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Track town USA.
Olympic track and field trials.
Totally awesome except for the torrential downpour. Tomorrow I wear boots. Wet jeans for multiple hours is no good.

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Another filler picture until our Internet starts working again. I flew down to Portland again today. Mt. St. Helens was gorgeous.

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I have real pics on my camera but for now, some pre-k celebratory balloons and cupcakes from Nonna via the iPhone. Thank you to Zaide, Hadley, Carson and Nonna for attending the festivities. Maddie was so so so so happy.

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A little before bed snuggling.

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Dinner at Uncle Chris' and Auntie Sophia's.

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We went to a real farm today. Maddie did not want to leave. We dropped $80 on four more tragedies in waiting. Keep your fingers crossed for us. Coop has been bleached and new bedding down, the girls have been instructed to always stay with their ladies and I'm hopeful that one of these days each and every one of my faithful blog readers will get a $60 per dozen eggs.

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We did it. 0600 wheels were up to fly down to Portland for the Spartan race. It was a 5K but with a lot of hills, a lot of mud, a lot of carrying heavy crap, a lot of tall walls to clear yourself over, a really high cargo net to climb and a plethora of other obstacles that made me want to cry. It was a blast. I need a manicure and pedicure to get the embedded dirt out of my fingers and toes and about 4 more showers to get the rest of the grime off my body. Thank you to Zaide and Baba for watching the girls!

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Maddie: mama I have a surprise for you on your bedside table

Me: oh really?

Maddie: Yup. It's going to make your heart so happy. Close your eyes.

Me: Mads, I love it. Thank you so much.

Maddie: Is your heart happy?

Me: how could it not be?

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Just another day in the office

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Hello crazy town. Be nicer to your mama Allie. She's losing her mind.

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This girl has been T-R-O-U-B-L-E lately. She tests everything. Wakes up in the middle of the night, wakes up at the crack of dawn, refuses to nap and refuses to go to bed at night. I just caught her sneaking back into her room. (really?!) she had been in the bathroom playing with her hair. Note the two hair clips she put in.

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I had a long day of flying today. Came home to kip yelling at Allie and totally laughed out loud...it's rough spending a whole day with those girls. :-) I'm trying to get him to answer which is worse, the coworker trying to kill him or the two year old trying to test him.

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We had the Saladino family over for a BBQ tonight. While we were waiting for them to arrive Maddie brought one of her chickens to the front yard so she could greet them with a lady in hand. Our neighbor Michelle came over to say hi. She also brought her dog Casey. We all watched in horror as Casey ate the chicken. Kip and I were both inside the house yelling and running, Michelle stood there like an idiot not grabbing the dog and the rest of our nieghborhood all came out to try and help but it was definitely too late. So, we are down another chicken. Let me tell you, I had no idea going into this how freaking traumatic this whole experience was going to be...

But once we (I) calmed down it turned out to be pretty fun. The kids all get along great and the bounce house does wonders for burning off steam.

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This was literally hot out of the chicken's butt. So, so, so tasty.

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When we get past Allie doing everything in her power to block any kind of conversation Maddie loves to just sit and chat. I don't know why but just watching her chit chat with me today melted my heart. She's so cute. I wish i had a little more one on one with her.

Today at lunch (with much seriousness):

Mama, if we had a cat then she could eat any leftover tuna.

Yes Mads, she could. Don't you think Ruds would like it too though?

Yes mama but our cat would like it even more. We should get a cat.

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And he's home...

180 degrees

Who is this girl? She asked her teacher if she could read the end of the day story to the class. How freaking adorable is this?!

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Poor Ruddy

Allie is constantly harassing rudder. Constantly. But he's a lab so any attention is good attention. Right? Yeah, not after yesterday. Our little Ted Bundy freak decided to put Rudder on his leash, tie him up to the door and (this is my only logical explanation) give him a haircut. I was upstairs vacuuming, not monitoring my children (per the usual) when I heard Rudder yelp. Allie very shortly thereafter came upstairs with tears in her eyes. I ran downstairs and found a very bloody lab. But remember, he's a lab so he was bouncing all over the place. And I can tell you that with 100% certainty because there was blood covering almost every surface of our house. I tried to get a towel to assess the damage. I wasn't sure where he was bleeding from. With his dark fur and bouncing ways it made it pretty difficult. Until he shook his head again and saw that he had three ears instead of two. She cut his ear. Omg. It makes me queasy thinking about it. So I frantically tried calling Kip because I'm not good with wounds and he failed to answer (per the usual). I loaded everyone up in the car and off to the vet we went. I called in today to check up on him and see when I could go and get him and the poor guy has to stay another night. Ears are pretty vascular and, as I've said a few times already, he's a bouncy lab. So I'm sad and I'm horrified at what Allie did. I'm wondering how much she grasps what she did and now I'll have to deal with Maddie not having her sleeping pal for one more night. I could have bought a lot of cute lululemon clothes for what this is going to cost...

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Wow. She read ME her bedtime story. I couldn't be more proud.

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Got my workout on with my lady friend. The best. And she let me shake my shaker bottle for about five minutes before hinting that she might kick me out of the car if I kept it up. Seriously, could you ask for a better friend?!

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It's good to have her home again. She grew up so much in the four days she was gone. But back asleep in her room (MUCH NEEDED SLEEP I might add) she's instantly transformed back into my baby girl.

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Yes. This is live. Four days in Disneyland and a Saturday night BBQ that's still going.

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Being an only child has its benefits. Allie has had late naps, late bedtimes, dinner out with Nonna and LOTS of one on one with mama.