Princesses, Rock Stars, and Whores! Oh my!

OK. First things first. To Mike, who commented earlier about my urge to take a crap on my walk home yesterday... First of all, I have no idea who you are. But that's cool. Because truthfully, 99% of the time, I end up liking strangers way more than I like the people I know. So it's all good. But I would like to clarify that my body is also trained to "need to crap as soon as I wake up." Unfortunately, my body is an over-achiever and does it several times every morning. And she does it in not-so-pleasant ways that are fast, furious, and offer no apologies. I thought that yesterday, she was done and I could go about my day. But apparently, all of that "exercise" and then the cigarette thrown in was enough to send her over the edge. But it's OK, because I stifled her urges until I arrived home.

So I want to thank you for your suggestion, but I'm afraid, I'm already following your "plan." I do appreciate your concern though. ;)

And for those of you offering hugs and kind words, I assure you that the entire episode was HILARIOUS. It is perfectly acceptable (and required) to laugh at me. Because honestly, once I got home, I laughed too. Only me, I swear...

Alrighty then... moving on.

Hannah's party was on Sunday afternoon, and was a HUGE success. The girls had sooo much fun! Each girl could pick a pet (stuffed animal) from the wall, as well as a shirt, collar, and purse to carry it in. Then it was time for the makeovers. Nails, eyes, lips and hair, plus an accessory of their choice (headset, headband, sunglasses, etc.). The girls were in heaven and I swear, it was a table of 5-year-olds going on 50. They talked, babbled, gossiped, and argued like they were a table of old ladies at bingo night at the local firehouse. It was hilarious.

Here's Hannah after her makeover. Cute, no?

Since Hannah was the birthday girl, they did her first, so once she was done, she had to wait for the others to finish. She was cool with that, but after awhile, I think she got a little tired of waiting and found a place to just sit down and wait. LOL!

In the meantime, Grace was finishing up her makeover, and sporting her new shades.

Hannah had picked the headset/microphone as her accessory, but once she saw Grace's sunglasses, she needed a pair just like it. (This one is my favorite photo from the day.)

Seriously... don't EVER screw with this kid. It's just not worth it. Trust me on this one.

Anyway, eventually, all 7 girls were all glammed up and ready to go. So they cranked the music in the store, the girls lined up, and the employees helped lead them in singing and dancing to a Hannah Montana song.

After that, there was nothing left to do except wish Hannah a happy birthday.

So there you have it. A fantastic party with an adorable group of little girls. Everyone went home happy and excited to go to daycare the next day with their new pets and sporting their new hairstyles. It was just sooo cute. I highly recommend having a party there if you have a daughter and there's one in your area. I would've loved that sort of thing when I was a kid, and every guest there had an absolute blast. Girl power rules. :)

So I guess that's it. Tomorrow we'll discuss how I'm 100% sure Hannah will not grow up to be a lesbian. Not that I have a problem if she did. I couldn't care less about that stuff. However, based on tonight's bedtime conversation, I may have to worry about her becoming a total ho bag by her 10th birthday. Sigh. Seriously, I am sooooo screwed with that one. [shaking head]

Life's Lessons...

I learned several valuable lessons yesterday morning. Lessons I'll take with me to the grave. Those kinds of lessons that taunt you whenever you're about to repeat the same mistake that helped you learn the lesson in the first place. Come with me, will you, and let me share the experience, so that you too, can learn from my mistakes.

It was around 7:30 AM. My Check Engine light had been on all weekend and I knew I HAD to get my car into the garage that day to get it checked out before I could really drive it much again. My mom has already picked up the girls for daycare... Steve has left for work, and I'm here alone. So I weigh my options. I COULD call my dad (who doesn't start work until 9:00), and ask him to meet me at the garage so he could drive me back home after I drop my car off. "But," I say to myself, "it's still not THAT hot outside (85-degrees). And it's not THAT far. Maybe I should just walk home so as not to inconvenience Dad." Hmmm...

Finally, I figure, screw it. I'll walk. God knows it's the most exercise I'll have gotten in months. So I whip on a bra under the T-shirt I had worn to bed, and throw on a baseball cap.

