tiff

No Style!

A photographer that I admire (am crazy envious of her talent) gave me a piece of contstructive critisiscm.  She said I need to choose and style and go with it.  She is soooo right, but I still can't find my style!  Look at the pics below and you'll see what I'm talking about.  I have always been the person who could morph herself into anything anyone wanted me to be.  As Tom says, I can play in any arena!  Maybe that's my problem or maybe I'm schizophrenic... don't answer that!

 

   

 

   

Just Can't Do It....

 

So I started out wanting to take this photo and make it muted and pastel.  However, every time I try to take a photo of Audrey and give it that soft faded look, I just can't bring myself to do it!  The freckles are my weakness!  When I had this photo like I thought I wanted it, freckles faded away and that is a major no no!  Those little dots, all 785 of them, are the stars in my night sky...the sparks in my fire.  Okay, enough already.  Just having some major freckle love here, actually it's major love for the girl behind the freckles!

 

KT, you probably didn't even know this picture existed!  You will look at this and think how much your life has changed since you turned that tassel in May of 2008, but Daddy and I look at it and think of how much we have missed you since May 2008!  Having you home for 5 weeks has been bittersweet.  It was such a comfort for us knowing you were around the house and coming home to see you and spend time watching our shows and being the retarded family we love to be when you are here!  We are already lonely without you!  You are our everything and we love you to the moon and back!  ps. come home, we can't be a reality show without you!  The Real Housewives of Humble!!!

Boobah is on fire!

   

I am well aware that the boobah is getting way to much press on this blog!  He is like President elect Obama, a media darling!  Do not blame the boobah, he is an innocent victim of his mother's adoration!

How 4th Grade Girls Like to Roll!

Audrey's slumber (ha! not so much slumbering ever goes on, right?)  was the best party the girl has had in 10 years!  She brought 3 friends to Serendipity and they partied like rock stars in the country!

• went to the Winnie flea market and bought umbrella hats, beanie babies, food, purses, more food, cell phone cases, bunny rabbit ear warmers, and even more food!

•  got dairy queen ice cream

• had a scavenger hunt and used the quad to drive around the yard.  They each got black satin gloves to vamp in as their treasure at the end of the hunt

• jumped on the bed and sang to the Mamma Mia soundtrack

• rode in the paddle boat out to the middle of Lake Serendipity while Paw Paw and I watched from the shore ready for a rescue (well we would have had to put the tequila bottle down first)

• drank sodas and ate junk the entire day and night

• rocked in the hammock with big blankets under a clear sky with a bright moon shining down on their little part of the world!

My Very Own James Dean...

 

 

I have always had a "thing" for James Dean.  This will not be surprising to many of you who know how sensitive, artistic, and just downright strange I can be.  James Dean was quirky, to say the least, and that is what makes him so endearing to me.  He always seemed like he had a secret yet was so open and revealing.  Jake is the James Dean in my life.  He is a different sort of boy.  He is a "Don Juan" a true lover of all people and things.  He can karate chop with the best of them but always has a pocket full of kisses ready to doll out on friends and stranger alike.  He is, to me, the best of both worlds all rolled into a tiny package I call the boobah! 

  

1.7.09 Stranglehold

If Sam and Jake are in the same room you can be guaranteed they will end up in this position! 

Queen Audrey the X....

 

What Goes In Must Come Out...

You are probably thinking this is going to be some sick toilet joke right?  Ha, got ya!  This is actually a serious monologue so if you're looking for dirty humor go somewhere else, or call me cause I like sick jokes too!

Now what I want to discuss today is a revelation I had while reading a book over the holidays - what you have been through in your life or what you have chose to do in your life seeps under your skin and quietly grows and takes root in your body (probably somewhere near the spleen) and actually becomes a part of you which is then released into the world as your "spirit" or "essence" or whatever metaphysical term suits your fancy.  What has me contemplating such things you may ask?  Well the girls are home from college and they have made such wise decisions thus far in their young life, and when I was their age I was in sharp contrast.  I was making a fool of myself instead of making wise decisions.  I lived as though everything I was doing and saying and being had no consequence to the person I would be in 10 years.  "I can do this now because I know I'll stop later and poof it will be gone from my life and I won't even spend one an of energy on it!"  Boy was I wrong!  All those old demons come back to bite you when you least expect it.  Some of them have been hiding under the bed for 15 years and then they sink their claws in.  Now don't get me wrong, I am totally for living a crazy, joi de vivre, kind of life.  Most of the regret I'm talking about has to do with the way I treated people in the past. So, in light of this I will be living more consciously so I can be an old lady on the beach in Florida, with a really wrinkly dark tan, sipping my cocktails, and laughing at my crazy adventures - not crying about the foolish way I treated people.

A beautiful friend, Julie Jackson, let me borrow her book "Eat, Pray, Love" -    I did all of those things to this book!  I devoured it over the holidays and took many things from it.  One such thing, which is kind of in contrast to the monologue above, is the idea of passato remoto - an Italian view that is used to describe things that happened so long ago that they have no personal impact on you what so ever.  I think I will embrace a little of this and try to get some distance between myself and some of the hurtful events of my past.

Other things from the book that I found deserved some extra thought:

- Americans are really bad at doing nothing

-Octavian Augustus said don't get attached to who you are or what you serve

-Codega - a fellow hired in the middle ages to hold a lantern in front of you as you walked alone in the dark streets to light your way and ward off demons

- smile everywhere - even in your liver

- Diligent Joy

- a person seeking their own happiness is not selfish since unhappiness causes distress and suffering to others

Hit me again Bartender!