It's what's for dinner.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin.
Marinade includes allspice, coriander, cloves, brown sugar, salt, garlic, ginger, lime and Meyers Rum.  (It's gonna be good.)

Pineapple and Mint Chutney (oh yea.)
fresh pineapple
allspice
coriander
cloves
salt
jalapeno
garlic
ginger
brown sugar
lime

Wild Rice (instead of Quinoa, interesting?!)

Salad

Mojito.
Cuz, if you are making 2 parts of a meal that involve sugar, mint, water, rum and lime by golly you should be drinking a mojito.

A perfectly good way to waste a minute and a half.

 
Okay my lovely blogging friend, Carol, over at Songberries gave me a couple of awards.  If I could print these out and tatoo them to my forehead I would, it's the gold star I needed this week.  Thank you Carol!  You're a keeper.  The rules on this are that for The Versatile Blogger award you must tell 7 things about yourself and for The Beautiful Blogger award you must tell 10 things about yourself.  So how about I just list 17 random things and you can un-follow immediately.  Just kidding.  You're gonna like what I share.




Ready?




Really, ready?





Here goes.



1.  My nickname as a child was "Hotdog."  I was a bit of a hotdog and totally shaped like one, plump.
2.  My favorite household chore is organizing a drawer.  It gives me a sense of control.
3.  I have beautiful feet.  Like foot model feet.  Gorgeous.
4.  Baking soda really does eliminate odors, it's my new favorite household cleaner.
5.  I wish I had a huge white board wall.  Like 18 feet by 20 feet.  I would draw on it all day.
6.  I once pierced my ears using nothing but a needle and an ice cube.  It was before a Howard Jones concert.
7.  I love The Tower of Terror at California Adventure.  It's terrifying and thrilling all at the same time.
8.  I own a sewing machine, an embroidery machine and a heat press.  I strive to use them daily.
9.  I want to be my mom when I grow up.
10.  I am currently loving "Airplanes"  by B.OB. featuring Haley Williams as music of choice.  The Eminem version is great too.
11.  Body and Soul told me that according to Ayurveda, I am a Kapha which just means I am a chubby "Earth Mother."  And I like it.  I'm only slightly chubby.
12.   I remember my very first phone number like it's etched in my brain.  Scary but fun to say, to myself.
13.  I recently had dinner with Scott Wolf (hello, Party of Five) and his lovely wife.  I have a picture to prove it!
14.  I fear growing old.
15.  I would like to have a "signature" perfume.  Something my children will remember.
16.  I have never been to Europe but I'd like to go.
17.  I don't make my bed every day.

It feels good to get that off my chest.  Thanks for listening.

Oh say can you see....my house burning down?

We had a groovy 4th of July.

It involved Marching Bands,

Bagpipes,

Mariachi Musicians,

and some thumpin' techno-dance bootie-shakin' stuff.

We totally horsed around.

We rubbed elbows with a bunch of crazy characters.

Headed home for dinner with great friends. Decorations ala kids!  Thanks Paper and Cake for the free download!

 Kid-made flag cake!  Delicious.

Apple pie ala me and mode!  Careful there, careful. This is a family-friendly blog and holiday.

Then we attempted to burn the house down.

God bless America!

BTW, a special thank you to all those men and women in the Armed Forces who keep us safe and allow us to continue to have our freedoms.  Even if the freedoms are the above list.  Here at the Hive, we respect and appreciate you.

Hope your day was fun.

Let Boredom Reign!

Let's see.  It's been how many days since school got out?  Approximately 12.  The weather here is still not super-summer-like.  That means we have been doing quite a bit of indoor play.  I do shove the bees outside but inevitably the wind kicks up and they are "cold" or it starts to rain and they complain that they are "wet."  Wussies!

With boredom beginning to take it's toll on us, let's just say my resistance is low.  I've let my guard down.  I am not the tower of strength and creativity I normal proclaim to be.  This is the conversation and sequence of events that may have snapped me back to reality.

Ladycakes:  "Hey mom, we are kinda of bored."

Me:  "mhmm."

Ladycakes: "You know how your said the boys need their hair cut?"

Me:  "mhmm."

Ladycakes:  "Can I do it?"

Me:  "mhmm."

A few minutes later, coming from Ladycakes's bathroom.   "BZZZZZZZZZZZZ."

As I wander in I find she has opened her own salon and 2 of my 3 children (thank God she isn't into cutting her own hair)  had already become customers.

I didn't know how to react.  This is my own damn fault.  But wait, she didn't do too badly.  

 

Turns out Mr. Handsome was kind of involved.  He started on Q's hair.  The problem with that is Mr. Handsome shakes when he cuts hair.  We have laughed about opening a kid's hair salon, where "Shakes the Clown" could cut their hair.  It would ruin children for life.  Ladycakes took over once she saw Mr. Handsome's handiwork.

Elvis is loving his mohawk.    I am tolerating it.  If anything, every time I look at him it reminds me I need to plan an activity for the day before any more damage is done.

So this morning when this conversation happened,

Q:  "Hey Mom, I'm kinda bored.  Can I take the car for a spin?"

