Elwood

On the way home from Discovery, we stopped by to check out Elwood the Donkey. Tim had read a newspaper article about him and how he's kind of a mascot for some of the regular skiiers that pass through on their way to and from the mountain. His pasture is right next to the highway so people stop by to feed him carrots and other goodies...he has a weakness for doughnuts. So on our way home, we picked up some grapes and powdered doughnuts and swung by to see Elwood. It's probably going to become a tradition.

Girls Night

Summary: Girls night/hotel sleepover planned by my sister for two of her daughters' birthdays + some preteen friends + mom and I + I had to drag Andrew along = 7 females and 1 poor, vulnerable 10 year old boy.

One smokin' hot grandma and Kelsey


Madyson and her friends

Andrew


We had been mildly joking with Andrew that we were going to paint his toenails when he fell asleep. He was pretty nervous. Girl stuff is not funny to him...at all. I had no intentions of actually doing it because I have witnessed the wrath of Andrew many times. But I made the mistake of telling my sister that Andrew is a verrry sound sleeper. So, once he fell asleep all heck broke loose on my poor kid. A bra may or may not have been strategically placed on him as well.

Other than taking pictures and laughing, I was NOT involved.


Unfortunately Andrew woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and discovered his nails (and he may or may not have found a bra). I heard him sobbing. I got up to find him trying to rub the finger nail polish off with toilet paper and water.

I felt terrible.

Mostly because he woke me up so early.

No seriously, I felt terrible. I helped him get the nail polish off and tucked him back in bed...and I haven't heard the end of it since.

Grandma Sue

My mom came to visit us in February.

Later, I found these web cam pictures on my computer.

Apparently she and Andrew were having some bonding time that I was unaware of. I don't know why these pictures are so funny to me. I guess if you really truly know my mother, you know that she is a tad bit insane. She has such a great connection with all her grandkids. She is sooo much like her dad, my grandpa :)

Cats 101

I think cats are smarter than we give them credit for. Their main purpose in life is to annoy us, and they know exactly how to do it. In the morning, every single morning while I'm still in bed, Squirt (who weighs 20 lbs) likes to climb all over me, particularly my bladder, knowing full well that I'm desperate to get up and pee. Or, if you're wearing light colored clothes, our black cat likes to rub up against you and if you're wearing dark colored clothes, all of a sudden our white cat, Squirt, wants to be your best friend. And the laundry. It doesn't even have to be warm out of the dryer for them to want to snuggle into it. They just know that it's clean and it needs cat fur all over it. I'm telling you, they think these things through.

Garden 2010

I love having a garden. We got tons of the yummiest tomatoes last fall, along with a few other things, but home grown tomatoes are my favorite.

I even grew some boy ones...silly me, I didn't know you could do that.

One day back in April...

I came home to find the cats had somehow confiscated the cat nip...bit through the packaging...dumped it all over the floor...and were having some serious fun.




The black cat was so doped up and spastic that I couldn't get one non-blurry picture of her.

Hmmm...

I found this piece of paper on the coffee table today depicting our cat Squirt.

Cute Comment

Andrew has some really great neighbor friends. Seriously great. Two of his best friends are a brother-sister duo, little "Gracie" and "Brycie". Bryce is considerably younger than Andrew but Andrew just eats him up because it's like having a little brother around...something he has desperately wanted for a long time.

Bryce is an adorable little man, with big eyes and squooshy cheeks and such a cute little voice. A couple of days ago he was over at our house with his sister and they played and played for a good part of the day. I desperately needed to get to the store to get a few things for dinner, so I let Andrew know that we would need to send the kids home in a little bit and run a few quick errands. He whined and grumped like a typical 9 year old and, with his head back and his eyes rolling upwards, said..."I dooooon't want to go, why do we have to go?"

Before I could say anything, little "Brycie" walked straight up to Andrew, looked up at him with his puffy cheeks and big eyes and said, very matter of factly..."because your mom said so."

He took the words right out of my mouth.

Quote of the Day by Andrew

Disclaimer - this entire conversation was a little inapropriate...fair warning.

