A Grand Day Out

The other morning, I had a severe case of cabin fever, and decided I had to get Curious George and I out of the house. Not just anywhere out of the house, but I had a particular itch to go swimming. You see, last summer all of Utah’s public swimming pools banned all “diaper-dependant folk” because of a “Crypto” outbreak. If you don’t know what “Crypto” is, you probably don’t want to know (but I’m telling you anyway because it’s hilarious for me to imagine the grossed out look on your face you’ll inevitably have after reading about it.) Cryptosporidium parvum is a parasite found in water and food sources contaminated with the feces of infected humans. If someone ingests contaminated pool water they may experience painful abdominal cramping, bounteous diarrhea, fatigue, fever, nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite.

*ahem* Well, the ban was recently lifted, Utah’s pool water is “crypto” free, and when I have an opportunity to take advantage of a cheap, toddler-friendly activity, that does not involve being at home, I am all over it.

Curious George loves playing in water, so I was surprised when he said he didn’t want to go swimming. He’d rather watch TV, he said. So, I spent the next ten minutes trying to convince him to come swimming, during which he repeatedly claimed that he’d rather watch TV. This was frustrating because I KNOW that he’d have much more fun at the pool than watching the current show on TV (which happened to be the most boring preschool show ever, “Max and Ruby”.) Eventually, I give up on trying to convince him, simply scooped him and our swimming gear up, buckled him into the car, and start driving to the pool.

The closest indoor, toddler-friendly pool I know of is 20 miles away, so for the half hour drive there, I hear Curious George wailing:
“No swimming! No swimming! No swimming!”Over and over and over again.

When we arrived at the pool, Curious George finally stopped crying. He recognized the building from last year, and like a mini Mr. Hyde to Dr. Jekyll, he suddenly became very happy and excited.

“Swimming! Swimming! Swimming!” He squealed.

I got him out of the car, and went to grab our swimming gear (swim suits, towels & and George’s swim diaper.)

I couldn’t find any of it.

That was very odd, because I distinctly remembered taking the swimming gear out to the car. I checked every nook and cranny of my car several times and it was still nowhere to be found. Then I remembered the last place I saw it: in order to free up my hands so I could buckle Curious George in before we left, I had placed the pile of swimming stuff on top of the car.

Oh crap.

I hurriedly put Curious George back in the car and started driving back towards my house. This of course greatly upset Curious George, as he had just barely decided that he did indeed want to go swimming.

“Swimming! Swimming! Swimming!” He cried the entire way back.

As I drove, I surveyed the road, looking for our stuff. Of course, I had no idea where it would actually be, or if I would be able to find it, but I figured it would have fallen off the car very close to where I had began the drive.

I am happy to announce that I did find all of our belongings, but not in the nice little pile in our apartment’s parking lot that I imagined. No, it was scattered about the middle of a busy five lane highway. When I spotted it, I pulled over and had to dodge fifty mile an hour traffic while I gathered up two towels, two swimming suits and a swim diaper. I ran back to our car, quickly brushed everything off, and started the 30 minute drive back to the swimming pool. I was going swimming today, dangit.

When we arrived at the swimming pool for the second time, I realized we only had one hour left to swim before I needed to be back to pick up Salvador (oh, the joys of sharing a car). I rushed in, we changed into our swimming suits and we climbed into the pool. As Curious George giggled and splashed around in the water, I sat back and enjoyed the warm, relaxing water. That’s about when I looked down at my swimsuit and noticed the large, black tire track going across my left boob.

Oh well. What mattered was that we were finally swimming, and neither of us could be happier about it.

