All grown up!

A wonderful friend of mine (in real life and on the inter-web) is away on holidays and she gave me full access to her blog as a guest poster, under a one condition. I had  to pet her cats for 20 minutes each and not complain about the fur getting on my pants. I will borrow her sticky roller before I leave that cat-pat session...
Check it out! It's for Jentine @  http://myedit.blogspot.com/

She thinks it works...

Went grocery shopping today. Look at that, 2 in 4 posts start with a food related topic. Am I a food blog?
As we were unloading the cart, Sydney (our offspring), crawled out of the kid holding zone of the cart and into the food holding zone. Old ladies gasped as I offered minimal supervision during this acrobatic display. She began cramming things on the belt, (nearly crushing the 3 bags of chips organic leafy greens), and started to yell at the groceries because things aren't moving along. In the same time she yells "BOOOOOO!" at our stewing beef, the cashier moves the belt. Now it's Sydneys' turn to gasp, and she turns to me and bellows "It work!!!". For the next 3 minutes, as the lady before us holds things up, Sydney continues to yell at the top of her lungs, face less than an inch from a pack of yogurt. For these next 3 minutes, scaring the groceries along does NOT work. But she was highly entertaining. I charged everyone who laughed $5, and had my groceries paid for by a group of strangers. Not. But I did consider it.

we could make money off this face for sure!

The Break Up

Today I broke up with my part time job. That just sounds better than quitting...I've worked with the same landscaping company since 2006, with short breaks in between, to dabble in other affairs. There are a few things I love about landscaping,

1.) The workout- Look at me, I'm push mowing up a hill in 40 degree weather!

2.) The change of scenery- Cutting grass at a mansion overlooking a lake? Let's have a picnic when we're done...

3.) Finding animals- raccoons, baby bunnies, cats, praying mantis, birds, even a horse or two

4.) Honing my nature peeing skills- I am very good at peeing in nature. Proven fact is, my bladder is the size of a marble, so I've had to get creative from a young age. The trick is to be quick and nonchalant, because if you make a big deal about it, someone will spot you and then it WILL be a big deal. And you will be caught with your pants down.

5.) Sharing lunches- I'll trade you some cheese for a breakfast pita. I drive a hard bargain.

But what kept me rolling  in the dirt as long as I did was my bosom buddy, Jentine. Her, and, reasons one through five. Skipping along, holding hands, drinking Diet Rockstar, sharing lipgloss and talking about Kyle her cat is really hard work, but we never complained and just kept at it.
It's a good thing Jentine lives just down the mountain from me, because I like butt workouts and the stairs going down the mountain promise to lift and tighten!


aren't we great?

 p.s. One day I will whip Flickr into submission to fufill my every photo need, but for now, put your nose right up to the screen. It's like you're really there!!

I'm a crier.

I have a soft spot the size of North America for my 5 brothers. The 7 (seven, sieben, sept, saba) siblings in my family are all spread out across Canada, so I generally only see them once every 365 days. Since I'm one of the youngest, I've been saying good-bye to my brothers for a really really long time. My first brother to leave the nest, went away to boot camp for a summer and I was a two day wreck. You would think after 15 years of good-byes I'd be able to sail through it. Nope.
To this day, I can't say good-bye without silently crying a Euphrates. And I always want to say something awesome like, "I love you, it was so good to see you!". Instead its usually *sniiiiiiiff, breathe, look into the distance, wipe nose on tissue*, with MAYBE one or two words that are intelligable. I lose all composure if one of them tells me they love me, or "take care kiddo". It's the "kiddo" that gets me, that and the fact that they give me really sincere eye contact. I am terrible with confrontation, even if it is super positive and loving, like well wishes from a brother.
Want to kick it up another notch?? Hey Dorothy, why not glance over at your younger sister whose big blue eyes are already glossy and brimming, uh-oh, oh-no, BE STRONG DOROTHY! BE STRONG FOR YOUR SISTER! Not a chance. We will probably squint at eachother through our tears and garble out something like, "this sucks".
Yeah, real good time when my brothers are around. Real good time.

P.S. My last single brother is now engaged, so...that sort of defeats my purpose for starting this blog. I was going to sell him off to highest bidder after sending out a series of probing questions and requests for video applications to lucky bachelorettes. Now what will I do all winter...

brother burrito!!

Advice from bags??

This morning I picked up my dad, and we conquered a local grocery store. I brought along my own bags, the reusable ones. They're strong, roomy, reliable and have a great sense of humor.
A Lululemon bag was along for the ride, and on one side it says "Do one thing a day that scares you.", which sounds like questionable advice. (It also says "Children are the orgasm of life" but I don't know about that, I'd like to hear the explanation behind that one...) There are many things that scare me and most of these things scare me because they are deadly. Like swimming with sharks, rusty zip-lines rigged to the side of cracking buildings in third world countries, and eating under cooked chicken.

See what I mean? A little scary.

So while I will not be taking that particular piece of advice, I will probably take this one: "Listen, listen, listen and then ask strategic questions." So the next time I hear my daughter whimpering and crying, I will listen, I will ask if it is bed time (how strategic of me), she will say "yes", and I will say "score". Then I will watch 6 episodes of Heartland do the dishes, clean up toys and hang up laundry. It's a win-win situation.
Welcome to Dorothy Blogging. This is going to be fun.