Random Tuesday Again

My hair is crawling down the middle of my back. I wonder how long it would be if it weren't curly?

Why oh why must DQ argue with everything I have to say? Isn't being a mother, enough to qualify me to know what I am talking about? Before you comment, I already know the answer... I am an idiot as far as she is concerned.

I really can not believe it is Tuesday already...again. It's also the second day of summer school for DQ and the little girl (we'll call her Miss Thang) I am watching this summer. Itty Bit and I really enjoyed our morning yesterday.

Why do women make it so hard to be friends with them? True, I have always leaned towards the Tom-Boy side, but really ladies. It would be nice to have a good girlfriend who didn't turn out to be a psycho-bitch.

This leads to my new problem. It's been so long since I had a girls night out, that was not attached to a blog. I am seriously due to get shit-faced and sing bad karaoke.

I need to register Itty Bit for kindergarten. Which means she will need her booster shots before school. Which means I will probably have to hold her down to get said shots. Which means it's going to be costly to buy back my status of perfect mother to her. On the up side I see a new Wii game in our future. Or maybe a 2 wheel big girl bike.

I am having fun goofing off with the 3 girls this summer. Besides all of our craft projects, movies, library trips and sprinkler fun... I have put pink and blue strips in their hair, done manicures and tons of temporary tattoos.

Well, that's it for me today. Head on over to Keely's to see who else is feeling random today.

Foxy Friday. 2 Degrees of Separation

I know, I know, it's been way to long since we indulged in Foxy Friday. But think of it this way, absence make the heart grow fonder... errr... or something like that.

Today for our viewing pleasure, Mr. Justin Timberlake. I don't normally find myself attracted to boy band members, ex or present. Or maybe I do, seeing as people seem to think Sexy Papa is a cross between Timberlake and Eminem. Who knows? Anyway, to take the words right out of Rachel's mouth "Yummo"



Definitely bringing sexy back.




Casual Justin



Serious Justin



Ha Ha, drunk Justin



Kinda like HNT, only HNJ. Half Nekkid Justin



Black & White, half nekkid Justin.



Boy do I love me a man with some ink.

Not sure if all the tattoos in the photo above are real, but I know some are. Now on to the 2 degrees of separation...from Justin Timerlake.

So you all don't know I live in Hampton Roads, or maybe you do and your a stalker. Anywho, I went to school at Princess Anne (High school) with Pharrell Williams, another hottie, who I might just have to feature one day. No we weren't pals, so don't ask me to introduce you. He was a nice guy to everyone, but stuck to his crew. And he does a lot of work with Timbaland, including a couple of songs with Mr. Timberlake himself. Ha. I feel connected. Well, OK, not really.

And if that wasn't enough of a laugh for you... check out Heathers post on the boob debate. That is a sure winner. Queen of Shake Shake

Random Tuesday again

It's Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday. Don't I sound like one of those annoying monster truck announcers?
Tuesday means Random Tuesday Thoughts. Head over to The Un Mom to get in on the action.

What is the slowest moving bug that you can't catch? A mosquito! And Sexy Papa has figured out why. Because they are so small and light weight. When you go to swat them the air force produced by your hands actually pushes them away from you. Makes total sense to me.
~~~
The new Janet Evanovich numbers book Finger Lickin' Fifteen comes out today. I totally heart her. I am seriously hoping Sexy Papa will stop on the way home and get it for me.
~~~
Speaking of reading, seems like at the beginning of every summer I go through a reading phase. Maybe it's because that's when Evanovich releases her new books. Maybe the kids being home means I won't get much else done. Who knows. But I have read 3 novels already this month.
~~~
Speaking of new books, mine is coming along nicely. I reorganized the chapters to shorten them a little. Chapter 20 has a torrid sex scene in it. I am not sure I like it. Now I am stuck thinking about that chapter, and whether or not I should tone it down a bit.
If you want to read the book so far Routledge
If you just want to skip to the s e x Chapter 20
I really need to know if chapter 20 is to much. So any feed back would be so appreciated.
~~~
We will be going to the big city park today. Wish me luck in coming back with 3 kids. No more, no less. It hasn't been that rough of a summer yet. But it's not so hot out that the girls can't go outside and play. I am worried about what will happen when it gets into the upper 90's or more?
~~~
Speaking of kids, DQ had the end of school slumber party last Thursday. They all showed up around 3. I called one mother to pick up her bratty ass kid 5 hours later. The others stayed until afternoon Friday. When Sexy Papa called at lunch to chat, I said to him "If you come home and find me curled into a ball in a corner, don't be alarmed. I just need a little time to recover."
~~~
Last I would like to draw your attention to an article I found on Yahoo this morning. 700, yes hundred, teachers in NYC getting paid to do nothing. It's a long article, but very much worth the read. I had no idea this was going on. Somebody screwed the pooch on this one.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_re_us/us_rubber_rooms

