Damn Duckie

September 30, 2012
My sister's comfort item as a baby/kid was a duck rattle lovingly called, "Damn Duckie." He looked an awful lot like this duckie. Only she'd chewed his beak off, his hair (lace on his head) was gone, and I think one of his eyes was missing. She took Duckie to school one day - against my mom's strong advice to never take Duckie to school - and lost him.

I think that's what all her issues now stem from.

Anyway. Duckie went everywhere with us. San Diego, Sea World, Bear Lake, the store, Grandma's house. You name it and Duckie was there. One time Kimmy left Duckie at my Grandma's house. After hours of trantrum throwing late into the night, my Dad finally decided it was better to just drive back to my Grandma's house and get Duckie. When he walked in and everyone wondered why he was back so late, he said two words and two words only. "Damn Duckie."

So when I saw this lost Duckie on the trail to Willard Peak, I laughed hysterically and knew he just had to come home with us. Well, come home with Blu. I'm sure there's some frantic parent driving all over the mountainside looking for their kid's Damn Duckie, but I couldn't help myself. Blu needed a comfort item. And the memory of Duckie was just too much for my heart to ignore.

White-out

September 29, 2012
Coach Anderson called for a white-out for the Homecoming game and that's exactly what he got.

And $140 out of Jeff's wallet to outfit us in all new white Aggie Gear.

Who is that doggie in the mirror?

September 28, 2012
Blu is fascinated with Grandpa's dog.

Who happens to look an awful lot like her.

Fruit pizza

September 27, 2012
One of the girls (I still think I'm 19 'cause I call all women - except the old ones of course - girls) I go visiting teaching to is having a baby in December. She's pretty shy and quiet so my V.T. companion and I sort of half-asked, half-told her we were throwing her a baby shower. I didn't know if she went along with the idea to get us to leave or because she was really excited about it.

But as often happens to me, I can't stay organized enough to save my life. Or time. Or money. So I left work early today, frantically ran to the grocery store with two kids who wanted to go home and watch Wild Kratts on PBS (and then I may or may not have spent $80 on unnecessarily holiday decor when I was only supposed to buy a baby shower gift... dam* dollar section at Target), and whipped up a good ole fruit pizza for dessert.

I know. A fruit pizza.

Seems a little too 80s-esque doesn't it? But my favorite cookbook gals, Our Best Bites, said it was the must have baby/bridal shower food. And they didn't steer me wrong.

Only Oreos

September 26, 2012
I really was in a good mood today. You just wouldn't have known it had you come by tonight for a visit.

After a great lunch with my favorite coworkers "debriefing" and a fairly productive afternoon at work, I came home to find that Blu had eaten Jeff's climbing rose - the very one that's survived several tillers and lots of neglect until he built a fence for it to climb - AND the honeysuckle plant. Why she decided to eat a thorny rose plant and the one honeysuckle that actually flowers I will never know.

Oh, and did I mention I had sprinkled Tabasco sauce all over them to deter her? Apparently Blu likes spice.

Knowing how close Blu came to losing her life a few weeks ago when she'd eaten another plant, this set me off! I was a major grouch, yelling at the dog, snapping at Jeff, banging pots and pans as I made dinner. Then getting all worked up about the house being a mess, the laundry piled to the ceiling, the work I didn't get done, and all the scrambling I seem to do with YW activities, family/homemaking obligations, dog walking, work, and baby shower planning I'd yet to do for tomorrow.

It was bad.

So bad that only a bag of Halloween Oreos could make me feel better. Thank Heavens for Nabisco!

Confetti sticks

September 25, 2012
I broke the picture-a-day rule.

But I couldn't help myself.

These three pictures tell the perfect story of our 20 minutes of fun tonight. Jeff brought home a whole bunch of confetti sticks from work so naturally we made a huge mess with them. At the park. Did you really think Jeff would let the kids throw all that paper on his lawn? Even Blu thought it was fun... she chased the confetti all across the park.

It made a huge red, white, and blue mess!

Back across the pond

September 24, 2012
We said goodbye to Jeff's sister, Vickie, today.

She's off back across the pond to England.

Pearl was sad to see her go. She's had a great time with Aunt Vickie... shopping, getting presents, lunches, and lots of spoiling.

Little did she (and we) know, Aunt Vickie's flight back across the pond wouldn't go quite as planned. After an eight-hour delay because some part on the plane was broken, her flight was canceled all together at 11 p.m. After we'd taken her back to the airport TWICE. And with an international flight, that means she will now have to fly to another state-side airport, wait four hours, fly to Amsterdam (Germany people), wait for five hours, then to England instead of a direct flight to Paris and then London.

I'm glad we didn't take Vickie up on her offer to take Pearl home with her. That would have made her flight(s) the LONGEST ever.