Barenaked Ladies anyone??

I bought two sets of tickets to Barenaked Ladies for Wed, July 21st at 7:30 pm at the WArfield in SF. I am selling one set. They were 179.85. This is where the seats that I am selling are located. Row F, seats 1&2. So on the left side of the stage. So those are the 4th row in that section there. I had to enlist a lot of man power, actually woman power (thanks Andi) to pull that off. Then row D came up so I had to buy those too. That's where I'll be. Anyway, I'd like these to go to my family first, but if the fam isn't interested, my friends get dibs, if my friends don't want them the BNL forum of BNL fans online will get dibs. So here it is. Who wants dibs? It was a fun show in Reno. It'll be great! Especially up close.

If John Madden host's a BBQ, you go!

We went to the annual John Madden KCBS BBQ at the stage. It's basically a work party for KCBS and all the vendors. It's hosted at the stage because John Madden has a segment on the show in the mornings. So, we chalk it up as a Goal Line work party for us as well. And seriously, when John Madden has a BBQ, he doesn't mess around. He brings in the most amazing cooks and they start the night before at the stage just cooking. Out back they have all these different meat stations of every kind of meat you can imagine. You go from station to station trying different things. Then, after you gorge yourself on that, you head inside for the catered meal. Oh my gosh, I hurt I ate so much. But I only do it once a year. You can't not have the whole Madden BBQ experience if it's presented to you, right? That's my reasoning anyway. Although, my favorite part is Virginia Madden's cakes. They are heavenly. I usually snag about 3 pieces and one is usually Jonathan's. This year he protected his piece. I'm lucky I got out without a fork stab wound to the wrist. Irresistable cake can bring out the dark side in people.
The photo of Annaliese up above was her outfit selection for the event. Not pictured is the purple and black Jack Skellington purse and feathery kid heals. She was a hit at the party. I shouldn't have doubted her fashion sense. I just wasn't seeing it.


The party set up. JOnathan had to set up the Madden viewing wall for the event this year. People were pretty impressed with the insanity. So cool were the center pieces. They were little BBQ's. The flowers were coming up through the grill. So creative! Here you can see Annaliese's purse and heals. It all just works.

We've gone to this event every year for the last 7 years. I don't know why we jumped in line to get photos with John last year. It's his boss, it's not like JOnathan doens't see him every day at work. Actually I do know. Jonathan's twin interns, also known as the remote concierges, were swindled to get in line because some girls wanted them in their photo along with John Madden. The twins are pretty cute. The line started by our table, so somehow we were pulled in line with them. Anyway, we were convinced to get a picture last year, and we decided to keep up the tradition and get one this year. Note my shirt totally blended in with the chroma key green backdrop. This year I remembered not to wear green. I love Madelyn's face. "We've been waiting in line awhile. You must be Santa."
Ananliese was pretty cute too. I pointed to John in our photo and asked, "Do you know who that is?" She replied, "Daddy's Boss." Smart cookie.
And on a different note, I think I like my hair better shorter. I think I'll cut it again.

Sassiness

"Annaliese that's a bad idea!"
"No, it's a good idea."
One of the first of many bad idea's for the day.


Annaliese has always been all about animals. She wants a dog so bad it's killing her. We had lunch with papa yesterday at the park and the topic of dogs came up. She said, to papa, "We can't have a dog in the house where we're at. But when we have our farm we'll have all the animals. Zebra's and Birds..."
Papa said, "What if we just get a white horse and paint black stripes on it?"
Annaliese said, "Papa, that doesn't make any sense?"
Papa said, "We can just paint it."
Annaliese said again, "Papa, you're not making any sense."
I'm just excited we're getting a farm.


Annaliese has been all about this dress lately. I had to peel it off of her yesterday. It was so trashed by the end of the day. It was caked with ice cream and flowers were popping off of it.
Today she tried to put it back on and I had to redirect her to something else. I held up another dress and said, "Oooh, look! We forgot about this dress!" She stared at it for a minute and said, "No. That dress doesn't do it."


Annaliese loves listening to music in the car. We had on "Jump in the line" and she was singing along. I started dancing and touching her belly during the "Okay, I believe you" chorus. She said, "mommy what are you doing?" I said, "Dancing with you." She snapped back, "Dance without me."
She's such the boss. I just call her management. And management seems to always have a problem with something.

Where are your clothes?

Have you ever looked out the window into the backyard only to find your kid running around buck naked? That happens quite frequently at my house lately. Yesterday I found her on the couch naked eating from the secret stash of m & m's that had been on top of the fridge. Then she said, "look at me" as she shoved one in each nostril. So, since I couldn't take photos of either of those lovely events at the nudest colony, how about I post sweet Madelyn in a tutu bonding with a little dog statue. That works.

