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12/31/09

Good Bye 2009


Typically this is the day most people reflect on the past year.

The good, the bad & the ugly that happened in the past 365 days.

Then make resolutions to do more or do better for the new year.

I thought about doing that.

For about a minute.

Quite honestly, the past year hasn't been all that exciting & not a whole lot has happened.

I was (and still am) unemployed, the girls all turned a year older, (I however, did not. Shut up! I did not turn a year older!!!) and Sean worked his butt off just to keep our heads above water.



What did happen?

We moved out of our cramped 2 bedroom apartment to a house. With a POOL!! Savvy made varsity cheer (not all that unexpected), Dare got new glasses & Roo began an earnest interest in photography, deciding that it just might be the career path she wants to take.

I finally saved up enough money (it took about a year!) to buy the DSLR I'd been coveting, and Sean got a van to use for a taxi.

And of course, I'm thankful we have our health, each other, and family.

As for resolutions ~ well, I've never made one & don't plan on starting now.

I have decided to make more of an effort to eat healthier & loose weight.

And take at least one photo every day.


So, a Happy New Year to all of you & I hope we all have one that is better than the past year.

Remember to celebrate life to it's fullest, but don't forget that waking up with a hangover can be a bitch!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

12/24/09

This is as close to snow as I ever want to get

Look at what I woke up to this morning.....

Frost all over the back yard! I had to throw on a tee-shirt, a long sleeve shirt plus a sweat shirt!! I haven't put on that many clothes in ages!!

Usually, to get a more interesting angle on the shot, I would lay on the ground on my stomach, but there was no way I was going to do that this morning!

I took these about 8:00 this morning. My sidebar weather reporter said it was 38 degrees! I'm so happy that's our low & not our high!!


This is an Arizona white Christmas & I'm so very much okay with that!!

12/22/09

What do you give someone for Christmas when you have no money??

Well, in my case I give the gift of my {limited} talent. I have compiled a {so far} small collection of some of my older photographs to offer up as free desktop wall papers for you!

I am in now way a professional photographer. In fact half my "good" photos happen by accident! But I do have some favorites that make cool wall papers.

This is one of my most favorites! See, I have it on my desktop right now...

So, without further ado, here are the wall papers for your enjoyment ~


{They're not really insane. That just goes with my Blog title!}

12/18/09

Orgami Ornaments


The other day, my sister in law, Shannon, asked me how I made a particular ornament I gave to each of her family members.

Eleven years ago!

She wanted to use some old greeting cards to make new ones.

First, I had to remember what the ornament even looked like! Then I had to figure out where I found the pattern/instructions.

After Shannon described it to me, it all clicked & I remembered them {I even have some I made for my girls!}. Now I just had to remember how the heck to make them & if I even still had the instructions!

I dug through my stacks of binders full of projects I've collected from magazines & from the internet, but with no luck in finding the ornament instructions.

So, I bit the bullet & carefully took apart one that I had so I could figure out how to put it back together! Thankfully it was much easier than I thought. So, here's what I figured I'd do, I will post, right here on this crappy little ol' Blog of mine, how to make these ornaments so if you so desire to make them as well, you can.

What you will need:

*3 pieces of stiff paper ~ card stock, old greeting cards or origami paper
*ruler & scissors
*ribbon
*beads

1. Cut each piece of paper into squares. I cut mine into 6"X6" squares.


2. Fold square into a triangle by bringing the lower corner to the upper corner. If using a printed paper or greeting card, make sure print is on the outside.


3. Fold triangle in half to form a smaller triangle. Crease, then open so you now have the large triangle with a crease in the center.


4. Now you're going to make into a square again. Take a corner from the bottom of the triangle & fold up along the center crease. Do this to both sides of the triangle forming the square.


5. Repeat steps 2-5 with the other 2 pieces of paper.


6. Now to assemble. Take two of the folded papers and slide them together by sliding the two small triangles between the folded paper at the top of the large triangle. This means that the two smaller triangles will slide under the triangle point in the main body of the paper.


