Why is it that they always put the fattiest nasty pieces of chicken in Lean Cuisine's and Smart Ones? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?? Aren't they supposed to be somewhat healthy? I was just wondering, because the little amount of protein they sprinkle into ChickenFettuccineAlfredo is still sitting in the microwavable dish it came in...All by itself...Just waiting...Do you want it? I'm not going to eat it..I don't think even #4 would eat it..and he eats anything. Excuse me I have to toss this before I toss my noodles up.

So I was recapping an embarrassing moment to one of the young women at church tonight and it made me die all over again...SO I thought I'd share. Why not? We're friends right?

I will change the names as I always do to protect the innocent....

Once Upon a Time.....(Please read in your best British accent, you may chose which region you want to imitate, I am partial to then "York" accent, it's in Northern England and this is the end of your geography lesson you may google for further info) As I was saying....

Our story takes place in the ever so touristy Orlando Florida...Seems like a lot happens to me there huh?...Maybe I should learn from that.

"Mandi" had set off on another adventure with her husbands dental team and flew off to sunny Florida for a dental convention, some C.E. courses and the most important part of the trip, "Universal Studios Florida!" Mandi had never been, which now seems quite surprising, given the fact that she grew up in California, where they of course had Universal Studios, and secondly, her father was a prop maker and general foreman and had often worked at "Universal Studios". How was it possible she had never been?? She instantly made a mental note to call her father as soon as she was back in town and question him of her deprived childhood.

But she couldn't be bothered with hauntings from her past at the moment, because she was headed to U.S. F. Though Mandi was hesitant to leave the kids for 5 days, the side effects from the Dramamine she took prior to boarding her plane, left her a little loopy and she soon had forgot she had even had kids..Oh ya, this was gonna be a fun trip..

.

The plan was simple. They had to spend a little time at the "Dental Convention" and

"Continuing Ed" courses to make the trip a legit dental ride off, and they supposed C.E. courses were somewhat important to stay abreast of the latest dental tech. Whatever. Mandi wasn't too interested in either. Although she had to admit, the last convention she went to, she walked away with a big bag of loot! Folks were lined up ready to hand out free merchandise to anyone that even looked remotely human, and that was us. Of course, Mandi did feel bad because at the time they were just "Dental Students" and didn't even have a practice to go back home too, so they didn't need, or more importantly couldn't buy anything even if they wanted to. But eventually services would be needed when they were out of school, so the guilt vanished faster then Dr.Ban's high-speed hand piece..

SO Mandi went along....She followed her Husband, Dr.Ban around like a little puppy dog. pretending to be interested in implant kits and inter oral cameras.. At times she felt like the dumb little housewife, because she rarely knew exactly what people were saying, it was like she was at an "Avatar" convention and everyone knew the Na'vi language...except her. All she could say to everyone was "I SEE YOU, ..but I don't understand you".oh well she didn't pack her travel size Na'vi language interpretation book it was too heavy, so she would simply have to nod and smile...

Her face and neck started to hurt, she sighed slow and deeply like Napoleon Dynamite. She chuckled thinking about his hair and moon boots..Now that she thought about it, she once sported almost that exact same look years ago...She stopped chuckling. "Oh how long can one talk about root canal files!" She thought. Dr. Ban had promised 2 hrs at the convention and then he would take her to" U.S" (universal studios)..She started counting her teeth with her tongue to kill time, but got confused when she got a different # each time she started over. This frustrated her and now she needed a mirror to get a closer look. Curse her undiagnosed OCD! She politely excused herself to the little Na'vi girls' room. Dr.Ban didn't skip a beat in his conversation about rotating hand pieces. She walked slow, she knew she wouldn't be missed. She walked right to the bathroom, she had a sixth sense when it came to finding restrooms, it had nothing to do with the fact that she had already visited the bathroom 5 times due to her defective post baby bladder. ( 4 babies to be exact) but who's counting..She picked up the pace when she felt a sneeze coming on. She made it. She hurriedly chose a stall, the last stall in the row, naturally and quickly locked herself in and quicker then quick, because she has a routine down, which involves no unzipping or buttoning, (yes, she is that good) she was sitting and saying a quick prayer of thanks for letting her make it to the toilet on time. As she reached for the obviously cheap one-ply toilet paper, that felt like you could wrap your xmas gifts in, she noticed a black cell phone sitting on top of the T.P dispenser. "hmmm. thats an odd place to leave your phone" she thought. Mandi was all finished in about 30 seconds, and knew what she had to do. She grabbed the phone and washed her hands with soap for 20 seconds, rinsed and dried under one of those crazy fast and powerful drying hand dryers (in retrospect she probably should of washed before handling the phone) she wondered how fast it would dry wet jeans but didn't have time to conduct an experiment then, it would have to wait for another time when she didn't have a mission to fulfill. Right now she had to find the owner of that phone. She was going to be a hero..Now "how to find the person" she thought of several ideas, she could A.) ask every person if they had lost their phone..nah take too long, plus her Na'vi was horrible, and she really wanted to get to U.S...Then there was B.) ask whomever is in charge, to make an announcement asking if anyone had lost a black cell phone and if so, could they identify it. How many black cell phones could there be in this place? nah....that's dumb. She didn't know who was in charge. or C.) Call back the last person she talked to and hope there was a way to track her down! She went with "C" for time reasons. She pushed the call button and felt nervous. She checked her breath, she instantly regretted the onions she had eaten earlier. "Oh, if only there was a toothbrush of some sort around!" she thought......

