Seussical Teaser

For those who haven't heard (because you live under a rock)
Miranda's Broadway group is putting on the play Seussical Jr. in June.
Miranda has the part of Cat in the Hat and today she was able to get a little taste of being a celebrity. The Summerlin Library was having a Seuss Celebration and asked Broadway Bound to sing a number or two from their upcoming play.
Since the space is tight, there were only 4 cast members that were able to attend. Miranda was the only one in costume (not her real costume - she kept reminding me)
They sang a couple songs....


Miranda read "The Cat in the Hat" to the kids


And they played a little game of "Cat Says"


It was so fun to see Miranda get into character as "The Cat" and interact with the kids. She even made a couple of them cry!
All her hard work and dedication is certainly paying off. I was beaming, just as any mother should, watching her performance.
Be sure to mark your calendars for June29-July3 if you want to see the entire production and Miranda's full Cat-titude!

Think happy thoughts

Last night Ryan's brother Eric and his wife Lori came to Vegas so we decided to go to dinner. The only catch to the story is that they brought their Harley of course Ryan decided we ride tandem on our bike as well.

So I'm thinking....
Ok, fine, I can do that.. I did get my hair cut and straightened today so the helmet hair shouldn't be too bad. And I have that cute pink scarf and new leather gloves I can wear with my leather jacket so I don't get too cold.

But wait....what's this.... what do you mean I have to go on the freeway... like the actual US95 ... like the BIG 6 lane road where everyone is going 100mph... and there are semi trucks that we might have to pass...and people change lanes and everything..... seriously?..... are you sure we can't take the back roads to get to Carrabbas in Summerlin?

In all the rides Ryan has taken me on, we only went on the freeway once... for a very short distance and I was a nervous wreck.

So in the words of my husband... I decided to "strap a set on" and brave the freeway. ( I really didn't have much choice because I wasn't driving)

Well, despite all my whining inside my head, I survived and I wasn't even too cold.... I'm sure it was because of the pink scarf :) Although I will need to pick up some chaps sometime... legs were a bit frozen.

I was nervous but I only had one time when we passed a giant semi truck...going around a turn....going 100mph that I had to close my eyes and escape to a happy place inside my head. So I thought that was pretty good progress.

The good news is.... tonight I get to be brave again because we're going to cruise the strip on the bikes... (yes I mean the Las Vegas Strip with all the tourists and cars and lights and traffic and it's all the way downtown)
think happy thoughts...think happy thoughts....think happy thoughts....

Me... a Biker Babe?

When Ryan first told me he was thinking about buying a Harley I was extremely hesitant. I really haven't been around motorcycles too much and frankly they scared me. Ryan has grown up on and around motorcycles and has always dreamed of owning a Harley. I knew that someday I would have to face my fears.

To get me excited about riding, Ryan let me pick out my own helmet... with pink butterflies of course. The original plan was for me to share with the kids, but they are such brainiacs, their heads are bigger than mine so I get my own and they have to share. I also picked out a leather jacket and Harley shoes to complete the ensemble. (Can't really wear the 4 in shoes on the bike though)

When I first went for a ride with Ryan I squealed like a mouse whenever he would turn, shift gears, or accelerate. Basically I just wanted him to either sit in the driveway or only drive straight. I knew that wouldn't work, I mean... I suppose you have to turn sometime right?

After a couple of rides, I was getting more comfortable on the bike. It helped that he was very careful not to turn too tight or accelerate too fast when I was with him. (what a sweetie).

I am doing much better, I don't squeal anymore (Ryan is grateful) and I sometimes even catch myself thinking...

"Today would be a nice day to go for a ride on the bike"

Crazy... I know

I'm a fair-weather rider and prefer warm sunny days when I can wear my sunglasses (to complete my biker look). And because of the serious helmet hair I get (I'm sure you can imagine) I like to make sure I don't have any red carpet event to attend later that day when I ride. But in all honesty I enjoy our little rides together.

It's funny to watch other Harley owners give Ryan"the nod" or "the wave" when we pass. (It seriously happens ONLY with Harley drivers). I've had a couple friends from church ask if that was actually me they saw riding on a Harley. Who would have guessed?!

Ryan is trying to talk me into going to the River Run in Laughlin... not sure if I'm ready for that jaunt.....I mean... I haven't picked up my leather halter top yet!