7. Add the third piece of paper by repeating the process. You will need to close the box by sliding the small triangles under the third paper. Crease the paper whenever needed as you make the paper fit together.


8. Leave a small opening to add a hanger. To make a hanger, thread some beads into a ribbon or braided rope long enough to fit the length of the ornament plus additional to make a loop & hang below an inch or so.


9. Thread ribbon through opening, then carefully slide all 3 pieces of paper together to close, leaving the loop hanging out the top & a tail at the bottom.

And there you have a unique handmade origami ornament!

12/15/09

Hey, Miss! Can you spare a dollar?

It really bugs me when people, either male or female, hound other people in parking lots for money.

And it really bugs me when there are 2 or 3 of them 'working the lot'.

This morning I came across one in the parking lot of the 99 cent store. It was quite a funny encounter.

I spotted this guy & his buddy when I was parking, bugging shoppers for a buck.

So when he {literally} ran over to my car when I got done shopping, I was prepared.

He never even said what he wanted the dollar for. Just that he had a car.

Yeah, me too. Do I get a buck for that??

Me: Yeah. You & the other 2 or 3 guys asking for a dollar.

Him: No. Really. I do have a car. It's over there.

Me: Sure. You could point to any car in the lot & say it's yours. I wouldn't know.

Him: Want me to prove it to you? Here are my keys. I'll go start it up.

By now I can tell he's getting agitated.

Me: Don't bother. I don't carry cash. {Okay. I did have a dollar but he sure wasn't getting it!}

Him: Sure. Yeah. You don't have any cash. Whatever.

He begins to walk away then turns and starts to say something like you don't have cash, yeah, more like you don't have class.

I guess because I didn't just hand over money to him & his co-beggar?

He stomps off towards the 99 cent store in a tissy fit {so much like a toddler!} and I yell to him:

Hey! You have a nice Holiday!

He turned, started stuttering something incomprehensible & then as I get into the van I yelled

Have a great day, too!

I think I really pissed him off!

12/11/09

Go Elf Yourself!

Remember those emails from a couple years back where your friends put their faces on dancing elf bodies & sent them to you with a Holiday greeting?

Well, one of Jan's co-workers was playing around and was Elfing employees, then Jan Elfed some people, so I decided to Elf the kids.

Take a look. It's so funny. {Unfortunately you have to click the link to view the video. They don't give you an option to add it in the body of your post. Kinda sucks}



They have other movies you can make. Jan made one.

A word of caution, though ~ you just might pee your pants from laughing so hard....


If you need a little Holiday stress relief, I suggest you go Elf yourself. And some friends, too!

12/10/09

They say curiosity killed the cat. This morning, it killed my keyboard.....

I got up this morning & as I do every morning and I went to turn on my laptop. When I opened it, the left hinge was sticking and popping out. So being how I am, I went to work on trying to fix it.

Mind you I have no idea what I was doing.

Which is pretty much how I start fixing any of my computers.

And how I usually end up messing things up.

So, I was messing with the hinge {a screw had come loose} and thought I'd take off the keyboard to check out how it's connected & to clean it.

I got it off all right. Got it cleaned up, too. Only problem is, in the process I broke the cable that connects the keyboard to the motherboard!

Lucky for me I had 3 extra keyboards for a PC {don't ask} & one that hooked up via the USB port.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to use a laptop with a PC keyboard??

First off, it feels different. So I keep hitting all the wrong keys.

Worse than I normally do!

Second, every time I have to type something, I start on the laptop keyboard & get 3 words in when I remember it ain't workin'!

It's such a bugger.

I did a Google search on how to fix my keyboard {ain't no fixin' this one} and found an Ebay store that sells keyboards for a little as $12! Lucky for me I have just about that much in my PayPal account so I can get another one.

In the mean time, while I wait for the new keyboard, I have to suffer with adjusting to this one.

The silver lining, though, is I now know how to correctly check, remove & replace my laptop keyboard!

