Wiggle Derby

Ever since I turned 27, I've really been coming into my own as a mature, responsible woman. I've started to see things in a clearer way, and have realized I need to have a plan in place for the future. Thankfully, I have some awesome friends who have helped me realize which way I need to go. They completely suprised me last night with a trip to Leatherby's. Which is, by golly, THE best ice cream place ever! And like any mature adult, Misty decided our night would best be spent, not by going home, but instead Wiggle Bike Racing! I have now found my niche! I am to be the worlds best wiggle bike racer! Darn it, I guess I'm going to have to practice lots and lots!
Oh, you've never ridden a Wiggle bike?
Baby, you haven't lived!
Our night just got started at 11:00 p.m. when we shoved the teenage make-out couple out of the way to start our races. Sonia "The Madam" Morgan was to start us off down the hill. There was a 90 degree turn halfway through, before we were soaring down the sidewalk at lightning speed. There were only a few crashes, but a gazillion screams. That poor couple, they had no idea what they were in for when they chose that park for "snuggling". We were just finishing up, when the Pops showed up to let us know wiggle time was over. I'm so bummed, because I didn't have my camera, but no worries! Just check out out Misty "Stay-at-home-Mom" Startup's blog(funny farm) And look for our team next year at the second annual Jodi's birthday slash Wiggle Derby!




scroll down (Funny Farm) to the last two pics to see our team:
In the top one left to right: Erin "goin' on green" Lundgreen, "Shakin' it" Sheri Vaughn, Jodi LaLa, "Stay-at-Home-Mom", and "A Penny for Your Jenny" Child's

Bottom Pic: Lia "Lovin' The Lighning" Goldsberry, The Madam, Goin on Green, Lala, and Penny for Your Jenny.

Best. Birthday. Ever.

Thanks so much to everyone who came, and I definately missed those who couldn't come, (ahem, Robyn, Jolene, Megan) it was a blast!

How About That?

It's my birthday and stuff. I'm livin it up loca style. So far I've gone to the nursery to buy flowers for my front yard, cleaned my house and took a nap. All that and it's only 4:52 p.m. If this is any indicator for how the rest of the day goes, then WOW! Lookout! Hot Spark is taking me out Saturday. Who wants to waste their birthday on a Thursday? I think my day has shown, I know how to party. Thankfully I'm not over the hill for a while. My Mom's generation went over the hill at 30, so they have been on the frowny side for a while. Nowaday's 40 is the new 30 so I still have about 13 whole years before I have to buy doilies. Anyway, I'm sure Andrew has something spectacular planned for this weekend. I'm sure because he has to. My birthday is 2 weeks before our anniversary. The very first birthday I had when we were married I told him:
"Our anniversary is coming up pretty quick, so if you want me to renew our marriage contract for another year, you should probably think really hard about what you are getting me for my birthday."

Still to this day he believes there is such thing as a marriage contract I get to renew based on his behaviour. It's kinda like grown up Santa Claus I suppose. If he does well, he gets to live with me for another year! Seriously, how did he get so lucky?! Yay for birthdays! I'm not like taking names or anything, but if you wanted to wish me an awesome HB there's only like seven hours left.

Campin' Stuff

We camped all week. It was fabulous!!! I love love love being dirty, grungy, and gross. Okay, the truth is I DO like camping I just don't like bugs. At all. It was very depressing to me to get bitten by a horsefly, and bring home a bazillion mosquito bites. (sad). It started out well though. We went down to Starvation Lake and started the trip off with a bang. The second we arrived we opened the car door and Shea stepped barefoot right into a cactus. Rockin'! I knew this was going to be awesome. The rest of the trip went really smoothly because I have an awesome extended family. Especially my cousin Callie's husband Charlie, who is super darn good looking, and didn't even ask me to write that into my blog. The sad thing is, I didn't take one stinkin' picture the whole trip. So you guys don't get to enjoy his beauty. If I had taken pictures I would put the picture of him here-------->
Also, if I had brought my camera, you would see cousin Travis shooting at bees with his pellet gun here------------>
You would see Lovetricity, hanging out on the rafts with the girls here-------->
My dog Kona diving under water for rocks here---------->
The Boy making a meal of dirt here-------->
And my natural good looks (even during a camping trip) first thing in the morning here------>
Isn't it almost like you were there? I bet you are jealous after these visuals aye? Since we've been home I've learned you can take the kids out of the camp, but not the camp out of the kids. We had an awesome meal at my Mom's house tonight. The Boy wouldn't eat a thing. He refused everything we gave him. After dinner, he stuck his nose up at the brownies we ate, ( uh, I mean Pete ate I would never eat those) but had no qualms about munching on a spoon full of ants. Go figure. It's all that camping. Turning him into a neanderthal. Well, no more news to report here, nope no more news NOBODY is having a birthday this week. No one. Not even me. If somebody WAS having a birthday this week it might be on Thursday. The 30th. That would mean there would only be 4 shopping days left. Hypothetically speaking of course. Peace Out!!

