just some stuff for you!

Merry Christmas Week!
I guess i do have a few updates! I'm NOT done with my shopping and I know that shocks you. I have so much I want to get these little Elfs this year!




I had a bit of luck and won and iPad at a luncheon for the Marriott "customer appreciation". They invite my company every year and this time I threw in my business card, yipee! Neat little gadget, but I'm a bit too lazy to really explore it. I got a free iPod Touch at a meeting I went to in May and not ONE SINGLE SONG has made it's way onto that thing. In fact, it's nothing but games for the kids. And guess what's on my iPad...I have managed to download some iTunes, but it's still for the kids! I have some more educational stuff this time, like ABC Pocket Phonics. I'm a strange character...$830 toy that i let the kids play on mostly. I've found it useful for the 9 hours of work that I did from home this past week though!



And to segway into work....I labored in 53 degree water over the weekend to become a certified scuba diver! I did it guys, I'm in! The cool club! The cold club, I'm in! I lost feeling in my feet for I don't know how many hours each day this weekend. I forget the term for this condition but you can lose limbs over this if it actually gets bad. My feet went totally white because i lost circulation. I decided to buy lowcut booties for my fins and my ankles ended up exposed on the dive - I was FREEZING! My hoodie was too big so my head and ears were cold. My wetsuit was a size 6 or maybe bigger? Water seeped through from every which way! But it's all done with! My dive master brought me a cigar to celebrate the end! Ha! I'm done, I'm done, I'm done! Here's a funny pic of week me half in my wet suit sitting in the van with the heater FULL BLAST as I wait.
What?!!! You know, they say it's crucial not to lose any body heat as you'll need it for the dive!

**MOMMY MERMAID***




Other crazy cold things we did - Ice cream outside while it was probably in hte 50's! We look adorbs in our hats!




I don't know if I posted this "DJ Lasterday" picture yet, but it's worth posting so here you go!



For my last photo set I have some gingerbread houses. I guess at some point we had a contest here at Methodist Hospital. There were some really great ones! A lot of people did ER's and I didn't get any pictures of those unfortunately. I seriously doubt you want to see a gingerbread man hooked up to an IV of sprinkles anyways. I took pictures for the purpose of stealing their ideas when I make my very first candy house! I've never made one, but I love watching the kids! Next time it's my turn! Maybe I'll do one in Dallas next week just for fun! Check these out!

**LOOK CLOSELY! I ESPECIALLY LOVE THE XMAS REEF ABOVE THE DOOR ON THE 1ST ONE!**

hi. who are you?

i just realized this blog has had nearly 10,000 views. and i don't think that's counting pages at all. i probably account for a good chunk of them because i love to come see my sweeties during the day as my mood starts to slip. if they caused the mood, i totally stay away though - just bein' honest!

so, who are you that reads this blog? well...not much to read these days so who are you all looking at my gorgeous kiddo's from your work computer or home laptop?! I know of a few followers but that just seems like a high number of hits considering I just started this blog when I became pregnant with Oliver. I'd have to verify that by checking my first post, but I'm pretty sure of it.

most of you know that my purpose of this blog is to bridge the gap between houston and dallas. it's a pg-13 family blog pretty much. you've figured that out by now, it's just not that exciting. it's undeniably a great way to keep the far-flung family members apprised of everything that's going on in our world. all the loose teeth, attitudes, "best of" kinds of things that happen constantly. hey, at least we've moved away from bowel movements, "we're slightly out of the mullet phase but not quite out of the mullet phase" conversations, and pictures that you look back on and wonder why you really did think they were that cute. because you've REALLY got cute pictures now!

i suppose i rant too. if i look back just a few posts i can smell the stench of discontent in my life and i have no idea why i force you all to take a whiff! i apologize! this isn't facebook! and you won't catch me on facebook with a personal account to make those sorts of comments either so deal with them here for as long as you can please. i'm just not a FB fan, i'm a fan of just being humans again. i see the positive sides and i love the arguments, but i see the ugly side, the ruined relationships, lines being crossed...and i want none of it. read some statistics on just how many divorces end because of inappropriate relations on dumb social networking sites. it's ridiculous that our society, the one that didn't plan to turn into this, turned into this anyways. it's just an opinion of mine that a good chunk of the people that use those sites all day have just assumed a new "Internet personality" and in person they've become so flat and dull. that's what happens when you misrepresent yourself i guess. i'm not dogging all FB users yall so don't go throwing stones at me! this isn't directed at anyone i know so i still love you silly kids! i just can't be with you in your cyberspace world because of what it's uncontrollably cluttered with! muah-ha-ha!! and maybe i'm thanking you for being with me here. Thanks for coming!
But how long will i be able to hide in my ethical little corner anyways, eh?! hahahha. Little Perfect Me. (i hope you find the humor in that because I really am cracking a joke at you). whoever you are.

