Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The World Through Hadley's Lens...

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Random Thoughts and Observations...

-I love the show Pretty Little Liars. It is so cheese-tastic. I like to sign emails and texts with...A... just to see if anyone else watches and gets it. Please don't mock me for my choice of mindless TV, and at least my name starts with the right letter for this prank.

-I'm also very excited that I finally used my Erin Condren gift card that my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas. It was a big decision to decide what to use it on! Ha!! I picked out a great piece that will come in super handy in the kitchen.

-Have you ever had so much to do that you just feel like your whole world is spiraling out of control? I've been feeling that way lately. Work is busy. The kids are keeping me busy. I just need a few days to catch my breath. Here lately, I've only been breathing on Sundays. One day a week just isn't enough.

-Does anyone want to go to the grocery store for me?

-I think people who block people (with the exception of stalkers and ex-husbands) on twitter are passive aggressive. And kind of silly too. This one chick I follow is constantly blocking people because they tweet hashtags she doesn't like. Can I just ask? Does it really bother these people to get blocked by her? I doubt it. I guess it makes her feel better to block people. I've been blocked by a few people. One was trying to piss me off. He didn't realize that I went out to celebrate that night. Grow a set, dude.

-Read Across America Week is approaching...or it may have already happened...not sure when I will get around to publishing this...I love this particular week of school because each day is filled with dress up and books.

-Hadley will stay in bed until I absolutely drag her out of it. To be honest, it is completely annoying. Some Saturdays are brutal trying to get the family out of the house for lunch because H-Dizzy still isn't awake.

-There is nothing more gut wrenching that catching up to live TV on Tivo. Honestly. I watched a show over the weekend and caught up. There was no way to fast forward through the commercials. I thought I might actually fit over it.

-There are few things sexier than an IRS audit. That is a total lie. On days when I have to deal with an audit, I actually comb my hair and brush my teeth. Both. I also have been known to wear extra deodorant.

-I am starting to get pretty excited about going to Washington DC in April. I think it will be a lot of fun!!

-I want to have a really big tweet up. That's a meet up for all of my tweethearts. I would love to get as many as possible in one location for fun and food. The odds of that happening are small though. :) Maybe I will organize one after tax season ends. Would that not be so much fun?? We could all meet somewhere exotic. Like Eppes. That was supposed to be a joke.

-I've been thinking about Easter baskets for the codependents. They have plain baskets with colored, paper straw. I'm thinking of getting them something a little cutesy this year....or making something...I'm thinking a galvanized bucket of some kind with their initials on them. The handles are the only thing tripping me up. Buckets do not have cozy handles, and I want cozy handles because I plan on making them hunt eggs until they pass out.

-I'm starving.


Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Just Hanging Out Playing Nintendo...

These things must be laced with crack. My children are ridiculously in love with their DSI XLs. They play on them all the time. They also use the PictoChat. I think it's like text messaging software. No joke, they will "chat" while sitting next to each other.

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I have asked. Why don't you just talk? The littles tell me it is more fun to PictoChat. I'm not sure if Hadley's 3 DS has the PictoChat. The 3 DS drives me nuts. I looked at it once and got a headache in about 4 seconds flat. I've never been much of a game-type person. The hubs and kids love to play games. Just not me. I prefer to read or do something that makes me feel productive.

I love finding them curled up together playing games. It's so sweet. 

Monday, February 27, 2012

Life without Me...

J is an interesting fellow. We like to joke about what his life would be like without me and the kids. He's so cheap that if we had never married, he....

...would live in a one room shanty.
...would have a space heater that he only turned on occasionally.
...would probably only have one lightbulb that also was only turned on occasionally.
...would eat tuna from a can for the majority of his meals.
...would consider a fancy night on the town a trip to Captain D's.
...would wash his clothes by hand...because that was good enough for the indians.
...wouldn't bother with AC; he would just open the door to his one room shanty and sweat.
...probably would have the world's most uncomfortable bed because it was cheap to buy.

It's true. Most of the creature comforts he enjoys are at my insistence. He is an incredibly cheap fellow. BUT for some unknown.....he would spend any amount of money to make me happy. It's impressive how much the man loves me. It's completely irrational really. The lengths to which he would go to make my life wonderful and see me smile are not logical at all.

