A Boo Bug

Despite Maison being sick the last couple of weeks, we decided to let her go trick or treating to two of our neighbor's houses and then to my parents and grandmother's houses just so she could get some sort of a first Halloween experience. We have called Maison "bug" or some variation of bug..."buggy", "bugaboo", ....since she was born so when I saw this ladybug costume I knew it was the one!

Here is our little lady BUG on Halloween...

G'daddy, Nooey, and Shari greeting Buggy at the door:

Do you want my smarties? Mommy won't let me have them...

My little diva dancing it out at Nannie's house:

Happy Halloween!

Zoo Party!

This afternoon was Maison's zoo birthday party. We had a family birthday party at my parents house. I thought I could go by my parents after Maison's swim lesson and decorate, pick up the cake, the food, and be home to shower by about 1:30 so that I could get dressed and then dress Maison before her party at 3:00. Simple...right?

We ordered the cake from Bake Rejoice which is in downtown Plano which is super close to my parents house but has like no parking. Since it was pouring down rain my mom drove me so that I could run in real quick, get the cake, and get back in the car. It was ready as scheduled and cuter than I envisioned. Cake pick up - check

I had ordered all of Maison's decorations off the internet and so I had to blow up all the balloons myself. Since it was a zoo theme I ordered these huge animal balloons in addition to the 1st b-day ones and the filler balloons. I didn't realize how much helium very large animal balloons take. You know my balloon blowing days from Applebee's didn't entail funny shapes at all...only round. So after animal balloon #2 we were out of helium. Uh, awesome. We only have 2 more animals, 2 first b-day, and 20 filler balloons to go and the party starts in 2 hrs. My sweet dad agreed to go to Party City to get another larger helium tank. One minor detail we didn't consider...that would be that Party City would be packed city on the weekend before Halloween. Let's just say the helium tank errand wasn't exactly quick. When he returned, Shari, my dad, and I were balloon blowing machines. I really think I'm ready to work at Party City. I can whip out balloon bouquets in minutes. House decorated, balloons inflated-check...OMG 2:00...Yikes!

Yep, 1 hour until party time and mommy has to shower, dress myself, dress Maison, pick up the food. Oh and on a good day it's a 20 min drive each way...but in a flood it's about 45 min each way. I can't remember the last time it rained and today it was the perfect storm..pouring buckets, tornado in McKinney, flooding type of storm. Just what I needed.

I get home and start firing off commands to Adam and his brother, Jason, as if I was a drill sergent. They were to go pick up the food at Central Market, collect the remaining items on my list, and load the car. I was to get dressed with a one year old running circles around me as I dodged bath toys that were being launched in the air and then get her dressed. Some how, I have no idea how we were only 30 mins late. Nothing wrong with being fashionably late...I mean Maison is the guest of honor so she should have a proper entrance.

Mommy and Daddy with the b-day girl:

Maison did so good...she opened all her presents despite the distractions of all that crinkle paper and the ADD moments when she had to go play with a previously opened gift. She ate her cake but really didn't like it all that much so we didn't get the messy cake face photo. I personally thought the cake tasted amazing! It was so delicious and Bake Rejoice made it to exactly match the decorations...it was perfect.

Cake from Bake Rejoice:

Tearing into my first present:

Opening presents with Mommy:

I got a Cabbage Patch Kid!

Mommy explaining that HK rain boots are about the best present ever...

Happy birthday...check out my cake face!

I liked my balloons better than my cake!

Despite the horrible weather and the timing snafous, it was a wonderful celebration of Maison's first year. I can't believe it's been a year since we were blessed with this little girl coming into our lives...what did we ever do without her???

Taking my new CPK, Rae Rae (seriously that is the name that she came with) to check out my new ride:

Happy 1st Birthday, Maison!

Maison turned one today and we celebrated with a trip to the Dallas Zoo. We started at the Children's Zoo. It was kind of like a petting zoo and since we had just gone to a petting zoo a few days ago we didn't stay in this part long. We did get to go into the pen with the baby goats. Maison was so excited to get to walk around with them. Some of the other kids were terrified and would scream and run from them...but not Mais...she walked right up to them and grabbed them by the ears.

The main attractions that we saw were the elephants and the giraffes. I haven't been to the Dallas Zoo since I was in about 5th grade and it really has changed a lot. The large mammals use to be in cages with cement floors and chain-linked fences. Now they have their own natural habitat called the Giants of Savanna. It was truly awesome. The giraffes literally walk up and eat butter lettuce leafs from your hand. One even licked Maison in the hand! She just lit up as soon as they got close to her.

When we were leaving we let her choose a stuffed animal from the gift shop. She kept going towards this hideous monkey with super long hair. We had no idea why she liked it so much but since it had long hair and wasn't made for young children we convinced her to get the pink giraffe. Now every time we play with the giraffe I tell her all about our day. YEA ZOO DAY!

4th tri is the charm

I left the house at 5:40am this morning to head to Denton to compete in the Monster Tri. I was fired up and ready to go when Adam loaded up my bike and I pulled away from our house. I started cursing myself when I hit US 380 on the Tollway in the pitch black dark, wondering who the hell lived up here, and why on earth they did not have any street lights. I had no idea the tollway went so far north (now I see why they keep collecting tolls!) and I certainly didn't like experiencing it prior to 6am in the morning. Then I exited the tollway onto US 380...let's just say it was like a scene out of a horror movie. No one is anywhere in sight and then some stupid blonde girl comes bee-boppin along in a big red F150 slowing down to read street signs. Just when I was ready for Freddy Kruger to jump out with a chain saw or some crap I saw a huge line of cars...score...must be my turn off, why else would 100 people be in line at 6:15 in the morning...in Denton?

