Getting all National Geographic up in here

I feel like I am living in a bad episode of National Geographic, the nature around here is doing it's best to keep it real and to make sure I see it. The other day we were driving through the base and a coyote went dashing along the side of the road, I thought he just got spooked by the cars but when we got to where he was there was a squirrel hanging out of his mouth and he was just looking at us like we were interrupting his dinner.

Then there's the fact that every time Madelyn and I go to the lake the crows are hanging out acting like it's a club on Saturday night with their feather fluffing, cat calls, and bumping and grinding. Apparently the lake is a hot spot for mating crows. Did you know that the female crow is actually brown and not large black and ugly? I didn't know that either until I was at the lake and watched the men work their magic. Unless the birds I've been watching aren't crows and then I just feel dumb...and dirty for being present during their um...shenanigans.

Welcome home signs that should be left at home

You just have to love Marine wives. We do our best to make our Marine feel loved and welcome him home the best way we know how with signs and looking fabulous. There are a few signs on the fence by the back gate and well...a few of them should have stayed home. Here are a few examples of real signs:

1. Welcome Home Sexxxy Smoker! I just don't get this one at all. Alot of Marines smoke...and it definitely isn't xxx rated sexy.

2. LCpl whatshisname is my sexy hunk. Thanks for letting us know.

3. Feliz Cumpleanos! Welcome Home! (I think they are confused as to what they are celebrating?)

4. Welcome home Mia More. More what?

5. emocleW Home. (OK, so I'm pretty sure a kid had something to do with this one so it's not that bad, but 'welcome' is totally spelled backwards and nothing else is.)

Oh and all of these signs have been up for over a month. So either the homecoming got pushed back or these people are just lazy and are taking up valuable fence space for other families to welcome their loved one home.

There is one really good sign and it should stay up for all the Marines to see when they come home:

I missed you! Good thing the bad guys did too!

I love that one. It's the best sign ever. Maybe even better than the one I had made for Chris with a 2 foot x 2 foot picture of him on it. That went home with us as soon as he saw it...as did the handpainted one by the gate...that he missed seeing on the bus ride because he wasn't paying attention.

A day late...

So Jessica (don't click that link if you don't want to see) had this contest going on where she wanted to see the best pictures of roadkill and there was an awesome prize up for grabs (a shirt worn by her for 365 days straight, not really but close) and I wanted to win it so badly! A month ago there was a coyote AND a rattlesnake but I didn't know about the contest then so I didn't take a picture. I'm not really accustomed to stopping on the side of the road to look at death. Or to smell it.

I knew she was announcing the winner today so I thought I had enough time to get something. I looked everywhere I drove for a dead critter and there just weren't any, so in an act of desperation I decided to go make my own roadkill. I figured the Animal Park was only 30 minutes away and I was sure to find something exotic there that I could hit with my car and take a picture of. I loaded up Madelyn and started out.

As we were pulling out Chris pulled up and asked where we were going so I invited him along. For some reason he thought it was a really bad idea, something about damaging the car with a giraffe, which is ridiculous because I was after an elephant, and then some non-sense about endangering Madelyn and getting arrested. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.

I decided I was going to go anyway and this is where I got lucky. Chris stepped behind the car and I was too busy making sure my hair was ok and CRASH!

At first Madelyn thought she should perform CPR.

But then decided that it'd be much more fun to just poke him.

Disclaimer: No husbands, Daddies, or Marines were hurt in the making of this blog post.

Do's and Don'ts of turning 30

Don't let 13 hours of non-sick baby fool you into thinking it's over and continue with birthday fun.

Don't let the baby puke in the car on the way to birthday shopping.

Don't take medical advice from your dad. He will just say the baby is sick because of the 30 year old milk she's drinking.

Do insist on fluids for the baby in ER or you'll end up back there on Sunday because the doctor has made too easy a diagnosis of an ear infection (which she doesn't even have as proved by her follow up appt. yesterday...such a freaking waste of a Saturday!)

Don't force fluids into your daughter with a syringe. It will trigger gag reflex.

