tampons aren't scary, honey.

I called Terry at work and asked him if he could run an errand on his way home. He said 'sure'. He had no problem picking up a 5X7 picture I had printed at Walgreen's. A few hours later, I realized I was out of tampons. I called him back and told him to get tampons too. That's an easy thing to get at a store. Tampons. He's a boy. I'm a girl. Girls use tampons. Not boys. Checkout ladies at Walgreen's are probably aware of that rule. I must have been talking to Ava on the phone because he threw a HUGE TANTRUM.

Instead of understanding the Walgreen's checkout ladies would probably understand the tampons were not for him, he asks me: "Oh come on Honey! Isn't there something else you can use?" .................................................................. OMG. Are you being serious? Let me gather my thoughts, PLEASE! Did I just hear you ask if there was something else I could use? Why, Yes. I totally forgot! I have a bag of cotton balls under my sink. Let me go get those and squish a bunch of them together and try that. NO! The answer is no Terry! I cannot just *use something else*.

Why are boys so unrealistic? I mean really, why even be embarrassed for buying tampons? Why is that embarrassing? You don't have to use them just because you bought them!

Our little muffin is learning to walk

She ruled the halls last night... she's will be a YEAR OLD in just 3 weeks. Where does the time go?

Bess Bistro and A Fine Frenzy

I've definitely made it a point within the last few months to get out more often with my girlfriends - let loose and have fun. Toni, Annemarie and I have lots-o-fun when we three are together. We crack each other up! I hope they know that I heart them. I think they heart me too. :)

On to what fun I did have last night! Toni and I met up at at Annemarie's place and all drove together to Sandra Bullock's restaurant: Bess Bistro. It's in the old Stratford Arms building on W. 6th, the old Pecan Street. Everything in the building has been preserved and restored and was absolutely beautiful! The floor looked to me to be a kind of glazed concrete and with every step I took, I nearly busted my you-know-what. Of course I wore tall heels and could barely walk in them without falling anyway, but the slippery floor was my only complaint. We were seated and ordered a few cocktails, then decided to start with their spinach salad, it was topped with an over-easy egg. Uh, sounds weird, but OMG it was the best idea ever! We scarfed all of it down. Except for Toni, who left an uneaten over-easy egg all alone on the side of her plate. Annemarie was quick to make sure that egg wasn't lonely for long. :) We then moved on to dinner... we split the pork tenderloin and it was F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S. After another round of cocktails it was time for dessert. Splitting one wasn't an option, we are too selfish when it comes to dessert. Three different desserts did the trick. As Rachel Ray would say: Yum-O. After we were finished, Sandra Bullock was making her rounds around the dinner tables and we convinced her to sit with us and chat! She is so beautiful and sweet and she comped our entire dinner! I'm totally kidding, I wanted to make sure you were paying attention and not just on my blog to look at pictures...

When we were good-n-full, we left for The Parish Room, to see A Fine Frenzy. I've never seen her before and wasn't expecting the place to be full! She is on tour, headlining now, so the place was packed! We found a cozy spot in the back corner with a perfect view! It really was fun, we took a lot of crazy pics, that's nothing new though. Her music is beautiful and soulful and you can't help but just fall in love with her when she opens her mouth to sing. She's gorgeous and talented, plays the piano, what a show! After her set, she played one more song. A new one, a taste of what's to come for A Fine Frenzy, sounded great! Can't wait to head out with the girls again when she's back in Austin. The evening was full of energy and laughs. Until next time!

Click below for a peek of A Fine Frenzy's Borrowed Time from - The Parish Room - 3.28.08

I'm HILARIOUS!!!

Little Gracie gets me.
She knows funny when she sees it.

there's some weird chemical in clean sheets

Why do cats go bonkers when fresh sheets are put onto a bed? Please tell me if your cat has a completely different personality when a bed is being made... cuz mine does. If you've read my previous posts, you'll remember Joey's not all that bright and he just sits and stares. There's no excitement with Joey, so he not a part of this equation. It's Slippers. She totally flips out and digs really fast into the sheets like she thinks she can dig into the mattress itself and find something. The funniest part is her head. It shakes. From left to right, at the fastest pace possible. Like Katherine Hepburn's head used to do. Oh, hush, I'm not being mean, everyone knows what I'm talking about. But much faster than Katherine Hepburn's.
And her eyes. They are bigger than her her face. They become ENORMOUS. Like an owl in the middle of the night. She rips around on the bed and just goes insane. OK. That was it. That's all I had. I'm so thrilling.
She eats dryer sheets too. Which is so f#cking exciting, especially love it when she does that. The last time that happened the vet had to cut her stomach open and untie her intestines that had become tied together with 'some sort of fiber', as the vet described it. I won't be paying for that surgery next time Slippers. Remember that when you are using your paw to hold down that dryer sheet and pulling off stringy bits and swallowing them.

I wish I worked at Hobby Lobby

I was in the checkout line at Hobby Lobby this morning buying frames, scrapbook stuff, and everything else I could get my hands on that claimed to be 50% off. The checkout lady is talking to me, ringing me up, but not looking at me. She's staring behind me, toward the exit. Her eyes get really big and she turns around and asks her fellow checkout lady friend if she checked out a woman with a HUGE mirror. Her answer was no. Oh dear! A theft! My checkout lady proceeds to get on the intercom. I guess the code for theft at Hobby Lobby is: "Bob, come to the front door. Hurry..." Because that's what she said - in a very shh'd voice and with no authority. Bob never hurried to the front door. He lolly-gagged his ass over there. [Side note: My ears perked up. I am very nosey. I want to be involved in anything and everything that has to do with someone stealing anything and running it out to their car.] As she's making that announcement over the intercom... I was contemplating asking the sweet looking lady in line with me to watch over Ava and Grace while I ran outside to tackle the mirror-stealing-thief and heroically return with it as all of the patrons of Hobby Lobby cheered for me and held up glittery posters that read: KARA IS OUR HERO! Then I realized that lady might not be sweet and could possibly steal Ava and Grace. Then I might get in trouble and be charged with child abandonment and thrown in prison. I am way afraid of prison. I lack muscle, and hardened criminals like to cause pain to those who can't defend themselves. And that would be way more drama then a mirror being stolen. Once Bob f i n a l l y made it to the front door, my checkout lady left me standing there and walked outside with him. Yes. Walked. Not a minute goes by and they both return. The lady had loaded it up and driven off.

If I worked at Hobby Lobby, they would have one more huge mirror in their inventory. And I would fire Bob because he's slow and useless.

Glutton for punishment

Damn you Annemarie. Why must you do this to me. I am astonishingly agoraphobic, and yet I still let you talk me into another trapeze try. Well, maybe it's not you making me do this, it's my determination to perform the catch this time around. I love the fact you are adventurous and we have so much fun doing crazy things! :)

Annemarie and Laura just made it look so effortless. Although I accomplished a bazillion times more than I thought I would, simply by climbing the ladder I hate, I must go back for the catch with JayBird. And dammit, I'm gonna try my hardest. Terry is joining us, so I will have his support. And his humor. I can't wait to see how he does, we can go thru it together! He's not afraid of heights, he used to paint houses in college, so I don't think he will have a problem. The problem will be with me, however, if he shows up in a leotard and tights as he's threatening...

We are flying next Wednesday, so stay tuned.

Happy Easter

Easter - Saturday

Our neighborhood park always puts on fun festivals, parties, and holiday celebrations. So when Easter rolls around, they have a huge Easter egg hunt for all ages, and we of course joined in the fun. Since Gracie is to little to participate, Ava hunted eggs for her little sister. :)

I say get 'em good and tired and toss 'em in bed early!

It's just too hard to pass up an afternoon at the park on such a nice day. Ava, Grace, Charlotte, Gage, Sierra, Amy and Adam got together today and had bunches-o-fun. We tried a new park this time, it's enormous, tons of trees to climb, 2 different play areas, a bathroom. We had a blast! ~ Yippee for SPRING ~

What the hell is in DAYQUIL anyway?

Bunnies are so cute. Here's one yawning. At least it looks like he's yawning. Maybe he's growling? OMG! Can bunnies growl? What if?! What exactly would a bunny do if it cornered you and you weren't able to get away. Can you imagine? Being scared to death of a bunny? Trapped in some room because he's at the door making mean grunting, growling noises. Afraid to jump over him to get out because he might hop on you? Can bunnies HOP on you to death? They have teeth, this yawning bunny has teeth. But can they EAT you? What if you were HOPPED to death... and the bunny hopped onto you and did his back feet like a cat does when it's attacking something. I'm laughing. I have a terrible cold. I'm feverish. Maybe that's why I'm typing and laughing alone at my computer about bunnies. 'Bunnies' is a real cute word. The cold medicine must have made me weird. Yep, it's the medicine. That's not how I am normally. Nuh, uh. nope.
OMG I forgot about my kids, I have to go

Our poor, dear Molly.

