deterioration

monday was a teacher workday, so the kids had a vacation day from school. yahooo! it was SO enthralling that they each came up with their dream for the day.



s's dream was to have her face painted like the one in our face painting book entitled "japanese doll." we did her hair in flowers and bows, and altogether i think it turned out pretty cute.

h's desire was to go to the "wooden park"... a big park with a wooden playstructure that we hadn't been to in a long time. the upshot was that we had to pack a picnic lunch also. done! what a fantastic idea for such a lovely 70 degree and sunny day. they bounced...
they pretended...
then they swang...

...ran, rolled, climbed and got red-faced and exhausted. we ate our picnic lunch of peanut butter sandwiches...

and by this time, with all the activity and fun, s's look had deteriorated to this...


she looked like she had mascara running down her face and was completely bedraggled and happy.

it was a good day.

electronics issues

while on vacation, the first few days t and i took some nice photos to remember our tropical island trip. like these, for example...




and on the third evening, while taking a twilight stroll along the water's edge, the camera died with no warning. now, the camera was a cheapie to begin with, and had seen us through many a party, holiday, trip, and embarrassing moment, so we were only sad that we couldn't record any more memories. and those throwaway cameras they sell at the gift shops?? overpriced and they take lousy pictures.

we returned home and as we showed my folks the photos, we told them that there might be more but the camera had died. my mom got a funny look on her face, and proceeded to tell me that h had left our OTHER digital camera out in the rain one night while we were gone. "i didn't have the heart to scold him," she said. well, it WAS an accident, and i left a camera out in the rain a couple of years ago, so i agreed with her decision. i just asked him not to do it again. and the camera is kinda actually mostly fine, sort-of. it takes pictures, but is acting weird. i'll give it a matter of time before it, too, is dead.

the next day, my mom was grabbing something off the counter in our kitchen in preparation for their long trip back to michigan. after the grab, her watch band caught on our 3 year old cuisinart (my friend lisa says squeeze 'n' fart) grind 'n' brew thermal coffee maker and took it down to the floor, smashing some of the little plastic parts in the process. it may be fixable, and in the meantime she let me borrow the brand-new coffee maker that i had just bought for THEM until mine is fixed. i feel like an indian giver! or is that native american giver? or is that whole phrase in the pc wastebasket by now?

if all this wasn't enough, the FOLLOWING day, h was calling his sister from the computer room, "come check this out, s! it's REALLY cool!" my curiosity got the best of me, so i went in to see what was so cool. h was running a MAGNET along the surface of the COMPUTER MONITOR making pretty patterns and colors. "isn't it pretty?" he asked me. i was too busy scraping myself off the floor to answer. needless to say, i explained to him calmly and quietly that he most likely ruined the monitor for good, but that since he didn't know any better it was no big deal. just don't do it again. after degaussing the monitor a few times, it looks pretty good, but will never be quite the same.

of course i'm wondering what will go next, and i'm just hoping it's not one of the computers or a major appliance. or a car.

knock on wood.

hair scare

last night s had a dream about a unicorn with a lovely rainbow-striped horn.

she woke up looking like this:

check out the sassy little pose on that girl!

i'm not sure what the night-time hair fairies are up to at our house, but i'm kinda scared to see what happens to t. after all, this is what the wind & humidity in the caribbean did to his hair:

we were eerily twin-like with our curl explosions... that is until i got the braids. maybe we should've gotten him braided too! THAT woulda been COOOOOOL.

last night i had the strangest dream...

last night i dreamed that buckwheat from "our gang" was battling with medusa the snake haired woman who turned men to stone with her evil gaze ON MY HEAD.

this is what i found when i awoke:

hee hee! no, really, a gorgeous dominican woman tamed my wild curl-bomb head by the poolside last sunday with gobs of vaseline and deft fingers.

check out that fivehead on me! whew.

hola!

it would make a much more interesting vacation story if i could tell you what miseries were had on our vacation to the grand palladium resort in punta cana, dominican republic. the terrible flight delays, the hotel switching rooms, the bars serving watered drinks, the restaurant food not only disgusting but sickening as well...

but the truth of it is, would you mind seeing this view off the end of your toes during the middle of the week? tropical turquoise caribbean waters and sugar-sand beaches?

and don't i look really stressed out with that pina colada melting away in the warm sun?

no snarky comments about my luminous whiteness, please.

and the cafe con leche, served up hot and fresh each morning? ugh! simply awful.

the view from the room was miserable and disappointing...as was the dark and cramped room...
if i told you the truth about our relaxing vacation, you'd be bored to tears and back again. everything was so nice, pleasant, wonderful and happy! that is, except for the lingering blistering sunburn on t's chest and shins. ugh.

glad to be home (to daughter with the flu) and excited to catch up on y'all's blogs! i'll post more photos soon.

p.s. t is opposed to me posting the "half-nude" photo of myself. any other objections? now, tell the truth!

