AThousand Word Thursday (One Day Late)

BlackHart and Daddy, Circa 1974.

The good ol' days.  My grandmother gave me this photo a few years ago.  On the back, she'd written "One of my favorites!"  I'm reminded of a brief period in childhood where dad was living, still walking, and able to play with me.  I remember this day, well.  I'd been taking swimming lessons and he got into Aunt Isabelle's pool with me and made me show off my newfound swimming abilities.   He was proud that his three-year-old could swim and I was happy to be object of his pride.

 On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful to have had him, however briefly.  His influence on my life, through nurture and a whole lot of nature, have made all the difference. I wouldn't trade our time together for all the money in the world.  He may not have lived to see me grow, but he's been here in spirit every single step of the way.  (I love you, dad.)

GERD Master and Sir Dookie Do The Midnight Run

You know how some days you wonder why you bothered to get out of bed at all?  The car won't start, you lose your keys, the kids are cranky, husband looks like he's thinking of checking into a hotel just to get away from the chaos and then somebody makes a smarmy comment like, "Wow, somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed!" when you sound the slightest bit snippity.  Occasionally, the reverse happens and I wonder why I bother to even get in bed.  One of the kids needs water at 3:00 a.m. or claims to hear a 'monster' in the closet at midnight or I slammed that Diet Coke just a little too late and no amount of sheep counting is contributing to my much needed shut-eye....

Holiday Travel: The Highway To Hell

The only thing worse than traveling by car on a holiday weekend?  Traveling by car on a holiday weekend with a couple of kids.  The very idea of hurtling down the road at 70 mph for 3+ hours in a metal capsule smaller than most elevators is enough to strike fear into the hearts of parents and children, alike.  Worse?  Once the destination has been reached so has the point of no return.  Unless you intend to leave your car at the inlaws house and travel by train or plane, you have three more  hours of torture ahead of you just to get home (at which point said children will have accumulated five bags of laundry, a voracious appetite and melted every single crayon in the box into your automobile's interior, making for more work).

And The Winner Of The "Mommy Dearest" Award Goes To...

(Confucius Say Man Who Stand On Toilet High On Pot......seriously, is that not the funniest thing you've heard in ages?  It kept me in stitches last night.  Actually, there were more, but this is the cleanest one I could come up with.  I think I need to get out more, I'm far too easily amused.)  Now, on to the story....

'Cop Tasers Ten Year Old'  <---click the link.

Remember that incident in Alabama where the lady got busted on video dragging her toddler at warp speed by a leash and later said the kid 'liked' to be dragged across the floor by his neck in the middle of a cell phone store?  I thought that lady deserved an award but this one takes the cake.  This one just blows my mind.

Pennies From Heaven

I was looking through Sophie's homework assignments this evening (she was busy emptying her piggy bank --which I assumed was because she's only $8 away from the Nintendo DSi she wants and she's hoping her savings have multiplied while she was at school) and I came across an assignment requesting that she bring pennies to school.  More specifically, these pennies have be stamped with '1983' or earlier.  Did you know that in '83 the composition of the penny changed from Copper to Zinc?  Who knew?  Did you know if you drop a Copper penny on a hard surface (like formica) it will make a distinctly different sound than a penny comprised of Zinc when it hits the ground?  I'm not entirely certain about this whole penny  business, but Sophie wasn't counting money, she was searching for 'old' pennies to take to school.

DIY PART 3: I'm The Goddess Of Home Decorating. No,Seriously....

The furniture was scheduled to arrive the Saturday afternoon (Sophie's birthday party was scheduled for Sunday) so by Friday, we'd managed to get her over to my mom's house with the intention of having her stay there until Sunday...we wanted the element of surprise and, as usual, Kevin morphed into Superman and somehow managed to get Sophie's room taped, primed and fully painted in the hour it took me to get Sophie situated at grandma's house). 

Just to remind you all of what Sophie's room looked like before I rocked the decorating scene:

Here's a photo of the half-way point.....

And the finished project!!!

View ONE......

View TWO....

View THREE....

Really?  What more can I say?  Well, except that the chandelier Kevin painted black and I decorated with beads and feathers is still NOT hanging from the ceiling...for the simple fact that I'm having nightmares of the wrought-iron chain breaking and Sophie being impaled by it.  So, technically, we're not totally done.  But still...I made the wall decorations over the bed and the matching message board over the desk.  So, it still rocks....if you ask me.

DIY Part 2: A Brush With The Supernatural?

I finally found furniture I thought might work. I'd wanted black furniture but wasn't about to pay the $2,000 to get what I wanted (not to mention bearing the responsibility of the stroke my husband would have if I'd done so). I settled on a simple white bedroom set. (Settled might be a bit of an overstatement.)

Basically, my furniture purchase went something like this:

DIY Part 1: Head-First Into Home Decorating

My oldest child was about to have her tenth birthday and I'd been mulling over the idea of re-decorating her bedroom to mark her debut into 'double digits'. She was still sleeping in a bed more suited to a five-year-old. She needed a desk, as well. I wanted more than furniture, though. I wanted the opportunity to knock the kid's socks off.

My adventure started six months before Sophie's birthday and consisted of a whole lot of window shopping. I visited every furniture store within fifty miles, questioned my daughter relentlessly about her favorite colors, trolled Craigslist on a daily basis (it's amazing what people will try to sell. Anybody interested in a custom couch made from old truck parts? It only costs $4,000, afterall.)

Spock Rocks Swine Flu?

Have you ever seen that episode from the original Star Trek series, where Spock puts his hands on something (don't remember what it was, some kind of glowing orb or maybe a dead body or something) but he's clearly in agony and yelling (eyes still closed) "The Pain!" "Oh, The Pain!" "The Terrible Pain!" and you (the viewer) are just like, "Dude, knock it off and let go of that thing, you drama queen."