Now here's where Lesson #1 comes into play... I couldn't find a pair of matching socks to throw on with my sneakers, so I just slid into my everyday flip-flops, telling myself it's not THAT far to walk, and I wear flip-flops all day long. What difference does it make WHERE I'm walking. Uh, yeah. Bad move. But more on that in a bit.

Then I realize I'm going to buy a pack of cigarettes and a Snapple at the gas station before heading home. I don't want to CARRY that stuff for a mile, so I guess I should take my purse with me. It'll look weird carrying my purse while walking along the road, but easier for me in terms of transporting my purchases. Great.

So I get in the car and start driving around the corner to the garage. As I'm approaching the garage, I realize that there's something I'd never really taken notice to before. There's no shoulder AT ALL on the side of the 4-lane highway on that side as you approach the garage. None. No where to walk at all, and a huge cliff on the other side of the guardrail, making it impossible to walk. Uh, shit?

I check the other side of the highway and see that there is indeed yards, sidewalks, and other areas over there to walk, but that would involve me running (literally) across the 4-lane highway to get to the other side, while wearing flip-flops, carrying a purse, and hopping the median in the center. Um, double shit?

So as I pull into the garage parking lot, I see that going in the same direction, there IS indeed a shoulder to walk on on this side of the highway, which would mean I wouldn't have to cross-over. Granted, it would be taking farther away from my house, but only about a quarter of a mile before there's a side road I could cut down, putting me on the nice, quiet back road to my house. Awesome.

So I give the mechanic the keys, explain the situation with the car, buy my smokes and my Snapple, and head out walking AWAY from my house. So I'm cutting through other businesses parking lots, etc. knowing that side road is just a little farther up.

But then...

I realize I'm screwed. I get to the end of a business's parking lot and see that all of a sudden, there's no where to walk. No other parking lot, no sidewalk, no shoulder on the highway. Nothing. Son of a BITCH!

So I realize I have no choice but to go BACK to the garage, run across the highway and head home. Sigh. By now I'm sweating profusely (it was up to 90-degrees), I kept getting gravel in my flip-flops, and because I had been too lazy to stick my contact lenses in, I have my glasses continually sliding down my nose, requiring me to keep pushing them back up. At this point, I'm wondering why the hell I hadn't called my dad, like any other sane person would've done.

So I turn around and walk BACK to where I just came from, cursing under my breath the entire time, and ignoring the odd looks I'm getting through the windows of the businesses whose parking lots I seem to be stalking.

So I make it back to the garage. This is it now. I HAVE to cross the highway. Crossing the highway itself would be no big deal, but frankly, I'm going to feel like an ass hopping over the median in the middle. Sigh. So I take a deep breath, will my flip-flops to stay on my damn feet, and RUN to the middle of the highway. Whew. Made it this far! So I hop the median and am now standing on the other side of it. OK. Good so far.

Now I have to wait while various cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, and tractor trailers zoom past, looking at me like I'm a flaming idiot. Me in my baseball hat, flip-flops, glasses, old clothes, and carrying a fairly large plaid tote. Nice.

Finally, I see a break in the traffic and I RUN to the other side of the highway. I DID IT! I DID IT!!! But now I still have to get home.

So I start walking again, this time through people's front yards, driveways, parking lots, etc. I'm much safer at this point, but I still feel like a jackass at how ridiculous I probably look. I'm praying no one I know drives by and recognizes me.

A few hundred yards up, I come to a place where, if I cross back over the highway again, I can take a side road that will lead me to the nice, calm, rarely traveled back road to my house. The thought has me filled with glee. So I ready myself again to get across the highway at the first break in traffic. The one GOOD thing is that there's no median this time, so at least THAT part is out of the equation.

Finally, a space opens up and I go charging across the highway. I notice there's a car at the stop sign of the road I'm running towards. He's waiting to turn onto the highway. As I'm running, I hear someone yelling. I look over, and as luck would have it, it's a guy I graduated from high school with. Sigh. He's laughing and making some comment about running across the highway. I laugh back, blushingly profusely, and sort of wave. Hey, at least he's sort of a geek, so it's not like some HOT dude from high school was seeing me in this situation, right?

