Thursday, September 30, 2010

Excerpt From My 'How to be an Amazing Mother' Class

I see you're all back for some more of my incredible mothering stories.

Well, let's dive right in, shall we? 

Take a look at this picture and tell me what you see.
Two tennis shoes? Yep.
Two different size tennis shoes? Yep.
Two tennis shoes, that while both Sketchers, look absolutely nothing alike? Yep.

Cause those would be the shoes JR wore to school yesterday. 
All. day. long.
And I had no idea until I saw him taking off his shoes when he got home.

So remember class:
Work hard!
And you can possess impressive mothering skills just like me! 

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Upside Down and Inside Out

It's so refreshing to see these being performed in a proper place.
And not from my refrigerator, balcony, and/or coffee tables. 





Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Leaf It Up!

Sure every resident in the Four Corners decided to take the same drive we did at the exact same time, (we actually saw two families we know) but the crowds didn't get in the way of how gorgeous it is this time of year. I also learned there's a name for people who go out to look at the leaves changing. So here we are....
The Tree Peepers!





Sunday, September 26, 2010

Going on a Donut Run

Doesn't every run/walk have a donut buffet before it starts? And don't all the participants carry an extra stash for the road?


Yep, that would be my diaper bag loaded up with, well diapers, and donuts. 
We headed over to Farmington, NM Saturday morning to walk in the BP/San Juan Medical Cancer Walk-a-thon.

We had a rough start figuring out where exactly everybody was going to ride.  (Cause even though it was a walk, there were two Ingys who didn't take one, single step.)

Kyle didn't want to ride in my backpack at first, so Reed got in.  As soon as that happened Kyle started screaming, so I got to walk like this for a few minutes. 

 (I made Jason take this picture of me, to which he said, "You just want to put this on the blog and have everybody feel sorry for you."  Um, yeah. Why do you think I'm having you take a picture?!)

Reed, finally tired of Kyle's cries, traded out of the backpack for a ride on Jason's shoulders. And I have to give it to Jason, he walked for 3 miles with Reed up there!  Reed then decided to let Jason have a break (and take a little nap), while Ayi pushed him in the stroller the rest of the way. 


Kyle made all 6 miles on my back.  He passed the time waving at the other walkers, and giving the Farmington High School cheerleaders high fives.


JR thought he'd take the easy way at first.

But then when I refused to run with him, (I did have a 28 pound excuse on my back) JR got Granny Sherry to walk/run with him.  JR's goal was to "get to the front of the line". And though he never made it to the front, I do think they finished a good fifteen mintutes before we came in.

And, of course, if they give out donuts before the race, sodas are an obvious choice after, right?

Friday, September 24, 2010

Witch Legs Have Never Looked Sexier

Being that I live in a Target and Hobby Lobby free town,
(Have I mentioned that in the last week? Just wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten.)
I find myself shopping at Pier 1 more than I ever have in my life. (Which really isn't all that much, since I'm pretty sure I'd never even been in a Pier 1 before I moved here.)  And being that I'm now a Pier 1 frequent flyer, I've landed the coveted position of being on their email distribution list.  I never really look at their emails, but since they were advertising Halloween decor, I thought I'd give the latest one a look-see. 
And here's the picture that greeted me.


Now see that cute little table with the witch legs? 
I bought that on clearance after Christmas last year.  The witch leg table was brought home amongst trees, Santas, and all sorts of glittery Christmas decor fabulousness, so it was pretty much just a sad, little afterthought. 
Until tonight.
I checked the price on the witch leg table (happy to see I was still in style) and saw Pier 1 is selling it for $35.
And that's when "happy" turned into an all out happy dance, because I paid $2.99 for that table!
You can be sure I'll be rocking my $35 Pier 1 witch leg table with pride right out on the front porch. 
(Which will, of course, be documented for you.)

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Jason Freak Out Update

Well, it looks like my little plan worked.
(Bwahahahaha!)
Blogging about the keyboard gave Jason plenty of time to prepare for what was waiting for him at home, and the freak out was fairly nonexistent.
He even put everything together pretty much complaint free.
Oh, and did I mention that the keyboard came with a bench?
Yeah, it did. (I swear I don't remember seeing that in the description.)
So here it is.
I present to you the full "Small" Keyboard Because We Don't Have Room for a Piano, But We Might As Well Have Bought a Piano Keyboard.

As you can see, JR is already practicing the classics. I do believe he now has Hot Cross Buns memorized.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

What's in the Mail Today?

Well, it would be this happy little guy.



What a fun surprise from my mom!

I usually put out my Halloween decor (black cats and pumpkins) October 1st, but it's going to be pretty hard to hold out now that I have such a cutie hanging out in the kitchen.

If I make it to the weekend without pulling out the decorations I'm going to be way impressed with myself.

Monday, September 20, 2010

And in the Center Ring...

Behold...

The Amazing Reedini


Weighing in at only 25 pounds, and in the <5% for weight....

