It's a bunny, dude

And your son has confessed his love for her.

He's a keeper

He looks too cute in the backyard.

"I am so sorry!"

Tonight I was on kid duty which means I pick up the kids and make dinner.  As usual, I am in a fluster because I'm not good or fast at making dinner.  As I was making the shrimp with veggies, I realize it is quiet.  I ask Bella where Luciano is.  She tells me he is in the bathroom.  I open the door and there he is sitting on the stool and all I hear is, "I am soooo sorry!".  Yeah I bet, he ate a whole carton of fortune cookies.  He was too cute I didn't say anything except for "take one more before dinner".

Nuggle time!

Often times, I find the kids snuggling.  Tonight Bella was reading to Luciano.

B-I-N-G-O

First off, I love Bingo.  I love hearing the numbers and putting the chips on the correct space.  I love the thrill of the possibility of winning.  So when the school announcement came around that there was a bingo night, I signed us up AND I volunteered to set up the hall.

Yes, both kids are crying because we haven't won yet.

Yeah he was confused on the concept.

Chris looking at Bella's card

Frustration!

Next time I am going to play by myself.  Between the tears and frustration, I never got time to mange the 5 cards I wanted to win with.

There was happiness though, Chris won a bingo and the prize, Fairy wings and a magic wand.  Once they won, they wanted to go home.

Sunday

Dad had the day off so we took the kids to Disney for a few rides and dinner.  This was after I had run 18 miles in the morning.  Wow, that was a bad call.  My legs are TIRED today!

We met Geppetto for the first time.

Chris and Bella on the rocket ship.  

I will be updating my border in the backyard this spring.  I am thinking of something like this.    Yep I'm inspired by the Haunted Mansion.

How to feed the bunny

UPDATE: Yesturday the brown bunny escaped from the cage and we found that Fuzzy Itchy Kitchy REALLY likes the brown bunny.  They frolicked and played all last night.

Thinking Fuzzy had a change of heart, I let the black and white bunny out.  Unfortunately, Fuzzy beat the cr*p out of her again.  It looks like we will find a new home for the black and white lady and we will keep the brown one.

The kids are going to be heartbroken.  They really like this bunny.

Bunny Update

This morning I put the black and white bunny outside to exercise and went in to get ready for work.  Bella shrieked in excitement from the window that our old bunny, Fuzzy Itchy Kitschy was playing with the new bunny.  I looked out the window where my excitement turned to horror.  They were not playing, Fuzzy was beating the daylights out of the poor bunny.  Fur was flying!  I ran outside and managed to lock up the new bunny into a safe carrier.

Oh boy, this is not going to be easy.

The wrath of Fuzzy Itchy Kitschy

Bunny Rescue

Tonight I left work a little early and was excited to have dinner with the family (Chris has been working like crazy and hasn't been around).

But when I turned to go up our street, I saw two bunnies eating the grass on the side of the road.  That is odd, we live in Los Angeles and these looked like pet bunnies.  So, I stopped and pulled over and called Chris.  Here was our conversation.

Me: "Chris, there are these two bunnies on the side of the road, do you think I should try to catch them and bring them home?"

Chris: "Where will you put them?"

Me: "I'll put them in my car."

Chris: " Ya...ok....fine."  (That means, do whatever you want, because you will anyway)

So I went out to rescue the bunnies.  After 10 minutes, I managed to grab the cute black and white bunny. I put her in my car.  I went to go find the brown bunny but the scary Rottweiler on the corner scared him into a dark parking lot.  Without thinking I ran after him and managed to meet scary guy in strange truck and two neighborhood guys.   Well, I cut my losses and went home with one really cute bunny, but I felt bad, those two bunnies were friends and I just took one away.

To my kids, I was a hero.  They loved the new bunny.  They named it and read it books.







The kids liked the new bunny, but the bunny's friend was still out there.  They seemed to be close when I was catching them.  So after dinner, I armed myself with a big strawberry and a bowl of rabbit food.  I walked back and it was back eating grass on the side of the road and now there were 4 neighborhood guys out there to watch me catch the rabbit.  Apparently they told me, there is a lot of about 50 rabbits that sometimes people eat.  I wasn't about to catch 50 but I wanted the brown one.  Finally with food in hand, I got him.

BUT I think the brown bunny had other intentions.  He smells BAD and wanted to "play" with the sweet "Lily Sne" the new name the kids gave the black and white bunny.

The brown bunny was quickly locked up in the bunny hutch by himself and will remain there until he visits the vet to be fixed!  I should have cut my losses and stuck with the black and white one instead.  She is pretty sweet.

10 miles from my house

If you run 7 miles West, you hit the beach.

(I refused to stop and take photos today, so here is an ACTION shot of me running on the beach.  Hello double chin!)

