haircut

Ellie got a haircut.

 

We got all the yucky chlorine damage cut off.

 

It is short.

 

And curly.

 

And precious.

 

 

She is doing great in school.

 

She is so happy to be back, amongst her friends.

 

1st grade is serious business.

 

Homework every night, right from the get go.

 

And spelling tests.

 

And book reports.

 

Serious business.

 

 

That's all I got tonight.

 

It's time to read 2 stories and tuck a little girl into bed.

 

She already has her first school cold.

 

And needs her rest.

 

And I am hungry.

 

Popcorn for dinner tonight.

 

Yay!

 

 



warrior

We Warrior Dashed it this weekend.

 

I dreaded it.

 

I was so underprepared.

 

All the worry was for naught.

 

It. Was. A. Blast.

 

Here we are before.

All clean and SHINY.

 



 

 This is a handsome man right here.

I am so glad he is mine.

 

 

 The race was 3.1 miles with obstacles.

There were lots of walls to get over and ponds with obstables in them.

I was only slighty worried on the 15 foot wall drop.

And the 15 foot high jungle gym thingy with 3 foot spaces you had to get across.

Other than that it was a piece of cake.

HA!

 

At the very end was barbed wire covered pit of mud.

Yeah.

We came out looking like this.

 

 

By the time we got to the mosh pit/fire hose rinsing station, most of the mud had dried and I felt like a mummy.

It wasn't pleasant.

 

I finally had Chris hold up a towel and I did the best I could behind it with a teeny tiny wash cloth.

My backside may or may not have been seen by a few other dashers.

 

At that point, I couldn't have cared less.

 

I just wanted the mud OFF.

 



 

After we were (somewhat) clean, we enjoyed our beer with our Warrior horns on.

 

 

And then there was this guy.

I don't know him.

But anyone who will race in that get up is a rockstar.

 

Or crazy.

 

You decide.

 

(This picture is cropped to not show all his nether regions.  There was A LOT hanging out down there.)



When We got home, Chris managed to get this disaster clean.

Nary a stain or spot to be found.

 

My hero.

 



Will I do it again?

YES!

 

Next year is going to be epic.

sidewalk mural

Ellie and I spent most of last week working on a sidewalk mural.

We had buckets and buckets of chalk.

Now we have nubbins.

That is all.

She would take breaks to ride her bike...

We seriously had people stop and take pictures of it.

Ha!

Or they would walk around it and not over it.

Ha! Ha!

Then, alas, it rained.

:(

I had no less than 4 people tell me how sad they were to see it go.

I was too.

Sad to see it go.

the weekend before school

This is the last weekend before school starts.

That makes me sad.

We decided to have a total family day on Saturday.

Most of it was spent on a hike.

We got very adventurous.

Sister is getting big enough to go on some serious paths.

She loved it.

 Let me caption these next few pictures.

And let me preface them by saying that we brought her sandles so she could go in the water.

"I can make it.  I can make it.  I can make it."

 "Help Daddy!  I can't make it!"

 "Superjump!"

It was a great day spent in the woods.

 Possible Christmas card this year...

The rest of the day was spent bike riding, mural completing (more on that later,) and family movie night.

We watched Race to Witch Mountain with Ellie.

(Wasn't the main character Tia in the book?  In the movie she is Sarah.  Boo.)

And then when Ichabod went to bed we watched American Reunion and Friends with Kids.

It was a good day.

it happens every year

I don't like August.

I think I got it from my mother.

For her, August meant back to school.

For me, it's just...hot.

And I am ready to move on to fall.

I don't want to feel this way.

I want to like the last lazy days of summer.

I really try.

And I hoped this year would be different.

But nope.

I'm ready for fall.

And cozy.

And orange and red and yellow.

And thick socks.

And soups and stews.

And the maple glazed donuts at the pumpkin patch.

I am even ready for it to be dark by 6.

I know.

I'm crazy.

And by the middle of January, I will be cursing myself for wishing away this heat.

But I can't help it.

I'm wishing away this heat.

the little things

I lit candles for dinner tonight.

With meatloaf.

On a Tuesday.

Cause why not?

My mother always said

"who better than us?"

She was right.

Chris asked what the occasion was.

Ellie thought it was special.

It somehow made meatloaf exciting.