Happy Birthday Gus

I was thinking today that Gus was born sometime in February so I asked Ryan which day...
February 24th is the day Agustus Running Clown was born (that's his official registered family name). He's a purebred German Shorthair.
Ryan named him after Agustus McCrae, played by Robert Duvall, from the miniseries Lonesome Dove.
We lovingly just call him Gus, although we've also been known to call him, Agustus, Gustoford, T-ford, Get off the counter, Dumb dog, and GUUUUSSS NO!

Today Gus is 42 dog years old. It's hard to believe that he's been with our family almost 6 years now (we brought him home in April '03). Who knew that cute little puppy would bring so much happiness and stress to our family. He's certainly eaten his fair share of food off the counter including a couple birthday cakes (see slide show). He's survived eating chocolate - multiple times, bee stings (you think he would learn after eating the first one) and he has a metabolism that anyone would envy! (I promise we feed him TONS)

Gus has always had a passion for hunting... he comes from a long line of hunters and he hasn't shown any sign of slowing yet! He has a super keen sense of smell that always leads him to whatever wrapper is in the trash. Lately he's also proved to be quite an effective mouse hunter... twice! - makes me nervous when he goes on point around the house.

HERE's a peek at one of his hunting episodes in the house...
And HERE's a peek at how excited he gets when he goes with Miranda to school

Gus is always ready to greet visitors with a bark, a friendly hug and let you pet him -( what a privilege for you). He is super loving and would do anything to get anyone to pet him... just don't stop or he'll nudge you to death!

And so before this day comes to an end I thought Gus deserved a little birthday tribute too since he's become such a loved member of our family -most of the time :)

A boys weekend

Ryan's parents came to visit this past weekend so Ryan and his dad could go to the UNLV v. BYU basketball game (UNLV won by the way).
Parker was dying to have his cousin, Walker, come too... so Grandma & Grandpa gladly agreed to have an extra passenger.
Brecken came to hang out with them and they had a fabulous time together playing Wii, video games, & riding scooters in the beautiful Vegas weather we're having.
Parker even learned a new skill.... finger skateboarding!
He and Walker played for hours building ramps and jumps for their mini skateboard stunts. We're always glad when Nancie and Raynold come to visit.... and I'm sure Parker will agree that they can bring Walker along anytime!

Goin' Green

Yes... I do recycle, but I'm talking about my new blog look.

I used to love green, (not really my blog's shade of green, more like a sage-ish green)
I do love to decorate for holiday's so I figured my blog should be included in my decorating ritual.
I'm not sure how long I can have green for my background though, so green lovers, enjoy it while it lasts.
I couldn't go totally without pink so I had to add my little flair to the flower... it just makes me smile:)
I'm definitely seeing more pink in the future for Easter.

Happy Heart Day!

Ryan always dreads Valentines day.
"It's just some holiday that retailers created so they can sell some cards, flowers, chocolate and other junk" In a way I can see his point, BUT...
I love all things Valentine.... the pink, red, hearts, flowers, love not to mention chocolate.

Ryan did give in to the commercial hype and gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, an adorable card and a gift certificate to Massage Envy - Oh yeah! I'm so going to enjoy that one!

So whether you "believe" in Valentines day or you just think you should show your love 365 days a year... I hope you have a Happy Heart Day!

Look out Betty Crocker ???

Since my kids were young I've tried to instill the love of cooking/baking in them.
I would always let them help me whenever I would bake or even just help stir the macaroni for lunch.I'll admit I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my goodies. But I would let them create their own masterpieces however they like!

Miranda used to be a huge mamma's helper whenever I would bake. But recently she's limited her cooking to grilled cheese, Frozen pizza and the occasional brownie mix.

The other day she had to bring a dish that represented her family heritage. We have, Swedish, Scottish, German and English in our family. She researched a few recipes, but with only a couple hours before time to leave, she decided on English Toffee (not really sure if that came from England, but it worked)

I told her of a simple recipe I had that used soda crackers, butter and sugar. Couldn't be easier than that!
So I pulled out the recipe card and all the ingredients for her.

Batch #1
She started melting the butter in the pan and added the sugar - I reminded her to stir it constantly or it would burn.... she gave me an eye roll and said "I know mo-ther" then continued talking to her friend on the phone.

I stuck around despite her apparent lack of wanting me to help. She asked me to stir for a minute while she spread the crackers on the sheet. I took over the stirring and noticed that it wasn't getting very thick.

