The party is over. (It was a hit!)
The house is cleaned. (It's amazing what a birthday party can do to your house!)
I think it's time to take a few days and relax, breathe and just be. Sounds good to me!
If you want to see a little about the food hop over to Dianne's Dishes and see the cake, some cookies and even some penguin appetizers!
(CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett, the blonde-maned actress whose best-selling poster and "Charlie's Angels" stardom made her one of the most famous faces in the world, died Thursday. She was 62.
Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1947. She married Majors in 1973; they divorced nine years later.
She was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.
Not shocking, but sad none the less. As I'm half way to 40 myself, 62 sounds so young! Cancer is a nasty disease. May she rest in peace.
Found via CNN.
SYDNEY, Australia - Wallabies snacking in Tasmania's legally grown opium poppy fields are getting "high as a kite" and hopping around in circles, trampling the crops, a state official said.
Tasmania Attorney-General Lara Giddings told a budget hearing Wednesday that she had recently read about the kangaroo-like marsupials' antics in a brief on the state's large poppy industry. Tasmania is the world's largest producer of legally grown opium for the pharmaceutical market.
"We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," The Mercury newspaper quoted Giddings as telling the hearing. "Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."
When I saw this headline as I was scanning the morning headlines on my iPod it amused me. I mean come on...Wallabies making crop circles? That's priceless! The little buggers eat a few opium plants, and of course we all know what opium does, and then they wreak havoc in the fields. They get discombobulated and hop around in circles, thus making crop circles.
How.
Amusing.
Is.
That??!?!?!?
OK, I'll admit I'm amused easily, but still! ;oP
Found via MSNBC.
My dearest Alexis,
Six years ago, shortly after 1 am, you were born. In the past six years you've spent most of that time growing, changing and becoming the vivacious, free spirited individual that I love so well. You are spunky, fun, caring and most importantly you never shy away from being you. I like that about you.
As time has passed it has become more and more apparent that you are a people person. You have your father's ability to go into any situation, or get up in front of any crowd and make things happen, coupled with my inherent ability to like people and make new friends. You got none of his cynical thoughts and none of my shyness. It's the perfect mix! What has resulted is an amazing little girl that makes friends wherever she goes, wins over the hardest souls and just has fun with life. I like this about you too.
There are so many things that I want for you as time passes. And I know realistically that there are times that you will be sad, and even hurt because sometimes life deals blows that can not be avoided. But you are strong and I know that you will make it through whatever hills life throws at you. You will climb those mountains and once you on are on the other side you will be even stronger.
I wish for you a life filled with happiness, a life full of loving friends and family. I hope that you are lucky enough to find a best friend like your Aunt Darlene is to me, who is always there for you and would never dream of stabbing you in the back. I also hope that you find an adoring mate who worships the ground you walk on, that you enjoy spending time with, that completes you like your Dad is for me.
I also wish for you a life filled with adventure. At six you are one of the most adventurous individuals I know. You are ready at the drop of a hat to go and do things. I like that about you. (Have you noticed that there are a lot of things that I like about you? ;oP) I hope that this sense of adventure, this need to go and do things, to see things continues. I wish for you the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty and all the other things that you yearn to see and do.
Go out and do things.
Be what and who you want to be. Never let anyone put/keep you down, because in reality they are most likely jealous that you dare to dream/do.
Find good friends and keep them. If someone isn't true get rid of them. Life is too short to worry about someone stabbing you in the back.
If you have a dream follow it. Life is too short to wonder what would have happened. You're more likely to regret what you didn't do, versus what you did.
And most importantly continue to love. You have an amazing, huge, open heart that welcomes everyone. I like that about you.
Also know that I will always be here for you. Now and forever. You are a part of me and I love you more than I could possibly ever tell you.
Love,
Mom
Comments aren't working as you may have already figured out. Jamison has a problem ticket in. Hopefully it will be fixed soon!
Update: 12:07 PM: We appear to have comments working. If someone tries to post and it doesn't work send me an e-mail at daffodildianne at gmail dot com and let me know. Thanks!
The presents are wrapped!
The tutu is done!
Tomorrow Miss G turns 6!
A few days ago someone I follow on Twitter posted a "no sew" make your own tutu. Last year I tried to make Alexis a tutu, complete with bedazzling, but it ended up looking more like a tulle skirt and less like the glorious tutu I had in my head. When I saw this version I knew I wanted to try and see if I couldn't make something a little better. This definitely fit the bill!
I choose a dark blue and a light blue since blue is Lex's favorite color. I alternated them as I put them on the elastic. I cut the strips at 48 inches so that when doubled over it would be roughly 24 inches.
Once I had my strips cut and the elastic measured and put together I was ready to go!
