Riley and Avery

Waiting for the tram.  Already hot and bothered.

Oh, yeah, I took pictures!

Yesterday was dollar day at the state fair, which meant dollar admission for Rudi and me, and Riley and Avery were free. Rides were a dollar each. Rides are normally 3-4 dollars each (!!!!!!!!) Since we missed the Renaissance Festival because our return trip from Maryland took much longer than anticipated, we decided to treat ourselves. This mean that I brought NO snacks and NO lunches. We only brought bottles of water. It was nice. Especially for me, as I'm usually the one packing lunches and holding the purse strings tightly. Rudi had an enormous 1/2 pound brat, and I could barely finish my 1/4 pound polish sausage. Despite it being early afternoon, we both threw caution to the wind and had a beer. It was so extremely, extremely, very, very hot and I had to drink my beer rather quickly before it got warm. Yeah, I'm a light-weight, but I was a bit buzzed.

And OMG, we were in Pueblo when I realized that I had taken my carriers out of the car to wash them, and that I had remembered seeing the stroller in the garage. No carriers and no stroller! Eeeek! Luckily, they rent strollers at the fair. We got the double and Riley and Avery both got rides around the fairgrounds.

We actually didn't go into any of the exhibit halls, and only went in to see the sheep because they were being really loud and drew the girls' attention. Must have been dinner time.

Avery was surprising at the fair. She wanted to go on ALL the rides, even ones that I would never go on. She even went in the haunted house with Rudi and Riley. Riley was a bit different this year. She was nervous on all the rides, even many of the kiddie rides. I think she's reached an age of awareness and saw danger where Avery saw only fun. Riley kept asking about the physics and mechanics of the rides, if they would fall off he tracks, etc. Avery's not old enough yet to think of such things.

At the fair, we got some of those Peruvian jackets that we love so much. You know, the handmade wool ones with the embroidery and applique. Riley has an old one that she and we all loved, so now both Riley and Avery have new ones. I got one of those Indian wraps. It was funny, I saw a "dress" in the shop and I came in and asked the woman where it was in the store, how much it was, etc. Apparently, all the "dresses" were made from one wrap. She basically attacked me with one, wrapping it around my body in various different ways. I mean, she was all over me. I ended up buying one, and although she gave me a sheet of directions, I know realize that I may never know how to tie it. She made it seem so easy!

Alright, I'm using Safari instead of Firefox, and it's not letting me upload pictures. So, they're coming up in a separate post!

What is going on with our neighborhood? Riley has had two run-ins today alone. Riley was playing with a piece of one of my ribbons outside. Paige came along and took it and tied it around her waist and wouldn't return it. I know it's stupid, a ribbon, but the fact is it was Riley's, and if it was important to her, then it's important. I told Riley three more times to go ask for it back. No dice. So I went out and told Paige to give it back. She said that it was her cousins. I said, no it's not, it's mine and I want it back. She was like "oh." I swear. Lie to me about some random ribbon belonging to your cousin. Lame.

Next, and more excitingly, Evan shot Riley in the face with his nerf gun. Again. For the second time. At very close range. I was ticked. I tracked him down in the neighborhood where he was hiding in someone's garage (the man of that house was sitting there with his baby, the look on his face was priceless). I had my ugliest face on and YELLED: "If you shoot my daughter ONE MORE TIME I will call the POLICE! That is ASSAULT! That is the SECOND time you have shot her in the FACE! Don't touch her again, and I don't want you anywhere NEAR our house!" I mean, people, I yelled as loud as I could. If I had stuck around a little longer, I probably would have seen a puddle at his feet. Seriously, though, if his parents are raising a child that will point a gun one foot away from a girl's face and shoot her twice while she's whimpering and crying, then they better get used to a police presence around their house.

Okay, that's it. No pictures. Haven't taken any lately, but I will soon. Maybe.

Nothing much new here. Really. We're so interesting...

I started school last week. Fun times. Actually, I like school. It affords me time to myself. I'm taking Creative Writing, American Indian Experience, World History, and Physical Anthropology. The teacher who's teaching Am. Indian Exp. is one I had two semesters ago. This is the third class I've had with the teacher teaching Physical Anthro., so I'm hoping to do really well and get a grad school recommendation from both of them. The humanities teacher I had twice loves me and I'm sure I can get a recommendation out of her too.

