Jazzy Nails & Back Yard Construction

It had been, oh I don't know, 3 months since I hosted a ladies party.  At that point I start physically itching to organize something.  So I did.  A couple weeks ago, a bunch of lovely ladies and their mini me's (in most cases) filled my patio and kitchen to learn about Jamberry Nails.  I heard about this company from my friend, Erin, in Indiana and was intrigued.  She sells them like hotcakes for your hands.  A Jamberry rep referred through a friend came and did sample nails on all of us and 99% of the woman who came were lured into purchasing some fun decor for their hands.  Verdict is still out on the overall opinion of the product, but the party was fun regardless.

A Saturday project was needed last weekend, so Dude and I dreamed up a construction concept for the backyard.  Big Tool Box provided the PVC piping, Daddy's childhood provided the matchbox cars and the side of the house provided the wood and dirt.  We were off and running.  The final product is below.  I must admit, it turned out rather darling.
 

Pipes were cut and buried under dirt and wood chips on a downhill slant.

Rocks leftover from our front yard landscape were added to the hills for the mountain affect.  You can see the end and beginning of the two tubes on either side of the construction vehicle.

Once the cars make it down the two pipes, the drive up ramps to the parking garage.  Beware, hot lava lies below, which is why we provided 3 wooden rafts for safety devices.

Figurines from our basement "box of plastic things" were added as lifeguards, monsters, protectors etc.

Squirt was thrilled with the new play space and spent a good hour creating traffic jams.

A Saturday Experiment

Below is an example of an average Saturday at Casa Vogel.  If Dude wakes up with an experiment idea, it must come to be, in some shape or form.  This particular experiment went a little something like this....

"Mom, I need to make a magic potion that makes Enzo listen to me.  We will put it in his brain through helmet powers."  I had to give myself a minute to consider the viability of this request, but he convinced me that it could be done.  So we went to work.  Enzo was oblivious to his role in this activity.

 We mixed water, green food coloring, sugar and coconut.

 Magic dust (flaxseed) came next.  This would also allow Enzo to poop.

 Our potion sat under the light, because light was required to make it magic, for 10 minutes.

 The potion was poured into a bag and we cut a hole in the corner in order to shower Dude's bike helmet with the magic.  Do you see the look of pure anticipation on his face?  Enzo began expressing his interest at this point, which only added to the excitement of it all.

 Now that the helmet was given magic powers, it was time for Enzo to be gifted with the power to listen to his young master.  He managed to keep said helmet on for about 30 seconds....

...which was just enough to make Enzo follow young master when he ran around the yard.  That was sufficient evidence that the potion worked.  Our little man is easy to convince and easy to please.  It was helpful that Enzo pooped at that point too, meaning the flax seed did its job.

Dude's creative left brain requires extra time and effort on the part of his parents, but the joy that comes from the time spent is worth going that extra mile.  Without a doubt.

Where did our Teddy Bear go?

This morning we played with our darling little Teddy Bear, his hair about 5 inches long.  Yesterday, our groomer told us he was too matted to trim and that she would have to shave him.  Like heck I would allow her to do such a ghastly thing to my precious Enzo.  I shrugged off her exaggeration of the hair situation, bought a "rake" to de-mat our little teddy bear and Tim and I spent 2 hours raking through his hair to get the matting loose near his skin.  He thought it was a game and had a jolly time biting at the rake.  This morning I proudly walked him into the PetCo by my office for his 2nd opinion grooming appointment.  I wasn't going to back the hall of shame, so this place knew nothing of our flaws.

The Petco lady took one look at him and said, "Oh boy.  We've got some heavy matting going on here."  I clearly explained that we had taken care of that last night with the rake tool, which I presented to her with confidence.  She showed me a number of places where she couldn't get her massive comb through and said it wouldn't be fair to him to put him through that much pain and the only way to remedy the situation would be to shave him.  I clarified, "So, you can leave like an inch right?"  "No maam.  He'll be shaved much shorter than that.  You'll need to stick with a 6 week schedule for grooming if you want to keep his coat this long and I would suggest a different collar and daily brushing."  I gazed at my Teddy Bear for a longer than normal amount of time, put my hypothetical tail between my legs, apologized to Enzo telepathically and went back to work.  Shame. Dog owner shame.

