The word of the day is......

FASCISM- any movement, tendency, or idealogy that favors dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of opposition, and extreme nationalism.

I don't know about you, but I when I looked this up to read what exactly the word meant, I was afraid.

My life is complete

I can die happy

I have met with the most amazing girl who took the most amazing photos of my family.

I don't have my own CD yet, so for now you will just have to go on over and click to see a few previews from our photo shoot for yourself...

Dc Photo Booth

And yes...I totally am aware that my kids STOLE THE SHOW...isn't that the way it should be?

Maybe if you hurry you can book a photo session with Carrie before she gets so busy you can't get in any more.

I LOVE THEM!

Why I boycotted the Science Fair

I understand that kids want to make volcanoes and see steamy things spew in the gym, but my loathing of the science fair began years ago. My oldest son is somewhat of a perfectionist, so just agreeing on a display and how we would do it was a fight.

We have done bean sprouts, DNA strands, and phases of the moon......but see that is where the hate began. I am not even going to get into the hours and hours of searching, painting, typing, gluing loss of sleep that goes into each one of these.....

Oh no.....what bothers me is that my child can pick a topic, like the above mentioned, and if his board doesn't ask a question a certain way and have a certain type of guess, then show the calculated answer, then all of his work and research just earns him a bad score.

See , it isn't about learning..it is about how you present the scientific method, which is usually the same display year after year done by different kids. My son wanted to learn how a GPS works. He studied it, he used his dad's GPS, he created a Travel Bug and logged all the places it went on the earth, for 2 years, then made an awesome display board with measuring tapes and maps and let kids figure out how coordinates are tallied.... it was a hit, but not with the judges.

(my boys geocaching in Williams Arizona, a few years ago on vacation)

While he had parents and kids alike figuring out map locations and measuring them with 3 separate tapes, the judges did not approve of his display...there was no obvious layout of the scientific method.

SO now when my kids bring home a science fair memo I toss it aside and say, "If you want to do it, go ahead..." but I am done with the searching and preparing just to present something within the confines of the district judges. Maybe I am mean, but to me thinking outside of the box is great for kids.....

Our elementary school science fair is today. Guess whose kids do NOT have a display there. My poor, deprived children.

How to Have a Great Valentine's Day

Here are the instructions for a fabulous Valentine's Day.

1- Plan for Book Club to meet at your house. Once you get past the panic that you must host it on a special day, the ideas and excitement begin to flow. Reading Jane Eyre give you a valid excuse to break out the china and enjoy the moment. Great conversation about Jane Eyre (the covered book) and Atlas Shrugged makes you feel excited to be alive and free and have friends. Hubby is shopping with kids and going to Basketball....relax and relish in the adult conversation..

NEXT-
2- Have your husband and kids walk in at the end of book club carrying a balloon, roses, chocolate cake, a giant kiss, (I always wanted one of those!) and the new David Cook CD. These all score major points in the Valentine's Day score book, especially when we 'celebrated' the night before and went to dinner. Bonus. I felt like Phyllis, on The Office.


3- Declare you are exhausted from all the excitement of the day and plop on the couch with a quilt, by your Valentine's side where you both fall into a long winters nap. Naps. What a gift.

4- Be woken from your nap by a phone call from your cool cop little sister that is visiting from out of town and decide to join her and her husband for dinner. Yum. (plus this means you don't have to cook and clean!) Double Bonus!

5- Hang out, kick back, send kids to bed, and head up to your bed with your Valentine for a night of proving your love......well, you get the idea.

Valentine's Day. Awesome.

I hear you

I may not be fighting the foreclosure of my home, but I can relate to the frustration of feeling like nobody hears me. Please don't even get me started about the hidden agenda of the "Stimulus/Spending/In debt our Children Forever Bill".

I am typing the 9 principles of Glenn Becks "We Surround Them" unity group. There are MORE of us then the people pushing the laws and spending the money that they don't have... if you believe these too snap a photo of yourself and send it to ;

wesurroundthem@gmail.com

9 Principles
1. America is good.
2. I believe in God and he is the center of my life
3. I must always be a more honest person today than I was yesterday.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for ME.....I do not answer to them.....they answer to me.

