I've been banned!

As many of you know, I am participating in the 365 photo a day project.  That means that everyday I pick up my camera and look for something to photograph. 

Most days I know exactly what I am going to photograph, but sometimes the unexpected catches my attention.

Last week I had one of those days.  As I was putting laundry away in Kate's room  I noticed a To-Do-List pinned neatly to her bulletin board.

Kate is only 10, but she has been writing Do-To-List since she learned how to write.  I love this about her.  I also love reading her list and seeing what she has deemed important enough to write down.

So here we have her latest To-Do's:

Pretty standard stuff for a 10 year old.  

Make Bed

Clean room

Organize

Do homework

"Change Door Theme"

When I read "change door theme" I burst our laughing.  

If you are confused by what this means let me explain.  Kate sticks stuff on her bedroom door. I think her last "theme" was items most people would throw away because her door was littered with fortunes from fortunes cookies, her BFF's campaign sticker, candy wrappers, the pull off lid to a tiny Ben and Jerry's ice cream container.  I think you get the picture.

I never realized that the crap, I mean treasured items she puts on her door had a theme.  I find that kind of charming.

Later that day while the girls were home I was uploading my pictures and Kate saw a snap shot of her To Do List.  She said, "Hey.......are you going to blog about that?"  That has become a standard question around here.

So I told her how I thought it was really adorable that she was going to change the "theme" of her door and that I wanted to take a picture of her list so that I would always remember this charming part of her personality.

She thought about it for a few minutes and then walked away.  About an hour later she yelled from her bedroom and asked me to come down and check out her new door theme.

This is what a found!

Just in case you can't read the last image it says: Photos not allowed either!

Hmmmm, something tells me this months theme is all about banning the Me and and my ever present camera!

Tuesday tidbit and Should you be allowed to Vote?

Here is a Tuesday Tidbit I found rather amusing. Yesterday I had to go back to the Dermatologist so she could make sure the scary bleeding thing she cut off the back of my leg hasn't grown back (it hasn't).

I was led back to the exam room by a Medical assistant. She was young and her body language led me to believe that she was new. We get in the exam room and I jump up on the exam table trying not to totally thrash the paper sheet under my butt (don't you just hate that sheet?).

The Medical assistant opens up my chart and looks a little puzzled.  She flips around my chart and stops on an old pre-cancerous zap-a-thon and mole removal.  I help her out and let her know what I am in for and direct her to the correct page.  She giggles to herself and soon finds the right page.

She reads over my chart and then she says, "Wow, lots of big words that I am not familiar with, but it does say what ever that thing was that she cut off wasn't cancerous.......that's awesome!"

LOL!  Love that professional assessment! 

The doctor comes in, checks the biopsy area, checks all moles and then proceeds to burn off the latest pre-cancerous spots on my face and hands (I was going to share pictures, but I was worried you all might think I have leprosy so I changed my mind).  

After the exam I was re-latching my bra under the lovely paper gown.  The doctor sees me go for my bra and rushes over to help.  She says, "Oh....do you need help hooking your bra."  Seriously?  I declined the offer and she quickly explained that she forgot I was still young and flexible.  Hello, I hope I can still latch my own bra...I'm only 41 for goodness sakes!  

That got me thinking.........forget about all those potentially cancer filled moles on my back or the sun damage that was done in the days of no sun screen, I never thought that someday I might not be able to hook my own bra!!  Got me thinking, I better start being nicer to my husband, because apparently I might need him for something more than taking out the trash!  :)

**************************

I was visiting Feather's blog yesterday and she had a link to a survey that shows if you should be allowed to vote.  I thought if you haven't seen it already you might want to give it a go!  My viewing of cable news is paying off............

You Should Be Allowed to Vote

You got 13/15 questions correct. Generally speaking, you're very well informed. If you vote this election, you'll know exactly who (and what) you'll be voting for. You're likely to have strong opinions, and you have the facts to back them up.

Should You Be Allowed to Vote?

By the way....even if you don't score high, I still think you should be allowed to vote.  Well, unless you aren't on my team and then you need to study up and wait for the next election. 

Just kidding!  You all rock!