But anyway, I have now reached freedom. Freedom to walk casually, without seeing many cars or people, without worrying about getting creamed by a tractor trailer or some dude in a minivan that's late for work, and without wondering who was driving past that might know me. Ahhh...

So what does one do in this situation? She lights up a cigarette. So there I was, walking along in 90-degree heat in cut off sweat shorts and an Air Force T-shirt, a pink and lime green Guiness beer baseball hat, brown flip-flops with pink stripes, glasses, and carrying a large blue plaid purse, while a cigarette hung out of my mouth. Sweet.

I won't even get into how halfway home, I got stomach cramps because I had to um, "go". My mind flashed back to my MIL's shrub shitting incident and I willed my body to just hold it in until I got home to my own commode. There was no way in hell I was going to be grouped in with THAT whole fiasco.

Words cannot describe my excitement when I walked into my house. I had just walked a mile and a half (in flip-flops) and was dripping with sweat. I flopped down on the couch and started thinking about the lessons I had just learned in the past 45 minutes...

Lesson 1: Don't wear flip-flops to walk a mile and a half on the side of the highway. ESPECIALLY if sprinting across the highway (twice) is going to be required at any point.

Lesson 2: When it's 90-degrees outside, take the 5 minutes to throw on a tank top and put your contact lenses in. Glasses suck when you're sweating.

Lesson 3: Wear dark shades when doing something like I did. At least if someone you know passes you, there's the slight chance they can't ID you for sure.

Lesson 4: Take a crap BEFORE you leave on your adventure.

Lesson 5: If there is someone you know who is more than willing to DRIVE you somewhere, for the love of god, take them up on the offer. Call your friend, relative, etc. and tell them to meet you at the location and drive your ass back to your house.

Lesson 6: Exercise really does suck. Just don't do it. It's just not worth it.

So there you go. Read the above carefully and remember it the next time you think you might want to walk somewhere "just to get some exercise". Trust me on this one.

I'll be back later with pictures from Hannah's birthday party! It was a smashing success! :)

Quote of the Day:
Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing for something.
--Wilson Mizner

Is it party time?

Those were the first words Hannah spoke this morning when she rolled over and looked at me in bed. Today's her Libby Lu party and she is sooooo excited! She's had her outfit planned for days now (and that outfit has changed several times, depending on her mood). I'm actually looking forward to it too. I had to buy NOTHING ahead of time to prepare for it, which is my kind of party. I show up, watch the little girls get their makeovers, take a bunch of pictures, and come home. Sweet.

Yesterday was brutal in terms of the weather. A good 95-degrees and humid. Ugh. And Steve left with my dad to go golfing before I was even awake. No problem except we hadn't run our air conditioner yet this year. Our air conditioner is built into our living room wall, so it's there year-round. However, on the outside, for the winter, there's a cover over it. The problem? From the outside of the house, the air conditioner is rather high up. So now I had a problem. I couldn't run the thing without removing the cover. And I couldn't reach the air conditioner to remove the cover without a ladder. And we don't really have a ladder, believe it or not. Shit.

So I happened to spy this "fake" ladder a friend of ours built. It's actually supposed to be purely for decoration, and is made out of a few pieces of flimsy wood. But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. LOL! So I leaned it against the house, prayed it wouldn't snap under my weight, and climbed on up. It WORKED! Whew. Nice cool house within 15 minutes.

Then, the day was supposed to be filled with Grace's softball game and a trip to see "Kung Fu Panda" at the movies. But Grace woke up with a stomach ache and didn't want to leave the house, so we hung out inside all day. Grace watched TV, Hannah played, and I cleaned the entire downstairs. Thank god I had that air conditioner running. LOL!