TO BE CONTINUED....for time reasons :) (i can hardly keep my eyes open any longer!)

Did you know......

Magic Johnson was #32...just sayin'

David Beckham the great soccer king is #32.....

Proof that David is really #32, and not just handsome.

(I love Dr. Van)

There are 32 teeth in your mouth...Well, some peoples mouths. Yes, I will count fake teeth too. Geesh...

32 giga bytes?? ....I don't know exactly what that means but I'm sure it's awesome, Because there was lots of pictures of these in google images.

Ok, I will probably offend somebody out there (who doesn't read this)when I say I have no idea who this is...GO COUGARS!!

K, so I am now 32yrs old. I did it. I made it guys!.... And gals. Are you not so proud of me? Let me tell you it was no picnic either. 32 years of putting up with myself is exhausting! I never get a break from me, yet somehow I manage to make it. I really am amazing, talk about endurance.

Do you remember when you were 15yrs old and you looked at a 32 yr old? What did you think? I'll tell you what I thought. anyone over 25 was not to be associated with. How dare they even go out in public that old. They may as well be living in a retirement community with there friends playing "Bridge" between Dr.'s appt's and "Bingo Nite"... Shame on me. My vision was so clouded as a youth, probably the result of too much sugar and not enough sunscreen. I blame my parents. It's easier that way. I am 32 years young today, as my #1 son pointed out. I feel great. In my head I am still 18yrs old...My stretch marks and crows feet tell me otherwise..but in my heart i feel young. I keep waiting to "grow up" and "mature"...............(insert jeopardy music here)....still waiting........

I had a good day today. I decided to take a break from running today so I could get a jump on getting groomed...takes awhile..remember the crows feet? Anyhow, My kids were up later then normal this morning, we're still getting used to the time change apparently. Did you know that AZ never changes time? Quite nice really, except there is no excuse to be late to church the day that everyone else looses an hour and is late. I stopped making excuses a long time ago though,I am just horrible at time management.Like I have stated in the past, I have other talents. So I didn't make the routine hot breakfast that I usually make in the morning for everyone. I also didn't receive one either. Darn. Thats ok, more calories for later. My kids noticed that breakfast wasn't made and then jumped up realizing that it was my B-day and started on a small project. # 2 made me a mini bagel with extra butter and sugar sprinkled on top. Breakfast of the champions. I washed it down with a diet pepsi. Don't judge.

My #4 had been sick with the flu the past few days and I was so happy to see him feeling better and in a good mood. I emptied the dishwasher. Habit I guess. Dr. Van had to work today and I expected him to beg me to join him for lunch. He didn't. I invited myself. He agreed to this thinking this was a great idea, he loves lunch! I was to receive a "silohouette" machine that I had bought for myself and painfully stowed in my closet for the past few weeks. I have such self control. The store I bought it at said i could come by and they would show me how to operate this oh so cool "die cut" machine. Then i thought I would puruse the antique store in Brevard for some old tins I had my eye on. Well, "eyes" I do still have them both, I'm not that old. This was all in the vacinity of Dr.Van's office. It was to be a perfectly lovely afternoon. I even kept #3 home with me so she too could rejoice in my birth all day long with me. She seemed pleased with this idea.I had a bit of time and as I was putting away cereal I found that there was not much room in the pantry for it. Well I should say there was much wasted space. I swear I pulled out so many empty boxes of this and that! I started my recycling pile and a pile to take to the basement for storing in my mini grocery store i have been working on. I get sidetracked with getting the kids ready. I filled my tub and threw #3&4 in to keep them busy while I beautified my new 32 yr old self. Like I said it takes awhile, 31 literally marched across my face and left a mark. Poo.

