lets..doooo..the time warp...agaaaaaain!!

Thanks to my friend Paige, one of my favorite new(ish) workout ideas is...

hula hooping.

Yes, really! After listening to Paige rave - and seeing the videos she posted on Facebook - for an entire summer, I broke down and bought a hoop of my own last October. Now, it's important to note that this isn't a $5 kid's hoop from Toys R Us - this is a handmade, oversized and weighted hoop designed especially for use as a workout tool. (It's also pretty! She uses shiny "mirror" tape in addition to grippy tape to make it fun as well as functional.)

It took me about a week of daily practice before I mastered just spinning the hoop around my waist for more than a couple revolutions. I had the most amazing sets of bruises...all around my knees and calves from dropping the hoop. Once I got that down, though, I pretty quickly mastered "stalling" the hoop - stopping it in mid-spin with my hands - and sending it back the other direction. Wheeeee!

Hoop practice kind of took a backseat over the holidays, but earlier this week I picked it back up again - thankfully I turned out to be not too rusty! I also figured out another trick - how to lift the hoop in mid-spin from around my waist to over my head!! It took me several more tries to figure out how to keep the hoop spinning around my hand, up in the air - the first several attempts I either hooked the hoop with my thumb (nearly dislocating it in the process) or sent the hoop flying through the air across the room (OOPS!). Thank goodness for youtube - there are dozens of hooping tutorials (my favorite are Caroleeena's) and I was able to figure out what I was doing wrong without seriously injuring myself...or my house.

Anyway. I'll leave you with a few of my favorite hooping videos. The first you may have seen before - it was making the rounds in mid-2008 or so, and I love the energy (and the song!). The second is the video that inspired my friend Paige to start hooping - this girl makes it look so easy. I'd love to be that effortless someday! (It also has a kick-ass soundtrack.) Last but not least is a video from a Cirque de Soleil performance that simply blows. me. away. Obviously I never will be that girl, but I can watch this video over and over again.







If you're wondering when you'll see a video of ME demonstrating my mad hoop skillz...you might be in for a long wait. Maybe if I ever learn how to move my feet and spin the hoop at the same time...

Addendum: Paige dropped off a new hoop for me to try this afternoon (it's hot pink and black and silver!!). The diameter is maybe 3 inches smaller than my old hoop, but holy hell - it's like starting over from scratch. So far I can't keep it up more than 4-5 revolutions. It's okay - I'm up for the challenge!

Calm vs. chaos

Although you wouldn't guess it by looking around my house, I consider myself to have an organized soul. I crave order and organization. I'm anal about details like all my clothes facing the same way in the closet or how my dirty dishes are stacked on the counter. Typos or grammatical errors in books jump right off the page and smack me between the eyes. I thrive on structure - once I find a system that works, I stick to it like glue. I load the dishwasher in the same order all the time, I follow specific steps when I pay a bill, I even write out my checks in the same way every time. I think I mentioned the other day that haphazard messes totally stress me out - I would rather fold laundry for an hour (every towel the exact same way, of course) than spend 10 minutes picking up the living room. Let's not even get into how many times I edit my blog posts or how I obsess over my color scheme.

I'm not sure why this is, except that I know my mind is always going a hundred miles an hour - my brain is multitasking even when my hands aren't. Systems help me make sure nothing important gets missed.

Of course, there are areas of my life that don't have really good systems yet, and as you might imagine they drive me more than a little crazy. Example: the other day I posted a picture of my shiny clean kitchen, which I was super proud of. What I didn't show you was this....


(Seriously, I cringe just looking at this picture. I must do an amazing job of mentally blocking it out day after day. ) This space is basically a catch-all for stuff that belongs in the kitchen (and quite a bit of stuff that doesn't) but doesn't have a proper "home." Tupperware strewn everywhere, eight bazillion paper grocery bags (we use them for recycling, but have way too many), a jug of bubbles, a horse show award from 2007, and God knows what else. As you can see, even the window ledge is cluttered with "stuff." This space drives me crazy. If we were in a position to do any home improvements, one of my top priorities would be ripping out this counter and filling that space with floor-to-ceiling cabinets. That's not gonna happen any time soon, so instead I restack the tupperware more or less weekly, rearrange the pen cups (how hard is it to remember that whiteboard markers go in this cup and regular pens in that cup?!), and throw stuff away when no one is looking (those bubbles are next!).