Pic Post Pic Post Pic Post Pic Post Pic Post

Yeah, I can type it 5 times fast, but.......












Man, aren't my Twinkies getting big?! My sweet "Rupunzel" looks like a missile collided with her mouth, and my little "throw-back", Oliver, is dressing like Mr. Rogers, and we aren't sweatin' it one bit! They're doing well these days. A 4 and half day trip to Dallas and no real melt-downs. Kiran topped it off with a 10-bell victory. (We're still working on our reward system). I think we're going ice skating for her mini-field trip. I've also got tickets to see the Nutcracker Ballet as my beautiful neighbor once again comes through. We'll make sure to coordinate a night to watch her dance the lead in The Nutcracker at the Wortham since it's Kiran's favorite ballet and Melody is her favorite ballerina in the entire world of course! And the hook-up was fabulous so Thanks Mel!

I'll take one more second of your time to brag about Kiran's school! She's doing so well and making pretty much all A's and B's! Maybe it doesn't matter to some people but she's in fact in grade school now and it matters very much to me that she stays well ahead with everything. She's learning everything in spanish pretty much so it's important to see her achieve the highest grades in all of areas they're evaluating her on. Most importantly she loves school this year. Her teacher has made a world of difference and it's rare that she wakes up and complains about having to go to school. At most we get daily objections to the uniform, but I cling to Hope that she'll realize that the dress code will not just go away one day!

Isn't her hair getting SUPER DUPER LONG?! I can't wait to take her to see tangled. Maybe she'll think twice! ;-P

Cell Phone Pics

I haven't whipped out my nice camera in a bit now so to hold you over, and to decorate my blog a bit, and maybe even to cover up that embarrasing rant below, here are some gorgeous kids!

My next move

This was the one time I really deserved a major raise. Scratch that, I stopped looking at it like a raise a long time ago. I have felt my entire salary should be reassessed a long time ago. My work load has not just increased but multiplied. We're probably talking 800% really. I keep these Neurosurgeons in the operating room quite literally. I perform skillfully and I feel like I go beyond proficiency in pretty much most of the areas of my job. The doctors say so, why not take their word?! :-) I'm taking on 2 new components to track for 1800 applicants during 2011. The thought makes me want to cry but I put on my brave face and continue making suggesstions to streamline this. I travel so many times a year, a week at a time often, without overtime unless I go over 40. I have to be away from my family and I put my life on hold and get no recoup time when i'm back. I feel like I should at the very least be compensated for it. I work harder than anyone in the office and I'm not compenstated for that either. Yes, I know you can hear me complaining and you've heard it before. Just wait there's more! On top of it all, the day after raises were decided, we lost a member of our 4 person staff. Were raises re-evaluated? No! Will this persons work get thrown on my desk? Yes.

So, on this note, I need a job to help better take care of my family. These people don't seem to care that I have two children, pay out of my ears for insurance, and make very little for the stress and grief they cause me! It's your job if you're reading this to let me know of a cozy and perfect environment that is just waiting to embrace me.

child speak

WARNING: Use of Potty Mouth, May Not Be Intended For Anyone Under The Age Of 13

Kiran: I think we should get another cat

Oliver: yeah, another cat

Kiran: Ooh, no, we should get a dog! Daddy, don't you think we should get a dog?

(wait for it, wait for it!)
Oliver: yeah, lets get a dog!!!

(wait for it, wait for it.....)
Kiran: Lets get a Poodle

Oliver: EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Oliver's interpretation? He heard [Pooh-duhl]. Oh the things going through a boys mind. if it's not a truck, then it's likely a motorcycle. If neither of those made the cut you better believe it's pooh they're thinking about. Folks, listen up. I raise my boy with hugs and kisses. I raise him without a gender role as best as I can. I am enjoying the car thing, but I also like to introduce the arts, the music, heck even the dolls! But, when they say boys will be boys it's just as true as water is wet. It's obviously attributed to societal influences, ones I'll never be able to stop, and some are just instinctual.

Anyways, if you could just hear it. i'm sure i butchered it, but all that matters is his response to poodles! hahahahahah.

- - - just a reminder - - -

just a reminder of why i don't need to have another bun in the oven. simply because my oven is one of those double wides for mom's who have expansive kitchen's because they entertain for parties of 20 or more all the time. i mean, LOOK at that oven! you could bake caseroles, brownies, pies, cookies, and breakfast rolls all at the same time. I don't need my oven to get that big again. oh, and i don't even think that's hot, so i'm sorry but what comes out of a oven that can no longer sizzle like it used to will just be no good. to anyone.

this turned into a pity party because i feel old i think. or do i want a baby? or NOT want a baby?! ha.

