Random pictures

Can you find the kitty-face?
Upside-down kitty-face!

Should we pounce on the kitty or just sit here and look at it?

I think I'll just sit here... it's naptime anyway.

Mom, what do you do all day?

Funny how kids think the floors just stay clean....

This is what happens when you see the camera sitting on the table when you are waiting for the floor to dry.

Ooops... I see I missed a spot.

Someone got bored today

The snowy kitty had to go bye-bye. I am sick of snow and I no longer want to advertise for it. I want green grass, colorful flowers and warm air. So now we are going to look at green leaves for awhile!

I was talking to the husband last night about "spring clean up" out at the lake. I can't wait for summer vacation when the girls & I can head out there and spend day after day after day....

Did I just say I can't wait for summer vacation?

I've gone mad.

10 Worst Baby Names of 2007 - MSN Lifestyle - Family & Parenting

10 Worst Baby Names of 2007 - MSN Lifestyle - Family & Parenting: "10 Worst Baby Names of 2007
What were these parents thinking?

People like to get creative when it comes to selecting the perfect name for their new arrivals. But in the quest to be unique, some kids get stuck with monikers that do more than make them stand out in a crowd. Here's The Nest Baby's picks for the most questionable choices from the past year.
From The Nest Baby

Ptolemy: The only other one we know of is an ancient Greek astronomer, mathematician, and man extraordinaire. Actress Gretchen Mol reached a little too far back in history for this Mediterranean-inspired choice. No one will be able to pronounce it, and what happens when the kid studies his namesake in school?

Magnus: Sounds too much like a prophylactic, volcanic matter, or a dated albeit then-popular Tom Selleck TV drama. Comic Kevin Nealon must be playing a joke on all of us with this choice.

E-: E...what? You'd think if you had to name your kid after a letter, Jay would be much better than this one, which was selected by parents in Washington. And while we're (grudgingly) willing to accept the use of apostrophes in baby names, we can't say the same for the hyphen. At least not when there isn't any more name to follow it.

Story: Actress Jenna Elfman's pick. It just doesn't make sense and certainly won't start a literary trend. Article, Essay, or Narrative, anyone? Every baby has a tale to tell, just not this way.

Ever: This is an adverb, not even an adjective or a noun, which do okay as names if you're in a pinch. It's going to get confusing when actress mom Milla Jovovich scolds the kid, "Ever, don't ever do that again!"

Heaven Rain: The only good news here: Brooke Burke's two older daughters are named Neriah and Sierra Sky. Though little Heaven's got a pretty lofty title to live up to, she'll fit right in at home.

Alabama: The trend of naming kids after locations obviously appealed to actress Drea De Matteo, but she's not even from the Southern state. We do hope she's going to be called Allie for short and turns out to be good at geography.

Princess: Every little girl is a princess to her parents, but it's a secret nickname. It's also a good name for a little fluffy white dog. Prince pulls off the male version because he's a rock star, but this baby, daughter of model Jordan, is set to be spoiled. (Don't get us started on Tiaamii, her middle name,...)

Evan: Don't go ballistic: Evan is a great name...for a boy. We know many wonderful Evans. But in this case, Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder bestowed it on his baby girl. Sorry, it's so not unisex.

Superman: No explanation necessary for why this New Zealand name made the list, but how about the story behind it? The parents' first choice was 4Real (as in, "when we saw him on the ultrasound, we realized he was for real"), but government officials didn't go for it. Mom and dad settled on Superman but insist they'll still refer to him as 4Real. Way to get the last word in.

I hope any of you who named your child one of these choices is offended that I posted this....

Too soon for the road

My parents reminded me yesterday that Demon #1 is 2 years away from her driver's permit. Lord help me... please.

This is the same child that I had this conversation with about 2 years ago:

"Mom, how does the car know when you are going to turn?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"How does the car know that you are going to turn so it can turn the blinkers on?"

And, yes, this is the same child that probably still thinks I've only had sex twice.

