Locks of Love

So proud of Princess!

BEFORE:


This picture is much happier ..... than this picture, when she mutilated the sides of her hair at age 3


AFTER:

Teen Words #3

This is what you get when you ask a teen to assemble the Christmas tree:



This is the teen's idea of compromise on tree assembly:

Teen Words #2

Al: The blood center came to school today. Did you come donate?
Me: No. I'm not eligible.
Al: Why not?
Me: I lived in Europe during the thingy...the..umm
Al (cutting me off): The Black Plague?
Me: WHAT!? That was forever ago!
Al: Well, you are old.
Me: Dude, I am not that old! Be careful, I watch NCIS. I could poison you.
Al: Yeah, with the Black Plague.

Truth or Consequences

We have one of those fancy wall clocks that also has the monitor for outdoor temps. The remote monitor died a year ago, nothing fixes it. My folks gave us a new, little desktop one last Christmas. This summer we noticed the wall one randomly started giving us a read-out for the outdoor temp, but it's only accurate from about 7pm til about 7am.....during the day it's ALWAYS wrong.....WAAAYYY wrong.

Right now, its 11am.......OOOHHHH, how I wish I could believe you:



But your little brother has ratted you out:


I wish my neighbor would move their outdoor remote to a slightly more reliable location.

Say Huh? #7--The Medical Edition

We bought one of the new thermometers that you swipe across the forehead. This is from the Instruction Manual.



How many parents seriously need to be reminded of this?

Chili Pepper !!

Craig and I had a lunch date a Chili's! Today only, Chili's donates the day's profits to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. I got the. very. last. package. of the Chili Silly Bands in all of Lexington--I know this because I wanted more to send to the Funaholics and asked the waitress to call the other Lexington Chili's for me. (proceeds also go to St. Jude's--bonus!!).


Too cute!

Can't Fool Mother Nature

The conversation went like this:

Princess: Do I need to wear long sleeves today?
Me & Craig in unison: Nooo! It's gonna be HOT!
P: But it's the first day of fall!?
Me: Somebody forgot to tell Mother Nature. Go get dressed, you're late.
(She walks away) She has no idea what that means.
C: Yeah, she'll me ask on the way to the bus stop.
Me: Sorry 'bout that.
C: That's okay. I'll just tell her to ask you because you know Mother Nature better.

Look at that kid go!

Both of my guys have started new sports! And we are very proud Sports Parents!
Al is rockin' the cross country scene. This pic is at the finish line of his first 5K, time: 22:17. His next 5K was on a much harder course, but his time was still 22:33!!


Gman had his first soccer game today! The other team's players were all 4 inches taller than Gman (and his own team mates are all shorter/younger than him). Despite the mismatch, the Jaguars held their own!!!!!

Color Commentary by Gman

Gman was feeling artistic today! He's not generally one to sit long enough to draw even one picture...much less two in one sitting!! I've included text of his comments when showing me his drawings.
ps....The 57 cents and 58 cents are his prices, if you are so inclined. ;-)

First Day of School--2010!

First to leave were the little ones.
Princess: "Hey Gman, now pose like this. Now like this. And this way...."
Oh what a difference 1 year and a gender makes...Gman lost interest after the 2nd picture.




Oh what a difference 8 yrs and a gender makes....New high schooler who seriously did not want his picture. At all. Then agreed only if it wasn't taken outside. So I had to sneak one.

Special Kind of Tired

Have you ever been so tired that, when you woke up in the middle of the night to go potty, you were just tooooo tired to pull your pants back up? Or to go back to your own bed? So instead, you just laid on the floor next to the toilet with your jammies half on.

Yeah, my kid's that tired.

Horse Mania 2010!

New art project in town in preparations for the World Equestrian Games. The little ones and I managed to get around to about a third of them in just a couple hours. (Al didn't want to go since he'd already been to half with his camp friends.) Great time and some beautiful horses!

PS--The foals were all decorated by schools in Fayette County. The American Flag foal was made by Princess's school. The red with yellow lightening bolts foal was made by Al's school.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Republicans that hard up for a candidate?