Me: Did you remember the sugar?
Miranda: Yes, I put in one cup.
Me: One of these cups? pointing to the measuring cup in the sugar canister
Miranda: yep
Me: The recipe calls for 1 CUP of sugar.... this measuring cup is 1/2 cup, you should have put in two scoops.
Miranda: whoops, sorry

I tried adding the additional sugar, but it was too late....

Batch #2
This time I watched her a little more closely. Everything went great.
She put it into the oven to bake and set the timer... 10 minutes
I had to leave to take Parker to class when there was just 5 minutes left on the timer.

Me: Miranda, when the timer goes off, just take out the pan, sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and put it back into the oven. DO NOT LEAVE.... just watch for the chips to melt... it will not take very long. Then take them out, spread the chocolate and sprinkle with nuts.
Miranda: I got it!

I left to take Parker to class and not too long later I receive a text from Miranda saying she burned the toffee. I figured she was just giving me a hard time and didn't believe her, but when I got home... here is what her toffee looked like....Oh yeah... it was definitely burned.

When I asked what happened she said she stayed right there waiting for the chocolate to melt just like I said, but they never did. Before she knew it they were just burned.
Apparently I should have said wait for the chips to "soften" not "melt".
She was waiting for them to spread out and actually melt.

Batch #3
So the perfectionist in me took over... with only 45 minutes until Mutual I mixed up another batch and stuck it in the freezer to chill on time.
Miranda was grateful that she didn't have to make it again, but quite enjoyed the yummy end result as did everyone at mutual.Miranda has decided that she's just going to stick to grilled cheese. She's already feeling bad for her future family and hopes that I'll live nearby whenever she needs a baking rescue.

I'm not giving up yet.... I still have her home for a few more years.... there's hope yet for Miranda! Besides, I've had my fair share of mess-ups while learning to cook. My family will never let me forget when I was about 10 years old and I added 1 CUP of salt to the meatloaf instead of 1Tablespoon... whoops!

The next day for English she had to create a brochure explaining how to make something... she did hers on how to make Saltine Toffee....

Watch out Kenny G

Parker has always been one to go in and out with phases. He'll be interested in one thing for a while and then it soon get replaces with something entirely different.
As a parent it's our job to determine which of his interests are going to stick and stay around a while. I'm not saying we always get it right, but I guess a kid needs to explore many areas (and pets) before deciding on what he's most interested in.

For a long while, Parker really wanted to learn to play the drums. He desperately wanted a drum set for Christmas a couple years ago. I'm not sure why he decided to become a drummer, perhaps because one of his friends was taking lessons. So we decided to take baby steps.... first an electronic Blue Man Group drum set. Not so huge that he couldn't fit in his room with it. Then we took him to Blue Man Group and he got drumsticks and a snare-top from the souvenir shop. We figured if he was truly into drums he would go crazy banging on this.
Well, the drumsticks and electronic drum set have found a home in the back of his closet. Parker does play a pretty mean drum on Rockband, but I think that's about as far as his drum interest goes. So when Parker told us he wanted to learn to play the Saxophone... we were a bit hesitant - really, do you blame us? We put off and politely ignored his requests to get an instrument for his birthday and Christmas. We thought if we ignored it long enough it just might go away and he would find a new interest..... we were wrong.
Every few weeks he would ask when he could get a saxophone so he could learn how to play before he started band in Middle School next year (valid point)
Since Ryan played the saxophone in High School he was kind of excited to have the opportunity to teach Parker about the sax, but wasn't sure if he wanted to invest in another fleeting interest.

Last Saturday I went to a store and next door I noticed a place that taught music lessons. On a whim I headed inside to get information about saxophone lessons and sales.
The next thing I know, I have Parker signed up for lessons and a rental is ordered.

Parker was soooo excited. Every day he gave us a countdown until his lessons.
FINALLY Wednesday came. We met his instructor Alex, and they headed back to begin.
When Parker came out he was grinning ear to ear. Alex said Parker did very well and to practice every day.
Well, Parker has taken that to heart and has practiced multiple times throughout the day.
Parker was excited to show us what he learned. I must admit he did a pretty good job.
(Yes, Ryan stole it from him to show him what the "Old Man" could do)
We're still in the "trial" phase with the saxophone. I only signed up for a month of lessons and the saxophone is rented - not purchased yet. He seems pretty determined to learn how to play so he can have a jump start before Middle School Band. Between his lessons and Ryan, I think he has a pretty good chance of succeeding!

