Adventures in Babysitting

I tried to get everybody to sleep in Kasey and Ben's bed with me, but I ended up being the only one who slept. For an hour, while the kids watched Sponge Bob. Then we moved to the loft bed. Nobody slept. Then Miyo wanted milk and so did Miles. Then Miles wanted pizza and so did Miyo. Then Miyo went peepee on the potty (yay!) and then I changed two wet diapers after that. And then Murphy got up and I had lost all control. Then Miyo lost her temper and her ny-ny. Then Miles lost the stick to his game. Then we found it all and now they're all in bed, not sleeping.

Miles' dream

I'm babysitting the kids right now. Miles just told me:

"Mom and dad are thinking about getting me my own..." (and I'm thinking "Bedroom?" "Cell phone?" "Hat?"

Back to story:

"Cupboard. Except it's gonna be awesomer than Miyo's. We're gonna put tiny little posters on the wall."

I guess Miyo has always had a "place"

25 Facts About Me

1. I don't like being alone. But I live alone. So I beg people to come over all the time.
2. I am 32 in June.
3. I hate sticking my hand in the sink to unplug food from the drain. So I just do dishes by running water the whole time and not plugging the sink. But I don't believe in wasting water. This is a crisis of my conscience.
4. I saw a girl with 2 heads today. One body.
5. I have seen every episode of the Golden Girls.
6. I am super responsible. Sometimes.
7. I want to help everyone.
8. Nobody wants my help.
9. I never clean my room.
10. I hate it on Lost when the people don't talk to each other about the crazy thing that just happened. Just once I'd love to see somebody say, "wasn't that weird?!"
11. My favorite movie is Better Off Dead.
12. My favorite song is Your Love is Lifting me Higher by Jackie Wilson.
13. I am 45 minutes late to work every day.
14. I do most things out of obligation.
15. Beth Lindahl and Charli Taylor have babies! But not me, and I am jealous.
16. I ran three marathons in one year.
17. My little sister can beat me up.
18. Daniel Tosh thinks my voice is "shrill".
19. I fear silence. And so I end up revealing too much about myself.
20. I want to slap people's butts when I walk by them, in a gesture of friendship.
21. I came up with the phrase "Osama Been Bombin'" and thought it would be all over the papers on 9/12, but it didn't really catch on.
22. I love traveling but I hate flying.
23. I spend 10 minutes per day pinching every pore on my face, hoping for an amazing explosion.
24. I once pooped in a ziplock bag.
25. I once pooped in my hand.

Not the favorite

So one day Kasey is accusing my mom that I am the favorite daughter. Here is their conversation. And I'm totally in the same room:



Kasey: "Kady is your favorite. You always side with her in every fight. Just admit it. Admit it. Admit Kady is your favorite. ADMIT IT."



Mom (screaming): "KADY'S NEVER BEEN MY FAVORITE!!!!!!!"

Hanna

When this little girl was 4 or maybe 5, we were up at Boundary Waters. They only have a plastic seat in the woods with no house around it for the bathroom. You have to walk a ways to get to it, and it's just this seat on top of a big crap hole. Well it's kind of a production to get up there. You gotta bring toilet paper, you gotta find somebody to go with (cuz you would never go alone, right?), and then you gotta undo belts and pants and pull down and hold the toilet paper and not put it on the ground because ew! So I take my cute little blondie niece Hanna up to the bathroom and I wait until she goes. I ask her, "Hanna, sometimes don't you wish you were a boy? I mean, then this whole 'peeing-in-the-woods' thing would be much easier, huh?"

Without even hesitating, she says:

"But what about the pretty-ness? And the valuable rings?"

World Market

It's Closing. Another victim of a poor economy. So, I went over there tonight and bought a new dining room table and six chairs! I literally arrived 25 minutes before they closed, and decided to buy it 5 minutes before closing. I paid, and then I was like, "oh yah...I dont have a truck. Can I come and get it later?"