Molly's private struggles should not be made public. Being a cat is difficult in its own right. In my view, Molly was struggling with the sharpie, and when the struggle to pick it up was not a success, AP should have been there to help her. Not hinder her by exploiting her failure to hundreds of other cats in the world who blog.

Molly: You are brave. I only hope you can move on and find it in your broken heart to blog again.

With love,
Slippers

Please click here to view Molly's brave struggle with said Sharpie.

Attaway Kylie!

Ava and I went to Kylie's softball game tonight. There's nothing cuter than watching a bunch of 5-6 year olds play sports. They all try so hard, keep their eye on the ball, run bases, and cheer each other on. The cutest thing ever. Kylie is a pro - she made several plays and for her, it just comes naturally. Check out the her video at the end of the post. Go Huskies!

Pinch Pinch!

Sunday dinner

Terry and I love the Food Network. We watch all the time, and Terry is always taking recipes from the shows and trying them out. They are always very yummy. So the one recipe he tried out last night was no exception. This one came from Bobby Flay's show: Boy Meets Grill. I am on the fence with Bobby. I like him, he is interesting, but I think in real life he might be a huge ego-maniac. He has another show called: Throw Down with Bobby Flay. This is particularly ironic, because in 90% of the throw downs, he gets his ass beat by another chef. He flies all the way to some city and surprises a restaurant owner/chef to a cook-off then... bam! Gets beat. I secretly love it, because again, I think he's an ego-maniac.

We have a gas grill, we use it all the time. When I say 'we' I mean Terry. I don't know how to light the thing. The oven is more my cup of tea. Anyway, we have a gas grill, but Terry went out and bought a Weber charcoal grill. He bought B&B charcoal which is supposed to be the mack daddy of charcoal... he grilled up some chicken breasts, then brushed some new potatoes (we couldn't find the fingerling potatoes it called for) with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper and sliced up eggplant and used the same simple seasoning, then put those on the grill. The recipe also called for a garlic-oregano vinaigrette, Terry blended that up and drizzled it all over the food. Oh my was that tangy and tasty. We poured ourselves some white wine and sat down to enjoy! It is a simple recipe, that really showcased the charcoal/grill flavor that was infused thru the food. Fast and fabulous!



Try it out... Here's Bobby's recipe.

She's only SIX!

My sister and her family spent Spring Break in Mexico... here is my neice Kylie, swimming with a dolphin. What kid in kindergarten is brave enough to do this!

Live Music + Good Food + Alcohol = The Perfect Saturday Afternoon!

Thank you Shanna, for the brilliant idea of leaving all of our kids at home and getting outdoors to enjoy some time for ourselves! Me, Shanna and Tiffany headed downtown to check out SXSW. We met Liz and Amber at BD Riley's and believe it or not, had the best lunch. After lunch and few drinks, we headed to the street to check things out. SXSW brings so many different kids of people into Austin. It was perfect for 'people watching'! Verrrry interesting.

We wanted to listen to some music, and made it over to Iron Cactus. The upstairs patio was closed, they were just finishing up a private party. The hostess was incredibly rude to us and let us know we were NOT going up to the patio. We left. I decided to go back inside and see who else I could find to ask... good thing I did. After asking a friendly person, we were on our way upstairs to the "closed" patio. Go me! The view was awesome, and from that vantage point, we could hear music from several different clubs. It was a fabulous and fun afternoon!

Poor plonker.

For those of you that know me, I am obsessed with the news. I am always up on current events and don't you dare take me on in a news quiz cuz I'll whoop your you-know-what. I was online this afternoon and boy, this story made me crazy. First of all. What jackass puts a $12,000 diamond engagement ring in a BALLOON? Filled with helium? I tie HEB-Buddy balloons to Ava's wrists so tight I cut off the circulation in her arm. I am that freaked out about them flying away. Cuz that's what helium balloons do. They fly. Away. Second of all. What is a 'plonker'? Thirdly, if you say the ring cost you a fortune and you knew your girlfriend would kill you, isn't that a sign she might be a huge bitch? and most likely will remain a huge bitch after you are married? I like the way he goes on to say: "But I had to tell her the story -- she went absolutely mad. Now she is refusing to speak to me until I get her a new ring." She's sounds charming. Seems to me his plan was carried off, without a hitch. HA HA HA.

