Life is a Beach.

A super long time ago, I wrote this post which had a bit of a game. And I promised the answer. But then, we had this huge flood, then Christmas happened, and you know.... there was LIFE.

So, if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, go back to that post, then come and watch this video for the answer. The answer is in the first few seconds, with just some random cuteness after wards.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas! See you soon!

And on a happier note.

We're trying to "pick up the pieces" so to speak after the flood damage. Turns out our crawl space has some water damage , which is being assessed soon.


But, on a happier note: there's nothing like retail therapy to brighten your mood!



So, with money my father sent me for Christmas, I went out and bought new bedding for our new bed.
Isn't it beautiful?!?!?! Now, as Armondo says, we just "need a nice room to go around the bed!" (and headboard, and new curtains)

Which brings us to moving... once again. We're going to try to sell our house again, super cheap this time, and we're going to try to move "up North" in the spring. We just don't want to invest any more money into this place, so we're outta here ASAP.

Ok, so every time I go out and spend money on something to decorate, I feel a little insecure about how Armondo feels about it. So, I had to MAKE SURE that he liked it. He convinced me when I asked "Are you SURE you like it?" and his response was "What's NOT to like?!"

Good boy!

We're fine.

We got evacuated for 24 hours. We slept at a friend's house. And this is what we came home to:







To be honest, the yard isn't that much worse than it was before. But our garden planters need to be moved back into place, and there's garbage to be cleaned up here and there.

The water didn't actually get into our house, but our crawl space is full, and the shed filled up.

Overall, we got off pretty easily. We're thankful for that.

Just a little shaken.

40 days, and 40 nights?

I'll post the answer to the last post by posting a video, but right now I have some more pressing matters to discuss at this late hour.

Or is it an EARLY hour?

Anyway, it's almost 3 am, and I'm wide awake. Why? You ask?




Well, maybe it's because during the day on the 2nd, my yard looked like this:
And, about an hour or so ago, I took these photos of my front yard:

(That's our planter box floating away. Same planter box that Cherry is playing next to in the second photo.)



Our yard is flooded, and so are all of our neighbours'. All around us, we can hear people starting up their vehicles and either leaving the area all together, or are just parking them at higher elevations.

We packed up our van with supplies and have it parked up on the road, which is close to being flooded, but still safe. We're ready to leave at a moment's notice.

We packed snacks, water, valuables, and the girls' Christmas presents. We plan on taking Annie (the dog) and if the cats co-operate, we'll take them too, though I'm guessing they might just have to figure out how to survive on their own in the house. I can't see myself carrying them over the LAKE in our front yard in order to get them to the van. We have cat food in the van just in case we ARE able to wrangle them though.

The good news is that our house is practically on stilts. We have a very high crawl space, so there's lots of room for the water to collect before our actual house floods.

The bad news, is that even if this is the worst it's going to get, we have a HUGE clean up job to tackle. Our (empty) oil tank has fallen over, our gardens have been torn apart, our recycling got tipped over and there are empty cans and bottles floating all around, etc.

Should be a fun few days ahead!

A Little Game.

Can you guess where we were this last weekend?It was a warm, sunny day.

You might recognise that pier. And just beyond it is Point Roberts. (Too cloudy to see in this picture.)

Hard to believe that this was a day in late November! (and that it snowed the next day!)

The town is pretty much famous for the beach.

You can see Washington State if you look in the same direction Cherry is looking.

The houses in the background generally sell for around a million dollars or more.

Those yellow benches were placed there in '86 as a tribute to Expo.


Ok, if you haven't figured it out by now, the next photo should give it away.

Any Guesses?

Know what's funny?

Celine Dion playing air guitar while performing on "Dancing with the Stars".

Just sayin'

My Extreme Makeover Dream

The other night, Armondo and I were watching some show about celebrity nips and tucks, and we got into a discussion about what we would do if there were no health risks, and money wasn't an issue. In other words, if we could wave a magic wand.

If you care to know everything I would do, click on the image below to take you to my Flickr account where you can read all the notes.

Boring.

I haven't written the past couple of days because I've been in a lot of pain. My back hurt from the adjustment last Tuesday, and separate from that, I got into a major emotional rut.

I'm feeling a bit better now. But I'm still feeling a little "off".

The milk thing is going ok, I guess. I sort of "crave" it, and that's been a bit of a struggle, but finding food to eat is easy enough. I haven't found a milk alternative to DRINK yet, but rice milk tastes fine on my cereal. Cherry is drinking all the milk alternatives without noticing that they're any different. I haven't really noticed any physical or physiological differenced yet.

