My hometown

If you are in a hurry to get your all your errands done after you drop off your wild game for processing, well have no fear! You can get your haircut, a burger meal and pick up a few pre-owned guns and some gently used jewelry before heading into the studio to lay down a few tracks. And don't forget to stop and have a nice relaxing smoke before you pick up your venison.


This is actually where Kevin used to have all his deer processed... And its where he produces all his records. ;)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A little wheeze

This video was a hidden camera operation. I was reading in the living room one night and Kevin decided to watch some of the "hunting videos" he and a friend had made while at the deer lease one weekend. He put on his headphones and hit play. He had no idea that once all the wheezing and hysteria began, I hit record on my phone's video camera. :) There was a point where the dusky, purple-ish color of his face actually had me worried, but I know CPR, so I kept rolling.

They say its a sign of good character if you can laugh at yourself. I'm not sure if this is what they mean...

a little nest

I have tried to describe to some people the ratted mess we find in Leah's hair each morning. But they say a picture is worth a thousand words. So now no one will ever think I am exaggerating when I talk about it!At night we wash her hair, spray detangler in it, brush it out and go to bed... and she wakes up looking like this!

And we have tried doing none of those things before bed... and she still wakes up looking like this!

The first time I told her a rat made a nest in her hair she thought I said raccoon, so now when I am brushing the tangles out she says "Get out of there, raccoons! Don't make your nest in my hair anymore!"

LC quote of the day

"I will be right back. I am going to the grocery store to get gifts for baby Jesus.

I am getting him gold, frankincense, emergency and faith."

A little family

Leah has been saying she wants a brother for quite a while now. She even prays for it occasionally. And she will tell me "there's not a baby in your tummy YET mommy!"

So we had some good laughs when she brought this home from Sunday School...

She said "That's Daddy and me and Mommy and my brother and Daddy."

Kevin said to me "that better not be her brother's daddy!" Hahahahahaha! She is absolutely head over heels for her daddy... so I figure that's why she put him twice! ;)

I love our family portrait!

- Posted from my iPhone

Oil Spill Anniversary Post

Lately we have been playing in the kiddie pool every single day... and Leah's CONSTANT chattering while she swims and plays always brings this video to my mind... one of her greatest hits, to be certain.

It just so happens that I posted it for the first time exactly one year ago today.

Some things will never change.

The Best One

The funny-in-your-guts-belly-laugh, if encouraged, (and if it initiates near nap time or bed time) almost always leads to the apneic laugh. (For those who desire a more lengthy video, this blog won't let me upload but these tiny little clips. Good news for those who are bored by long video clips. ;)

The Fake One

The Imaginarium of Leah Curley

Leah has 2 imaginary friends that we know of.

Baba is someone that Kevin and Leah talk to on the phone in the evenings. Actually Kevin started this one back when Leah was tiny and all she said was "BA BA." She was probably 8 or 9 months old. Kevin would pick up a cell phone and talk to Baba in crazy voices and Leah would laugh hysterically. Technically I guess you could say Baba is Kevin's imaginary friend who just wants to speak with Leah on occasion.

Her other friend is Dobby Dobby. He lives in her belly button and is apparently just as hilarious as Baba. She's always giggling when she talks about him. If you ask her what's in her belly button, she'll consistently tell you "Dobby Dobby's in there." If you ask her where Dobby Dobby is, she tell you "in there" lifting up her shirt and pointing to her belly button. Sometimes she just calls him by his first name. "Dobby's in there." The day we went to the doctor someone else was in there too...

Makes you want to get inside her little brain doesn't it! :) I laugh at her all day long. Speaking of laughter... my wheezy smoker laugh is more annoying all the time!! I guess its my attempt at quieting my usual cackle for the sake of the video camera, but I think the wheeze is worse!

(This day these videos were taken, we'd spent the morning playing with friends, gone to visit daddy at work, and taken him to lunch. In the car on the way to lunch she told me "Mommy, ear hurts mommy." I took her to the doc that afternoon and sure enough, she was beginning to get an ear infection. By that time she looked like she felt bad. Doesn't her little swollen face make her look pitiful? Poor.Baby.Girl.)

