Who is this child? Where is my daughter?

First the pants, then she comes home and gets all her homework done in 20 minutes.



*cue mysterious music*



She also voluntarily wore more pants today. I'm starting to get freaked out here folks!



Last night I was in bed at like 8:30. I was sitting here with the family and Tony was watching some dude movie. I just got so tired, I went to bed and crashed. I didn't turn the lights off or take my clothes off or anything. Jonny came in later yelling for me, and it scared the shit out of me. I ended up yelling at him, and Tony put the kids to bed. He had to clean the kitchen and everything. He did it though. Ran the dishwasher and everything.



Yesterday, like I mentioned in my last post, I am starting to learn Photoshop. My friend Christina, the all might wise one when it comes to Photoshop helped me a ton. I learned more in one day from her than I have ever gleaned from books or videos or tutorials. She really dumbed it down for me and I appreciated it so much. Like it was "Now look on you right, see that button thingy. Push it" Thank you Christina. Then I remembered Pioneer Woman http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ had tutorials, and I hoped that with the knowledge C gave me, I might be able to understand better, and I did! I downloaded some of her actions, and tried some of her techniques. She also gives really good descriptions on how to use your camera. I can't wait to play with settings now on my new fangly camera. I've had it for months now, and it's pretty much stayed on auto mode the whole time.



So, I present to you my first official Photoshopped picture! (Those framed ones don't count!)

This is the original. It's a peacock feather, and I took it at the Portland Saturday Market. In my head I envisioned something much more decadent than what I actually got.

So with some futzing I was able to get more of what I envisioned when I first took the picture.
There you have it. Nothing drastic, but it's prettier by far, and I did it in PHOTOSHOP people. Something that I've had forever, and was too scared to use. I don't know what I did to it to be honest, as I did a bunch of different things, lost it all once, and restarted.

Did you see a pig fly by today?

What about the sun? Did the sun come up on the other side? I guess we can't check to see if hell has frozen over.

Why do I ask?

Well, let me tell you! Aislinn. Aislinn wore PANTS today. Real pants, with buttons! and zippers!

Oh and I learned to add frames to pictures in Photoshop! There went another pig! My friend Christina got tired of me whining about it, and finally broke down and showed me what to do. I knew she'd break eventually! haha! The first things I learned in Photoshop. I'm so happy.

Anyway, as you can see, the pants are big, but I don't care. I will take it! She looked SO cute when she left for school. The trick was to get her to try on jeans right away. After that, everything felt good! She was so afraid that I'd make her buy jeans, that she was more open minded about other kinds of pants. She also got two tunics with LEGGINGS. I know! LEGGINGS!!!!! She's two years behind that style trend, but hey whatever. THEY'RE NOT GAUCHOS that's good enough for me! She looked SO cute in the jeans she tried on. I could totally tell that she was digging the look of the jeans, but she couldn't resign herself to the feel. Honestly, I think we are going to have a bona fide jean wearer next year.

Can I just say how much I HATE little girls clothes? Aislinn is 8. She is no bigger than other 8 year olds. She isn't fat, or even chubby. But they make clothes for girls her age ridiculously tight. See her Tshirt? That tshirt is a freaking 14/16 the biggest size in girls clothing! The next option is going to be xs in the junior section! Those pants are a 12. She could have gotten away with a 10, but, that only leaves her with one more size until again, she's moving onto the juniors section. The 14/16 fits perfectly on her. I just can't get over it. Ijust can't believe we're supposed to put our 8 yr olds in skin tight clothing. The jeans? Don't even get me started. Skirts so short a child could never bend over. What is WRONG with the world?

Anyway, she felt good when she went to school. I am happy!

Early morning ramblings

If you have an old mattress, I highly recommend a memory foam mattress topper/pad doohicky. Tony and I have batted back and forth on getting one for awhile now and I had the opportunity to try one in Portland for myself, and I knew we had to get one.

We got one last night, and it was heavenly. I didn't wake up once laying next to Tony. We've been having a hard time sleeping in the same bed lately. We're constantly waking one another. That didn't seem to happen last night. Who would have thought those measly two inches of foam would have made such a difference?

I forgot to mention yesterday that we put a contract on the townhome. I have to run a check by there later for "earnest" money whatever the hell that means. $100 and it will applied toward whatever we have to pay in the end. We're going to close at the end of October. We will be home owners O.M.G. The only thing that could go wrong at this point is if the appraisal comes back super low or inspecitions come back with something wrong. This IS an old townhome. Built in the 70's so we'll see.

I'm enjoying having my Jonny home to myself. He's SUCH a good boy. Yesterday, while we were stuck at the realtor office, he was so good, even the guy said so right before we left. Sure he was bored, and he whined, but we were there for 2 hours, and he hadn't had breakfast. He's been hanging out with me, and we have fun. He likes being at home to do the things he wants to do without Aislinn bothering him. He's kind of a loner, and has no problems sitting with the TV off, making long train tracks on the floor, or playing Mario Kart by himself. We also have to go up to my room and snuggle in my bed at least once a day. I love it!

Today is going to be just a chill day. Actually this whole weekend will be like that with the rain. I have a few small errands to run, and I have to buy some groceries. Our Harris Teeter gave out $20 off coupons. I don't know WHY, but I'll take it! $50 worth of groceries for $30? Sign me up baby.

So I changed my mind!

No Ipod touch for me. I just couldn't bring myself to buy it.

