Survival of the fittest

Ok I'm sure I'm not the first one to realize this, but my husband and I were pondering this very thought this morning on our morning commute.

We've heard and been saying "survival of the fittest" most of our educational life. I really hadn't given much thought to it until recently. Then it occurred to me. This phrase is grammatically incorrect. Shouldn't it be survival of the most fit?

I'm just saying.

Please ....someone set me straight and correct me if I'm wrong. Because now it bugs me.

Awana grand prix

Last weekend we had our big Awana grand prix. This is where kids are given a block of pine wood and a set of wheels. Then it is up to them (or their Dad) to shape it and paint it to make it look like a car. Plus they have to be a certain weight to make it go fast. There is a whole science to this.

My husband used to do this when he was in Awana. So he was all about doing this with his kids. It always seems like such a great idea in theory. Although this happened last year too. We don't actually have any wood working tools. So it was just him and a knife wittleing away. About half way through the first one, he was ok to never have to do this ever again. Plus I could tell he was seriously considering "just how dangerous is it really to give a 6 year old a knife to let him do his own dang car?"

Luckily he got them both done. Then the kids got to decorate their car themself. Bug painted his blue with flaming bunnies (Foster's home for imaginary friends reference) and Sunshine took crayons and stickers to hers. They both did a great job.

Of course once we got there it looks like some of the other cars came right straight from the Hot wheeles factory. There is no way the kids designed half of them. Which just sort of made me mad. It put them at an unfair advantage. I thought our kids cars were fantastic and original.

None of our cars won for speed, but they both got trophies for original design. I am glad about that. That they recognized the effort. But usually things like these "everybody is a winner". The kids don't know that though. They felt like big winners and strutted around with their new shiny trophies.

It was a pretty fun day. Grandparents and even Aunt Mari came out to cheer them on.

What up playa...

So Sunshine has this weird obsession with fake teeth. Why these are so awesome you may ask? Well....to be honest, I'm not sure. Possibly because they are covered in germs and then all the kids feel they need to shove the slobbery wad in their mouth too. The whole idea of them just barfs me out quite frankly.

But she always seems to find them in every store and begs for them. Normally I have no problem saying no. Whining children seem to be my super power these days and they usually have no control over me. But when I saw these in the store and saw just how insistant Sunshine was to own these little gems....how could I resist.

Ok let me also preface this here by giving you a little bit of a background of where I got them. True confessions here..... I love Winco. If you are not familiar with Winco...let me fill you in. It is an enormous grocery store where most everything is still in it's original case and dirt cheap. There is nothing fancy or showy about this grocery store and that's how they keep the prices so low. Let me remind you I am feeding a bottomless pit that is disguised as a family of 5. We spend more on groceries than we do on utilities. So a place like Winco is awesome because I can stretch my already tight budget a little farther. However.....it comes with a price. winco is located in the sketchy part of town. At any given time of day you can see meth heads, crack dealers and strippers also cashing in on Winco's low, low prices. So it tends to be a bit of a sociological experience. I love it. It always gives me good stories to laugh about. Of course the kids and I always need to bathe in Lysol after our Winco experience just to get the sin off of us :)

Well so Sunshine and I were having our one on one time. Which if you have kids you understand that sometime it just happens to fall on a time when you also need to get something done too. So we spent our time grocery shopping.(Don't judge me) But in that, the small toy section of the store caught her eye. Which, can I just say how depressing grocery store toys are. Like they are similar to dollar store toys. They couldn't afford to get in Barbie, so instead they got "Darbie" who just looks like a cheap knock off....because it it!!!! Well amongst these crummy toys....Sunshine found these.

They cost $1 and were worth every penny seeing a lily white 3 year old girl put in her stupid gangsta crunk teeth. Whats funny here is she puts both top and bottom in and then tries to talk. Which just turns into a drooly mess.

My kids crack me up.

Weird night at the gym

Ok so I go to the gym tonight for my aerobics class. But there is just weird people and energy there tonight. A lot of the regulars are not there but in their place are these awesome parade of nutty society.

First off...there are these 2 guys in their 60's that are there 3 times a week without fail. I never really gave it much thought,. Just thought they were just pastey old white guys that liked water aerobics. I mean I realize it isn't really the most "manly" of workouts, but I can keep an open mind. They have always been nice, but not all that talkative. Well tonight the instructor (who I have grown to love) asked if we had and requests for music. Apparently thats all that it took for the flood gates to open. Both of them about worked themselves into a lather (literally) jumping up and down while doing a little clap. All the while screaming ....CHER!!!!

I stood there amazed. Usually my "Queen" detector goes off the moment we meet. But these two totally got past my advanced radar. I had to giggle to myself. Mind you I am not laughing at them (all you sensitive nellies out there) I was laughing at the situation.

So there was that. Then there was this other couple where the guy was at least in his mid to late 30's and his girlfriend/wife looked to be about 19 or 20. She went along and did the aerobics class while he paced along the concrete of the pool, barely taking his eyes off her. He just gave off the jealous vibe like he was waiting for her to talk to someone just so that he could get on her about that. For a minute I sort of felt sorry for her thinking "wow that must really suck to be with someone so oppressive" Then I saw her get dressed after the class in a 3 sized too small halter tank top. With glitter writing on the front that said "Buy me stuff". Then it became abundantly clear who these people were. That little show of control was just one of their games. People like this bug me.

