We visited my grandma this past weekend. This now completes the introductions for Josie to her immediate family. It was great to see her so active and well at 88, and I think she really enjoyed our company as well. I kick myself so often for letting so much time pass in between visits, and I don't want to regret anything when she, my last grandparent, is gone, so I am really glad we visited.

With my Aunt Yvonne

Playing outside at grandma's

When we got home and were driving up our driveway, I noticed this owl, and when I got out my camera to take a picture, I saw there was another owl in a tree behind this one. See them both in the top picture? I thought they were too cool! But of course wished for a better camera to capture it. It's on our shortlist for "things we want". They hooted like mad at 5:55 a.m. Guess how I know that. Smile.

And a few more just because:

Daycare for stuffed animals. Because we just believe that strongly in safety for man or beast.

Oh yeah, and remember this classic?

We were remembering and laughing about this with friends over the baptism weekend. Of course Luke 'all ears' Miller heard it, so when we went to check on him a few days later before bed, not only did he have the duck stuffed in his pants (seen above), but he also had Mick, his stuffed dog, and a small travel pillow. It was a true party in his pants.

Huh?

As I checked the traffic monitor for the blog as I sometimes do just for fun, I noticed a visitor from here:

Dnepropetrovsk, Dnipropetrovs'ka Oblast'

and I just have to ask myself, is this a real place?
It reminds me of when I was reading the Readers Digest Condensed Book when I was a kid at my grandparents, and one of the short stories was set in a place called Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which I thought was such a clever place for the author to make up, until later in my life when I realized this was actually a real place.

I sort of feel like that now.

Makes you realize the world is a whole lot bigger than the little part you are familiar with.

Some pictures...

just because you are all so far away. And babies change so fast. And we just think she's so darn cute, I'll be honest.

She's still growing into her eyes

She rolled over for the first time from her stomach to her back this week! Didn't even look surprised.

Another first this week was sleeping through the night Tuesday night; 9:30-5:30. Yea! But nothing predictable yet; last night she got up at 2:00 and ate, and went back to sleep till 7:00. Keeps me guessing!

Baptized

Our baby girl was baptized this weekend. Our priest maintains that he has never had a baby cry during his baptism. That is saying a lot! Josie stayed awake and bright eyed throughout the baptism.

Proud Grandma and Pappy

Godparents Chris and Cindy

He takes the baby all around the church for people to see while everyone sings 'Peace is Flowing Like a River'

Chris and Cindy's daughter made this cake for Josie

Hair S.O.S.

I am embarressed to go out in public.

My hair is currently a disaster.

While I have never considered myself adventurous when it comes to my hair, I was willing to try something different at the salon last week. As I age and my natural hair goes more the way of dirty sand and less lemon meringue pie, I have continued to highlight it lighter and lighter. As a result, when my now natural color grows in, the contrast to my highlighted color is more dramatic, meaning I like my hair for about 3 weeks and then despise it for the next 7 weeks until I can afford to go back for more. That, and it takes somewhere in the vicinity of 7,347 foils to get it all highlighted. So really, in the name of the environment, I decided to try something different and color it instead of highlight it. The goal was still the same, to lighten it all up making me feel all shiny and new.

But, alas, I am now, as my sister calls it, buttescotch head. See exhibit A:

I feel like I: (choose one of the below)

A. Slipped in a vat of butterscotch pudding

B. Wanted to feel what it's like to be 79 years old and experimenting with box colors

C. Was feeling a particular fondness towards the American penny that day

D. Was trying to give myself a hardcore reason to stay home and not venture out in public anymore by way of embarressment

So, I called my hairdresser. Now, I have a knack for avoiding uncomfortable conversations to the extreme with people I have a relationship with, to the point where my friend Susan says usually by the end of the conversation, I've made whatever the issue is my own fault. This may be true, but when you are messing with my hair, my bravery shines through. I told her that I was really unhappy with my hair, it looked like I'd used Sun-In, and if she just stepped outside to see it in the natural light, I'm sure she'd see what I was talking about. She essentially retorted with, "Well, I thought it looked good!, and "You are trying to lift your hair so much that the orange/red family is in the path of that enlightenment" and "I am booked through Thanksgiving 2019, but if you come in, we'll find someone to help you out", and so on and so forth. She suggested therefore that I come in and see one of the other girls there who would fix me right up.

