here's what i look like wearing my afro wig and a luchador mask while dancing the hokey-pokey

HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!! everyone! We're busy gearing up to rot our teeth out around here--Friday Fotos will be back next week :) ! Hope you guys get more candy than rocks!

what defines us: my 80's self

There was a writer's workshop prompt Mama Kat gave a few months back that I wanted to do-- but didn't for some reason-- so I decided to give it a whirl now. The challenge was: With your eyes closed, open up a dictionary and point to a word. Tell us what that word means to you.


Well, believe it or not I DO keep a dictionary by my computer. I dug it out and put it there last December when Blogger's spell check was down for weeks and weeks (those were some great, crazy weeks to see everyone's poor spelling--mine included :) !).


Anyhow, the first word I pointed to was foreshorten. That word had absolutely no meaning to me whatsoever. Next I got strontium ( a yellowish, reactive, metallic element). That one, too, not having a lot of meaning for me. Then I got Lastex, depredate, and talc. No, no and no. Hmmmmm......I was thinking that the dictionary thing was not going to work after all! And then it dawned on me.....this post didn't want to be about the word, but about the dictionary itself. Because for the many "pointless" words that were in my dictionary.....I couldn't help but think of all the words that WEREN'T in it.




You see, my dictionary is from *1987.*



It went through junior high and high school and even college with me. It skips from "internee" to "internest" with nary a mention of INTERNET. There are no i- anythings or e- anythings. No GPS. No cell phone. No Google. "Blockade" is right before "Blond" (or the feminine "blonde") without even a hint of the word "blog". They. didn't. even. exist.....and now I can't imagine any of those things NOT existing.



Yet 1987 doesn't seem like that long ago to me! I wore Keds with pushed down socks, and a fringed denim jacket, and Exclamation! perfume. I listened to Depeche Mode's 'Music for the Masses' tape on my "boom box" (do you think "boom box" is still in today's dictionary?....what about "Walkman"?...). I had a crush on the actor Chad Allen. I used a curling iron shaped like a triangle (it was suppose to make triangle curls, but, mmmm....not so much.). I had teal mascara.....and I actually wore it! My mom drove me to piano lessons every Wednesday and did cross word puzzles while she waited. My best friends were Tara and Summer and Michelle. I had my first kiss and hated it. I had a Swatch. I carried a Benetton bag to school. *** That world is still so real to me..... and yet it was a world soooo different than the one I'm in--that we're ALL in-- now. I think I'm beginning to understand what my mom meant when she told me: it doesn't matter how smart you are, there is no substitute for life experience. ~She was right.~



Does that mean I'm getting old......and wise?






Oh, 80's self.....if only you'd known....you would have just enjoyed doing cheerleading routines to "You Spin me Round Like a Record"-- and not worried so much about growing up!



*sigh*


SO----






Wanna know what I looked like in the 80's?!?! .....






My friends and I use to do modeling work for Maurices. This was taken backstage at one of the fashion shows. I can't believe all our hair fit in this picture! (I'm the one in the middle.....I was 14!):

Notice my friend Michelle has on one black shoe and one white shoe? Classic!

And now a dance picture with my friend Danny Nava. I think I was 13 here ---

This must have been the year I wore nothing but black and white! Notice the scrunchy around my ankle? Was I making a fashion statement?! Also---all my fingernails are black and white! And look at Danny sporting his 80's mini-mullet, red skater high tops, tucked-in surf shirt, and swatch---complete with the plastic "swatch guard" thingie!

This last picture isn't of me. It's of my friend Becky. She was this sweet, quiet, non-makeup wearing girl who I thought needed a little more "pizazz". So I offered to give her a makeover. This is how she turned out.....(nothing could be more 80's than this)......

Wouldn't you have wanted one of my makeovers too?!?! Oh, I'm laughing so hard looking at this I can hardly type anymore!

***You are all so totally rad!!! :)***

(private note here, the rest of you can move to comments!): X'ioq, Kh'ao Ao Kh'ie B'iook R'iuq A H'iatie H'iae Aq IA J'ioqp K'abie! Ch'iak E'ioieo Kh'iak O'iau Iam'ioiuk Bu J'arie.... :) ?!

a sneek peak

Sick of hearing about my "90's self" yet?!