Look I know I am not perfect.Trust me I don't even sort of claim to be.

I'm just relaying some good times at the gym.

My husband the philosopher

So often I beam with pride by the things my husband does and says. He has an incredible mind not to mention a dark wit. He sees the world through a different filter that most of us do and is able to put the pieces together in a way that I only wish I could. Half the time I just coast through life as a sort of inactive participant. Often I find myself following a "sheeple" mentality. This is something I am working on, but hey, we all have something.

I'm not just being lazy here, but he wrote an awesome and profound post on his blog that I thought was worth sharing.

Which State Do You Live In

Ch Ch Changes..

Well as warned...I changed the layout. I was getting tired of the lavender. I wanted some wild valentine layout, but most of the templates were way too girly for my taste.

I really don't have anything interesting to blog about here. I just wanted to point out that I did in fact change the scenery. Do not adjust your set.

That is all.....

Wild kingdom .....and pizza

So the family and I were out the other night trying out this new pizza place that just went in down the street. It's one of those places that has a plasma tv at every table and then a big one on the wall. Usually the big one has a game or something neutral on it.

So we are changing the channel on the one at our table. We find cartoon network and so we are good to go. Then we hear Sunshine talking about a piggy. We just think she's talking about something on the cartoon they are watching. So we don't give it much attention. Then Bug chimes in. He's like "Are there pigs that live in the wild?" . We say "yes, but not around here". At that moment Sunshine yells "Oh NO!!! Whats wrong with that piggy?!"

At that moment we turn around and realize that the big screen TV on the wall was on ESPN. However we just happen to hit right in the middle of some sort of hunting competition where they were in fact hunting....you guessed it, wild boar.

Perfect. Just the sort of thing I want to watch with my young kids while we are eating. I asked them to change the channel and they were totally embarrassed. You would think that ESPN would be a safe bet, but I guess not.

Now that poor Sunshine is scarred for life :)

No kidding, this is what that poor animal looked like before it got shot. They really are kind of cute.

My morning commute

So I have had this idea for a couple years and just haven't put the pieces together. I have been doing this morning commute since we moved to this house over 7 years ago. My husband works downtown in the land of overpriced parking garages. Generally they charged more for parking than we pay for car payment. Because they can. Usually companies pay for their employee parking so they can charge outrageous prices. His company doesn't though. Not even a discount. They won't even chip in for a bus pass. So we are on our own. We laid it all out and it is the cheapest for me just to drive him and pick him up everyday. It was sort of inconvenient for like the first couple of months, but I have been doing this for 7 years now, so it's just what I do. My kids know the drill as they have been doing this since the day they they were all born. We just take Dad to work in the morning.

So because of this I spend on average 2 hours in the car a day. Add in taking Bug to school.

But I have always wanted to take pictures along the way because on a nice morning, it's a really pretty commute. The Portland skyline with the sunrise in the back is pretty awesome. This morning it was about 20 degrees so the added chill makes it look all the more crisp.

Just a little slice of my life here. It may interest nobody but me, but I thought it was worth documenting.

Annie Oakley

So last night Sunshine had her first big sleep over at Nana's (my mom) house. They seemed to have great fun. They did lots of "Girl things" according to Sunshine. They camped out on the floor in her family room and went shopping today. Sunshine had a blast.

Whats funny is let me just preface this by saying that she's a little bit country to my little bit rock 'n roll. I loath most things country. But my mom seems to love it, so I openly make fun of her and she tells me to stuff it. It's just the little dance we do.Between you and me...I think she may believe that that she's one of the missing Mandrell sisters, but I can't be sure :)

Well for whatever reason....Sunshine is on this MAJOR cowgirl kick. (Much to my Mom's sha-grin) So my Mom introduced Sunshine to her new favorite store......the Tack Mercantile. yeah it is just what it sounds. Here is where you can get all of the Country Western style clothes you could ever want all in one place. She let Sunshine pick herself out her very own "cowgirl hat" and some (really nice...and no I'm not being snarky here...they really are nice) boots. She really let her pick them out herself.

Boy, Sunshine couldn't be more proud of her new treasures either. She got herself all saddled up and hopped on "Trigger" (Yes that's really the horses name) her trusty steed, and away she went. I had to pry her off of it just for dinner.

It's totally not my thing (what with the redneck and the hillbilly and all) but Sunshine and Nana are just two peas in a pod and I think I'm just going to have to learn to except this.


Or go nuts trying to fight it.

This is what happens

This is what happens when you turn you back on a 17 month old for any length of time. Somehow he got a hold of a self inking stamp that the kids had (not very well) hidden in their craft box. Luckily it is non-toxic, but as we seem to be finding out.....it isn't exactly washable. This happened at about 8:00 this morning, and it looked about the same when i put him to bed tonight.

his tounge and teeth are even a little red.

Good times.