The Most Important Question To Ask

Getting ready for our Seaside trip means we must ask each other many questions.

What food are you bringing? Too much!

Do you have room in your car for an extra bag? You betcha!

Is rain in the forecast? Are we going to Seaside? Then yes, it's going to rain!

But the most important question to ask right now is:

What color are you painting your toenails?

My daughter has chosen neon pink, and I'm going outside my comfort zone and painting mine a shade of green.

And contrary to popular opinion, I am not going to make us late on Friday because I'm painting my nails.

I swear my plan is to do it tonight.

Or tomorrow night. At the latest.

Honest! I don't want to be late on Friday!

It's Not Fair!

It's not fair is the anthem of childhood, isn't it? And lets be honest, as adults we often feel that way, even when we don't let it out in a whine!

Before I had kids, I read that saying life isn't fair is like saying God isn't fair, and we know that God is a fair and just God. Saying it is being rude to God. I determined right there that I would not say life's not fair to my kids.

Even if I believe it to be true in some cases.

Take, for instance, my favorite pair of exercise pants, previously blogged about as my pirate pants. Super comfy, super wonderful, super fantastic, super need another pair. I have been in search of new pirate pants. The old ones aren't worn out, but as I told my dear husband, if he can have more than one pair of running shorts, I can have more than one pair of pirate pants.

The difference being that I will wear my pirate pants all day long, to the store or the bank or the library, and he will only wear his running shorts when he runs. So he reasons, rightly, the more dread pirate pants I have, the more I'll wear them!

Still, I'm shopping for pirate pants. Shopping, shopping, shopping. None to be found. I can find "fitted" (read skin tight) exercise leggings, or loose elephant leg exercise pants, but no cropped pants that flow around my legs just right.

I am ready to say it. I am bursting to say it.

That's Not Fair!!!!

Strangely, I feel much better. Hmmm!

Toes In The Water, Ass In The Sand

Oh man, oh man, oh man!

A week from today we will be at Seaside! We'll dip our toes in the water, sit our butts down on the sand, not a worry in the world other than did we bring too much food and don't let our strong will kids out of our sight and how close is it to the nearest coffee stand....life is good.

This will be our 8th trip to Seaside. By now we have the trip down to an exact formula! We love how it is the same every year. The beach, fish and chips, the Candy Man, swimming, the beach, swimming, the beach, pizza, the Candy Man, swimming, the beach, swimming, the beach, Pig n Pancake, the Candy Man, swimming.......

Don't worry ladies, I have purchased two tubs of licorice, and after seeing kids play with them, I moved them to my room. After coming into my room and seeing Emma try to open one, I moved them up high.

The tubs and I are ready to go!

The Good, The Bad, The I Know It Looks Lame

In an effort to

1. save money

2. save the planet

3. save myself

4. get ready for a 5K walk

I have started walking to work. It's a half mile each way, which in the grand scheme of things isn't that far. I've always said I work close enough to walk, but didn't do it for so many reasons.

Like

1. I don't like to be sweaty when I get to work

2. my hair will be messed

3. I wear skirts every day

4. walking 1/2 mile in heels kind of sucks

but I started anyway. The first time was because we replaced the engine in my car (in an effort to be green and financially responsible) and I didn't have a car to drive. It wasn't hard to do, actually, and I got to work with a smile on my face, and I felt energized. I can so do this!

It's good, because I feel good. It's bad because I do arrive a bit sweaty and hot and I work in airless conditions and my mini fan blowing on me doesn't help at all. And I know it looks lame because I wear socks and tennis shoes with my skirts.

Yep, that classic look is what I'm rocking.

I could wear my pirate pants and change into a skirt at work, but

1. I don't want my skirt to be wrinkled

2. I have to buy a bigger bag to carry my things

3. I really don't want to change my clothes in the office bathroom

I've settled comfortably (mostly) on the fact that it looks lame, but the benefits are out weighing the lameness.

I think.

A Dog's Internal Alarm Clock Stops For No Man Or Saturday

Every dog has one, an internal alarm clock that can not be reset for weekends or holidays.

They just know when it's 5:30 AM that they should have been up and at 'em about 12 minutes ago and they want up.

If I can sleep until 6 before I hear a dog bark, I consider myself blessed.

On Saturday when Olive barks at 5:30, one of us will let loose the hounds from their crates and follow their racing bodies back to bed. Sarah will be first to leap up. Feels like she starts to jump as soon as she crosses the threshold. Emma will take a look at the lay of the land, see where the other dogs might be before she jumps, and only if the covers have been pulled back in invitation. Our little Olive just scrabbles at the edge of the bed until I lift her up. I've seen her jump on the bed twice, but both times it was a spur of the moment, chasing Sarah decision. If she gives it any thought, she can't figure out how to do it.

Then it's the mad dive under the covers, each claiming a spot, their spot, the spot they go to every single time. Emma on my left, Sarah curled up with my knees and Olive curled up with Sarah.

It's not that their alarm clock is saying 'get up, go outside'....their clock is set to 'it's time to sleep with Mom' and they do not like to miss that part of their morning!

I thought the bed was crowded when it was Emma, impossible to get comfortable with Sarah and Emma, and perfect now with Olive, Sarah and Emma. Same bed, same husband, same dog crazy wife, yet the bed is big enough for three dogs and two people.

It's something to puzzle on, along with how I might get them to sleep in a wee bit more on a Saturday morning!

Lunch Apple Take Two: You Didn't Do Right By Me

I should have gone with a standard apple like Fuji or Gala or even a (gasp) Golden Delicious. Instead, the big sign saying 'new apple' and the cutsie name 'Red Prince' were all I could see when I went to the store to buy more apples.

Soft spot free apples. Crisp yummy apples.

Well, Red Prince is soft spot free. It is crisp. It is way too much like my dreaded nemesis, Red Delicious, to be even close to a good apple.

I hate Red Delicious. They are the apples every school puts on your lunch tray, they come in 10 pound bags for $2 and they are disgusting. If they were the only apple I ever tried, I'd say I hate apples.

I should have been clued in that Red Prince can trace his roots to Red Delicious, by the obvious Red in their names, and when I think back, I'm pretty sure the sign said something about that too, but never in my wildest dreams would I think I'd bite into an apple that is WORSE than a Red Delicious.

Yes, my friends, my lunch apple do over was worse than the soft spot apple that made me gag a little.

So.....Orange, step up. You are my lunch time fruit today!

Lunch Apple, You Done Me Wrong

Yesterday’s apple was mealy and soft. Not good at all.

This morning, I carefully pressed on the apple I picked up, testing it’s crisp pop sound. Sounds good.

Take a bite at lunch…OMG….softer and nastier than yesterday’s apple!

What on earth? I tested it! It popped!

Turn it to the other side and there is the crisp yumminess. Half this apple is awful. Half is good.

Lunch Apple, you have been very deceiving, playing at trickery. I do not approve.

Just for that, your last two apple brothers will languish in the fruit bowl until someone else in my family unsuspectingly takes one. I'm done with you.

I'm going to buy new apples tonight. New and crisp and hopefully delicious.

We'll see at tomorrow's lunch if this is actually a huge apple conspiracy, set up to make me think I'm going to have a bite of goodness, when the apple is anything but....

The way today's lunch apple went, I'm not sure a conspiracy theory is too far fetched.