This is what I saw when I walked in to pick up my fuzzy buddy.  I might have screamed out loud.  If it wasn't for his big eyes, I wouldn't have been convinced he was mine.  The lady immediately said, "It'll grow back!  We think he looks cute."

Dude came home from school and took one step back from the door, thinking we had a strange dog in our house.  He giggled for 30 minutes and said his brain kept telling him that Enzo was wet.  Reagan acted scared and had no idea who he was, Tim just pouted when Enzo jumped up on him but of course doused him with fatherly love and I have spent the night covering him with our warmest blankets.  He is so cold.  And tiny.  And really humiliated I suspect.  In fact, he was just downstairs barking at himself in the glass door.  Of course he doesn't know who that strange dog staring at him is.  He's a quarter of the dog he used to be.

Bad dog parents.  Bad.  Sorry buddy.  It won't happen again.

September Rylanisms

I picked Dude up from after school Science Camp today. As we walked out the teacher reminded him that he is to work on not making wolf sounds and actions next week. In the car I asked him about that behavior and he said, "MOM. I was NOT being a wolf at science camp. That is not true." I asked him why she said that and he replied with, "I was a being a Tiger Mom. That is very different than a wolf."  By all means let me set the teacher straight on that one.

On the way to our new therapy tonight, I explained to Dude that we're going there to help his ticks and to make the right side of his brain grow really strong.  We talked about how ginormously strong his left side is and that his right side needs to catch up.  He thought for a minute and said, "Well, my lego neurons must be on the left side then."  Oh how true that is buddy.  So many wonderful things are on the left side of your beautifully complex little brain.

Dude and I were talking about having friends over for dinner Friday night.  I was explaining who their kids were and said, "Bella is the little girl who is always playing with Marin."  He said, "Well Mom, that's not true.  Bella goes home to sleep so she's not ALWAYS with Marin."  And you're right.  Pardon my exaggeration.  

Dude recently read me a story about a little boy who refused to clean his room and bought a robot to do it so he wouldn't have his computer taken away. The boy steps on the remote, causing the robot to go crazy and makes an even bigger mess. The story doesn't end well for the little boy. I ask him what choice the boy should have made to avoid his punishment and he replies, "Well, first he should have gotten a robot with better buttons and he should have been more careful with that remote." My son is in the details. No big picture over here friends.

Dude gets off the bus yesterday saying, "Mom! Bob and Steve are DEAD. I hope they fainted, but probably they're dead." I stare at him with wide eyes, awaiting an explanation and he says, "Hello Mom. Bob and Steve are the class crickets and Steve was my favorite. That is my frustrating part of the day."

To the family next to us at Wahoos last night. "Hi, I'm Rylan and I'm 7. I'm in 2nd grade. We do NOT study about Jesus at my school but we do a WHOLE LOT of math. Math, math, math, blah, blah, blah." And there you have it random family.

I recently heard this in the next room..."Dear God, can you PLEASE make me Spiderman? That's all I need to do is wish right? And please make Mommy Superwoman. I'll ask for her."

"Mom, Grant (kid in his class) smokes."  "What????  What are you talking about?"  "He does Mom.  Like you know, he put a cigarette in his mouth and SMOKES it.  Mr. Olsen says he needs to stop."  I couldn't let this one go.  He seemed so sure.  I say, "Ok bud.  Let's talk about this more.  What was happening when Mr. Olsen said he needs to stop smoking?"  "Grant was doing his froggy voice like all low and Mr. Olsen says he always sounds like that so he better stop smoking those cigarettes.  He did NOT wink Mom, so he's telling the truth."  Oh my sweet literal son.  I did explain the joke and he no longer tells people about Grant's early set smoking habit.  