Me:  "mhmmm."

Q:  "Thanks, see ya."

Me: "Wait, what?  Get back her Mister, go scoop some dog poop!  And get me another cup of coffee!"

Ahhh, summer.  I promise we will survive!

Last Day of School! But wait, I'm not ready!

So.... sorry for my absence.  I have been busy with musical performances, totally lame preschool graduations, last minute assignments, a Renaissance Faire, a new job, allergies, felt making, "what the hell are we having for dinner"ing.  And, a random orthodontist appointment.  So nothing really.  Just kidding!

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Happily, we do not have any snow in the forecast.  You laugh.  I cry.  It's been a long "sprinter"  and no, that's not a mis-spelling.  It's been Spring and Winter here.  It's LAME!

I love teachers.  They amaze me.  I was a teacher.  But, I didn't understand the power, the influence.  I knew it but didn't appreciate it from a parent's perspective.  NOW, I understand.  You people are amazing.

I am that parent that makes shit.  I make a present.  I like to make presents for people.  I think about them the entire time I am making their gift.  I also like to receive handmade gifts.  Okay, I'm a weirdo?  NO!

Hopefully, next year, the teachers aren't saying "Do you have that Q kid and his brother Elvis, cuz their mom is a handmade gift giver!  Sorry for you.  No Starbucks gift certificate.  No $10.00 Visa card.  It's all handmade.  Oh good luck with that!."

Here's this year's.  I like them.   I am proud of them.  I hope the teachers agree and appreciate how much time and love I understand that they put into every day.  I get them.

The bottles are an entire different post.  It, unfortunately, dives heavy into my psyche. We'll do that later. 

I have painted them  Added a tag.  Will then add flowers.  I love these people, they deserve paint, flowers and felt. 

Here are some more photos....

Close up of gold heart.

A message to each teacher.   With flowers. Such cute flowers.

Thank you teachers. Thank you moms.  Thank you dads.   Thank you for incredible public education.  Thank you Spring.  We are ready.

Hold on to your seats, it's SUMMER!

If the Three Stooges were into pottery, their names would be Pinch, Roll and Slab.

A few weeks ago, on a Saturday, Ladycakes and I met two other Mother/Daughter Teams at the Kimball Arts Center to take a little hand-built ceramics class.  Ladycakes and I were giddy.  Together we would construct a birdhouse from clay.

The woman who taught the class makes amazing birdhouses that she sells at a local gallery.  We had seen them before and were thrilled to be learning something new.

The girls listened intently, the instructions seemed to go on forever.  All we really wanted to do is get our hands on some clay.  And once that happened........

We got serious!  It was fun to just let the clay do it's thing, which was the instructor's advice.  As she said, "Listen to the clay."  Here is our creation once glazed and pre-fire.

The proud artist, who was less than pleased that we couldn't take it home immediately.  Pottery is a nice lesson in patience.

These are our wonderful friends.  Turtles took up residence on their birdhouse.  It was adorable.

Karen and her daughter made this beauty.  I love the poppies on the sides and the perch they added.

So today, I picked up the finished product.   Ta Da!  

It turned out so cool.  Nothing broke off in the firing.  The glaze looks great, it's tough to tell when you are painting it on.

Taking a class with your child is enlightening.  We both learned something new, we worked together and it was a blast.  I highly recommend it.  Now we are turned on to pottery and Ladycakes wants to trying a throwing class.  I say bring it on!

Is PBR causing my BPV?

I've been a terrible friend.  I apologize.  My posting has been infrequent.  My posting has been unpredictable.  It's "peri-posting."  One doesn't know how to diagnose it.  It's frustrating and sweaty.  Actually, not so sweaty but wait totally sweaty for all the wrong reasons. Read on and you will understand.   I've been uninspired and over-scheduled.  I think perhaps I've used just about every adjective that describes my generation.  Yikes, it's come to that.

So. BPV?  What the hell is that you ask?  Here are some thoughts...
1.  Baby Post Vacation
2.  Bubbly Poetic Voice ***
3.  Bossy Pushy Visitor
4.  Bodacious Popular Vest
5.  Blissfully Punk Vixen  ***
6.  Bottom Planted Violet
7.  Blinding Planet Vector
8.  Beautiful Peaceful Voyage  ***


*** these indicate possible explanations for my situation.  I like to think in a weird way these kind of explain my character.

However!  BPV  stands for Benign Positional Vertigo and hell yes, I've got it.

It sucks.  I am super dizzy and it makes me feel sick.  Awful.  It won't last forever.   Thank goodness.  But for now, I have to actually explain, "I'm not walking like this because I am drunk, I am super dizzy for other reasons and watch out, I might throw up on you!"

I'd rather be drunk, that I enjoy!


Please, because a little laughter goes a LONG way, offer what you would describe as BPV.  I must know!  I miss all of you in a very weird way.  Dizzy as I may be, I still like all of you!

And, btw PBR probably doesn't help my  BPV but Holy Cow, have you met my TYA5?

Peace out and bed spins used to mean I was drunk!