Feelin a little frisky...

and I'm sure as hell not going to blog about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (shit, after reading the Wiki article...do I even have to finish it)? Dave says Yes, so I'll try to.



Sweet, sweet Mr. Parr, btw, finished it in a day and a half, and cried through the last couple of chapters. As Ashlyn says, from time to time: You a baby...HA HA!

*sigh* My man...I love him so. He knows I'm only teasing because both of us are big ol' babies. Yes, indeed...I can talk the talk, but I can't walk the walk. I'm more sensitive and emotional than anyone should be, and the truth is I haven't read the book yet because I just don't have the time right now to be so wrapped up emotionally in Harry's world. Way too much stuff going on in my real life, which has more ups and downs than Hogwarts right now.

Anyway, I was blog-hopping today after lunch (and btw, Google Reader is addictive, more so than WoW, even) and found this (below), which I'm shamelessly stealing (um...borrowing) from Mamma Loves.

No comment necessary, I'm sure. But aren't you glad I'm here, working overtime (read: slacking) to fulfill my duty to you, gentle reader: to find the best (read: dirty/funny) stuff on the Internet, and pass it along to YOU!

I know I've made my Mama proud.

Kristi said I should update my blog, so here ya go:

$4475.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth. From Mingle2 - Free Online Dating

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

Kinda morbid, but it'll have to do, for now.

We're well into HP fever (we bought 2 copies), and while there's lots of other stuff going on, there's no time now to post about it all.

I'll get right on it, though. Later.

Dave and the girls

So few pics of my husband and all four girlies together, but I thought this was a pretty good one. Everyone looks really happy.

They had a blast splashing around in the pool with Dave. Definitely one of the highlights of our vacation.

Back from Chi-Town!

Shelby's back from Chicago, where she was visiting my sister-in-law, Aunt Lisa (Dave's sister).

Last week, after spending a little time in Louisville, KY with Dave's brother and his family (Chuck, his wife Stephanie, and baby Garrett) and Aunt Lisa, most of us came back home to Virginia, while Shelby rode with Lisa to Lombard, IL (a suburb of Chicago) to spend some time with her favorite Aunt.

Big news? Well, Lisa spoiled her rotten, taking her to punk shops, music stores, and shows (The Blue Man Group, or, as Dave and I call them: I Just Blue Myself). The little cuss even got her first manicure! A complete and utter Grrrls Week, so to speak.

More big news? Shelby flew home (well, to Richmond International Airport) by herself!

Here she is, at the airport, with two of her sisters: Ash on the left, and Tori (with a new haircut!) on the right. They missed her terribly.

Well...cowappledogmmmmmouse

(Crap, Loryn got on the keyboard, apparently, when I answered the phone. I'll keep that, I think it's cute. See, Loryn does communicate...just in her own way)!

Anyway, what I was going to write is that we all missed Shelby terribly. I'm so happy for her, that she had a good and safe trip, but I'm stoked to have her back home. And I have to be honest and say that when it was time for us to leave her in Louisville, I bawled like a baby. I even had Dave going, a little. :-) It's really, really hard to let go...even for a little bit.

Oh, and Lisa (if you're reading): What's up with Shelby all of a sudden requesting a drum set for her birthday, hmmm?

Life is like a box of chocolates...

Here is Loryn, channeling good ol' Forrest, along with Mika the kitten.

Sitting on the bench, enjoying the summer rain...not waiting for a bus.

No good cure for Autism

I love Google Alerts, most of the time. I get a little goofy when I see a new Rufus Wainwright or vegetarian cooking headline show up in my email. A little bit of happiness, right there in my inbox, which I can greedily read right then and there, or I can prolong that excitement, and put it off for a couple of hours. Or a couple of days, if I want to. It's the same reason I love my DVR service.

Of course, once in a while I want to read about something more substantial, something that affects myself and my family everyday. That something is Autism, of course.

When I saw this headline from Google Alerts, I immediately felt a little nauseous.