Oh man, I don't really feel like writing. I'm done for now.

Got Milk?

Today I went to the chiropractor for the first time. I've been hesitant to do this before due to the price of it and because I wasn't sure if I should go to a chiropractor, a podiatrist, or a massage therapist. Finally, the pain in my back got so bad that I just decided to start at the chiropractor. No, I didn't really do any research or anything to back my decision, I just looked up the chiropractor in the phone book and thought I'd take my chances.

Well, it was a very interesting experience. Here, in note form are some of the highlights...

~The doc said I was "too messed up for my age."

~He also explained that my pelvis is twisted, and that would explain why I had a difficult delivery with Cherry, and why both babies found it hard to "drop".

~Said I would need orthopedics, but should do some chiropractic work first, because back work can change foot shape, and orthopedics can shift my back, so I should wait until part way through my back work to get my feet worked on.

~He fondled my butt. I have not had a man other than my husband fondle my ass in a LOT of years. It wasn't nearly as exciting as I wish it could have been.

~I almost fainted after he cracked my back. It felt like I was drunk. And it hurt like a son of a gun. And still hurts now. But apparently it has to get worse before it gets better, or something.

~The doc giggled when I explained what was wrong and I used jargon such as "My muscles on the right side are compensating for the slipped disk." He asked me what I did for a living, and I answered "Uhh. I'm a mom." to which he laughed and said he was impressed with my knowledge of the jargon.

~And, completely unrelated to chiropractics, the doc seems to think that I have a milk allergy! He saw my "rash" on the back of my arms and the circles under my eyes, and using those as indicators, he asked a bunch of other questions, and my answers all lead to the conclusion that I must have a milk allergy. And Cherry might too.

~So, now Armondo has gone crazy looking up dairy free recipes for us. What a sweet heart!

~And I've been so close to tears all day. I love milk. So much. No more Alfredo sauce. No more whip cream. No more milk on my cereal.

~BUT! If I AM allergic to milk, and stopping my consumption fixes all of my problems, I should lose weight, my bowels should get better, my arm rash should go away, my eczema should get cleared up, the circles under my eyes should lighten and I should have more energy. Sounds like a miracle cure.

I'll let you know!

Christmas in November.

Remembrance Day is now over, so bring on the Christmas!

Usually we wait until Dec first to decorate, but this year we're doing it early. The Americans usually wait until after their Thanksgiving, and we decided to wait until after our November holiday.

The reason why we're doing it earlier than usual is because we have no idea when Armondo is going to ship out again, and heaven forbid I decorate AFTER Dec 1st! (We keep the decorations in the spider infested crawl space and there's no way I'm going down there by myself to drag them all out, which is why Armondo's presence is required.)

I LOVE Christmas, and I'm stoked we're starting early. We put up the tree today, but have yet to decorate it. I'm sure we'll work on that tomorrow.

Some may say it's too early, but why? Since the time change, it's been getting so dark here so early, and dare I say that the weather has been a little drab? Why not lighten and brighten things up a little by adding some holiday sparkle? And now that we're living in the days of fake trees, there's no reason to wait until late Dec anymore!

Who's with me?

Anyone?

Girl Crush

I can't help it. They're just too cute.

My newest crush is Chelsea Handler, aka Chelsea Lately.

Why do I heart her?

~She's super hot.
~She's hilarious. (Watch her show weeknights on E!)
~She pokes fun at herself all the time. I love self deprecating humour.



My other new crush, Hayden Panettiere.

Why do I heart her?
~She's cute as a button.
~She is one of the hottest young female stars in Hollywood, yet she stays out of trouble, and never talks about other stars when the pap is baiting her.
~She makes sweats and sport bras look super hot.

I've Got a Secret!

Cherry was pulling a hunger strike last week at dinner time. This of course, is a completely normal toddler thing, but like all parents of two year olds before us, we were just as frustrated!

But we found the solution, and I pass it on to you!

In order to get your (my) toddler to eat, you must get her to HELP you cook the dinner!!

Now, if Cherry "helps" to make dinner, she's guaranteed to eat a whole plate worth! Even if it just means she puts the noodles in the pot, or washes the potatoes, as long as she thinks she helped make dinner, she'll eat a whole bunch of it!

And that, my friends is our new secret!