Well, here's a sneak peek of what's up for tomorrow:



Yuppers. You're all going to get to meet my "80's self". And there will be hair.....lots and lots of hair.....

:)


*If you want to join in---tell us about your 80's self (with pictures if they exist, PLEASE :) !) and link up on Where's My Angels' blog.

It'll be FUUUUUUUN!!!.......

i spy.....stuff i found in my jacket pockets

So--this weekend I ATTEMPTED to purge my mud room. It was supposed to be a place for shoes, coats, backpacks, and car keys.....and has ended up with everything else from other "purged" rooms. Except.... I got a little distracted. Because the first thing I went to clean out in there was the coat closet. And the first thing I pulled out from the darkest corner of the closet was this:









THIS was "MY" jacket. **My signature look**. From 1991-1994, I wore this EVERYWHERE! Across 6 countries. Over jeans, shorts, dresses, pajamas (well, not really the pajamas, but...) My most favorite outfit was this jacket with a white t-shirt, a kilt, fishnets, and my Doc Marten boots---which all went well with my 10 earrings and blue-streaked hair. Yeah!--I bet you'd all like a picture of me in THAT, huh :) ?! (Remember Tina?--I had that EXACT outfit on the night we got in the wreck!).

Anyway, I immediately tried it on and it felt.....like home! It also felt......like it weighed about 25 pounds! And why would that be?!-- Well, JUST LOOK at all the stuff that was crammed into every pocket of this jacket!!!:





I felt like I was wearing a walking scrapbook!!! Most of this stuff is from Germany, but there were other little surprises too. You can always make the picture large and play this game of I Spy with me!...





I SPY:


* a drillteam rehearsal schedule


* a note from my bff Teresa--the 90's girl's version of a text!


*a ticket to go see Pink Floyd's "The Wall"


*an Orbit gum wrapper (long before Orbit made its way to America!)


*a coaster (bierdecke) marked with the handwritten message "when I was stuck in the bathroom" (a story for another time!...some of you have heard it!).


*a picture of Depeche Mode--(I guess I needed it in case I wanted to look at them or something!)

*the program from a German play which a bunch of us skipped out on during intermission, and caused the event that will forever be known as "we-broke-the-elevator-by-jumping-in-it-gate" (Tina--again? Remember this?...the rest of you....just use your imaginations!)


*a receipt from when gas was $1.07 a gallon and I could fill my whole Honda up for less than $20! (and also signed with my maiden name!)





Well, since turning the jacket into a blog story had, by now, kind of taken up all my mudroom cleaning time, the only sensible thing to do was throw it on over my church clothes and let Liam and I rock out for a photo shoot done by Zane, of course!:








Oh yeah!.....I still got it :)! *** (and no--I didn't wear it to church. Because those kinds of things are acceptable when you're 17 and have blue hair, but I think they make you wear a scarlet letter when you do it at 33!)

~Do you (or did you) have a signature piece of clothing?~

return to my europe journal: the final chapter

In case you're not aware of this form of flashback torture I put my readers through :)...







You can learn about me:


*dancing all night in a Paris disco


*turning 18 in a foreign country


*finding and losing love with Lars the German


Now let's read about an 18 year old Idaho girl's first impression of Paris.....(c'mon--you KNOW you want to!)









------------------------------------









6/17/93 ---(this is just how it appeared in my journal:)



Miriam and I caught our Ikarus Reisen tour bus in Karlsruhe at 6:30 am and were on our way. Took about 7 hours to get here, but it was worth it as we pulled into the beautiful (though heavily trafficked!) Paris streets.



