Curly Straight

I'm going to go see who myheritage.com says I look like now. I just took a photo of myself from photobooth on the Mac.

It's a website that tells you what movie stars you look like when you upload a photo onto the site, but really I just think it picks anyone with similar features, such as dimples. Because I really hope I don't look like Ronald Reagan, like it told me the other day. Seriously. He was one of the ones that came up.

Now that I'm in my pjs with crazy straw looking hair, I'm sure it will be someone equally as hot.

OK, here's who it told me. Some of them I have no idea who they are.

Jena Malone. Oooo, Kristin Davis (Charlotte from Sex and the City - I'll take that one!), Grace Kelly, Brooke Shields, Lisa Kudrow. This is working out MUCH better today. Anne Hathaway, Shiri Appleby (no idea who she is), Woooo! Sandra Bullock. I better quit while I'm ahead. Julia Roberts! I think the site is drinking and quite possibly beer goggling. Ashley Tisdale (don't know her either). This is way better!

I will go back with the other photo and post the names here in a second. I remember Bob Geldolf being on the list....

In the photo I honestly thought I looked much better in, the website told me I looked like these people.

It must start drinking later in the night and was in a very mean and ornery bad mood when I did it the other day.

Gabriel Byrne (male).
Neve Campbell.
Gemma Ward - what?! Blonde. I don't even know who she is.
Richard Stallman. Looks like a lumberjack.
Francesco Cura. He actually is a really beautiful model. I am assuming he's a model. I have never heard of him.
Victoria De Los Angeles. Who? None of these people look like each other. Or me, I'm hoping!
The aforementioned Ronald Reagan.
Ralph Nader. I'm not even kidding.

Waiting for my battery to die so I can walk away from the laptop. It sucks me in...

If brown eggs are local eggs, then where do white eggs come from and why are they cheaper?

Mama: TJ, around Valentine's Day, I am going to take you to a restaurant at night, with Ava and her Mama. And you will get dressed up and have a fancy dinner. Won't that be fun?

TJ: Do they have macaroni and cheese?

My little girl is getting so big.

Of couse, she's still little. So little that when she sits in my lap, and her legs are straight out to the side, just her two feet hang over my legs. And just barely.

And thank the Lord, she loves sitting in my lap. She's a cuddly girl.

She's speaking very well now, a ton of words.

My favorite, I would have to say is "ham" - every now and then when you ask her what she wants to eat, she says "ham." Which I find hilarious just because it's funny that a one-year-old asks for ham. I also absolutely love the way she pronounces it. Haaaahhm.

Excuse me. lovely, could you please pass the haaaahm.

It's really quite cute.

She doesn't like to be in the dark so she will lead you to the light switch, point to the ceiling and exclaim "Yight, yight!" until you turn on the light.

She also puts words together. "Goodnight, TJ. Goodnight, Mommy. Goodnight, Daddy."

Oh and can she dance. Put on Jingle Bells and she twirls and twirls and twirls around until it ends and then she asks for more. No More Pie from Music Together is another favorite. The first song from the Let's Make Music cd from Sesame Street Live causes excited yelling while looking up at the ceiling. "AAAaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!" as she is bending way back, looking straight up. Every time.

Her hair is still way longer in the back than the front, she wants nothing to do with ponytails or barrettes, the only addition she likes to it is when she wipes her sticky maple syrup hands in it. Thank goodness for No More Tangles. It works wonders for maple syrup in her thin little hair.

She has the softest, cutest, little hands. She grabs yours and leads you where she wants to go. "That way," she'll say and pull you in that direction. "Read book."

She chants "DVD, DVD, DVD" when she wants to watch one.

She still has quite an affinity for Elmo and often when she is crying, we will find her naked in the crib. The only thing that settles her down is Elmo anything, pajamas, shirts, pants, etc. It's no fun when they are in the wash. Sometimes she'll settle for Dora, or a giraffe, but Elmo is definitely the main man for her.

A fabulous part of the day is getting her in the morning, the hugs are spectacular. Her head on my shoulder makes everything right in the world. Sometimes a morning kiss, with an accompanying "mah" noise. Really, what better way to start off a day.