Oh What Comes Out of a Babe's Mouth.

Bathing Cherry...

I'm washing her face, and she starts fussing and wriggling away from me.

I say: "Oh stop it! It's not like you're going to die!"

Cherry says: "I dying mom! I dying!"

Princesses and PJ's

Oh, I love having girls!

Armondo is gone this evening, so the girls and I watched princess movies together in our new, big, comfy bed. Then, I put Peach to bed at regular time, and Cherry and I got to cuddle together and eat popcorn while watching the Little Mermaid.

If my kids were boys, I guess we could have done the same thing, but what would we watch? And would I get to wear a tiara?

I know boys have their good points, but being a mom to girls is awesome!

Wouldn't this entice YOU to use the potty?

Cherry is smart. No, she's not "gifted" or totally amazing or anything. She can talk circles around any other two year old I know.

But she refuses to use the potty.

Not even when we went out and bought this stuff:



If *I* got a cool sticker and got to wear fancy panties, I'd probably start using the potty more often! (and there we go, a post in before midnight.)


*Edited to add.. Wow. I wrote this post LATE last night when I was dead tired and had a splitting headache, and not only is it not complete, but it's not even entirely truthful!

~It's not that she's refusing to use the potty, she'll sit on it, but she won't actually GO in the potty.
~She loves her panties, and really wants the stickers. It seems like a good motivator, but she still can't seem to actually figure out how to pee or poop on demand.
~Most of the time she won't even tell us when she needs her diaper changed, and will often tell us "no,it's just fine" when we ask if she wants it changed.
~I don't really care, except for the fact that I'm "supposed" to be training her. Diapers seem so much easier at this point.

It's not my fault this post is lame, it's the lack of sleep!

Armondo is home right now. And as you all know, he's totally great. He takes his home life seriously and is 100% family man when he's home. He cooks more often than I do, I can count on him to help with the housework, and he'll get up to deal with the kids just as much as I do, if not more often in the night.

But it's getting a little insane around here.

The kids have caught on that they have TWO parents to wake up in the middle of the night now. They have twice the chance of getting attention. And they're using it to their advantage.

The last week has been horrible around here. And no sleep=grumpy mama. It's weird though, I'm "lucky" that Armondo is here to get up with the kids in the middle of the night, and he'll also let me sleep in in the morning, yet, it's BECAUSE he's here that the kids aren't sleeping as well. Not to mention the time change messing us all up as well!

But maybe things will be better tonight. Why? 'Cause we got our new bed today! Whoo hoo! I'm hoping that the short bursts of sleep that I DO get will be better 'cause I'll be laying on my new, pillowy soft luxury mattress! They say that when you have a good mattress, you sleep better and that the hours of sleep you do get are more restful, therefore you won't need as many hours, but this bed is so comfortable, I'm not sure I'll want to ever get out of it!

I guess we'll see tomorrow. Now that I have a laptop, and there's a TV in the room, there really isn't much reason for me to leave the bed anyway, as long as Armondo is entertaining the kids!

Rock On!

Recently, Armondo brought Cherry some beautiful rocks from the shores of the Queen Charlotte Islands. (Slightly south of the Alaskan Pacific shore.) And Cherry LOVES them. She "plays" with them every day, transferring them from her "treasure chest" (small wooden box Armondo provided her with to store them) to her purses, to her SOCKS, or any other creative place she can think of.

And yes, she STILL sleeps with her rocks.

One day, after her she awoke from her nap, I was tidying up the mess of toys she made, when I saw this:




It seems as though her rocks are as important as "Mom" and "baby" here, and take part in doing laundry (bottom left) and use the bathroom (top right).

You Can't Trust a Two Year Old.

No matter how intelligent she might seem.

No matter how articulate she is.

No matter how sweetly she says she'll "never, ever, ever do dat again!"

DON'T TRUST THE TWO YEAR OLD.

It doesn't matter if you made a deal with her.

It doesn't matter if you tried to avoid the situation by placing things atop a five foot high shelving unit.

It doesn't matter that after the last time it happened, you went out and bought a different type of creme with a harder lid to open.

YOU STILL CANNOT TRUST THE TWO YEAR OLD.

Because, in the end, it's you, the toys, and the wipes who will lose out.

And the two year old will just laugh.

Poor Cabbage Patch girl. All she wanted was to have a nice cuddle during nap time!

"Ack! My eyes! I can't see!!! Never mind my eyes; my mouth! yeck!" Poor, poor purple fairy Barbie will never be the same.

