Wordless Wednesday

WHY?

Oh Dear Valentine,

You know one thing I just noticed? If you look over there to the left, you know the small profile pic of Mr. Dunbar and I. The one where he looks intent on kissing me? And I look intent on smiling for the camera. Yeah that one. Well, if you look closely enough you will see a black strap over Mr. Dunbar's shoulder, the black strap to the diaper bag. Manly, isn't he? He really is and he is the best darn dad and husband a family could ask for. You see, I am married to a man that carries the diaper bag around the Mission Inn while we are having a full-on photo shoot (that I haven't yet paid for- because I suck). He sees what has to be done and he does it. That's just the kind of husband he is. He is the dad that says "Boys, it's been raining all day and you've been cooped up in the house and your mom is going to lose it, so lets go outside." He is the husband that comes home every single day with a smile on his face. Every. Single Day.
He is the guy that says if I don't get the big raise that I am entitled to I'll get a second job so we can keep the lifestyle that our kids are accustomed to (and in order to pay the bills and keep my wife home.) He is the guy that gets up at 4:45AM to go to the gym to stay healthy and sexy for me, his-sleeping-in-my-cozy-bed-till-6am-wife. He is the guy that insists on ironing our clothes on Saturday night for church on Sunday morning, because he knows I will be running around like a crazy lady if we are not all primped and primed for church. He is also the same man that puts his hand on my knee to pray at church, no matter what happened in the car on the way there. (You know an argument is inevitable on the way to church.) He reads his Bible daily. He leads our boys the way a father is supposed to. He makes us laugh. He lets Bogie and I yell.
He is my love, my best friend, my biggest supporter, and my Valentine.

I love you, Mr. Dunbar.

I'm a Bliar...

So everyone else I know in the blogosphere is talking about thier Blissdom weekdend today. Nashville is a little too far for me to travel right now, so instead I'll just keep it real.
I'm a "bliar," according to Mr. Dunbar. He told me this laughingly, is that a word, yesterday after church. Laughingly??
Remember way back last month when I told you all I was giving up Diet Coke?? Yeah, well I haven't. I still crave it daily. And I haven't given it up, only for a day at a time. So I must confess, I am a blog liar (bliar) after all.
So sad, I know. Perhaps we'll try again when the Bogster is sleeping through the night...

Rainy Day

It is finally raining here in sunny Southern California. We Dunbar's tried to head over the the "happiest place on earth" but it was just too wet. So instead we went to another fun place. Here is a sneak peek of our afternoon...

The food here is a bust, but kids don't care right? That's why mom bring snacks that are just a wee bit healthier.

Shooting hoops is the most favorite pastime at Chucky's.

Monkey cashing in all of his tickets.

Everyone was exhausted... nap time.

The Perfect Donut

The perfect donut is from Donut City around the block from our house. All of the big companies in town order their donuts from Donut City and any time I went to a meeting, when I was working, the donuts came from this place. But we have never actually been to the donut shop. Monkey has been asking for months to go there. So this morning Mr. Dunbar took him. Mr. Dunbar never carries cash, but they only take cash at the counter. Good thing I always keep change in my car. My two courageous men came back with 2 donuts. One for me, one for Monkey.
They were in a little bag.
Monkey carried them in.
Can you tell whose donut was on the top?

It was still dee-lish!!

25 Random Things About Me

So I was tagged on another Social Network to come up with 25 random things about myself.

Here goes...

1. I was born in an Air Force Base Hospital.

2. I talk really fast and always have. One of the jokes in jr. high and high school was that I should be on a Microcar commercial.

3. I went to the State Science Fair in the 8th grade. Sounds geeky, I know, but it was loads of fun. I was also in ASB, drill team, and on the speech team.

4. I worked at a bank in college. The bank was in a "take-over", I had to put my hands up, then I had a gun put to my head and was kicked by the bank robber. I quit after that.

5. Sorority was one of the best things I did in college. I am a Gamma Phi Beta.

6. I met my husband at a fraternity event at the river... 4 days, 40 kegs of beer... Yeah, don't really know how we're going to relay the story to the lil ones.

7. After college I backpacked through Europe for 2.5 months. Visited 11 countries. Italy and Greece were my favorites. I lost my camera at the Vatican, I always say that the pope stole my camera. Bad joke, I know.

8. I have a Master's Degree in Teaching and a credential. I have taught 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th grades. Second is my favorite followed by 4th.

9. I am the typical Type A- everything has a place and that's where it should be. I'll get up really in the morning to do some of my chores if something is really messy.

