Thrush Thrush hurry hurry and leave my girl Thrush Thrush

Any Paula Abdul fans out there get that funny title, hehehe.
Yes thrush glorious painintheasssoannoyedwantittobegone thrush.

It all started with what I thought was a run of the mill diaper rash
but no, not your run of the mill diaper rash
your I am not leaving you can't get rid of me rash.

So called my midwife, beautiful glorious karni, and she suggested without delay get her and I
both on gentian violet gave me instruction and the put monostat or some thing like that on her bottom.
Well stupid me got the monostat but headed for the doctor just for another opinion. The funny thing is karni trusted me enough to say yes what you are describing sounds like thrust treat it this way. But I didn't want to trust that, I wanted to hear something else I guess I wanted to hear an easy answer.
So we went to the doc who confirmed yes it was a yeast diaper rash but he could see any signs in leela's mouth so he said to just use the monostat, which I was thrilled because the only thing I want leela ingesting right now is milk.
But the stupid rash would go away and then come back the moment I stopped the monostat.
So I decided that I needed to treat her, all of her. And still it persists and I am about to lost my mind!!!!!!!!!!!!
Leela has another two days on the gentian violet, I am going to see karni today and we have an appointment with the doc. So so so annoyed and frustrated.
In more exciting news dakota is a swimmer. I am not sure what changed her mind about dunking in the water but watch out world she is a swimmer.

Randy got a pretty big blow up pool from target on sale for $15 and it is a good size and she just decided she wanted to swim from one end to the other.

We have been staying busy playing with friends.
Dakota has a couple more weeks of dance before they close for the month.
Visit with grandma was great.
When dakota was about 6 weeks old we flew with my mom to see my grandma because she had open heart surgery. So it has been nice that she has gotten to bond with both my girls when they were/are very young.
Last wednesday we did our usual dinner with the family
and it was my turn to cook and I did my stand by pizza's.
Dakota had ideas of her own and asked if she could have a ball of dough.

She made a pretty good fat little calzone thing with mozzarella, goat cheese and capers, and it was good.....
And I had nothing to do with it I handed her the dough and I moved her creation into the oven, that was the extent of my involvement.
It is already wednesday again we are headed to farmers market then tonight I think derek is doing stir fry with a bunch of veggies from their garden should be very tasty!

Wednesday on Thursday

Thursday was a busy busy good day. Dakota had ballet in the morning and then I was off for two appointments so dakota and randy had the rest of the morning to themselves and I think they had fun.

It is fun to be uploading pictures and come across ones I had no idea were there.
After I got home I convinced dakota to take a nap, which has not been happening and it needs to but she has been waking up late which leads to late nap which leads to late bedtime which is tops on my list, that is going to bed early I need my evenings mostes. I knew we would be out later than bed time and she just gets CRAZY when she doesn't sleep and is up late. So after nap I started in on my second pie of the month.
I found this recipe in the food network magazine which I am really liking. I have tried several recipes from the magazine and have enjoyed most if not all of them. This pie recipe was for a sugar cream pie and it is funny because reading the recipe I was not that excited but there was some thing about it that kept calling to me to try it and I am glad I did. It was super easy and super yummy.
We paired it up with some farmers market strawberries
after a super yummy spaghetti dinner my mom made. I love love love her spaghetti, it is always a little different but always similar and it could be one of my favorite meals.
It was a very nice night not a lot of chatting. Me, derek and dad got sucked into a show after dinner and dakota and mom were reading elsewhere. Tisha was not there and it was not because it was her birthday, which it was, it was because she had her anatomy II final on her birthday, which she rocked! So we were thinking about her and she was there is spirit.
Dakota is in a show with her ballet place next month and she was going to give us all a little preshow viewing, she even invited some other guests.

But what she did was some starwarslightsaberinterprative dance funny stuff.

Then, the little lady just cracks me up, I was telling everyone this hysterical story about dakota and this woman. We were at a birthday party and this older woman there, who must not be around very many four year olds, introduces herself to dakota, the woman says her name and then asks dakota can you say, I can't remember her name but let's say for the sake of the story Patricia, and so dakota says patricia then dakota goes on to say 'my name is dakota can you say dakota'! Too funny, I get finished telling the story and me and mom are in hysterics laughing so are dad and derek but mom and I have lost it. Dakota on the other hand leaves the room, totally sad that we are laughing at her. It took awhile to explain to her that we were not laughing at her and that it is good to laugh and to see humor in life. She was okay in the end but it never ceases to amaze me how fragile her feelings can be at times, how sensitive all of us can be when we don't understand.