And as for the rest of the toys? Let's just say it's going to be a long night getting them all clean. (and the wipes are hiding under that blanket. That DOWN COMFORTER that I so nicely "lent" to my precious daughter to nap with today, and which is now covered in diaper creme as well.)

CeCe is Sewing... who woulda thunk it?

My Dad gave me some (very) late birthday money a couple of months ago and I went out and bought a sewing machine.

I LOVE IT.

Sew far, I've sewn the bodies of three sock monkeys, and half of a Barbie sleeping bag. In fact, that's what I'm working on right now. For some reason, I promised Cherry that I would make her some Barbie blankets if she agreed to stop using WIPES for blankets. And I told her they'd be done for her in the morning.

I am stupid.

Back to work! I'll post photos of my simple sewing projects once they're finished!

We Goin' to Seep Land?

For the past couple of years, Armondo and I have been discussing buying a new bed. When we first moved in together, we didn't really think we needed a new bed. I brought a nice, newish double into the relationship, and he brought a gross old single futon into the relationship, so my bed seemed much nicer than what he was used to, and pretty adequate for what we needed.

As time went by, we started discussing how much better a Queen size bed would be, but we've been thinking of moving (including putting our house on the market awhile ago) for a couple of years now, and we've been thinking of holding off buying a new bed until we were in our bigger dream house. Part of the reason for waiting is that we didn't want to get rid of our current bed, and there's no room to store it at our current house.

Long story shorter, TODAY WE BOUGHT A NEW BED! We don't actually get it delivered until Tuesday, but wow! it's so exciting!

We went on Wednesday to look at beds, with the kids in tow, all of us dressed as cow folk, and Cherry had the best time jumping on the beds and leaping from bed to bed. We told her we were at "Sleep Country" and since then she had been asking to go back to "Seep Land". She was just beside herself when we arrived again today at Seep Land, and had a blast playing with the moving beds, as well as hiding under the covers of the made bed.

When the time came to leave, Cherry called out "Tank you! See you soon! See you tomorrow!"

Then, tonight, while we were cuddling at bed time, she told me she was going to dream about Seepy land. Seems appropriate!

Hallowe'en

Howdy, Y'all. We had a great time yesterday being cow folk. We went to play group in the morning and did the trick or treating in the mall in the evening. It was actually pretty mellow, as Cherry isn't nearly as crazy as last year, and made sure she was holding hands with us the whole time she collected her candy. Peach just hung out in her stroller and watched all the crazy kids run around. (But I made sure we got a few treats for "her" when I saw there was good ones being handed out. I'm so bad.)

Cherry ran around playgroup all day holding ponies. How appropriate!

Peach pretty much just hung out and looked cute all morning at playgroup.

Armondo specially trimmed his facial hair for the occasion. What a trooper! You can't ever accuse this family of not being fun!

It's November, YAY!

So, it's time for "Write a post every day of November, no matter how boring month."

I figure this will be a great kick in the butt for me to start blogging regularly again! Whoop! I know you're excited!





Click Here



Click Here


And Somehow over the past few months, I've lost all my fancy clicky knowledge I once had, so you're going to have to click on the "click here"s instead of on the actual little buttons. I totally suck!

I Really Shouldn't Be Upset About This,

This evening, I went to the grocery store with my two daughters. When we go out, we (they) always get a lot of attention. And tonight wasn't any different.

As soon as we walked through the door, the greeter started telling my girls how beautiful they were. This old grandfatherly type of guy went on to ask Cherry about her Hallowe'en costume and sort of kept the girls engaged while I waited to use the bank machine. (It wasn't creepy in the slightest, just so that's clear.)

And then, throughout the store, other customers would say "hi" and tell them they were cute and or beautiful, etc.

Then, this one man came up to the kids and started talking to Peach. He was asking her how she was, and telling me how beautiful my baby was, and how "good" my baby was. During all this time, Cherry was saying "Hi! I'm (insert real name here)!" and was trying to get his attention too. He was completely ignoring Cherry. She's sort of use to this, because Peach is the BABY, so she gets a little more attention, but in general, the person doing the gawking will turn to pay attention to Cherry after a few seconds. Well, not in this case. The man didn't turn towards my sweet pigtailed little girl who was dying for attention as well.