Hmmm, SOMEone sounds a little bipolar this morning.....

Still Spinning

I don't think I have had a breather in about 4 or 5 days. It's like that last 4 weeks in your 3rd trimester of pregnancy where your baby is positioned just so, putting more pressure on your lungs, making it impossible. Well, my kids are on the outside with this very wearing pressure right on my nerves (somehow) and I just can't breathe! I don't know, I guess I just had so much to do! I stress very easily and I'm sure it has something to do with working for Neurosurgeons. You think?!

I am Secretary and Treasurer of the PTA at Oliver's School. I'm very honored for this role and want to help in every way. I am unable to assist as much for the PTA at Kiran's school though. I was planning on supporting their fall festival but ended up focusing on Oliver's. Friday I had to attend his and it actually was very successful! I rushed from there to band practice, then home to dinner. Daddy had the best vegetarian meatloaf and I think even bathed kids. Godsend! We tucked them in and I may have passed out due to exhaustion. He'll probably agree.

Saturday we awoke early to continue running errands to get our costumes in order. It was one store, to another, to another. Don't forget nap time! Wait, lunch and THEN nap time. Erica, don't forget to stress out because you forgot the kids DEFINITELY need to eat before napping and that you probably won't make it to that last store before getting them to bed on time.

I had a concert Saturday night and before then I was taking two friends to a Haunted House..Nightmare on the Bayou for those who live here and know of it. $30 a head plus a lousy t-shirt. We all thoroughly enjoyed it though. I still love that haunted house and get scared every time I go in. I'm not the "scaredy-cat" type at all, but there is something about the actors they hire there. The haunted hospital building we all went into was the creepiest. So, after my 30 minute long scream fest I had to go sing. la-la-la-la-la. Ok, TRY to sing is more like it, I totally wore my voice out. On a high note, if you'll enjoy my pun, we played with some great touring bands: Colour Revolt, The Eastman Si, and Mimicking Birds. There was one more I really loved and I can't remember their name. The singer was dressed up as Joaquin Phoenix (suit, sunglasses, super-scruffy beard). Excellent idea!

Yesterday, Finally, Halloween. Sam, had a very happy birthday party combined with the Halloween celebration. The party was just awesome. His parents always go all out for him. They built the best home-made haunted house I've ever seen in my entire life. Tied apples to tries, hid skeleton parts in their yard for the kids to hunt and piece together, set-up pumpkin ball bowling, had a pinata, goody bags, and for me....about 8 mopeds that they're working on and I have my eye on about 3 trying to figure out which I will buy when I'm done paying back daddy the money I owe him. It'll be years but I'll get there! :-)

Alas, costumes! I'll first thank Raygan and Jaxson for letting us borrow the Pirate Costume. Oliver just fell in love and I don't think he understood how cute he looked. He won best costume at The party last night and we got to school this morning to find out he also won best costume at his entire school as well! He doesn't understand it yet so much, but it will be neat to keep these awards and show him when he's older. He was really a sight to behold!



Kiran looked radiant as well! We ended up getting some cute boots and tights to go with her bee costume. We didn't punk it out as much as she wanted and didn't find time to braid her hair with black ribbon, but she was pleased with the costume anyways!

Sam was dressed as Harry Potter, the perfect I've ever seen! At school, Jaxson dressed as Oliver's little hero, Iron Man! Adorable! I have to put a pic of Mr. Chris the teach in Pre-K 3! He was dressed in an Avatar costume that made a few kids cry. I think that was really funny! (i just re-read my sentence, I sound like a really bad person!). So, this has gone on far too long. I'd actually keep typing but i need to get work done. We have doctors flying in for Oral exams next week and we have plenty to prepare for them. And just know that I brought not even ONE piece of candy into the office today. i knew better!

The natural next post....

I'll get Kiran's pics up next, I don't have any yet! She's a bee, but I want to bee-witch her. Punk it out a litte ya know? Combat boots, black ribon in the hair, a black long-sleeve thermal shirt underneath with thumb holes ripped out, teased hair, black paint on her nails...maybe she'll chew on it a little? hahahah.
i'll stop. stop living my 11 year old life again! :=)

grrr, check out me earrrrring!