After dinner, Grace felt better, so the girls threw on their bathing suits, turned on the hose, and played in the backyard for hours. But we're rednecks, and my children are deprived, so instead of a pool, they just sit in buckets. Sometimes for hours. My kids are weird. LOL! I love days like that. :)

But today, is party day and there's lots to do. We all need to shower up and get ready. I need to make sure my camera battery is charged. Then we head to the mall (30 minutes away), watch six 5-year-olds be made all pretty, do a bit of shopping (I have ONE pair of shorts that fit), and head home. Then Steve needs to go fill up our water jugs at the natural spring and I need to go grocery shopping, since we don't even have milk right now.

By the time we do all that, I imagine we'll all be tired and ready to crash. Sweet.

Here are a few pictures from the last day or two.

One Night without Balls, Please

If I could wish for anything right now, it would be to NOT have to go to our town's baseball fields for a few days. We were there for the past 4 nights in a row for Grace's softball games and/or Hannah's T-ball games. My house is trashed, we're barely shoveling eating dinner before leaving, and the kids are all wound up when we get home and I can't get them to bed on time. Blech.

The truth is, I ENJOY watching the games. Hannah's are cute, and (without sounding too "braggy"), Grace kicks some serious ass at all things athletic. She's one of the best kids on the team and her coach told me last night that he's bumping her up already next year to the 9 and 10-year-old group (she turns 7 in three weeks). Awesome!

But HAVING to be there every night for a week straight kind of sucks, frankly. Thankfully, tonight we have NO games. Words cannot describe my relief. But I guarantee you that the kids will start whining they're bored 10 minutes after they both arrive home from school/daycare. I just can't win. LOL!

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So I'm taking Grace to the doctor today. She's had poison ivy and (I think) Poison Sumac for a few days now. And it's all over both cheeks, on her nose, behind her ears, etc. It seems to keep spreading, so I'm taking her in to see if they can give her something to clear it up right away. She's handling it like a trooper, but it just LOOKS annoying, so I feel for her. LOL!

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So I pulled out the ol' camera manual again yesterday to try to learn about some more of the advanced features. I decided to give manual focus a try, and I must say, I don't know if I'll ever go back to auto focus again (except in situations where there's no time to focus manually). I swear, my pictures are even sharper than they were before. I'm having a blast playing with my camera. :)

So I leave you with a few shots from Grace's softball game last night. In that close up of her, she's NOT sad. LOL! She was in the middle of playing and I yelled her name. She looked over, and that happened to be the expression on her face. LOL!

Another drive by...

I need to start blogging earlier at night. I always sit here around 9 or 10:00 and think about all of the things to blog about. Then I finally get around to it around 1:00 in the morning, and I don't feel like it. I had a big ol' long blog post composed in my head an hour ago. But then I started doing something else. And now here I am, and there's no way in hell I feel like typing it all out. So y'all get the abbreviated version (which you're probably grateful for).

** My Check Engine light is on again in my car. Sigh. I guess I need to break down and get it checked out. (One day, I'll post my thoughts on the stupid Check Engine light in cars. In my opinion, it's the dumbest "alert" there is in a car.)

** We were at the baseball fields for the third night in a row tonight. Tomorrow night, we'll be there again. Two kids in extra-curricular activities kind of sucks sometimes.

** If Hannah doesn't stop fighting sleep every night at bedtime, I may start spiking her milk with Benedryl before bed.

** We're all gearing up and excited for Hannah's birthday party this Sunday. It's at Libby Lu at the mall. She invited 5 or 6 little girls from daycare (all of 'em are coming) and they'll all get to dress up as princesses or rock stars, get their nails painted, get a makeover (complete with makeup, hair-do's, and accessories), get to pick 5 things off the wall (fake earrings, games, hair stuff, etc.) and then dance around and sing and act like little rock stars. It is going to be sooo cute! Both of my girls have gone their on their own, but this is the first time they'll be part of a party. Can you imagine? Six or seven little 5-year-olds and one 7-year-old all glammed up and running around like mini Hannah Montanas! Oh, the photo opportunities! [grinning like a fool]

** The truth is, what I'm most excited about is that I don't have to buy ANYTHING ahead of time. It's at the mall, so I can't bring in food or a cake (YIPPEE!). And since the party package includes each girl picking 5 free things from the store to put into their (also free) tote bags, I don't even have to do goody bags. As a mom, I couldn't be happier. I'm positively giddy with the idea that I just have to show up,  pay, and come home. Ahhhh....

