Dirty Girls!

If you read my sister Meander's blog, you'd know she has been posting pictures of us when we were little. So I thought I'd contribute and post this picture:
My mom has often hailed this picture as the ultimate definition of our personalities. I am the muddy one on the left, with the shirt tucked and too-high shorts. I think that the description is unfair. While yes, I am very dirty, Meander is not as innocent as she appears. She had just washed her face in the hose. As evidence, check out a close-up of Meander:

Please note the mud-spattered shirt and legs (and what is up with those ugly brown shoes). I think that it goes to show she wasn't a better kid than me. She didn't stay out of mud-puddles, but she was older and knew how to turn on the hose.
But on the other hand I love this picture. It is evidence of what our neighborhood looked like before all the trees were cut down. Also the tree directly to my left was really important in our lives. It grew up with us, and we always had our picture taken by it. This is us in 1999 on the day my mom moved out of that house.

The new people in the house butchered it, chopping off most of the bottom of the tree and destroying all the privacy that the tree was supposed to provide.

Facts About Me!

1. As the mother of a 22-days-away-from-three-year-old, quite-recently-potty-trained little girl, I feel that I incessantly talk about poop. I don't think a day goes by that the word poop doesn't come out of my mouth at least three or four times a day.


2. I am a snob. An imagination snob. Boy lives and breathes Bionicals and wants to give us whole histories of them. Histories he read in Bionical books and on their website, and I have no tolerance for it. When he tells me stories that he made up or that he dreamed, I will listen intently for hours, but the minute he carries one of those damn things out of his room talking about the histories of the moo-laka-moo* mask my eyes cloud over and I don't hear a word he says. Also when he shows me Bionicles that he made based on instructions in a book, I say things like "neat" or "great job," but when he shows me Bionicles that he made on his own, I say things like "that's awesome" or "that's really cool!"

*I made that name up, as I said, I don't listen to bionical talk.


3. No matter how much fun Boy has with him, and no matter that he is Boy's "Best Friend", I will always hate Captain Obnoxious! He came over for a few hours today, and ever time Mr. Hobbitfeet came near me I was rolling my eyes and shaking my head. C.O. was terrified of our mini-dog so we put up the baby gate to keep Giles out of Boy's room while still having the door open to monitor play and C.O. kept taunting him from behind the gate. Then when Giles gave up and came to the family room to lay down, C.O. called him and freaked out when he ran to the gate. I finally had to say, "if you don't plan on playing with the dog, leave him alone." It took all the power on earth to not call him a little jerk as he shrieked and bossed his way around my house. I hate him, and hate the fact that I hate him., especially since Boy loved having him over.


4. I am stupid enough to accidentally spray cold Windex onto a hot lightbulb, causing that lightbulb to explode and also causing one of the red hot glass shards to land on my chest and burn me enough to give a blister. I am also stupid enough to pop that blister.



5. I have given my TBMITW crown to my mom. Because even though financial setbacks have made us rely too much on her, she doesn't hold it against us and still knows that with me nothing can trump PURPLE RUSSIAN NESTING DOLLS!


Check them out, keeping the ones from Lithuania company (also that's Mr. H.'s Pensive Jesus from Lithuania)

I Won't Win any Awards...

For my colorization techniques....

Happy Birthday!

Last year on my mom's birthday I blew out my knee. This year I was very sick (which is why I didn't say it sooner) Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you're having fun. Some fune facts about June 21 for my mom from Wikipedia! Lots of blood, gore, and supreme court decisions. But woohoo! Go Skateboarding Day!

"Until We Found the Sea of Green..."

My mom's wedding went well. So many people wore green, I guess her plan was a success. The professional pictures are on my Flickr account (click the picture to see them). You can view and download them without an account, but I think you have to get a free membership to buy prints.

In Case You Missed It...

Here's a picture of my mom at her Bachelorette party:

A Weekend with the Family

La Sirena, Meander, Mr. Meander and Big D all joined us at the farm this weekend. On Saturday I made Spinach Manicotti which my family really liked. Here's the recipe. I've discovered that cutting the wine in the sauce makes it better. Meander says it had a zing that she didn't expect. I tripled the batch although I couldn't make all of it because my mom didn't have enough baking dishes to cook them in. But it was a lot of food and it was gone by lunch on Sunday. The thing I hate most is all the chopping involved. I don't like how the food processor cuts things and always do it by hand and it takes awhile.

We watched Pride and Predjudice with Kira Knightly, which I liked. I also watched Brokeback Mountian by myself because Meander had it and I wanted to see it. I didn't really feel much one way or another about it. Now keep in mind that it was late and I was sleepy, so I could have missed something, but I didn't feel like it conveyed their love at all. It was all pretty shots and missing the point as far as I could tell. But then again, I hated American Beauty and everyone loved that movie so maybe I'm just weird. We also played games. Overall, it was a fun weekend. I even took a couple pictures.

My new camera!

My mom bought me a digital camera for my birthday and I connived my way into getting it early. So here are some new pictures.

This is Mr. Giles.

Here he is with the kids!

And here is Boy's dojo after their belt test today. Boy is now a blue belt.