I got my transition set up, got my timing chip, and went to check out the pool so maybe I wouldn't miss the exit this time. It was nice and warm in the natatorium so I decided to hang out and kill time on my iphone. Around 7:00 I decided to go take off my sweats and put my phone away and go line up for the swim. When I got back to transition someone next to me had put their gear literally right in front of mine. I would have to reach over their stuff to get to mine. I took note of the number (161) and would make sure that I lined up in front of this person for the swim just to ensure I would beat them back to transition.

I lined up for the swim...2 people in front of Miss 161. I made up my mind once I jumped in there was no way I was letting her pass me. The swim totally sucked, 10 laps in a 25 yd pool makes for a lot of jammed corners and no opportunity to get in any sort of rhythm. There must have been a lot of people who lied about their swim time because I literally passed like 15 people and it certainly was not one of my better swims. I did; however, make sure that Miss 161 stayed behind me...sucks to be her when she finished the swim to find me sprawled out in front of her stuff putting on my bike cleats. I normally don't sit down but I certainly think today it was warranted.

The bike was a nice ~16 mile round trip. No double loops...just out and back on a very hilly highway. A guy from my tri group had done this one last year and he warned me not to expend too much energy on the way out because the way back was a gradual climb the entire time with a few steep hills. I followed his advice and felt great on the return. I even noted that I didn't get past by one woman though several guys flew right past me! As I was heading into transition, I heard Adam cheering for me and saw Maison which was just the boost I needed. When I left, he wasn't sure if they were going to make it so I was thrilled to see them.

The run was so uneventful...3 loops around a stadium. They did this to make it more spectator friendly. Since this was a Monster tri participants were supposed to wear costumes. Even though costumes were encouraged, I could not think of anything I could be that I could swim, bike, and/or run in. The first loop was fine, second loop started sucking, third loop I just wanted to be finished so I tried to pick up the pace. I crossed the finish at 1:32 - 2 minutes over my goal.

We went to some vendor booths to kill time while I waited to get my bike out of transition. At 10:00, I headed to the car so I could feed Maison before the long drive home. Either we were busy juggling Maison, the stroller, my bike, my bag, etc and didn't hear it or we were too far away...but my name was called...

Uh, I got 3rd place in my age group. I guess I did a little better than I thought. I had a 'podium' finish and was so negative about my performance I didn't even check out the posted times or stay to hear the awards ceremony. Total suck! My first tri trophy and I didn't even get it. Well there is always next season...St Patty's Day tri in Keller anyone?

PPPP - Public Pooping Pumpkin Patch

Adam was off today for Columbus day so I decided to take the day off so we could take Maison to the Big Orange Pumpkin patch in Celina. It was unbelievably muddy and they didn't really have many pumpkins but we had a great time....

Maison got to pet the farm animals at the petting zoo. She really loved the baby goats and sheep. She was not afraid at all!

After we did the petting zoo we decided to go on the hay ride. There was a lovely white trash family in our trailer; 3 children with their mother and grandmother. The oldest boy, who was about 5 or 6, walked to the corner of our trailer and proceeded to poop in his diaper in the corner. Let's see how many things are wrong with this, shall we? 1. Pooping on a hay ride. 2. Wearing a diaper when you are 5-6. Is this lack of potty training or laziness of the mother not wanting to take the child to the bathroom? 3. Proceeding to talk about and tease the pooper mid-poop

So said pooper decides to talk to Maison after he completed his poop session. Maison looked at him and literally growled! She started growling a few days ago and continues to do so because Adam and my mom continue to encourage it despite my protests. Even though I don't want her growling at people, I have to admit I was pretty proud of my little girl all dressed up in her frilly dress and black pattened shoes as she looked this boy right in the eye and growled at him... as if to say she did not approve of his public poop display.

Adam and Maison on hay ride:

So un-FAIR

Yesterday we went to the Texas/OU game at the State Fair. The fair is known for it's strange fried foods...this year's "highlights" were fried beer, fried margaritas, and fried butter (OMG...I feel sick just thinking about it). I was not brave enough to try any of these delights but Adam did try the fried beer and reported back that it was disgusting. Considering it was fried Guinness I could have told you it would be disgusting so no surprises here.

The game totally sucked. Texas played like poo and lost the game on penalties. Overall it was one of the sorriest fair experiences ever. Here is the recap:

Negatives:

1. We lost the game

2. None of the food was good except the sweet potato tornado (think curly sweet potato chips)

Positives:

1. A math deficient cashier gave me my payment tickets as change; as in I paid with 20 tickets for 2 beers that cost 16 tickets. Instead of giving me back 4 tickets she gave me back 16. I told her she was wrong and she just shrugged. Ok...thanks for the $1 beers.

2. Kelly had a super awesome route that avoided most traffic to/from the fair

Hindsight, I should have sold our tickets BEFORE we lost to UCLA and enjoyed the game at home. At least their would have been better food and I could have mourned my Longhorns second loss of the season in the privacy of my own home...

Shari and Kelly racing down the slide: