San Francisco with my Besties

Outside of my sisters (and I definitely am including my sister in laws as MY sisters) I have two best friends.  I was lucky enough to meet these girls my freshmen year at BYU.  I'll be honest, I was a crappy friend until I met these two girls (sorry high school friends :( ).  They have taught me so much about what it means to love and what it means to be a good friend.  I know I can always count on these two and they would do ANYTHING for me, and I for them.  That's why our 3 day weekend trip to San Francisco in March made me feel like I was 18 again.

Cindy and Brianna at Ugly Christmas sweater party 2004 (yes that's Casey in the background)


Katie, Kristin, and Brianna on my wedding day 2005.


Our girls weekend was the most fun I've had in a long time.  I LOVED spending time with people who REALLY know me and had no problem telling me how it is ;).  I guess I have high expectations for these girls, they both had a heavy suitcase to prove it.  We had fun late nights catching up on each other's lives, dancing, and eating yummy food.

I haven't gone dancing since 2005 but I swear the music was the same as it was in college, how is that possible?  Loved the drunk Germans we met who worked on the cruise ship this night.  Actually, every time I go to San Francisco there are tons of Germans.

Luckily Kristin ensured we got some culture in as well.  We all love art and history so this was a perfect stop for us.  In fact, if it wasn't for Brianna who helped me study and write 11 essays about art history for each midterm and final I'm certain I would have graduated with a lower GPA.

The De Young had the most fantastic/horrorfying exhibit of photographs of the American invasion of Iraq.  My visit was cut short because crying in public isn't my thing.  Although apparently I didn't look that bad afterwards because some FIFTY YEAR OLD museum worker thought us ladies should join him for a museum after party with FREE drinks... ugh!  How old do you think we are!?

Not surprisingly no one asked us to join them the last day for drinks.  We were trashed!  I was sore for days from walking.  Pathetic, yes but accurate.  I LOVED Brianna's bag lady outfit the last day.  Every time I go to Alcatraz I FREEZE!  With this warning we all put on all of the clothing left in our suitcase to prepare.

If we had a cardboard sign I think people would give us money.  Except for the fact that there are already so many homeless in San Francisco asking for money we likely would have been passed over unless we painted ourselves gold.  

I'm so LA

I recently decided to return to the workforce for multiple reasons and as I've been considering returning to school for a Masters in Health Care Administration I wanted to get some more work experience in the field to ensure that my time and money would be worth my personal investment.  I started a job that is so LA it's almost embarrassing.  While I love my coworkers and my job the clientele is a bit ridiculous. I work at a plastic surgeons office.

The clients are not AT ALL what I anticipated for LA.  It's mostly overweight people who come in for liposuction as a form of weight loss.  I thought my previous job at a state hospital gave me a lot of exposure to mental healthcare I think far more of our patients at the plastic surgeon's office have just as many mental health issues as the past patients I worked with.  Only after a few weeks of work I've heard more then I care to know, post op patient "Help me! I'm bleeding out of my ass!!!", "I'm gonna have to do things a Catholic school girl would be ashamed of to pay for this surgery," and also the stories of absolutely insane requests patients have made.

Not to mention I'm excited to make more of an effort to stay in touch with all of you.

Lucy's 2

Lucy turned 2 and we had a small birthday party to celebrate.  Welcome to Lucy's Clubhouse!  She was excited, can you tell?

These were the invitations

These are the banners I could have never made with out my wonderful friend Summer

She dressed up as Minnie Mouse for her Mickey Mouse party.

Lucy LOVED her Mickey Mouse balloon.  As in she literally could be found hugging her Mickey balloon saying, "I love you Mickey, I love you Mickey!"  (Why doesn't she do that to me ;)

Each time the door bell rang she ran to the door, "Lucy open it!"  I made some Mickey and Minnie gift bags that I filled with some items I found at Party City and the $.99 store.

I made some Mickey Mouse cupcakes

We played pass the parcel.

Find the Mickey Mouse.  We cut Mickey out and hid his head, ears, shoes, etc. around the house and the kids helped us put him back together again.

We also played a memory matching game with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters and ended with some cupcakes and ice cream.

Lucy loved having friends come over and play and was delighted with the idea of a whole day of opening presents.  She just wanted to play with each gift she got. 

I'm a Hazard to Myself

I love Pink hence the blog title.  I also love Cher, so I'm told that I have a lot in common (musically) with the gay community.  What can I say - we have great taste ;)  Living with myself is hard enough as it is.  I saw this on Pinterest and it spoke to my heart, and my arms, and my legs, and . . . you get the picture

This describes me completely.  I've mentioned before I'm not the most coordinated person and unfortunately I've passed this onto my daughter.  We are a deadly pair.  You all know how terrible I am at noticing/stepping on Casey's feet; well let's just say between Lucy and I, Casey will be lucky to leave this world with 10 toes (I have an extra I can donate ba ha ha). I've also complained about the brutality of my child's abuse. Now you have to listen to me complain about how my child is unlucky to inherit my clumsiness.

As Lucy and I strolled down the street yesterday, I was looking at her while walking and lecturing her that it's important that she point her head and eyes in the direction that her feet are moving as she narrowly missed a pedestrian.  Just as my lecture was coming to a close I rammed my stroller into a tree . . . maybe I need someone to give me the lecture.

