Saturday, November 29, 2008
Look what's under my tree...
my pre-Christmas presents

I must have been very good this year.
:)

Labels: , , , ,

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 10:24 PM
| link to this post | 2 spoke |

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Iron Jawed Angels

"The fact is, women are in chains, and their servitude is all the more debasing because they do not realize it." Susan B. Anthony

Night before last I watched this movie with Amanda and it was so very, very good. The movie is about the Alice Paul and the women who fought with her for women to have the right to vote during the late part of the suffrage movement.

"You ask me to explain myself. I'm just wondering, what needs to be explained? It should be very clear. Look into your own heart—I swear to you, mine is no different. You want a place in trade and profession where you can earn your bread; so do I. You want the means of self-expression; so do I. You want to satisfy your own personal ambitions; so do I. You want a voice in the government in which you live; so do I. So what is there to explain?"(Alice Paul from IJA)

I spent almost the whole movie either covered in chill bumps or crying. It is really that good. Amanda was thoroughly blown away. She asked me "Why don't they just vote for it?" and I asked her how and she thought for a minute about it and then she got so mad.


"I was put in a straight jacket and taken to the psychopathic ward. I could not see my family or friends, counsel was denied me. I saw no other prisoners and heard nothing of them. I could see no papers. Today I was force fed for the third time, I refused to open my mouth. My left nostril, throat, and muscles of my neck are very sore. I vomit continuously during the process." (Alice Paul, from IJA)


It made me wonder if, in that time, I could have been that brave. The women who fought for all of us to have the same rights as men were so very brave and endured so much, I don't know if I could have that kind of strength. Especially for the women who had children and stood to lose not only the livlihood that they depended on from their husbands but also their children.

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences... (Susan B. Anthony)

We're legitimate citizens. We're taxed without representation. We're not allowed to serve on juries so we're not tried by our peers. It's unconscionable, not to mention unconstitutional. We don't make the laws but we have to obey them like children.
(Alice Paul)


I think sometimes we forget. We forget about the women who came before us who didn't have the rights and opportunities that we have, that we take for granted every day. We forget about the things they went through, the abuse that they suffered. I know I needed to be reminded. And one of the things I will be thankful for tomorrow is all of those women. The women who were brave enough to allow me to be the woman I am today.

Labels: ,

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 6:26 AM
| link to this post | 3 spoke |

Tuesday, November 25, 2008
I want you tree. Be mine for ever and ever and ever.
If only I knew your name!

DSC_0183

DSC_0180

DSC_0181
so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 6:41 PM
| link to this post | 4 spoke |

Monday, November 24, 2008
New members, albeit temporarily...
Well Hello

Only a mother could love them when they are first born. These two are less than a week old.
Meet Woodstock and Zazu. Zazu is on the bottom :)
so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 8:32 AM
| link to this post | 0 spoke |

I need your help internet.
I love this tree.
I want this tree.
But I don't know what kind of tree it is.
Help me please you knowers of trees.
so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 6:05 AM
| link to this post | 4 spoke |

Sunday, November 23, 2008
The right way to peel an avocado...
Because I just know you were all dying to know, let me show you.

First you need to get some avocados to peel.
Chile-that's where the avocados rock
Apparently, these come from Chile. We love Chile.

Then you cut the avocado in half.
proper way to peel an avacado
This one is pretty much perfect. I love avocados.

Next you need to flip one of the halves over and cut a shallow line down the middle. You only want the cut to be deep enough to cut the skin, not the avocado itself.
proper way to peel an avacado

This way when you peel the skin off, it will leave all of the meat on the inside.
the correct way to peal an avacado

Here is the second half of the skin coming off.
proper way to peel an avocado

Here it is once it's finished.
proper way to peel an avocado

There you go blogosphere :)

Labels:

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 7:44 AM
| link to this post | 1 spoke |

Friday, November 21, 2008
Again with the pictures!

First, before the pics, I want to show ya'll my new avatar from http://www.faceyourmanga.com/.

Ok, now onto the pics...





