Today's Mama Post - Love You Forever

My newest post over at Today's Mama is up this morning!  Talking about my kids showing me some love when I shed a tear over Love You Forever. 

I know some people are weirded out by the smother-mother thing in this book...here, I'm not focused on that.  I talk about the message in general, the compassion and empathy, the love for a child and his love for his parent.

Monday Minute

1 - Aside from your armpits, what body part of yours sweats the most?Weirdly, the back of my knees.  Or if I'm running my forehead starts a mad sweat but let's be honest, that doesn't happen on a very regular basis.  Yoga gets a nice sheen all over.  Now that you know a little too much...moving on.

2 - You have two slices of bread. You can add one additional ingredient to make a sandwich, but as much of it as you want. What are you putting on it?
Cheese.  Nice yummy cheese.  

3 - Can you put your entire fist into your mouth?
No, I can't.  Yeah, I just attempted it. 

4 - Open your email. How many emails do you have in your 'Inbox'?
71.  I've been gone for four days and I'm ignoring it for a little while. 

and finally...

5 - If an adult male is taken for ransom, is that considered kidnapping?
I must admit I went to the good ol' dictionary to check up on it and get my facts straight.  Originally kidnapping quite literally meant stealing children to provide servants and laborers in the American colonies.  Soooo...man-napping? Doesn't quite roll off the tongue...

RemembeRED - Let's Play

My family was big on playing games when I was younger, and even now.  This RemembeRED prompt reminds me immediately of the story my mom tells of her family playing a card game where you hold a lot of cards in hand and my dad couldn't hold them all.  Solution: my grandma made him a card holder out of a plastic lid from a butter container.  Repurpose!  Here's some directions if you ever need to make one!

Some of my favorite memories are of playing games, either with our small family of four or with our larger extended family and friends for special get-togethers and holidays...Uno, SkipBo, Gin Rummy, Phase 10, Hearts, Spades, Scattegories, Trivial Pursuit, Taboo, Mad Gab, and more recently Left, Right, Center.  But Farkle and Spoons were all-time family faves and I have many fond memories of these games in particular.

Farkle:

Oh!  Not so good roll. Christmas 2007
Sister and Brother-in-law

Ohhhhh! Good roll! - Christmas 2007
Madison

And the losers clean - Who's next?
Me and Dad

Farkle was played exclusively at holidays and always immediately following dinner.  The reason?  To determine who would be cleaning up the awesomely huge mess.  Didn't matter whose household had hosted dinner, or who prepared the meal, or that sometimes kids aren't the best cleaners, or that the new boyfriend came to dinner.  No, if you ate the meal, you gambled for a chance at clean-up. 


Spoons:

Spoons -  Christmas 2007

Spoons is a household favorite.  At some point in the game it gets real quiet, the intensity heightens and all that smack-talking dies to a dull roar.  That's when you know everyone is waiting for their one final card to pass in front of them and complete their hand.  Is it best to quietly stick your hand out there and nab your spoon or go all out, say, "haha suckers!", slap your hand down and claim/wrestle that spoon that is rightfully yours?  I don't know!  I've tried both ways and I seem to do too much reacting and flailing before I get to the spoon and give myself away.  Nice and quiet.  Nice and quiet.

Backgammon -Anniversary weekend Sedona 2007

My husband and I play Backgammon and we keep a running score complete with WHERE we were when we played.  We most recently played it this last weekend while we were away on our 9 year wedding anniversary romantic golf getaway.  (I feel like I should capitalize that.  Proper noun, anyone?!!?)  After dinner we sat at a table on an outdoor patio listening to live music wafting to us from inside as we played backgammon.  So nice. 

Upcoming game I'm looking forward to: Frisbee Golf, with a nighttime version to be played as well!  This is a staple at our annual Memorial Day camping trip.  Play on, people! 

This was a post for the RemembeRED prompt: This week, we want you to recall the games you played when you were young. Did you love Monopoly, Yahtzee, or Uno? Or did you prefer backgammon, Trouble, or Scrabble? Write a piece that explores one of your memories. 

Today's Mama Post - Chop! Chop!

Don't forget to take a minute and go read my blog post over at Today's Mama in the Local Perspectives.  In it I talk about cooking with both of my kids and the cooking show I put on for them when I'm doing my thing in the kitchen!  :D  You can hop on over by clicking here.

It's the Monday Minute!

1 - Think back as far as you can, what's the first tape, record, etc. you remember listening to?
I very clearly remember listening to Michael Jackson's Thriller tape on my Walkman in my room.  I definitely do not have a singing voice, so when I later found out my dad heard me belting it out when only I could hear the music in my ears was so embarrassing.  He told me he was wondering what I was doing in there.  Singing, DAD, singing!  ;D

2 - What's the first concert you've ever been to, the year and who performed?
First concert I went to was the "Dirty Dancing Concert" in Phoenix, AZ long, long, ago.  I was pretty young.  Went with my mom, sister and our friends.  It was just a girls trip and I remember it oh-so-well.  We drove to PHX in a VW van, stayed in the Hyatt Regency downtown, threw ice from a couple stories up at a bride and groom getting married in the hotel, I kicked Eric Carmen (Hungry Eyes) in the crotch in the pool, and that's the trip we found out you don't buy chocolate chips at Price Club in Phoenix in the summertime. 

3 - Ever bleed from your ass?
Ewww.  Come on.

4 - If you went to your Senior Prom and had a date, do you still speak to said person?
I did go to my Senior Prom and my date was my longtime boyfriend at the time.  Nope, we don't speak.  Not that I wouldn't speak to him if I saw him walking down the street or something.  My Sr. Prom dress - I still have it.  I love it!     

and finally...

