October ~ I hardly knew ya.

This is how October looked to me while at work:

Intimidating. Yeesh.

Here is how October looked when I wasn’t at work:

We became a Brownie. How cute is that uniform? All the Moms insisted on the beanie caps. My vote was for purely photographic and scrapbooking purposes. Can you blame me?

We hung out with family.

Celebrated birthdays and flexible little girls.

We roasted pumpkin seeds.

And carved that bad boy. The kids and I love eating roasted pumpkin seeds (olive oil, garlic salt, kosher salt) – the tall man does not. Whatever. More for us.

The grand finale – Halloween.  Oh yeah, and a Gator football game.

Look at all those characters!

Hannah Montana gets a lift from her Mom.

Davy Jones & Lady Liberty (my favorite statue) graciously posed with me before heading out for the night.

Now it’s November… and I don’t anticipate things slowing down anytime soon.  

 

Busy: By the numbers

1 – Cello

1 – Huge addiction to Facebook.

6 - Little Brownies in the Troop

1 – Trip to the midwest

1 – Additional Hotel

2 – Fried computers

A bunch of birthdays.

And some pumpkins.

Okay, so I lost count.  Hey – I said it was busy.

Life with an Eight Year Old Girl

An exerpt from my evening:

“Hey Mommy.”

“Yes, Sweetie.”

“Guess What?”

“What?”

“Today at school people kept asking me the same question. Guess what it was?”

“What?”

“‘When are you getting your cast off?”‘

“What would you say?”

“Thursday. Thursday. Thursday. Thursday. And Mommy, guess what?”

“What?”

“I had everyone sign my cast. And guess what?”

“What?”

“My teacher signed it too. And Mommy, guess what?”

“What?”

“Erin and Audrey were acting silly with me today. And guess what?”

“What?”

“When I have my birthday party, I want to invite them.”

“Okay, that’s fine.”

“And Mommy, guess what?”

“What?”

“There was this episode of The Suite Life with Zach and Cody (which sounds like she says ‘thesuitelifeofzachandcody’) where London wanted everyone to think she liked animals but then Maddy told everyone that she had a fur coat, and guess what?”

“What?”

“She pretended to save an animal and guess what she did?”

“What?”

“She had Cody pretend to need her help with the animal, so guess what he did Mommy?”

“What?”

“He said “hey-person-I-don’t-know can you help me with this sick animal?’ so then London came over and guess what?”

“What?”

“She said ‘I would be happy to help person-I-don’t-know’ and she gave the animal mouth-to-mouth.”

“Well that’s just silly.”

“I know. And guess what Mommy?”

“What?”

“I read my paragraph to my teacher today and guess what?”

“What?”

“She liked it.”

“That’s great, sweetie.”

Satisfaction Guaranteed

It’s always nice when co-workers think about you while they’re on vacation.

Then again… maybe not.

Foxes at the Theater

Imagine the coincidence… all of our husbands decided to get us tickets to see Legally Blonde on the VERY SAME DAY! And… if that wasn’t cool enough – we were all sitting next to each other! Are they good or what?

So – on a Saturday afternoon we met here:

I had never been there before – but hope to go back many, many times. The theater is beautiful & has an amazing history.

We arrived (only had to circle the block once) and got ready to see a great show! It was terrific! The cast was talented and the show was awesome!

Me and the girls… only one blonde in the bunch! After the show, Jamie, Robin and I went to dinner in this neighborhood - which was really cool. We found a neat place with some of the best people watching ever and enjoyed some Southern cooking. (shrimp and grits - yum!)

What a great way to spend a Saturday – blonde or not.

Not-so-traditional

Today (June 8th) is my Mom’s birthday… or would’ve been my Mom’s birthday. Um, how do you say that after a person has died?

Well, anyway… for Mom’s birthday weekend I decided to go somewhere I’ve never been before.