He's the strongest two year old on earth!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

I Scream for Ice Cream (Literally)

JR wanted to enter a Cupcake Wars contest we saw advertised in town. Since he likes to cook, and my cupcakes are usually pretty good, I thought it would be a fun thing to do together. I saw these ice cream cone cupcake in a magazine and ours actually came out looking just like the picture.


Now before anybody gets excited, you'll notice I said ours came out "looking just like the picture." Because these are far and away the worst tasting cupcakes I've ever put in my mouth. You have to bake them in the cones, and I don't know if the batter in the cones is just too much for the high altitude or what, but....BLEH! Every batch was either overcooked to the consistency of a rock, or almost burnt on top with a raw inside.

JR was still excited about them, and I figured since we'd gone to all that work to make them we'd just go ahead and enter them. But getting the cupcakes to the contest was harder than I ever could have imagined. We finally had JR holding 2, Jason driving and holding 2, Ayi holding 3 or 4 and me trying to manage the rest. By the time we got there we had all dropped them, smushed them, or crushed them until they looked as bad as they tasted.
JR asked me this morning when we'd find out if he won. Bless his heart.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Spoiled Rotten

Ayi decided it was dumpling day yesterday. (Woohoo!)

Our Chinese chefs at work.


JR + giant butcher knife that only comes out when Ayi visits + no trip to the emergency room = successful onion chop. (And you'll also notice his shirt didn't stay on long.)

JR ate 17 dumplings last night! (And if you're wondering about the little red man, he's like training wheels for chopsticks.)

Ayi wouldn't dare pack The Little Emperor plain ol' left over dumplings in his lunch today, so she got up early and fried these special for him. Although I did pop one in my mouth after I took the picture...she wasn't looking, of course!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

New Career Path

If JR's future career plans of hanging out in Asia with hot girls doesn't pan out, I think we've found something else. He was surprisingly excited about the "newspaper boy" game at the Cub Scout bike rodeo last night. So excited, in fact, that he wanted to practice throwing newspapers after we got home!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Jason is Going to Freak

Alrighty. Soooo I'm putting this out here in hopes that Jason will see this before he gets home. (He's not nearly the devoted reader he should be, so this may not work at all.) My plan is for him to see it, freak out away from the house, and then be calm and rational about the whole thing when he gets home.

As I mentioned last week, JR is taking piano lessons this year. Again, this is not something we rushed into. He's been asking for over a year to take lessons. I kept telling him 'no' (since I hated piano lessons so much), but he kept asking. I finally agreed to let him take, but how do you take piano lessons if you don't have a piano?

Of course I didn't want to buy a piano since:
1. I'm still not convinced he's going to continue to think piano is "fun".
2. We literally don't have the room.

So I decided to buy a keyboard. (Jason wasn't intersted in the buying process since 'piano' is not another word for 'hunting'.)

I found an 88-key keyboard on Amazon, got a seal of approval from our friend, Mark, (who plays the keyboard at church) and ordered it.

I envisioned JR sitting on his bed with his little keyboard in his lap practicing away.

Um yeah, not so much.

I started getting a little nervous when UPS Freight called me and asked if a tractor-trailer could get down our street. Then the UPS driver called to confirm I was home and said, "I have a piano for you!"

And even better than the giganticness...It came in pieces.

*Clap, Clap, Clap* Yeahhh Jason! You get to put it together! *And I'm still clapping excitedly*
(Does my sing-song, happy voice and claps make the getting to put it together more desirable? I was hoping so.)

Now some of you might be wondering (as my opera singing friend, JD, immediately asked) "Didn't you know how big it was when you ordered it?" Well, yes, the size dimensions were listed, but measurements fall in the math category, soooo....I just kind of breezed by those.

Okay. So Jason, take a deep breath. (And maybe one more.)

Here it is.



And here's the rest of it


And in case you're math challenged, size comparisons:




Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Homeland Security Mugshot

Who in the world writes a blog post about getting passport pictures made? Um, that would be me. Because who would have believed what a process snapping a headshot would be?!

I thought it was going to be one of the easiest things we'd ever done since Kyle and Reed both hopped right up on the stool and were happy to pose. As they smiled their big, precious, toothy smiles I thought 'Oh, I know the photographer is happy this is going so well.'

But, no.

How could it possibly be that easy?

Who knew that kids aren't allowed to smile in passport photos? Well, I guess they can smile, but they have to keep their mouths closed.

I'm sure you can imagine me behind the photographer tying to help: "Look at me! Close your mouth!" Do this!" ('this' being me standing there trying to have a blank expression on my face.)

Kyle's solution to closing his mouth was to put both hands right over it. (Sort of a "speak no evil" pose.) Reed's was to make a kissing face. (Neither of which are allowed.) The photo guy was telling me how strict they are about kids passport pictures. That's great, terrorists can jump on airplanes no problem, but my 2-year-olds need to have their "mugshot smiles" just right to leave and enter the country.

Thankfully we finally got a "legal" finished project.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Manners Matter Monday

Overheard the other day...

Reed: Kyle, do you want to play toys with me?
Kyle: Uh-huh.
Reed: Don't you say 'uh-huh' to me! You say, 'Yes, ma'am'!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

WOOOOHOOOO!