12/7/09

Only A Man Would Do This

Me: Really, Sean? You couldn't put the toilet paper on the roll??? Is it that difficult???

Sean: I did put it on the roll....




12/4/09

The Draft


I really, really, really hate this cold weather.

Which, according to some, really is not all that cold.

And I know.

I grew up in New England.

Winters sucked.

Big time.

In my world, anything below 60 degrees is cold. And every morning this week it's been like 48 degrees!!!

Right now, I'm waiting until it warms up some. It's supposed to be 63 today. Just a tad above warm for me.

I want to spray paint more picture frames. And even though I love the smell of paint, it's probably not a good thing to spray inside. But it's still too cold outside right now.

So, I wait in my cold corner of the house for the sun to come out.

Actually, all the corners are cold.

And near every door and window. One of the drawbacks of renting an old house.

Typically, with rentals around here, the owner has never lived in the house & is very tight with the wallet when it comes to things like, oh, I don't know, making it energy efficient. Our owner did live in the house. For about 6 years.

I guess a cold house in the winter & a hot one in the summer never bothered him.

I guess a huge heating & cooling bill never bothered him, either.

Every door, {and we have 4 that are exit doors & 1 to the garage} have gaps big enough to see light through & allow hot & cold in. They're easy enough to fix with some weather stripping. But one of the doors is a huge arcadia. And let me tell you, it is C.O.L.D. near that sucker. Really, the entire door needs to be pulled and replaced {and right now, I could pull that door out!}. Which we can do, then deduct from the rent.

And is totally great.

If we had the money.

Don't even get me started on the windows. Crap, cheap ones that are probably original to the house. {Which was built in the early 60's}

So, here I sit with cold toes, even though I'm wearing shoes & socks, waiting for the sun to come out so I can do some spray painting, and sit in the sun reading while they dry.

Thank goodness for warm laptops. Otherwise my fingers would be half frozen!!!

12/2/09

Christmas will hit us like a ton of bricks


I used to be so prepared for Christmas. I'd have most of my shopping done and anything I was making either done, or close to it.

Sean was always the one to go out Christmas Eve, after work no less, to do his shopping.

I hate that.

I'm a planner.

A "do it with plenty of time to spare" kinda gal.

Plan ahead. Way ahead.

I must confess, though, last year I was not. at. all. prepared.

I **GASP** shopped Christmas Eve!!

I think this year will, unfortunately, be a repeat.

And time is not the issue. Because, let's face it, I have plenty of that.

No, it will be money. Unfortunately Sean's had a few more bad days/weeks than usual. Which really puts a strain on the worn out ol' wallet.

I'm trying to get the girls (who, like most kids their generation, are very materialistic) to remember that Christmas isn't all about the gifts you get.

It's also about spending time with family.

Just yesterday, Dare & I were going to Target, and she was saying how last year they got "like only 3 presents" and if they were going to get the same this year. (I guess she forgot to count all the gifts from Aunts, Uncles, and Grandmas) I told her she just might get less! Then I had to remind her, again, it's not all about the presents.

I refuse to stress over any of it. It's not worth it.

If we all get only one gift each this year then I will be thankful for that.

Because no matter how many things you have, it doesn't matter one bit if you do not have friends, family & good health to enjoy them with.

Of course if someone wants to get me say, a tripod, or 8 GIG USB flash drive, or even better a zoom lens!!! I won't be doing any complaining!

11/25/09

Echos

With family coming over for Thanksgiving, I figured now is as good a time as any to finally get rid of boxes that have been sitting in the living room & dining room.

I mean, really. We moved in almost 3 months ago. Time to look like we've settled in. Not like we're still moving in!

And now, with the boxes gone and very little furniture, the house echos.

But I like it.

Even though an echo-y house means an empty house, to me, it means an uncluttered house.

I'm trying very hard to unclutter.

And keep that way.

But the echo will disappear starting in just a few hours.

First with the delivery of a much needed couch & love seat.

And tomorrow, with the laughter & sounds family.....

