Fwd: My must have post

So here is my post for the spring fling! This is from Tiffany at Paging Mommy Doctor, where she is not a doctor but with kids these days, what mom couldnt bee purely from life experience. Enjoy! I would be lost without this particular girlie product:  elastic, rubberband, hair bow, hair tie, scrunchie, ponytail holder, hair thing-a-ma-bob, pull back... whatever you may choose to call it, I can't live without it!  I have long hair.  Really long hair.  Hair past my bra strap long hair that has been known to get caught in my underarms when I am blowing it dry.  (By the way, I am getting a MUCH needed haircut next week!)  What is a girl to do with all this hair you may ask?  Pull it back in a ponytail and go.  I very rarely wear my hair down anymore... it tends to get in the way when I'm chasing my three year old around.  I mean, who has time to worry about styling their hair anyway?  Anyone who knows me would tell you that I always have my hair up and out of my face.  It could be in a nice stylish ponytail or haphazardly tied into a knot, but I am never without my above mentioned hair things.  (Why do they have so many names anyway?!?)  99% of the time, I'll have one in my hair and one around my wrist.  Because what could be more stylish than a cheap hair tie for a bracelet, people!  Fashion experts from around the world try to contact me daily to see how it is I can come up with such original ideas!  But seriously, I always have a spare in case the one in my hair should suddenly fall out or disappear.  I'm a little bit OCD in that way.  So yes, my "must have" may be simple, but trust me when I tell you I would be lost without it.  (Like really lost... not being able to see out from behind all of this hair lost!) Tiffany @ www.knoppfamily.blogspot.com

way to tired...

I'm pooped and way to tired to go into detail in a blog worth reading. Plus I totally forgot my memory card at home, so I cant even take picutres. I am so bummed. I hope to find a little store in the morning that has some. If not, oh well I guesss. Not much I can do about it. See you tomorrow guys and maybe with some pictures.

Mandi

Right brain vs. Left brain

Well I made it to Portland, OR by 2:30pm today and checked into the hotel that I had reserved. It is pretty nice and even has valet parking. Which I would have totally used if I hadn't let my inner Ben (or left brain as one of our favorite comedian likes to call her husband) tell me what to do. Yep, just as I was about to turn in and hand my keys over by my keys I mean Ben's truck keys, since he has the car seats in the Suburban my mind stared barking orders (not that Ben ever barks orders) to suck it up and park it myself. I'm who knows how much valet will be compared to parking yourself and you don't have that many bags. I'm sure they have an elevator, your not even wearing heels for Pete's sake. (see Ben even when your not with me, your still with me) 

Anywho, I drove around to the other side of the building and found the entrance. That should have been my first clue that this was a bad idea. The clearance above the roof of the truck was seriously maybe six inches. Then of course I had to drive thru the whole thing to find said elevator, which of course you had to have a key to open. Undeterred I drove on looking for the perfect spot, it wasn't full so finding one wasn't hard. I know now that it probably isn't full down there because most people with any sense in their head drove right out of there and went back to have the valet do it for them. Not me though, I was going to be able to tell Ben that I parked myself! First I tried to back into a spot, which was much harder then I thought it was going to be. I mean really people my SUV is just as big, if not bigger then Ben's truck. Its not like I don't know how to drive a large vehicle. Once I realized that I was not going to get backed into that particular spot I just decided to pull straight into the less then perfect spot in front of me. What I didn't notice about that spot was that the truck in the next spot over had its front end sticking over the line. So as I pulled oh so smoothly and straight into the spot I also clipped the front of this other truck! So begins my funny mommy-cation!!! Then I get to call Ben and say "Guess what honey, I parked myself and ignored the valet! Oh and by the way while I was parking myself, just like you would have done, I hit another truck. Sorry about that, I did manage to save us $5.00 though!"

That's right valet parking was $5.00!!! All this for 5 bucks and being the good person that I am I of course left a note on the windshield of the other guys truck. So now not only did I "put a ding" ha ha in my day, but I messed up someone else stay too. Crappy I know! Oh well no use crying over spilled milk or even chipped paint, nothing I can do about it now. At least it gave me a story to write about on here and that's the important part right!