With smiles on our faces, we entered the Hotel Chateau Rouge in the Rue de Jean market place. Our smiles quickly faded, however, when we climbed 98 spiraling stairs to the dumpiest room I've ever seen! The bed (only one!) was lumpy, we had one sink and a bidet---and the only toilet and shower were to be shared with the entire hotel floor--women AND men. Guess I'll be washing my hair in a bidet for the next 2 weeks! If that wasn't enough, our view of Paris is of the backside of a rundown apartment building. AAAAUGH! Miriam and I almost cried! What Harlem is to New York, Rue de Jean is to Paris!




(yeah....I know I need a scanner! But here's a picture I took of a picture of myself outside our hotel!--I'm the one with that crazy long hair! )



We got unpacked and decided to head out and see what we could see. I began to notice right away guys looking at us---and not just "looking", but LOOKING! Soon the looks turned into lunging men saying "ooh-la-la" (yes! they really say that!) and making kissing sounds. I knew Paris was the 'city of love', but it seemed more to me like the 'city of perverts'.


Other things I notices about Paris:

~ garbage EVERYWHERE! ~little dogs EVERYWHERE! ~Hoards of clothing shops all selling the same things. ~Women running around in very little. One lady was even stripped down to her bra and underwear.... dancing in a fountain.... with a jar of olives. That was interesting! ~Public toilets you have to pay to use. Between those and the one toilet for a whole floor at our hotel, I don't think I'm going to ever get to pee in Paris!


We bought some postcards and headed to Le Sacre Couer. We climbed the BILLION stairs to the top and arrived huffing and puffing--but it was worth it when we turned around and looked out over the HUGE sprawling city of Paris. I've never seen anything so BIG in my life! It was breathtaking! On our way down, we stopped and listened to a man play the guitar and sing. And I just sat there looking out at all the lights and listening to the French music, and it was really, really peaceful. I never thought a girl like me would ever make it to Paris---especially not on her own!
(this photo only shows the top most flight of stairs. If you look to the left-hand you can see the very top of another building and get an idea of how high up this church was!) ~~~~~~~~~~





And that's all there is. Au Revoir :)!





p.s. yes--I really washed my hair in a bidet for 2 weeks--except for the two times I used that tiny multi-user bathroom's shower....at 3 am! It was an adventure!

Friday Fotos--October days

Friday Fotos all up in your faces ladeez ! Can I get a hollah?!?! :)

Here's what we've been up to this chilly October week:



Pulled out my black poster board and scissors to once again construct my front window Halloween "masterpiece". It's made of a ton of different pieces and never saves from year to year---so each year I have to look at a picture and attempt to do it the same way again. Try and ignore all the tape you see---I'm sure there's a better way to get it to stay up....but it's really not as noticeable as the photo makes it seem! (I say to make myself feel better...):





Finished throwing a little something up on the outside too. I'm no Nester----but at least it looks like I'm mildly aware of the changing of the season :). The tiny pumpkin was all that my garden produced this year--but I love it because I grew it!:

The boy squad and I ventured out to the local pumpkin farm and partook of all the Autumny fun! Including a cow train pulled by a riding lawnmower:

and a straw maze:

here's the pumpkin farm--it gets more crowded every year---but I LOVE that they added the big red barn last year!:

Here's some tall basket "thingie" that they use in the corn maze. It really has no meaning, I just thought it made such a strong statement against the golden sky!

Ethan took James down the big slide several times. It does a mom's heart some good when I see them having fun together :). It's not like it's a rare occurrence, but it means a lot to me to actually catch a picture of it:

And here I am expounding all my energy to hold Liam and James in one place long enough to take a picture! I am smiling because my tummy is all full of warm cinnamon mini-donuts.... and because I love my boys, of course! :)

***What I did spare you all a photo of this week was the caustic raw sewage my bathroom flooded with....twice. Even a pair of tortoise Christian Louboutin shoes could not have made me feel glamorous cleaning all that muck up. Seriously, my bathroom smelled like death and vomit and feet. I think I've solved the problem......let's hope I don't have to call in the overpriced plumber again!***

and that's all I got!---

~Happy Weekending!~

Thank you Cara!.......

