Photojournalism By a 4-Year Old....

My 4 year old LOVES taking pictures, and rarely she gets something good.  Here are some shots of things important enough for her to take pictures of: 

Oooh! The baby and I are color-coordinated.  Do you like my classy red shirt and pink pj pants? I bet you do.

I bet you think that this picture was taken around Christmastime because we have evergreen trees on our entertainment center. You'd be wrong. They are STILL up there and it's going to be August this weekend. I figure we better just leave them up there...

Guess who??

I'll give you one more chance to guess ...

Yep, more butts.

These are Jeremy's new shoes. I had to seriously talk him in to them because they are so "wild" (i am not joking)  I'm glad Brynn captured them for posterity.

A little blanket book time...

Babies need a LOT of crap to go to the Lake for 18 hours.

Proof that we do occasionally feed the cat.

The Princess' crown.

The End.

Sound Bites from 15th Street

1) I'm home pre-emptively nursing the children back to health from their assumed pending colds.  I'm making them both consume (probably) unhealthy amounts of vitamin c.  It's making me feel better.

2) I shall have a late-lunch comprised entirely of coke and kraft mac-n-chese explosions.  I have to eat this when jeremy isn't home because he can't stand the cheese explosiveness. (his distaste for cheese and chocolate were serious questionmarks when evaluating his long-term relationship potential, back in the day of course.)

3) I have just doused the noodles with sriiracha hot chili sauce to add even more explosiveness to the meal, and to deter Brynn from eating anymore of it. I have food agression issues, even when it comes to my children apparently.

4) I have lost my debit card for about the 10th time now.  So far, nobody has used it. I've looked for it for about a week -- I called and cancelled it this afternoon.  The woman assured me that my husband never has to know. (I can say stuff like that on here, because even though I repeatedly send him the link to view my blog, he does not.)

5) I made cucumber salsa this weekend. the recipe needs a bit of tweaking, but it was still pretty good. I was able to use a lot of my "garden harvests." 

6) I'm just now realizing that whenever you put anything "in quotations" it immediately sounds "dirty."

7) A Fine Balance finally got good at page 300. It was page 300 exactly. I looked and thought, "Hmpfh. That's a pretty precise number."  I still have several hundred pages left.

Book Marker

About a month ago, I got so desperate to read a book that I started digging through the garage to look for books that I had yet to unpack (typed in a whisper: from our move over 1 year ago). The first box of books that I stumbled upon was full of high school yearbooks -- that wasn't going to do. The second box of books had law school text books. Yes, I decided, that will do. I love reading case law -- really, I do. So, I chose my Minnesota Family Case Law book and started reading a case from the early 1900's that was chock-full of jurisdictional confusion and Supreme Court interpretational joy. I loved it. (sigh) But this fun was only good for so long and I vowed that I needed to go get a library card.

The next day, Brynn and I went to the library. She loved it -- it's now a special treat when she gets to go there and she gets all hyper and giddy. I love that she can't wait until we get home to read books, and that she always wants to sit on the bench outside the entrance and read a couple books before we get in the car to go home.

The first book I chose to read was about that time traveller. Enough said.

On our last trip there, I didn't have anything specific in mind. I wandered the shelves while keeping an eye on Brynn who was in puzzle heaven with another little girl. Nothing was jumping out at me -- and then I saw the golden circle and the angels started singing. Yes, Oprah had endorsed a book!! (Not a Pulitzer you sillies!!) Oprah has rarely led me astray, so I picked it up and claimed my daughter who was now loudly proclaiming "SEE!! THERE'S MY MOMMY!!" to the other little girl.

So, this is what I'm reading. I'm trying so very hard to read it. I've been at it for a good 2 weeks now and I'm on page 100-something. This is sooooooooooo slow and ... out of my element that I'm having problems getting involved in it. It has to do with 4 random people living in India during an uprising in the 1940s-1970s and there's a lot of talk about the caste system and sewing. LOTS of sewing. I feel as if I could make a dress, or at the very least a nightgown after all this talk of sewing machines and measurements.

I will finish this book, even if I forget to renew it and incur lots of overdue fines. I keep hoping that this book will be like another of Oprah's Gold Seals that I had a terrible time getting involved with.

Here's The Poisonwood Bible. Again, the first 100-150 pages were so dagnabit slow that I think I started and stopped this book at least twice. (Just like a couple of Toni Morrison's books. I have NEVER finished Song of Solomon).

However, there was some turning point in this book and the last half of the book just flew by. I loved it. I decided that this was one of my favorite books. As I have the "Book Details Memory Lapse" Disease, I am not able to remember exactly what this book was about ... but it was good. I do remember that it is VERY important to take all of your malaria pills and not stick them on the wall under your bed.

Some of my other favorite books are:

1. James Frey Books. I know Oprah disavowwed him, but the books still rock.

2. Wally Lamb Books. I don't know how Oprah feels about him. I think she likes him. I LURVE him. I can easily read, or want to read, any of his 500+ page books in a weekend.

3. I have read 2 John Grisham books in my life, and have LURVED* one and LIKED A LOT the other one.

First the LURVE: The Testament. It's about a billionairre and a will and a journey into the Patanal in South America.

The LIKED A LOT: The Innocent Man. This is a true story. I bet you can't tell what it's about?? It's like reading an episode of Dateline. I enjoyed it.

*LURVE is a more emphatic version of Love. ex: I Love regular Coca-Cola, but I LURVE Red Bull.

