scrappinjenny dot com

This Is The End...

2011-06-01T17:09:00.000-05:00

It is with a (somewhat) heavy heart that I have decided to stop writing on this blog.

WHAT?!?

Fear not dear friends...I am continuing on with another blog called A Body Of Photography. I started this blog a while ago, but stopped doing to because frankly? Two blogs at one time (along with a life) is hard. Like math. So I've opted to stop Scrappin Jenny (which I've outgrown) and continue on with my new blog that will center on my photography (which I've wanted to do for a while).

So just follow the link above and you won't miss me a bit.

Love, Jen

Our Weekend: A Pictoral

2011-05-31T12:59:00.000-05:00

Memorial Day weekend was a busy one. We did a ton of yard work (thank you Mother Nature for the beautiful summer weather you gave us this weekend). We cooked out (a lot). We watched Shannon march with the pep band in our little town's Memorial Day parade (she didn't want her picture taken so she tried to hide behind her clarinet...good luck with that).

Is it just me or is life crazy busy anymore? My daily to do list seems to get longer and longer, not shorter and shorter. There always seems to be things I need to do or places I have to be. I'm kind of getting bored with it.

I'm looking forward to the end of the school year in a couple of weeks. It will be nice to just be at home, with Shannon sleeping in or the two of us hanging out and just being. I'm looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing this summer.

What plans do you have? Are your kids going to camp? Are you doing the staycation thing? What are you looking forward to most this summer?

100mm

2011-05-26T13:21:00.000-05:00

Here is a handful of shots I've taken with my 100mm fixed lens...

Now that I've had it for a while and played with it, I can say this: it is, by far, the best lens I own. It has large aperture (2.8) which gives you a very nice depth of field. And the macro settings on this? To die for. You can get right on top of an object to capture details you would normally miss with a regular lens (see the picture of the calla lilies).

If you're in the market for a new lens or looking for something new to play with, I would highly suggest this one. I know I'll be using it a lot. I'm really looking forward to taking some portraits with it. Should be good...

My Cat Cali

2011-05-23T13:02:00.000-05:00

One of the things that usually garners me a lot of comments on Facebook is when I post something about my cat Cali.

Cali and I have a very unique relationship. When we adopted her 5 years ago, I did not want a cat. I had no desire to have an animal of the feline persuasion in my home. We had cats in the past and I was quite aware of their purpose: to shed all over the furniture while using it to sharpen their claws to a Freddie Kruger like keenness.

Been there, ruined a perfectly nice sofa.

But Shannon had wanted a pet, and seeing as we live in New England where having a dog is not really ideal (Michael says taking a dog outside to go to the bathroom in the winter with 50 feet of snow on the ground is like nailing Jell-O to a tree...impossible), we decided a cat was probably the best way to go (since we're lazy).

Cali has never been Shannon's pet. She's always been mine. Michael often refers to her as "Jen's Familiar" while I call her my "second, smaller, hairier child." It's not something I had planned on happening, it just did.

Just yesterday, Cali was having a rough day. She was agitated, kept running all over the house and taking swipes at Shannon and I whenever we walked past her. While this is not an uncommon behavior pattern for her, she was definitely in rare form.

After one exhausting bought of running all over the living room like her tail was on fire, she jumped into her cat condo and gave us all the evil eye.

I put this photo of her up on Facebook with the title "hiding in the cat condo". I got a couple of likes off of it, then added the comment: "She is evil and rotten. She's been attacking Shannon and I all day!" My friend Krissa replied: "Your relationship with Cali completely cracks me up! I laugh so hard when you call her 'rotten'...".

But it's true. She is evil and rotten.

The worst part? I can't imagine not having her around with me all day. Stupid cat.

For My Boy

2011-05-20T13:18:00.000-05:00

A Birthday Haiku For My Boy

It is your birthday

Relax with a beer in hand

No dishes for you.

(Because I already did them. I'm good like that)

Happy birthday to my boy! I love you!

This Is For You

2011-05-17T13:15:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday, Michael & I went to Target to pick up a birthday gift for a 4 year boy. While we were there, I naturally wandered over to the makeup department and began to browse an end cap that had their new line of makeup bags on it (because Jen's got more makeup than RuPaul and needs somewhere to put it all).

While I was looking at one, I heard this twee little tiny voice say "This is for you."

I turned and saw a little girl, who couldn't have been any more than 4 years old, standing next to me handing me this...

A purple butterfly silly band.

As soon as she put it in my hand, she smiled and ran across the aisle, back to her father.

I looked at her and said "Oh! Thank you! Are you sure?" She nodded shyly and stood next to her dad. He looked at her and said "You gave her one but not me?"

Just then Michael came around the corner and said "What's going on?" I told him the story and he said "Gee...all I got was a smile." I laughed and said "Yeah, she didn't give her dad one either."

As we walked away Michael asked "Do you wonder why she came up to you and gave you one?" Honestly? I wondered the same thing. Out of all the people that were in the store near us, why did she single me out and give me one of her silly bands?

I said to Michael "I guess I just looked like someone who could use a silly band."

Most people would have taken it, smiled at the little girl, then thought nothing more about it, maybe even thrown the silly band away. But not me. The entire act was so sweet, so heart felt, that I hung the purple butterfly silly band on my magnetic board over my desk. That way I would see it everyday and be reminded of a completely random act of sweetness. And it would make me smile.

Finally

2011-05-16T11:29:00.000-05:00

Last week was weird. It was an unusually busy week for me. Most of the time I'm just slobbing around the house like a Hobbit, keeping to myself (and eating numerous meals everyday) but I had something going on every single day last week. There was no time to blog about it (and honestly, it was mostly doctors and dentist appointments...you don't want to read about that, do you?) and when I did get a minute to myself to ~~complain~~ discuss it here, Blogger went and had all sorts of technical problems that made it impossible to post anything.

We can send a space rover to Mars and have it send pictures back to us but I can't write a blog post on Blogger? That's all I'm saying.

The highlight of my busy week was getting Shannon ready for the Pops Night concert she was performing in with the school band. Every year they do a different theme and the kids get dressed up in accordance with it. Last year was Disney, so they all came as different characters from Disney movies (Shannon was ticked that she missed out on this one since she was a lowly 8th grader). This year's theme was Swing Music, it was 40's style all the way.

Now...in case you've been living under a rock, it's 2011. It's almost impossible to find any sort of 40's looking in this day and age. There are no thrift stores near us, so that made going to them to look for an outfit out of the question. I looked online for vintage clothes, but couldn't find anything that didn't look like Dita Von Teese would wear it in her Burlesque show (great for her, not so much for my teenage daughter).

Shannon's music teacher suggested someone dress as a Rosie the Riveter, which I thought was a fantastic idea since it really only required jeans, a denim looking shirt and a red bandana. At first Shannon thought this was a good idea, but the minute I voiced my support of it, she didn't want to do it anymore.

Teenage girls are like that.

She decided she wanted to wear a dress and heels (because she is so opposite of me like that). So I took her to the mall to look for something that had a 40's feel to it. Before we got to the mall I specifically told her that Forever 21 and Delia's would not have anything that would work (which was true and also my way of not having to set foot in either place). We looked at Macy's but all they had were very modern dresses for the prom, so we moved on to JCPenney's, which I didn't have high hopes about.

We scoured the dress racks and we found 3 we thought would work. The first dress was cute on Shannon, but too short to be considered 40's looking. The second dress was perfect. It fit her well and had a definite 40's vibe to it, but she wasn't sure. She tried on the third one but honestly? I don't remember it because the second one was the winner.

After I convinced her to get it, we headed over to the shoe department to see if they had anything that would work. The first pair of shoes I saw were red peep toe with a big blocky heel on the back. She looked at them and said "That's the pair." Luckily they had them in her size, so we snatched them (on sale no less) and headed home to celebrate the fact that I didn't have to worry about this anymore.

Famous last words. There was still hair and make up.

Shannon plays the oboe, which means we'd have to find one of those lip stains that would stay on her lips but not get all over her oboe reed (do you know how much they cost? I wasn't going to spend that money to have it ruined with lipstick). We went to three different stores to find the right color (who seriously knew there were that many reds on the market to choose from?) but we were ~~eventually~~ victorious. Now I just had to worry about her hair.

Shannon wanted it to be curly, like they wore in the 40's, so we bought some rollers, put them in her hair and she wore them overnight. The end result was something along the lines of Little Orphan Annie, so that was a no go. I had a hair appointment the day before the concert, so Shannon came with me to grill my hair dresser as to what she should do. We were told to curl her hair with a curling iron, spray it with hairspray as we went, then to brush it out with a paddle brush to make the curls soft.

Oh...and Shannon wanted a red flower to wear in her hair and we couldn't find one, so I had to make it.

This is really insane, right?

But somehow, all the stars and planets must have been in alignment because all that running around and work and worry created this:

As my friend Lynda put it on Facebook: "She looks like she stepped off the cover of Vogue from the 40's!"

And her hair and makeup? Just as fabulous.

She looked so cute and so sweet in that outfit that all I could think was "My daughter can rock the retro look in a very hard way".

Eat your heart out Dita.

My Mother's Day

2011-05-09T12:59:00.000-05:00

Here is pretty much how my Mother's Day went down:

We spent the entire day at home, doing nothing in particular. There was breakfast in bed (donuts + hot black coffee + my Kindle = a very happy mom), hamburgers on the grill for lunch (with avocados no less) and several episodes of Doctor Who (which Michael and Shannon love, but me? Not so much, although I'm trying my hardest to give it a shot).

Michael gave me a sweater I saw online (he said he got the hint after I put it on Facebook AND texted him about it) while Shannon gave me a book called Peanuts Guide To Life (I love that kid) and two Yankee Candles (Beach Walk and Sun & Sand, both of which drive me nuts and make me wish it were summer and I were at the Cape in the worst possible way). My in-laws gave me an apron that lights up (perfect for our 4th of July barbecue) as well as a guide to what is happening on the Cape this summer (this plus the candles is killing me that it's not summer already).

I also went out and took a few shots of what is flowering in the yard with my 100mm lens. I'll post those pictures sometime this week but let me tell you...I love having a real macro lens again. It makes my heart sing.

Old Age & Technically Difficulties

2011-05-05T11:46:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, May 3rd, was my 39th birthday. The last year of my 30's. The year before I turn 40. And apparently the day where my brain turns to a mushy pool of goo and I become a talking monkey.

My actual birthday was good...Michael took me out to breakfast before going to work and I pretty much spent the rest of the day opening my gifts from Michael and Shannon, playing so much Donkey Kong Country my eyeballs hurt and I gave myself Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my left hand and just being the center of attention, which funnily enough I don't enjoy but that's another story...

I handed my camera over to Michael who took pictures of me and my gifts and got several that were absolute keepers. It wasn't until the yesterday afternoon that I had a few spare seconds to upload them to my computer to see how they came out.

I cannot begin to tell you how many pictures I've uploaded to my computer...I've done it hundreds of times, to the point that I can do it on autopilot without thinking. I (unwittingly) thought I had uploaded all the photos to the appropriate place, so I ejected my compact flash card from the card reader, put it back in my camera then I deleted the photos and formatted it so it would be ready to use again. I do this every time I take pictures off and I've never had a problem.

Until now.

Several of the pictures weren't on my computer. I looked, looked again and then 20 more times and couldn't locate them. I'm not sure what happened next, because I'm pretty sure I blacked out for 5 minutes, but somehow I managed to delete the pictures that ACTUALLY MADE IT on to my computer. Pictures from my birthday. Pictures I could never get back again.

Let me set the visual up for you: I started crying. And not a silent, tears gently running down my face kind of cry. I'm talking a loud, ugly and violent kind of cry that Shannon heard even though she was downstairs and had her headphones on.

The rest of the story is a blur of text messages to Michael about how stupid I was and how much I hated technology while he wrote me back that everything was fine and he'd get them back.

The end of the story is that he was successful in retrieving my lost photos through the use of some really great software that he assured me was invented for just these type of moments (when I asked "You mean for stupid people like me?" he said "Of course." It wasn't nearly as funny as he thought it was). So thanks my super smart, super sexy, super patient husband, I now have the pictures from my 39th birthday.

This last shot? Pretty much sums up how the entire situation affected me.

Weekend Photos: Instagram

2011-05-02T11:54:00.001-05:00

My new favorite photography app on the iPhone? Instagram. It not only allows you to take photos with your iPhone, but it has several filters that give you all sorts of creative, artistic-ness. It also allows you to share your photos on Facebook, Twitter, Flicker and an Instagram community.

Best of all? It's FREE.

I'm not just having fun taking photos, I'm having even more fun seeing what other people I'm following on Instagram are doing with their photos. If you've got an iPhone, download this app. You'll love it. My Instagram name is scrappinjenny. Look me up, why don't you?

Tonight

2011-04-29T09:43:00.000-05:00

This is where I will be doing tonight...

All I want to hear him sing is "It Had To Be You." As long as he does that, I will be very, very, VERY happy.

Overheard In My House

2011-04-28T18:21:00.000-05:00

"I've watched this scene with Kurt like, a thousand times, I love it that much. I wish Kurt were my brother...I could go shopping with him, talk with him, it would be so awesome."

"Are you kidding me? I want to be Kurt's mommy."

(Pause)

"There is something really wrong with us, you know that right?"

7 To 39

2011-04-27T16:12:00.001-05:00

I have spoken, many times on my blog, about my love of quirky, weird, irreverant books. Michael recently acquired one that he's named "The Jennifer Book." But it's really called "I Hate Everything."

It has unicorns, rainbows and smiley faces on the cover, but they're just a ruse. As the title would suggest, it's really about how the author hates all these things, and so much more.

Michael got it last week and read it cover to cover while Shannon and I were out and there was a stranger in our home doing work in our upstairs bath. He actually texted me to say how funny he thought it was with the message:

I keep laughing out loud. I must sound deranged.

When Shannon and I returned home, he handed it to me and said I had to read some of it because it was right up my alley.

Instead of taking offense at that (honestly? I do hate everything. It's true), I sat on the couch and started to thumb through it. After just a few pages, I was laughing. The things the author listed were so ridiculous and sounded like things I'd say:

I hate that I have fat clothes.

I hate that I'm wearing my fat clothes.

I hate that I breath the same air as everyone else.

I hate that I can't growl like a Wookiee.

Then I came across one that started funny but ended on a decidedly sad note.

I hate singing "Happy Birthday".

I do hate singing happy birthday. Even more, I hate having people sing it to me.

I hate that you have to let kids blow out your birthday candles.

I hate the idea of anyone, let alone kids, blowing out candles on a cake. What if they accidentally spit on the cake?! It would then be ruined for everyone except the birthday person, and maybe that was their intention all along.

I hate that they have more birthdays than I do.

The last line felt like someone knocked the air out of me: I do hate that they have more birthdays than I do.

I don't know about you, but I always seem to be a raging grinch on my birthday, year after year. I'm never sure why...I love my birthday. I love cake. I love presents. It's all good. But for some reason, the combination of the 3 sends me into a moody tailspin that always leaves me ticked off for not letting go and enjoying myself.

That's what your birthday is for, right?

This year I've decided things will be different. In exactly one week I will turn 39 years old. 39 is by no stretch of the imagination old, but like the book said, I am running out of birthdays and the way I look at it? I'd better enjoy the ones I have left.

So, starting today, my birthday is going to be a week long celebration. I decided that everyday, for the week leading up to my birthday, I am going to do something fun for myself. It doesn't have to be big, it doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to be something I would like and have fun doing.

Today's mini celebration? A facial at a day spa. I have only ever had a facial once in my life and that was over 10 years ago when my in-laws got me a gift certificate to a day spa for my birthday. Since I am starring down the barrel of the last year of my 30's, I figured the time seemed ripe for a few layers to be removed from my face.

It. Was. DIVINE. I think I actually might have fallen asleep at one point in time, that's how relaxed I was. It lasted an hour and half and let me tell you...it's something I could get used to on a regular basis, that's for sure. Especially if it "plumps" up my "aging" skin.

I hate that my skin care concerns now fall into the catagory of "anti-aging".

See? I could have written this book.

What else am I planning on doing? I haven't decided yet. All I know is that this will all culminate with me laying around on my actual birthday not doing a freaking thing but what I want. Especially if that is eating pancakes for breakfast, wearing sweats and reading some trashy Nora Roberts novel. All. Day. Long.

Let me ask you all...if you could do something fun for yourself before your birthday, what would it be? Would you take an hours long nap in the middle of the day? Would you eat nothing buy M&M's for lunch? Would you buy yourself a really great pair of shoes? Okay, that last one is something I'm considering doing, but really...I want to know! Leave me a note in the comments and tell me what would be on your self-serving birthday fun list.

Maybe y'all will think of something I haven't...

9 Deadly Words Used By A Woman, Dedicated To My Husband

2011-04-26T13:19:00.001-05:00

My online BFF Lorrie had the most wonderful blog post ever in the history of blog posts today. It was one of those rare jewels that had me laughing so hard I thought I'd get sick. I knew I had to share it with you all because 1) you'd get it and 2) it reminded me of my husband.