One of the reasons I like going to work everyday (well, most days) is that my office is 180 degrees from that counter space:


(Ahhhhh. Pretty, isn't it? I can literally feel my blood pressure going back down. ) Everything has a specific home, right down to the white-out tape and the separate containers for big and little paperclips. Even though 90% of the time I'm in the office alone, my workday has a pretty consistent routine as well. My boss and I share a page-a-day calendar, and everything I need to get done on a given day, the boss writes on the calendar, and I check them off as I do them so she knows they got done. Mostly this is stuff like which bill(s) to pay on a given day, but it's also reminders to send e-mails or pick up the timesheets or call in payroll. If there's stuff that I need her to do before I get in the next morning, I write it on the calendar. I would love to have that level of organization in every part of my life.

...

Okay, that was an interesting tangent....back to home. Just recently Levi has offered to take over 100% of the money management in our house, and although giving up control is kind of hard for me, it's also a huge weight off my shoulders. We both knew I wasn't very good at it (more on that another time - maybe), and it was creating undue stress for both of us. One of the reasons I became in charge of dishes-and-laundry was because those were the tasks I agreed to take on in exchange for letting (making?) Levi take over the bookkeeping. And I'm pleased to realize that those responsibilities are becoming a more natural part of my routine, as well.

Uh....this post is getting stupid long, and I don't really know how to wrap it up. So tell me: do you need structure and organization in your life, or do you thrive on chaos? How do you deal?

I love my low-maintenance horse

This is one of those random posts that have nothing to do with anything, except that it's what my stream of consciousness came up with, today.

Some horses are super-high-maintenance, with special food and supplements and shoeing needs, blah blah blah. Here are a handful of reasons why I love my low-maintenance beast...

1. He hates mud. Which means he never, EVER rolls in the mud. If you'll recall, he's about 50% white, so this is a good. good. thing.
   
2. No special feed. No low carb, no "ration balancers" (I don't even know what that is), no sensitive system, no magic potions to give him strong feet or shiny hair or bigger muscles or help his allergies (yes, horses get allergies, too). Grain, hay. Water. Done.
   
3. He has GREAT feet. We tried putting shoes on him, he lost them in the pasture (don't ask how, I don't even know). We put special boots on to help stop this, he rips those off with his teeth. So we throw up our hands and let him run around barefoot, and everyone is happy.
4. No blankets. Horse grows a TON of hair in the winter, so we only put a blanket on him if the weather is going to be VERY cold, or if there's icy rainy snow crap expected. Blankets are a plaything to him, and if he had to wear one all the time, my repair bills would be sky-high.
5. I thought I had one more, but I can't think of it, so I guess that's it for the moment.

Twinks is really lucky he's got these things going for him, because 90% of the time he's such a wiseass, I wonder why I put up with him. Oh, it also helps that he's pretty.

Housekeeping Spaz strikes again

A couple days ago, I put a load of clothes in the wash and then, wonder of wonders, remembered to move them over to the dryer before I went to bed! (Might have had something to do with the fact that there was a pair of jeans in there that I wanted to wear the next day). But when I went to get said jeans the next morning, all the clothes were still damp. Oh, shit, I thought. Did I put the clothes in the dryer and forget to start it!? But no, they only somewhat damp, not straight-out-of-the-washer soaked, and I knew I remembered hearing the clothes thunking around. Great, was my next thought, I broke the damn dryer. I am the best housekeeper EVER. So I asked Levi to take a look and see if he could figure out what was wrong. And he did.

And I learned that a full lint screen will prevent your clothes from drying properly. Who knew?

On a slightly more positive note, I got a motivation bug up my butt and scrubbed the kitchen today! Emptied the dishwasher, reloaded and started it, neatly stacked what wouldn't fit in the first load, wiped down the counters (scrubbed, in some places), even shined my sink. This is the only Flylady lesson that has ever stuck with me, and I admit I do get a little buzz at the sight of a sparkling clean kitchen sink.