(I can't format this post to save my life!! I am not BFFs with Blogger today.)

TelegaWoman Shall Have it HER Way ...

Yes I've been absent... again. Oops and Whatevs.

TelegaWoman (TW) has made several requests of me and to save everybody from my purse contents, I shall answer her queries in an upcoming post that I shall most likely draft while I am at work tomorrow.

Until then, I shall answer 2 of her easy questions:

1) Yes I saw that movie about that time traveller and his wife, and that is what made me go and read the book.....coupled with the fact that TW was so obsessed with it. I watched the movie and had sooo many questions... and then I read the book and I still had questions. Naked, really?? Why??? At least let him keep his underoos.

2) The farthest I've ever been away from home is when I went to Italy when I was 18 years old. I was there for 2 weeks and I was so lovesick for Jeremy (gross, eh?) and then I became so physically sick (we all swapped the flu around on the tour bus) that I really don't think I thoroughly enjoyed it. I did enjoy it, and I want very much to go back, but I rather regret all those afternoons I spent journalling to my boyfriend! That would make a good post wouldn't it? Dig up that thing. OMG.

Larson OUT.

GSD Conclusion and Randomness

Yeah... so I forgot to blog about Day 7 of the detox --- as I recall, I was back at the store for something, but can't remember what.... All I can recall was a general level of disgust and the thankfulness that I was all done.

I have become more mindful, however, of what I am purchasing while I am there. I do believe, minus any valid statistical evidence, that I have cut back expenditures and have become slightly more restrained. Yippee!!

I concluded reading "that book" and my mind has almost returned to "normal." For several days after concluding it, I could NOT stop thinking about time travel. I'd see a lone glove or a random shoe on the sidewalk or street and think "Hmpfh. I wonder where that person is time-travelling to. I hope that they are in a pretty field with Clare*" And then, I'd immediately get sad thinking about my child being a time-traveller and how scary and lonely that must have been at 5 years old.... Thank goodness for a reasonable subconscious, because at this point in my pontificating I would remind myself that this is ONLY a book AND a confusing movie.

I'm blogged out. I shall open the next post up to reader questions. If there are no questions, then I shall simply tally up the contents of my purse.


(*For the devotees out there, I DO understand that this would mean that the person was ONLY wearing that glove or that shoe prior to the time travel)

GSD: Day Stupid 6

**Warning** Major Relapse Ahead.

Preamble/Justification: Brandon has had a fever since midnight on Wednesday. We originally just thought it was teething issues and gave him ibuprofen. The fever went away, he woke up chipper. We thought the crisis was averted… until we got a call from daycare on Wednesday afternoon letting us know the fever was back, and it was 102. So, today, lovely Thursday, the Husband had to stay home with the bubby because the fever was still raging*. I had a mandatory attendance conference (the kind I have to go to if I want to keep my law license in tact with enough education hours) and would not be available all day.

We had no milk.

We had no caffeine.

OH NO!

So, prior to my conference, I went to the grocery store with Brynn and we picked up the following: Milk, Cereal, Mountain Dew, and… 2 packages of donut balls for Brynn to bring to daycare to share with her friends. The last item was pure frivolity, but …eh.

So, here it goes:
Breakfast: Donut-balls for Brynn. Cereal for Jeremy. I ate a string cheese and a diet Cherry Coke at my seminar.

Lunch: I had intended upon going home and checking in with the bubby and the hubby, but my seminar attendees decided that we should keep on forging through lunch (and take no bathroom breaks – boot camp style), so I quickly ran to Erbs n’ Gerbs and got a sub. (sidenote: I tried the new “Cally” sub. It’s a vegetarian sub with sweet-chili sauce and red peppers. I think I like the traditional veggie “Jacob Bluefinger” better).

Supper: I broke rank AGAIN today and went to the store and bought a steak for husband to grill for supper. He said it sounded delicious and he was home with a feverish baby all day. It had to be done. I additionally made some smashed potatoes with chives cut fresh from our garden. Brynn loved the “chicken” and kept asking for more even though we kept telling her it wasn't chicken.

Snack: I oinkishly finished the Princess Teddy Grahams… with a Mountain Dew while I obsessively kept reading The Time Traveller's Wife as this has been on my to-do list since TelegaWoman was all psycho over it in a post months ago.

* Jeremy took Brandon in to see Dr. Love (who I'm sure was relieved to see Husband rather than this psycho-mom) and diagnosed him with a very typical case of "Roseola" and said that the fever should break soon and the non-contagious body rash would soon appear. YIPPEE!!

GSD: Day...Um..Five? This is way too long...

Breakfast: Chocolate Peppermint Luna Bar and hot-chocolate.

Lunch: INVITED to Subway for lunch! Yeah! However, the Subway was at a Wal-Mart….I started drooling over the extremely cheap Pop-Tarts (I can’t remember the last time I ate or purchased them) and luckily, my supportive joint-venture’er removed me from the breakfast bar aisle and we made our way to the check-out….where I bought a Snickers bar for 50 cents.

Afternoon Snack: I ended home with the kids because Brandon came down with a fever. Brynn depleted the milk supply with a chocolate milk concoction, and I shared the candy bar with her.

Supper: A very unbalanced meal of Lipton Beef Noodles, Baked Beans, and chocolate pudding. We ate later than we normally do and we were all hungry and desperate. I started to make mac n’ cheese, but realized we were out of milk. Oops. I almost volunteered to run out and get something…. But that vanished when the sick baby uber-barfed all over me and he required a second bath.