WoW

So, you've probably noticed that there hasn't been much action on this here blog.

You would be right.

There are a two reasons for this.

Numero Uno:  Huzbend was home on vacation for two weeks.  Believe it or not, I still enjoy his company.  You would think that after a million years I would be bored by his presence and yet, I am not.  

Numero Dos:  WoW.

To the non-D&D nerd that means World of Warcraft.  

Yes.  

You thought I was a nerd before, well now I have achieved the next level of nerd-dom.

Huzbend got me a WoW trial for Xmas and I have been playing during pretty much every spare Katie-free moment.

I know I mentioned hanging out with Huzbend...but hey, he got videogames for x-mas too.  I don't wanna sit around and watch him have all the fun.

Speaking of which, I could be playing right now.  I've got some boar intestines to round up for some innkeeper.  They're paying me good money, you know.  Then I think I gotta smash me up some Troggs.  All in a days work for a kick-ass dwarven warrior queen.

Later.

Sending some New Years cheer your way.......

It's STILL snowing.  I don't want any more.

It snowed on Xmas Eve.  It snowed on Xmas Day.

Jeez.  Enough already. 

A White Christmas is definitely overrated.

Especially when you have been trapped indoors for a week.

We got a special visitor on Xmas Eve.

Tinkerbell!

She was even wearing a helmet!

Xmas Day was, uh, LONG.

Katie didn't finish opening her presents until 7pm.  

That's right.

7pm!

It was an all day affair.

She insisted on playing with, watching or wearing every single thing she opened. 

Here's Katie playing with her self-proclaimed, "favorite own grocery cart!"

I had to read EVERY book she received.

Not just once, but three or four times.

Oh, and say hello to "Daddy Nemo".

The end of the day was spent in Thomas World.

Katie welcomed James The Red Engine and the Musical

Caboose to her train family.

And last but not least came the tricycle.  

"Daddy!  NO! Don't crash into 'dat!  Dat's not good!"

Happy Holidays to you ALL!!!!

Love and hugs,

US

Katie loves to "work out".  Here she is "doin' a set wif Daddy an' Snow Mickey".

I overheard Katie singing a Daddy song today.  

  

"Sailin', sailin' over the ocean greeeeeen

I blew a fart,

An' fell apart,

An' den I ate my spleeeeeen"

Yes, Huzbend composes his own children's songs.  There is actually another verse to this song. Something to do with "ocean blue" and "then I have to poooh".  Sigh.

The weather has been quite chilly round here.  Like, 20's.  Yeah.  That's chilly for Seattlites.  We don't get that cold.  I know you're going to ask.  Yes, Huzbend is still riding his bike to work.

My birthday was on Wednesday.  A nice big snow storm rolled in and shut down the whole of Western Washington, so there was no hot night out on the town for me.  Oh well.  Who would want to go out when they could have Marshmallow Pudding Pie with Starry Sprinkles!?!?!?!

That pie was DAMN good, if I don't say so myself (I made it).  My homemade pizza....uh, yeah....not so yummy.  Wayyyy too much garlic.

Katie refused to acknowledge that it was my birthday.  That is until we received a giant Mickey Mouse themed fruit arrangement......

....which she got to "share" with me.  Only then was it cool that it was Mommy's birthday.

She sang Happy Birthday to me (awwwwwwwww) and this was her reaction when we told her how old I was.......

It snowed the day after my birthday as well.  I'm glad that the snow storm that rolled in on my birthday was able to give joy and sledding to all the little kiddies.  Here's our neighborhood sledding hill......the street.

Some More Photos

We cut down our Xmas tree this past weekend.

It rained.

All the trees looked exactly alike.

  

It was like the Twilight Zone or something.

But, of course, I managed to find the BEST one.

I have one word to describe this picture....

HOT.

This is what Xmas in Seattle is all about;

mud puddles and candy canes.

Katie's preschool class paid a visit

to a local Children's museum.

Katie used her time at the museum to do a little

spa treatment.

First, a relaxing head massage with help from the "Scarf Shooter".

This was followed up with a

cosmetic overhaul.

Katie needed a little

freshening up.

TAHHHH-DAAAAAHHHH!!

You look mahhhhvelous, dahling!

A Late Thanksgiving Post by Katie

We ate CORN ON DA COB for Tanksgiving!

(makes chomping sound effect)

Granma ate turkey and Granpa ate turkey and Daddy ate turkey

and Mommy ate turkey and Katie ate turkey TOO!

Daddy and Katie go on bike ride.

Baby Cow went for a ride TOO.

WHEEEEEEEE!  

Up the hil! Up the hill!

Up we go to da top of da hill!

Granma made Wehgo house for

Lightnin' McQueen.

Katie go hike and Mommy hike and Daddy hike

and Granma hike and Granpa go hike TOO.

We saw water go CRASH!

THE END.

Contrary to most of the photos (and posts) on this blog, Katie does get girly from time to time.

Yes, she likes to wear shirts with cars on them.  Yes, she plays with trains and jumps in mud puddles.  But, she also likes to have dinner parties with her 'guys'.  She likes to carry around inanimate objects and pretend that they're babies.  Given a choice of colors to wear she'll most likely pick the item that is pink or purple.