It's one of my domestic-goddess quirks: the thought of picking up a bedroom full of toys all over the floor makes me hyperventilate, and I suck at remembering details like cleaning the lint screen on the dryer, but I love cleaning my kitchen.

Bobbi Jo's Hope

Last fall, my sister lost her best friend and partner, Gabe.

Britt and Gabe competed together for 6 years, and had their eye on the Rolex 3-Day Event in a couple more years, a competition that is on par with the Olympics to the equestrian community. A few years ago, Gabe was diagnosed with a progressive autoimmune disorder, and late last fall it reached the point where it couldn't be controlled with medication, so she and my mom made the heartbreaking decision to have him put to sleep.

My sister was devastated, of course, but life goes on. She began searching for a new horse, taking weekend trips out of state to Wisconsin, Missouri - she even flew out to Portland, OR, to look at a horse recommended by an old trainer of hers who had relocated to that area. Her requirements were stringent - her new horse needed to be young, tall, male, and have both the aptitude and attitude for upper-level Eventing.

Enter Bobbi Jo's Hope*. After looking at close to a thousand horses online and trying out several with no luck (the Portland horse was everything she was looking for, but didn't pass his prepurchase vet exam), no one expected to her find the perfect horse right in our own backyard. Late last week, my mom was skimming a local equestrian message board for any newly posted horses for sale, when she came across a message that caught her eye:

I am posting this for the MN Hooved Animal Rescue

MN Hooved Animal Rescue desperately needs foster care or adoption for a sweet, athletic 5 year old OTTB mare. She has been successfully raced in the past and is believed to be sound.

Bobbi Joe's Hope is a 16.1-16.2 h mare who has a very nice temperment. She has been Coggins tested, she is thin but healthy, and she is ready to have a new job. She is from a recent humane case and the rescue doesn't have room to bring her home from the vet. She has been recuperating from being starved.

Hope is missing her left eye, but she hasn't had it since she was very young. She was born with a problem in that eye, and she isn't spooky about not having it. She was able to race well and be ridden nicely without it.

Please contact the MN Hooved Animal Rescue ASAP if you are interested.

763-856-3119

info@...

I'm sure my mom must have passed over a dozen similar posts in the past, but for some reason this one made her pause and pick up the phone. MNHAR was able to give her some additional details on the mare, including one that literally gave her chills - "Hope" and Gabe shared a grandfather. Mom and Britt made arrangements to go see her on Monday, figuring if nothing else, they could foster her for a month while the Rescue worked on finding a more permanent arrangement.

Much to everyone's surprise, I think, the connection between Britt and the mare - this mistreated, skin and bones, one-eyed mare - was instant. It may have had something to do with the fact that the horse had similar markings to Gabe's, or that she put her head on Britt's chest the same way Gabe did when they had first met. Or maybe, it was just meant to be. My mom, my sister and I all believe that things happen in life for a reason, even if you don't know what that reason is right away, so...it was almost as if the universe were waving a big flag saying, "Please, she needs you." And so they put her in the trailer.

Welcome home, Bobbi Jo's Hope! (Who, by the way, promptly had her name changed to Lady Estora de Coutre, or "Tora" around the barn.)

*no pictures of her available, yet - Britt hasn't posted any online for me to steal, and in any case her present condition would probably make you cry.

*disclaimer: some minor details edited for dramatic effect. Namely, they didn't pop her straight in the trailer - they went back to get her the next day. Also, the decision whether to KEEP-keep her isn't final yet. But she really does have only one eye.

Can't stop touching myself

Don't give me that look! I tried a new soap yesterday, that's all.

My friend Jill at Bluebonnet Trails sent me a sample-size chunk of a new citrus soap she's working on. I've been a bodywash-and-poof-and-lotion (especially in the winter) girl for years and years, but recently Jill has been educating me on what makes her homemade soap different from the mass produced chemically business I've been using - and convincing me that with regular use, my lotion bill would go down, too. So when this random chunk of soap showed up in my mailbox, how could I not try it?