11/24/09

On the Way to School This Morning


Me: R, are you eating an orange?

R: Of course.

Me: I thought so. I smelled it. Weird. I also smell bacon.

R: It's Savannah. She didn't take a shower this morning.

11/22/09

You're Never Too Old

Today the girls are playing Hide and Seek.

They've been playing for over an hour now.

It's so nice to see them playing & getting along without much fighting.

Let's see if this can last most of the day.

11/18/09

Cannon is Enjoying is New Bed

And so is Piper!!


{Cannon was not at home when this event occurred.}

11/17/09

Auto Pilot

Ever have one of those days, or a whole week, where you feel like you're simply going through the motions?

That's been me the last 4 days.

Every year, when the weather suddenly goes from hot 90 degree days to cold 70 degree days, I get a cough.

And yes, that's all it is. A simple cough.

One of those dang coughs that causes you to wake up in the morning with a chest full of gunk, then a dry hacking all day. Sleep has been sporadic, causing me to wake up tired and with a crappy headache.

So, I get up my usual 5:00 am, take a shower {because nothing loosens up all that gunk that's settled in your chest over night like a steamy shower} then go through the motions of getting the kids up & ready for school, stopping for gas, running to the grocery store {Did I remember to get cereal? Did we need cereal?? It hurts to think. And make a grocery list.} then home to become a couch potato.

I did manage to get the whole house swept on Sunday.

And yesterday?

Yesterday I made this....


Because this guy deserves it.

And I'm tired of vacuuming the couch every other day.

11/11/09

Games People Play



So, we ended up playing Disney Monopoly despite Savvy's "dislike" if the game.

Unlike regular Monopoly, this one did not last FOR-EV-ER!

And Savvy won.

I lost.

I lost everything.

But that wasn't the point of it all. It was to do something as a family. And that's something we haven't been able to do in a very long time. With Savvy constantly at cheer practice or a game & Sean typically working until 6 or 7, our family time is sporadic.

Even Piper joined in!


I apologize for the poor quality of the photos. This is what happens when a.) you still don't know how to use your camera properly; b.) you have horrible lighting in your dining room and c.) you forget to change settings on your camera.

BTW ~ Although Savvy is holding her, Piper sat up to the table like that. I think she really, really, wanted to get the dice every time we rolled!!

Or to steal a cottage. She's a little thief like that. She will pick it up in her paw, put it in her mouth & run off with it!!

Just before we finished up, Sean come home from taking Cannon with him to play disc golf.

It was his birthday, {Sean's. Not Cannon's}, so he went to play a round and have a couple beers with the guys.

Then he had to face off Savvy in a Connect Four Challenge.

This occurs a few times a year. Savvy is convinced she can beat Sean EVERY time and has to have a competition to prove it.

Which is so funny to watch because they're both very competitive.

And both hate to lose.


Even after a couple of beers, he didn't do too bad. I think it was Sean 3 games won. Savvy 1.

There were a few attempts at cheating and 'do-overs' on her part.

Didn't help any...

11/10/09

Stripopoly

It's after dinner and the girls are cleaning up, doing dishes, getting ready to sit down and play a game with me.

Savvy took a shower, so I knocked on her door to ask if she wanted to play Disney Monopoly.

She said she didn't really want to. She is against Monopoly (she was kidding) and wanted to play Yahtzee.

"But first let me get dressed."

"Please. We're not playing strip Yahtzee or Monopoly."

"Oh, yeah. Stripopoly!"

10/27/09

Lookin' Good

The diet food and morning walks are working wonders for Canon....



Too bad it's not doing the same for me.....

10/26/09

The Missing Daughter

While going through all my photos from the last 6 months or so, I noticed a lack of Savvy pics.

So it got me to thinking. If someone, many years from now, who does not know our family, looks through all my photos, they may begin to wonder what happened to her.

Where did she go?

The answer is simple ~ she's a Varsity Cheerleader.

Which means she is almost never home.

She has practice every day after school except Friday. Fridays are game day, plus she has tumbling on Mondays {after practice} and Dance on Tuesday {before practice}.

