but once they did, they flew! I hope they survive.

We had 4 survivors out of the 5 that hatched. They didn't seem to mind hanging out on my hand or finger for as long as I'd let them!

Now back to some cooling temps this week, but it sure did make me long for those long summer days! It won't be long, and all our weekends will be spent at the beach or some other fun activity!

Most likely to.....

REWIND.....

Voted among friends in high school to be the most likely to ditch, get caught and get out of it.

Last day of my junior year in high school, before finals. On days of finals you had 2 hours per class to take a final and you went home mid day for 3 days. But the last day before the finals I ditched my last 4 classes. I did get caught, but it was the last day of school and they couldn't "punish" me during finals, so Fred....he was the vice principal, we were on a 1st name basis I spent so much time in his office. He tells me that a note would be sent home to my mom and I would need to serve detention. 1 hour for each class I ditched. I shrugged it off and went along my merry way.

I watched the mail like a hawk. I got that little nasty gram they sent home. What? It had my name on it too!

Flash forward, past my happy summer, my going out, my not getting in trouble because my mom heard I ditched class. Senior Year..... School year starts in September, around December Fred calls me in and he says that I still need to serve 4 hours of detention. I was like what?? No way! You can't prove that I ditched.

So another letter went home...not just any letter...a threatening letter. Told my mom that if I didn't serve those 4 hours of detention, I would be not be eligible for graduation.

She flipped! I think at this point it had nothing to do with the fact if I ditched or not, and to be honest I had completely forgot about it. I think it was the fact that they threatened to take away my graduation. My mom was NOT having it. She went into the office and spoke not to Fred....he was just a pee on in the grand scheme of things. She talked to the HEAD DUDE! The principal!!

She walked right into his office and told him what's up. How DARE he threaten her daughter! He asked if I ditched I told him no, after the tongue lashing my mom gave him and me just standing there all innocent like..... He let me go and told me I did not have to serve that detention.

I wanted so badly to walk out of the office, turn my head and stick my tongue out at Fred....for fun! Because I knew he would be amused.

But after that day.....my mom was the hero! My friends talked about that until graduation! I did indeed live up to what I was voted....

Brought to you by Mama Kat

Something New

These are Thomas and Christopher's chrysalis'. We got 5 caterpillars a few weeks back, we watched them double in size and then form their chrysalis. A Week later we had 5 beautiful painted lady butterflies. (We have since lost one) But plan on releasing the rest this weekend!

This WAS our yard. We decided this year we wanted to teach the boys how to grow a garden.

So up came all the grass, and all my boys busted butt to get the yard cleaned up and raked up.

Then they helped spread soil and our compost and nutrient rich base that a good garden will need.

Of course it's Miracle Grow!

And when it was all said and done, we planted grass on the left and on the right we have our garden. See our decoy egret? His name is Homer, and we're hoping he will be our scarecrow.

So we planted corn, watermelon, strawberries, squash, cantaloupe, green beans, and zucchini!

And mommy got a little landscaping for her beautiful plants, and some flowers put in there. In just a few weeks we'll have some gorgeous grass and some yummy veggies and fruit to eat this summer!!!

Can they have C-A-N-D-Y?

Have you ever noticed that no matter where you go, there is always someone who wants to adore your children? They want to tell you just how sweet they are and how well behaved there are. You smile and thank them and before you walk away they want to give your children candy?

It's either that, or my children have signs on their foreheads that all people see but their mommy that says "My mommy never lets me have anything sweet, please offer me candy"

I go into the bank, they all ohh and ahh over my children, they tell me how well behaved they are and how polite. And then the spell out to me, can they have a piece of C-A-N-D-Y? Or sometimes it's even S-U-C-K-E-R? And of course my children know what those spell. They catch on quick. So they immediately say "Oh please mommy?"

I can't NOT let them have it, then what kind of mother does that make me look like? So of course I always give in, because they have made me look like the mother of the year by behaving and staying near me. Which is a response to my threats in the car prior to entering.

And of course they take their sucker or their candy and eyes bright and smiling they look at the person and say in these sweetest voice "Thank You", to which I beam with a proud mommy moment.

You never hear anyone say and spell out "Aww your children are so adorable, can they have some C-A-R-R-O-T-S?" Of course not! And I realize that candy and healthy do not go together. Healthy candy is an oxymoron.

I know this trick, I spent a lot of years giving my friend's children cake and candy and all kinds of things that are full of sugar. Why? Because they are not my children, and they go home with their mother complete with sugar high. In which my friends call me cursing my name shortly after.

I don't want to be the villain in my children's eyes by not letting them have something of which you are offering, especially when it's candy.