More to come :)

Labels: , , , ,

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 11:01 AM
| link to this post | 0 spoke |

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Dear Amanda,
Today you turn twelve. Today is the first day of the last year before you are officially a teenager.
I was at the dentist yesterday and we were talking about you. Her son is also turning twelve and we were talking about all of the normal stuff that we parents talk about; how fast it goes by, how much you've changed, how much you've grown. But the biggest thing that is hitting me this year, more than other years, is how much closer you are to adulthood. It's only six years away. Which is twice as long as you've been alive and if that much time has already passed and so quickly, the next six years will happen in the blink of an eye. I think even you can understand how quickly it's happened seeing as how Triniti is six now and you can remember her coming home... doesn't feel like very long ago does it?
I find myself staring at you a lot. Looking at your face, your hair, your body - where once I used to look for signs of what you would look like when you grew up, now I am looking for signs of you when you were little because I can see the grown up Amanda so much easier than I ever thought I would be able to.
You are so unbelievably stubborn. Oh my god. So stubborn. You hate injustice and while your age and life experience tends to tell you more things are "unfair" than actually are, you still fight tooth and nail for them. You'll stand right there and stare me in the eye and fight me even though you know I'll win. As much as it drives me crazy that you do it, I couldn't be more proud of you for standing your ground against me, against the world when you feel strongly about something. Mostly because I know deep down in your heart that it scares you to death. I know exactly how that feels, I remember it from when I was a little girl. I remember feeling the injustice in my life, in the world and wanting to fight it with everything in me and I would always hit a wall. That wall would be my family, my teachers, my limitations as a "child" and even though I felt these very important, very grown up urgencies I couldn't do anything about them and I would get so frustrated that I would just want to cry. I see that in you all the time. And as much as I am often that "wall", I hope I am not putting out that fighting flame. Later, when you are older, you will be able to do so much, change so much about the world around you. And although you may not get that instant response right now, I do hear you. The world does here you and you do make a difference even when it isn't immediately felt to you.
This year you did something that made me more proud of you than I could have ever been. When you went to camp with your two best friends, I was a little freaked out. No communication for four days! No calls, no emails, no nothing. I was super worried about you but I had to put it away because it isn't about me, it's about you and you wanted the experience. But on the third day you called me and said you wanted to come home, something had happened. I came and picked you up even though every one was telling me to make you ride out that last day. When I picked you up, you didn't want to talk about what had happened and I gave you some time. The long and short of it was that you and your two best friends had had an argument. You had gotten mad at one of them for changing something about herself for a boy. And you had stuck to your guns even when your other friend took her side and they both blew you off. And when you got home, you weren't even mad at them. You told them how you felt, they ignored you for it and you forgave them without ever once changing your opinion or even telling them you had. You agreed to disagree and moved forward. It was so mature and so impressive and it made me so proud.
You consistantly make me proud. And I hope you understand that even when we don't see eye to eye, I still respect you for your opinions and for being brave enough to share them with me despite my resistance to them.
I love you and I believe that you are growing into an amazing and beautiful girl.
Love,
Mom

Labels: , ,

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 6:04 AM
| link to this post | 3 spoke |

Monday, November 17, 2008
Got Ruthie a new ride this weekend.
Hello blogosphere :)
Ruthie totalled her car a few weeks ago. She called me last week and asked me to help her get a new car. Check it out :)




It's pretty fly and we got an unbelievable deal on it from my Old Boss at Fantasy Disco Ford :)

ps. New camera will arrive on Thursday, get ready for my picture taking comeback :)
Have a great Monday!

Labels:

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 6:59 AM
| link to this post | 1 spoke |

Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wanna save some money Christmas shopping?
Hello dear reader,

I'm giving you your Christmas present early this year.

Last night when I was shopping for a new camera (because mine is all broken and sad and my flickr account is all like Kate!!! Where are you Kate?? You don't upload pictures anymore Kate!! and it makes me sad to only be taking grainy pics with my phone) on ebay, I was also pricing out Wii's (my major Santa gift for the girls this year) and I came across this thing called Microsoft Cashback.

The gist of it is that you sign up for a Microsoft Cashback Account and link it with your paypal account. When you do a search to for something on msn.com, the first sponsered result will link you to ebay with an offer to save 25% on qualified purchases.