** I really need to update my blog header. Hannah in her winter gear seems odd. And I've come to hate that picture of me. Maybe tomorrow? In my free time? Uh huh.

I guess that's it for now. The post in my head earlier was much longer (and funnier), but I'm afraid, it's going to stay there forever. Because I'm tired and have a shitload of stuff to do tomorrow (for work and in real life), so I need to go to bed.

But I'll leave you with my photo from Monday for Project 365. The pictures for the past 2 days are still on my camera.

Quote of the Day:
WARNING: Repeated brain usage may be harmful to others.
--rdude

Multi-Tasking is (Apparently) Not My Thing

About 10 minutes ago, I started a post where I said "Holy shit!" (I even said it in Dutch) because when I checked the ol' blog I saw I hadn't posted since Saturday. I could have sworn I did, and even went off about my evil little bastard clone that must've been deleting my posts after I posted them and went to bed.

But then I realized I HAD posted, just on the wrong blog. Sigh. I accidentally posted on my Project 365 blog. Not that it was an exciting post at all, but it was nice realizing I wasn't completely going insane and remembering things that never happened.

(Editors Note: In my defense, it wasn't completely my fault. I use Windows Live Writer to post here and on my other blog, and it's very easy to post to the wrong one (or both) if you aren't paying attention. Apparently, on Sunday morning, I wasn't paying attention. Who knew? But thanks to Live Writer's kickass features, I was able to delete it from there and post it here instead in the matter or 3 mouse clicks. Sweet.)

This is where I had planned to tell you how I won the Parent of the Year award on Monday (<-- That's sarcasm for you non-mom folks out there. It means I did something stupid in terms of parenting and I sucked that day.)... And how Grace kicked some SERIOUS ass at softball on Monday night... And how I have birthday parties for both girls coming up in the next two weeks... And how if the damn fly in my house doesn't stop buzzing in my ear and dive bombing at my head, it will rue the day it ever flew into my home... And how I've decided to stop taking photos and blogging and digital scrapbooking because I'm giving up all things electronic and/or battery operated... And... HEY! Wait! What the hell?!?!

[grunt... slap... moan... tackle...

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Ahem. Sorry! That last part was my evil little bastard clone I was talking about earlier. I KNEW someone was effin' with my posts when I wasn't around. I took care of her though. I bitch-slapped her, tied her up, and am making her listen to Yanni CDs on the highest volume (on repeat) while watching all of the videos Britney Spears ever made. [shudder]

Anyway, I WAS going to blog about all that other stuff. But now I'm not. Because it's 1:00 AM and I need to go to bed. And because half of it is of no interest to anyone except me (and possibly that freaky looking dude in "Deliverance" if he happens to be reading). So instead, I'll leave you with some photos (shocking... I know) and call it a night. If you would like to know about any of the above-mentioned items I neglected to blog, by all means, comment here and I'll answer it. But I can assure you that NONE of it is interesting in the least. So onto the photos.

Hot Husband Assembling New Grill...

 

The girls playing in the sprinklers for the first time this summer on Sunday.

 

My favorite one from that day, of Hannah just resting on her towel.

Mornin'!

Well, I just woke up to an amazingly gorgeous day. It's sunny, breezy, and warm. Ahhhh.... spring/summer is FINALLY here. I have no big plans for today (which is how I like it). I do have to take Hannah to the store to find her a swimsuit (long story), but other than that, I'm going to do some laundry, take more pictures, and just hang with the kids and Steve. Sweet.

So yesterday, Steve and I FINALLY bought a new grill. Ours was over 10 years old and on it's last leg... literally. I could barely cook on it anymore because the flames would shoot so high that food would be nice and crispy on the outside and raw on the inside. We NEED a grill. We use it all the time and all year long.

So we went and bought an awesome, macdaddy, stainless steel sucker. I was SOOOO excited to use it last night, I could barely wait. So I threw the chicken breasts on it and waited with bated breath.

