I have been craving pizza since yesterday. No, not that kind of craving, just the “boy does that sound good” kind. So, after LG and I went to Michael’s, we drove around trying to find one of those Pizza Hut drive-thrus. I never found one, so I’m thinking they don’t have those anymore, but via GPS, we ended up at Streets of New York. I went in, told them I needed a pizza to go and I only had $14 and what could I get for that? He showed me and I ordered it. When he rung it up, it was a little over the $14, so he said, I’ll give you a dollar off, so it came out to under $14.

I’m not sure if that’s a sign of the times or just really good customer service, but either way I really appreciated it. And the pizza was really good, too!

I’ve always liked to name my hard drives. There was Xena, and Warrior Princess. There was Gabrielle. (If you’re a Xena fan you get that one.) There was Eowyn and there was Galadriel. (Those are Lord of the Rings characters if you’re wondering.) So, I have a new computer. And it needed a name. I sort of wanted to stick with my fantasy type names, and I could have used Arwen (also from Lord of the Rings), but I wasn’t so into that one, so I went far back in my scifi/fantasy arsenal to the original Battlestar Galactica (you know, the one with Dirk Benedict and Richard Hatch - not from Survivor). And my new computer has been christened…Cassiopeia!

I’ve heard (and read) how some people call my favorite store, Target, the $100 store because they can’t get out of there without spending $100. For me, it’s the $60 store. I almost always spend right around $60 when I go there. Except today!

LG has been getting sticker rewards and her wish for when the latest sticker sheet was filled up was to get a toy. So, we went to Target today to get her toy. The first thing she saw that she liked was a little $3 stuffed dog toy. Which was fine, but I had her look at everything else to make sure that was what she wanted. She passed up all the other more expensive toys, didn’t even ASK for some of the ones she stopped to admire, and remained settled on the dog. Not that I’m complaining. We went to the summer toy clearance aisle, where I found three toy boats for the tub, a jump rope and a small rake for her sandbox. Grand total for all of that? Under $6. It’s pretty much a miracle for me to get out of Target without spending at least $20. But today I did!

We got out of there early enough that the lunch rush hadn’t really started at Wildflower Bread Company, so LG and I had a nice little lunch before we went home. She had a ham sandwich (that she wasn’t too thrilled with) and chocolate milk (which she was thrilled with) and I had a Hummus plate, which was soooo yummy. Before I had fresh hummus in San Diego with Mr. Syndromes when we went to dinner with him a couple of years ago, I could take it or leave it. But fresh hummus? I love that stuff. So, I blame Mr. Syndromes for my addiction. In a good way, of course! I brought most of LG’s sandwich home with me and when Mike’s work partner stopped by to get some stuff on the way to the jobsite, Mike asked for a sandwich over the phone, so I turned her non-eaten half sandwich into a full sandwich for Mike…lol! It all worked out nicely.

Now, she’s watching Cars and I’m doing paperwork. Okay, I took a little break to blog. But as soon as this posts, back to paperwork. Yay.

Oh, did I mentioned I went to see Mamma Mia! yet again last night? I went with Rochelle (her 2nd time) and another friend from choir who was out of town when we went a couple of weeks ago. It’s even better the third time. You laugh harder at the funny parts because you know what’s coming. I love that movie! And I think I might see it again. I never do that. But, I really love that movie! So go see it! (And before the movie, I had my first experience with Dippin’ Dots. Yum!)

Yay! I went to the eyeglass place this morning and got them to agree to replace the progressive lenses with single vision lenses. Of course that means I still don’t have my new glasses, but my old ones weren’t that bad, so I’ll live. Really the best advice I got at the original appointment was to use the Refresh Tears eyedrops. They have made a world of difference for me. I am still going to try and get them to refund me some money, but one step at a time.

After we left the eyeglass place, LG and I went to the mall to look at bedding because she is about to outgrow her toddler bed. We still have most of the pieces of the canopy bed I got when I was four years old, so we’re going to refurbish it and she’s going to have a canopy bed or a “castle” bed as she calls it. She’s very excited. The mall didn’t have much in kids’ bedding and zip in canopy bedding, so I’m still on the hunt for that. (I have found some online, so that will do if I don’t find anything else.)

