25 Things You Didn't Know About...

Sorry I have been "sorely lacking of late" (one faithful follower's words), but there has been a lot going on in Real Camp Patton that I had little time to keep up.  I'll spare you all the details, but I can sum it up in two words: Will, Kate.  

Anyway, to make it up to you all, I will fill out the years old "25 things you didn't know about me" meme that is more of a Facebook thing but will work here too.

13.  We're going to just cut to the chase and run with 13 things. Well 12 plus this filler.

12.  I like the color blue.

11.  I can make a mean cinnamon roll which basically means I can read and follow a recipe:

10.  If my life were a scoreboard, it would look something like this:

      Marathons: 4             Biathlons: 1

 High School Students: 233  Me: 0

        Julia need time: 455  Julia Nap time: 15

9.  I like putting up gratuitous pictures of Julia.

 giving mom the silent treatment but showering dad with smiles

 the laugh-cry

8.  I can't take naps.  Even when I am awakened early in the A.M.

7.  I won the state sewing competition when I was 11.  The trophy is still on my dresser.  One of those was a lie.

6.  My first CD came from a UPC code from my mom's "feminine product".  It featured many a party hit, which formed my impressionable homeschooled music taste.

Hence...

5. I have a bad taste in music.  In what sense?  All.  

  Shallow lyrics? Techno beat? check and check.

4.  See #9

Julia explaining I should've opted for a pixie cut like she sports

3.  Simon recently informed me that I sing "Hush Little Baby" to Julia to the completely wrong tune.

2.  If there's a problem, yo I'll solve it.

1.  I would never actually fill one of these out.  I am not, however, above asking my husband to guest post so I can continue my dance party of one to "Girl You Know It's True" on repeat by Milli Vanilli.

  (play it...I dare you not to tap your foot...actually I'm going to go ahead and triple dog dare you)

Clever Sign Off,

G (but really S)

 

haircut.

I hate getting my hair cut and generally only go about once or twice a year. I hate the awkward conversation, the pressure to buy expensive products and staring at myself in a mirror for 30 minutes.  I was wearing my hair down the other day and almost sat on it...it is so grossly long so off I trotted this afternoon for a simple trim. 

and boy am I glad I did:

hairdresser: (takes one look at my hair) oooo so how long has it been since your last trim?

grace: ooo...well about six months...

hd: oh...ONLY six months?...

 awkward silence. my favorite

hd: and is this Sun-In or a home dye job???

grace: um...no...just...um...no...neither. 

hd: hmmm

more awkward silence as she continues to knit  an XL sweater with her brows and play with my hair

hd:and we're you wanting me to put some layers in to give it some volume or do you like it flat like it is?

grace: um. sure..layers are great

hd: and what should we do with these bangs?

("bangs" being wisps of hair to my shoulder...)

grace: oh...you can just give those a trim maybe?

hd: maybe thicken them up? bring them up to eyeball length?

grace: (!!!!!!!!) oh...um...maybe just around the chin...and keep them thin?

the humble pie serving only got uglier as she claimed my hair was too long to cut while I was sitting and she didn't feel like squatting the whole time so would I mind standing on a step stool in the lobby since the chairs next to me were getting permanents and hair color and the stylists needed all the elbow room they could get....??

sure. 

so...there I stood for twenty looooooong minutes at giraffe's chin height with wet hair covering my face in the salon waiting room while she chopped away. I know it is a bit of a stretch but I felt a little like Hester Prynne with my scarlet letter standing for: appearance neglect. 

I thought the worst was over but luckily for me..the hair color and permanent needed to set so the other two stylists grabbed their hairdryers and helped my dresser dry my hair. The male stylist asked, "ooooh....what happened to your neck?!" pointing to my scar. I got flustered and didn't feel like screaming over the three blow dryers so I just said, "oh...um....oh an accident." To which he gave an understandably befuddled look. 

I would show you a photo of the finished product but this is the spitting image:

I can't complain though...during Christmas break of my last year in college I went to get a haircut. I wanted my hair to emulate that of Sienne Miller's at the time. Funny. My only request was that I could still pull my hair into a ponytail. I came out with hair earmuffs and a (not pictured) small rat tail cascading down my neck and back. 

This is a growing out GOOD photo...

pretty in black, white and no.

So the broom chop has certainly kept me out of the ugliest hair style boat...of my life thus far. But...not too terribly far from it either. 

I know you've been missing those pants alterations and Simon and I have been purging and packing and I found some real diamonds to fix this week. 