The license plate is not personalized...just the generic KY plate. I find it a little extra funny that they randomly received "666" to go with the "Republicans for Voldemort" bumper sticker.

Happy Anniversary!

I love you, Sweetheart!

From our 2006 Anniversary

Test results: Positive

Gman walks into the bathroom and starts to brush his teeth.

Gman: "Mom, do we need to clean my ears out?"
Me: "I don't know. Can you hear me?"
Gman:
(crickets chirp in the background)

Vacay, Day 3.....aka Parade-palooza

Day 2 was just driving the rest of the way to Orlando. Made it to the condo in time to stock the kitchen, then head to the pool for a luau complete with Hawaiian dancers!
Day 3-- Went to Disney World...Where all your Dreams Come True (c)
Of course, we had to take a pic with The Castle! (all these pics can be clicked on to see them enlarged)

Disney does not do anything by half!! Including parades!
The afternoon parade at Magic Kingdom had ALL the characters owned by Disney...here's just a few:




It's not disney if you don't get a few pics with characters! Gman R-E-F-U-S-E-D to get in a picture without Daddy to protect him from imminent danger posed by giant creatures, no matter how beloved.


They also have a night-time parade--supposedly for this summer. Story has it these were from a parade many years ago and they are going to throw it out after getting one more season's usage.
I personally thought it was the coolest thing all day!!! We went back and watched it another day (I'll most more pics then)

Mother's Day conversation

ooops....a little late in posting, but for the sake of Gman's baby/childhood book, didn't want to lose this. He came into my bedroom the morning of Mother's Day. The conversation at 6:42am went like this:

Gman: Mom!

Me: "What?"

Gman: Great news!

Me: What?

Gman: It's Mother's Day!

Vacation 2010

Last year, we didn't do a real "vacation vacation" because we were saving up for Vacay 2010....boy it's a good thing!

Day 1--Driving & visiting:
Taken while still in the garage I think (they're still smiling because at this point, they didn't realize that it would be 2 days in the van):


We stopped off in Atlanta for a visit with the Fun Family at the World Of Coke. The girls were like best friends all over again! And nothing like good ol' American Coke to clear away the after taste from the Beverly.



After driving a little bit past that, we stopped in Macon, GA for dinner and a visit with some other friends--MamaBrande & her crew. After many attempts to get a smiling pic of all the little kids, I gave up and opted for silly faces:

Memory Lane Monday #21

I took a road trip this Memorial Day weekend--literally and figuratively! My carmates (or should I say new-van-mates? I traded in the Uplander last week): Princess, Gman, and my mom & dad made the looong drive to Enterprise, in southern Alabama on Saturday--I lived there for 9th-12th grade. It's the one place we lived in all my military-brat days that I truly did not want to leave and consider to be "home".

Enjoyed a BBQ and pool party that evening at my folk's friends' house--John & Debbie Railsback. Their sons Travis & Shawn are my age--Shawn and I were friends in Germany first, then our dads were both sent to Ft. Rucker, Alabama at the same time! Few military brats get to go to school for 7 years on 2 different continents with the same person!

On Sunday morning I had brunch with my girlfriends from high school....although honestly, we couldn't tell that 21 years had past! We had sooo much fun traveling down Memory Lane together!!!! Unfortunately it was too short and incomplete with Alison not being there (she was very ill). But we'll definitely be planning a REAL get together soon!!!

May 1989, l-r: Alison, Cynthia, Cathy, Marissa, me
May 2010, clockwise from top: Marissa, Cynthia, Cathy, me



After brunch, the folks, kids & I packed back in the van and drove to central Alabama for a surprise 50th Anniversary celebration for some dear family friends my parents have had since I was 5. It was wonderful to see them again!

Long trip, short time, but oh so very worth it!

For Ketchup Connoisseurs?

As a family, we go through our fair share of ketchup. All 3 kids like it (a rarity). Princess even dips the crust of her grilled-cheese in it.

But these did not go over so well. All agree that they d, in fact, taste like ketchup. But Craig, Princess and I all are taking a pass on eating more. Gman kind-a likes them. Al is the only real taker.