I love my Squee.

While watching TJ's soccer lessons, yesterday and chatting with the other parents, TJ comes up to me and gives me a big hug and kiss. It was very sweet. Then he decided to settle in, quite uncharacteristic of him. As he's sitting on my lap, I'm loving it, but he needs to go back with the other kids to play soccer so I send him out there.

He doesn't listen.

"TJ, I'm taking out my phone, I tell him. Do you want an X or a star?"

"A star! A star! No X!" he says.

"OK, then go back out there."

He hesitates.

I say "Five."

He runs out there before I can say "four, three, two, one" which would cause an X on a memo on my blackberry.

One of the other moms looks at me and says "You are like one of the moms they write about in Parents Magazine. I would have just yelled at my kids."

Hey, I'll take that.

Mama: TJ, we are about to go over the Newport Bridge.

TJ: Are we on it?

Mama: Yes, we are. See the water on both sides of us down there?

TJ: Praise God for the water!

Hanging out with Julia in Orlando. She is eating strawberries and I am sitting on the floor. We just decorated the poncho that we bought for Disney for the rest of the week. She scribbled on it in her very cute style and I drew flowers, clouds and wrote “no rain” on it. Attempted to draw a duck but pretty sure it looks just like a platypus.

It rained at Disney today and the forecast does not look good for the rest of the week. Grrrr. Missing a big blizzard at home, school already canceled for tomorrow. At least it is not snowing here, but I wanted to feel some sun on my face. Nothing compares to that delicious feeling of a warm face from the sun’s glow and I was excited to come here for that.

Staying at a cool place. It’s kind of old on the outside, but it’s not run down and the grounds are very lush. Two bedrooms, two baths, the master having a giant Jacuzzi tub. Outside of the glass door overlooking a pond are three or four crazy looking ducks right now, which are keeping Julia entertained. Also at least four stray cats, one very mangy and kind of beat up. At one point, I looked out and saw him on the patio and thought he was dead. He wasn’t though. Phew.

Flight was relatively uneventful yesterday. Got lucky and the one empty seat ended up in front of us so the guy who was next to me moved into it so Julia could have her own seat. Used every single trick that I had in my bag to keep her entertained, including dvds, crayons, markers, poker chips, books, and a Tupperware container of pasta. She loved it all. Had no interest whatsoever in sleeping with me, though.

Auntie KK just left to head home. Julia is speaking with her on the phone right now,. She’s holding up the phone to Oscar the Grouch that is on my shirt, now she is holding the phone up to the laptop. Now she is pretending to chomp on the apple that’s on the front of the MacBook.

It’s fun having her all to myself and not having the distractions of home.

Just put her to bed, Mickey tires you out.

Parked at Pluto, row 12.

Walked in, purchased tickets. Good deal for military, $99 for 4 days! KK is a Florida resident, she could have received the same deal and bought it, rather than the $79 for one day. Turns out she is not going to use it again, so didn't really matter.

They take your fingerprint on the way in. So Big Brother. Big Mickey?

After the initial crowds of the monorail, and after stopping for a much needed latte for me and grapes for Julia, we headed away from the crowds and straight for Fantasy Land, where we took Julia, almost 2 years old, on the Pooh Bear ride, watched her play in Pooh's house, went on It's a Small World, and saw Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore walking around.

The look of sheer excitement and concentration as Julia saw them from afar was just precious. We'll see them again in the morning at breakfast, with TJ and John.

Had lunch at Plaza (?), turns out the waiter is from West Warwick, Rhode Island. It IS a small world, after all.

After we ate lunch , we wanted to go to one more ride or attraction, but weather was so wet. Luckily it was time for a street party and Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and some others were performing songs and dancing right on Main Street.

We enjoyed that and headed out.

I don't like possums, or rats or mice or really anything with a long skinny tail that exceeds the length of its body.

As I was writing the last blog entry, a big ass possum was loping by my patio outside.

I'm inside now and planning to stay here.