True story. About 9 months ago or so, I was at my friend Jenny's house along with our girl Ashley. We were sitting out back drinking wine and enjoying the weather. The hour got late, and we got hungry. Jenny's husband (ironically, also called Jay) refused to go get us some Krystal. In my inebriated state, I seem to recall saying, "My J will go get it for us." I called him, and sure enough he walked through the door with a sackful sampler of grease.

Oh my word!! Can you believe I had the stones to call him at 11 o'clock at night and ask him to go buy Krystal burgers? It may have been the liquid truth serum I had been drinking. BUT STILL. I am embarrassed that I did such a thing.

Love. It ain't logic. It's just love.

Born This Way...

Watch out baby. She was born this way.

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That's actually one of my scarves from The Blue Door Boutique that she has fashioned into a sari. I've never worn it quite like that! I'm not even sure how she figured out to do this, but it was hysterical!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Yo, Mommers...Watch This...

One of Layton's goals in Kung Fu is to do a cart wheel. That move is in a form (or whatever you call it), so he has to learn to do it. Even at birthday parties, he practices his wheel.

Get ready. Get Set.

He's gonna do it.

Whoa Nelly. He does it left handed even though he writes with his right hand. He's very ambidextrous much like my father was.

He obviously needs more work, but he's getting there.

Upside down. Legs sprawling. One hand on the ground. Over he's gonna go.

That's all folks.

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He'll get there one day. And really. This looks so much better than when he first tried to do it. :) He has gotten so much bigger and stronger since he started working on it that I think he'll master it soon. 

Friday, February 24, 2012

Project O Holy Jeans...

Layton's holy pants have been driving me batty. Honestly, I spent money on these jeans, and he managed to blow out the knees in all of them.


Don't get me wrong. I am thrilled that he is healthy and can blow out the knees of pants. I just want to upcycle them somehow, because other than the holes, they are still good pants.


So these pants have been dubbed...Project O Holy Jeans.

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Some are too far gone to be of any use as pants. I'm going to hack them off and hem them into blue jean shorts for Summer. The others I will try to patch in some kind of cute fashion. Have no fear. The results of Project O Holy Jeans will no doubt make the blog. 

Return of the Gagalicious Ella...

Really. Need I say more?

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Twisted Sister...Part Deux...

In an effort to try other editing software, I tried out Lightroom. It's definitely not as easy to use as Picnik, but I was able to mess around with the look of this picture. For example....

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I probably liked it better before, but this picture was just to show that I could use something else. Clearly, I am in need of help. :)

Random Thoughts and Observations...

1. I was recently told that I act like I own the English language. If I would stop correcting my children when they use I instead of me, I might not seem like an elitist. I'm much more picky about spoken words than written words. I tend to take a liberal approach to grammar rules when I blog, but I am a stickler for commas and subject/predicate agreement in professional writings and speech.
2. I have a zit on my forehead that is HUGE.
3. Am I the only person who thinks carpet in a bathroom is a huge no-no? I've been in a couple of restrooms lately that are carpeted, and I gotta say that shiz stinks.
4. I like to wash all the grapes I buy and separate them into snack sized bags as soon as I get home with them. It makes packing lunches easier in the mornings. Plus, anytime one of us is in need of a snack, we can just grab a baggie of grapes from the refrigerator since they are ready to go.
5. Ella told me I am the skinniest mom ever. She really wants those Toms and will say anything to butter me up enough to buy them. Subterfuge. At 8.
6. There is biscuit in my hair. Hmmm. I'm noticing that I get food in my hair a lot these days. Maybe I should look a little harder at getting a haircut...or maybe I should stop doing 50 other things while I'm eating.
7. Meal planning has been a failure lately. We've been far too busy to plan ahead. I hope to get back to planning soon.
8. It was a banana peel that was stinking up my car not an apple. Soooo gross. I can't believe it took me so long to clean it up.
9. Does everyone feel as strongly about hand washing after a pit stop as I? Clearly not. Ewww. I witnessed someone who shall remain nameless go in the restroom. I heard the flush. The offender appeared not 2 seconds later. Definitely not enough time to wash. I was kind of grossed out. Actually, I went to the ladies room, scalded my hands in hot water, and repeated "I need to wash" close to 100 times. It was very Jack Nicholson.
10. Someone I work with suffers from colon rot. At least, that's what I think causes that gosh awful smell in the ladies room all day every day. I'm saying this out of concern. Someone really needs to get their business checked out because that cannot be healthy.
11. A few weeks ago, I crossed over into complete stalker-like territory. I found a website that I LOVED. I could absolutely see my friend Elizabeth in every single outfit on there! Soooo, I went full on creeper and emailed her a link to the site. I may have even used creeper as the subject. Hmmmm.
12. I finally bought some riding boots. Finally. As in. If J were forced to listen to me lust after riding boots and refuse to pay the price for another month, he would have bought me a pair of rubber, camouflage boots just to shut me up. Seriously people. I have been looking at, trying on, and pricing riding boots for close to three years now. I just couldn't bring myself to spend between $300 and $500 on a single pair of shoes. A local store (that I am convinced is selling pot out of the back, but that's another story) sells Frye boots. We go there from time to time, and I am on their email list. I got their standard junk email last week...but it started with "Boots 50% Off!" Whatdyaknow. A pair that I absolutely love was in stock, in my size, and 50% off. So I pulled the trigger and bought them. I still haven't worn them though. It's like I just want to leave them next to the dresser and look at them before I fall asleep every night. Soon. Soon I will prance around downtown in my boots.
13. It looks like a recycling center threw up on my desk. Oh wait, that's just 300 tax returns to be done. My bad.