We fit six chairs in my car! Well they were boxed up and require assembly...but they should be cute.


I'm excited to trash this old sucker. Out with the old and in with the new. Just kidding. I'll sell the old on Craigslist...we've had some good times around this ol' thing, huh?

But, no more crowding six people around a tiny round table!! YAY!

Massage day

Nancy came over on Saturday and did massages for a buncha people including me and we cooked a whole chicken (see prior post) and made a puzzle and knitted and drank wine. I know the picture makes it look like I was all alone but there really were people here. Those are Beata's feet!

Then Nancy stayed over night and I coughed and coughed all night and she brought me breakfast in bed and did all the dishes. I haven't left the house all day and I hope I'm feeling better. I tried to get all the broth out of the crock pot that cooked all night but it's really messy and I'm so sick I ended up just getting all the chicken goo and bones out and throwing the liquid in the fridge to separate and hopefully I can make soup tomorrow. I'm so sick. But I did watch Wednesday night's Lost episode on the Internet and I put three dishes from my bedroom onto the kitchen counter. Baby steps.

The end.

Cookin' a chicken

Step one: Find a guy who is willing to touch the inside of a nasty raw chicken. (and hopefully he will be willing to hold it up like a puppet for the photo.) Thanks Mark Spanagel!

Step Two: Take 1 tbsp of salt, 1 tsp of lemon zest (which I recently found out is just lemon peel grated up), 4 garlic cloves, 1 tbsp of olive oil. Get that brave guy to rub this mixture between the chicken and it's skin. Shove a sliced up lemon into the icky inside of the chicken after you've removed the icky heart and liver and neck and stuff. Salt and olive oil the outside of the chicken and add whatever other spices you want and bake at 350 degrees for a half hour per pound.

Step Two and a half: Get another guy to carve it up for you. Thanks Andrew Brooker!

Step Three: eat. **Cheesy potatoes on the right can be made by taking one pound of hash browns, one pound of light cottage cheese and two pounds of grated cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour. Thanks Mark and Amy for bringing those over. YUM.

Step four, save those bones and make a yummy broth for chicken noodle soup because you are sick and it will taste good.
MMMMMMM

Get your Dolly fix, right here!

I thought her name was spelled Dhali, but NOPE it's "Dolly".

Hey Jude

So here's the third cutest boy in the whole world taking over a recent get-together at my place where he was the only male in attendance.

Tellin' stories. All beginning with, "Guess What?"

Some Jude-isms:

Nancy was giving us all massages and I came down the stairs with CRAZY MASSAGE hair. Jude had to hang out with me lookin' like that. He goes, "You know how you can fix your hair? Just brush it. Really quick."

And then I made us some salads and he didn't want mushrooms. He explained that he didn't trust mushrooms because anybody at the store could switch them with the poison kind of mushrooms and he didn't want to get poisoned. I said he was smart to be skeptical.

Then he said, "I know my mom would never poison me."

Later on we played Would You Rather?

He asked me if I would rather be a Burp or a Fart? Naturally I said a Burp, because then I only had to be in a mouth and not a butt. Then he asked me if I would rather work on a pottery wheel or sell Tupperware? I was like what? But thought the pottery wheel job sounded more interesting. And then he asked, would I rather be a billion human farts or a thousand elephant farts. I didn't know how to answer that one. I said a thousand elephant farts because I can't really count to a billion and that would feel horrible.

I hate it when people don't blog very often

Sorry.

Just part of the reason that I think Cory is the cat's pajamas

Cory lives on a ranch. He rents out the main floor of a barn, and has horses and deer and cats and donkeys and all kinds of critters in his back yard! There are three resident llamas and one of them was pregnant. Apparently she is also really dumb because she pooped out the baby and it lay on the ground for a while before Cory's mom Rhonda (who manages the ranch) came upon it. Operation Rescue. Rhonda brought it inside the barn office. Cory ran and got his blow dryer and fresh towels. They warmed her up and brought her back to life.

