widemouthed frogs present : thankful thursday

things i am thankful for this week:

for the fact that we don't, indeed, have the swine flu as kaitlyn might have self-diagnosed abbey with.

{this is awesomely titled, "aPORKalypse now."}






that my nephew kayson took katie to the prom with him when his date's appendix decided to burst. (read loni's funnyfunny account of the story)

to quote my favorite principal, ed rooney: "so THAT'S how it is in their family........"



but NOT thankful for the fact that she looks WAY. TOO. OLD.

{cousin kiersta & katie}

for the moment we all had a laugh the other day when we happened upon a old blue vw bus and chandi said, "oh, look! it's the dharma initiative!"

for my sister loni who took all four of the girls over night so russ and i could go to the jazz game--love you sis!

and for the fact that, no matter how long it's been around, the 'wide mouth frog' skit is ALWAYS A CROWD PLEASER:

mia's 4th birthday party: pretty pretty princessess

mia had her first birthday party and it was declared a TOTAL SUCCESS. (if you are a four year old and have extremely low expectations.)

with in keeping with the 'PRINCESS' theme, bestie jody put hairs on top of heads for ultimate crown-wearing effect:

(we were also trying to channel that fanfreakingtabulous up-do that barbie was sporting.)

aunt megan came through with the bestest cake in the world, yet AGAIN:

and they all lived happily ever after!

SUCK IT! (russ and mindi fight about vacuuming)

after a small squabble the other night, i made a mental note to post about this:

the rbc & i don't fight about many things. but one thing that ALWAYS causes marital discord is THE VACUUM.

without fail, every couple of months i'll notice that the vacuum is just making marks in the floor and not picking up a single thing.

i'll stop, call him immediately and say, "the vacuum is broken. i need you to fix it tonight."

to which he'll always reply, "WHY DID YOU BREAK IT?! I JUST FIXED IT A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO!! WHAT DID YOU VACUUM OVER? DAMMIT!"

so then, that night as he takes it apart, he makes a pile of the hair/threads/debris that he collects from the innards and calls me in to survey the damages.

"LOOK AT THIS." he says. "THIS IS DISGUSTING! CAN YOU SEE ALL THE HAIR AND JUNK THAT YOU'VE VACUUMED UP? NO WONDER IT'S NOT WORKING! YOU NEED TO WATCH WHAT YOU ARE SUCKING UP!"

but then i always say, "oh. you mean the hair/debris/threads that are THE REASON WHY I AM VACUUMING? THOSE hairs/debris-esss/threds-esss? the very reason we bought a freaking eight pound orek xl for in the FIRST PLACE? yeah.....i know them. really well."

i think he would be happier if i took a fine-tooth comb and started through the carpet on hands and knees, raking it out first, flushing out any potential vacuum-pitfalls like excessive food spillage &/OR barbie shoes AS WELL as the threads/debris/hairs. like from the five women in his house. four of which his chromosomes determined the sex.

so i've made up my mind--from this day forward, i vow to have our vacuum resemble THIS:

Rick Springfield at Tuacahn or rrrriiicccck!

DO'S & DON'TS of a rick springfield concert:

DO be pleasantly surprised that the rickster still looks pretty freakin' good. mindi was prepared for the brett-michaels-bandanna-weave-botox combo but am happy to report that rick still rocked it in the looks department~




DO go with your besties on a beautiful april night at tuacahn



DO wear your 'adult orthodontia' to show solidarity for your younger self who rocked it to rick while playing 'ms pac man' at the arcade. while your friend wore your retainer.

DON'T be shocked that there were a lot of ladies on the down-side of 40 with bad perms and 6 inches of root who wanted to shake it AND break it SOLEY for the benefit of the rickster.

DO be totally amused by them and get distracted from the actual concert. LOTS.

DON''T come to a concert if you have to put your fingers in your ears...

or stuff them with toilet paper.

if it's TOO LOUD, then you are TOO OLD!

