Max is totally scared of cats and completely terrified of dogs so I guess it's only fitting that he would choose a snail for his first attempt at a pet. You really can't get more non-confrontational than a snail! He got some money for his birthday that he decided to spend on the set up....little did he know that a snail that only cost $1.60 apparently needs an entire habitat that runs 50 bucks! He ended up getting two snails (so they wouldn't be lonely...do snails even get lonely?) Scott insisted that he name one of them "Scooter"so we have: Scooter and Gary (Gary is named after SpongeBob's pet snail)
I'll have to let you all know how long these things actually live....I'm honestly not giving them very long!Read more...
So today's Pic of the day was actually taken last week and I meant to post it then but forgot! Titus and I were making Rolly Polly cookies together. He insisted on wearing my apron with no shirt on. I love how his nipple (or as he calls it his "NIBBLE") is showing. Classic Christmas cookie making attire!Read more...
OK....So, I've decided to try out the whole photo of the day thing! I can already promise you that I won't actually post one every single day, because I know myself. I'm just being honest. But seriously, it's not like the "Blog Police" are going to come after me so it's all good. So for today's shot...I give you: my gangsta son!!! (this was taken with my iPhone so it's all grainy..Sorry!)
Both kids are heading off to Gammy's house for two days! Part of me is absolutely filled with excitement at the thought of two whole day without kids....and the other part of me misses them already. It's so quiet in the house without them. But, I'm off to the mall and will be enjoying shopping, a much needed date night with my husband and seeing Avatar! Read more...
On this Christmas Eve we drove down to Colorado Springs and celebrated Christmas and Max's birthday with Scott's family. We had such an awesome day! My mom got to come down with us this year, which was an added treat for us. Both Max and Titus got electric guitars from their Nana and Papa Leo this Christmas and to say the least, the boys were absolutely besides themselves!
When we got home, it was past their bed time but the boys just HAD to play them for a while. I especially love this shot (below) of Max. Let's start at the bottom shall we? First, note that he's sporting some Christmas penguin socks, secondly, we move up to the shark-white legs, next we have some wicked cool Star Wars boxers, don't forget the rock star wristband and finally we have the smokin' red-hot guitar and the "peaceful easy feeling" going on, on his face!
As Scott was putting Titus to bed, Titus said, "I'm so happy dad! Now I can finally live out my dream of becoming a rock star!"
On Tuesday (I know I'm a little behind. It's been a CRAZY busy week, just bear with me people) I had to take Max to the eye Dr. for an exam. While we were downstairs checking in, out of nowhere, Max rattles off "Why did you get me an iPod for my birthday?" To which I reply, "Because we love you silly!" He then asks me, "Well, don't you think I'm too young for an iPod?"
The nice lady behind the check-in desk starts cracking up laughing and telling Max in all her years she's never heard any kid say that to their parent's before. So I tell Max, "Well, we didn't think you were too young, but if you do we could always take it back." Max then replied, "No, I'll keep it. But I'm just sayin' that when I get older, I won't be giving my kids an iPod until they're at least 15!"
Trust me Max...I'll remember you said that!Read more...
Max's birthday is December 24th therefore, it has been my goal since he was born to make absolutely, positively sure that he never feels jipped on his birthday! SO many people I know who's birthdays are in December have told me that they always got the raw end of the deal and received a Birthday/Christmas present. That's a bummer!
We went ahead and gave him his present a little "early" since we were celebrating it today. He has been wanting an iPod for a long time. We weren't quite sure if 7 years old was old enough for it, but we decided to go with it anyways because it's what he REALLY wanted. I never expected his reaction. He CRIED he was so happy! First, he started jumping up and down screaming "An iPod, an iPod....I got and iPod!!!!" then he ran over to me and hugged me and said "Thank you so much mom!" and started crying! Then he ran over to his dad and thanked him. Scott was like "Dude, are you really crying?" Max replied, "I'm just so happy!" Max crying then actually made Scott and I cry. It was just the cutest thing!
I am so blessed to have two amazing boys! I love them more than words can say!Read more...
I'm not kidding when I say I just got THE BEST holiday letter...EVER! Both Scott and I laughed out loud. I asked them if I could put it on my blog and they agreed, provided that I change the names to protect the innocent. So we shall call this couple "Jack & Jill".
First let me explain something before you read it. We have been friends with these people a LONG time and they only sent this to a select few of their friends and family who would hopefully "get it." Not knowing Jack & Jill, or their history, you may think I am completely and utterly insensitive and rude for laughing at this letter. But here's the deal: We all get the same "type" of holiday letters each year from people spelling out all of the interesting things they've done throughout the year...blah, blah, blah... But this was different. A first of it's kind!