Be back tomorrow!

the family that fashion blogs together. . .

is lame. 

The creative director of Camp Patton (Simon) suggested I do a fashion post today. 

H No. 

But then he roped me in with his poses and charm after a delicious dinner out with his family and a family outing to the grocery store. 

Take One:

poser on your left and elephant ear-sized flared nostrils holding eminem and housing 13 week old in-utero baby wearing predictable and boring amniotic fluid on your right

Take Two:

 boring

(Simon's sister fittingly deemed Simon's outfit: LL Bean-esque) 

in a more relaxed setting. 

this is minutes before Julia spit up...not out the usual mouth avenue but using a forbidden thru street: her nose. 

Should I be worried or proud?

Also...
Simon is finished with school until his residency starts in June and he has generously agreed to share waking up with Julia duties during his little sabbatical. Luckily for him, Julia slept in until 6:30 this morning. True to his word, he popped out of bed and got her up when she demanded but crawled back into bed almost a minute later. I didn't think much of it until I heard an adult female voice yell, "buttocks!!". My inner helicopter's propellers started to turn so I got up to investigate and found Julia very engrossed in crazy asymmetrical hair's workout that was still in the DVD player from yesterday's half-hearted workout sesh.

lazy, innovative or still asleep?

When I asked him about it he said he was merely, "spicing things up for her."

smart.

and on a much more exciting note...the former homeschooler in me can't get this song out of my head. 

(especially the "...or asked the grinning bobcat why he grins?" line)

ttfn

ttyl

lylas-jk

XOXO,

GP

photos with captions

grandeur and depth central today!
you spoiled readers you

A rare occurrence this weekend. 

She won every nap and bedtime battle.

She has also requested that we call her "Princess" from this day forth.

We'll call this, 

"Simon can you take a photo of me and Princess in our Easter finery with the scenic background of our master suite?"

perfect, thanks

 Grace being WAY more excited than Julia about the swings. 

Julia hangs on for dear, dear life. 

baby obesity PSA

not pictured: Julia making best friends with two canines, Julia inhaling caviar cream cake by the fingertipful, and Julia learning to stand on her two feet with her little bottom waving high in the air and her face firmly planted in the ground.

Happy Easter!

Love, 

helicopter mom, photographer dad and Princess

happy, happy, sad

Simon has been leaving me high and dry in the "Simon Says" arena lately. . .but last night he made up for lost time when he dropped this gem in my lap as he was flossing his teeth,

"Grace, people will NOT be able to take me seriously with my SNAGGLE tooth."

hm. I feel this won't translate well from real life to the written word. I assure you he was being dead serious and I very nearly wet my pants because I was laughing so hard. He claims one of his front teeth is coming noticeably loose and dangly (it isn't) and I had a really hard time keeping a straight face while he stared at the snaggler in the mirror for several minutes.

If you didn't crack a smile...your loss. It was perhaps the funniest moment of 2011 under our roof. 

We were on a comedic roll late last night as Simon was on the phone with the realtor and I reverted back to high school, snapped this photo and sent it to him:

asking, "who am I?"

(the easy and correct answer being Julia)

he instead answered, "college grace"

jerk. 

but a jerk with a penchant for truth telling:

jeepers. 

And now for the annoying parent portion of the post...

I think Julia might be getting sick for the first time in her little life

but I can't be sure.

I'll be sure to keep you posted...worry not!

Bye.

right-o

No stumping Camp Patton's readers!!

Delicious chicken dinners are in the mail to all of the smarty pants!!

Thank you for all of your lovely comments and congrats...my heart will remain warmed until about mid-June.

Julia was a little laughing machine yesterday...finding almost everything I do hilario. 

I was innocently eating my dinner last night (Simon was on call otherwise we would've been eating like civilized people standing at the kitchen counter) and she thought it was a real riot:

Maybe I should've rented her out to the circus for the night...make her earn her little keep.

She is normally so serious for the camera:

(seeking praise from her mute and heartless mother)




Helllllloooooo?!?

wake up! No more videos...cross my heart.

Just this happy photo post successful St. Louis home inspection this past weekend

Simon, big boy and Grace (rocking a seam bulging bicep)



SSS
(sorry so short)

Back to your regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow...I think. 

liddle riddle

not necessarily going about this in the most creative way possible but...whatev.

