March 2009 - Page 2 of 3 - Angry Julie Monday

Even Boys Like Princesses

March 17, 2009

Yesterday was Angry Toddler’s BFF’s, Stella, 4th birthday. Stacey decided that she was tired of the usual birthday parties and wanted to try something different. Well all headed to Disney’s California Adventure and Disneyland for the day. Stacey had made reservations for lunch at Ariel’s Grotto. I told Angry Toddler that we were going to lunch with the princesses. He made a face and stated, “Princesses are for girls, pink is for girls, I’m a boy.” Ok, whatever kid. This is where we are going to lunch. Well we went on a ton of rides and I took over 200 pictures. But guess who ran up to the princesses and smiled with his cheesy grin?

Stacey wondering how she is going to pay for this really expensive lunch..Thankfully, we got at least a 15% discount since I have a Premium Season Pass.

I made Stacey take a pic with me inside Disneyland. We never get photos taken of us together. Of course, Angry Toddler wanted to be in the photo. Notice the pink Blackberry in my pocket. I got caught on Twitter several times by Stacey.

Filed Under: Orange County, Parenting 6 Comments

Pacsun clash at Clairemont 3

March 15, 2009

Yesterday, Angry Toddler, my mom, and I were given the hook-up by RockDaMullet at Pacsun’s Clash at Clairemont 3. It was a skateboard and bmx show benefiting Grind for Life and Krause Family/Mission Valley YMCA Bike and Skate Park.

As soon as we got to the event, we were given VIP parking and entry passes. Way cool. We all had purple wristbands. Angry Toddler had his first experience with a porta-potty. That was entertaining for my OCD child. We then went to the entry. Angry Toddler was very excited by the huge Monster Energy truck. He called it a Monster Truck.

Angry Toddler sat and watched the kids skateboarding on the ramps, rails, and stairs at the park. He kept screaming, “I wanna skateboard now”. We promised him for his 4th birthday, he can finally get a skateboard. Geez kid. But there were kids not much older than him, grinding away. So, Angry Toddler decided that he would just climb the ramps and slide down.

After walking through the crowds and vendors, we headed up some stairs to the VIP area. We were able to catch some of the kids just hanging out. It was pretty cool to see how bold they are. I’m glad that Angry Toddler has that boldness still. He’s not scared of anything. Sometimes, it has been a bad thing.

After chowing on some awesome food from Chipotle, we headed over to the Vert Ramp. This was the big attraction of the show. It was covered with net on both sides. To prevent injuries from flying BMX bikes and skateboards. I was able to get some great pictures from behind the net.

Angry Toddler had already ventured around and pimped himself out to the vendors at the show. Notice his collection of stickers. They all thought he was hilarious and took pictures of him.

A little bit later, I took Angry Toddler to the car. He needed to chill for awhile and eventually fell asleep. I headed back to the show and I was able to capture some great pics.

At the end of the show, I was anticipating a raffle that SCS, SoCal SkateShop was putting on. I bought $20 worth of tickets, because hey it was for charity. Well I ended up walking away with two skateboard decks and a set of wheels. Angry Toddler was sadly disappointed though. He wanted to win the “pink skateboard”. There was one complete skateboard that had pink on it. He instantly fell in love. For some reason, I think his dinosaur bedroom is going to slowly turn into a skateboard room. I think Angry Husband is going to mount the decks on Angry Toddler’s wall.

I just want to say what an awesome experience this was. We met a ton of great people, had some laughs and Angry Toddler was in heaven. I hope that we can experience more fun events like this.

Once again, I want to thank RockDaMullet for letting us in on this. I would have never heard of this fantastic event without him.

Filed Under: Just Julie, Parenting 14 Comments

How Not to Provide Customer Service

March 12, 2009

Tuesday morning, I headed to South Coast Plaza, a local mall. They hate it when you call it a mall, but it’s a mall. Not the plaza, etc. Apparently to be considered a mall, it has to have a food court, whatever.

