TMI Thursday: The Pooper-Scooper

Ok all... I have officially decided to join this brigade of craziness! Yes, I understand, I may lose a reader here or there but I whole heartedly enjoy other peeps TMI's and I finally said screw it... I'll embarrass the shiznot out of myself! So in honor of LiLu and many other's I will give my own TMI right here on my own blog!

Keeping in the spirit of my first TMI (guest blogging on -jd's blog)... I'm keeping it real.

Poop is so funny. Poop is a topic most wont discuss and many are embarrassed by. And wouldn't you know it... I've got PLENTY of stories in said topic. Aren't you just lucky???

Lets take it back a few years... back when I was young and free... I think I was about 11 or 12. You know those days.... you played outside until after dark. You didn't go home until your parents were yelling your names out the back door. You played hide and seek in the dark, and were basically a REAL KID.

Well my parents had a few rules from time to time... if we came in the house one too many times in a night... we got in hella trouble! We got the "If you come in this house ONE MORE TIME, you're staying in a going TO BED!" line... YIKES!!! No one wanted to be THAT kid! (side note: what the hell did my parents do while we were outside? I have a few ideas but really.... think about it!?!)

Anywhos... One night in particular, I had received this very line. I was HELL bent on not going inside to go to bed! My BFF at the time (coincidentally my next door neighbor) and I were hanging out with some neighbor boys and were having fun doing that crazy kid flirting, play fighting, basically being pre-adolescent.

Then it hit me.

I had to POOP.

Fudgesticks. What the hell am I going to do now?

You see, she had received the same line from her parents so I was screwed.

Then she had an idea... kind of went like this...

BFF: "Dana, why don't you just go real quick behind the trees in my back yard? My parents won't know! Just use some leaves or something like if we're camping!"

Me: "Really??? Jeesch, I dunno. But I do REAAALLLLYYY have to go and then we COULD stay out and play more... OK."

So I quietly marched behind her trees, squatted, and did the nasty. She, being the BFF that she was, stood guard for me... what a GREAT friend, right? ;-)

Fast forward bout 30-45 minutes... got the yell for inside time. So as I'm getting my PJ's on... the whole event gone from my mind... there's a knock at the back door.

Apparently, my BFF's parents saw us screwing around behind the tree and questioned her when she got inside.

THE TRUTH CAME OUT.

Her mom was standing there.... with her... with a pooper scooper in hand.

Yes, folks, I had to poop scoop my own poop.

So could it get any more embarrassing you ask???

Why, yes. it. can.

Try scooping your own poop, in front of your BFF, her mom, her older (and way hot) brother, my parents, my brother, and the same boys that we were flirting with earlier.

If I had known what alcohol was at the time... I would have consumed mass quantities.

Ok.

Now bring on the bashing! ;-)

Weekend Downsizing!

I usually don't write recaps of the weekend if it's just us hangin' out at home but I wanted to share a HUGE downsize in our move towards a more simple life...

The Entertainment Center.

Ok... this big bad bitch has to be the biggest entertainment center I have ever seen... and bout 7 years ago... I purchased this beast for a STUPID reason (you know... "spend $3000 and have NO PAYMENT for 6 months and LOW LOW LOW financing" crap.) It has had 2 places in our house.... it has been moved only twice and the last time it was moved was 5 years ago... the thing is just TOO huge to move!!! It also dwarfed the beautiful fireplace and I was worried it wouldn't support the weight of the TV John brought over. It was just ONE BIG PROBLEM all around!

(sorry... I just love this picture... he looks like such a freakin' rag-a-muffin here.. one skate, hole in sock, no pants, helmet... how could you NOT giggle???? ;-)

Well this weekend we tackled the project of taking down and rearranging the room (ok... well John did bout 80%... I was more of the cleaning and directing crew so to speak...)

Now... isn't this soooo much better???

(pardon the gross wall behind... these 2 rooms still need a remodel... when we have the $dough$)

And I think it really makes the fireplace (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE) more of the focus in the room....

Yay us!!!!

The Fight Inside My Head

Sounds really dumb, and actually, it usually only happens bout this time of year. I think it has a lot to do with the weather, and just generally feeling all cooped up inside the house. I love winter, don't get me wrong, but usually by say... JANUARY FIRST I wanna tell miss mother nature to knock it off and let me sit outside for awhile, with out freezing my tooshie off. Maybe it's because I'm sittin' here listening to Lily Allen (who I LOVE, have seen once and am goin to see again this Easter!!!)

And, it usually only comes to a head when I've had a few beers and time to think by myself with out any distractions....

I swear I have a double personality. Let me enlighten you....

SIDE 1: I love being a mommy. I love being a part-time-workin' mostly stay at home mommy. I love my children to the ends of the earth and back again. I love cookin' up meals and sittin' on the couch knitting. I even love mom jeans (HA HA! JUST JOKING! Had you fooled didn't I???)