Don't get me wrong...I LOVE reading your holiday letters! I enjoy hearing about your lives and all the cool things you did, so please don't stop sending them! I was just so in love with this "non-traditional" letter because of it's brutal, lighthearted, honesty. I mean let's face it, typical holiday letters never speak open and honestly about what a crappy year someone had, or how hard they struggled and survived. Jack & Jill had a hellaciously hard year but they survived, with the help of God! They are now on the other side and so thankful for each other and they cherish the life they now have. I am so truly happy for them!
I was going to scan the "actual" letter and post it but it's too hard to read so I re-typed it exactly how it is on paper...Enjoy:
Happy Holidays!
2009 started off with a bang for us! On January 9th Jill surprised Jack with deciding to leave him and take the kids and all the family savings. Jack came home from a night shift to an empty house and a call from a lawyer stating her intent to leave him! Jack responded, in kind, by lawyering up and closing off all financial avenues for Jill, minus the home equity line she maxed out! A sheriff's deputy came, served Jack papers and gave him 20 minutes to clear out. Jack did just that, taking all records of files and accounts to leave Jill no ability to get the upper hand. In an amazing few weeks, many legal phone conferences, motions and court hearings wiped out both Jack and Jill's savings and a bitter battle raged on.
Finally, the lawyers agreed Jill had to get her s**t together and go to treatment if she was to have any say on custody or parenting time! Jack almost lost his job asking for time off in this difficult situation of single parenting for a month while Jill was gone. Exhausted, financially broke and emotionally destroyed, Jack and Jill fired the lawyers, began figuring out parenting time, and went to a mediator.
The mediator sat 'em down, slapped 'em up the side of the head and woke them up!
Jack and Jill realized they have a great foundation, incredible kids and could rebuild what they had! One awkward spring led to a fun summer of get-a-ways, reconnecting and great family time. As we approach the holidays and the anniversary of the "dark ages" we have to look back and laugh. Things happen for reasons we don't always see in the moment, but if you trust and jump in with blind faith, things can work out in ways never imagined.
Best wishes to all this coming year and take our advice: (Like you see on TV and in fine print)
DON'T EVER TRY THIS AT HOME! WE ARE TRAINED PROFESSIONALS! (IN RELATIONSHIP CRISIS MANAGEMENT) RESULTS ARE NOT TYPICAL! EXAMPLES OF PAST PERFORMANCE DO NOT PREDICT ANY FUTURE OUTCOMES!
It's true. I am totally back on the Party Pizza wagon! Back in the college years I was addicted to these things. Actually, both my sister Mel and I were. We both love them cooked to near burnt perfection and laced with a TON of salt. Over the last few years I've settled down and only occasionally would I feel the need to eat one however, my cravings have started back up again. I've eaten 3 of these suckers in the last week! (I know, I'm a picture of health) If you haven't tried one, you need to. They are absolutely GLORIOUS! Some may contest that they taste a little like cardboard but I completely disagree.
Prior to my love for Party Pizza's, when I was in Junior High, I lived on Tombstone Pizza. I'm really not kidding when I say "lived" either. My sister Mel and I lived with my dad, a single bachelor, at the time and I swear I survived on 4 items my entire 7th & 8th grades: Tombstone Pizza, Mac-N-Cheese, Snickers and Pepsi. It's a wonder I'm alive today really. Come to think of it, I might need to hit up a Tombstone sometime in my near future....
I'm really not one for making New Year's resolutions. The number one reason for this is, I know myself, and I'm just not that disciplined....OK, I'll be honest, I'm not disciplined at all! I'm great at starting things, just not so good at the whole "finishing them" part.
I'm currently contemplating an actual New Year's resolution, which is kind of a big deal for me. I'm trying to decide if I should start doing a "Photo of The Day" on my blog. I'm sure you were expecting something much cooler, or possibly more life changing and meaningful than that but that just isn't going to happen! I love photography and I think it would be a good challenge for me, to have to take a photo every day of the year, and actually post it. I guess I could use some old shots too...anyhoo, I'm seriously considering it. Let me know what you think?
It's true. I totally LOVE film scores! Some of my favorite composers are Danny Elfman, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner. But my absolute favorite is Hans Zimmer. His score for The Gladiator is, hands down, one of THE BEST pieces of music ever created!
