Meet Jose

This is Jose.

Dodge Durango, Gas Guzzler, Carrier of Cargo, Deliverer of Children.

The boys named him Jose.

He has been a member of this family since the boys were born, oh those long four and a half years ago...

... and if you happen to know where those long four and a half years went, please let me know, I'd really like some of them back...

Anyhow.

Jose carried this family from the East Coast to the West Coast to the good ole' Colorado range. At least, I think it's a range. Or the frontier. Either way, it's Colorado and we have mountains, cattle and ranges.

Jose is currently out of favor with the country, gas prices rising and all, but we love Jose, and we'll keep Jose, as long as Jose lasts, which should be a pretty long time.

The thing about Jose though, he's always dirty. Seriously, the guy is a pig. And clutter junkie. Oh, the things he collects in his back seats, the food he munches on practically non-stop on every drive, and seriously, how long must the wet-dog scent last? It was months before we stopped smelling regurgitated goldfish. Don't even get me started on his Diet Coke and Starbuck's addiction...

The Final Five.... Pounds

I'm there.

I have talked for some time, but not here, about the Eternal Ten.... those mysterious final ten pounds that you just need to lose, but that won't budge, no matter what you do. Oh sure, the Eternal Ten mock you, maybe letting you go down three, only to up back three and a half, snickering and mocking and pointing, yes, those Eternal Ten Pounds...

Five pounds ago, I was there.

I finally realized that for the Eternal Ten to give way, I needed to eat a bit less... Coffee Heath Bar Ice Cream, I abjure you, Starbuck's Frappucino's, Cinnamon Dolce Latte's and Cinnamon Bread, mourn you. Hubby McRed's Hidden Stash of Peanut M&M's, I pretend I don't know where you are...

I also walked a bit more.

Chasing run-away toddlers also helps.

Then, the Eternal Ten gave way to the Final Five.

I hit the Final Five last night, but thought my scale was broken. I mean, after all this time, how could I have finally lost those 1.6 pounds that would end the stale-mate between me and weight loss? The scale has registered at the same weight for so long, surely, it's just that the battery died...

So I checked it with the gym scale while dropping my son off for his swim class (You didn't think I went to, like, work out, did you?) and it turns out it's not broken.

Welcome to Lahdeeda's Final Five -- the Personal Struggle To Not Eat Coffee Heath Bar Ice Cream.

I'm now determined to hit my target weight by fall... those Final Five will give way in the next two months or else.

I'm so giddy, I could munch on a celery stick.

I've got a runner

Note: Season is a new cast member, and is a neighbor named after a season. Real vague, I know...Sweetie is a cute blonde pre-schooler that rules the neighborhood with blue eyes and a mischievous smile.

"Poor Season," I'd say to Hubby McRed.
"She's always off chasing that running toddler of hers," and I'd point out the window to the blur that was Season, off chasing her running toddler down the sidewalk past our window.
I'd shake my head. Oh, poor thing, I'd think. But, well, he does keep her in shape. (She's quite the little hottie, and I say that with lots of green envy).
"Tsk Tsk. He can even open the doors now. That's how he does it. She'll need to get higher locks."

And then I'd go back to watching The Deadliest Catch, tsking tsking about runaway children.

Then Turbo got his rocket pack.

One day, when I said 'come on, it's time to go home' he fired it up and took off. It'd been awhile since I used my rocket pack, and for some reason, Bear took off too. I chased Turbo, since he's the one with the rocket pack. He went around the corner and out of our little 'hood, to the neighborhood street and was about to fire off a booster into the overgrown weed field that leads to the bus depot and the street. A nice little ten year old asked if I needed help catching the rocket boy. I said no, booked it in flip flops, quite a feat alone, you should try it sometime, and caught him.

Then I back-tracked to Bear, found him hiding in bushes, pulled him out, spanked both their booties (Spare me the no-spanking rule, lines MUST be drawn) and walked two crying preschoolers back home.

I thought it was over. We had a talk. There was a spanking, but no.

Second time we're outside, Turbo chased a bunny with Bear and Sweetie. Bear came back, Turbo and Sweetie wandered down the sidewalk. I YELLED at Sweeite and Turbo to stop. This was more to alert Sweetie's parents that I found them and they were WAY beyond the boundary. But then I had a dilemma. Sure, Sweetie stopped, but Turbo, he fired up his rockets....

I caught up to Sweetie, what to do what to do, well, I'm certainly not going to leave a pre-schooler alone on the side-walk, so I said 'You're coming with me, honey' picked her up and took off after Turbo, who DID listen to me when I said "NO THAT"S A ROAD" and instead went around the block, to be intercepted by Sweetie's Dad.

There was speaking, spanking and tears.

And today, new boundaries for the Turbo.

I've confiscated his rocket pack.