After being up and at a character breakfast at 8:45 am, Epcot all day, then dinner and back at the hotel at 8:30, both kids went to bed without a fuss. Actually TJ fell alseep in the restaurant and Julia was close behind.

Freezing cold today, especially this morning.

None of us were really dressed for it. We would have had to have on turtlenecks, sweaters, pants, winter jackets and snow boots, plus mittens and hats to stay warm. I am not even kidding.

Everyone is all up in arms about this nonsense, the weather here in not-so-sunny Florida.

Julia had a really fun day. She likes Epcot. She did really well on the rides, she thought the Nemo one was super cool.

Some of her high points at Epcot were running away from us and also going under the metal barriers and ropes and coming back again. Oh and the stroller parking! She thinks that is the best thing ever. RIDE!! She yells, and thinks she can just have her pick of other people's strollers to play with. When we exited the Dinosaur ride, she said "Riiiiide, Riiiiide" and found our red double stroller really quickly in the line of at least thirty strollers.

We spent a good chunk of time waiting in line for autographs from the "big" characters, they were all in one room, so we met them all. It was super cool to see Julia dancing with Goofy and giving Donald Duck a smooch and hugging Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

TJ was loving getting autographs from them, although he did become a little obsessed with finding Daisy Duck, after I told him we were not stopping to get her autograph in a big line in the shade. Too cold for this Mama. "DAISYYYYYYYYYYYYY, WHERE ARE YOU???" he would just start yelling out at random times. "I bet she died." he decides at one point. I tell him I would bet him one million dollars that she is not dead.

After the character breakfast (Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatter, Pooh Bear and Tigger), we head over to Epcot on the monorail and saw Spaceship Earth (the ride inside of the iconic big giant silver ball); Universe of Energy (Ellen Degeneres and dinosaurs - 45 minutes long); Seas with Nemo and Friends; Turtle Talk with Crush.Didn't really do the countries, but we did eat sushi in Japan.

TJ was obsessed with this really cool outdoor train display. He wouldn't leave it for about an hour.

Cold, rainy, wet loooong day today. Soaked down to the bone.

We had a "magical moment" when the parking guy at Animal Kingdom - the guy hooked us up with front row parking.

Nemo show was definitely cool at Animal Kingdom. I think it was the same one as the Broadway one.

Safari was a good adventure, having that jeep driving job would be a good job for a bad driver to have...Saw a bunch of animals and nature, including birds perching on the top of hippo's backs as the hippos were submerged in the water; a giraffe, rhinos, pink flamingos, ostriches and their eggs, and termite mounds.

TJ's favorite part was "all the animals" - which I have to pretty much agree with.

Also saw the Bugs Life "4-D" movie, which added feel to the movie, which means during it, you felt the bugs poison you with their venom, smelled a stink bug's stink and at the end, you felt a cockroach "run" underneath your chair and bump your butt. Funny.

We had big plans to go back to Disney. Well, I did at least, I wanted them to see the parade. Also had to pick up Julia's pink mouse ears that were getting personalized. When we got there, it was really just downpouring.

Got the ears, got some candy, really good candy. Cheesecake fudge - yum and a caramel pecan round chocolate sweet and lollipops for the kids and sour somethings for John.

When we were waiting and debating about watching parade, Julia and TJ were in the red double stroller, both eating big round swirled lollipops.

When I peeked at Julia, I was about to take a bite of the fudge. She spotted it, threw down her lollipop, yelled "MINE" and managed to commandeer my fudge.

Why does my desk never ever get completely cleared off?

There's always some paper floating around.

May YOU be my Valentine?

Our trashcan and our recycling bags are in a little closet in the kitchen. Usually.

Right now for some strange reason, the trash can is in front of the oven.

So much trash today because Julia and TJ are opening bandaids as a form of entertainment and I have to throw away the wrappers and they are drinking juice bags and I have to throw away the empties and I finished the rest of the mozzarella cheese and had to throw away the bag and I put the coffee into another container so I had to throw away the original container.