I don't even really mind keeping my house clean (but I still HATE laundry). I love learning how to live more simply. I love the idea and fantasy of living on a farm with my family and watching us all evolve naturally and with out restriction. I love being in love with -jd. I love the idea that I'm going to be his wife soon and can't wait.

SIDE 2: I am such a free bird asshole, it's ridiculous. I love going out and partying until the sun comes up. I love dancing in the clubs (dear god, not here, but places like Chicago, South Beach, etc.) until they close. I love drinking some good beer and having a bonfire with friends. I like getting all stupid with them and waking up the next day thinking to myself, "Did we really do THAT???".

I love going to concerts, outdoor or indoor, I don't care. I love going to music festivals (Bonnaroo, SummerCamp, Langerado, Lollapalooza to name a few). I love meeting new people and making great friends. I love being a smart mouth, blunt, bitchy person, especially to really dumb males. I love independent thinking and actions.

See what I mean??? And when I think of the two, it seriously puzzles the shiznit out of me. I CAN NOT do both and be a sane person. I have done both at seperate parts of my life and each time, one was hindered by the other.

I would go to a music festival and yet I was the "responsible" one... packed everything needed, stayed all squeaky clean, didn't get all messed up like the next person.... and you know why? Because I'm a mother of three children. Yet when I'm inside all winter trying to entertain 3 children, and when we do finally go out and even going to the local bar has lost it's appeal.... I want to scream, throw my arms out, and stomp my damn feet! I CAN NOT, I repeat, I CAN NOT be in this house for any extended period of time with out feeling mildly suffocated.

I think a lot of this has to do with John and I as well (yes, I know you're reading this!). I remember when we first started dating, we both loved our single lives. We promised not to give up our friends, our fun times, or our dreams. Yet we fell into the trap. The trap of spending ALL our time together.... and don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE spending time with John and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. We can have the greatest time doing nothing but sitting and talking for hours.... but I'm at a point now where I need to still be little old independent me and feel secure in knowing you are still going to be there. I'm sure (as of tonight when I kicked John out of the house) he feels slightly similar.

So there you have it. That's the fight inside my head. The Mature and Immature butting heads.

The problem is that I love BOTH sides. I don't want to give either one up. I enjoy each for it's own value. You can't be a good mom or life partner with out knowing and being yourself. And I can have a fantastic time and still respect who I am at home.

So now it's convergence time.... I need to learn how to make these two halves of myself meet in the middle. I'm workin' on it, and hopefully it won't take long....

And now... it's time for another beer... and no more computer! :-)

TMI Thursday....

So I have posted on -jd's blog a beautiful TMI all of my own... head on over to check it out!!!

:-) Dana

Yes, Knitting IS cool!

SO I'm mildly obsessed lately with knitting...

John will swear to you that I'm COMPLETELY obsessed.

But the truth is... I LOVE knitting. It seems to come easy to me and I don't think that's crazy... to love something that comes that easy to you! Of course I do buy way too much yarn at stores and I have taken some back because I ran out of places to stick it in my art cabinet but eh, that happens! :-)

I just wanted to share some of the projects I've done... and then you can tell me if I'm crazy or not! ;-)

This is the awesome beanie John has been requesting I make him...

And after the beanie, I was then inspired to make another, more girly hat for myself, or maybe someone else.. (I don't have anyone to model it so it's just the hat :-)

I have also learned the art of waffle dishcloths....

And I even sold 2 sets of a hat and a scarf thanks to my momma!!!

So I would say I'm not THAT crazy if someone liked it enough to pay for it! :-)

Summer style hikin' in the Winter!

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day!!!

It was perfectly warm, sunny, and saturday... we had all four kiddos so we decided to take them to the park we're getting married at and go hiking. *PLUS, I needed to earn some "activity points" on weight watchers since I had one to many beers last night!*

It was sooo much fun though and I have tons of pictures!

I think the kids enjoyed all the activities and sites we saw.... One thing we did was climb up snowy, muddy hills!

The next 2 pics are from the top down of the two biggest hills we climbed...

Then, of course, what goes up..... must come down!! Every hill we went down was an ice slide pretty much! These 2 pics are of the smaller hill...

This next hill was a doozy...

Here's a pic I tried to take of Zaky going down... as u can see, he was going faster then I could catch it on the camera!

And the butt shot.... it's how all of our asses looked after this hill...

We even packed our own lunches and took a small break in the middle of it all :-)

(Zane looks so bad ass with his bandana...)

We got some awesome family pics too....

(We're pretty sure this is the "spot" in the park that we're getting married at...)

We saw these amazing ice jams!!!

And finally, this is how the ride home looked :-)