Trapeze Adventure! Do you DARE TO FLY?!

I. am. still. in. shock. this. morning.

Let's go back a few weeks to an email I received from Annemarie. I barely read it, and then BOOM: the words Trapeze Adventure popped out at me. I quickly replied, and before I knew it, 5 of us girls were anxiously awaiting the big day. Fast forward to last night... We arrive at The Crossings, boy is it a gorgeous place, resort/spa, absolutely beautiful. The 5 of us FLY GIRLS (and Toni, who was our trusty photog) checked in and made our way down to the trapeze. It's a crazy mess of wires, nets, bolts, ropes, and ladders. Lord how I hate that ladder. We will get to that, don't you worry.

Anyhoo...we are just piddling around, sort of in awe of what we are looking at, thinking "Uh, us? Up there?!" A few short minutes later the crew arrived, and we quickly began our stretching. Lots of stretching. Lots of funny positions, and bending over, we all brought the jokes for the stretching. Now we are stretched out and Peter Gold, who is just awesome, teaches us the ropes. Haha.

We practice the knee-hang on the ground to get a feel for what it will be like...

Here we are, full of trapeze knowledge, ready to FLY!

Here is the gist of what goes on: On the first pass, you have to swing, then at the end, you tuck your legs up under you and you're hanging by your knees, still holding onto the bar. On the next pass, you let your arms hang and stretch out behind you, then bring your arms back up, untuck your legs, swing front, back, front, tuck, lean backwards, tuck your legs and back flip off. Simple.

Uh... for most people. Here's where things get tricky. I am afraid of heights. People say that about themselves all the time, but for me it's very much a handicap. When I am off the ground, the equilibrium wiring in my brain becomes frayed and starts to spark and smoke. That's when I suddenly cannot move and become frozen. This experience really let me pull out that frayed, sparking/smoking wire in my brain - and tell it to go to H-E-Double L.

We were belted up and assigned an order and off we went. Annemarie went first. Who'd thunk. She was a pro. Little brat. So was Laura and Dana and Danielle. My turn: After 10 minutes of talking myself up that ladder which I LOATHE... I made it to the top.

Only to become frozen in the wind and view. Terror. Peter talked me back into the real world (which I'm sure he's done before) and I'm ready. I grip the bar, (panicking) wait for "HEP!" (the go word) and fly. Terror. Sheer flippin' terror. I hear Jay-Bird tell me to tuck my legs, and... well, it wasn't pretty. To save you having to read this blog for 30 more minutes while I explain what happened next, I will just speed things up for my readers. I land in the net, slide down the pole and kiss the gravel under my feet, literally.

Each of us girls take turns, after 4 more turns of my own, I am now climbing the ladder I once loathed, at a rapid pace, and don't need Peter's calming words to jump when I hear "Hep!"

After 5 attempts, I was pleased with how I did. It took a lot of strength, physically & mentally.

Here I am... Daring to fly!

I am very proud of my accomplishment. Although I didn't "make the catch" with Jay-bird at the end of my swing, I made HUGE leaps and bounds from where I started. It was a phenomenal experience, and it seems us girls are doing it again soon, I am bringing Terry, because he wants to experience the adventure too! To give props... Annemarie and Laura made the catch with Jay-bird. They were awesome! And me and the other girls were awesome too. What a beautiful experience, with beautiful weather, beautiful views and beautiful friends.

Only 13 short hours ago I was staring my biggest fear in the face.

I CONQUERED MY FEAR.

she's gonna be a bully

Grace.

Her attitude has nothing to do with her name.

She's a bully and has a cute raspy, rusty voice.

She is violent with the camera too.