You see, I'm currently working on a yearly DVD that I put together for my family. I compile slide shows, set to music, of all the events that took place over the last year. It's my gift to the family each Christmas. Each year it seems to get bigger and bigger and this years project is no exception. I'm currently up to 20 slide shows! Needless to say, I end up listening to A LOT of music in the process trying to find just the right song to fit the mood for the event. While going through my music collection I usually end up listening to some of my favorites just for fun.
I have to tell you, that the last three songs of The Gladiator soundtrack are compiled of these songs:
Elysium Honor Him Now We Are Free
And they make up one amazingly moving giant piece of music. I can't believe I actually found it on You Tube. I guess I'm not the only person on the planet that thinks so! If you have time, listen to this with headphones on and blast it! Get ready to have an emotional explosion of the spiritual kind with this one! It's AH-MAY-ZING!!!! If you don't own it...Go and buy the soundtrack! NOW!
Today, after picking Titus up from school, we came home and I asked him what he wanted for lunch. He said he wanted Tuna fish (which he likes with ranch dressing mixed in) but I said I didn't want to make it for him. The reason I didn't want him to have it is because every time I make it, he eats about a tablespoons worth and wastes the rest...so I said "no". He totally freaked out and started whining and crying and saying I was "being mean" so I tried to explain to him that I just didn't want him to waste food. He wasn't havin' it! He kept pestering me!
I must add that I had absolutely no patience due to last nights "kiddy-freak-fest" which involved Max kicking Titus in the head, then getting a time out for it and while he was in time out he screamed at me, for which he then in turn got a spanking. Then Titus Spilled an entire glass of milk because he was screwing around at the table and actually managed to spill upward all over his head, face, his entire body, across the table and down onto floor! Then, about an hour after his dad left, he decided to go atomic meltdown and cry for his daddy (for no apparent reason-even he didn't know why he wanted him). The evening was ended by Titus crying from "mystery pains" in his side....needless to say, I wasn't going for any form of freak-show today!
After we talked about the Tuna and my reasons for not wanting him to eat it...and honestly, he pestered me a little more, I gave him an option: The only way I would let him eat it is if he ate half of it now, and the other half with dinner tonight or for lunch tomorrow. He agreed.
I'd like to add that I was fully prepared for him to sit there as long as it took for him to eat ALL half of that Tuna....I didn't care if it took him a week and turned green!
So later (about a half hour after he ate lunch)...Scott informed me of the conversation he had with Titus :
Scott: So I see you got tuna.
Titus: Yeah...
Scott: How'd that happen?
Titus: I just kept asking her.
Scott: So...you broke her?
Titus: (With a very cocky smirk on his face) Yeah...I broke her!
Thus, the title of this post. I am a broken woman...
We got to visit Mel, Colin and baby Corrin in the hospital this past weekend. (I know, I'm a little behind) Here's some more pics of the beautiful baby girl and family!
We put up our Christmas tree the day before Thanksgiving but I finally just uploaded the pictures today. (I know I'm lame) This past year we redecorated our living room and now we can't fit our nice big Christmas tree in there. Which is kind of a bummer. So...we put up a smaller tree this year instead. I just love this time of year, and so do the boys....but what kid doesn't love Christmas right? Here's some pics of us putting up the tree....Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!
Melanie and Colin had their baby girl Corrin!!!! I am so excited to be a new auntie! Corrin arrived on December 2nd at 11:55 p.m. She weighed 8 lbs and was 20.5 inches. She is absolutely beautiful!!! Mom, dad and baby are doing really good. More pics to come but I just had to post the one I've got so far....
OK....I am a huge chocolate lover....I mean HUGE! And I recently discovered a new favorite....(*insert Hallelujah Chorus here*)
That's right....Peppermint Hershey Kisses. They are the BOMB!!!! Though they are perfect just by themselves, I am already imagining chopping them up and putting chunks of them into sugar cookies with possible sugar sprinkles on top....or maybe with cream cheese frosting...who knows? You just gotta check 'em out. They are AH-MAY-ZING!!!
The last two weeks have been amazing....and busy! That's why I haven't been able to blog at all. We've had a friend in town visiting us from Mexico. Her name is Evita and she is a missionary. Karrie and I met her in September when we went to Cancun to speak at a womens' conference.
Evita, Me and Karrie
As I said, the last few weeks have been amazing. God has moved in incredible ways in peoples lives while she's been here and it's been so awesome to see. It's gonna take me some time to even process it all. I am just blown away! All I can say is WOW!Read more...
On the way home from picking Max up at school today he showed me an envelope that a girl gave him at school. I asked who it was from and he replied, "It's from Tracy, mom. She's my new girlfriend. We love each other." WHAT? You "LOVE" each other? "Yeah...she loves me," he says, "And I now love her too."
