Rambling and a Question

      I was working on a different post for today.  A good and interesting one.  But I'm just "off" today and I don't think it's going to get finished.  It is an unbelievably beautiful day out, but I feel like it should be grey and drizzly because I don't want to do anything today.

       Things have been great lately.  I got some big news that I'm not quite ready to share - mostly because I'm lazy and it would take some explaining.  I've been getting a lot done at work, though I'm still burried under a pile of wills 10 inches high.

       Punky continues to be smart as a whip and always on honor roll.


       I cut my hair this weekend, and I gave myself bangs.  I have always had bangs, but for the last couple years I had let them grow out - mostly out of sheer laziness - until they no longer really counted as bangs.  So I finally decided to cut them back in to cover up my freakishly large forehead, but now I'm not sure how I feel about them.  I bet you want to see a picture.  I want to show you one to hear what you think, but I haven't taken one yet. 

       Maybe that's why I'm listless.  I've always been a little weird about my hair.  I get really frustrated if I feel like it's not doing what I want it to.

      Flintstone is more adorable than I can even wrap my brain around.  Look:

This is his new "super excited" smile.  He still LOVES the chickens.

Super Excited Smile.  And, as you may be able to tell from the lack of pants, we have started potty training.  He's ahead of "schedule" on this, so we're going pretty slow at this point, but he does seem to be catching on.  He has also been OBSESSED with books lately.  He ALWAYS has a book in his hands - even his teachers have mentioned it.  However, I don't know why he had a Christmas book last night.  I though I had put those away...

      He has also really started to pick up with the spoken words.  While we still do signs, lately he's also started talking a lot more.  In addition to the words he's known for a long time (Mama, Dada, etc.), he has added a lot more.  He used to say "Mama" for Mama, milk, and more.  Now he actually anunciates the three different words.  He also says Banana and it's super cute because he says "Ba" then flicks his tongue in and out of his mouth to make the "nana" part.  He says pouch, block, beer (where did he learn THAT?!? ;-)), shoes, potty, book, and pee-pee.  He says mouth and eye, and when you ask him what a cow says (or when he sees a picture of one), he makes the most adorable moo you have ever heard in your life.  Those are just the words I can think of off the top of my head, but there are tons of them.  He shocks me every day with a new word.  Guess I'll have to start watching my language more!

       Also, oddly enough, he does not say "no" yet.  Not that I'm in any rush on that one.

      Aside from his usual work and MacGyverings, MacGyver has been making the taxes much more complicated than they need to be and fighting an epic battle with the insurance company over the flood damage in our VA house.  Thank heavens for him because I sure as heck don't have the patience for that stuff.

      I haven't been completely useless.  I finally cleaned off our entryway table, which included a massive amount of sorting.  This is only a fraction of it:



MacGyver seems to think I'm sexy when I clean.  Or he says that in hopes I'll clean more ;-)

      Sadly, after cleaning the whole thing off, it still doesn't look good at all.  We need a new bench/drawers/table/hooks/organizer thing there.  Except we're moving in less than two years, so it probably won't happen.

*** Break ***

      I went and had lunch with MacGyver.  We ate outside and chatted in the sun.  I feel much better.  Perhaps I will actually salvage the rest of this day.

      Last weekend, I snapped a couple pictures of Flintstone and me since I realized it's been months and months since I got one.  Most of them were crap because I suck at photography, but I really like the one below, except the obvious and obnoxious camera shadow on the side of my face.  I know a lot of you out there doctor up pretty much every photo you post (don't deny it), so I was hoping you might be able to help me.

       While I still, as a rule, don't doctor my photos to make myself look prettier or unflawed, I AM okay with doing things like getting rid of this stupid shadow and fixing the exposure or saturation on pictures (though as I'm sure many of you have noticed, I suck at that ;-)).  I doubt there is much that can be done to save this pic, but if there is, please let me know.  And please note:  I do not have Photoshop or any other ridiculously expensive photo-doc software.