The first time I read these, I was moved by the simplicity and integrity of each statement, but as I have re-read them over the last couple of days and typed them today I am moved by the profound nature of each principle. I am moved and comforted by these words. I feel strength in knowing hundreds of thousands of other people are standing, even 'raising there arm in a square of promise' - as said by Glenn, and committing to living these principles. I would love to explain more of my passion behind these principles, but for now I just want you-anyone-someone to add these ideals to what you think about in the next few days, and act on them.

That is more in line with the kind of CHANGE I was looking for.

I have no reason to complain, but....

I am going to do it anyway.


I really should be dancing with twinkly flowers falling from my heels as I go, but instead I am sulking around the house. Why, may you ask? Why?

I am not excatly sure. Perhaps it is the NEWS and the same stupid politics as usual and realizing they really DON'T CARE about US as a people at all....
perhaps it is the dreary weather and my need for sunshine and warm air (no, the tanning bed isn't cutting it)
perhaps it is the Sundays and the tricky kids (that's one way to describe them) that I chase around for hours and come home and crawl into bed with exhaustion over
perhaps it is the son who is still missing assignments
or the son in new braces that have to be cranked and I can't crank the device
perhaps it is the bill that came with the braces....and the fact that Ihave been paying debt FOREVER and feel like I will be paying it FOREVER more...
perhaps it is the number on the scale
or the fact that everyone else in my running group is way way better than I am
perhaps it is the messy house I don't even care to clean


on days like this I often resort to the following measures;





(actual cake I drove to the store and bought just for myself on a similar bad day...I know, don't say anything about the scale bit)

see....it is like nothing REALLY is wrong, but I kind of wish I could disappear for a few weeks and come back happy and bubbly and funny again.
Allow me this misery for a few more days...then , please join me in praying it will GO AWAY!

She's wierd like that....

I find the way boys relate to girls oh, so amusing...... take my 9 year old's observation, for instance....

As I was reading Jane Eyre he asked what I was reading, and I told him. He rolled his eyes and said "A girl in my class is reading that". My jealous parent side (what? what 9 year old girl is smart enough to understand this book...further more, making her parents better than I am) flashed into gear as I read to him an excerpt full of lengthy words and long descriptions and said..."are you sure she's reading THAT!!!!????"

He started laughing, "Yes mom," he said, "She is reading THAT. She's loves that kind of weird stuff......." pause....."She even plays the cello!"

Okay....that explains it, then, if shes plays the cello. Meanwhile, at my house, that same child is home "SICK" (quotations are the key here) watching Full House re-runs.

Oh yeah.....I am the worst mom ever.

I am also extremely superficial. I can't stand the cover of my book (pictured above) so I covered it with cute paper and stamped the title on it. Who wants to read a classic with a strange face on the cover? It kind of looks like Uma Thruman with constipation, and I just can't look at that every time I pick it up!!

Artsy Entry

I am posting my first little attempt at a 'twinchie'. A 2 inch little square of art or collage, as discovered in Somerset Studio magazine and since seen around the web and other places. This challenge was to create a twinchie in black and white- very hard because of my obsession with pink and light teal in artsy pieces. I am sad that the white/silvery stamping I did doesn't show up, but oh well.....lesson learned.

After finding a few pictures that I loved last night I decided to sleep on it, only to toss and turn all night thinking about what paper I had and what picture I should use. I finally decided to use a bit of a photo I had taken of David in Florence, Italy. My thought was also to pay tribute to the movie "Office Space" that me and my brother can never get enough of, while also giving a nod to my Facebook Flair (is anyone else so sad our bulletin boards disappeared?) and this is my humble little piece of art.

Then, while out soothing my symptoms of PMS by shopping for both clothing and crafting supplies I found this sparkly butterfly in the JoAnn's Crafts dollar bin that I HAD to have. Just like a tween girl I envisioned it dangling somewhere by my bedside. After bringing it home I dressed it up with a few of my ETC. embellishments that I have forever loved and not dared to use. Now I have a silly reminder of beauty and radiance waiting to greet me every morning. (And perhaps a husband questioning my sanity) Am I the only one who remembers what movie this line comes from, "Why yes, Darling, you look positively radiant!" (points to you if you know).

So here is to whimsical little pieces of paper and glitter that somehow make me feel young again and remind me to be creative. Best of all...it's calorie (and caffeine) free.