impromptu picnic

Picnics. Another reason to love spring. When I got home from work on Friday, I found Bub on the couch surrounded by cold medicine and crumpled tissues. She finally caught what the boys have had for two weeks. Oh, the joy. They were still sniffly and coughing, so their sleepover at Papa's and Nana's had been cancelled. Besides, with Bub sick, out date night wouldn't have been much fun, anyway. (Well, if we chose HER idea of dinner and a movie. How traditional! MY idea was to clean the computer room. What can I say? I'm original, at least. It could have been fun, I'm sure.) Anyway, the sun was shining, and it was in the 70s, so Peanut suggested a picnic. At first, he didn't want anything to eat, but he changed his tune when he realized that we could eat outside in the yard. His choice for dinner? Huckleberry yogurt, canned mandarine oranges, and a roll. Meatball didn't want anything. I made me a taco and them a quesadilla. I also took some salsa (that I made last year, YUM) and my new favorite tortilla chips (and that's saying something BIG): Juanita's. (For the record, Juanita's doesn't even know that I buy their chips, but I'm sure that they are grateful because I've got to be lining their wallet! These chips are so good! They are thin and light and have hardly any salt and they are just yummy. Love them. Review is mine - I wasn't compensated for it - but if anyone knows how I can get a free bag of these things, I would be so happy!) Anyway Peanut found us a nice spont on the lawn with "no specks." (We recently watched "Horton Hears A Who," so we're overly concerned with destroying tiny communities that live on lawn weeds.) He then spread our picnic blanket, aka a pillowcase, so that we could dine in luxury. They both proceeded to run around the yard for an hour and only ate half of their food. I, however, managed to eat half the bag of Juanita's tortilla chips. In all, it was a wonderful Friday night. An almost perfect date - too bad that Bub couldn't enjoy it with us.

some of our sprouts

A couple of weeks ago, the boys and I planted these seeds. In the course of two days, all 18 of the watermelon seeds popped up, and nine each of dill and cilantro. We have some other sprouts - mostly various squash - which just give me a smile every morning. I love the look of spring!

Easter in pictures

I'm a bit behind, but I simply can't deprive my three readers of these adorable pictures. Like really, totally, undoubtedly adorable.
My little bunnies (gawd, they are going to be mortified when they are teenagers and realize that I've called them bunnies...):

Even though she looks overjoyed, she wasn't. Shocking, I know. Where's my picture? There isn't one. As usual, I was taking care of the administrative duties (aka: providing our e-mail address to the people providing FREE pictures)

Here they are looking cute in the car:

How is it that you all can stand to go for days at a time without seeing these mugs? It would make me insane to not see these smiles a million times a day. (Oh, wait. Did I just give the impression that they are perfect and not complete sinkers lately? Sorry. My bad.)

Happy Anniversary, Woman!

Dear Fanatical Religious Right,

Today, my wife and I celebrated our 16/15th anniversary. Yes, it's true. We have been in a monogamous relationship for 16 years, and we have been not-legally-recognized-as-married by our own government for 15 years.

Zealots, I do appreciate your beliefs. You're entitled to them. Believe and worship to your heart's content. I do (or don't), and it's my right. It's your right, too. However, please keep it in your place of worship or your home. Please don't bring it to the laws that govern more than you. You know, the laws that govern those who are different than you, too.

In these 16/15 years, you've been yammering on and on about the sanctity of marriage, but in that time, half of you have divorced - bailed when times got too tough. Well, not us. And, FYI - the only sanctity that we have destroyed is that of the state's posted speed limit. (And, let's be honest, that's usually just Bubba.)

(In 2005, the median length of marriage was 11 years. This number hadn't improved by 2009 (at least according to the CDC). I'm just sayin'. Oh, and I might also add that Massachusets - the first state to allow same-sex marriage - has the lowest divorce rate, and it has for years. Again, just FYI.)

So, in our on-going quest to pick apart the moral fabric of our society with our "gayness," we will spend the evening eating take-out pizza and watching a sad movie about 9/11 while we take care of two adorable boys who have nasty colds. Yes, I can see how threatening that must be for you.

Happy anniversary to my wife.

Vegan-for-a-month, complete

So, this was an interesting experiment. As I have said, I think that it would have been much harder if I hadn't already been eating vegetarian for almost a year.

It wasn't too difficult for me. I think that the hardest part was for everyone else. It seemed like I was just much more of a burden to those around me for this month. Granted, the first couple of months of vegetarianism felt a lot the same, and everyone seemed to get used to it. But, I don't like being a pain in the ass, and that's how I felt.