As I think about it, there are lots of little things we do, not cause we have to, but because we want to.

They are the things that make us a family.

For example, if I am out late, Chris almost always puts toothpaste on my toothbrush.

If I put my feet in his lap, he will rub them.

He always always always offers me the first drink of whatever he is drinking.

And he keeps my gas tank full.

I leave the occasional love note somewhere he will find it.

Make sure he never runs out of low carb snacks.

I buy him gray and blue shirts only, cause that what he likes.

And put circus peanuts in his stocking, even though I think they could gag a maggot.

Ellie throws out random "mama, I love you's" all the time.

And randomly leaves us notes.

And puts up with our shenanagans, when we are trying to embarrass her, by say, singing at the top of our lungs to kids songs with a friend in the car.

The little things we do are usually the biggest things of all.

things you should know

Things you should know.

1.  The pictures for this post will have nothing to do with what is being said.

2.  I am all alone this weekend.  Chris took Ellie to see his mom.

For the whole. weekend.

Whatever shall I do with myself?

3.  I have lots of fun stuff planned with my bad self.

4.  I am one pound away from my goal weight.

I just tried on my skinny jeans...and they fit!

I fear that a weekend hanging out with my friends is going to derail that.

5.  I took a nap today.

Be jealous.  It's ok.

6.  School starts in 10 days.

Summer flew by.

Like, I don't even know what happened.

7.  I was in charge of my first in-house wellness challenge at work today.

Everyone did wall squats and reverse lunges.

I learned that we are a very competitive group.

And I made people sweat right through their work attire.

8.  Ellie's hair is so damaged.

The chlorine has wrecked havoc.

I have a special shampoo on the way.

Here's hoping it works.

To get any kind of brushing device through it right now is disasterous.

There are tears and crying.

9.  I think bread and cheese and wine are in my immediate future.

10.  E and I are on the outs.

Wow.

We had to have a sit down and discuss how we should treat each other.

Sadly, the talk was for me too.

It's been better since then.

11.  Atticus has crystals in his bladder.

They are expensive to get rid of.

Yay.

12.  I haven't been home since Memorial Day.

That hasn't happened since I moved away.

Planning a trip for Labor Day.

I miss my people.

13. Someone learned to ride a real bike.

It was not an easy road.

She can be dramatic.

It's the freakin' weekend,

gonna have me some fun.

Woot!  Woot!

sweet moses

Check it off the list.

We hit Sweet Moses last last week.

It's an old fashioned soda fountain.

(for those around these parts, it's on w. 65 on the Detroit Shoreway.  GO!)

Does that guy not look like he walked right out of the 50's?

He was a sport to take a picture with us.

Iz was mortified.

But handled it like the classy girl she is.

We got chocolate chip with sprinkles.

And a gigantic brownie sundae.

Yum.

O.

first concert

We got Ellie tickets to Big Time Rush for her birthday waaaaay back in April.

She was very excited.

And then forgot all about it.

When I reminded her it was coming up, she got all excited all over again.

It was like 2 presents for the price of one!

We got lawn seats.

They were perfect.

 We took Izzy with us.

Can I just pause for a minute and tell you what a cool kid she is.

First of all, she is gorgeous.

Second of all, she is super smart.

Third of all, and most important, she knows what she wants and what she doesn't want.

Fourth of all, she tells her mother everything, and because of this I want her to hang with my kid, a lot, cause I want my kid to tell me everything.

She struggles with girlfriends.

Girls at 15 are so freaking mean.

Izzy has decided the drama just isn't worth it.

And hangs out with boys.

Smart girl.

I think she misses having a close girlfriend though.

Those friendships will come, I keep telling her.

I hope she believes me.

 We waited and waited and waited.

Chris was super excited to be there.

Not.

But he was a trooper.

For some reason or another, neither one of us was wearing our wedding rings.

I about had to throw down with this mom that kept flirting with him.

I mean, I can't blame her, but hands off lady!

She seriously kept touching him and talking to him and giving him longing stares.

It was so bad he got uncomfortable.

Izzy and I thought it was a hoot.

 There were a lot of screaming girls there.

A LOT.

 I'm not sure what was happening here.

 Dancing to the music.

It was a great time!

For the record, my first concert was New Kids on the Block.

Please Don't Go Girl.