Scenes From My Day

Wiggle Man woke up shrieking at 6:45. AM. (I know, I know--some of you suffer from actual early risers, but in our household, this is early. We're night owls.) This is the second morning in a row; I suspect one of our neighbours is leaving early for work, and Wiggle Man hears the truck leaving, but I can't be sure. (Imagine my dramatic sigh here.)

I managed 20 minutes on the elliptical before I gave in and stopped, for fear of fainting in the cardio room at the Y.

Feeling better, we headed to the library. If you were there, you would have heard a crazed woman scream-whispering the following:

"Wiggle Man! WIGGLE MAN! (Insert child's full name here.) Get OFF the stool. No, put that book back on the shelf. No, no, no, no, NOOOOO! Do you want to leave right now?" Etc.

I decided a mother-son bonding time was needed. We baked cookies. Butter, shortening and sugar in the mixer. ("Mommy, need more sugar." "No, son, we certainly don't. At least, you don't. Mommy actually may need more sugar. Or chocolate. Or wine.") Imagine my surprise to find that my eggs had actually frozen. They were sitting towards the back of the fridge, and apparently, it's cold back there.

Off to the "Food Line" (evidence of Wiggle Man's developing southern drawl?) for eggs.

Me chasing Wiggles around the store. The phrase "Watch where you're going!" was repeated frequently, followed by, "I'm sorry, ma'am."

Then I tried to lie down on the couch. Wiggle Man decided I made a perfect trampoline. Headache ensues.

Now? Dinner's on the stove, and the little cherub is passed out on the chair, fast asleep.

Sweet, sweet silence.

Kisses,

My Hair, Yo

"Where does Wiggle Man get his curly hair?"

I got this question at church last month by more than one person. It threw me for a loop the first time. And then I realised: unless someone ran into me at Food Lion before my hair was done for the day, or if I was having a lazy hair day, most people at church had no idea I had curly hair. It's always nice and straight for Sunday morning service.

So, I decided to go curly for church. This brought different questions. Questions like, "Why in the world don't you leave your hair curly all the time?"

Well, it's simply more practical to straighten my hair. I know that seems weird, so I took some pictures as proof.

Here's me, with my hair all nice and curly:







Here's me, after Wiggle Man has gotten ahold of my hair to play with it, or wrestle with me, or climb up my back, or basically in any way comes in contact with my hair:







And that picture doesn't do the frizz factor justice.

Here's a picture of me with my hair freshly straightened:

And here's me again, after a run-in with Wiggle Man:

See what I mean?

This is why I straighten my hair, friends. At least, that's one reason. Also, I like it better straight, it doesn't feel weird around my face when it's straight, and you can see my highlights better.

The End.

Kisses,

Wiggle-isms

This morning, as we were getting ready to head out to the Y:

The Missus: "Wiggle Man, should we wash the car today?"
Wiggle Man: "No way! That's CRAZY." (Someone is afraid of those drive through car washes.)

At the Starbucks in Target, for our post-Y treat:

WM: "Please can I have coffee drink?"
TM: "No, Wiggles, you need to be bigger before you can have coffee."
Wiggle Man stretches himself to his full height, shows me his "muscles" then says:
WM: "Me big boy now? Coffee drink?"

Ummm...no. Not quite, child. :)

Kisses,


PS--Shameless self-promotion alert--don't forget to check out www.cyberflutelessons.com!

Proof of My Awesomeness

So this first picture isn't so much proof of my awesomeness, besides the awesomeness of my family. This is the first family picture that I really like enough to consider framing. Also, you can see how much Wiggle Man needs a hair cut.

Ok, here's where we get to the awesomeness:

Gorgeous views, aren't they? So worth making it to the top.

Yeah, so I look a little sweaty glisten-y, and maybe a little winded, but c'mon. It was my first hike.

Here's me and my sister-in-law, celebrating our awesomeness. It's an odd angle, because, well, we're on top of a rock. Which doesn't exactly provide for level ground for picture taking. So I'm squashing my vanity, and posting it anyway, because you can see how awesome we are, up on that rock.

So there you have it. Proof of my mad hiking skillz and all that.

Don't forget to check out http://www.cyberflutelessons.com/ if you haven't already, and feel free to, you know, tell all your friends and stuff. And if you want to tell random strangers, that's ok, too.

Kisses,

It's Up!

Did you miss me?

I missed you. No, really. I did. But I've also been enjoying the lake, and hiking up mountains (proof pictures to come when I get them) mountains, people, and just generally loving this summer weather.

But, there have been other things ruminating around in my head, and I'm so pleased to tell you about my newest endeavour:

www.cyberflutelessons.com

It's exactly what it says--I've started a website to advertise for online flute lessons! They will be done via webcam, likely using Skype. I'm pretty pumped about the website, so please go check it out, even if you're not interested in lessons. But, if you would like flute lessons, or know someone who would, by all means, contact me!

I have some other dreams for expanding Studio 10:10 (my site), but for now, I'm just thrilled to have it up and running.

I'm a newbie in the webmastering world, so if you have any tips, or see any mistakes, please let me know!

Kisses,

Beach Bums

I have beach hair.

Not in an attractive, fashion magazine kinda way, though, where it's all tousled but still fab looking. Mine's more like an I-just-made-sandcastles-with-a-toddler-and-I'm-tired-hungry-and-sandy sort of beach hair look.

I wonder if Cosmo would be interested.

One of these days I'll get some video of Wiggle Man singing for you. He's moved out of the monotone phase he was in, and has actual pitches now. Not that they're correct always, but hey, he's modulating his voice. As a musician mommy, I was worried there for a while. Phew.



He rocks some Twinkle, Twinkle, by the way.



Ok, that's it. I need more snacks.



Kisses,

Summertime....

And the livin' is eeeeaasssssyyyyy. (That works better if you sing along in your head.)



Here's how we've been enjoying summertime here:

Rockin' out to a little Barenaked Ladies. I love the Ladies. This was my Mother's Day present from the Rev, and I must admit to having screamed and sang the whole night. Sunday morning I was still a little squeaky. There's nothing like an outdoor concert with your favourite band to kick off the summer.

I've also been running. I'm trying to alternate being 2 and 3 miles, 6 days a week. This week, though, I've been adding in some time on the stationary bike at the Y. I'm in need of new running shoes, which is making running less comfy. I always put off buying new runners until my feet are in agony. Here's hoping I don't do that this time.

Wiggle Man spent the first of what will likely be many days at the lake. We learned that it's funny to smear muddy sand all over Mommy's legs. Wiggle Man laughs hysterically, and Mommy gets some nice exfoliating action on her rough knees. So it's a win/win, really.

And then there's my newest love: Dark Chocolate Almond Butter. Or Spread. Or something. It's almond butter with dark chocolate. A college roommate got me hooked on almond butter years ago (something about the fat being better for you...I don't know, really. But it's yummy.)

Well, the other day I discovered MaraNatha's Dark Chocolate Almond Spread. (I just looked it up. So it's definitely a "Spread.") Well, it was like an angelic choir sang as I honed in on the jar on the shelf. It's my yummy treat for the week, and because it's got protein, it keeps me full longer. And it's got less fat and calories than peanut butter...another win/win for me.

So that's been life here in my valley. What's new with you?

Kisses,

PS--MaraNatha did not ask me to write this, nor are they compensating me in any way.