When the day is through and our trains are put away and our Lightning McQueen shirts are tossed into our hampers, us tomboys like to get girly.

Here's GmaF showing Katie a thing or two about bein' girly...... 

Gripes

I went to Williams-Sonoma last week to pick up some turkey brine and cranberry relish.  I was in a rush because Katie was yelling at me.  "I WANT COOKIE-CRACKERS!!!!!!".   Sigh.  So, I grabbed the jar of brine and went about trying to find the cranberry stuff.

With the help of a store assistant I finally found it.  I thought to myself that I should check the ingredients just in case there was something that Katie could be allergic to in there.  I mean, what could possibly be in cranberry relish that she would react too?  Maybe soy....maybe?

Well, right there on the label it said it was processed on the same equipment that handles tree nuts, etc.  That's a definite no-go.  

Cranberry relish ~ OUT.  And you know what, the turkey brine said the same damn thing.  I did a quick tour around the store and even their old fashioned marshmallows had a nut warning!

So, I had to make a special trip to Central Market (kinda like Whole Foods) to find non-nut contaminated turkey brine and cranberry sauce.  Katie was happy.  She got to say "hi" to the crabbies and lobsters that they have for sale.

I'm old.  I turn 35 next month.  

About a month ago I injured a muscle in my neck while I was asleep.  It still hurts.

On Friday, I was trying to talk to my mom on the phone and give Katie horsie rides using one arm.  The next morning I couldn't inhale all the way because I think I pulled a lower back muscle.  That still hurts too.

Then today, I had to empty the leaves out of our huge-ass garbage bin and put them into our ginormous-ass yard waste bin.  (The landscaper guy put them into the wrong bin.  Grrrrrrr.  I guess I should be happy that I didn't have to rake them.)

Anyways, in the process I messed up my shoulder.  I'm not quite sure it's a muscle.  I think it's the joint.

Man, I suck.

Hey, NEMO!

Did I mention that Katie LOVES her Nemo costume?

She wears it just about every day.

See below for an example.....

Santa Spoiler Part Two

Okay, so I just realized that if there's no Santa that means there's no Easter Bunny and no Tooth Fairy.

Bummer.

Here's something really deep. 

Why did the Peanuts kids make fun of Linus for believing in the Great Pumpkin?  Santa is okay, but the Great Pumpkin is not?  What kind of message does that send?  Those kids are completely intolerant of people with different belief systems.  It's not right, I tell ya. 

I have more thinking to do.

Sorry, no videos or photos in this one.

Just me blabbing.

I made the worst tacos ever last night.  I have no idea what I did.  I admit that I did rubberize the chicken by overcooking.  But, I've done that before and have been able to salvage.  I put chili pepper in there.  I put some cumin in there.  They tasted like, um, nothing.  Nothing.  The avocado had more taste than the chicken taco meat.  They were horrible.

Last week, I managed to make instant mashed potatoes from scratch.  Yep.  You read that right. I must have overcooked the potatoes and then added way too much moisture.  It tasted like it was prepared fresh out of the box.  I am so talented.

Katie had Flamingo (a recently acquired 'guy') on her potty yesterday.  He was busy going poopy.  Then I hear this, "Flamingo is taking a dump."  I wonder who she picked that up from?

GmaF came for a visit this weekend.  We did lots of fun stuff and even went to see 'Lucy', a famous australiopithecus afarensis, who was visiting town.  Do you know that she's 3.2 million years old?  Anyways, Katie had three huge temper tantrums in one day.  That, my friends, is a record.  Kicking, screaming, crying.  I think we were the hit of the museum.  We certainly put on a show exiting the building.  They'll be talking about us for weeks.

**SANTA SPOILER AHEAD**

I am seriously considering whether or not to get Katie into the whole Santa Claus thing.  First of all, there's the whole lying thing.  Then there is the consumerism, the commercialism, the 'big-brother is watching you' aspect....

That said, I don't remember having much trouble getting over the Santa thing.  I had fun perpetuating the myth for my younger sisters.  I know that I got excited about getting presents from him every year and I'm sure that my parents had a good time sneaking presents under the tree and eating the cookies we left out each year.

But, then I think about all the presents that I got from SANTA over the years.  Instead of thinking to myself, "Wow.  Santa is one real cool dude for getting me that Caveman video game!"  I shoulda been thinking, "My parents rock."  After I found out about the Santa myth as a kid, I didn't go back and thank my parents for all the hard work.  Okay, so no kid would say thanks out loud.  But, I could've thought about it.  You see, I didn't even think twice about it until JUST NOW.  How lame is that?  Sigh.  Sorry, Mom & Dad.

Now that I wrote that paragraph up there, it seems like as a parent I want to get all the thanks. It seems a bit selfish.  Sigh.

Katie is too young NOT to think that Santa is real.  She has created a whole world in which Lightning McQueen gets a flat tire and then needs a hug.  A world in which she and Mickey Mouse catch Big Red Gooey Fish for Mr. Pettibone.

So, I'm not quite sure if these guys really exist for her.  They're invisible to me but she can tell me exactly where they are sitting in the room.  It's hard to know if she comprehends make believe yet or if she is just doing it.

That last sentence, like, totally doesn't make sense.   

I don't know.  Maybe we'll just celebrate Festivus.