Twisted Sister...

I was sad to learn that Picnik is ceasing operation. I am not lying when I say that it has made a world of difference for me with photographs. I like to airbrush out certain flaws and play with the colors. Picnik was so user friendly; that's why I liked it so much. Plus, it was integrated with Picasa, so I could edit pictures inside the program I used to sort and store all my pictures. Boo hiss on the folks who decided to do away with it.

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There are lots of online editing sites. I'd say that iPiccy is the closest to Picnik available, but I don't want something online. I'd rather be able to use it the way I did Picknik from Picasa.

So....

I'm on the hunt for something new. I tried Photoshop, but honestly, it was more program than I need. Also, I didn't find it too user friendly. What are all of you using? Recommendations?

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Ella...

The Ella is a mysterious creature. She loves to ham it up in front of the camera. She also loves to be coy. There is rarely a black and white moment with the Ella. She is almost always thinking of her next move. The Ella is much like her father in that. I do not recommend taking her on in a game of checkers. She has already thought of the next 12 possible moves. 


Oh, the Ella. So full of life and quirks. Peeling her personality back one layer at a time is a full time job. She will no doubt do remarkable things one day.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The World Through Hadley's Lens...

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Early Morning Antics...

We're not really morning people here. We like to stay up late. I'm most productive late at night. The codependents are the same way. HOWEVER....

Once we all get waked up and moving, things fall into place. Including the personalities of the little two. Hadley spends the mornings taking a shower and drying her hair and trying her best to act like she's happy to be awake before noon. The other two? Well, here's what a recent morning before school was like...

Take a picture of this slow motion face slap!

Watch out, Ella! I'm going to pretend to punch you!!

I'll get you back Layton! I'll give you moose ears in the next one!!

Try and stop me from mussing your hair!!

Awww, we still love each other!!

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Sunday, February 19, 2012

More Culinary Treats by Ella...

Mama Kaye had a recipe for Pink Merangue Kisses that she held onto and let Ella help make. They turned out so cute!



Sweet Ella is so thrilled with everything she makes in the kitchen!

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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Randoms Thoughts and Observations from This Week...

1. Ella may have a shoe addiction. She just got two new pairs of tennis shoes and is now begging for a pair of Toms. I may have to find a second job just to pay for all her shoes.

2. There are no words to describe how grateful I am for all the kind comments on my post about Hadley and the dance twirl tryouts. I have been telling everyone how beautiful I am; it's ya'll's fault for saying she is beautiful...and looks just like me....what else was I supposed to infer?

3. I found something so disgusting in the refrigerator this week that I almost threw up a little in my mouth. And then...I spilled the yuck on the floor trying to get it to the garbage can. True, I was holding the can as far away from my nose as possible and had my head turned while walking...it was a mess that could have been avoided. What was it? It was a half empty can of pear halves that I had meant to eat for lunch the day after I opened it. Instead it turned into some kind of black smelly liquid. For reals.

4. I really should have my eyebrows waxed. I've been plucking them since 1994 when a wax job went askew, and I ended up with flat lines for brows. It scarred me. Now, I rarely remember to pluck. Feel free to call me swarthy the next time you see me.

5. Speaking of hair. I haven't had a haircut since April...wait for it...of 2011. Maybe I should look into taking care of that.