Safety Patrol invades the Water Park

Yesterday after an exciting soccer match I took Kate and a couple of her safety patrol buddies down to the Water Park to celebrate the last official weekend of summer.

It was Safety Patrol day at the park and boy was it crowded.  Despite the long lines for most of the water slides we managed to squeeze in a few runs during our 5 hour visit.  As thrilling as the water slides are, I think the girls had the most fun in the lazy river and the wave pool.  And they were oh so good about letting me stalk them with my camera!

 

I have to say that I really adore my daughters friends.  They are such sweet girls.  At an age when girls can start to become cliquey and exclusive they are anything but that.  Whenever the three ran into someone from school who wasn't there with a buddy they would invite them to tag along.  It just warms my heart to see that nice girls still exist!

SNL Spoof!

Ok, I had to change my link to the SNL skit of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler spoofing Palin and Clinton because NBC made Youtube pull all the copies off their site.  Apparently Saturday nights show was the highest rated show since they went back on air after 9/11.  I guess they saw a great way to get people to go to their website, because there are tons of NBC shows on Youtube that could be pulled for copyright issues!!!

Anyway, if you haven't seen the video it is way too hilarious to pass up!

Yearbook The Family!

The girls thought the picture of me on Yearbook yourself was so funny that they wanted ones too.  We laughed so hard as we cruised through the different hairstyles on each of their pictures.  I'm not sure if Jim realized when I asked him to sit down in front of the computer for a quick picture that this would be the result!  It goes to show you, I'll do just about anything or a cheap laugh!

Yearbook Yourself

My friend Val passed along this really funny website Yearbook Yourself, where you can plop your face on the school pictures of those from the past.  Here is a fab picture of me in 1968.  

I think if I had been a teenager in 1968 (instead of a one year old) I would have been sporting some type of Hippie hair and  brightly colored clothing!  

Head over to the website and give it a try.....it will give you a good laugh.

You Will get SOAKED!

On Monday I took Reid, her friend Lacey and Kate down to Sea World for a day of fun in the sun. We went down after lunch with no real plans on how long we would stay. I left the day up to the girls and let them pick what they wanted to do.

We saw a few shows, spent a long time petting the string rays, ran around in the Bay of Play (you are never too old to hang out with Cookie Monster) and rode a few rides. Actually Reid and Lacey rode and few rides. Kate didn't want to ride the roller coaster Journey to Atlantis so we watched Elmo's 4D movie while the girls waited their turn in line. Really cute show by the way!


I was quite happy to skip the rollercoaster this time around because unless you are sitting in the last seat of the ride you get pretty wet and with the "tissue" t-shirt I wore that day I decided getting wet probably wasn't a good idea. So as the day was winding down the girls decided that they wanted to go on the ride "Shipwreck Rapids" before we left.

It was already 6:00 p.m. and with my tree bark diet still in effect I was really starting to get hungry. The wait for the ride was 45 minutes long and I decided it was better to stand in line for the ride than sit near the diner and drool so off I went.

I knew this was a ride you could get wet on, but how wet could you get?? As we got closer to the front of the line I was horrified to see people getting off who were soaked to the bone. But then again there were riders that were barely even splashed. So I figured that the really wet ones must have gotten wet on another ride or splashed by Shamu.....because again, could you really get that wet on the ride?

As the ride took off I had the misfortune of sitting near an opening and found myself facing the rapids. As I found out that was the wrong place to be if you wanted to stay dry(ish). The very first dip sent BUCKETS of water pouring over my left shoulder and straight down my shirt.

From there on out every dip got me more and more soaked (if that was even possible after the first wave of water hit me). When we got off the ride the long line of waiting riders looked at me with the same horrified look I had when I was in their "dry" shoes. I'm sure I must have been quite a sight with water squishing out of my Chuck Taylors and water streaming down my legs.

I heard one woman say, "Oh my god, can you really get that wet," to which I replied...."Yes, yes you can get this wet." We left the park looking like a drowned rats with everyone staring at us as we sloshed our way towards the parking lot.

Next time I am at Sea World I promise not to stare at the other silly adults who failed to believe the sign that warned, "YOU WILL GET SOAKED."