I have the courage to freely admit that these 9 deadly words are ones I use on a fairly regular basis (and by fairly regular basis I mean every single day). Michael knows me better than I know myself, so he also knows the hidden meanings behind all of them (fine, nothing and the loud sigh being the three I dabble in the most). And whenever I mutter any of these phrases or words, this is the look I get:

Of course, he may have given me this look because I was taking pictures of him while he was trying to enjoy his beloved KFC.

He's going to be so happy with me for putting this picture on the world wide of webs.

Spring Break(ing)

2011-04-25T15:21:00.000-05:00

Well hello there world wide of webs! How are you? It's been, what? Almost 2 weeks since my last post? What's that you, ask? Where have I been? Well, let me tell you...

I've been right here. The entire time.

Last week was Shannon's spring break, so I took an unintentional vacation from the blog. It wasn't like we were so busy going places and doing fabulous things (although we did have some fun), it was just that I was being lazy, sleeping in and enjoying being a pig.

I had this big plan...on Monday, when everyone was back to school and work and it was just me, myself and I in the house, I was going to sit down, write a huge ol' blog post, complete with photographic evidence, of my time away and what we did.

But something funny happened during the process. As I was editing a skillion pictures in Photoshop today, this little box popped up on my computer screen which read:

Your startup disk is almost full.

You need to make more space available on your start up disk by deleting files.

In other words:

Your hard drive is full idiot.

Get rid of some of the crap so you can make room for more crap.

Sooo...yeah...that pretty much put the kybosh on my plans. Until I clean stuff up, I can't edit and save anymore pictures to my hard drive. But, luckily for you, I did manage to get one saved that is quite possibly my favorite from the week:

This was taken at the MFA in the Chihuly exhibit. Shannon actually texted me, from school a few weeks ago, to see if I'd heard of it and to let me know she was going to die if I didn't take her.

Only my child would do that. And that's why I love her so.

If you live in the Boston area, this exhibit is not to be missed. The room Michael and Shannon were standing in had a glass ceiling with hundreds of Chihuly's blown glass creations laying on top of that. The way the light played with the colored glass, it gave you the feeing of being underwater. It was amazing.

Michael has promised me that when he gets home tonight, he is going to help me clean up my hard drive and get a ~~metric ton~~ of pictures moved to an external hard drive so I can play mad photo scientist again. I asked him why he didn't just turn the basement into a data storage center already. It would make my life so much easier.

Then he teased me for being a nerd and knowing that he could do that if I wished.

I wasn't a nerd until I met him. True story.

Totally Superficial

2011-04-13T11:25:00.000-05:00

True confessions time: I'm a sucker for really great packaging.

Okay. So that's not much of a true confession, but it is the truth and I'm all about keeping it real up in here.

The Today Show has a segment they run every now and then called Jill's Deals (I tried looking this up online and couldn't find it to link to it. I'm not making it up, it is real, I swear). I've never seen it on the actual show (okay...now it sounds like I'm totally making it up) but they do also run them on Facebook. What it is is a series of great deals on different things on the internet. A few months ago they had a coupon for Full shampoo by Living Proof. You got the shampoo, conditioner and thickening creme for $15. A nice, cheap way to get you hooked on a shampoo that normally will cost you $25. Cos the coupon was good once and for about 10 seconds.

Well...way back in February they ran a deal for a soy candle and diffuser. Great price, great scent. I like my house to smell good, so I couldn't wait to get this deal and make my house smell lovely and not like people actually live in it.

Fast forward to yesterday...it finally showed up. Yeah. A month and a half AFTER I ordered it. But really...it was worth the wait when I saw the packaging...

It was so pretty I couldn't stand it. Both the candle and diffuser were in brown, felt lined boxes that were then sheathed in a cream colored, embossed card stock.

As if that weren't enough, once you removed the card stock there was this...

A tiny handle with the company's lettering embossed on it! Once you pulled that open, here is what the inside looked like...

I'm pretty sure I passed out from all the loveliness, but when I came to I thought "This is almost too beautiful to take apart and use! I should just keep it in the original packaging and show it off when people come to the house!"

Okay, so I may be crazy but I'm not that crazy (or am I?). When Michael saw it he said "That looks nice...does it smell as good as it looks?"

I told him yes, but really...like the scent matters! Look how pretty the packaging is!

Yes, I am totally superficial like that...

Someone's Got A Case Of The Mondays...

2011-04-11T12:04:00.000-05:00

I hate Mondays. Yeah, I know, everyone does, but this particular Monday is really testing me. Before noon I'd managed to spill ice tea all over myself, needed to change my clothes and do an extra load of laundry. Not really what I wanted or needed to add to my already staggeringly long list of things to do today.

Once I got all that taken care of, I allowed myself a few minutes to sit down in my scrapbook area and get caught up on my picture of the day album. Here's how I've been doing it...I print out the pictures I want to put in the album, then I take a little sticky post-it note and write what is going on in the pictures so when I add the journaling, it's there and easier for me to get done and in the album.

So today I edited my photos, printed them out and put them in the album. Then I got my post-it note pad and jotted down the dates and pertinent notes. As I tried (this being the operative word in the sentence) to stick it to the page protector, it slid right off. I thought "What the (bleep)" picked it up and looked at it. I'd managed to write on the back of the pad of post-it notes, not the front, so the glue was on the front (where'd I written) and not the back.

I took a deep breath, picked the post-it note pad up and tried again.

Long story short, I did this 5 times. And messed up every single time.

Dear Monday, You can suck it, I'm done. Love, Jen

Why I Photograph What I Do

2011-04-07T10:54:00.001-05:00

Yesterday afternoon Shannon and I took a ride out to Old Navy to try and find something she could wear for her solo ensemble concert next week at school. My baby will be playing in a quartet as well as doing a solo of her own. She even gets to play a solo during the band's performance of the theme to Jurassic Park.

That's what you get when you're the only oboe player.

But I digress...

While we were driving to the store, we discovered that part of the road was closed and there was a detour. Nothing bad or complicated, the detour was down a couple of side roads that led you back around to the mail road.

I've taken these side roads hundreds of times because they are also a short cut to another section of town. It's behind some businesses and there aren't a lot of homes back there because there's also a power station and towers.

That is except for one old, abandoned house that sits by itself.

I've seen this house many times before, but because I was sitting in traffic trying to get through the detour, I was able to really look at it. And it intrigued me.

I have no idea how old the house is, but just by looking at it and the state of disrepair it was in, I'd guess it's at least 100 years old. There are thousands of old, abandoned houses like this in Massachusetts. Mostly because the state is older than dirt.

There were several things I found interesting about the house: there was a boat in the backyard that was as trashed as the house. It didn't look old, not at all. It was a motorboat that looked as if someone had just left it there. Next to the boat was a TV. Not a small, old one, but one that looked like it was around 36 inches and less than 10 years old. The screen was shattered and it was laying on it's side. Like the boat, it looked like someone just dumped it there.

To the right of the house was what must have been a garage or shed, something that was added years after the house was built. It was demolished. The basic structure could still be seen, and part of the roof was still there, but the walls were flattened as if it had been hit by a wrecking ball.

Then there was the house. A typical clapboard, New England style two story house. All of the windows were broken out, and several had sheers that were blowing out of them. Up on the second story a twin sized mattress was hanging out of one of the windows.

It looked like whoever was living there just got up and left abruptly.

As I looked it and noticed all these details my first thought was "I would love to come back here with my camera and take some shots. Some nice black and whites with some grain to the image. Make them look old and spooky. That would be cool."

My second thought was "But knowing my luck, I'd come back here with my camera, by myself, start shooting and someone who looked a lot like Golum would look out one of the windows at me and I'd drop dead of fright and it would come out and eat my brains."

I've been watching too much Fringe.

And in thinking all of this, I decided the scenario above is why I take pictures of flowers.

They're in my yard and that's safe because I'm the only freak that lives in this house so I know my brains will not become a meal for anyone.

Issues. I got them.

Bounce That Flash

2011-04-05T16:22:00.000-05:00

One of the first, and most important, lessons in photography is how to use light to your advantage. More specifically, how to use the available light in your shooting situation so you don't have to use the ~~horrible ugly and absolutely hideous~~ on camera pop-up flash.

But there are times, as every photographer knows, where it's simply too dim, dark and poorly lit for you to not use a flash when taking a picture. I know lots (and when I say lots I mean tons) of photographers who say they will NEVER use a flash and that they would rather miss getting the shot than use one.

Hi, my name is Jen and I used to think this way. I no longer do. There is a way to properly light your photographs while using your pop-up flash.

It's called the Pop-Up Flash Bounce and it's sold at Photojojo. I recently bought myself one of these and lemme tell you...I lerve it so.

To show you how well it works, I've ~~coerced~~ enlisted the help of my lovely daughter Shannon. She's so patient and understanding with her mother.

Excuse me while I laugh myself sick over that last sentence.

Shannon was kind enough (and that's putting it lightly) to let me take a few shots of her while she was doing her homework.

This first shot is using the available light coming in from the windows in her room. One is directly behind her, while the other one was coming from my right. It's a nice light made even better by custom setting the white balance.

If you don't know how to do this, learn how to do it now. It will make all the difference in the color of you photos.

I like this shot. A lot. I had the camera on my manual setting so I controlled everything. Which is nice for an anal retentive, type A control freak like myself. The end result? A keeper.

Next, I put the camera on full auto with the pop-up flash. Hmmm. It's not terrible, but it's certainly not great. The colors are off, the light is harsh and well...it's nasty.

Let's pretend I didn't take this one and put it up here.

Finally, I used the magicy Pop-up Flash Bouncer from Photojojo.

Good shot. Nice colors. Good skin tone. The light is excellent because it's bouncing off of the white ceiling in her room which is the entire purpose of the Pop-up Flash Bouncer. Since the light is coming from above, it creates a nice, soft, even look without the harsh shadows that you would get if you used the pop-up flash by itself.

See the second picture. Ugh.

Now...I have a big expensive flash that attaches to my camera (that I will freely admit I do not know how to use and kind of scares the hell out of me), but this little thing? So easy to use. It slips right in the shoe on the top of your camera and comes with some very easy to follow instructions on which settings you should use with it. It even breaks them down by camera model. And the price? Considerably less than a big expensive lens that attaches to your camera, that is for sure.

I would highly recommend buying this and giving it a shot if you are intimidated by using flashes but want better lit pictures. It is definitely worth the money and I know it will come in very handy for indoor shots at night time. Which always seem to be the biggest pain in the rear to get, don't you think?

P.S. Can anyone point me in the direction of some easy to read references on learning how to use the big scary flash that attaches to my camera? Any help or advice you could give me would be so beyond awesome.

April Fools

2011-04-01T08:52:00.000-05:00

I'm not a big April Fool's kind of person. I never come up with tricks to play on people, mostly because I'm not good at it. I start laughing like an idiot, tipping off whoever I'm trying to fool that something is about to go down, which ruins the whole joke.

Yeah. I think I'm the funniest person on the planet.

Even though I didn't pull any pranks, Mother Nature pulled one on us. This is what we woke up to:

Just when we thought it was spring time, when the 75 feet of snow we'd received this winter had finally all melted and we could feel flip flop weather coming on, we were given this to deal with. On April 1st.

That is the cruelest joke of all.

Now...it's not all that bad. It's only a few inches of snow. It's more of a nuisance than anything and in a few days it will all be gone. The sad part is this isn't even the worst we've ever had to deal with on April 1st. In 1997 we woke up to a storm that dumped 33 inches of snow on us. In one night. And that was before we owned a snow blower.

Wishing you all a frivolity filled April Fools that doesn't involve snow - Love, Me

I Dare You To Watch This And Not Laugh

2011-03-30T16:04:00.001-05:00

Spring Cleaning

2011-03-29T15:42:00.000-05:00

Every year I say I'm going to do a "spring cleaning" around the house. You know...get rid of old stuff, clean out all the nooks and crannies, shed the vestiges of winter and make way for the weather that will warm my heart and soul.

That last line was slightly out of control, wasn't it?

Well, I never seem to do spring cleaning (which is why my basement is full of crap), but this year things are different. I haven't made a list, per se, of all the things I want to do (that list would be long and daunting and inhuman), but instead I've been taking care of things when I notice they need a little extra boost to look nice again.

Example: the other day I was getting ready to blow dry my hair when I noticed the cover for the back of the blow dryer was open so I went to close it. That's when I noticed the fan was ~~completely disgusting~~ a little clogged, so I cleaned it out then proceeded to do my hair. Long story short, it took 15 seconds to dry my hair once it was cleaned.

Spring cleaning is wonderful.

So today, while was walking into my computer room, I noticed that the window was a little dirty and by a little dirty I really mean "oh my gawd that's nasty I need to clean it NOW." I got my paper towels, my Mrs. Meyer's geranium window cleaner (it smells purty) and got it nice and clean and clear. But seeing how filthy the paper towel was when I was done, I thought I'd better clean the other windows in the house as well.

Another long story short: I used a ton of paper towels and I'm almost out of window cleaner. But my windows are clean and I can see through them again.

Hallelujah.

This begs the question: how do you all clean your windows? I know some suggest using newspaper to wipe the windows with, but wouldn't that make the window dirty with all the ink? And what do you use for solution to clean the windows? Store bought product? Homemade? Am I asking stupid questions? I don't think so. I am sincerely interested to learn how you all clean your windows.

I'm going to go check my handy dandy Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook. Hmm...if the cover were to be believed, she uses paper towels and Windex. That seems a little common even for Martha, doesn't it?

Spring Time?

2011-03-28T11:50:00.000-05:00

The calendar says it's Spring, but Mother Nature seems to think otherwise.

This was taken last Thursday when we had one of those "it's sunny, now it's cloudy, oh look, it's snowing, oh wait, it's hailing out" kind of Spring time days.

And while the snow flurries and hail have moved on, we seem to be stuck in this "it's 10 degrees colder than it should be" pattern here in New England and will be for the foreseeable future.

What was that about Global Warming again?

I'm not going to complain ~~too much~~ seeing as the snow has finally all melted and that is no longer something to worry about (famous last words). And I'm not expecting the temps to soar into the 80's so I can start wearing flip flops. But I'd be much happier if it were at least in the 50's and I didn't have to keep putting my Uggs on whenever I left the house.

As much as I love my Uggs, I'm getting really tired of them already.

Hopefully the weather is better where you are. Please tell me it is. I need to live vicariously through someone.

How My Friday Went Down

2011-03-25T18:41:00.001-05:00

I have to start this whole sordid tale off with a disclaimer: if you don't like reading about mice, stop now. And if you don't like pictures of mice that have "left the building" then you should definitely stop reading now.

But if you like funny stories and edited pictures of mice that have "left the building" then by all means, please keep reading.

So my Friday started off like every other Friday in my life: Michael was at work, Shannon was at school and I was at home in my yoga pants listening to Mother Monster on Pandora while I was getting my clean on with the house.

I clean the house, top to bottom, every Friday. It's this sick ritual I have that gears me up for the weekend. See...if I clean the house on Friday, when I'm alone and know it will get done ~~properly~~, then come Saturday morning I can relax, drink my coffee and stay in my pj's until noon.

You're jealous, admit it.

So there I was, going about my business when I went into the corner kitchen cabinet to get the Swiffer pads so I could clean the upstairs bathroom floor. They were not where they usually were, so I went digging for them. Unable to further locate the pads, I started to pull things out so I could find them. That's when I saw a bunch of pieces of plastic with what looked suspiciously like black rice.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

I quickly surmised the "black rice" was actually "mouse poo" and proceeded to lose my (bleep). And when I say lose my (bleep) what I really mean is I started to pull everything out of the cabinet and start crying like a 5 year old child.

I'm not entirely sure what happened next because I'm fairly certain I blacked out. All I know is I got everything out of the cabinet, got my bucket and bottle of Clorox bleach and cleaned that cabinet out like it's never been cleaned before.

At some point in time during this cleaning frenzy, I discovered that the bits of plastic that were strewn amongst the mouse poo were actually the wrappers from a bag of caramels. That's right. The offending mouse somehow found it's way into my corner cabinet and had been gorging itself on a bag of Kraft caramels we had in there. The filthy animal chewed its way into the unopen bag and was having his own version of Thanksgiving, at our expense.

I'm pretty sure it was at this point in time that I completely lost my (bleep), started texting Michael about what was going on and blaming him for it. Because if there was a mouse in my house eating caramels, it was his fault.

Being the ~~good~~ awesome husband he is, he immediately apologized and said he would set some traps when he got home. For some reason this wasn't good enough for me, so I asked where the traps were and so I could set them myself. RIGHT NOW.

I found the traps, loaded them up with peanut butter and put them where I saw the wrappers and poo as well as where the bag of caramels were. I figured I'd get the beast coming or going.

Fast forward a few hours later...I hadn't heard any noise coming from the cabinet, but I was scared (beepless) to open the cabinet and see if I'd caught anything so I told Michael he would have to be the one to check and see if there was anything in the trap or not when he got home.

He's a man, it's his job. That's what that ring around his finger means.