I found it weird that he wouldn't turn to talk to Cherry, and I wondered "why?" but the whole event probably lasted a little more than 30 seconds. It was when when the man said "Gee, doesn't talk much..." looking towards Peach, and after I said "Yeah, she's the quiet one!" that I finally clued in to what was happening.

"Oh! She! It's a girl! I thought she was a boy!" The East Indian man said as he suddenly quit his lollygagging, and walked away.

"She's wearing mostly PINK!" I exclaimed as he walked away.

And then I almost teared up.

In a split second, I felt sad for Cherry 'cause she didn't get the attention, sad for Peach because she was adored one second, then became a whole lot less important as soon as her sex was discovered, and then, I felt sad for over half of the population of India.

I adore my girls. In fact, I'm glad I had girls instead of boys. (Not that I have anything against boys.... except for the pee thing.) And I cannot even imagine living in a world where raising a daughter is "like watering a neighbour's garden".*

We're lucky where we live. Women on this continent may still have a ways to go until we will be earning the same wages for the same work done as men, and may struggle with other inequalities, but at least we're not second class citizens. And I really shouldn't have been bothered by that man's reaction, but I just couldn't help it.

My girls could have been born in any country, to any set of parents, but they were born here and to me, and I adore them. They are important. They are NOT any less important than any boy. And I intend to let them know that as they grow up!


*This is a paraphrase and translation of an Indian saying.

Whew...

Oh, I'm so glad the conflict is over! My SIL and I talked it over, and everything is cool.

Turns out that *I* was more the crazy one than her. (Not that that surprises me or anything.)

Turns out she was more mad that the blog was a secret, and there was the THOUGHT that I could be writing something bad about her rather than her actually reading anything that upset her.

And on MY end, I was getting really upset because she wasn't answering any of the messages I was sending her online, and I was thinking worse case scenario that she totally hated me and that the kids would lose their relationships and the whole nine yards. Turns out that her computer AT HOME was automatically signing her into the messaging program, and she wasn't getting the messages on her laptop she's using at her mother's house.

Armondo was right when he said I was making this into a bigger deal than it really was.

And I'm so glad he was!

Ciao for now. I have dishes to do.

Does this describe my blog?

According to her facebook status, my sister in law....


"is thinking of creating her own clandestine blog that is severely biased and defamatory."

My SIL has stopped talking to me. You know, the one whom I just spent the better part of a month hanging out with during my vacation. The one who has two kids the same age as mine. The one whom I drove with for two days through the majority of my province, Etc. Etc.

I don't want to get into it too much until this resolves itself, but I seriously cannot believe how crazy people can be. Armondo is going to call his mother and sister tonight to see if he can straighten things out. It, IS, of course, his fault. The funny thing is I had SUCH a great time on that trip, and I wanted to tell you all about it, but this current situation has really clouded the whole experience! Sucky.

Like I need another reason to sleep!

This is too good not to blog about....

I'm having an affair.

With the man of my dreams.

Literally!

Ok, it's not just one man, but he (they) is (are) in my dreams.

I honestly enjoy being married, and I love my life (these days :P) and I wouldn't jeopardise my family for anything, but I sort of miss that "new" feeling you get when you meet a new person and fall in love. You know? The first time you hold hands, the first time you kiss, the first time you tell the other person you love them, and the feeling you get when you wait to see if they're going to return the sentiment.....

Well, it's been happening in my dreams and it's been awesome.

I have very vivid dreams. I smell, I hear, I taste, I feel. The emotions are real. I will feel happy, sad, angry, scared, hot and cold all in the same dream.

I other words, my dreams are real to me.

Some may say that dreams aren't real, (and logically, of course they aren't) but if you (I) can experience all of the same emotions and sensations in dreams, then who's to say that it's not "real"?

In other words, while I might be feeling a little "comfortable" in this marriage, I'm getting all the "excitement" I need in my dreams.

Of course, this is probably something Armondo might not find amusing, and he might even get slightly offending by this series of dreams I've been having, but I see it as a really good thing.

I cannot control what I dream, but I can control how I act in my waking hours, but as long as I'm living an exciting "night" life, I don't even have the slightest desire to try to fulfill those needs in my waking life!

"Ok, ok, get on with it already! Tell us those sexy dreams!"

Haha, ok..

So, I've had a few, but in the early hours of this morning I was having a nice one, and it CONTINUED when I had a nap this afternoon! How awesome is that?

