I Want to be a Rock Star!

I got a tip from Hans earlier this year about a new game called Rock Band, which is similar to Guitar Hero. But with this game, instead of having only two guitar players, you can have the full band: bass, guitar, mike and drums. And what do you know, Santa delivered this game on Christmas morning.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's crazy fun! It's definitely going to be somthing that both the kids and the adults can enjoy.

When you create your band, you start our with a very small fan base and a limited selection of songs you can play. But as you master more songs, your fan base grows, you collect more money (hopefully), and eventually you'll be able to rock some pretty large stages. Maya and Tony both have their own bands. Tony's is called Hot Strawberry Jam, and we rocked it all night! Yes, we did get boo'ed off the stage a few times, but now that we're getting our groove together, it's coming along. Maybe soon we'll be able to earn ourselves a tour bus.

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At first I was addicted to lead guitar . . but drums are now my thing! Check out my high score!

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Scrap Room in the Making

Woo hoo! I'm so excited! For the last four years, I've used every room in our house to indulge my scrapbooking passion. I've longed to have a space that was just mine, one where I could leave stuff out and sit down to continue when time permits. I've made mess after mess on the dining room table, the coffee table, the floor of our bedroom, the basement, the bar -- you get the point.

Honestly, I can't complain. My family has been more than patient, and did have a dedicated armoire in the front living room, although its main purpose was for storage and left no room to actually work. If you're not familiar with the craft of scrapbooking, it takes up a lot of space . . . and any die-hard crafter (whether she's into stamping, cropping, knitting, etc.) has got a TON of crap. So you need room to store and when you work, you need room to spread out. For the last few months, I've had my eye on a few craft workstations, namley one from Scrapncube.com, but they averaged well over $1700! I'd even considering asking Tony to build me one . . which would be awesome and 100% custom-made, but he's just recently finished the basement and the bar and deserves a much-needed break from carpentry.

So while making our traditional Goodwill run after a delicious lunch at Slopes, I found an ultimate steal! Except for the fact that the 7-piece set was painted in pastel colors (which I'll soon be changing to off-white), and that I only wanted 4 of the 7 pieces, it had all the components I was looking for. Unfortunately, they wouldn't sell them separately. But no worries . . . I've got two little girls that would kill to have those ugly little side and corner tables in their rooms. Win-win!

Or so I thought. When I got home, I realized that the tables didn't fit into the space where I'd envisioned they would go -- a little nook in the basement. They were exactly one inch too big. But then Tony suggested that we just convert the office into "my space." How sweet was that? So we moved my scrapbooking armoire into the office, slid over the one we use for office supplies, removed the reading chair (that no one uses for reading), and everything fit perfectly. I am esctatic! I've got my printers, the computer, my storage and my work space all in the same room!!! It's not fully stocked and organized yet, but I've got a 4 day weekend coming up, so I'll have something to keep me busy. Check it out!

Christmas Shows and Movies on TV

I don't know about you guys, but I still LOVE many of the classic Christmas TV shows I grew up with. And while I may not get a chance to sit down and watch while each one is on, I'll probably use this list to set my TiVo and record stuff for the kids. Enjoy!



December 18th (Tues)
* Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (ABC Family, 7 pm)
* National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (TCM, 12:30 am)

December 19th (Wed)
* Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (ABC Family, 7 pm)
* Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys (ABC Family, 9 pm)

December 20th (Thurs)
* How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Movie) – (ABC Family, 8 pm)

December 22nd (Sat)
* A Very Brady Christmas (ABC Family, 11 am)
* Elf (CBS, 8 pm)

December 23rd (Sun)
* Elmo’s Christmas Countdown (ABC, 7 pm)
* How the Grinch Stole Christmas (movie) – (ABC Family, 7 & 9:30 pm)

December 24th (Mon)
* Jack Frost (ABC Family, 11 am)
* Frosty’s Winter Wonderland (ABC Family, 2 pm)
* ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (ABC Family, 2:30 pm)
* Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (ABC Family, 3 pm)
* Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (ABC Family, 5 pm)
* The Polar Express (ABC Family, 6 and 8:30 pm)
* It’s a Wonderful Life (NBC, 8 pm)
* A Christmas Story Marathon (TBS, 12:00 to 10:00 pm)

A Tribute to Bear

I think my friend, Dave (aka Bear), is really onto something. So Dave, here's to you!

