Busy weekend

When it rains it pours! And it rained! It fell hard for a solid - what? 4-5 minutes? Which happened to be the 4-5 minutes we arrived at Rossi's 8th grade promotion (yes, our fine school system has found new ways to celebrate mediocrity) I guess I can't complain --- with statistics the way they are in Arizona, this will be the only "graduation" type event 50% of these children will ever see. Which is probably why the majority of 8th graders really go overboard with their formal dresses & such.

So here are some pictures of the blessed occasion...also - it should be noted that I had to go from the car to the gymnasium under a torrential downpour of rain - which is why my hair looks like THAT!




Also Ross & I went to Maggiano's for dinner tonight on the invitation of our friends - who were celebrating their 9th wedding anniversary. We really had a lot of fun! The food was great - a little spendy for the ravioli's not being laced with gold or anything - and the service was - well, probably provided by those who only saw one "graduation" - or maybe two if you counted the Kindergarten gradutation.

As I was saying - we went with our friends, Mike - and his wife, Larri...and another couple, Nate & Mandy! Mandy made the reservations on line and mentioned that it was Mike & Larri's anniversary. The names were spelled wrong, so apparently as we were being seated - with a special print-out menu which included on the bottom "Happy Anniversary Mike & Larry" (spelled wrong!) The faculty at Maggiano's were trying to figure out of the three men who were there, which two were Mike & Larry, we were all sitting couples on a round table, but Ross & Nate were sitting next to each other so they just assumed it was THEM celebrating an anniversary of sorts. We had a nice little laugh about it - and thought we explained to the high school drop out of a server who the happy couple was.

Nate, Mandy, Larri & Mike left quickly at the end of the meal to catch the latest Indiana Jones flick (which we saw just prior to the 8th grade promotion and torential downpour) so we stayed behind to make sure all the ice cream and cheese cake was consumed. I couldn't finish the cheesecake, so our HS dropout boxed it up and brought it back to Ross and told him that he could share it with Mike later tonight...or tomorrow...uh? She still thought (even though the other two couples had gone - and Ross and I were left with the baby) that Nate & Ross were actually "Larry and Mike" celebrating some kind of anniversary.

Yes, we got a kick out of that...I must have been the surrogate mother and gifted them this cute little child for their anniversary? Who ever knows what goes through the heads of little girls who only make it to their 8th grade promotional ceremony?
(insert pictures here - LARRI - e-mail them to me! can't wait to see them!)

Also earlier today the kids went to do baptisms at the temple! This was Kiersten's first time! She really enjoyed it! I'm thrilled! It seems like she's finally starting to make friends in this ward. It's been difficult for her!

Okay - that's the weekend! I was supposed to go hot tubbing with another girlfriend tonight - but I forgot about it - and well, it was a toss up - pricey food and having my husband mistaken for a gay anniversary couple - or - hanging out in a hot tub wearing my only fitting swim suit which happens to be maternity? Yah - hmmm, Guess I'll go eat so I can fit into that maternity swim suit again?

It was a MasterCard kind of a day...

Well, it started out fairly simple. Ross was supposed to go to Omaha yesterday to help his brother w/ the moving truck - they're coming HERE to take temporary residence in our old home.

I think part of me is a little miffed that he's taken off a lot of time from work to do things for/with everyone else, and hasn't spent a lot of time with me...so he took the last few days off work - to run errands before he leaves for Omaha tomorrow.

I don't know why I'm so intimidated to go places with TWO children...I mean - it's ONLY two, right? But they're SOOO young, I haven't had two young children for over 8 years - so I sort of need to find my way back into that groove!

Anywhoooo - we ran a few errands today...and yesterday.

Yesterday poor Coby got her immunizations...or "shocks" as Brynn calls them. She was sad most of the day...we stopped by Frys electronics to get some fun little gadgets - I needed to get a new ipod case - my arm band has been falling apart - it was actually VERY poorly made, they've since updated their style & is much better...but the I decided I wanted to get one that goes around the neck instead of arm...the cord won't bounce all over the place when I run - so we went to about a hundred stores, none of which have a neck thingy - so I got a carry case that has a belt clip on it - and I'll just clip that to my shirt at the neck - no ear phone cords bouncing all over the place!

