Anna is going through this stage where she likes me to sing to her before she goes to sleep. If you’ve ever heard me sing, you know that is really hard to believe. My singing voice is not at all pleasant or soothing, I’m good at a lot of things, but singing is definitely not one of them. She also likes my husband to sing to her and that makes sense, he’s got an incredible singing voice. I love listening when he sings to her.
There aren’t too many songs that I know the words to that can be easily sung. One is “You are my Sunshine.” Not very original, but she loves it and requests it by saying, “More Sunshine?” It’s very cute.
The other song that she requests is “The Gambler.” Yes, the Kenny Rogers song. I used to sing it to her when she was a tiny tiny baby and now it’s made a comeback as a requested song, “More Gambler?” I don’t know if it’s really appropriate, but I know all the words and it’s long enough to get her quiet and sleepy so it’s a keeper.
And if it’s good enough for the Muppet Show, it’s good enough for me.
We’re back from vacation and it was fabulous. Lots of posts and pictures to come about it, but not today. Today is going to go further into the past. I’m not going to lie and say I’m all upset about Michael Jackson’s death. More like totally indifferent. It really doesn’t affect my life. But I was a HUGE HUGE fan when Thriller came out. Me and everyone else. I had that album and the posters and books. I remember that Mtv used to play the Thriller video at 9am on Sunday mornings and I waited for it to be shown every week. But that’s not the memory I was going to share.
When I was in high school, I was in the Winterguard. Winterguard, for people unfamiliar with it, is where the color guard from the marching band goes in the winter after football season is over. We practiced a couple times a week and then would have the competition on the weekend.
One night we were at practice, just standing around in our show shoes (with soft bottoms, this is important to the story) waiting to run the next part of the routine. Since our shoes had the super soft smooth bottoms, I got it into my head that it would be really funny to moonwalk from one position to the next. I thought it was really funny, as did my friends around me, however our evil bitch leader instructor, who did not appreciate my sense of humor any day, saw my goofing around and made me drop and do push ups as punishment for having a little bit of fun at practice.
And that’s my Michael Jackson memory. Moonwalking = push ups.
Instead of packing and getting organized for the trip we’re leaving for in less than ten hours, I thought I’d post this photo from last weekend, when we were poolside in the backyard.
It’s getting warm out, we have actual furniture on the deck and the ability to make a big pit of fire in the backyard. Sounds like a good time to start drinking outside. Summertime, baby…
Usually by now I have settled on an annual drink of choice for the summer season. One year, it was the Mojito. Another year it was the Cosmo. The summer of Gin & Tonic was a good one too. Last year it was the Pear Madras (or mattress) Martini. The official drink of Summer 2009 still hasn’t been decided. But there are some contenders for the title…
Vanilla Vodka with Ginger Ale Take your favorite vanilla vodka (Absolut, Stoli, etc)
Pour a few shots over ice
Fill the rest of your glass with ginger ale.
Stir.
Sounds simple, portable and very tasty. The only problem is the ginger ale. I’ve been the High Fructose Corn Syrup Nazi at the house, getting irrationally angry  whenever my husband buys anything that contains the evil HFCS. (It’s hard to avoid, that shit is in EVERYTHING) So, unless the alcohol neutralized the HFCS, I probably shouldn’t make this the drink of choice, unless I want to be a big giant hypocrite.
Watermelon Cosmopolitan 1 ½ ounces vodka
¾ ounce Triple Sec
½ ounce Roses lime juice
2 ounces watermelon juice
Pour all ingredients over ice and shake in tin until ice cold. Strain into chilled martini glass and garnish with watermelon ball.
The summer when I was big and pregnant (2007), I ate watermelon constantly. I freaking loved it and couldn’t get enough of it. This would’ve been the perfect drink for me at 8-9 months pregnant. You know, except for the booze/fetal alcohol syndrome thing…
But, I still love watermelon and I love cosmos, so this one’s going on the list.
Ever since we decided to go on vacation, I’ve been looking for ways to keep the toddler (no longer “the baby”) entertained so we don’t have to listen to bored screams and cries for seven hours. Because researching stuff on the internet is my favorite thing to do, I’ve come up with a list of things I have to remember before we go.Â
New books. I ordered a couple of Amazon, mainly ones that do stuff. Like flap books and ones that have other stuff sticking out of them. Books to keep her busy. You know, since she can’t read and all…
Box of Tissues – (Vanessa – don’t read this one, especially after your last post…) I loved this idea, because my daughter loves to sit there and pull out tissue after tissue. Normally, we don’t let her do that, but I think I can spare a couple of bucks to keep her happy for a while in the car. It totally reminds me of the book, Ramona and her Mother.Â
New toys – I thought about getting her one of those cheapie baby laptops or something equilivent that beeps and lights up, but our car is not that big and that would annoy the shit out of me.Â
I Spy Bag – This one got me all excited. I had never seen one of these before and after reading how they totally fascinate every single child on earth, I got to think that this is something I should get for the trip. Etsy had a bunch of different ones. This one was my favorite. But then I found this thread on Craftster and decided this is probably something I can make on my own. Maybe put some of all that fabric I have in storage to use. Hopefully Anna isn’t too young for this. Even if she doesn’t use it, I’ll have fun making one.Â
You know, if we had ended up getting the 2007 Outlander we were initially looking at, none of this would matter since it had a DVD player in the ceiling. I could just put her “baby disk” (her favorite DVD) on repeat for seven hours and chill out in the front seat. But no, 0% financing won out over a sunroof and DVD player.
That is how long google tells me that it will take for my family to walk to our vacation destination in a couple of weeks.
I really just wanted driving directions, but they had the walking option. Better get Anna some good shoes. Or at least not forget the stroller this time.
Today was a big hairy day for me. Lately I have been getting really bored with my current hair style and needed something dramatically different. After getting inspired by some photos and getting many opinions, I ended my hair angst with a new short cut and super blonder highlights. My stylist also talked me into wearing my bangs to one side instead of straight down. It feels weird, but I’m giving it a try. My neck feels all naked. I was very tempted to have her put in some bright red (like firetruck red) streaks underneath, but I thought that would just be too much fun for one head of hair.
Last Sunday afternoon, we decided that the weather was perfect for a fire. Instead of using our old rusty metal bowl, my husband decided that we should have a proper fire pit and since we had some cinder blocks laying around, there would be no cost involved. He figured that it would take him about an hour, maybe two, to get it done. And we’d have a roaring fire by dinner time.
Four hours later, all I could hear from the backyard was a lot of yelling and swearing about the tree roots. He had to dig up roots that were as big as your arm. Big, STRONG, stuck-firmly-in the ground roots. The trees thwarted our Sunday night fire pit.
However, my very manly and strong husband triumphed over the tyranical tree roots and built us a fabulous fire pit just in time to have our first fire Monday evening. It was a great way to end Memorial Day weekend.