So I went along my way, and, without thinking, I opened the cabinet to put something away and this is what I found...

Less than 4 hours after setting the trap, I'd caught the hairy little bugger.

It was at this point that I sent Michael at text message that read:

THERE'S A MOUSE THERE'S A MOUSE GET IT OUT GET IT OUT GOING TO HURL.

Sometime later he came home and disposed of the offending creature so I wouldn't have to. But not first without taking a picture of it and posting it on Facebook for the world to see.

To date, this picture has garnered a record number of responses for me. As of 7:27 pm there are 20 responses and I doubt that is the last of them. My favorites so far have been:

From my father: His relatives will soon be there for the funeral.
From my mother: LMAO! I don't give a rodents ass, this picture is very funny!
From Michael: It does look a bit like the start of that famous sawing a mouse in half trick...
And from my friend Krissa: Oh sweet little baby Jesus, I am scarred for life! How big is that thing?

When Michael got back in the house from disposing of the beast he said "He was a healthy little bugger, wasn't he?"

I looked at him with a completely straight face and said "He's been eating nothing but caramels! No wonder he was so big!"

And that is the story of how my Friday went down. If you made it past the photo, I commend you. I am off to spend the weekend tearing the kitchen apart and getting rid of everything in it. I might even move to Mars because I'd rather take my chances with alien life forms than mice that eat sweets. Have a good weekend peeps...

Your Best Camera

2011-03-24T11:34:00.000-05:00

Everybody has their opinions on photography. You have to have this camera, that lens, you shouldn't use your flash...blah blah blah. You've all heard it a million times before, am I right?

Now, I will freely admit that I am amateur photography snob and I have a really nice camera, good lenses and I never use my flash (although I intend to remedy that with this book). Having said that, I firmly believe that your best camera is the one you have on you at any given time.

I don't always have my sexy DSLR with me, so many times I will rely on the camera on my iPhone to get a shot.

Camera phones have improved a million times over since they were first introduced. And in typical Apple style, the camera on the iPhone is pretty astounding by itself, but there are a boatload of camera apps to use that make it extraordinary.

My personal favorite is Hipstamatic. It's just this fun, funky little camera app that allows you to get some really cool, artistic shots with your phone. Case in point...I got this shot of some ranunculus I bought at Trader Joe's yesterday:

Can we just take a second to laugh at the name of these flowers? Ranunculus? Seriously?! Both Michael and my friend Christina said the name was "ridunculous", which won them both points in my punny book.

What can I say? I love puns. Don't judge me.

Back to the picture...it's cool, right? The nice thing with Hipstamatic is you can ~~buy~~ use different lenses and film types to get different effects. This one was taken with the John S lens and the Dreamcanvas film. I love how it has a kind of painterly look to it with the canvas texture and brush strokes. I'm sure I could get this in Photoshop but seriously? I don't have the patience to do it. I'm lazy like that.

I also took a photo of the flowers with my DSLR. Here's how it came out:

I don't want to toot my own horn (what a liar) but that is a nice shot. Nice depth of field, nice lighting, really nice color. I dun a good job on this one.

Now...is one shot better than the other? In my opinion, absolutely not. They are two very different shots of the same subject. One is more artistic and funky, the other more of a traditional and straight forward, but both are beautiful in their own special way.

I'm sure everyone will have a different opinion than me and that's cool. But like I said, I think whatever camera you happen to have on your persons is the best one. Just capture the shot. It's as simple as that. In fact, I've toyed with the idea of leaving my DSLR behind the next time I go somewhere and just using my iPhone to capture our escapades. Could be kind of funky and fun, right?

Blog Classes

2011-03-23T17:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday afternoon my beautiful, sweet and much younger cousin Jaclyn left me a message on Facebook that said "You should give blog classes because I love yours and I need help!"

I thought this was the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my blog because honestly...I've been thinking about taking it down for a while now.

I've been wondering lately if I've exhausted the list of things I could do with this here blog. Am I running out of funny stories? Maybe I should just focus on my photography (focus...photography...I don't care who you are, that was funny)? Should I just pack it in and tape myself singing "Thanks For The Memories?" as one last blog post?

Somehow, that just doesn't feel right (especially the idea of me singing). I've had this blog for 5 years now (a fact that boggles my mind no end) and while I may feel like I'm in a little bit a of slump and should be the last person on the planet to give blog classes (get Dooce or Pioneer Woman for that task since they've written the book on it), I'm not sure I'm ready to abandon it all together.

I know I will have many things to share with you all down the road. Little things, big things and everything in between. All in my own cracked and unique voice.

Besides...the next few years should provide me with many things to write about, such as Shannon leaving me forever when she goes to college and becomes adult while I become a total shut in with a dozen cats.

Tell me those blog posts won't be funny. I dare you.

Creepiosity

2011-03-22T15:44:00.000-05:00

I love really weird books.

When I say weird books, I really mean those colorful, offbeat tomes that are chock full of odd trivia, weird pictures, or things people have searched for on Google.

That last one is real. I got it for Michael for Christmas. I love it.

Some of my favorites are, in no particular order:

Overheard in New York. Michael got me this for Christmas one year and we spent the entire day reading it and laughing so hard we thought we'd get sick.
How To Talk Dirty In Yiddish. Because if you're going to talk dirty, Yiddish makes it sound even funnier.
F In Exams. I hope the answers in this book are real and the people who came up with them got a couple of points on creativity alone.

I could go on for days about books like these, but you'd eventually get bored and leave and no one wants that.

My newest edition to the great books collection would be this little gem:

Michael and I saw this one while we were out recently, so he got it for me from Amazon as a surprise and it got here today. As soon as I pulled it out of the box, Shannon saw it, got a gleam in her eye and said "Come sit next to me so we can look at it together."

She is absolutely my partner in crime, isn't she?

Within minutes we were looking through it and laughing hysterically. Some were just downright funny, while others were beyond funny because they were true (monkeys with colorful butts being one that comes to mind). Then Shannon and I came across one that had us laughing so hard I thought we'd fall off the couch:

Once I started breathing normally again, I said "I'm going to take a picture of this and text it to your Dad to see if this really is creepy."

Like I'd need a man to tell me it is. I guess I just needed confirmation.

Here is the ensuing text message conversation that followed:

The concept of urinals is something I will never, ever be able to wrap around my female brain as long as I live. But the fact that there are men who will sidle up another man in the bathroom and use the urinal next to him when every other one is open is unfathomable.

And don't even get me going on urinal cakes. Those are two words in the English language that should never, ever, EVER be put together.

For The Love Of Kitties

2011-03-21T11:46:00.000-05:00

This morning as I was perusing the blogiverse, I was over at Pioneer Woman's blog and saw a post she wrote about her cat, Kitty Kitty.

I just need to say right now that Shannon and I live for these posts. We love Kitty Kitty so much and want Kitty Kitty in our lives in the worst way. Even though we love Cali very much.

In the post she said something that hit me so hard and struck me in such a strong way I knew I had to share it here:

Here’s what I know: A family without a cat…is a family without a pliable, graceful, gently vibrating, ethereal lump of fur and sweetness.

Truer words were never spoken.

St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-18T17:07:00.000-05:00

How was everyone's St. Patrick's Day? Did y'all eat some corned beef? Didja drink some beer? If you did I hope you were ~~somewhat~~ responsible and it wasn't green cos green beer? That's nasty.

We started our St. Paddy's Day festivities off right...

With Shamrock Shakes.

They're absolutely revolting, aren't they? I was good. I just had iced tea. And can I just ask you all something? Have you ever ordered iced tea with lemons from McDonald's? If so, are the lemons abnormally small? Every time I get one I see them and think they picked them before they were ready cos they're the size of ping pong balls.

After the iced tea, I moved on to the good stuff.

That's what I'm talking about.

Then there was the corned beef...

Hello lover.

I'm an absolute pig when it comes to corned beef. As soon as it comes out of the pot of boiling water, I am all over it like there is no tomorrow. Of course, it's heavy and greasy and that always does a number on me but it's once a year so it's kinda worth it.

We ended the food fest with a very traditional Irish dessert...

Store bought cake with chocolate frosting.

Wait...there's a story here...

So when I was looking at dessert recipes to make, I came across a chocolate Guinness Stout cake recipe at King Arthur flour (that I cannot find at the moment or I'd show it to you). It looked good and tasty and was 823 calories a slice.

Seeing as that was a bit much for ~~any human being on the planet~~ us, I decided to go with a cinnamon apple cake recipe I'd found on an Irish food blog. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but it turned out like crap. It was dry, it was hard and it stuck to the pan despite the fact that I sprayed it with cooking spray. Michael was kind enough to pick the cake pictured above up on his way home from work so we'd have something sweet to eat after we gorged ourselves on corned beef.

First world problem, right?

We also watched a mini marathon of Father Ted. It is not wise to watch that show while you're drinking a beverage of any kind. I cannot tell you how many times I almost spit my beer out during the several episodes we watched. Which would have been even funnier than the show itself.

Beannacht Lá Fhéile Pádraig!

2011-03-17T14:59:00.003-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all!

To help you celebrate this most festive day, I present you with some Gaelic proverbs:

Cha deoch-slàint, i gun a tràghadh.
It’s no health if the glass is not emptied.

Ge milis am fìon, tha e searbh ri dhìol.
The wine is sweet, the paying bitter.

Gluais faicilleach le cupan làn.
Go carefully with a full cup.

All of these are about alcohol. How interesting. Here are some that I found very meaningful:

An nì chì na big, ‘s e nì na big.
What the little ones see, the little ones do.

Anyone with kids knows this to be true.

Cha robh dithis riamh a’ fadadh teine nach do las eatarra.
Two never kindled a fire but it lit between them.

Awww...I like this one. A lot.

Is i mhàthair bhrisg a nì ‘n nighean leisg.
The active mother makes the lazy daughter.

I just read this one to Shannon. She didn't like it at all.

I would love to tell you how to pronounce all of these so you can say them to other's today, but Gaelic is not a language that is pronounced phonetically so maybe you can just write them down on flashcards and show them to others. I think that works just as well.

Enjoy yourselves today! We are having corned beef and Harp and getting our Irish on in a serious way. I will have a recap here tomorrow for you all to ooo and ahhhh over. Until then...

Gluais faicilleach le cupan làn.
Go carefully with a full cup.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Finally

2011-03-16T17:30:00.003-05:00

I love Glee. I cannot tell you how excited I get when a new episode is on. I plan my entire night around watching it and when it's over I make Michael buy it for me on Amazon so I can watch it over and over again. Which I've done more times than I care to freely admit (Okay. A billion and one. At least).

And like most Gleeks, I do have my favorite character. Love Puckerman (duh). Love Artie (he's so dang cute). Love Britney (I cannot get enough of her one liners). But the one I love most of all is Kurt. I don't just love him. I lerve him so much. I love his story line. I love his relationship with his father. And I love the crush he has on Blaine.

Is it wrong that I want to print this photo out and frame it them put it on my desk? Don't answer that. And don't judge me.

For months there has been talk that Blaine was going to be Kurt's boyfriend, but nothing was happening. They were hanging out, and there was even a moment when Kurt told Blaine he had a crush on him, but nothing came of it.

Until last night.

In what I have to say was my favorite musical number on the show ever, Kurt sang Blackbird by The Beatles after his pet parakeet passed away. While he was singing it, Blaine started to look at him in a new light. And the moment I've been waiting forever for finally happened: they kissed.

It was everything I wanted to it be...sweet, touching and incredibly romantic. What it wasn't was forced, tawdry and it certainly wasn't uncomfortable. It was just a precious moment shared between two people. And that made it lovely.

This was, hands down, mine and Shannon's favorite episode of the entire series. Over at IMDB it's getting a 9.7 out of 10. This season of Glee has been a little hit or miss (Blame It On The Alcohol...not so good) but this episode totally made up for this fact.

Plus the original song Loser Like Me that New Directions sang? Best. Song. Ever.

Bloggy Topics

2011-03-15T12:26:00.000-05:00

So, I did it. I made a list of things rattling around in my brain lately that I thought I could write about on this here blog.

See? Told you I was going to write them out. I put them on a post-it and now that post-it resides on the bottom of my computer screen. Don't believe me? Here's the proof...

There it is. Right next to my cheat sheet about sharpening pics & a picture of Shannon and my desk dinosaur named Wash (and if you know what that is in reference to you're as big of a nerd as I am). Now I will see it whenever I sit down and says "Ahhh...yes. I did say I'd do that, didn't I?"

So what is on the list? Discovery of Witches (a book I read recently and I've been dying to talk about but I need to gather my thoughts on it first), photo of vampire Cali (this has the potential to be epically funny but I may be kidding myself), Fuji Instax (Jenny's new toy and the camera that caught vampire Cali), St. Paddy's Day (I always do a post on this day because I have way too much fun with it), Shannon's AJ project (aka Andrew Jackson and how she asked for help on it...Sunday at 9 pm) and last but certainly not least, Armie Hammer and Timothy Olyphant (these two men sparked quite a conversation between Michael and I this weekend that left Shannon saying "Well, he started it"). All good in their own, unique way.

I would tackle one of them today, but yesterday I had one of the worst headaches of my life and I'm still coming down off it. It was excruciating, it was gross and all it's left me feeling hollowed out and hang overy today. So tomorrow, I promise, I will write about one of these topics.

I may start with the Armie Hammer and Timothy Olyphant one. It was pretty good.

Facebook vs. Blogging: The Battle Begins

2011-03-14T09:52:00.001-05:00

I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook.

Reasons why I love it:

I have reconnected with a lot of people through Facebook. People I was friends with in junior high and high school, old friends, extended family members, you name it. I haven't spoken to most of these people in years, but despite this, I've discovered we still have things in common and I look forward to chatting with them online.
I've met several people online that I keep in touch with on Facebook. People I know I might never meet face to face, but consider my friends.
It's like an online coffee house. A place where I can go, drink my coffee and see what's up. Only I can do it while wearing my yoga pants and no make up. And no one needs to know.

Reasons why I hate it:

I'm addicted to it. Seriously. I check Facebook several times throughout the day, either on my computer or cellphone. Whenever I get bored. Which seems to be a lot. That ain't right.
People feel like they have the right to say whatever they want to you, no matter how innocuous your status updates might be. On Facebook the rule "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" does not exist.
I hate it when people "Vaguebook". It's just a sad way to get people to pay attention to you.

Just last week Michael and I were discussing how Facebook is killing blogs. My first reaction was "No it's not!" then Michael pointed out how I don't update my blog nearly as much as I used to. Mostly because I'm on Facebook all the time.

This made me so sad because I realized he was right. Ever since I got myself a Facebook account, I've let my blog fall by the wayside. I used to write on it every single day and I loved it. Now I'm lucky if I do it twice a week. That is beyond lame.

Do any of you who have Facebook accounts find this to be true as well or is it just me?

Maybe I should make a pledge right here, right now to write something new on my blog everyday this week. I could do that. I might have to make a list and stick it to my computer screen though. That way I'll see it and remember "Oh yeah... I said I'd do that, huh?"

And I'll get off Facebook and do it. Or at least I'll try real hard to.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!

2011-03-09T09:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Fat Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras. I've always wanted to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, but seeing as I don't like crowds, people or leaving my home, it's not likely to happen. Ever. So, to make up for this, I decided to plan a Fat Tuesday celebration of my own.

At first I was all "Woo hoo" but then I looked up traditional Mardi Gras recipes online and was quickly disheartened. A majority of them were gumbo type recipes which wouldn't work for us because 1) we don't like shrimp and 2) Michael wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole.

I lamented this fact on Facebook and my mother quickly suggested I go to Zatarain's and look up some recipes on their site. I found one that looked promising: Creole chicken and rice. It didn't have shrimp and with one minor adjustment (substituted red pepper for green), I could make it work.

Here came the hardest part: trying to find Zatarain's products in Massachusetts. I love this state, but let me tell you...it's a bit backward. The first time we came back I wanted avocados on a sandwich and the people at the restaurant looked at me like I'd grown horns and said "What's an avocado?" And I moved here. Voluntarily. Anywhoo...I had to go to two different stores to find what I needed, but in the end I got it all and we got our Mardi Gras celebration on.

We started off with the official drink of New Orleans, the Hurricane.

I didn't feel like mixing these up myself (I'm lazy) so I bought a pre-made mix by Southern Comfort. It was very tasty and fit the bill perfectly. Especially after your husband had a particularly hard day at work.

To go with the Hurricanes, we had the Creole chicken and rice.

And because I had started to drink the Hurricane before dinner, I forgot to take a picture of it all pretty on my plate. Before I started to devour it. I was hungry. Don't judge me.

While we ate dinner, we decided to continue with the New Orleans theme and watched the episode of Bones that takes place in New Orleans.

I love Bones, but it really isn't the best dinner time viewing choice.

To end the Fat Tuesday fun, we had ~~cheater lazy mom~~ King Cakes.

Noble Pig had a recipe for simple King Cakes on her blog, but even that was too much for me so I just made these little coffee rolls and sprinkled gold, purple and green sugars on them. Disgustingly easy and everyone loved them.

