Tag: life

Cookies Gone Wrong

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Yesterday afternoon, Bay and I put on some Christmas music, lit a cinnamon candle and fired up the oven to make some Christmas cookies.  B was thrilled to play in the left over dough, flour and sprinkles while the cookies cooked. It was a lovely afternoon.

That is until two cookies escaped the baking sheet and dropped into the oven where they broke into a million pieces. Crap. I decided to just close the door and let it cool before I attempted to clean them up. Until the kitchen began to fill with smoke.

“Why not let it self clean??” I thought. So I put on the self clean setting and returned to icing the trees. Until I noticed that it appeared we had a yule log in our kitchen…yup the cookies had ignited in the oven. I quickly turned off the oven and stepped back trying to decide what to do next – get the extinguisher? Call 911? As I contemplated, the fire quickly went out. Bay casually looked over from her sprinkling duties and said “Mommy, there’s a fire in the oven”. Yes, yes there is kiddo.

Despite our house smelling like a camp fire, all is well. The oven cooled and is no worse for the wear (I think). I cleaned out the chunks of cookie and it is now happily self-cleaning (I think). The windows are open, the fans are going and there are holiday scented candles burning so hopefully by this afternoon there will be no evidence of our almost fiasco.

When my cousin Will arrived last night to watch UofA and eat us out of house and home (I was prepared with 3 lbs of tacos) I told him what had happened. He responded “what’s with you guys and fire??” – referring to the grill fire of 2009. It’s nice to have family who cares about you.

On the bright side, the cookies were delicious! Chef Mini Wand does it again!

The Chef hard at work.

Check out that post nap hair.

Much like shoes, you just can’t have too many sprinkles.

I HEART ZAPPOS!

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Yesterday I had one of the greatest customer service experiences of my entire life.  Seriously, it’s the stuff legends are made of.

I ordered a pair of Christmas shoes for Bay about a week ago. I love Zappos free shipping both ways policy (I hate paying to ship back a return) and I am now in love with their “video view”. You know when you’re looking at something on-line and you can’t quite tell if it’s the right color or if it would look right on? Enter video view. It’s a quick 20 second video of an employee holding, squishing, twisting and pointing out the assets of a shoe. I was set on a pair until I watched the video and saw the color wasn’t quiet true to the picture. LOVE.

Naturally I was super excited to open the Zappos box when it came yesterday – but when I did, I realized it was the wrong shoes. I checked the receipt to confirm that I didn’t have an aneurism while shopping and saw that they had clearly shipped me the wrong shoe. Right size, wrong color and style. No biggie, I’ve returned with them before so I knew it wouldn’t be a huge deal. I called up customer service and with in 45 seconds was connected to a person (LOVE). I explained the problem and read off all the number for my order and on the box. The man said he would get it fixed in no time and would I mind holding.

When he came back, he apologized profusely and told me that the shoes I wanted were no longer available in B’s size. Before I could relay my disappointment, he had already launched into a compensation shpeel – Zappos was going to refund my money for the wrong shoes but they insisted that I keep the wrong shoes since they were the right size AND they were going to give me a $25 coupon to purchase a new, different pair. Huh? I asked him to run through it again so I was sure I got the point – I got my money back. And a free pair of shoes. And a nearly free pair of the shoes I actually wanted?? LOVE.

When B woke from her nap, I tried on the new free shoes and realized that she really could get away with a half-size bigger. So I used my coupon and ordered her up the pair I wanted in a half-size bigger for a total of $8.99! Amazing!

She’ll be looking so fancy in her new, nearly free shoes! Shop Zappos. Shop them often and tell your friends!

BFFs

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Baylor’s new things are favorites and bests. As in her favorite song, animal and meal and bests friends.

She is constantly asking me if the song we’re listening is my favorite, or if my shoes are my favorite pair, or if my car is my favorite car. And in turn, she tells me when she’s wearing her favorite outfit, hair bows and Bear the dog.

After a weekend spent with her step cousins, soon to be cousin and second cousins (yes, we are the actual Big Fat Greek wedding family – just English decent), Baylor is into picking her best friends. On Thursday, it was her cousin Madi. Then her cousin Zoe. On Saturday, it was her cousin Abby. And on Sunday, it was me.

While getting ready for bed, B looked at me and sincerely said “Mommy, you mine best friend”. My heart melted. I reciprocated and told her she was my best friend and she responded with “No mommy, you mine best friend”. There was no need to argue. It was better to just snuggle up with my BFF.

Black Friday Freaks

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I will never, ever, ever understand people who love to shop on Black Friday.