Anyway. This nice, dark, handsome, young! guy who was sort of a mixture of Dr. Mohinder Suresh and Sayid was totally into me. He was shy at first, and didn't even want to give me his number, but before the end of the dream, I was meeting his mother. We went through all the motions of meeting each other, getting to know each other, and falling in love. But we didn't even have sex... hmmm.. sorry, I guess it wasn't that sexy of a dream... BUT TO ME IT WAS!!! ha ha. In the second installment of the dream, things weren't all that great, because somehow Armondo was on to me, and I was trying to hide it from him.. but he was also having an affair with an ex-coworker of ours. Anyway....

It was fun while it lasted, but I hope to meet my handsome Indian* hottie again tonight, or at least one more time in my night life. But then again, we've already gone through all those fun and awkward firsts, so maybe it's time for a new man ;)

And Armondo... I still love you more. You're more amazing than my night hotties, but a girl needs a little variety once in awhile, you know? Especially on these long, lonely, fall nights while you're away!


*The actor that plays Sayid is from Indian descent, and not from the Middle East like his character.

The reason.

Armondo let it "slip" that I wrote a blog under the name of "CeCe" and now some of my inlaws googled it and have this address, so that's why I have changed the accessibility. I don't know what to do now. I want to cry. I love this blog (though the lack of posting might not really reflect that) and I don't want to change my name and address, etc. I thought the name I chose for my husband was pretty clever, but google it together with "Cherry"and "Peach", and my blog is the first to pop up. So, if I start a new blog, I'll need to change my name and "Armondo" at the very least.

So, for now, it'll just be limited access. Grrr.

Hiding my blog

If you use bloglines to read this blog, you'll be able to see this message. I've changed the access to my blog. If you want to be able to read it, send me an email celenaszoo at hotmail dot com and I will either approve you or not.

I'm still alive!

We're on vacation right now,a nd I don't have a steady internet connection, so that's why you haven't heard from me. I have a lot to say though, and I'll fill you in when I get home!

Cherry's got jokes.

This joke was told a few months ago by my precious two year old. But I forgot to write about it then, and I figured it was important to document it.


Knock knock

Who's there?

Banana.

Banana who?

EAT IT!!!!


The joke has now morphed into:

Knock Knock.

Who's there?

Banana

Banana who?

BANANA CHEEKS!!

My Baby *sniff* (updated)

From the moment I got pregnant with Cherry, I knew that if I had a girl, I would wait as long as humanly possible to cut her hair. My plan was to wait until she asked to get it cut. After being a regular reader of Belinda's blog, and noticing that she hadn't cut her daughter's hair until she was three years old, I was adamant that I was going wait and to do the same thing.

Until recently. When I noticed a bunch of split ends. In Cherry's baby fine hair. SPLIT ENDS! NOOOOO!

At the time, Armondo and I were cuddled with her in her bed reading a bedtime story. I said out loud how I noticed she needed a cut, and I started quietly whining to Armondo about how much I really didn't want to do that!

But then I asked Cherry if she wanted a hair cut.

Her answer: "LET'S GO!"

"Ha ha, sorry sweety, not right now! You have to go to bed now; we'll do it another day!"

That was a couple of weeks ago, and every day I've brushed her hair and almost shed tears thinking about losing her baby curls.

To me, it's more than just the curls though. It's the "baby" part. Because I had Peach so soon after Cherry, Cherry didn't have much time to be the "baby". She was out of her crib early, (partially due to the baby coming, partially due to the fact that she's CRAZY and would climb everything and was thisclose to being able to climb out of the crib.) She had her jolly jumper and swing taken away early (more because we were trying to sell the house, and our realtor told us to get them out of the way.) and I put away all of the "baby" toys on her first birthday when I replaced them all with toddler toys. (Those baby toys will be leaving the house soon all together, because honestly, I can't stand them, so Peach will be deprived of her baby toys soon too!)

Cherry was also a pretty early walker, and was fearless from day one. I wouldn't go so far as to say that she's "gifted" or a child genius, but she's always been able to talk circles around kids her age. Those two factors, combined with her being tall, have also made her less of a baby to me.

The only thing left that was "baby" was her curls. And I was so sad thinking about them being cut off. Even if she had a rat's nest mullet.

But today was the day.

Getting up onto the big chair.


This is actually a look of excitement, not fear.


"So, what do you want me to do, exactly?"

"Umm.. she has split ends, and I really don't want you to cut off her curls, but *sniff* if that's all you can do, then *sniff* I guess that's ok."

"Well, I can just take a little bit off. I don't have to take off that much."

