Thankful Thursday...Stuff

Today I am thankful for...


* the fact that the stinking cold/virus/creeping crud has finally "left the building."  Good riddance and don't come back!


* this book by one of my favorite authors. It sucked me in from the first page...

* and finally, I am SO thankful to finally have an explanation for a term I see on craigslist quite often. The ads refer to "pure-bread" animals and I have never been quite sure exactly what that meant...

What are you thankful for today?

Real Life, Family Style.

In yesterday's post I shared some of the odd photographs we've taken of The Princess through the years. Lest you think I was exaggerating her, "I'm just a wild and crazy Princess" tendencies, I'd like to share THESE photos which I recently found on my camera...

But that's not all I discovered...

Naturally, I went to my children to ask what in the world was going on in these photos. 

Apparently, Lucy became scared during one of our daily afternoon thunderstorms and hid under the bed.

And The Boy went under the bed also...to "keep her company."

I have no explanation for this one. At all.

But I do know what this one is. The Princess had a blister on her foot from her pointe class. And she decided to take a picture of it. 

Perfectly normal, right?

I decided to share these photos to show real life around here. We're weird. And loud. And crazy. And the dog is afraid of thunder.

Life is not all beautiful sunrises and family dinners.

Trust me!

(But it was a beautiful sunrise this morning...)

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, You look like a monkey and you smell like one too...

The Princess was born on this day fifteen years ago...

 It was a happy day. 

While The Princess demonstrated a royal demeanor from the very beginning, it wasn't long before I also began to notice something that concerned me a bit...  

The Princess made strange faces when her photo was being taken...

And in many of the photos, her mouth was open very wide and she was acting a bit like a clown.

Just when I would begin to grow quite concerned with her royal shenanigans, she would morph into a little angel...

And then.....

Silliness would ensue once again...

You really cannot imagine the silliness.

The Princess always had a twinkle in her eye and mischief up her sleeve....

She giggled. A lot.

In fact, one might even say that she really cracked herself up!

As she's grown older, she has also assumed an air of dignity. Her silliness has dissipated a bit.

Well, actually...maybe not!

Honestly, I'm not really sure where this silly, crazy side of her comes from...

But...they say that the apple doesn't fall far from the (Daddy) tree!

Happy Birthday to the amazing, silly, mischievous, crazy, wonderful Princess!

Oh, Sherri....(Happy Birthday!)

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was a  kid in high school...

I met a girl in my French class with Madame Howell.

We became good friends.

Sherri was two years younger but we had a lot of fun together. We kept in touch even after high school.

Here we are, clearly working hard on French!

In college, we were roommates at the lovely Prince Manor Apartments. We ate a lot of peanut butter and macaroni and cheese. We survived school and jobs and boyfriends. We made it through fights and hurt feelings. We did Jane Fonda workout tapes together and danced to The Cars and Madonna. We watched Dynasty and went to keg parties and wore shoulder pads and Aromatics Elixer.

We consoled each other through break ups (boys) and break downs (cars). Sherri was daring and adventurous and I was prudent and boring. 

We have kept in touch all these years. She has been my friend and my support through good times and bad. Somehow, in spite of our differences, we've remained friends.

Fifteen years ago, I went to the hospital to be induced. The Princess was supposed to be born on September 26th, her Godmother's birthday. Unfortunately, The Princess decided to be obstinate and waited 46 minutes past midnight to make her appearance.

Happy Birthday, Sherri! I love ya!

We used to dance around to this before going out. It was kind of a tradition with us!