From there if you go south three miles South, you end up at LAX under the flight path. Wow, that was loud.

It is fun going running on new routes.  Luckily the family is always able to come pick me up at the end.

2012-2013 Plans

So I have deemed, 2012-2013 the years of marathons.  Why, because as my close friends know, I can sometimes obsess over things.  For example, I liked orchids but it wasn't enough to have one or two, I had to have 50 and turn my apartment into a greenhouse with special lights and 90% humidity.  I have other examples but I think that one is the best.

So this is the year of marathons, here is my plan.

March 18: LA Marathon 26.2 miles, signed up and official.

September 2: Disneyland 1/2 marathon 13.1 miles, signed up and official.

November 4: NYC Marathon 26.2 miles, I registered for the lottery with only 7-10% of actually getting in.  Not counting on that happening.

December 9: Honolulu Marathon: 26.2 miles, I'll do this one with Team in Training.  I gave the kids the option for Disney World or Hawaii, they chose Hawaii so we will use this as our family vacation.

And now for the challenge.  RunDisney has a medal called the Disney Coast-to-Coast.  In one calendar year, you run a race at both Disneyland AND Walt Disney World.

AND they have a race called Goofy's fun run where you run a half marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday.  For that you get a special Goofy medal.

Goofy's Fun Run
January 12: Disney World 1/2 Marathon: 13.1 miles
January 13: Disney World Full Marathon: 26.2 miles

September 3: Disneyland Half Marathon: 13.1 miles

I'll probably be tired after that, so I won't schedule anymore for now.

I'm off to go run 10 miles now in the rain!

Charades

Our newest pastime is charades.  Almost every night, we load up a box filled with names of Disney characters and try to guess who every one is.  Luciano is pretty funny because all his moves are the same and usually not related to the character selected.

Great Dinner

12 miles (almost)

If you run 6 miles west from our front door, you end up on a concrete bridge over the concrete river that leads to the Pacific Ocean.  Isn't LA pretty?

Today I had to run 12 miles but I miscalculated the time and left the house too late.  I got to 11.5 miles and had to have the family pick me up so we could get to our friends house for brunch somewhat on time.  And when the car pulled over to pick me up, here were the comments I got from Bella, "Mom, are you about to throw up?  Why do you look so tired?"  Yeah thanks Bella, way to make me feel good after running a few hours.

Urban Gardening

Today was a big gardening day.  I got a new book, "Pat Welsh's Southern California Organic Gardening".  It is a month to month guide on what to do in the garden.  It has been a huge help.   I realized I have so much to learn about gardening in Los Angeles.

I decided to challenge myself to grow more organic food.  Last year's yield was disappointing.  I think I need to work on the soil a bit more in the planters so I harvested the compost from the compost bin and dug up some of the soil in the chicken coop and added it to my planters.

I also want to discourage the bunny from jumping in and eating the new plants so....I added her poop as a top dressing.  They guy at the hardware store told me that bunnies won't eat where they poop.  Don't worry, it is organic too.

My compost ready to go.

It was filled with good stuff like worms and decomposed chicken poop.

I prepared the bed and planted radishes, carrots, beets and butter lettuce.

This is the second crop of radishes that Fuzzy Itchy Kitschy (the bunny) ruined.  She keeps jumping in the garden and eating the tops off of them.  I planted a third batch today but put netting up so she can't get in.

We have plenty of sweet oranges

The kids got attached by the chickens and the duck who wanted to eat their lunch.  I gave them permission to sit on the table to avoid being pecked.

The Brooklyn Bridge

My number one thing on the list was walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  We made it halfway and turned  around due to the crankies.  Just wait Bella, I am going to pull a cranky fit one day on you.

I was hoping a big sugary donut would de-crankify my daughter.  That logic failed!

More cranky faces (except Aunt Jess)

New Year's Eve Dinner and Dancing (aka stomping)

Ladies out on the town!  

Woo-hoo designated driver and a baby sitter!  And now you question why I was put in control of setting the GPS device on the way home.  Hello Bayonne!

Funny how both me and Bella end up closing our eyes wearing the feather crowns. She has no excuse, she had 8 hours of sleep.

Visiting Aunt Fran and Uncle Joe

Uncle Joe was in the hospital with his hip surgery.  Bella was too young to visit but she did get a chance to act silly around Aunt Fran.

Central Park: Running, Holding Hands and Hugging

Ice Skating in Central Park

This was the first time Bella willingly asked to skate without a hand.  

Nose picking break.

The Today Show

Bella making her, "Girls Rock, Man" sign.

That is the weather guy - Bill Kerans.  Yeah, we don't know who he is either.

We made it on TV 4 times.  Mimi, Papa, Grandma and Bennett were our witnesses.

Bella refused to get rid of her sign and carried it around Manhattan for a good part of the day.