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| APPLE! |
09/09/11 - Lori
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| Treat |
09/07/11 - Lori
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| Charlotte |
She's been there ever since - she keeps stringing her webs on both sides of the ceiling over my sink - I say, "Hello Charlotte" every time I see her. I'm a bit worried because she hasn't had a good meal since this Lady Bug (who's shell I found on my bathroom counter) - I am thinking of catching her a moth.
09/03/11 - Lori
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| Still There! |
09/02/11 - Lori
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| Finger Painting! |
09/01/11 - Lori
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| 15 Months |
Second - this was Cassie's 15-month physical, and she's about 16 months now - oops.
Anyway, one of the interesting things about taking er for her physicals is seeing how she acts in the room. When she was tiny, it was cuddle time while we waited for the doc. Then she started to use her hands, and she'd have a blast with the white paper on the table. Then - she started to realize there were things outside of her reach, but she did not know how to get them. Those were the challenging visits, because she didn't want to sit still. She still doesn't want to sit still, but fortunately now a book holds her interest just long enough to wait for the doctor.
9/17/11 - Carmen
Moving day is rapidly approaching and I wanted to organize my stuff that is in storage. Mostly totes all the way in the back behind the crap of 3 other people who just threw it in haphazardly. So I basically had to empty the whole 40 foot trailer and repack it....fun! I can't wait to unpack my books that have been packed up for over 4 years...yes they will probably be the first things unpacked....
9/14/11 Carmen
WWLT (what would lori think)...that goes through my mind every time I take a picture. So when she said that I should join you guys here I said sure! I'll forewarn you that most will be taken with my phone...I hope you don't mind. Today...my first day...I had an idea...unfortunately my camera was overused and the batteries dead. I wanted to take a pic of my new knee high boots up in the air....but this is what you get!
09/06/11 - Amy
"Ready"
Hair: cut. Nails (fingers and toes): done. Body: scrubbed. Face: facialed. Bikini: bought. All ready to go on vacation!
09/05/11 - Amy
"Done"
So proud of my man. Here is his dissertation, completed, bound, and ready to hand in. 80 pages of Viking goodness. A momentous occasion.
09/04/11 - Amy
"Bacon"
It is a truth universally acknowledged that bacon rocks. What does not rock, however, is the limp, floppy bacon that is commonly sold in the UK (the closest equivalent we have is Canadian bacon - nice sometimes, but not all the time). For the past few years I have been on a quest to find the best bacon for frying up all crispy, American style, but to no avail. This weekend, I discovered pancetta on the bacon shelf of the supermarket, and was pleased to discover that pancetta is actually code for "American crispy bacon." Hooray!
09/02/11 - Amy
"Rose"
"To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you - the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose"
-The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
09/01/11 - Amy
"First Birthday"
Today is my baby’s birthday. Happy birthday, Minnie!
I’ve been thinking about babies a lot lately…babies, and life choices. I have a baby, and her name is Minnie. She might look different than you’d expect, but she’s my baby, and I love her. It took me nine months of hard work and struggle to get her, and to me she’s so much more than just a car.
My all-time favourite episode of Sex and the City, “A Woman’s Right to Shoes” tackles this issue head on. Carrie arrives at a friend’s child’s birthday party all dolled up in her latest outfit, but her friend asks her (and everyone else) to take her shoes off at the door, so that dirt and germs wouldn’t be tracked into the apartment. Carrie complies, but at the end of the evening finds her $485 Manolo Blahniks missing. She comes back the next day to see if her friend found the shoes, but her friend couldn’t seem to care less. Instead of reimbursing Carrie for the shoes, she shames her for her “life choices.” Why should she have to pay $485 for Carrie’s self-indulgent (read: childless) lifestyle? (Even though Carrie has shelled out about $2,300 for engagement gifts, wedding and baby shower gifts, as well as kid birthday gifts.) The friend, in fact, used to wear Manolo’s, but since having got a “real life” forgot how it felt to walk in the single girl’s shoes. While Carrie has to be understanding of her life, her friend isn’t understanding of hers. While the friend puts her kids at the centre of her world, why is it not ok that at the centre of Carrie’s lays a pair of gorgeous, sparkly silver shoes? The friend’s attitude causes so much shame that Carrie wonders: “Is it wrong that my life is filled with shoes and not children?” I suppose that this is why I get my back up when people tell me I need to “just deal with” other peoples’ lifestyle choices, when no one else seems to have to, or be willing to, do the same with mine.