~you're all invited to my wedding~

Did I shock you? Hee. Hee. It's not really MY wedding....it's the hypothetical, inspirational wedding I told Lauren I would post about for her wedding linky day (she really is getting married!). At first all I thought I could manage was to put up a picture of a cake I liked................and then I started clicking around on Google (all hail!) images and my oh my(!!!) I was like Monica on Friends getting all obsessed about details. It is now 1:30 am and I finally have to call all the searching quits because I need to go to sleep....and also I can't really move my right hand anymore...... SO Lauren, with one hour's planning time.....this is what I would do:

Buy a fabulous vintage dress, because they just don't get any more glamorous....

and mix it with an unexpected shoe like this:

And a great strong and simple ring like this:

Hair and makeup done like this:
With these flowers to fit in with the whole orange, olive green and chocolate brown color scheme I'd have going on: With the reception looking like this:
And the cake like this (except with chocolate frosting and pretty detailing done in the orange and green....and I would TOTALLY eat it too!! :) ):

I would then pay a certain member of this band with an Omega Seamaster 300M Chronometer watch if he could convince everyone to get back together long enough to sing the Smile Lines song for the dance:

and just to prove that I'm a thrifty kinda gal, this is all we would be eating for dinner (and they're even orange!--bonus!):

Finally, we would bid all our guests adieu as we drove off in this (this is a classic 1961 Aston-Martin so there better not be a lick of shaving cream or window marker on it!):
Did I forget to mention who the groom was?! It's HIM of course:

And I want him in that outfit too! :)

Lauren--THANK YOU---that's the most fun I've had in a long time! I feel all girly now ;)! And I'm sure your wedding will be GORGEOUS!!! Can't wait to see!....

* How about you readers? Anything you'd want to add to your pretend wedding?

return to my europe journal

Because every time I get blogger's block--I make you go back to my time spent as an exchange student in Germany and France! It's actually pretty entertaining, but more than that---it's a way for me to get these memories off of cheap notebook paper and onto something (hopefully!) a little more lasting.

This is an entry from just a typical Friday night in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany; spent with my friend Miriam and her boyfriend Rolf. This entry also brings in a new character---LARS. Who was Lars? Read and find out..... (and remember--I'm 18 in this entry! )

----------------------------------------------------------

6/12/93



This day was a total FLASH before my eyes. I feel like such a schlaffi! Ich habe die ganzen Tag schalffen! I slept in until 12:10 pm, and so the day went by extremely fast. Miriam's father came for a visit at 3, and we all ate cake and listened to he and Miriam's mother discuss "arbeitsloesigkeit" for over an hour (soooooo boring.....good cake though). Finally, it got to be too much, so Miriam, Marcel, and I played a computer game. I think I came in second. Kind of hard to tell when everything was written in Deutsch computer-speak.



Got all glammed up later on to go to the disco. Rolf picked us up and we decided on Die Pharoa in Landau. Great 500 beat a minute European techno. Looks the same in there as it did 2 years ago! I'm certain I'll smell like smoke for the next week! I danced for over an hour until the strobe lights made me so dizzy I had to sit down. Heidi (my American friend) showed up. We tried to talk, but it's hard to talk over techno, so we went to stand by the door for a while and cool down. As we were standing there, WHO should come up the stairs but my old German boyfriend LARS!!!! You should have seen the look on his face when he saw me! It was hilarious! Like he'd seen a ghost! I told him when I left last time that I'd be back, and he didn't believe me. Proved him wrong! Anyway, he gave me a big hug and his phone number and even showed me that he still wore the silver skull ring I'd given him two years ago. Finally the girl he came with had had enough and stood behind him sighing loudly. Guess I wouldn't have wanted my date carrying on with an old American girlfriend either!....



Not sure if I'll call him or not. At one time we had something very strong between us. But we knew the distance would just be too hard. He's a lieutenant in the army now and I'm sure that's bound to have changed him some. STILL--I'll never, ever forget that combination surprise/excitement/dumb-founded look on his face. It was great!



Well, it's now 3:00 AM, and so ---with some sped-up version of Kraftwerk still ringing in my ears---I say GUTEN NACHT und TSCHÜS BIS MORGEN!



