Tag: humor

We’re Alive :)

Leave a comment

Phew. I think I’m safe saying that we are all healed! What I thought was a sinus infection (and in my defense, the doctor agreed with me) turned out to be a nasty virus. Which, of course, B got too just about the time I started thinking I might not die after all. Our air conditioning went out the same weekend (thank goodness for parents who live close, pay their utility bill and weren’t home!) and there was a severe drought of sleep due to the constant coughing and sleeping in someone else’s house (Bear was thoroughly confused and literally paced allll night). It was, in a word, ugly. I don’t think PW has ever been to excited to go to work on a Monday morning.

Bay was out of school last week (this one I had planned for) so we had a week of swim lessons and play dates lined up. Every day started out with breakfast, get dressed and suddenly it was 1pm. I really have no idea where each day went. But it flew by and this week is a blur of doctor’s appointments (for me) and back to school fun late this week (for her). We spent all weekend making her room into their room so get excited for some sneak peek pics. The big reveal comes later in August on Scottsdale Mom’s Blog pregnancy week – there are 5 contributing writers all pregnant!

And thank you to those that checked in after seeing the blog was not updated – it’s nice to be loved 🙂

Veni Vidi Vici

2 Comments

Phew. I’m exhausted.

I don’t write about it often because The Goon Room is my happy, work free space, but once in a while work creeps in. For those that don’t know, my mom and I own and run a small water company in southern Arizona. Why? Well, that’s a really  long story so let’s just leave it at we have this investment and we are working our tails off to get it on the track to functioning in the black and within all of the governing agency’s guidelines.
That said, we started out on a journey to get a rate increase last year. It took a year of data and document collection to get to the point of filling out the 50 page application – which turned out to be over 200 pages once we added all of our supporting documents. Many months, many hours of auditing by the corporation commission, many inspections, many meetings, many nasty letters from customers, many problems and roadblocks, many tears and many “if we don’t laugh we’re going to cry” moments later, we got it. After waiting nearly 6 hours to be heard in an open meeting before the commission, the final vote was 4 yeses and 1 no – a win for us.
I was sick with nerves all day waiting for our turn to be heard – so when the decision was made, the relief of the moment felt more like a hang over and less like victory. Today, it’s sinking in that we did it. We have taken a failing company and in just over 2 years have brought back into the black (even if it’s just barely in the black, it’s black by God). We’re not done yet, we still need a loan and then start a massive construction project which are daunting all on their own. But damn it if we’re not one big step closer to the finish line. And yet another reason to celebrate with a large bottle of wine in October. Until then, Ben and Jerry’s will have to do!

Millions of Peaches

Leave a comment

Peaches for me. Millions of peaches, peaches for free.

Look out!

Anyone? Anyone? Presidents of the United States of America – or the theme song of eighth grade.

I have been craving peaches this entire pregnancy. Canned don’t cut it. Frozen either. And the little ones from the grocery are either too hard, too soft, no flavor or too far gone. But finally, finally! Costco had the big box of big peaches last weekend. There are a dozen softball sized fruit and after one day sitting in the fruit tower in the kitchen, they are perfect! I’ve eaten all but 2…back to Costco I go!

I’ve been eating them as is, but I have big plans for the next box. Peach and blueberry cake. Sugared peaches. Grilled peaches with amaretto cookies, peach pancakes…my mouth is watering just typing this!

Mom’s Night Out

1 Comment

It’s that time again! Scottsdale Moms Blog is hosting Mom’s Night Out on July 31st at Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort!

The location and date promise to be the perfect combination for a great night of relaxing, catching up with friends, meeting new ones, winning some prizes and enjoying a glass of wine.

Tickets are going fast so round up your friends and get yours asap! Click here for the details…

Lelowstone National Park

Leave a comment

As Baylor would say – or Yellowstone to you and me.

Peter is always dying to take a day trip into the park. I am always looking for ways to talk him out of it. We do a lot of driving while in Montana and strapping the kiddo in the car for another long trip seems a little cruel – for her and I as I always am the one trying to entertain, soothe and distract her while in the car. Not to mention I hate car trips – I think they are boring, I get car sick and I never get to drive. Whiney? Maybe. But you drive to San Diego and back in the back seat with a kiddo who is so very over being in the car and let me know how you like it.

Despite all that, I didn’t have a lot to try to talk PW into this year. I can’t ride horses (and neither could he – if he gets to drink and I don’t, then he doesn’t get to ride….) this year and there’s only so much hiking we can do so I gave in and told him to plan the trip. And I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The park was packed, but we were able to get around fairly easily and hit a few of the sites; Norris Geyser, lunch in the woods, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and some wildlife. B had a moment of get-me-out-of-this-car, but once she got to see some elk up close and personal, the rest of the ride was smooth.

Norris Geyser Basin. It looks like the surface of the moon…

It doesn’t look dangerous, but the temperature of the water is boiling

The color of the water was amazing.

Boiling mud

Steam vent

After Norris, we headed to a campsite to have a picnic. As we wrapped up, B got her first look at a permenate porta potty – basically a hole in the ground with a toilet seat. She screamed and refused to use it. Plan b involved finding a smooth log and let her go as nature intended. She decided that peeing in the wilderness was awesome.

Next up was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I had no idea what to expect and I was totally blown away when I looked over the the little wall to the canyon below.

The color of the water was spectacular

There are like a thousand stairs that take you to the bottom of the falls. I am putting this on the list for next year!

Some bison

Daddy and his girl. And his favorite Beet Seed hat.