Our mutual inability to observe and respond to our environment makes it nearly impossible for us to not trip over each other, hit each other, booby trap each other, etc.  Stop by anytime and you can count the bruises on our bodies and see the damage for yourself.  I think my genes which I passed onto Lucy are going to somehow kill me.  Forget manners, politeness, obedience - I'll consider motherhood a success if we're both alive.

Summer Vacations

My summer vacationing has come to an end.  June started with a trip to Utah to attend our friend Jared's wedding (which I didn't take any pictures of) and for Lucy to attend Cousin Camp.  Lucy was in heaven with all of the play mates and attention she got from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  This post will be a picture overload.

Lucy spent a day at Cousin Camp and she loved every minute of it.  She was pooped.  She decorated a t-shirt, pillowcase, and bag.

 

 

Her cousins took good care of her in the "hot" tub.

Lucy loved the blow up slide and pool.

The day ended with a late night movie on the projector in the backyard.

 Thank you Nana and Grandpa for a fun filled Cousin Camp.

Casey left after the wedding and I spent Father's Day with my dad.  Yes, I made him a cheesy candy bar card and then I made him take a picture with it. 

My parents treated Lucy and me to the zoo.  Lucy is at the age where she loves the zoo.  She's learning all of the animal's names and the sounds they make. 

Lucy loved the rhinoceros.  For some reason she thought it was hilarious so I made Grandma take a picture by it.  You can kind of see it in the background.

After Lucy and I returned home from the airport we turned around a week later to go to my family reunion in Sun River, Oregon.  We spent a few days before the reunion hanging out with my sisters.

Wendy took us to an AWESOME kid play place in Washington.  The only problem was everyone needed to wear socks.  Luckily I had some packed in my suitcase which was still in the car.  

Isn't it obvious that these kids are mine and Wendy's?  I mean I pull out a camera and they all smile and say cheese, like mother like daughter. (Outside Quiznos)

We spent one day on the slip 'n slide and we all got a little burned but the kids had so much fun.

Lucy loved Nubs the pet bunny.  I frequently caught her having conversations with Nubs.  I think she was keeping Nubs informed as to what she was doing.  While she talked non-stop to Nubs she was actually scared to death to get close to 'em.  Take note she's on the other side of the fence while Marcus and Annie are in with Nubs.

Before I left Portland I HAD to see one of my BFFs Ms. Brianna.  She picked this gorgeous restaurant on an island in a port town.  We had tons of fun (on her boat) catching up.  I felt like I was 18 again.  Always fun to see old friends. 

Emily, Lucy, and I spent 4 hours driving to Sun River the next day. Lucy did really well considering she was sitting in a car for FOUR hours.  The iPad is fantastic for road trips.

We spent our first day in Sun River at the water park.  Here are the Hinckley's in their whiteness

 Lucy and I in the kiddie pool.

 I was so glad that my Grandma decided to come with us.  It was fun to have her there.  Grandma watching sleeping baby Wyatt at the water park. This woman is on top of things!  She kept the rental home clean enough to eat off of the floor, which Lucy did as I handed her the scoop of her ice cream that she had dropped.  I don't think Grandma was impressed, but it was probably because it was the floor of the great outdoors, oops.  

The next day we hiked in some caves.  

 It was dark and cold.

The last night we went for a walk... DOWN BY THE RIVER (SNL, had to do it).

Grandma and Grandpa with Dean and Wyatt. 

Did I mention Lucy was SAD to come home to an empty house with no play mates?  She had so much fun with her cousins.  I'm glad we were able to make it out to see both of our families. 

Share Mommy

My vocabulary is being used against me and I DON'T like it. Lucy is getting to the age where she has friends and playmates and we frequently talk about sharing.   I am starting to understand how this translates to a one year old. What the word sharing means is give what you want to someone else because I said the word share. It's actually kind of like a magical word once spoken you get what you want.

Lately Casey and I have been instructed by Lucy to, "SHARE".  If I'm sitting on the couch and Lucy wants my seat she'll tell me, "Share Mommy, share".  If Casey is reading on the iPad and Lucy wants it, "Share, Daddy, share".  If I'm eating a popsicle, or sweeping the floor.... "Share Mommy, share"  you get the picture.   It's becoming a problem because Mommy is not very good a sharing. Wish me luck and Lord give me patience. She's only 1 and I have a long way to go.

Upcycled tshirts into dress

I'm riding this sewing wave as long as it will last. I dipped into my "Goodwill" bag and found 4 shirts that I could use for a color blocking/ ombré look.
 
I was inspired by this dress on pinterest but I didn't want to hand dye fabric and I just wanted something a little quicker for my Upcycle project.
 
I cut four 3 inch strips from each shirts.
 
I then cut off a triangle so each strip was at 45 degree angle so I could do a chevron pattern.
 
 And pieced it all together. One for a front an one for a back.
Then I made a pattern by tracing a bodice of one of Lucy's dresses and I took a ruler and added 1/4 inch for some seams and drew an A line.
 

Remember to fold the pattern down the center so the dress is the same shape on both sides. Also the front neckline is lower than the back.
 
 Cut fabric to pattern and sew shoulder and side seems. Out of laziness I took the hem from an old shirt the finish the bottom and cut off the trim to my white tshirt to finish the colllar. There is no zippers nor closures 'cause its stretchy and made from tshirts. The model wasn't cooperative but she was cute.