-----------------------------------------

****Ah, youth :) !..... And I did end up calling Lars, by the way. And we did go out a few more times...... BEFORE he got shipped off to Berlin, 10 hours away, for military training. And that was the end of that. :)*******
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BIG REVEAL: Concerning yesterday's post......to all those who guessed 30+ Singles Dance---you were RIGHT! Our church is famous for them. Emphasis in attendance was laid heavily on the + part of 30+. The handful of 30 somethings that were there were huddled together in a corner-- though I admit the others seemed more desensitized to the whole spectacle than I. As George Michael would say "I'm never gonna dance again"....but not because I got no rhythm, but because I am deeply, deeply traumatized :) !!! (HOWEVER.... I may go back just to record me a little sumpin' sumpin' for the blog.... ).

*p.s. I know I have some German readers (I throw you in with the Germans too Andrea!). How do I make an umlaut on my computer? I've been adding an extra -e to umlauted words, but I'd like to be able to have it look like actual Deutsch! Danke!

complicatedly funny

something very strange happened to me this weekend....involving dancing in a circle with other girls to Mambo #5......one old man with an oxygen tank and another playing the air guitar.......Weird Al Yankovic parody songs......a lady holding her own shoes and smacking herself on the booty with them.......mutton chops--the hair kind, not the eating kind.........multiple desserts.........a breakdancing 50 year old.........and one cool guy named Javier.

ah man!--I HAVE got to get me one of those little point and shoot cameras with the recording capability. Some things are too complicatedly funny to write about but too bloggerly perfect to not be mentioned at all. Wish you could have all been there with me to see it. Really. All of you.

There is no prize offered to the correct guesser of the place I was talked into going.....except for the satisfaction of being right. Any guesses?

friday fotos...no kidding!

Woo hoo! It's Friday morning and I am ready to roll with my FOTOS :) ! Somebody ought to buy me a new pair of shoes for this major accomplishment!.....diamond-encrusted, chocolate-covered shoes.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

***Here's what we've been up to this week:***

~~~~~~~~~~~~~



I did a girl's night with my good bloggy friend Miki last Friday. We had such a fun time eating pizza and frozen yogurt. And laughing. And laughing. And laughing some more. In fact--in this picture, I am standing on a chair so I won't look so short next to Miki, and I am laughing so hard because I'm about to fall off....and because we have employed the Golden Spoon lady to take multiple pictures of us....
If this picture could talk it would say: "Miki, you're looking good, girl! But Jennifer!!!--what's with your giant head and your weird nose and your lazy eye and that one freaky hair? Are you on something?...Besides that chair?" :) *Thanks Miki---I had the best time and we will for sure do it again soon! *

~~~~~~~~~~~~




SUMO!!! I love when the big boys play this game:

No children were harmed in the taking of this picture....


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I call this photo "what happens when you let a 2 and 4 year old play with the can of sprinkles", also known as "not easy to clean up a million tiny balls that keep rolling away and are stuck the bottom of everyone's feet"......

Then there was dancing while Mom did all the sweeping (though they did eat their way through quite a few of those spilled sprinkles....can't say they weren't helpful!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Got my Halloween decorations up! Doesn't my chandelier look macabre?

Look what else I found in the Halloween box......

I've always wanted to know what I'd look like with a big, blonde afro!

Yup. I am sooooooo wearing this thing everywhere I go for the next two weeks!

~Happy Weekending!~

AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEBBIE!!! MAY YOUR DAY BE AS ENJOYABLE AS DIET COKE WITH A SLICE OF LEMON :)

fashionably late: my tribute to SITS

SCENE:

The room is empty except for a few caterers picking up empty glasses, a lone janitor sweeping up piles of confetti, and the security guard nibbling at what's left of the sushi. And then in I come in my cutie-pie Diane von Furstenberg dress, with a pair of to-die-for Jimmy Choo boots on my feet, and my hair all done in those perfect, messy, beachy curls. Yeah....I'm late again. But fashionably so!..... in the sense that fashion is involved. Looking fabulous with no one to look at me :)!