Here she is eating special colostrum baby llama formula. Yes there is a product on the market to get special colostrum to baby llamas.

And here is Cory, using his new invention, "The Baby Llama Tent Chair Blow Dryer Heating Mechanism":

Her mother has abandoned her and despite attempts to reaquaint them, lil' baby is on her own. Cory and Rhonda take turns doing every-two-hour bottle feedings. He gets up in the middle of the night and feeds her and cleans her up and makes her comfy.

And here is Cory, lovin' on his little girl, who he named "Dhali Llama" and affectionately calls, "Dhali the Drama Llama":


So cute!!!

Snowboarding

So here we go again. Another attempt up the mountain. This time it wasn't so bad. Traffic was better, we got up even earlier, and Steven's Pass was open! The only crappy part was me having to go pee so bad I couldn't even see straight and jumping out while everybody else was parking, and running to the chalet to pee and then having to walk ALL the way to the car to find everybody and then hurry to get my boots on because they already had their boots on. The boys were anxious to get rolling and so we did and we took a couple runs but after two we were starving. That's what I love about the mountains. You're ready for a break after two runs because the runs are super duper long. And so are the chairlifts.

Lunch was a yummy burger that was much too small. We ate outside because we're from Minnesota and what's a little snow and cold?

After lunch, the boys wanted to get rolling again and Anna and I decided we needed more beer and so we let them go and we rested/warmed up a little bit more. We took to the slopes and enjoyed a nice, laid-back afternoon of runs composed of lots of resting and taking pictures. My kinda day.

And then it was time to take another break. We had some more beers, and went out one last time.




Pretty fun. Tired and sore. But a good day. And then we headed back to Shea and Lena's place for some fun times and baby-holding:

Who knew there was a gum wall in Seattle?

This wall is near Pike's Place Market. Not all the local folks knew where it was when we asked around. But it does exist, and it is SO GROSS. It's just a brick wall where people stick their gum. Some people spell stuff, some people string their gum across other gum, and some people throw their gum way up high to try to make it stick up there.
A girl walking away from the wall as we arrived was chewing gum and I was like, "free gum? Awesome!"

My life on September 11, 2003

I just found this old email that I typed up on 9/11/03. I was 26. Memories...

1. WHAT IS YOUR FULL NAME? Kady Diane Hexum-Gobel-Hexum

2. WHAT COLOR PANTS ARE YOU WEARING? Dark denim

3. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Some one is walking around in flip-flops. My stupid Basic Stretch instructor used to tell us in every class that she "loved the sound of flip flops." If anyone wore them to class, she would say, "you know what I like." And she said it every time like we all hadn't taken her class a thousand times. She also used to make us spread our toes out and every time she said it reminds us of her baby son and that makes her so happy.

4. WHAT ARE THE LAST 4 DIGITS OF YOUR PHONE NUMBER? 8745/0505/2177

5. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? A hand full of pretzels that the lady, you know the one, she's always got tons of food for everyone. Probably some attempt to make everyone like her, but you don't, you just use her for her food and candy.

6. HOW IS THE WEATHER RIGHT NOW? Fair to middlin.

7. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? I am on the phone right now with the loan officer that I absolutely hate and I'm trying to type so quietly and pretend I'm listening to him. I just said "mmhmm" to I don't know what.

8. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX? Wedding ring? Also their shoes, if a guy is wearing crappy shoes, he's not worth your time. ALL OF YOU ARE MARRIED, THIS IS NOT FAIR.

9. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT YOU THIS? Not really.

