Marian's Joke & other Randomness

Marian actually told a joke. I mean a real one, not the stuff she says that isn't funny at all! I was really excited. Joshua is obsessed with jokes right now, and Marian has apparently learned from him. Her joke goes like this:

What's invisible and smells like bananas?

Monkey Burps!

Yeah, gross, but darn funny! I laughed at that and she looked so pleased with herself. So it was worth it.

Here is what I found when I was running on Saturday. Okay, I had finished my run (all 4 miles, yeah, I'm good) and as I was walking, I saw this butterfly and I brought it in to show the girls. Then we released it. It didn't fly well and the wind was bad, so I hope it is okay.

This is Delaney, when the neighbor came over. It was so cute. She hid in Dan's legs and I had to get a picture of her. I guess she thought we were going to run away and leave her!

Okay, last thought for the night.... We have come up with a working plan for our move. Dan wants to detach on May 19, have the movers come the 19-20 and head up to DC on the 22-23. He will check in and we'll scope out the housing options. Then, after Memorial Day weekend, me and the kids will drive to my parents' house, while Dan stays behind. He will have time to really find a house, and I'll get to spend time with my family and drive to Colorado for our family reunion the end of June.

There are several drawbacks to this plan-1. Joshua will miss the last 3 weeks of school. 2. I'll send waaay too much time traveling and in hotel rooms with 4 cranky children. and 3. I'll miss the CP Triathlon. I have really been looking forward to it. I did it the last 2 years and I was going to try to make a better time this year. In 06 I was about 4 weeks pregnant when I did it, and in 07, I'd just had Delaney in Feb. I wasn't sure I could be ready for the trathlon (400m swim, 10 mile bike, 3 mile run), but I did it. I told Dan I had to have a special shirt.

This was my shirt last year. I had another design in mind for this year. So the delimma now is, that there is another sprint triathlon the next town over, but it is May 10. I can run, and I've been biking (only 4 miles) for the last 4 weeks, and I haven't been in the pool at all. Sooooo, 5 weeks to triple my biking, and to get my swim going. Ug. Yeah, the bike on this new one is 12 miles, not 10. I have a mountain bike and I suck at the bike part. I don't want to do it. If I don't try though, I know I'll kick myself. I just hate to get out of my comfort zone. I loved the CP one, its in my backyard! I run that path. I swim laps in that pool, and I bike that road. (Okay, I bike part of the path by that road!) I'm going to have to do the May 10 one. I will kick myself if I don't. Sigh. Now to find some motivation....

Yummy Dinner Recipe

This is one of my new favorite recipes. It is simple, delicious AND its not too shabby for ya either! I found it in one of my parenting magazines and I don't do all the things they say (like add fajita mix to the chicken....Puh-leeze! Too much work!) So here it is, the way I like to make it.......try it and enjoy it tonight.

Oh, one tricky thing is you need a tall round casserole dish. A pie pan is about 1/2 inch too short, but it is the right size around. You can make it on a pan, but mine doesn't balance as well as I'd like, so I need the sides on a pan to hold it up properly!

Mile High Tortilla Pie
5 Tortillas (and whole wheat work great!)
10 oz cooked chopped chicken (with or without fajita flavoring!)
1 can (19 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (11 oz) corn (or corn with red & green peppers), drained
1 cup salsa, more or less depending on how you like it
2 cups shredded cheese

Mix chicken, beans, corn and salsa together. Put a tortilla in the pan or casserole dish. Spread chicken/bean/corn mixture on top, just covering the tortilla. Sprinkle cheese on top of that. Place a tortilla on top of that and repeat, layering the mix, cheese and tortillas, finishing with the last tortilla. Sprinkle cheese on the top tortilla and bake 15-20 minutes at 425. I like this plain, but Dan likes it with sour cream and salsa.

Spring Break

Joshua is in the middle of his 3 weeks off and the girls are out of preschool for this week. So we had some fun things planned to get them out of the house. On Monday Dan was home too, so we all went to The CowCafe for lunch. The kids had a great time. Dan was irritated because he thought any place with a name like "The Cow Cafe" should serve burgers. Fortunately, all their food is delicious!

On Tuesday we went to the Aquarium. It was way too crowded.