After the mall, I decided that going to Macaroni Grill for lunch sounded like a good idea and after making sure that Rochelle was working, we headed that direction. As we were getting closer, LG announced she had to go potty. We were close to home, so I thought that would be the quickest place to stop, and then I realized we were passing our church, so I pulled in there and we ran inside to the bathroom. (Okay, actually I carried her because I figured that would get us there faster.) And YIPPEE!!!!!! not only did she make it, she went on the adult toilet for the first time. She and I both got a little freaked out about the fact that there was no soap in the church bathroom. *sigh* (Luckly, I had some hand sanitizer in the car.) She also had another dry pull-up this morning. So, even though I’m not quite ready to officially call training over, for all intents and purposes it is, and you probably won’t be reading about it here anymore. I think she’s passed all the tests now. ;)

Oh, and we did finally get to Macaroni Grill and have a very nice lunch!

Okay, seriously, I’m not a superstitious person. I’ll walk under a ladder. I don’t even think about it if a black cat crosses my path (which used to freak my mother out to no end). And Friday the 13th is just another day. But it’s nice to have something abstract to blame when things go wrong.

Last night I hosted a Mother/Daughter Spa Party for some friends to try out the BeautiControl products. Right before the consultant got to my house to set up, I was having LG feed Melody while I finished a few last minute things. I heard her yelling from the other room and sounding upset and found out she had accidentally dumped Melody’s food into her automatic watering dish instead of her food dish. I was understandably frustrated because I just didn’t have time to deal with it at that moment. I managed to get the water-logged food out and into another container which I stuck in the other bathroom and closed the door. Then we fed her with fresh food and I left the other stuff for Mike to deal with when he got back because I’m nice like that. Poor kid, though, she was upset because she didn’t really mean to do it and she was worried I was mad at her. I tried to reassure her I wasn’t, I was just frustrated because I didn’t have a lot of time to deal with it at that moment.

The other not-so-fun thing that happened last night? Mike’s water pump blew on his truck on the way out to his gig last night. His gig that is 60 miles away. And did I mention he had all of the sound equipment in his truck? He called the sound guy who came and towed him to the gig. They did the gig and then he called AAA after the gig to tow him to our friend the mechanic’s place of business so he could work on the truck today, and he got a ride home from some of the other band guys. It was a late night, but I think between the discount on my new glasses that I got the other day and that tow, AAA just paid for itself for the year.

This morning? Well, it’s 10 a.m. and everyone in the house is still asleep except me and the dog, and I’d still be asleep, too, if the stupid phone hadn’t decided to ring about 30 minutes ago.

Hope you have a great weekend!

My mother-in-law is coming home today. Not sure when, because you know how hospitals are, but that’s really good news. Thanks again for all your prayers and good thoughts.

We have our last event of the 10 day stretch tonight. And I’m so relieved to get it all over with. Other than a Mommy and Me dance class once a week in June and a dance recital to attend, I have nothing going on until July’s 8 days of Vacation Bible School. And since it’s going to be too hot to do much outside, maybe I can get some things done around here.

The forecasts are all a bit different, but the high is supposed to be anywhere from 107° to 110° today. Ugh. And tomorrow won’t be much better. But later in the week after the high pressure system moves out and a low pressure system moves in, it will drop 20 degrees for a few days and we’ll probably have our last nice weather until October. Time to “hibernate” for the long, hot summer. People with hard winters hibernate in the winter. But here? We hibernate in the summer because it’s just too hot to do much else. Thank goodness for air conditioning, though!