Aptly named

Get it? AWESOME!

Oldy but a....gourmet goody?

Today's Co-Blogger: Al!


(he gets the photo cred, too!)

Me: "Probably not very gourmet after it's been sitting there for a year."
Al: "How can they call it gourmet if it comes out of a machine for a quarter?"

No crayons for you!

This is the toy that came with the Wendy's kids meal:

Cute little case that snaps onto your backpack and 4 little sheets to color.
Color with what? It doesn't come with crayons?!!
Who ever came up with that plan was probably not "the brightest crayon in the box."

United HealthCare: Keepin' the faith!

Got a letter in the mail from them saying they "...value (our) membership and look forward to serving (our) pharmacy benefit needs in the future." They wanted to let us know that Al's antibiotic medication has been "...approved for coverage until December 31, 3000..."

So Al, if United HealthCare can stay in business and you think you can live to the ripe old age of 1,004.... Stick with them and you are good to go, Buddy!

Memory Lane Monday (#20)

(I have no images or the ability to get images right now as my computer is kaput and I'm using an ancient shell of a computer that is 3 steps above an old Commodore 64.)

I made Pillsbury Orange Rolls this weekend for the kids. Something I do about once every 3-4 years. But every time I even see these in the store, I'm instantly thrown back to high school.

Marissa, Cathy, Alison, Cynthia and I were all great friends, and thanks to FB still are. I doubt you'd ever see one of us by ourselves back then. We all called each other's parents Mom & Dad because Mr./Mrs. Lastnamehere just didn't fit. Whenever we had sleepovers at Marissa's house, her mom ALWAYS woke us up with the smell of Pillsbury Orange Rolls in the morning. Marissa's mom was your typical proper Southern Lady....although, at the time we just thought she was old-fashioned. I remember her as always being sweet and all about proper young lady etiquette. Hard to believe it's been almost 13 years since she passed away. Princess's middle name is in honor of her, as well as my Grandmother.

It would be nice to to go back in time for just one Saturday night...the 5 of us having a sleepover in the basement TV room at Rissa's house, knowing Orange Rolls would be there in the morning.

City Girl

Princess had to illustrate a book cover for a story about a girl named Gina who lives in the city. Awesome!!!

Pass the tartar sauce, Matey!

Craig brought home Long John Silver's for his & my dinner last night. Not my fave in the world, but the kids' dance class was in less than hour and I was behind schedule.

Princess: Are those just big chicken nuggets?
Me: Yes. But most restaurants call them chicken fingers when they're big. Long John's calls them chicken planks. To sound more piratey.

Princess & Gman giggle.

Me: You know, there was a pirate named Long John Silver.
Gman: Whaaaatttt? How can he be a pirate if he's a chef?

Lost N Found

Obviously NOT belonging to Paul Bunyon!

Miss you, Spring Chicken (Memory Lane #19)

This is my Grandfather, Garold Wilde Campbell. (My Gman is named in his honor.) He's had cancer for a few years, and not for the first time. Al and I went to go see him at New Year's and we were so fortunate that for those few days, his pain meds were in perfect unison & he was the Grandpa I'd always known...arguing with me about who should do the dishes, puttering around in his workshop and carrying in wood to keep a fire burning all day. He always refered to himself as a Spring Chicken. Before every shower, he'd state "I already had my annual bath, why do I need another," and after he'd state "I feel like a new woman." He's hilarious, and sweet, and quick to call "bullshit".....of course he could recognize it so quickly because he was the best at it.

He passed away last month, but it's just been too hard to sit down and write. He lived in Washington, near the coast. Every time I visited there, I felt it was the grayest place on earth. He was the ray of sunshine that place needed, for it was almost always overcast. The sun came out that afternoon just before he died. Just for him.

He was the last living grandparent I had. And even in those last 2 weeks, when the inevitable was inevitable, as long as he was alive, I felt like the world was somehow OK. And now, no longer having him or any grandparents left, even with an amazing family and plethora of friends, I fear a small part of my heart will always feel very alone.