Christmas Confection Collection

This is my entry into Summer’s Nook’s Christmas Confection Collection. I call it a “Cheater’s Gingerbread House.” I made this little “gingerbread” house before I knew Summer’s Nook was hosting the Christmas Confection Collection, so I apologize for the lack of step-by-step instructions. I’ll just have to improvise. But first, here is the finished product:

I have always thought making gingerbread houses was a fun holiday tradition, and I was especially excited to make one this year with Curious George. However, I didn’t really feel like baking gingerbread. It sounded like too much work and I don’t like the taste of it, anyway. (I know gingerbread houses aren’t made to be some kind of gourmet dessert, but still, why go through the steps of baking something I don’t even like?)  My next option was to go buy a gingerbread house kit, but the only kit I could find at the store looked like this:

Sure, it’s kinda cute, (and they use a MUCH better camera), but there’s no soul to it! Besides, what is with the example? Gum drops and mystery hard candy placed on the roof randomly?  You can’t just put the candy wherever!

So I finally decided to make my “gingerbread” house out of graham crackers.

Pros of using graham crakers: No baking. They’re cheaper. You can buy two boxes so you have extra in case you mess up or they break because you were too anxious and didn’t let the frosting harden before you added candy to the roof, heh heh. They’re yummier, IMO than gingerbread (especially if you get the cinnamon sugar ones like I did.). Also, again, no baking involved.

Cons: Graham crackers aren’t as nice looking as gingerbread, but you can cover the graham crakers up with candy. Also, unless you are some kind of engineer, the houses tend to turn out smaller than with gingerbread. 

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

I am experiencing technical difficulties, so I apologize for my recent lack of comments and blog postings. My laptop power cord was tripped over, yanked, and otherwise mangled by Curious George one too many times, and it finally snapped. While, I will have access to other computers, it will be much more sporadic access than I had with my little laptop.

In other news, I had sushi for Thanksgiving. My mother-in-law talked about making turkey tamales, so we were all a bit surprised when she brought out salmon and a variety of sushi to the table. Hahaha, I love sushi, so it was a good surprise. What did you have?

Last chance to win!

So I have decided that I’m going to end my contest (that was originally of an ambiguous length) tonight. Anyone can enter, so if you haven’t entered yet, you have a few more hours. Enter here.

Also, Summer at Summer’s Nook is also having a contest. You can win a $10 gift card to Target if you can think of a funny caption to her photo. Enter here.

Free Stuff and Awards!

If you are anything like everyone I’ve ever met in my whole life, you like getting stuff for free. Luckily, I know where to get it:

-Over at Shrek + Fiona, you can win a bath and body gift set with a custom complete with a one-of-a-kind fragrance.

-You can win a $20 gift certificate to Bajio’s from Tyler’s Triumph. Mmmmm, sabroso.

-Memarie Lane is offering a piece of very pretty handsculpted jewelry. iMuy lindo!

-And finally, yours truly is offering a chance for you to win an assortment of international (and domestic) candy! You’re right, it’s the best prize offered on this blog! Enter to win here.

In other news, Summer, the lovely author of Summer’s Nook presented me with my very first bloggy award!

She awarded it to me under category of creativity, which, is very flattering considering I adore all things creative. Thank you, Summer!
I’m still pretty new to the blog world, but from what I have observed, I get to pass along the warm fuzzies by holding my own awards ceremony. Well, since I got the award for creativity, I thought I’d also give the awards out for blog creativity. (Also, I thought I’d have some fun, and exercise my creativity by making my own awards.)

The first two awards are for Visual Creativity:

Cristi of “The Mrs. Formerly Known as Mustard” and McKenna from “Shrek + Fiona” are both very deserving of the “good eye” award.
Cristi was a film major who minored in photography/art/design. The photos on her blog are just beautiful! It doesn’t stop there though, check out this recent post. (Also, I’ve noticed that I have a craving for pumpkin pie whenever I go over there as of late. Mmmmm.)

McKenna recently redesigned her blog (even though it already looked good). But now it’s even better. She’s a graphic designer AND she started her own fragrance company. (Also she get extra points for her husband’s halloween costume.)

The other award is for Culinary Creativity:

Summer of Summer’s Nook is sooo deserving of this award. She shares her delicious recipes, cooking tips, and makes wonderful cakes. However, these aren’t your typical decorated cakes as you can see from the photo below. (Don’t forget to check out her handmade jewelry, too!)

Congratulations, my creative friends!