Grrrr....Firefox crashed on me and autosave on Blogger was not working, so I lost a whole butt-load of my blog. Grrr, I say.

It's hard to believe that we have a dog now. Not like, I can't believe we FINALLY have a dog, but that Lola has fit so seamlessly into our lives. It seems like she's been here longer than 2 weeks. I don't even mind taking her for her numerous daily walks (ask me again in mid-winter and I might have a different opinion!). She is absolutely head-over-heels in love with Rudi, which I don't mind, because he really needs that. Whether he thinks he does or not. When we go somewhere as a family and come home, I am usually the first one in with the kids, and Rudi follows behind. She will wait until the girls and I file past her and then go ape over Rudi. She absolutely HATES it when Rudi is outside with a cigar. She whines by any open window she can find, and if he coughs or clears his throat, her ears perk up. She wakes in the morning with me for a walk and then goes right back to bed with Rudi and I won't see her until it's time for her next walk. She totally uses me. And I don't mind.

I got a funny picture of Lola today. Lola was under the dining room table chewing on a bone, looking cute, so I got out the camera. As soon as she saw that camera, she does this:


...and as soon as the camera flashed she rolled back over and continued to chew her bone. She totally posed for the picture! Now I'm a crazy dog lady that talks way too much about her dog...

I have been painting like a mad woman at Riley's school (well, Avery's too now). Last year I painted shelves and furniture, and this year I'm doing walls. Fun. Actually, I don't mind it. I enjoy the time to myself, but it's hard to find time to actually DO it, you know? Sometimes I drive all the way there after the girls go to sleep and don't come home until about 1am.

Speaking of 1am, I decided to try to make those beer sausages that we had at Brendan and Mina's house, so after painting, I stopped by the grocery store for some necessities and some beer for the sausage. It was 12:45am. At that hour, only the self-check stations are open, so I start checking my stuff out and when I scan the beer, and loud voice comes out of the machine "AN ATTENDANT HAS BEEN NOTIFIED THAT YOU HAVE A RESTRICTED ITEM!!!!" And the checker comes over and I ask her if she needs my I.D. or what, and she looks at me like I'm a drunk or something and is like "you can't buy beer between midnight and 5am." Seriously, if I were a drunk, don't you think I would have known about that law? Geez, I can count the beers I drink in a year on one hand. I felt like a criminal. And I still haven't gone back to buy the beer.

Rudi has been requesting cabbage rolls for dinner. Today it's pizza, too bad. It takes me FOREVER to make cabbage rolls, and they have to cook forever on top of it. Only to have him tell me that his mother did this different, or that different. Seriously, last time I made cabbage rolls, I started at NOON and they were ready at 5:30. So, he'll have to wait until a day when I have A LOT of time! Hopefully soon, though...

I think my camera batteries are recharged. Time to upload photos...Bah, I only have one picture of Lola and none of the kids. I'll have to check Rudi's camera...later.

Lola get her head stuck in a hole in her blanket. I thought she was being a dachshund and burrowing, but no, she was stuck.

Lola sleeping with Rudi for a mid-morning nap.








It has been a little harder than I thought getting pictures of Lola. She seems to really like me, and when I get down to take her picture, she runs over to me and sticks her face in the camera.

So, obviously, we got Lola. On Wednesday. She is such a perfect pup. She likes the guinea pigs a little too much. Rosie, for some reason, is not afraid of Lola at all and will come up to the edge of the cage and Lola will stick her long wiener dog nose in the cage and lick Rosie all over. Lola whines for them and gets into the play posture. It's funny. Mia is having none of it, though. But perhaps Rosie's mom dropped her on her head or something, but she's not afraid of dogs.

Lola is absolutely smothered in attention. Rudi is thrilled. If he keeps it up, Lola is going to think that her name is My Lola, or Sweetheart, etc. Lola spends most of her time on her back begging for attention. The first day we got her, Rudi was bending over to pick a bead up off the floor and Lola saw him bending over and ran over to him and threw herself on her back at his feet. Ah, the life of a dachshund. She'll take every opportunity she gets.

She slept in the bed with the girls and me the first night, for a while. Avery woke at 1:30am and wanted something to drink, so when I went downstairs to get her one, Lola got up and followed me. She stayed downstairs with Rudi for the rest of the night. She does retreat to her crate when she wants to take a little nap, and I have taught the kids that the crate is Lola's private place and not to bother her when she's in there.