On the plus side, everyone was watching the feeding of the otters, and the kids had the petting pools all to themselves. Usually I rush them away from all that water and petting of crabs and sting-rays, but this time I let them stay as long as they wanted and they loved it.
Delaney thought the fish were fascinating. She spent too much time running randomly.




On Wednesday I took a break. I dropped all the kids off at a sitter's and I went to Quilting, all by myself, and I loved it!





Yesterday we went to a neat park. I've been here 3 years and I had never heard of this place. How is that possible?!! The kids had a blast. I didn't. My nose dripped and I sneezed and rubbed my eyes and wanted to die. We didn't stay as long as I would have liked, all because of me. And they didn't get to eat their picnic lunch outside- they got to eat it in the car as I drove home in an allergy induced coma. It was a fantastic park though. We will have to go again.... maybe when the trees stop pollinating!





So today we are not going anywhere exciting. I had wanted to go to the Fossil Museum today, but I'm not up for a long drive. I think we'll return books to the library and call it a day!

Being Me

These past few months have brought to light some things about myself. I like to think that I get along well with people, but that's not necessarily true. I've decided that I have some personality traits that make it hard for me to work well with others. My top 8 issues are:

1. I have an overdeveloped sense of loyalty and fairness. That means I know the world isn't fair, but I darn well expect you to do your best to try and make it so. It also means I will defend my friends till my dying breath.
2. I work hard and I expect those around me to as well. I do my job and I think others should too (Well, do thier job, not mine). I hate it when other people drop the ball or don't do things or just have no initiative.
3. I hate inefficiency and incompetency and I have little tolerance for it.
4. I need clear communication. I need to know what people expect of me and who I go to for information. When I know what I'm suppose to do, I'll get it done.
5. My way is generally the best way. Okay, maybe not, but its hard for me to agree that there is more than one way to get something done and other ways are equally as good as mine.
6. I know people think differently than me, but I cannot understand it. I know its true, but I don't get it. That's why reality shows fascinate me. WHY would someone choose to do something that I wouldn't? I really struggle with this one! I honestly just don't get it. I know its there, but I can't get myself to really see why someone would make different decisions than me.
7. I get stuck and I can't see the forrest for the trees. Somethimes I get caught up in the moment and forget that this too shall pass.
8. I hate to be wrong. And more so, I don't think I am, usually. Perhaps you should see #6 to explain that!

Egg Hunting and Marian's Birthday

Egg Hunt #2, at Playgroup! They got too many eggs, but had a very good time finding them. I do want to mention that Callie got her adorable bucket from preschool. Someone made 15 of those things out of empty coffee cans. They painted cute bunny faces on them and made bunny ears and all. They were truly adorable. (My kids peeled the paint off within 3 hours of it coming home. I repainted it, but it wasn't quite as cute as it started out!) Joshua liked it so much, he made his own! He got an empty ice cream tub and covered it with paper and colored a bunny face on it. He also cut out floppy ears and glued them on. I was really impressed! It was cute too.

Easter Egg hunt #3, at Dan's work. I loved this picture. Dan and Delaney are both so cute. She liked his hat.

The kids got even more eggs and I had to magically emove about half of them. There were WAAAY too many! They were pretty excited by it all though, and they got out of the house and had some fun.

Here is the bug cake! It was cuter in real life and the bugs were pretty gross looking. Some of the winged ones were creepy. Marian loved her cake. The "dirt" is ground up chocolate graham crackers, by the way. If you dusted it off before you ate it, it was pretty tasty. I think we have about 2 pieces of cake left, so it was good enough! Maybe I should have put in the shot of the other side too....

Here are all the girls from Marian's Party! Those are the masks and bags they made. They were adorable. In the back there is Carol, Marian, Olivia, and Ellie. Standing is Amy and Julia. I think this may have been the maximum number of friends Marian can have over. She doesn't do well in large groups, and at present opening time, she was a little overdone and getting stressed. The pictures of that show a grumpy face. So, smaller parties in the future! She did have a good time, and I think her friends did too. All of them were incredibly well behaved. (I will mention that I filled the majority of eggs for Marian's Birthday egg hunt with toys and not candy!)