Every single time I go to throw something away this morning, I open the closet to put it where the trash usually is. Every. Single. Time.

I just heard TJ say this to his daddy. It's what I say to TJ.

TJ: Daddy, there's something on your cheek.

Daddy: What is it?

TJ: A kiss.

Julia, who is not quite two years old yet, had a very busy morning. In between play dough and eating oatmeal and putting band aids on places that don't need band aids, Julia sat on the potty. And used it!

We celebrated, said "bye bye poop" and flushed. Then clapped. She loves being applauded.

Bought a pair of Vibrams the other day, the crazy toe shoes that are supposed to emulate barefoot walking and running, while still protecting the bottom of the foot. The whole premise is that when the running craze started in the 70's, that the shoe companies started to push heel support, which Vibrams is telling us we don't really need and actually leads to foot problems.

Well, my 40-year-old feet are already all kinds of crazy to begin with and sometimes so is my back and neck so I am certainly open to trying them.

The kid in the store didn't know much about them - so I kind of figured out my way through it, despite his help. I almost told him to stop texting and pay attention to me, now that I think about it, I'm surprised I didn't.

So they sat in their tiny little box until today. I am wearing them right now, breaking them in around the house. That is what the kid told me to do. I happened to run into someone I know buying a second pair there, so I got more information from him, like to expect sore calves because you are using different muscles.

They feel funny, like flippers, sort of. And parts of them may dig into my feet, namely on top of the left on and the heel on the right on.

People swear by them so I am going to try and break them in and take it from there.

We're all sick, every one of us.

The kids do this at random times throughout the day.

TJ: Echo!

Julia: Echo!

TJ: Echo! Echo! Echo!

Julia: Echo! Echo! Echo!

Making a practice cake for Julia's 2nd bday party.

It's not as easy as one would think. Precision handling is required, just to get the cake out of the pan. I already cracked the eyes. He looks like Hungover Elmo.

It did say on the Wilton website to cut off the center part of the bottom of the cake, which I ignored. I'll do it tomorrow or when I make the real one.

Now I am going to mix the frosting with the colors. But first I have to figure out where to do it, I guess I have to put it on the cake board and decorate it on that. Cake board. Who knew? Thank goodness the lady in Michael's told me what to buy or I would have been totally lost.

Mixing the frosting with the coloring is fun, except for the red is not red, it's just pink. I added orange and it's looking like we are going to have salmon colored Elmo.

The food coloring is all over my hands and quite possibly my teeth, because those little buggers are hard to get open.

It is hard to get the frosting into the bag correctly. Not only do you have to do some crazy stuff with a plastic coupler, you are not supposed to put too much frosting into the bag. I just tried to make some practice stars on Elmo and I know why. The frosting comes out of the top.

Not sure if I'm cut out for this cake making business, but will definitely follow through with the cake and hopefully the birthday girl will appreciate the salmon colored, hungover Elmo cake. Hey, it's made with love.

Right now there is entirely too much frosting in this house.

Made the Elmo cake last night then went to bed and left it in the pan without putting it on the cooling rack. Now I realize that wasn't the best idea. because this morning I am trying to dump him out and half his face is still in the pan right now. The entire right side of his face.

I also need corn syrup to thin out the black frosting. What the heck!

I wonder if it's too late to just buy a damn Elmo cake.

But I feel as though I am on a mission and need to do it.

My hair is so mighty that no ordinary barrette can tame it.

The Elmo cake was a hit.

It was beautiful in its own way. Julia said "Elmo Cake!" with excitement when she saw it, which made it all worth the effort.

My little Squee is 2 years old tomorrow!

My brother gave Julia a new nickname at her family birthday party.

May I present to you: the newest 2-year-old in town, Lady Yaya.

TJ: Mama, you haven't bought me a scooter in a long time.

Mama: Well, you don't even ride your bike now. I don't know if we want to buy you something else.

TJ: I'll ride it today.

Mama: OK, I'll go down to the track with you or Daddy will. One of us will go with you and one of us will stay with Julia so she can take a nap.

TJ: Mama, you go and Daddy, you stay home and clean the house.