Vintage sleds shamless plug

Vintage sleds - vintage snowmobile: "03.05.08
LIVE ON SKIS JOURNAL PART II
First video from the big ride comes from our gal 'Ceptorlicious (great screen name huh? Can you tell she's a Kawasaki kind of gal?) who took this video at the beginning of the ride. First John Deere off the line is our special guest Forrest Hess."

Ha ha... they love me. Ok, maybe not love me, but the husband had to point out that I was mentioned on the front page of VintageSleds.com. I feel honored... although it's strange - I wasn't even at LOS! The husband took the video, I just posted it!

Anyway... just wanted to share because... well, they are a great bunch and I can say that.

Buy something, will you?

I have this problem, I'm sure most moms can relate. Husband, kids & me go shopping, we go home with something for everyone... except me. It's my fault though, I'd rather spend money on him & them than on me.

So while we are at the mall last week we went to a jewelry store to see if we could find my wedding ring. I've been looking for it for over 10 years... long story, but I want the style back that we were married with, not this ugly anniversary band that I was forced to have. We found the ring... as close as we could anyway. Jason was ready to throw down the Discover card and get me a whole new solitaire and wedding band, but we can exchange the current band, so why not? Need the receipt, though. Went home, found the receipt. When we went to the mall Saturday - guess who forgot the receipt? Dumb me.

So we go in there anyway, because I made the comment that Jason got a new hat, the girls got stuff and I had nothing. Not whining at all, just stating a fact. (if you know me, you know this is true... I don't get bent out of shape if I don't get things for myself) Jason always says, it's my fault I don't get anything because I don't get myself anything. He doesn't say no to me, never has.

So, Jason insisted I was getting something. Again... he was ready to get me my wedding ring. Nope, I wanted the exchange deal.

He wouldn't let me leave empty handed. Isn't he just the best?

So this is what I got......

Not huge, not expensive, because thats not who I am. It's simple, pretty and just right.

While picking out a new solitaire/wedding band that I didn't get, the salesperson AND Jason were trying to get me to upgrade my 1/4 carat solitaire to 1/2 or even 3/4.... no. It's huge, its too big... let me keep my 1/4 carat dammit!!!! Why do people think the most expensive makes the most happiness?

My mom, picture obsessions, noses & cheerios

When I was 7 years old, my mom died. No, I don't remember a lot about her and the memories I do have of her are no longer in motion picture view, they are in snapshot view. Meaning, the memories have faded enough that I only see "stills" of memories. I don't know if that makes any sense.

My mom was 46 when she died (young, yes, and a heavy smoker - she died of a heart attack, which is one of the reasons I NEEDED to quit smoking). One memory I have of her is her sitting in a lawn chair waiting for me as I got off the bus. I was in Kindergarten or 1st grade maybe? Maybe it was 2nd grade... she died the December I was in 2nd grade. I can see her sitting there in that lawn chair and I can see myself running across the front yard towards her, but the woman in the lawn chair isn't a 45 or 46 year old... she is a woman in her late teens/early 20s. And she's black & white. Why is that? Simple, yet complicated.

There are very few pictures that I have seen of my mom, the mom that I knew. Two or three maybe? I know what she looked like... dark brown short hair, a little heavy in the face... but can I picture it in my head? No. All of the pictures I have seen are when she was younger, and in black and white, so the mother in my memories has changed appearances. It strange, I know.

There are also only a handful of pictures of me growing up. There is one where I am about 6 months old, then another when I'm about a year, the next one I think I'm 4 or 5. My family wasn't a camera-happy family, I guess.

This is why, I believe, that I am obsessed with pictures. I take pictures of anything and everything. Maybe because I'm afraid I will forget things, I don't know. Maybe because I'm afraid that if I die, my girls will have a still picture memory of me and I want it to be a current still, not one from years ago.

My living room is filled with pictures... pictures of the girls in different stages of their lives, pictures of my nieces, nephews, friends, my pets... anything I can frame.