Do learn that Victoria's Secret is how to make two water balloons that look like they have a leak look full and happy again.

Do get dinner to go.

Don't eat dinner to go, because you're going to learn that the easy ear infection diagnosis is WRONG and it's a stomach flu.

Don't get the stomach flu. Don't. You won't like it. You will be forced to remember many birthdays that you spent puking late at night and you'll realize just how very different this situation is.

Do take hot showers and keep up with cleaning up the pukey laundry. You won't do a regular load of laundry until Monday.

Do go back to the ER for anti-nausea meds and 2 bags of fluid for an extremely dehydrated baby.

Do stagger getting the flu with your husband so that you both aren't fighting for toilet space. Thank GOODNESS we followed this one. I don't know what we would have done with all 3 of us sick at the same time.

Do mourn the fact that you missed the avacado festival that you have been looking forward to for weeks. Luckily it will be there next year and I'll still be in my 30's.

I think...

I think the lady who did my hair the other day missed the day in class that taught that there would be real live people under the hair once they are working in a real live salon. I swear she combed through my hair a bazillion times and wasn't gentle about it and she combed my ears. Luckily I am happy with the haircut, but I am NOT going to her for color...I'll come looking like a freak with color all over my face!


I think that people should look in mirrors before they leave their house so they don't walk outside with their bra showing through their shirt.

I think the Naval Hospitals mission is to be a pain in my rear by making me schedule a bazillion appointments to get 3 things done that could be done in one appointment.

I think that my new skillet is so flipping awesome that I will marry it! It is currently cooking 8 that's EIGHT porkchops evenly and wonderfully.

I think that people should pay attention to what their children are wearing. Today at the post office a guy walked in in long pants and a jacket carrying his 2 (maybe 3) year old son who was wearing nothing but shorts. If you are cold...so is your child, at least cold enough to have on a shirt!

I think I will end this now and start wishing for hubby to make it home already! I think we need to walk to the park and let a certain child run out some of her energy.

Boring...

I think things around here have gotten a little boring. I used to have a "voice", an amusing tone to my posts and lately I think it's been all "Here's what we did today" with some pictures.

I am sorry.

Here are some posts that are much more amusing. Please go visit and let me know if you do enjoy their tone better than the current one.

Yes, click them...now.

WINDY DAY

JAWS

LOCKED OUT

SPLAIN IT

SPRING

Enjoy!

Easter Eggstravaganza - Part II

Tonight we died our Easter eggs. It was a lot of fun, I haven't died eggs in a really long time. The pink one in the foreground is the one Madelyn colored on with the clear crayon to make a pattern. It was an attention hog. I barely bumped the table and there it came a rolling. The three in the middle have our names on them and the purple one to the right says "We love you". Chris wrote that one and was the first one really successful with the crayon.

Chris and Madelyn helped set up the photo shoot.

Madelyn wasn't completely sure what to do with the egg and crayon. I mean really, when do those two things EVER go together.

So she decided to just eat the egg.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Easter tomorrow! We are doing church, egg hunt and a traditional ham dinner...and hopefully a fabulous family nap.

Easter Eggstravaganza...Part 1

Today we had our Easter party for the ASYMCA Baby and Me program. It was all ages combined so we had a great time watching the older kids, except the older boy who I caught just before he was going to throw Madelyn's shoe across the gym. Here is Madelyn with her Easter Basket that I paper mache'ed and she painted.

She got her face painted which I honestly didn't think she would like but she sat still and asked for more after her bunny was done. It was super sweet.
She hunted Easter eggs and managed to get 4 eggs! After 2 she lost interest in the eggs and just wanted to walk around swinging her basket and happened upon 2 more. One older girl gave her an egg because she (the older girl) had like a bazillion and Madelyn promptly gave it to another little girl.

We had fried chicken and a yummy pot luck of side. I LOVE pot lucks. They are yummy and exciting and an excuse to have 20 things on your plate. There were these adorable cupcakes! There were some fat cheeked bunnies too but I didn't get a pic of them. This cupcake was almost too cute to eat. Almost.