After 10 minutes, I went to flip the chicken, and what do I discover? We had run out of propane. Son of a BITCH! LOL! So I finished up the chicken on the stovetop, feeling defeated. Sigh. So hopefully, Steve can get it filled today and we can try again tonight.

Last night, the girls went to my parents' for the night like usual and Steve and I did (get this) nothing. We didn't go out. We didn't go to the party we were supposed to. Nothing. It was awesome. We sat on our back porch, drinking some beer and talking. Ahhh...

So see, nothing exciting to blog about this morning. Sorry gang!

Jambo!

Did you know that to greet people in Swahili, you say "Jambo!" How much fun would that be? I mean, "Hi" and "Hello" are so boring compared to "Jambo!" I can just see yelling it as loudly as possible. It just seems so exciting! "JAMBO, Tink!" LOL! I think today I'll just go around yelling "JAMBO!" at people. I can probably get the kids in on it too. So we'll either make people smile and laugh, or we'll be committed to the looney bin. [shrug] It's all good.

Yesterday's weather was AMAZING! Sunny, hot, perfect for hanging out outside after the kids got home from school and Steve got home from work. Steve decided to smoke the turkey he shot the other day. Did I post the picture of that here? I probably didn't, thinking I'd offend someone or gross someone out. But too bad. I'm posting it now. Just because I think it's funny that my 4-year-old has no problem posing next to her daddy, who is holding a dead bird upside down that is larger than her. And that fact that she has a camo hat that matches her daddy's hunting clothing makes it that much better. Ahhhh... I love the redneck life.

Anyway, while Steve smoked the turkey, we all just hung out in the yard by the pavilion, taking pictures (me) and playing baseball (the rest of the family). I got some awesome shots that I'm excited to start editing. I did manage to edit a few last night.

This is Steve throwing Hannah around, which is easy to do considering her size.

Then this one is Grace, fascinated with the feather she found (which happened to be from when Steve cut up the turkey on Monday, but I didn't have the heart to tell her).

And this, my friends, is possibly my favorite picture I've taken to date. It totally cracks me up and is so typical of Grace. Makes me laugh every time I look at it. I'm totally getting it printed out and I'm framing it and hanging it the living room. It's my photo for Project 365 for yesterday.

And now, I must go shower or something. We have more T-ball games and softball games today. Sigh. I'm getting a little sick of being at the ball field, but the girls have fun, so I guess that's all that matters, huh? I'm secretly hoping it starts raining before the games, but I'll deny that if my kids ask. Later, gang!

Quote of the Day:
Progress depends on people knowing they'll be able to profit from their ideas.
--Deborah Neville

Tere! (That's hello in Estonian.)

I've decided I'm going to start stalking Tink. I have no rhyme or reason behind this decision. But the link to her honeymoon cruise in six-months made me decide that I should be on that cruise too, dammit. So me, Steve, her and Hoop are going to get adjoining cabins, whoop it up, get shit-faced, and have a blast. What's that you said? It's their honeymoon and they should be alone? Pfft! Whatever. They'll have years of "alone time." A wedding is a time to whoop it up. Right Tink? Right? Um, hello? Tink, you there? Shit. Maybe there won't be a cruise for me after all. Sigh.

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So I found the coolest website today. OK. So I didn't technically discover it. It's not like some poor sap in a basement in Arkansas had a website that no one found until today. But I got the link through a blog I read (or newletter? or article? I don't remember. Something.) Anyway, I digress. The site is called Tag Galaxy and it's amazingly cool. You type in a tag (like you'd use on Flickr) and these little planets whirl around on your screen (and at you. Note to self: Don't drop acid and then visit this site). Anyway, you can continue to click on search tags and then whenever the mood strikes, you can click on a link to go find all of the photos on Flickr that have that/those tags. Then they whirl around on your screen and land on a photo sphere where you can click on to see the photo, etc. So cool! Go check it out. Even if you don't give a rat's ass about Flickr, the Tag Galaxy site is fun to play with and watch.

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Speaking of cool websites, I also ended up here today at Big Huge Labs, found through Flickr. Now a few Christmases ago, you may remember where I made a bunch people in my family a CD calendar. It's a standard CD jewel case simply snapped back and sitting on your desk like an easel. Then every month, you just slide your monthly calendar in it and enjoy.