And now they are gearing up for the State Competitions in January, so practices are increased. Especially for those on Pom.

Which is Cheer.

But with more dance moves.

And of course pom poms!

In a way it's a good thing because she is too busy to get into a whole lot of trouble. But man, all this carting around I have to do, back and forth, back and forth, can really suck.

I am in no way one of those Moms who is sooooo excited and happy to cart their kid to every activity under the sun and then some.

If I could, I'd have a driver for her.

And for myself!!

On one of the rare nights Savvy was home {Thursday night} and not working her butt off, {Literally. Because Cheer will do that to ya!} I was playing with my camera & she let me take some pictures.

They didn't come out so great, because when Savvy decides to sit and let me take pictures, I don't waste time fiddling with settings. If I take too long, she might change her mind, cop an attitude {Noooo. Not Savvy!!} and my photo op is gone.

The lighting was horrible ~ everything had a yellow cast to it.

So my fix ~ make the picture a black and white!

Enjoy these rare photos of Savvy. Because you never know when I'll get another chance shoot her....



10/20/09

I HATE YOU!!!

The kids were watching Eight Simple Rules the other day, and in this episode, Paul was telling his girls how it hurts his feelings and makes him feel like the bad guy when they say they hate him. They explained to him that when they yell out they hate him, it really means they love him.

I can so relate.

It reminded me of the first time Savvy said she hated me. {The first of many!} She was about 3 or 4 at the time and I'm sure it was because she had misbehaved and was getting punished. She ran down the hall & yelled as loud as she could I HATE YOU!!!!

For some reason this really bothered Sean & he insisted she apologize to me and never, ever say that again.

I explained to him that in that moment, at that time, she did hate me. And that's okay. Because, believe you me, I knew exactly how she felt.

I can only remember a few times I was really mad at Mom for punishing me {or worse, making me clean my room!!} and at that moment, I hated her. Sometimes I hated her with the fire of a thousand burning suns.

FOREVER AND EVER!!!

But I quickly got over it. And so did Savvy. I knew she would forget all about it by the next day {or when she wanted something} and life would go on.

In the 12 or so years since that first I HATE YOU!, there have been plenty more. Always followed by, Thank you. I love you, too. {Said by me. Which irritates her.}

Then, when your 16 year old willingly sits next to you on the couch and watches 30 minutes of TV with her head on your shoulder, it is so worth all those I HATE YOUs!!

10/19/09

Accidental Irony

This morning I rummaged through our Halloween stuff for things to photograph with Danny. One of the items was a rubber skeleton. Unfortunately, he had been stored for the past 3 years in an odd position so his head was bent way back.

He looked decapitated.

I didn't really want a headless skeleton for what I was planning {maybe for another shot, though!} so I set him on the corner of the kitchen counter by a wooden bowl that's used as a "catch-all".

I looked around for something that was small enough to fit under his chin, but also had enough weight to set his head back into position.

This was the first thing I grabbed out of the bowl that fit the bill....

10/18/09

Oops! My Bad

Lately I've been noticing that the LCD screen on my camera has been full of finger prints.

And if there is one thing that bugs the hell out of me, it's finger prints on my computer and/or LCD screen.

I secretly blamed R, since she's been borrowing it a lot lately, and I'm careful to not get fingerprints on it.

I just picked up the camera to download some pictures today and realized something.

When I pick up the camera from my desk to remove the memory card, I unthinkably {okay, stupidly} pick it up spearing the LCD screen with my greasy fingerprints.

Ooops!

{I secretly apologized to R (since I secretly blamed her). Although I'm pretty sure not ALL those fingerprints are mine!}

10/15/09

Our Other Water Baby

So far, every morning this week, at 6 AM, Canon & I are up and out for our walk.

He really loves it.

And why not?

He gets to walk around the neighborhood smelling new smells and peeing on just about everything!

A dog's dream!

And if he gets really lucky, he might even see a cat or two to bark at and attempt to chase.