I also used two pieces of tulle on each color as I alternated. Cutting out the strips actually took longer than putting the tutu together itself. Adding the tulle to the elastic took roughly 30 minutes. Cutting the tulle took about 45.
Along with the tutu Alexis is also getting some books, an emperor penguin snow globe (she collects snow globes), a penguin mood ring and a butterfly garden. I will put the presents in her room after she goes to sleep and we'll open them first thing in the morning.
Have I mentioned how it's hard for me to believe that six years have passed?
More tomorrow.
On Friday Alexis and I ventured into DC to meet up with some friends from Tennessee. Alexis ended up falling twice and injuring her leg so we didn't get to see them. I really hate that. But we had fun until she did fall!
Here are a few pictures I took. I so miss my DSLR. *SIGH* But they turned out ok none the less.
Friday morning was absolutely beautiful! In the mid 70's with a nice breeze! Just lovely! I think I'll wait until the fall to venture back over though...People everywhere!
Most importantly Alexis got to see "her ruby slippers" so as far as she is concerned all is right in the world.
If only it would stay that easy! ;oP
If you remove one gray hair it is rapidly replaced by three in its place.
We started Daffodil Lane five years ago to keep family and friends updated on Alexis and to share pictures of her with family and friends. (Which we had to stop after a few scary instances involving picture stealing and some deranged people.) We also wanted a place to rant about life's injustices, talk about things that interested us, including politics, and document what we were feeling about any given subject at any given time.
Sadly though things devolved into a quagmire of trolls and hateful comments and it quickly wore me down. I realized that having an opinion and being able to articulate those thoughts without resorting to hatefulness and spite was hard for some people to do. There are just some people out there who can't disagree with you, and just agree to simply disagree, without being mean about the whole thing. So I began to withdraw and edit what I was thinking, instead of saying what I thought. This is never a good thing. After all a blog is what you're thinking and feeling and if you can't say what you think and feel what's the point?
Over time I started shying away from politics, and to this day that is still the case, and just posted about things that mattered the most to me....Alexis, the environment, various thoughts and food. Ultimately food moved over to Dianne's Dishes to an environment that was removed from what Daffodil Lane had become. Things had changed and I wasn't sure how to bring it back from the brink. So I posted less and less, which was not what I wanted, but it was what I got anyway.
A few months ago our blog was moved to another server, but I didn't realize it was going because I had never updated my e-mail address with our host. For a while now I had wanted to change hosts to the same one that hosts Dianne's Dishes, but had never gotten around to switching over. Life happens. Alexis grows and homeschool takes place. Dianne's Dishes kept me busy, not to mention everyday stuff that keeps you tied up like laundry, dishes, cleaning, family time. etc. Time got away from me and I never switched.
So what does all of that mean?
Well if you had been a previous visitor to Daffodil Lane and kept up with it over time all of a sudden when you tried to pull up the blog you got a blank page. Some hoped that meant I was gone, but not the case. I just hadn't had time to sit down and move things over. Last weekend while I was redesigning Dianne's Dishes I finally got around to switching servers. And this past weekend Jamison and I sat down and got Daffodil Lane back up and running.
Now what?
Obviously Daffodil Lane has changed. Rest assured that I will continue to share the things that are important to me. I won't however justify not putting up with hostility. If someone is hostile they're out of here, no explanation, no patting them on the head, etc. I won't go down that path again. Common courtesy will be expected. I also still tend to lean toward the left and that's just how it is. I am what I am and I will not justify myself to anyone. What you see is what you get.
Also I don't plan to reload the archives. We're starting a on a new page so to speak. Daffodil Lane had gotten so large it was hard to load and rebuilding it was a multi-hour bear of a task that often failed anyway! Things are different, yet still the same in other ways. We're going on a new path and the old path has been pushed aside. Change is a good thing.
Also on the Alexis front, while I'll share anecdotes and such about her, I still will not be sharing pictures. The whole copying her pictures and posting them other places by people I did not know and had never met, coupled with the person even pretending that she was their child really freaked me out. In short, though I would love to be able to share pictures of her as she continues to grow and change, I just can't risk that in this forum. There are a lot of scary, messed up people out there!
For instance right now she's singing and dancing to music from my iPod on its dock. I'd love to show you that, but as I mentioned above the few that have issues make it impossible to do on the whole.
So Daffodil Lane is back. Some of you had hoped I was gone for good. Oh well. For those of you who asked me what happened and when I'd be back, well here I am! It's good to be back!
Again welcome back to Daffodil Lane...It's nice to be home!
For some of you this is a welcome back, for others this is the first time you've visited Daffodil Lane. Either way welcome!
More soon!