Now Mardi Gras is over and everyone is spending the day recovering and talking about Lent. But not me...I'm already planning our next big celebration next week: St. Patrick's Day. I'll be making corned beef, potatoes and carrots plus some good dessert. Last year I made Guiness Stout cupcakes. I need something different this year. Got any suggestions for me? I would love it if it were as easy as the King Cakes I made last night.

I Guess I Should Be Happy

2011-03-07T08:57:00.001-05:00

Saturday afternoon Michael and I decided to run some errands (yes, you can call going to Pottery Barn an errand). Shannon opted to stay home, which was more than fine with us. She had homework to do, so staying in while we went out for a bit was the best idea ever.

We weren't gone long, but in that time Shannon not only did her homework, she started to clean her room.

Now...I'm not one of those moms who makes her kid keep her room clean. I will give her grief from time to time when it gets out of control, but I let her take care of it even if my anal retentive nature wants to take over and bomb the hell out of it.

Her room wasn't in terrible shape, but there was a lot of junk in her room that was still boxed up from when we had the carpets replaced. Last November.

She went through the last remaining box, put stuff away, threw some stuff out, and by Sunday afternoon, this is what her room looked like...

So nice.

Everything was put away, everything was orderly and look at that...she even got the vacuum cleaner out and vacuumed.

I may make her as freakishly anal as me yet.

Of course, all the ~~crap~~ extraneous items she removed from her room had to go somewhere. That somewhere turned out to be the hallway.

Not all of this was garbage. Some of it was stuff she didn't want to get rid of, but didn't want clogging up her room.

I'd love to say this was it, but something weird happened as the afternoon went on. It multiplied. And some of it made it to the desk in my scrapbook room. Michael even reported that he discovered some items on his nightstand that weren't previously there.

I had planned on just doing laundry today, but now? Now I will be trying to figure out where to put this stuff. Because my house is so huge and I have all sorts of extra space for these items.

I guess I should be happy that she cleaned her room without being threatened, but I think I'd be really happy if I didn't have to remove the evidence of her cleaning frenzy.

Edited: I just went through the bags in the hall. Shannon labeled each one as either trash, to keep or to donate. Anal retentive and she made my life easier. I love this kid.

Picture Inspiration: Self Portrait

2011-03-01T14:09:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, photography is my religion (no, really?) and last year I took part in an online class of sorts over at Big Picture called Picture Spring, Summer, Fall, the Holidays and Winter. I loved each one because they pushed me out of my proverbial box and made me think about my photography and take pictures of things I would normally walk on by.

Well, imagine my utter happiness when it was announced that they would be doing a year long online forum called Picture Inspiration (see the box to the right? Cool, huh?). Instead of getting a daily email with a prompt for picture taking, you get one a week. There is a gallery, an online chat area and all sorts of other world wide webs of fun. The teacher of the class calls it a virtual coffee shop. Which is perfect for me seeing as I can have my coffee in my pj's while I converse with others, without scaring the hell out of them.

Last week we got our first prompt which was to take a self portrait then put it up in the gallery so we could all see each other.

To say I was disheartened was a bit of an understatement.

See...I love taking pictures of other people, but I hate taking them of myself. I've tried many, many times to get a shot of myself that I thought was good (I would settle for okay at this point) but I'm always disappointed with the results.

But I soldiered on, got my camera out and started snapping away. What follows are just a few that I quickly looked at and gave a resounding pass to...

First up, this winner...

Wow. That is an extreme close up. What didn't I like about this shot? Well, besides how close up it was to my face, I wasn't happy with my skin (we're not going to touch that topic with a 10 foot pole) and I think I look a little too serious in it. I feel like I'm like a Renoir...the farther away you are, the better I look.

Next we have this...

Nice shot of your chest Jen.

Or this lovely one...

Could I look more psychotic if I tried?

After taking several more shots like the ones above, I got ticked and decided to take a different approach. I thought "Hey...what if I take a Polaroid of myself, let it develop then take a picture of that? Kind of a picture within a picture thing." Very Inception, right?

So I did that.

Here's the problem with this shot: my Polaroid has a flash. And I do not know if you can shut it off or not. So of course the flash bounced off my glasses (which have Transitions lenses) making them look a little dark and weird. Plus there's the bra strap hanging out on the left there. It's not like it's a pretty, frilly, girly looking bra strap. It's a big honking nude colored granny strap. Definitely not sexified.

Just when I was ready to throw in the towel and draw a stick figure of myself, I thought I'd try taking a picture of myself with my iPhone and the best app in the world, Hipstamatic. Then I would bring the photo up on the screen and get a shot of it and the whole phone.

Once I saw this shot I new I had a winner. I liked how I looked (smooth skin & no granny bra strap) and it had kind of a cool, artistic feel to it. In the end this was the shot I submitted and guess what? I've gotten a lot of positive feed back on it which is very cool.

And even though this is a cool shot, I would have had fun drawing a stick figure of myself...

MIA

2011-02-28T12:35:00.000-05:00

Just last night, as I was drifting off to sleep, I could hear all of you out there on the world wide of webs calling to me "Jen...where are you? What have you been up to? We miss you!"

Okay. So maybe I didn't really hear that. Maybe it was just my subconscious taking over as I drifted off into the land of nod.

So what have I been up to since we last spoke, which was over a week ago? Well, I packed my bags, headed out of all the cold and snow that has become New England and I jetted off to Belize with Johnny Depp.

My husband is going to read that last line and give me grief over it for a long, long time.

It was February vacation week so Shannon was off from school and Michael had the "use it or lose it" time to take, so he was off as well. We didn't go anywhere (it is February in New England people. Travel at this time of the year is tenuous at best), so we had a nice "stay-cation" right at home. Which is really what I prefer seeing as I'm the biggest homebody on the planet.

First up we visited with some friends and their kids. We hadn't seen them in a long, long time so it was nice to just hang out with them and their adorable offspring. Shannon even had a tea party with their two daughters. So. Freaking. Cute.

We also did a lot of cooking and eating on our stay-cation. Have you all tried this waffle mix? You have to. It is beyond good. My in-laws got us some for Christmas and as soon as we went through that (which didn't take long) we got ourselves some more.

Yeah. We're piggy like that.

We did go on one outing during the week. We decided to go to the MFA in Boston. We hadn't been there in many, many years and they had this cool photography exhibit I wanted to see, so we went in.

Here's Shannon in the Egyptology wing. She has loved mummies, Egypt and Brendan Frasier since she was 6 years old. She would have spent the entire trip in that wing if we'd let her, but alas the MFA is big and there were many things Mama wanted to see.

We went to the museum later in the day which allowed us to eat dinner there. The MFA has a restaurant called Bravo up on the third floor that is beautiful and good and everything that is right with the world. I had the pork loin with pureed sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts while Michael and Shannon had the swordfish with whipped potatoes and tapenade.

I have to point out that there was once a time when we wouldn't have eaten at this establishment with Shannon. She wasn't a bad or ill behaved child. Not at all. When she was younger her appetite leaned more toward things like chicken fingers, french fries and buttered pasta. But now that is older and wiser (and snottier) she likes things like swordfish and tapenade. So if you've got a picky eater, take heart. These things will change.

One of the days we were home Shannon decided to invite some friends over for lunch and to hang out. Pizza was eaten, movies were watched and Glee Karaoke was played on the Wii. There's really nothing like hearing your child and her friends sing "My Life Would Suck Without You" at the top of their lungs.

My sister-in-law Beth celebrated her birthday over our stay-cation, so we all got together for dinner, gifts and of course, cake. We shan't say how many candle were on her cake, but let's just say if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. My sister-in-law still gets carded when we go out.

While we were on our stay-cation, I decided I needed an electric wok in my life (thank you Williams-Sonoma for that idea). Their newest catalog featured the wok along with a recipe for sesame chicken stir fry. So I got the wok, got the ingredients and made it up. See how serious I am about it? Deadly.

Of course, the last day of stay-cation it snowed, so we spent it at home. Around 5 pm, the sun came out and gifted me with this shot. The sun looked so pretty coming through the snow covered trees. Kind of made the snow worth it.

Now it's Monday, Shannon is at school, Michael is at work and I'm sucking up copious amounts of water in the basement because that lovely snow? It's turned to rain. Maybe if I let it go I'll have an indoor pool? That would make our next stay-cation a little more interesting, huh?

Messed Up

2011-02-17T17:02:00.000-05:00

You know what kind of weather we've had lately (I've only been going on and on and on about it).

Cold.

Snow.

And yet more snow.

Enough snow that it won't melt until July.

But something weird is going on today...it's sunny. It's warm. It's 60 degrees.

In the middle of February.

That is absolutely unheard of in these here neck of the woods.

Because I know this is extremely short lived, Shannon and I went to Starbucks after school for drinks and a tasty treat. Also? To soak it all up.

I forgot how good the sun beating on your face and warming it up feels. We sat outside Starbucks in the sun laughing, talking and having the best time.

I looked at Shannon and said "It's the middle of February, we're sitting outside without coats and drinking cold drinks."

Shannon's response? "That's messed up, right?"

Yeah. But in a really great way.

Cabaret Night

2011-02-15T14:05:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday, Shannon performed in her school's 2nd annual cabaret night.

Being the good mom that I am, I kept joking that I had heard her say "cabernet night" and I was ready to get my drink on. Alas, there was no wine but there was nice assortment of pastries on the table and some fun entertainment to be seen.

Here's my girl right before the show began. You can see she isn't looking at me, but off to my left where my sister-in-law and niece were seated. She'll smile for them but me? She sticks her tongue out.

The band played two numbers: a medley from Phantom of the Opera and a medley from Oliver. Shannon's been playing in the band since she was in 4th grade, so we've seen just about every single performance. This one was hands down my favorite. They played so well together and did such an amazing job. I will freely admit it was very difficult for me not to belt out the words to most of these songs. As much fun as I think it would have been to start singing "Consider Yourself" at the top of my lungs, I don't think Shannon would have appreciated it. At all.

Later in the show Shannon changed her outfit and got up to sing "I'm Not That Girl" from Wicked. I haven't seen Wicked and despite the fact that she walked around singing that song for 2 weeks, I really didn't know the song at all. Her singing it up there was the first time I'd heard it. Between the lyrics and the fact that my baby was up singing in front of a room full of strangers, I nearly lost it. Several times.

In the end it was a really fun show to see. The kids all put it on themselves and they did a great job with it. Shannon is already talking about next year's cabaret night and what she wants to perform.

Gotta love that Broadway baby of mine.

My Funny Valentines

2011-02-14T12:54:00.000-05:00

Today is Valentine's Day, the one day of the year when you're supposed to stand on a mountain top and shout about your undying love for the others in your life.

Well, my blog is the proverbial mountain top today, I'm going to get all mushy here as I write about my three funny Valentines...

My husband Michael. He tells me everyday how much he loves me, how beautiful I am and he makes me laugh (mostly at myself). Most importantly, he puts up with my insanity on a daily basis, which makes him a prince among men. And I can't imagine my life without him.

My daughter Shannon. She is brilliant, smart and a million times funnier than I am (I'm quite funny you know). Whenever I hear the song Firework by Katy Perry, I think of her. And I can't believe she will actually grow up and leave me. That's so unfair.

My cat Cali. When we adopted her, I wanted a dog. Not a cat. In the 5 years we have had her, she has become my second child in every sense. I know she loves me, but mostly when I give her Feline Greenies.

I wish you all a beautiful and lovely Valentine's Day. Remember to eat lots of chocolate today, because this is the only day of the year when chocolate has zero calories. It's true. Don't bother looking it up. Would I lie to you about something like this?

It's The Little Things

2011-02-11T08:39:00.000-05:00

It is often the little things in life that make one the happiest. Like the fact that we had an entire week with nary a snow storm or snow day.

Now if the house would just clean itself? I'd be in heaven.

Clean Color

2011-02-10T14:16:00.000-05:00

Way back in April of 2009, I signed up for and took Karen Russell's online photography course The Photographer's Workshop. I wrote about it here, when we were only half way through it. At that point I was stunned by what I had learned...not just about photography, but mostly about my camera and how to use it. It's been almost 2 years since I took that class, and I've never looked back.

Just about a month ago another online photographer, Erin Cobb (who is an amazing photographer...go check out her website and you'll see what I mean) offered a class on her editing technique called Clean Color. Karen Russell (who knows Erin and learned her magic editing style) sent an email out to all her students (past and present) saying this was hands down one of the best classes out there and recommended to anyone who was a serious photographer who wanted to learn how to properly edit their photos.

I was immediately intrigued because 1) I love Erin Cobb's photos and 2) Karen Russell said it was good. That's like the Holy Grail to me. If she says it's good, it has to be.

So I purchased the video and had every intention of watching as soon as I could. But then life happened (more like copious amounts of snow and snow days and being stuck in the house for days on end). You'd think this would have been the perfect time to listen and learn, but it wasn't. I knew that if I was going to absorb it and get using it, I'd have to be alone with no distractions.

Yesterday was finally that day. Michael was at work, Shannon was at school and I was home alone with nothing else to do. So I put it on. A few hours later I had edited an old photo I took in Karen's class, using Erin's Clean Color technique.

I. Was. Amazed.

Here is the SOOC (straight out of camera) shot:

And here it is after the Clean Color editing:

I. Was. Floored. I really thought it was going to be difficult to learn, even with my basic knowledge of Photoshop Elements. It so wasn't. In fact, it was easy. In editing this photo I saw that the basic tools had been in front of me for years, I just didn't know how to use them all together to get the looks I wanted.

It was like a light bulb had gone off over my head.

I immediately edited more pics.

Here is a shot of the 3 of us from the Cape last summer:

And here it is after Clean Color:

I edited, cropped it and liked it much better than the original. So much better.

Next I moved on to a shot of Shannon that I took right before her 8th grade graduation dance:

And here it is after:

Now I will freely admit that I had edited this photo before, using no particular technique at all and thought it looked good. After doing the Clean Color technique, it looked amazing.

At this point I was just giddy with editing excitement so I moved on to two more shots I'd taken during Karen's class...

This is a shot of Shannon in the back yard. The point of the assignment was to find the perfect lighting by having someone stand still and shooting around them. Shannon was being such a pill about it. She did not want her picture taken AT ALL. After telling she was a daughter who did not love her mother (name that movie) she agreed (reluctantly) and it took less than 5 minutes. Out of that series, this was my favorite shot. The lighting was lovely, soft and sweet. And it pretty much hid how annoyed she was with me.

Then I ran the Clean Color on it and I swear to you, I almost passed out.

This is, hands down, one of my favorite shots of Shannon. When I showed it to her last night she said "Ugh...I was so mad at you that day. Look at my hair...wow it looked good. This is a great shot."

See? Mom has some talent.

Last, but certainly not least, I redid this shot of Shannon that was actually taken the same day as the last one, just a bit later...

Here is the new improved edition:

To say that I'm in love with it would be the understatement of a life time.

Now that I know how to properly edit my photos, all I want to do is go back and redo them all. I particularly want to go back and reedit the senior pictures I did for my niece. They were good, but now? I could make them outstanding.

I cannot recommend Clean Color enough to anyone who is looking for a new way to edit their photos. Erin has put together an amazing package with a video that is so easy to follow along and use it should be illegal. Just like Karen Russell's Photographers Workshop changed my photography, Erin Cobb's Clean Color has changed the way I edit my photos.

And I couldn't be happier about that.

Our Weekend In Pictures

2011-02-07T11:05:00.000-05:00

As you can plainly see, we spent the entire weekend in the house (except for when Michael ran out to get us food so we wouldn't starve to death or turn to cannibalism). The weather was exponentially better (i.e. no snow) but we did have a spectacular rain storm that included thunder and lightning Saturday night, which means that within a one week period we've seen snow, freezing rain, hail, rain, thunder and lightning. All that's really left is a plague of locusts and we're complete.

The rest of the week looks good as well, with a small rain/snow shower tonight (knock on wood). God willing Shannon will have a full week of school since it's been several weeks since that's happened. You know it's bad when your teenager looks at you and says "I hope we have a full week. I'm so tired of snow days."

That ain't right.

Feeling Good

2011-02-03T11:41:00.000-05:00

One of my biggest pet peeves is going to the grocery store. I hate it in a very unnatural and unhealthy way. There are so many things about it that bother me...I hate trying to make a list of things I should buy, I suck at trying to plan a menu, I hate those big ol' shopping carts that look like cars (I find them obnoxious and unwieldy and they take up the entire aisle which is annoying beyond belief) and I hate bringing the groceries in from the car and putting them away.

It's all just stupid and I hate it.

Going on an average day is bad enough, but going before you are to be hit with a monster snow storm is even worse.

I understand everyone wants to make sure they have bread and milk and other basics, but when you're on the cusp of a huge storm, people act like it's the Apocalypse. They push their carts through the store at 65 miles per hour, their eyes darting back and forth nervously and they have no problem pushing you out of the way to get a gallon of milk, even though the shelf is fully stocked and there are 50 billion gallons to be had.

