Chellisms

59 Days

Ugh, who was the brainiac that told the girls we are going on vacation?

That person should be dipped in honey and feathered!

California Bound

Just the thought of visiting CA makes me nervous. Cold sweat nervous. I've been back twice since we moved away.

2009 and 2010

I took the girls by myself in 2009 and stayed with my Dad and Geo. We did Disneyland and had a good time. It was also the last time I, and the girls, saw my grandparents alive. I didn't tell anyone I was there. It was a very low-key trip.

2010 was awful. I went with Mom and Pete to bury my grandparents. It was a fiasco from start to finish. Part of me wishes I had stayed home and let everyone else deal with it. It was nice interesting to see people I hadn't seen in ages. Our family dynamics suck. Everyone wants something from everyone else. Death brings out the worst in people. Entitlement. Everyone thinks they are entitled to something. It shocked me a bit but maybe not as much as it should have.

Yikes...

So, we are going to CA. For a week. And I have a few hesitations. I have to say I didn't want to go. I drug my feet in buying plane tickets for weeks.

Will we have a good time? Sure, we have 2 days planned at Disney. We get to see people we love, people I miss so much I wish I could bring them home in my pockets.

I'm stressing over CA already and we don't leave for 60 days. Crap. And I have to fly. Double crap. I really hate flying.

Out with the old, blah, blah, blah...

Hmmm, in January I drank a lot of coffee and didn't sleep. One might think the two were related. They weren't.

Basic geometry proved no match for me in February. Sleep was evidently still elusive.

Poor March. March blew with the power of the Santa Ana winds. Tim saw his first ER visit in 12 years, had a colonoscopy and precancerous polyps removed. Which, I guess if you are a glass full kinda person is a good thing, having them removed I mean. We did have some fun in there as well. Taylor got ready for her expanders and her hair cut off.

April rocked. Then it got rocky, but on the bright side I got to compare tattoos and socks with a hot nurse. Tammie and Ryan came to visit, I did not manage to talk them into moving up here. Still working on that. Bacon Maple doughnut, need I say more?

May was uneventful. Well, unless you count spending all month moving.

A bird flying into the side of the Jeep was the highlight of June. I still am slightly freaked out by this. And I still avoid the golf course.

The ladies have an eventful July. Bailey was a member of the royal court, the other attended her first Sounders game and began try outs for her FC team. One took a summer ballet class at a new studio and we learned a very important lesson, never ever use spray sunscreens, however convenient they may seem. 

August saw a 12 and a 13.

Back to school they went in September! Nutcracker began, holy crap, in September?? One got expanders off and braces on, the other got expanders on. Oh joy...

Pete catered, I helped. And ate ice cream. October=Nutcracker in full swing and wonderful casting news. One of us became an elected official.

November saw most bloggers blogging everyday, not me. I am not a bandwagon joiner. I simply abandoned the blog and never looked back. Or I got busy and... oh, whatever.

December saw the Nutcracker come to an end and all of someones hard work payoff.

Wow, I didn't realize how much I had slacked off during the year. While I didn't write as much as in the past I did get to spend more time with the girls.

I guess looking back 2009 wasn't all bad, but I am ready for it to be over.

Later taters.

It Just Takes a Little Imagination

Right?

Over the past few days I have been putting together ideas for the girl's upcoming double birthday extravaganza. I vetoed High School Musical and Hannah Montana right off the bat. Themed parties are nice the first time out but we have been to three HSM parties in the past few months and well, quite frankly, I am so over Troy and Gabriella.

So we are going with bugs. Bugs. You heard me. BUGS. INSECTS.

Worms. Butterflies. Caterpillars. Bumblebees.

The girls are pretty darn excited and have gotten into all of the cupcake designs except the... worms!

I have described it over and over and they just can't get  it into their heads so this afternoon I demonstrated. I took a sheet of foil and rolled it into a ball. I had an open container of frosting in the fridge so I smeared some on top and told them to imagine it green, it was white. Then I poked a hole in the cupcake and stuck in a green straw that I had cut into thirds, I told them to imagine that it was a wiggly gummy worm laid out on the imaginary green frosting. Then I took one of Baileys precious Cheez-It's and crushed it and spread it around the worm hole to look like dirt or a crushed Oreo.

Do you get the idea? Does it make sense to anyone but me?

Party Weekend

Does massive partying include a lot of sleeping in? No, darn. Then maybe we only did a smidgen of partying.

Tim celebrated his 30th birthday on Saturday. We slept in until at least 7AM when a little blond person promptly popped into our room with an exchange that takes place every weekend morning

Little Blond Person: I'm hungry.

Not Amused Parent: Grab a granola bar, I will be down in a minute.

LBP: Oh, just like always?

NAP: *sigh* Just like always...

LBP: Okay. *skips away humming merrily*

NAP: *lasers shoot from eyes*

Once my eyes stopped smoking and the heathens were fed we did some house stuff. I may have gotten a wild hair up my ass to rearrange the kitchen cabinets. This means that I emptied them all out onto the kitchen floor and then reorganized them back into different locations. Not such a great idea when we were on a schedule but it worked out well and I am much happier with the layout now.

After that we met mom and Petey Poo for a late lunch at a Japanese steak house. It was great. The girls had never been to one before and were quite impressed by the egg rolling and rice sizzling and fast knife chopping. Somehow I can never impress them at home with those skills. The sushi bar was already closed for the late afternoon lull so Tim had to promise to take Bai back for her birthday.

From there we came home for a bit to let our very full tummies settle and then back out we went, to moms for brownies that I made that morning with ice cream and several toppings and presents. What's a birthday without presents?? Tim is darn hard to shop for. Any time he wants something for himself he buys it or talks himself or me out of it. I did manage to snag him a new outfit where only the shirt needs to be returned, I think it was made for a giant. That or mismarked. A case for his gaming stuff, don't ask. You are better off not knowing. And some Frank Miller books.

My mom and Pete won the present competition though. They got him a gift card for his favorite gaming store. I think he may have slept with it with first night and has since moved to faux shopping in their online store to see what he wants to use it on to get the most for his money. It's quite funny to say the least.

Why is it when I set things on fire at home no one oohs and aahs? Maybe I need a job at the Japanese steakhouse?