An Evening with Erin Conrad and Reasors

I love photography.

Imagine my thrill when Erin Conrad asked my husband and me to do a photo shoot at the grocery store. She asked the right people to come along: stares do not embarrass us, management does not scare us and I'll pose by coffee creamer any day!

Before you look, I would like to make a few points:

1. I always have on lipstick, curl my hair and wear high heels when I go grocery shopping. Naturally.

2. She asked me to actually sit in the shopping cart for a fun picture, but my jeans were so tight I was afraid I would give the nice shoppers at Reasors an inappropriate show. That's why I'm just standing on it....

3. I have been craving Lucky Charms for 3 days now. Oh, Lucky Charms...I want you.

4. My husband has not gone grocery shopping in 5 years; I have no idea what he was inspecting on the eggs.

5. The Mommy in me took over when I saw organic quinoa. Erin was very patient while I had a moment with the whole grain selection. It's very strange what excites me these days....

You can see the shots here

CSI: Tulsa

One of the first things we did before we bought our house was to check the criminal activity in the neighborhood. We felt our area was safe and that it would be a great place to raise our son.

That changed last week when I saw gang tagging all over my house. The perpetrators graffitied the front of our house, the porch, the door and the garage.

I immediately tracked down the perps and made them clean up their mess. They resisted at first, but I'm pretty much a bad-ass and they didn't stand a chance.





I won't stand for gang activity at my home.

I Get No Respect

The directions were:

1. Keep the shaving cream away from your face.

2. Don't touch your clothes with the shaving cream.

3. Don't touch each other with the shaving cream.







Because what I say is law around these parts.

Clearly.

Sonoma Valley: Barrels of Fun

Here are the final pics. I really got camera happy those 3 days; everything was beautiful in wine country.





A beauty not rivaled in all of the scenery, however, was the barrels....

I present barrels of happiness:


Barrels of joy:



Barrels of delight:


Barrels of bliss:




And, finally, the end product of all of our barrel partaking:


The End.

Sign up for The Happiness and Joy Tour 2011!

Sonoma Valley

I finally edited the Sonoma Valley pictures today. I'm behind, I know. Mothers of the bride are taking over my life...but that's another post.

I have decided that this needs to be an annual trip. I could breathe here. I could drink wine in the morning here. I could nap all afternoon here. It was a magical place, my dear readers.













The best part? These ladies right here:


It's official: one should never go on a trip without fun people. It's a waste of money.

For the Love of Cheese

The Weight Watchers regime was going great. I lost 8 pounds after diligent point counting and excessive exercise. I went down 2 sizes, felt great and once again enjoyed trying on jeans.

Then I got the stomach flu, and it threw me off a little.

Okay, a lot.

As in, I've spent the last 2 weeks eating ridiculous amounts of calories.

Because this:



Just isn't as tasty and satisfying as this:



Alas, I gotta get my arse to the gym. And lay off the cheese pizza, cheese fries and cheese nachos or my skinny jeans just might break-up with me.

My Childless Wisdom

When I was childless and knew everything, I said things like:

1. I won't let my kid eat in the car.

2. I won't give my kid much sugar.

3. I won't get my kid fast food.

4. I certainly would never give my kid sugar as a reward for good behavior.







I now have a toddler, I know nothing and he loves Sonic ice cream. It seems to be working out okay...and carseat covers can be washed....

The Shinbone Gypsy

Because she is so much cooler than me...

Because I have forgiven her for putting rotten eggs under my bed...

Because in my world of Target bargains, she gives me her amazing hand-me-downs...

Because she actually has deep thoughts...

Because she's my other half/life coach/crisis-solver and I wanted to share her brilliance...

I present my little sister's blog:

http://theshinbonegypsy.blogspot.com/


Love this girl.

A Time to Reflect

Because there needs to be a place they can go to:

-calm down

-reflect on poor choices

-think about better choices

-be alone

-feel the consequences of hitting, biting, kicking, hair pulling or any bullying behavior




The happiness in the clearly marked UNHAPPY place reveal they might not be getting the message....

Toddler School: Part III

Toddler school continues. I say "school" very loosely. It usually involves coloring, a number to learn and several corrections to the little boy to please-sit-on-your-bottom.

I decided to tackle the number "2." Since they are both 2, I thought this was an excellent way to blend academics with real-life-situations. I even threw in markers to make it extra special!

(I am a former teacher and life-long nerd.)

This was their response:


*Notice she is using one marker at a time, tracing her "2's" and keeping her marks on the paper....


*He found it more academic to paint himself, taste the marker and leave all the caps off.

Lesson finished....

The Princess Parties

A few years ago, the water was fertile in Tulsa as all of my girlfriends and I got knocked up. Seriously...within a few months we were all large and in charge.

That all worked out great because we could endure the shocks of motherhood together. The only major difference was that every single one of them had a girl. This has not really been an issue until the princess parties began:


There are princess cupcakes....


Princess toys....

But, most importantly....there are the lovely and delicate princesses:





His Daddy and Uncle Ty are worried about all of the pink exposure. I think, "hey, what a lucky guy!" He'll never want for a prom date....

Love and Hate

Being 2 has brought out my little guy's personality. I thought I would jot down a few things he's particularly passionate about....

Loves
Getting in my bed at 6...every morning
Gummy vitamins, "chippies" and large quantities of ketchup
Spitting on the carpet
Peeing in the bathtub
Electric toothbrushes and excessive toothpaste
Using every spoon in my house as a guitar
Electrical outlets
Greasy, processed food
Puppies, puppies, puppies

Hates
Being in his brand new toddler bed
Being banned from the stove, oven and electrical outlets
Getting in trouble for spitting on the carpet
Peeing in the potty
Vacuuming
Sharing with girls
Wholesome, homemade food





*Favorite thing ever: Having a "drive" and touching every single button.