Fill in the blanks: ___________________ and _______________ in the________________

Here is your photo inspirashe:

clues: 

1. I'm in the meal making room

2. I'm not wearing shoes (a little trust, please)

If you are being thick...additional clues:

3. holy heartburn

4. November 1st

Guess away! 

The first correct guess will be the winner winner of a chicken dinner dinner.

Answer revealed manananananananananananaaaaa.

out of the house

...but only for a cold minute. 

I'll be back tomorrow. 

In the mean time I have this to share and poll. 

Simon, Julia and I went to Mass on Saturday evening and just as we were all heading out the door Simon and I noticed that we had unwittingly dressed in matchy match outfits.

twins:

Simon suggested that I poll the audience to ask,

Who Wore It Best?

See you tomorrow...bright and early!

h-e-l-p

I'm in a blogging rut. 

black, white and broody all over

I tried to sleep it off by tucking myself in when Julia went down circa seven in the pm last night but I woke up just as rutty as ever. 

I've been hoping to glean some inspiration from my usual sources but they have been pretty boring lately:

Julia hasn't learned any new tricks to report...we're working very hard on her handstands but she just can't quite get it...yet. Remedial little girl. 

She did make a new friend:

and was very disappointed when her vampire tactics didn't work on her buddy, Self.

Simon hasn't said anything funny other than, "trade her in!!" when Julia woke up 67 times too many the other night. 

I think it is too soon after my "Get Rich Quick" novella to write another wordy post (although I did strongly consider boring you with one of my all time favorite stories of how Simon tricked/surprised me with a little ring size getting adventure way back when we were dating...)

Soooo....of course I took my already dead horse out back and beat him even further into a senseless oblivion via yet another alteration of some old pants. 

I found these while tackling my daily flight plan in the laundry room/dungeon the other day. It would seem that I went through a rather lengthy phase of life in which I purchased every pair of business casual slacks I could get my greedy paws on.

case in point:

 to my former self: business casual does not equal well-fitting or remotely flattering

eff

why

eye

I can almost guarantee that no fewer than four minutes after Simon gets home this evening he will take one swift glance at my pants and ask,
"where is your steed and riding crop?"

to which I will reply, "dead and out back."

and before my bff+e, Jess makes a comment about tapering all of my pants...please know that my flares will always far outnumber my tapereds. 

Please refer to here, here, here, here and here. 

(and these don't count because I will never wear them in public...too flattering)

And for my next trick I am now going to reminisce about my old waitressing days at a popular seafood chain while I whip up a small batch of these.

Have a nice weekend, I guess. 

twilight

Oh, hello Five O'Clock in the morning

every single day. 

Crazy baby. Always and forever. 

That is all I can say about thaaat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somebody call 9-1-1

I almost torched my sewing machine today. 

Piece of ship. or something along those foggy lines. 

We did eventually call a truce and worked together to produce this nice nightgown/dress:

best photo of the attempted...believe me. 

well..there was this one but Julia said no fair because she wasn't ready:

I've been lusting after some long black dresses (aka Maxi) lately but didn't want to cough up the lettuce. 

Enter heroine by the name of 1/2 off sale at Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts. 

With a happily ever after of $4.99 for real live stretchy knit fabric just like the real deal dresses.

I just followed this little girl dress tutorial, quadrupled the size and braided the noose/neck piece instead of making a strip of fabric/tie. 

Now lets address the post title. 

Our crazy child has taken to simultaneously pinching and bite-sucking faces and necks whenever she fancies:

I would throw out the crazy hypothesis that she is malnourished and maybe a little bit hungry 

but judging by little miss skin, bones, rolls, rolls and rolls

 I think she is doing just fine. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another lackluster post!

fist shake!

Hasta later,

Grace, Simon and Julia

razzle dazzle

razzle dazzle nothing.

Nothing at all.

Let's seeeee...Julia watched in awe/horror from the comfort of her walker this morning as I tried to make my way through portions of this DVD:

That's right. Hot Body Boot Camp. You know you're intrigued. Basically the instructor is crazy and her asymmetrical haircut and workout outfits are even crazier. I drew the line when she started doing a legitimate army crawl and then screamed/yelled/chanted something about sculpting those rock hard buns.

Sooo....we did that.

and I used these tutorials to cobble this skirt together this afternoon:

I'm not sure who died and made Simon the blogging czar of the universe but he said I need to stop taking photos in the dining room...so Julia graciously ventured outside with me to snap this. 

Julia at her photographer's perch. Such talent.

That really is all I have to offer today. Lame to the o. I know. 