You have to pay with paypal and 60 days later, you get 25% of the purchase back in your paypal account. It's like a paypal reward system.
I'm so digging this!!
Anyway, in case you were wondering, I bought a Nikon D40x.
My main reason was that The Cake Lady has almost the exact same camera and she is all into cameras and has had hers for like a year or two so she knows how to use it and can help me learn as I am so the point and click kinda gal :) I am so totally not smart when it comes to all the cool things that a camera can do when operated by someone who understands it's capabilities.
The things I am psyched about:
I wanted a DSLR.
I wanted great MPs and I am cool with the ten this one has.
I wanted super fast shutter speed.
I wanted to be able to add lens' (primarily telephoto for shooting pics at the girls games when I am not close but want the shot to be).
Everything else is just icing :)

Labels: ,

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 6:28 AM
| link to this post | 1 spoke |

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
So I read somewhere...
That you have to work out five or six times a week and burn 500 calories per workout to lose one pound a week. So I thought no big deal right?
Wrong.
I ran for 50 minutes which was 3.5 miles to burn 500 calories.
And now I think I'm going to die.
How many calories does dying burn??

Labels: ,

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 1:05 PM
| link to this post | 1 spoke |

Margot and The Nuclear So & So's
I am loving this band.... what do you think?
My favorites are Broadripple Is Burning & Children's Crusade on Acid.
Listen to it!!!

Labels:

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 5:45 AM
| link to this post | 0 spoke |

Monday, November 10, 2008
1.5 years and counting
In a year and a half I will be thirty.
That's so insane.
I don't feel thirty... but really I haven't felt a certain age since I became a mom. I've felt like a mom for twelve years and being a mom is an ageless thing. It's all responsibility and second-guessing and reading books to learn and to teach and smiling even when you feel like crying and skinned knees and loose teeth and worrying and praising and trying. And it's awesome. Even when it's scary and daunting, it's awesome. And because of the awesomeness, it somehow passes quickly and suddenly your baby is about to be twelve and you are about to be thirty and you go holy shit, how did that happen?
Anyway, let me get back on track.
In a year and a half, I will be in Ireland.
Hopefully with several of my best friends.
And so I just thought now might be a good time to start asking the universe for a pretty Irish boy for my thirtieth birthday.
Please, please, please, please, please?

Labels: , , , ,

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 11:12 AM
| link to this post | 5 spoke |

Sunday, November 09, 2008
Where have all the kickboxers gone?
Yesterday was Amanda's last volleyball game. It didn't start until noon so I checked the new class schedule for the Y out to see if there was anything worth heading in earlier for. Right there at nine thirty was the new "Surprise Saturday" class so I called to see what it was and guess what blogosphere? GUESS WHAT!
That's right - KICKBOXING!
Oh how I love kickboxing. How I love hitting things that aren't there and kicking more things that aren't there. I love it. I don't know why, but I do. And I'm pretty sure that Billy dude from Tae-Bo everything started it and I love him for it.
So I got my fanny out of the bed and into some gym clothes and grabbed the daughter trio and headed for the YMCA. The girls love the Y. Triniti goes into the kiddie room with the giant McDonald-esque playscape and the older two heathens either play in the older kid playroom or work out. (They opted to work out today as they were both sweaty as all get out when I was done with my class.) And I went to put my stuff up in the locker room and head to the class.
The class was taught by an instructor I hadn't had before and who was so awesome. (An aside - He also teaches Ti-Chi twice a week which I was thinking about trying out... have any of you tried it before?) We worked out for an hour and I had so much fun. Of course, I'm ridiculously sore today but I'll be fine. I went to the front and filled out a comment card asking for Kickboxing every Saturday as soon as the class was over :)

Labels: ,

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 7:59 AM
| link to this post | 1 spoke |