Monday was one of those days for me. A major storm was going to hit the following day and last until Thursday at 1 am. I knew I needed to get stuff, but seeing as I am so tired of all these storms that we keep getting battered with, I could not think clearly once I got to the store. I walked up and down the aisles over and over again trying to come up with ideas for meals I could make that my family would like and wouldn't keep me in front of the stove for more than 5 minutes.

I ended up getting the basics, but I wanted to get one meal that would be good, especially since I knew we'd all be stuck in the house while we were being hit with snow, rain, hail and pretty much anything else Mother Nature could throw our way.

In the end I decided to get a corned beef, a bag of potatoes and carrots. A nice boiled dinner sounded like just the ticket for a cold, nasty New England day.

And boy, did Mother Nature come through...

We had snow all day on Tuesday, so a half day was called. School was then called on Wednesday as it was still snowing in the morning and there was a threat of freezing rain. I have to be honest here...I'd rather have snow that freezing rain. You can clean up the snow. There isn't much you can do about the ice. Other than take pictures of it because it really is very pretty.

Shannon spent her day on the couch, watching copious amounts of Psych as well as doing her homework. See that geometry she was working on? Gross.

Some time around noon, I put my corned beef in a pot with a ton of water and started cooking it. The beautiful thing about boiled dinner is you just put it on and walk away. Little to no effort at all. Around 5:30 pm I added the potatoes and carrots and cooked them for 20 minutes. When that was done, I pulled it all out and served it up.

This meal seriously took me a grand total of 15 minutes to put together (not counting the cooking time). As we sat there eating it Shannon asked "Mom...did you make this all yourself?" I said "Yes, I did." She looked at me and said "It's so good!"

This made me laugh because 1) it took no effort on my part to make and 2) I never get this kind of response when I actually plan out a big meal and make it. Apparently my cooking gift is flying by the seat of my pants and basically doing as little as possible.

Either way, it made me feel pretty good about myself.

Winter Haiku

2011-02-01T16:10:00.000-05:00

I don't know what the weather is like in your neck of the woods, but chances are it's snowy seeing as 3/4 of the United States is being battered half to death by a snow storm of monster proportions. If you're one of the lucky few who isn't and you have nice weather...well, I'll just say enjoy it and not type how I'm really feeling.

I'm nice like that.

Instead, I give you a photo I took this morning and a haiku I wrote in honor of today, the first of February:

This is my view now,

It's like I'm in a snow globe,

Just call me Frosty.

Not my best work, but seriously, look what I have to work with. If it were sunny and warm I'd be writing sonnets the likes of which you haven't seen since Master William Shakespeare.

Apparently if it were summertime I'd turn into a Renaissance bard. Snow madness has set in...

The Winter Of My Discontent

2011-01-27T16:54:00.000-05:00

I would like to start this blog post out by saying that I've lived in New England for almost 14 years and as such, you'd think I'd be used to winters back here. Apparently, that is not the case.

January has been a snowfest of epic proportions. We've had, if I am thinking correctly, 5 storms this month. With the storm we had last night, January 2011 will go down in history as the 3rd snowiest January OF ALL TIME. It even beat out the winter of 1978, which had the infamous Blizzard of '78 (my husband was not quite 10 years old at the time and recalls it with much fondness because school was closed for a week and the snow was so deep he and his sister could dig tunnels in it).

Normally I'd say "Oh, this isn't a big deal!". Okay. That's a lie. I'd never say that about the snow. What really worries me is this is only January. We still have to go through February (it's the shortest month of the year but it feels like the longest when you live back here, trust me) as well as March. And I'd love to say "Oh, March, it's spring by then!" but one of the worst storms we were ever hit with was on April 1, 1997 where we got, in a single night, 33+ inches of snow. And that was before we owned a snowblower.

School was cancelled again today because "Roads will be narrower and snowbanks very high, making it difficult to see children." Yeah. That's how much snow is on the ground. Let that roll around in your brain for a minute.

Naturally, we had to get out and clean it up because if you don't and it refreezes over night, you're screwed. Michael took the snowblower, I took the snow shovels and within an hour and a half, we had everything cleaned as well as we could.

The worst part of all this? It's not the cleaning up or the junked back you get from lifting shovelfulls of snow that weigh as much as you do, it's the fact that Michael has taken to calling me "The Winter Queen".

"You asked for this" he said. "Back in December, when you wanted it to snow, you asked for it. So this is what you get Winter Queen."

I tried to clarify that I wanted snow BEFORE December 25th and only a little at that to get me in the Christmas mood. He just looked at me and said "Keep telling yourself that Winter Queen."

He calls me Winter Queen one more time, someone's going to get hurt real bad.

My Anal Retentive Ways

2011-01-25T15:12:00.001-05:00

True confession time: I love schedules. I know that sounds sick and weird and boring, but I am one of those people that handles life better when the same things happen everyday, in the same way, at the same time. When things don't happen the way I expect (or want them) to, I become chaotic and twirly, and not in a good way.

The last week and a half has been a test on this particular character flaw of mine. A series of events have caused my perfectly planned little life to be turned upside down and leave me wondering if (and when) things will get back to normal.

First world problem, right?

This past week was midterms week for Shannon. Like many other schools do, there were to be 2 tests a day spread out over 5 days. Last Monday was a day off, so the following days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday) were to be half days. Not too complicated or hard to understand, right?

Just wait...

Tuesday went as planned. Shannon went to school, took two tests and stayed after for a bit to take part in a study group for one of the tests she'd be taking the next day. Afterward she came home and studied and we all watched the news about the impending storm that was going to hit the next day, Wednesday, Michael and I hoping it woudn't be cancelled and Shannon doing anything within her power (which wasn't a lot) to make sure there would a snowday the next day.

Naturally, Shannon's school called at 6 am Wednesday morning to say that school had been cancelled for the day.

This meant that all her midterms would be shifted by one day, so instead of her being done Monday, she would instead be done on Tuesday.

Naturally, this wouldn't be a big deal except one of her teachers decided to give her class the midterm the week BEFORE midterms which meant one of those days, Shannon wouldn't have to be at the alloted class time for it, so she would either go in late or get out early.

So it was Tuesday half day, Wednesday home, Thursday and Friday half days, Monday going in late because the first test would have been the one she already took and today was her last midterm, getting her out of school at 10 am.

And in all this chaos, we forgot she had music lessons yesterday and completely missed them.

I am happy to say that she took her last midterm today and to celebrate we are cuddled up on the couch watching reruns of Psych.

Tomorrow she will return to full school days and I will able to return to my overly obsessive, anal retentive ways.

Yes. I know I have issues. But they're mine and I'm going to keep them, thank you very much.

Edited: Friday was a snow day, as was pointed out to me just now. See? This is how confused all this has made me.

Project Life

2011-01-19T11:46:00.000-05:00

So...

One of the things I want to do this year (you'll notice I didn't say New Year's Resolution) was to get back into scrapbooking and possibly do a photo a day thing. I've tried doing this in the past and while I did the picture a day no problem, the scrapbooking portion never came to fruition.

I think I've found the solution though.

Project Life.

I've heard a lot about this kit and project in the past, but never did it. I wasn't sure I wanted to buy into that whole "scrapbooking kit" thing because it felt like I was limiting my creativity and besides...I'd been burned on kits in the past. I ordered them only to find out they weren't very good quality or there were pieces missing that couldn't be replaced. It was a giant gyp.

But this year...I don't know, something felt different. Lots of people were talking about it on Twitter and everyone was ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE with their kits. I thought about getting it but didn't order it until I found out you could get it on Amazon.

Booyah.

So I ordered it, got it and had no idea what to do with it.

That is just yesterday.

I took all the pieces out, looked at them and thought "Hey, I know...I'll do a picture a day thing with this! I can do it week by week and in the end I'll have a year's worth of pictures in one album! I'm a super genius!"

Okay. I know I'm not really a genius and that many who have used this kit before have done this, but I felt pretty smart about my decision on how to put it together and use it.

So yesterday I pulled out my Selphy printer, set it up and started printing out pictures and putting this bad boy together.

What I love about it is how easy it is to use and how creative you can be with it. It is a kit, there are all sorts of pieces to use, but it's up to you how you put it together and how it will look. Got to love that.

And the one thing I'm really doing with this album is letting go of perfection. I decided to use my own printing on the journaling and if I have a vertical picture, I don't freak out about how it won't look right turned on it's side. I just put it in and say "Yeah. Good enough." And it is.

The other thing? I'm scrapbooking on the floor. I've never done this before but I can spread everything out and really see what I'm doing. Let me tell you...it's a nice way to scrapbook. Of course, it will go well until I drop an ink pad on my new rug and get a stain on it. Who am I kidding? I'd do this sitting at a desk. And I have. It's my gift and my curse.

When Parents Text

2011-01-17T15:19:00.000-05:00

The internet is a wonderful virtual wasteland of useless information that keeps us all from having to interact with each other, face to face.

That's probably why I love it so.

One of my gifts is finding websites that are truly meaningless yet provide me with hour upon hour of mind numbing fun.

Right now, that website is When Parents Text.

If you are the parent of a teenager, I urge you to go to this website right now, preferably with your teenager, because it is sure to be a bonding experience the likes of which you have never seen. I will give you this warning: after reading several of the entries, your teenager will repeatedly look at you and utter the phrase "You would totally text me that" about 100 times in 30 seconds.

And as for those of you who have small children, all I will say is this: here's a glimpse into your future.

I found a small mention of When Parents Text in The Must List in Entertainment Weekly. I live by the Must List (don't judge me) so I knew if it was on there, it had to be good.

About 3 text in I was laughing so hard I was crying and made Shannon come down and read them with me. Next thing I knew we were both laughing and Michael was staring at us like we were certifiable.

Which we are, but that's another story...

Shannon and I quickly came across one that really got us going:

Once we read it and laughed ourselves sick, Shannon turned to me and said "Oh my gawd Mom...that is so something you would text me!" I had to agree with her because in all honesty? I really would. Not only would I text Shannon a question like this, I would do the code and I'd probably change my mind as well.

In a sick twist of fate, life imitated art today when I tried to text Michael about an old power plug we had in my scrapbook room...

Clue #1 that I hadn't sent this to Michael: the fact that the reply was "I rly wouldnt know...". Michael would never reply to me in this fashion. But Shannon would.

Clue #2 that I hadn't sent this to Michael: the fact that at the top of the text it said in big bold letters: Shannon.

We got a good, long, hearty laugh out of this but honest to God, this is my worst fear right now...that Shannon is going to send one of my texts to When Parents Text. She'd probably be justified and it would probably make millions of teenagers laugh, but I just don't think I'm ready to be the butt of a joke about someone who is old and can't text.

It just ain't right.

Got Snow?

2011-01-13T13:39:00.000-05:00

I don't know if you heard, but we got some snow.

This was the view out my front door yesterday morning. Needless to say, a snow day was called and we spent most of the day in the house dreading the moment we would have to go out and clean it up so we could eventually leave our house again.

We got 18 inches of snow, which of course was on top of the snow we still had from the last storm 2 1/2 weeks ago. Because the clean up was so extensive, school started an hour later today.

This provided Shannon the opportunity to sleep in as well as catching up on the latest issue of Teen Vogue.

Naturally, Cali saw Shannon all cuddled up on the sofa and decided she needed to get in on that action.

After everyone headed out for school and work, I ventured out to take some photos. As you can see, I was literally up to my knees in snow.

It's a marshmallow day in the winter, when the snow comes to cover the ground...

There is nothing prettier than the day after a snow storm. I love it when the skies clear up, the sun out and it's blindingly bright out. If I had been in a more adventurous mood, I would have walked down the street to the park to take some pictures. I am sure it's gorgeous down there.

But it was cold and I was freezing. Much like these icicles hanging off my back stairs.

How long is it until Spring?

Diane, It's Monday, 11:52 AM...

2011-01-10T12:36:00.001-05:00

One of our favorite shows on TV is Psych.

Michael, Shannon and I love this show. Always have, always will. I don't even remember how we got hooked on it, but we've been watching it since the beginning and Shannon and I have a cultivated our own Sean-Gus type of relationship.

But that's another story for another time...

On December 1st, Psych did an episode called Dual Spires, which was a take off on Twin Peaks.

When I heard they were going to be doing this, I lost my mind. See...I was 18 and in my first year of college when Twin Peaks went on the air. It was one of those shows that everyone watched and everyone talked about. Especially the 3rd episode with the dancing midget. Inarguably, one of the greatest moments in television history.

Shannon could not understand why I was so psyched (no pun intended) to watch this certain episode. I explained to her that Twin Peaks was THE show of 1990. It was creative, artistic, weird and at the end of every single episode you had no freaking clue what was going on. She said it sounded lame. I told her she was dead wrong.

So when the Dual Spires episode aired, we watched it and I immediately said "I want Twin Peaks on DVD NOW." Michael was kind enough to indulge me and gave it to me for Christmas.

A day or so after Christmas, we started watching it. Right away Shannon was hooked. She loved the music, loved the characters and especially loved the overall freakishness that made Twin Peaks the gem that it is. We ended up spending most of Christmas vacation watching the DVDs.

This past Friday we had a Twin Peaks/Dual Spires party at the house. We got take out dinner, watched the last episode of Twin Peaks immediately followed by an encore presentation of Dual Spires. To say it was fun is an understatement. In fact, the adjectives to describe how fun it was haven't even been invented yet.

James Roday, one of the stars of Psych, co-wrote the Dual Spires episode and let me tell you, they did a DEAD ON job of it. They got several of the cast members to come back (Bobby, Audrey, Lana and last but definitely not least, The Log Lady) and there was so many references to Twin Peaks it made your mind spin (pie, anyone?). In my humble opinion, one of the greatest episodes of Psych ever.

Funny side story: At the beginning of the Dual Spires episode, Gus gets an email with a link to a small California paper. Sean asks him how he knows this paper and Gus tells him he knows the name of every small town paper in California. Sean then looks at him and says "Oh yeah? Ridgecrest." Gus says "Daily Independent." I grew up in Ridgecrest and the local paper is indeed called The Daily Independent.

It is no coincidence that the town of Ridgecrest and it's newspaper would appear in an episode that was a send up of Twin Peaks. Ridgecrest is the Twin Peaks of the Mojave Desert.

As soon as we were done watching Twin Peaks, Shannon wanted to immediately start it all over from the beginning. She declared it to be the best show she's ever seen and thinks David Lynch is a true genius. She and I have had many philosophical discussions about Agent Dale Cooper and how we truly believe he was a type of shaman or spiritual guru.

I really did forget how great Twin Peaks was. It had everything. It was like this weird freaky soap opera that didn't make a damn bit of sense. Plus, it had David Duchvony playing a transvestite.

Seriously. What's not to love?

Resolutions Shmesolutions

2011-01-05T19:44:00.000-05:00

It's a new year and I refuse to make any New Year's resolutions.

I know that sounds defeatist to some, but I think New Year's resolutions are like going on a diet: they just don't work. When you put yourself on a time constrant to get something done it becomes difficult, it seems impossible and you give up before you even get started.

That's not to say I don't have things I'd like to improve on in the upcoming months. I would like to continue to work on my photography, learn some new editing techniques on my photos and the biggest of all: I am determined to get my scrapbook room cleaned up, organized and a place where I can actually do more than log onto my computer and see what's going on on Twitter and Facebook.

Sad, but true.

And while I haven't made any New Year's resolutions, I did pick my one little word for 2011. I wasn't sure I was going to pick one, mostly because I couldn't come up with one that I felt that was calling to me and would inspire me for the 365 days that would make up the year.

Turns out I was wrong and that word would hit me like a bolt of lightning.

A few days after Christmas, Shannon had a few friends over for a belated Christmas celebration. Two of the friends that came over said they were going sledding later evening and invited Shannon to go along with them.

Shannon was torn...we had planned on getting our favorite take out dinner later and watching Twin Peaks (I need to devote an entire blog post to this and how it's taken over our lives because it's that huge), but she really wanted to go out with her friends.

Michael and I tried our best to be supportive. We told her we could postpone our plans to the next night so she could go out. We also told her that if she didn't go out sledding with her friends that night it wasn't a big deal as we were pretty sure it wouldn't be the last chance to go sledding as it was December and we were sure to get a few more snow storms this winter (it is New England after all).

But, as anyone with a daughter knows, they tend to get a tad emotional (as well as dramatic) when it comes to making a life or death decision like whether to stay home and find out who killed Laura Palmer or to go out sledding with their friends.

I won't get into the gory details, but I had to remove myself from the conversation at one point because I was pretty sure someone was going to end up in a body bag if I stuck around. I went upstairs to my computer and tried to calm myself down before I went down for round two. While I was online, I wandered over to Ali Edwards blog and saw her post about her one little word for 2011.

That's when it hit me. My one little word for 2011 was going to be calm.

It was just so fitting it wasn't even funny.

So far it's been working well for me, even though we're only 5 days into the new year. Example: I drove all the way to Ikea today to pick up some drawer inserts for the Expedit shelves in my computer room and I discovered not only were they not in stock, there was no forseeable date as to when they would be back in.

