Sleep Eludes

I think I slept from 10pm - 2am on my couch (a naughty, naughty habit)...then 'boing' wide awake. I've actually been quite productive but fear that I'll crash hard at an inopportune time tomorrow. I have had this one 'project' for the PTA that I had been procrastinating on...now I am done. My only worry is that when I sent it to the person who needed it, it looks like my whole document was a blank...either operator error caused me to see a blank document OR all my efforts were for naught which will then be followed by an audible yell on my part, hold your ears! I am off to the gym at "O Dark Thirty" as my dad always says (military jargon). Might as well make use of this time I have on my hands.

Gratitude X 10

1. Swimming laps at the pool (see picture)
2. 3 more days until we go 'back East'
3. Exercised most days this week
4. Found a new 'dive bar' on our date last night
5. Bike ride to local fair with the kids
6. Not spending too much money at the fair
7. Daughter playing Sandy and May in Annie
8. Monkey's awesome day with dad playing golf outside and on XBox
9. Homework almost done for my Martha Beck program
10. Sunshine (but maybe we could turn the dial down a notch)

Hades

We will be living in a sauna for the next 3 or so days. Forecast for the near future is hot as blazes. I know that other places have higher temps but we have NO AC...I am gearing up for multiple days of avoiding the 'hot spots' in our house and outside. To top it off, I'm working at our local 'fair' today helping to 'man a booth' for our school. I'll be putting tattoos on kids for many hours in the day....do I sound like I'm whinging?....right-o chap.

Random

Nothing titillating to write about today. My mind is a blank except for all of the things to do today. Princess will be performing her orphan and dog routine at their culminating show at her camp. We've invited some neighborhood friends along. I found the movie Annie at Target so we had the friends over for a sleepover to get a "preview" of the show. Princess has LOVED this camp and is quite excited. I need to charge my camera and hope that I can video some of it. I might be able to upload to the blog??

My other items for my day are trying to squeeze in a workout, perhaps an outdoor activity for the kids, and a meeting at 7pm for PTA (fun!). I have been putting off a lot of little tasks for PTA which I don't feel guilty about, but I now need to start focusing and I cannot seem to...my motto is "I've fallen and I can't get up". I need a life alert system to get me back on track.

The picture is a reflection picture from my collection of 'random' pictures that I've taken since I've moved here. I love to take pictures out a bus or car window and see what I get. This is one of them.

Busted

Princess just showed me a note from HER to the tooth fairy AND her tooth in a bag that must have fallen out of my closet when I was reorganizing it. How do you explain that one? She seems to have an Eagle Eye for finding the one thing that she shouldn't. If ever I buy a treat and am trying desperately to hide it, she finds it within seconds of me hiding it. For her 3rd Christmas she had asked for Princess castle thingy. I bought it and asked my husband to put it in the 'walk in' attic area. In my mind I would assume he would hide it too. He did not cover the thing up....so one day Princess watched me go into the attic to find something and lo and behold she sees the darn thing. I had to stand on my head telling all kinds of lies about the box NOT being what she thinks it is. "Why would Santa bring something before Christmas?". So here I go telling yet another lie which I'm sure she already suspects (or knows) that the tooth fairy isn't real. I just said, "that's weird, I've not seen that before, I wonder if the tooth fairy dropped it a long time ago and we never found it". She didn't continue the conversation BUT she did ask if she could put it under her bed again....I said no!

On a totally different note: I had another random coincidence. I just wrote about the word FRINGE in my blog yesterday and then last night I saw an ad new sci fi series called....drum roll....FRINGE. Just a little twilight zone, that's all. I picked the word from the dictionary, I didn't make it come from my head (which then could be rationalized that I somehow have seen the commercial and it is in my brain).

Word Association: Fringe

Fringe caught my eye and made me think of London. Although we share the same common language with the Brits, there are some distinct idioms (and words) that are different. One is fringe. We call the hair that is on our forehead above our eyes bangs, they call it fringe which makes it sound like curtains or something. I don't use that term here in the states because it doesn't get me very far (and at the moment I don't have any fringe). I'll list 10 other words/phrases that I remember. I'm sure I know more, but don't want to hurt my brain.

1. Loo = bathroom (which they don't use they call it the toilet)
2. Queue up = line up
3. Bap and salad = sandwich with cucumbers
4. Lift = elevator (our first 'flat' had one directly to our place...it was slow but it was a lift)
5. Flat = apartment
6. Whinging = whining (I'd love to use this word more here in the state, but it causes confusion)
7. Half Six = 6:30 (or any other time on the half hour)
8. Elevensies = snack time at 11am (tea and cookies where I worked in London)
9. Trousers = pants (pants are actually underwear in England)
10. Fanny = a woman's nether region (I don't like hearing that word here in the US for that reason)
11. Nappy = diapers (I'm so glad I'm still not using those)

Wow...I was able to add a bonus one...maybe I'll stave of Alzheimer's for one extra month down the road.

A note about the picture. This was taken as part of a Father's Day gift I made for my husband in 2004. Princess had fringe for a while when she was a youngun'. I had intended to never cut bangs for her because I know how long (and hard) a process it is to grow them out. When she was about 18 months old I decided to take the plunge ONLY BECAUSE every old lady at the park would declare that my child would go blind because her hair was in her eyes. You see, Princess had no interest in hair clips and her hair was as thin and straight and blond as it comes. Instead of fighting with the hair contraptions (and her) I let her walk around with a nice little cover over her eyes. Her first haircut wasn't painful (ie she didn't cry), but boy did they do a bad job (you get what you pay for). She DID cry right after the haircut when she had to sit on Santa's lap. My favorite Christmas picture is of Santa with a 3 week old in his hands (Monkey), Princess with a full on red faced cry and me sitting next to her trying to make her feel better (I had not intended to be in the picture). In those days, life WAS complicated for me but I've made it through.

The Sun'll Come Out

Yesterday was a fun day for Princess. I put her in a week long mini drama camp. The theme of her camp is Annie. The kids are cast in several parts and they essentially act out the whole play. Well, my daughter chose May (an orphan) and a very non speaking part, Sandy (the dog). Although I know she is having fun being the dog AND she has a lot of stage time...Sandy doesn't get to sing or talk that much (really not at all except a few barks). I know she is loving the camp but I had hoped she'd do more singing and speaking (to try it on for size). Its all fun and games in the end.

The day ended with an awesome water fight and dip in our frog pool (a.k.a kiddie pool we recently purchased).