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.

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...

Which Book Are You?

I've never read it, but here's me:

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Recent happenings, and interests

Lately I keep screwing around with the template here at A Beautiful Child. I like the look of s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d-out pages, but there are so few color choices that I keep putting other standard-sized themes back in. Hopefully, I'll stay here (with this theme) for a bit. When the blog loads and everything is all squished together, it just gives me a headache.

So, here's a quick summary of various interests around here:

Loryn: Way into Bob the Builder lately. Thank God for Sprout TV (and DVR)!

Loryn has had a good couple of days, though we're not making much progress with the potty training. Poop issues are getting better, though, and I'm thinking our healthier diet is helping that along. I've been researching a couple of very strict diets (Specific Carbohydrate Diet and GFCF), but am undecided as of yet which one to go with, or whether to go with one at all. There is just too much info available online. Each diet/therapy/specialist claims to be the be-all, end-all...the "answer to your prayers"!

*snort* Like I pray!


OK...back to the other kids.

Ashlyn: Is busy memorizing multiplication facts, and Chinese characters. She likes to write several lines on a little notepad, then read them off, over and over. No rhyme or reason...she'll just write 11 x 3 = 33, 7 x 8 = 56, etc. The Chinese characters she's picked up from a Chinese calendar we have, and some old Manga books. She's also been playing some PS2 games, especially Smackdown VS Raw 2007, and loves a DS game we got for Easter called Cooking Mama.


Tori: Reading lots of books (The Dark Hills Divide series, also Eva Ibbotson's Witch books). Shelby has banned Tori from reading anymore Harry Potter until she reads some other books first. Tori does tend to read the HP series all the way through, then start right back from the beginning of the series. ;-) This bothers Shelby, for some reason, hence the "NO Harry" rule for a while. Tori is also playing lots of Rune Scape and Maple Story. Lots of discussion about money here lately, as Tori has been blowing through Nexon cash cards left and right, buying "accessories" for her Maple Story character (and pet).



Shelby: Still into Manga (all things Japanese, really), reading, knitting, teas, and music. We've been playing around with shooting our own videos lately, you've probably seen some here already. Shelby wants to start getting up early to run, but hasn't managed to get up "early enough" yet. (She's shooting for 6:30...I have no idea why). We did just join the local YMCA, and Shelby and I are both looking forward to Yoga classes, exercise equipment, swimming, etc. Her taste in music is impressive (even to ME, self-proclaimed music junkie that I am!) and we've been watching some pretty neat things on Netflix (like The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and the DVR (I recorded Janis, a documentary about Janis Joplin, also Awesome! I F'in Shot That!
a live performance shot by audience members at a 2004 Beastie Boys concert at Madison Square Garden). I've got concerts by The Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded, and I've saved future episodes of the Storytellers sessions (Dave Matthews Band, Green Day, and The Dixie Chicks).

I love that we're all able to delve so deeply into what we're passionate about. We learn so much by following our passions and interests, and that is truly what Unschooling is all about.

Virginia is for (Book) Lovers!

So here I am on a Friday evening, happily typing away on Library Thing, adding more titles to my ever-growing catalog of books, when BAM! I get this message: Free memberships are limited to 200 books. Upgrade to a paid membership and catalog as many books as you like. A yearly membership costs only $10.



Of course, you have to ask yourself: What in the hell is Paige doing adding books to her LibraryThing account on a Friday night? Well, that's a whole other topic altogether. ;-)

This pic shows just a sampling of books I scored this past Sunday, at the Green Valley Book Fair. If you ever get to Mt. Crawford, VA...well...you should mind the cowshit. But also, see if you can arrange to stop by the Book Fair. I bought 35+ books, and only paid $90!! (Some books are absent from the picture, because Shelby swiped her Manga before I could get the pic taken, and I hid some away for future b-day gifts).

More info on the Book Fair: It's usually held 6 times a year, for a couple of weeks each time. Here's the 2007 schedule:

March 17 thru April 1
May 12 thru 28
June 30 thru July 15
August 18 thru September 3
October 6 thru 21
Nov. 23 thru Dec. 9, 2007

Open Only during Scheduled Dates from 9am - 7pm Daily

Now, about that LibraryThing. I guess I'll just pony up the 10 bucks. It's not a lot of money, and I SO have to brag about all my neat-o titles!

By the way, here's the link to my LibraryThing page...see if you have any of the same titles!

Harry Potter Fans, Unite!

Here's your official countdown clock for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!

Cupcakes? I got your cupcakes right here!

My first attempt at VEGAN cupcakes, inspired by this too-cool little book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

These are for fUNschool today. We're all celebrating the 5th Birthday of fUNschool. Although I didn't attend the first year or so, I'm so very glad we're members now. Our group has a blast!

Good Friends, Good Books

Our family is really lucky to have found a great group of home/unschooling families that we enjoy hanging with.

When we first began our homeschooling journey almost five years ago, I made the mistake of joining a large, local homeschooling support/co-op group. For many reasons that I won't go into now, let's just say it was NOT a good fit (and they very well may have thought the same thing, about us).

A couple of years into our now UNschooling journey, and we found a great all-inclusive, non-sectarian group of open-minded, considerate, compassionate souls. Most of the Moms in this group parent in much the same way as us (read: non-coercive, gentle parenting), and I'm lucky to call many of them friends. And the kids in the group? Oh, wow...what a neat bunch. All of them: funny, smart, and kind. Not that they're little shining angels who "Yes Ma'am" and "No Sir" and chew with their mouths closed and have perfect penmanship and whatever...but who likes those kinds of kids, anyway? ;-)

Anyway, we haven't seen our group of friends in a while. The co-op met once in December, for a holiday party, and we haven't been to any meetings since then, even though the group has met twice in January. No, the Parrs have been taking it easy since the holidays, what with Loryn's erratic sleep schedule (or lack of schedule, period) and all. But when we missed this past Friday, I felt a little guilty.

So, I decided that after we were all up and moving, I'd treat the girls to a shopping spree. I had a little extra spending money (from Christmas and such), and Shelby had LOTS of money to spend, so I thought we'd treat ourselves. And what does a shopping spree mean to the Parr family?

Why, Barnes & Noble, of course!

Here are some books we bought:

La Dolce Vegan: Vegan Livin' Made Easy

Duncan Cameron's Shipwreck Detective

Kana de Manga: A fun, easy way to learn the ABCs of Japanese

and

Chibi Vampire, Volume 1

Shelby bought a couple of Manga of her own (Vampire Knight being one of them), with her own money from Christmas. She's trying to save some of her money for her trip to Chicago this summer, but she just had to buy herself some pink and black-striped over-the-knee socks at Target. They're actually pretty cute, especially paired with a Jack Skellington t-shirt and some camouflage pants. Oh, rule of thumb: when your 13-going-on-20 daughter asks how she looks in a new outfit, the answer is not "Cute". I don't know what the answer is supposed to be, but just trust me...don't say "cute".

Shelby and Tori have already read their books, and have traded back and forth. They're pretty considerate of each other). Shelby is even allowing Tori to read her much-valued Harry Potter books (Tori's working her way through Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , and is nearly finished). Ashlyn has been sharing facts from her Shipwreck Detective book with us, and is clearly understanding concepts of North/South and East/West. The book came with a compass, which she calls a comp-ASS, because it's funnier that way. :-)

When you think about it, there's nothing quite like a book, is there?