The New Look

As you may have noticed, I've changed things around on the blog.... and if you didn't notice, I guess the old layout was crappy anyway.  I like the new layout because this blog has nothing to do with food and the background is silverware.  Perfect!

C's Haircut

C got her hair cut at Cut Color Style with Beth yesterday and it was great!  Beth was really nice and treated C like a big girl, which she loved.  C knew that she wanted it cut short and Beth took the time to ask her if it was short enough for her (which it wasn't) and C was able to have a lot of input into her cut.

Before picture:

Not the best picture, but you get the idea: long hair.  Don't judge me for being at McDonald's, she's drinking milk.

After picture:

She's thrilled!

She said, "Dad isn't going to know who I am!"  He did recognize her, so it was fine.  I love her hair, but most importantly, she loves her hair.

I Swear This Is A True Story

This morning I took the kids to the park down the street.  This is so bizarre, but it's the first time that I've taken them to this park by myself, D has always gone with us.  Anyway, I take them down there and there are five other moms with bunches of kids, two dads with some kids, and a grandma with a kid that looked way to old for her to be treating him like a toddler and holding him on the slide.  No one talked to me, so I immediately have a chip on my shoulder that will no doubt cloud my judgement for the rest of this post.... be forewarned.

One of the moms had four kids with her, two of them were strapped into a stroller the whole time and she didn't let them out to play... and they were fine with it.  Were they doped up on Benadryl?  Perhaps.  She was there with two other moms that were sisters- I think- and had way too many kids between the two of them.

One dad had dreads and was not spoken to- much like myself.  He seemed nice.

The other dad looked wise beyond his years with salt and pepper hair and leather Teva's, but when I heard him talk I knew that he was not, in fact, wise.

The other two moms were loud mouths (I'll call them loud mom #1 and 2 from here on), they liked to hear themselves talk (but not to me).

Now to the good stuff.  The loud mouths and the wise dad had a lot to talk about and it made for some really good listening.  The first thing I learned about loud mom #1 was that she was conceived because her mom's diaphragm had so many holes in it it could have been a colander.  Can you imagine!?  Oh oh oh, and that there hasn't been a planned pregnancy in her family for generations.  !!!! 

At this point I took out my phone and started taking notes. 

Loud mom #2 said that her mom was on birth control when she was conceived and the doctor told her to abort the pregnancy- obviously she didn't.   She added that in, just in case they didn't know that she was actually alive.  #2 takes pride in the fact that she's had three planned pregnancies.  Wise dad felt this would be the perfect time to chime in with the info that his son was conceived in a hot tub in Hilton Head, which could be the reason that he doesn't like to swim...?  Eeew.  They went on to talk about how True Blood is like soft porn, except not really soft, so it's just porn.

C and G decided to run to the other end of the park so I had to walk away, but I did keep hearing snippets of conversation such as "mother in law", "nipple shield", and some talk about the parade on Monday. 

I have to ask, is this normal conversations for neighbors that see each other at the park?  We're new to the whole neighborhood thing, where we moved from people didn't really talk to each other very much and there weren't a lot of kids that were C and G's age, and no park within walking distance.  This is new to me, but I really didn't imagine talking about birth control and porn.  It was great entertainment, though!  I think I'll go again tomorrow.

Do you think if they do talk to me and we become friends and they read this someday that they'll be mad?  I guess I should apologize in advance to them.  Sorry.

Mustang, Baby!

This weekend was Memorial Day and I finally got to go to the governor's wreath laying ceremony with D.  The ceremony honors all of the men and women from Ohio who have lost their lives in the war since last Memorial Day.  This is something he's participated in as a member of the military for many years but this year was the first time that I was able to go.  He wasn't there in any official capacity, so it was nice to be able to sit together and enjoy/be sad together.  The families of the fallen are there and they do a really nice job honoring them and their loved one that has passed. 

Other than that, the weekend was H O T.  I'm not complaining, oh no, I welcome the burns on my hands from trying to buckle the kids into their scalding hot car seats.  What I have a problem with is that our air conditioning stopped working.  Booooo!  This actually happened a few weeks ago and we told our landpeople (a term I prefer over landlords, they don't own me) and they gave us the "oh yeah we'll call someone but it'll probably be closer to the first of the month, blah blah blaaaah", and we were okay with that at the time because it was about 60 degrees.  Yesterday it was 94.  In my house.  At 10:30 pm.  Not okay anymore.  Someone is coming over tomorrow to look at it, and by "look at it" I hope they mean sprinkle it with magic fairy dust so it blows cold air into my face.  Probably not though.  We'll see.

Now, back to weekend activities... the Memorial Day parade was great!  Marching bands, lots and lots of veterans, Uncle Sam on a unicycle- C said "I think he lost his focus."  I agree 100%.  My FAVORITE part of the parade though was the group of people that we sat next to.  Ohh.M.G.  Rather than being really into the whole Memorial Day theme, they were really into the cars that were in the parade.  Like every time a mustang drove by they would all do this weird "yeah- mustanggggg baby!" grunt/cheer thing.  So strange.  My brother J was sitting the closest to them and this one woman in their group kept getting really really close to him.  At one point she had her hand about an inch from his face, D had a great time watching him try not to get a hand or ass shoved in his face.  Good times!  After the parade was over and we were walking home I saw them cross a busy four lane road and not hold any of their kids hands, the kids were maybe three and four years old.  Really quality people.

Big news- tomorrow C is getting her hair cut, and she wants it cut short, "not like a man"- her words, but shorter than it's ever been before.  This should be an adventure!  I'm taking her to the tree house in heaven, she'll love it!  Pictures to follow.

Is It Fall? No?

Well, it's here.  Summer break.  Kids everywhere are taking stock of their bathing suits and making sure their bike tires and hula hoops are ready to go (I live in 1988).  Meanwhile I've been teetering on the verge of excitement and dread in anticipation of today.  Dread is a strong word.  I don't dread having C and G at home all day...every...day.  It's just that C can tend to be a touch emo at times and it's hard for me to deal with without having that 2.5 hour break every day.  She was in a terrible mood when I picked her up from school today.  They said they gave them chocolate milk and ice cream, I think this was her "crash".  This is me trying to get her to take a picture by her cubby.

She was whining someting like "noooo picturesssssss Mommmmyyyyyyyy"

I was threatening her that I would make her take a nap when she got home, I'm certain that helped her whiny mood.  Other parents were getting teary eyed that their little one was going to kindergarten in the fall and I was all "Is it fall yet?"  What a great start to the summer.  Here's hoping day 2 is better.