A Deeper Shade of Beige

"Alanae" by *Mila*

signed, the willow

Curly Sue

After tying her hair up in knots over night *Mila* is convinced that in her nearly 5 years of life she has finally achieved REAL CURLY HAIR.

signed, the willow

I AM Canadian

It just wouldn't be right if I didn't honour two Canadian success stories in my family. First, my mother (aka Lady of the Lake), who has lived in this country called Canada for 97% of her life, received proof of her Canadian citizenship this month. Finally. Acknowledgement from the government that her tax dollars are in fact Canadian. Lady of the Lake's mother is a Canadian. Her husband is a Canadian. Her children and grandchildren, we are all Canadians. Her income tax is paid to Canada in Canadian dollars. Well, to make an extremely long and dramatic story much shorter: Congratulations Mom and welcome to your country! We've been waiting for you for a long time.

Secondly, my little cousin has just graduated from RCMP college. He's got the outfit to prove it. Way to go Cousin X! I'd put your real face and your real identity here, but you may need some anonymity in the future. We're all really proud to have our country protected from "illegal aliens" like the aforementioned Lady of the Lake.

signed, the willow

5 Things I Love Today

5. Chocolate covered ju-jubes

4. Kindergarten kids who shout out random thoughts like: "I WILL NOT CUT MY HAIR FOR CHINESE NEW YEAR AND I'M NOT SWEEPING EITHER!" or "I have a dog" or "I love Polly"...that would be Ms. Pocket they were speaking of.

3. Shiny new cabinets from IKEA

2. Warm socks and warm coffee

1. Watching Bugs Bunny with *Mila* while she cuddles my teddy bear, Casey

Et vous? What are your five favourite loves of today?

signed, the willow

Getting up at the crack of dawn

If you got up just a few minutes earlier every day this week, would you teach someone to read? Would you exercise away that potential heart disease? What would you do? I love going to bed early, so I'm thinking about starting each day at 5 a.m., since 5:30 is not cutting it anymore.

signed, the willow

Magic Potion

Once upon a time, some girls who like popcorn seasoning on their pasta, picked up a 64-pack of markers.



They decided that they would draw their own magic potion.

And what will happen next?

signed, the willow

Slide....Electricity

For a good solid hour *Mila* and I spent it in front of 55" of TV Ontario as they premiered the new 2009 version of "Electric Company". "wuh" - "ell" WELL, let me tell you that when the silhouettes appeared and puffed out the words, I was 6 years old all over again (unfortunately, this time without Morgan Freeman). Too cute. *Mila* and I jumped up and danced, laughed, and learned. For me, I tripped down memory lane.

After watching the beat-boxing and rapping and sinister plots unravel, we poured a hot bath where *Mila* wrote her own words on the bathroom tile. Where I had written "crumb", she not only read it but added an "LE" to the end to make "crumble". Then she told me "soft c comes before i, e or y". Yes, crazy but true. Don't forget she learned how to spell "IGHT" words!

Dear Electric Company, you ROCK!

signed, the willow

Life Imitates the Stuffed

Internet, I want you to meet Nana....

Now Internet and Nana, I want you to meet the perpetrator who plucked your luscious black eyes from your skull, which I then had to replace with large buttons that lay at the bottom of my sewing kit (which is a Rubbermaid container with a VHS sticker on the outside that clearly reads "SEWING KIT" under an inch of dust). Uh-huh.....here she is.....

P.S. All photos were taken by *Mila* on her camera.....and she wants you to know it is pink.

signed, the willow

The 11 & 1/2 th Floor of Her Brain

Sometimes Martha Stewart takes the elevator up to the 7 & 1/2th floor of my brain and gets off into master control. Unfortunately, it is her OCD that dictates all the lemon cupcakes I made last night be covered in the matchy lemon-cream cheese icing instead of the green mountain of butter icing that *Mila* globbed on and topped off with sprinkles. Let's face it, they do look pretty cute and *Mila* did decorate all on her own and she's still not 5. So eat my shorts, Martha!

signed, the willow

Frozen Brain

Kaaa-Brrrrr

No, *Mila*! The paparazzi are not after you.
*Steve* keeping an eye on....