Ayi is here!

She arrived Thursday evening, and we were so excited we could hardly wait for her to step off the plane. Just look at JR's face checking out the flight arrival board at the airport.


This is the only other picture I have, well, because...I was a blubbery, crying mess myself.
We are all just. so. happy.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Weather Channel

When it comes to weather occurrences I thought I'd experienced most of them: tornadoes, hurricanes (if you've lived on the Texas coast you've been through both), the tail end of a typhoon in the Philippines, a sand storm in Beijing that left Jason and I voiceless for almost a month, and most recently...snow storms (I'm not sure I can actually call the storms this past winter 'blizzards'. In my book they were, but I'm not sure the Durangoans would give any of those an official 'blizzard' title.)

But today was a completely new one for me. I grabbed my phone to take a picture thinking, "Oh look, the clouds are making the mountains look like they're on fire." But then in a few seconds we were actually in those clouds. I've never been in a cloud before (except in an airplane) and it was pretty weird. Kyle and Reed even noticed. The whole thing didn't last more than a minute or so, but it was long enough for Reed to say, "Mommy, we're in a cloud!" and Kyle to say, "Mommy! What's happening?!" I took these pictures from my phone while I was driving, so needless to say, they're pretty bad...but hopefully it gives you an idea.










And then we popped right back out into clear, blue skies....

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Routine

I know my title seems harmless and nondescript, but it's actually making me giggle. I used to teach a girl name Routine, which always struck me as funny. That happened to also be the year I taught Chrishieka, Princess, and DeJourna (pronounced "Del-jour-nay". And no, I didn't spell her name wrong, it didn't have an 'l' in it. Luckily I was so distracted looking for the new "E can also make an L sound" grammar rule that it kept my focus off "Routine". )

Anyway, we've settled into our new school-time routine (*giggle*) quite nicely. JR's favorite activity by far is still Cub Scouts. But we're giving two new things a try. JR is taking piano lessons and also a hiphop/break dancing class. Of course I couldn't be more thrilled that he wants to learn to dance, but I'm not so jazzed (pun intended) about piano. He's been begging to take since last year, so I have finally given in. I remember the piano lessons of my youth with about as much fondness as math tests, so we'll see how it goes.

Kyle and Reed have started up gymnastics after a break this summer, and though it's hard for me to snap a picture with the two of them constantly running, jumping, hanging and rolling, they did stay in this position long enough for documentation.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

A Sit-Down with Hobby Lobby

Soooo, Hobby Lobby, let's have a little chat, shall we.
Now, you know I love you. You are truly one of my favorite stores. But I've got a real issue here. Besides having no reasonably priced flocked Christmas tress, (And by 'reasonably priced' I mean, priced where Jason wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary on the credit card bill so he wouldn't notice the new flocked tree hiding in the garage. And no, I'm not hiding spending money from him, I'm hiding the actual Christmas trees!) you have also blatantly discriminated against my kind.
And what would 'my kind' be exactly?
Frequent jazz hands user?
Fan of feathers and sparkles?
First one to suggest costumes for the slightest of occasions?
Well, yes.
But, Hobby Lobby, you have those demographics covered. 'The kind' I'm talking about are those of us with "I" last names. Because apparently, Hobby Lobby, you don't think we I-people are worthy enough to supply for.

Case and point:


Hummm.
What's that letter that seems to be missing? The letter that comes between 'H' and 'J'?
Oh that's right.
It's "I"!
I guess we I-people don't like decorative initial pumpkins.
Well that would be where you are wrong, Hobby Lobby. I would love a decorative initial pumpkin! And if it weren't for your amazing fabulosity in every other way, I'd be deciding who would be the recipient of my first phone call. Nancy Grace? Geraldo? Gloria Allred?
Consider this your warning, Hobby Lobby. I'm watching you...and the prices of your flocked Christmas trees.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Bikers and Babes

It's Biker Weekend here in Durango, and much to all of my boys' excitement, we've seen motorcycles everywhere we've gone. Right after church we rushed down to Main Street to watch the classic car and motorcycle parade. Could there be a more perfect parade for boys?


JR with his friends (and our neighbors) Alex and Jacob. JR is wearing his "Ride Yellowstone" T-shirt so he was ready to "blend in".



And whether I wanted them to blend, or I was just outright costuming them, here are Kyle and Reed in their biker-wear.



Kyle's tongue is out in pure concentration...He was trying to wave his flag with one hand and wave to the bikers with the other...all the while being completely focused on the motorcycles.



The parade was so big I actually have pictures of the highlights! (my highlights anyway)


Full costuming including fabulous headdress...love it!


Lots of bike riding dogs, some even had their own seats on the back. I loved how this one was "leashed up".



Pink flags. 'Nuff said.



The kids got a big kick out of Cone Head.


And it just wouldn't be Durango with out Hula-hoop Lady. Yes, that is her name. And yes, that is her job. She walks around Durango selling the hula-hoops she makes. I guess the upside of being a quasi small town celebrity is you're insured a ride in the motorcycle parade.