We'll hope for more juice tomorrow. 

Get Rich Quick

cha ching.

Reeling in the originality points for that title.

I hate to abruptly shift gears from photo, photo caption...photo, photo, photo, photo caption to word word word word and more words but Simon thinks I should branch out and make the word to photo ratio look a little less like 1:30 and more like 300:1 and of course I do everything he says.

One little year ago today I had just returned from a good friend's wedding out in Pittsburgh. I was probably having a panic attack and flooding my underarms with a small ocean of nervous sweat in between 90 minute (!!!) class periods about how many times Alexander rolled his eyes at me during block one and how many copies could I make in five minutes before block two showed up with their heavy bevy of excuses about why they couldn't complete the My Antonia study guide. That is not to say I wasn't beginning to see the light at the end of the teaching tunnel and was very much looking forward to admiring the stacks of graded final exams in a short month's time.  I was 16ish weeks pregnant and was enjoying the second trimester tidings of renewed energy and nausea-free living. Simon was on his OB-GYN rotation at school and aside from the semi-frequent night of call, his schedule was pretty light and we were getting to see a lot more of each other than some previous rotations had allowed.  The weather was warming up and the cold, long winter was finally winding to a welcome close. I had taken to greeting each morning with a rousing rendition of, "My Life is a Fairytale". No, no, not quite but overall everything was a pretty shade of rosy red.

Alright, alright, alright I realize I'm going to need to speed things up if I am going to cover this past year in one little post.

The following day I would need to overcome the small hurdle of undergoing one more hellish needle biopsy of a small lump on my thyroid to ensure that is was benign. The first biopsy had been inconclusive due to the fact that the doctor had not procured enough liquid from the nodule. I hate needles and had read about 89 forums about the biopsy procedure from start to finish. The accounts ranged from, "didn't feel a thing" to "worst pain of my life...including child birth".  I can say that the hours of childbirth pre-epidural that I did experience were far worse than the fat needle sticks but it was still high on my list of, "please never ever ever agains". So you can imagine my trepidation going in for a second biopsy but I was a brave little martyr and to the gauntlet I marched and survived with only a heart shaped bruise marking my neck to show for my suffering. I was a smart enough cupcake to know that when the doctor left a message during fourth block the following Thursday saying that he wanted to discuss the findings asap that perhaps the results weren't going to be benign after all.

I called him back just as the last pair of school uniformed legs scurried out my classroom door a few long minutes after the dismissal bell mercifully rang. He kindly and matter of factly informed me that it was indeed thyroid cancer and that I would need to undergo surgery relatively soon and following Julia's birth I would have to have a radioactive iodine treatment which would involve weaning Julia at a very young age and remaining several feet away from her for several days following the treatment. Never one to be melodramatic about anything, my mind spun thinking about the gargantuan task of getting enough sub-par lesson plans prepared for the sub while I was out for the surgery and how scared I was of having surgery especially while pregnant. The omnipresent vain side of me dwelled on the lifelong scar necklace that was looming in my very immediate future. 

I won't drag out the details of the surgery and the treatment because I have already addressed them at medium-sized length in other posts but in hindsight everything went incredibly smoothly and relatively easily. The most difficult part was being on the brutal low iodine diet and going off of my thyroid medicine, rendering me embarrassingly emotionally unpredictable and zapped of all energy. Por ejemplo, I had the mother of all meltdowns when I couldn't remember where I had parked my car at the hospital after a very short appointment at the hospital in the days prior to the iodine treatment. Thankfully, I am a heartless mother and being away from Julia wasn't nearly as difficult as I had imagined.  Simon and his family took great care of her and she took to formula and bottle feeding like a little championess.

Tonight Simon, Julia and I went on a walk like we normally do in the evening and as we passed by a car with a bumper sticker that read, "Get Rich Quick! Count Your Blessings!", I found myself succumbing to the sentiment of the message and thinking back to this time last year because the same sense of rosy red calmness has settled over our lives once again. We have so much to be grateful for. We know now that Simon will be doing a four year OB-GYN residency in St. Louis starting in June, we know where we will be living (barring any unforeseeable contract breaking circumstances), Julia is an almost perfectly content chubby babe and I am healthy as a Clydesdale all over again. 

 what we do best...snap photos while taking breathers from short evening walks

Never one to shy away from an opportunity to complain, I am (for once) exercising my right to voice how appreciative I am for all of the blessings God has bestowed on our little familia. Despite the ups and downs of the past year, I still feel as though we are way ahead in the ups count and were able to weather the downs with ease and the help of family, friends and prayer.

