One More Tooth

Well, Xander lost another tooth over the weekend (top canine). This kid kills me - now when his tooth gets loose enough, he spends all day trying to pluck it out. This one took him several hours, but he finally worked it free and stuffed it under his pillow almost immediately. Of course, the Tooth Fairy paid him a visit and left him $1, which he was totally thrilled about.

I pity the next loose tooth. Xander won't let it come out by itself, you can be sure of that!

Just Another Day

It was just an average day for the Brunos. I took the day off work and so did Joe. We took Xander to pick out new eyeglass frames for school - SpongeBob, of course! - and then to see the doctor for his annual physical. I can report that he weighs 72 pounds and is 51 inches tall. Yikes!

We stopped for lunch at McDonald's, because Xander likes their nuggets the best. We both got Happy Meals so he could get two Batman toys, and Joe had something large and beefy. LOL!

Back in the car, this time to Walmart for groceries. Xander was excited because he got to get a new backpack for school, one that's loaded with pockets. Hopefully this one will be a lot sturdier than the two he had last year. It sure cost a whole lot more!

Back in the car to head home and have a little down time. Xander tried out his new chocolate milk cup, and I took a little nap. Then we went to Sundaes for some ice cream - before we had dinner! We haven't hit the ice cream places much this summer, so we were overdue.

Joe and I finished up the day with a movie, some Au Jus sauce and a loaf of peasant bread. I scrapped the day for a Xander scrapbook page, and then we all went to bed. Just another day with the Brunos.

Bridal Shower

My old high school chum and scrapbook buddy, Amy (aka Chippie) is getting married next month to her very cute fiance, Titus. On Saturday I attended a surprise bridal shower in her honor, and boy was it a blast!

Amy was so surprised she cried when she came in. There were about thirty of us there, with gifts and lots of food to wish her well. Titus stayed a bit for the food and some photo ops, and then he headed out to his very hush-hush bachelor party.

I sat at a table in the back with fellow classmates Kris, Donna and Janine, and we had waaaay too much fun back there. We caught up on gossip, wrote marriage advice on the plastic table cloth, and Donna tried to come to terms with my blue hair and tattoo, LOL! We were given the task of crafting the ribbon hat for Amy to wear at the end of the gift opening, and we approached it with much gusto and duct tape. Overachievers that we are, we also crafted a bra from paper cups and a skirt from wrapping paper. It was hilarious!


Before I left we had a group picture that also included fellow classmate, maid of honor, and hostess of the bridal shower - Aimee. Now I can't wait to see everyone again at the wedding next month, and Lord help us if there's alcohol at that shindig!

Inked!

Guess who got her first tattoo yesterday? Me!

I've been wanting one for several years now, but not badly enough to face the needles. But I guess part of the new me is to not be afraid of stuff like that anymore. So I made an appointment with one of Joe's tattoo guys - Rob, at Grateful Ink in Stamford - and last night after work Joe and I both went over for tattoos (of course Joe had to get one too!).

Did it hurt? Heck yeah! But I was so proud of myself. No crying, no flinching. I didn't embarrass myself. And the tattoo only took about an hour to do...maybe less. And I love it! It's sore today, but nothing too bad.

Today - getting some blue put in the hair! Stay tuned!

Budding Songwriter

Xander's Netflix movie this week is the SpongeBob SquarePants movie (feel my joy). At the end of the movie there's a big musical number, all rock and roll. Xander loves this part. He'll dance around, or sometimes get out his own guitar to jam along with SpongeBob.




After viewing this once, he decided he was going to write his own song. So he sat down with his little notebook and a pencil, and wrote this:

I am an idiot

You're an idiot

Everyone is an idiot ooooo

Please help me I am trapped

In idiot land

I am a real stupid idiot ooo

Help I am a wizard of stupid land

Okay, so this clearly isn't Top 40 material. But I think it's hilarious! Now he just needs to set it to music. My little songwriter!

Cleaning Day?