Gonna Be a Bear

In this life, I'm a woman. In my next life, I'd like to come back as a bear.

When you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, you're supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that, too.

When you're a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts), while you're sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.

If you're a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them, too. I could deal with that.

If you're a bear, your mate expects you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.

Yup, gonna be a bear!

Funny Time in the Foyer

My daughter is a nut! She's an amazing athlete and is pretty good with imitations. In the beginning of this clip, she's either doing Cory in the House or That's So Raven. (I can't figure out which it's supposed to be.) Anyway, she loves to jump rope and becomes such a ham when the camera is rolling. This would've been a perfectly decent video had she not announced her bodily function at the end.

If you're unable to view this link (as I am at work), you can also check it out from here.

Walking In a Winter Wonderland

Contest time again! After knocking out our Halloween cube decorating contest, we're competing once again (this time in groups) to decorate designated areas in our office. So far, three teams have accepted the challenge and have put their creative minds together to create:

• A Charlie Brown Christmas (Mary's team, kitchen)
• Winter Wonderland (my team, front entrance)
• The Sweetest Time of the Year (I've heard Brad's team is going to use consumables and edible items to decorate the conference room. Hopefully, we'll remain bug free after the holidays.)

Hans likes to think he knows who's gonna win this contest, and to that, I say "Whateva." Technically, it doesn't matter who wins what. We have three categories of prizes and only three teams. I can't deny that I'm a tad competitive and have my own opinions about which creation is the best (of course, I'm biased). But in all honesty, what I mostly enjoy is how our office always embraces the spirit of the holidays and transforms our otherwise drab accommodations into something creatively enchanting and beautiful.

A Thank You Letter for Every Soldier!

About a month ago, The Bert Show, All the Hits Q100's morning show, decided to embark upon an ambitious campaign that would allow every deployed soldier from the US to receive a handwritten thank you letter on Thanksgiving Day. Not a small feat. They announced their idea on the air and then realized we only had about two weeks to get the letters in -- and they needed 375,000!! They knew that some soldiers never received any mail during their deployment, so their hope was to ensure that everyone in the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marines received something personal from home on the day of thanks.

Over the next few weeks, it was unbelievable to see how Atlanta pulled together to get this done. Letters poured in from elementary schools, colleges, churches, large corporations, small businesses, the governor's headquarters, and many, many individuals took the time to sit down, put pen to paper, and just say thank you. I wrote some letters, as did a few of my colleages, and even Maya said she wrote a nice letter with a drawing.

The goal of this mission was not political, and any letters that included such undertones were removed from the bunches. The goal was simply to give every man and woman overseas a small piece of home and to let our troops know that we're grateful for their efforts and that someone in Atlanta is thinking of them.

And amazingly, we achieved that goal!

Oh no -- We're Elves!!

And we're ready to rock you into the holidays!
Enjoy!

Growing Up

A few years ago, Maya was so excited when we had the Disney princessed painted on her wall. One of Tony's college friends happens to be a fabulous artist, and we got an amazing deal for his creation that people with crazy money would've paid thousands for. So of course, it broke my heart when Maya asked if she could paint her walls to cover up the princesses. Cause after all. . . she's seven now and too "old" for princesses.

So we made her a deal and offered to let her switch rooms with Nadia, whose walls are feminine, but not over the top girlie or princessy. And she reluctantly agreed. So Tony (who knows his daughter) asked her a sign a contract clarifying that if he disassembles and moves her furniture, she's committed to staying in Nadia's room. In a nutshell, there's no turning back. Maya wouldn't sign the contract. She still loves her room . . she just can't stand her walls.

But then she and Tony came up with a brilliant idea. Rather than repaint, they decided to get a little creative and just cover up the princesses. Tony used a huge white board and an equally large corkboard to cover the largest pictures, and Maya picked out some posters to disguise the rest. In the end, it was a win/win for everybody.

Kiawah Island, SC

Tony and I spent the most amazing night at Kiawah Island Resort, in Kiawah Island, SC (about 15 miles from Charleston). He'd been invited to represent Coca Cola Enterprises at the Intel Celebrity Golf Tournament, and I just tagged along for the ride. Although it was only a one-night getaway, I thoroughly enjoyed not going to work, sleeping in, having coffee on our private balcony with the ocean view and not being "Mom" for 24 hours.

