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I am so happy for Audrey. She got her hair cut, and she loves it! She wears it down as is so proud of her curls. This is a big step for her! She has always hated her hair and looked longingly at other girls with straight hair. She never wore her hair down. I just couldn't be happier for her. She says she now has sassy hair like her Mom! Now of course I think she looks like Queen Elizabeth with me being Anne Bolyen of course!
Here's what you do when you get a bad haircut! You take a picture of yourself with aforementioned haircut and then touch up the picture until you start to like the haircut! So the hair in this picture looks fabulous but when you see it on me in real life you will be shaking your head wondering how it can be the same hair! To avoid this problem I will try not to see many people until it grows out!
So Jake got a package today and since he wasn't here to open it I tore right in! I couldn't contain myself as the parcel that arrived today was from Nicholas! It was a certificate that declared Jake a member of the Nicholas Club! He also recieved a pencil pouch with an old fashioned wooden ruler, pencil, and best of all (I'll be borrowing this until Jake returns) a pin for his cardigan!
For the Americans who haven't had the pleasure of meeting Nicholas, let me school you on this fellow. He is a little boy who lives with his Mum and Dad in France and he has a terrific gang of friends. He attends an all boys finishing school where he learns about rivers and history, like when France was full of Gauls. After school the gang likes to go fishing or play cowboys or soccer. But mostly they cause mischief, and get into scuffles, and put things in their pockets that don't belong there, and do all the wonderful things boys their age should be doing! There is name calling, hitting and tackling, and even a few naughty words like "stupid". Now as a proper, neurotic, American mother I certainly censor these books as I read them to my impressionable son. Ha! Of course I don't, but I do tell him not to get caught punching anyone in the nose, or eating 12 chocolate croissants in one sitting, or get detention because you can't answer any of the questions in class like Nicholas and his gang. The key to that conversation is "don't get caught" wink, wink...
Sam here is turning into my little darling, even though I feel like he is slowly eating me alive (puppy chews anyone and anything all day and night) but his personality is so jovial and mischievous, just the way I like my babies! It also reminds me of my all time favorite Christmas movie that I make the family watch every year. "It's A Wonderful Life" tells the story of George Bailey who is a man of high ideals and dreams. George wants to see the world and make something big happen but life gets in the way and he ends up discouraged and worn down. He decides to commit suicide when his guardian angel steps in and shows George all that he has to be thankful for. So this Christmas as we clean up poop and run around after our little Sam, it won't be hard to be thankful for the new addition to our family as he lays curled in our lap by the fire for a long winter's nap!
So now I'm thinking about the movie! Here's a few favs:
Jimmy Stewart, Jimmy Stewart, Jimmy Stewart! The actor known as "everyman" and the common man's hero is just the type of guy I hope my girls fall in love with and marry! He isn't afraid to laugh at himself and understands the importance of making his girl laugh. He is emotional, how bout that girls, when's the last time you saw your guy tear up (unless he was looking at your credit card statement)? But what is most appealing about him in this movie is his passion for life. He is determined to make the most out of his life and have a darn good time doing it, all the while helping other people along the way. This philosophy embodies everything that is good about the human spirit.
Now back on the romantic side, what would you do if a man said this to you? Every girls deserves to hear something like this and more than once if she's lucky!
Jimmy Stewart (George): What do you want, Mary? Do you want the moon? If you want it, I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down for you. Hey! That's a pretty good idea! I'll give you the moon, Mary.
Donna Reed (Mary Hatch Bailey): I'll take it! Then what?
Jimmy Stewart (George): Well, then you can swallow it, and it'll all dissolve see, and the moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair... am I talking too much?
A big part of the movie is George coming to realize that hardships are actually blessings and sometimes the things that seem like a pain are things we come to treasure (the puppy). He buys Mary this beat up old house that he has loved since childhood. At first he eagerly embraced the chance to fix it up and make it their's but as life wears him down he starts to resent the house and see it as just a heap of junk. Three times in the movie he goes up the stairs and the end finial comes off in his hand as a sign of his frustration with the house. So I keep a stair finial on a shelf to remind me of the last part of the movie where George realizes it really is A WONDERFUL LIFE. The final scene is after the angel has shown him what he has and he returns home only to see the sheriff there to arrest him. But George is now a changed man so he greets him with a smile and says "Isn't it wonderful? I'm going to jail!" He happily leaps up the stairs, accidentally yanking out, kissing and carefully replacing the finial on the stairpost - for the third time. He chuckles to himself. At the top of the stairs, he blissfully embraces his children. Mary enters the house and runs into his arms on the stairs. He kisses her on the face again and again, asking if she is real.
So this Holiday season may we be grateful for the messy kitchen because it means we ate a good meal, and joyfully pick up all the wrapping paper because it means we were able to get some happiness and give some. Oh and if you love someone, do a George Bailey and kiss them over and over...under the mistletoe if you can!
This week at school Jake had to get dressed up for pictures and the Thanksgiving Play. He doesn't mind the dressing up it's just hard for him to keep his actions matching his look!
