march sadness

this post is a hard one. my team has lost prematurely in the big tournament and i am grieving. i have yet to turn on a tv channel or browse a site online that is anything sports related as i am miserably floating somewhere between stages 2 and 3 of the grief process. no, maybe i'm still stage 1: denial. wherever i am the last thing i want to do is blog about it, but alas blogging, journaling, life...must go on.

over a week ago, our wonderful neighbor came rapping at our kitchen window early one morning (why our kitchen window i have no idea) bearing 2 tickets to the opening round of the men's ncaa basketball tournament here in tampa. me being a fan jumped at the opportunity to go even though i wasn't personally/emotionally invested in the teams playing. no one else wanted/could go with me so i packed annie up and headed downtown for the games.

thanks to a friendly trolley-driver, annie and i hitched a free ride to the games and enjoyed some b-ball.

annie was perfect. not only did she oblige me by going to the games and actually watching them with me, she did me one better...when the teams came onto the court she put her little pointer finger in the air and started saying "du du du du" (interpretation: "duke duke duke duke"). that's my girl.

got your running shoes on?

'cause here comes a marathon of happiness. ready.set. see you at the end...

my dad called her "his little red-headed migrant worker". my dad would pick oranges and grapefruits from our trees, place them on the ground then annie would round them up and place them in a bucket. it never got old for her and it never got old for me watching her. she's still waiting for her paycheck.

little miss is sleeping until 6:30! until about a week ago annie was up and ready to go anywhere from 5:00-5:30 in the morning. i tried telling her time and time again that there were still plenty of worms after 6:00 and if it really mattered, she would still be considered early. she finally took my advice and is giving me an extra hour of sleep.

my two loves sippin' on some protein.

catching a braves/astros spring training game over in orlando. i was all braves until my bro-in-law, lance, came in to pitch for the astros in the 5th. i then got my mind right and switched back to the braves.

lazy sunday afternoon walks.

i love that while annie is completely capable of walking independently, she will occasionally reach her little hand up, say "mama" and have me take her hand and follow her on her little adventures... which mainly consist of gathering as many acorns and hickory nuts as her little hands allow and bringing them back to feed to jake (and nibble on a few herself if she manages to catch me off of my game)

these curls make me smile. a lot.

a mother couldn't be more proud. little miss is eating sushi. and not just your run-of-the-mill california roll, folks. we're talking rolls with grouper, salmon, white tail (some of them raw), roe, eel sauce, etc. not only does this girl throw down sushi, she thoroughly enjoys cooked carrots with humus; omelets with onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini, spinach, and whatever else i throw in there; shredded chicken with brown rice and quinoa; any mexican dish; guacamole, etc. basically she eats whatever grub i place before her and whatever anyone else has as well. she is quite the mooch.

this guy was in town visiting last weekend. kev has been up in pensecola for the past month completing his ER rotation. he'll be up there for april as well, so we sure love whatever time we can get with him. this is us at the aquarium. that little finger point works magic on us.

and this is one "just because"

wipe that sweat off your brow, hydrate, and do some cool down stretches...you've made it.

i want to ride my bicycle

bicycle races came our way, and although i hope no one thought of us a fat bottomed girls, we did forget our duties and raced (come on folks, keep up with the queen reference).

a couple of weekends ago, my dad and i completed a 50 mile mountain bike race up in central florida. it was long. it was difficult. it was 100% satisfying.

burn baby burn

day 12: a tv show i am currently addicted to.

i realize i jumped on board a little late (and am regretting every moment of it) but this show puts eating, sleeping, and showering on the back burner. ok, my caloric/hygienic situation isn't that deplorable, but it's a great show and i can't wait for the summer.

home sweet home

day 11: a photograph of the town i live in.

good ol' riverview, fl. this is obviously some random shot of trees and water, but this would be a typical scene outside of any residential area here. pretty you say? the water looks refreshing, you say? well its probably full of gators and snakes. there was (still is) a river behind our house growing up and my neighbors had a rope swing and a great tree for jumping into the river. we were down there all of time and i can't believe i actually went swimming there. just in my neighborhood we have seen gators, a panther, wild pigs, snakes of all kinds (including water moccasins) and who knows what else. ignorance is bliss, i guess. you couldn't pay me to swim in it now.

eat your heart out (or cheerios)

day 10: a photo of what's in your purse (adapted from "a photo and description of what's in your makeup bag--lame-o). not that what's in my purse is any more thrilling than what's in my makeup bag, but when you come across this lil' gal sittin' in there, it definitely makes it worth mentioning.

cha-ching

day 9: photo of the item i last bought.

just you wait to see what it's going to make...

look who's walking!

bon appetite!

so i was seriously contemplating abandoning this whole 30 day blog-challenge thing, but then it just didn't feel right giving up on something until at least march along with the rest of the new-year's-resolution-quitters out there. this was by no means a new year's resolution, but just the same, it's too close to the beginning of the year to quit anything, regardless of the origin of the aspiration. so...since i'm not giving up (yet...i'll see if i can drag this out a few more weeks and then re-examine my justification) i will try to crank these posts out and give you way more useless information about myself than you ever wanted. continuing on...

day 58 (really day8): a recipe

Scotch pancakes (a new year's breakfast tradition)

1 egg

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 c. melted butter

3/4 c. milk

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup flour

beat egg then add powdered sugar. add and mix melted butter. add the rest of the ingredients and add the milk and flour alternately.

to serve, put sliced peaches on top and sprinkle with lemon juice. add cool whip and sprinkle powdered sugar over everything.

turn the radio up

day 7: a song to match my mood, and why.

today it would be vampire weekend's, "horchata".

why? because annie dances to it every time i play it, and i love it (both annie dancing and the song).