So I grabbed the soap and hopped in the shower. First observation: bar soap is slippery! Duh, right? Considering that I evaluate bottle grippyness as a major factor right up there with scent when picking out a new body wash, this was important to me. I applied the soap with my regular body poof, but a washcloth would work just as well - OR, I may try and search out some sort of net or fabric baggie to put the soap in (similar to toddler soap), to both make it easier to hang on to and to eliminate the apply-to-poof step.

(Hint hint, JILL.)

Observation 2: What the hell is this stuff doing to my skin? As whatever parts of my body that weren't directly under the shower spray started to air dry, my skin started to feel almost...tacky. I thought maybe the soap was leaving some sort of film, or hadn't rinsed clean. Then I realized it was actually the exact opposite: my skin was exfoliated(!) and literally squeaky clean.

After shampooing with my beloved overpriced Aveda Scalp Therapy (I wasn't quite brave enough to try the soap bar on my hair, although Jill says you certainly can!) but before exiting the shower, I decided to give the soap a different, but equally rigorous test - I used it on my face. Expensive shampoo, expensive cleanser and moisturizer - those are my personal care indulgences. I always, always, always wash and moisturize my face first thing when I get out of the shower, because otherwise the tight, dry, itchiness of wet-then-dry skin drives me insane. A few minutes after I got out of the shower I did slap a thin layer of moisturizer just on my face, but in retrospect I don't think it would've been necessary.

Observation the Third: Oh. My. God. After about 5 minutes, I ran my hand down my arm just to see how it felt after it was fully dry...my skin felt like silk. I couldn't believe how smooth it was! And if you've ever gotten dressed immediately after putting on body lotion, you know that sort of hyper-awareness of hydrated skin against the inside of your clothes? I had that, too, even though I hadn't so much as looked at my lotion bottle. Now, 18-ish hours later, my limbs are starting to look a little more like their usual winter selves - dry and scaly - but much less than usual and they don't itch, so that's a plus. I may slap a layer of lotion on immediately post shower next time, to see if that helps extend the soft-skin feeling. I can tell my skin is already on the road to recovery, but Jill even warned me that I would start needing less and less lotion, not be able to go cold turkey. It is winter in Minnesota, after all.

Bottom line: Love it. LOVE IT. I'm a convert - no more crappy body wash for me. I'm also SUPER excited to try Jill's Shea and Cocoa Butter Soap, which is designed specifically for folks with really dry skin (like me!)...and I heard a rumor she's working on a true shampoo bar. My Aveda bottle is almost empty, so I might have to give that one a try, too.

(Almost) perfect weekend

Levi just found out that one of the cast from the community play he was in this summer, passed away unexpectedly. Please say a little prayer for her family, and for Levi and the rest of the 4CT theatre family.

Perfect weekend

Title says it all, really! This weekend has been just about perfect. The weather was lovely - 30s and up during the day, 20ish at night.

Saturday I vegged around the house some, and went to a 3:30 yoga class at Yoga Center of Minneapolis. The class I took was called Vinyasa 1/2, and the description reads:

Sweat, breathe, go with the flow! This fun, flowing class combines postures and sequences from various styles of yoga. With a dynamic flowing sequence of yoga postures linking breath and movement, you'll cultivate awareness while building core strength and flexibility.

It was *hard* work! At my previous studio, we primarily studied the poses individually and didn't put as much focus on linking them together in a "flow." It took me a good 20 minutes into the class before I found my rhythm. Overall, though, it was excellent. I would definitely like to go back! It's far enough away (and at $16/class, pricey enough) that I'm can't commit to a weekly class, but I think I'm going to try to fit something in once a month or so.