Xander's room is a Stage 5 disaster area. You have to kick things aside to walk in there. Papers, clothes, toys...it's everywhere. It drives me crazy. So I told Xander he had to spend the weekend cleaning it. He didn't actually get started until Sunday afternoon.

While he was cleaning, I was busy doing other things. Writing, washing dishes, fixing dinner, coloring my hair. Xander didn't end up getting very much done in there, surprise surprise. But he DID do this:


Now my mom will remind me that I had similar difficulties cleaning my own room. But I don't think I had quite the horrendous mess in mine that Xander constantly has in his. (That's my story, anyway!) We'll see how he does after daycare today. Not getting my hopes up too high!

Birth of a Scrapbook Page

After a bit of a break, I'm trying to scrapbook a bit more. I did a layout yesterday, and thought you might like to see what my process is sometimes like. Ready? Okay!

My layout started with a YouTube video, which featured a song I'd never heard before. It's called Everybody Loves Me, by OneRepublic, and you can see the video here if you're curious.

I really liked the song, so I downloaded it from Walmart.com and put it on my MP3 player. I decided to make it my theme song, that's how much I like it. And I'm not being braggy - I don't really think everybody loves me. Well, maybe sometimes! LOL!

So I decided I wanted to scrap this song and how it makes me feel. Which led to a photo shoot when I got home from work yesterday. Outside. In the rain.

I also took some headshots when I got back inside and changed. I went for a smiley one becuase it fit the layout and also because some of my critics (you know who you are, Mom!) don't like my serious face pictures.

Once I got on my computer last night, I uploaded the photos and created my layout. And here's the end result (if you want to see it bigger to check out the journaling, you can find it here):

Not all scrapbook pages are born this way, but for me a lot of them are. A bunch of pieces come together to create one totally cool page. And even if you don't love me, you gotta love the layout!

Chained To My Laptop

So, you want to know how I spent my weekend? What fun and exciting things I did? This about sums it up:

Yup, I was in front of my computer all weekend, except for one run into Oneonta for groceries. And what was I doing, you might ask. Playing games? Scrapbooking? Nope.

My new thing is writing fan fiction. Yes, fan fiction. And don't look at me like that! It's gotten me back into writing, which is definitely a good thing - Mom can attest to how many unfinished stories I have out there. I'll never win any awards for the fan fic, but I have lots of fans who like what I write and that sure makes my day.

I completed eight - I think - chapters for three different stories this weekend. I stayed up till 1am. My back is sore. My brain is fuzzy. But I don't care, because I really missed how much fun it is for me to write. So there, naysayers!

And if you're a little bit curious, and would like to check out what I'm doing, you can check it out here.

Itty Bitty Kitty Committee

We were supposed to go to the Cobleskill Fair yesterday, but rainy weather and general lack of interest had us instead spending the day with Joe's cousin and his family. We hung out, watched Doctor Who, ate pizza, and the boys played together really well all day. The best part, though? Checking out the litter of kittens their new cat just had.

The mommy cat is a Russian Blue and the dad is unknown (the mom was a stray). All five kittens look identical, and we have no idea what they'll eventually look like as they get bigger.

Andy and Angie are keeping two of the five, which will put their household cat population up to four. Joe is seriously considering taking one of the kittens, though I told him that if he brings an extra cat into our house than he does half the work taking care of it, including changing the cat box. I'm not sure how Stuart would feel about another cat being in the house, now that he's the lord and master. He'd probably try to eat it.

So, Joe and I are still in negotiations and discussing the ramifications of having two cats again. Right now it would be so easy to say yes, though...they're so darn cute!!

Meeting My Sister

I met my new half-sister on Sunday morning, a month after she'd been born. I'd been waiting for Dad to ask me over, but he didn't so I finally gave in and called them. It was a little weird, I have to say. Not just that she's 37 years my junior, but because at no time did I really get a feeling like she was my sister. But I visited and held her. She was asleep the whole time.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now. Do I try and see her more, see if we bond or something? Or do I wait for Dad to invite me back?

Sometimes this family stuff really sucks.