Now, I could have gone all Hulk on the place but I didn't. I simply said that's the way it is and proceeded to find other things to buy. Because seriously...it's Ikea. It's filled with stuff you didn't know you needed until you saw it.

Which makes it the happiest place on earth.

And I stayed calm. So it's all goodness.

Happy New Years And Such...

2011-01-04T13:58:00.001-05:00

Well, happy 2011 everyone! I know I'm a little late in getting that out there, but better late than never right?

It's been a while since I've been around these parts! Today was the first day of back to business as usual...Michael is at work, Shannon is at school and I put on my blue housecoat and did my best Alice impersonation while cleaning up the house.

I don't really have a blue housecoat, but after that image I'm thinking I need to get one...

So let's talk the holidays. Ours was very good. Nice, relaxing and low key, just the way Jenny likes it. The holidays of my childhood were hectic, with lots of running around and visiting the 9 gahillion relatives we had that lived in a 2 foot radius of us. So to be able to spend the entire day at my home with a small, handpicked group of people was my idea of heaven.

I'm really on the verge of becoming a shut in.

Christmas morning featured a giant pile of Christmas presents to be torn through.

Here is one of the few shots I got of Shannon wear she wasn't giving me a nasty look, sticking her tongue out or closing her eyes, all of which she loves to do to torment me.

I love this shot of Michael and Shannon. They are making the exact same face, which makes me smile no end.

My big fun gift this year was a wide angle (10-22mm) lens for my camera. It enabled me to get an entire shot of the living room. If you click on it you can see Shannon giving me one of her patented faces.

Now let's talk New Year's Eve...

Our New Years was small, just like Christmas, but a bit more lively thanks to Glee Karaoke Revolution.

Here you see my sister-in-law Beth getting her jam on to Gold Digger, which she killed incidentally.

Here I am either singing Don't Rain On My Parade (which I sing just like Barbra and Leah Michelle just so you know) or Don't Stop Believin'. Either way, I killed on each one scoring something insane like 97-99% accuracy. Move over Gwyneth, Glee's gonna have a new guest star this season.

After we karaokeed our brains out, we moved on to another game...Pictionary for the Wii.

Now a little back ground info first: I'm a spaz when it comes to Pictionary. Like I try to draw as good as I can (that's the art major in me) and when someone (namely Michael) doesn't draw as well, I feel it is my civic duty to give them grief over it.

It's my gift and my curse.

Here is my first drawing, which was of a ping pong table. I would like to say that my niece Kaitlyn got this right off the bat so that is a testament to my drawing skills.

Now I present a picture Michael drew:

No one got this one, which was "tremble". Before I had the chance to let loose with my insults, the game said "Nice drawing DaVinci!" True story.

And last, but not least, here is the face of victory:

To say I was excited that I knew the winning picture is putting it mildly. What wasn't captured was me jumping in the air, screaming the answer and possibly doing a victory dance. I can't be sure.

I hope your holidays were just as fun as ours.

We Do Not Remember Days

2010-12-31T11:21:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite quotes is from Cesare Pavese and it goes...

"We do not remember days...we remember moments."

This is so achingly true, isn't it? Especially when it comes to photography. Photographs capture a moment, freezing it, making them live forever no matter how long ago they were or how old we get. We may forget the events of the day it was taken, but we will always have that one moment in time to live again and again.

I went through all my photos this morning with the intention of picking 12 that stood out in my mind as ones that really represented 2010. Most of them I remembered, but some I had forgotten I'd taken. It was a nice way to spend my morning...going over them and reliving the moments again.

Here are the 12 I picked with a small story behind each one...

January

Shannon's first foray into cooking. She went through my cookbooks, picked a recipe and made it. All. By. Herself.

February

Another snow storm, but this one was so beautiful. I was home alone and it was so quiet and peaceful. I took my camera and went out to get a few shots. I love how fluffy the snow looks on the branch while the snow continues to fall blurred out, in the background.

March

This was the first nice day of the Spring. We spent most of the day outside, removing Shannon's old swing set which was a little sad. When we were done I went in and got some sidewalk chalk and Shannon spent some time drawing and being a kid.

April

Coloring Easter eggs. This was the first year I tried to get really creative with my shots, like using available light and playing with the depth of field. I think it worked.

May

This shot is the perfect example of the quote at the beginning of this post. I have no idea why Shannon was in my room, I just remember walking in and seeing her in that light. It was so perfect, so soft and sweet that I ran to get my camera and capture it. This one is definitely getting printed and framed.

June

Ahhh summer. I'm fairly certain I drank 52 million gallons of Startbucks Shaken Iced Tea Lemonade with Passion tea. I should sent this to them and see if they want to use it in an ad campaign...

July

This shot really represents our summer. Just sitting on the deck, reading and hanging out. I miss it.

August

We got a small shed for the backyard to use an outdoor house. We bought some furniture for it and decided to paint it blue. I didn't think it would take that long to paint. I was dead wrong. It took us an entire weekend but the payoff was worth it. Now we have the deck and the shed for use in the summertime.

September

Shannon's first football game with the band of the year. I always look forward to football season because I love seeing her play with the pep band and she always has fun.

October

One of Shannon's friends made her some cupcakes for her birthday. She decorated them with things Shannon liked like cats, music and the musical Wicked. It was one of the sweetest most thoughtful gifts she's ever been given and she loved them.

November

Thanksgiving. We used the china my grandmother had given us a few years ago. I was always so worried about using it because I didn't want to break any of it. Then I thought "What is the point of having something if you're not going to use it?". So we took it out. Everyone loved it.

December

Christmas Eve. Every year after Shannon goes to bed, Michael and I put all the gifts under the tree and we leave the lights on all night. As we were heading upstairs I saw the tree sitting there all lit with the gifts. It was so beautiful I had to get one shot of it before going up for the night. It's one of my favorite shots of the year.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. For now I am off to get my New Year's Eve preparations in order. I have some plans for the blog in the new year...somethings I've been thinking about for a while and would like to try out. Until 2011, have a wonderful, happy and beautiful New Year.

Stuff It

2010-12-21T19:06:00.000-05:00

Kabb left a message on my blog asking for suggestions on what I buy for stocking since I seem to have a gift in doing so. When I shared this info with my husband he smirked and I said "They really don't know me, do they?"

I stress, every single year, over what to buy for stocking gifts. I have been knowing to wander around Target for hours looking for anything I can stick in the stockings that Michael and Shannon won't look at and go "Okay...".

Despite this fact, there are certain things I buy every year to put in the stockings...

Terry's Chocolate Orange. I can't remember when I started to buy these, but I've been doing it for a while now. I put them in the toe of the stockings to give it a nice, round look. I could use a real orange, but doesn't a chocolate orange seem so much better? Yeah, it does.
Cashews. Michael has gotten cashews in his stocking every year since he was a kid and has come to expect them in his stocking, and I'm more than happy to oblige him.
Candy of some kind. I usually pick out one other savory treat for Michael and Shannon's stockings other than the chocolate orange. I used to get Shannon a small bag of chocolate coins from See's Candy, but this year they decided to sell them in a box with a menorah on it for Hanukkah and while I have nothing against Hanukkah, it's not too Christmasy.

When Shannon was little I used to peruse the tiny toy aisle that most stores seem to have at this time of the year. She loved bouncy balls, small Lego toys and other things like that. Now that she's a teenager I go with makeup stuff, lip glosses and hair bands. In other words, really girly stuff.

Michael is harder...it's difficult for me to find small items I think he'd like. I used to get him basics like razors or deoderant but that seemed so boring. This year I found some things he loved when he was a kid like Fruit Stripes gum and those Magic Worms that you saw on TV when you were a kid and were so impressed with but once you got them they didn't do a thing. We'll see if he can make them work Christmas morning, but I don't have high hopes. They were just for fun anyway.

For little kids I'd suggest stickers (what kids don't love stickers?), small boxes of crayons and little toys. You can even find smaller books that will fit in a stocking at stores like Wal Mart and Target. Kids love anything that is tiny, so you can't really go wrong with them.

Husbands, on the other hand, are kind of tricky. Basics are good (mostly because they don't buy themselves those things), but Lotto tickets are another great idea for them (I always say I'm going to get them for Michael and I always forget) as are things like packs of gum or breath mints. Gad, that sounds like you're sending them a message, doens't it? Terrible.

When I get stocking stuff I just try to find fun things. I hit the jackpot at The Paper Source this year. They have a ton of kitschy, fun little items that are perfect for stockings. I also found some great stuff at Urban Outfitters. Other great places to look at the Dollar Spot at Target or any Dollar Stores you might have in your area.

Stocking stuffers don't have to be expensive, just fun stuff that you know the people you're giving them to wouldn't buy for themselves.

Anyone have any other good ideas? I'm always trying to find something new to buy and I'd love any advice!

It's The Final Countdown

2010-12-20T21:35:00.000-05:00

I found this website today that kindly tells you just how much longer you have to get your act together and make Christmas look effortless, like it just happens with no forethought from anyone at all.

So...seeing as we've got 4 days, 2 hours, 51 minutes and 46 seconds until Christmas Day...are you ready?

Believe it or not, I'm not even close to being ready.

You're shocked. I know.

I will admit I was out shopping today, but not for gifts. I was out buying wrapping paper (I'm fairly certain that makes it a grand total of 50 rolls I've bought in the last week). This may sound snotty and superior and I really don't care but I cannot believe there are people out there that are just starting their Christmas shopping this week. I will fully admit this with no qualms: I have a panic attack of epic proportions if I haven't started my Christmas shopping by Thanksgiving. And I know waiting until that time is late for some. I know people who have their Christmas shopping done in August. I gotta tell you...that just ain't right.

The biggest thing I have to finish in 4 days is wrapping gifts. This wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't have to wrap the stocking gifts along with the regular gifts.

That's right. We wrap our stocking gifts then stick them in the stocking in this house. Doesn't make much sense, does it?

This is a tradition from Michael's family. He said that as long as I could remember, his family wrapped the stocking gifts up. He and Shannon love it, but I abhor it and complain about it every year.

Here's why I hate it:

Stocking presents are small and stupid...
That makes them harder than H-E-L-L to wrap...
And I always go overboard with stocking gifts.

That last one is no joke. I don't know what's wrong with me...I'm good at spatial relations, I can eyeball distances and be pretty accurate in my estimations. But for some reason, I am completely flummoxed by the capacity of our stockings.

Every year I buy so much stuff it spills out the stockings and on to the surrounding area. Every Christmas morning I make a mental note to not buy so much next year as I watch Michael and Shannon open a small mountain of gifts. And yet every year I do the same exact thing.

It's a vicious cycle.

So that's what I'll be doing for the next few days leading up to Christmas...wrapping the remaining gifts and starting on the plethora of minuscule items that are taunting me with their small size and difficulty in wrapping.

Pass the wine please.

The First Gift Of Christmas: A Ferrari

2010-12-19T16:04:00.000-05:00

Last night we decided to order Chinese and watch some Christmas movies to get us in the spirit of the holiday (because nothing says "Happy Holidays" like steamed dumplings and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation).

In the middle our movie watching we heard a horn blast come from the front yard. It sounded a lot like a train horn, which was weird as there aren't any train tracks let alone trains that would be anywhere near our front yard blasting away.

Shannon and I looked at quizzically at each other and she asked "What was that?!?"

I said "It sound a lot like a train. Maybe it was the Polar Express."

She got this huge grin on her face and said "How sick would that be?!?" Then as she ran for the window she looked down at herself and exclaimed "I'M EVEN WEARING MY PAJAMAS!!!"

I sat there laughing at her because she's caught at this in between age. She has complained to me lately that while she is dying for it to be Christmas (she actually asked me if she could stay home from school tomorrow and we could just make it Christmas), she misses being little and believing in Santa and being so excited for Christmas she could "die".

So I asked her "So what would you ask Santa for? What would the first gift of Christmas be?" like in the Polar Express. "Would you ask for a bell?"

She gives me this look like I've just sprouted a set of horns and says "Ugh no. I'd ask for a car."

I laughed even harder and asked "What would you do with a car?"

She said "I'd save it for next year when I get my driver's license."

And that is when it hit me that my child, my baby girl, is one year away from being able to drive.

I felt like throwing up.

Then she said "I ask him for a Ferrari. Wait...what is a Ferrari?"

I said "An Italian sports car."

She replied "SWEET! I definitely want one of those."

Yeah. I'll make sure Santa gets on that ASAP.

Not.

Where Are You Christmas?

2010-12-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

I don't know why, but it just hasn't felt like Christmas time to me.

I'm not really sure why. I've been in the Christmas mood forever...I started my shopping in October, I've been listening to Christmas music non-stop since November 1st, our tree and decorations have been up since the day after Thanksgiving and we've got 2 advent calendars counting down the days until it's the most wonderful day of all!

So what gives? How can I sit here, in front of my beautifully decorated Christmas tree, and not have that Christmas feeling?

Somethings are different this year...

1) No snow. Okay, I know I've complained about this already but yesterday afternoon our local weather forecasters started spreading "rumors" that we were in for a sizeable storm this weekend and we could see over a foot of snow. I was so excited by the prospect of a ton of snow that was going to keep us inside and cozy and possibility of a snowday on Monday. But today? They've changed their tune. Now all we'll get is flurries. I know this sounds lame and it sounds stupid but this depressed me no end. I just wanted to spend the weekend in the house in sweats, laying around and watching TV. Cos that's the best thing ever when it snows.

2) We have watched ZERO Christmas movies or specials. I always save 3 movies for Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve alone: It's A Wonderful Life, Elf and A Christmas Story. To watch them before Christmas Eve is WRONG. But usually by this time of the month we've watched Miracle On 34th Street as well as several old TV Christmas specials (The Year Without A Santa Claus is my favorite). But so far all we've watched is several old episodes of Bones and The New Adventures Of Old Christine (both of which I love, but they aren't Christmasy).

3) I got no little kids. Not that Shannon doesn't love Christmas and isn't in to it, but it's not the same when there aren't letters to Santa or the anticipation of it all. Plus we've reached a new stage in the gifts for Shannon: I've bought several right in front of her and she's even picked a few out. I've simply said "Just look the other way."

But tonight something happened...we went to Target to do some last minute Christmas shopping then had some dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. As we were driving home, Shannon and I were listening to Christmas music and enjoying all the houses with Christmas lights, when one of the local stations started playing "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas". We started started singing it at the top of our lungs and laughing.

When it was done I said "That's the first time I've heard that this year!" and Shannon looked at me and said "I'm glad we heard it together."

And now it feels like Christmas.

All She Wants For Christmas

2010-12-15T13:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, on the drive home from school, I had an illuminating conversation with Shannon that reminded me of why she is my favorite kid on the planet and how I love her so much I could die.

A little back ground info first: Shannon has never ever ever in her 15 years on this planet made a list of gifts she wants for Christmas. There were times when she would say "I'm going to ask Santa for this or that", but she never wrote it down in list form. My family finds this so funny because my brother was the Calvin of Christmas list makers. He would write out what he wanted, most desirable items at the top, least desirable at the bottom, and there was always a footnote of "no exceptions". When it was done, it went on the refrigerator for everyone to see.

He took his gift getting very seriously.

So this year has been no exception around here...several of my relatives have asked what is on Shannon's Christmas list and I tell them all the same thing: she doesn't have one. They always ask me the same thing: How do you know what to get her?

See...Shannon is an easy kid to buy things for. She likes a little bit of everything: clothes, books, bath and beauty products. Even though she doesn't make demands at Christmas, I always have a hard time of not going overboard buying her gifts because I keep finding things I know she will love.

But yesterday afternoon as we were driving home from school, she says "I have something I want to ask you, but I know you won't answer me."

I was a bit baffled by this, because I've always told Shannon there is NOTHING she can't ask me, that I will answer her to the best of my abilities and she should never feel that there is anything she needs to be embarrassed about or hide from me.

Deciding to tread delicately I said "What did you want to know? I'll answer you."

She looked at me for a moment then said "I wanted to know if you'd ordered me the new Kathy Reichs book for Christmas."

I gotta say, I was so relieved that it wasn't anything more serious. So relieved in fact that I started laughing.

"Why are you laughing at me?" she asked.

"Because I couldn't imagine what you were going to ask me."

"Well...did you?"

I laughed some more and said "No, I didn't order it. I'll ask Daddy if he did. If not, I will rectify the situation and you will get the book for Christmas."

The whole thing struck me as funny because in a day and age where the iPad or the Kindle are at the top of most kids Christmas lists, the only thing my daughter has asked for is an old fashioned paper book.

And for that reason alone, she my favorite kid and I love her so much I could burst.

P.S. We did order the book. And I'm sure she will love it.

Christmas Meme-ories

2010-12-14T13:23:00.000-05:00

Since Christmas is only 11 days away (insert manic screaming noise here) I thought a Christmas meme would be a fun way to get in the festive holly jolly mood.

I looked online for one I've never done before and found several, including one that was 100 questions long. That was a little daunting for me, so I found one with 50 questions that seemed like it would be fun and not so boring for you all to read.

If you want to play along, leave me a message in the comments section. Let's get our Christmas on!

