It's Football Season and I am Happy!

I wish I could explain it. There is something about football season that just makes me happy. Maybe it's the weather. Maybe it's the lazy Sunday afternoons. Maybe it's the regularity of the schedule (Seriously, baseball, 162 games?)
Whatever it is, I am a happy girl right now. I tolerate college football. Too many teams and quickly changing rosters for my little girl brain. Not to mention the bizarre BCS formulas. But the NFL gets under my skin.
I know these guys get paid too much, and have egos the size of Texas.
I know it's ridiculously expensive to go to a game (unless you know someone willing to share some free tickets.)
I know a lot of these guys are terrible role models for kids.
I just can't help it.
When I was growing up, my mom and dad would sit down every Sunday morning with the paper and the point spread and bet (just for fun.) There was such cameraderie there. Now, we have fantasy football. I even got my mom to set up a team this year. My 10-year-old son had to help her set her roster and show her how it works. It was a cute bonding moment.

I love the Steelers. I know that the off-season has not been kind to the organization. I'd be perfectly content to see them dump #7 on his ear and go with Dennis Dixon. I've been told it would be a poor business decision. So, I hope Dennis Dixon takes the first 4 weeks and rocks and then #7 becomes an afterthought.
Pipe dreams?
Perhaps.
And I digress and need to go to bed.
But, again. It's football season and I am happy.

Look Mom, I'm spitting

At what age do boys start this whole spitting ickiness?

Here's my son, getting ready for baseball practice with a wad of sunflower seeds stored in his cheek. I asked him to pose for me and as I shot this one, I caught the spit flying out of his mouth.

And he was proud. And he wanted me to take more pictures of him spitting. And I did.

But, I must ask again. When do boys start spitting? He certainly didn't learn it from me.

Joy and Pain

Ahhhh, the joys of raising a daughter.
Don't get me wrong here, I love my daughter. She is smart and funny and is a great helper. She loves animals and loves to read and is starting to love volleyball. She is a great student and is perfectly well-behaved at school and for other people.
Our only struggle is that she is unimaginably strong-willed. Our first glimpse of that was when she was about 10 months old and threw up on her cherished "Yellowie" (the blanket) in the car. I changed her clothes and tried to put her back in the carseat without the barf-soaked blanket. 25 minutes later, we were still walking around the parking lot. I could not physically get her into that car seat. And she was under a year old.
Then there was the day we were shoe shopping. She was a little over two and insisted on getting in the car seat by herself. I forgot about that and tried to put her in. Kicking, back arching and screaming ensued. After about 5 minutes, I got her back out and told her in a less-than-kind manner to climb back in herself. She threw her head back, right into the edge of the door and started crying more. That's when I looked across the parking lot and saw a lady watching me, cell phone in hand. I put DD back in the car and then climbed in myself and counted to 10. My sweet little, 4 1/2 year-old son said, "Mommy, you are scaring me." It took another 10 minutes of "Scary Mommy" plus almost all my weight to get her into that car seat.
Fast forward 6 years. She's beautiful and smart and wonderful and every once in a while, that bull headedness comes out. (She's a Taurus. No surpise there.) Today it was over homework, for no good reason other than she didn't want to do it.
My parents tell me my sister was similarly strong willed, and she grew up just fine. In fact, she's quite awesome.
So, I have faith that DD will do the same. There are just those moments when I feel like a failure as a parent. And then she comes over and gives me a hug out of the blue and it's all better.

Prepare to be underwhelmed

I simply cannot pass up any new, fancy, fun, cool-colored pens. One evening, this past winter, I dumped my purse and counted the number of pens and pencils floating around in there. 87. Yes, I was carrying 87 pens and pencils on the off-chance that I just might need to write something down. I wanted to have choices. You just never know what kind of writing mood you are going to be. But, my pen habit is a topic for another time.
I am here to talk about the writing instrument that I could not live without about an hour ago at Wal-Mart. (Cue the drumroll.) The SHARPIE LIQUID PENCIL. No more breaking leads! The "liquid graphite" technology eliminates broken leads! It's smooth like a pen, but erases like a pencil. It becomes permanent in about 24 hours. Seriously. Where has this been all my life? Sometimes I just feel like writing with a mechanical pencil, and well, this looks like the Cadillac of mechanical pencils. Plus, it came with extra erasers. EXTRA ERASERS! (Great! More stuff for me to lose in the depths of my purse.)
So, I pulled it out, wrote with it and was transported back to grade school when office supply companies first came out with ERASABLE PENS. Remember those things? The ink clumped up, smeared and smudged, smelled funny, and didn't write smoothly at all. But they were erasable. How awesome was that?
I am pretty sure that the Sharpie Liquid Pencil is nothing more than the 2010 version of the erasable pen, sans funky smell. It looks cooler, that's for sure. The tip is all narrow, kind of like a mechanical pencil. But it's just not very satisfying. That "liquid graphite" doesn't write very vividly or smoothly. And you don't really need that eraser to erase. Smudging with your pinky will do the trick.
Sigh. I was hoping for it to write like a true Sharpie. Because I love me a good Sharpie. Those Sharpie pens make me happy. I am a little sad that the liquid pencil isn't doing the same.

Photoshop Failure, part deux

So, I have photoshop. I have some free actions. I checked out a book on photoshop. I am taking an online class and have had exactly one tutorial on editing flowers.
That's how I end up with stuff like this.
My favorite action right now is Pioneer Woman's "Old West." I applied it after lightening and sharpening our eyes.
Now we have glowing "I am posessed" eyes.
Straight out of a horror movie, huh? I wish I could remember the name of the movie I am thinking of. It was full of kids, in a school, they all had white-blonde hair and glowing blue eyes. I think we belong in that movie.
Maybe I need more practice.

Photoshop Failure

So, I downloaded the free 30-day trial of Photoshop. And I kind of hated it until I allowed myself to download some free actions. Dangerous, very dangerous.
I started with this photo of me and my lovely, wonderful, beautiful sister and tried to make us look even better. It's a cute picture of the two of us, taken on a weekend that we spent in the Windy City.
Allow me to rephrase. It WAS a cute picture of the two of us. I have managed to make her look cute and me look like some sort of circus freak.
I started out by using an eye brightener. All of the cool kids are doing it. Then I ran a Pioneer Woman Action called "Lovely and Ethereal." And we were lovely and ethereal.
Could I leave well-enough alone? Is the Pope Methodist? Does the Bear crap on a toilet? I had to try Pioneer Woman's "Vintage" action. While I sat here and waited for it to work its magic, I kept imagining how amazingly awesome and old-fashioned it was going to look. Like, "Frame it and hang it on the wall" awesome.
And then this showed up on my screen, and I nearly busted a gut laughing. It would seem the Vintage Action looks great on pretty, fair skin like my sister has. Not so much on my more tanned face. And boy, so those brightened eyes of mine stand out. Freaskshow!!
Oh well, at least my teeth are pretty and white!

Save the Beetles

Most people here in the Midwest despise those Green Monsters, the Japanese Beetles. They eat roses and tree leaves and everything green, flowery and beautiful.
But not my daughter. No siree.
She and her friend spent the day at the pool saving the beetles from the pool water and taking care of them.
I am sure the rest of you are thankful.