After yoga, I cleaned up and headed out to the Year End Awards Banquet for CSDEA - the Central States Dressage and Eventing Association. Considering that we just started our Dressage training last spring and didn't show at ALL in 2009, Twinks and I weren't up for any awards (maybe next year!) but it's a fun event with lots of face time with other members (my mom/boss is on the board of directors, and part of my job is "volunteering" to handle the advertising for the member magazine and the annual calendar/member directory). There's also a silent auction, a live band, a buffet dinner and hey - my mom/boss paid for my ticket, so why not? ;o)

And TODAY - what a perfect Sunday. Levi made French toast for breakfast, then we all got our lucky Vikings gear on and we went over to my mom's house, watched my boys in purple whoop up on the Cowgirls, and had tacos for lunch/dinner. Now I'm home, my VERY tired little boy is already asleep in bed, and I have the rest of the evening to veg/read/watch TV/blog/talk smack to my Cowboys-fan friends on Facebook.

The ones that haven't un-Friend-ed me yet, that is.

$50

(No pictures in this post, sorry. It was bound to happen one of these days! I suppose I could've dressed it up with generic "dollar" and "lightbulb" and "confused expression" images off the Internet, but...meh.)

One of Levi's and my joint goals for 2010 is to take a tighter rein on our finances...not necessarily cutting back, but becoming more cognizant of where our money is going. Our budget still needs fine tuning, but at the moment we've earmarked $50 apiece in "play" money out of this last paycheck. This is separate from money for dinners out, movies, etc. - this is our own personal spending money to do with as we wish. I'm sure this is like "DUH" to a lot of people, but it's kind of a lightbulb moment for us (or me, anyway), so roll with me...or Back button, whatever.

So anyway. Now I've got this $50 in my pocket - literally, I have $50 cash in my pocket - and I'm considering all the things I could do with it.

• I could buy a bunch of new paperbacks
• I could buy 50 cans of pop, one at a time (not likely - even I don't drink 4 cans of pop a day...at least not every day)
• I could buy something cute to wear - a whole outfit if I shop frugally enough
  
• I could treat myself to pizza lunch a couple of times, or McD's a bunch of times
  
• I could hoard it for my [insert expensive item here] fund.

Truth be told, I will probably end up splitting the money between most of these things. But how? It seems so elementary, but for me it's actually kind of a paradigm shift (thank you Steven Covey) to consider what I want to spend my money on in advance, instead of wondering where it all went. For example...

One of the things on my wish list is a Kindle...$259. At $50/check, it could be mine-all-mine in less than three months! But tempting as that is, I'm not going to stash the *entire* $50 away every time - either I would end up being cranky because I don't have any fun money for weeks on end, or I'd steal it from myself, and that's both guilt-inducing and setting up a bad precedent.

So I definitely know I want to save some and spend some. But how much? I've never really kept track of how much money I spend on things like gas station snacks, fast food drive thru, throwing a new book in the shopping cart at Target. But I've got to start somewhere, right? So for this week (two weeks, technically) I'm going to put half aside for my [fill in the blank] fund, and see how far I can stretch the other half. If I make it the full two weeks with some left over - woo hoo! Then I'll have a whole new slew of options - add the leftover to my fund, roll it over to the next pay period, spend it on a mini-splurge and start the next week off at $0 again. If I don't make it the full two weeks...I'll survive, and I'll have a better idea of what I need to do differently next week.

Hey, this money management thing is kind of interesting.

Now, this is all still a work in progress. Take "buy myself something cute"...Levi and I haven't nailed down certain details, like is there a clothing allowance ("line item" in accountant speak) in our new-and-improved household budget, for replacing things like worn-out jeans, or does that come out of our personal spending? Or buying snacks - oftentimes if I pick up a pop for myself, I'll grab one for Levi as well, and vice versa, and I don't want the concept of "personal spending money" to turn us into selfish jerks - "I didn't get you one because it came out of MY money," or nickel and dime our relationship to death ("you owe me a dollar and 63 cents!").

Hey, this money management thing is kind of tricky.

Anyway, that's that. I've been mulling this over for a few days now - ever since Levi and I first discussed the cash allowance idea - and I think it has helped a lot to get it down in writing.

A horse is a horse, of course, of course.

Today's post is all about my horsie! So if you're not interested, you can click the Back button now, no harm, no foul.

First up: I rode today!! Actually, I rode last night, too, but it was kind of half-assed because there were jumping lessons going on, as well as a bunch of other people riding so it was crowded and chaotic, and T was too busy being pissy about that to get any real work done.