Always wash your feet...

Because you never know when you will get a call from Pops on your foot phone!

What will she think of next?

This next one is especially for Pops. I imagine he will play these videos over and over. :)

She's the funniest girl I know!

The Hamburgler

lThe other day a friend said that Leah reminded her of the Hamburgler! Remember this guy? I see the resemblance...

Yep!

She really does look like she just snatched a few burgers here... she's heading for the get-a-way slide! "Catch me if you can!" SO if she doesn't grow too much in the next 12 months, I know what her 2011 Halloween costume will be! I'll just have to find some accessories...

While I was searching for an image of "the McDonald's Hamburgler" this was one of the first images to pop up....
Someone really spends their time photo shopping stuff like this... SICK.

swinging with issy

The weather couldn't be more perfect for playing outside. Leah loved swinging with Issy. (Today Aunt Leslie is Issy... can't wait to find out what she will decide on.)

All I was going to to was upload this one picture... but Leah is playing next to me and started one of her lists.... since I was already typing I just decided to document her little vocabulary rampage. This is what she just said to me, without a single pause:

Hey, hide (slide) daddy, leah, beah, baby, eat, ball, walk, two, pawpaw, giggle, rock, cat, ping (penguin), choo-choo, bus, up, I tall, cheese, hat, shoes, sock, fish, heart, Abby Abby Abby Abby Abby Abby Abby Abby Abby, punk-uh (pumpkin), Abby Abby Abby Abby, bow, Abby, Abby, Abby, muck (makeup), Mommy, Mommy, Abby, Abby, Daddy, Abby, Abby

I finally stopped because she found my makeup (which she loves to pretend with) and got a little fixated on Mommy/Abby's makeup. And I'm pretty sure she just said "Hey Abby" as she walked to me and handed me my makeup.

One of many funny moments in our times together... I hope I never forget them.

squat

Once, when I lived in Lubbok, a young Vietnamese man gave me a an entire (60 minute!) pedicure while perched just like this... Leah spends alot of time like that too. Maybe her father is part Vietnamese? I better ask him.

Hola Amigos

I was going to write this post sobre nuestro vacacion Mexicano solamente en espanol, but I don't always conjugate in the past tense correctly anymore (who am I kidding... I never did) and since, sadly, the vacation is in the past... it would be an embarrassment of a post.
'
We began our vacation at 3:30 AM last Thursday after I finally fell asleep for a few minutes some time after 1 AM. I finished packing around 11 PM the night before (I'm good under pressure) but couldn't sleep due to the massive upper respiratory and sinus infection building in the front half of my head. Kevin couldn't sleep either due to all my sniffing, snorting, coughing, choking and nose blowing. But... when our ride pulled up at 4:22 AM I decided once and for all that I WILL NOT BE SICK ON VACATION!
'
Too bad mind over matter doesn't always work. I got sicker on the plane... I'm pretty sure I burst an eardrum... and even sicker on the weaving bus ride to our resort. By the time we got to check in, I thought I might die. I may be exaggerating a little bit, but not much.
'
I laid in the bed for most of the next 24 hours. But did get up on DAY 2 to assist in the "purchase of the pants." Let's just say if husbands listened to their wives instead of each other, we would all be about $70 richer now. That's how much they charge for men's pants at our resort. Pants that are suitable for the dress code at dinner, the dress code that every single wife knew about and tried to convince her husband of while packing to leave. (Each one was either convinced that their wife was incorrect about the dress code, or at the very least, that the rule wouldn't apply to THEM.)
'
So upon finding out that rules do apply to them, they all bought new $70 pants, pictured here.... except for Brandon (far right) who was able to procure "loaner pants" which I'm not entirely sure he ever returned. So he actually left the trip one pair of pants better! (Not to pick on Brandon or anything but he'd been to the resort TWICE BEFORE and was the person we hold ultimately responsible for the boy's lack of pants... he's apparently very convincing... and smart enough to keep his money and get a free pair of pants... I'm starting to think it was all a set up) It's a close race as to who is the bigger ham of the 4 guys. But I'll go with the one who is patting his own behind for the pants photo. '
Here's the whole crew the second night at dinner. I think this is the only picture I have with everyone in it. (I had taken enough decongestant that day to make a horses nose run!)

