Meet balloon Jesus

Last week the kids came home from Wednesday night church with balloons decorated with cute faces on them. I'm not exactly sure what the lesson tied to them was, but Blake's balloon had the name Jesus written on it, and he was excited to introduce it to me as "my new best friend, Jesus". ("New" because lately he'd been telling me that I was his best friend, a position that is obviously easily replaceable.)

For the next several days this is all we heard...

"Where's my best friend, Jesus?"
"Oh come here, Jesus, you're my new best friend", 
and the ever popular, "I can't find Jesus!"

Balloon Jesus (which was weirdly never referred to as a balloon) was Blake's constant companion, so I'm sure you can imagine his disappoint when Jesus deflated into a sad little latex prune a few days later.

But guess who's back in the #1 best friend spot ;)

Hello, Monday!

First of all, thank you for the kind comments about the fake bangs. Perhaps one day I'll take the official leap, but for now I'm inclined to buy my own fake set (those were borrowed) and wear them just often enough to freak out my children on a semi-regular basis.

Now on to a little weekend recap.

There were good times (Chinese takeout and movies), bad times (toddler poop in the bathtub), and really bad times (also involving toddler poop but this time NOT in the bathtub - just pretty much everywhere else). Yeah, it was nasty. And Russ was luckily away at a basketball game so only had the pleasure of my detailed text messages to warn him of the combat zone of horror I was warring in at home.

You could say that the weekend didn't get off to the best start.

However, Blake's tummy settled, Cooper played in two fun basketball games Saturday afternoon, and then he and Kendall both went to sleepovers and Russ and I enjoyed ourselves an at-home date night as soon as Blake went to bed at 8 pm. (Which is where the takeout and movie rentals came in.)

And THEN, Sunday morning I actually got myself ready early enough to be on time to church for once, and not even the sight of Cooper showing up in a dress polo paired with basketball shorts and a pair of skate shoes with fluorescent orange laces could ruin my good mood. It was close though. (Note to self: still need to oversee 9-year-old son's packing job for sleepovers.)

The weather Sunday afternoon was GORGEOUS and after eating lunch outside and watching my family play catch and toss a football around, I headed inside for a blissful nap and didn't wake up until the Superbowl had started and Russ came in to let me know I was missing the commercials. (I enjoy a good commercial and this year didn't disappoint. Neither did the half-time show, in my humble opinion. I thought Madonna did a great job, and was frankly impressed that her wardrobe covered as much of her as it did.)

Our evening ended with roast chicken for dinner and the premiere of The Voice, a show I've never watched before but really enjoyed. And then my family all went to bed and I stayed up and read my third Jane Austen novel in row since last weekend because I'm on another reading kick and one of her novels came already downloaded on my phone, which I discovered by accident, and that was all it took to get me going on all of them again. I love her. And Pride and Prejudice most of all.

And that was the weekend! So to recap the recap, nothing much really happened unless you count staying home and watching TV and movies and reading as entertainment. Which obviously I do.

Happy Monday!

Experimenting

Last weekend I had almost 5 inches cut off my hair.

(If you saw me this past week and didn't notice, don't feel bad... NO ONE noticed. My hair feels healthy and fresh now though, and that's all that matters. Plus I made it back into the salon in less than a year from my last haircut so I was quite proud of myself.)

(I have appointment-making issues.)

Anyway. While I was there my stylist and I discussed doing full bangs, but I was a big ol' chicken and didn't go through with it. Which I can't say was a bad decision after I tried on these fake ones today... (don't laugh!)

Oh okay, laugh... I know my whole family did. And then Cooper asked me quite seriously to please take them off. (Remember he's the one that doesn't like change? I had no idea this would extend to my hairstyle.)

It's fun to play with the idea though, and how cool are these to be able to test and see if you'd like such a drastic change without committing to anything?!

I think I had some user errors with placing them however.... because now that I look at my pictures they look kinda high on my forehead, and I'm pretty sure they're supposed to to look more like this...

And frankly - I think that would bug the heck out of my eyeballs.

Sequence

It's the board game of choice in our home right now.

And this is pretty much how it goes down every time we play...

1. It's boys against girls.
2. Blake gets his own stack of chips to play with on the side.
3. Blake spills all his chips on the floor, tries to stick them up his nose, stacks them up on one corner of the board, tries to inflate his empty zip-lock chip bag like a balloon, and keeps himself otherwise occupied.
4. Cooper starts off by wasting a joker to place his first chip.
5. Russell's night of exasperation with his partner begins.
6. Kendall plays well, but needs a reminder every single time it's her turn.
7. Cooper's hand is short 3 cards after his fourth turn.
8. I try my darndest to thwart Russell, who is more than capable of winning despite his handicap of a teammate (sorry Coop, I say that in love.)
9. But it's no use, the boys seem to win EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
10. So Kendall and I declare a rematch and we start all over again.

Nothing like a little family bonding time :)

(P.S. Is it just me or does Cooper's arm look like that stretchy guy's from Fantastic Four in that picture?)

Monday Confessional

It is sad to confess that once upon a time,

I thought this hair style was a good idea. 

Oh my holy awful. 

Could I have curled my layers into more perfect half-ringlets?

But I fully remember feeling very happy with my hair that day... 

the day I found out I was pregnant with my first child. 

(Shout out to all the girls who rocked Calvin Klein denim overalls in the late 90's. 

I had TWO pair.)