I was going there to purchase some baskets at Pottery Barn Kids. My son’s dresser has a spot under it for baskets. I was excited to organize some of his crap toys. I’m tired of tripping over Hot Wheels. I arrived at So. Coast about 10am when everything was just opening. I headed into American Eagle Outfitters because Pottery Barn Kids hadn’t quite opened yet. As I entered the store I was bombarded by employees. Within five minutes, I got these speech from four different people, “Our special today is you buy one t-shirt and you get the second one for $10″. Ok, thanks. I was the only one in the store. Obviously the employees could see who greeted me. I’ve worked retail, I know how it works. As soon as a customer walks in, you greet them. You don’t stalk them, follow them around, or harass them. It makes a customer want to run out of the store. And that is what I did. I saw some things I liked, but hells to the no was I going to purchase something from them. I now know why most of my friends shop online. My sizing is so inconsistent so I hesitate from shopping online.

Today, I was at the Irvine Spectrum. I had just left my awesome 24Lift class at 24 Hour Fitness. I stopped in a new store there called “Buckle“. I’ve heard some of my online forum peeps talk about it, so I thought I would check it out. I’ve been looking for some capris and they had some great styles. I’m trying to avoid that mom-jeans look. There were two sales people working at the time. They offered their assistance. They asked if there was a particular style I was looking for, and that was it. I told them that I had an extremely short inseam and that I had issues with capris looking like high water pants. They were able to assist me with the perfect fit. I tried on two different styles. I thought that the second pair made me look a little wider. They agreed that the first pair was much better. I literally fell over and applauded them for not harassing me. They were laughing.

My point is, I know times are tough. The economy sucks. People are being more conservative with their money. Consumers are shopping less. But if you harass and stalk your customers, they are not going to make purchases.

Oh and I got the baskets at Pottery Barn Kids. They work perfectly for all the junk that Angry Toddler has acquired.

Filed Under: Just Julie 8 Comments

I didn’t poison the family!!

March 12, 2009

I posted earlier today that I was going to make Pioneer Woman’s “The Best Lasagna. Ever.” Well it took me a bit to get everything organized. I had to go to the grocery store twice. I had to have some phone consults with my BFF, Stacey. She advised me that it is much easier to buy pre-minced garlic. I will note that for the future.

It took me about 2.5 hours total. I had to let the meat simmer, pasta boil, etc.

I also let it cool down for an hour.

It was very good. Angry Husband was a bit skeptical about the cottage cheese. He was impressed. Even Angry Toddler liked it, he asked for two portions!

YAY me!

Filed Under: In The Home 7 Comments

Speedwork with Chihuahuas

March 11, 2009

I always need to get a little running in. I can’t spend all my time running on a treadmill.

I have Run Club on Thursday nights, but I try and run at least 2-3 other times a week. I probably need to run more this week cause of all the Girl Scout Cookies I’m consuming.

My dogs have been very bored lately. And they are getting a little fat. They are kind of lazy like the rest of the people in my house. I think the only one in the house who has energy is Angry Toddler. So about two weeks ago, I started taking them on really long walks/runs. I usually do about 3 miles. I loop around the lake near my house.

Well today I thought I would do some speedwork. I would run from stop sign to stop sign. Then we would walk a block and run a block. I got some interesting looks from people driving by. They probably thought, “Why is this chick running with (2) 12 pound dogs?” Because I can. The dogs love it. It’s soo funny to watch their little legs trying to keep up with me. It really tires them out too.

The dogs have had to wear bark collars almost daily for a year now. They were barking constantly and we had Animal Control come out to our house. Luckily, I used to work with the Animal Control Officer. My neighbors were tired of the barking. Ever since I’ve been doing these walk/runs with them, the dogs are silent. They take really long naps after our jaunts.

I would post some pictures of Bruiser and Wolfie, but they need to be groomed really bad right now. Bruiser is a Maltese/Chihuahua mix and has the funniest hair. He needs to be shaved down badly. Wolfie just needs a slight trim.

