THE Best Commercial Ever.

Have y'all seen this? It's a sneak peak of Honda's Super Bowl commercial - so if you like to watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, skip this post!


If, you don't mind not being surprised on Sunday, however, watch this video!


It's my favorite commercial - ever.

A look back...

The other day as I was deleting old photos from my memory card, I came across the photos I took at the beach at Thanksgiving time. I was trying to get a photo of the kids for our Christmas cards. I did, finally, get a great picture...

But it wasn't easy!

The first time I tried to get the perfect, sunset shot Mr. Wonderful suggested we go to a beach further away. As we were driving there, the sun was rapidly sinking lower and lower and I was getting more and more antsy. I fussed and fussed and the family giggled at my consternation. Which, frankly, wasn't very nice of them!

And...I knew it! By the time we got to the beach, the sun was almost gone and it was too dark for photos. The kids and Mr. W. had a great time mimicking my irritation.

I gently and calmly explained to the precious angels and the love of my life that it's not nice to laugh at Mommie Dearest...

And then I pouted.

Anyway, the next evening we (meaning me) decided to try again. The kids, naturally, felt just terrible about making fun of me the day before and so were quite eager to cooperate.

Yeah, right.

Mr. Wonderful kept sighing and acting like a martyr because I was keeping him from the hot tub and a beer.

Guess who doesn't believe in shaving while on vacation?

Anyway, I turned my camera towards the kids and just kept shooting and hoping for the best...

I decided to let the kids get the silliness out of their systems...

I kept waiting.

And waiting

While I watched them cavorting around on the sand, I was nervously watching the sun sinking lower and lower in the sky...

The hilarity showed no signs of letting up. They were clearly very amused with themselves.

Finally, I sternly told them to "C'mon! Act serious!"

And they did. They looked like their best friend had died.

So I gave up. I just let them be and I kept clicking.

And when I got home and reviewed the many, many, many photos I had taken, I discovered that while I HAD gotten the perfect Christmas card picture...

I had also managed to capture some wonderful photos that just captured the essence of The Boy and The Princess.

Even though they are "out takes", they're also treasures.

Thursday and Friday: The photo edition

The past couple of days have been busy and crazy. There has been lots of running around and hustling and bustling hither and yon. The Boy and his BFF worked on a project for school...

And The Princess had a dance concert at school, which meant lots of rehearsals and driving back and forth for moi. The concert was a children's concert called "Fairies and Friends" and involved dancers from the three art magnet schools in town - kindergarten through high school. The dance the Princess was in was inspired by The Hunger Games and was really cool...modern and kind of funky.

The hair and makeup was kind of funky also!

Naturally, I thought The Princess was the best one.

To be fair, though, I didn't even look at any of the other dancers when she was on stage. I rarely do. I'm just always so amazed by my daughter!

Her grandmother came to the performance with us on Thursday night and was, I think, also amazed by The Princess.

No that we're biased or anything.

Then Friday evening The Boy invited his BFF to come along. We picked The Princess up from school and had a quick bite to eat...

The three teenagers realized that there was free wi-fi and promptly pulled out their cell phones and began to surf the web and text and otherwise ignore the old middle-aged hot mama who was paying for their dinner.

Whereupon I decided that if you can't beat 'em, you should join 'em and pulled out my cell phone and began annoying them by taking photos...

Why do teenaged boys think that smiling, rather than sneering, at the camera makes them uncool?

We returned to the school to drop The Princess off so she could do her hair and makeup and warm up for the performance. The Boy bought his sister a magic wand, which made me forgive him for not smiling for the camera.

Please notice what a good sport the BFF is...she ALWAYS smiles for me. And isn't she beautiful?

While we waited, we strolled around the school and visited the sculpture garden...

And then we went back to the theatre to wait.

The kids decided to whip out the cellular devices once again. I was bored and so decided to whip out my cellular device as well.

When in Rome...

Finally, after forty thousand yawns and checking the time twenty thousand times, the doors opened and it was - almost - time for the show...

When he thought that I wasn't looking, I caught The Boy being nice to the BFF. I thought this photo looked so familiar...

And I was right!

The photo on the left was when The Boy and the BFF were 5 or 6 years old...

Some things never change.

Isn't it great?!

We went into the theatre and waited.

I yawned a few more times and we waited some more.

The show finally began and, as I expected, The Princess was amazing again.

And the best part is that this is the last performance she'll be in (I think) until April. Which means we can slow down a bit and breathe.