Today, however, we trekked toward Mesa. We went to the cannery to see what kind of food storage stuff we could get - mostly I just wanted the wheat - I can't seem to find that anywhere - everything else is more expensive at the cannery than what I could get at costco - so I just got the wheat - oh - and hot cocoa mix and some powdered milk...anyway - That was an exciting little stop. They shut the cannery down between 11:30-12:30 for their lunch break - so we left & hung out in Mesa for an hour until it opened back up - so I could see if I could get some salsa, too...(Spent $167 on the dry side alone! Dang that powdered milk is expensive for as terrible as it tastes, but I'm sure the 2 gallons we go through a day - we wouldn't be able to live w/out milk - even if it DID taste yucky.)

That was when it all crashed down on me.

Trying to kill time. 35 miles from home. Thought we'd stop by the distribution center, Ross needed some G's. Picked him up some - he likes them tight - so he gets them a good 10 inches smaller than his pant size...I know - TMI...

We drove on...Ross found a scuba shop he wanted to see if they had any sales...he's turned into sort of a scuba freak. Anyway - I thought I'd take the opportunity to feed Coby while he was in the store.

So I did. Pulled her out of the car seat and started to feed her. She was being so cute. Little smile & squeaky giggles. Then a grunt. And an explosion to follow. YES, I was kind of excited, of course, I'm well prepared, any seasoned mother would have extra diapers, wipies and a change of clothes for the baby in the well-stocked diaper bag...and I am seasoned...in so many ways, really.

It had been almost 3 days since she - uh - had a pressure release - I was starting to get a little concerned. So I left her on my lap for a few extra seconds to make sure she was finished...you know the mess babies are capable of making if they're trying to shoot rapid-fire missiles from their hiney WHILE being changed. So I waited.

Watching the side of her diaper -- watching it fill, but pleased as punch that it hadn't breached the elastic barrier.

Ross came out of the store...he sat in the car for a second while we watched her giggle & coo. And listened to the harmonic sounds of grunts and machine gun fires coming from her pants.

Sweet husband of mine offered to change her. What a dear, right? Yep. So I handed her over to him.

That's when I saw it. A puddle. Trying hard to allow the fibers of the mustard yellow baby poo to be absorbed into my pants. No, the fibers hadn't breached the elastic, instead they went right up the back of her diaper and spewed forth onto my lap.

Indeed - we still had to go to the wet pack side of the cannery - and to the Arizona Mills mall to the scratch & dent store to get a chest freezer. (We gave our last freezer away - it was too big, and my home is too small - I know - listen to me complain about a small home when it's almost twice as big as what I came from - it's just laid out much differently)

Anyway - it would waste gas to go all the way home, change clothes and them come back to Mesa to get what I need - plus, we'd be fighting with rush hour if we did that.

So we didn't.

We went next door to Savers.

Mesa is - well, at least the part of town the cannery is - is an OLD town. It's kind of trashy - I've never been attracted to that part - the whole 10 square miles surrounding the temple. Trashy. Old...dirty - just - not clean...ya know?

So - I went to savers. I just wanted a quick pair of pants. Wow what a selection. not that I'd take money to do a "I was surprised what I found in Savers" commercial, but yah - I got me a few pants to try on.

Went to the little changing station in the front of the store. The door didn't have a lock on it - but it closed, and anyone could see if there were legs in the booth or not...so I flung a pair of jeans over the top of the door so people would see that was an occupied booth.

But I didn't take my shoes off - that floor was SICK.

So I stood struggling to change my pants and put another pair on...called Ross (who was sitting in the car w/ the girls) to have him bring me his G's - cause- well, the ones I got - were also saturated with mustard stains...right through my pants. Yep.

So he brought me some G's threw them over the door and went back out to the car. (Good thing we had him a fresh pair or 5 from the distribution center - right there in the car!)

I put the G's on - being oh, so careful to not get my shoes on the clothing and careful not to touch the walls - (who the heck knew what had been streaked down the sides?! EWE!) Got those up - and - don't know what the general consensus is on wearing man G bottoms, but they're WEIRD. They sort of - are - hip huggers. And baggy in the front - and have those seams in the back over each cheek. not comfortable. But kind of looked almost cute! LOL!

And then I grabbed the first pair of pants to try on - over my shoes again - and - well, I tripped - and fell against the door - which flung open - because it had no lock on it - and opened OUT instead of IN like most changing rooms. So there I lie - in my Man G bottoms and on the filty - old - dirty - aged floor...EWE - with at least a dozen eyes staring at me.

