1. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I’ve got Irish in me from both my mom and dad. Mike has it from his mom. So LG has it from both of us.

2. To celebrate I made Corned Beef for the first time. I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself! I ended up using the crock pot because Mike checked our propane tank this morning (which fuels the burners on our stove) and it was basically on empty. They’re coming Thursday morning to fill it, but I decided not to chance trying to boil something for 3 hours. The crock pot worked just fine, though. It was nice and tender.

3. I got the Corned Beef for $1.27 a pound at the grocery store (even though my regular grocery store was out and I had to go to a different one to get it), so our dinner (including leftovers) basically cost less than feeding one person at Mcdonald’s. Not bad!

4. Today was a great savings day at the grocery store. I had a ton of coupons and I bought about $150 worth of groceries. I paid $62 for them and saved $92. I’ve been waiting to have a shopping day where I saved more than I spent and I finally did. It felt great. Yay for coupons!

5. A picture of our little leprechaun herself…

1. I went to Mass this morning. Now I don’t have to worry about it again until next week! Yay!

2. Two of my friends went to Mass this morning as well, and after Mass was over we (and LG) went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast.

3. I had biscuits and gravy which is a major comfort food for me. My mom used to make them and I had forgotten how much I missed them. They weren’t as good as Mom’s, but they were close.

4. I have pretty much given up trying to make food that Mike and I will like and LG will like as well. I make what we will like and if she eats it, bonus – if not, there’s always PB&J. Tonight, I made ham and cheese roll-ups for dinner and she actually liked it and ate it! Yay!

5. Mike started preparing to do the dishes tonight and stopped to go outside to turn off the hose. When he came back in, LG had the sponge and was washing the juicer all on her own!

1. Mike took LG to the railroad park on our side of town today. They had a nice day out and I stayed home and took a nice long hot shower all by myself. Quiet and peaceful!

2. My alma mater (Arizona State University) made the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament! They haven’t been there since 2003 and before that it was 1995. Don’t know how far they’ll go, but anything can happen and often does during March Madness.

3. We had a visiting priest at mass tonight. He gave a great homily, and I’m planning to go to morning mass to hear him again since he is doing the Lenten Mission this week.

4. I did not screw up my solo tonight.

5. I’m trying to convince Mike to go to Disneyland this Spring if we can scrounge up some money. I think LG would love it!

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1. I walked 1.5 miles today!

2. Cupcakes with homemade buttercream frosting

3. My girl. She can be difficult at times, but I love her madly.

4. We spent an hour and a half cleaning the inside of my car today. Yes, it was that bad. But now it looks so nice and clean and smells good too, thanks to Febreze! Mike decided we could spend $6 to take it through the car wash tomorrow to clean the outside.

5. This product was on American Inventor. It didn’t win, but I thought it was a great idea and I’ve been waiting for it to be available for purchase. It finally is, and I got mine in the mail today. Yay!

Last night I dreamed that I went to morning mass, but that it was actually a Reconciliation Mass and so it lasted for a really long time. And when it was over, I realized I was late to sub at my friend’s school. A school whose name and location I couldn’t remember. Then I couldn’t find my car. And when I finally found it, there was this elderly couple trying to get into it and they got angry with me when I told them it was my car.

Weird dream, right? Well, at least it made me remember that I needed to go to mass this morning to keep up my Lenten promise of going to daily mass at least once a week. Even if I did wake up 15 minutes before I had to be there!

My wise friend Marlene told me not long ago that 4 year olds are bipolar. And let me just tell you, 4 year olds are totally bipolar.

Mike and LG and I went out with Bass Girl and Navy Boy for his birthday dinner at Outback Steakhouse. She was great! She ordered her own dinner. She didn’t have a meltdown when there were pickles on top of her grilled cheese. She just said she didn’t want them and our awesome waitress took them from her and after LG informed her that Melody eats pickles, she brought them back to her in a paper bag!

Everything was going fine until the very nice and kind waitress brought dessert with a candle in it. And for whatever reason, LG just totally and completely lost it. She threw a screaming fit in the restaurant. (And no, to those of you in the know, Happy Birthday was not sung.) It only lasted a couple of minutes (which seemed like eternity), but still. I have never seen her act like that in public EVER. (Other than when Happy Birthday is being sung.) We kind of came to the conclusion that it was a combination of being tired, eating too much sugar earlier today (she licked the mixer whisk clean of frosting), and worrying that her dad was going to eat chocolate and have bad dreams. Or something. I don’t know what it was really, but she freaked. And then, mere minutes after she freaked out, she was happily eating dessert. So indeed, 4 year olds are bipolar. Good luck to those of you whose children have not yet reached that age. If I survive this age, I’ll commiserate with you.

So the grace in this? 9 more months and she’ll be 5. And I’ve heard that 5 is the age when they become human beings again. At least I hope so.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is my hubby’s 44th birthday. So today I’m sharing 5 things I love about him.

1. The thing that drew me to him in the first place is still one of our strongest bonds and probably always will be, and that is music. We are a team. I don’t think it would feel right to do music without him. He’s my partner in performing, in writing and in enjoying all things musical.

2. He’s a great dad. He’s not perfect (but are any of us?), but he is crazy about that little girl. When we were watching The Bachelor the other day, he was saying how he understood how someone could be in love with two people. I (half jokingly) asked him if he was in love with two people. And he startled me a moment when he said yes! Then he continued, explaining that he’s in love with me and with our daughter. It’s a different kind of love, obviously, but I totally knew what he meant. I fell in love long before she was born and I think he did, too. But we both fall more in love with her every day. Just like we do with each other. That’s a pretty special thing.