Well, I am outta here for now. Got lots to do today. Everyone have a lovely day.

Fab Bookcase. Redecorating Cheap

OK, redoing the house... blah blah blah. We decided to go with a beach house feel in our previously boring living room. I re-textured the walls and painted them 'sandy feet' colored. Then I was inspired to "decorate".

I came up with some adorable ideas. I was thinking of posting the "how to" instructions for some of them.
First up, this unfinished bookcase. My husband built it for me, and I had yet to do anything with it. Now I am glad I waited.

This piece was inspired by a post on Be Different...Act Normal. She has great decorating ideas, and since I started following her, I haven't missed a post. Her post described how to transform a piece of old furniture with molding and trim and some paint. Well, if I waited for my hubby to get around to the trim it might take another 3 years. So I came up with my own plan.

OK, so we have an unfinished pine bookshelf.



First, I sanded and primed it. I just used the 'sandy feet' for primer since I had so much left over.

Once the paint was dry, I roughed up the area I wanted to decorate with sand paper. Then I started the process of skim coating the sides and top edges, with drywall mud. This part will take some time. The idea is to slowly build up a 1/4 inch layer of drywall mud on the surfaces. You have to wait for each layer to dry. I ended up putting 4 thin coats of mud on it. It took about 2 days to prime and mud. I didn't bother sanding between mud coats, or fixing any boo boos. I am going for the distressed look here.

After letting the last layer dry over night, I marked off a grid on the sides. I broke the space into 4 equal parts and marked off a 1.5 inch boarder around all of the edges, and marked a center line.



Now on to the fun part. I free handed some filigree into the spaces with light pencil lines. Once I was happy with the design, I darkened the lines I wanted to keep with a black colored pencil.



Warning: This next part can be painful, depending on how big your piece is. You may want to wrap your fingers in bandages to prevent the blisters.
Carving. To carve the designs into the drywall mud I used a variety of "tools" that I had at the house. No specials tools needed. I used a cuticle cutter, a cuticle pusher (which is now destroyed but totally worth it) and a sharp tri-pointed tool. I have no idea what it was or where it came from, but it worked well. I suspect if you have a rotary dremel tool, that will make this whole thing very easy, but I don't, so...



I carved each design in 3 steps. First I cut into the lines with the cuticle cutter and the tri-piont. Then I further dug out the ditch with the cuticle pusher, which gave the design a V shape. Then I rounded out the edges of the V shape with the back end of the cuticle cutter, which had a small round bottom.





I dusted it all out and wiped it down with a wet cloth. To see if I needed to add to the design I painted the panels. I did need to add to it, so I filled in the open spaces and cut those out too. (By now my fingers are killing me.)





Next I took a dark blue acrylic paint and a small brush and filled in all the grooves. I put 2 coats on. (Since I am going for the distressed look, I also painted some of the corners dark blue.)



Once that was set up, I started the painting process. I put several thick coats of different colors so I can further distress the piece, but you don't have to do that. I started by "DRY BRUSHING" over my designs. Using a 3" cheap paint brush with a very little TINY amount of paint on it. Brushing over the designs lightly in one direction. The idea being to keep the paint out of the grooves, for the most part. Then I painted the rest of the shelf normally with the same contrasting color.





Next I dry brushed over the design again, going in the opposite direction of the first coat. Keep doing this until all the flat spaces are coated. Use a smaller brush to get the stubborn spots. Just don't get it in the grooves.

At this point you could seal the piece or keep adding to the paint and distress it like I did.
I kept adding thick coats of green, light blue and darker blue, (Dry brushing over the designs) letting each layer dry properly. I did the same for the shelves.