May

Another wonderful wednesday. All in all it was really mellow. I had thought about taking the girls to the indoor play place, the clubhouse, because our time with marie is coming to an end and the girls love it, but the weather is just way too nice to be indoors playing.
So it was outside all day. In the pool out of the pool and always dress up.
Randy's dad got dakota a jeep several years ago and while it drives me a little nuts dakota and marie love it even if it is just sitting in it in the garage which is what they get from me. Sometimes I pull it allllll the way out of the garage for them to sit in and sometimes I just shut the garage and say NO!

But apparently while I was out running an errand randy busted it out plugged in the battery and off they went, I see visions of the future I am not so sure about.

After lunch popsicles were in order and there is something about sitting relaxing and having a popsicle that screams summer to me.

Then of course it was wednesday with the family and it was not my turn to cook, yay. Mom made yummy turkey enchiladas, beans, rice and salad. For dessert I made cherry dump pudding funny name but so good, so good with vanilla ice cream, so good cold the next day for breakfast, so good.
We all agreed that the two weeks felt a lot longer, what a great gift to not only live close to family but to really enjoy being around them. I can only hope that dakota will love being around her family as much as I do when she has a family of her own. If that is my future well then....I just don't know what to say, that would be....
Mom and Dad you are awesome and the fact that your kids look forward to seeing you weekly is says so much more than words ever could I love you.
While financial times may be hard I have the best life ever!

Awwww Wednesdays

Every wednesday I think I love my family.
Dakota has gotten us into this tradition of holding hands sometime during dinner, whenever she remembers, and we all say something that we are happy about or something we hope for and it is very nice and often one of us says something about loving wednesdays or loving the consistency or wednesdays and it is true I feel very blessed to not only live close to my parents and derek and tisha but that we are close in our hearts as well.
Last night was my turn to cook I did phyllo wrapped chicken, I thought it was good but needs a little fussing next time, more herbs maybe. And then my friend amy gave me some home grown bok choy and broccoli so I sauteed those up along with a green salad with a creamy basil dressing, yummy!
Last night the conversation was light and after dinner derek got his ukulele out, he got it for christmas and has been loving it, and he played and sang and at one point dakota and my mom and dad were singing too.
I never thought I had a musical family, well we all love music we just don't play it so it has been really neat to see derek taking up this instrument and then last night having this little sing along.

DESSERT

I love it! And last night was one of my favorites brownies warm with ice cream, hot fudge and whip cream ahhhhh. I really love dessert. I mean I think about it before I think about dinner or anything else. When dakota is not in the kitchen I sneak cookies or bites of something I made even if it is only 730 in the morning. Of course when she asks for some I say "honey that is not a breakfast food, it is not a good way to start your day" LIAR mommy that is what I am but I will take it on for the time being. Really I am a hypocrite because I know I shouldn't and I don't think it is the healthiest way to start the day but she doesn't need to know that until she is older when she can handle the truth ahahahahahha.
earlier in the day while at arroyo we ran into uncle derek, dakota was thrilled

My sweet girl didn't get a nap yesterday so she was in major crazy mode last night running my mom raged. It is amazing how when she is tired she goes to the other level of craziness and you can just see she is off her rocker tired, I hate missing naps.
But no matter what I love my wednesdays!

Wonderful Wednesdays

We started of the morning with a great walk, which I so needed, because on tuesday I was planning to go but woke up texted aubrei that I was not going to make it and crawled back into my warm bed and proceeded to NOT fall back asleep.
So yes starting off with a morning walk was a great start.
After Marie arrived Maya came over as well before heading off the the clubhouse (an indoor play place) there was ice cream to be made...

the girls were taking turns being the ice cream maker. I just love playdough in all shapes and forms. After some ice cream fun we met up with Sara and Abby and we were off to the clubhouse.
I felt mildly guilty because it was a beautiful day and playing inside didn't make total sense but it was nice to change it up and dakota absolutely loves it and she didn't seem to mind one bit.
That is the end of the slide they would go down holding hands, screaming


Marie is here till 330 on wednesdays so there was no nap, I did put on a movie after lunch for some down time (in hopes they would fall asleep HA) but once the movie was over they were up and adam outside playing peter pan probably one of their favorite games.
One of them pretends to be wendy the other peter and they run away from each other and then rescue each other and they love it.
As usual for wednesday we headed off to my parents for dinner. It was my turn to cook and while I must say I really look forward to the nights it is not my turn, last night I didn't mind so much because I made PIZZA and really it is so easy and yummy I excited when it came to mind.
what appeared to be left but really it was only one of each I couldn't stop eating it

I was going to do a build your own pizza bar but decided to go ahead and throw them together so we could eat sooner, I LOVE EATING. I did some sauteed mushrooms, olives, sun dried tomatoes, pineapple (for d), and yellow bell peppers oh and goat cheese yummy. Then I did three pizza's with different combos of the above and let me just say I was stuffed but the end of dinner.
It didn't help that my mom and dakota made chocolate chip cookies either.

i'll take five please and some milk

Derek got a ukulele for christmas so he has been bringing that with him on wednesdays and dakota loves it almost as much as derek. Then we had this funny/interesting conversation about that started with my dad's jury duty experience, well not jury duty but...his experience with the a government office. Then he and derek started talking about government and cutting the fat from it and how to go about that and then is there corruption in government it was a great night for conversation. I love my family how blessed and loved I am.

