Saturday, October 27, 2012

Sometimes...

Sometimes you go to dinner and talk about stupid things and decide to take the goofiest picture at the beach in the middle of a tropical storm and think it rules.



And you think you've had the best night ever.



Sometimes you come home from dinner, grab a fistful of Starburst, turn on the TV and find that New Moon is on and Twilight is STILL your favorite story from the last decade.




And you think it's the best night ever.



And sometimes you hear Taylor Swift's new song "I Knew You Were Trouble" and take a deep breath as you listen...






And then you remember that "sometimes" is stupid.

Because THIS:




Is always.

Friday, October 05, 2012

Spiders and bats. Bats and spiders.

For any of you who have ever endured Little Einsteins around Halloween, you probably understand the title of this post!  Each year, it gets stuck in my head and I should probably turn it into some kind of meditation mantra.

Holidays are a HUGE deal in our home.  We decorate our house both inside and out, and we are generally known as the Griswolds of our neighborhood.  But this year, I was concerned about the beginning of the Fall holiday season for many reasons.

1) The sheer amount of time, rigging, and even the ability to find and/or locate the decorations in our attic presented an issue.  I have always been in charge of indoor decorations and the porch.  Lights, inflatables, signs, flying pumpkins and Santas in airplanes have always been Colin's job.  I spent 2 hours in our attic and couldn't even locate the Halloween stuff.  The Christmas stuff was so abundant and so pristinely and deeply stacked, there was no way I was finding the spooky decor.  Much less climbing down the ladder with it.

2) Our house is going on the market next Wednesday.  Considering the realtor told me to remove all family pictures and make the home as neutral as possible, I'm pretty sure she is NOT going to be happy about the Haunted House (both indoors and out) that we have created.  I must say, I scaled back A LOT.  Many of our neighbors came by on Monday night and asked what happened to our usual decorations.  I explained that I was trying to limit them for listing reasons, but after seeing the disappointment on the neighborhood kids' faces and hearing the whining from my own, I gave in and decorated more.  It's still at about 60%.  But it looks pathetic to me.

3) I tried to limit our indoor decorations to the playroom only.  Usually, each room in our house is spookified, but with the exception of a kicka** glass candy bowl in our kitchen, we have kept the eery candelbras and bloody handprints to the kiddo's area.

Regardless, my newfound love of handprint art is prominently displayed in my living room and will not be going anywhere.  The boys and I had SUCH a good time creating these bats and I wanted to share!

I loved seeing the differences in how they painted the canvas.  Crews' strokes were always vertical and Teague's were horizontal.

I measured their hands from the center to determine where the bat body should be.


I looked away for 5 seconds and Crews had given his bat feet.  It then began to look like a chicken.  I was like, "NO, no, no!  No feet!"  Then he cried and I realized I was being ridiculous.  If he wanted his bat to have feet, it should.  It made it his own.  It was very "Crews."

Teague is a good head taller than everyone else his age.  He also has ginormous hands.  His bat needed a special "waistline" to make his hands fit on the canvas.

I was absolutely shocked that they not only wanted to stay inside the outlines I made, but they did a fantastic job!  Anyone who has boys knows what a struggle this is...

So proud of his "bat-chicken."

I'm so proud that all those months of physical therapy for not being double-jointed, but triple-jointed paid off!

Crews

Teague

My adorable pair of bats.
 
I can't believe they painted these faces!
 

Thursday, October 04, 2012

100th post.

I've been writing my 100th post for over a month.  I wanted it to be big.  Perfect.  Special. 

But today I realized that putting things off , waiting for them to change, waiting for them to make sense, and waiting for perfection is something I need to let go of.

From now on, anything goes.  It doesn't have to be beautiful.  It won't always be perfect.  And more often than not, it will be laden with mistakes.

Farewell to my Aunt Lois who was always incredibly kind to me.  Instilled in me a love of super-special cakes and tradition.  And always made me feel welcome in her home.  Thanks to my cousin Beth, Lois' daughter, who was a cool teenager when I was a tiny tot, and let me hang out in her room and listen to new music.  And thanks to them for loving my mom so much.

I ran away from Mississippi a long time ago and left a lot of people behind.  It turns out, I should have fully taken advantage of the family who would never abandon me because the family I found later in life did.

I'm posting my Mom's cakes for my kid's birthdays over the last 6 years as a tribute to my aunt. 

Lois, thanks for being inspirational and one of the kindest people I've ever known right down to the last breath.



Teague's 1st Birthday 2006


Teague's Second Birthday 2007


Teague's 3rd Birthday 2008

Teague's 4th Birthday 2009

Teague's 5th Birthday 2010

Teague's 6th Birthday 2011


Crews' First Birthday 2010


Crews' 2nd Birthday 2011
 
Crews' 3rd Birthday 2012
 
 
 
Sometimes, I forget just how talented my mother is and how lucky we are to have her as a mom and Nana.