The SITS party might be over, but I still want to get my two bits in on what this community means to me:

I found Heather when she was commenting on Emily's blog. She had the sassiest hair cut and always left such nice comments-- I knew I wanted to be her bloggy friend right away. Tiffany came over to my blog not long after that and said something to the effect of : "Hey you! My blog is kind of new and I want you (and everyone else!) to read it!" How could I NOT love humility like that :) ?! When I discovered the real-life friendship between Heather and Tiffany, it only made it that much *neater* to know both of them. I can't imagine two better women to be running the blogging phenomena that SITS has become (I've heard it's even been college material.... :) ).

~~~Oh SITS how do I love thee? Let me list the ways:~~~

*I love getting to meet new bloggers and love flooding their comment boxes for a day.

*I love the giveaways....though thus far I've won NOTHING :).

*I loved the comment-induced happy coma I sat around in on my feature day. My bum was numb for hours, but it was sooooo worth it!

*I love that everyone gets a chance to be featured---just get in the line.....and don't be peddelin' porn or anything!

And now I'm suppose to link my 5 favorite SITS-tas. That is so cruel! Like telling your hundred children which 5 you love best....sheesh! But, seriously--I love these ladies (and SO many more!-- Heather , Tiffany, and Emily-- you three should be on this list too, but I mentioned your names at the top---which is my sneaky way of getting 8 in! HA!) :

1. Angie at Seven Clown Circus

2. Debbie at This is the Life

3. Kat at Sunshine and Lemonade

4. Ronnica at Tale of a Kansas Girl

5. Jenni at Jenn's Pen

If you haven't figured out that The Secret is in the Sauce--go do it! You couldn't be in better company.

Well-- those few straggling caterers, the janitor, and the security guard have all told me how gorgeous I look and how it was a shame I missed such a world-class party... so,yeah....guess I'll be heading home now..... :) .

*hey! They told me Jared Leto showed up about 10 ---wonder who he was there to see? .... :)

a little lesson from my life

You know when you look at a post and my fonts aren't all BIG and small---that I'm doing some deep thinking, right?! :)


In the midst of the various trials I am still trying to work my way through ---I often feel simultaneously surrounded by divine love on all sides... and completely, totally alone. It's like Heavenly Father is RIGHT THERE--close enough I can hear His peace whispered to my heart--but sometimes I just reach that point where my physical body longs to be held and comforted too---then who do I turn to?

When Zane (my first) was a baby--he had his days and nights all mixed up. At 6 months, he was still waking up every hour and a half..... all night long.... EVERY night. We'd tried a pacifier, tried white noise machines, tried putting him in his car seat on the dryer, tried anti-gas drops, tried pre-emptive feedings, tried EVERYTHING! His pediatrician recommended a book called "Teaching Your Child to Sleep" by Dr. Richard Ferber, and I ran right out and bought it. Anyone heard of it? "Ferberization"? That's where you let your child 'cry it out' for increasingly longer intervals until they finally learn to put themselves back to sleep. You can go into their room, comfort them verbally--but not physically--and then continue to let them cry. I would never have considered doing this before, but I was soooooooo tired-- and poor baby Zane was too.

I can remember those nights so clearly. It was heart-wrenching to hear your innocent child crying for you and KNOW that you had the power to make it all stop, but knowing that what you were allowing them to go through was for their own good. I would sit outside his room with my head leaning on the door, listening to that pathetic cry--and crying along with him. I found myself whispering over and over: "I'm here little one. Don't worry. I love you. I'm sorry you have to cry. I promise it's all for your good. I'll be there in the morning and you'll smile at me and I'll feed you and we'll just have the best day ever!".

I come back to that scene often--when I feel that gnawing alone-ness and need for comfort; that God is right outside the door of my spirit saying : "I'm here little one. Don't worry. I love you. You know I have the power to make this all better. I'm sorry you have to cry. I promise it's all for your good. "........."...weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me: Lord, be thou my helper. Thou hast turned my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness." (Psalms 30: 5, 10-11).


