Memphis

It seems almost like a lifetime since I've blogged and life is flying past at the speed of light. Ok, probably not quite that fast, but sometimes whole chunks of life seem to be gone in just the blink of an eye (but that is another post in itself.)

I want to introduce you to the newest member of my family....

Meet Memphis...She is a 12 week old part rat terrerior and part fox terrerior. She is very much a puppy and has already chewed up a pair of my flip flops, my phone charger cable, and a few stuffed animals. To give you a rough guess of the actual size of this little girl, that is our cat (7yrs old) trying to ignore Memphis. As you can tell - we have a very large cat who has been around long enough to not care about being so overly excited when it comes to being outside.And just because I try to always see the silver lining...here she is, believing she can do anything!

Games

I've mentioned in the past that we (the hubs and kids) are game players. When getting ready for our Halloween party I asked you what your thoughts were on playing games, to which most of you said you would do if others were playing. Now I am curious about games as in - just for fun?

Growing up, my family did not play games so this was not something I learned to enjoy. However, when I became part of the military, playing games were something we did pretty regularly (seriously how else are you going to pass the time when you are stuck on a ship in the middle of the ocean?) Point I am trying to make, is that my new found appreciation for the board games was something I acquired late in life.

The hub, on the other hand, was a game player-his family are game players and so as such, our children are now game players. I thought we were alone in this love of board games, but no...we have managed to find people just like us who have a twisted love affair with games. We have a small group of friends who we can count on to join us in a battle of wits, skills, and sometimes war against each other in an effort to win bragging rights. (Can you play Taboo or Cranium without an all out battle??)

Imagine my surprise, as I sit at my desk early in the morning and listen to a heated conversation about the previous weekend's battle of boardgames. I'm talking grown men and women going all out and planning their revenge in a rematch.

As I sat behind my little cubical wall, smiling to myself, all I could think was - I was living in a parallel world and these were my counter peoples, but most likely I realized I am probably not as rare a breed as I originally thought and us gamers...well, we're not a dying breed after all.

What about YOU - Do you like to play games with friends? Do you have a favorite?

Sweet & Sassy

Being a mother, we spend our time teaching our children how to walk, talk, tie their shoes, how to dress themselves and how to become individual little people. When we are not teaching them the basics of life we are teaching them manners, morals, culture and values - the things we deem important in their knowledge. Somewhere in there we try to squeeze in a few moments to laugh and play all the while, knowing we are still watching out for these children we love so dearly.

As a mother, I can relate much more to my daughters, DQ and Little Miss, much more than I can Jr, because he's a boy. That is not to say we don't have anything in common, however, when DQ comes home and tells me about some 'smelly, gross thing' a boy did at school - I can laugh with her and completely understand where she is coming from. When Jr. laughs at the use of the word 'penis' or goes off to hunt creepy/crawly things...I am usually left with a dumb, blank stare on my face.

As their mother, I can relate to my daughters. As a woman I can relate to other women. While we are not identical we are still very much alike and have at some point, been there where they are now. So when the opportunity came for me to spend the day with DQ at the Spa - I gladly ditched the hub and snatched up DQ as if her life depended on it. Typically I would have never thought twice about taking my daughter to a Spa...for heavens sake, she is too young to enjoy that and usually those are my moments to get away and relax, but in this case, we were headed to Sweet & Sassy Spa and Salon for little girls.

Yes, that is right - Little girls who can get their hair done, mini-manis & mini-pedis, and makeup. It is down right adorable and the people who work there are so much fun I wish I could go there myself. They have make your own lotions, lip gloss, glitter this and glam that. DQ opted for a hair cut (shampoo, cut and style) and because she's been on her best behavior for a few weeks now I threw in a mini-mani. From the moment we stepped thru those doors her smile beamed from ear to ear and did not fail until bed time when she was informed 'her up-do' would not last until school tomorrow.

At least she had fun today....today where she was both Sweet & Sassy and I caught a brief glimpse of the girl of tomorrow.