So because of this obsession the husband went out and bought me a Canon Rebel Digital camera a few years ago. This is way more camera that I will ever need, but I was thrilled to own one!

So every now & then I will take some off the wall picture... just because I can.

Everything is a potential picture... and every picture has beauty in it to someone.

Cheerios? Pretty boring, huh? But my daughter had Cheerios for breakfast this morning before school... not a scrapbook type memory, but it's still a memory. It's a memory of me being there to wake them up in the morning, get them ready for school, help them find the Tamagotchi that they lost the night before and promise them that if I find it during the day I will pause it so it won't die. (because this mom can't figure out how to feed it or clean it's poop up.) It's a memory of me being at the window as they walk down the sidewalk to the bus. Something simple as Cheerios can say a lot.

How Saki flosses her teeth

With the kitty scratching post!!
The cats have actually done all the damage to it, Saki just happened to find it today.

Oh.My.God.

Yes, I can say that.

This is going to be a big fat whiny all about me, feel sorry for me post. Just today, feel sorry for me, please.

I have the worst fricken cramps EVER! They are shooting down into my thighs they are so bad. I can't stand up straight and it's giving me a headache from hell. I've never stuck a pig with anything that would make it bleed, but there is a saying "bleeding like a stuck pig", which supposedly pigs bleed a whole bunch when you stick them with something. Well, call me a stuck pig.

TMI, I know.

This does, however, explain why I was in such a fricken bass ass mood 2 days ago and why I developed a monstrous pimple on my face the past week.

I'm done having demons so why won't they rip my woman insides out???!!!?!?!?!?!!!!?!?!?!?!!

The Backwards Story

When Demon #2 was in 2nd grade we were sitting at the kitchen table working on homework.

Demon #2 is left handed.

If you are left handed you will understand this story, if you are right handed... pay attention to a left handed person writing something.

I am right handed. I have learned to appreciate left handed people.

If I remember correctly it was Spelling that we were working on... it was something in sentence format anyway. The Demon was getting upset because everything she wrote smeared as her hand would rub across what she had just wrote.

Thats when she decided that we shouldn't write from the left to the right, we should write from the right to the left.

So she tried it and realized that she had difficulty... it just didn't make sense that way. So she figured she would just write backwards. I didn't think much of it, but let her attempt it. I mean seriously, who can write backwards?

She can.

About 1/2 hour later she came up to me and handed me this piece of paper. To read it you either have to hold it up to the light or hold it up to a mirror. This wasn't tracing from the back - she wrote the entire story like this in 1/2 hour.

I think there are 2 or 3 mistakes in the whole thing, not counting the spelling errors.

It's amazing what a parent's proud moments are of their children; this is one of ours. The paper is in our kitchen and has been shown to everyone who will look at it. Eventually it will be framed.

Remember.... this was a 2nd grader that did this. She was 7 years old at the time.

Hippity Hop...

So I went a little Easter nuts the past couple days. Wow, I cannot believe how many hours I've put in since Tuesday morning on my shops. But I got a lot accomplished, so it's all worth it. Not sure why I went with Easter or where the idea came from, but there it was - in my head and I went with it. It's funny how things happen like that with me, once I get something in my head I have to fly with it - but the only downfall of it is I can't make designs that aren't in my head. Sounds obvious, but what I mean is, like today - I'm on an Easter kick, chicks, bunnies & such - I couldn't do a snowmobile design for SledderWear right now if my life depended on it.

Ok, well if my life depended on it....

Anyway. Here's a little preview of what I did the past couple days:




There's more in the shop, if you are interested. I think I did enough Easter for now. Hopefully tomorrow will be something different.

A Kittilicious Did You Know: Did you know that Demon #1 is almost an A student? I say almost because she got a C+ in Tech Ed last quarter, otherwise everything else was A-, A or A+, but she still made the Honor Roll - 3 quarters in a row!