On Monday, Tony and the guys played in the celebrity tournament at a course that's to-die-for, while I enjoyed some pampering at the spa . . but the highlight of the weekend was the surprise mini-concert performed by four musicians, including Darius Rucker (from Hootie and the Blowfish). Tony and I had the best seats in the house at Table 1, front and center.

NOTE: If your firewall prevents you from viewing the video (as mine does), feel free to check it out from the link posted above.

The Spookiest of Them All!

It's official -- Sonia is the much deserved winner of the Halloween cube decorating contest this year. Sadly, only three of us at VistaScape participated. I made a valiant effort using hand-cut silhouettes and orange lights, and Leah's was super creative and proved that she really knows how to make something amazing out of recycled products.

But Sonia went ALL OUT . . smoke machine, spooky music, rats, crows, dripping blood, scythes, eerie lights -- and best of all, a wonderfully creative idea memorializing the "death" of VistaScape. Even though I'd entered the contest, if I'd been able to vote, I would have chosen her cube as well!

Great job, Sonia! Who knew you were so darn creative? :)

Halloween Block Party 2007

Yet again, we pulled off another Halloween Block Party that rocked!!! The weather was perfect, the costumes were hilarious, and the band was awesome. We kicked it off around 6 pm, and it wasn't until 1:30 or so when I finally called it a night. Good times!

Another Shut-Out (Gosh, I'm tired)

It's exhausting shutting you guys out in foosball. Not to mention, bad for my health. I don't think I took a breath during the whole second half of the game. Once the score got up to 6-0, Dave and I didn't dare say the words . . but everyone in the room was thinking it.

On the one hand, Fantom was already the not-so-proud owner of the trophy, and while he was invested in the game, he really didn't have much to lose. Curt, on the other hand, really didn't want the broken man again, especially under these circumstances. 'Cause let me think, wasn't it I who helped shut him out the first time?

Murder Mystery 2007

Once again, my family joined together with our friends and their families for our annual game of Murder Mystery Theater. We all took a Friday off from work and school and road tripped up to Elijay, where we enjoyed some much needed down-time in an awesome cabin in the Georgia mountains. We spent Friday hanging around doing a lot of nothing and Saturday morning, we went to the local Apple Festival. As always, we had good food, great drinks and lots of laughs. Good times!

Staying Alive

This mystery occurs in 1979 at the trendy Studio Manhattan, a chic and glamorous New York discotheque frequented by the rich and famous. Tonight’s exclusive crowd of celebrities is feverishly dancing the Hustle to the throbbing rhythmic beat of disco. The music stops abruptly when the club’s owner, Jackie Fever, is found murdered in the backstage office. The flamboyant Ms. Fever was fatally stabbed – obviously by someone she knew. And everyone is a suspect!

Enter If you Dare

It's fall again, and in traditional VistaScape fashion, we've concocted another excuse to compete against each other. . . as if daily foosing wasn't enough. Last year we had a Christmas decorating contest, and this year we decided to include Halloween in the mix. I don't really care about winning so much . . . I just like having an excuse to decorate. It's still 80 degrees outside, but as far as I'm concerned, it's the holiday season now! I may even bake something next week.

And Then We Were Siemens

Before we become too Siemenized, we wanted to get together for one last nostalgic moment in front our beloved VistaScape sign. Now that we've been fully acquired, we're all pretty sure that sign is coming down soon. Unfortunately, all of us were not able to be in this picture (we've got at least 10 folks missing), but they were with us in spirit. In the next few days or so, I'll get this picture signed and distributed to all.

I realize this acquisition was needed, and in the end, I'm sure it will be a good thing. And even though they may take down our sign, eliminate our logo and company name, and make us all have clean desks, I'm still grateful that we've been able to maintain the camaraderie, mutual respect and dedicated efforts that make working here so darn rewarding.

Blog Entries Come to Life

At my crop last night, I managed to complete two more pages for the VistaScrap book. The minivan and jungle pictures aren't new . . they've already been blogged. But I couldn't rest easy until they'd been properly memorialized.

You ever dance with the devil by the pale moon light?

Sorry . . Batman flashback. I loved that movie!

Anywho, my neighbor and I decided we're gonna be Super Heroes for the Halloween party this year. She's going to be Super Girl. Guess which one I'm gonna be? Tee hee . . I get to wear my new black boots.

Charlie's Angels?

Don't mess with the women of VistaScape!