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There was alot of pool time and the guys and Michelle played basketball... in teams... but if you ask Kevin who won he'll tell you "I did!"

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Mexicans have a hard time pronouncing The Phipps' last name.... so we now call them Mr. and Mrs. Peeps. Their son is about 21 months old and their second could very well be here in approximately 9 months! ;)

'

Dr. Sarah kindly recommended 10 days of Augmentin for my nasty infection, which was lost in translation at la farmacia and I got 10 pills instead, which was only 5 days... but I'm pretty much better anyway. The Morrises sure missed their 5 month old baby girl... but Matt kept reminding us to enjoy our monitor free nights. We did!

'

The Joneses missed their 8 month old baby girl pretty badly, especially since she started crawling ONE HOUR before they dropped her off at her Honey's house. To distract himself, Brandon ate every.single.thing. that was offered in the entire resort. The night we ate Japanese food, the little boys dining at the hibachi grill next to ours pretty much thought Brandon was "the most interesting man in the world." They watched him as he ate 3 plates of sushi rolls and sashimi before ordering octopus with his steak and shrimp. Caviar and calf tongue are just a few of his other taste bud titillations. Lisa was, no doubt, plagued by having to share a room with him throughout the trip. Here she is pretending to like sushi...

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Now tell me how you really feel about it....

'

And here WE are... Kevin sunburns even when he is covered in SPF 45 under an overcast, rainy sky. Such a white boy! Me... it's DAY 3 and I haven't seen the sun yet... and I haven't tasted a single thing I've tried to eat. Nor could I smell. But I'm still glad to be on vacation and out of bed most of the day!

'

On DAY 4 I was still feeling on the poor side, but at least a little better. We enjoyed a girls morning at the spa while the guys spent their rained-out fishing trip at the pool's swim up bar. Thanks Hurricane Alex! This is probably not the first time you've noticed I don't mind posting unflattering pictures of myself... I was pretty much a wreck. But the massage and the steam room did help some... I wish I had my very own steam room in my house. By the way... Lisa called it early on the trip when she said "Watch... the only time the sun will come out will be when we are in the spa!" Can you see the lovely sunshine outside? Near the end of my treatment, I heard the rain begin to pour again. :)

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If these guys could... and weren't already married to us... I think they would marry each other.

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This couple was having a very Discovery Channel moment right out in the middle of the walkway. He was pulsating and hissing at her... I guess if that's what ruffles your feathers! I got a good video of it. Pretty cool actually.

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The leaning tower of over-indulgence... '

This was the last night at the beach around 10:30. I think the wind was blowing harder than I've ever experienced. This is the wind off the ocean blowing the sand around. '
On our last day in paradise, the sun and I finally saw each other for the first time! I was so excited! I was just going to try and get about an hour of sun so I would at least look like I went on vacation... then I was going to apply the sunscreen and go about the day. But I got distracted by the free, live entertainment that was my husband dancing on the swim-up bar and then cannonballing into the pool... and I forgot the sunscreen. When I saw that others were beginning to get some pink on their skin, I decided to call it quits and go in for my shower. By the time the color fully showed itself... I was a lovely shade of lobster. oops!

'

I'll leave you with this clip... my favorite of all the video footage taken on the trip. I feel like this may be one of those "you had to be there" moments but I literally laugh aloud each time I watch it (for so many different reasons) so I thought I'd share...

Hasta la proxima, Mexico! Fue divertido!

spit happens

On Saturday night, we were on our way to visit some friends and Leah was jabbering as usual... with mouth and hands. She's saying new words all the time now so I got out the camera to try and capture some of it. Instead I got this... (You may have to zoom in... the quality is really poor on this one for some reason)

I was blindly pointing the camera behind me from the front seat, so it wasn't until we got home and watched the video that we found out what had made her laugh so hard. I, too, have been known to "spray it" occasionally when I get too emphatic about what I'm saying. And I, too, usually get tickled with myself...

