Bad Hare Day

Let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time there was a little rabbit,

who was happily minding its own business,

until one day it hopped into some trouble.

This trouble happened to be a dog bed.

Oh, no, little rabbit, that's not a good place for you.

The big bad doggy who lives here could come home at any minute!

Oh, no, it's too late. The big ferocious puppy has arrived.

And settled down for a snack.

Rabbit's her favorite meal.

But, wait, maybe she's not really that hungry.

Maybe she's more of a pampered princess puppy.

Maybe she likes her rabbit cooked.

Maybe she broke a nail!

She decides to clean her nails.

And take a nap.

So, the rabbit lives to see another day.

The End.

Thanks for stopping by for this exciting edition of Camera Critters.

If you love animals and have a camera, stop by this site to find out the rules and join up!

Smoothie Queen

I'm the queen of smoothies.

I bet you didn't know that.

I am.

I rock at makin' smoothies. Well, at least one kind. Strawberry-banana.

Ok, that's the only one I've ever made, but I'm really good with that one. It's the best smoothie ever.

Yep.

Now, Pioneer Woman-style, here are the ingredients. Spiru-tein protein powder (strawberry flavored) is awesome. I buy it from GNC or my local healthly vitamin store. It comes in different sizes. This is the grandaddy size, but they have baby-sized packets too. And other flavors, like chocolate and vanilla.



I also use, as you see pictured, apple juice, bananas, stawberries and crushed ice (not pictured). You need a measuring cup and a blender.





First you peel the bananas (of course) and then break/cut them in half. And then put them in a freezer safe Ziploc bag. Non-Sequitur: My mom gave me this cutting board when I was first married. I think it's corian, which is like some kind of superman material that holds up well.

Then you cut the tops off the strawberries, and depending on how big they are, you might need to cut some of the strawberries in half. Then put them in a ziploc baggy also. (See the monster berry in the container? HUGE!)

Here are my baggies of bananas and strawberries, and I put them in the freezer. Where they live, the rest of their days, until I gobble them up with my superior smoothie-making skills.

Here's my blender. Non-Sequitur: I received this commercial grade blender as a wedding gift but didn't even open the box or use it until eight months ago. (I've been married just about 12 years!) You see, ever since we've been married, we've lived in tiny apartments, so we boxed and put almost all our wedding gifts in storage for all this time...until we moved into a big house with room for everything!! And, I got to find all my wedding gifts all over again. It was better than Christmas, because I got an amazing haul when we got married. People were way too nice. Especially to a 19 year old who was pregnant. Shhhh!! Ok, everyone knew.

This is a Thermos brand cup that I have to drink my smoothies in. I have blue ones and pink ones, and I found them at Target. They have thick straws and thick double-insulated bodies made out of polycarbonate and are just awesome. I make my boys use them around the house so they don't spill drinks all over the place.

Ok, back to making our smoothie. I pour anywhere from 1/2 a cup to a cup of apple juice, depending on my mood. And it goes into the blender first.

Then I add 1/2 a banana (NOT the whole banana) which I break into halves (so two 1/4ths, I guess) and also add the frozen strawberry, just one.
Then I add a very generous helping of protein powder next. This stuff is great but messy. It comes with it's own scoop in the container.

Finally, last but not least, about a cup of crushed ice. Add that in and get ready to blend.

When you're done blending, it should look like this...sweet heaveness.

And, then I pour it into my king of all cups...
and, pouring while trying to take pictures is dangerous...and I spill some. ooops. Might have to lick that up.
And, ta da!! All done!!

I am the smoothie queen.

The Friendly Cashier & 4th of July musings

Happy 4th of July everyone! Can you imagine what our country would be like if we still belonged to the British?

Our founding fathers were total badasses. (excuse my langauge but they totally were)

As you know (or maybe you don't) I'm doing a giveaway. My friend Carrie, the Gremlin Wrangler, is a creative gal who writes about her experiences as a cashier. The stories she tells, oh my gosh, they are hilarious!!

You can enter this giveaway by going HERE and leaving a comment with a grocery store story of your own.