This child died two years ago, and the parents are now suing the "doctor"for wrongful death. This is the first I've heard of the story, but I have to say it: I'm angry that this "doctor" made a fatal mistake that killed a child, and I'm pissed that the parents sought out this quack therapy to "cure" their child of Autism.

More than that, though, I just feel an overwhelming sadness for this little boy who died. I wonder if his parents are happy now? I mean, when you think about it...they found the cure for Autism, right?

Books, Plants, Hair, and other BS

Shelby had a sleepover at her BFF's house Friday night. When I was leaving our house (Saturday evening, after Dave got home from work) to pick her up, I got a call on my cell. Apparently, the girls had decided to do a "double" sleepover. *sigh* After the assurance from BFF's Mom that, yes, in fact, that was Okey-Dokey with her (and her family), I decided to drive by Lowe's, to check out the garden stuff, before hitting Quizno's for dinner. (Quizno's was a no-brainer, for me, anyway...Dave had insisted that I play some WoW with him. And since I was forced to play WoW for a good coupla hours, there was no way I could possibly be expected to cook a real dinner)! ;-)


Anyhoo, I'll meet Shel and BFF Sunday at the Green Valley Book Fair. I've blogged about this place before, BTW...it's a book mecca! (That's what the lady with the big-dog Southern accent says on the commercials, anyway).


Oh, at Lowe's, I bought a red Peony (not Peyote, as Dave heard...did I mention that I think Big D has a hearing impairment?), and I might go back for a couple more...I'd like to find some pink ones to plant along one side of our fence.
















I also bought a Summer Nights Delphinium and a Blue Fortune Agastache. I hope we can get those planted tomorrow (or actually, later today). I tend to favor deep blues and purples in my garden. Yellow, too, and some dark reds and fuschia. But blue and purple make me very happy. I have an aunt who despises the color blue. She says it makes her nauseous. Weird, random factoid about my family...I've got a hundred of 'em.


























Let's see...what else?


I dyed my hair (again). Red (again)! I'm digging the new color, but I still want to cut my hair. I was hoping the new color would satisfy my hair wanderlust, but that ain't happening. My hair is just too long for my liking.

Scratch that...my hair is too heavy, not "too long". Anyone who knows me IRL knows that my hair is pretty short. I will probably never, ever grow my hair long (sorry, hon). I just don't have the patience for it. I despise the "growing-out phase", where I hafta wear barrettes or headbands to keep my bangs out of my eyes and off my forehead.



Maybe I'll try a pixie cut:






My guess is that Shelby will hate it, she'll think I'm copying her hairstyle. As the oldest of four girls, she's very aware of others who try to steal her ideas. :-)

Hmmm...anything else?

Dave is (finally) on vacation! Yippee! Poor thing...he's worked so hard, and has really needed a break for a while now. Hopefully, after this week, he can go back to work refreshed, and work will be steady througout the summer. Dave is a finance and insurance manager for a car dealership...I don't know if I've ever mentioned exactly what he does before.

I should be packing for our mini-vacation, but I'm the Queen of procrastination. I'll post more about our plans later.

Let's see...cute stuff:

Ashlyn told me tonight that she'd like to make homemade chocolate chip cookies tomorrow, and that we could all do it "togever". Is that sweet, or what?

Tori is almost a level 30 on Maple Story. We just bought her (and Shel) Nexon cash cards ($25, each) so that her character and Shelby's character can get married (Tori has a boy character, Shelby has a girl character). The girls are pretty cute together, discussing Tori's tux and the ring she bought for Shelby. Tori said it was a small ring, but Shelby "really liked it". (Hell, they've got it more together than Dave and I did...we got married in a local councilman's office...I was pregnant and we did it on my lunch break, and Shelby carried dandelions from outside the office complex).

Saturday, June 30th was my parents' 18th wedding anniversary. My mom married Kenny 18 years ago...seems like forever. They're a good match. It feels weird, though, to think that this November, Dave and I will have been married 10 years. Me, 10...my MOM, 18? I told her today that I just married young, and she married when she was an ol' lady! She was in a good mood, though...she laughed.

More rambling nonsense later...