As an employee of the retail world on several levels and for many years, I have worked more BF’s than I care to mention. I have seen the hordes of crazy shoppers and tried to meet their requests all while having sales numbers pounded over my head by corporate. It is, in fact, horrible.

I know, I know. Good deals, blah blah blah, great bargains, blah blah blah, amazing prices, blah blah blah. None of those reasons are good enough for me. I was thinking about it…and the only way I would go shop at midnight – on Black Friday (or any day at midnight for that matter) -would be if ALL of my Christmas gifts were at one store and they were all 50% + off retail price. That’s it. I’m not getting out of my warm, cozy bed to go browse items that I may or may not want on the 20% off rack.

It’s going to take some pretty tough convincing. But if you have any amazing reasons why shopping on BF is worth it, then let me hear it. Otherwise, I stay cynical, bitter and with online shopping…

Giving Thanks

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Holy moly. It’s been a crazy week! Thanksgiving was one of the best yet  – after 5 years of hosting, I think we have feeding 20+ down to a science. We’ve gotten to see and spend time with old friends and lots of extended family. Baylor is officially BFFs with her second cousin, Abby. And is solidly convinced that her (step) cousins are the best.

Mother Nature threatened, once again, to rain on our parade. I literally stepped out onto our patio with my hands on my hips just daring her to keep sprinkling all over my beautifully set table. Thankfully, I have a very convincing “mom stare” and she backed off before my linens were soaked. In fact, the sun came out by the time all of our family and friends arrived with side dishes in hand. PW’s turkeys were the best he’s ever made and the entire evening was…relaxed. The everyone ate and then sat and enjoyed the beautiful Arizona weather, candle light and kid’s laughter.

{Mother Nature threatening to ruin my table!}

{Chef Wand}

{Chef Wand’s Turkeys}

{Titi and cousin Zoe}

{The hungry crowd}

{How many kids can you fit on a toddlers climber?}

{this many!}

{How do you make tree climbing more interesting? Do it in a tree not really meant for climbing and add fire!}

{A sweet note from cousin Madi about being thankful}

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too! I am very thankful for you reading, commenting and liking my humble blog 🙂

I Like You

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This morning while changing Baylor’s Pull Up, she put her hands on my face and said:

“Mommy, I like your shirt. And you ponytail and your headband. And I like your eyes and your mouth. And I like your boogers.”

With “boogers” she cracked up. As did I. I asked her if she meant the rest of it but she was too busy giggling at her own joke to respond. I like to think that she meant all of it!

I NICE NOW!!!

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Baylor has been working on pushing her boundaries lately. She’s exercising her right to ignore me and flexing her 2 year old muscles when it comes to doing the exact opposite of what I am asking/telling/screaming at her to do. In all? It’s been a fun two weeks.

I decided it was time to get tough so on Sunday, I instituted “two times and then time out” – meaning I will ask her two times to do something (just in case she didn’t hear or understand me) and if she still doesn’t listen, it’s to the crib for some quiet time.

Her school describes the use of time outs as a chance for the child regain control of themselves. Which I think is a nice way of saying “we make them sit by themselves until they get their sh*t together and can rejoin their pals”. Which I am totally down with.

I lost my temper on Sunday when she just. would. not. sit. and. eat. her. food. It was making me insane and she was doing everything except eat including dancing, crawling across the counter, singing, screaming and feeding her carrots to Bear. I had had it so I scooped her up and deposited her in her crib and said “Call me when you’re ready to be nice”. Maybe 5 minutes later, I can hear her saying Mommy and then something else, but I couldn’t make it out. Then PW started cracking up – she was saying “MOMMY!! I NICE NOW!!”. And she was nice. She came out, finished her dinner with only a little fussing and we had a great rest of the evening.

Then yesterday morning, 6:45, she was right back in the crib for not listening when I asked her to sit down in her seat rather than stand on it. Again I hear ” MOMMY!! I LISTEN YOU NOW!!!” and she did listen and the rest of the day went smooth.

I’m not sure if the time oust are more for her or for me, but I can say that her humor cracks me up.

Baylorisms – part 2

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Because our sweet girl has a language all her own:

“Frog” – Bay has a humidifier that looks like a frog. Therefore all humidifiers are called Frogs.

“Hopsitle” – or hospital to you and me

“Gubs” – gloves

“Cookie” – her cousin Quincy

“Nahma and Nampa” – grandma and grandpa

“Poppynoni” – the fast way to say Pop and Noni

“NumNums” – her favorite stuffed rabbit – Peter taught her that rabbits say “num num num” when their little noses twitch

“Loga” – yoga

“Busssssss” – when she was just starting to speak, she would only say Buh for bus. I would accentuate the S sound and now bus has a super long s!

