Potty Training

We were pretty close to being at least #1 trained, most of the time, if I reminded them to go every 20 minutes, before we moved.  After we moved, though, there was a major regression, and they went from being pretty much almost nearly pee-pee potty trained to nothing.

Yesterday, though, we had a break through.  No accidents, we even had toddler-initiated #2 in the potty, which has never happened before.

I'm so relieved, you have no idea.  I'm no longer afraid that they'll be the only 15 year olds still in pullups. In fact, between their sudden interest in enunciation and their newfound love of not going in their pants, most of my mommy worry has dissipated...for now.

We went for a long walk yesterday, over 20 blocks.  We turned in the lease application for a new townhouse and then went to the train tracks, because that's where Sammy loves to go.

And then we went to have a latte.  Well, the kids had milk and cookies.  Mommy had a short latte.  And it was good, perfect really.  You know when a latte is so perfect, naturally sweet and creamy, with no bitter or burned taste from either the milk or the espresso?  Yeah, that nearly never happens, so I add half a pack of raw sugar to mask the icky...but in this case, I regretted adding the sugar, that's how good it was.

Happy Friday Eve everyone!  May your weekend be filled with love, joy, peace, family, friends and other assorted good things.  

Dang, I should work for Hallmark.

The Reasons I Love the Pioneer Woman

As you know probably know, from this post, I love the Pioneer Woman.  These are the reasons why I love the Pioneer Woman:

1. Beef Drip Sandwiches This is the first thing I ever saw on her blog, probably a year before I started actually reading it, and it's still my favorite thing in the history of ever.  So yummy, I'm serious.  Don't skip the buttering and toasting the bread step.  It's phenomenal.

2.  Quizzes.  Yes, the Pioneer Woman has quizzes.  There are different kinds, but my favorites are the vocabulary quizzes and the movie quizzes.  She does maybe one or two every month.  So far, I've won first place in a movie quiz, second place in a word quiz, and a runner-up prize on a Lord of the Rings quiz.  And then Saturday, I won a second place prize for another movie quiz.

I'm don't have a lot of unique talents and gifts, but one God-given talent I have is the ability to take tests.  I read can read a question and answer choices almost instantly and I make excellent guesses, plus I've watched a LOT of movies and read quite a bit.  I also have a secret weapon:

Me: "Hey, honey, how much money does the paperboy demand in Better Off Dead?"
Cam: "2 dollars.  Duh."

Me: "Which part of Forrest Gump's body was wounded in Vietnam?"

Cam: "His butt.  Duh."

Me: "What did Dances with Wolves name his dog?"

Cam: "Two Socks.  Duh."

He's a genius.  Just to be fair, he was also pretty impressed that I remembered the name of the villain in Three Amigos.  El Guapo.  Duh.

He doesn't help with the vocabulary quizzes.

Anyway, the prize is always amazon gift cards, which are my favorite kind of prizes.  With my first prize, I bought a few random things, an organizer, some books, and Final Fantasy XIII.

This is what I got on sale after I got second place in the word quiz:

I love them.

I bought my little sister Ruthie these shoes for her birthday with the LOTR quiz winnings:

And now I need to make a decision on this prize.  I'm thinking of saving it and putting it towards one of these for my birthday in July:

I actually have a cool older model:

But I want one with a dough hook, so stinkin' bad.  I kind of like this color...

...it's called Pistachio, but Cam says it's "Exorcist-puke green."  Now I'll think that every time I see it.  Other choices include:

"Espresso"

"Tangerine"

"Gloss Cinnamon"

I have lots of teal in my kitchen, so that seems like a no-brainer, but really, I have too much teal already.  I also have some red accents (sort of the Gloss Cinnamon color), but red is SO boring, not quite as boring as white, but still, dullsville.

P.S. I found "dullsville" in the thesaurus.  It's probably my favorite word find in months.  I'm going to start using it in real life: "Jeez, this game of hide and go seek is so dullsville."  I hope the kids pick it up soon, that'd be hilarious. 

Grocery Shopping Today

Grocery shopping today was hell.  No details, that's all you need to know, all anyone needs to know.  Let's just say this: the check out lady referred to them as "nitro meets glycerin."

Why do such incredibly sweet kids act so rotten on occasion?  And why is it always at the worst time?

Changing gears, for a second...what do you think of their new sunglasses?  They think they are hot stuff, fo' realzies.