Once I was done painting, I lightly sanded some of the corners, and the edges of the shelves. There you have it. Cool looking bookshelf using things I already had.

Totally Random Tues.

It's that time of the week again... To be like one of the cool kids, head over to see Keely-The Un Mom and check out the details of Random Tuesday Thoughts.

This week I get to start whining because school is out. I may not stop until they go back in Sept. I am watching one of the neighborhood kids for the Summer. She and my girls are great friends, usually. Plus it's a favor to her mom, because summer care for school age kids went through the roof this year. Yesterday was the 2nd official weekday of Summer. It was also the day I had to lay down the law. We shall see how that goes.
I have an old friend, actually he used to date a roommate of mine. That was a very long time ago. Back then I thought we would be better friends than we turned out to be. But I guess life just gets in the way. He lives on the west coast now. Every so often he comes here on business. He is supposed to be visiting this weekend. For some reason I am worried about what he is going to think. About my home, and the life I choose to lead, and the way I look now a days. I can't seem to figure out why?
I am totally sick of remodeling now. My living room is done. My bathroom was next on the list, but I DON'T WANT TO. I am also totally sick of my bedroom looking like the inside of a shed. Tired of tripping over paint cans and mud buckets. Tired of not goofing off with the girls because I have to try and finish this project.
Sometimes I wish that I could share things with my husband like I do a best girlfriend. He and I are best friends, but I know somethings will not sit well with him. I still would love to share, so I will just tell ya'll instead: I had a boyfriend once, he was kind of odd, but weren't we all. The very first time we had s e x, while in the middle of going at it, he actually said to me "Who's your daddy?" I pretended like I didn't hear him, as it was all I could do not to burst into full body laughter. See? My husband would think that was hilarious, except for the part that I was having s e x with another guy.
My mailman is an idiot! And that's all I can say about that.

Alright, I have shit to do, so I will catch up with you guys later. Happy Random Tuesday.

Damn it all

I was really in love with my bloggie layout. Seems as though the creator ran out of bandwidth on their photobucket account. So now I am scrabbling to figure out something else. For the time being, I will be using this boring ol layout from blogger.
Anyone have a source for free blog layout? Maybe I should just make my own. Boo!

The Times are a'changin'

Remember when you were a kid? OK, let me rephrase that... For those of us who's childhood was more than 20 years ago... Remember when we were kids?

When I was a kid you couldn't keep my ass in the house. My brother either. We were always outside. Maybe that's because if we were in arms length of our biological Mother, she could find some reason to backhand us. But I suspect it was just what kids did back then. No matter the reason, if we weren't in school or bed, we were outside! In any weather, blistering hot Va Beach summers, or in 3 feet of snow. The only exception was if it rained.
It could be that it was just the neighborhood we lived in... but it seemed as though every time there was a thunderstorm the power went out. This was a great opportunity for my brother and I. Hide and seek was one of our favorite things to play while the power was out.

Yesterday it was made even more clear to me that today's children have no imagination. Or maybe it's just my children. See we were hit with another massive thunderstorm yesterday. And though it is rare for the power to go out these days, yesterday it did. And it stayed out for more than 3 hours.
Instantly my children were "Booooored". I made suggestions to them of things they might do. I didn't suggest hide and seek though. The storm was actually so bad, I asked that they come stay in the living room with me, even before the power went out.
It was like pulling teeth to get DQ to play a board game with Itty Bit. But guess what? When they finally got around to playing something they actually had fun.






They each took turns spinning, while the other followed the instructions to endure the most ridiculous poses. Once they fell over, they would switch. All I could think about is my own childhood and playing in the dark.

Brain Fried Random Tuesday

Brain fried is kinda like chicken fried, only not as tasty. Actually I don't like chicken fried anything, but that's not the point.