And every morning, without fail, once we get back and in the house, he gets all excited once again.

He heads for the back door, taps the door handle with his nose, and waits to go outside.

Why? You may ask.

He was just out.

Walking, smelling, barking, peeing.

What's so exciting about the back yard.

The one he sees all day.

Everyday.

Well, he's a lab.

And this is what's so exciting about the backyard....



I'm not sure way he really! really! really! wants to swim after our walks. I thought maybe it's because it can be soothing on aching joints.

Or maybe it's just because the pool is there. And he can.

He enjoys it all throughout the day, that's for sure.

Like the other day, when we were all playing in the back yard, he enjoyed about 45 minutes of fetching the disc from the pool.



I'd say he's pretty happy right about now.....

10/12/09

Canon Ball Run

As many of our family members know, we have a dog, Canon.

We like to call him our rescue dog.

And I like to call Sean The Dog Rescuer.

Like The Dog Trainer, Victoria Stilwell.

Or The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Milan.

Canon used to live with a family who really didn't want him. The guy played disc golf with Sean & had 2 boys who really, really, really wanted a puppy. So, to shut them up, he went to a breeder and bought a yellow lab with Champion AKC registered parents.

But the adorable roly poly puppy grew into a big rambunctious puppy. He wasn't allowed in the house. He was fenced in a small concrete area and crated at night. He jumped on the window all the time to get the family's attention, so they put a shock collar on him, and never played with him, walked him, or paid him any attention.

When Sean brought him home, he was a little over a year old. And so much like an over active 1 year old boy!

We had a love/hate relationship. I had to get used to dealing with a toddler who had no discipline or training. It was a rough first year. I had to remind myself whenever he did things, like eat bacon out of the frying pan while it was cooking, that he doesn't know any better because no one ever taught him.

Being a smart breed of dog, he learned quickly.

Thank goodness.

For my own sanity!

He loves me & the girls. And absolutely worships Sean.

For seven years he never had to stay outside. Unless he wanted to. He got people food 'treats' after most meals, and played disc golf with Sean a couple times a week.

He got to sleep on the kids' bed.

7-2-05

He had his own bean bags to lounge on in the living room.

Okay. They really weren't for him. They were for the girls. But we never discouraged him from using them.

2-21-06


5-7-06

Heck. We pretty much let him have whatever he wanted to rest his head on.


6-10-06

He was pretty spoiled. Sure, there are some dogs who are spoiled way more than ours, but then that tends to lean towards the ridiculous.

He got manicures...

7-3-06


The girls made sure he was dressed properly for each Holiday from head to toe. Literally.

4-8-07

But then things changed.

We had to move in a very short amount of time from our rental house to an apartment that did not allow dogs his size.

So Sean asked a friend to board him for us. The plan was for a year, then we would move back into a house.

But as life sometimes goes, that year turned into three before we got another house.

Although I'm very grateful to Sean's friend for keeping Canon for much longer than planned, I am also very angry and upset.

At first we were thinking of leaving Canon where he was. After all, it had been 3 years, he had another dog for company, and a large yard to play in. Besides, no one wanted to clean up after a dog & I did not want a smelly yard and dog poo by the pool.

But again, not everything goes as planned, and Sean brought Canon home last Friday.

The last time the girls and I saw him was 2 years ago. The last picture above was taken when Sean brought him to the apartment Easter weekend for a "sleepover".

The dog he brought home on Friday, was not the dog we saw 2 years ago.

This is that dog...



To truly get an idea of why I'm a bit upset/angry/frustrated with Sean's friend, you would have to see Canon.

And have smelled him those first 2 days.

Gads, he smelled horrible. The whole house stank so bad I had to make a run to Wal-Mart and buy air fresheners for every room of the house just to purge the smell.

After 2 baths and 4 dips in the pool, he finally smells like a normal dog.

But his weight is what really gets me.

I know he is our dog & a friend was doing us a favor, but how he could let Canon get to where he is now, is what I consider animal abuse.