Anyway, I needed a calendar page for June since June is occurring sooner than  I would care to admit or face. So I went to that there link up there, picked a starting month/year, chose a photo right from my Flickr account (although you can just upload a photo if you'd rather go that route), and clicked the Create button.

A few seconds later,  the calendar page appeared on my screen, I saved it to my computer, opened it in Photoshop, resized it to 4.25" and printed it out. (It sounds WAY more complicated than it is. Trust me.) And here it is... my page for June. Sweet.

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OK. I just fell asleep like 3 times sitting here, so I guess that's my cue to head to bed. It's been a pleasure talking to you, my friends. See you soon!  I'll leave you with a few more photos I managed to post-process this morning.

 

This was Hannah sleeping this morning (That's Grace's head behind her. LOL!) She looked to cute and peaceful not to take a picture.

 

Grace being her typical self, hanging upside down on the swing. The kid kills me.

 

Grace just playing in the yard over the weeekend...

 

And this is Hannah yelling at me. She just wanted to play ball and I kept snapping her picture. She was pissed. LOL!

Quote of the Day:
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
--William James

I'm Boring.

So... (I just realized how often I start out my posts saying, "So..." Go ahead. Scroll down and look. You'll see.) Today was rather uneventful in terms of blog post material. And yet, I felt so damn busy all day, I didn't know which end was up. How does that happen anyway? Weird.

Anyway, I had all sorts of stupid, uninteresting things I had to do today -- none of which you'd be interested in. And now it's 1:30 in the morning, I'm not even remotely tired (yet know that I NEED to go to bed), and I have nothing to say to all of you. Nice.

Uhhh... how about looking at some photos? Because I'm sure that you all are just giddy with anticipation every day, waiting for me to post more photos of my kids, right? Uh huh.

Oh! I know! I won a contest today! As I've mentioned before, I'm a blog whore and read a billion of them a day. (God bless Google Reader by the way.) Well, today, one of my feeds came through and the blog was giving away $30 gift cards to a cool store that sells gorgeous photo albums. All you had to do was be one of the first 5 people to comment on the post. Well guess who was #5? Yup! That would be me! [grins] I'm so excited! They have some gorgeous albums and I can't wait to check out the site closer and decide what to buy! Yay me for my obsessive blog addiction!

I bet other readers are pissed though. A lot of the readers are professional photographers and I'm sure they figure they have way more use for the prize than I do. Too bad suckas! You snooze, you lose! Mwaaahaaahaaa! [insert maniacal laughter here]

OK. So what else? Uhhh... yeah. Drawing a blank again. I guess I'll just post the photos and hope that tomorrow at least ONE funny thing happens so I can entertain all of you adoring fans. ;)

These first two pictures are from Monday. Every spring, the girls and I buy a bunch of flowers and plant them in a bunch of pots. (Our soil in the yard is way too crappy to really start a "real" flower garden.) We have a ton of fun, the girls like getting dirty, and it's my little signal to myself that spring is finally here. :)

 

These other three are from Hannah's t-ball game tonight. That's my mom giving Grace a kiss while she was shoving food in her mouth (which is pretty typical of Grace, actually. LOL!)

And this last one is my photo for Project 365 today. :)

Quote of the Day:
The secret pleasure of a generous act Is the great mind’s great bribe.
--John Dryden

What's her secret?

Why, what possibly could Hannah be hiding? What is it that made her slap her hands over her mouth while giggling uncontrollably?

Gasp! It's a new gap in her smile! :)

That's right. Today, my sweet 4-year-old (almost 5-year-old) lost her very first tooth while eating a Twizzler at Grandma's house. She's so excited and proud and just beside herself with the fact that the tooth fairy is coming to visit her tonight. How cute is she with that new space in her smile? LOL! Adorable if I do say so myself. ;)

(And the truth is, in that first picture, I didn't tell her to do that and she wasn't actually hiding her smile. I was trying to snap some pictures of her big milestone tonight when she slapped her hands over her mouth and started laughing. I thought she was just trying to be funny/cute/etc. and said (while laughing), "C'mon! I want to get a picture of you with your tooth gone." Her response? "No Mom! I wasn't trying to hide it. But I just farted and couldn't help but laugh." Nice. See? It's good when my children remind me that there's no way they could be anyone else's child but my own. It keeps me grounded.)