I went in, which is no small feat again with a small baby to arrange, to get it fixed. We did another entire head highlight with the intention, as I might have mentioned, of fixing it, wherein I would leave with less orange than I walked in with. Alas, this was not the result. I didn't know this for sure until I got home, because as I mentioned earlier, poor lighting, plus having to leave with a wet head to retrieve small child because you can only ask so much of your friends, and of course, you can't really see how it will look when it's all wet and pulled back in a ponytail.

In case you think I jest, and I am overly exaggerating how bad it looked, may I present Exhibit B:

Oh, and then there's this little conversation when the boys got off the bus and walked into the family room. These were the first words spoken:

Jack: "Wow, you look wierd! Are you still my mom?"
Luke: "Aargh! You look creepy!" He also refused to come near me to kiss or hug me.

I then saw it was necessary to take matters into my own hands and book an appointment with another salon. I was booked with a girl who is all of a month out of beauty school. Yikes. HOWEVER, despite having to pay another $80 to get my hair done for the THIRD time within a week, I think it looks a lot better. While she couldn't entirely erase the orange glow, she at least broke it up by working some blonde hue back in. So, ignoring the fact that you could easily use my hair for kindling now, it looks better, and that's all that matters, right? Cuz if a girl's hair looks good, she looks good, and that's it. I am a hair person and this is my motto. You don't get voted best hair in high school for nothin' now do you?

I still maintain that breakin' up is hard to do. I just hope I don't run into my former flame somewhere.

She might get suspicious that I'm foiling around on her with someone else.

Two months

It seems nowadays I rarely have a topic that I want to go in depth into on a blog posts, I just have a series of random thoughts. So maybe this is the new thing for me for a while. At least until I can make a collection of thoughts worthy of a "topic". Or maybe I have ADHD and can't focus long enough on one thing to be considered a "topic". Or maybe it's just having a 8 week old baby.

I don't know.

Whatever. For what it's worth...

*There is nothing like the time spent in a hospital with your husband and a brand new baby. As I think back on each time this has happened, I feel that the time you are cocooned away from the real world in that quiet place, staring in awe at your new baby, is something that cannot be replicated anywhere. It is amazing and I don't know if there is anything you can do to feel more connected to your spouse. I'm so thankful even on our third baby that we were able to spend this time together before coming back home to our loud and busy life.

*I feel like a failure if I have sandwiches for dinner. Sandwiches are totally acceptable for a Saturday or snow day lunch, but for dinner, I can tell I haven't given it my A game. HOWEVER, I made a nice crock pot dinner for tonight so, WINNING! Onion goggles and all!!

*Luke came into our bedroom at 6:30 last Saturday morning, with his pillow and his stuffed animals, requesting that he might climb into our bed and sleep wiff us. I am quite sure that if he was able to say with instead of wiff, he might not have made it into our bed at 6:30, but gosh darnit, can you resist when a little kid asks if he can sleep wiff you? I don't know how.

*I am consumed with my hair right now. I had an appointment on Wednesday, and decided that since my natural color is getting so far from what I like it to look like, I should color it instead of highlighting it. However, the first inch or so from my scalp looks now like I am in 8th grade experimenting with Sun-In. I know any kid who grew up in the 80's knows just what look I am talking about. And, there is a streak or two on the sides above my ears that turned out in the white/blue family. I am embarressed to go out in public with it, but when I called my hairstylist to discuss, she ended up making me feel like I have unrealistic expectations of what my hair should be able to do with a color. Really? Then why not advise me against it in the first place? How about, even though I thought it looked great, the most important thing is for you to be happy with your hair so why don't you come in so we can fix it. So, I'm going back in today to hopefully get it adjusted while trying to convince her that there is even a problem in the first place.

I think it's time to break up with her.

Why is breaking up with your hairstylist so hard?

*My clothes have actually started to mock me in my closet. I hear them every time I walk by.

*I'm loving two new shows. Portlandia is on Friday nights on IFC channel. So funny. Directed by Lorne Michaels of SNL if that tells you much so sometimes it's way out there. Also, Napoleon Dynamite, animated! Love it.

*I'm  not as proud to admit to my Kardashian watching as of late. You see, I'm in a recliner for a good part of my days with the baby girl, so you have to turn on something, and, well, the Kardashians are always on E channel, so it sort of happened by accident. It is wildly entertaining despite being completely over the top and as far from our lives as it can be.

Oh my. Need I say more?

Just proof for the future that a mommy really did exist and didn't just take all the pictures

The boys said, "We made Josie!"

What girl doesn't need to lounge around in her robe every now and then?

And, finally, here's what happens when you leave a baby unattended:

One of these things is not like the other....