10. NAME A GOOD FRIEND? Alason Mc.

11. FAVORITE PLACE YOU HAVE VISITED: Oh I don't know there have been so many places. I really liked shopping in Rome, and shopping in London. Going into stores that are hopelessly expensive but shopping like you could afford it if you could just find something you liked. Riding bikes in the mountains in Austria was awesome, as was Oktoberfest in Germany. Laying on the beach in Mexico reading books. Golfing in Scotland. Sitting in a pub in Northern Ireland and talking to really old Irish guys for hours and totally enjoying the conversation. I love going to the middle of the town center (in any European town) and just sitting there, drinking coffee, watching the street performers and the air is crisp and you need a scarf. Did I mention I'm going to Prague in January? No? Oh, well I am. I am in love with San Francisco. Visiting Shanna and staying downtown and going shopping and laughing til your stomach hurts and raiding the hotel room bar and staying up too late and getting up at noon and walking out of restaurants with your bottle of wine hidden in your shirt hoping nobody busts you and laughing at how easy it was and how dumb we are and walking 20 blocks uphill in the middle of the night trying not to get raped but laughing because it's just funny. Big ups to Shanna Jackson.

12. FAVORITE SNACK? I like to eat avacados or a can of black olives.

13. FAVORITE PASTIME? I'm getting into running again. And reading. Other things I would like to have as a pastime but am much too busy: snowboard, play golf, learn to play piano, start a band, speak Spanish fluently, sit in my hot tub. I don't have one, but I wish I did.

14. FAVORITE SPORTS? I am not a sporty girl. But I like going to games, because there, most of the time is spent drinking beer and not watching the game. Did I tell you about the time that I spilled an entire tall plastic beer cup full of beer on a little boy sitting next to me? I felt so bad that I gave him my foam finger. Speaking of foam fingers, at the last Twins game I went to, Miles came with and was cracking us up the whole time. He had his foam finger on and was pointing at everyone and saying, "NOW YOU LISTEN TO ME!" Then he embarrassed me by saying out loud to Ben that he wanted a quarter so he could "put it in the bathroom thing". (I had just brought him to the bathroom and bought a tampon for myself.)

15. HAIR COLOR? Blonde. In espanol, 'rubio'.

16. EYE COLOR? Blue. In espanol, 'azul'.

17. HEIGHT? 5'3" In espanol, 5'3"

18. WEIGHT? 49 kilos. (I don't know I'm just kidding. Do not get out your calculators and figure out what that is in pounds because I just made it up.)

19. SHOE SIZE? 7. In a sandal, I wear a 6. I have to wear a 7 shoe because my feet are so wide. Like Fred Flinstone.

20. FAVORITE CLOTHING BRAND? Diesel. That guy's gonna put me in the poor house.

21. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No. I tried to put Tara's fake colored ones in once, but it hurts so bad. Plus, I think she has a fungus.

22. SIBLINGS AND THEIR AGES: Kim 36 Scotty 0 Keri 33 Kelly 32 Pete 30and Kasey 24.

23. FAVORITE FOOD? Chipotle chicken burrito with lettuce, corn, sour cream, cheese, guacamole, don't be shy I love guacamole and you're charging me $1.25 for it!

24. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? American Movie. If you guys haven't seen it, I'll lend it to you. Truly one of the funnies movies ever made. One of those movies I could watch a thousand times. Along with all the Christopher Guest movies, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Cable Guy, etc.

25. FAVORITE DAY OF THE YEAR? 4th of July. I'm usually doing something fun and I love fireworks. I also do not have children or a HUSBAND so there goes that. I can tell you a day I hate. I hate December 7th. That is the day our fair country was attacked by the Japanese in 1941 at Pearl Harbor. And it's also the day I married a drunk pot-smoking abusive drummer. I also hate most of the days in January because it's so COLD, and there's no end to the cold in sight. Although, this year I'm going to Prague, did I mention I'm going to Prague?

26. ARE YOU TOO SHY TO ASK SOMEONE OUT? No, but that doesn't mean I go asking everybody out. I just don't want to.

27. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS BETTER? Happy endings. And sad endings. Anybody remember "Immortal Beloved" about Beethoven starring Gary Olman? Great sad ending.

28. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer

29. KETCHUP OR MUSTARD? Ketchup

30. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? Chocolate. Anybody had the chocolate cake at Barbette's? To DIE for.