So anyway. I rode today!! And, unlike last night, the boy was SO GOOD. I let my sister Britt boss us around (I get so much more done when I have someone watching from the ground and telling me what to do!) and we worked on stretching through his whole back at the walk, and then on his trot transitions.

(Okay, quick lesson for y'all, because otherwise this post will be totally pictureless, and how boring is that? Anway. T's original training was in Saddleseat, which looks like this:


And now we've switched gears to Dressage, which looks like this.

Disclaimer: Neither of those pictures is me or my horse.

Notice how the first horse picks his feet and knees up while the second one reaches forward. Same with their heads. I apologize if I'm dumbing this down TOO much.)

Anyway. We worked on the trot transitions, and finally figured out how to get him to sort of roll into the trot, instead of feeling like he has to shoot forward at 90 miles an hour the way he was originally trained to do. It was quite lovely once we got it worked out! We did just a touch of overbending and counterbending because he is SO tense in his left jaw, neck and shoulder, but mostly it was walk, get relaxed, tense up, get relaxed, cue trot, tense up, walk, get relaxed, cue trot - good boy! for 45 minutes.

Best of all, I think my Saddle Search Saga is finally at an end. I think I've finally found a saddle-and-pad combination that's going to work for us for a while. (You all should be glad I didn't have a blog earlier this fall/winter while that was all going on, trust me. It would've been Bitching About The Saddle, day and night. Yawn.)

Edit: OH!! How could I have forgotten? MY HALF CHAPS CAME TODAY! Before any of y'all start getting the wrong idea, THESE are my half chaps:
They are basically....leather leg warmers that you wear over short boots, instead of wearing tall riding boots. Why would someone do this, you ask? Why not just wear tall boots? Because a quality pair of tall boots is going to run you $3-500, more if you have to have them custom made like I would due to my freakishly large calves. Half chaps generally run $40-80. Mine were $90, again because I had to track them down in "plus size."

ANYWAY. They came today, and I am IN. LOVE. The leather is gorgeous and the construction is superior. Unfortunately, they are too big and I'm going to have to exchange them. Now, I know I can't complain too much about having to go down a size, but it means it'll be another two weeks before I can actually ride in them. Woe is me. ;o)

Gadget prOn: Pineapple corer

Finally got a chance to test-drive the pineapple-coring gadget we picked up at the grocery store last week. I think the pictures speak for themselves:

IT WORKS!!!!

I'm inordinately pleased about this. First of all, I love fresh pineapple, but am always torn between buying whole and dealing with hacking it up, or spending double to get the pre-sliced or chunked. Second of all...I didn't really expect it to work this perfectly. The pineapple we bought was small enough that I didn't expect the cutting part to actually stay inside the bounds of the shell - but it did! My only letdown is that I'm not left with a perfectly pineapple-shaped bowl to drink margaritas out of, or something. Maybe if I start with a bigger pineapple next time....

*Much thanks to Levi for being my hand model while I snapped pictures. <3>

Namaste

Last night I commented to Levi that I wasn't really "feeling" the family gathering planned for Saturday at his mom's house (sorry Shannon, if you're reading this!) and he sweetly offered to take the kids and let me have the day to myself. I said that sounded nice, even though - just between you and me - I didn't really know what I would do with an entire afternoon to myself. Usually I'd go window shop at Ridgedale or park myself at Borders and read books I don't intend to buy, but I often end up spending more money than I intend to and/or (mostly "and") coming home feeling vaguely dissatisfied with my day because I didn't really accomplish anything.

So this morning while I was cleaning stalls (one of these days I'll get around to explaining the bizarreness that is my job description), I was trying to think of things to do with my afternoon "off", and I finally hit on something: I'm going to find a yoga class!