The other day, Andrew and his dad were throwing a small, rubber bouncy ball back and forth to each other in the living room. On one of the throws, Tim wacked Andrew on the upper part of his leg...not too far from you-know-where.

Of course, Andrew did the normal man-flinch reaction when flying objects come any where near there.

Andrew's eyes got big and he smiled and said:

Andrew: "Whooooa, that hit me on the leg!!"

I leaned over to Tim and said under my breath...

Liv: "Good thing it didn't hit him on the third leg."

I didn't think Andrew could hear me. And certainly if he did he wouldn't get it, right? Sometimes I forget that he is 9 years old now, and he can process things in that brain of his.

Of course, he did hear me.

Tim rolled his eyes at me in disgust for saying such things with small ears in the room.

We waited...trying to pretend I hadn't said anything.

I looked up at Andrew and could see the wheels turning.

Then his eyes got really big...the light bulb had gone on.

Andrew: "I think the third leg isn't even long enough to touch the ground."

Bingo.

Best Friends

I love it when two best friends have a conversation kind of like this on a beautiful, sunny afternoon...

Ben: "Hey Andy, do you want to go burn ants?"

Andrew: "Sure!"

Ben: "Can I run home real quick to get my own magnifying glass? Do you want to burn stuff at your house or at my house?"

CLASSIC!

Saturday Morning in Andrew Land

This morning I really wanted to sleep in for as long as I wanted.

I've been working out religiously each morning Monday-Friday and I just wanted a good ol' Saturday morning to veg.

Andrew is old enough now to understand the value of sleep. So, last night as we were tucking him in bed, I explained how Saturday morning was going to go.

Me: "Andrew, you don't have school tomorrow. You can sleep in as long as you want. I'm going to sleep in as long as I want. If you want to get up early to watch cartoons, that's fine, just don't wake me up....unless the house is burning down, then you can wake me up."

Andrew: {smile} "Okay!"

You would think with just one child, an older child, this would be possible.

Early this morning I could hear him in the living room with the tv on.

It was a little loud.

No biggie.

I kept sleeping as best I could.

Then I got startled awake to something like this:

Andrew: "MOM, MOM!!! YOU HAVE TO COME SEE THIS! IT"S THE SWIVEL SWEEPER! IT HAS SIX GREAT FEATURES!"

What? Can't my kid just watch Saturday morning cartoons like normal kids? What's up with the infomercials?

He ran into my bedroom to tell me all about the Swivel Sweeper and it's six new amazing features:

1. Touchless dirt tray
2. Back saver elbow joint
3. New and improved super sliders
4. 360 degree swiveling
5. Magnetic storage latch and space saving design
6. Non slip rubber tip

I was still half asleep and my eyes were heavy and he kept telling me to "LOOK, LOOK!" as he talked with his hands, physically reenacting the infomercial so I could see exactly all that the Swivel Sweeper can do.

The whole sleeping in thing was worth a shot.

But it was officially time to get up and make waffles.

Video of the Day

This is probably one of the funniest videos I've seen in a while.

"MONKEY"

PS. I love the kids' reactions in the background.

Sunshine

I just came across these pictures of Andrew and his little next door neighbor girlfriend (shhhh...don't tell him I just said that), picking carrots out of our garden last September.

Green stuff...and sunshiny stuff...ooohhhh how lovely.

A Christmas Miracle

A couple of weeks ago, my reindeer van shed one of its antlers. I was sad.

Tim didn't care - he thinks they're stupid.

Then I realized I had made a bank deposit earlier that day and it most likely popped off when I had rolled down my window at the bank drive-in. Maybe it would still be there?? So I went back to the bank at about 10pm that night, looked around, but alas, no antler. I was sad again.

I've been driving around town for the last two weeks debating about whether or not to just take the nose and lone remaining antler off, because it just isn't right without the other one.


Yesterday, I needed to make another bank deposit. I rolled up to the drive-up sucky machine and, after waiting a minute or two, the teller came on the little tv screen.

