The Happiest of Hours

February 22, 20131 Comment

We live in a one of those weird neighborhoods where we know (and like) almost everyone on our street. Not only that, but there are a ton of kids and they have a blast playing together. Another benefit is when you get a text from a neighbor at 8am that says “Does 345 work for wine/bikes?”. The answer is yes. Yes it does.

And this is what 4 moms and 9 kids having happy hour looks like:

Riding down the street

Controlled chaos

Bay giving J a ride

The girls and the babies

Happy mommas

Berkley keeping watch

Auggie and H baby wrestling

We stayed out until Peter pulled up – it was like your mom calling you home for dinner since he arrived with Julio G’s Mexican food!

Happy Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2013Leave a comment

Or as Baylor says “Balentimes” Day.

When you’re 3 1/2, nothing says love and Balentimes like barnyard animals. I sent her to school today with 22 handmade valentines – almost all of them containing pig, horse and cow stickers. I didn’t realize what she was doing until she was a few in and then I thought they were cute! Only she could get away with putting pigs on valentines.

This is the one she made for me 🙂

Grumpy Cat

February 1, 20131 Comment

Few things make me giggle like Tard The Grumpy Cat. He is an unfortunate looking little kitty who looks like his face is perpetually frowning and his sadistic owners take pictures and caption them with simple sayings that crack me up. This is my favorite from this last week:

He’s just so ugly, he’s cute

Counting My Blessings

January 15, 20132 Comments

You hear about things that are happening to others and it makes you stop and realize how very lucky you are. Today is one of those days where the worst things I’ve got going on are a kiddo who is slightly under the weather, 6 pounds of baby weight that won’t budge and a to do list the length of my arm and only one hand to tackle it with …and in the midst of feeling a little overloaded, I feel like I’m big time winning.

I’m thankful for my health and a body that is still a little chubby but can carry two kids and squat down to get dropped keys, my families’ health, a wonderful husband, crazy kids, health insurance, a warm house, clean sheets, a refrigerator full of food, the ability to ignore the refrigerator full of food and order in, PW’s busy job, a nice sister, a step family that I genuinely like, more friends than fingers, faith in God, a lettuce table that didn’t freeze, a baby who likes to sleep 5ish hours at night and being able to enjoy a glass of wine while to kiddos sleep soundly in their beds.

My mom always says to be thankful for the boring times. Today, I am incredibly thankful for the (relativity) quiet!

Wen Are You Going To Try This?

December 17, 2012Leave a comment

Ok. We’ve all seen the infomercials for Wen Haircare. And we’ve all had the same thought; “Of COURSE that makes your hair beautiful…when you have a professional stylist!”. But damn if that infomercial isn’t tempting…

A few months ago I couldn’t resist so I Googled some reviews. All of them were the same: great product, horrible company. Apparently when you order directly from Wen, they enroll you in their monthly refill program and automatically send you a new bottle each month and bill your credit card. Insult to injury – it’s next to impossible to un-enroll in the program. Undeterred, I ordered from Amazon instead.

Not going to lie, this stuff is weird. It’s like washing your hair with conditioner. But you don’t use it like conditioner or shampoo, you literally have to rub your entire scalp for a few minutes AND then leave it to sit in your hair. But this stuff is amazing. I have super fine hair that tends to look scraggly when it gets too long. The Wen stuff keeps it fluffy and full, even past my shoulders.

I knew it was legit when my stylist asked what I was doing. I asked her in return if there was any down side to Wen – her thoughts were that she didn’t totally understand it, but from the looks of my locks, there was no down side!

I’m now about 6 months in and still going strong – but don’t throw out your other shampoo and conditioner. In my opinion, my hair needs a good, sudsy scrub about every 3-4 days. Maybe it’s just me, but I think Wen builds up a little after a few days. The true test will come in the next few months when the pregnancy hair starts to fall out. Fingers crossed that it’s minimal and Wen can keep what’s left beautiful….

Also, buy from Amazon. I’ve purchased 3 times now and never had any issues – just make sure you don’t buy from Wen through Amazon. Now go get infomercial hair!

Zona Zoo

November 13, 2012November 13, 20122 Comments

When we were sophomores in college, Peter had an idea to create a student group that would rival the student groups of some of the biggest and well known colleges in the country. The University of Arizona is one of the largest universities in the country and has some of the best and most prestigious athletic programs around…so why didn’t we have a student section at basketball games?

Peter ran for the student senate that same year with the goal of creating such a student organization. He spent many hours campaigning and I spent many hours (and manicures) helping paint bed sheets with “WAND FOR SENATE” to be strung up between palm trees around campus. I have to admit, I didn’t understand why we needed a student section – more so, I didn’t know how he was going to pull it off. And like many times before then and many times after, he didn’t fail to wow me.

After winning a seat on the student senate, PW campaigned, recruited, marketed and worked his butt off to create and then get the wheels on the student organization moving. He got the support of the athletic director, funding from Pepsi and also the men’s basketball team on board. A contest was held to name the organization and with the mens basketball team’s help, the title of the Zona Zoo was selected. And thus, a legacy began.

A few years ago, we had the UofA game on. A few minutes after kickoff, I heard swear words from the living room. When I asked what was going on, Peter rewound the dvr and showed me how many students were at the football game. And right behind them, painted on the stadium wall was ZONA ZOO. He was in shock. We had no idea that the Zoo had grown so much.

This month is the tenth anniversary of the Zona Zoo and the Arizona Daily Wildcat newspaper called to interview PW about the inception of what is now one of the largest student organization in the country with 10,000+ members.

It’s an amazing legacy and one of many that I think Peter will have. Congrats PW on an amazing job well done!

http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2012/11/beginnings-zonazoo-history-110912

Stain Fighting 101

August 17, 20121 Comment

My post for Scottsdale Moms Blog today has some great “recipes” for getting out stains…lame? Maybe. Useful? You bet! The Biz and Shout combination once got red paint out of a white shirt – just saying, it’s worth the read!

Random Acts of Kindness

August 7, 20121 Comment

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….

Veni Vidi Vici

July 19, 20122 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!

Lelowstone National Park

July 12, 2012July 11, 2012Leave 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