Spanning a Lifetime in Progress

We just wrapped up another school assignment for Emily. This one was to create a timeline of her life so far. It was my personal favorite because it involved scouring through over seven years of photos and getting very sentimental about my two amazing children.

Emily completed the bulk of the work herself with just a little creative direction from mom. She first wrote out the specific milestones, picked out paper and stickers to decorate it with, typed all the milestones out on the computer, and finished up with the cutting and pasting. She even picked out her own title, "All About Fabulous Emily." (We're happy to report she's got a healthy self-esteem).

The finished product turned out beautiful, don't you think?

Meg even got in on the fun working by Em's side with her own cut-and-paste project.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

So Kristy Lee Cook went home on American Idol last night. Before you chastise me for ruining the surprise because you planned on watching a recording of last night’s episode, let me say that I am impressed with your ability to sequester yourself for an entire day without hearing the results of the most watched television show in America– unless of course you are holed up on the Galapagos Islands studying the migration habits of the Blue-footed Booby in which case it is totally understandable but then I would assume you aren’t reading this blog entry and you’ll be watching it on DVD in a few months and the cat will be out of the bag by then.

That said, I’ve got to say her time had come. I’m not saying that because everyone left is more talented than her (although I think they are). Nor do I say that because I think she wasn’t cute enough to pull in votes from fans of the “All-American Country Girl” for a few more weeks (because I thought she had it in her). I say that purely because she called Simon Cowell “a butt” on National television.

Perhaps it’s because I think that Simon is the only judge that gives honest and constructive critiques of the contestants. Or may be it is because I don’t think she was in a position to start getting over-confident and cocky. Or may be I’m just more old-fashioned then I ever thought I’d care to admit. Whatever the reason… I thought that she was extremely disrespectful. (My fair-minded husband thought it was innocent enough since it was just “butt”. My take is that she said “butt” but meant “ass” and that removes all the innocence.) Yes, he is harsh at times and he was particularly hard on Kristy Lee. But I’ve seen and read enough gossip magazines at the hair salon and grocery store to know that he’s not dishing out the worst she’s going to hear in the unforgiving world of entertainment. This is a guy that is old enough to be her father and is one of the people that gave her this amazing and life changing opportunity. You show him some respect chick-a-dee.

I know she made that comment after the voting for the week was over so her being voted off this week was a reflection of her performance and that is good enough for me. But I feel a lot better now that I got that off my chest.

Anatomy of a First Grade Smile part 2

Emily's lost two more teeth since our last posting about it. One more on the bottom and last night the second top tooth finally came out. This one lodged itself in a soft serve ice cream cone after stubbornly hanging on through chicken tenders and french fries.

This smile is just too darn adorable not to share.

Serenade

I don't really have anything to say about this--unless you are interested in the performance going on behind me from the Fair-Headed One and the Curly-Headed One that is their creative interpretation of High School Musical 2s "Fabulous" (although the Curly-Headed One's chorus comes out as "Flab-u-lous" which makes me giggle without fail) and really isn't so much a serenade as it is a pop concert -- I just happened to notice my recent trend and felt that we needed another "seren-" word in a title.

That should be it...unless tomorrow the girls decide to perform a serenata.

Serendipity

I had a rather last minute opportunity to go to Seattle on business this week. My company was holding a training seminar up there and some spots opened up that provided 7 people from my office the invitation to attend. One of those 7 people happens to also be one of my closest friends, Jill. Jill previously lived in Seattle for about 8 years, so it was sure to be a very good time.

The training was good enough but we mostly enjoyed the opportunity to take in some sights downtown on what turned out to be a couple of beautiful spring days for Seattle. Here’s Jill spotlighting Pike’s Public Market and the afternoon ferry boats.


The training was on Thursday so we flew up on Wednesday evening. After I settled up with the taxi driver I turned the corner of the cab and low and behold who is walking out of the very same lobby that I’m about to walk into but my brother-in-law, Michael. Michael lives in San Jose, CA but frequents the Pacific Northwest for business. It would have been enough if a couple of days from now Mike and Steve spoke and through conversation realized that I happened to be in Seattle on the same day staying at the same hotel. Surely we would have chuckled at what a coincidence that alone was. But because my flight was an hour late and because his colleague needed a few extra minutes to check his email before going to dinner, we bumped into each other at that exact moment. Darn wild if you ask me.

Jill and I enjoyed a great dinner at Palomino’s with Mike and his colleagues (thank you!). Then Mike enjoyed a post-dinner bottle of wine and dessert with my colleagues once they arrived from a later flight.

All in all a delightful business trip.

Serenity now

Yesterday I peeked outside to see what the girls were up to in the backyard and I happened across this scene...

Em was leading Meg in a yoga "class". Since she didn't learn this mode of excercise from me, can anyone identify this particular pose?

Good times

A couple weeks ago we kicked off Emily’s spring break with a wonderful visit with our good friends, Bill and Jeannette, at their new home in the San Fernando Valley, CA. The trip included lively conversation, delicious meals and a couple touristy trips into Malibu and Hollywood.

Thanks to you both for a wonderful time!