Just. Breathe.

I've gone almost the entire month of April without posting, because it's been a crazy few weeks. Let's take a look...in no particular order... Animals Coby has had no new run-ins with strange dogs, no visible injuries. He has  managed to train the dogs quite well to bend to his will. This cat is next to impossible to photograph. With a flash, he glows. Without it, he disappears.  The old man... This is his usual position. It gives him the best ability to snore and pass gas at the same time. The demonic one...holding onto his tennis ball so the others can't get it. Did you know that "red-eye reduction" doesn't work in a case like this? And finally, trouble... Spoiled rotten. But look at that smile.  House We got a new one of these! Aren't we lucky? Okay, we're lucky that we could afford it and that RDub is handy enough to put it in without paying someone else, but seriously! We just had the outside of the house painted...

In most ways, this week has not given the results I wanted. Instead of starting on the 8 pound loss, I've gained two pounds. Guess losing an even 10 works better? Whatever... Granted, this was a hormonal ToM, and I could blame that. Done. I have done the planned 30-Day Shred (Jillian is Satan) every day, though, and my arms are killing me. I did take myself up to Level 2 pretty quickly because I'm an idiot I've done Level 1 several times before, just never for 30 full days. Level 2 has these things called walk-out pushups (or something like that) where you start from standing, bend and walk on your hands out to pushup position, do a pushup, then walk back and stand up. Who makes up these ridiculous moves? The weather has been awful and I'm a weather-wuss, so no running yet. It's supposed to stop raining tomorrow, and maybe get above 50 degrees, so perhaps I'll make the dog happy and get outside again. I obviously have to do something different if I'...

It has been crazy busy around here, and I realized that with all the fun stuff, I took NOT A SINGLE picture! We had family visiting, lots of food, kid party, choir performance, just to name a few ... and it might as well have happened in my head since I have basically no documentation of it. Fail. When I realized this, it ticked me off so much I just decided not to write anything at all. But that's not the least bit helpful, so here's a recap. Bug's Choir performance at the Bass Hall: On the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, most of our family converged on the house in order to attend the school district's choir and theater program at the Bass Hall. For those of you not from Fort Worth, this is the Bass Hall:  Obviously I had to steal borrow this off Google - thank you, IgoUgo! I worked downtown when the Hall was being built. We've been there for concerts and plays, and it's just incredible. That my daughter got to perform on that stage is mind-blow...

That's a misleading title...It should be "A short list of stuff I've learned about having a group of people over to your house for something" but that didn't fit in the space I had. 10. Always have extra toilet paper in every bathroom of the house. Doesn't matter if the party is one hour or all day -- you're gonna need it. 9. There is no such thing as "too many potatoes" -- especially if they're mashed. It doesn't seem to matter if it's 5 pounds or 10 pounds...they're ALWAYS gone. 8. Having teenaged girls around for cleanup is an excellent idea. If you can pay them in dinner rolls and dessert, that's an extra score! 7. Speaking of dinner rolls, they will not rise on command. Apparently yeast has rules, and begging has no effect. 6. Ice. Remember the ice. Preferably BEFORE you're out. Just a suggestion. 5. Watching people who don't know each other get to know each other is one of the best parts of having peo...

I'm planning. I'm planning a meal. I'm planning a special meal for special people. I love this. It's not like I only plan special meals once a year. But when it's time to do it, I just get this warm fuzzy feeling of joy. A few weeks ago I got to do it for a group of girls staying the weekend, and it was just as much fun. This will be for Easter and my mom will be here. Brisket? Chicken? Both? What kind of bread? Oh, and sides! Don't think about dessert yet. I'll browse known and unknown recipes, thinking about what works together and what sounds fun to make. I never used to do this. I remember the first Thanksgiving I hosted at our house. I was a wreck. I made Mom come in two days early to help me figure out what I was doing. I had the wrong kind of cornbread for the dressing, and I don't know how anything was actually finished in time to eat it. I think that was about 7 years ago. I've gotten a little better since then, I hope. The cooking is ...