a killer among us

We are in the midst of a crime wave at Chez Slacker. Much like the reign of terror that gripped us two years ago, victims are falling left and right. It's a gruesome scene.

 

Three bodies. Two heads. I don't even know what to say.

the goodbye kiss

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" E yelled this morning as the garage closed. When I went to ask her what was wrong, she said, "Daddy left for work, but I didn't get a kiss goodbye." We walked out on the front porch only to see him driving out of the cul de sac.

Luckily, I was able to catch him on his cell phone, and he was able to turn around and give the girls one last kiss goodbye. Luckily, I was able to grab my camera iPhone and capture the sweetness of it all.

 

where the magic happens

E gave me a rock she had painted at Girl Scout camp last week for me to bring to work. I told her that I'd put it on my desk. She asked me to take a picture so she could see it. Suspicious much, E?

Anyway, I took a picture...and thought you'd like to see where I spend 40+ hours of my week.

1. I have a bunch of "artwork" from the girls hung up. Some pictures they did hang on my walls. I also have a post-it that E wrote "Mommy" and drew a picture of me hanging from the monitor, and the newly painted rock on the monitor stand.


2. I have a bunch of pictures up, too. Last year during Rock Star week, the girls got their pictures taken with funny wigs and guitars and decorated frames. There's also a picture of us from the beach 3 years ago, and a print out of 2009 at-a-glance. When I get my pictures from this year, I'll definitely be framing one for the desk.


3. Apparently, I have a drinking problem at work. That's my coffee mug, a Diet Coke standing at the ready, and my leopard-print Tervis Tumbler for water.


4. In the office, I employ a 2-screen system. This allows me to look productive on right-hand screen (for peeps walking by), while blogging, etc. on the left-hand screen. Technology FTW!


5. I still kick it old school with a paper day planner. I try to write to-do lists every day. I took a Franklin Covey course for my old job, and old habits of highly effective people die hard.


6. I have at least one conference call a day. I love my headset, since I can continue to surf the web type while on these calls.

And, there you have it. The 30 second tour of my cube!

juxtaposition

My girls are definitely girlie girls.

 

But that doesn't mean that they haven't inherited a love of sport (and UT) from their daddy.

happy camper

Today is E's last day of Girl Scout Camp. We had gotten a flyer in her school take home folder, and signed her up. We figured it would be a good way for her to figure out whether or not she wants to do Girl Scouts, and was something a little different to do. Also? It was 1/5th of the cost of a week at the hoity-toity daycare summer program. Cheap daycare, FTW!

 

E has had a blast. She's made new friend (and kept the old, I assure you!). She's played games. She's made crafts. She even brought home a God's Eye!

But, perhaps the craziest thing is that she wore shorts every day this week! Okay, yesterday she caved and wore a skirt with shorts underneath...but still! I can't remember the last time she was dress-free for 5 straight days!

This Girl Scout thing is really expanding her horizons!

au naturel

Over the last few months, my hair was getting harder and harder to style. I was beginning to consider the effort needed to blow-dry it straight commensurate with a workout. It started requiring the use of a flat iron every day (unless I was going for the frizzy/poufy look). So finally, I said "to hell with it", and embraced the curl in my hair. I got a haircut that helped the curls and started using the correct products.

Overall, I've been happy with how it looked. But I wondered if I was rockin' an out-of-date style. There aren't too many wavy/curly girls to look up to, you know.

Well, lo and behold, my hair idol, Katie Holmes, must have sensed my doubts. 'Cause guess who's rocking a curly-with-bangs style right now?

Hell yeah. Though, let the record show that for once, she totally copied me!

picture perfect

As part of the Camp Grandmom 2010 festivities, Grandmom set up a photo session with a local photographer, Ashley Quinn. In addition to being an awesome photographer and really really nice, she is the mom to FOUR kids, including TRIPLETS! Whoa.

We got the proofs back this week, and they were awesome! Here are some of my favorites:





John and I even got in on the action, and we got two really great family shots.


Hope y'all have a good weekend!

lessons of complacency

This is what happens when you think you are a bike rider extraordinaire, and end up going too fast and turning too much:
You crash, and end up with two scrapes on your nose, one on your chin, one on your knee, two on your foot, and one on your big toe.

This is what happens when you are so confident in your daughter's bladder-holding capabilities that you neglect the schools gentle reminders to update her stash of back-up clothes.
Size 3T corduroy pants and t-shirt that *might* have fit sometime when she was 2 last Fall. Belly baring, high waters, and given her existing crack problems, you don't even want to see her back side.

back in the saddle

After being MIA for a while...I'm back! Well, I think am! Things have been totally out of sorts the last few weeks...and this week seems to be the first "normal" one in a while. At least that's what I'm hoping.

So, what's been going on?

• The girls have returned from a week at Camp Grandmom! John and I dropped them off in KY last week, and then Grandmom and Grandad drove them back this weekend. The girls had a blast, and judging by their tans and their new swimming skills, I think they spent the majority of the time in the pool!


• John and I spent a few days at his work retreat. Again, I was treated to good food and spa treatments (mani...pedi...facial...massage). Unfortunately, my pedi has fallen victim to the Broad Street Run. After turning black following the race, on Saturday, my toenail fell off. So now I have 9 perfectly painted toes, and one mutant unpainted toe. Lovely.


• Speaking of injury, I have a pain in my ass. No really. I've been in PT for a few weeks, and took some weeks off from exercising to let it heal. It's still not 100%, but this morning, I finally got back on the elliptical. Hopefully, I'll be running soon, too.


• Finally, it looks like (fingers knocking furiously on wood) that we should have a finished basement by the end of this week. Though people remark that it went pretty quickly, I feel like progress was at a standstill. I just want my house back. Also? The amount of dust in our house has been ridiculous! Here are our stairs from a few weeks back. The white is dust. GAH!
  
  I'll post AFTER pictures when we've gotten it set up...but we're really happy with how it looks so far. We're kicking it old school with some IKEA furniture...and now I'm sporting two huge blisters on the palm of my hand from the assembly process. HELPFUL HINT: If you have gigantic blisters on your hand, don't absentmindedly use hand sanitizer because whoa nelly is it painful!

There you have it...the last few weeks in a nutshell. Hopefully, the next few will be calmer (and less injury prone, to boot)!

not a keeper

Last weekend, I headed down to The River (Rappahanock, for those in the know) for my friend, Molly's wedding. Molly was one of my 4th year roommates in a house we lovingly called The Ditch. The girls we lived with were all Kiki's suitemates from 1st year who adopted me as their own since the majority of my suitemates were batshit crazy. They are super nice like that.

Molly is the last of our group to get hitched and everyone was looking forward to the wedding. Jenn sent an e-mail with pictures from weddings past.



For a welcome gift, Molly had framed old photos for each of us. We were looking forward to getting a group shot.

I only took two measly photos (with my iPhone of course), though one was a cute one of me and John.

So, I was begging for pictures from everyone else. Jenn obliged this morning. I have to say, this one was my favorite.

I mean, what are the chances that you can take a photo of seven...ahem...young and beautiful women and not one of them looks good. Classic!