As for Season? Well, she was last seen booking it around the corner of our house after dark...

Meet Drama Girl

Here is Drama Girl....


She doesn't look like a pre-tween there does she? Trust me, we're in full tweendom mode. And I know you can't see her face, but truthfully, this photo contains the essence of Drama Girl. She is in a place that none of us want to return to, if we're honest, or our memories are intact. There is just so much...Drama.

Next year she hits the middle school years. She'll be mixed in with the angsty seventh and eight graders, but there's no real way to solve the sixth grade conundrum, not really. You just have to go through it, and she will, with angst, drama, Emotion. Send help.

See that smile though? See it?
Remember it, because over the course of the next three years, it's going to disappear into that "i'm more bored than death" expression.

And if you want to know how I really feel about my daughter, here you go.

Meet Bear

Meet............ Bear


Twin to Turbo, Identical, though they, in these pictures, with their personalities fully taking up the camera, don't look it.

Bear is sweet as pie and stubborn as a mountain. Immovable. Determined. Filled with hugs. Kisses. Cuddles. But still immovable.

He loves shaking that mane of hair, mussing it up, and playing with it in his hands. He's a darling, he's four, and those blue eyes, you see those eyes? They are going to wreak havoc with some poor girl's heart one day.

The thing with Bear, and all bears, is they are super cute, but we all know, you don't mess with a sleeping Bear. Or an angry Bear. An eating Bear. A busy Bear, a determined Bear, a Bear on the chase.... you get the idea.... you just ... don't....mess.... with....Bear.

Meet Turbo

Now that the photo-ban has been lifted, lets meet the fam dam, shall we?


Meet..... Turbo


Turbo moves even when standing still.

Turbo is a wanderer, often found at any home except his own... cavorting with the neighborhood blonde who rules the pre-school boy set with blue-eyed cuteness and little shy smiles... visiting all the neighbors, house-by-house, picking up food and drink where it's offered, nary a glance back to me, mom, wondering at which back-patio I could find my stray. One neighbor, who kindly obliged Turbo with a glass of water and some pleasant conversation, described him as a traveler. I think this is an apt description.

Turbo can be found heading off into the grove of trees where the dirt is prime-digging material and the trucks have some heavy duty work cut out. He likes to climb trees and is an avid scooterer' on the sidewalk path. He loves to chase dogs and laugh, and often, can fall down from both chasing dogs and laughing.

This is Turbo.

Turbo is unique, independent, all boy, and, if his wandering ways are any indication of his future life, only mine temporarily... the big bad world isn't big enough for him.

Meet Crazy

This is Crazy.





She doesn't go for the little itty balls.
She's a herding dog... and this, why this big blue thing is obviously an errant headless smurf sheep. Crazy is a working dog. She doesn't play fetch. She snorts at little tennis balls. But errant headless blue smurf sheep, she's on em.


Because she's got a job to do.
And by golly, she'll do it.
Even if it means she has to pick up that giant blue headless smurf sheep and drag it on home.

Because this is Crazy, and she's a cattle dog mutt mix.

'Aint she just darlin?

Happy June!

For some reason, I have been waiting until June to officially declare summer, even though it's technically not summer, that's not the point. My daughter is out of school. It's summer. If we were back East, than my summer would start end of June.

So I have just realized that I've given my daughter conflicting events this summer. She has theater in the afternoons, which ends at the same time my son's swim class starts. Okay, I can manage this. I'm clever. The library is one block away. She's 11. She can cross a road and walk down a road a bit to get to the library.

But then... her orchestra concert may be on the same night as one of her plays. Okay, no REAL need to panic here. If I'm lucky, they aren't on the same night. If they are on the same night, maybe I'm semi-lucky and they are at different times. If they are the same night, ugh, choices.... choices....

Next schedule conflict...
Drama and Turbo have one week of basketball camp for two hours. It starts the same time as Drama Girl's Cello lessons. Okay, she gets dropped off ten minutes early... I drive drive drive... pick her up and then go visit some trail with her and walk the dog and have Drama Girl mom chat's then run and pick up the boys, and then have lunch, drop her off at theater and run off to the lake with the boys....

It's only a week.

Ugh.

See?

And, can you believe, daresay I, I've only scheduled stuff for Drama Girl through mid-July? And Turbo's swim lessons end in July.

What WILL I do for that last month? All that unscheduled time? /panic!

**Note on Turbo and Bear... I haven't really scheduled them for anything this summer because this is their last summer of being free... they start preschool in the fall. I figure they should get one final last hurrah (that they won't appreciate of course) where all they do is run around and play and swim and watch cartoons... because once they hit school, summer is all about getting them out...out...out... of the house.... and also, I deserve one last summer before being eternally condemned to summer taxi driver.

MAYBE I'll sign them up for a week of lacrosse camp... just because it sounds cool ;)