the HAPs... Cucumbers and Grandmom

  So.
In my family it is tradition, customary, almost law, to cut fresh cucumbers and onions into thin slices, pour sugar and vinegar over them, sprinkle celery seed on top and place them in the refrigerator. A few hours later we eat  pickles.  We do this all year long. But mostly in the summer time. So tonight as I was cutting cucumbers my mind went to my Grandmom humming softly in her kitchen making pickles.
I did not make pickles tonight but I wish she was here anyways because she is the best company a girl could ask for and really, really hilarious.
  I did attempt to use the GRILL.( What was I THINKING!?!) Which is eventually why I ate cucumbers....
SO THERE I WAS standing in the back yard holding a can of lighter fluid, a box of matches, a red pepper and gigantic tongs, standing in front of THE GRILL. And I'm saying I'm probably going to light my self on fire. I should let the husband do this. Seriously. What are you doing out here? Remember you like your hair? You should go back inside...Is that wood? I thought this was charcoal... So then my body just kept moving and completely ignored my mind. So I looked inside and moved some stuff. And then I tried to open the lighter fluid... press the dot? WHAT the heck? Any ways. Finally I got it open. And all over my hands. aghhh...And so... what do you do with that stuff anyhow? I just squirted it on. And lit a match and threw it on the charcoal.. and magic! FIRE!!! FLAMES! COOKING POWAH!
  Well then the fire went out. So I did this small procedure about five times and every time.. FIRE... FLAMES! POWAH! and then nothing.
SO I said FORGET IT MR GRILL! I removed pepper. By this time my it was completely black and not cooked AT ALL.
But that didn't stop me because roasted red pepper hummus was on the menu!

Then I got real crazy and invented some crazy white bean potato salad ! With purple potatoes?! YES! Purple dahhhling. with Parsley. Yes. Parsley I do say!

And then the kitchen that was so wonderfully made beauty-mous by the husband was slightly destroyed ( still is?)

I didn't take any pictures of that one time/earlier tonight when I splattered roasted red pepper hummus all over the white kitchen floor.....
Speaking of the husband! Check out my AMAZING cutest ever surprise!!!

AHHH!!! Love it!!!! and all the babies say " Poons, poons!" 

And then there was that one weekend. Well bike nerd adventure last last weekend. The photo documentary follows:

Blue Berries from the farmers market. 

Magical bridges!

Not so magical hills? Ok still magical because the hill is on a bridge!

Now... trying to rest so I can get rid of my toddleritis. Mostly because MY BEST FRIEND is getting married on Saturday! Steve and I will make the trek to NC to attend. Which is sooo inconvenient.... who am I kidding.... HOORAY! PLUS fun fact our anniversaries will be SO close!  We've almost been married a whole year which is way awesome!
   Now I do believe some dishes are calling my name... SIGH.
<3 ciao!

Amelia Bedelia &... Me!

SO today as I tripped into a door, dropped a handful of diapers and stepped into a child's bare foot... I finally realized that : I AM AMELIA BEDELIA!  Remember her? Tall, lanky... clumsy but well meaning?!? OK, so correction! I am not at all tall and lanky. Actually the opposite! BUT  we are alike in many ways. We drop, bump and crash into various things, including children!

I don't exactly wear a French Maid/ Nun Habit all the time.  Have you ever actually read an Amelia Bedelia book? I used to read them every day! It's definitely on my recommended reading list for people of all ages.
      I have, yet again, contracted a bad case of Toddleritis. When you walk around all day saying " You need a boggie wipe!" and then wipe the boogies, it's not surprising that the germs would migrate their way into your holy immune system and take over your body. And then you too would need a boogie wipe! Which I now do.
   I MUST I MUST I MUST INCREASE MY BUST. And my immune system. Or else ! Plus my best friend is getting married in ONE WEEK! AHHHH!!
  So I am sitting here watching an Affair to Remember. Sniff sniff. and reading Martha Stewart magazine and waiting for the Husband to get home from class!
Off to register for classes tomorrow! Nothing deep to say these days.
But soon.
<3

Inspire me...

So THERE I WAS reading O magazine. For which my mother slightly ( or seriously...) ridiculed me ....
Not saying I agree with Oprah and everything she says, although I would love it if she paid my tuition to go back to school! Any ways! So I was perusing my way through those gorgeously designed pages and they were all about poetry! hm. And I like it! And some times we just need words to wash over us to let us remember where our heart is. and it beeps.
So today this is how it happened:
 * i wake up next to brad...er um my husband who looks like brad pitt... ( especially in Mr. & Mrs. Smith.. what the heck?)