...the dude in the leather jacket who is looking at my bum. Why IS he looking at me bum? Bum looker! Cheeky monkey!

signed, the willow

Jurassic Park

Just great. *Steve* gets this big brain wave to take us to Jurassic Park and then this happens.

Not to worry. This was far more treacherous.

signed, the willow

I feel connected, protected

If you can make out the pink Barbie Diamond Castle doll in *Mila's* hands, you will know that the darn thing sings. So, she puts her Barbie Diamond Castle movie into DVD Player 12 (that is not the version, that is the number she is on in terms of portable dvd players), then pushes Barbie's hand and the movie, doll and real live girl sing in harmony. It's just b-e-a-utiful (the first three times).

signed, the willow

Dressing Up As A Tree

When you were 4, did you find a way to dress up as a tree and then randomly paste paper squirrels to your shirt? Huh? I didn't think so. Last night, *Steve* helped *Mila* draw tree branches and drape them from her shirt and pants so she would resemble the trunk of a tree. Which she then followed up with using an entire roll of Scotch tape to adhere crumpled up paper (that she had coloured green earlier in the day) to a lilac toque. Now, I understand why she wanted me to draw so many squirrels. It had nothing to do with my "Legion of Superhero Squirrels" tee shirt (that is seen above) that *Steve* bought for me. She wanted the squirrels for her interpretation of a tree. Does this mean we are officially through with the Disney princess phase?

signed, the willow (literally)

GSP? GST? GPS?

Every January comes with a full load of psychic abilities. Not sure why it happens, but Lady of the Lake can attest to some psychic dreams too.

Sometimes, my spidey-sense works things out by sorting them categorically in life. Revealed this time as coincidence.

I am a wife and mother. I don't watch UFC fighting. Not that I can't keep up with all these modern day ways of punching each other's lights out. Me, personally? I would prefer to throw upper cuts at my husband's jaw on the Wii. So, home comes *Steve* yesterday with his story of GSP. "Georges St. Pierre. He's French, you know." Thank you *Steve*. I suppose you're going to tell me that the Bloc Quebecois speak French too. GSP is some welterweight or middleweight punching, biting, scratching, kicking, hitting guy. After hearing this story, which boils down to not much other than a co-worker being compared to GSP and being called GCB (or something of the like), I decide to melt this out of my mind. But wait, not going to happen. After accepting a Facebook invitation yesterday from a baby brother of a classmate of mine from grade school, I decide to flip through his photos on Facebook. And there he is with GSP, shaking hands. Yes, the UFC dude. Maybe this GSP guy gets around. Maybe men watch too much fighting on tv. Maybe my Facebook friend is a GSP stalker? Maybe, I should get a GPS and find my way out of this.

signed, the willow

'Egg Roll' with the Punches

After drawing 10 squirrels (no, seriously), I felt I better make myself useful around here and made these:

Egg Rolls a la Vegetarian way. These egg rolls had nothing to do with squirrels, nor should any egg rolls!

signed, the willow

Mundane

Boy, does it ever feel like Monday. Whether you are 4 or 44, it is truly feeling like a Monday. Hunger pangs struck all North American school children at a quarter past ten this a.m. and office workers slurped an extra Timmy's to make it through the morning hours.

Oprah fell off the wagon in 2008 and I just watched her pick herself up and place herself gently back on that wagon. Telling herself to "look after you and love yourself". After all, it's all about balance. Funny. One of the world's wealthiest, easily recognized, powerful and successful women has to say she needs balance. We all need balance and we've been wobbling up and down the aisles of Wally World or Best Buy trying to decide what we don't need, but we'll get anyhow. I'm interested to see what 2009 will bring. Balance. Balance. Which brings me to this, does anyone know where I can get a Wii Fit?

signed, the willow