Rain, Glorious Rain.

I just ate a handful of chocolate covered raisins. To be fair, it was more like a small bowl full. The morning started off with a power struggle between me, Joshua and some blueberry pancakes. I'll spare you the details but lets just say his reaction would have been appropriate had I been asking him to eat anchovies. And when he did take a bite ... and started to gag ... I told him he would be cleaning up any vomit should he choose to continue the drama. Without skipping a beat, he looked at me and said, "Oh, I'm not throwing up. I have a cough. You need to take me to the doctor because I can't stop." And the first 25 days of having a four year old was looking so easy ... I guess that dream is gone.

Eli ... he and I have our own power struggles and I decided this morning that should we choose to home school our children, Eli will need a surrogate teacher. You see ... Eli is far too concerned with the big picture of life to be bothered by such insignificant details as say ... telling me different colors or counting correctly. It is impressive that he has the word "nineteen" in his vocabulary ... but his counting pattern goes a little like this: "one, two, four, seben, nineteen." And if you try to correct him, he says (in his deep, husky voice), "No talking. I already told you. Nineteen."

I could tell my morning was going no where sunny.

It got worse when I entered my closet. I still can't find half of my belongings. It's not like we moved across the ocean ... just down the block. And what is hanging in my closet is not that attractive. Sweatpants. Knit tops. More sweatpants. And the thought that there are 19 more weeks of no style was almost too much for me. So ... I put on my sweatpants and stuck a flower in my hair. At least my hair was going to have style.

Oh ... and how, might you ask, is that $5 haircut coming along?

Well. We were in Portland two weeks ago ... Ben was taking a seminary class and I was taking the weekend off. We spent a FABULOUS 3 days in my favorite part of creation.
We sent Ben off to school ... (I thought a kiss under a broken off pine tree limb was a good way to start the day ... and pay no attention to the sweatpants ... I already warned you!!) ...
And Em and I ... scoured the town for fun. We stopped off at my favorite antique store (pictures of those finds to come), ate about every 2 hours and just enjoyed talking NON-STOP (Em might be the only person on the planet who can get more words out per second than me??) And after all that we accomplished, well, our minds got to wandering and apparently when our minds wander ... they land upon cheap haircuts. Some of us like to take it a step further and have the "two months into their program beauty students" color their hair too ...
Two beauty students ... two hours ... a LOT of tin foil ... a bit of panic that my hair was ever so slightly orange ...
Two husbands and a friend (who was done A LONG TIME BEFORE ME) awaiting the results ...
And well ... it could have been WAY worse of an outcome. The teacher ended up cutting my overly poofy locks because the school was closing down for the day. And when the two students came back and attacked my head with a blow dryer and NO PRODUCT, I knew it was going to be a sticky finish ... but
I think it turned out all right for $5 ... and we ended the evening with the BEST food ever (thanks for hosting us, Tim and Em!!) So ... there you have it. I've pounded on the floor 3 times while writing this because one of my precious children thinks napping is optional. I'm determined to ignore the chatter for at least another 40 minutes because I'm going to a birthday party tonight and I'm pretty sure I need to find something else to put on other than the sweatpants I'm currently wearing.

And things are looking up ... I just ordered a fabulous chandelier for our dining room and I see a staple gun in my future ... with a new seat cushion to boot. And I promise ... no more blueberry pancakes for the firstborn. I'll make them plain. It will make our house a whole lot quieter.