I look forward to that joyous morning that my Father will be there-- and smile at me, and comfort me emotionally, spiritually and--finally-- physically......and it really will be the best day ever!

i am the poster child for good nutrition

I have a little confession to make.





This morning....... I ate an entire bag of these for breakfast............

I bought them to make a cute pumpkin craft I saw in Family Fun magazine. But now they're all gone. Every. last. one. AND I'm a little worried to buy more, because

here's another confession----

This is not the first time I've fallen victim to the early morning siren song of the marshmallow circus peanut. Nope. Pretty much every time I buy these, I eat them for breakfast. I don't know what it is about them and the first meal of the day......how they call my name as the sun is rising in the east.....how all the fruit smoothies, yogurt with granola, and fiber-loaded cereals I would usually choose amongst to eat, pale in comparison.......how their sugar makes my head all *buzzy* and *happy*........

I think they must be made of little orange pieces of heaven.

*Sigh.*

What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten for breakfast?

friday (i know it's saturday....no wait, it might still be friday) fotos

I know, I know---if I'm going to keep moving Friday Fotos around, I might as well just call them "fotos".... or probably "photos". This time, I just really wanted to include pictures of the package I got from my *Favorite Things* swap that Kat put on, and I needed an extra day to pull it all together ......I'm sure you can all forgive me enough to read this post, right?! :)





Here's what we've been up to this week:











Another PROUD MAMA moment! Zane had his Arrow of Light ceremony. The official transition from a cub scout to a boy scout. It seems like just yesterday I was sending him off to his first den meeting and his scout shirt was sooooo big on him! I loved his leader and loved that his best friend was the only other scout his age. Scout moms will understand the reason for the painted faces, the rest of you can just wonder :) ......













My swap package came on Thursday. Oh!-- I loves me a good box full of shredded documents! (I actually thought about trying to piece a few of them back together....)

WOW! I SCORED! Check out everything that sweet Becky sent me!!!......
It was the messiest, most fun 20 minutes I've spent in a looooong time---digging through all that paper and styrophome to find the goodies! I got candles, candy, stationary supplies , Bath and Body Works soap, a gorgeous picture frame, and the cutest Halloween decoration! She didn't send me that extremely sharp knife in the picture though........that's just what I was using to recklessly hack my way through packing tape and bubble wrap :). Thanks again Becky!!!! and thanks to our sponsor Kat!!! *Hope you do it again soon!*

NEXT guess what I did?! Gave myself a black eye--that's what!!! Stupid shelves in the laundry room being where the side of my face wanted to be! I think I even knocked myself out for a fraction of a second. Many "wooshie" noises and prickly stars involved :) ----

Like a good blogger, I photographed my 'tragedy'......

See---I'm pouting :( . That big black bump by my eye----all my doing!

I thought you might not be able to see it, so I used my lipliner to draw a big heart around it:

Can't miss it now!!!..... and I left the heart on all day--partly for amusement, and partly because I was just too lazy to wash it off :) . Creepy Wal*Mart guy loved it.
(Nothing so fun as taking pictures of yourself in the bathroom!)


And here's a picture I took at 6:00 tonight. That would be SNOW!!! In October! Three days ago I was still running my A/C and today I broke out our winter coats. I guess Idaho did not get the memo that the globe is suppose to be warming!

*********************************

I feel like a band promoter as of late....but only bands I reeeeeeeally love!....like The Arrogants.......and the Naughties!.......

Here you go my old friend J.D. who never reads my blog---(sheesh! You'd think you and Meagan had a new baby to take care of or something... :)) .

If you want to have a massive concussion of rock and roll--then come hear the most amazing cover band EVER---every Thursday from now till a record lable snatches these guys up (and if you want to fly in to hear them, I'll put you up..... for a nominal fee....ha! ha!)

*They're playing on a non-smoking stage, but they're so good they'll smoke the whole place up in no time flat ;) . You won't even care that your ears ring for a day or two.... {Old ladies heart The Naughties!} [don't worry my neon blonde friend, you can pay me in water for this promotional service!....]

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!!! HAPPY WEEKENDING!