Couldn't Resist

toothpastefordinner.com

I'm totally throwing an Ativan into the washer the next time it gives me trouble...

Goodbye, Earl: 1933-2009

My grandfather, Earl W. Clay, passed away on June 15th. He and my grandmother were married for 57 years. I am relieved that he is no longer in pain, but now I wish there were something more I could do for my grandmother to ease the agony of her loss. One of grandpa's last wishes was that there was to be no funeral: instead, we had a gathering at my grandma's house on Father's Day. There were a lot of old pictures of my grandpa that I'd never seen before, and my cousins made a really awesome slideshow to commemorate grandpa and grandma's life together. It was really good to spend time with my family, despite the sad circumstances. I will try to get some photographs up later today...

Yeah, it's Cool

There is a trundle bed in my room. Occasionally, Violet sleeps in my room, and I roll out the lower portion of the bed for myself. Last night, she planned our sleeping arrangements: "We're gonna sleep in your room. I'm gonna sleep on the top, and you're gonna sleep on the bottom. Is that cool?"

Skipperdoodle

The world's sweetest (and arguably, fattest) wiener dog, Skipper, is currently in surgery having a rock removed from his stomach.


Nothing but thoughts of sunshine and ice cream cones going your way, little dude.

The Learning Process

My daughter's evolution from baby to big kid has been nothing if not entertaining. She can count from one to ten, but after that, creativity kicks in.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Thirteen, seventeen, eleventeen..."

Recently, Violet has also started to comment on social behavior. A few weeks ago, on the way back from the zoo,we were walking along the Greenbelt by the Boise River. It was quite warm outside, and Violet stopped in her tracks when she spotted a young man who had taken his shirt off. Aghast, she pointed.

"Mamma, is he naked?" She asked, and then, without waiting for my reply, she proclaimed, "He's naked!"

The man burst out laughing, and I explained to Violet that it's okay for boys to take their shirts off when the weather is warm. She seemed skeptical, but eventually accepted my explanation.

Violet’s language skills have also been expanding at an enormous rate, though she still makes up nonsense words to some of her favorite songs. Many of her more adorable mistakes are grammatical: she uses the pronouns "he" and "she" interchangeably. "I miss my Daddy," she sighs. "I miss her." Expressing her distaste for a variety of things, she often whines, "I can't want it."

Speaking of things she can’t want, we were watching her new Meet the Robinsons DVD the other day. The special features include two music videos. We watched the video for “Little Wonders,” by Rob Thomas, which Violet seemed to enjoy. Morbidly curious, because I’d never heard them before, I then selected the video by the Jonas Brothers.

About 20 seconds in, Violet scrunched up her nose and exclaimed, “I can’t like this.”

I guess a big part of growing up is realizing that most boy bands suck.

Egglesiastical

An explanation of Easter, for Violet: "Jesus rose from the dead, and you get chocolate. It's a win-win situation."

The Trials of Adolescence

This is me, in junior high school, shortly before my theatrical debut in the renowned musical "The Trial of the Big, Bad Wolf."



Despite my peppy poodle skirt, I'm wearing a truly dour expression. I'm pretty sure my grumpiness resulted from the scary clown makeup applied by my sister (she of the fish lips, posing behind me). By today's standard, I'd say I look pretty emo. Which is funny, because I remember being very excited to participate in the production, even though I was only a member of the jury.

On a somewhat related note, it is one of my impossible dreams to be cast as a jury member in ANY variation of "Law & Order." Though I would prefer to be a corpse.