P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)

When I first heard that Michael Jackson had died suddenly, I was shocked like everyone else. He was so young. I remembered one of my favorite pictures of me when I was young & so I wanted to post a blog about how much I loved him when I was 10 and share the picture with you.

I had begged my cousin to let me take a picture with her album cover photo. I only had the cassette, and the album had such a huge, beautiful picture of him that I just HAD to be in a photo with him.

(Note the Cabbage Patch Doll behind me? Beggars couldn't be choosers back in the 80's Cabbage Patch craze so the only place I could get one was through a mail-order catalog that sent you whatever the packing clerk picked off the shelf. I prayed every night for a girl with brown hair. Sadly, my brown-haired girl did not come to me in the way that I imagined. I was sent a boy named "Brian Ross" with a small tuft of poo-colored hair. So, I did what anyone else would do in that situation, right? I made a wig for him with my grandma's brown yarn (I braided it) & sent away for a new adoption certificate in the name of "Katie Ross" (I thought Ross was his last name). This picture is pre-yarn wig...but I digress...).

I mean, Michael Jackson was to me then what the Jonas Brothers are to young girls today. Seriously. I had posters of him all over my room & I even did my 5th grade report on him and his family. I was a serious fan.

But the media has just been inundating us with images of him, history of him & to be honest, the images of him post-Thriller just scare me. The more plastic surgery he had, the less of a fan I became. For pre-teen girls, it's not about the music, it's about the look. (No offense, Jonas Brothers...).

So I decided not to blog about my adoration of Michael 25 (!) years ago.

But then, fate stepped in (as it always does).

The girls chose an old book of mine from the attic to read for bedtime tonight . . . And this is what I found inside the front cover:

Holy crap. I was not just a fan. I think I was out of my ever-loving mind.

So of course, I had to humiliate myself and share this with everyone.

Is this what my girls are going to do in 4 years?! Who will they love in that pre-teen girl way? I hope they don't embarrass themselves the way I did!

Rest in peace, Michael Jackson.

We love rainbows

We've had rain on 14 of the last 18 days and the news just showed rain for the next 5 days coming up. So I thought I'd post this picture to remind the girls and me that there have been rainbows in the past & more rainbows will come again!!

(And I reminded them that weathermen aren't always right & that just because it's cloudy doesn't mean we won't be able to ride bikes!!)

Biking like big girls

When Sofia & Ava first got their bikes as birthday gifts in August 2007, they looked like this:

We called them their "big girl bikes" but they still preferred their super-fast tricycles. So a year later, they were still riding on training wheels when we went to City Park:

Now . . . they are cruising without training wheels in our neighborhood (and at City Park in the first picture --- I took a big digger trying to get good pictures of them from the front, so you've got to settle for the one from the back. Ever try to turn around while riding on a bike to take a picture behind you? I don't recommend it...On the plus side, the girls were super-impressed with how I skidded into the woods & threw down my bike as I propelled myself into the air to avoid getting my leg crushed by the pedal...Sure, sure, I could have ridden way ahead, stopped my bike & then waited for them to come around a corner, but where's the fun in that?).

Yes we've had the bikes for over a year and a half, but they picked up 2 wheels so fast that I was just floored. Neither one of them fell down. I could not believe it. They're only 5 years old!
It is all happening so fast . . . But now they're asking for Batman & Transformer bikes b/c Barbie doesn't cut it for them..."Barbie's grosssss..." (BUT if it's a choice between riding the Barbie bike or not riding at all, they choose Barbie every single time!) Those are my girls!

Last soccer game & low flying airplanes

The girls had their last soccer game of the season this weekend and I had my last assistant coaching gig of the season...Well, actually I had a killer migraine so I sat on the sidelines wearing dark sunglasses while Chefdaddy Garry ran on the field with the kids. I can't even put into words how grateful I am to him for always being there to help & doing so much for us (well, that is when he's home...but seriously, when he's home, he's truly present & I can't ask for more than that).

Sofia scored a couple goals . . . (Ava has in the past, too, but this game she was a little out of it . . . but said she had fun - she was just sleepy)

Ava did do an awesome job getting the ball away from the other team several times!

The field is just south of the airport so we constantly get noise from low-flying airplanes.

They fly crazy low, but it's cool to see them that close. I hope that we haven't been affected (effected? I sometimes get that wrong...I know to affect is a verb and the effect is what happens, but when the tense changes I'm confused...okay, moving on....) by any jet fuel or other pollution...

Rock climbing at the lighthouse

The girls and I went down to the Beavertail Lighthouse a week (or 2?) ago & we had an awesome time. I'm pretty sure their favorite thing in life is climbing rocks so this was the perfect place to go for them to climb and for my heart to get a work out with mini heart attacks for a few hours. It's scary to see your babies so independent & climbing on slightly dangerous rocks.

The lighthouse was being renovated so you've got to look through the scaffolding to see the beauty.

The foghorn was working very well & we hurried past that fast!

The rocks are all around the lighthouse & the formations are just so beautiful. They are layered rocks & I wish I knew more about rocks to describe them. I did take a geology course in college but ummmm...that was a while ago. My brain can only retain so much. So just trust me - they're very cool & very beautiful.

A lot of people were just hanging out on the rocks & there was even one family who brought a table, gas grill & lots of chairs onto the rocks (behind the girls). I don't know how they kept the table stable!

Sofia was hilarious on this trip because every time I went to take her picture she'd put her hands on her hips. I guess that's her new cheese pose. Here she is teaching the "hands on hips cheese pose" to Ava.

I told you! Every single time!!

Here's the shot showing that now they have both mastered the pose.

All in all it was a great day & a lot of fun. We took a picnic lunch down and after seeing the lighthouse & the mini aquarium they had we went to get ice cream & go to a nearby (awesome) playground -- complete with a boat, a car, a tower, bridges, slides, obstacle course things . . . So I told the girls to choose their favorite part & I would take their pictures.

Guess what their favorite part of this incredible playground was. Think you know? The car? The boat? The quick slides?

Nope.

The tree outside the playground. I love my girls so much...

(See picture in post below -picture posting problems.)

Favorite part of the playground

Veggies? No. Dog with opinion? Yes.

I know you've probably all been wondering how our vegetable garden is coming along. I mean, it's almost been one whole month since we planted the seeds. Surely SOMETHING must be growing by now, right??

Yes, some things are growing.



These:

I must be doing something wrong. This is just pathetic.

I'm going to try some Miracle Gro this week because Lord knows these veggies need a miracle.

On another subject, Bella has been extraordinarily vocal lately & despite having known her for almost 11 years, I still haven't figured out her language. When I let her out after this vocal episode she just walked out the door, turned around & stared at me for a little while & then came back to the door. So what did she say to me before she went out?

My best guess?

"Your vegetable garden sucks. Lemme go see it again so I can laugh at you."

Unless it had something to do with the way the light looks like a spaceship beaming down. Maybe she thinks martians are beaming down to take me away & she's trying to protect the family.

Nah, I think the first guess was right.