As I'm trying to find the words to say, I ask him "What about Emma?" (Emma is the girl he has been talking about non-stop since the beginning of school.) He then says to me, "Yeah, I ended it with her. I ended it with all my girlfriends. Plus, Emma and I were never more than just friends."
OK....at this point I'm thinking:
#1 You "ended it with her????" What was there to end? You're in the first grade for crying out loud!
#2 "ALL" your girlfriends? What the? How many can you have at age 6? You mean it starts that early...where one isn't enough?
#3 "Never more than just friends?" I don't want him thinking about MORE of anything!
I decided to put those thoughts on the back burner and instead ask him if he knew what was in the envelope. With a huge grin he looks at me and says, "I don't know mom...let's find out!"
I must point out that the envelope is covered in hearts and starts and says on the front, "By Tracy. I love you Max" with Max written in the center of a big red heart. Here is the letter that was inside:
In case you can't read it, it says "I love Max. I want to kiss him on the lips. By Tracy." I think it's a picture of Max in the big heart and you can't really tell in the pic but the "cloud" to the right of the big heart is actually her lip stamp! Can I remind you that he is in FIRST GRADE and he already has girls putting on lipstick and kissing paper for him! I quickly remind him that it's not a good idea to be kissing girls at his age, to which he replies, "I know mom!" (With a cocky look on his face)
I have to be say, I'm being a little dramatic. Both Scott and I think it's actually funny. Scott's first response was, "WOW...I never got that in the first grade." He's now wearing like a badge of honor. I'll be honest though, I still don't know that I'm quite ready for this!
Every Thursday morning Karrie and I have a women's Bible Study that meets at my house. Usually we get something to munch on with our coffee and tea however, thanks to our dear friend Lisa, this morning we were treated to home made croissants! Lisa is a professional pastry chef and let me tell you something, that woman can make a mean croissant! She brought almond, cream cheese and my personal favorite...chocolate!
I can't tell you the last time I had a good croissant...I mean like melt in your mouth, send you to a heavenly place type of croissant. I think the last good croissant I had was in New York City at La Petite Boulangerie like 9 years ago? THAT, my friend, is WAY too long to wait!
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am very passionate about food. I LOVE food! I love to taste it, to look at it, prepare it, describe it and when I find GOOD food I never forget it. But when it comes to eating it, sometimes I have a hard time stopping!
I'm not shy. I dug right into those chocolate puppies. They were THE BEST croissants I have ever put in my mouth. I mean, the perfect buttery dough that's just barely uncooked on the inside and flaky crust on the outside. Just the right amount of chocolate to dough ratio....they were pure deliciousness! Therein lies the problem: I couldn't stop eating them! After the first one I sat there contemplating, "Should I have another? No...I should not have another one. But I want another one....I should definitely NOT have another one. OK...I'll have another one!" I'll be honest, the second one was just as good as the first. I was totally in my happy place....I was also extremely full...like....tub O' butter, full.
As a rule I don't count calories. I love good, fattening food. I cook with butter and I don't like anything "low fat". Never the less, I jokingly threw out, "I wonder how many calories are in those suckers?" Lisa then informed me there are approximately 1200-1500 calories in each croissant....give or take. Holy Crap! You mean I just ate 3000 calories in one sitting? Three thousand!!! That's like two whole days worth of calories in one meal! (one extraordinary meal, I might add) but still...WOW!
A few hours later, about 1:00 in the afternoon, the effects of the butter/sugar buzz combo started to wear off and I actually felt a little woosy. I really felt light-headed! I guess I didn't realize the sheer magnitude of butter floating around in my system. I've also never eaten enough sugar to make me feel drugged, but I guess I discovered my limit this morning. So I decided I'd better eat some "actual" food before I slipped into a croissant induced coma. I quickly made myself a grilled cheese sandwich. (I know, I'm a picture of health. Don't judge.) It may not have been the healthiest choice but it slowly started to make me feel better. Slowly....
By dinner I was...OK? I still didn't feel like eating much but we had a friend over and Scott wanted dessert. So I managed to top off the evening with a bowl of berry pie and ice cream. Again, don't judge.
I was at the soccer field with the kids a few weekends ago and while Titus was practicing, Max and I decided to take a little nature walk. While we were exploring, I came across this awesome plant that's leaves were shaped like a heart. (Forgive me for not knowing what this thing is called....I have not, nor will I ever claim to call myself a botanist!)
On Monday, while walking the kids to school, I noticed this heart carved into the filed at their school. I'm thinking someone did it on purpose, but it's cool none-the-less!