I am guilty of it at my own job, I offer it out, I always have some sort of hard candy or sucker to offer away to an adorable well behaved child. Thinking about it, there has got to be a better option or better yet, not put another mother in the same predicament by forcing my candy on her child.

Now that I am a mother, and my kids are going home with me? I am a little more informed. Please, keep your candy or suckers or sugar high of any sort. Because trust me, my kids get enough sugar at home, and any more added to it, affects my sanity.

Are your children offered candy or some other option when you are out and about?

Make me a bird, so I can fly away

If you really knew me, you would know....

I have a serious "Flight response". And since Mama Kat tweeted something about Forest Gump today....it came to me....

"Dear God, make me a bird, so I can fly far far away"

It's not necessarily a fight or flight response. It's just strictly flight. Life is hard, and living it is sometimes harder.

Started when I was 25. Life seemed to fall apart. Divorce....immanent, it didn't happen for 4 more years, but we weren't even together for those 4 years. I had moved on, as did he. My step father took ill with brain cancer, and I was in the middle. Between my mom and my step siblings. On the other hand, the promise of a new job and a new relationship would make me a bird so I could fly far far away.

My step father told me "Don't stop living your life because mine is coming to an end" and so I went. I spread my wings and flew.

I stayed for a while, until life happened, again. And I took flight, to Michigan. And I thought all was going to be okay. But those wings, they came back.

One time, I almost sold all my possessions and up and moved to St. Croix. Just leave, no word, no explanation. I had no ties, no promises to keep me. I'd go down and buy myself a little condo. Get a job slingin' drinks on the beach. A quiet life, relaxed, where I could be who ever I wanted, I could come from where ever I wanted. I could make it up as I go along.

But I didn't. I stayed, and that door closed. Then? The window opened and I felt the flutter of the wind in my wings, and I took it. Flew home, came right home to So. Cal. Back where I grew up, back where I belong.

Then paralyzing fear set it.....pregnancy. I've never maintained one in the past. Longest my babies lastest...16 1/2 weeks. My heart told me it wouldn't last, I was destined for pregnancy failure again. Even the hubs saw the wings, briefly! I denied it. But I figured, why should everyone suffer a loss that would never heal?

Make me a bird, so I can fly fly away....I would deal with the loss, alone. It's better that way. I stayed, and life happened. My babies, born! In a span of 15 months apart and with that, my wings were clipped.

I still feel a flight response deep in my heart, but now? I take my little family with me! Or I have a girl's night out, a weekend away, or even just some me time. It helps to keep my wings clipped.

Brought to you by Mama Kat and her famous writing prompts!

Sixth Gear

This is the post my hubs wouldn't want you to read....But as I've told him, almost everything is blog-worthy!

Now everyone read my post about driving right?

My motto is one that a friend of mine gave me "Drive fast, take chances and always put it in 6th gear"! Now this little "battle" between the hubs and I started many many moons ago.....

Driving down the 15 fwy from Utah into Vegas....back when you could text while driving. Me in Rhonda the Honda and the hubs in his brand spanking new Ford F150....it's a nice truck, I love to drive it.

Me, driving behind the hubs, having to continually tap my brakes to off my cruise control. My text to him: Why don't we pull over and let me show you what that Ford can really do His response was to speed it up, and I was happy with that!

When I was pregnant with Thomas I couldn't stand to be in the car if I was not driving, because he seemed to drive soooo s-l-o-w. So I started driving everywhere in Rhonda the Honda.

Once both boys were born we decided that Rhonda would be our "family car" as the car seats fit perfectly and gas was so much cheaper. And I was the driver. Because, well.....it's my car, and I'm a control freak like that.....and? Because we'll get there faster!

Had a little outing this weekend where we put the car seats in the truck, and off the boys and I went with some family to play at Discovery Day. So while the car seats remained in the truck today we had some errands to run. Now when we take the truck, the hubs drives.

In walks Thomas Thomas: Are we taking the big truck mommy? Me: Yep, we are babe. Thomas: Are you driving? Me: Nope, Daddy will drive, is that okay? Thomas: But Daddy drives so slow Me: OUCH! Stiffling a snicker

Daddy's response.....drive fast, take chances and he put that F150 in 6th gear! I think the truck was asking what his problem was!! I laughed and laughed and laughed. Daddy didn't think it was at all funny, but he was hiding a smile.

Came around a corner and some things on the floor took a flying leap towards the one door, and Thomas says "What was that?" To which I replied, that was the boxes hitting the door because we went around a corner because Daddy is trying to prove something. He's not being unsafe, just trying to drive faster than he normally does. Thomas' response: "oh"

Then I told him "This is so going on the blog" and his response.... "Great"

Let's hope the boys learn to drive from him or we will be paying a fortune in car insurance for all the tickets!