1. Getting kissed under the mistletoe or in the snow? I'd rather be kissed in the snow while it was falling gently and swirling around. Besides, you have to watch out for nargles when standing under the mistletoe (super big bonus points if you know what that is from).

2. Santa or Rudolph? Seriously? This is a question?! Santa all the way baby.

3. Stockings or presents? Oooo this is a good one. Stockings are fun cos you get to dig around in them and pull out fun little gifts, but presents are great because anything wrapped up in colorful paper under a tree has to be awesome.

4. Eggnog or hot cider? Hot cider all the way. I hate eggnog.

5. Angel or star? Neither. I have a snowflake at the top of my tree.

6. Decorating the tree or putting lights outside? Decorating the tree! What kind of a sickie likes to put lights up outside?

7. Warm fires or sleigh rides? I love warm fires, but I've never been on a real sleigh ride and I want to go on one so bad. Maybe I'll make that a goal for this winter...if we ever get any snow...

8. Expensive presents or presents that come from the heart? Can I say expensive presents that come from the heart? Bwahahahaha...I'll go with presents that come from the heart. I love thoughtful gifts. They mean so much more.

9. Snowball fight or snowman? See...this is the problem with being a California girl...I cannot build a snowman to save my life. Every time I try to build one it ends up looking like something Picaso would have created after a bender. Just not good.

10. Will you be getting coal or presents? What a rude question! Presents of course. I've been a very good girl this year. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

11. Giving or receiving? Giving. I love watching people open gifts I've picked out for them. There are two gifts I bought that I'm particularly excited to see opened. I think they'll really like them.

12. Opening presents quick or slow? This is funny....when I was a kid, I tore through my gifts at lightning speed while my brother took his time. He'd open a gift and want to play with it immediately. By the time I'd opened all my gifts he'd only opened two. Maybe this is why I always thought he got more than me...

13. Caroling or Christmas stories? I'm going to say both because I love singing poorly and loudly and I love reading stories. I practically act them out, which is both fun and highly comical.

14. Snowy days or icy days? What kind of question is that?! Snowy days! Is there anyone on the planet that enjoys ice storms? I doubt it.

15. Green or red? Red. All. The. Way.

16. The Nightmare Before Christmas or The Santa Clause? Okay...I always think of The Nightmare Before Christmas as a Halloween movie so that's when I watch it. The Santa Clause is not as good, but I still like it. At 15 Shannon still likes watching it, which I love.

17. Dasher or Dancer? Seeing as I don't know either of them personally so I can't make it a judgement on personality, I'm going with Dancer as I like his name better.

18. Prancer or Vixen? Okay...Vixen. Sounds saucy.

19. Comet or Cupid? Seriously? Why all the questions about Santa's reindeer?

20. Donner or Blitzen? Enough already. Next...

21. Fake tree or real? Fake all the way. Real trees are too high maintenance. The constant watering, cleaning up pine needles and worrying about it catching on fire are too much for me to handle. I just want something to sit in the corner and look pretty without any care. I pretty much feel that way about everything in my life...

22. Prime rib or ham? Woof...prime rib. Now I'm in the mood for that...

23. Red and white candy canes or colorful candy canes? Red and white. What can I say, I'm a traditionalist.

24. Get up early or sleep in late? I thought that when Shannon hit her teenage years we would be sleeping in on Christmas. Not so much. She is always up at the crack of dawn kicking in our door screaming "IT'S CHRISTMAS! GET UP GET UP GET UP!!!" This is 100% true.

25. Old Christmas movies or new ones? I love them all but my favorites are It's A Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story and Elf. So really old, kind of old and newish.

26. The Santa Clause or Santa Clause 2? I'll go with Santa Clause 3 only because Martin Short is in it and I love him.

27. The Grinch or Elf? I can't believe this is even being asked. The answer is obviously Elf, one of the cutest, sweetest Christmas movies ever made.

28. Scrooge or Tiny Tim? Don't you kind of have to be heartless to say Scrooge over Tiny Tim? Yeah. I thought so.

29. Ornaments or a wreath? What kind of question is this? It sounds like an either or proposition to me which is lame. I say both, but if I have to choose I'm going with the ornaments obviously.

30. Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Tough one...Christmas Eve is great because there's this magical anticipation in the air of what is to come, but Christmas Day is great because there are no cares in the world, no worries or bad thoughts, just happiness being with those you love and giving gifts. Oh, and eating a large amount of food because everyone knows food is calorie free on Christmas Day.

Okay...I just got to #30 and saw that this meme is not 50 questions long, more like 150. So what I'm going to do is break this up over a few days. That way you won't be overwhelmed with all the reading and we can keep the fun going for a while. Sound like a plan? Glad you're on board.

Holiday Extravaganza Of Love

2010-12-13T12:23:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday was a holiday extravaganza of love the likes of which haven't been seen in a long, long time.

Okay. I don't know if that last sentence is true or not, but it sure felt like it.

Saturday was Michael's Aunt Mary Ellen's annual Christmas party. There lots of babies...

The traditional Yankee Swap...

Michael got a set of Princess lights that played music. Funnily enough, he didn't want to keep them. I wonder why?

There was also the left, right, center game where we all vie for money...

In this family, we start them young.

Look...I knew before it even started that I wasn't going to win.

But I had sangria so that was okay.

And it wouldn't have been a party without desserts...

I'm sorry, but if you do that and it's caught on camera, it goes on the blog.

After we were partied out, we decided to go to Fatima Shrine to see their holiday lights display.

We also lit some candles for those who are not with us anymore...

That's Shannon's arm in the back ground. Every year she lights a candle for her Grandpa Bob. It never ceases to choke me up.

After all the festive frivolity, I needed yesterday to just relax, something I haven't done in a long time. I even took a nap in the middle of the day! Note: do not fall asleep watching Moulin Rouge. It just causes one to have the weirdest dreams ever.

Let It Snow (Please...)

2010-12-10T23:05:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I grew up in Southern California. When one grew up in such a warm environment, it was not unusual to spend Christmas day outside playing on your new bike, roller skates or any other fun kind of outdoor toy one might have gotten from Santa Claus.

However, I've spent the last 14 years in New England and as such I've become quite accustomed to the Currier and Ives picturesque Christmas with people all bundled up while they trudge through copious amounts of snow.

But something weird is going on this year. It's December 10th and as of today, I've seen nary a flake of snow to put me in that holly, jolly mood.

Don't get me wrong. It's been cold. Brutally cold. The high this week has been around the freezing mark with winds, which is a lot of fun to go Christmas shopping in, especially if you go to an outdoor shopping area.

No. Really. It is fun.

I hate that it hasn't snowed yet. I love it when it snows...it get so quiet and still. Everything seems a little smaller and cozier. Plus I love hearing the snowplows driving down our street in the middle of the night. I know that sounds sick, but I can't help it. It's a very comforting sound while you're snuggled up all warm and toasty in your bed.

I do know one person who couldn't be happier about the fact that it hasn't snowed yet and I call him my husband. He is beyond thrilled that we've had no snow and he hasn't had to fire up his snowblower once this season. I know he would love it if we didn't get any snow at all this winter. It would go down in infamy as "the best winter ever".

But we live in New England, where snow in the winter is inevitable. I just wish it would get here already. Who do I have to write to to get the snowball rolling already?

Christmas Cards: Holiday Fun or Bah Hum Bug?

2010-12-07T15:46:00.000-05:00

According to Wikipedia, the first commercial Christmas card was commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843. That means that the tradition of sending holiday greetings is 167 years old.

That's a lot of Christmas cards.

There's been a lot of talk lately as to whether the tradition of sending Christmas cards is passe or not. Many people say that in this day and age and with the technology we have, we can just scoot on over to Facebook, leave a picture and a message and still reach the same people we would if we sent out cards. Plus, it's much greener and better enviormentally.

While I agree with both of those points, I just can't bring myself to skip out on sending out Christmas cards.

I love Christmas cards. I love choosing which photo will go on the card. I love putting them in envelopes, writing out the addresses and sending them. And I love getting them. It's so much nicer to open the mailbox and see brightly colored envelopes than bills and useless catalogs.

Speaking of catalogs, I really think the catalog companies and recycling companies are in cahoots. But that's a topic for another time...

How do you all feel about Christmas cards? I think in a time when we are all on computers or texting and wired to the hilt, a paper card sent in the mail is a nice, simple way to say "Happy Holidays" to those you love.

Scrapbooking Is Hard, Like Math

2010-12-06T12:50:00.000-05:00

Every year, for the last few years, I've done a small scrapbook every December called 31 Days Of Christmas. I have posts about them here, here and here. This year is no different. Except I always got started on it in November and this year I decided to wait until December 6th.

No time like the present, right?

Since I had nothing going on this morning (except to take Shannon her oboe reeds as she forgot them) I thought it was the perfect time to get started on the 2010 edition of 31 Days Of Christmas.

I'm doing the Picture The Holidays class, so the picture a day is taken care of. And I've even kept up on it! Go me! All I really needed to do was get started on putting the pages together.

I'd bought all my supplies for this last year (that's my way of saying I bought stuff to use last year and didn't so I'm using it now) and had it all together in one area. Or so I thought. I just found a big pile of paper, rub-ons and accents in another pile nowhere near my original one. But that's okay! It's all together now and that's all that matters.

So I got started on the first page. About 3/4 of the way through it, I wasn't happy with it.

It's not terrible, but I wasn't feeling it. I didn't really like the December 1st below the picture and I wasn't sure where I was going to put the journaling about the photo. I'd thought about using my handwriting, but that always ticks me off. It never looks the way I want it to. Time to start over...

Hmmm. Better. I kept the light colored letter stamps in the corners but added the branched of berries. Plus I got rid of the December 1st and replaced it with the stamped tag that just says '01. And to take care of the journaling I just opened a word document, created a text box and typed up the prompt for that picture. Easy peasy.

Of course, I haven't scrapbooked in a while and the old girl is a little out of sync. It took me more time than I had anticipated to do this page simply because I'm out of practice. Of course, neither of my printers were hooked up, so I had to take care of that before I got started. Maybe now that that is done, the next page will go more quickly.

Yeah. I should keep telling myself that.

Now on to that next page. I had grand ideas of getting caught up on all of the photos today. I really don't see that happening. I can dream though, right?

And Making Her Stage Debut...

2010-12-04T15:36:00.000-05:00

Last night Shannon made her (high school) stage debut as Tim's assistant in Father Of The Bride.

Now, this isn't the first play she's ever done. The first would be when she played Muffin Go More in the Food Pyramid play the entire 3rd grade put on. She loved the costumes, memorizing her lines and putting on the production about food. I knew then she'd been bitten by the acting bug.

Last night just confirmed it. She only had 5 lines (there are no small parts, just small actors) but she delivered them well in a clear, loud voice. After the performance she gushed on and on about how awesome it was, how fun it was and how much she wants to do this FOREVER.

Of course, she comes by this naturally. My mother and father were both into acting in their high school productions and Michael and I met in a drama class (we were doing The Philadelphia Story. First date was a couple of weeks into class and we were engaged by performance time, just a few months later. That was over 18 years ago). In essence, we are like the Barrymores, only without the fame and drunken children.

It was funny watching the performance...it brought back so many memories of plays I'd done in the past and all the work that went into them. About half way through the I realized I wasn't merely watching it, but that my child, my 15 year old child, was one of the actors and I was there for her. All I could think was "I'm not old enough to be one of the parents watching their child in this play!"

Sad thing is I am. I certainly don't feel old enough. I keep wondering when I will officially feel like a grown-up. Hopefully never.

Back to the Christmas festivities tomorrow...

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

2010-12-02T10:43:00.000-05:00

Every year in December, my blog turns into this virtual Christmas wonderland because I love Christmas so much I want to marry it and have jolly little babies with it and sing Christmas carols ALL THE TIME. And I always start on December 1st because I'm good like that.

Only not so much this year. I missed posting my Christmas intentions for 2010 yesterday because I was too busy unpacking boxes, running stuff up to my daughter at school and watching reruns of The New Adventures of Old Christine.

There may have been wine involved as well. Don't judge me.

So I'm a day late and a dollar short...who cares? It's December and I'm in the Christmas spirit! This whole month is going to be pictures, stories and all sorts of other holiday related frivolity.

It's about to get real y'all.

First up, a couple of pictures I've taken for the Picture The Holidays class I'm involved in over at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

Picture 1: Holding on to gratitude.

What am I grateful for? I'm grateful for my home and the family that fills it with love. I could have taken a picture of my actual home or said family, but seeing as it's not really easy to get all of us in a shot together lately (we lead extraordinarily busy lives here. Well, Michael and Shannon do. I'm just here, posting on my blog) so instead I took a picture of a house ornament I have on my tree. Let's all say it together: Awww...

Picture 2: Reframing the holidays.

The prompt for today's picture went as follows: As a symbol of looking at things a little differently, today you'll be using a literal frame for your image. You get to decide what goes in your frame today and how you choose to capture it! This one threw me for a loop. I had no idea what to do for this shot. I walked around my house looking for something to inspire me, but nothing was coming to mind. Then, as I was loading up the washer, it hit me: I had found an old Polaroid camera I bought a few years ago while I was unpacking yesterday, so I put on my Santa hat, stood in front of the tree and took my own picture. As it was developing I thought "I know! I'll stamp an image on the front!" and used my Christmas Greeting stamp. That's when it hit me: I should take the Polaroid, put it on the tree and take a picture of it! See...the frame is the white around the picture! As if that weren't enough, I thought "I'm going to leave this on the tree as a way to remind myself to just enjoy the season and relax because it goes by so fast and so much of it is spent running around and being stressed. Just have fun!"

Sometimes I can't handle my own creativity.

So get ready for all sorts of dumb Christmas fun around here this month! I am going to do my bestest to post something everyday, be it a picture, a story, a recipe, my latest rant on whatever...it's going to be all Christmas, all the time!

You're probably going to be so sick of me by the end of the month it won't even be funny.

Treasure Trove

2010-11-29T16:45:00.000-05:00

Today I had the biggest job in getting ready to replace the second floor carpeting:

Cleaning Shannon's room.

Okay...I know what you're thinking...make her do it herself! She's 15! What is she? Stupid?! No, what she is is busy. Between homework, school projects and rehearsals for the school play, my child barely has time to sleep every night.

Honestly...I don't ever remember being as busy as she is when I was 15. No way.

Anyway...I was not looking forward to this task. Not even a little bit. See, Shannon is a little bit of a hoarder (and I think I've made myself abundantly clear on how I feel about hoarding). She keeps every single little piece of paper, candy and junk that comes into her life and acts like parting with it will be the end of her (she once kept a deflated balloon for a year because the memories of it were "too precious". She needs help). So to say I had my work cut out for me was an understatement.

I mentally psyched myself out for it and planned my attack. Armed with garbage bags and several boxes, I was totally ready to get it done! BRING IT ON!

About half way through the room I was ready to take a blow torch to it and be done with it. For a child who is brilliant and gets straight A's, she clearly does not understand the concept of a trash can.

Then I hit her bookshelf. It made what I already went through look like a walk in the park.

She has an Expedit bookshelf from Ikea. It's not the biggest one they offer, but it's still pretty big and holds a ton of stuff, like every book she's ever owned.

I had filled up two boxes with stuff I pulled out of the shelves when I hit one section that had a bunch of books from when she was little.

When I saw them I stopped and smiled. I have so many memories of reading them to her when she was a twee little thing. Especially Jolly Old Santa Claus. It's the longest book in the world and she always wanted me to read it at bed time, but I always did it and loved every minute of it.

As I went through them something occurred to me...I couldn't remember the last time I'd read any of them to her. At first I thought "Oh, it's probably been a couple of years..." but then I remembered she's 15 and has been reading to herself for 1,000 years.

And for as ticked off as I was at her for all the junk she'd kept, I was so happy that she'd held on to these books. It means they are as special to her as they are to me.

Of course, maybe she'd held on to them because she knows I'd die if she got rid of them. And she doesn't want that on her conscience, does she?

Serenity Now, Insanity Later

2010-11-28T21:38:00.000-05:00

Or, if you're me, it's more like "Insanity now, serenity later."

Or at least you hope there will be serenity later.

See...we are ~~still~~ in the midst of what I'm calling "The Holidays Are Around The Corner, Let's Rip Up Our Floors And Create The Biggest Ball Of Mess And Chaos And Watch Jennifer's Sanity Slip Away At The Speed Of Light While Her Head Implodes From The Stress Of It All."

Good times...good times.

The hardest part of this whole process is the disruption to my daily life. I will freely admit that I am someone who thrives on a schedule. I like repetition, knowing that I do the same thing on certain days of the week and when I am stick to the program, I am a much happier and content person.

So when I can't do the things I usually do, when my daily routine is flushed down the toilet and everything is in disarray, I have an extremely difficult time handling it all and maintaining some sort of happiness.

And let me point out, that last sentence was the understatement of the century.

Even though I'm not handling the situation in the best possible manner (let me take a moment to say that watching a Hoarders marathon while you're undergoing home renovations and trying to get rid of the extra junk you have laying around the house is really not the best idea ever) I am trying so very very VERY hard to see the light at the end of this tunnel and how wonderful it will be when it's all done.