I decided to straighten my hair. It's been awhile and every so often I like to straighten it to see just how long it's gotten. It's kind of like a surprise. i love surprises. It just takes awhile because it's sooooo curly, especially since I haven't been straightening it.

So it's done. oooooh. It's longer then anticipated. I'm trying to grow it out...ugh. I'm doing it for Dr.Van..Incase your wondering, because I know you all are my hair is.............drum roll........ well lets just say I could almost not wear a shirt and be covered up if I wanted to. But I would never do that because I'm waaaay too modest and I can't even believe you suggested that...The nerve.

I am getting dressed and #4 yells "done!".. I think he wants out of the tub. I dry and dress him, he's so handsome..and he likes me best. #3 then wants out. I wrap her like a burrito and lift her out with my brute strength. She's complaining she's cold and starts whimpering loudly. i remind her it's my birthday and there is no whining aloud. She doesn't care. I tell her to get dressed and then she will warm up and I can dry her hair. Now she's scared to go up stairs by herself. More whining. My patience is quickly exiting the room. I ignore and continue to plaster my face. She is watching TV and is thoroughly enjoying a commercial about stretch mark cream. Not mederma, something new! She yells to me "mom, you should get that medicine" I frown..but it's my birthday...She finishes her sentence after a way too long pause, " so I can have it for my bruises on my legs" I'm not offended anymore I giggle to myself for jumping to conclusions.

Of course she wasn't talking about me..As if....I would actually order that....(I'll email you the number later if your interested)We're finally ready and I see the mess by the pantry. Shoot I forgot about that. I start cleaning it up, I'm just doing the minimum because I have a date. someone knocks on my garage door. I think it's #4 playing in the garage. I slowly open it, and it's my sweet neighbor. She's here to drop off her baby to have my sis in law watch her, so she can go to an appointment. I tell her I'm off to Brevard. She Announces She knows it's my bday and we plan to go out tomorrow. I"m walking her out and #4 is with me playing in the yard around the corner. He starts crying I turn to check on him. He's walking towards me with throw up all over him..at least it wasn't on me this time. The morning before he walked right up me as I was drying #3's hair and threw up all over my favorite old red sweats and uggs. How do you clean uggs??? ...Ugh. So my heart sinks, because the whole dynamic of the day just changed. Dang.I look at my friend. She senses a disturbance in the force. Change of plans. #4 is going down for a nap so my sis in law can still watch the baby and is kept away from my sick #4. My friend ditches her appointment and Takes me to lunch. #3 comes along, afterall I did keep her out of school to hang with me. Dr. Van calls as we enter the restaurant..I gently break the news to him that although he had this huge planned birthday lunch that he'd been working on for weeks now, I simply cannot join him due to sick #4, and I need to stick close to home. I know he will be heartbroken...He takes it better then expected. Darn. He wishes me well and is glad I am with a friend on this happy day. I am too. I order the grilled Havarti and Cheddar cheese sandwich and cup of Tomato soup. It's perfect, because it's kinda chilly out. #3 orders that sweet potato pancakes...I steal a bit or two..It's good. But I wished they would heat up the syrup. Why do they do that?? Pippin hot pancakes and cold syrup? Not in my kitchen. In my restaurant, it would be warmed to the perfect temprature. Our lunch is good, but the visit is the best part. Just good ol girl talk. Not gossip, just life chatter. Kids, work, hubby, religion...We get up to leave because we are sensing the waitress wants us to move along (again not in my restaurant, stay as long as you want)and #3 is getting bored. We head home, she lives next door so it's no burden to drop her off. She is sweet. I like her alot. (Dumb and Dumber?)So I get #4 out of bed and he seems fine. So of course I drag him to the fabric store to buy more fabric that I probably won't use for awhile. But it's my birthday and I'll buy fabric if I want too. I'm finishing this up a week later and I'm trying to remember what happened next.....Nope nothing. I get home and soon after #3 & 4 get home from school. They are happy to see me and sing to me again. They are also still bitter that they couldn't skip school and celebrate all day long with me, but then feel better when they realize that they just missed #4 throwing up and a boring lunch. I made dinner that night I think...But I can't remember what I made..weird. Must not have been that great...Dr.Van calls and says he's running late. "I thought you were trying to get out of there early today so you can come home and make a cake with the kids?" Oh well, I am instructed not to make my own cake..I do buy some icecream though...We eat and the kids are itching to give me their cards they made and do presents. It's getting late after cleaning up dinner, Dr. Van is still talking about making a cake..."don't make a cake, it's 7:30pm it's not a big deal..." I lied. I just didn't want him to feel bad. I should have just made it myself. We have leftover ugly cupcakes from #4's bday a few days previous...He makes a bowl of icecream with a cupcake, and lights 2 candles...I blow out the candles and I forget to make a wish. Shoot. Guess the wrinkles are staying..There's always next year. I'm looking at the presents so beautifully wrapped an hour before. "Oh, Dr. Van, you shouldn't have...." Oh that's right he didn't. I bought that "silhouette" machine a few weeks before remember? And some paper to go with it. I reassured Dr. Van that he didn't have to wrap my presents. But he insisted. So #2 wrapped them...I opened a cute new turquoise purse I love it! It's bright and big and I can fit #4 in it practically. It's exactly what I would pick..Because I did. I just didnt' want to feel guilty for buying it so I stuck it in the birthday pile along with a watch I found...At least he knew I was going to like my gifts right? I Did get a few magazines from Dr. Van..A comfort food mag, a "PEOPLE'S" Celebrity recipes issue, should be interesting to see what Brad Pitt is cooking up for Easter and the best one... A Guide to picking the best chickens to raise..Or something like that. Yes, it's full of info on chickens. We have talked about having chickens before. He wanted them in Mesa, but it just wasn't in the cards..and it was against the neighborhood ordinances, or whatever...But for some reason they were no restrictions on the # of cats you were allowed...Don't get me started, some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's funny they say the longer you're married the more you can think alike and even look alike, and though I look nothing like Dr.Van, I have to admitt I almost got him chickens for our anniversay...but instead I got him a wedding ring. His last one was rudely cut from his finger when he got in his accident, they said it had to go, his fingers would swell and the circulation would be cut off and then he'd loose his finger.. or some lame excuse like that. Anyhow, I think he'd have preferred the chickens..