“Baylor lock” – the lock on the door that she can’t reach and therefore keeps her inside. When Peter comes home, I hear “Mommy!! I can’t open door because the BAYLOR lock!!”

 

 

 

The Littlest Blockwatch

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Ever since we’ve become friends with our neighbor, Melissa, Bay has had an eye on her house. B was hooked with the first high-five “Missa” gave her and now she is constantly on the look out. I know when Missa has left her patio light on. I’m told when her kitchen blinds are open and if her car is there all because the Littlest Block Watch is filling me in. I know when Missa is cutting her grass and when she’s missed a spot. I know if Missa has gotten her mail or if it’s still in the mail box.

The funniest part is what Missa is allegedly doing when she is or isn’t home – if the blinds are closed, I’m told that Missa is very tired and still sleeping. If her car is gone, then she’s probably at “Loga” – or yoga to you and me. And when Bay’s door is open with the baby gate and Missa’s windows are open, there is a constant stream of “HIII MISSAAAAA!!!” being shouted out the door until I explain that she probably can’t hear her – or that Missa probably thinks there is some kind of wild animal making crazy sounds.

I finally broke down and told Melissa a few months ago that there is little that she does that goes unnoticed at our house. I was expecting her to freak out and decide to put up a privacy fence or something (and rightly so). Instead she responded “Oh good, I’m glad someone’s got an eye on the place!”. And now I get a text once in awhile asking the LBW to keep a close eye while she’s away.

This will be a great story when Bay is a detective or a FBI agent some day….or as evidence against her in a stalker trial. Either way, it’s cute.

Today is Scottsdale Moms Blog day! Be sure to see my post on cute Thanksgiving themed crafts. 

Denver Bound

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We spent this past weekend in Colorado visiting friends from law school and going to the UofA v CU Boulder game. In a word, it was awesome.

When the PAC 10 became the PAC 12, PW began dreaming of snowy football games in CO. And when this season’s schedule was announced, he began putting together plans for a road trip. We get a double bonus for trips to Denver because our friends, Brian and Jeanne are now Denver-ites which means we got to see and catch up with them too. And catch up we did.

Friday night was spent laughing, reminising and filling each other in on life, jobs and the kiddo. We talked over the most amazing meal ever at Osteria Marco. We also walked around Larimer Square – it felt like the perfect holiday location; strings of lights, chilly weather and a warm coat!

After a delicious, greasy spoon cafe breakfast, we headed West to Boulder for the game. Colorado is spectacularly beautiful and getting to go to a small college town made me think of Tucson. We arrived to join the UofA tailgate hosted by a group of friends and PW’s fraternity brothers. It’s always nice to know that some things don’t change.

Check out Grizzly Adams back there…

To sum up the game…it was horrible. The wind was blowing at a steady 40mph and gusting up to 70mph. Worse, UofA was crushed by Boulder (maybe the only team that was worse than the Cats). But the scenery and the company made up for all of it. Not to mention the super cute cowboys on the field that were incharge of running Ralphie the Buffalo down the field.

Seriously, check out my hair in the wind!

Beautiful Boulder

Who runs a real buffalo around??

Saturday night we ordered pizza and opened several bottles of wine and warmed up at Brian and Jeanne’s house. After several sips, Brian agreed to break out the guitar and play. He can literally play anything. He has a huge book of lyrics so that everyone can accurately sing along – and it’s something we did often when we were all broke law school students (or just broke because we were married to a student). It reminded of one of my favorite memories – it was maybe a week before we were moving home to AZ. I had cut out of work early to meet PW, Brian, Jeanne and our other friends James and Tess (Brian and James were roommates at the time). I found them all sitting on the “patio” of the row “house”James and Brian rented (I say “house” because their slum lord probably had the house condemned the minute the tenants moved out), drinking and singing Toto’s “Africa” with total seriousness on their faces. There was no making fun of Toto, it was serious music to be taken seriously. The weather was finally warm, the beer was cold and we sat and sang and drank until it was time to catch the last metro home. It was the perfect way to say goodbye to the city, our friends and to being a student.

Flash forward 4 years, weddings, kids, jobs and many miles traveled later and we were right back to that point. We sat and sang until we realized that we had to get up in just a few hours to catch our plane. And much like I am an amazing dancer after several cocktails, I am also an amazing singer. Sadly for you, WordPress won’t let me upload the voice memo I took of the Billy Bragg and Wilco California Stars  jam session. You’ll just have to imagine the awesomeness in your mind.

A thousand thank you’s to Brian and Jeanne for being such sweet hosts and amazing friends. I see reunion 2012: Spring Training in our future!