So if you see my running around Orange County with the doggies, wave and laugh to yourself. Cause remember, a dog doesn’t have to be eighty pounds to run with you.

Filed Under: Just Julie 3 Comments

Cooking in the Angry Household

March 11, 2009

As I have said before, Angry Husband is hooked on the Food Network. Alton Brown from Good Eats in his hero. He DVR’s every episode of that show. Angry Toddler loves to watch it with him. The kid would rather watch the food network than cartoons.

Angry Husband bought a bunch of cookbooks and is starting to make a few recipes from them. The other night he made roast and garlic mashed potatoes. He found the recipes in this cookbook, The Taste of Home.

Last night, my son had his class At The Little Gym, so we ate Subway Sandwiches. Angry Toddler loves Subway and I’m kinda hooked on their Flat Bread Sandwiches.

I told Angry Husband that I would make dinner tonight. He gave me that look. Then I told my BFF, Stacey, I was making dinner. She kinda giggled, and then asked for pictures. She said that “this is blog worthy and she needs proof that I actually cooked.”

I went out this morning and bought all the ingredients to make Pioneer Woman’s “The Best Lasagna. Ever.” Why did I chose this recipe? The ingredients are very simple, plus she has lots of instructional pictures so I won’t get lost.

I’m fairly new to this cooking thing. I’m really don’t want to learn. But I figure I gotta shock Angry Husband a little. Every once in awhile, I like to surprise him and show him that I’m not so lazy.

Filed Under: In The Home, Parenting 8 Comments

Angry Toddler’s Room Renovation is done!

March 7, 2009

We have been working on Angry Toddler’s room for about two years now since he was out of the crib. I feel in love with the Pottery Barn Kids Super Saurus bedding from a couple of years ago. We have the crib set so I searched high and low on e-bay for the twin bedding set.

We got the rug, bedding, and other decorations almost eighteen months ago. The bed was last year’s Christmas present from my parent’s. The dresser arrived yesterday. I had to miss leave an OC Bloggy/Twitter meet-up to meet the delivery people. The bed and dresser are from Pottery Barn Kid’s Camp Collection.

Angry Husband put in the can lighting last Monday. He’s so talented. I barely mentioned something about can lights and he was at Lowe’s within 15 minutes buying the supplies. The lights look great and the room is so much brighter now.

Of course, all I see in the room when I walk in…is that big red stain on the expensive PBK wool rug. We will call that the “Crystal Light Incident of 2008″. We thought Angry Toddler was in his room sleeping. Well Angry Husband went in to check on him and noticed Angry Toddler was sitting in the center of the rub with my container of those Crystal Light packages everywhere. They were all partially torn open and he was eating the contents..LOVELY

So now we are stuck with this stained rug. We’ve tried everything ourselves to clean it. Does anyone know a place in Orange County that can clean it?

Oh, and side note: Angry Husband thinks the room is babyish. He wants to re-do it all in camouflage. I told him to wait until Angry Toddler is 5.

Filed Under: In The Home, Parenting 8 Comments

My Distractions

March 4, 2009

I can get distracted quite easy. Angry Husband even jokes about it. It’s like ohh, Julie, look at this shiny metal thing…

So I’m in the drive-thru line at Del Taco this morning. Yea, not too healthy, I got tacos, right? I pulled up to the window and paid with my debit card. I tend to multi-task alot, especially with my Blackberry. While waiting for my food, I realized ooohh I need to call Monique. So I call Monique because I had to tell her that they had Lucky jeans at Stein Mart. I never shop there but decided to go in there and browse. I know that Monique likes Lucky jeans sooo I had to call her right.

Guess what Julie did. She then continued driving back home and actually pulled into the garage. As I was getting my things out of the car, I realized, “Where is my food?” Umm, I got soo distracted talking to Monique about random things, I forgot my food. I had to drive all the way back to get my food.

Monique thought it was hilarious of course. But really, I do things like this all the time. Please say I’m not the only one who does this.

Filed Under: Just Julie 12 Comments