Jake as the Gentleman:
- holds open the door for some girls at school and says "after you ladies"
- insists on wearing a belt if his shirt is tucked in
- if he's wearing a vest will likely do the gentleman's bow several times a day
Jake as the Rogue:
- says "Mom, I don't mind wearing the vest but I want to leave my pants unzipped"
- after being told to go in the restroom and change into his costume for the play, comes out nude from the waist down and casually saunters around the classroom
- once again when changing for the play and being told to switch pants he comes out of the restroom commando with his red and blue striped underwear in his hands
Oh the joys of being uninhibited! Only 6 and under can get away with such exhibitionism!
Being a girl certainly has it's perks! It's so funny how the smallest things can make a girls heart race and find her giddy and excited beyond reason! Case in point - the boots. I've had these DIVINE boots sitting in my closet, so sad and lonely, for almost a year! Tom bought them for me on my birthday last April, and I have been waiting for just the right event to wear them, so when my dear friend Camilla said she had a Cold Play ticket for me I knew the boots were getting their chance! These boots are certainly rockstar boots! One small problem, my ultra conservative, no drinking no dancing, Mom was here to watch the kids because I was meeting Tom for dinner before the concert. When I came walking out with these boots on with ripped up skinny jeans, I thought for sure she was going to scream "streetwalker" and lock me in the house. But to my surprise when I said "tres fou or tres chic?" she replied "tres chic!". I took that rare compliment and ran out the door. It turned out to be a night a girl remembers for many reasons, not the least being the boots got to play like they've been yearning to do!
Yes, this dress is completely against my type but isn't it yummy?! Like a fluffy layered cupcake! No you will not see me wearing this at any Christmas Parties but someone should! Now, speaking of things my heart adores and cupcakes check out this fabulous cupcake bar Joey-Michelle stumbled upon
What a totally whimsical indulgent idea to have a bakery devoted solely to the cupcake! My whim leads me straight to the red velvet. My own sweetie is taking me to dinner on Sat. so just maybe we'll head over to Crave before dinner and get a box to go. Oh and since we are having a "do over" anniversary dinner maybe there will be a diamond in the cupcake! It would be fitting since my engagement ring was in a Neiman Marcus godiva chocolate box. How about a diamond like this!
Remember honey, my heart adores you!
I found this gorgeously morbid antique locket at the flea market. It is an 1840 Victorian Mourning locket. Originally intended for a soldier's wife to keep a locket of her husband's hair as he went off to battle, it then became common place for women to keep the hair of a deceased loved one inside. Since my beloved soldier, Thomas Wayne Heath, is not ready for burial I'll have to think of something more creative to keep inside, perhaps my allergy pills or valium.
Me: "So I've been thinking..."
Tom: "Of course you have."
I think and think and think... therefore, I don't sleep. I can't turn myself off enough to have sweet slumber and maybe a pleasant dream about me as one of King Henry VIII wives riding a horse around the castle grounds and feasting on wine and turkey legs. I don't sleep which means Tom doesn't sleep. It also means that Tom gets to be the sounding board for all the random thoughts going through my feeble mind day and night. Now this would be thrilling for him if I was thinking about things that actually made a difference in our world, but the truth is I swirl around ideas that are completely useless to most of humanity. So as the years go by I can tell he's becoming numb to my rants of thinking - this is a good sign. He just might be able to spend eight more sleepless years with me.
So obsessed with these lyrics right now...can you see the glazed look in my eye? That comes from me and this song together, over and over...goodnight...well, maybe one more listen.
Belief by Gavin DeGraw
Belief
Makes things real
Makes things feel
Feel alright
Belief
Makes things true
Things like you
You and I
Tonight, you arrested my mind
When you came to my defense
With a knife
In the shape of your mouth
In the form of your body
With the wrath of a god
Oh, you stood by me
Belief
Builds from scratch
Doesn't need to relax
It doesn't need space
Long live the queen and I'll be the king
In the collar of grace
Tonight, you arrested my mind
When you came to my defense
With a knife
In the shape of your mouth
In the form of your body
With the wrath of a god
Oh, you stood by me
Belief
I'm going to yell it from the rooftops
I'll wear a sign on my chest
That's the least I can do
Tonight, you arrested my mind
When you came to my defense
With a knife
In the shape of your mouth
In the form of your body
With the wrath of a god
Oh, you stood by me
Tonight, you arrested my mind
When you came to my defense
With a knife
In the shape of your mouth
In the form of your body
With the wrath of a god
Oh, you stood by me
And I'll stand by my
Belief
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote ~
There was a little girl who had a little curl
right in the middle of her forehead
and when she was good
she was very very good
but when she was bad she was horrid
~Longfellow must have had a little girl like my little girl
today my nose was itching and Joey-Michelle says, "that means someone wants to kiss you". Nice thought isn't it...
Others who know about kissing...
Oscar Wilde ~ "A kiss may ruin a human life."
Emil Ludwig ~ "The decision to kiss for the first time is the most crucial in any love story. It changes the relationship between two people even more strongly than the final surrender, because the kiss already has within it that surrender."
And my personal favorite:
Rhett Butler, Gone With the Wind ~ "You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how"