We did get a new memory foam pad for our bed, and I got a cool laptop cooler for my lap, since my laptop gets so warm and makes me sweaty, and we also got the Dr. Skip DVD/CD fixer. Basically all the stuff we say we want to get, but are too cheap to get.

Scary, black man

I've noticed people saying that Obama is just "scary" people who are usually Democrats. They say things like "I can't vote for him, he SCARES me" This is everywhere, this mentality. Honestly, I can't help but think the only thing "scary" about him to these people is that he's black. I hate to make that assumption, but I just don't get the"scary" reference. Maybe it's the knuckle touch he did with Michelle? Maybe they took that as a gang sign? I don't know, but to read otherwise normal people call a grown man "scary" baffles me. Was he my first choice? No, am I scared of him? No. I just think it goes to show that no matter how progressive people see themselves, they still want to the old white guy to be running thangs.

This morning I don't know what I did, but I overslept. I woke up at 7:33 and by the time Aislinn and I made it downstairs the bus was going down the street. First week of school. On top of that, I didn't sleep well last night. I was up late watching Sarah Palin's speech (I strained my eyes from rolling them so much) watched the news to get info on our Hurricane Hannah, which had me freaked out enough, but then we have Ike and Josephine right behind her. Then, because I couldn't go to bed with visions of Hannah and Palin dancin' in my head, I watched some of Joe Biden's speech since I had missed it.

I purposely didn't watch it when it happened because I am still testing myself on what I REALLY believe in. I've been doing this for four years now. Trying to decipher if I vote D because I'm trying to be cool, or because I feel strongly about it. Last night I found it's because I DO believe in it. I sat to watch Palin's speech and wanted to hurl all over the couch watching her. I will say though, she was a breath of fresh air around those dusty old farts. She was a charismatic speaker, and had the most adorable kids. Too bad she wants to set us ladies back about fifty years.

Anyway, today I have a headache from lack of sleep. I could just lay down right now and pass out. We're going out to get my anniversary present today. I am doing something I swore I'd NEVER EVER do. I'm... getting an Ipod. I know! Iknow! I was suckered in by my friend's Ipod Touch! It's got like everything on it and it can surf the web! I've been drooling over one for weeks now, and Tony has to leave tomorrow because of Hurricane Hannah, so he'll be gone for our anniversary. He said he was going to get my present tonight if he could, and I totally guessed what it was. I really don't NEED a Touch, but he said that's what makes it a good present. It's something totally frivolous. I may get there though and decide against it. We'll see.

Big sisters unite

This morning as I was putting away Aislinn's folder I noticed that she had drawn on it. The school provides a very sturdy folder that is supposed to last the whole year. She had hers half the year last year, and it was a mess by the end of the school year. I said something like "Oh Aisy, you drew on your folder already?" and she said "No!" and looked at it and started to cry. "Jooonnnyy" she wailed and burst into tears.

I got annoyed and told her to just erase it at school since it was pencil. I kinda chewed her butt a bit about it just because, well it was early and that's now how I really want to start my day you know? She sat there sniffing, and whimpering while I got the folder together, and put away. I looked over, and told her to come here. I gave her a hug and said "It must stink having a little brother who touches your things and messes up your stuff" I felt her little shoulders sag in relief that I finally got why it was so upsetting. I told her I had two little sisters that were always causing me trouble, so I understood. She said "That must be WORSE than having a little brother, girls whine more" God, she makes me laugh.

We hugged and I told her a few horrible sister stories to make her feel better about her brother writing in her folder. She was all smiles when she went to school, and right when she was runningo out the door she said "Bye mom, I love you and thank you"

What a sweetheart she can be sometimes.

It's like Christmas time for adults

Today is the first day of school! Although it sucked getting up early, and I'm already tired, I have gotten a TON of stuff done today. I mean it's 12:30 and I've already had two meals! I've also done about three hours of school work. I had a nice quiet morning, as Jonny slept in. I had about a good two hour stretch where I sat outside, and did school work and drank coffee. I have also made a list for grocery shopping, and the dishes have been done since 8:30 this morning. Ah, routine is a wonderful thing.

I squeezed in another hour of schoolwork after Jonny got up and I had lunch, but it was peppered with interuptions. No wonder I had such a hard time this summer. I didn't want to SAY that's why I wasn't getting stuff done, but having that two hour break, fresh from a decen nights sleep made me realize that it was a lot harder with the kids home than I was letting myself believe. I am also going to try and go to the library in the evening at least once a week to do some work.

Aislinn did well. She even wore her tennis shoes from LAST YEAR. I know right? She's so grown up. They actually fit her feet properly! She also said she'd like to go to Target after school (we'll hit payless too) to try on a "new style" Sniff sniff. My baby girl is all grown up. Last year I had to buy her the same shoes over and over.

We had one minor incident over a hole in her sock. She almost cried, but we got it fixed quickly with a new sock. She was very excited about going to school, she was ready early, and was waiting at the bus stop before anyone else was there.

Yesterday I decided to read through my blog. Man, I bitch about Tony a LOT. I was actually kind of embarrassed. I do that though because it's better to bitch here than fight all.the.time. In the end though, we love each other very much, and we get along great, and I don't want to be with anyone else.

Today, Jonny is enjoying his Mommy time again. He's actually mopping my floor. I got it a little wet and he's having fun, and cleaning my floor at the same time.