"*sniff* ok, just do what you have to do!"




The little sister, waiting patiently.

NOT sitting still. Not even for a sucker. But not freaking out either.

Still waiting....

And Voila! All done. Still mullety....

But she still has curls!!! I big puffy heart the hair dresser!

And Cherry was so happy with her sucker, her new weird comb thing, and her new "hair tut" that she did a little pigeon toed dance for everyone in the waiting area!

And in the end, I survived. And I didn't actually cry. Mostly. And, actually once it completely dried, it actually looked quite cute. Even if it IS still a mullet. Poor kid.

Oh yeah, and Cherry did fine too.


ETA: Now, the day after, I LOVE the haircut! It's so cute! And she had random comments on it today when we were out. The curls and waves are adorable! Getting her hair cut was a GREAT IDEA! Ha ha

My Cycle.

Motivation.

It eludes me.

My house depresses me when it's messy.

But I'm too depressed to clean.

Which makes me less motivated.

Which makes me tired.

But I can't go to sleep because my house is messy.

So, I stay on the computer until it's late.

Doing nothing.

While my house stays messy.

Then I go to bed.

And I take a long time to fall asleep.

Because my house is messy.

And then I get up in the morning.

And I don't want to leave the house.

Because I don't want to get dressed.

Because I should clean the house.

And I don't want to clean in my nice clothes.

So I don't get dressed.

But I stay in my pjs.

Which makes me feel lazy.

So I don't clean my house.

Which makes me depressed.

So, after nap, I try to clean.

But the kids are cranky.

Which makes me irritable.

Which angers me.

And then I feel depressed because I'm a bad mother.

So, I start thinking positive thoughts.

"I AM a good mother."

"I CAN clean this house."

But the kids don't stop yelling and crying.

So, I get nothing done.

Then the kids' bedtime arrives.

And then, I need two hours to decompress.

And I feel too tired to clean.

BUT...

Last night I cleaned. Because I had guests arriving today.

And then, I cleaned more after nap time.

And, tonight after the kids went to bed, I only took half an hour to decompress, then, I was about to blog, with the thought of cleaning up later, but then I realized I wanted to watch Canadian Idol later. So I got off my ass and cleaned up the kitchen until Canadian Idol came on, and now I'm blogging at the same time as the show is on.

The house is tidy, vacuumed, the kitchen is clean!

And damn it, I feel great.

Summer is Almost Over!

I've been having a great summer!

Cherry turned two, and had a blast during both her friends and family parties. She's also been to several other kids' parties this summer and asks to go to dirday parties all the time. She also knows "Happy Birthday" both in English and in Spanish (Thanks Dora) and sings them all the time.

Besides partying all the time, we have also gone camping and made a couple of road trips up island to visit with good friends. There have been trips to Grandma's house in there as well, and a trip to the west coast to drop Armondo off to the boat once. A lot of people from out of town have been around here and there too, and we had fun the other day watching some friends turned tourists bungee jump.

And, speaking of Armondo... I'm pretty sure this has been his best summer as far as work goes, as he has only worked NINE DAYS so far. He's got himself on this other boat, which does shorter trips, and he got a HUGE raise. (Same company, different boss.) He'll be going out again in a few days, for a bit of a long trip. (Because he's been home so much, I haven't been blogging much. He gives me a hard time for being on the computer "all the time". So, lately I've just been doing short stints on Facebook here and there, and checking my email.)

The best part of this summer though:

I fell in love with my husband again.

Somewhere along the line, I had fallen out of love with him. Maybe it was boredom, maybe it was the extended absences, maybe it was my depression, maybe it was the little irritating things he does, maybe it was the lack of sleep.... I don't know what caused me to stop loving him, but I did.

When he was gone for long stretches, I would miss him, but more than that I resented him. When he was home, I was happy he was here for the girls, but I was so overly irritated by the extra mess he made, how much he "screwed up" our schedule, and how he kept on missing the toilet when he peed. IT'S A HUGE FREAKING TARGET!!!! He couldn't do anything right. I wasn't interested in sex, and I was cringing when he touched me. I knew I was feeling a little "off" towards him, and credited it to having a new born, and being busy and tired, but when we got away for 24hours to a spa resort sans kids, and I STILL didn't feel any good feelings towards him, I knew there was something wrong.

But I waited until we were home to talk about it with him.