* i take the husband over to his school and he goes to his class where he learns how to save people! He is so cool and awesome! Soon he will be riding around in one of these!
Kinda freaks me out but I didn't marry an adventure man for no reason! He is adventurous !
* I eat one heck of a delicious cupcake. yum. gluten free and everything. chocolate. breakfast. yum. My thighs didn't thank me... but they did later... when
* On the way home I got inspired upon seeing the bridges reflecting in the still water in the golden morning light and decide to ride my bike down town....
* big booty big booty bikes down town to see the bridges.. great ride there... thigh killer ride back!
WARNING: do not do a leg work out and then ride your bike up hills the next day. It will hurt.
* finish the day with grocery shopping. I AM SO BAD at GROCERY SHOPPING! WHAAAAAT the heck.
* OH! did i mention that we now have a washer and a dryer in our basement! LAUNDRY TIME!
      So it has been a good, good day. The sun was shining and it was love-leee.
Oh. and bout being inspired. I want to be inspired. I just realized that i want to be inspired but I also NEED to be inspired. Today the light on the bridges and the water inspired me. Tomorrow who knows! But as my friend Amber would say " it's crucial " So Ima go out and look for some.
What inspires YOU dahhhling?
oh and ... i think this is the new blog face. for real.
DUCES!

La Familia...

So here I am in Pittsburgh, very thankful to be sitting in the same room as my totally amazing and wonderful husband. Who- by the way surprised me today with the sweetest note under my windshield wiper! Ah!!!  Which directed me to meet my "secret admirer" at a coffee shop for a surprise date! I'm lovin it!
So during nap time as the tots were sleeping and the music was playing and the fan was blowing and you could here the soft, yet loud at the same time, very distinctive sound of thumb sucking....
These thoughts came to me
  Yes, it is good to venture out into the world and see where your adventures take you. It is good to see many faces and hear stories and grow your heart out in the wild. But it is also good to return "home" again and hear the screen door slam behind you as you walk into familiar arms and see good wrinkles and laugh with the people who love you, even when it's not convenient.
So this is what I am dreaming of these summer days. Remembering, missing , laughing and thinking these good thoughts....
  Warm sunshine trickling through old windows. Afternoon showers. Lime green shag carpet. How my older sister used to take us to the pool and then let us stay in our bathing suits all day long. My brother and I going for rides with our dad in his bread truck and screaming every time he stopped at a red light. My Grandmom in a tube top pulling weeds out of the cracks in the drive way. And mostly this -> eating, eating, eating. Washing dishes. So much laughing and more laughing. Fighting over the rice at the bottom of the pot, affectionately known as " pega'o". Dancing, dancing, turning the music up louder, moving the couches for more dancing. Yelling, but only the good kind. Summer drives with friends, windows down and AC on. Sleep overs in 8th grade when the lightning bugs came out. Love letters from far away. Best friends getting married on warm evenings in the mountains. Fishing with little brother. Casablanca with a pint ( of mint chocolate oreo of course!). My mama's good salads and soft hands that are always the right temperature, especially when it's hot out side. And my almost always shirtless Fath. ( er).
  This summer looks different than the many summers before. There is no Blue Cone or Dairy Inn. No beach and no mountains. There is no family down the road or good friends just a flight of stairs away. But there is sunshine and life and new beginnings.
And some good news: time off has been approved to travel south for a week to see la familia! <3
Tomorrow's agenda
 Boot Camp
Mopping the kitchen floor.. errr emm. cough cough.
Groceries... and Laundry.
Oh and maybe a bike ride...
Oh! and maybe the pool... !!

Are those MY THIGHS!?

Every one asks this question right?
 SO THERE I WAS. HERE I AM! Asking myself this question... and wondering...
 WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON !?!?! With my body?
Dear Innocent, Unassuming, lovely women under 30,
   Hello, my name is Thunder Thigh and this is my friend Cell (short for cellulite),
      This is a courtesy call for your body parts that jiggle.  I will come and live with you for ever after you turn 24. So belly up to the smoothie bar and buy some new running shoes sugar plum because if you don't your ass is mine. Literally.
   Love,

T.T. & C.

 Did you have a vision of thighs with faces swirling around your head, because I did!
  Ok. So, yeah yeah yeah. I'm being dramatic. I'm slightly deranged and crazy when it comes to cellulite. And hey. Please allow me to say that I am pretty proud of my thunder thighs. When they make good thunder. Like... Ima kick your butt (my own?) thunder. Not I'ma jiggle you till you laugh so hard from crying thunder. That didn't even make sense.
Basically what I am saying is... LET'S STAY FIT LADIES! WE CAN DO IT.  Tell that negative voice in the back of your head to take a permanent vacation. Eat some broccoli. Girl some chicken. Take  your multivitamin. And WORK IT. Shake whatcha mama gave ya. Go up the stairs. Go to the gym. Download some beats (can I please recommend some Daddy Yankee and Elvis Crespo?- Seriously. Elvis Crespo + the Stair master = Match made in the heavenly realms!) Not only to stave off the wiggle jiggle. But to let your outsides reflect your insides = THE BOMB. Because you are. mm hmm.
And we also all want to live to be 30!
<3
ciao!