Not only can we take you down (with our high-powered Nerf guns), but we can also trash talk and spank up on you in the foos room. Ya doubt me? Bring it!

When Kids Dress Themselves . . .

. . .you never quite know what you're going to get. Yesterday's lovely ensemble included a pink terrycloth (beach) coverall, paired with cotton camouflage pants and glittered Dorothy ballet slippers.

As you can see, I've learned to pick my battles.

Nadia is starting to have her little preferences, too, and to be honest, I really don't give a flip if she wears this Dora shirt or that Dora shirt. As long as it's clean, it's not Picture Day and what they choose is season-appropriate, I go with the flow.

Welcome to the Jungle

When I was offered one of the corner window cubes in the office (formerly occupied by Sal, Hans and Tom), I worried that I'd be stuck in No Man's Land and that I'd never have anyone come visit me.

However, I haven't quite found that to be a problem.

Maybe it's the plants . . . of course, it could be the monkey.

Crash!

Yesterday had started out being quite a lovely day. I felt productive at work, had a nice lunch at Chin Chin and was looking forward to going to my exercise class at night.

I left work at the normal time, but unfortunately didn't make it very far. While going through a green light on Hammond Drive (about to cross the bridge for 285), something caught my attention in the rear-view mirror. I diverted my eyes from the road and didn't notice that the cars in front of me had come to a complete stand still. At that point, the crash was inevitable, and four cars in total were involved. Gratefully, no one was hurt. My neck hurts a bit and my headache won't go away, but other than that, no serious harm done. Of course, my car is not so happy. And neither is my husband.

Understandable, I guess. I endured the ride of shame in his car back home, and I'm now going through the annoying process of dealing with insurance adjusters, body shops and car rentals. I'm about ready to pull my hair out. I'm mad that I (of all people) forgot to take more pictures of the crash. Many thanks to Curtis for coming out to the site to check on me, and for using his nifty iPhone to take the picture above.

On the bright side:

• I remembered to take my camera and computer out of the car before they towed it. (I did, however, forget to take my only cell phone charger.)


• I still made my class (although I ended up sitting out most of it). That probably wasn't the smartest move on my part.


• I got to ride in the back of a cop car, which was more comfortable than I would have imagined. (Interestingly enough, I learned that the Sandy Springs cop who brought me back to work not only lives in my neighborhood, but also goes to my church and is close friends with my daughter's teacher.)


• I learned that kids are totally unphased by the so-called "tragedies" that affect their parents. I don't know if Nadia even noticed the not-so-typical silence coming from the front seat, but she, much like my co-workers, found ways to amuse herself on the ride back home. She took off her shoes and socks and made puppets. Oh, to be two years old again!

Sesame Street Live

Last night I took the family to see Sesame Street Live at Phillips Arena, and Nadia got the thrill of her life. It's one thing to see your favorite Sesame Street characters on TV; it's quite another to see them dancing a few hundred feet from you. She LOVED it!!

Of course, I've been down this road with Maya before, and she didn't hesitate to point out that this concert was not her first choice. (Although she'll get her turn in November when we go see Hannah Montana.)

Personally, I had a blast. I grew up with Sesame Street, and it will never get old to me. I found myself singing right along to all the songs, which I didn't realize I still knew. (Don't laugh . . you know you know them all, too.)

In case you're wondering, the letter of the day was J. Guess what the number of the day was.

Many thanks to Barbar and Maribel for the tickets! :)

I Need a New Camera

A few weeks ago, I noticed that a little black spot was appearing on all the pictures I took with my camera. I assumed that I dropped it and cracked something inside the lens, but Jeff seems to think somehow I've managed to get dust on the sensor. I have no idea what's wrong with it . . . all I know is that it's a good thing I know how to use PhotoShop. I can make anything disappear.

But just to put salt on the wound, Hans and Rich used my crappy camera to complete this masterpiece. Hans drew a partial face on the Tiki whiteboard, and Rich finished off the look.

Kids are Weird

A month ago, Nadia had a boo-boo on her arm, which allowed her to sport the ever-cool Dora Band-Aid. Well, the boo-boo healed and the Band-Aid eventually fell off at school, although she'd fought desperately to keep it attached. She walked around for days holding it onto her arm. When it couldn't hang on any more, her teachers did what they thought was best and gave her a new Band-Aid because they'd never seen this normally mild-mannered child lose it the way she did.