Here's what mine will eventually get to. I've got it all but the shoes. I love the old school nurse dresses! I can't believe I still fit into mine. I was about 105-110 lbs when I wore it last because it was super duper baggy! Anyways, if you've seen Kill Bill Volume 1, you know who California Mountain Snake is. It's the awesome movie with Uma Thurman, give it an hour if you haven't yet. Or....give me an hour Saturday night at Fitz. I go on at 11 downstairs and it's free in the spirit of Halloween. Upstairs AND downstairs in fact. And both have great line-ups! DRESS UP!

Update

Wanna know why it sounded like 10 maids in my room at the W Hotel? Because it wasn't a guest room next door to me it was a made closet...well, closet is hardly it...it was just as big as my room, about 400 square feet. They were in and out of that place beginning at 4am and the door slams as loud as any other door on the hallway. prop it open ladies, prop it open!

I think I might have to actually send a polite note to hotel management. And I might as well tell them that i didn't like that when you called the front desk they answered really fast saying something about "Whatever and Whenever, how can I help you?"....I get the "w" thing, but chill out.

ha ha hee haw hah!

i'm in san francisco on a business trip, and have sadly yet to try out a restaurant or market that is recommended by "Heidi" on her vegetarian website (www.101cookbooks.com). I did have a nice dinner on the water overlooking the golden gate bridge last night with my boss, which was vegan with a fully organic wine list! The restaurant was called "Greens".
Okay, I can talk more about all of that in a later post, i'm just still cracking up at how i woke up this morning. My alarm went off probably around 5:30 and i hit snooze. First of all, mistake. If i think back to my Philly week-long meeting then i should have just known better. It would be "off with her head" had I actually been late. It's only 7:30 am here now.
So, I am sleeping great at the W Hotel. They have the "Heavenly" bed and I get like 80 down pillows to myself. (thank you poor dead ducks). Sure it's comfy, but I do wake up a few times at night for some reason and feel wide awake. It's odd. This morning I heard what sounded like 10 people in my own damn room cleaning, walking around in the bathroom, closing doors every 60 seconds. No dialogue, just rushing about. I finally snapped to just thinking wtf is going on?! I started to actually get angry. I thought it had to be 1:40 still (the last time I awoke in bed and looked at my clock). I'm coming to more and more, "What on earth could anyone have to do right now? Why are they awake? Why are they awake? Why are they awake?....HOLY CRUD, WHY AM I NOT AWAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I had peeked over to see my phone wasn't on the bedside which means one thing. It's lost in the sheets and rather than snooze i turned it off. i am SOOOO lucky it was only 5:30.

I just thought it was funny. I can write more about the trip...or trips...later. I head to philly tomorrow for another meeting and then finally back to my big love and little loves! I've said it before and will say it again. They pull off sounding both Younger than ever AND Older than ever over the phone. I guess you here the innocence in their voices and in your heart you just know you have these little dependents. That part means YOUNG. They are young and totally dependent on you. Their voices are small, they are small. But they are also smart. They are well spoken telling me all about their days and plans for the evening, side stories, the whole package. It's just adorable.
Daddy mentioned a REALLY twisted pun indeed last night that Kiran has made since i left the house. I don't have the back story on this and i'm not sure i want it, but Kiran says, "I'll cut off your two lips and throw them on your grave". I can only assume since he spelled out TWO LIPS and not tuplips, she really was making some sort of morbid reference.She's 6 man! This honestly does not surprise me one bit.
Funny kids.

okay time for my egg white scrambler, walnut toast,and get this - vegetarian sausage. They serve that downstairs at the xyz cafe. Isn't that nuts. As many nice hotels I've stayed at with crazy healthy options, I've NEVER seen veggie sausage. They're veggie burger with gruyere cheese actually blew me away Sunday as well.

i'm truly done guys, i need to get to work.

Daddy if you read this I love you!

Dallas, be good to them!

We (Hiss & Hum) thoroughly enjoyed playing with The Vaselines last night. Their record label hooked the entire crowd up! Hundreds got in free. Well, depending on your age! I believe I was a bit star struck but nevertheless i got over that and talked to them a bit (oddly about vegan food). Such a great group of Scotts! She even came and pottied in our dressing room! you should have seen the look on my face!

You missed out if you didn't see them play last night. I don't know if you missed out on us, but I sure loved playing last night. The sound guy was awesome. Thanks Joe! And the accomadations were probably the best I've had in a LONG time. I hope to play there again in the near future...with another band that pretty much made me get into music and start playing guitar when I was 13. I mean, come on, who gets to do that? I feel lucky. I've done it a few times now, and that one was just surreal! And it was all the better since daddy got to be there with me! Hiss & Hum photo creds go to daddy & and the Vaselines pics are mine.

I'm sure you'll especially love the picture of MY tour bus parked behind THEIR tour bus. By the way, we got a parking ticket for there. Will Sub Pop Records be willing to help out with that you think?!