31. FAVORITE TV SHOW? Alias

32. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU GET HOME FROM WORK? I eat. If you want to know what I eat, then come on over for dinner! I'd be happy ta have ya!

33. DO YOU WANT YOUR FRIENDS TO WRITE BACK? Uh huh. And give me some more detail. These one word answers have got to go.

34. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? They already did.

35. WHO IS LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Not sure

36. LIVING ARRANGEMENTS? A house, and a dog and three roommates. Two of my roommates go dumpster diving for their supper, and wipe up coffee and koolaid messes with white hand towels. If you want more details let's go for drinks. Do I have stories! The other roommate moves in on October 1st.

37. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb and lent to me by Jason D. two years ago. I just started it on Sunday. So far, so good. Sorry Jason, I will return it soon, I promise. I am also reading the Bible. I wish it read more like a novel, because sometimes it's hard to stay interested. That's why I started in Matthew.

38. MOUSE PAD? Free from Dell.

39. FAVORITE BOARD GAME? I like to play Sorry and Monopoly and Life and all the games we had when we were kids. Whatever happened to game nights? I'm so alone. (Crickets). (Silence). (Awkwardness). Hilarious!

40. WHAT DID YOU DO LAST NIGHT? Watched three episodes of ALIAS first season DVD that I bought for $52 (what a rip), had dinner with Tara, drank two beers alone by myself in my basement. Is that weird?

41. FAVORITE SMELLS? AVEDA and Murphy's head.

42. FIRST THING YOU DO WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING? Get in the shower to try to wake up. Sometimes I switch it up and eat cereal first. Just depends on my mood. But I always shower and I always eat cereal. That doesn't change.

Irish Pub

As I mentioned it was very cold...and so we moved quickly from the Aquarium to lunch. We happened upon Fado's, an Irish Pub on 1st Street, a few blocks down from Pike's Place Market and the Aquarium. We ate lunch and had a Guiness.



The best tomato soup I have ever had:

Abra cadabra!:

Seattle Aquarium

So Anna and Jake decided to go skiing/snowboarding on January 2nd. We still weren't sure if the Pass would be open, and we were a little sick of sitting in the car and so Cory and I decided to hit the Seattle sights for the day. We started by grabbing coffee right next door to our Condo. Then we walked over to the Seattle Aquarium. On the way Cory set up his tripod and took some photos of the city. It's such a pretty city, but don't you think it looks fake?

It was SO COLD that day. Shortly after this photo was taken I wrapped the scarf right around my head. But it was nowhere near as cold as Minneapolis, and so we didn't mind.

We got to the aquarium and basically paid $16 each to warm up. Cory goes, "that's like $1 a fish". And then he said for that price they should at least give you a sushi meal at the end of it.

This lady was talking to us right through her mask into a microphone. I thought that was really cool. Here she is placing a sea anemone into a spot and then it will sort of grow legs and stick there.

They had two octopuses. They were complete Mush and very boring. Apparently they are cannibals and will eat eachother. A female octopus can receive a gift of sperm from a male octopus and decide whether or not she wants to get pregnant with that sperm. If another, more attractive octopus comes along, she simply discards the sperm from the lesser attractive octopus and impregnates herself with the sperm from the more attractive one. Genius!

Space Pin

On the way up the elevator to the top, the woman told us that the Puget Sound has one of the world's largest species of Octopus. I thought that was weird. Here in the good ol' USA? Octopus. Preposterous!

View from the top:

Dinner at Cutters afterward: (Salmon)

We had the BEST SUSHI EVER that night. YUM.

Our waiter was knowledgable, but very snooty. When Jake ordered a Brandy Manhattan, he sort of dissed Jake's Brandy by saying that he used that brand to "cook with". Also he showed us the wine list and said that he had been "working with the chef on this list for 10 years."

We were like, Really? 10 years? You? Working with the Chef? Of Cutters? I think we only felt that way because of his snooty-ness.

And then Cory made this lil' lady out of his discarded Edamame shells, and we had fun making her talk.