Tag: life

Pregnancy Week

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It’s Pregnancy Week at Scottsdale Moms Blog! There’s something in the writing around here as 5 of the contributors are expecting! This week is filled with fun and funny pregnancy related posts including today’s by Kristin that is a total crack up (and sooo true about the coffee). And Friday is the big reveal of Baylor and Mr.Man’s room – get excited.

In the mean time, I’ve got a million pictures from our annual pilgrimage to Coronado this past weekend to share and stories to tell. It was an amazing trip…it’s hard to be back to reality this morning.

Mini Horse Hands

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A few months ago I got a flyer from the Zoo about their equestrian programs. They have a class called Mini Horse Hands and it’s designed for 3-5 year olds. The stables at the zoo are really nice and the price was right so Peter and Bay ventured to the zoo every Saturday morning in July to the class.

The good news is that she LOVED IT. She was an amazing listener, brave and had a great time. The bad news is that most of the kids (and their parents oddly) were terrified of horses (please let me know if you understand why someone would sign their kids up for horse class if the kids and they are terrified of horses – because I cannot for the life of me figure out why). So there was a lot of standing around waiting for the other kiddos to warm up to take their turn. Needless to say, we won’t be signing up for another round of classes, but we will definitely be looking for a stable for her to take some more lessons!

Grooming “Rolly” Neapolitan

Feeding Midnight

Ready to ride!

Ridding Penny

First Day of School

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Last week marked Baylor’s second year at preschool. I can’t believe how much bigger she is this year than last year!  She landed in a great classroom with several of her buddies including the infamous Ms. Morgan. She has three teachers, two who have been been teaching since forever and one who is only a few years out of college – it’s the perfect mix!

August 9th, 2012

Fire on the Mountain

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Tuesday afternoon I got a call from my mom telling me that there was a fire at the ranch. Her voice was all I needed to hear to know that it wasn’t good and that they had no idea if their homes, business and escape route were about to go up in flames.

Montana is experiencing the same drought most of the west is having and everything was crispy dry when we were there in July when the norm is lush and green. It was dry to the point that the annual 4th of July fireworks that my step brother puts on (and that rivals most municipal fireworks show) had to be canceled. And now hearing how quickly a small fire in a tree went to structure and life threatening in under 10 minutes, it was a good decision.

Because of the rural location, fire support is hard to come by – or is unconventional to say the least. A neighbor has a water truck, but if the neighbor doesn’t answer the phone, there’s no water truck. The closest fire department is a half hour away and the forest service has to scramble helicopters to come to the rescue. Thankfully the ranch boarders Yellowstone National Park and sits on an 80 acre lake so once help arrived, they were able to gain control of the situation.

This is a picture from last summer of the Paradise Valley

And this is a picture of from the height of the fire yesterday – you can see how yellow the grass is.

Thankful for the forest service and the three available slurry bombers – this picture is about 50 yards from the parent’s deck

The aftermath. The estimate was about 100 acres burned. The sad part is that it will take close to a decade for this to become lush and green again.

I think it’s safe to say that the family is feeling blessed that this wasn’t worse, but sad that it happened at all.

Baylorisms – Part 5

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I keep saying that I need to keep a list of the funny things B says – because by the time I get to my computer, I forget half of them! She is now at the point where she knows she’s not saying something right and has begun to say “Do you know what I’m talking bout? Does that make sense??” trying to convey her thoughts. Such a crack up and getting smarter by the minute.

Zanya – The name she gives a lot of her stuffed animals. I have no idea where it came from or what it means.

Nayday – Her horse’s name, the only one not named Zanya.

Hanitizer – The combination of Hand Sanitizer

Rondry room – Laundry room. She can say L’s, but for some reason that doesn’t translate to the laundry room.

Loyal-ler – Lawyer. As in “you don’t look like a loyal-ler when you where cowboy boots to work, Daddy”. Jury is still out on whether this is a good or bad thing.

Scoops – the arm motion that goes along with freestyle swim stroke. While watching the Olympics, she announce “oooh, look at her scoops!!”.