Marti came with me for some supportive hand-holding and to make sure I didn’t pass out. I left this place with one of these:

Yeah, a tattoo. A white ink tattoo so that it doesn’t scream out at people while at work or other professional gatherings. Plus – it’s truly just for me, so as long as I know it’s there then I’m happy. They tried to talk me out of getting it done in white ink – but it’s exactly what I was looking for.

My Dad gave Mom a gold ankh charm for their wedding day. It’s the one thing I remember her wearing the most while I was growing up. I thought it was fitting for me to have this symbol of “everlasting life” on my wrist reminding me of her…the woman who gave me life. It’s on my left wrist – Mom & I were the only two lefties in the family.

The pink “glow” from the tattoo is my super-sensitive and still healing skin. And yeah, it hurt like a mother-trucker. Mom got a tattoo when she turned 50 – I couldn’t believe it and tried to scrape it off of her shoulder. She said, “It’s not coming off, Jen.”

For the record, I didn’t pass out…. I may have had to put my head between my knees for a second or two, but I did not pass out.

On Sunday, me & my sisters went to the cemetery to bring Mom some flowers and visit for a while. Great plan – my little one even came with me. But there was one little problem… we forgot the flowers.

We thought for sure we’d see a place once we got off the interstate, but we forgot that the cemetery is in the middle of the COUNTRY and there was nary a florist nor a grocery store to be seen.

(Yeah, I said ‘nary’ – what of it?)

Knowing our Mom as well as we do… I mean, this is the woman who would pick flowers and plants from other peoples’ lawns without batting an eyelash.  And somehow when I got my own place, I was given a full set of steak knives from that well-known Australian steakhouse and lots and lots of sweet-n-low packets.

We saw some pretty flowers on the side of the road and brought those to her. I think she would have liked them.

Happy Birthday Mom.

So Inspiring…

On the way home the other day, I noticed a man jogging down the street with his dog.

I thought to myself, ”Look at him running with such ease. He’s hardly breaking a sweat. Gee, he looks so healthy jogging like that. He looks happy, tanned, well-rested.  Wow!  I wonder if that’s all from jogging? He probably eats healthy too. Gosh, he looks good.”  

I’m always thinking about becoming healthier… and maybe throwing some exercise in there too. (even though I hate it)

Hmmm… it made me wonder.

Do you think he could run with my dog?

Here and There

It’s been pretty eventful around here lately…

We had some of this:

… which was awesome, by the way. From what I hear from those people who live above the Mason Dixon, snow that lasts longer than a day can be sorta bad and quite uncomfortable. Our snow was melted (mostly) before we went to bed that night.

I went here:

And discovered my new favorite building (The Library of Congress):

I never knew how incomplete my life was without having a favorite building… but, now I feel much better knowing that it’s there. Man, it’s beautiful.

I also did some scrappy stuff:

These are for the kids to journal in when we go to NY in a few weeks. Or ignore them and toss them under the seats in the car. Whatever.

I know, crappy photo… I’ve been having this problem lately. This was for a J(3) challenge… I did one, Jen did one, and Julie did 753. Guess who won?

Between those things I’ve been reading a lot of books (yeah, still vampires) or networking and reconnecting (taking care of my virtual pet) on Facebook.

Exciting, I know.

The free book light rocks!

I don’t know why anyone *cough* would make fun of this product… it’s so cute & stylish! And the book light is beyond compare!

A big thanks to my sister & family for this most awesome of birthday presents. (and remind me not to make fun of anymore “as seen on TV” items, okay?)

And really… does anyone else look this good in blue felt?

I think not.

I had her when I was, um, 20. Cough.

This girl turned 8 a couple of weeks ago. Eight.

I’m having a hard time believing that my baby is eight. And I guess I should admit that she’s not a baby anymore.

Wasn’t she just a toddler yesterday watching Playhouse Disney and Blues Clues?

She’s, like, a girl. A person.

She’s got her own ideas, opinions, and fashion sense. 

I’m just not sure where she gets her independent spirit, her craziness… her character.

But if I find out, I’ll let you know.