Oh Silly Girl!

As I was selecting an applications from my dock I accidently selected "Photo Booth."  For those of you non Mac users (which is most of you) Photo Booth is an applications that allows me to take pictures with the camera that is built into my computer.  Yes, I know it is totally cool and I am sure you are all wishing you were Mac users too........but we don't want that to happen because then the crazy virus people will start attacking us!  Anyway, back to the story......So, I click on Photo Booth and up pops all these pictures that Reid has taken of herself.  I got a chuckle out of the pictures because I'm sure she either took these while I wasn't home, or while I wasn't in the room!  She is probably going to die when she see's I put some of them on my blog.  

Yo - girlie, this is what happens when your mom discovers the fun you are having on her computer.  Hmmm.....maybe I should check the my secret spy mom files.  :)

Missed two "National something Day's"

Yesterday was "National Scrapbooking Day."  A day for scrapbookers to sit down with all of their supplies and family photo's and bust out some memories.  Unfortunately I didn't do any scrapbooking yesterday! But you could sort of say that I was there in spirit as I went shopping at the newly opened stamping/scrapbooking store called  Paper Tales.  One of the owners and her friend/employee were there and I had a great time chatting with them.  I wonder how they will ever get any work done because they chatted with everyone like they were long lost friends.  It was a great shopping experience.  Nothing like the return of customer service.

As I was driving around listening to public radio I discovered that it was also "National Garden in the Nude Day."  This is a day when gardeners around the world are encouraged to garden as nature intended us to be.  I'm sure my neighbors are happy that I don't enjoy gardening and didn't participate in NGND!  I'm equally happy that none of my neighbors participated either.  

One Word Meme!

I just got done reading my friend K's blog and she had up a One word Meme "quiz" that she saw on another blog she frequents.  It looked like fun so I thought I would join in.  Apparently when you put up a One Word Meme you are supposed to tag someone, but following K's lead, I will leave it up to my fellow bloggers to post their own without being tagged.  Goodness knows I like talking about Me so here is my not exactly ONE word Meme!

You're feeling: Like I finally got a good nights sleep!

To your left:  Unfolded basket of laundry!

On your mind: When is the laundry going to fold itself!

Last meal included: Pasta and meatballs.

You sometimes find it hard to: Not be short with my kids!

The weather: Absolutely bee-u-tee-ful!

Something you have a collection of:  Scrapbook supplies!

A smell that cheers you up:  homecooked food!

A smell the can ruin your mood: Cigarette smoke!

How long since you last shaved: A week ago!

The current state of your hair: It's a pony tail kind of a day!

The largest item on your desk (not computer):  My 35mm camera!

Your skill with chopsticks: Good enough to give lessons to my Uncle!

Which section you head for first in a bookstore: Fiction!

Something your craving: CHOCOLATE!

Your general thoughts on the presidential race: It's not over yet??

How many times have you been hospitalized this year: None ::knocking on wood::

Favorite place to go for a quiet moment: Tucked in bed with the door shut.

You've always secretly thought you'd be a good: High School Counselor!

Something that freaks you out a little: Plastic surgery!

Something you've eaten too much of lately: CHOCOLATE!

You have never: Had beautiful nails!

You never want to: Stop eating chocolate!

Fashioneesta!

Kate and her fashion sense really entertain me.  After our hike on Thursday we came home and got cleaned up to go over to moms for dinner.  Kate came out of her room dressed in this get up, complete with helmet and roller skates.  I asked her if she thought we were roller skating to Grandma's and she said, "No I just figured I'd roller skate until the rest of you are ready to go!!  Even though I was tired from the hike I was humored enough to pull out my camera and take a picture of her.  

Question:  How can you tell your pre-teen daughter is a teenager?

Answer:  She puts on her coolest pair of jeans, a long shirt layered with a cool tank top, her funkiest pair of converse shoes and a fresh coat of lip gloss to go.......HIKING!!!  Yes, that is how Reid dressed herself for our Thursday hike.  It was comical for sure!  Lucky for her I had mercy and made her change into appropriate attire.  Of course not without grumbles from her over my controlling ways.  By the way, she thanked me later.  :)