Great Day!

Today Mom, Aria, and I went to Iowa City. There was no real reason to go except for I just felt like doing it. It was a pretty darn good day.

The first place we went to was Stuff, Inc. I love that store so much. I got myself a MLP, and I got Aria another Potato Head. I also bought Let's Go Fishing because that is one game that I think Aria will really enjoy playing. I remember that we had one at Grandpa's when we were little, and I am pretty sure we lost most of the fish.

I also got Aria shirts for summer, which she really needed. After going through her shirts I saw that I had almost no shirts for her. Of course I was smart and instead of looking in the toddler section I was buying the XS in little girls because that will probably fit her next year too. Mom was doing good letting Aria look at the toys longer while I was looking at clothes.

Then we went to the CoralRidge Mall so that Aria could play in the play area. She loves doing that and she always manages to find one kid that she plays with. While she was doing that, I went to Old Navy and managed to find her another shirt, and two for Gannon. They were only $5 each and so I couldn't pass it up.

Then we had lunch at the Old Country Buffet. Aria was pretty good all day, but you could tell she was starting to get tired because she didn't want to sit in her seat at all. She also didn't eat all of her food.

I found my account number for Stuff and so I need to take in some things for consignment. My boxes are starting to pile up high.

Lemonade and Watermelon.

Awwww, that there lemonade is good!

It is currently 93 degrees outside. That's hot enough I decided to forgo the much needed lawn mowing and little girl didn't even really want to swing outside. Instead we opted to have watermelon and mama's world famous lemonade at the patio table for awhile.

We listened to the music on my phone and Aria's favorite songs are Hey Soul Sister and Bad Romance. She calls them "Aria's songs". Because everything she likes, she owns.

Since she likes looking at pictures of herself she actually posed for me and so I got some cute shots of my little girl. I especially like the one above. That's a shot that says, "See that pretty little girl. Yeah, she's mine."

Lemonade and watermelon, mmmmmmmmmm.

I just signed up mom for direct deposit for her check. She's been wanting me to do so, but we always didn't have the right info. On a hunch I decided to see if I could find the routing number of our bank online. I could! Yay! So that is all set up now, which means that I won't have to deal with mom coming to my house on the 3rd of every month just to sit in a chair and complain about why the mail hasn't come yet.

On another note, I got a Great Iowa Treasure Hunt thing in the mail and I have almost $400 just waiting for me. Whoo hooo! We are going to spend it on the Mother's and Father's day presents that we haven't yet gotten. Namely, fans for my computer so it doesn't overheat and a kindle most likely.

For those of you interested:

Jac's Worldclass Lemonade.

2 cups of lemon juice

2 cups of sugar

1 lemon, cut in half, squeeze juice out of both sides into the gallon pitcher and then just throw the lemon pieces in there.

Fill with water and stir.

It tastes like state fair lemonade. It's awesome. Sometimes I like to throw in strawberries or some raspberry syrup.

It's a thursday!

Coffee does wondrous things, like give me ability to actually fix things that bug the crap out of me. For instance, I have a wall in my living room of family pictures. The layout was ugly, totally unpleasing to the eye. That's because I just put the pictures wherever. I changed it now so that it is a more pleasing arrangement. Now I can look at that wall and think, "Aw, that's better" and not "What and ugly piece of crap."

I also took Aria's books upstairs. Most of her books were in her bed anyway. There was no need to keep going up and down the stairs for books, we read to her in her room anyway. Now the books are in her room and there is more room in the playroom. Aria likes having her books up there because now she can look at multiple books and throw them on the floor!

I'm still battling the cat hair war. Milphey sheds a whole new cat about every week. I am wearing bandages on my fingers to keep the rashes from rubbing together. I have rashes on my legs and my hand. The good news is that it is starting to clear up now. The bad news is that Milphey isn't done shedding. I have to wash blankets, pillows, and vacuum every few days.

Inko's Blueberry white tea is okay, but it's no Gold Peak.

It's lemonade season! I gave out my lemonade recipe today. Can you believe it? I am a person that people ask recipes of! Yeah, I can't believe it myself. Freakin' crazy.

Today I accomplished quite a bit, such as things that are generally bugging me about the yard. The first thing I did was weed whack the holy crap out of my front yard. The grass was over a foot long and my push mower certainly can't get it. Luckily I only have to do half my yard since I still have a big pile of dirt and gravel in the remaining half. While i did this, Aria rode her bicycle on the sidewalk and was very happy doing so.

Then I got out my new umbrella stand and set up my umbrella on my patio table. The sun can't get me now! Aria played in her pool while I munched on sandwiches, carrots, and havarti cheese. I've had the patio set for two years and this is the first time I've gotten out that umbrella that came with it just because I never got an umbrella stand.

Then I decided to fix the gate. A guy that was helping the neighbors with their car came over and helped me out. I think he came over just because he wanted to see Aria, for he kept telling me how pretty she was and how beautiful her hair was and that she was a little sweetheart. Aria usually gets lots of attention from people, more so when she starts showing off. With the guy's help I got the gate so it will latch again.

We turned off the heat in our house and so naturally the temperature is in the 60's and so we are cold. We don't want to turn it on again, though, because we want to lower our bills. Therefore it is the end of May and I am wearing two shirts in my house. I am really thinking of putting on gloves.

