responsibility

I am a celebrity gossip junkie.

Last night I read on one of my favorite blogs (Dlisted)that Jamie Lynn Spears, age 16, is pregnant.

Of course, it's everywhere this morning, and every article I read says something about her "taking responsibility" in this situation.

Ugh. Spare me.

Does that mean if she terminated the pregnancy, she is irresponsible or is taking the irresponsible route? Hardly.

I am pro-choice to the core. If one of my girls got pregnant at that age--or any age, really, when a kid wouldn't fit into her plans-- I would encourage her to terminate. I would even find her a great care provider.

So I say pshaw on Jamie Lynn Spears being "responsible." And pshaw on anyone who thinks that just because she's knocked up and keeping her baby ("What a cute little baby! I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him...") that she's making the most responsible choice.

Best Santa Picture EVER

My kids wouldn't let me have this picture printed off to frame, as I do yearly with their Santa pictures. But they can't control what I put on my blog..
bwahahahahahaha!!!

November

It's been busy.
Here's what I've done this month:

We put away our Halloween decorations.




We celebrated our 3/11 anniversaries.







We had a couples pampered chef party, and so we got lots of great stuff on the cheap. Laura, Renae and Dryke stayed over, and it was fun, as always.

Disney on Ice Princess Wishes with Dalisa, JT and Hope. Maya lost Fireball, who ended up running off with Disney on Ice. He came back the next day, though. It's hard to stay away from Room 8.





Bradley Class Reunion...two couples didn't show, which so fell in line with the pattern of that class. It was fun and interesting. Challenging at times. But the babies are adorable!!





Thanksgiving. Lots o' food. Still not speaking to my completely unbalanced cousin, which makes my life smooooth. Believe it or not, it's generally pretty easy to avoid talking to someone even when they are in the same (small) room--or sitting at the same table--as you. Try it sometime. Pick someone you absolutely cannot stand and then pretend they don't exist. It can be quite lovely, I assure you.

Black Friday with my mom and Heather. No photos of that, but trust me when I say it was insane, as always. And really, I only got two things that were on sale, so was it worth waking at 4:15am? Not really. But it's really the only time my mom, my sister and I spend together anymore during the year.

Zoolights with the Lappins.

Wayne has been home more because the man he took care of for so many weekends passed away while we were away for our anniversary. He misses the guy, who he grew close to, but he's happy to have his weekends back again. Don't even ask me how stressed I am about money.

And now November is over.
So much to do in December...

NoNaBloPoMo

No NaBloPoMo participation from me this year, I guess.

Yesterday was day one of NaBloPoMo, and I completely flaked it already, which I think is a sign that I will fail many times this month.
It is just too busy around here for me to absolutely post daily.
Plus, we are doing our yearly get away, and I hate to worry about mobile posting, since there is no internet service (or a phone) where we go.

I have to say a feel a great sense of relief to not do NaBloPoMo this year.

Maybe next year...

picture time...once again

I took some pictures of my kids and my niece and nephew today at my mom and dad's house. The weather was great...it's been beautiful this week here in the pacific northwest. Rain should be back tomorrow, though.

I think the pictures turned out very well considering I don't really know what I'm doing. I can only imagine how great the pictures could be, if I had a clue about photography. I have a great camera and photogenic kids, which makes it easy to take a good photo.

So, for your viewing pleasure, the gorgeous kids of the Kelsch daughters:

autumn leaves are falling

I took some pictures of Maya, Sofia and Ben (my niece and nephew) at my mom and dad's today. Used the new camera. Love it.
Here are the pictures, in slideshow form:


As usual, if you hate sitting through slideshows (like I do), go HERE to see the photos.

shopping

I've been doing a lot of shopping online this past week. Well, a lot for me.
First I bought this:





I love it.

I bought this to keep it safely around my neck:



She has some really cool camera straps at her site. I also looked at camera straps at this other site, but they aren't quite as bright and, well, funky as I wanted. I really wanted this one:



but I was afraid that it was so busy that I would get sick of it.

I also bought Maya's Halloween costume online. Twice.



One should be here Tuesday, and the other one should be canceled, but if not, I hope it gets here before the 30th, so I can actually return it. Otherwise, I guess I hold onto it until next Halloween?

Hm. I think that's all I've ordered online this week.

Today has been so blah.

Maya was up with the pukes last night. She woke up at 2:45 all burpy (she was in bed with us last night), and I made her go to the bathroom. She sat on the toilet and wouldn't move. I finally got her off the toilet and on the side of the tub, when all of a sudden, she let it go. Wayne had to work this a.m., so I didn't wake him. It was fettuccine alfredo puke, and that is not a pleasant puke. Ew.

After an hour, I finally got her back to bed. Then Wayne left. He slept soundly through her retching.

Maya never changed out of her jammies today. I put on my painting clothes. It's been raining and gray all day, but I love these days. The only thing that would make it better is having my new candles burning (but I won't waste them on just me) and Wayne here to rub my back. And to help clean up any upcoming puke episodes.

Painting is going quite slowly. I'm dealing with painting three different colors in one room, and I have to wait some time between each coat and each color. I think I'm supposed to wait 24 hours between coats and colors, but I don't have that kind of time. I have class on Monday, and I think my sister and I are taking the kids to see The Nightmare Before Christmas tomorrow. I've been waiting more like 2 hours between coats.

This is so dull. This blog is clear evidence of how dull and blah my day has been. ick.

In two weeks, I will be elsewhere. Is it NaBloPoMo again this November? It is! Which means I'll be posting like this again.

