Bravest daughter ever.

Earlier this week, I took The Geej to her 2nd dentist appt. ever. Her first one, although it went well, still ended with her giving the 3 1/2 year old's version of, "Oh HELL no!" to the dental assistant who tried to clean her teeth. But on Tuesday, she just marched right up there, sat back in the seat, and let them do their thing. It was pretty impressive, actually. She was just so...I dunno...BIG. I was very, very proud. (She got an A+ on her teeth, by the way.)

Then today, we went to this green living expo thing down at the convention center, and they had several booths with both state and federal nature conservancy groups represented. At the U.S. Forest Service's booth however, they had a real live SNAKE to attract the kiddos. And The Geej went to it like a moth to flame. She wasn't scared at all; just curious and thrilled. Again, I was so proud I could've burst.

Just look at her with her little pink Hello Kitty purse. GOD, she's awesome.
The girl is growing up. Sigh.

Things, they be a'happenin'

Please allow me to play a little catch up with you.

Valentine's Day Weekend: Went to Oklahoma with The Geej to visit my dear friend Julie and her two kiddos, two cats, and dog. Had a great time just hanging out. Her kids are so great, and she's such a good mom. Made me realize how much I miss them when I'm not around them.

The week after Valentine's day was pure nuts:

Monday: traveling back from Oklahoma. The Geej took this photo from the plane, btw.
Tuesday: federal jury duty. At 7:45am. Ugh. Went to the gym and worked out.


Wednesday: back at work with back-to-back meetings all day long. Came home, and my GORGEOUS new oven had been installed by the magical fairies from Lowe's.

Old oven:

New oven:I mean seriously, I know the photo's dark, but how much better does this look? And it cooks like a dream.

Thursday: attended a Conflict Management training session in waaaaaay north Austin all day. Went to the gym and worked out after, however, my fookin' feet were hurting so badly because of my craptacular shoes, I had to cut my workout short.

Friday: back at work with (thankfully) no meetings. Played catch up. Had to leave early to go to The Geej's parent/teacher conference. Her teachers are thrilled with how she's doing, and I walked out of that conference with my feet barely touching the ground. I am one lucky mommy.

Saturday: met BH's mom (who was in town for the weekend visiting friends) and my mom for lunch. Mom took The Geej back to Horseshoe Bay with her so that BH and I could work on the Great Master Bathroom Facelift Project of 2009. (I will post before/after photos when it's 100% finished. Right now, it's about 75% finished.)

Sunday: continued work on the bathroom. Searched all over Austin for mirrors for the bathroom. Ended up finding them at IKEA, which is 31 miles from our house. I also purchased a new light fixture for the kitchen while I was there. Got home and realized that 2 of the 3 globes in the light fixture were shattered. Did I mention that IKEA is 31 miles away? When the hell am I going to have time to go back up there and return this thing? Grrrr...


Monday: Worked. Left early to go fetch The Geej from my mom.


Tuesday: Worked. Left early to take The Geej to her dentist appt. (She was SO brave and awesome!! Waaaaaay different than 6 mos. ago when she wouldn't let the hygenists clean her teeth b/c the noise of the brush, water squirter, and spit sucking thing freaked her out too much.) Met bunch of girlfriends out for drinks and dinner and more drinks. Got home way past my bedtime.


Which brings us to today. Fairly normal day, however, I have another all-day training thing at work tomorrow, and I have to be there an hour earlier than normal. Also, I have to do this pre-work and bring 3 copies of it with me to the training session. Have I done the pre-work yet? Um...no. Am I super freakin' tired? Yep.

So you see, dear friends, it has been a bit crazier than normal in my world. But normalcy is slowly creeping back into my life, so expect some more regular posting from me for the next few days.

And a more in-depth recap of recent happenings will be coming soon...

...but in the meantime, here's my daughter acting, um, strange.



Do all little children go through their "kitty kat" phase, or does it just seem that way?

ROFLMAO.

1. I'm sure no one will be surprised that I had this book when I was a little girl, and I still have it (technically, it belongs to The Geej now, but the point is, it's in our house).

2. You also won't be surprised that I discovered this video during my daily visit to Cute Overload.

2. I'm not sure which is my favorite, "We're in Hawaii!" or "Double Head!!"

3. This will probably be the giddiest, squealiest 1 1/2 minutes you spend today.

Where I am.

I am in Norman, Oklahoma at the moment, visiting my dear and wonderful friend Julie.

I brought the Geej here this afternoon via Southwest airlines, and we'll be here hanging out and bonding until Monday. We have a movie planned tomorrow, and a museum on Sunday. There are two kittehs and a dawg to play wiff and some cute kids to laugh at and some good conversation to be had.