8oz Is For Wimps

Now that The Boy is one he's been eating a little more.






He's a growing boy, what can I do?

Kissing Cupcakes

Do you ever go to the grocery store hungry? No, right? Everyone knows that rule. If you go to the store hungry your food bill will go up and your waistline out. Not the best way to grow. I usually make it a rule to shop right after breakfast or lunch. However, since I wanted my children to eat today (I hate hate hate grocery shopping.. . it's been a while) I ended up arriving just before lunchtime. My tummy-growl check came back negative so I thought I could handle it. I was doing pretty good too, until I noticed I was making eyes at the Hostess. MMMMM, preservative chocolate cream cake. A quick self reprimand and I was back on track toward the milk. Only $1.50- Yay! When I hear a catcall, coming from behind me. I turned around determined to show the culprit I was definitely NOT appreciative( while internally noting that I've still got it) when I realized it was just the french bread, assaulting me with it's fresh, hot, scent. Now I'm feeling a bit dizzy and decide to get out before I end up embarrassing myself by proposing to the pastries. (love them) I feel pretty good now. I went in planning on spending about $20 and only spent about $50. That sounds pretty bad until I tell you everything I bought was on the list; I'm just really bad at cost predictions. Well, everything except the take-and-bake pizza that snuck into my cart who knows how? But I can justify that. Really. Just ask my friend Misty ("Funny Farm" blog). I can have pizza for lunch, because I didn't eat breakfast, and I'm going to run tonight. And it was take-n-bake which is probably less greasy and fatty than delivery. And, I mowed my lawn.
See? Learned my lesson.



Mmmm, cake.

Flack Attack

I've been getting a lot of flack lately. A few people in my family have been flackin' about how I haven't blogged lately. So, because I haven't blogged all summer, You're about to get a whopper about how I've spent my summer vacation. Ready? No? Fine.

So I just took my facebook fortune this morning. "If you want the rainbow, you must put up with the rain."
I don't understand this. Why put up with depressing rain? Rain is not fun. It's soppy. Haven't you heard that famous quote:
"Life is about waiting for the storm to pass, not about dancing in the rain." And famous quotes are usually right. Besides I don't have the time to deal with soppy, I'm a busy person. Yesterday, I went to church, then took a nap, then watched t.v. with Pete, then went to dinner at his parents. Super busy.

So the point of this story is I did a redo. Remember being little, and when you didn't win a game or race, you would pout and shout RE-DO? It still works.
My new fortune:
"You are Talented in many ways".

Much better.
Thank you.




p.s. For those of you who have flacked: Yes I will blog about Jared coming home, and Jack's 1st birthday. He's 1 Hurray!

To Kill A Spider

Directions for disposal of Arachnid-Hairius-Scarius-Maximus:

Step 1: Spot big scary hairy offender perched creepily on daughters sandal
Step 2: Squeal quietly so as not to alert children Give a full body shake to get rid of eeby-jeeby's
Step 3: Throw shoes mate from across the room in hopes it will land directly on spider sending him to a miserable squishy death.
Step 4: Say bad word.
Step 5: Grab vacuum. Place all attachments onto vacuum hose to make it as long as possible. Stand across room reaching with what you wish were"go-go-gadget" arms.
Step 6: Touch spider with tip and squeal a little as it walks away casually to underside of shoe.
Step 7: Say bad word. Take a deep breather and a little eeby-jeeby shake.Briefly consider asking daughter to come squish spider for you. Put on determined face. Step back in to battle.
Step 8: Holding breath, point inadequately short hose toward spider. Commit to not thinking about 8 disturbing legs. Place hose over offensive spider and watch his legs start to lift upward. Watch spider disappear into dark tunnel of death.
Step 9: Quickly drop hose before the dead spider thud hits. Jeeby shake, jump, and dance. Squeal loudly. Leave vacuum running considerably longer than necessary in case dead spider has any thoughts of haunting sequel.
Step 10: Run out of room to call husband and tell about brave war against arachnid. Embellish a little. Leave vacuum for husband to clean up.

Thriving On Awkward

We have people coming to replace carpet in our Master bedroom and basement today. I'm very excited. But I gotta say, I HATE having people come over to work on our house. I always feel so weird about it. I never know if I should hang out with them, or if I should stay away, and leave them alone. I don't want to be rude and ignore them, but I don't want to be crazy and look over their shoulders. Pete says I just over-think it too much. And as I was over-thinking his comment, I had an epiphany. You know how some people thrive on the drama? I think I thrive on the awkward! All this time I thought I was shy, but I think I just get a weird rush with making things awkward. I get butterflies when I go up and talk to Strangeworkerguy, and then stand around in silence because I can't think of what to say. "So, you come here often?" just doesn't seem to fit right. As it was all coming together, I decided that now I need to choose where I go from here. Knowing is only the pre-step. Then there's admitting that I T.O.A thrive on the awkward. Then you have to take action. Overcoming the problem seems like it will take too much work, so I've decided to embrace it. I'm not alone either. Here are examples of other's who T.O.A.





Oh, Rock, you silly guy!



Just because you're two headed, doesn't mean you can't be awkward.


And last but not least. Two washed up bad guys T.O.A.ing




Do you T.O.A?

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Today is my mom's birthday. It's super special because this time she's turning a whole year older. Not like a few years ago when we all celebrated her 48th birthday. We had cards, "happy 48th!" cake "happy 48th" and balloons "happy 48th". She went an entire year before realizing ( just before her "49th" birthday) that after doing the math she really was in fact only 47. She got to turn 48 twice. Not a lot of people have that chance. Anyway, today she did decide to turn 50. She marched right on up over that hill like it was nobody's business. I think she's kind of depressed about it. I don't know why. I told her 50 is not nearly as ancient as the 60 that's coming up here pretty quick, but for whatever reason that didn't make her feel better. So I was hoping, that if you read this, whether you know her or not, you could wish my mom, Rita, a happy birthday. Maybe then, she would be happy. And put me back in the will


Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!!!!!

20 Cents Addicted

Today I did something I thought I would never do. I was on the way home from my girl's dance class and remembered I didn't have any diet coke at home. The thought of walking in to a store with three greedy children didn't sound very tempting, so I decided to go out of my way to stop at Chick-fil-A to get a Coke Zero. For those of you who are unaware they have to-die-for Coke Zero!
Out of my way? That's right. But not the worst part. I pulled up to the speaker and gave my order of a medium Coke Zero.
"Would you like to make it a large for only 20 cents more?" What? Of course not! Have you seen the SIZES of large drinks lately? Bigger than my head. I thought about all that caffeine I would be draining into my veins, and how the carbonation is awful for my running and I was grossed out at even the thought. I would rather not be 20 cents closer to addiction (because I am not addicted, by the way). Then I thought about all the stuff I was going to be busy with for the rest of the day.



"Yes please" I heard myself say.

I am ashamed. I supersized. I supersized myself right into addiction. It's time to face the bubbly-syrupy-aspartame music.

My name is Jodi, and I 20 centsed myself into addiction.

bigger than my HEAD for cryin' out loud! eek!

Right on the Head

I love how kids see the world. Madisen is trying to describe to me somebody so I can tell her the person's name, but I can't figure out who she is talking about. So all of you people who have:

"had dinner with us a lot of times, but maybe like two times, and have a dog, and look like you have an oval head, but actually have a circle head,"

Will you please contact me so I can ask Madisen if it's you whom she is speaking of?

Thank you.