I'm taking a flying leap off my sentimental soapbox now and if you've made it this far I would like to say you're welcome for the year's worth of Hallmarkesque sap you just inhaled. 

Have a lovely Monday.

7 (official) Quick Takes Friday Volume VII

Linking up to Conversion Diary's Quick Takes once again.

Friday. Yay. 

1. Julia has a boyfriend and his name is foooooood:

she loves him. so very very much.

(the clip is nine or twenty six bearable seconds long...just watch)

2. I made my first non-failure of a salad dressing the other night.  I simply Googled, "best salad dressing in the world" and this genius gem popped right up. 

• 1 cup vegetable/olive oil
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
  the recipe said to combine and shake but I chose to go wild and blend in the blender...refrigerate for an hour and reblend...something about letting the natural flavors come to life.
  It is very good in my high and mighty opinion. Julia even devoured 1/4 cup straight up.
  
  

3. I am definitely (or defiantly which seems to be a very popular spelling for definitely these days) regressing in the sewing department. I made this disaster (don't tell her but I had a heck of a time getting this over her hips...after it wouldn't budge over her head) of a skirt for little J but I told her that she better appreciate or her little one cent per month allowance would be shaved down to one cent per quarterly period. 

 She immediately cooperated with no questions asked. 

4. Oh...what is she holding you ask? A little product I am going to plug. This Pantene Pro-V Beautiful Lengths Conditioner is pure magic in a bottle and the monster bottles are on clearance for $1.98 at a Target near you. My hair is woven into intricate nests by rats on a nightly basis and is perpetually a tangled nightmare. One application of this pretty potion and my brush had no trouble gliding through my locks post shower. I even skipped my usual three coat routine of Double Dutch Apple Detangling Spray (for kids).  I'm hoping it will work the same magic for Julia's thick and knotty locks.

5. More dress resizing. Don't be too blown away. 

what? you didn't do anything. Well...I did. But if I were honest and showed how loosey goose the top was pre-fix...you would see the spate of immodesty sins this dress was committing whenever worn. Now it is basically indecently short. 

Bah humbug.

6. Photo filler...I think Julia looks like a big two year old here:

oh, profundity.

7. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel here but my mom's phone called my phone the other day and I picked it up:

G: Hi Mom!

other end: Oh, hi Grace (clearly was my brother...Peter)

G: How's it going?

other end: oh, sorry just so you know this isn't Mom..this is Peter

G: Oh, thanks. Confusion all cleared.

&

Julia and I were enjoying the beautiful weather on the front porch earlier today. I was reading and she was playing with one of her obnoxious singing stuffed animals (and by playing I mean suffocating and chewing his/her hand to drooly bits). I decided to break from my reading and sing the ABC's with her toy which Julia generally finds highly amusing. After I loudly sang/yelled and applauded my duet with the toy I looked over to see our retired professor neighbor (whom I have never seen crack a smile) knee deep in fertilizer obsessing (as usual) over his lawn no more than 12 yards away and chuck chuck chuckling. Little soundtrack for his sweat. De nada.

Have an awful weekend!

Just Kidding

same as yesterday and the day before and the day before

If you've come to be wowed

go away

click away

skiddily diddily daddle

not today

All you'll find today is another typical post:

1. Julia is mistaken for a young boy baby

2. Grace makes Julia a dress not fit to wear in public

3. Grace 'fixes' a dress but it looks like she just put on nicer shoes

 Excuse the monotony but I've been busy thinking up home decor ideas for the cardboard box we will be living in in St. Louis due to the ugly shortage of suitable homes available to semi-kind folk like ourselves. I've also been scouring the real estate world's answer to Facebook which is the super depressing Listingbook. Yawn yawn yawn. 

Alright, off we trot:

1.  On yet another outing to the grocery store for Grace and Julia 

(we like to go on a daily basis...keeps things spicy and I really was in the mood to devour an entire carton of cottage cheese...which I did on the two minute drive home) 

(Julia is finally outgrowing her allergy to affection)

this exchanged ensued:

lady clerk: oooo he sure likes to stare...or is he a girl?

grace: oh, yes a girl. Everyone mistakes her for a boy though...don't worry!

lady clerk: well! Its because you keep her hair cut so short! Keep it long and feminine!

well ring a ding ding...I'll have to refrain from that masculine daily buzz I've been subjecting little J to lately.

