it’s a bit past midnight, so that means it’s tuesday now. so here are the photos i took on friday when i needed a break from work. the hat is due to a non-hair day. “bad hair day” is when it wn’t do wha tyou want. “none hair day” is when you really don’t care what the hell it does, and don’t really want it to do anything anyway.

after i hit publish, i’m going to bed. *yawn* *damn work deadlines* *yay overtime* *yawn* so i’m sorry for the run-on sentences, bad grammar and punctuation now. Not really sorry though. More like, bite me 🙂
I realize that this is the wrong time for this, but I’ve been thinking about the past year. I think it all started when I realized I past my year blogging anniversary (um, btw, yay me! about that) and poked around at some of the past posts. Usually January is the time to reflect, renew the gym membership, watch what you’re eating, make resolutions, decide to become a better person, eradicate all credit card debt, cure cancer and end world hunger. but I’ve been feeling the “new year’s” vibe, and so decided to get a new haircut last week.

Looking at a few past posts, it’s nice to realize that I’m in a much better place right now in my head, and when I think about it, I know exactly why it is. Last year, I had pretty much given on up project skinny. I had been staying at home with my kids with no real motivation or purpose. And for the past few weeks, I had also pretty much tossed in the project skinny towel. It’s when I’m not happy with where I am (be it lack of sleep, lack of will power, lack of adults to talk to, or lack of a clean house, etc) that I get all mopey and depressed. As soon as I start to take action, then it snaps me out of it. going back to work, while a financial necessity at the time was a big catalyst in bringing me out of a major funk, but it still shows in some of those posts.

Taking action = end of the funk. It’s a nice thing to know.. but when I’m in the middle of mopeyness, it doesn’t necessarily help me much. Knowing that you have to climb out of the hole you dug yourself doesn’t make it any easier to start getting dirt under your fingernails. But the nice thing is once you DO get going, you usually feel pretty good and energized. It’s sticking to it that I am an utter failure at. 🙂 I have to figure out what to do about that.

It’s a little discouraging to look back at posts about losing weight, and realizing that if I had just kept with it, my body would be in a very different place right now. At the same time though, it’s a good thing. Today is first day of the rest of your life, and all that crap. I think all this reflection is what projected me toward my new hairdo. It’s always nice to do something totally different. For a day, or even a week, people stop and look at you in a diferent way and say, “Hey! Look at you! Wow! Cool! Looks nice!” (at least if you’re lucky). I’ve always found it to be a good way to step out of a funk. At least temporarily. In fact, I used to always get my hair cut the day before my birthday, so that even if no one knew it was my birthday, I would have people complimenting me all day and I’d feel nice.

I don’t think a camera ever points at me too long before I make a stupid face.

Having a new ‘do always motivates me to do the things that I had slowly slacked off doing, like blowdrying my hair, making sure there aren’t any cat hairs on my clothes before leaving, maybe even applying some MAKEUP (or at least mascara) (ahem. You can see it hasn’t helped me do anything about those eyebrows. EEP!) It makes you look at yourself the way others see you, which you never do. I was checking out the short hair in the mirror this evening and james gave me a funny look and asked what I was doing. “You see the new haircut all the time, but I still haven’t gotten used to it. *I* never see it!” Not only do others look at you differently, but you look at yourself differently too.

I am pretty happy. I feel energized. It’s time to take some names and kick some ass and makes some changes. I have so much to give thanks for and so many people to love. It’s gonna be a good year. Err. End of the year 🙂
-amy “SOMEONE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GET ME SOME TWEEZERS AND SOME CHAPSTICK AAAAAAHHHHH!!”

As much as I hate to do so, I have to give credit to James for this one.

Only one of Jocelyn’s. I’m afraid they’re not to the stage where they look like actual objects, but cute none the less. Beautiful use of color, don’t you think?

the rest are Ethan’s:

Fire house with orange bell and ladder.

trucks

Maze. Ethan loves mazes (it’s so nice that now there’s something to engage him while we wait for our food at a restaurant). So this drawing was especially sweet.

T’s have monkey tails. Just letting you know.

Practice writing, crane on a flat bed truck.

I don’t remember if he said that tall one was a rocket, or a tower, or just a tall house or what.

Houses.

Our house. Not just any house, OUR HOUSE. Because our bricks are sort of pinkish, mommy!

and finally, this one is my favorite:

It could be because when I saw it, his cute face was looking up at me, and he said, “I made this FOR YOU mommy!”

It could be because for MONTHS, nay, YEARS I have been trying to get him to draw ANYTHING, but alas, to no effect. Always, he would hand me or his father the drawing utensil, and patiently instruct us on what we were supposed to draw. “A train!” “No! Not like that! With a grill! On a track! Now a truck! No! not like that! A dump truck!” “Why don’t you try?” “No. Just you do it.” and now finally, look! He is doing it himself. I think this is a big part of why this one is my favorite.

but mostly, it’s because you can see how happy he is drawing trucks. He obviously loves trucks. and he loves to draw them. A merry little page of a busy flock of little trucks.

And he made it just for ME!

Click to see a bigger version, which is even better. What a good way to start the week.

Apparently this Wii thing is a big deal.
Here’s a photo that’s clear.

Plus there’s a line!!

So yes, I’ve been pretty quiet this week. I’m still going to be quiet. But at least I can share a recent acquisition from reprodepot.com. I have the make-a-long doll patterns and want to make them for my kids for christmas, but really wasn’t feeling very motivated by the fabrics I have/have seen. They just left me kind of blah.

These fabrics have taken the blah out of me! Sorry for the graininess of the close-up photos, I took these when it was already dark out, so this is purely through the magic of tweaking the RAW file’s whitebalance.

Some people balance things on their dogs or their cats.

I like to put stuff on my husband.

My brother made this costume for Halloween. Blinky from Pac-Man. It is TOTALLY RAD.

-amy promises to write more today soon sometime in the future.