I don’t really like kids of the human variety, and don’t really want to have one right now, but I respect other peoples’ choice to have them. Society, however, only seems to value one model of lifestyle, the one that starts with marriage and ends with procreation. As Carrie says in the episode, ‘If you are single, after graduation, there isn’t one occasion where people celebrate you…Hallmark doesn’t make a “congratulations, you didn’t marry the wrong guy” card, and where’s the flatware for going on vacation alone?”
I’ve sat through conversations among friends and colleagues about diapers and formula… favourite kids’ books… advantages and disadvantages of magnet schools… none of which interested me, and none of which I knew anything about. Still, I smiled politely, respecting the childed peoples’ choices, waiting for a part of the conversation that I could participate in. It seems to rarely occur to people with children that others might not be interested in hearing about the minutia of their childed lives, because everyone likes to talk about kids, right?
The thing is, I try to show interest in my friends’ children because they are my friends’ children. They are a part of my friends’ lives – important to them, they are by default important to me. But often it’s hard, and I do have to make an effort. Still, most of my friends know hardly anything about my other baby – my book – and what it is about. Still fewer inquire about Minnie. The fact is, my book or my Minnie are probably about as interesting and relatable to my friends as the baby talk is to me.
Of course, our society needs to reproduce – that I get. But not everyone needs to – or wants to (or can!) – have a child. Still, having a child seems to be the pinnacle of every human being’s “to do” list: graduate high school, go to college, get a job, get married, have a baby. But what if you don’t tick all the boxes on the list? What if your lifestyle doesn’t follow that pattern? And what is wrong with, instead of parenting a human baby, writing a book, or getting your dream car? Why is mother a better occupation than teacher, or even investment banker? Why is one lifestyle valued more than another?
I was at a dinner following an amazing conference on Eastern European art last fall. One of the organizers, a Hungarian curator and art historian, was speaking with a Polish art curator about her latest exhibitions. The Polish curator (also a woman) suddenly interrupted the Hungarian one: “that’s great, that’s all wonderful,” she said, “but WHEN are you going to have a BABY?!” The Hungarian curator responded, “oh, we already have two kids.” “Oh, then everything is OK,” the Polish curator responded. I was flabbergasted. So, all of the achievements that this woman has made – the conferences she has organized, the exhibitions she has curated, the catalogues she has written, even the international connections she has fostered – those are all nice, but everything in her life is only “OK” once she has reproduced. I found that sad not only in general, but also in terms of my life, because I doubt that that Polish curator is alone in thinking that way.
I know that it probably sounds silly to refer to a car as one’s baby. But she’s ideal for me right now. She’s quiet, never cries, only needs to be fed about once a month, and never fusses. As a person who is just learning to take care of herself, this is probably the best baby that I could have, and the most that I can give right now. Minnie is my baby, and as silly as that may sound, it makes sense to me. I believe that’s what Lori might call…”Amy Logic”? In the meantime, I’m still waiting for my flatware…and my baby shower! Happy first birthday to my baby girl.
08/28/11 - Lori
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| Desperate Times |
You'd think we would be grateful we had cold milk for Cassie with no power (thanks to a LOT of ice in the fridge and freezer) but when it comes to bedtime we need the milk warm .. so I improvised. Worked like a charm!