I can't stand Borat, or the guy who plays him. But that stunt at the MTV movie awards was the funniest shit I have seen in a long time. If you haven't seen it, and you don't think you will mind seeing Borat in a jock strap sitting on Eminem's face, you should totally look it up!
***
Keeping in mind we only have 1 bathroom...
Why is it that no sooner than the plumber gets the toilet out to replace the wax ring, that I have to pee... like a freakin' race horse?
***
There is only 3 days left of school, OK. 'nuff said! But the good news is, in September, both of my girls will leave in the morning for school.
***
Lately, I can't get enough of Sexy Papa. Maybe I am hitting my "prime". Although that seems odd to me as I am still 29 and holding, but whatever. I think I have figured out the differences in the sexes... I also think I will save that for tomorrow, as it might prove to be a long post.
***
Summer is fast approaching and I am still remodeling my house. Now I feel like I am running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. I still have 1 wall to do in the living room. The bathroom needs to be redone, and I have to paint the hall. Then there is my bedroom. Which, somehow, has ended up the drop zone for all the remodeling supplies. I always wanted my bedroom to be a sanctuary for me and Sexy Papa. Instead it looks like the inside of a shed. Booo.

Speaking of which, I need another bucket of drywall mud, so I will catch up with you people later.
Join in the Random fun by visiting The Un Mom

VGNO I need a stiff drink

Well I will be popping in and out this evening... Between checking to see if my floor is leaking during the flash flood we are apparently having.
To participate go check out Ann Again... and again
My favorite flower is the fushia (below), they usually come in hanging baskets and they bloom upside down. It's amazing to see one of these plants in full bloom.



OK, for those of you who are new here, check out the Foxy Friday post, I promise you will like it.
Also, I have started writing a book. If you would be so kind as to give it a read, I have the first 2 chapters up. I am looking for constructive feedback. Routledge

Now off to swap out the wet towels for dry ones. I'll catch up with you ladies in a bit.

I'm not a blonde I swear

Nothing against blondes, so don't come looking to string me up.
For those who don't realize, I only started blogging about 6 months ago. So you will understand when I get excited about figuring out things like... adding my own HTML to my blog layout.
Which means I now belong to the group of cool kids who post their blog awards right there in the sidebar for the whole world to see.
And wouldn't you know it, I was lucky enough to receive a new blog award yesterday. Toni at Dee-Zigns Handcrafted Jewelery and Accessories bestowed upon me the Friendly Blogger Award. Hey Toni, just so ya know, I think your pretty cool too.



And now it's my turn...
I am passing this friendly blogger award to the following FABULOUS people:

Bantering Blonde (Seriously no offense with the blonde comment)

Bebe's Boutique

Feet Off The Table

Grandma Barbara (even tho she's not my grandma)

My Kids Might Be Martians

And you know what else...
I made my own button to link to my "other blog" and added that to my side bar too.




Go ahead, you can say it out loud 'Missy is the shit!"
Oh yeah, don't forget to check out today's earlier post Foxy Friday.

Foxy Friday

Man is it that time of the week already. As for myself, I think all men are Satan spawn right now. I swear it has nothing to do with that time of the month... cross my heart. But for the rest of you ladies...













Sorry for the short post. Now back to your normally scheduled lives.

I'm on Parents Connect

I just discovered something totally cool. A couple of months ago I submitted a "how to" for my easy baby blankets. It was in a chat thread, and I didn't think another thing about it.
This morning I find that it has been turned into an "article" on parentsconnect.com Check it out.
Parents Connect
How cool is that?

I'm getting excited now

I have been sick the last 2 days. Boo hoo for me right? Well maybe not so much. I am not a wallow in illness kind of gal. Anyway, I am also not one of those people who takes some sort of medication for every little thing. I try to wait it out, because I hate feeling like I am in a waking coma.
But this afternoon I relented and took a Sudafed. I think I have a sinus infection, and I can't stand that feeling of having a brick in my brain. Well of course the Sudafed worked. And... of course I am feeling a little loopy now. That stuff speeds my brain up. Makes me motivated to get shit done. It's a wonder I'm not addicted to the crap, but anyway...

I got the copyright back for chapter 2 of Routledge, so I published it today. This story is really taking on a life of it's own. I am finding it really easy to get it all out. I am already finished with chapter 3 and editing it as we speak. I think, in my Sudafed haze, I will work on chapter 4 tonight, before I attack my husband and make him my loooove slave.
So in case your interested here are the links to read Routledge.

Chapter 2

Chapter 1 (just in case you missed that.)

Any feedback is welcome and appreciated. You can leave comments with each chapter on the books blog.