the challenge is on. for years i've been doing "girl" push-ups when i work-out. then, the other day, my four-year-old runs down while i'm exercising and says "check this out, mom." he drops and gives me 10 perfectly executed boy-style push-ups.

he made it look easy.

you all know what happens next. i drop and do a pathetic NINE.

not good. so, since that day last week i've been working on my boy push-ups. today, i hit 23 in a row. after a big amount of goading by the small child, i rested and did another 15. then another 15. it's my own personal boot camp, overseen by a four-year-old push-up nazi.

my challenge, ladies (and gentlemen, you know who you are). are you fitter than a four-year-old? he can now do 16 without stopping.

so what are you waiting for? bikini season is just around the corner...:)

happy wordless wednesday.

the quickbooks saga continues.

now that i have it installed, i still had to register the dang thing. which required a phone call to their 1-888 headquarters. answered by someone with a thick, fast, pakistani-like accent.

the call went something like this:

her: aloyouhacalldequickbookswhawoolyoulitodo?

me: ummm...is this quickbooks?

her: yeishowcaihelyoo?

me( enunciating profoundly and loudly): i need to register my quickbooks 2008.

her: ineeyoolicennubre

me: excuse me?

her: yoolicenubre

me: the...license number?

her:yeyeyoulicennubre

me: ok. (i give it to her)

her: nowcayougotodahopay

me (ears straining really hard): i'm sorry, can you say that again?

her: GOTODAHOPAY

me: pay?

her: HO--PAY

me: ho...pay?

her: HOOO--PAYYYY.

me: home...page?

her: yeye. hopay.yooci?

me: ummm...i'm sorry. i can't understand you.

HER: YOO CEEEE HO PAY??

me (ears hurt, head hurts): i don't know. i don't think so. i'm sorry.

HER: tljfdljaoeuflavnvdeoraoljal;fha;rfadlfhafafjldafhadltheouradlfadfhaodfue

me: i gotta go. i'm sorry.

HER: lajfladnvldnfaelrhalvdalfhekrhfaldfhvle;rha;fhdaslf

me: click.

sigh. which means i did not register quickbooks, and within 18 days, i have to call back and try again.

this is what you do in a small town on a saturday night. ice skating by headlights. it was a very fun time, we had about 20 people on the ice rink until 10 pm. the husband brought a firepit down and we had smores and hot dogs. when we got home, big j told his dad "you smell like bacon strips." ah, that smokey fire smell. there's nothing like it.

on sunday, 4 families from montrose went to great bear, a little bump of a ski hill and had a great time on the slope. yes, i said slope, but it was still very fun and the weather rocked. i can tell my boys are spoiled with their montana and colorado vacations--they wanted to know where the rest of the mountain was. honestly, i doesn't matter to me much. as long as it's nice outside and there is snow to ski on, i'll take what we can get. i think that by the end of the day, they felt the same way.

the best part? you've never seen two kids sleep harder than ours did after a weekend like this.

nothing like jumping in with both feet. i have been saying, for years, that i am going to learn to cook and invite people over for dinner. well, i still haven't learned to cook, but i did invite some people over for dinner tomorrow night. there will be 7 adults and 9 kids. the theme is italian night, and everybody is making a different dish. so, it all sounds pretty easy right?

you'd think.

i decided to try to make an old family recipe that was passed down straight from Italy (yeah, yeah, i'm not Italian but my grandma's second husband had a grandma that was...are you with me?) Anyway, it's very yummy when it's done right. Keywords: done right. my mom sent me the whole two page lowdown this week and i had a small panic attack. in essence, several times toward the end of the recipe she says "you have to do this right or the whole thing blows up." and then she lists all the stuff i'll need--three huge pots for cooking, a large colander, big utensils to stir with and three huge bowls for mixing. that's more cookware than i use in a month. ha.

anyway, i'm going to approach this with good humor. if it blows up, the people i invited are good enough friends that it will be ok. and one of them is bringing a back-up. it doesn't matter anyway, because my mom explained that the key to hosting a dinner with Grandma Bagetts Spaghetti is WINE. Lots and lots of wine.

so, rani, if i'm corked when you get here, just know that it was part of the recipe :)

does it do a person any good to work out for 50 minutes and then go immediately upstairs to eat a brownie?

sigh.

arghhhhh.

