Back to normal

Remember that post I did on how CRAZY Lucky the Leprechaun looked? Well, the right people must have read it, because things are back to normal now.
Well, semi-normal. His eyebrows are still indistinguishable from his hair and he still has smoke around him, but it looks less suspicious. Because he doesn't look high.

They are, of course, still pushing the whole teleporting thing, but it looks much more friendly now.

Good for you General Mills, good for you.

Silver Dresser

In case you were wondering what a silver leafed dresser looks like...
... it looks like this.

I really love the way it turned out, but it took a REALLY long time. And I should have ordered the silver leaves in bulk. But it is great to try new things.

Our room colors are greyish blue, white, cream and silver. I think the color palate of our room is relaxing. I have been noticing mirrored furniture, but I don't like the idea of always having to wipe it down. I have never heard of anyone silver leafing a dresser, but I love the way it turned out.

Random Acts

On Friday night I went to the gym with Amy and Michelle. We were just exercising away on the treadmills and elliptical machines in the back and we all had earbuds in so I guess we didn't hear the warning. When we finished up, we were the only ones in the building. The doors were locked. I guess they close at 9:00 on Fridays. We took some pictures for documentation, but none of them turned out well.

On Sunday, one of our neighbors shot an arrow into our house. Yep, you read that right. It was sticking out of our stucco right next to my craft room window. He seemed to be appropriately embarrassed and distraught. We thought it was funny. Especially since he offered to send some people over to patch it up.

I wrote, directed, and choreographed a roadshow that performed on Saturday. I got away with only rehearsing the kids twice! How awesome is that??

Well, I'm teaching a sewing class in about 30 minutes. I guess that is random too, but it's true. Gotta go!

I win again

My friend Emily did her first ever giveaway on her blog Southern Sunshine. And I got a little something in the mail yesterday. This is the second thing I've "won" out in blog land, the first being a super cute monster onesie from Rachelli. Of course, both of my winnings have been through friends' blogs, so maybe they just hooked me up to be nice. Emily actually said she had a lot of extra headbands hanging around, so she could have given one to every person that commented for all I know. Be that as it may, I'm sure glad she unloaded one on me! It is super cute. I tried it on Gwen, and she wasn't super thrilled, which is why I don't have a shot of her wearing it. Soon though... soon.

Little Kenzi even has her own stationary. How cute is that?

Feather

Heather, we miss you.

Heather is Jeff's girlfriend. Asher calls her Feather. She came to stay with us for about a week. Her sole reason in coming was to help me out. I pretty much love her.

This is an abbreviated list of what Heather did for me:

-swept and mopped all the tile in the house

-cleaned my shower (even after I told her she shouldn't have to because it was too gross) and the bathroom

-babysat

-fed Gwen bottles and baby food

-played with my kids

-dishes, dishes, dishes!

-cleaned all of our blinds

-accompanied me to the gym and motivated me to work out

-fixed lunch

-accompanied me on hard shopping adventures (such as Al's building supplies/seedy junkyard)

-vacuumed

-helped me seal and finally finish my silver leafed dresser

-detailed and washed my car

I'm probably leaving at least one thing off this list, but Heather and I accomplished A LOT while she was here. And we had fun! We talked and sang (she asked for a voice lesson, but it was more like a sing-along) and worked out and had a blast. I wish she lived with me. Life is much more fun and easy with her around. Before this week I didn't know Heather well. Now, I think of her as a friend. A sweet, gorgeous, talented, hard-working, motivated, smart, wonderful friend. Come back any time, Heather. You are always welcome here. Oh, and marry Jeff. We need to be related.

Back from Mars

I have sort of an obsessive personality.
I don't obsess about everything. Sometimes the thing I'm obsessing over is good, and sometimes it is bad. There is really no rhyme or reason. For instance, I can see a movie like Inception and think "that was a really good movie" and that's the end of it. But I can see a terrible movie like the most recent version of The Stepford Wives and I can't get it out of my mind. It is a little maddening.
This tendency of mine doesn't just apply to movies. I can get hooked on music, hobbies, or just about anything. If I start reading a book, no matter if it is good or bad, I need to finish it, and quickly. It is a curse, really.

I don't watch much television. I usually tune in to a show via hulu.com after it has been out for a while. Sometimes the show has already been cancelled, which was the case for my latest foray into a little program called Veronica Mars.
Somehow that show got its hooks into my brain. I know what I have to do when this happens. I just need to get it over with as soon as possible. I need to watch it all and get it out of my system. It is a good thing there were only three seasons. Of course, now that I've seen all they made, I'm a little sad that they left it hanging like that, but I suppose they couldn't help getting cancelled.

I just left Veronica Mars on all the time for a couple days. I missed a lot of what was going on in the second and third seasons, because you know... I had children to care for. But I got the gist and I didn't miss the important stuff. Whew! Anyway, I can come back to reality and live my normal life now. I hope I get obsessed with cleaning soon.

It rhymes with Hurt-y

So. I had a birthday. Despite entering another decade -(shudder)- it was a nice weekend.

Dan got me a piano keyboard that hooks up to my computer. This is awesome because I have written a lot of songs and I want to be able to record them. That man is always thinking. (side note: he had me enter the room where it was already set up, and he rigged up some little mechanism where a ball got knocked onto a box that pressed a button and the computer started playing the Birthday Song. It was awesome!) He also gave me his old iphone and got me a new docking station and a case for it.

I got cards and gifts and facebook love. I guess it is almost worth having a birthday to get that little reminder that other people like me.

I got a massage and a facial. It was.... SO good.

I dyed my own hair for the second time in my life. The first time I was 13 and it came out orange. Now I'm 30 (shudder) and it came out kinda brassy reddish blonde. Think Nicole Kidman meets Draco Malfoy. I'm probably going to try to fix it soon. Notice in the photo I have a wide headband covering the offending part of my head.

Sorry Dan and Gwen. This is my blog and I will show the best picture of myself at the expense of others.

We had Dan's Arizona siblings (minus the still vacationing Amy) over for tacos and cake the day after my b-day. It wasn't exactly for my birthday per se, but it was fun to get together. We vowed to do something like this more often.

We fit them all at our itty bitty table.

P.S. On my birthday my children had 4 different caregivers in one day! FOUR! First the gym day care, then my friend Nancy watched them while I went to Massage Envy, then a girl with 7 siblings from church came to be here while they were napping while I tried to go get my license renewed at the MVD (yes, that is what they call the DMV out here) but they were closed randomly, and then my lovely niece Hannah watched them while Dan took me to eat at Carrabas. That is a record I hope will never be topped.