School is finished and/or winding down for most of the people I know. We’re going to have to start doing our watering in the evenings rather than in the morning (it was already 90° at 9 am today just to give you an idea of summer mornings around here). I think LG and I might take a trip to the mall every week just to get some exercise. I’d better leave my credit cards home, though! ;)

Mike has some summer projects for the house in the works. The music room is going to get window seats that will make it nicer in there when we have rehearsals. I also hope to get some painting done. I’m getting tired of everything being white. I just have to figure out what color to paint, and that seems to be the hardest part of all. We’ll also try to plan out what we want to do with our back patio and our front courtyard. If we get the plans all sketched out, then when it cools off he can get to work on them faster. And who knows? Maybe we’ll get the master shower and bathroom finished. Yeah, keep dreaming Karin.

Anyway, summer stretches ahead of us, long and hot, but it also brings a slower pace to our lives and I do look forward to that! What are your plans for the summer?

Scroll down for updates…

So this is shaping up to be a banner day.

7:00 am I am awoken by Mike telling me he has to go to his parents house because his mom’s leg is swollen and she needs to go to the hospital. (Someone has to stay with his grandpa and aunt, so his dad stayed and Mike took her to the ER).

Did I mention we are doing music for a wedding ceremony this afternoon? And that LG was supposed to go to Grandma’s while we did that? So that was my immediate thought - what are we going to do with LG? Well, thank God for good friends. I emailed Marlene and she offered to take LG with them to the birthday party they are going to (which is for the little girl I made the onesies for in the last post) and to which we were invited, but couldn’t attend because of the wedding obligation. She’s even going to come pick her up. For both things, I am eternally grateful. The back up plan was that she go to Rochelle’s where we will be going after the wedding, but they are in the middle of getting ready for her graduation party and I figured she would freak out with all the strange people there anyway…lol!

7:30 am The doorbell rings. WTF??? Who on earth would be ringing my doorbell at 7:30 am??? I look out my bedroom window and see a strange car parked in the cul-de-sac. Obviously, I was not yet dressed since I’d been awoken only half an hour before and since then had been busy arranging for my daughter’s care. So, I jump out of bed, throw on some shorts and a robe, and go to the door. Only to see the car driving off down the road and no clue left as to why they rang the doorbell in the first place. Do you think that if you ring someone’s doorbell that early on a Saturday morning, you might assume they are not dressed yet and give them time to answer the door? Again I say, WTF???

8:30 am I have to take a shower and there is no one to keep an eye on LG while I do it. Other than Melody. And she’s just as mischievous as LG is. So, I get LG changed and dressed. I turn on Disney Channel. I make her a bowl of cereal and move her little table off the carpet and onto the tile so she can eat and watch TV figuring that should keep her out of trouble. Then I go take my shower. When I come out, she has spilled her cereal on her table. (I knew that would happen!) But not on herself or the floor. And she’s trying to clean it up. So that went fairly well don’t you think?

9:00 am I am IMing with Rochelle about various things. I also sent an IM to a friend who is graduating from college today. At one point, I sent Rochelle a message saying that I just realized I needed to get the graduating friend a grad gift/card and that I was a dork. Only I didn’t type it in Rochelle’s window. I typed it in the graduating friend’s window. Doh! Karin = bigger dork.

So, that’s my morning so far. Mike is still at the ER, but he texted me when they went in the exam room. That was an hour ago and I haven’t heard anything since. So, on a serious note, please keep my mother-in-law in your prayers. Swollen legs can be scary things and we want her to be around for a good long time.

Now, let’s just hope the wedding is a resounding success. Please. I can’t take anymore stress today!

Update 1: Mike called and they did an ultrasound on his mom’s leg and were waiting for results, but said they would be very surprised if it was not a blood clot. *sigh*

Update 2: Opened the door to go outside and look at my garden and found a newspaper up against the door - which explains the doorbell ringing at 7:30 am.

Update 3: Or not. Mike said the paper was here when he left, so whoever it was brought it to the door with them. Still don’t know who or why they rang the doorbell at 7:30 am!