Which is good.

While we were running around on Thursday Jack was busy doing this...

On Friday morning, while I was vacuuming and mopping, Jack did this...

When we left for the dance concert yesterday afternoon, Jack was doing this...

Then when we arrived home he informed us that he was hungry.

It's a tough life, apparently.

Making a post out of nothing at all...

* Is it January? Really? Because it feels like May here. It's been really warm and the redbuds and azaleas are starting to bloom because they think it's spring. We've had all our windows open and have been enjoying the lovely weather. I'm not complaining - it's been really nice. It just doesn't feel like January at all!

81 degrees!

* I hear so much about Instagram...everyone seems to use it and everyone seems to love it. I decided to load it on my phone and give it a try (see above photo). At the risk of being attacked by insulted Instagram fans, I've got to tell you - I don't love it. I'm sorry. I just don't get why you would want to make photos taken with nice, new cameras and all the technology available today look like old, faded, foggy photos. 

* But wait! I did discover a fun photography app which I have been playing with constantly (Thanks, June!) It's called OldBooth and you can put faces of people onto old photos...

Like this...

And this...(hee!!!)

Mr. Wonder-fro.

Or this...(HA!!)

The Geek

Ha Ha Ha!

The Perm-cess.

I love this app.

It's just so doggone entertaining.

No, I didn't play with any photos of myself. 

What fun would THAT be?

* I went to the dentist yesterday and my chipped tooth is all repaired. Hooray!

* I also started tweeting about the realtor that stood me up the other day. The corporate office of the real estate company contacted me and shortly afterwards the realtor also contacted me to explain that, coincidentally, she had JUST received my messages yesterday morning. Right after the corporate offices contacted her is apparently when she received my messages. Anyway, she apologized and blah de blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. 

* Tonight is the first night of The Princess's dance concert. 

* This is my 983rd post on this blog. Almost 1000! Should I do something to celebrate that milestone? Suggestions, anyone?

Ten Things on Tuesday: Mommie Dearest and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

1. I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad yesterday. A realtor had contacted us over the weekend. We took our house off the market a few months ago and have been sort of half-heartedly trying to sell it by owner. This realtor said that she was showing waterfront homes and would like to show ours too. We set up a time and I spent the entire day feverishly cleaning the pigsty house. I'll be honest - I haven't been keeping up with the house the past few months. It was not looking good. So I spent the entire day trying to make it look like nice, normal people live here rather than a herd of stinky buffalo.


2. In the midst of my cleaning jag The Princess texted me to tell me that she had to stay after school for a rehearsal and would need to be picked up...right about the same time as the showing. I fretted about how to accomplish everything while I cleaned.

3. The Boy offered to pick up his sister. I reluctantly agreed - it's a long drive and it was in rush hour traffic. I fretted even more while I waited for the realtor to show up.

4. I waited. And waited. And waited. And guess what? She never showed up! And she never called, or texted, or emailed, or even sent a flipping owl! 

5. I was NOT happy.

6. Seriously? In this age of instant communication she couldn't even manage to let me know that she wasn't coming, after all? I hate realtors. 

7. The Boy and The Princess arrived home safely although The Princess walked in the door looking like a hoochie-mama with all the stage makeup and rhinestones on her face...

The hair was supposed to resemble a mohawk. I can't wait to see this dance - it should be interesting!

8. And then we ate dinner. And during dinner I apparently, somehow, managed to bang my teeth together and chip a tooth. 

I am marred. Disfigured. Hideous.

And really annoyed.

It's all the dadgum realtor's fault.

9. I ate some chocolate ice cream to make myself feel better. It DID make me feel better. But my tooth is still chipped and I still keep looking in the mirror and wanting to cry. Another realtor is supposed to be coming by this morning to look at the house so that "he can better describe it to clients" but I know that I'm really going to have to sit through a spiel about why HE will be able to sell our house, blah de blah blah.

Unless he takes one look at my hideously grotesque chipped tooth and runs away screaming in fright. I can dream, right....

10. Anyway, as you can see, I was in a really rotten mood and feeling sorry for myself. But then this morning, I saw this...

I grabbed my camera and shuffled out onto the dock in my bedroom slippers and took a deep breath...

I listened to the birds chirping...

And I let the peace of the new morning envelop me...

I sat at the end of dock, listening to the world wake up. I watched the mullet jumping and I felt serene.

Things could be worse.

And as problems go, mine really aren't so bad.

Don't worry, Be happy