Lola has been going for walks about 8 times a day. We can't tell the difference yet between when she wants to go out and when she needs to go out, if you know what I mean. Not that it matters, really, we'll take her even if it's just for fun, but it would be nice to know if we can finish what we're doing first or if it's urgent. We have found that she does not like bicycles, skateboards, or other dogs. She didn't mind Riley on her bike, so that's a start. I guess since she knows Riley. She likes other people, unless it's dark, then she'll bark at anyone she sees.

Ah, got to go...more later.

The annual picture of all the cousins outside the Kite Loft in Ocean City!

Miss Riley, attitude and all!

Seaweed! The new fashion accessory!


My favorite picture of Riley at the beach this year.

Sooooo happy to be at the beach!

Daddy and Riley stargazing at night on the beach.

Little Miss Blue Eyes.

Yes, Avery was TERRIFIED of the water! To be fair, she did try to run from a wave and landed on her face in the sand and water. After that, she would not trust anyone near the water, and screamed and ran towards the hotel if she was put down anywhere sandy. Ugh.

I know it's been forever since I blogged. Just got out of habit (although it's debatable whether I was ever IN the habit).

We are home. Obviously. Four days of driving and we're home. Oklahoma was nasty, so was the Texas panhandle. Utter desolation. Especially Texas. Nothing anywhere but rusted out abandoned warehouses and farms. New Mexico wasn't all that different, landscape-wise, but showed signs of life. Driving through to Roswell at night, there would be a dim house light in the distance, and a school bus-stop sign. The hotel we stayed in in Roswell was N-A-S-T-Y. Well before even starting on our trip home, I decided that little to no personal belongings would be allowed in any hotel room, especially after Riley's nasty rash caused by, most likely, bedbug bites from a hotel we stayed in on our way out to Maryland. Sure didn't want to bring those nasty suckers home. Well, this hotel in Roswell was beyond disgusting. Had it not been 10pm, be would have searched elsewhere. After getting in, Rudi ran out to grab some eats for himself and the kids and while they ate, I decided to shower the road grime off of me (it had already been 3 days on the road by then) and I went out to the car to get a change of clothes. Roaches were EVERYWHERE! Pardon my middle-class upbringing white self, but I had only seen roaches in the zoo before (kid you not!). I ran inside and told Rudi to hurry up and finish eating because every scrap of food was going to be thrown in the outside trashcan. I didn't want anything to attract those little buggers into our room. There were some holes in the room covered with duct tape, and smaller holes that the owners didn't think worth the duct tape to cover. Trash under the beds that wasn't ours. Oh my goodness, so nasty! And I think that Motel 6 or Super 8 are luxury, so you know this place was a dump!

So, Roswell itself. Interesting town. In the middle of nowhere, literally. Government conspiracy or not, I think it is just as likely that Roswell is conspiring to keep itself relevant and in existence. Without the supposed aliens, Roswell as a town would have been pretty much dead decades ago. Really, nothing to offer, and in the middle of nowhere.

Speaking of Riley's rash, here are the pictures again because it's morbidly disgusting!:

Seriously, that's not even as bad as it got. Not at all. The area around each scab oozed and created more scabs. Nice. That doctor at the urgent care clinic was a wack-a-doo. Totally wrong. Didn't give any opinion as to what it was, other than to say that it looked like shingles (looks NOTHING like shingles if you search Google images) and told us not to go to the beach at all, and if we had to (duh) to get a water tight seal and not get it wet. Didn't sound right to me, so I took her to James' and William's ped, Dr. Ambush, who said he thought it was impetigo (and it matches the description perfectly!) and that we should, by all means, let her swim in the ocean and the pool as often as possible, saying it would do a world of good. So we did. Homegirl was in the ocean twice a day and in the pool at least once a day. It began clearing up after her first swim in the ocean. Literally.

I know that perhaps I'm being too hard on the urgent care doc. But after Avery's "unexplained" rash on her face in her first year that oozed and bled, after multiple courses of antibiotics, constant refusals to consider allergies as a source of the rash, run around after run around, only to find that she was allergic to dairy, eggs, and peanuts (I had to refer my self, for heaven's sake!) I have had it up to HERE with "unexplained" or poo-pooed rashes. Grrrr...It's an admittedly sensitive area for me.