I don't work tomorrow, which is awesome! I took the weekend off to go to the Ren Faire. I wanted to go with Katie from work but then my husband didn't know if he worked Saturday so he changed it to Sunday without me knowing and told our friends we were going Sunday. So they set up plans for Sunday while Katie and I were planning for Saturday. Then Rod didn't have to work and so he tried to switch it back to Saturday, but everyone already planned for Sunday. This is how Rod screwed over my plans to do something with my friends. Katie and I made the plans first and then it just all got messed up. I know it was unintentional, but it was very presumptuous of him. I'd go both days, but we don't have enough money for that.

Aria has been asking me to sing "The Berry Song" which is just me singing lines about berries and then after the third verse saying something silly in the lyrics. Three year olds love anything that isn't correct, especially if you add the words poop or pee in there. For instance, the Berry Song goes kinda like this:

Berries are red

Berries and yummy

Berries are good with bread

They go in your......shoe!

That's gold right there. I spend several minutes a day trying to think up new Berry Song lyrics to please my giggling girl.

Aria's New Bike

Aria has a new bike. The little girl is thrilled beyond belief, and no, I did not buy it.

It's interesting the story as it came about. Therefore I will share it with you. It all started with a message on facebook from PB mommy friend, Mel, saying, "Expect a package." Me, being me, I was highly paranoid and suspicious. At first I thought she was sending me the message by mistake. But, no, it was to me and I didn't know what it was. Nor did I ask. See, I like surprises.

And a surprise it was. A few days ago I was surprised by a knock on the door and the UPS lady holding a very large box for me. A huge bike box.

You see, I was going to get Aria a bike this year. We had been going to Walmart and letting her sit on the bikes. The 12" were perfect for her. We kept saying, "that's an Easter present." "Mom, you should get her that." "We should all pitch in and get her a bike." Well, first taxes were paid, plane tickets were paid, and then the truck broke down. All of this amounted to a lot of money. Therefore Aria didn't get her bike.

And I happened to mention it on an Easter thread in PB. I guess that two of the PB mommies saw the post and thought that I sounded sad that I couldn't get Aria a bike, and every little girl needs a bike. They decided that I had a lot of bad luck recently with the basement, and floods, and truck, and all that I deserved a break-or Aria more specifically.

Thus, Aria's Easter bunnies sent Aria a lovely Easter bike. I pulled it to her and said, "You got a new bike, Honey." She immediately smiled and gave me a big hug, which made me cry.

Daddy put it together the next day. She rode it around the living room. She rode it to the stairway and back. We went to Discovery Park and let her ride it. The whole time she was like, "My bike is awesome." I told her who her Easter bunnies were and when she got the helmet today she told her daddy, "That's from Katie. Katie bought me that."

I am surrounded by so many crappy, horrible people all the time that when someone does something good for me I immediately feel overwhelmed and I feel guilty. Like, I don't deserve it or that I have to pay back anything given to me. I am not going to, I have already said a million thanks and posted a tons of pics. I have to learn to accept gifts with the gratitude and joy that they are given. I'm just happy to know that there's still sweet people in this world. Aria is lucky too that she is so loved.

So thank you again, Tyler, Mel, and Katie.

Ari loves it.

Discovery Park

It is now warm enough to visit the parks and today I had the idea that since little girl wants to ride her trike, the trails on the park would be great for that!

First on the list was going inside to the exhibit of the animals in the area. I was quite happily impressed that she was able to name the beaver, the woodpecker, and the puma (mountain lion). She did, however, miss the elk, the bison (which she called a yak), and the wolf (which she called a coyote). Still, pretty darn good, little girl!

She also had to say goodbye to the puma several times.


Oooh, look, this is soft!

Then we went to our favorite trail. It isn't very long and it ends with water fountains. We took her trike so that she could pedal the whole way and so that I could walk with her. This was the greatest idea known to man.

"Look, Mama! No hands!"

"No, Mama! You no walk backwards! You turn around and walk!"

She was very offended if I was not walking correctly.

Aria and the Wonderpets Save the Puppy

The phone....the phone is ringing.

The phone...we're almost there.

The phone. The phone is ringing.

There's an animal in trouble.

There's an animal in trouble.

There's an animal in trouble somewhere.

Oh no! It's a puppy!

He looks thirsty. He looks hungry.

But he's stuck on a box. He's stuck on a box

And he doesn't like iiiiiiiiiiiit

A lot.

Oh no! His dish is empty!
This is SE-WEE-US!
We have to help him!
There are no eats!
There are no treats!
There are no sweets!
That sucks.

Linny!
Tuck!



And Ming-Ming too!
We're wonderpets and we'll help you.

Wonderpets wonderpets we're on our way
To help a hungry puppy and save the day!
We're not too big
and we're not too tough.
But when we work together we've got the right stuff.
Go, Wonderpets, go!

Oh no! That puppy is really stuck! Oh, you are going to get him off the box? that's great Ming-Ming.

Ming-Ming, you saved the doggy. But he still looks hungry. I know, we'll use this shovel to scoop food into his dish.
What's gonna work?
Teamwork!
What's gonna work?
Teamwork!

Now he's got food!
And he's soooo happy!



This calls for some celery!



and lettuce, cupcakes, chocolate, and pizza too!