The girls

Livingston Round Up

Leave a comment

This year was Baylor’s first trip to the Livingston Round Up Rodeo. We go every year and it’s a blast – the childless version can be seen here….But being pregnant and with Ms. B means we had the slightly less rowdy version this year. However fun none the less! B made it all the way to the spectacular fireworks display complete with patriotic music (the sun doesn’t set until after 9pm so the fireworks started around 10pm). Such a trooper!

Getting to sit with the big girls

The Noni

PW in his rodeo finest

Titi, cousin Zoe’s mom

I had a chance to experiment with my camera and the speed setting a little. The results were pretty darn good!

This is my favorite.

Steer wrestling…this guy is a Wranglers model so I felt a picture was necessary.

And this is the funniest part of the whole evening – this is the rodeo clown with 4 dummies strapped to himself  that move like puppets -they all do the YMCA. It was hilarious and just a pinch disturbing.

I Love a Parade

Leave a comment

No really, I do.  I love the silliness, creativity and pageantry. And in a small town parade, it’s taken to a whole new level – not necessarily a better level than say the Rose Bowl Parade, but a new level just the same.

Poor B had maybe 6 hours of sleep the night before the Livingston 4th of July Parade. She got over an hour of a nap in her bed and then napped the 45 minute drive to the event – I had to wake her up when we got there…which explains why her pigtails are crooked and she looks less than pleased in the first few pictures.

Getting into the spirit

Cousin Zoe!

Cousin Madi. One half of the “big girls” B was chasing around all week

Learning how to pick up candy from the big kids

Noni, Momma and her girl

See? This is why small town parades are the best. Where else are you going to see a plumbing company advertising by putting a toilet on top of a trailer AND making it shoot water like a fountain?!

Circus Overloadus

Leave a comment

Ho.Ly. Cats. I’m even too wiped out to write this post so I’m going to do it in bullet points:

-3 is too young to take your child to the circus. Unless they are totally ADD and enjoy a freakish amount of senory stimulation.

-30 is too old to go to the circus. Unless you are deaf and mostly blind and or enjoy a freakish amount of sensory stimulation.

-Circus animals are by far some of the meanest, most unhappy looking animals I’ve ever seen. I was pretty sure the lion “tamer” was a gonner as each time he walked by one of them, they took a swipe. The horses looked like they were ready to bite and or buck their riders while they were mid pyramid stand.  Perhaps PETA is onto something..

-Why the hell is the circus so long?! We bailed out early after B found my purse more interesting than the acrobats at around an hour and fifteen minutes. We went to lunch with PW, bathroom and then a 2 block walk to the car and the thing STILL WASN’T OVER.

-How does anyone decide they are going to work for the circus? Are there try outs? And what do those job applications look like? Like how do they know they need motorcycle riders that drive on a tight rope with two acrobats hanging beneath them?! Do you have to own your own bubble looking apparatus to hang from and gyrate out of?

-When did it all get so theme-y? Can’t they just have some animals and some fun tricks? Why does there have to be a dragon? And a dragon hunt? I thought circus was a theme.

-Lastly, are the ticket prices so freaking expensive because of all the OSHA requirements? Because my ticket prices were not worth what we saw.

-Lesson learned: no more circus visits until B is at least 10 or unless someone else is taking her. And footing the bill.

Outdoor Kitchen

2 Comments

One of my least favorite parts about summer is that the doors and windows are pretty much nailed shut. In order to keep our 81 degrees of air conditioning contained and keep the 112 degrees from outside getting in, it has to be that way. I break the rules a little at 6am when it’s only 85 degrees outside and get a little fresh air, but really, it’s barely enough for me.

So on top of no fresh air, I really hate when dinner stinks up the house. It seems to linger for days…don’t get me wrong, I hate this problem year round, it’s just especially bad when there’s no open door time. Not to mention that my already hightened sense of smell is at a super hero level while pregnant which makes the problem that much worse.

Last weekend I had a hankering for pulled pork made in the slow cooker. It’s heaven on sandwiches with pickle relish and in quesadillas – basically it’s dinner and lunch for like 4 days. But the smell…it normally annoys me, but this time of year and at this stage of pregnancy, it’s a no go. So I floated the idea of putting the slow cooker outside to PW. His response surprised me when he said he thought it was a good idea…and it was a good idea. No overwhelming even-my-pillows-smell-like-pork problem AND delicious dinner – genius!

Mmmmhhh…pulled pork

Kodak Gallery is CLOSING

2 Comments

Um, how did I miss this memo? Peter pointed out the fact that as of July, Kodak Gallery is closed and Shutterfly is taking over. Which is ok with me, I don’t think Kodak is really that easy to use and they are transferring all the pictures for free…but is anyone else as paranoid as I am? Has anyone else worked for a database company where shit just went wrong for no reason? Because I have and I do not trust that something won’t go wrong and all the precious pictures of Baylor’s first moments on this earth, Bear and Travis playing in the Maryland snow and the blackmail worthy Senior Night pictures won’t somehow be lost or destroyed.

So I set out to download a copy of each album…which I quickly found out isn’t possible. You would have to do it picture by picture. Boo. So as I surfed around, I found that they are offering a special deal on archive DVDs (see? I’m not the only paranoid one). So I chose the option, selected all and assumed that all 20ish of my albums would be added.

Except I have 86 albums. And over 3,600 pictures. I told you I was the family photographer. BUT, I was pleasantly surprised that the total cost to have all of them transferred to DVD was only $37. Yes, still forty dollars I have to spend. But for my peace of mind, which often comes at a much, much higher price? Totally worth it.

Now the bet is how many DVDs it will take to hold 3,600ish pictures. PW said one. I say at least ten.