DO grab mr. springfield's leg as he walked up through the crowd.
DON'T wash that hand. EVER. again.

DO yell "RRRRRRRRRIIICK! RRRRRRRRRIICK!"

mia turns 4 today

my baby is FOUR YEARS OLD today.


mia, you are a gift to us! happy birthday little one~

JAZZercize! or why getting almost court-yard seats with amy and caylor changed our life

LESSONS LEARNED AT THE JAZZ GAME:

it's not what you know but WHO you know. and who THEY KNOW. poor white trash like us would never get to do anything without somebody taking pity on us. but we will go ahead and capitalize on their sympathies purely for material gain.

to quote my b.i.l. cody: "money can't buy happiness. but it CAN buy you a large yacht and you can sail right up to it."

it can also buy 5th row tix to the jazz which can then be transferred to the needy. (translation: US!)

sitting on the 5th row is MUCH different than sitting in the nosebleeds. it enables you to see kobe bryant's shiny head up close & personal. i might have even caught a wiff of his axe cologne.




going with your besties makes it even a bit more enjoyable:

sitting 2 rows behind andrei kirilenko's wife masha lopatova makes the game a little more interesteing as we pondered her OFFER

wearing white knee-socks is always a fashion DON'T. even if you are a nba basketball star. you still look like urkel.

angel moroni +

deron williams =

ANGEL DERONI

(THE BEST FAN SIGN WE SAW ALL NIGHT!)

--thanks, tiburon for the wicked photo shop skillz

thankful thursday

LOTS of things to be thankful for this week:

**the beautiful 85 degree weather that allows us to go on a radical evening ride in our bff's totally bitchin' jeep WITH NO DOORS!

**for little girls in their easter finery

**for older girls who still like being seen in public with their mothers. (sometimes.)

**for the crown necklace that my girl kami gave me which i haven't taken off since saturday morning

**for an (almost!) four year old girl who wanted her mother to bring her back a necklace from salt lake city.

and for these "mia quotes" kristin texted me while gone:

"oh my heck! i look so pretty!"

"can i have your phone? i need to text somebody."

"my hair looks like freaking retarded."

**for the tooth abbey lost

**for my arms to be a disappointment to me always. but then realizing that hard arms aren't always GREAT.

and for the part from :35 to :52 of this movie trailer that made me LAUGH. OUT. LOUD. {i heart jason bateman!}

Wicked with the girls or ♪♪♫ Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. ♫♪♪

we gave the girls 'wicked' tickets for christmas with april 19th seeming so far away.....

but then it snuck up on us and we were more than pleased to comply:

we went up with besties jody & abbey and had an incredible time~

i've seen the show twice before down in l.a., and i must say: this one was EVEN. BETTER.

i know that tickets are scarce, but i would pay somebody double the price to see this performance. it was THAT good.

KILLER freaking concert with the Biglers

what's better than a trip to las vegas with friends? not one, but TWO bloggers to document every move and thought for the good of all mankind.....

if it was just a massive crush before, it's now FULL-BLOWN LOVE for my girl kami & her studly man, kyle. we could not have picked a cooler couple to spend the night with. (naughty!) we laughed and danced and sang and caroused in general until the wee hours of the morn....

the only problem i could see is that after the concert kami looked perfectly poised, while mindi looked like she'd been ridden hard & put away wet. beautiful people are SO. NOT. FAIR.

we were thrilled to be at the grand opening of the joint at the hard rock hotel in las vegas

seeing the killers in concert was UH-MAY-ZIIIING.

brandon flowers & boys absolutely straight 'killed it.' HARDCORE. and even though i'm fairly certain that mr. flowers is a size 28 waist, i still heart him. he had control of the sold-out crowd from the moment he stepped onto the stage. we were putty in his hands.


of course, there were blesbian blover photo ops galore--we wouldn't be worth our blogger salt if we hadn't taken the opportunity.

TWICE.


it was the 'MONEY' of all weekends--

and so, to kyle & kami:

{image courtesy of i {heart} you}