5 - Name the one television show that's no longer on the air that could have gone on forever.
Arrested Development, for sure.  Greatest show ever.  I just told my husband last night that all of our favorites shows that we watch right now are eventually going to end (Modern Family, The Office, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, Happy Endings).  I was kind of in a mood last night.

Final Thought Before Bed

I keep comping back to these two photos.  They were coloring Easter eggs and I just love how the setting sun illuminates their little faces.  *sigh*  Well, J's face is shaded, but I love it all the same.  I have very few pictures where he is still and looking at the camera with his eyes open. 

M

J

  

Week In Review - 5/20/11

I am ending this week early as the hub-man (sorry, that's what you'll see me refer to my darling husband as.  I don't even think HE KNOWS that's what I call him, but I do.  It's a term of endearment.  For sure.) and I are stealing off in the morning after dropping the kidlets at daycare.  We are heading to southern, southern, southern Arizona.  I mean, I'm bringing my passport because we are skimming the border of Mexico.  Anyways, it's a romantic golf getaway in southern Arizona for our 9-year wedding anniversary.  The grandparents are on kid-duty back home (YAY for awesome grandparents, right?) so we are truly worry-free.  I'll wrap up this week, and every week, with my Week in Review on Photobucket.  This is what we've been up to this week.  Since I started this one in the middle of the week, it's a bit short.

Happy Weekend!

I'm Moving In - Pardon the Dust!

I am in the process of moving my blog from WordPress over to Blogger.  Most of the blogs I follow are here and I want to be one with the community.  Ommmmmmmm.  My WordPress blog was fairly new anyways, only about two months old and a handful of posts, so I'm migrating over here.  Give me just a few days and I'll be ready to rumble!

Update:  Well, that didn't take long.  I'm here!  Minus the comments from my old blog. 

Ciao! I'm going to explore.

Can I Call it Work if I Enjoy it so Much?

It has been awhile since I posted anything in the Writing category, so I figured I should do that today.  I mean, ALL of this is writing, right?  So naturally all posts should fall into the Writing category, but whatever, let's not get technical here.

I attended the Professional Writers of Prescott meeting last month where I listened to author Karen Warrick talk about writing and publishing non-fiction.  As soon as I arrived I knew this was a group I needed to join. People from every walk of life were in this huge conference room in the Prescott Library talking about their recent accomplishments, successes and even failures, and celebrating them all.  How refreshing.  I came out of that room completely inspired.  It also gave me a slightly new perspective.  I was focusing so narrowly on doing freelancing work up until that point that I had completely put my personal writing, my dream, on the back burner.  I do not want to be a freelancer only.  Sure, it can bring in (a little) money, but I did not quit my job to be a freelancer.  This means I have to actively carve out "personal writing" time during my day to focus on this important task and it has been successful so far. The next week I filled out the application and paid the membership fee and you can call me a member now.

I also found out that I'll be writing for Today's Mama, a national blog with local submissions from writers and mamas like me!  That will be coming VERY soon, so stay tuned!  I promise, you'll be hearing more about that.  :D

One thing I struggle with:  Can I call it Work if I enjoy my days so much?  Why, yes.  Yes, I can!  Struggle no more, self.

Don't Let the Limes Go Bad!

We love the food co-op Bountiful Baskets (BB from here on out) and order a basket as often as possible.  The thing is, what to do with it all before it goes bad?  It's all about getting creative, baby!  My dilemma tonight was with the limes.  I had four limes that I purchased at the store before last Saturday's BB pickup.  PLUS, I always purchase the "Mexican Pack" whenever it's available at BB and got six or seven key limes in it - down to five here.

I Googled and found a recipe for lime liqueur that sounded pretty tempting and frightfully easy.  I purchased an adorable glass bottle with stopper at World Market.  Color is transparent light green because, hello, doesn't that make sense?  I thought so too!  And so cute.

As suspected, the recipe was too easy for words, with one exception.  It's small and big at the same time.  This bottle of liqueur I've just concocted has to age for ONE MONTH.  Then I sift out all the bits and pieces from the zest and whatnot and put it in a new bottle, cap it and then let it age ONE MORE MONTH!  So I bought two adorable glass bottles.  This is going to be fun!  I'll let you know how it turns out in July.  We'll pop it open for my hubby's birthday!

Being Good to Me

Since I'm about one day away from being another year older (unfortunately, it's not 23) and I had some free time  on my hands tonight I decided to take care of myself a little bit.  I made a promise to yours truly to do a little scrub and shine on a more regular basis, and made it broad-reaching to include total body wellness with things like yoga, vitamins, ohmygodI'mgoingtosaythisontheinternet nighttime eye cream and a mountain of other things.  You know, just being good to me and doing  lots of things that I should have been doing all along.  So I soaked my little footers in the tub, did a salt scrub, exfoliated, dried and moisturized up like never before.  Mmmm, vanilla, my favorite!  Needless to say the pampering was divine.  More of that to come, thank you very much!

By the way, the yoga I'm currently doing is kicking my booty (in the very best way, of course).  I'm using the Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga and also AM & PM Yoga for Beginners.  This one is interesting, and so far I have only used the PM yoga for relaxation right before bed.  Let me tell you, it works!  Relaxed me right to sleep on the floor.  I woke myself up snoring and the credits were rolling!  I don't think that's quite what they had in mind, but at least they do all the floor yoga at the end.  I didn't miss much!  ;)  OK, off to do PM yoga.  Zzzzzzzz.....
Namaste.