and... THEY'RE OFF!

please excuse me for a week...

i must go soak up sun, food and drinks in the dominican republic with my darling husband.

don't worry, i'll be back before you can miss me with some nice photos and a nice relaxed attitude... until april 16th, that is. although april 15th IS our anniversary, so maybe i'll have some celebratory cheer left over for tax day.

for now, i must scurry to see who gets booted from 'american idol' AND 'america's next top model.' i suck, i know.

deep in the heart of taxes

sorry i've been unpresent lately. i've also been unpleasant as i am every year at this time due to being buried neck-deep in tax receipts.

self-employment means keeping track of all your expenses so that you can deduct them. smart people log each receipt into the correct category in quicken each time it comes in. melissa is stupid... she waits until the last possible second to file, add and report deductions to the accountant. melissa was an ART MAJOR. melissa needs a business manager.

in other news, i've been scanning my gram's old photo albums so that she can have them back. she's been busy lately taking a trip down her 97 years of memory lane and i'm hogging 3 of her books. they're absolutely fascinating! i don't know about you, but family histories and geneaology fascinate the heck out of me. here's an example of what i've found...

this is a photo of my great-great grandparents with their 4 sons and one daughter who is my great-grandmother carrie (my mom's dad's mom). my great-great grandfather, david, was a union soldier in the civil war. it's crazy to me that this photo documentation even exists, and that my kids will be able to have a photo of their great-great-great grandparents.

here's another photo of carrie as a baby.

i just love looking at the details and the styles of the clothing and furniture. and check out that smirk on her little face! you don't imagine she was horribly spoiled being the youngest and only daughter of 5 children, do you?

other than those two things i've been up to, i'm packing for our trip to the d.r. since we're leaving on thursday. i can't wait to get the heck outta dodge! i think i need a break.

holes in her head

on friday afternoon i was at the mall with my mom & dad, browsing about for nothing in particular. at a sassy little jewelry boutique (i have no idea what such a cool place is doing in the middle of a major metropolitan mall) i spotted a pair of shiny day-glo pink kitty earrings for pierced ears. awww, what the heck? i thought to myself. i'll get them for s in case she ever wants to get her ears pierced.

surprise, surprise. when she got home from school and saw those shiny cool earrings, she was all ready to hop in the car and head off to the mall to get her ears pierced! i was honestly floored... we hadn't much talked about the issue of holes in ears yet. although... my ears were pierced for my 6th birthday, and she is almost already there. i figured she must be about ready and we discussed the issue a little further. she seemed completely unfazed by the grim details... just "yep, uh-huh, and whatever, mom."

although i wasn't about to go back to the mall that day, i made a bargain for us to go after dance class on saturday. luckily there's a jewelry store just around the corner from dance class (and from all the deliciousness at whole foods) so we popped in there while h was dancing and asked if they did piercing. yippee, they did! the saleslady pulled out the array of earring choices and i held my tongue. some of them were really expensive! i'm glad i kept my mouth shut because my darling little daughter chose the cheapest of stainless steel balls. whew!

we sat her down in a little chair while mommy pulled out ice packs to numb her ears. she practically rolled her eyes at my neurotic behavior, so i gave up and gave in to the screaming that was sure to follow (don't worry... there was motrin ready in my bag).

one ear... CLICK!-- and she said, "that didn't even hurt."

next ear-- CLICK!-- "that didn't hurt either."

i was all excited... bouncing up and down, telling her how cute she looked, having her look in a mirror but she --at all of 5 years old-- was cool as a cucumber. "when can i wear the little pink kitties?" she asked.

"in 6 weeks you can change your earrings," replied the kindly piercer.

so every morning since then, all 2 days worth, s has asked me... "how many more days?" but she HAS shown more excitement about them, especially when showing her brother, daddy, and grandma & papa. today is her show & tell day at school, and she chose to show her newly pierced ears.

do any of you remember the day you got your ears pierced for the first time? i'm sure it's a day that will live in legend in her (and mine, too!) brain forever.

mr. L

when my kindergarten daughter brought this home from school yesterday, i decided to post it as a shout-out to one of my "oldest" blogfriends mr. l since it obviously reminded me of him. can you imagine why?

well, maybe you can't see the picture clearly enough, but it's of the letter person mr. l... the current letter of interest in her kindy class. the best thing about mr.l (the letter person that is, not the real person)? let me have my daughter explain it:

i asked her if she meant to write "mr. l LICKS lemon lollipops," or "mr. l LIKES lemon lollipops." she said, "both." imagine a world where one written word encompasses two unique and valid thoughts on the subject. that is the world of a kindergartner!

the real mr.l just has a ferociously dry wit, and has had a wee case of blog clog as of late, a case which i've been lamenting. here's wishing him over his ailment, and if you're out there in the blogosphere reading this mr. l--- HEY! keep on writing!