The Park with no Play Structure

So off we went again to the park with no play structure (cemetery park). Dakota asked me where we were going and I told her and again she got upset saying there was not a play structure there. I told her it was that or we could stay home and she opted for the park and again can you believe it she had a good time. I took essie with us this time and we all had a nice time. The girls (dakota and Mia)




were excited to find a shoe in the tree and dakota really wanted me to climb up and get it down.

It amazes me how things like this happen
did someone continually try to throw it?

She was really funny she at first she was saying there is something in the tree and we have to save it, she was saying it with such urgency then kind of as an aside to let me know she said 'it is a shoe'. I could see her working and making the distinction of I (she) am going to pretend that that shoe is something else but really I (dakota) know it is just a shoe. After the shoe excitement there was some hill rolling and some other dog meetings and some ring around the rosies. And I am not sure how I feel about this but while pretending one of there pretends was they were watching tv???? It was fun and Dakota didn't want to leave. I wonder if we will continue to have the same conversation about this lack of play structure each time???
I had a good run this morning with Andi. We did 7+ miles and overall I felt pretty good. I have been feeling if nothing else a little more consistent....one okay run followed by a really hard one is just not fun. But I have been making an effort to get out more and I think I just don't go well with days off from running I lose my momentum to fast. We have some fun plans this weekend. Tomorrow I am heading back over to my moms for more canning yay.
Good Night.

Ode to the Cookie and Sword Fighting?

I say where is the dough from whist this came??

I made cookies tonight and I love cookie dough. I love cookie dough more than I like warm baked cookies. Chocolate chip cookie dough is my favorite or really any dough with both brown and white sugar butter flour eggs and I say yummy. My friend leslie and pretty much her whole family can attest to my love of cookie dough. While I have not been over to see them in awhile I typically make a b-line to their freezer because always there are frozen balls of goodness. My daughter is no different I know the whole raw egg thing should be of concern but don't we pasteurize everything these days. I have been eating cookie dough my whole life and look at me I am mostly okay.
So an interesting thing happened today and it is my fault. Dakota and Marie

Who us?
decided to sword fight today! And I was watching them and they were being good just using their 'swords' and not hitting each other but still these little girlies sword fighting and then I heard the words I am Jack Sparrow and I am Peter Pan come out of their mouths aha! I must confess my three year old has watched pirates of the Caribbean. A couple months back there was a pirate festival down at the harbor, we went dakota had a blast so randy and I thought why not. And honestly I think there are much worse things that we could have let her watch but still probably not the best decision we have ever made. So any who Dakota and Marie were in the midst of their sword fight and I was at a loss of what to do. And it was because they were girls. I was thinking in my head I have seen boys their age do the sword and gun games and I have heard conversations about the pros and the cons of such games so do the same rules apply for the girls? I mean this is still the conversation going on in my head I have no concrete feelings on the subject but I do have mixed feelings about it. I kept a close eye on them and they played very well with their 'swords'. I know that I was on the verge of give me a reason to make you put this game to an end but it didn't happen. So yes on to more adventures tomorrow.

Wednesday Nights!

I love wednesdays. On wednesdays dakota and I head to my parents for dinner. Derek and Tisha meet us there and it is just a really nice time. It started a couple of years ago when Randy started playing softball on wednesdays and it was just me and dakota heading over but over the last six months or so derek and tisha have joined us and it just adds to the night. I think eventually we will switch days so randy can join us to, but for now this is working. The new simi established idea is that we will rotate dinner duty, which is nice because it mean that I have two wednesdays where I am off dinner duty, a night off yahoo. I cooked last night pasta with tomatoes, roasted red bells, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and olives, a salad, bread from farmers market and brownies. Here is the best part that is what we had at my house for dinner on tuesday I just made way too much so yay no cooking for me that mean three wednesdays off yayayay. It is the little things. Don't get me wrong I do like cooking but there is something about trying to figure out dinner day in and day out the wears me down. When I am being good and have menu planned it is so much easier and I feel less stressed and I enjoy it but that has not been happening lately. Note to self get that going again.
Last night was no exception to the always nice evening. First while out in gaggi (what dakota has chosen to call my mom) and papa's garden we found two tomato horn worms.


