365 Project - Day S I X

This thing. This harmless contraption. This modern marvel of weights and measures. This fucker is the bane of my existence. Most days, this piece of plastic and metal will determine the course of the rest of my day. It will set the mood and either make me sick to my stomach or have me kicking up my heels and tra-la-la-la-la my ass out the door.

I hate this scale. I hate that it tells me the truth no matter how many chances I give it to lie in the 2 minutes it takes to step on, weigh, step off, frown, step on, weigh, step off, frown, step on, weigh and then step off again.

Today was my aunt's 44th birthday. I wanted to celebrate, be happy, feel good about meeting for lunch, but I just couldn't enjoy myself because the scale can't even tell the teeniest of teeny white lies.

365 Project - Day F I V E

"Mom, watch me... Mom, watch me... Mom, watch me..." has been Jack's mantra since he was about 2 or 3. Back then, the word 'watch' had an entirely different ring to it as Jack learned to speak without a pacifier. I swear there was a K sound in there somewhere. Something like 'watchk'. Through the years, it's evolved from the watch with a k, to something that had the tiniest lisp to it, to a full-on, hear it through the neighborhood, "Mom, watch me!"

I'm thankful for his pre-pubescent Mickey Mouse voice because I know these days are as fleeting as the sunset he's jumping his bike in front of for the millionth time...

365 Project - Day F O U R

I knew this was going to happen. Before I took on this project, I thought to myself, "Self? What happens if you like more than one picture for your day? What happens if there's no pictures for the day?" What does a girl with a project do? Collage? Choose one? I dunno!

So, I decided to just group together my favs from today and post 'em all. When I publish my book at the end of the year, I may have to just choose one.

We went over to my parents today to clean up the yard in preparation for next weekend's Flashlight Easter Egg hunt. Yes, that's right, the kids hunt for eggs in the dark, using only a flashlight to spot the goods. My sister set today as the day we went to clean up the place. Mom usually talks about the 60+ hours it takes her to rake 'dangerous sticks' and leaves, so we all decided to pitch in this year and do the dirty work. To me, my parents yard is usually immaculate, beautiful and picturesque. This is probably because I don't see my mom doing the work 'behind the scenes', but the fruits of her labor show. She claims my dad merely rides around the yard for 2 hours on the riding lawn mower when he's not globe-hopping and drives over the various debris in the yard in the hopes it will somehow get mulched under the mower. While he does have an obsession with mowing the grass and washing his car, he also enjoys moving piles of dirt and chopping wood. Anyway, we all congregated at my parents to do this yard work and get things ready. On hand for labor were Kelby, Cindy, Taylor, Jason, Donna and Jim and Annie. The kids came too and had a blast. I'm not sure how much work we got done compared to how much we thought we might get done, but we got some things done.

In the first image, Miss Remy was smiling at me and I couldn't resist adding this picture! I had to take it quick because when she noticed the black camera, she got interested in that, not me. She's getting so big. I'm so happy she's my niece.



Jack in a skirt - yes, my boy is willing to be androgynous when I ask. This wrap skirt is one my mom dug out of my keepsakes and said, "Here...want your skirt?". Now it fits me like an apron, but I'm not sure I ever wore it when it was merely a wrap skirt. This was one of the souvenirs that my Grandma Kay brought back from her 20 year ago trip to Fiji - along with a poofy sheepskin purse that I'll never forget the smell of. I wish Grandma would have got one for herself.



Picture three - the pile of eggs that Jason and I washed today (merely a portion). Since this egg hunt boasts egg totals of well over 700, we save the eggs year after year. They were pretty disgusting from being used and sitting in the shed for 2 years, so we washed 'em up. They were upside down drying in the sun and I really liked all the colors together.



Picture four - Well, I had to add picture 4. This is my measly pile of 'dangerous sticks and debris' that my mom insisted be disposed of. A couple of times I challenged my mom to the reasoning behind raking up minuscule sticks, but she mommed-out on me and won the argument.



It was such a beautiful day - 68 the temperature read in the van. Thank goodness we might actually have a spring...

365 Project - Day T H R E E

Today was quite a day.

Jack was in the Daffodil parade on the Fife Community Float. He would be riding with his friends on the float which was decked-out with a baseball theme. It was a scheduling nightmare and the logistics of coordinating my child with the float people, finding a parking spot as well as finding a seat lining the streets of Puyallup. Luckily, my mom was the 'seat scout' and she was able to find us some seats near the end of the parade. When we finally got there we were all geared-up to watch the parade and anticipate the cruising by of Jack's float. There was even cell phone exchanges between my sister's friends, who were sitting up farther in the parade route, "Have you seen him? Nope, not yet. Have you seen him? Nope, not yet. Have you seen him? Yes, he should be coming around the corner in 3 minutes 46 seconds behind a jazz team and a marching band." Jason even went up the street a little to watch for Jack's float and then radio back which side of the float he was on for prime picture taking. The moment arrived, Jack was rounding the corner. I could see him beaming and doing the wave that we discussed (make sure you wave, especially at the little kids - they love that). I jockeyed for position across the street so I was on the same side as Jack. I have the camera in hand...push the power button. Frown. Push the power button again. WTF? Push it harder this time. My heart pounding, I suddenly realize I have 0% battery. My moment; my child's moment that I had planned on capturing digitally...gone in a moment of lithium lifelessness. The moments of stress and anticipation suddenly culminated into a cataclysmic mix of emotions and what does any mother do? What does Megan do? Megan started crying. At the Daffodil Parade. It reminded me of the time that I cried at Disneyland because I got my Croc stuck in the trolley train tracks in the middle of Main Street (last year!). I seem to have the knack for crying at the happiest places on earth.

I can only hope that a few of the other parents posted along the parade route were able to capture an image of my son on that cheezy float.

Fast forward to 7:00pm...

So, for Jason's 38th bday, I got him tickets to see an MMA fight at the new Snoqualmie Casino up near Snoqualmie Pass. My brother actually watched the fight with Jason while my sister and I did some gambling. One thing I will say about playing slot machines is, I'm really consistent. I consistently lose. My friend Annie once told me that she's particular to justifying a trip to the casino by pointing out that every time you go it's a potential investment.

I have played this particular game, Rembrandt Riches, several times before, always looking in amazement at how one of the characters looks remarkably like my father when he had a comb-over and a few years of alcoholism under his belt. Probably around the time when he and my bio mom divorced. We'll refer to this time as, "When I was little..."

Anyway, since I bombed on capturing my child's parade moment on my camera, here's a snapshot from my camera phone of my dad pictured on a slot machine game.

365 Project - Day T W O

Here's Mazie this morning - still feverish. But, lower than it was at 2am (103). Got some soup in her today and she's been non-stop watching the cartoons. She did tell me, "Mom, I didn't know there was a REAL Popeye...I thought it was just a song!"

365 Project - Day O N E

Well, here I am at another project. I intend to finish this one. Although, I'm a day late in starting it. This tidbit summarizes most things I start in my life. They had to create a word for people like me; procrastinator.

I was going to start this project yesterday, April 1st, but alas I created an April Fools joke for myself.

Here's picture number one. Taken this evening of Mazie with a grown-up towel on her head. She has a fever of 101.8 and I'm not sure why. Look at Jack trying to hijack the shot...