Garage Sales

Frog Story: We walked down the court to our neighbors garage sale and while I was talking to my neighbor Annaliese started looking around. She picked up this frog, held it up and asked, "How many for this?" The kid is not shy. It was a quarter. Perfectly within her price range.

I'm a garage sale addict. This is a new thing that started right about the time I moved. We have an arrangement that on Saturday's I get the morning "off" from the kids, so it doesn't matter where I go, I just have to get out of the house. So I'd get in the car and drive, then I'd see a garage sale sign, so what the heck I'd just follow it. Then it wasn't long before I developed a habit where I'd research them and write down directions ahead of time. (I really started learning the area that way.) Some houses there is just nothin. I discovered you have to get in about 8-10 to really find treasures. I'm blown away at just how many new things, still in the package or with tags you can pick up. And if there is something I'm in need of, I usually can find that exact item within 2 weeks of garage saling. So I have a stash going that I keep in the garage for Annaliese. It's toys that have never been opened. So far I have a Belle Barbie (when she play's princesses, she has to be Belle), a tinkerbell, the cartoon Alice in Wonderland DVD, The 1st Chipmonks movie DVD (she watches the sqeakqual all the time!), and a princess game still in the package. I can save things for Birthday/ Christmas or if I need a present for her doing something special, I can whip something out.


At Christmas and her birthday she got a ton of really nice gymboree clothes. Within 2 months she outgrew all the tops and within weeks, she had holes in the jeans and had pretty much worn them out. It hit me when I walked into a cute little second hand store downtown called Savvy Seconds. It was gently used name brand stuff but displayed cute but priced still about 1/2 off the original. (which in my opinion was still high for something used.) I thought, this is just name brand garage sale stuff! I'll just find it myself. So I just started looking at garage sales for clothes for her and have found so many cute things. Usually for a dollar. Then if she trashes it or gets holes in it, or out grows it in a month, I don't worry about it because I paid a dollar. It's so fun to hit the nice neigborhoods where you find cute Gymboree, Janie and Jack and Gap outfits. I also pick up shoes that are in really good condition. She destoys shoes the fastest. Usually within a week they are toast. This is so the way to go if you have a kid that goes through clothes like mine does.
She's such a tom boy it's crazy. Last night on the way home from Nanny's she held a bug the entire way home. She wouldn't put it in a cup. I knew she would drop it when she fell asleep and she did. So sure enough, mom had to fish it out of the car later. Fun! At least she's a tom boy that likes to wear the occasional princess dress.
In this picture she is wearing her official Disneyland shoes for our next trip. Wearing those shoes she is exactly 41 inches and can go on almost all the rides. Although she'll probably grown another inch by the end of summer anyway. She's also wearing cute little gap capris. I saw the exact style at target earlier this week and thought, Annaliese would be cute in a pair like that. Found a gap pair at garage sale just yesterday for like 2 dollars. And when she gets holes in them next week, I'll be okay with it.

Getting out of the house

Annaliese at the Pleasanton Street Fair in Maddie's car. In one of the first shops we went in she saw that dress. She pulled it out and showed Joshua and she said, "Joshua's isn't this beautiful! Isn't this the most beautiful thing you ever saw!" And he went along and said, "yes!" He knows the drill, when he gets married he'll have no problem. Smile and nod at whatever the ol lady says.


Annaliese with her best buddy Joshua. She said to his mom, "I told Joshua that he wants to hold my hand."





I was having a really hard time early this week. I guess I was feeling sorry for myself a little bit about not being as successful as I would have liked making friends since I've moved. But then again I really didn't even try at all before I moved since I had old friends already. So if you think about it, my friend making skills peaked at age 5 when I made my 2 best friends that are still my friends today. Really, all I had to say was, "let's play!", and everything worked out. I guess that approach could still work now. Jonathan tells me I'm impatient and he's probably right. I've only been here about 7 months. I'm really trying to eliminate being negative, (I guess MOnday and Tuesday I fell of the positivity band wagon). But I really am trying to be focused and have a clear direction about all the things I want to do and change in my life. But it's true, I'm pretty impatient with all of it.
Then on Wednesday, one of the mom's I became friends with at a local park called me and took me out to lunch at an awesome Japanese food restaurant, which was incredibly nice of her. The bonus was one of my kids was with Papa and the other one was asleep next to me. It was a nice, much needed break. And that restuaruant...AH-mazing.
Then the wife of Jonathan's old buddy from his movie theater days, called and invited me and the kids to hang out with her and her son at the street fair downtown later that same day. It all happened just in time to save my sanity. So nice and I had so much fun. Just what I needed before I threw in the towel.

Naptime

Everytime that I have put Madelyn down for her nap I have wanted to get some photos of her because she is just so cute. Well I finally have a little series of naptime.








Those are little tears on her pillow. She protests for a few minutes and then she is out.