Yep, jumped up like Sister Mary Catherine from SNL - and raised one hand - "Thank you, I'm ALL right!" I exclaimed - as took a bow & tried to close the door to the booth I was in...which didn't close immediately because I had a pair of pants hanging over the top & they kept getting stuck.

So - yah - got the other pair of pants on finally - they didn't fit exactly - but they matched my shirt - and hey they were only $5.99...and much better than the plaid pink & green with a grass stain on the knee - pair that I had also found.

Wore them out to the check stand - stuffing my other poop pants in the diaper bag (which I brought along to hold in front of me while perusing the shopping selection)

The lady at the check stand wanted to know why I was shoving a pair of pants in the diaper bag - and wanted to see them to make sure I wasn't stealing them. So I snapped the tag off the pants I was wearing and told her I switched pants.

She still wanted to see the other ones...which I was hesitant to do, because I also had my G bottoms wrapped in there - so I had to explain to her where I was and what happened.

"Well, where's your baby?"

"In the car"

"That's illegal"

"She's in a car seat, she's fine"

"I'll call the cops"

"why?"

"You can't leave a baby unattended in the car especially not in the Arizona heat."

"But she pooped on me."

{{Lady Gasps}}

I giggled - and told her my husband was with her.

Paid my $6.47 and walked out of the store with my shiny new pair of faux leather pants.

Okay - they weren't faux leather. I made that part up. That would have been funny, though. I imagine they'd be more expensive - like maybe $6.99 - and - well, if I'm going to shop at a second hand store, I'm not going to pay more than $6.47 for a pair of pants.

The wet pack in the cannery was all out of food. The scratch and dent store at the Mills was all out of chest freezers.

I could have just gone home & changed my clothes there. But no. Instead we took Brynn on the carousel ride at the Mills mall -


and then ate a hagen daas. Which - is really over rated - once you've gotten used to the flavor of Blue Bell Ice Cream. I could have bought a whole half gallon of Blue Bell for what I paid for that stupid scoop of mediocre satisfaction.

But I was in town to spend hundreds of dollars on a freezer, why not just indulge a little since I was saving money by not buying the freezer, right?

Fun at the Dinner Table.

Sitting at dinner tonight was pretty mellow at first. A few complaints - can't please them all -

Rossi's stating - matter of factly - that he's a carnivore and he doesn't eat veggies. I told him - "Veggies are good for you, they help you....uh...flush the toilet easier."

Simultaneously Howie piped up and spewed forth at least a sentence worth of information from his "lower cheeks" which made him laugh through pursed lips. We all tried to be social upper class folk by politely ignoring it, but his face was so funny, I had to ask him to repeat himself, because I wasn't sure what he said, or even if he was talking to me...which - of course, set out a burst of loud laughter from the surrounding brood. Howie then told me he thought he was a vegetarian, because he wasn't too fond of the chicken, and IF and WHEN he flushed the toilet, it normally went down rather smoothly..."couldn't you tell, my butt was talking to you." Of course, I had to stifle that kind of talk at the dinner table.

Brynn didn't much care what kind of butt talk I stifled, because she grabbed a fork-full of chicken and continued "I no like shicken, it's bum-cake food." At this point, I'm laughing so hysterically on the inside and biting the inside of my cheeks (upper) to keep the appearance of the persona from the upper class folk (it's a rule not to laugh at crass remarks particularly at dinner, but apparently all hades has broken loose at our dinner table). I told Brynn to put her shicken on Howie's plate, there's more room.

Howie didn't like the chicken on his plate, cause he's a self proclaimed anti-shicken vegetarian, so he took it and threw it behind him - hitting the window then watching it fall to the floor.

Absolutely unacceptable.

"Howie, you're going to sweep the floor when we're done with dinner." Brynn liked the idea of throwing the shicken on the floor, and we had to stop her abruptly. I told her that Howie needed to take at least one bite of shicken, so give it to him. He sat there with his mouth pursed closed and still a giggle from his earlier flatulent remark. She tried to put the shicken in his mouth, but he kept moving his head back & forth - and his mouth was glued shut.

At this point, Rossi told Brynn to plug his nose because then he'd have to open his mouth to get air. Kali grabbed two peas off her plate & told Brynn to stick them up Howie's nose.

Hmmm, good idea...however, Brynn is not that affluent in ways to politely plug other people's noses. So she took her two fingers - index and middle - and gently slid them into each of Howie's nostrils...He laughed, mouth still closed, snot blew everywhere and no one could finish their dinner.

Kiesten's my perfect child.