Because I know it will be amazing and I will be beyond thrilled with it all.

Of course, I do have to get through cleaning out Shannon's room tomorrow so they can do the carpeting in there this Tuesday. If that doesn't kill me, I swear to God, nothing will.

Welcome To The War Zone

2010-11-22T13:49:00.001-05:00

This is what the first floor of my house looks like as I type this:

The carpet and pad have been ripped up and the nice men downstairs are currently ~~smashing~~ removing the tile floor from our kitchen.

In other words? It looks and sounds like a war zone in my house.

I'm not joking about that...there's lots and lots and lots of pounding noises followed by an unholy drill sound and every few seconds the entire house shakes like we are being hit by a small earthquake.

It's disconcerting enough to be on the top floor and hear all this, but we had to put Cali in the basement to keep her out of the way. I'm sure she has hidden herself away in a dark corner and won't come out for at least a week.

She's THAT kind of cat.

We had originally been told they could do this job in a day, easy, but seeing as it's almost 2 pm and they're still removing the original floor, I predict they will be back tomorrow to finish it up.

At least I hope they will. It would suck to have to live with our floors like that any longer than need be. Especially since we are having Thanksgiving at our house...

Edited: The ~~a-hole~~ nice floor guys gouged a huge hole in one of the bathroom walls. It's going to need to be filled and repainted seeing as it's the size of the Grand Canyon. Pictures will be posted tomorrow. If I can not cry while taking them.

TGIF

2010-11-19T14:09:00.001-05:00

I recently read the book The Gifts Of Imperfection by Brene Brown. I'm not a "self help" book kind of person (no offense if you are) but this book really struck a chord in me. I know that for a long, long time I ~~wasted~~ spent a ton of my time and energy trying to live up to what others expected of me. It made me miserable, it made me depressed and it only added to my already huge self-esteem issues. But after reading this book, I realized that I could let go of all those expectations I felt were ~~shoved~~ placed on me and once I did, I was free to be me and be happy. And that was okay.

In other words? Everyone could go to hell.

One of the things Brene writes about in her book and on her blog is TGIF: Trust Gratitude Inspiration Friday. I love the idea of doing this...just taking a minute to write about something you trust, something you're grateful for and something that inspires you, especially at this time of the year.

So with no further ado, here is my list...

I've been trusting my husband Michael a lot lately. With everything that's been going on lately, it's an unbelievable feeling to know that he is here for me whenever I need him. Especially when I'm being crazy, which honestly, is all the time.

I'm grateful for this child.

Everyday Shannon makes me laugh (she also drives me out of my tree but that is life with a teenager). She never ceases to amaze me with how beautiful she is (inside and out), she makes me want to be a better person and I am truly blessed to be her mother.

Lately I've been inspired by light.

I love the light this time of the year. Here in New England during the fall, the sun takes on this golden glow that my father described best as: it looks like it's afternoon all day long. I love how it lights up a room or how it makes a person look. It's just this beautiful, delicious type of light that only happens at this time of the year and I've been trying to capture as much of it as I can.

What is your TGIF list?

Jen's Ten

2010-11-18T17:47:00.001-05:00

1. In the clear. Last week I had a routine MRI and it was clear. This is the second in a row that I've had that was clear so yay me! I won't lie...I was nervous as hell going into the MRI and results. Even though I haven't had any issues, you never know what is going on in your brain when you've got MS. So to get two that were clear with no issues? Best. News. Ever.

2. Home improvement? We are in the middle of a home improvement project that, while it is going quickly and better than I could ever have dreamed, it's still trying my patience. See...we are having the floors replaced in our house. We are getting hardwood downstairs and carpet up the stairs, down the hallway and in the bedrooms. And like a typical home improvement project, it's kind of snowballed. Since we were getting new floors, we really needed to repaint the living room since it'd been 10 years since we painted. And since we were painting, we might as well buy new stuff for the walls since I want to put some of my pictures up. And since I always hated the light fixtures in the hall, we might as well replace those. Swear to you, I feel like I'm living the book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.

3. Is that a rug? Since we are getting hardwood in the living room, we've decided to get an area rug to go under the coffee table. I don't want anything big or fancy, just something that will withstand a family and a cat. Do any of you out there in the world wide of webs have any advice for me on what we should look for?

4. The Deathly Hallows. I am dying to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Every time an ad for the movie comes on TV I stop and watch it like my life depends on it. So am I going to be running out tonight at midnight to see it? No. Am I going to run out and see it this weekend? No. And here's why...I still have a lot to do around the house getting ready for my new floors and I hate crowds. I really really do. I get all panicy and weird and stressed when I am in a large group of excited people, so it's best that I wait a week or so until the initial hype has died down to see it. It will be more enjoyable for everyone involved. Believe me.

5. Coffee or tea? I don't know what is going on with me, but I'm finding that I prefer a nice hot cup of tea to coffee. I've always loved coffee, but lately nothing beats a cup of tea. Especially peppermint tea. It's just so dang good.

6. And in related news...I'm having this "thing" with desserts as well. I have found that simpler is better for me. A piece of cake should just be a piece of cake. No fruity filling, no layers and layers of junk, just cake and frosting. That's enough for me. The same goes with brownies. Chocolate and nuts. That's it. I don't want marshmallows, huge chunks or other bits. I just like simplicity I guess, but I have no idea why my tastes are changing so much. Welcome to your late 30s maybe? If so, that's lame.

7. Lights, camera, not so much action. Shannon is doing a group project at school that is going to end me. The English teachers at her school have assigned a group project to make a movie based on Homer's They Odyssey. Seriously. I'm not making this up. They had to write a script, get props and costumes, film it then edit it and bring it into school. Here's my problem with it: in a group projects, there is always one person that is going to do 99% of the work while the others just laze around and do nothing. Shannon is the worker drone while the two other kids have done next to nothing. They aren't even done filming yet and it's due on the 28th. I have this terrible, awful, no good feeling that I will be helping Shannon edit the film seeing as she has done all the work so far. I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I seriously doubt it.

8. It's the time of the season. And in more related "I have no idea what is going with me news" I am having a really hard time adjusting to the fall season. I know this is funny as winter is right around the corner, but I am really finding it difficult to dress properly these days. Maybe it's because it was a long, hot summer or maybe it's because one day it's in the 60's and the next it's in the 40's. Whatever it is, I can't seem to dress myself accordingly and I'm either freezing to death or too warm. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I can't wait for winter because at least then I'll know I'll die if I don't wear a coat.

9. Holiday panic sets in 3, 2, 1...Yesterday while I was at Target buying a series of innocuous items, I saw several women buying things for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas and all I could think was "What's their hurry?". That is when I realized Thanksgiving is a week away and Christmas is only 34 days away. In the middle of the cleaning products aisle I had a panic attack. I started thinking "Oh my gawd I'm so not ready for any of this and it will be here before I know it and WHY DO I DO THIS EVERY YEAR?!?" Nevermind that Michael is going to take care of Thanksgiving dinner (that's why I married him ladies) and I've already started my Christmas shopping. It wouldn't be the holidays unless I had a melt down, so really, it's tradition.

10. Dear Santa, I've been a really good girl...The newest issue of Real Simple magazine has a gift giving guide for the holidays. It's broken down by catagories such as sweets, glamour and my favorite, splurges. This is what they have for the splurge item:

A Modernist dollhouse. When I saw it I almost passed out. Seriously...look at this thing! This is the single greatest dollhouse that ever was. You can even get Modernist furniture to go in it! Nevermind the price tag (if you click on the link you'll see why it's a splurge item). If I had this I would have so much fun with it. I'd even write a story about the family that lived there...what they were like, what they did and how they only do great stuff all the time because OH MY GAWD THAT IS THE GREATEST DOLLHOUSE EVER.

The Tale Of The Poster Board, Part Duh

2010-11-17T15:59:00.000-05:00

I now present to you, dear blog readers, the exciting conclusion of The Tale Of The Poster Board, or as I like to call it, How Shannon Drives Her Mother To The Brink Of Insanity.

As you all know from yesterday's post, Shannon came running downstairs at 9:30 PM yelling that she needed a sheet of poster board for school the next day. Seeing as my husband was on a business call, this left me as the only person in the house that could go out and get her said poster board.

I really need to teach the cat how to drive.

So I headed up the street to CVS, which was open for 30 more minutes. I don't know if any of you have been to a CVS this late at night, but it's kind of weird. The store was virtually empty except for the lone girl who was working and had the vacuum cleaner out as she was trying to tidy up before she left.

In other words, it was like a Stephen King book.

I went straight to the stationary aisle and found the poster board. Being the anal retentive moron that I am, I couldn't take the first sheet off the top of the pile. Oh no...I had to go down several sheets and find one that was in pristine condition, that hadn't been marred or marked or bent in anyway. I know this comes from my time spent as an art student. Whenever I had to buy myself illustration board for an assignment, I always dug for the best one in the pile.

Or it could be what I said before: I'm an anal retentive moron.

I took the poster board up to the register and the lone girl working said:

"Is there some kind of school project going on cos you're like the 5th person to come in and buy poster board."

This was where I went from anal retentive moron to smartass in a nanosecond. It took all my power not to look at her and say:

"No...I'm just out on a Tuesday night at 9:30 PM buying poster board for the hell of it."

Of course there's a project! Why else would parents be out this late running errands for their thoughtless children?

Fast forward to this morning: Shannon and I were walking out of the house to go to school and she said "Don't we have a rubber band or something to put around the poster board?"

We were running a tad late and I didn't feel like going back in to see if I could scrounge around for a rubber band or something to put around it so I said "No, just carry it carefully and you'll be fine."

In the car driving to school, she looked at the poster board in the back seat and said "Why didn't you fold it?"

This is where my anal retentive moron streak came to life (again) and I said "Because I didn't want to crease it."

She proceeded to turn around, grab the beautiful, perfect poster board and fold it not once, but twice.

I don't know if I can put into words what happened next but I'll try. I got this tight feeling in my chest, not too dissimilar from chest pains. My fingers also began to itch, like they wanted to reach out, take the poster board from her hands and unfold it as quick as they could.

She looked at me and said "I don't care if it's folded."

This was the icing on the cake. I sat in the drivers seat, seething on the inside that my child, the fruits of my labor, the child I thought I'd taught better, had more or less destroyed what was once the most perfect poster board ever...a sheet of poster board that I went out late at night to get and make sure was in awesome condition so when she took it into class it would be just right.

I successfully managed to drop her off without saying word one about what she'd done or how it affected me. But honest to God, the next time she gives me crap about something not being just right, I'm going to let her have it over that damn poster board.

Blogging is Hard, Like Math

2010-11-16T21:35:00.001-05:00

Okay. So I've been busy lately. And by busy what I really mean is "Hey...I wonder if I can get a quality 15 minutes of sleep tonight?" kind of busy.

Earlier today I had some time between loads of laundry, ironing curtains and cleaning the litter box so I thought "I know...I'll write a blog post talking all about the things I've been busy with. That will elevate my guilt over the lack of quality posting I've done lately and prove to everyone in the world wide of webs just how busy I've been."

So I started writing, got distracted by I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant (I really need to write a separate blog post about this show. I am absolutely addicted to it and it frightens me in a way I didn't know was possible) and stopped paying attention to what I was doing. I hit the delete button and next thing I knew POOF! Everything I had spent the last 20 years typing disappeared.

At first I thought "This isn't a big deal. Blogger automatically saves what you've already typed. I can just go to edit posts and retrieve it."

Wrong.

It was gone. Everything I had written, everything I had typed was lost forever and ever and ever.

So I did what any good internet type person would do...I went to Twitter and complained about it.

I really do have a lot to tell you all. I've gotten some very good news lately that I'm eager to share and some quality stories about our adventures in home remodeling.

Okay...Shannon just ran downstairs screaming "I NEED A WHITE POSTERBOARD FOR SCHOOL TOMORROW!!!"

See what I mean by busy?

A Bit Squirrely

2010-11-15T18:39:00.000-05:00

Things have been a bit...squirrely around here lately.

That's why it's been so long since I've posted anything.

Everything is turned kind of upside down right now...we are doing a (somewhat) major home renovation that has all of our furniture moved to the center of the living room (with some in the kitchen as well) and it's really giving my OCD, anal retentive, (overly) organized nature an extreme run for it's money. I know it will not take long and everything will be put back in it's place and my house will look amazing when it's done, but in the mean time? I feel like I'm running around like a squirrel.

Thus, the acting a little squirrely.

I'm hoping within a week things will return to a more normal pace. Until then posts may be sporatic. And weird.

Not that there's anything new there.

In The Mood

2010-11-08T10:19:00.000-05:00

Here's what I woke up to this morning...

A light dusting of snow on the ground.

It wasn't much and it's all since melted, but when I first saw it I got this warm, excited feeling. All I wanted to do was get cozy in the house, put on Christmas music and be jolly.

To say I'm in the mood for the holidays is putting it lightly.

I'm ready for Thanksgiving and copious amounts of food. I'm ready for Christmas trees, ornaments and music. I'm ready for little kids to be excited and to see their faces light up when they see Santa Claus. I'm ready for the world to be sparkling and bright. I'm ready for it all.

I don't know why I love Christmas as much as I do...I think it's because it's the end of the year and a chance for us to look back on everything that's happened (be it good or bad) and be thankful for all of it.

But mostly I think I love it because you get the chance to spend time with those you love. There is no better feeling in the world than waking up on Christmas morning with everyone happy and nothing to do but sit around and enjoy the day. It's simple and sweet and worth the wait every year.

And it's only 45 days away...

Really?

2010-11-04T19:24:00.000-05:00

So I had an interesting afternoon...

It involved Shannon's right knee, her nose and a trip to the ER.

That's all I'm really at liberty to share at this time (per Shannon's orders).

And after dealing with that mess, I was on the phone with my mother (who lives in the desert) when I heard a loud "bang" noise followed by my mother and people in the back ground screaming.

Turns out someone drove a dune buggy into her fence. That she just had replaced a few months ago.

I am literally just sitting here shaking my head. It's 8:30 PM and I really hope this day is done with me because I don't know how much more I could take.

The Tale Of Chex Mix

2010-11-03T16:24:00.001-05:00

Last week I got this wild idea to make some Chex mix. I'm not entirely sure why...I'm not a huge Chex mix type of gal, but for some reason it just sounded very very good.

I went online and found a recipe for Chocolate Coffee Toffee Chex Mix. It had everything I wanted: chocolate, crunch and whole lot of goodness. I printed the recipe out and headed to the grocery store to pick up all the ingredients.

As I walked through the store picking up the items I needed, I was getting very excited for it. I couldn't wait to get home and mix it all up so it would be done when Shannon got home from school and we could sit around eating it while watching TV and talking about her day.

I had found every single ingredient except the cereals I needed which were Cinnamon Chex and Chocolate Chex. I walked down the cereal aisle, spotted the Cinnamon Chex right off the bat, but didn't see the Chocolate Chex right away. I looked up, I looked down and quickly realized they didn't have Chocolate Chex.

As annoying as that was, I didn't let it set me back. I thought "It's okay. I'll go to another grocery store and pick it up." So I headed to a second store. They also did not have it.

It was about this time that I was starting to get mad. I was ticked that I'd gone to two stores (in two different towns) to find a dumb box of Chocolate Chex, but I knew Target sold it, so I headed to a third store (and third town) to get my box of cereal so I could get my Chex Mix on.

Target did not have it.

By now I was livid, which I know is lame, but I'd gotten it into my mind to make and consume this recipe and I'd driven all over the place for a stupid box of cereal that I knew I'd bought in the past.

Instead of driving to a 4th store, I decided to go home (with the ingredients I had) and stew about how lame Chex is and how much I hate them.

Fast forward to today...

I still had all the ingredients on hand to make the Chex mix, minus the Chocolate Chex. I decided I could substitute Rice Chex for the Chocolate Chex and since I had that on hand, I'd just make it and see how it turned out.

I read through the entire recipe before measuring things out, which, incidentally, turned out to be a good thing because at the end of the recipe I saw this little disclaimer:

Try using Honey Nut Chex in place of the Chocolate Chex mix.

What. The. FRAK.

I was going out to lunch today, so I thought that while I was out I'd pick myself up a box of Honey Nut Chex and just get this recipe made already.

Once I had the cereal in hand, I headed home and started mixing it up. I put it in a ziplock bag, added the powdered sugar and shook that bag like it was a Polaroid picture.

And voila! Chocolate Coffee Toffee Chex Mix!

It smelled so good...chocolate, coffee and sugar all mixed into one. I grabbed a few pieces, put it in my mouth and began to chew.

And I hated it.

I am not even lying a little bit. It wasn't gross by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't nearly as good as I had let myself hope it would be.

To say I was disappointed is a gross understatement. I wanted this to be good. I wanted it to be crunchy and sweet and oh so satisfying and it just wasn't.

I don't know which part makes me madder: the fact that I drove all over looking for a product that obviously doesn't exist or that I ended up making it after waiting a week and it just sucked.

It's a toss up, that's for sure.