Silly Maddie, Silly Daddy

I love watching Kenny and Maddie interact, they are so funny and wonderful.  And oh mamma is he wrapped around that little girl's finger!!!  She loves him so much, and squeals when she sees him or when she hears his car in the garage, "Daddy's home, Daddy's home!!"  I love it!!

He has slightly different rules than I do in giving in to her.  I am the stern one, of course, and he is NOT!  For example, you know those car buggies at grocery stores?  (if not, you're lucky!)  She always wants to ride in one.  Sometimes I'm not in the mood to lug one around so I just don't get one and we move on with our shopping, no harm, no foul!  But with Daddy, she really lays it on thick!  As you can see below, it works (and it works EVERY time!)  Hey, somebody has to bend the rules sometimes.  ;)

Good luck with your Christmas shopping, and hey, maybe you can use a car buggy just for fun!  :)

Black Friday

Why is the day after Thanksgiving called Black Friday anyway?  In so many ways it is:  it's pitch black outside when people stand in line for sales, moods are dark when people fight over sale items in stores, the bags under people's eyes are black from not getting enough sleep, or people have black eyes from fighting with their loving family.

Today is especially dark for me.  My parents live across the country and right now my Daddy is really suffering.  It's hurts to not be closer, to not know the details of what's going on, and to feel so helpless.  Really all I can do is call, cry, blog and repeat.  Like my dear friend Kristin told me about soothing my newborn, go down the list and if that doesn't help, then start again at the top.  I'm blogging now, so maybe I'll try to get some sleep before I start the list again.

Please send your prayers, thoughts, vibes, energy, psychic hugs, or whatever it is that you do, they all help.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm thankful for House of 3 and their wonderful tutorial on how to add backgrounds and headers to blogs.  I LOVE their designs and have been wanting to use one on my blog and now I can!!!  Yay!!!

My toddler woke up at her usual time this morning (of course).  I explained that it was thanksgiving and asked her to tell Daddy happy thanksgiving gobble-gobble!  She did, it was adorable, and she really embraced the gobble-gobble and has been saying it to every relative that I've called.  Nothing like asking your daughter to perform on que and her actually doing it!  ;)

I'm thankful for so much, notably several special friends, my husband and precious daughter.

Happy Thanksgiving gobble-gobble!!!  ;)

I found a good quote

I'm not usually curious enough to find a good quote, but iGoogle came to my rescue with "Quote of the Day".


The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
  - Flannery O'Connor


 It's interesting because I studied O'Conner's work in a class I took in college on southern women writers. Her statement is poignant and I really think she's on to something there.   The truth is that it's raining, whether I want to acknowledge it or believe it or I can't bring myself to go outside, nothing changes the fact that it's raining.


A relative (or two) in my life drive me crazy with their selfish behavior.  I have a hard time with that and really want to change that and it makes me angry and sad at the same time.  But it's true.  I can hardly stomach to speak to them or be around them or think about visiting them, but it's never going to change.  I have so much trouble accepting that simple truth, but the sooner I do, I think the more free I'll be from the emotional anguish I put myself through trying to get along and fit in and make people happy.


So my therapy for tonight is to make some happy cards and plan some celebration scrapbook pages and plan to hang out tomorrow with people that I love to be around.  From a quote to too much information about my crazy thoughts to therapeutic arts and crafts, such is life for me tonight.  At least it's ending in something productive!  :)

Today is Airport Day!!

Our family is flying in today!!  Maddie's grandma, great grandma, aunt and cousin will arrive early this afternoon.  We are excited, and despite dust bunnies and crumbs still laying around, we are so ready for their visit.  Maddie has already planned the things she and Skyler are going to do and the toys that he will play with and the pictures that he will color!  Too sweet!

How do you shake off a dark mood?

Sometimes it happens, your energetic and cheery outlook turns dark and foreboding like storm clouds heading your way.  What do you do?  Is there a psychic umbrella to ward off the lashing winds?  Maybe.  I call it my study and I hole up in there typing and surfing until the barometric pressure settles.  Mindless games on my iPhone or watching reruns of NCIS also works.

I got out a sketchbook yesterday that I ran across while I was cleaning the basement.  A friend gave it to me in 1997 for my birthday.  Wow, I couldn't believe I still had it.  I hadn't drawn or written anything in it for six years, but last night, in the same sort of dark mood, I took it out, collected several black pens and markers and doodled for three pages.  Kind of mindless, kind of artistic, but definitely calming and productive.  I probably won't post pictures of my creations (because then you can analyze my craziness!), but the simple act of letting go some of that tension and letting it roll out of my hands onto paper was calming.

I think art and crafts has that kind of calming effect on me where I focus my tension and anxiety and create something out of it.  Beats the hell out of the alternatives.

Many faces of Maddie

It just cracked me up to look at the range of expressions on Maddie's face.  She's just as expressive as me and just as silly as Ken!!

I want to be a big girl like Nora

My little one has decided that she is almost a big girl like Nora, age 6, her dear friend that is like her big sister.  While she will never catch up, she is getting to be a big girl nonetheless.  Here a a few pics that Ken took with the telephoto (Go Ken!!!).  :)

Toddler Homecoming 2009

Yesterday when I picked up my girl from school, she had paint all over her.  Apparently in her expressive creativity, she used the little stamp and purple paint to stamp her face, hair and arms.  When that was not enough, she set upon decorating her friends.  I had to laugh!  And to pose like she did with Leo made me think of Homecoming pictures.  Wow, 2 going on 15!

We also caught up with her little friend Jeremy and his wonderful mom Erica.  Jeremy was playing dress up in his class.  Again the iPhone came in useful!!

Blogs and templates and blinkies, oh my

So much info to sift through in the crystal wind we call the internet.  It took me forever to change from the standard template to one that was a little more me, you know, silly and wacky and artistic.  Eventually I'll make my own and really trailer things up.  I'm from Tennessee, so I have a license to do that.  ;)

So here it goes

For some unknown reason I felt compelled to start a blog. I choose not to analyze such things, just spontaneously go with them...

So here it goes, a Saturday morning in my study, listening to my husband and daughter watching Phineas and Ferb. He had to take over after I sat through Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Imagination Movers. Deufenschmertz is formulating his evil plan to take over the entire Tri-State area!!!! It's an introverted morning, that will need to turn into an extroverted evening as I gear up to wish happy birthday to my two favorite lesbians at their kickin' party! Here's hoping I'm up for it.