Update 4: The ultrasound confirmed the diagnosis of a blood clot in the leg. At this point in time they are treating it with medication, so please send prayers and/or good thoughts that this treatment will be successful. She will be in the hospital for a couple of days. Including Mother’s Day. :(

Update 5: Mike’s mom is status quo, but apparently in less pain (thank you morphine). The wedding went well. I didn’t screw anything up! Yay! And I think I sounded pretty okay if I do say so myself. LG had a good time at the birthday party and ate cake (even though she told me she didn’t want to eat cake). Thank you again, Marlene! Rochelle’s party was good. And hey guess what? LG ate more cake (even though she told me didn’t want to eat cake).

A lot has been going on around here. But don’t worry, Marlene, I’ll put the snake story after the jump so you don’t have to see it…lol!

• Monday night, we finished the religious education program for the season. We now have a few months off before it starts back up again in September, and it is a welcome break. We ended the year with a song that I think we all really enjoyed doing (Let Us Pray by Steven Curtis Chapman).

• Have I mentioned I have three new “epals”? I found this site and I’ve been email chatting with three very nice ladies from England. As far as I know, they don’t know each other, but they’re all around my age and have kids, so it’s fun to talk to someone far away. Before LG was born, I used to be involved in an international community through an internet radio station that I DJed for and I was kind of missing that, even though I’m still in touch with some of those people that I used to talk with.

• Yesterday I spent doing crafty things. I made some cards with flowers and plants from my yard that I had dried…

And some onesies for a first birthday gift for a friend’s daughter…

• Starting Saturday, I have 10 days of craziness. Now don’t get me wrong, I know everyone is busy this time of the year, but other than last weekend’s religious education program, I have nothing else going on this month other than those 10 days. It would be nice if it was a little more spread out through the month, but I guess it’s also nice to get it all over with at once. Saturday we are singing at a wedding, then going to Rochelle’s graduation party. Sunday is mass as usual. Tuesday we have two rehearsals. Wednesday we have the last mass of the year at the local Catholic high school. Thursday is a confirmation mass at our church. The next Saturday is another confirmation mass at our church that I won’t be going to, because of so much other stuff already going on. Sunday is again mass as usual. And finally, that last Monday night is the baccalaureate mass for the local Catholic high school. Lots. of. stuff.

• Okay, now it’s time for the snake story. There is a photo, so I’m warning you now that if you’re squeamish about snakes, you might not want to click! (Read on …)

We had a busy weekend due to the church festival. Since Mike’s in charge of entertainment, that meant he had to pretty much live at church for the weekend and he also gigged out of town Friday and Saturday night, so we didn’t see him too much. His band was the entertainment Sunday night, so he didn’t even do mass - the music director sat in with us instead.

Mike had bought LG a wristband (which means unlimited rides for one day instead of paying $6 per ride), so on Saturday while the Suns playoff game was the entertainment, he took her on rides. There were only three that she was big enough to ride on, but she rode on them all by herself (several times each), and she was mighty proud of that fact as you can see by the look on her face…

The other ride she went on was the roller coaster. Her face when it started up was priceless and both Mike and I thought she might freak out and start crying - it could have gone either way at that particular moment. Instead, she started laughing. Whew.

Yesterday night we had a skeleton crew at mass - me, the music director, Rochelle, her mom, the drummer, and two other teenaged singers, but it went all right. It’s always a little rough when Mike isn’t there because he is the glue that holds us together and we’re very used to the way he does things, but there were no train wrecks, so I call that a good night. We also sang a song that I had written with some help from the music director and Mike and it went well and even got applause which is cool. It’s always scary to release one of my songs into the world. Scary, yet exhilarating. But, music director said that the morning masses had received it well so I’m happy!

And this morning? We were awakened (awoken?) by the sound of a mooing cow next door. No idea why there’s a cow next door. Usually they just have horses, but this cow is loud and not very happy apparently. I’ll get a picture later if I’m able. At least it wasn’t a donkey at 3 am. I remember those days…

Anyway, we had a great weekend - hope you did, too!

Okay, after a week of stomach flu and a weekend of anxiety attackedness, I think I’m starting to feel like a human being again. It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do for one’s psyche (thank you Benadryl!). LG and I might even make a trip to Target so I can see if they still have the little plant signs in the dollar store that I didn’t buy enough of when I saw them the first time.

