March 31st

March 30

Yowza! That's a big backyardigan! We joined the rest of the world today in getting a very large flat screen. I'm still getting used to it. 58" is big. Poor Emery is going to have a permanent crick in the neck. Usher is life size in my living room right now. (on American Idol) It's a little overwhelming. I think I just need to get used to it. First, I've gotta tuck those cords cause they are driving me crazy!

March 29

Meet Sam. He is one massive but gentle beast of a horse. He lives and works at the Dixie Stampede show here in town along with many other horses. We went to a fundraiser there tonight and seeing the horses was one of the highlights for Emery.

March 28th

Its a hard life...

March 27th

BERT AND ERNIE ATE MY TULIPS!!!
They knew we'd be gone last night and snuck right up and ate 12 of them. I didn't know that deer liked tulips. Fortunately they do not like daffodils. I now know this because they ate one and spit it right back out. Luckily I planted 15 tulips. Which means, when they come back tonight to snack on the rest, they'll get a big surprise when they see a big black beagle waiting in the window. YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE MISTERS!

March 26th

There's something eerie about driving over a bridge and not being able to see what is on the other side or down below.

I think I've been watching too many vampire shows...

March 25th

My first Victoria's Secret "bathing suit...and then some" order of the summer.

BTW if you are my husband and are hearing about this for the first time...I swear I got everything on sale ;) xo

March 24th

Here's my most recent project. Emery likes to play in the backyard and at the playground in our neighborhood. And by "play" I mean dig in the rock beds. Which means, she gets pretty dirty. And wipes just can't handle outside dirt like this. Washing her hands while holding her at the same time is pretty difficult as well. "We need a stool," I said. I had seen some online that were so cute and personalized but they were like $70 plus shipping. David would have never gone for that. Then, I came across this stool (unpainted) at Target for $20 and found the paint to match her bathroom on sale 2 for $1 at Michael's. (I bought 4) Then I went back to that website and used the stool I liked best as a reference. It took me about a week to get it right but hey I saved at least 50 bucks!

March 23rd

Aw yeah! I saw this in walmart today and couldn't resist. June 30th is not that far away...

March 22nd

Here is the daffodil I mentioned in yesterday's post. She is a brave little flower being that she is the first to bloom and has had to endure cold rain, sleet and snow. She is much happier today...as am I.

March 21st

My picture for today was originally of a sad yellow daffodil hunched over in the light dusting of snow we received this morning. This, after all was a reflection of how I felt when I saw the snow falling, especially after getting my hopes up two days ago when the temp was 70. But then....the rest of the day happened. Emery is currently cutting her top two front teeth with two on either side not far behind. I fully expected her mood to be a little out of sorts. What I didn't expect was another not so desirable side affect of teething. Explosive Butt. Disgusting, I know...but I'm just keeping it real here folks. I'm talkin, 3 pairs of pants a day; washed the sheets twice kind of explosive butt. David picked a great weekend to be out of town by the way. So, as any good mother/sensible person would do, I hunted for remedies to STOP IT UP. We bundled up, laced up our boots, and headed out into the now cold and rainy conditions to find these bowel cloggers. One bag of bananas, rice, and pedialyte later, we were back at the car only to find a nice golf ball size dent in the car door from a unruly grocery cart. "Great!" I thought, "Just what I needed today." Luckily my rational husband was on the phone to remind me that a "hit and run" could have been a lot worse and that cars were meant to be used and bruised. Another thing that quickly cheered me up was something I came across in the store which currently reflected my disposition. The Mad Housewife. The label read: "Somewhere near the cool shadows of the laundry room. Past the litter box and between the plastic yard toys. This is your time. Time to enjoy a moment to yourself. A moment without madness. The dishes can wait. Dinner be damned. Mad Housewife Chardonnay." Sold.




*One side note. I am so excited to get "the good camera" back tomorrow. You wouldn't believe the amount of photo shop I have had to do these past few days with this broken piece of junk.
Example: Here is one of the before pics...

March 20th

When Daddy's away, Mommy makes pizza her way.
Italian chicken with fresh mozzarella broccoli and spinach on a homemade olive oil crust. Yum. The only bad thing about a delicious healthy pizza is that it isn't quite so healthy when you eat the whole thing. I'll try to restrain myself...put I'm not making any promises.

March 19th

They finally turned the falls back on in our neighborhood. They've been off all winter. I was so excited to see the water trickling down through the creeks and ponds. Its a great sound on a beautiful day. Could this be a sign that the cold days are officially over? I sure hope so. Now if they'd just take the cover off the pool...

March 18th

It's March Madness time! This is about as big as we get as far as gambling goes in the Ayer household. David's entire company does an NCAA Tournament bracket pool each year. At $10 a piece, we each fill out a bracket for a chance to win the big bucks. When filling out an NCAA Tournament Bracket, there are a few things you should consider...

1. Don't pick the 1 seed teams to win it all...because they hardly ever do.
2. Don't count out the 1 seed teams too early because they are a 1 seed for a reason.
3. Always pick a few of upsets...you will be surprised at how many there are.
4. Try to be unique in picking your over all winner. If you choose a team that everyone else thinks doesn't have a chance, you don't have to split the winnings with a bunch of people.
5. Forget points 1-4 because it really doesn't matter how much basketball knowledge you have or who you choose. Things almost never go as predicted. David has more sports knowledge than anyone I know and he comes in last place every year.
   

March 17th

March 16th

Pleasing St. Patrick's Day pinwheels for my partner's office party potluck.

March 15th

Wallflowers, candles, carpet odor eliminator, freshly baked pizza from scratch...
What do these items have in common? This is what it took to de-stankify the house from a horrible smell that seeped into the walls/carpet and made me want to pull my hair out.

Why does our house smell so bad?

