Conversations with 6 year olds

Cooper:  Can we have frozen yogurt after dinner.

Me:  There isn’t a frozen yogurt near the restaurant.

Cooper:  That’s because they closed.  They didn’t make enough money so they couldn’t stay open.  There are too many frozen yogurt places and sweets really aren’t good for you.

Me:  Yes that’s right.  Good job explaining microeconomics.

Charlotte:  The penguin frozen yogurt place is still open.

Cooper:  Why is the penguin place still open?

Chris:  Why do you think?

Cooper:  Because they have a lot of people and make a lot of money.

Chris:  Why do you think people go there?

Charlotte:  Because they like the frozen yogurt!

Cooper:  Because they have the floor light thing for the kids to play.

Charlotte:  Because they have a lot of fruit toppings.

Cooper:  And some sugary toppings.

Chris:  That’s right.  Also, they are near a movie theater.

Me:  What can you do after you see a movie?

Cooper/Charlotte:  Get frozen yogurt!

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Chris:  You guys have Turkey Trot coming up!

Cooper:  What is Turkey Rot?

Chris:  It’s Turkey Trot.  You win a raffle ticket for every lap you run and then they do a drawing to win a turkey.  Well a frozen turkey, not a live turkey.

Cooper:  Yeah, because you would have to roast the turkey to make it dead.

Me:  Well, first you would have to break it’s neck, then cut it’s head off, then pull it’s feathers out, then get the blood and organs out.

Cooper/Charlotte:  EWWWWW!

Cooper:  Turkeys are disgusting.  I do not want to touch their blood.  Vampires might though.

All About Make-up

There is a small secret you may not know about me…I have only recently learned how to really do my make-up!  I love all things fashion and beauty because it’s my adult version of coloring and dress up, which I loved doing as kid. 

I may have covered this at some point on the blog, but last year I spent time learning about my color season (True Winter), which has helped immensely with choosing colors for my wardrobe.  The pictures below are me without my hair and make-up done, draped in the True Winter palette and all of these colors make me glow naturally. Since switching out my wardrobe to my color season, I have never received so many compliments on my style/clothes/shoes/etc.  I started with this site and then went on a google search to find more information.  Draping colors on me was how I finally figured out my palette (see below).  Colors that weren’t bold and clear made me look very washed out.  The last thing I did was lipstick draping.

Naturally this worked it’s way into make-up for me.  I began experimenting and tossing my old, cheap stuff for new, higher end stuff.  I couldn’t believe the difference between drugstore brand foundation, lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, and eyeshadow vs. brand name stuff.  My favorite drugstore brand is Nyx, and my favorite brand name is Tarte.  Although, I also use Revlon for lip products and a lot of Urban Decay, Mally, IT Cosmetics, Armani, Too Faced, Lorac, Benefit, and MAC for all of my other products.

So this is me experimenting with all different kinds of looks, including hair color and style changes.  I sometimes share the looks on Instagram, but also with other women online who enjoy makeup as well. 

Obstacle Runs

Chris and I completed three obstacle runs this year.

We did the Rugged Maniac at the end of July at the motocross track next to Bandimere Speedway.  This was a really fun event – approximately 3 miles and 25 obstacles which made it basically a giant obstacle course.  The obstacles were fun and challenging.  We definitely plan to do this one again.

I completed the rings without falling in the water!!  Big accomplishment for this obstacle run.

In August we completed the Warrior Dash again (last year here).  This is 3 miles up at 8000’ elevation with about 12-15 obstacles.  They changed a few of the obstacles up this year, but the course was more or less the same.  We were really bored with this run and likely won’t do it again next year.

The big one we did this year was Tough Mudder in September.  This is 11 miles at 10,000’-12,000’ elevation and 25 obstacles.  My goal for this was to complete it with a team which we did in around 5.5-6 hours.  Unfortunately half our team left us behind, which was really disappointing to me because that was why I wanted to do the Tough Mudder—not to mention most of the obstacles require team members to complete and that meant I couldn’t complete some of the obstacles and I hurt my ribs/shoulder pretty bad as well.  The best two things were that I made a new friend because she was on our team and her friend left her behind too, and we ran into an old college friend we haven’t seen in years and it was awesome to catch up.  I know I won’t be doing it again – I am not interested in taking a risk again at not having a team to complete the event, I experienced it and that was enough for me, and I don’t like the 11 mile distance.

The ice bath was absolutely brutal.  I am so glad Mikael reached in and pulled me out at the end because I couldn’t get my legs and arms to work.

The log carry wasn’t too bad, but the different heights of team members made it annoying to carry.

Way to go Sophie for helping to carry me for the teammate carry.

Flexibility and lower body strength from ballet made this a mud crawl so much easier for me to complete.

Sophie and I both fell in on the monkey bars, but Chris made it all the way across.  This was a HUGE accomplishment for him after losing so much upper body strength from neck surgery in March.

Phone Dump Photos

These are from April to August 2014.

We took the kids to an Asian Festival in July…mostly because their babysitter was performing at the Karate demonstration they kids and Chris take karate through.  Now they both want to work really hard so they can perform too!

We have done some crafts with toilet paper rolls in August (rocket ship and car garage) and some science experiments in May (shear strength with non-Newtonian fluids, aka Quick Sand)

We saw my favorite artist, Sarah McLachlan, in July and had amazing seats.

The children swapped bedrooms for a night in June

In June we went swimming at the outdoor neighborhood pool.

In June Cooper decided he also likes makeup like Mommy, so now I keep a bag of play makeup for them to paint their faces/bodies/each other.

Last days of school in May had Cooper being crazy as a pig.

I received some beautiful watch bands for Mother’s Day.  A perfect gift for me because watches are MY accessory of choice.

I also had Mother’s Day tea with the kids.

Mother’s Day Comparison:

In April Charlotte and I had a date day to see Rio 2.  I feel asleep during the movie and Charlotte said in a not so quiet voice – MOMMY WAKE UP!

NaBloPoMo

I’m a day late, but I plan to blog the remaining days in November.  Check my other blogs if there isn’t a post on this one!

In addition to blogging I am also:

1.  Being a mom and wife. 

2.  Working a full time job as an engineer.

3.  Pretending I am a professional photographer and taking on photo sessions for friends.

4.  Being a ballerina in a recital in 7 weeks.

5.  And finding time (or not!) for all the other things I keep up with – politics, reading, writing, crafting, going out with friends, etc.

So if I forget a day, I’m likely off doing any number of things listed above.  I am supposed to be on a hiatus of “Doing all the things”.  As you can see I keep taking a break from taking a break.