because I really can't get enough of myself

We took the kids to a rodeo today.  In my mind I knew I wanted to take them for the experience, but also I was thinking:  rodeo=country western torture. I've been to a few rodeos before.  The small town next to the small town where I grew up had one every summer.  It was always hot and super dusty, and everyone got to sit on rickety-ish old stadium benches that didn't have backs.  Also, you had to make sure you didn't wear flip flops, because they could fall under the benches and get trampled by the waiting bulls.  (Seriously, there were bulls below us once - I was like 9, it scared the poop out of me, I thought my shoes were goners.) But the rodeo today?  SUPER AWESOME.  I would bet money that I had a better time than my kids did.  (And they didn't even play that much country music, which is great, because I think that would have ruined the whole thing for me.) First of all, it was indoors.  And at noon.  And had special fam...

That's me.  Blogging. You know that line in the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" where she says: "My brain just stopped.  It was going right along and then, rrrrrt, stopped...." ... ... ... ... ... ... See, I'm demonstrating. 'Cause that's me.  Blogging.  Again. In a very stopping-brain sort of way. I saw the movie Eclipse the other day.  Not on opening night though - don't want to make THAT mistake again.  Alright, fine, I've never been to a Twilight movie on opening night.  Although I did for Harry Potter a few times.  So technically, I am the nerd you thought I was when I said I wouldn't be making THAT mistake again. Eclipse was good.  Robert Pattinson didn't wear his awkwardly strained face through the whole thing.  And I think Kristin Stewart blinked about 1/4 of the times that she did in the first two movies.  Also, vampires break apart like marbled Greek sculptures so it's ok to show them decapitated...

I like Monkey's hair long.  I tried to grow out Opie's hair when he was younger, but he has always had a tremendously large head, and he also has very thick wavy hair.  You pair those two together, throw in some long locks, and you've got yourself a genuinely bonified giant-head child.  So I've learned my lesson: keep Opie's hair short. But Monkey's hair?  It's so soft, and straight (our only straight-haired child) and super super cute when it's long.  SUPER CUTE.  (Agree with me - it's my blog.)  But not many people liked the whole long hair thing.  I kept having to threaten various family members with things like, "If I come back to find him with short hair I will DISOWN you, run away with my kids and you will never hear from us again.  EVER."  (Husband was particularly sensitive to this threat.) However, I did say that once random strangers started referring to him as a girl, I would consider cutting it.  And even though ...

I drew a named out of everyone who entered my give away (which were few, but we'll let it slide, 'cause you're all probably on vacation) and the winner is: JAKELL Yay.  And I was going to email you tomorrow anyway, so now we can also talk then about colors and sizes and what not...