Eugene Kelly, Frances, I love you!
















........................................

What am I doing?

I am detoxing. Not dieting. Not fasting. Not starving (depending on the hour), just detoxing! This is such a satisfying experience, I have to say! I’m only on day 2 but I actually do feel a transformation.
This morning I woke up incredibly early, about 5am, but didn’t eat breakfast until nearly 9…and this is after about 34 hours of not putting much in my system calorie-wise. I had a small Fiber one yogurt with almonds added to it. I was full which is another shocker to me! I didn’t eat again until 11:30.
But lets take it from the start here. The what’s and the why’s have to be answered. I’ve been looking into several juice detoxes and while I don’t feel they’re too severe or anything it just felt odd jumping right into something like that. The whole purpose of a detox is to get rid of the toxins we carry around. I’m not the only one walking around poisoned, you are too my friend! But we really do have this addiction to unhealthy foods, sugars, salts, and other unnatural products. I don’t have a real problem with that, but I might to some degree. And a detox is a bit like rehab for drug addicts in my mind. Their purpose for going is to spend time off of drugs so that the body can stop craving them and can begin to heal itself. Then they can get a new start on life and hopefully clean themselves up and do what is right. I want that for my diet. I want to spend as many days as I can completely away from the foods I know I am addicted to and shouldn’t be eating as frequently. After a few days, my body will naturally lose that addiction as I fill it with the foods that are whole, raw, and nutritious. Those are the foods my body will then begin to crave (I HOPE!). And during this process my body can heal itself on the inside.
Now for the foods. I chose super foods only. If you don’t know what a super food is, you can google it to find out more but I am allowing myself to eat raw, uncooked foods that do not contain sugar (minus 1 or 2 that you’ll read about) and they are:

Broccoli
Oranges
Blueberries
Pumpkin / Carrots
Sweet Potato (haven’t bought any yet)
Beans
Spinach raw
Tomatoes
Walnuts
Almonds
Quinoa (a cooked grain)
Kiwi
Low Fat Yogurt (the cultures / live bacteria are perfect for a detox)
Black and Green Teas

I actually added in cauliflower, radish, and an itsy bitsy pinch of olive oil and lemon juice to spice up my quinoa.

The reason I am going into such detail about all of this is in case any of you feel like trying it. That way you have the list of foods that you can mix and match and hopefully will find a way to enjoy it like I have. I HONESTLY went into this thinking I would last maybe a whole day. I know that sounds ridiculous..with all those foods, just a day? I didn’t hold out much hope for some reason. My coworker is doing this with me and it helps to sort of hold each other up (even though this is actually pretty easy) and I asked her how long she thought she could do it. We said last week that we “would” do it for the first 3 days of this week. She very confidently said she’d do it for all 3 days, and I was shocked. Jealous. Then secretly confident as she. So, here I am at 1pm feeling totally full but have plenty of snacks near by just in case! It feels awesome! Do it!

Child Speak

This isn’t so much a word but it’s a quote I guess. As we drove to school this morning we thought it was any other Monday. Who’s Columbus anyways. Okay, that’s not a fair statement, but it’s enough to close his school. And we, in a complete hurry as usual, noise in the background, non-compliant kids, just totally forgot about this. Needless to say Oliver is here at work with me. He wants to know why we have purse racks in the room, he only asked this on our 5th potty break in an hour! He wants to show me the “t” he drew every 3 seconds. He wants to practice being quiet when the phone rings and darn it, why won’t that phone ring! I’ve to provide snacks: Mint Hot Chocolate, Nilla Wafer Mini’s, Carrots, Tomatoes, and a cutie. He offered me some cookies and I politely declined and just skimmed the topic of the detox I began this morning. (I’ll maybe find some time to talk about that in a new post this morning). I told him a big part of the unhealthy foods were the sugars and things like that. And of course the tells me he likes sugar. Well duh kid! So we keep talking about it and eventually he blurts out, “well mom, sugar can pretend to be good!... It CAN!”

I wish I had audio with it man!

Back to work. I can’t have a kid talking full speed behind me PLUS not be working. My boss just got in!

Cheers everyone! By the way, here’s a late welcome to October, my favorite month of the year.

zombies

I love the blank espression on olivers face, and the zombie like look he and isaac have! I wish i would have taken another but I didn't! They were cruising for sure, though!

"Arbeetum"

I think every time we've visited the Dallas Arboretum it's been perfect outside, but this past weekend my have outshined them all! Perfection. Well, we did lack a few smiles in some pictures. I'll never know why Kiran loves to hate posing. (we don't say hate).