"I'm not just a bird, I'm a vulture".

Oh yes, friends, family, and other followers - it's Halloween.

Tonight is actually their third time in costume.  When you put that many hours into making a costume, you kind of want to wear it more than the hour trick-or-treating allows.  


However, this is the "official" unveiling of the coolest costumes in the history of the world of the turkey vulture, manta ray, and the second time we have a chicken in our midst.

"Vulture Swoop"

"Manta ray glide"

"I'm a freakin' chicken, yo!  It's hilarious!"

Oi.  I love these guys.  

Happy Halloween, everyone.  We hope you had a safe and fun one!

Tough. That's me.

When I get more photos, of what I'm sure will be AWESOME facial expressions, of myself I'll post a little more about yesterday.

It was fun.

It sucked.

Then it sucked some more.

Then, they electrocuted me.

But, truly, I did have fun.  Which is weird.
If you need to know why it's weird - look at this picture:

Source

That would be a dumpster full of ice... and just enough water to be able to submerge bodies. Yes.  It's necessary to dunk your head.

I'll post a better recap later.

More bullets!

Jumping right in... 


*We rented a beach side condo for our trip to San Diego and it looks FABTASTIC.  I'm stoked.  However, because it's not a hotel, they don't keep things like play yards or travel cribs on hand.  In order to rent one, you have to go through a third party company.  That third party company wanted $100 freakin' dollars to rent us a crib for the week we'll be in sunny California.
Uhm. No.

I happened to remember some articles/reviews/advertisements on pop-up style travel beds.  I got to Googling.
And found this:

For $55 I not only have a small, foldable, suitcase-totable, travel crib - I also have a shelter for play at the beach, and shade at summer soccer games.  I'd call this a win.
It just arrived today.  It's seriously cool.  I'll give a review after we've used it a bit.

*Pinterest is on the verge of making me fat.
Recipes I've made in the last few weeks:

Kenny and I made these this afternoon. Holy Batman.
Make these if you like air.

Also mondo delicous.  Hubband said the texture was a little off
from actual burger, (duh), but that he liked them.
I thought they were fantastic, but I'm crazy like that.

Beer mac 'n' cheese.  Meh, good - but not I MUST EAT IT ALL good.
The addition of beer makes it runny  - but gives decent flavor.
Try if you need something new in your life. 

SO good.  Perfect fall nightcap.
Really.  

And finally, these:

I made a batch of these for dinner.
They were loved by all.
Also, I made some substitutions to make them a teensy bit healthier:
instead of regular flour - whole wheat flour
instead regular pepperoni - turkey pepperoni
instead of regular sausage - turkey sausage
instead of whole milk - 2%
instead of whole mozzarella - skim
and I skipped the parmesan.  I felt that was just overkill.
So, the next day - I made a triple batch to throw in the boys' lunch boxes that week.
*Awesome mom award* Right here. 

And, now, it's time to go pick up the other kid...

Bullets!

I have to leave in about 20 minutes to pick up the Kenny, but we'll see what we can eek out bullet point style!

*I finished the boys' Halloween costumes.  I cannot wait to reveal the finished products to the world.  I'm not going to lie, they're freaking awesome.  A mark of a good costume, in my opinion, is that people can tell what it is.  You can totally tell they're a turkey vulture and a manta ray.  {pats self on back}

*Less than a week until the Tough Mudder.  I'll be perfectly honest - I'm nervous.  You see, the boys thought it would be cool to see their mom jump over fire.  Their mom thought it would be cool to run a race that was a little different than your normal half-marathon.
THEN I realized that one of the last obstacles is "Electroshock Therapy".  Yes.  They're going to electrocute me.  Hubband and the boys intend to camp out there.  Hopefully they get good pictures!

*This past weekend went by in a blur.  Four soccer games and two photo shoots.  I was flabbergasted when I realized that it was Sunday evening.  So... I turned Monday into a "mental health day".  Everybody stayed home and drank tea, ate vitamin C, and I cleaned.  We all feel a little more refreshed.

AND!

One of my photo-shoots netted me a pair of shoes.

Hubband said he'd give me five dollars if I could get this shot:

Which, obviously, I did. 

But what he really meant by five dollars was "you haven't bought a pair of shoes in about seven months.  It's way past due".

So, now I have a new shiny pair of TOMS on their way to me.   (Kenny has this pair coming and B-rox has this pair coming.)  Perfect vacation to San Diego shoes, I think.

*I went shopping today, sans all coupons.  (Waaaay tired, waaaay busy, and shopping on no coffee...)  I wish I hadn't... 


*I have other things I want to say - but I have to go wake Holdeezy up.  So, consider this a to be continued.

Some cheese, Please?

To go with my whine...