First let me start by saying that I absolutely hate smelling like food...especially fried food. The first thing I want to do after eating out at a restaurant is take a shower. I can't stand to smell myself. I think it goes back to college when my roommate worked at the Cracker Barrel. She would come home smelling something awful of chicken fried steak and other country fixins. Barf. She would have to take a shower before we did anything...even if it was just watch tv. We had to quarantine her apron. Sarah, you know I love ya :) Thank you for keeping me fed in college. The smell was worth all the free food.

Now back to why the house stinks...

I got a little adventurous cooking dinner last night. I tried to replicate Bonefish's bang bang shrimp. Food Network Magazine told me to do it. And they made it sound so easy. What they didn't add was a disclaimer saying...if you have never worked with deep frying before, (me) you probably shouldn't try this recipe. Or...if you have lots of critters running around at your feet, (me) you probably shouldn't try this recipe or else you'll be a nervous wreck. Or...if you don't want your house to smell like burnt oil for the next week/month/year, (me) you probably shouldn't try this recipe. We all survived though. I even had David put the oil on the porch while we ate because the hot oil popping on the stove made me anxious. (which is still out there by the way...I'm not quite sure what to do with it) The shrimp was...good...I guess. I mean we all ate it. Even Emery ate two or three of them. It definitely did NOT taste like Bonefish bang bang shrimp. David absolutely loved it. But David would eat a big pile of dookie if it had shrimp in it...and cheese...and eggs. But that is beside the point because afterward, we were all forced to face the stench of burnt oil that was taking over the house! The smell was in our clothes and everything. Here is my mind in yoga this morning. "In through the nose..." (burnt oil burnt oil) "And out through the nose..." (ew) "In through the nose...(burnt oil burnt oil) "And out through the nose..." (barf) Even when I picked up Em from the child care room, I could smell it on her jacket. Poor thing was the smelly kid in class. When we got home, I was on a mission to rid our house of this odor that was taking over our lives. The picture above is of my reek fighting army...used carefully in timed increments of course. I didn't want to create a new smelly problem. So far...I think it is a success. The real test will be when I leave the house and come back.

After this whole ordeal, I have come to the realization that I am a sauteing baker broiler sometimes griller but not a fryer. We're probably better off anyway. As for the oil on the back porch... does anyone know where I can get some bio hazard bags?

March 14th

I scored this cute little number 50% off last night at the Swarovski event. (I still can't say it. Its ok, I have a hard time saying sausages sometimes too.)

March 13th

We attended a Swarovski Crystal event tonight hosted by one of the stores in David's mall. Say that 5 times fast. Swarovski Swarovski Swarovski Swarovski Swarovski. I can't even say it one time slow. Anyway, they brought in the crystal designers (pictured above) for a wine and chocolate tasting meet and greet. It was so nice to have a "just us" date night. Mommy and Daddy had lots of fun.

March 12th

All hope is not lost! One of the strawberry seedlings decided to poke it's leaves out this morning to give my gardening confidence a little boost. Even though nothing had sprouted, I still watered the pot just as often as the herb filled pot next to it. I figured, if I couldn't grow any strawberries, I could at least work up a nice thick moss with all the watering I was doing. But this little trooper didn't want to let me down. I think I'll name him Barry...my little sweet indulgence.

March 11th

The begining of homemade chicken pot pie.

March 10th

Em's dinner time Macaroni Grill masterpiece. Emery is a fan of pointillism. She draws her inspiration from George-Pierre Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

March 9th

Well...it has been two weeks and I thought I'd give you a little update on my plants. For the most part...things are going well. But as you can see, the strawberries are a big batch of duds. Either that or I have drowned them...or dried them out...or gave them too much sun...or not enough. Who knows. I'm thinking it is me since all of these kits were the same brand. So much for my sweet indulgence. Indulgent nonsense as Simon Cowell would say. One of the tomato plants didn't sprout either. I'd like to think that was a dud and not my fault.

March 8th

Oh Trouble! A new store opened in David's mall and it is all about the kitchen. They have everything! I have been counting down the days for the doors to open. And you better believe I was in there this afternoon an hour after they opened trying to decide what I had to have now and making a mental note for what I have to get later. Time to get cookin!

March 7th

Low 70's...sunshine...light breeze...this is what we did today....during Em's nap.

March 6th

Here's another delightful daddy-daughter moment.
The weather was so nice today. The temp actually got up to 71 degrees! We took a nice little walk this afternoon and it was lovely.

March 5th

Signs of Spring.

March 4th

Cuatro de Marzo! I know that's not a holiday but it sure felt like one. Tonight was "Tequila Night" at our favorite mexican restaurant. One flat fee gets you a five course meal with a featured tequila mixed drink to match each dish...not to mention the six tequila tasters that went along with it. (I passed on those. As you can see, I had trouble keeping up to begin with.) My favorite was the first one: cucumber agave. It was so light and fresh. It reminded me of spring ...and warmth ...and the beach.

March 3rd

Oh Lincoln, don't be so cliche.

March 2nd

Today is Dr. Seuss' birthday which makes today Cat In The Hat Day.

Today is also:

• Old Stuff Day
• National Banana Cream Pie Day
• National Sales Person Day
• Babysitter Safety Day
• Pyramid Day
• Read Across America Day
  

So do what everyone else is doing today. Buy an old banana cream pie and give it to the next sales person at your door whom you will ask to babysit safely so you can go visit a pyramid where you will read The Cat In The Hat.

March 1st

This sultry neo-soul songstress invents an indelible sound of timeless rock that effortlessly matches musical grandeur with visceral emotion and cinematic melodies, creating songs that embed themselves into the listeners consciousness.

If Emery was a VH1 You Oughta Know artist, this is how they would describe the drum solo that she performed for me today.