The talk was horrible. I mean, I just came out and told him I thought that I didn't love him anymore. He was crushed. He was ready to quit his job right then and there. He cried. I cried. I told him that I couldn't guarantee that him quitting the fishing job would fix the problem, and I didn't even know if it was the problem to begin with. He told me he thought of me as a goddess, and told me that I was the most important thing to him.

I told him I wasn't going anywhere. That this was the "for worse" part of our vows, and that I meant every word of my vows. I also told him a saying that I had heard recently that went something like this: the secret to a long marriage is to never have both partners fall out of love at the same time.

He was pretty sweet during the talk, but he was upset. The next day he was a complete asshole.

The next few weeks were spent doing all the fun stuff I mentioned above. During that time, he also built the kids a totally awesome playhouse/swing set.

And it was during that time that I fell back in love with him. It sounds like I'm very fickle, but I don't see it that way.

During those weeks he had off, I watched him have fun. I watched him get really enthusiastic about the playhouse he was building. I watched him draw plan, after plan, and then watched him execute his plan. I watched him at the beach with the kids picking up crabs and showing them to Cherry. I watched him play with Annie and wrestle her to the ground.

I saw the man I fell in love with in the first place. His stresses were mostly left behind on the boat, and besides the new stress I put on him, he was pretty well carefree.

That, and he really, really tried to win me back. He didn't shower me with gifts, or do anything particularly special, but he upped the respect level. And so did I.

We both started to talk to each other with nicer tones. We both listened better. He flirted with me more. I made the conscious effort to be a better wife, and he made the effort to be a better husband.

The day before he left for his nine day fishing trip, I told him I had fallen for him again. And he got angry! It totally wasn't the reaction I was expecting, but I also didn't really know what I actually was expecting. He was pissed off that I decided to tell him the day before he was leaving. I thought it was best for me to tell him, so he would KNOW while he was gone that his wife was at home waiting for him, and loving him.

He made me cry.

Later that night, I explained to him how watching him have so much passion for the swing set was really what got me overall. About how when I first met him, he was making sushi, and even though the particular job wasn't all that great, he just had so much passion for the art form of sushi making. He took so much pride in his work. And when he switched careers, he lost that. He lost his passion. He lost his confidence. But, seeing him find that again was totally amazing.

That, and the fact that we both started being nicer to each other.

Since he got back from that nine day fishing trip, things have been great with us. The s3x has been fabulous, the respect level is way up, his hot and hard fishing muscles turn me on, and it's all good.

So many people seem to give up on marriage so easily. I've known people who would have given up if they were in my situation, but I take our union seriously, and I'm so glad that we were able to work it all out.

Because I love him more now than I did on my wedding day.

Even if he does still miss the toilet sometimes.

Cherry's "E I O Dirday Party!"

She has been begging for a barnyard themed birthday party for months, and this is the result. (Her actual birthday and the family party are tomorrow.)



Cherry playing in the hay pile. I hid a bunch of toys in the pile, and all the kids searched through it to find the prizes. One other adult, Cherry, and I, all had allergic reactions to all the hay being thrown around by the kids. All three of us took benedryl to get over it, and I managed to get by relatively unscathed, but my friend ended up almost passing out due to the drugs, and Cherry ended up with hives on her cheeks. And she's off today with Armondo to get her 2 year portraits done. She had marks on her face for the last set of portraits done with the cousins at Easter! Oh well!

Armondo and I drew pig and cow faces on balloons, and had the kids "herd" them into the barn I made out of a fridge box.


This is Cherry waiting for her cake as we all sang Happy Birthday. She's watched so much TV that she knew exactly what was happening and was very good at sitting still!


In fact, she has seen so much tv that she knew to blow out the candle without being told to! (No, I am not proud of the fact that my child watches so much TV. But when Armondo is gone for weeks at a time, it's pretty much my only saving grace, and the only way to get her to be calm for awhile so that I can cook or clean or poop. She watches much less TV when Armondo is home.)

A close up of one of the "pig" cupcakes I made. The other ones were cows and sheep, but really, only the pigs looked all that great. I made the cake and the frosting from scratch! Overall, it didn't taste all that great, but I'm still proud that I put all that effort in. Next time the cake and frosting are coming from a box. Cheaper and faster, and will leave more time for decorating.


Cherry eating her pig. She only ate the frosting. Her nose is running from the hay inhalation.

Some of the other kids eating.


The "akk, the sun is in our eyes, and dang it, I still have my pig ears on" family shot in front of the barn I made.