3. He doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty. I’m not much for digging in the dirt, but I love plants and I’m always wanting to add another one. Luckily, Mike loves puttering around outside and does all the digging for me!

4. He doesn’t get grossed out very easily. Or when he does, he doesn’t show it. He just sucks it up and deals with it. That includes cleaning up dog, kid, and wife puke, among other things. I can guarantee you that he changed more of LG’s poopy diapers than I did!

5. His smile. It’s what made me fall in love with him and when we share a smile over something LG does, it’s even more special.

This is one of my favorite photos of the two of them. LG was 11 months old.

Happy birthday, honey. I love you!

1. Danny Gokey (American Idol contestant)

2. Can’t say enough about the weather.

3. Little girls in princess costumes.

4. BFF starting to feel better!

5. Grapefruit. That’s what I was going to mention yesterday and forgot. For some reason, grapefruit is my friend. When I eat grapefruit every morning, weight comes off. I know that right now I’m losing all water weight, but who cares? It’s still weight coming off and every little bit makes me feel that much better. So hurray for grapefruit!

1. Dancing with the Stars is back!

2. We got a little surprise rain last night.

3. LG found out her song for her June dance recital today. It’s called “Dinosaur Pet” and it’s the same melody as “Calendar Girl”. Very cute!

4. I did lots of laundry today. I hate laundry. But, at least our washing machine and dryer are in the house. When I was a kid, we had the washing machine outside in the back yard and the dryer was the clothesline. So, I guess I shouldn’t complain.

5. I had something else I wanted to write about, but I totally forgot it. Maybe it will come back to me tomorrow!

Fighting a headache, so let’s see what I can come up with…

1. We bought earth worms and praying mantis eggs at the nursery yesterday. The worms went in the planters to help the soil aerate and the mantis eggs went on the rose bushes because we have a huge aphid population around here. When the mantises hatch, they will have plenty of food!

2. Chalupas at Taco Bell

3. Spring!

4. Grandparents who are willing to watch little girls on Sunday nights.

5. And forcing myself off the computer so I can have time to read. Right now I’m finally nearing the end of the 4th Twilight book which I’ve had borrowed for awhile because the beginning of it is sooooo darn slow. But I’m finally into it and it will be home soon! I promise!

Don’t forget to set your clocks forward if you participate in Daylight Savings Time. Arizona doesn’t, but I’m sure a lot of you do!

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For the Kids

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Cupcake of the week 2

Tip of the week

1. Today we went to my BFF’s kids’ school festival. Didja get that? It was a lot of fun with lots of cool activities for the kiddos. LG participated in a few and actually surprised me a couple of times.

2. She loved the petting zoo. That kid loves animals sooo much. I won’t be surprised if her future career includes working with them.

3. She rode on the horse all by herself. Last year, her dad had to walk along beside her because she was afraid she would fall off, but she did great this year!

4. She even played with Silly String! I wasn’t sure how she’d do with that, but the ever-awesome Social Butterfly helped her along and she had so much fun spraying it at SB and the Princess, she had to go back and get another can. And then she sprayed that one all over her Daddy! I don’t envy whoever had to clean all that stuff up. Yikes!

5. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but I had ordered LG a Leapster for Christmas using my credit card reward points (therefore it was free). She absolutely loved it and played with it a ton. Then after we changed the batteries, it inexplicably stopped working. I went through a bunch of rigamarole with the Reward Company trying to get a return form so I could send it back, get my points refunded, and get her another one. They kept telling me they sent the email. I never got it. (Although I got the emails telling me that it had been ordered and shipped just fine.) I finally gave them a gmail address, but still no email. Then the other day, after I’d given them a few days to get the email sent, I got online to find the phone number and call them AGAIN, and not be so nice because hello? If they had sent the stupid email, I’d have gotten it. Anyway, I logged into my account which just a few days before had shown 3500 points. Instead it had over 10,000 points! They had credited my account with a “good will refund”. Maybe because I told them I didn’t believe they had sent the emails because I never had any problems getting email from them before? Maybe because they finally figured out they had NOT sent the emails? No idea. But whatever the case, there was once again enough points to order her a Leapster, so I ordered her a pink one this time. That was Thursday. And since there is a reward fulfillment center in our city, we got it today. Yay! She was very excited. It works so far. And I didn’t have to have the hassle of sending the other one back, so I’m happy! I guess sometimes you really do have to be the squeaky wheel! Oh and by the way, I got two emails regarding the new order – one to confirm the order and one to say it shipped. So do you really think they EVER sent me that other email?

Today’s grace is a cute little story.

Earlier today, LG was playing on my computer (on this site), while I was reading a book. We’ve been trying to hit the letter we’re working on for the week, but we got a little behind. At one point the following conversation occurred…

LG: I want to do something else.

Me: Do “U”.

LG: Yes, I want to do something else!

Me: Do. “U”.

LG: Yes. I. Do.

Finally occurs to me that she is misunderstanding what I’m saying.

Me: Do the letter “U”.

LG: Oh! Okay!

Felt like I was in an Abbott and Costello routine there for a minute. ;)

1. Noah Wyle back on ER. He was always my favorite.

2. Most of the people I wanted to make the Top 12 on American Idol made it.

3. LG is getting better at picking up her messes before she goes to bed.

4. Mike got a couple of calls for bids today. It’ll be nice if he’s booked out a few weeks instead of a couple of days.

5. I finished writing another song today!