I don't have much time to blog and I'm WAY behind in reading the blogs in my reader.  WAY behind.  Hopefully nobody named me President of all that is Awesome and Shoes.  Because I'd be lagging in my duties before I was even coronated.  (Yes, I'd be coronated president.)

Luckily, I think the chances of that are pretty slim...

Anyway, in lieu of an actual blog post with substance, you know, like... words... 


I'll do an iPhone dump!

Happy Birthday to MEEEEE!!!!!!
Thanks bestest!
Seriously awesome.
Not awesome?
Trying to figure out where to put it...

Just chillin' at soccer practice...

At Babies 'r' Us, Kenny and I needed to use the restroom.
He made me strap H down in this.
Because:
"It's like a little baby rocket ship!" 

Getting ready to help me make
"Decorate your own funny face pancakes".

In his chef hat...
Yeah...

Pancakes before.
They were eaten too quickly to snap a picture of the after.
But there were bananas, apples, icing and sprinkles.
They looked awesome.
And were gobbled, so It's a win.

Fiber optic mohawks.  Who needs cowbells with these things around?

Soccer Saturday. 

Cold Soccer Saturday. 

And, a pancake. 

Yes.  That is a cockatoo on her arm.
Yes. I took this picture while driving.

Mom's sunglasses fit SO well...

I might have the handsomest sons on the planet!

Face paint at a party. 

This girl might be trying to dethrone me as
"favorite girl in B-rox's universe".

A big help.
Obviously. 

A little Michelangelo, anyone?  

We bought little pears from the farmers market on Sunday.

He thinks mowing them is pretty awesome.
And it is.

... Until he whittles it down to a small enough size
that he can shove the whole thing in his mouth.

I don't know if I've posted this...
But this is what happens when you let brothers dress brothers.
Then go to the dentist.

Picnic at the park.  The entire dinner, they were quiet.
No joke.
B-rox's words as we packed up?
"Mom, that was just beautiful.  I could just watch the waves for a long time."

That pretty much sums up the last little forever.  Hope you enjoyed watching as much as I enjoyed living it all.

Teleportation. Where are we on that?

Because I totally could have used it today.  No, seriously.  Here's a run-down of what I've done today:

5:15 am ~ Holdeezy wakes and wants to nurse.  By the time the nursing session is over - my brain is no longer sleeping and I know that there are only 30 minutes until my alarm goes off.  I forgo the bed and instead spend the next 30 minutes getting about halfway through this book:

It's pretty good.  Not quite as good as "The Year of Living Bibically",
but that is because I'm not the biggest fan of essays or short stories.
I like becoming invested in my plot, and you just can't when they're only 20 pages long.
His wife does tell him to eff off.  Which, like in the last book, I find hilarious. 

6:00 am ~ Shower.  I tried to shave, but it was too cold and I shaved off two strips of goose-pimples before I called it quits.  I'll take a bath and crank the shower tunes in order to relax for tomorrow.

6:45am ~ Drive Mark to Reagan National, to pick up the rental car for the day.  [We only own one car]
Drop Hubband off, head straight back down 95 for soccer pictures.

8:15 am ~ Show up at soccer pictures, only to realize I don't have my wallet and the Hubs is still en route with his.  So, I have to scramble to figure out how to get Kenny's pictures taken and paid for so they won't be "voided".  I don't need to add to the "middle child complex" he's already developing. 


9:00 am ~ B-rox and Hubband show up.  Hubband takes receipt of Kenny and heads off to his game.  (9:30)  I wait around while the CF that is team pictures goes on.

10:00 am ~ Holdeezy, B-rox and I head over to watch Kenny's game.

10:45 am ~ Kenny's game is over and it's freezing out.  So Hubs and B-rox stick around for B's game at

11:00 am ~  while I take the other two to Starbucks for hot chocolate and then home to rest.

12:15 pm ~ B-rox and Hubband show up.  Feed children.

1:00 pm ~ Load everyone back up in the car and drive the 24ish miles to National Harbor for Race Packet Pick-up.  Everyone conks out on the way. Not me, obviously.  If I had, I probably wouldn't be blogging about it. 


3:00 pm ~ Back home. Time for some mac 'n' cheese and let the kids finish nap time.  And start this post. 


?:00 pm ~ Head out to the Nike/Under Armor/Sports Authority outlet for some running tights.  Some SCHMO told me, up until this morning, that the weather would be sunny and 60.  Well, folks, it's not.  At. All.  So now I have to cover my legs.  Because cold skin covering jiggly fat pockets (pretty picture, right?) stings after a while and I don't need distractions during my 13.1 tomorrow morning.

So, now I'm off.  To clean up Mac 'n' Cheese and go get running tights.  That aren't orange.  Therefore, not nearly as cool as my orange checkered shorts I was going to wear.