Yesterday

this was as we were leaving to meet up for our morning run, so foggy and yet I thought it was perfect and beautiful.

When we got down to the beach to run the water was so calm and tranquil, there was one surfer out.
As for the run itself it went good for the most part. I was thinking back and I think it was more than a year ago but another time where I felt similar to the way I have been feeling, heavy legs, only able to do the bare minimum, but it passed so maybe it is just the rhythm of my body. So I am just going to keep keeping on. Although I think the idea of cross training is a great one. And what derek said about the push remaining constant is a good thing to remember always.
So after the run we went to farmers market (see below) and that was nice it just always feels good to go and buy local. I am excited about apples and citrus but sad that stone fruit and melons and berries are pretty much on their way out the door.
Dakota had dance today and I keep hearing her teacher telling her to slow down, which is so hard for dakota, but a good lesson.
After Marie left we were off to a luncheon, ha, we went to the cheesecake factory for a fun lunch with andi, mia, aubrei, maya, jenn, kai and dax and we had a blast. I feel bad for the others sitting on the patio but it really was a lovely time. Dakota, Kai and Maya had a kissing party
and it was just about the cutest thing ever, wait till they get older won't be so cute and I am sure they will be mortified that we have pictures
There was some hugging and some ring around the rosies...


By the end of lunch I think it is safe to say all the kids were fried as I don't think any of them had had their naps but they all did pretty darn good considering and they all got along pretty darn good too.
Then it was off to the folks house for dinner... (not my turn to cook, yay) and even more yay was derek and tisha brought ferrero's pizza mmmmmm mmmmm good. Dakota once again made her dessert request while we did our hand holding. She was taking awhile to get out what she wanted to say and so there was some chattering at the table, she leans over to me and says please tell them to stop talking (uncle derek), funny. Always a wonderful time. But I am happy sad to report the search for tomato horn worms came up empty, which really I am sure my mom was happy about, have I mentioned how destructive they are...really!

Today I came across another preying mantis not the usual kind the kind that looks like a walking stick I wish that I had taken a picture but I was in the zone of cleaning up the front yard, which was so so so needed. But just wanted to share because....

Mexico Food!

That is what dakota calls mexican food and that is what we had for our wednesday night meal at my parents and it has to be one of my favorites. So we are a funny family. I say this because I spotted another tomato horn worm and I have this weird attraction to them and apparently it is rubbing off.... here is me taking a photo of my dad taking a photo of the silly destructive interesting thing

and of course I had to get one too. Is this going to become an ongoing wednesday night thing? Well I wouldn't be surprised.

And if the tomato horn worm wasn't enough dakota found and slug that she had to befriend and wanted to take it inside but I informed her that would so not be okay with gaggi (did I mention that is what dakota calls my mom) so we took some pictures instead and now she can always remember her slimy friend.

the pumpkin is from last season believe it or not!

So we are not religious but we have gotten in the habit of holding hands at dinner and saying nice things, things we are thankful for and last night dakota said that she was thankful for the dessert she was going to have after dinner it was a hoot, she is so my daughter! She did manage to throw in that she loves her family too but it was an after thought to the dessert.
Earlier in the day Dakota started dance class up the street it was great to just walk up there. I don't have any pictures because they only let the parents stay the first week of each month. And while that bothers me to some degree, I want to be able to watch whenever I want to, I do realize that I am a distraction for her and since it is just literally a 5 minute run or a 10 minute walk I can come home and get some things done and that is nice to do. She liked the class and they are going to do a little holiday thing which I know dakota will dig.
Swimming on the other hand I have come to the conclusion that I lost my head last week and have not a clue where it was. Dakota as a human being is so much more important to me than anything else and I really wasn't putting her first and I hate it when I lose sight of what is important to me. So we went today and I told her that I wanted her to try to really move and keep moving but when I saw her getting cold I had her get out and that was it. I mean I tried to encourage her to move but quickly realized she was in a cold place and was done. So we have two more weeks and I am still going to take her but when she is done she is done and I am going to let her be that gauge.

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.