Here is the swanky hotel I am at tonight.

 Its historic I think (either that or just really old). 

But really nice on the inside.

7 million dollars in recent renovations it should be really nice on the inside

Another week another drawing!

Well I figured since I put last weeks drawing up I should put up the next one. This is actually only the first of two that I have to do this week and this one took some serious motivation on my part to get it done. The funny thing is I sit there for like ten minutes in a complete panic attack thinking I have no idea how to even start and then I do. And I just keep drawing and shading and drawing and adding details. Then I look up and I've been at it for two hours and I kinda like what I see. Nuts I know! For those of you that don't see my facebook page regularly I am constantly gripping about this class. Its been a lot of work and sometime I don't know if it will really pay off in the end. But I guess in the end at least I'll be able to say I've did it and I didn't suck as bad as I thought I would!!! Enjoy and be nice with your comments, I'm a bit sensitive about this whole drawing thing.

Smile, those were expensive!

So I did something I almost never do, I ordered some hair bows for Laney online. Not that I almost never order hair bows for Laney online, I almost never order anything online. Actually I have been quite impressive recently ordering almost all of Carolina's Easter stuff online. Anyways, if you ever go over to McMama's blog you see these super cute flower bows in Small Fry's hair all the time. Really cute hair stuff if kinda hard to come by up here. I think the crunchy people like to stick with twine and scrapes of yarn to tie back their kids hair around here. So its nothing like back home in TX where you can go to just about any kids store and have your choice of big bows, little bows, flower bows, bow holders and even headbands to attach bows to for your not so hairy newborn. So when I saw these I decided what the heck my little girl is not going to be so little for much longer, I'm buying the cute (albeit pricey) bows! 

So we finally got them in the mail and of course being Laney she wanted to put them all in. So I did and she loved them. She kept telling us she had "fawers" in her hair. Then I broke out the camera and everything just went downhill quickly. These are two of the better pictures I got of her, before she threw the real fit. I even tried to bribe her with avocado, which she took huge mouthfuls of between sobs. Oh well, at least she likes them and is willing to wear them. It could be worse I guess, hairbows make it all of about an hour in Carolina's hair and then magically disappear. I mean really disappear, the child can put a bow in her hair and never leave the house and its never to be seen again! I learned a long time ago, Wal-Mart only bows for her. But she's not much of fix her hair kinda girl anyways. 

What is a girl without her red heels???

One of the other blogs that I check out, way to often when I can, is Domestically Challenged and she is doing this great merry go round like posting this week about what a girl cant live without. I wrote this post that I will email to her and then she will email me a post that someone else emailed her and I will post it on my blog. Then I have to go thru the other blogsites to find with one posted mine. Its a great way to poke thru some new blogs, which is how I've found almost all of the blogs that I read these days. To check it out or to be a part of the madness check out Sara's blog at here.  

It didnt take me long to figure out the one thing okay there are many things couldn't live without. My red heels are the answer to almost any getting ready question. 

• What would make my butt look better in these jeans? 
• What would go great with this dress?
• This outfit feels boring, what would make it feel sexy?
• Honey what shoes do you think I should wear?

Of course the answer to all of these is this:

These are my super sexy Nine West heels. I love them and have worn them so much that they are actually gasp comfortable! I would were them all the time if I didnt think it would make me look like a cougar. Okay maybe not all the time since I dont think i could live without my crocs either. 

Spring has sprung!

Well at least for the next couple of days it has. It was so nice out
yesterday, not really warm but sunny. Pretty much anything that
involves sun around here is considered nice. Even highs in the the
high 50's and a bit of a breeze. You can always tell when it is
actually pretty nice outside by the way Bella acts when you put her
out the backdoor. If she decides that its not quite warm enough to be
out there she barks (and barks and barks oh and barks) until you open
the door to let her back in. But on nice warm days, she heads straight
out for the patch of sun under the swing set and soaks it up.

Ben and I planted bulbs last fall and we are finally going to enjoy
all our hard work. Okay so it wasn't really hard work planting a
couple of bag of bulbs. Here is the fruit of our labor. Our first
tulip!!!