The whole time the Easter Bunny was visiting the class Madelyn was mesmerized. She loved him! She followed him around and it was an absolute fight to make her stay in line to wait her turn to sit with him.

So doesn't it kind sorta maybe look like that paper bunny has the runs...and it's green?

I'm going to start a new feature on this here blog and the picture above is the inspiration for the very first Way Back Whenesday. It will be on Wednesday, duh... oh and when you read Whenesday you should hear the "h". It adds a little something.

Mature audience...not so much

Today Madelyn was watching one of her shows on Noggin while I was doing dishes (still no dishwasher, what the crap?) and they were making a big deal about one of the characters going "home" and leaving his friends and nobody would be able to visit him and he wouldn't come back and there aren't any phones and basically he was just gonna be gone.

I'm listening to this and my mind starts racing "I guess this is how they kill off characters on children's shows, not like Steve from Blues Clues who went off to college. I wonder why Henry is leaving the show, contract issues, new show, does he want more money? If it's over money then screw him, this is childrens tv and he should be happy to entertain kids, I don't want him entertaining Madelyn if he is money hungry. Oh well, that's OK he'll probably never work again and if he does he'll totally be typcast because he's a penguin.... Oh wait...this is an animated show."

Henry didn't leave, he stayed with his friends.

Weekend fun

Saturday afternoon we headed to the hardware store to buy some stuff to get rid of the aphids on my roses so that I can bring them in and stick em in a mason jar.

Why, yes I am a 70 year old woman who photographs her flowers. I wish you could smell this rose, it smells just like a rose should.

Then we went to the playground to play a little and get nice and tired before heading to dinner at Firehouse where Madelyn had a mexican grilled cheese (quesadilla).

Sunday we did some laundry and then went and looked at MORE houses for Bonnie and headed down to the pier in Oceanside. It was a breezy 75 degrees out and we had a great time. Nothing like a beach in Southern CA to make me feel old and fat. LOL I was way over dressed.

Then we headed back on base to the commissary and had to go back and take pictures of base housing for Bonnie and I bugged some poor lady so that I could look inside because Bonnie just can't move into a house without knowing every little stinking detail. Gosh that girl!

On our way off base we saw this going across the road.

I am totally freaked out about snakes now and will be searching the backyard daily before Madelyn goes out to play. The neighbor as only seen one snake in 10 years. But in my mind that translates to "Then it's time for them to swarm your backyard".

Defeated

Ever have one of those days where you just feel defeated? I'm having one of those weeks. Madelyn's not sleeping, I'm not sleeping and therefore my house is a disaster. We still don't have a working dishwasher so the more I don't clean the crazier the kitchen gets and it seems like it only takes one meal for things to get crazy...so the kitchen is the only thing I've been getting to because it seems that Madelyns mood is directly related to how much stuff she can mess up lately. The more I clean/organize/fold clothes the more she is messing up 10 feet away. I get so frustrated with her and the situation and then I get upset with myself for not having enough patience. I feel defeated by my own inabilities. I question my ability to be a stay at home mom. I don't know that I'm cut out for it. Madelyn needs more than I think I can give her sometimes. I worry daily about if something I am doing is holding her back, keeping her from being her best, not allowing her to really reach her full potential. I don't want to work and I don't want to give up our time together but it's not about me...well, it is. I just wonder if she and I wouldn't have more happier time that isn't struggling between me trying to do chores and her trying to destroy the house if we spent a little time apart.

It doesn't help that she hasn't been feeling well at all this week, and I don't know why so I don't know how to help her except to snuggle and try to do all I can.

Today she spent a few hours at the drop off day care on base while I went to a dr. appt. She did well and I think this is really good option for us. It's only $4/hour and I'm hoping that maybe I can work in a couple hours a week of just me time and time for her to play without me and to get structure from an outside source.

I don't mean this to be a woe is me post, but just a bit of a vent about why things have been so blah around here. I'm hopeful that a beautiful weekend will be just the cure we all need.