I adore yoga. I don't remember how I got started, exactly - I think one day a few years ago I just got an itch and started looking around for classes. I took classes at a wonderful little studio near my house, off and on, for over two years. Nothing else on this earth, except possibly horseback riding, leaves me with that same feeling of strength and openness and wonderful exhaustion. A lot of people who've never tried yoga tend to think it's about relaxing, even being lazy. Relaxing, maybe, but lazy? HA! I, personally, prefer to work my ass off. It's not just enough to strike a pose (ha ha), I'm always pushing deeper into the pose, striving to be more correct, working at the edge of my ability. I've only experienced "runner's high" once and I nearly had to kill myself to do it, but holding Warrior II for a full minute leaves me positively euphoric.

Sadly for me, I don't quite get the same vibe from following along to a DVD as I do in a studio setting, so I only practice sporadically these days. I would love to figure out how to fit in a regular class, but for now, I'm going to find the perfect class (or two?) for Saturday, and enjoy the hell out of it.

Until next time...Namaste.

Roll Call

I hold no delusions that anyone who doesn't already know me and my family will ever read this blog, but just in case, here's a quick overview of the major players.


First of all....me! AKA Fiona. Complete with face paint from the Renaissance Festival last fall. (One of those random skills I'd love to learn.)







My beloved, Levi. We've been together almost 12 years, married 9(?) years this coming September. He fantasizes about being a 1950's housewife (minus the heels and pearls).







Brianna, age 9. She of the amazing hair. An artist's soul and sensibilities and, fortunately, talent.









Josh, age 2. Needs a haircut desperately. Completely different kid than his big sister (I'm sure I'll have a chance to elaborate on this in a future post).







Tika (top) and Harrison (bottom). I don't know if our cats count as "major players" but they're adorable and completely neurotic and we love them.








And last but not least, Twinkie! Twinks, Twinkletoes, Twinkerbell. My four-legged baby. His beauty and talent take my breath away. (Somebody remind me to post a picture of what he looks like mid-winter. It's a laugh riot.)

Random...redux

...my daughter has gorgeous hair - when she (read: we) takes care of it. I've had to do massive detangling twice this week, and in an effort to avoid having to do that again any time soon, spent 15 minutes this afternoon re-teaching her how to wash and condition (and RINSE, that's the biggie) it properly. I've also discovered a deep and abiding love for the original Johnson & Johnson's No More Tangles.

...I'm apparently a household management spaz. As a result of some marital negotiating, I've recently (as in, within the last week or so) taken over responsibility for doing the laundry and running the dishwasher. These really are two pretty simple tasks - 15 minutes or less of effort followed by an hour or so of waiting for the magic cleaning machines to do their stuff, followed by another 15 minutes of effort. Still, I'm struggling with developing a rhythm, a routine, a habit around these two small jobs. I'll diligently start a load of wash, and then it's out-of-sight-out-of-mind for three hours, even though the cycle takes all of 23 (or so) minutes. At least the dryer has a buzzer, and the dishwasher little lights that tell me when the dishes are clean, that I can see from my usual perch on couch. Not that I necessarily jump up at either of those signals...in fact, both the dishwasher and the dryer are waiting for my attention, and there's a load of clothes in the washer that MUST get moved over before bed. Nothing grosser than a load of wet clothes that's been sitting for 10+ hours. Blugh. In fact....I'll be right back. ;o)

...another awesome find from last weekend's grocery trip: these kick-ass Slimline beverage pitchers! I actually stumbled over one of these a year or more ago, and LOVED it, but promptly forgot where I found it. Our original model started to die recently - the top lid wouldn't screw on securely, so you could no longer shake the pitcher to mix the contents, and it's admittedly difficult to wash so it was just looking generally grody - so I've been on the lookout everywhere that sells kitchen stuff - Target, Walmart, even searching online. No luck. Lo and behold, apparently I found the first one at Cub Foods, because there they were again. We picked up two, one for koolaid and one for regular juice. The two next to each other take up about the same amount of space as two regular pouring pitchers, but they hold more and you don't have to take out whichever one is in front to get to the pitcher in back (and then hope you remember to put them both back). I am a happy camper!

...Fun fact: I just edited this post FOUR times within 2 minutes of posting it. I write, I post, I read, I tweak. It's a sickness.

hate!