I went to the grocery store today...and managed to cut my right thumb (the left thumb is already cut and in a bandaid still) in the refrigerated section. I'm just that good.

And, I just heard from someone today (possibly a family member) who took a header over a flat bed stocking cart in the grocery store resulting in black and blue legs AND a broken rib.

My conclusion from this is that either the grocery store is way too dangerous or the females in my family are clumsy. Definitely the former. Has to be.

Here's a little teaser from Letters From Your Friendly Cashier to wet your appetite:

To all the kind folks whose items ran together and caused me to ring up things belonging to the person behind the other person:

We have dividers for a reason.

To all the people who happened upon my line when my dividers were mysteriously missing:

Good job on separating and cooperating! You rock.

To the guy with the mysterious satchel draped around his shoulder:

Little did you now that when I heard you say I would run away if I saw what was in your satchel, that you were dealing with a friendly professional. And when you informed me that it was your pet boa constrictor, I didn't even flinch. I proved you and your friend wrong, when you brought out said snakey and I gave him a nice squeeze. I mean, she is a boa constrictor, and squeezing is their love language, right? I could tell you were impressed.

You need never doubt my skills ever again. Unless you carry your pet tarantula in that yellow satchel, in which case I will call the fuzz on you.

To think, we've probably been grocery shopping with hidden snakes in the store at some point in our lives. I'm freaked out by that thought.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

Confessions & A Give-away

I won a giveaway not long ago where the prize was two books writte by Carrie, whose blog, The Gremlin Wrangler, I frequent often. She works as a cashier at a grocery store, but that's not her true talent. She can sing, write, draw, and wrangle gremlins. She has a wonderfully creative and funny view on life and shares this through her hilarious observations of the people (or nutcases) who come through her line in the grocery store.

I have now read both of her books, volume one and two. They're quick reads, and I laughed a lot while reading them (the other parents in the orthodonitist's office gave me looks. I've been there a lot lately because Donny is in the four-appointment process of getting braces this summer.)



You really should read this collection of letters. You can order them from Lulu Books in print version to be mailed to you or you can download them e-book style. Let me just share a few quick glimpses into what you can expect out of these books:



1. People show up to shop in odd outfits, P.J.'s and barely there swim suits.

2. People who have odd comments or share inappropriate snippets of their personal life.

3. Creepy people who will totally freak you out!

4. Rude people who take out their frustrations on the cashier, or chat on their cell phone, or who demand unreasonble requests.

5. couples who treat each other disrespectfully and air dirty laundry in public...or mother/daughter and other family combinations with hilarious interactions, both good and bad.

6. the weird combinations of stuff people buy that leave her wondering what they're up to...



The late night customers are the some of the scariest.



I enjoyed these two books so much. Carrie is wonderful at finding humor in every situation, and some of the stuff she has had to deal with, wow! As she frequently states, "Laughter is the social glue." I'm impressed.

So, please, buy or download these books or check out her site, because she often shares these stories on her blog too.

AND, since I won these books in a giveaway, I have decided to share the wealth and pass them along in another giveaway!

SO, if you want to receive this HILARIOUS collection, leave a comment on my site letting me know you're interested and give me a good grocery store story. (and go check out Carrie's site The Gremlin Wrangler).

I was trying to think of a good story of my own...I've lost children in the store, lost my elderly father on his scooter in the store (and he's dangerous on that thing). I had emergency runs to the bathroom in there...I could go on and on.

I'll let my little gremlins pull the winner out of a hat midnight Saturday night. Well, the contest cut off is midnight, I won't let the boys pick a winner out of the hat until Sunday morning, but you get the idea.


Everytime I go to the grocery store now, I feel like I have inside information, and I keep an eye out for those crazies. :o)

Neon paint, loud music and stinky feet, oh my!

Can you guess what happens inside this building?

I don't have pictures of the outside, just the inside this time.

You see this vibrant green and yellow wall?

I chose this color scheme for my dining room!!

No, ok, really, I didn't.

There are glass-block windows throughout.

Is that a dated look?

Does it bring anything certain to mind?

This is NOT a bar.

Kids flock here.