He is so overweight, it is difficult for him to get up, and after he does he's breathing is so labored, he sounds like he has severe asthma.

I can not understand how Sean's friend could not only see how heavy Canon was, but hear how his breathing is. Not to mention he can barely run.

Something he did a lot of when we had him.

Apparently he was fed canned dog food (something we never give our dogs) and loads of restaurant scraps with little to no exercise.

I think that's why Sean took him back. But he won't say. He refuses to talk about it.

So now Canon is on a restricted diet (diet dog food only, no treats for awhile) and I've been taking him for a walk every morning (good for both of us!). Hopefully that will get him back into shape.

I realize he is 10 years old, but I'm pretty sure if he had been with us continuously, he may be a bit thicker in the middle, but no were near what he is now.

Even his coat has lost it's shine and luster, he has what look and feel to be fatty tumors on his left side, and I think he may have some joint pain in his back legs. It's hard to say if it's something like arthritis, that would've occurred anyway with age, or something brought on by the excessive weight.

I'm hoping with the attention he so craves and deserves, a proper diet and exercise, he will get close to looking like the dog we used to have.

Only time will tell.

10/9/09

She is Why Her Mother Has Gray Hair

Me: Do you know who this band is?

Savvy: No. Who?

Me: Hole. Do you know who the lead singer of Hole is?

Savvy: No. Who?

Me: Courtney Love. Do you know who Courtney Love was married to?

Savvy: No. Who?

Me: Kurt Cobain. Do you know what band Kurt Cobain was lead singer of?

Savvy: YES! Nirvana.

ME: Right.

Savvy: So this is Nirvana?

Me: No. This is Courtney Love's band, Hole.

Savvy: I'm confused.

10/7/09

If Only It Were ATrue

Savvy: Piper, you want to go out front? Well, too bad. You can't.

Piper! Stop following me!! Just because I won't let you out in the front, it doesn't mean I will let you out back.

Be quiet!!

Hey, Mom.

Me: Yes?

Savvy: Is this how we sound when we keep bugging you for something? Piper just keeps whining & whining.

Me: Yes. That is exactly how you sound. Annoying isn't it?

Savvy: Yes. So from now on, when I ask you something & you say no, I'm not going to keep asking.

Me: Promise?

10/5/09

Yeah, Sure, The Water's Just Fine. Come On In....

As we suspected when we decided to rent this house, D has been loving the pool. Since Sean had it cleaned enough to swim in last week, she has been in it every day.

Twice, sometimes three, times a day!

She is going to be very sad the end of this week until about April or May. It's going to be way too cold to swim.

But it wouldn't surprise me if she attempts to try it.

Yesterday, despite the pool temp being about 76 degrees, she was in it about 3 times throughout the day.

Definitely not warm enough for me to dive in!

D: Mom, come in. It's not really that bad. You know if you would just move around in the pool, your body will get used to it & it won't be so cold. You always jump in, say it's cold, & get out.

Me: Because it is cold!

D: Mom! Don't you remember how it was in Massachusetts in the winter? When you went out, you had to move around to stay warm. It's just like that.

Me: D. I avoided going out in the winter at all costs. Just like I avoid the cold pool in October.

And November.

And December.

And January.....

10/1/09

Moments That Soon Will Pass

This afternoon after work (Yes, this week I've been going into the office. YEAH!) & getting the younger 2 from school, D & I were lying on my bed talking about our day.

Hers was much more exciting than mine.

As we were lying there, the light from my bedroom window was hitting her face in such a way that it really brought out her freckles and eyes.


**We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for this bizarre sighting**

I had to pop out real quick to take S to practice & saw a man walking down the street.

On stilts!

I've never seen anyone outside the circus walking on stilts.

Very bizarre.

**We now return you to your regularly scheduled program**

So, I had to get a picture. It is so rare that I get good shots of her.

She is so much like her Grandmother when it comes to getting her picture taken!!

But today, she was all into it.

And I think I got an excellent shot of her.



It's amazing how just an eye can say a lot...