I will definitely cut out more dairy from my diet. That was a good change. I don't mind the soy/almond/coconut substitutes (except for the extra cost). The boys actually love soy milk. Even Bub didn't mind it. I also never realized how much I rely on cheese as a go-to snack or meal addition. No wonder my butt is so huge!

But, in the end, I missed eggs. And chocolate. And chocolate eggs. So, there you have it....

Colored Food Day

Last weekend, Meatball came to me and said that we should surprise Peanut with a blue breakfast. You know, all blue food, because “that would make him [Peanut} really happy.” Awwwwww….. How sweet! So, we whispered about what we could make for a blue breakfast. There were a lot of pretty whacky ideas, but we finally settled on blue pancakes and blue scrambled eggs. Then, he went off in search of his brother and proceeded to knock him down on the floor and pinch and scratch him.

What happened to the oh-so-sweet boy that was just talking to me? For the love…..

So, I got busy on the breakfast. For good measure, I added blueberries to the pancakes, and we also had blue milk. Oh, the Peanut was surprised, for sure! He was excited, but I think that Meatball was just a bit more excited since he had been waiting for what must have seemed like forever for me get it all made.

Later, we had blue snow cones.

During the day, Bubba and I decided that it would be sweet to do the same thing for the Meatball, so we tried to figure out what we could make for dinner that would be green. We settled on celery with green cream cheese, green milk, and fish balls (the fishy version of chicken nuggets) with green dipping sauce. We also made crustos with cinnamon and green sugar.
You would have thought that he had won the lottery.

Then, he informed us that he likes all colors, and would have been happy with a red dinner, too. (That would have been harder than the green dinner!)

Anyway, they were so cute with their special dinners. I hope that someday they remember this and do the same for me. For reference, I would like my entire dinner to be made of chocolate – I’m not even picky about the color!

movie review: H0P, or why I want to destroy our TV

Ok, it's cute. I realize that it was released last year, but no mind. It was Easter weekend, and we finally got to watch it. Cute. Funny. Worth it.

My favorite line in the movie?
Human: "I can give you a baby aspirin. Do you want a baby aspirin?"
Rabbit; "No. Keep it. You might run over a baby later."

The boys' favorite line?
Rabbit: "Right. I poo and pee like a pig."

Oh, yeah. It's definitely their favorite part. They've been saying it all weekend. Thank goodness. We're so lucky.

It's so funny. They CRACK UP every time they say it. It's a riot. Bub and I are so proud.

It's also their new pick-up line. The neighbors had the family over for Easter dinner today. There were three or four little girls playing out back. The boys were talking to them through the fence. After a while, it happened. "Hey! I poo and pee like a pig."

The girls weren't taking any of this romantic bait. I don't know why. It's a mystery for the ages.

What a cutie

Meatball LOVES to write and draw. We were at Granny's and Grandpa's house a few days ago, and he created this:

Yes - that says "cat." And then "cait," which was supposed to be "kit." But, I'm not sure why. And a picture, obvsiouly, of a cat. The next picture is NOT a dog, even though the next word is "dog." Instead, this is a picture of a turtle. Ah, now you can clearly see the out-stretched head, can't you? Of course you can. Then, of course, we have the word "dog." I think that he ran out of paper, or else we would have had a picture of that, too.

This is the Meatball with sand all over his face and hands.

It was a beautiful day outside, and I was working in the garden while the boys played in the dirt and the sandbox. It's a good thing that it was bath night later!

Geri's mural

Last weekend, our friend, Geri, came out to Tooele to paint a mural at a local business. I hadn't seen her for a long time, and Bubba hadn't seen her forEVER. She hadn't seen the boys since they were infants, so we definitely wanted to go and visit. Additionally, she's an awesome artist, and we knew that Meatball would be really amazed by what she does.

So, after all of the hugs and kisses and squeals, she got to work.

Not long after she started, Meatball shouted "Does YOUR mom let you draw on the walls like that?" He was cmopletely amazed and afraid that she might be getting in trouble at any moment.

Peanut just had to interrupt her and ask if she liked Thomas the train. OK, he did this several times....

Here is the finished product. There is another wall with bagels, tea pots, sugar cubes, and coffee beans, but I didn't get a photo of that for some reason.

Yes. Geri gave them candy. And, she is funny and laughs a lot. And, she is pretty. And, she gets to draw on walls without getting in trouble. Oh, they like her a LOT. We haven't heard anything for a week that didn't include her name.