(and yes... sometimes I snort when I laugh)

current events

Leah has an opinion about everything... just ask her and she'll tell you!

I had to cut this down SO much to upload it... so if you ever want to see more, it's live and in person in the Curley house.... ALL...DAY...LONG! :)

It really does keep getting better and better.

Shooty Bop

One time, long ago, I accidentally said Shooty Bop instead of Beauty Shop and I thought it was SOOOO funny. Like rolling around on the ground, crying, stomach ache afterwards kind of funny. I can't remember where I was though. Sara Lu, were we in college? Or maybe it was even earlier that that? Who knows? Maybe that time was just a recollection of the original time. I don't know. What's wrong with my memory? Anyway, I still giggle every time I think about it.

If you have a Great Grannie, she probably goes to the Beauty Shop on a weekly basis to have her hair "set." She may even go to the same one that Leah's Great Grannie goes to! Here's the big girl visiting with the ladies on Shooty Bop Day!

Thanks for the pics Gannie. No, that's not a typo, this is what Leah calls her Grannie, so this is what she wants to be called. I've officially removed the R. There's no turning back. Leah also calls her Aunt Leslie "Ses" or "Sessy" or "Sassy" She's only attempted it 3 times and each time was something a little different so we'll have to see which one sticks.

BY THE WAY... Blogger spell checker would like to correct "shooty" and suggests that I put a very inappropriate adjective in it's place! Why are obscenities in the spell checker? ugh!

Jimathy Update

So I googled Jimathy, to see if it was really a name. Turns out there are a few European guys that go by Jimathy... So weird, right? More importantly though... I'm switching to Bing. Google wears me out! The VERY FIRST thing that popped up after my google search was the little suggestion box:

"Also try... Jimathy McNoodle"

I'm thinking he must be a character in a book or cartoon or something... So I click on Jimathy McNoodle:

"Sorry, but there are no search results for jimathy mcnoodle. Try a different spelling, or different words that mean the same thing."

Thank you for those suggestions, google. I must admit, the more I say the name, the more it grows on me. So I'm proud to announce that if we ever have a son, he will be called Jimathy McNoodle Curley.

(I am laughing out loud... all by myself... just so you know...)
(If you don't know what any of this is about, you need to read What's Eating You?)

What's eating you?

I was at the grocery store and overheard this conversation between 3 teenage girls. Just picture three 14-year-old girls (quintessentially 14 years old...) standing in line at the in-store Starbucks... wearing shorts that would probably fit my 14 month old daughter. If you have people around you, I suggest assigning roles and using valley girl accents while you act out this exchange. F-U-N-N-Y!


Girl #1 "I finally found a guy's name that's worse than Gilbert..."


Girl #2 "Not possible! What is it?!?"


Girl #1 ".... (DRAMAtic pause)........PHILBERT!!!"


Girls #2 & 3 groan


Girl #2 "That IS the ugliest name EVER!"


Girl #3 "Neither one of those is as bad as JIMATHY!"

First of all... there can't actually be a person named Jimathy... can there?

Second... what's wrong with Gilbert? Is my obsession with Johnny Depp obscuring my judgement of this name?

Third... Is it wrong that I absolutely burst out laughing? No one else who was obviously in hearing distance even cracked a smile! That's funny stuff!

It reminded me of a question I've often asked myself... "Why is no one else laughing?"

I laugh out loud ALOT when I am alone. (in this case the fact that I'm alone explains why no one else is laughing) If a thing is funny... its funny. I don't believe that part is too unusual... Its when I'm in public and I seem to be the ONLY person around who thinks something is hilarious that makes me wonder. I wish I could call that hot-line from the TBS commercial where you give the scenario and the representative tells you how funny it really is and how much laughter it deserves. I'd like to have appropriate social laughter, but how do you temper something like that? It's a gut reaction! It's uncontrollable at times. Like a sneeze or a hiccup. Is it that way for everyone or just me?

So I've just been curious today... if the things that strike me as hilarious just aren't that funny to everyone else... or if other people just control themselves a little better than me... hmmmm