6. I pulled a muscle on Valentine's Day. No, not from a sexy Valentine's event. I had to take drinks and bingo to Ella and Layton's class parties. All of us moms at their elementary school are helicopter moms, so there were no less than 100 cars in the parking lot. I parked all of 19,000 square acres away from the school and didn't want to make two trips to carry in the capri suns and bingo sets, so I tried to get all of it in at once. When I reached to open the door (while precariously balancing boxes and bags and cameras), I felt it. It was soooo awful. I honestly thought I was going to vomit from the pain. I couldn't turn my head or lift my arm for 2 days. I'm better now, but I have been smelling like Bengay and chewing up Advil like tic tacs.

7. Hadley walked through the kitchen the other morning and said I smelled like Wint-o-greens. I told her it was Bengay. Being the sassed mouth pre-teen that she is, she said, "Who's Ben and why are you calling him gay?" I didn't bother with a retort.

8. True confession. I didn't wash my hair for two days after the notorious muscle pull. I did spray some perfume on it though. Whoops. I rocked a ridiculous pony tail. Mostly because it was the best I could do with my one good arm.

9. I wore a pair of jeans last weekend that I haven't been able to zip in more than a year. It was a good moment. Well, it was lovely until I realized I had some serious muffin top action going on. It's all good...I wore a tunic.

10. Layton totally sharted earlier this week. Don't even act like you don't know what that is. We both know you are mortified that I put it on the blog...for Layton's sake.

11. I may or may not have used all purpose cleaner as a substitute for detergent when I ran out earlier this week. Hell, I wasn't going to leave sharty underwear sitting around until I bought more detergent.

12. I lost the remote to my garage door opener. J got clever and ordered more from the interwebs. Of course the original clicker turned up a few days after the replacement came. So, I stuck the original in a kitchen cabinet in case we ever needed it.

13. I have a crush on Matt Bomer. He's all kinds of adorable.

14. I was perplexed by the garage door opening and closing by itself. Every single time I unloaded the dishwasher. Then I remembered number 12. My bad.

The Two Littles...

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Oh my word! These faces melt me!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Dance Twirl Tryouts...And Me Rambling about It...

A while back we discussed that Hadley wanted to try out for the dance twirl team.  Tryouts were not too terribly long ago. She had practiced as many hours as she had slept in the three weeks leading up to tryouts. It was non-stop Cee Lo Green in our garage. I know all the words now. Sometimes, I sing it when I'm cleaning house. Mainly because it's been playing 24 hours a day for so long now that I feel the need to hear the tune even when it's no longer playing.

The day of tryouts finally arrived. I checked her out of school an hour and a half early, so we could go home and do makeup and hair before the tryouts began immediately after school. It probably wasn't an excused absence, but I'm not all that worried about it at this point in time. I have got a million problems, and one unexcused afternoon just ain't one of 'em. The weather was atrocious. It was cold and rainy, so we had to settle for a pre-tryout picture in the car.



I went ahead and walked her into the gym for tryouts. I had to get at least one more picture of her.

I even made her pose.

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The lighting in the gym is heinous...that's what Layton would call it. He's been using the word heinous a lot lately. It's like he figured out what it means and tries to use it for all sorts of things. The gym smells exactly like it did the first time I walked in more than 20 years ago. It was like stepping back in time. Someone finally decided to get rid of the heinous blue paint though. I never could figure out why the gym was blue anyway. The school's colors are black and gold. Let's paint the gym bright blue. Heinous. Damn. The spirit of Layton took over my body.

She did make the team! She was so stinking excited. The walk to the door after the names had been posted was so stressful. I thought I was going to pass out going up the stairs. I was afraid that she wouldn't make it and would be upset. I would have absolutely no clue how to console her if that happened. It's almost like I'd rather have deadbeat kids who don't do anything...there's no risk of not making the team if you don't tryout. I'm bad. 

The World Through Hadley's Lens...

In an effort to keep embarrassing the ever loving mess out of my oldest child show off the photographs that Hadley takes, we will now begin a series of photo posts every few days or weeks entitled The World Through Hadley's Lens.

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I find every picture she takes to be so interesting. Maybe it's because I'm beginning to see her as less child-like.  The scenes and lighting that she finds pleasing...the colors she likes...just the overall composition of her pictures are fascinating to me. I never know what I will find on her memory card next....