She said, "Hello".

Then she smiled really big and said, "Are you missing an antler?"

I said, "Yes".

She said, "We found one in the parking lot a while ago...I'll bring it down to you."

Seriously? Who finds a stuffed antler in their parking lot and keeps it for two weeks in the hopes that they might find the single-antlered vehicle roaming around?

It made my day.

Quote of the Day by Tim

The other day Tim and I were talking about some of our friends and their characteristics and comparing ourselves and how pathetically mellow we are, almost to the extreme. And the conversation ended like this...

Liv: "Well, you do have a little bit of a grumpy streak. Especially when you've had a bad day at work."

Tim: "I know! I hate being grumpy, it makes me mad!"

I almost peed my pants. Not so much what he said but because it took him a second to realize what he'd just said. It's my new favorite quote.

Haircut

I haven't had my hair professionally cut in probably 16 years. Mainly because my hair is fine and flat and crappy and I could never find anyone who could figure out what to do with it. And also because I don't really care. I'm not a girly-girl by any means. But recently my hair had gone beyond frumpy, even by my standards, so I decided I needed to take better care of myself. My sister in law had recently had her hair cut super-duper cute by a childhood friend, Sarah, so I decided to give her a shot. I LOVE it! It is sooo easy to style and the messier it is, the better. I finally found someone who knows how to cut my hair...and she informed me she is moving to California in April. CRAP!!!

Not the best front shot, it looks pretty standard, but trust me, it's CUTE!

Seriously, my hair has never looked this full in the back!

Thank you, Sarah!

Trying to teach an 8 year old boy the delicacies of women

Last night, the three of us were wrestling on the floor when Andrew said,

"Hey mom, you are a big whale and you need to sit on..." Tim promptly cut him off.

Tim: "Andrew, there are a few things you never call a woman. A big whale is one of them. Women don't really like to be called animal names unless it's like 'fox' or 'chick' or 'ski bunny'.

Andrew giggled.

Five minutes later...

Andrew: "Mom, you're not a big whale, you're a pig."

I don't think he gets it.

Strange things

Yesterday, my sister became a grandma. Which makes my mother a great-grandma and me a great-aunt. I mean, I've always been a great aunt...fabulous, in fact...but now I'm officially great. Anyway, where has the time gone? When did we all get old? And seriously, do I have to relive the '80's again. I saw stirrup pants at the store the other day...for cyring out loud, STIRRUP PANTS!



PS. Congrats Chris & Michelle! It's freakin' me out, but congrats.

A story for Monday

I'd been noticing a squooshy wet spot in my neighbors lawn adjacent to my garden.

It wouldn't dry up.

Last night I told Tim we should go over to her house and let her know she probably had a leak in her underground sprinkling system.

So we did.

We asked her if we could dig for her and try to find the leak.

She said "please".

So we did.

We found a sprinkler line running directly under the squooshy spot but oddly it was in perfect condition - no leak.

It got dark.

We postponed our investigation.

This morning our neighbor had to go to work.

Tim had the day off so he put on his camouflage clothes and went to Walmart. (Don't ask).

I decided to resume the dig on my own.

I found the leak.

A weed paper stake had worked it's way through the MAIN...I repeat, M-A-I-N...sprinkler line.

And I rediscovered my knack for saying a few choice words when it's appropriate for the situation.




THE END

A cowboy of sorts...

Andrew disappeared into the office the other day for quite awhile. He was dead quiet. He likes to go in there and steal all my computer paper, staple the sheets together and color the pages. I was busy in the kitchen and just figured he was in the office making a book.

Then, several minutes later, I heard him wrestling with his dad in the other room and he was laughing hysterically. Tim and Andrew wrestling every night is pretty much tradition so I didn't think much of that either.

But then he comes around the corner and approaches me in this get-up...


He looks at me and says, word for word...

"Hello, I'm Cowboy Barbie and I hate to tell you this but I just kissed your husband."


Tim and Andrew have a long running Barbie war going on...but seriously, where does this kid come up with this stuff?