Friday, November 07, 2008
That's it!
I'm done. Finished. It's over.
Thank. You. Universe!
The last three months of insanity have finally come to an end. The homes here are completely redone (pics soon, I promise), my Halloween Party is done AND cleaned up (thank you Jiffinner, The Cake Lady & Fairy for all your help!!) and yesterday I took my Certified Office Manager test!
The Big Three Things that were sucking up all of my time and attention are done.
Finally.
And do you know what dear reader? I'm already getting out of sorts with the thought of all that free time. I'm already trying to book it up. I'm having to make serious effort to not book it up. What is wrong with me that I just can't accept some stillness? Some down-time? I have issues. (As if that is news to ANY of you :P)
Here is what the rest of my year is looking like:
Amanda turns twelve on the 19th. *gasping for air* Give me a second. *grabs paperbag, deep breathing* Ok, I'm all right. So Amanda turns twelve and has opted that instead of a huge birthday party, she wants a huge present. This is cool with me. In fact, in my house we kinda have this teared birthday party option chart. It goes like this:
Big party and little gift
Medium party and medium gift
Small family party and huge gift
I'm cool with any of the three options seeing as how they cost me the same amount of money and it really is up to the girls how they want to do it.
But get this, the kids is trying to Out-Electronic me. She wants an Ipod touch. It was that commerical, the one where you are driving the car or whatever by moving the Ipod as if it were a steering wheel that pushed her over the edge. So I have to get a small party together at home where she is awarded a mack daddy mp3 player and I push down my jealousy.
Thanksgiving is on the 27th. This one isn't too bad for me since The Cake Lady usually just tells me what to bring and when to show up. I do want to try out a few recipes first as I am feeling brave and Fairy is begging me to make a pumpkin cheese cake (DB?!?! WHERE ARE YOU?) which I've never done before but I think I should attempt like a hundred times before Turkey Day since cheesecake is gooooood :)
Christmas is in seven weeks! You know, I really enjoy Christmas. It's the one holiday that I do not attempt to do anything except for be home with my family. I don't typically travel and there have been a few years where it is only the girls and I which I really love. I cook (I know, shocking!) and we all spend time together which is so nice. However, I freaking hate the shopping part. I hate trying to figure out what to buy the girls and how to be fair in shopping for everyone. I hate trying to figure out who else I need to get gifts for and what to get them. It stresses me out and I think half of the reason I love Christmas is that when it finally happens, it's such a relief to be done. It's a lot of work.
I leave for Dallas on December 30th. This year, I somehow got tricked into going to Dallas to spend New Years with my mother's family. Although traveling by car for anything over an hour is usually an excuse for a temper tantrum in my book, it will be a significant improvement over that year when that guy I did the whole New Year's Eve Blind Date Thing with bit me.

And then that's it people. 2008 will be over. I'm tempted to start my recap post now since this has been such a huge year for me but I will save that for another day.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

so eloquently put by katehopeeden at 7:21 AM
| link to this post | 2 spoke |


Who: katehopeeden
Where: San Antonio, Texas Yeah, so I am all that you see here. I am friendly and kind, crazy and bitchy, playful and flirty... sometimes I am funny but mostly I just write the first thing that comes to mind and then stop when it ends. I love life and I am lucky to be living the one that I am. Want to know more?
Click here!




12/14/84 - 1/26/05


"The most wasted day is one in which we have not laughed"

"Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you might miss it."

"Guys are like stars, there's a million of them out there but only one of them can make your dreams come true." "Don't spend your life with someone you can live with, spend it with someone you can't live without."

"Reach for the moon, even if you miss you will still land among the stars"



Veronique

Yoda

Hot Toddy

Finding Liz

The Adorable DB

Tux Baby
Malcolm (he'll be back)

They'll All Fall

we grabbed the lion

Red Hot Sexy Papa

Snow

dooce

Madi (my stalker)

Did I miss you?
Do you feel left out and sad?
Click that link up there
and email me your blog!

Childhood Memories

My Mother

The Story of AZ

The Time In Between

The Beginning Of NY

The man from my dreams

The End Of NY

Growing and Changing

Learning to Cope

These are a work in progress. They are in the right order, but more will fill in the blank spaces in time as I write them.

"I just got done reading the history lessons on your blog (yes, I've been lurking on your blog). All the respect I had for you...has increased, like, tenfold. I don't think I could have done it. To go through what you have and not only still be able to discuss it with such wit and poise, but also to raise those three gorgeous girls. You are truly an inspiration. You are honestly one of the strongest people I have ever known, either online or IRL. Thank you so much." -Stef

www.flickr.com
katehopeeden's photos More of katehopeeden's photos

That cracked my shit up! TM

Kate went to Dallas?

You asked Kate questions?

Kate was stung by a Scorpion?

Kate met Mr. I?

Kate got pissed?

There was a mouse?

Kate shared?

Kate confessed?

Kate turned 25?

Kate shared some more?

"There are some of us out here who are living vicariously through you, okay?! So for god's sake, let us have some fun and excitement!" -Educated Liberal

"I LOVE inner monologues. They rock!"
-Hot Toddy


Ebay

The Gym

Morning Monologue

RHBlogger 2nd runner

sizzling RH 05







referer referrer referers referrers http_referer