Once Upon a Photo

Project 365, still going strong on day 6. Not impressed, eh?

Day 4: Jan. 4, 2009

Today is our 12th anniversary. Neil is in Phoenix, watching the Longhorns play Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, and I spent my day vacuuming up Christmas tree needles, working on the mountain of clothes in the laundry room, buying earthworms for a science project and trying to coax them back to life, and cleaning up puke from Abigail (who mysteriously threw up right before the earthworm prodding began).

While we were at Walmart – my least favorite place in the entire world, but the only store that had (1) a plastic box for the earthworm habitat, (2) 3 flashlights for $1 each, (3) printer paper, (4) potting soil, (5) colored Sharpies, and (6) earthworms – I ran across this orchid. Orchids are my all-time favorite flower, mainly because they don’t go into a vase, they aren’t red roses, and I can keep them alive for longer than 2 weeks, although all bets are off after that point.  This particular one had these cute little clusters of flowers, looked healthy, and was only $10 (probably because it was mass produced by 4 year-olds in China), so I bought it and said Happy Anniversary to me!

Day 5: Jan. 5, 2009

Santa left this way-too-lifelike roach (with pull-back rolling action!) in Travis’ stocking, and he has delighted in giving me the heebie jeebies by leaving it on the kitchen counter or in my bed. Today, he wanted to go out to eat for the sole purpose of freaking out the waiter, and I thought that sounded like a fine idea, especially since I haven’t bought groceries since before Christmas. We decided to go to Chili’s, and luckily our waiter was a total jokester himself, so he appreciated the basket of fries with a side of roach.

Day 6: Jan. 6, 2009

3rd grade is the year for cursive, and Travis, who has always been a bit challenged with fine-motor skills (maybe because he’s a lefty?), is less than amused with having to learn an entire new alphabet, especially after he just got the first one down. And to make matters worse, he didn’t get the alternate list (because they didn’t have school on Monday, so he didn’t take a pretest), so he has to practice spelling words that he already knows. Also, did I mention that he hates cursive? Because if I forgot, let me tell you right now – cursive is dumb and stupid and everyone should just write in print or learn how to type. I helped him with a few words, and Abby, in a rare display of sisterly love and patience, sat down with him and helped him with the rest (writing the words in cursive and then helping him practice, then write them on his spelling sheet). I’m sure this must have been in exchange for doing her chores for the next two weeks, or giving him all her money, or something along those lines.

Either way, he recovered nicely after that, and we had an enjoyable evening until they agreed to play Uno Attack, and Abby backed out at the last second (just to piss him off, I’m pretty sure). This was followed up by a spectacular show of grumpiness, where he stomped around the house, arms crossed and brows furrowed, until he finally plopped down on top of Moose’s kennel and farted really loudly. For some reason, this totally ruined the mad-as-hell aura, and Abby and I both burst out laughing.