Redneck Parenting 101

Upon planning our move to Utah, we dreamed of all the outdoorsy things we could share with our girls. Although you can't tell it now, we were once very athletic people. While dating, we did rodeo, hiking, fishing and shooting skeet. We love the outdoors, but the Navy isn't really conducive to such a life when you are surrounded my people and living like rats in a jar. However Utah? Utah rocks. I came home from work to dinner on the table and the house cleaned. The guns were oiled and ready, the...

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Gravy makes everthing better....

What do you need when your pissy, the world hates you and bloating seems inescapable? Gravy.I came home to beautiful thick gravy, biscuits, deer steaks and mashed potatoes. YUM. My world got a whole lot better. Who needs chocolate when you have gravy. It's a beautiful thing.Until The Man cleans the kitchen and tosses the whole dish of gravy.WTF?It just goes downhill from the...

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Hoping for Style

In my never ending search for style, I tripped across an angel who sent me a pashmina. Oh my mercy, if you've never held one to your face and just sighed, you're hopeless. Quite like I was. I've been so freaking scared to even get it out of the closet, less Duchess decide it was perfect dress up clothing. The majority of my clothes have fell victim to this. But I broke out the pashmina today as I just needed to rub my face on something soft.Pardon my sunburn, spent Memorial Day at the pool.........

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Oh Princess...

Each and every child inherits something from their parents...their mother. Princess that sweet baby of mine has my hair color, my face shape, my smile and my grace. Or lack there of.... Got a call from the school last week that she kissed the sidewalk, with her chin. However, after hearing that, Princess gets on and assures us that she is fine and it's not bleeding anymore. Go girl! She gets the toughness from The Man....I'm a screamer. So she now has a chin scar thing going on. Which I keep assuring...

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Yo, ho....

"Yo, ho, haul together, hoist the Colors high. Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die."Saw it, loved it! This coming from someone who CAN NOT sit through an entire movie without wandering off, is a compliment to the highest! Oh, and it was yummy!!!!! Yeah ba...

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The Hunting Mecca Trip

Because we adore The Man, and because we ask alot of manly things from him (wash the car, clean the garage, take out the trash, unclog the toliet... nevermind) we occassionally do special manly things for him. One of such things is a trip to the Hunting Mecca. The 13000 square feet of everything hunting, fishing and outdoorsey....However, there is no such thing as a simple "trip" into the mecca that is hunting. The recent "trip" turned into three hours of wandering, pursuing and education and marko-polo.First,...

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Ode to Chicken

I adore this red thing. This weathered trusty friend who makes the chicken that makes me sing. This is a recent addition to my home, it arrived with my mom and the photo hating step-dad. However, the sight of this beauty on my porch, makes me smile. Always. Because this is the best dang chicken in the world. Smoked for four hours along with foil wrapped potatoes and corn over mesquite wood. OH MY MERCY! I have fond thoughts of this chicken. I actually had a dream about it the other night. Perhaps...

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Happy Birthday

Well I brought my 30th birthday in with style. Cake, Steak and shrimp dinner, fried potatoes, and gifts. Very exciting stuff going on around here. The 30th didn't come in as hard as I thought it would. I can honestly say that I'm thrilled to have hit my 30's. It's a good place to be.The Man helped me ring it in with style, cause every girl needs balloons and hugs! Although I almost lost my appetite when I saw Duchess's appreciation for my cake. Then I blew out my candles, and when they re-lit, I...

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Burning Cake

Happy 30th Birthday to me! Details, pictures of my burning cake and more tomorr...

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OMG, Help!

I do so love my new job. It's great everything: benefits, free dr. pepper in the fridge, free Sonic-like chopped ice in the kitchen, a great work environment, fancy office chairs and a printer that I think can fax to Mars...However, I'm in deep doo-doo people!Here is a list of areas that are challenging me:1. NO ONE SMOKES! (TLG I know you feel me here)So when I go to get the mail, I'm smoking like four and nursing a buzz for an hour.... I need the stop smoking pill NOW!2. DRESSCODE! I who only wears black or white am screwed. These people are fashionistas. And, and, and they accessorize, well....

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This scares me...

A friend made this for me...that scares me. For some reason, I'm not seeing the resemblance. Should that scare me mo...

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Never Again Mommy, Never Again

Recently my wonderful, photo-elusive step-dad and my mom were home with Duchess. While preparing dinner, he volunteered to allow Duchess to share in the joy that is home cooking. They made biscuits from scratch as well as fried eggplant (did I mention we're country people?). Here is Duchess carefully coating the eggplant before he fried them. This takes skill people, not to mention she swept up the mess she made on the floor, that takes guts! Cornmeal on a wood floor sucks! Here she is carefully...

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Sweet Freedom

Well yesterday was a good day. I managed to leave my long time temp job with The Man's company with no burnt, crispy bridges....okay, a few were singed but I'll sleep okay with that. I think that came down to two type A personalities with the same job and career ladder. So I got a send off with a cake, sorry had to cover my real name ;) but you get the idea. It's been wonderful. I actually left work early. Me, I left early. This is a big occassion as I'm very serious minded about work. So I left...

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Admit One to the Crazy Train

Overheard in my house: Princess: Whatcha doing?Duchess: Mom made a train, she's mopping...wanta play?Princess: I guessDuchess: (raising her voice) One ticket for the crazy trainThey then proceeded to sit and sing and dance their way through three sto...