**Note to self.... pick up earplugs from the store

Bakers delight

It rained all day today.
Don't 'cha just love to be cozy inside when it's raining outside.
The kids were a little crazy and went out in the wet weather for a little walk (they kept hiding behind their umbrella's)When it's wet and wonderful outside I always get in the mood to bake ...bread, cookies, cake, cinnamon rolls whatever! Unfortunately I didn't want ( well... need) to eat all these things myself, so I had to come up with something or someone to make it for.
Hummm, what about cookies.... for choir tomorrow... oh Yes!
So I set out the butter to soften and headed out on my few errands of the day.

When I got home It had stopped raining, but my butter was soft and I was still in the baking mood. So I finished up with dinner, cleaned dishes and started mixing the dough...
A little while later I had...

4 dozen cookies for choir rehearsal tomorrowand one giant heart cookie for Parker's teacher for Valentine's day. (You can read a fun little tidbit about how these cookies came about HERE)

So after sneaking a couple finger-fulls of the dough and a piece of a fresh from the oven cookie... I had my little baking fix. I feel much better now, but I hope it rains again tomorrow... I may need to bake a little more before the urge goes away completely.

Blast from the Past

Mid December I received a Christmas card from Dana, a friend from High School. We've kept in touch off & on over the years mostly at Christmas time. In her letter she wrote that I should join Facebook because a lot of other High School friends were on and it was a great way to keep in touch. I thought about it briefly and thought... nah, I'm more of a blog girl.

Then a few days later I received an email from Stori, another High School friend inviting me to be her friend and view her Facebook profile. I was curious ...
click.... click... click...
Before I knew it I had created a Facebook profile.

What was I thinking? I really didn't intend to have a Facebook account. But since I've joined, I've become "friends" with many more High School friends, as well as current church friends and family. I still don't know much about facebook and I'm not one to update my status much (in fact I don't think I ever have) I'm still a blog girl at heart.

So if you're on facebook and I don't respond to your girlfriend requests... just remember I have no idea what I'm doing.

Just as I've been getting re-acquainted with old friends on facebook...
I ran into another blast from the past today.

Ryan and I went to the Harley Davidson shop to exchange a couple things and one of the guys working there asked my name because he thought he remembered me from Middle School. (that was soooo long ago)
Come to find out he was a drummer I knew when I was in band in Middle School. (I played the trombone - talk about random facts). But the story gets better- stay with me while I ramble.

When Cabbage Patch kids first came out and were all the rage, my mom picked one up for me. His original name was Rory Alberto. But I changed it to Ryan Derek. I named him Ryan because that was one of my favorite names at the time - not knowing I'd end up marrying a Ryan. I named him Derek because of a drummer I had a crush on in Middle School. Oh Yeah... the very same one I met today.Small world isn't it?!(Yes this is my original Cabbage Patch doll - the birth certificate is in storage so I couldn't scan it in)
I have no idea how he remembered me. I think I've changed at least a little since then. I'm not sure I even spoke to him back then- you know, one of those admire from afar kind of things.
Small World!
Anyway... just thought I'd share all the Blasts from the Past I've had lately.

Happy Birthday Ryan

My husband and best friend.
I love you sweetie !
Have a Happy Birthday!

Mythbuster Mania

Most of you know about Parker's obsession with the Discovery Channel's series "Mythbusters". He and a couple of his friends even made their own Mini-Mythbusters video (you can read about it HERE)

Parker has 40 Mythbuster episodes loaded onto his Ipod that he faithfully watches each night.

Well, my brother in law Nathan works as a manager with Alaskan Airlines in Seattle. He was helping a couple gentlemen with their flights when he happened to recognize them. It was Jamie and Adam from the Mythbuster show. They were so grateful with his help that they offered him an autographed picture. He graciously accepted and asked if they could possibly do a second one for my dad, who had been helping them with a bathroom remodel.

When Nathan gave my dad the picture, he was pretty excited and told Nathan how much Parker LOVED the show. So, Nathan did something that made Parker soooo happy....
Nathan sent Parker his autographed photo. (What an Awesome Uncle!)
Parker bugged me all week asking when we could go to Henderson and get the autographed photo. Finally we made the trip Saturday, and Parker hasn't stopped smiling since. He immediately asked if I could get a frame for it so it would be protected.
(I believe he mentioned fireproof)So a HUGE THANK YOU to Uncle Nathan! Parker is the happiest kid on earth right now!