We Now Join My Regularly Scheduled Life Already In Progress...

Yes, I know. I've been a very bad blogger. But I brought a signed note from my doctor, so I hope that this counts as an excused absence.

I had the flu. It was awful. I mean seventh circle of hell awful. Typically when I get sick I head to the (home) gym for a workout. I can sweat out just about any germ there out there. But this one really kicked my backside.

If I wasn't driving the porcelain bus I was sleeping, or was on the recliner wrapped up in my Snuggy (yes, I own a Snuggy--it's pink!--and I am damn proud of it) trying to figure out if there was even one square inch on my body that didn't hurt. Even my eyelashes hurt. It was that bad. Oh, and did I mention that Tony had to go out of town?

To add insult to injury my computer got sick, too. A little more than sick, actually. It's dying. And it's an ugly death. It is being held together by a shoe lace, 2 rubber bands and some chewing gum (figuratively, not literally).

At present it is audibly moaning at me (literally, not figuratively), begging to be put out of its misery. A bright shiny new computer is scheduled to be delivered on Friday. I am giddy with anticipation! Just hope this one can hang on for just a few more days.

I intended to post this blog prior to my recent incapacitation.

My dear sweet Molly is a local celebrity.

Read on:

A few weeks ago, my friend Tressa and I were
searching for a fun activity for our girls.

We got the brilliant idea to take them to the
 local paint-your-own-pottery store.

That's right.
y

We brought 2 toddlers into a store filled with
 nothing but highly breakable objectsthat just begged
to be touched, held and explored by little hands.

Yes we did.

 Despite leaving our common sense at the door, the girls rocked.

Yep, even the blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while.

See for yourselves:

Molly

Mattie

The budding artists hard at work:

Molly picked out the baby elephant

without any coercion suggestions from me.

Smart girl.

Drying the glaze between layers.

FYI for all of you parents who think

that this might be a good idea for your young 'un:

This is a multi-step process requiring patience and endurance.

Patience and endurance with a three-year-old...

I told you, we left our common sense at the door.

However, the girls did nothing but impress us all day long.

So much so in fact, that we painted our own pieces

while the girls painted theirs.

Woo Hoo!

Leave it to me to always make a short story long,

here is the local celebrity part mentioned above.

While the girls were hard at work, a photographer

from the local paper came in and took the girls' picture.

The girls ended up ON.THE.FRONT.PAGE!

8x10 picture, no less!

And here is Molly's finished masterpiece:

And a shot of the artist with her work:

And another gratuitous cute shot of exactly the same thing.

Despite the fact that Molly is wearing the exact same outfit

as when she was painting...

It took a week from the time she painted the project

until it was fired and ready for pick-up.

Guess I need to get a little more creative in the way I dress her.

God knows, the girl has plenty of clothes in her closet!

Oh, and here's my little work of art.

Can we get an "Aaaaaw," from the crowd?