10. I planned my wedding in 3 months. The only thing I would change about it would be the photographer. My pictures suck. Oh, and I miscounted the number of bouquets to get for my bridesmaids, I was one short. My Maid of Honor's bouquet was put together from flowers out of the center pieces, it came out really well.

11. I don't mind doing laundry, it's the chore that least bothers me. The chore that most bothers me is cleaning the bathroom. Too many chemicals.

12. I have a pair of scissors in almost every room of my house.

13. I keep a notepad by my bed so if I think of anything in the middle of the night I can write it down and not forget about it the next day. Otherwise I can't sleep.

14. My house was built in 1947. I chose white tile when we moved in. Never again will I choose white tile with light grout, EVER!! In most of my house I have beautiful wood floors. Oh, and one side note, we do NOT have a dishwasher. These fingers that are typing this here blog post also do all the dish washing in this house.

15. I LOVE to go to Dodger games with my husband. He watches the game and I eat a Dodger dog and garlic fries followed by an icecream cookie. Don't get me wrong, I pay attention to the game, only most of the time I forget my glasses. So I can't see a thing on the field.

16. Africa is on my heart. What does this mean? I don't know yet.

17. I don't like to text unless its really late at night or really early in the morning. If someone needs to get a hold of me they should call me.

18. I'm a relational person. Quality time is one of my love languages. (As well as gifts.)

19. Blogging is my number one time waster.

20. I am keeping a list of things I want to accomplish at certain points in my life. Characteristics of people I like are always journaled there.

21. My favorite TV show right now is the Big Bang Theory. I laugh every Monday night.

22. Target can suck all of my money out of my bank account. So to curb this, I always go in with a list, always. And I only go once a week, mostly Mondays. Other money suckers: Nordstrom and Home Depot.

23. I don't like to have real plants in the house. Somehow they all die. I just don't know why. And I tried to keep an indoor herb garden in my kitchen, all of a sudden black gnat things were flying around my head. I threw it away immediately.

24. Mr. Dunbar and I having a standing date to be in Belgium for my 50th birthday.

25. God is molding me daily. I understand who I want to be and it is a long hard road.

And 26 is a bonus: I like to wear big sunglasses and most pictures of me are taken by yours truly, otherwise there would be NO pictures of the mom in this here Dunbar Fam.

Sunday Thought

Search me , O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you , and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Psalm 139:23-24

P.S. Help me to listen to Mommy, too.

Wonder Food

Photo from flickr: terri_tu

Mr. Dunbar and I had this conversation a few days ago about how broccoli is a wonder food. If you eat it consistently you will just feel better. As is the case with most dark green veggies, but most especially broccoli. So I was feeling energized to start eating broccoli or something green, but I was totally going to try to remember to eat broccoli.

My lunch yesterday:
tortilla chips and Valentines Day heart candies, specifically the green ones.

I don't think I hit the mark exactly.

It started out so well...

I had an amazing morning. Well busy, as my Thursday mornings are. Get up, get dressed, get boys dressed and fed and out the door by 8:30am. Drop Monkey off at school by 9am, get Bogie over to his childcare by 9:20am and be at my mom's group by 9:30am. (Seriously, I feel like I am running all over town in that one hour of the day. ) We had an amazing time today just sharing what God is doing in our lives, there were lots of tears shed again. But I left feeling full of the Spirit and ready to tackle my day, which included a few errands.

I got to Monkey's school by 11:50 to pick him up. I got my usual "Mo-meee!!" when I entered the classroom, but Monkey was just staring at his play-doh, so not like him. So we stayed, as we do every school day to see all of his friends off. It wasn't until he stood up, I understood why the play-doh had not been terrorized, Monkey had peed in his pants. AGHHHH!!! And does he have a change of clothes in his cubby??? I am the super-organized mom, right?? Yeah, well I guess not so much... there were no clothes in his cubby. I haven't sent a new change in since his last accident, I don't even know when. So now I had to drive home with a kid who's got pee running down his leg. Oh joy. (Just a side note: the school offered us their loners but I most politely declined.)

Anyhow, I drive home get all of our stuff out of the car, get to the front door and realize "I don't have a house key." Its sitting on the shelf right inside the front door. I took it off earlier this week because we had a rearranging of cars and childcare. I had meant to ask Mr. Dunbar to replace it on my key ring, but in my craziness last night it slipped my mind. So now I have a handful of junk, one kid with pee running down his leg, and another who needs to take a nap. Another AGHH!

