Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Bun

Most of you know that I wear a bun in my hair all the time.  No occasion is the exception.  I wear a bun at church, at the gym, at home, on dates with my husband, at the movies, at night to bed.  You get the idea.  I've even overheard myself described as "the girl who always wears a bun in her hair."  That one made me cringe.  You see, it's not as if I love this particular hairstyle.  It's just so easy and practical.  My husband loves my hair long.  And when I say love, I probably mean an emotion even stronger than that--maybe obsessed would be the word.  
When we were first married, he left me for three days to go see his brother return from his mission to Japan.  I decided to cut my hair, as all newly married women do.  I tried to explain to him that it really wasn't my fault, I didn't disregard his wishes, it's a phenomenon with newly married women.  It was pretty much inevitable that I would do it, once I said, " I do."   That line of reasoning did little to convince him.  Let's just say that I have yet to repeat the experience in our eleven years of marriage.  He's much more easy going about my hair now, but still prefers it long and I prefer to keep him happy.  So in the bun it goes, because I am, if anything a lover of the easy and practical. 
Today I woke up feeling uneasy.  I wanted to do something different with my hair.  I wanted to blow it out, leave it long and frustrate everyone's opinion of "that girl with a bun."  I didn't want to be her today.   Sadly, Ella wanted to be in time-out for fighting with her sister and brother numerous times.  Jackson wanted answers to important questions like, "How does the garage opener work?" and "What does invisible mean? Why is the air invisible? How come we bleed? Where does our food go? Are peas good for you?"  Kate wanted to talk about complex emotions and figure out why everything isn't fair and find her missing underwear.  Max wanted to be rescued from the toilet bowl, the stairs, the balloon piece in his mouth and a whopper of a poopy diaper.  Yet, I still had hope--until ten minutes before we had to leave for church. 
 I was downstairs with drippy, wet hair feeding Max his lunch.  I finished up and on my way up the stairs to my blow dryer, I discovered J sitting in our coat closet with a pair of scissors.  He had already cut up his brand new gymboree, plaid church socks and was working on his pants.  After a mini meltdown(mine) and a time-out(his), I was back on track to my blow dryer and then I discovered Ella in the bathroom with an entire tube of gel in her hair,  mixed in with hair spray and leave-in conditioner.  She was repentant and the damage was done--so I said little and we washed her hair.  By this time, I  was at least 30 minutes late.
 We ran out the door: Jackson in his cut-up, hole-filled socks, Kate in her dress sans sash, Ella in her wet bun and ripped-up jelly shoes, Max and his poopy diaper and me, in a wrinkled dress with my hair in, of course, a bun. 

And that folks, is the reason why I ALWAYS wear my hair in a bun.

Of course, sometimes I'm just lazy.  

Monday, August 25, 2008

The first day of school

Before school started.   Before we left the house both nervous and excited.

Kate was actually embarrassed this year that I wanted to take her picture in class.  Can you tell?  
Cute Ella at her desk.  So excited to finally be in Kindergarten.  She whispered to me, "Mom, I used to pretend that when I went to Preschool I was going to a bigger school--now I don't have to pretend.  I am so big now!"
I'm surprised how emotional I felt saying goodbye to my girls this year. Time keeps marching on regardless of how we feel about it.  And so another year begins...  

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Question?

 Q. What kind of woman does her make-up  in the public gym locker room with a mini skirt on and strappy yellow heels and NO SHIRT--not even a bra?

A.  The kind that likes to admire her double D boob job in the mirror? And wants you to admire it too?

Friday, August 15, 2008

Cabin Fun or Rain, rain, go away.


And it rained, and rained, and rained.  And rained.   The Boys put together a Treasure Hunt for the kids.  It included all sorts of hard tasks like: eating ants, licking bricks, sommersaults on muddy ground and digging up a treasure.  The only modification made was by the  girls--we decided no shovels for digging, hands only.

J offering Axel an ant to eat.  Yum.

Hey, Dan is that your car? 

More Children's museum pics



Addison's favorite chair.
Kate's tough too.
Like mother, like daughter.

The Children's museum


The kids finally get to ride the horse.  I just had to chew out a mom whose kid was taking his turn and then some first.  Good times.  
Little Addison Cow would not look at the camera for anything.  I even promised a carrot.  Oh, wait I think that treat is for horses.  What do you offer cows?  Cow pies?  Hee. Hee.

Yeah, Ella's tough.

More Dinosaur Park




Dinosaur Park




And so it goes...

1.  I have a new fantasy.  In this fantasy, I never wash clothes.  I know this is politically incorrect and environmentally insensitive and wasteful, so I send my personal apologies to Al Gore and all the sweat shops (at least I'm saving water!).  As with every fantasy, I have more money than Al Gore, sorry again Al.  So here it goes: We are enjoying a lovely family dinner, sipping on red grape juice and eating gourmet spaghetti with the reddest of all red sauces, wearing gleaming white shirts.  (Did I mention that I look like Gwenyth Paltrow only with bigger boobs?).  AND THEN, J wipes his hand on his shirt instead of his napkin, E misses a noodle and it ends up on her lap, and not to be outdone, K dribbles some grape juice on her shirt.  I look around for baby M and see only spaghetti, I move a few strands  on this heaping mound and see some eyes peaking out at me.  Max.   Instead of the usual freak out, I laugh in a  let-them-eat-cake-Marie-Antoinette-way and smile at their spaghetti stained shirts knowing that tomorrow I will just buy new clothes and donate these soiled items, along with my obsolete washer and dryer to the less fortunate.  After all, someone will have to wash those dirty things.  Maybe I should throw in my bleach pen and Zout for extra goodness?  

2.  Did you know that the idiot who pays our bills has been sending her money for the power bill to the wrong account?  I know.  What kind of idiot does that?   I think I should fire her. Good thing she figured it out on the morning they were going to shut off our power.  That would have been bad, really bad.  No A/C in the middle of the scorching hot Vegas summer. Maybe that girl should get some more sleep.  

3.  Never leave your pool for three weeks without hiring someone to take care of it for you.  Unless of course, you like swimming in green algae and replacing pool filters.  If you do, then go ahead.  After all, a little slime with your swim just makes it exciting.  




Tuesday, August 12, 2008

I'm back, well, sorta...

I've been trapped under a pile of laundry that won't go a way.  I promise pics from our unusually long vacation soon.   Well, as soon as I can find my way out.  And as soon as I pay all the bills that piled up while I was away.  And clean the floor so my sweet little guy doesn't eat all the dust bunnies.  And as soon as I visit Target so I can baby proof everything since he learned to crawl on vacation.  Oh, and as soon as I get some school shopping done for the little monsters.  And buy some milk.