So, yesterday I go out to run some errands. I needed to go to Joanns for fabric to make Riley a first-day-of-school dress (being naively optimistic that I'll have it done by then) and needed to go to Old Navy because they had jeans for $10 and Riley has, as far as I can tell, ONE pair of pants for the fall. Old Navy's jeans were a bust. They just weren't shaped for little girls. You can't really take jeans that fit a 12 year old and shrink them for a 5 yo and think the proportions will be the same. Totally unrealistic jeans. Very narrow in the hips and thighs, too low of a rise, and the flare jeans were ridiculous. Ugh. And she's too big for the 5T in the toddler girls section.

Anyway, while I was in Old Navy a really LOUD storm rolls in. You know, the warehouse roof on that place really amplified the sound. I wandered around Old Navy longer than I would had it not been pouring buckets. I did get two long sleeve shirts 2/$10 and two pairs of yoga pants 2/$10, that will hopfully fit. So I leave the store, and there is marble-sized hail all over the place! I mean, like piled on the sidewalks and on my car. I left my cell phone at home, but Rudi had tried to call me and make sure that I wasn't actually driving during the storm. He was worried that the huge hail would break my already-cracked windshield if I were actually driving.

So, I get home and the girls are all excited about the hail (and it rained a ton too). I look at my garden and it is totally DESTROYED! The garden box was FILLED with hail balls. Then I notice that Riley's Leapster was outside too. It was sitting on a plastic, slightly concave table, in a puddle of water. I won't lie. I freaked. I yelled. I was mad. We just got that thing right before going to MD and it was not cheap. I tell Riley over and over again that she is not to bring things outside, particularly the Leapster. I took the batteries out and dried them. I unscrewed the body of the Leapster, separating the two parts, towel dried is as much as was safe, and left it to air dry. I don't want to jinx it, but the darn thing appears to be WORKING! I will not lie, that thing was sitting in a PUDDLE of water! Wow.

Okay, I'm done for now! Perhaps I'll think of something else later...

Taken at Riley's request. Best Friends!

Avery all ready to go into Uncle Wilbur fountain!

Weird "Free hugs" lady. Yeah, downtown Colorado Springs...

Riley and Caoimhe doing something strange.

The girls set up a picnic. Avery wouldn't join in. Poo.

Avery actually got into the fountain. She had never gone this far and gotten this wet. She had a ton of fun!


That towel got quite wet, I'd say!


Avery made me take a picture of her climbing into the car.

...and a picture of her dog.

Riley and Caoimhe had an absolute blast at Uncle Wilbur. They really are so much alike. It's hilarious. All year, their teachers have told both of us how well they got a long and how they are so uniquely alike.

Today was Rudi's birthday. I got him a portable DVD player and a used X-Files season 2 box set. He was surprised and really happy. I had to make two attempts at the homemade chocolate cake. The first one overflowed and nearly set the oven on fire. So I made adjustments to the recipe and went at it again. You know, high altitude and all that. Well, the second one overflowed as well, but I managed to salvage it. It came out looking funny, but tasted fine. Turns out, our oven is not level. WAY not level. I don't know why I didn't think of that before. Duh. I'll see if I can borrow a level from the maintenance guy and even it out a bit.

I can't believe that we are leaving for Maryland on Monday! So soon. July just came up so fast! We have an appointment to get the car fixed tomorrow, and to get a rim for the spare tire. Last minute stuff, as usual. I think we are all set on clothes and whatnot for the girls. I do have to make a trip to the dollar store to get some car activities for the girls.

Riley pulled out her tooth today. It was SOOO not ready to come out quite yet. I would have given it another week at least. She was outside playing with her friends, and ran in, announcing that she had pulled her tooth out. Oh my goodness, there was so much blood!! She was so triumphant, her face, neck, and nose covered in blood, holding up her tooth, blood all over her hand and running down her arm. I swear. I think she was trying to kill me. It's too bad though, because I thought it would be a joyous occasion, the first lost tooth, but rather I was freaking out because of the blood. Ah, Riley...what evil plan will you devise next? We can only wonder...

Hmmmmm, what else? I thought there was something...