Dakota wanted to touch it but wanted some help.



They are just awesome, very destructive to tomato plants but beautiful in an au natural way. They turn into these huge awesome moths that help with night time cross pollination so as you can imagine I have very mixed emotions on what to do with them.

Dakota could not wait to show
uncle derek and aunt tisha.
After the excitement of that was gone dakota wanted uncle derek to teach her more judo. Dakota just recently saw uncle derek doing judo at the obon festival in oxnard and she has been asking to do it with him ever since while she is too young to start classes uncle derek has been helping her when they get together.

Not dancing, judo fall in the works.
After that we ate,

and talked and watched the republican vp nominee (no comment) give her speech (no comment) did some puzzle and just hung out. My dad has been getting all these old pictures put on to dvd so it has been awesome looking through those as well. All my childhood pictures have always been on slides (translates to seen once or twice in my life) so it is nice to look through those.

We will see what adventures next wednesday brings.

What a Great Month!

she does everything with gusto!

Really, I feel like it was just a blast and we did some really fun things, we had the chicken pox, we went to LACMA, we went to the zoo, we had a baby shower for our friend Amy and we played played played. Then there was the fair and Dakota's little dance performance that was awesome. Back to school and starting school for the first time, here comes fall and I am ready and I think I share that sentiment with some of you.









Dakota and her buddy Kyra!

The great thing about blogging for me is I have an awful memory but this month I feel like I have been talking about it and taking more pictures so it feels fresher and like we did just a ton of great activities.

I am excited what the coming months bring. Dakota started swimming lessons today and at first she was apprehensive but then she got into it and had a blast, then she got cold and she was ready to be done. But I was really impressed with the teacher there was no pressure he would ask 'hey you want to try to blow bubbles with your nose' dakota or another child would say no and he would move on then he would ask again.

Apprehensive.


Having fun!
For all my canning friends out there, I finally made it over to do some canning with my mom and her friend this last weekend and it was wonderful we were on fire until my mom scorched her fingers. It was really bad. My mom the nurse refused to go to Urgent Care, she just kept her fingers in ice water for about eight hours (don't ask). But we (me and my mom's friend Judith) pushed on.


















We are going to try for this saturday too because we were not able to do all that we wanted. We did two batches of strawberry jam, two batches of bread and butter pickles ( i added jalapenos to a couple jars to try to be like those wickles yummy) and a batch of tomatoes. Judith brought the most beautiful tomatoes and so we did a tomato tasting. I wish I could remember all of there names but I do remember my favorite was the purple Cherokee. It was just a really great day. Actually before we got there we celebrated my friend Andi's (hi Andi) Birthday at Arroyo Verde.




The park was really not in use which was surprising for labor day weekend but so great the girls had a blast and our other friend Aubrei (hi aubrei) made this yummy coconut strawberry cake. It was truly a great weekend.

And a little girl got a big girl haircut!

Good News and thoughs on Blogging

Papa, Dakota and Mia waiting for the trian

So I haven't been blogging because my camera is at my parents and I feel/felt as though I couldn't blog without pictures. But have gotten over it although I am thinking I will still show some older pictures because it just isn't right! Here is the best news of the weekend my dads tumor has shrunk from over 4 cm to around 1 cm. All those hard weeks of radiation and chemo did a number on the tumor and I fully believe that my dad will be in remission very soon. I am just thrilled thrilled thrilled. He just amazed me through all of it, he was positive and I know that





helped. Right as he started his treatments in
June he was up for going to the zoo. It was wonderful we took the train up with some friends and it was just really nice and I know dad was at least week into treatment maybe two.

I am still so confused about some of this layout stuff. Why it is underlining right now and why I can't turn it off is beyond me. I thought hitting ctrl u would help but no then shift u, well you can see the answer as it is still all underlined. So with that I will say goodnight. We had a wonderful weekend and I can't wait to share with photos. Love to all.

P.S. as I read after I have published on the published side there is no underlining you all think I am crazy but really truely as I write there it sits then I hit publish and viola' not there. So much to learn.