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Opps, Sorry

This is my opps, sorry face. First off, no I'm not wearing makeup and second, why in the world I thought to share this, I have no idea. But here you go.Yesterday sucked the big one. The big ole hairy one. However, I just have to remind myself that this too shall pass and I'm off to a new job very soon, next Monday as of fact! Yes!I've got a head cold and yep, showed my butt again yesterday. Not literally this time though, just finally put someone in their place. Something I hate doing, something...

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Extreme Measures for a long annoying day...

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Mercy!

Every time The Man and I sit back and reflect upon those little creatures we made, we are amazed! There will soon come a day when we will be in some serious sha-poo-poo..... Here is the lovely Duchess, somber and sad at a birthday party, cause well it wasn't her idea to go. And all little girls love glitter and dressup but it wasn't her idea. So there! Then her alter-attitude, Princess. The royal with the most outgoing attitude ever! Who can always find someone to talk to, and if not, well heck,...

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Showing My Arse

Everyone should know by now that I have a tendency to show my arse. If you don't know this, stop reading now and go floss! Otherwise, this will not be a surprise that today this not so rare occasion came again.The Man gave me a month of tanning for my birthday.Let us see, it's been about four years since I've tanned which may explain my ghastly white appearance. But he got me a great tanning bed reservation that has very little actual UV rays so what the hey...So after dropping Princess off at tumbling, I head off to the tanning salon. Mom is tagging along so once we get there, she quickly signs...

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And you are?

Let me introduce you to my new, updated image...I'll be the hot red-head kicking butt as a permanent employeefor an investment firm.Yes, I got the offer. To be fair, the offer came in last night at 8 p.m. They called me at home, where in my pjs and cold cream, I accepted their generous offer for employment. I did wait until after the reference check before I announced it to everyone. (I love my former bosses, one told them that they couldn't hire me cause he needed me to move back to work for him)...

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Well well well

So I left work early, to go to my job interview...However, I left my portfolio at home, so The Man brought it up to me and met me at a gas station nearby. What a stud.Then while changing clothes in the restroom of said gas station between my work and the interview, two women were having relations in the stall next to me.I have never changed clothes quicker in my life!!!!I wish I were joking about this, I'm not.So freshly dressed, with portfolio and confidence (ignoring the aching tummy and nerves) I went to my interview.The office is impressive and screams of money, the same money that I don't...

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Oh My Goodness! What did I do?

This is how my day went....Had a hiring session, did a ton of paperwork, had some birthday cake (not for me yet) and tried not to freak about the uneasy feeling regarding the job opportunity that I missed out on, by choice yes, but still missed.Then you'll remember that I applied for a job out of spite, cause I'm petty like that y'all. It made me feel better so there! Na-nana-na-nahSo this is the call from The Man today...."Urgh, you had a call""I had a what?" (I never get calls, no one calls me ever!)"It woke me up""Who cares, what did they want? A paper subscription? A donation?""An interview""Holy...

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What the Hell....

Why oh why do I have to be so loyal?This is a huge problem tonight. I had the opportunity to apply for a full time perm position in a different department at my work, where I am a freaking temp.Did I?No, I buckled to the pressure of....loyalty.I don't want to burn bridges and my sups have said that within the next quarter several positions will be coming open. This is the carrot they dangled. Oh but do what is best for me. And they truly meant it, you could tell.But I passed.And it is all I can think about.I want to at least try.But I've gone back and forth over why I shouldn't and I have convinced...

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Sunday Picture of the Day

Trying to think of a good title, but none came to mind except... Ahhhhh! Gonna enjoy the family day, posting to commence tomorr...

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On A May Day

We have been blessed to have lived in several different areas of the US of A throughout our tenure with the Navy. However, I've never experienced anything like where we live now. Texas is hotter than I imagine Hell to be, California is busy, crowded and laid back, Chicago is rushed, frantic paced and Louisiana has the moist thick air that makes four showers a day seem reasonable.But here? Sunny bright days, the lake effect helps with the heat so its very pleasant, even chilly in the mornings, beautiful...

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Duchess Holds Forth...

Having The Man home everyday has been an amazing journey. We are all learning to live with each other all the time, rather than long visits. The best part of this has been the one on one time he gets with The Girls. It's enough to bring a tear to your eye, if you were actually sitting outside the door, around the corner easedropping, and then sneaking in for a picture.... like I was.The Man went in to the royal chamber of Duchess to announce that the royal bedchamber had better get clean or it was...

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Cause We're Just Cool

Some people strive for perfection, some strive for success, others strive for love....we at the royal house, we're striving for grace. That and we're striving to just be cool. We got this baby! The Man is the coolest ever. As you can tell from his snarky sense of humor. Not only that but he makes that headband look good! Not every man can accessorize like this, I credit living in a house full of estrogen. Me, well I'm just cool cause .... I am. Here's me working my brand new purse from my best...

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Two by Two

Two is a good number, of kids. More than two, awesome...your a better woman than I am! However, we really thought for the longest that Princess would be the only royal child in our home. Until the Good Lord blessed us with Duchess.Now my children have a best friend, their sister. Plus when something is broken, its more fun trying to figure out who did it, takes the boring out of disciplining your children, really.There is nothing quite a sweet as that rare moment of happy joy that is two siblings...

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Child Labor Laws-- Pish!

There are reasons that people procreate. It's fun getting there, once there you get a cutey little patootie that looks like you. Plus when they get bigger, they can do chores. That rocks.There is nothing like a big ole dirty house with lots of people tromping through it to make a nasty mess. However daunting the task, I never fear to pull out the secret weapon....my kids. Duchess has a look of horror as she views the extent of the work that is to be done. See Mimi and Pepaw need their truck unloaded,...

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