Mardi Gras

Well yesterday was Mardi Gras and the family celebrated in style. When I got home from the movie with my BFFFR, I was pleasantly surprised that my man had made dinner. He made red beans and rice and jumbalaya. We wore the beads that poppa and appa sent the girls from their trip to New Orleans.

this is a random girl dressed up for the party. she does indeed like to dance in her birthday suit, but we try to keep things clean at our party. Here she is in a tiara and beads... dinner at our house is a formal affair.

Bored

C is not a patient waiter. The hours we spent at Big Sissy's car race were not easy. this is what was going on in the seats while the " action" was happening on stage.

princess shoes 2

Well, the last cast came off on Wednesday. She cried. She said " owie on!" she wanted us to put it back on. I know it is just that she got used to the way it felt. Unfortunately, it rubbed a sore on her toe, which we have been dealing with. She also is still reluctant to put weight on her right foot. However, it looks so nice and straight. These are the "princess shoes" that she is wearing now. The instructions were to leave them on 24/7. However, since she had lost sensation in her foot and was afraid to step on it, we have been going barefoot some to get used to not having the cast on.

She had loved being in the tub. She takes after her momma and loves to just hang out in there. She really has missed the whole bathing thing these last 5 weeks. I have loved seeing her toes again.

my special place part 2

this is just a post script for my earlier post. After my super healthy abs-diet meatball hoagie supper ( thanks Sara), I opened another dove chocolate square ( don't judge me). those things are too small to count as calories in my book. Anyway-- this time it read..." you look good in Red". For anyone who knows me, they can attest that red is my color. I think those dove people are trying to get to me.

Go to your special place

today was weird. After church, the big girl went home with her friend for the afternoon to play, the little girl fell asleep for a long nap and D was working. I literally didn't know what to do with myself. It seems that if I am not teaching or mommy-ing or wife-ing, I don't know who I am. I talked on the phone to some of my favorite people and then meandered into the kitchen, cleaned and and found myself with nothing to do. I was just opening my second Dove chocolate square and was contemplating who I was, when something caught my eye. Apparently, the Dove company feels it needs to not only provide us with delectable chocolate treats, but also words of advice on the chocolate wrappers. I must admit that I had never noticed this before, as I usually just shove the chocolate in the mouth. However, today I was met with the strange phrase " Go to your special place". what did it mean? where was I supposed to go? who was sending me this message? how did they know I was ancy to go somewhere? I sat on the bed pondering where my "special place" was.

Is it church? I love church. I love fellowship and worship-- I love learning about God and myself. I get filled and am better when I leave. is it church?

is it Starbucks? I love coffeeshops. It smells good and the smell lingers on my clothes. coffee shops make me think of my BFF who used to work long nights making fancy drinks for trendy moms and philosophical wannabes at Heine Bros Coffee. maybe it is a coffeeshop.

Is it Garden of the gods? I love garden of the gods. Yesterday I went there just to walk around for a minute to clear my head. It is a reminder of the beauty of the world and has some mysterious soul-settling power over me. maybe its garden of the gods.

Is it my car? I love the new red car. we call her Suzy. I like to set my ipod to play my favorite tunes and just cruise around town. I like seeing the happy little face behind me in the carseat. Maybe my car?

Old chicago where I met duane? Our favorite Indian Restaurant I go to with Kym? Barnes and Noble? the theatre? my school? The mall? My favorite store in Old Colorado city? the park where I picnic with the girls?

I was tired of thinking - I needed to relax. then it hit me so I went to my special place... the bathtub. We don't have a fancy jet tub---I don't have any bath and body stuff to make huge bubbles---Sometimes it isn't even all that clean, and yet my tub is where I do my best thinking. So there it was, my special place. I felt better- I guess that dove place is on to something...

Ice festival

We took Upper Gold Camp road from Colorado Springs to Cripple Creek on Sunday after church. While it was a nervous and long ride, the views were well worth it. I had seen the billboards for the Ice Festival in Cripple Creek and we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day to check it out for ourselves.

This is one of the tunnels dug through the rock on Gold Camp Road. We talked a lot about what it might be like to be a miner in Colorado during the gold rush. We enjoyed the ride, but the dirt road with no guard rails was a trip!

We LOVED the ice festival. It was a cold,but wonderful day. The girls liked driving and riding on the Cinderella carriage made of ice.

My friend has been talking about Ice Sculptors lately and I admit, I was intrigued. We got to see some fantastic pieces. The big girl enjoyed riding the ice slide and going through the ice maze. D and I loved watching the dueling chainsaws make their amazing creations in under an hour.

the "dueling chainsaw" artists. We loved the castle in the background too!

D's favorite one had a pegasus.

Car race

We participated in the Grand Prix at Awana this year. Daddy and Maya made a bed car which was not an official winner (to anyone but us). She did win a participation ribbon and we went out for milkshakes afterward. Milkshakes do help make you feel better when you work hard to design a car that comes in last in every race.
Here is our little car engineer with the "Sweet Dreams Machine". She was quick to tell others that she was not competing for speed. She did hope to win the "novelty" catagory trophy, but no such luck.

Here are some of the cars in the competition. There were some cool designs.