I had a good day, and though it was vacant of the normal friends and family, I still had a friend and family there with me and that made it great. Next year I want a cake though..You can pass that along to Dr. Van. PS. he said he actually has another present he ordered for me, overseas? He also said he got an email saying shipping was going to be more and he had to pay it before it was sent..So it was going to be late... He was quite bummed apparently he put quite a bit of thought into it. At least that's what he made me believe.Wonder what it is? The suspense is killing me...I love presents after my bday...I will include my address at the bottom of this post in case any of you want to send me something late;)

Well Spring is in the air...These lovely flowers the "Daffodil" are littered everywhere here. And in the most random places too. They have quickly become one of my 2 favorite flowers...I love "Daisy's" too. #1 likes the daffodils in "Alice In Wonderland". I love the edible daffodil tea cup and saucer in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" Of course it would be food related.. They are lovely and yellow and happy. I love looking at them, and when I get a bit of earth of my own, I will have these lining my walkways...
Another strange thing you find scattered about, are scallions. Green onions. They are everywhere! It's so crazy. It's like someone went crazy with the scallion seeds, or maybe they were planting them on a windy day and they blew everywhere? If anyone knows about this strange occurance, please clue me in. All I know is that I don't need to spend $$ on these, I can just walk into the woods,or grassy areas, and find them, just patiently waiting to be picked and used for it's intended purpose, sprinkled ontop of a hot potato, tossed in a salad, or stir fried in a wok with other veggies and your choice of beef, pork, or chicken..shrimp is $5 more.

All I know is everywhere I turn it's beautiful...

Dogwoods are everywhere with blossom of pink and white. And trees bloom at different times so the blossoms seem to last longer this way. It's simply amazing. I loved it last year and I love it more this year. Grass is greening up and the bees are coming out to play. As are the spiders...ooh chills just now. In AZ I checked my shoes for scorpions..here you check for spiders..Which do you think is worse?

In clusion, I have decided that 32 is going to be a great age and year. I am trying to "grow old gracefully" but it's not that fun. But I guess it can't all be fun and games now can it? Or can it? Guess that depends on who you ask..Here's to 32 and Spring!