And some scary adults who aren't parents...in tiny shorts...

Oh, my god, that reminds me. The other day, the boys and I were driving down a road in our small town, and remember how I told you that there's lots of farm land around here and corn fields? Well, we passed one of the usual little farms between subdivisions, and I called out to the boys, "Look guys, there are the mules!" and realized as I said it that maybe now wasn't the best time to bring attention to the mules. Ummm....yep, a total R rated moment on the side of the road. One mule was ON TOP OF the other.

So, we had to have a little talk about animals and mating. That was fun.

Did you know that mules are the progeny of a horse and a donkey? AND, that mules can't reproduce? Or something like that. Isn't that weird?

So I guess they were just, umm...having fun.

Ok, so, I was off on a tangent here or as my Latin teacher used to call it, a non sequitur.

Back to the mystery building. This picture features a broken window.

Ummm, hmmm, not sure I want to know what happened here.

Something went through this window.

A crackberry? A cell phone?

A brawl between parents?

A large "Big Hair" do on a Texas mom?

Here's the ceiling. Have you figured out where we are yet?

Ok, here's a big clue. The carpet. Niiiice, huh? Makes a fashion statement for sure.

And, the biggest clue of all...here's what's on Remy's stinky little feet.

And Donny's. (It's official, his feet are larger than mine!!)

If you haven't guessed it by now, I'm sorry, but I need to let you know you're retarded.

I know that's not the PC term, so I apologize, but seriously.

It's a roller skating rink!!

Now, my boys have only been skating a handful of times in their life, so they were very excited but also a little nervous, because they know about falling.

They weren't ready to join in those hokey dances in the middle or any of the races, so they watched from the side whenever those happened.

These are the shoes they wore before they put on the skates. Remy's favorite color is red (although this pair looks a little pink, don't tell him that though!) and Donny's really into the Longhorns right now. HOOK EM HORNS!

Here are MY shoes. And they didn't come off. I didn't skate this time.

Why didn't I skate, you ask? Because of my thumb. It's still sore and messy, but at least I have graduated from the scary lobster claw bandage to a much sleeker Scooby Doo bandaid.

You see, I can skate...but I know I'm going to fall, because I do every time, at least once or twice. And, if I fall while I have this thumb problem, I'm going to re-open the injury and it's going to really, really hurt. Even now if I bump my thumb against anything, I screech in pain. And I bump it a lot. I'm a total clutz.

Did I tell you about the time I fell off the stage during my 8th grade play Bye, Bye, Birdie? Hmm...no? Story for another time perhaps. It involved blood, tears and embarrassment. And a poodle skirt.

Anyway, back to the kids. They're much more exciting than I am, playing with my camera on the sidelines, texting my hubby and trying to figure out my new toy (more on that later).

Donny's starting to get the hang of it. He's moved away from the wall even!

Remy, however, hasn't let go of the wall once. He's glued to that thing.

And still manages to fall a little. He's extremely athletic, but slightly clumsy at times too.

However, his big brother, who he had been fighting with in the car just minutes ago, comes to his rescue and skates with him for a while, to help him get the hang of it and give him a pep talk.

At one point, Remy decides he's done. He doesn't want to skate anymore. We'd been there for about 15 minutes. He took his skates off. I told him he didn't have to skate, but that he was going to be disappointed with himself for giving up so easily.

I was reminded of this post I read recently on OhMommy's blog, Classy Chaos, about perseverance. I reminded Remy that learning to swim was hard at first. And, that learning to ride a bike was hard at first. I told him that with practice, it would get easier. I told him he didn't have to go back out there, but that we were staying for Donny to skate, and that I knew he could do it, if he didn't give up. I told him that he would be proud of himself if he didn't give up now. He huffed and puffed, stormed off for a while, then came back and put the skates back on.

And, he skated the rest of the time, getting better and braver with each passing minute. Donny stepped up again and gave him some pep talks out on the roller rink. They played games where they would meet up at certain spots. And, the next time Remy passed Donny, they gave each other a High Five. It was a moment that made me proud. I love my boys.

And next time we go to the roller rink, I'm totally gonna skate.