Anyway, two things came to mind this past week/weekend in all my insanity…first was a story about my most almost embarrassing moment and second was my favorite comfort food when I’ve got an upset stomach. I’m going to share mine and then you can share yours in the comments (or on your blog if you really wanna).

First of all, my most almost embarrassing moment…meaning a moment that could have been embarrassing but luckily was not.

I was singing with Mike at a wedding - don’t remember whose wedding it was, but it was at our church, and it was just me and him, so probably not someone I knew very well. Anyway, I sang and all went well as far as I remember. Literally moments after everyone had walked out of the church after the ceremony was over (maybe the wedding coordinator was still there, but that was all), the elastic in my half slip gave up the ghost and it fell to the floor in a puddle of white satin. It may or may not have been noticeable had it happened during the ceremony because I was standing behind the mixing board, and it happened quickly. But still. Can you imagine that happening during the wedding ceremony? What if I’d been singing a song when it happened? Oh, the mortification. What a way to be remembered instead of for my voice…lol! So yeah, a big blessing from God that it happened when it happened. Kinda funny, though. ;)

And my favorite comfort food when I have an upset tummy? White rice. It’s one of the few things I can eat when my stomach is feeling yucky. Definitely a comfort food.

Okay, your turn. Share your most “almost embarrassing moment” and your favorite “comfort food” in the comments. Go!

And if you want to get in on the Monday Madness theme, post two questions in your blog (they can be these questions or preferably, totally different questions) and have everyone come answer them! Maybe we’ll make this a regular thing. Who knows?

Sometimes you get up in the morning, and you think it’s going to be a normal ordinary day. Maybe you have one or two things to do, but nothing too unusual. And then, at some point, something magical happens and the day is forever burned in your memory.

Today started out pretty normally. We went for a walk with Marlene. I took a quick shower when we came back and relaxed for a little while until it was time to take LG to her Tap Dance class. We had talked a lot about my expectations. She would do what her teacher said. She would not cry. She would have fun. Well, one out of three ain’t bad. She didn’t cry and stayed in the class the whole time without me. She also pretty much just stood there and didn’t move her feet or her body. But, I’m calling it progress. Next week, we’ll try and get the feet moving.

Most of the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. That is, until Mike came home and suggested we hang out in the yard for awhile until dinner time. He went to work watering plants, LG followed him around, and I wandered around with my camera looking for something to photograph. But then, something caught my eye in the next door neighbor’s yard. (Read on …)

Considering the only place I actually went this weekend was to church last night, it sure seemed like a jam-packed weekend.

Friday, Mike was home all day, but working in the garage on band equipment. Do not ask me what he was doing because I have no idea. He also ran some errands and came home from Home Depot with three bushes to plant.

Saturday morning we got up and spent the morning outside doing yard word. Mike planted the three bushes and I started a documentation project of all our desert plants. As in, I spent about 2 1/2 hours and over 300 photos (both full views and macro shots) of all the different species of desert plants we have on our property. Now I’m going to research them and find out all the formal (and common) names of each plant. Which is not always easy, especially when it comes to cacti, because there are so many different (and similar varieties) of each one. It’s going to take me awhile, but I think it will be worth it in the end. We’ll have our own little desert botanical garden. ;) We’re trying to teach LG the names of the plants, but it’s hard when we don’t know the correct names to tell her. So we’re working on it. She’ll be a botanist yet. ;)

One of the many loves Mike and I share is a love for all kinds of desert plants, so we enjoy getting new ones and talking about the ones we have and figuring out how to make our landscaping look inviting. So hopefully, as we get our property looking like we want it to, I’ll share photos and information about the many desert plants we have living with us.

LG stayed out with us for quite awhile, but then she got tired of being outside, so we let her go in the house, close the door to her room and open her window so we could communicate with her. She actually spent most of the time standing on a chair looking out her window watching us with her stuffed animals. And whenever we walked past, she’d “take our order” for “hamburgers” and “chocolate milk”.