08/27/11 - Lori
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| Last Supper |
08/27/11 - Amy
"Bikini"
I bought a bikini! Now all I have to do is wear it.
I'm heading to Savannah, Georgia with the Viking in a few weeks, and although I have a bathing suit, I thought that this time, I'd give a bikini a try. I think the last time I wore one, I was 6 years old. Over the past year and a half, I've lost about 45 pounds. (This is nothing compared to Carmen's stellar weight loss of 100+! Wow!) I am officially no longer overweight, probably for the first time in my life, but my body is by no means perfect. I am blessed, however, with a boyfriend who tells me, almost on a daily basis, how beautiful, sexy and skinny I am (when have I ever been called skinny??!!), and he was the one who encouraged me to get the bikini. Although I still look at my body and see the flaws, it is really encouraging to know that he sees only the good. Whether or not the other beachgoers are ready for my body, I think that walking out onto that beach will be another big step for me toward accepting myself, and my body, as I am. Plus, I can't wait to get a suntan on my tummy!
It may not be that itsy bitsy, and it isn't yellow, but it is my lovely polka-dot bikini!
08/26/11 - Amy
"Snoopy has a Sleepover"
My noisy neighbours were at it again the other night, so I had a sleepover at Matt's. And Snoopy came, too ;-)
08/25/11 - Amy
"Quilt"
Look what my mom made for me! A sort of belated present for getting my PhD. It took her an incredible amount of time - she had to sew each one of those strips together. I can sew, but I just don't have the patience that she has to do things like this - or even to sew at all these days. I used to make a lot of my clothes in high school, but now I just can't be bothered - buying it is just so much easier!
08/25/11 - Lori
Rain on the Windshield
When there's nothing better to do while waiting in the drive-thru line at Dunkin Donuts, why not PAD?
08/21/11 - Lori
I could've posted the pic of the Gorbachev-style knot/bruise on her forehead from this morning when she fell out of her crib (or angrily busted out, as it were), however this pic - with the shadows hiding the bruise - captured my girl best. Head-injury be damned, she has a good time as often as possible!
(ps, the next few days will be raw image posts as I am negotiating with my laptop to start working again, at least long enough to move my pictures and music to another computer where I will have to install photo-editing software. Last night's negotiations did not go well, so I am posting raw images from work for a few days!)
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| Bruiser |
(ps, the next few days will be raw image posts as I am negotiating with my laptop to start working again, at least long enough to move my pictures and music to another computer where I will have to install photo-editing software. Last night's negotiations did not go well, so I am posting raw images from work for a few days!)
08/23/11 - Amy
"A Day out in Edinburgh"
Really, how could this NOT be my PAD of the day? (It had been chosen even before we talked, Lori!) A momentous occasion that needs to be marked!
08/19/11 - Lori
Skinny Bitch
My Carmie needed a dress, and I was happy to go along. In the last 14 years, I've never seen Carmen in a dress. Carmen's lost over 100lbs and is looking gooooooooood. Although she liked what she saw in the mirror, I insisted on taking her pic. I wish I had a pic of the look on her face when she saw the pic!!! There's something different about seeing a pic of yourself than seeing yourself in the mirror. She was even more enamored with the pic I took of her backside - but decided to post this one anyway :)
08/18/11 - Lori
"i/S"
This was my 3rd time taking DiSC training. I'm still an "i". I'm people-oriented vs. task-oriented. I prefer brainstorming over "doing", and I like to keep the peace at work. I;m a cheerleader who thinks outside of the box. Yep, that's me. Somehow, I get stuff done, too!
08/17/11 - Lori
King Of My World
I seem to have lost (or deleted) an SD card with images on it - hence the lapse between 8/13 and 8/17. That's the primary reason I have not posted lately, is because I was trying to find my dang photos!! I decided to post with the gap in dates and just post out of order if I can hunt down that card. I did not have exciting PADs so I am not too upset - and I loved this one, so I couldn't wait any longer to post it :)
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