Digging

I try not to bring down the lightweight, comical and often sarcastic tone of this blog with the heavy stuff, but sometimes "heavy" is where you're at and that's okay.  Heavy is a part of life right?  The blog where I allow myself to verbally vomit the content of my heart and brain speaks to where our family is at.  Today.  If you haven't already tuned in, you can do so by clicking HERE. 

For the sake of adding some comic relief to this post, see below for our darling son's 2nd grade photo. My immediate reaction was, "When are re-takes?"  Then Tim and I decided that this speaks exactly to where he's at in this moment in time.  He's wearing his compression vest, which helps stabilize his sense of gravity, he successfully fluffed out his once spiked and super cool hair, he has zero teeth to be seen and he is Happy with a capital H.  Our Dude.  No re-takes needed.

Before I go back to work...

Monday's work D Day and I'm making no promises on the consistency of this blog for the near future.  A new life rhythm will be defined in the coming weeks and it might not be too pretty.  Or it might be magical. Never-the-less, blogging is going to take a back seat until flow resumes.  SO, below is a random conglomeration of life happenings as of late.  We've had an awesome August and September.  Tons of exciting stuff happening round here.  The notorious respiratory bug hasn't hit (yet), Dude's 2nd grade teacher is a blessing and a half, Tim is having lots of racing fun, our Texas friends have come to visit, Squirt is a little charmer at pre-school, God is blessing my new path in a ridiculous amount of ways, our front yard looks WAY prettier with the addition of new landscape and I'll stop there so you don't get squeamish.  We're good.

 Snooze with our Amy.  Can't think of a happier place for our stomachs on a Friday morning.  

 Dinner at our old neighbors and friends's house, the Jones.  The Sheas came too, which was perfect.  It was SO good to spend time with these lovelies.  It reminded us that we need to do it more often.  We celebrated Abigail's 10th birthday that night.  Crazy that we've known the brown haired beauty since she was four.

Today, Dude spent 5 hours acting as a "Zoologist for a day" at the Denver Aquarium.  I learned about this rad program in a magazine ad but didn't believe it to be true.  It was.  For $50, he spent 5 hours being lead behind the scenes at the aquarium and learned about how to care for the animals.  He groomed a tortoise and a porcupine and was able to feed otters and pet the sting rays. AND they provided lunch in their famous restaurant AND have him this t-shirt.  He said he ate underneath huge fish watching his pizza.  We'll definitely do it again for a different program they offer.  Check it out if you live in Colorado!  

 First day of preschool exhaustion. 

 I'm not a fan of creepy crawlies, but this was quite beautiful.  I allowed him to continue living. 

 Our precious baby Hayes was blessed at a special ceremony at our friend's house last weekend.  He might be the cutest, smiliest, most charming little lad I've ever laid eyes on.  Minus my son, of course.  We're so blessed to call this family "our people."

 Randy gifted us with 4 tickets to the Food and Wine Show downtown when Amy and Paul were in town.  We went, we drank, we ate, we drank, we ate and came home bloated and unmotivated to do much of anything the remainder of the day.  Good times, good eats and even better drinks.  

 Tim's most happy Dad day of his life.  Dude entered his very first go kart (the real deal go karting).  He was the only one on the track, he put on his butterfly wings and conquered his fear.  He zipped around the track with perfect precision and improved his lap time each time around the track.  Tim was beaming inside and out.  They can't wait to go back and do it again.  And again.  And again.

    

 Our little Tai Kwondo boy.  Oh does this sport fit him to a capital T.  It has been astonishing to watch his progression in the past 4 months of twice weekly classes.  His coordination has improved, his stamina, his ability to follow directions, his hustle, his toughness....and he's having a blast.  We're believers!

 Family bike ride to a local park and stream.  I do adore this place we call home.  

Sir Enzo was given one day of "freedom."  We allowed him out of his crate when we left the house and gave him free reign of the laundry room and bathroom.  This is what we came home to.  This image is just one of two exit doors he gnawed through.  Little punk.  Guess who's back in his crate when we exit the house?

No reason.  Just had to share.  And while we're on the subject....

These all came to life between the hour of 6:30am-7:30am last Sunday morning.  

From our chaos to yours, peace out.