that's a pretty good explanation for yesterday morning, well into the afternoon. see, i've had my own business for 3 years now, and have been doing my bookkeeping the old fashioned way. by hand, keeping invoices and stuff in big files. i blame it on quickbooks. when i first started, i bought quickbooks and could not handle the tutorial. it was boring and had lots of numbers in it and was taking wayyy too long. plus, downloading all that crap onto a computer takes forever. so i just...didn't. one of the many downfalls of having an instant gratification brain that requires constant entertainment and frequent changes of scenery. quickbooks schmickbooks.

then this year, i decided to go forward with a resolution to be more responsible about stuff like money, taxes and the possibility of an irs audit. so, i dusted off the old quickbooks box and gave it another shot. two hours later i had all my accounts in place and had made my first quickbooks invoice. when i tried to email it out to my client, i was told by the computer that my quickbooks version was outdated and would need to be updated. so i bit the bullet on the upgrade and started over. which meant re-downloading and going through the whole tedious, more-painful-than-plucking-my-eyebrows-out process. FINALLY, i have it all put together. except that my invoices will not email out, i can't seem to track my vendor expenses and i'm not sure how to save my invoices into my working files.

arghhhhhh.

i hate dealing with anything that takes more than three minutes. the old file and paper system looks pretty good to me. i know how to run a pencil, and can throw an invoice into a file in about 1 second. really, i think all you people are going backwards. technology is eating away your time, not making life more convenient. just take this blog for example.... :)

this one is for karen, who is enjoying 60 degree days in alabama.

the high on sunday is forecast to be negative 2. that's the high. and yes, that's a negative.

when can i come over?

four-year-old "hey mom. can i have your last piece of gum?"

me: "um. no." (you all know how much i love my gum)

four-year-old: "oh. then do you just want to chew it when i'm done?"

so having a kitten in the house is quite the adventure. true to his name, pounce does pounce. on moving and non-moving objects. and quite often on himself. but the funniest thing that has happened is that our older crabby fat cat--a cat that has been too cool to play with anything or anyone since the day she was born-- has suddenly taken a huge interest in strings, paper clips and golf balls. don't get me wrong, she's not playing WITH pounce. she hates him. but she watches him constantly, and as soon as he gives up on a toy, she nonchalantly walks over to try it out. she's playing for the first time in her life, at age 10. it's great. kinda like seeing your grandma waterski for the first time. which isn't a bad idea. grandma, when are you coming to visit?????

haha. this one is classic. i have a good friend with a blog address very similar to someone elses out there in blogland. since christmas i have been logging onto the wrong blog and making comments to some woman out there, thinking she was my dear friend. it's funny, because the two people share the same talent and job, so a lot of what was being written made sense. except the "other woman" seemed a bit more edgy and was way more focused on her job than my good buddy, who prioritizes her family first. (are you all figuring out who i'm talking about yet?)

anyway, when this "poser" mentioned getting a photography gig for GM down in Florida in april, i offered to lug her gear for her if she would take me along. hahaha. the "other woman" probably thinks i'm a crazy stalker.

nope, just crazy. and fairly absent-minded.

yesterday was an especially delightful day for me. not because it was beautiful outside. not because the boys and i spent some fun hours at the skating pond with our friends. not even because i actually got a few volleyballs over the net last night.

my special inner happiness was due to the fact that yesterday was the final day of pheasant season. i found myself whistling away the day...and i know i was not the only one.

you all know who you are.

for all you ladies who, like me, are looking forward to no more trash cans full of pheasant guts, dogs full of mud and husbands who slip away on the weekends "just for an hour," i say a hardy
YAHOOO.

meet pounce. pounce is our new kitty, a christmas present to the boys from me. the husband said no way no way no way...but just so you know, the arm holding the kitten belongs to him. hahaha.

can you say black diamond? another year and we won't be able to keep up.
full moon just before christmas, overlooking grandma's skating pond.
one a two-horse open sleigh...happy birthday to grandma kathy!
little j takes the reigns, saying "this sleigh ride sure smells like horse poop."
all aboard the polar express!


well, after taking a little hiatus from the blog and from south dakota, i have returned from yet another rocky mountain high with great pictures and stories that will keep me warm and happy til spring. we had a wonderful time ice skating and skiing and going on a sleigh ride and even riding the "Polar Express" train up the mountain one night. we also spent some good time with family, my brother is missing from these photos because he had to man the crane, but we had fun with him shooting off rockets and opening presents on christmas day. my niece makes a great cindi loo hoo--i could just eat her with a spoon she's so sweet. all in all, the snow was good, the company was better and life is always the best at high altitudes.