I get back in the car and call Mr. Dunbar's office. Voicemail. mini-aghh! Call his cell phone. Voicemail. Slightly larger agh! Call office again. Voicemail. But as it clicks on my phone beeps, he's calling me from his cell. Click over tell him the situation, he says okay, I'll be waiting with the key. When I get all the way to his office he asks, "How come you just didn't get Larry's key?" Ummm... because I didn't think about walking the 10 yards to the neighbors house, I'd rather drive 20 minutes and waste gas!!! Now, I am back to another AGHHHH!!

So I get home, get a sleeping Monkey onto his bed, change him out of his wet clothes, and walk out. Bogie, however, never fell asleep and is in no way whatsoever going to let me put him down. He wants to play. I am exhausted, I need to sit. Bogie crawls into what I think is his room. Next thing you know I hear disaster. You know; things falling, kid grunting, and again things falling. I go into his room. He is not there. I look down the hallway into the bathroom and see this:

Like I said disaster. In all of about 18 seconds.

Monkey, my kid who can sleep through anything is now awake. He slept for a total of 10 minutes but now he wants to get off of his bed. I say "okay."

Well, since everyone is awake and nobody wants to take a nap, I think to myself "Well, we might as well go run errands. "

First stop, Staples, the printer is out of toner.
When we get there I ask the first sales associate I can find what I am looking for, he needs to go look it up because my printer is not one of the most popular ones that has toner on the first aisle. As he heads off I look down to find Monkey doing the "I am going to hold it" pose. (Knees together, butt out.) I look at him. He looks at me. I look at him again. He looks at me and says, "I'm going to hold the poo poo Mommy. I'll wait till we get home." Oh, no your not! I'm not letting you in my car with poop! So we trek off to go find the bathroom. Has anyone with an infant and a toddler ever gone to a public bathroom? This is more than an adventure, it is an excursion! I"m holding the handbag, infant, toddler and don't anybody touch a thing! This was not an easy task. I won't go into detail, just imagine me squatting, holding Bogie in one arm, holding Monkey up with the other...
We get out of the bathroom and the sales associate tells me he's found my toner. Great, whats my total? $185. What!?!? Yes, that's right, close to $200 big ones for TONER. Do you know what I could buy for $200 bucks? No wonder, my toner wasn't in the first aisle, nobody can afford it! I can buy a whole new printer for that amount. But of course, I just smile, while my brain is about to go in a fizz mode, and hand over the American Express. Then I tell the cashier, my husband has a business account here... she looks it up and says, he just called and put one on hold are you sure that you only need one? Uh, yeah. Any more that this and I won't be able to buy groceries this week. Again, two hundred dollars for TONER.

Next stop, post office. I drive up to the post office but are there any close up parking spaces? No. Lucky for me, while I was whining about not finding a close parking space, I was also on the phone with Mr. Dunbar (retelling my Staples story) and he told me about the secret post office boxes in the back, where the parking spaces drive up to them. Hooray for that. Chalk one up for Mr. Dunbar! Post office task, complete.

Third stop, we headed off to the local community college to get transcripts that I have to order.
Of course, EVERYTHING has changed since I took a few classes there a DECADE ago... where am I supposed to park??? Well in the first open space of course. Remembering, this is a college campus, you need a parking permit everywhere... I took my chances. Unloaded both kids, grabbed my handbag and figured it can't be that far to walk. WRONG. Bogie and his 20 pound self was swapped from arm to arm all the way to the Admin Center in the middle of campus. I filled out the form for the transcripts and headed towards the window, in the middle of which was a bright green sign that said, "All transcripts must be paid for at the Business Office." What?!?!? More hiking?? Don't these people know I'm carrying a 20 pound chunk and I have a whining 3 year old in tow? Okay, folks, we can do this. I felt like the little train that could, only my arm was about to fall off but I was not about to give up, we came here to accomplish something, and by golly we will. So we hiked all the way to the other end of campus, got to the Business Office, get to the front of the line, put my form in the window, and the 18 year-old student says to me, "Did you turn in this form at the Admin Office?" "UH, No, the sign said I had to pay for it here." He then proceeds to tell me, yes, you do pay for it here AFTER you submit it there. You. have. got. to be. JOKING! At this point the little train that could was about to blow some steam. Remember the AGH!! Yeah, well, it was back. AGHHH!!!
We trek back to Admin, turn in our form, hike back to the Business Office pay for the transcripts and barely stagger back to our car. I swear I thought my arms were going to fall off, I could feel blisters forming on my feet, and trying to convince Monkey we were "almost to our car" was a bit dubious, but we made it. Barely. Did I mention I was wearing 4 inch high shoes. No joke.

Ummm...

I have nothing to say. Nothing interesting at least. No cute pictures. No random thoughts. Nada.
So, I hope you have a bright and cheery day!!