Photos--and VIDEO--to come.

"Hello, Snarf."

This made me HOWL and CRY with laughter:



It starts out slowly...but when she gets to the graph of the industries that make up Iceland's economy and then launches into the song? Holy mother of GOD! Very, very funny.

I heart Kristen Wiig.

What a difference a day makes.

Did you read my post from yesterday? No?

Well, go ahead and scroll down then. Read it. Look at the last photo. I took it last night.

I'll wait...

Okay, now look at THIS: Can you even BELIEVE this shit? I lie on my left side when I'm sleeping a lot, and last night, every time I tried to roll over and get comfortable, I was like, "OUCH!" When I woke up this morning, It was totally swollen and huge and gorgeous (as you see above). I can barely lift my freakin' arm to do things like wash my hair or put my shirt on. BH is threatening to make a suit for me out of bubble-wrap since I'm so damn accident prone.

On some happier news, please check out the inter-species encounters going on in our house: That's Diane saying, "Hello? Dog? Are you there? It's me, Diane."

And here's Doug's less conventional approach at interacting with the dog.

No, we don't allow them to mingle...yet. But I foresee them getting to hang out at some point in the future.

Speaking of the cats, we pulled 11 cat toys, a battery, a chunk of broken glass, and a quarter out from under the oven tonight.

Some recent images from my life.

A tofu, cherry tomato, penne and green bean salad that is SOFA KING good.

My sweet little car turned 10,000 miles old. Aww... And yes, I'm still in love with it and am very happy that I traded the big ol' Murano in on it.

BH brought this lovely work of art with him when he moved from Colorado. It now proudly hangs in our purple-walled dining room. We one day hope to have our very own den where we have a BITCHIN' paint-by-numbers collection on the walls.

The other night, while the Geej was bathing and I was folding laundry, she said in a VERY insistent and plaintive voice, "MOMMY!! Come here! You've got to SEE THIS!!" When I walked in to the bathroom, this is what was awaiting me. And she said, "Mommy! TAKE A PICTURE!!"

I worked from home a bit this week. Because we don't have a room that we can designate as an "office" (a MUST for our next house), I set up in the dining room. This time of year, in the late afternoon, the shutters make the most fantastic shadows on the wall in the afternoons.

This also makes for some pretty awesome kitteh-ready sunbeam action (as shown in my previous post). But here they are SHARING the sunbeam. I know it's kind of dark, but PLEASE look at Doug's face. Fookin' adorable.

No, that's not an armpit hickey given to me by BH because he finds me utterly irresistable. What that IS is the worst of several injuries I suffered while falling on my ASS tonight. I tripped over the power cord to this very laptop upon which I reach out to you fools, and boom, bang, bing, SMASH, I went down. On the way I hit my head, elbow, top of my foot. And my armpit caught on the corner/top of one of the dining room chairs and resulted in this loveliness. Man, I'm a spaz.

Okay, that's all for now. More soon...that is, IF I survive the goddamned "Build-a-Bear" birthday party The Geej and I have to attend tomorrow morning. I smell Xanax in my future...

Get the balance right.

As I've said before, I'm not big on New Year's resolutions. So this year, upon the advice of my wise friend Holly, I'm doing a birthday resolution of sorts.

Let me explain.

Recently at a happy hour, I was telling Holly about how, for some reason, the idea of turning forty was really bumming me out. I'm not a person who gets hung up on age normally, so it was really weird feeling the weight of this day coming at me. FORTY. It just sounded and seemed so damned serious. Well, Holly told me that a friend of hers had started choosing a word or a "theme" every year on her birthday, and that Holly had adopted that practice as well. Not a resolution, per se, but more like a mantra...a touch stone...a core value that helps guide the choices you make for that year. Holly's word for her most recent birthday had been "Health," and she suggested that maybe choosing a word myself might be helpful.

So I started thinking. And thinking. And obsessing,. And trying like Hell to come up with a word that felt honest and right. Finally, I landed on it: Balance.

Whenever I become unhappy or stressed or even sick, it can almost always be traced back to something being out of balance in my life. Work is taking over home. Fried foods are taking over fresh. Negativity is taking over positivity. Wine is taking over water. Worry is taking over sleep. TV taking over books. Small annoyances seem like big crises. You get the idea. Things get out of whack when you stop paying attention, then WHAM, you're unbalanced, unhealthy, and unhappy. So this fortieth year of my existence, I will let balance be my guide and see where it takes me. Hopefully to a place with lower bloodpressure, fewer pounds, more rest, and increased joy.

And speaking of joy, is there anything happier than a cat in a sunbeam? Not much.