She's now worn this thing for over three weeks. And once again, this raggedy Band-Aid is on its last leg. And once again, Nadia is walking around holding her arm.

I've seriously considering ripping it off while she sleeps, but Tony assured me that it's only days away from giving up its fight. Everyone has been warned -- DO NOT replace this. She does not have a boo-boo!!

I just hope it happens while she's at school.

The Things We Do For Our Kids

Some of you may not be able to relate to this. . . but those of you who know who Hannah Montana is probably also know a young girl who's crazy about her! My daughter is one of them.

So when I found out that she was coming to Atlanta in November, I decided to do the cool thing and get Maya and her best friend tickets to the show. (Of course, I'll have to endure it too.)

HOWEVER . . getting the tickets was a total nail-biting experience. I'd heard that tickets for this concert sell out in 30 minutes .. . and they're currently going for $600 online. But for those who are members of the fan club, you can order them four days early (starting at 10:00 AM today). So I joined the fan club a week ago. And at 9:50, I go to log in.

I knew something was up when it took almost two minutes to authenticate. I'd gotten in every other time in the past almost instantaneously. But I finally get in and I tried to purchase tickets early with my "secret" code to use for the presale. But once I navigated to the place where you enter the code, it stalled. The field just said "retrieving code" . . Try back later." It wouldn't let me enter anything!!!! So I'm cursing at the computer and clicking it over and over. . .and meanwhile the clock is ticking down . . . it's now 9:57 and I'm freaking out. This is the only way you can get to the Ticketmaster site for presale. Finally, after the 8th or 9th time of clicking the button, the field populates with my code. I click Buy Now. Success!!!!

Oh. . but not so fast. . . . Now, I'm in Ticketmaster, and it's still showing "tickets are not available for purchase yet." It's 9:58. So I stare at the time on my computer and when it's finally 10:00, I hit refresh, and the screen populates to order tickets. So I choose some seats that I think are good (not the cheapest but not the most expensive) and click "Find Tickets". And it returns "can't find any tickets for that location."

So now I'm pissed. It's 10:01. I go back to the main screen and select "Find any location" . . and FINALLY!!! It gives me 4 tickets on the lower level . . and of course, it takes forever to process and authenticate, and it keeps hanging because I get that popup screen that says "Do you wish to show both secure and unsecure information" about 5 times. I'm scared to click too much for fear that it will screw up and lose my space in line. . but it eventually works, and we are now the proud ticket owners of four seats in the Gwinette Center for November 28th show.

Also, I need to say that Ticketmaster is such a rip. They charged me $10.90 convenience charge (per ticket), a $3.60 processing fee and a $2.50 fee to print it now! But hey -- it's done, and my kid will be thrilled. I'm sure the tickets are completely sold out by now.

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10/2/07

Ten minutes after I bought these, they sold out! So far, I haven't found anyone else who's bee able to get them. So I totally lucked out.

Another Scrappin' Weekend

Once again, I spent the weekend at my friend, Karen's house (Scrappin' Retreats) and did nothing but eat, sleep, drink and scrap (not necessarily in that order). I did a whole lot more drinking than sleeping -- or scrapping for that matter. And by most croppers' standards, I didn't accomplish a whole heck of a lot -- eight pages. Not that I've ever managed to crank out more than 11 or 12 in a weekend. But this past week just seemed to fly by, and I didn't have time to do the pre-planning and organizing I typically do for weekends like these. I did no computer journaling, had no layouts sketched, and sadly had no brilliant ideas I couldn't wait to put on paper. So I spent the majority of time staring at the pictures and supplies I managed to pack and tried to create something that I wouldn't hate. (I'm notorious for re-doing pages I don't like.)

I did have my first Bloody Mary on Saturday night, and I have to say . . not half bad! After a few of those, it's not surprising that I had difficulty getting my act together. But I had fun, got caught up on some sleep, and added the following pages to my family archive.

• I Remember
• A Mother Understands
• I'm the King of the World
• Mommy's Little Helper
• Maya's Movie Party - pg. 1
• Maya's Movie Party - pg. 2
• Three Musketeers

Water Gun Fight

Rich and Melissa opened up their home for the Labor Day holiday, and a few of us kicked it at their pool and had some awesome water gun fights. We had a few beers, snacked on GrantBob's Texas caviar, and enjoyed the fact that we weren't at work that Monday.