I failed miserably at NaBloPoMo last year; blogging daily is not an easy task, especially when one has other things going on. You know, like a life. I will strive for success, though.

Oh!

Wayne and I went to a movie yesterday while the kids were in school. Gone Baby Gone. It was about 5 minutes into the previews when we actually walked into the theater, and I was really surprised to walk into the theater and see it full of old people.

Wow. What a great movie. I cried at least four times during the movie. I left the movie wondering what I would do, if I were in the same situation(s) as the main character, Patrick (played by Casey Affleck, who looks nothing much like his brother Ben but who sounds just like him). Ben Affleck did a great job with the movie, and I hope he gets an Oscar nomination.

proof in pictures

that I can complete a task,

(the family room/kitchen area, which I painted using a rag-on technique)

and then will actually go forward with another task.



(the dining room, which will be three different colors and will require 4 different colors of paint)

I have to say that painting the ceiling really sucks, but at least it's a small ceiling.

I'm a little unsure about the color I chose for the next part of the dining room-- the little ledge thingy that sits just below the ceiling. It's going to be "vin rouge" and it's a little more purpley than I expected. It does require a primer coat, which I hope will tone down the purple a bit (though the primer is lavender-ish). More to come...

hurry, hurry, hurry!!!!

I am waiting.
and waiting.
I'm afraid to leave the house...
they may come for me,
but what if I'm not here?

Yes, I am a prisoner in my own home thanks to UPS.

My new camera should be here anytime. What if I have to sign for it, and they come while I am at the damn school function today. I don't want to leave until that cardboard box is in my hands.

What am I going to do if when I come home, the little notice is on my door that says they will attempt redelivery tomorrow?

I will be waiting.
and waiting.
Afraid to leave the house...
they may come for me,
but what if I'm not here?

It's a vicious cycle.
I hate UPS.

spike and the impalers

Wayne and I went to the Spike and the Impalers show at the Emerald Queen Casino last night.
I know.
It sounds cheesy. A concert at the casino.
We listen to the Bob Rivers Show almost every morning on KZOK, which is the local classic rock station. The show plays in a cover band, which they've had for a few years now, but we've never seen. Nearly every member of the show plays some role in the band. I guess the past two years I have listened to Bob Rivers a lot more because I am actually up and running at that time in the morning, thanks to Maya being in school. Since I listen to him every weekday morning, I guess I have become more inclined to actually go to one of their shows. Plus, we had nothing else to do last night.

I hated the Emerald Queen. We had to walk through the whole damn casino just to get to the showroom. Casinos are icky places with a lot of icky people. Icky people who chain smoke and drink copious amounts of alcohol to the point of falling on ME drunk. I am no tea-totaler, but I hope that by the time I am in my 50's+ (actually, even now at 36) that I won't be stumbling-into-other-people drunk. There were a bunch of those people...stumbling into me.

Once we got into the showroom and took our choice seats at the next to back row (this is what happens when one buys tickets for a Saturday show on a Thursday night), I couldn't help but notice the glare in front of me. The glare that was coming from the sea of donut heads seated throughout the audience. I'm beginning to think balding is caused by environmental factors. There are just so many men losing their hair (and some women).

The concert started with Bob coming out and introducing Arik, the show's director, who spoke about WorldVision. I don't know if part of the proceeds from the show went to WorldVision or if they were simply taking the opportunity to promote a cause that they strongly support.

From there, they showed their Hey There Chlamydia video. It sounds like a weird segue, I know.

The show was really good, though. The band was really the best part. The vocalists were not as strong as the band.
Amazing parts of the band (hopefully I get all the names correct):

• the star-spangled banner performed by Mark Russell
• Dudley Taft
• Joe Shikany
• Lynn Sorensen, who by far was the best vocalist of the night. I wish he sang all the songs. He also played the violin (or viola, I couldn't tell from waaayyy in the back).
  
• Jeff Kathan, who played the most amazing drum solo I have ever seen or heard. Now, I've never really seen a drum solo other than Taylor Hawkins' solo with Foo a year ago. But this Jeff Kathan guy is, like, easily 20 or more years older than Taylor. He wore me out just watching him.

Three of the guys (Joe, Lynn and Jeff) all play with Paul Rodgers; you can really tell that they have a lot of stage experience. They were tight, and they just looked at ease on stage--the whole band did, which was the main difference between them and the two vocalists from the radio show (Spike and Kaci).

But the one person who really blew me away was Ian Crawford, a young guitarist from the Seattle area. Check out his music myspace and be prepared to be blown away. He, too, looked at ease on stage doing his thing. He is 18 or so. So young and just so damn talented.

One thing that drove me crazy was that NO ONE stood up during the show unless they were told to, and even then, they would sit back down right away. Wayne and I eventually got up from our seats and stood off to the side. Let me tell you, there is nothing like going to watch a band perform some good rock music only to stay seated as though we were at a freaking school performance. Maybe it was that the older audience isn't much into standing and rocking out. Who knows. It must drive the band nuts though. I mean, if I was busting my ass on-stage to play music for however many people were there, I would expect to see some energy in the audience. Lame-o.

December 13th is their next show, at the Paramount. I'd like to go again. Wayne didn't seem to enjoy the show as much as I did, but I think he'd be up to going again. If the same band is there. They all worked so well together and they seemed to have a really good time.

I did notice Bob's son, Keith, running around filming throughout the show. I'm hoping they put out a DVD-- that could be a good Christmas gift.