"You are my flower" is a dancing song that Julia and I enjoy very much. I heard it during East Side Music Together for the first time and bought the cd - by Elizabeth Mitchell immediately. It's a beautiful song.

Seems as though she may not be the original writer, if my google sleuthing skills are up to speed. I searched for the words to You Are My Flower and Flatt and Scruggs was the most popular hit.

The song we love is number 34 on www.lala.com - search for Elizabeth Mitchell.

Lyrics:

The grass is just as green
The sky is just as blue
The day is just as bright
The birds are singing too

You are my flower
That's blooming in the mountain for me
You are my flower
That's blooming there for me

The air is just as pure
The sunlight just as clean
And nature seems to say
It’s all for you and me

You are my flower
That's blooming in the mountain for me
You are my flower
That's blooming there for me

So wear a happy smile
And life will be worthwhile
Forget the tears
And don't forget to smile
You are my flower
That's blooming in the mountain for me
You are my flower
That's blooming there for me

When summertime is past
And snow begins to fall
Just sing this song And say to one and all

You are my flower
That's blooming in the mountain for me
You are my flower
That's blooming there for me

I just sorted my laundry loads by fuzzy and not fuzzy.

When we were in the Dominican Republic in August, I had packed a cute little blue silk bag with a flower on it with my earrings.

The cute little blue silk bag with a flower on it never made it home to Rhode Island.

I am so bummed about it still, I am still convinced whenever I pull out a suitcase or a travel bag that the cute little blue silk bag with a flower on it is going to pop up again.

I need to pray to St Anthony for it to materialize once again. Even now, I am convinced that it will.

I have avoided buying new earrings because a.) it had all my cutest ones in there and b.) it is going to show up and c.) it took me a long time to accumulate such a good collection of sterling silver earrings. I don't buy anything super expensive yet, but I do like them to at least be sterling silver.

Tonight I have decided I can't take it any longer and need to replace them.

Well, hellooooo Etsy.com!

I need to take it slow, but my first search of "sterling silver earrings" had me purchasing immediately. "rainy skies fall earrings - sky blue and silver polka dot glass hangs off handmade Argentium sterling silver earwires."

Sky blue and silver polka dots!

Of course I must have those.

And I place the order and I receive this email minutes lter.

Thank you for your purchase. I will create your earrings tomorrow and
ship them out on Thurs. You should receive them early to mid next
week. I hope you enjoy your new earrings and have a wonderfully warm
and cozy winter.

She's creating them!!! For me! Wheeeeee! How special and exciting is that!

C'mon post officer, bring me my mail!!! I cannot wait.

I create my own recipes.

And then I never make the recipe again, because I forget what was in it, or even that the dish existed.

Tonight I made this butternut squash soup and I'm writing it down so I can make it again.

Butternut Squash Soup

ingredients (you can make up your own depending on what's around, that's what I do):
green onions, olive oil, beef broth, a yellow pepper and a red pepper (the vegetable, not the spice), potatoes, kosher salt, whole milk, bacon

Chop up the green onions thrown into a big pot with some olive oil

throw in the chopped up butternut squash and some beef broth, bring that to a boil and let it simmer until the squash gets soft.

Mush that all up together, in the blender or use a mixer. Have your 4-year-old son help you, it's good for kids to learn how to be creative in the kitchen. Put it back to simmer. Add some whole milk to make it creamy.

In the meantime, you have chopped up some vegetables. Your 4-year-old son helped chop the yellow peppers and surprised you at what a great job he did!

Take the chopped up yellow pepper and a red chopped up pepper and some chopped up onions and some peeled chopped up potato and put those into a baking dish with olive oil and kosher salt and roast those veggies for about 45 minutes.

Take the leftover chicken from that you created for the salad with chicken the other day and chop that up and ask your 4-year-old son if you should put it in with the simmering broth or with the roasting veggies. Listen to his advice and put it in with the soup.

Take the veggies and add them to the simmering broth.

That's it.

Oh! I almost forgot a very yummy part!