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the weather was crap today. The thermometer read a balmy 8 degrees, but it was so damp that it felt like 10 below - before you factored in the gusting 15-20 mph winds and icy sleety business. Gross. So, so gross. I spent 4 hours mumbling "hate, hate, hate" under my breath. Hate stupid winter, hate this particularly awful weather, hate this stupid state.

Comforter hunt update! I really, really couldn't justify spending $70 (before shipping) on a kid's blanket, even an adorable one, so I started searching around for an alternative. Lo and behold, I found that EXACT comforter (okay, not with the cool corners) under a different brand name at sears.com. On clearance, even! They only had the full size, not the twin, but I figure I can just tuck the extra under the mattress on the wall side of the bed - so I snatched it up. I paid? $11.49! ELEVEN DOLLARS. I'm so stoked, and the J man is thrilled, too. Now to unearth the bed itself from the bowels of the garage. Maybe next week...we're supposed to have a heat wave. Mid-20s, baby! Practically summer. Where'd I pack away my shorts?

What else? Oh. Brianna cracked me up this evening. Look at what she did to her hair:
The other side is even crazier, but I couldn't get a good picture. Now, note the blue and yellow decoration at the top of the ponytail. Here's a better look at it:
It's a teeny tiny tiara, complete with precious gemstone, made out of pipe cleaners, which she is using as a ponytail holder. Who thinks of these things? Only my daughter.

So much random

...Yesterday we went grocery shopping. Next to the (whole) pineapples in the produce section, there was a gizmo that's supposed to core and spiral-cut your pineapple, leaving the entire outside (except the top, which you have to hack off first) intact. We bought it, and a pineapple, just to see if it works. Product testing to follow - I will try and remember to take pictures.

...my Christmas tree is still standing in the living room, 80% undecorated. It's starting to annoy me, but the thought of unpacking all the ornaments that are already put away to make room for the ones still on the tree annoys me more. For now.

...I have had this song stuck in my head for two days.



Thank you, Britt and Jody.

I bleed purple!

Go Vikes!!

Holy eff, it's cold!

I was thinking about asking my mom to babysit today so that I could ride the pony, since I haven't had time in about a week, but it's -20 out right now, and the high is supposed to be -2. Fuhggedaboudit. Zero degrees above zero is my cutoff! Maybe tomorrow - the high is supposed to be 7 above, woo!

Yesterday, I finally learned how to correctly fold a fitted sheet. (Thanks, YouTube!) Our linen closet (if you can call it that - it's one shelf in the hall cabinet), was so jammed I couldn't fit one single solitary additional dishcloth in there. And I had a friggin queen-size sheet to put away! so I yanked EVERYTHING out, refolded it all (thanks, YouTube!) and put back ONLY what we're actually using on the beds these days. Which was less than half of what I pulled out. Everything else went into a box labeled (in my head) "Why the hell is this stuff taking up space in my house?" I foresee a garage sale in my near (like, 4 or 5 months from now, when it's no longer 20 below) future.

Before (halfway through, actually) and after:













OH: Update on the bedding dilemma from yesterday. The more I studied them, the more I liked the pirates, and when I showed Levi, he liked the pirates better, too. And to seal the deal, J was looking over my shoulder and shrieked "Dat MY bed!!!" which had Levi and I rolling on the floor lauging. So I guess, pirates, it is. PLUS, although the thought of paying $70 for a blanket kind of kills me, I found out that you can also get the comforter in this style:



That's right, shaped corners to (theoretically) make the comforter lay nicely on the bed all the time. I'm in love. Now to try and find one somewhere cheap. Or cheapER, anyway.

It's not easy being green

Happy 2010!

Random activity of the day: online window shopping for bedding, for Josh's eventual big-boy bed. Josh got a sage green blanket for Christmas, and his bed frame (in storage) is pale blond wood, so I'd *like* something that will coordinate with those.

So many options! Star Wars, Spongebob, Sesame Street...trucks, dinosaurs, space, robots, fish, jungles. Even John Deere-themed sheets!

At the moment, I'm having a love affair with both this:

and this:

Safari animals vs. pirates...how will I ever decide?