2. I found the cutest little girl dress tutorial on the amazing world wide web and since I still had a healthy portion of the neverevereverending bed sheet...I decided to give it a whirl:

Initially, I thought I had made the world's most modest baby maxi dress

until she sat down:

nothing modest about that. 

 Needless to say she will not be leaving the house in this frock until she is at least 12 months...maybe 18...we'll see how she behaves in the mean time. 

She was pleased with how the back camouflaged the dreaded "clearly I am wearing fluffy underpants" diaper bottom:

3. I bought this dress at a little boutique that happens to be a national chain by the name of Target:

I've never worn it because generally I like to be a modest mouse and wear cardigans over dresses and with the likes of those buttoned cuffs...my biceps dwarfed Hulk Hogan's and the buttons under the bust looked weird and awkward. 

So...I performed some minimally invasive surgery and cut off the buttons, cuffs and bust flaps and tightened it up in the back ever so slightly

and I added fancier shoes...obvio. 

the sleeves aren't perfect but will be hidden by a cardigan anyway

any better? I know not

and now I'm off to be frivolous and paint my toenails a lovely shade of nude. 

see you tomorrow...fear not!

hello Wednesday

"MARKER EARRINGS???!!!!"

was Simon's exact response to my response to all of the wrong gender assumptions about poor little J:

 Yes sir. We shoot for the moon and land among the brightest stars around these parts.

and then when I walked out wearing this get up for a family walk with little Huckleberry last night:

 he asked, "do you ever say things like, 'heavens to betsy!' when you're alone?"

J came to my rescue and helped de-age my outfit a bit with her flying nun habit/bun cover

knee slap. 

I forgot to mention yesterday that I had an award to give out:

kind comment of the week to my good friend Caitlin:

in response: every post please.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

somethings new learned in Scrabble land this week: "urines" is in fact a word and the word, "eh" will score very few points no matter how strategically it is played. 

Now, can you tell me how to get back to More-Excitingville as I seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere wayyyyyyy back in January?

much obliged.

title schmitle

not dead.

not ill.

not inventing the first baby straight jacket for the purpose of not dislocating both shoulders while wrangling an acrobatic baby in church.

I've been flying.

You read that right: flying with the FlyLady of course! For the 99.9999999999% of the population that can keep their house clean without the help of a gimmicky (albeit free/gratis/no lettuce required) website that sends no fewer than 89 helpful email reminders a day. . . good for you. I require a virtual fairy mother to tell me what to do every day. She has me doing crazy things like scrubbing the inside of our trashcans, cleaning under kitchen appliances and putting on shoes in the morning. Normally my "flightplan" is finished before my first cup of coffee has been chugged but I got a little carried away yesterday and went nutso with a roll of trash bags, a bottle of Pledge (first time I'd held a can since I was doing my loathed Friday chores at the age of 12) and an unhealthy amount of paper towels (the environment forgave me..don't worry your pretty little furrowed brows about that deet).

The house is not sparkling but is looking better than ever and last week's Grace is staring curiously at this week's Grace as she cleans every glass surface in the house and stays on top of the laundry for the first time since the beginning of her laundry doing days.

Naysay away...but I am a lazy, lazy lady when it comes to housework (I believe a one mother of mine said something to the effect of, "how do you live in this filth?!" when she came to visit recently) and I am a sold believer on the wonders of the FlyLady. 

So...there is that. 

Desperate times have procured some desperate measures in the 'Julia is indeed a female' department.

The past two trips we have taken to the grocery store have elicited two comments, 

"What a nice young man!" and,"What a snuggly little boy!"

I can tell you that she is not a man nor is she snuggly...

here was her masculine attire :

never not happy camping...that little guy

(please note the feminine purple ruffles and pink flower applique on shirt)

We worked with her wardrobe and make up and came up with this look we like to call:

 ugly pretty

want to emulate?

ingredients: a little blush, marker earrings, her staple mascara and an understated floral accessory

That should show them. 

I hesitate to even show my latest clothing refurbish but obviously not hesitating enough as here I goooooooooooo

 

Excuse my good looks. 

They tend to come out of hiding when I least expect...

Another pair of navy pants paired with his and hers athletic socks. 

nothing crazy:

just some run of the mill tapered pants paired with some bad choice Fiestaware footwear. 

Oh weird! Did you hear that?

I'm pretty sure it was the earth shattering but I can't be sure. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and I'm off to enjoy a family-sized can of soup. 

My favorite.

Have a nice afternoon.