Put some bacon onto a plate and cook it in the microwave for a long time, until it's crispy. Throw the bacon grease out, crumble or cut up the bacon and add it to the top of the soup once it's in the bowls. Mmmmm mmm!

So easy, good for you, and simply delicious!

Does anyone really use the dry french onion soup mix to make soup with? The kind that you mix with sour cream for dip?

Just saying.

Silver earrings with purple hand felted beads.

Fuzzy, purple balls on earrings.

Oh my.

I am sharing an orange with Julia, as I wait for her broccoli to heat in the microwave.

I set the broccoli in front of her.

Julia: More orange.

Mama: You want more orange?

Julia: Yes.

She gets more orange.

Surprise, surprise, she's wearing an Elmo shirt.

Julia, reaching for napkin: Wash Elmo.

Mama: You want to wash Elmo?

Julia, wiping off Elmo with the napkin: Yes.

We are sitting in Dunkin' Donuts before soccer starts.

TJ points at a man and whispers to me: Look at him

Mama: I see him, what about him?

TJ whispers: He has a moustache!

Mama: Oh, he does have a moustache.

TJ, with wide eyes: Do you hate people with moustaches?

Mama: No. Do you?

TJ: No, I like them.

I can't believe I didn't think of this until right now.

Rainy days. Jazz.

Grooveshark + Miles Davis = just what is needed right now.

Nothing like a yoga class taught with that Rhode Island accent.

Dear Potato Chips,

Why do you have to be so delicious and tasty and so bad for me? Why oh why?

Have been fighting Julia since Day One on putting cute little additions into her hair. She always, always pulls them out. Barrettes, ribbons, elastics, pom poms, she has hundreds of them. Cute ones too. So cute that sometimes her mom may even borrow one.

I have tried to trick her by putting two into her hair and pulling out one when she complains, but she figures it out and pulls the decoy out immediately.

Her hair is so much longer in the back than in the front, she really needs a ponytail. Plus she often insists on wearing her brother's hand me down shirts (Elmo, Cookie Monster, Superman), although she usually makes the girl statement with the pink shoes. I thought the hair accessories would really add a nice touch to the girly factor.

I was met with such resistance. Not her thing, I figured, but I kept on trying.

Today, she saw the light.

She sported a ponytail all day long at the gym and when the pink elastic with the big pink plastic heart fell out on it's own, she handed it to me and said "help Mommy" - her way of asking me to put it back in.

This is going to be fun.

When I hear Julia making noise in the morning, after she stands up in her crib and reaches up her arms to me, she tells me the first thing she sees, almost always with a smile. Sometimes it's "shirt", sometimes "dog" or "cat" depending on what's happening.

Today it was “Head! Hair! Eyes! Mouth!” as she saw me and pointed at these various things of mine.

Then “coat” hanging on the chair in the dining room.

When she sees TJ, she gets even happier “TJ!” she exclaims with love.

Getting ready to go to play the other night. Walk downstairs and TJ says to me "are you going to a wedding?"

I guess I don't dress up too much.

Rick's Roadhouse in Providence has it figured out.

We stopped there today after church and noticed other families with kids in there, which is always a good indication that our kids will be welcome and get crayons and cups with lids, the all-important macaroni and cheese, etc. By the time we had left, there had been at least six other families in and out, all with kids. No one came in sans children.

They have a bunch of televisions in there and the biggest one of them was playing the movie, The Incredible Mr Limpet. We asked if they always play kid movies on Sundays and the server said they did. There's not a set schedule or anything, but they usually play something kid friendly. Last week it was The Muppet Movie.

Good beers on draft, too. The ribs were good, a little dry, but the sauces were yummy. Kids meals have all the normal selections, and come with ice cream. The mac and cheese looked nice and creamy and delicious, as did the garlic mashed potatoes that TJ had as a side. Julia's french fries that I commandeered were good, tasted homemade although her quesedilla looked like it needed a little more love. I didn't try it, so I can't say for sure.

All in all, a good family place to go on a Sunday.

I'm not so sure my new skinny jeans make me feel skinny.