...meowch that hurt

Joey and Slippers. They are our cats. I am one of those weird 'cat people' and treat my cats like I treat my kids. So get used to posts about cats-n-stuff. Anyway Slippers is a bitch, she's really prissy, and thinks she's gorgeous, and struts around like Queen of Sheba. She's entirely too smart to let a child or a crazy biting infant anywhere near her in order to do her harm. Joey on the other hand, is an idiot. We love him to bits, but he's not very smart, he's just dumb. There. He's one of those dumb, clumsy, idiot cats that bumps into shit when he's trying to balance along a fireplace mantle, and knocks all my pictures over and ruins everything we have. He is not keen on knowing when a crazy biting infant walks all the way around a coffee table to get to you, she's probably going to pull your fur or try to eat your face. Which Grace did this morning. She made it all the way to him, and being the moron he is, just let her put both arms around his neck and pull him in to try to eat his face. He just let her do it. He's kind of sweet I guess, to let Gracie grab and tug and tear and rip his fur out. He won't bite her, he's too dumb to know to do that. Or too sweet. We'll go with too sweet.

Then there's Slippers. My darling little bitch. She's the kind of cat who will slap the crap out of Joey while SHE is walking by HIM. He doesn't even have to do anything. Just be there, and she slaps him, and of course, he just lets her do it.

Here is Slippers in all her BEAUTIFUL GLORY.

I think this video taken when Joey was a kitten, will convince you he's not so right in the head...

Yea, he has some issues. He's also afraid of silverware.

I am posting this while the girls are napping and the Time Warner guy is in my bedroom. Sounds saucy. But it's not. He has terrible breath and is overly excited about using the attic which is RIGHT OUTSIDE THE GIRLS ROOMS. He is trotting thru the house with his 5 toolbelts chinging and banging and being way too loud. Anyway ~ our cable box in our room caught fire last night. Yes, you read that correctly. Caught on fire. So he's here fixing that. I won't go into details cuz they are boring and involve me keeping Terry up for an hour after he 'fixed' the fire. I kept going thru senarios of how our entire lives would have been shattered if we weren't at home when fire shot out of the little holes in the top and left soot and singed fur and dust all over my dresser.

Sprinklies

It was sprinkling outside, so we made it sprinkle inside ~ Ava and I baked cupcakes, with sprinklies. Good times.

this one needs some riiiight here...

yum.

easter = eggs

Easter will be here soon, and I figure I will share a cute tidbit of how things work in Ava’s brain… Terry had the flu a few weeks ago and there was ZERO chance I was letting Ava or Grace get it. They are a handful enough without having the flu for God’s sake. We left Terry to fend for himself at home, and drove to my Aunt’s house to stay a couple nights, free of germs. While we were there, my cousin’s son, Evan was visiting and Ava walked in on a diaper change of his. A boy diaper change. She’s a girl. He’s a boy. She’s never seen a boy… you know. Except for Terry, and that’s a whole other story. Maybe at school, she's seen boy's changed, but not really up close and personal like this. Anyway, she walked in on the diaper change, and just stared. And stared, and you could see the gears turning in her head. She finally figured out what she’d seen, turned to me and said, “Mommy, Evan’s got an EGG?” After being overwhelmed with how cute I thought that was, I deemed it appropriate to agree with her. “Yes, Ava, boy’s have Eggs.”
When you think about it, boys do have eggs. To a 2 year old, that looks just like an egg. Too cute. Happy Easter Ava.

OMG.

Ok, I hope you aren’t eating, or will be eating, or have just eaten, cus this is disgusting.
I was making dinner and decided to steam some cauliflower. It stinks like toots, but it’s good with lots-o-butter and salt-n-such. Anyway, I have this cool steamer and it’s easy. I took the cauliflower out of the fridge, ran some water on it, cut it into four pieces and put it on the steam tray thing. I turned it on. 15 minutes later I dished it up for me and Terry and ate it all up. All of it. As I was doing the dishes, the steam tray was the last to go into the washer. I noticed a very small piece of cauliflower at the bottom and was about to dump it out when I realized it wasn’t a small piece of cauliflower. IT WAS A F#CKING GRUB WORM. Yes. A bloated, steamed, puffy, yellow, thing with black eyes. I immediately thought of how the sequence of events led to that point. Did he die while in my fridge? Did he die being steamed to death, how did he not get cut in half by the knife, did he scream a little, airy, faint scream while being steamed to death? Did he leave babies in the bites we ate? Jesus. Did we eat little baby pupa worms he laid in the cauliflower? The questions don’t end. I only wish I took that picture I thought was too disgusting to take.