Quote of the Day:
It takes a steady hand to carry a full cup.
--Anonymous

Good Mornin'

Morning gang. Wow, the past few days have flown by. We ended up going to the party with my friends on Saturday night, and I must say, we had a blast. The people I've known since high school (or earlier in some cases) are just hilarious. So I'm glad we went. Good times.

Here are a few photos from the night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, yesterday morning, Steve decided we were having a Memorial Day picnic... in a few hours. What the hell? The house was trashed, we had no food, we had no beer, and the yard was a mess. But he invited everyone before he really talked to me about it (LOL), so we sucked it up, busted ass, and managed to get everything bought and ready by the time people started showing up.

It was actually fun, and I'm glad we had it, but a little bit of prior notice next time would be nice. LOL!

Anyway, it's going to be GORGEOUS today, and I promised the girls we'd go buy some flowers and plant them, so I guess I have to get started with my day. Off to shower. I hope everyone enjoys their last day of their Memorial Day vacation!

(Oh, and Chelle, the reason you don't see the reflection in my photos is because I didn't use a flash. That's why I took them in Grace's room (best natural light). Plus the lens I have on my camera right now takes awesome pictures in lower light situations so I didn't need a flash.)

Quote of the Day:
The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.
--John Kenneth Galbraith

Fun with Focus

Sooo... I spent over 3.5 hours today at the local ball fields for Grace's softball game and then Hannah's T-ball game later in the day. Other than that, I've done nothing productive. The girls have been really good actually, and managed to occupy themselves reading and drawing.

In a bit, I'll take them to my parents' house for the night. Steve and I are SUPPOSED to go to two parties/picnics -- one with his old high school friends and one with my old high school friends. Truthfully though, I'm not in the mood to go to either (which is odd for me). Steve left at 4 AM to go turkey hunting this morning and I haven't heard from him since (it's now almost 5 PM), which tells me he's not that excited about the parties either. LOL!

But see, we have this bad habit of ditching ALL of our friends' parties. Sometimes just because, and sometimes because we have other obligations and just can't get there. But these people come to ALL of our stuff, so we REALLY need to at least go to the party with my friends. Sigh.

So while the girls were occupied today, I messed around with some more photos I took the past few days. Yesterday, no one else was home and I felt like experimenting with my camera again. I'm really trying to learn about depth of field, focal point, aperture, etc. Since I really have no interest at all in taking photos of things that aren't people (it's just not my thing... Photos of flowers and bugs and random buildings do nothing for me), I set up a mirror on the floor in Grace's room (best natural lighting) and had at it. I felt like a total dork at the time, but it's always fun for me to mess around in Photoshop afterwards. Anyway... here are a few shots (because I'm sure you really care).

 

This one is/was totally out of focus, but for some reason I liked it, so I changed it to sepia and declared it "artsy." LOL!

 

And I call these two "Fun with Focus" (LOL!) because I had set my focal point on my feet in the reflection of the mirror.

 

I especially like this last one because I like how my real feet and my reflection are out of focus and the reflection of my feet is in focus, which is what I was trying to do. (Please note the small spots of nail polish on each large toe. I NEVER paint my toenails (or fingernails), but a few weeks ago, I threw on some open-toed sandals to wear to work and my nails were dirty underneath, so I quick whipped some of Hannah's polish on them. I don't own nail polish remover, so I'm waiting for it to just naturally wear off of my nails. LOL!)

 

And here are a few from Grace's softball game last night. This one is Hannah watching the game through the fence.

 

A close up of Grace I took while looking through the fence.

 

And one of Hannah. Don't you wonder what she was thinking? I do.

Well, I suppose I should call Steve's cell phone and see if I should shower or something for these stupid parties. Grumble grumble. More later I guess...