Thanks, Rich. Good times!!

If the Shoe Fits

Buy it and don’t look back! Last night I took the plunge and traded in my high-heeled strappy sandles for what can only be described as “stripper shoes.” After completing my new eight-week workout program at Polelateaz, two of my friends decided that they now want to Find Their Flow, and so I agreed to repeat Level 1 and flow with them. I’m totally ready to take it to the next level and do some sideways moves, but having my friends in the class will make it fun.

It’s actually not required that you wear heels for the program, but it doesn’t hurt, and it definitely helps bring out your inner [fill in the blank with the noun of your choice]. And believe it or not, the ones I picked out were probably the most conservative of the choices. They had black, red, thigh-high strappy patent-leather boots, shoes that light up when you walk . . but I liked the clear rhinestones – they coordinate with anything. Hey – when in Rome . . . :)

I'm a lego. . .we're a lego, wouldn't you like to be a lego too?

http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mm2/index.htm

Other Lego Friends:

• The First Lego
• Squeaky Lego
• Liverpool Lego
• Curt's Lego
• Bear's Lego

Now Everyone on the Road Will Know ...

. . . I'm a Scrapaholic. You no longer need to be closely trailing me to learn that. Of course, if you are, you'll see my customized frame, too -- but with the new tag, you pretty much can't miss it. Of course, it's possible that only scrapbookers will understand what my new tag means, but oh well.

I'm just glad the DMV didn't screw up and include an A where there's currently an O.

Are We There Yet?

I have to say, my co-workers are definitley not dull! They are going to make the most the situation, no matter where they happen to be -- even in the back of the mom-mobile.

While taking a 10 minute trek to Miller's Ale House for lunch (fabulous, by the way), they managed to entertain themselves quite nicely with a small package of Play-Doh and my scrapbooking camera they found in the backseat.

Learn Cheerleading in Your Very Own Living Room

Or rather, in the neighbors' living room. I hung out this evening with my friend, Melissa, and got to witness the latest concept in kid's videos. I don't know if you can actually consider it just TV, since it's an interactive video that teaches you how to perform various cheerleading routines. It's quite annoying, but it somehow managed to capture the attention of two the neighborhood girls for a whole half hour. Of course, it was a little "too girlie" for Maya to participate, so she played the role of couch potato while her friends got their little girl grooves on.

Not Too Girlie, Mom!!

I'm slowing accepting the fact that my oldest daughter, Maya, is not going to be a Girlie Girl. (Nadia totally is. . . so hopefully I still have dresses and cute barrettes in my future), but Maya wants nothing to do with anything pink, Barbie, or even princess-oriented. Sniff... it wasn't too long ago that my baby was Jasmine. Oh well. . .

For Halloween this year, she wants to be a ninja. I'd found an adorable costume on Lillian Vernon, but it was too pink . . so after consulting with my dear friend, Google, I found the same costume in red -- and cheaper, too!! And don't tell her, but it's still kind of girlie . .. not as bad as it could have been.

In October, I'm sure we'll have another neighborhood Halloween Block party (which contrary to what everyone in my office thinks, is actually open to those outside the neighborhood) -- so be forewarned. An Evite may be forthcoming soon.

Be Careful What You Ask For

Cause it kind of backfired on me this afternoon. After hours and hours of listening to Hannah Montana, I finally had enough and declared that the TV will be OFF until I say so. I challenged Maya to find something else besides the television to occupy her time. I was hoping that would send the kids outside to play or maybe encourage them to pick up a book. (I obviously don't think like a seven year old.) Maya and her friend, Patrick, decided to get creative inside the house. I don't blame them really; it was 96 degrees outside. But now my foyer looks like this! It's like a reenactment of the movie Entrapment.

Spider

Yesterday, Maya and Nadia started hollaring for me to "come see, come see." I thought they'd drawn a really nice picture or something. But noooo, they'd discovered one of the largest spiders I've ever seen outside of a cage, and it was weaving a new web right in our front entry way. Perfect. That's what people like to see when they come to visit.

My first instinct was to grab the broom, but I refrained and instead picked up the camera. I figured there might be some crazy person at my job who would actually find this cool.

I'm not really sure how to move this spider without destroying its web (and its latest food find), but I need to figure something out pretty quick. I love animals and all (and I'm no Michael Vick), but sooner or later, she's gonna have to go. In the meantime, check out the pictures.