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.

The Biggest Loser

I don't know why we fall for this every time. . . signing up for this little contest, vainly hoping to overtake Hans, who continues to win time and time again. But we did -- nine of us from work, and for 11 weeks, we watched our weight fluctuate up and down as we participated in weekly weigh-ins. All in all, we did quite well, a few of us coming quite close to giving him some real competition. But in the end (which we decided to call a week early) -- we are all way over it -- Hans reined supreme, losing 19.5 pounds and over 7% in body weight.

However, he was generous enough to treat us all to lunch at The Derby, where NO ONE ordered anything remotely healthy. Onion rings, burger melts, fish and chips and pitchers and pitchers of Bass. Mmmmm . . Thanks, Hans -- and congratulations! You are the Biggest Loser.

Whirly Ball

A bunch of us blew off a Wednesday night with our families and endured a God-awful commute up 400 to play Whirly Ball with our fellow teammates and some of our Vallero & Stanley customers. Despite the bruises I received from the crank they call a steering wheel, I had a lot of fun.

I learned that we actually broke a record, too. According to the referee, we are the first group in his experience to ever score 0/0. So that's something. Cause all in all, we really sucked. But to be fair, this game is NOT easy. But after a few beers, no one really cared that we were barely scoring. I think everyone had a pretty good time.

And SUPER thanks to Jeff for letting me take these pictures with his iPhone. :-D

My Scraptactular Weekend

I don't get to do it very often -- get away for the WHOLE weekend. But when I do, I take full advantage. This past Friday, I packed the car, went to work, and didn't go home until Sunday afternoon! Woo hoo!!

After work, I got my nails done and then headed straight to Scrappin Retreats in Flowery Branch, where my friend, Karen Collins hosted a group of die-hards for the weekend. We scrapped until around 2:00 am each night, consumed numerous bottles of wine, and enjoyed our lazy mornings sleeping in. Although some of the girls there managed to get over 30 pages done, I only completed eight. I'm slow. But oh well. . .it's not a race. If you're so inclined, feel free to check them out. Two of them are actually for The Official VistaScrap Book (one that's dedicated to pictures from work).

• First Love
• KISSING
• Sweetie Pie
• Young Chefs' Academy
• Picture Perfect
• Car Wash
• Blogging Buddies (shown below)
• Kim's Christmas Cube (I actually hate this page, so I'm gonna re-do it later.)