Saturday afternoon, Mike and LG propagated some seeds in cups in my kitchen. So I now have about two dozen white cups covered with plastic wrap and containing seeds for Palo Verde, Desert Willow and Texas Ebony trees sitting on my kitchen counter until they germinate. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about that yet, but oh well. ;)

Yesterday, I upgraded all of my blogs to the new WordPress 2.5. Just to tell you how long it’s been since I upgraded this particular blog, it was on version 2.0. I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to upgrading because I’m always terrified I’m going to screw something up, lose important information or break something. But it all went well. Luckily, the other blogs were easy since I used my web host’s one-click install when I originally installed them. Why I did not do that with this one, I will never know, but because I didn’t, it means I have to go in and do the install myself. And that is scary. Anyway, everything went well and nothing seems to be broken, so that is a big relief. (By the way, one of the cool things about the new WordPress is that it periodically saves your drafts as you’re working on them, so they don’t get lost in the internet ether if something goes wrong along the way.)

Edited to add: I almost forgot the part about Melody waking up yesterday morning with a sore paw and limping sadly around the house all day. She seemed okay otherwise and there was no gaping wound or swelling that we could see, so it didn’t seem to require a trip to the emergency pet clinic, rather just wait and see until this morning. This morning, she’s pretty much back to normal and was running around the yard without a care in the world, so no vet bills, thank goodness.

Last night we had mass as usual, and other than the fact that the Youth Group bus was late getting back from retreat, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Which is always a good thing.

Hope your weekend was lovely as well!

Thursday LG and I went to Target to get some candy for the church’s Easter egg hunt. (Of course, I bought several more things because it is impossible for me to just buy what I went in there for.) I told her she had to ride in the cart and she was not happy with me, so she “growled” at me. I told her that “we do not growl at people”. “But Melody growls,” she said. Good point, but Melody is a dog, LG is a girl, so no growling.

This continued throughout the day - LG growling whenever things didn’t go her way and me reminding her that “we don’t growl”. It did finally sink into her head by the end of the day and the growling went away.

Last night at dinner, Mike said or did something that irritated me, and I reacted with a “grrrr”. LG said, “Mama! Don’t growl!” Gotta love it. Called on the carpet by a three year old. ;)

Yesterday was LG’s first experience with dyeing Easter eggs. She pronounced it “fun” and after we had dyed our dozen eggs, Mike used the rest of the dye to make tie dye t-shirts. I have no idea how well they will hold up to washing and wearing, but it was pretty fun. Here are some pictures…

Happy 43rd birthday to my awesome wonderful put-up-with-me-able husband!

I started off the morning by telling him that I’d just found out the mortgage payment on the rental house was due yesterday and I hadn’t paid it because I assumed it was due the 14th like it was last month, forgetting that February is a shorter month. STUPID CALENDAR. I called the mortgage company to 1) figure out how to pay it online and 2) beg them to take the late fee off because it was an honest mistake and I’ve never paid it late before. Well, they told me that they don’t put late fees on until 10 days past due. Which means I still had time to mail it! Hurray for me! (And I just saw the mail truck come and pick it up while I was typing this, so we’re good to go.)

I also told him if he wasn’t home for dinner by 6, so we could be done by 7 (in time for American Idol), I might have to kill him and that would be sad since it was his birthday and all. Am I a good wife or what? Edited at 7 pm to add: Of course, I just realized that American Idol isn’t on until 8. But he was home at 6!

On the other hand, on the way home from the grocery store, we stopped at the church where he was in a staff meeting, and decorated his car with a balloon and streamers.

I’m also making his favorite pasta dish for dinner and LG and I are about to go make this yummy chocolate cake for dessert. And I got candles and birthday plates even. So, I’m not totally rotten. ;)

Either way, Happy birthday honey. I love you more than I could ever say.

Yes, yes we did have a weekend. And some interesting things happened! Okay, talk to y’all later. What? You might like to hear about them? Um, sure! (Read on …)