Suri’s Burn Book

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I saw on one Melissa F’s Facebook page (what?! you don’t read Fontyfest?? You so crazy) a link to a blog called Suri’s Burn Book. It is, in a word, amazing. Short, snarky and all told from (allegedly) Suri Cruise’s perspective. I am dying and so grateful for this new little gem. Thank you Mrs. Fonty for the introduction to such a lovely and hilarious way to waste 5 minutes of time!

Spelling Lessons

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Apparently I used the wrong version of counsel when writing an email to Peter and my mom this week. This morning I got a post it note on my desk:

I thanked Captain Spelling and then went back about my business. He then proceeded to make fun of my spelling abilities, which, he has known for the last 13 years are less than stellar. I told him that the way I would remember the difference between council and counsel is that the S in legal counsel is for shithead.

That was enough to make Captain Spelling retreat from the office. And gave me an excellent pneumonic device for remembering the difference between the two words.

Big Girls Don’t Cry

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We have been on a mission to turn Bay’s room into a shared room for her and her soon to be brother. It has been quite the process. What should have been just moving some furniture, a new bed and some bedding, has turned into a multiple weekend project.

First, the garage needed to be cleaned out and reorganized to be able to hold the extra desk from the office and other odds and ends. Next the kitchen set and table and chairs from B’s room moved to the office. Finally the changing table and bookshelf had to be emptied and moved around in the bedroom so that the crib could be moved and then the big girl bed assembled.  Then the furniture didn’t fit in the room so there was another rearrangement. Then there was a discrepancy in the color of a few items so there was spray paint involved. Countless trips to Lowes, Home Depot and Target….And trust me, this is the short and sweet version. There were many arguments, coercion of friends to help move furniture, a few tears, a lot of cleaning and the realization that we have far too many hobbies and crap in general.

In the midst of all the chaos, Bay was transitioning to her new bed. Part of the reason this is all going on now was that I wanted her to have lots of time to move into her bed when she was comfortable. It turns out, she not only was ok with sleeping in her new bed, she insisted on it. She loves her new bed. As we were putting the sheets on it, PW began giving me puppy dog sad eyes. When I asked what was wrong, he responded that she’s a big girl who doesn’t need her crib anymore. I laughed a little because he gave me the business when I got upset about deconstructing her room a few weeks ago in preparation of the furniture move. It wasn’t until I reached into the crib to take the sheets off that I realized that the soft pink sheets are never going back on.

We stood outside her door that night looking at her room and fighting off the urge to snuggle her and cry “you’re our BABY!! You can’t grow up yet!!”. We checked on her a few hours later and were happy to see that she was tiny in her giant twin bed – it made my heart happy to see that at least for now, she’s still little.

Here’s a sneak peek of the room – the final results will be up on Scottsdale Moms Blog for Pregnancy Week (5 contributing writers are currently pregnant!) at the end of August.

 

 

Random Acts of Kindness

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Scottsdale Moms Blog participates in a Twitter Tasting thing (that’s the best explanation I can do) with Fresh and Easy. It’s a really fun idea – basically Fresh and Easy contacts the SMB group and invites us to participate. Those that are in receive a F&E gift card and the names of three wines. You take your gift card and pick up the designated bottles. Then sign onto a Twitter room (?? I don’t twit so I don’t fully understand what I participate in) and follow the instructions as to which wine we’re tasting first. Then all you have to do is drink and tweet about if you love or hate. Does it sound like a fun and free way to drink? Then I’ve done a good job explaining.

I was contacted by Erin at F&E a few months ago about participating in a tasting but sadly had to decline as Mr.Man was on his way.

While on the phone screaming at Kodak Gallery about where the hell my archive DVD and  where the hell my pictures are on Shutterfly, FedEx arrived with a very heavy package. I began to open and pull out Fresh and Easy brand baby item after item. Perplexed, but still yelling on the phone, I opened the card. It was from Erin and her Fresh and Easy team congratulating us on our upcoming baby! I was so shocked by the sweet gesture, I gave a momentary reprieve to Kodak Gallery. It was like the best and worst customer service all happened in the same 30 seconds.

I was completely struck by how thoughtful someone I have only ever exchanged emails with could be. It’s good inspiration to do random kind acts.

There was also a GIANT chocolate bar in the box…it didn’t make it to the photo….