"Kevlar tutu strapped on tight!

Wand fully supercharged and safety is off."

-Amy Edwards

Once upon a time...

Isn't that how all the fairy tales start?
When I hear those words, I always want to snuggle down and listen, knowing the story will probably have a princess, a witch or evil character of some sort, a hero...generally a prince and some dreadful choice that must be made which will appear to be impossible.  And sometimes talking animals....enchantments and spells. For some reason, it's comforting to me to know all this will be following those four words. 

When I was young, I read the most fantastic things....but I was an incredibly practical child.  Can you believe that?  It's hard for me to even believe! I was very quiet, shy, a terrible bookworm, my favorite color was blue and I didn't really care for dolls or clothes or anything like that.  (My sister, the personal investigator, is always trying to figure out how I ended up being the exact and total opposite...to the core....of how I started out.)  I believed animals could talk, but the whole princess thing was lost on me.  Somewhere along the squiggly-snarled line of my life, I started embracing whimsy, so....

This morning, I watched the royal wedding.  And woke my daughter up to watch the royal wedding. And told her about the other two royal weddings I watched when I was younger.  And, yes, a tiara will be worn today to honor and commemorate the occasion. 

And the truly astonishing thing is that I do sort of find the whole thing very wonderful! 

There still are princesses!  And princes!  And they still ride off in carriages with all the pomp and fluff that they did in the fairytales I read.  There are still crowns and white gloves and titles and...yes....witches that show up in garden hats.  (Disguises, you know...)

I know there's no such thing as happily ever after.  Both of the royal weddings I watched in my youth ended sadly.  I dearly hope this one will not.

There are many who scoff today's event...mumbling and grumbling about it, upset that their regularly scheduled programming has been interrupted and stating that all the money put toward the wedding could've been used for some other purpose that would save countries and feed the hungry.  Of course.  But here's my thing: we are daily bombarded with news of war, famine, disasters that boggle our minds, crime and awfulness that I don't want to write of.  Today, there was a prince who married a girl who may someday be his queen.  They are young and beautiful and happy, and they rode to the castle in a carriage drawn by white horses.  And for an hour or so, I was about 6 years old, believing that there would be a happily ever after. I really needed that.

Once upon a time...

*Incidentally, tomorrow Maggie and I will be going to Miles City for High Tea with the Princesses, a special time that little girls can go in their fanciest dresses and do girly things for awhile at the Ursuline Convent.  Even dance with their favorite fairytale princess!  I don't know who's more excited, her or me....we're both going to wear our prettiest dresses and be as elegant as we can be.  I'm getting tummy tickles just thinking of it!

Ten reasons it's great to be a stay-at-home mom

10. When you dress up to go to “the office”, it usually means you are wearing your daughter’s plastic tiara or a very special sticker on your sweatshirt.

9. Coffee doesn’t have to wait for a break!

8. Exalted Keeper of the Potato Chips and Chocolate….with great power comes great responsibility.

7. Theoretically, you can take a shower any time of the day. I said “theoretically”…stop laughing.

6. There’s time to do vacuum cleaner karaoke to “Kokomo” between rooms.

5. Happy hour can start at 4:00 if you need it to….usually preceded by Unhappy Hour.

4. If the kids have a great new Disney movie and you have a basket of clothes to fold, you’re all booked solid for the next two hours.

3. Workout clothes, all day. (Just in case the urge to do aerobic sweeping strikes you or SHAPE magazine drops by unexpectedly for a random reader photo shoot. Hey, a girl can dream, right?!)

2. Dr. Suess, anytime, anywhere.

1. Sticky kisses and the proclamation that “You’re the best mom, EVER!”

It started out as a joke...

when my sister-in-law Pam, who knows how touchy I am about possibly being white trailer trash on the prairie, got us pink flamingos for Christmas one year. 

We put them around our mailbox.

You know...because if you're going to redneck out, you want the whole world to know.

We realized they needed to become a permanent fixture when our UPS and FedEx packages started showing up with little handdrawn roadmaps that said, "Turn S at pnk flmgos".

This winter was hard on them.  They were drifted under, then plowed over and smashed.  When the snow melted, we missed seeing them and decided that they needed to be replaced.

They're back!

And they're BIGGER.  And BRIGHTER. (As if that was possible...)

This picture was for Patricia, at Pollywog Creek, who lives in the land of real flamingos and alligators...

Montana swampland.

 Aren't they crazy fun?  Tacky as the day is long, if you turn south when you see them on the Two Furrow, you'll end up at the white trash trailer on the prairie.  We can sit on the 1950's metal lawn chairs and drink Bud Light from a can, eat Cheetos and talk about tornado sightings...

Easter Eggs

I've found that trying to blog about any holiday is just completely overwhelming to me, and instead of great epic posts, I just put my blog to rest until I'm quite sure the holiday has passed, hope that no one noticed, and continue on as though everything is normal. 

So I'm not going to go through a big long, moment-by-moment post full of heartwarming family pictures and stories.  But I love the Easter egg dying.  (Or "coloring" as we now have to call it, because Angus was horrified that eggs had to die for Easter.  It was distressing to no end for my tenderhearted little man, so now we color the eggs.)

Ready to get the job done...poor Angus has his mother's un-photo-genetics.

Concentrating....

 Yup.  It's blue alright! (After that, he just started grabbing cups and dropping eggs in them. 

We had to wait in line for the blue.  And orange. 

Maggie, instructing me in the proper techniques to achieve ultimate coloration. 

It worked!

 I really like the clear coffee cups for the colors...so vivid and deep.

Angus ended up with all his eggs, part of the Farmer's, part of mine and a couple extras. 

He was fast.  And not concerned in the least with perfect hue.

 Maggie took her time and made works of art....

My Mom brought these beautiful tulips! They looked great with my red kitchen walls.  So bright and fresh...