THEN, as I got home, this leaf was on my driveway! I think someone's trying to tell me they love me!
Each year we have a huge family Halloween party. It's always so much fun dressing up in costumes, playing games, making creepy looking food and this year we actually got to go trick-or-treating too! Thanks to everybody who came, and a special thanks to my sister Katie and my mom Judy who helped me with all the food prep....I love you guys! The only bad part of the party is cleaning up the aftermath! here's some pics.....ENJOY!
The night before Halloween I attempted to make some cut sugar cookies. I say attempted because they turned out to be the worst looking cookies I have ever made in my life! I bought some of those dough logs and rolled them out and cut out cool shapes of bats, spiders, pumpkins and ghosts. Sounds easy enough right? WRONG! They would look all pretty in the oven, but as soon as I took them out they would completely flatten out like a thin sheet of paper! What the heck?!?! Then, what looked like a cute little ghost going in would come out looking like a deformed blob of cookie guts coming out! It was so frustrating! I finally gave up on cutting them into shapes and just cut the suckers in lame little circles...that also melted into oblivion. I then bedalzzed them with sprinkles and sugar crystals and wah-lah! crappy looking cookies made better! (I think sugar crystals can make anything taste better) They tasted fine....they just looked awful. Next year I'm going store bought!
This past weekend was the annual “Flu shot day!” Yeah!....NOT! My kids absolutely dread this day! It gives them anxiety for weeks just knowing it’s coming. Max does really well with shots but Titus is another story. He goes absolutely berserk when it comes time to get a shot…I mean crying, screaming hysterically, writhing around and howling like a wolf is all standard operating procedure with him when he gets a shot. So in order to ease the pain of getting the flu shot, or any shot for that matter, we started rewarding them with a toy every time they have to get a shot. Judge me all you want, but it works, so I’m stickin’ to it!
On Saturday we headed up to good ‘ol Kaiser Permanente for our shots and believe it or not, Titus did great! Oh, there was crying, but nothing like the normal freak show he brings. I was impressed! So we all got in the car and headed to Walmart for toys.
All of a sudden, Titus starts yelling “Mommy, help me!” As I’m driving, I look back to see him holding up both arms and glowing green goo is dripping down his arms! I started to panic a little and asked him, “Is that from a Glow stick?!” (mind you, I didn’t even know he‘d brought one into the car) As he is saying, “Yes mommy, it’s a Glow stick”…..I look up at his face and see more green glowing crap coming out of his mouth and all over his cheeks!!!!! This is when I start to panic….A LOT! I yell to Scott to start making him spit and clean him off, as I put the pedal to the metal and begin driving at light speed to Walmart. As I screech into the parking lot, Scott tells me to “calm down”, which I’m sorry to say would be virtually impossible for any mom at this point to be calm! I hop out of the car, grab Titus and start running for the bathroom…
…I’d like to interject at this point just to point out the fact that I am going to try to clean off a glowing green, potentially poisonous, substance from my sons mouth and body in a public bathroom….a Walmart, public bathroom! Does anyone else see the irony in that besides me?
But I digress…So we get to the bathroom and they have those really, REALLY annoying sensors for the water. And I can’t get the stupid thing to work! Once I finally do, it just barely streams out, so there is no way to get the water into his mouth so we head out to find a drinking fountain. So he’s swishing water in his mouth and spitting it back out into the fountain, which I’m sure just looked horrifically grotesque to all the customers there at wonderful Walmart!Once it was all out of his mouth we went back into the bathroom and I began to wash his arms off with a thoroughness that could only be matched by a HazMat team!
I then called my sister, who gave us the Glow sticks and who also had one of her daughters eat a Glow stick a while back, and when she called Poison Control they assured her that it’s not poisonous! We both can’t understand for the life of us, how something that glows in the dark is NOT PIOSONOUS! But we’re goin’ with it!
All I can say is thankfully…potential disaster… thwarted!
What an awesomely huge snow that dumped on us. Close to 2 feet! The kids had so much fun playing outside in the snow. We have a small hill in our backyard that the kids love to sled down. I spent some time outside too, mostly shoveling, but I did build them an igloo that later turned into a tunnel! Here's a few pics from the day....
My husband, Scott, and I have been together for 24 incredibly wonderful years! We have two children; our oldest son Max (A.K.A. Boog, Boogie or his full name Maximus when he's in trouble) and our youngest son Titus (A.K.A. Ti, T, Bird, T-Bird, Birdie or some other variation of the sort). Life with these three is absolutely amazing, terribly funny, franticaly busy, positively crazy and without question, never boring! I'm truly a blessed woman!
