The Many Faces of Joe

This picture just makes me laugh - he was eating cake and I'm not sure why he made that face - but it's a hoot...

Joey is not always just Joey - he's constantly coming up with crazy stuff - sometimes he comes up with different personas...

First we have Joseph Joseph... the wedding/event coordinator:

The important aspect of this picture is not so much in the attire of Joseph Joseph but in the facial expression - this persona was born when Joey expressed an interest in going wedding dress shopping with us....

Next we have Two Dimes and a Nickel: This is his rapper persona. He developed this one years ago - about the time he was coming up with his idea for a "strip" mall. That's a whole other story. Two Dimes and a Nickel... he calls himself that because he says the man won't give him fiddy cent. He's not right, ya gotta believe me. He recently gave me a song list for the cd he's currently working on... if you really believe there's an actual cd, let me know... I'll recommend a good therapist for you.

Those are just two - he didn't pose for the other personas that day - I'll try to get those another time. They're all terribly politically incorrect - not really offensive, just silly. He's creative, I'll give him that...

The Birthday Party

For Rebecca's 15th birthday we cooked out at my folk's house. Mom did the burgers and I took care of the rest... potato salad, slaw, baked beans, cake, ice cream... ya' know, the typical.

I bought a birthday sash to have her wear and I knew if I asked her to put it on she wouldn't do it. My dad, on the other hand, can ask her to do almost anything and she acquiesces. I said, "Hey, dad, how 'bout get her to put this on, she'll do it if you ask." So he takes it, smiles like I've given him the best job in the world to do, and walks over to her. She's all giggles and happily lets him drape her in it... she wore it the whole day. I knew she would, Pappy asked her to. Last year I got a paper crown for her to wear - she fought me on it until she saw her new cell phone. Go figure. Either way, all in all she had a great birthday. She got the things she wanted and a few she didn't know she wanted.

She's 15 now and all the fun begins... I told her I wouldn't take her to attempt the test for her drivers permit until she read the book, which she's not done yet. But tonight I did let her drive the back road to the house once we were almost home. She didn't do too badly... she needs to get comfortable with the brake and the steering wheel though. But the actual driving on the right side of the road and not running into ditches went rather well. We've at least got something to work with here.

Home Again, Home Again...

jiggity jig...

The week was very nice - we spent a great deal of time doing absolutely nothing. We didn't push ourselves to be anywhere and ended up spending a lot of time sitting by the pool or at the beach. It was wonderful actually. I read four books. They are as follows, just in case anyone wonders:

1) Sizzlin' Sixteen - the latest Janet Evanovich novel about the spunky bounty hunter from Joisey, Stephanie Plum. It wasn't the funniest or most entertaining of the series but an ok beach read.

2) Have a Little Faith - I bought this little book back in January thinking I would read it while at the dance convention but it didn't happen. It was inspiring and thought provoking, most typical of Mitch Ablom. I still love The Five People You Meet in Heaven, it's one of my most favorites and it always makes me cry. I did shed a tear at the end of this one too...

3) 84 Charing Cross Road - this was a birthday gift from a very dear friend and reading it sitting by the ocean, my feet in the sand, my big straw hat on my head, I got lost for about an hour and half in the world of the people in the story. The book is simply years of correspondence between people on two continents - there is so much affection in the letters they exchange...

4) Shem Creek - It's another formula book, like the Stephanie Plum series, but it's set in South Carolina. Dorthea Benton Frank writes well and the books I've read all involve a woman searching for something after a devastating loss... the main character eventually finds herself, finds her way, finds love. Shem Creek was sweet. The mom was from the Low Country, transplanted to New Jersey years earlier, she returns with her girls to find peace and contentment once again. It's a modern day fairy tale - the kind of story that both fascinates me with hope yet frustrates with the awareness that such things don't happen in real life.

Rebecca starts school tomorrow - 10th grade! I can't hardly believe it. Her birthday is next Sunday and she'll be 15! Wow, where has all the time gone?

Ok, time to think about bed, time to get into the school year groove... I have a dentist appointment tomorrow to remove and replace the filling that's cracked. fun fun. Oh, and I didn't do too many pictures this week at the beach - the camera fogged up everytime I took it outside - but here ya go... Floppsy, Mopsy and Cottontail 5.2.

Three More Days!

I have Thursday, Friday and Saturday and then I'm headed to the coast! WooHoo! I have to get through two more days at work, with a lot to do before Friday at 5... I think I can make it, at least I sure hope so. So much needs to get done before I can feel good about leaving and being gone for the WHOLE week. I so very much need this though...

Rebecca and I watch So You Think You Can Dance every week and one contestant danced to this tonight. It got me thinking, which we all know is a bad, bad thing, but habits are hard to break and so I had a thought... and the thought was this: can we ever really live life on our own terms? I guess people do it, and I've certainly tried the last few years, but I'm not sure I'd' call it really living life on my own terms. And here I am trying to teach my children to do exactly that and I wonder if I'm selling them a load of horse crap. I guess in some ways I'm doing it but in others I'm so not... and no matter how I try to do it completely something gets in the way and I'm back at square one again. I'm proud of all I've done and accomplished and given the choice of now and then I'd take now every singe time, yet, well... I'm realizing (?) that it's a lonely proposition and the reality is it may always be a lonely proposition... and I have to be ok with that. I think that's why the song resonated with me so much tonight -

I want a fearless love - a fearless love of myself, of my life... a fearless love of someone else, from someone else. That means not settling, not taking ok or good enough just out of a fear that nothing else can or will exist. I am afraid though.

On a lighter note we've finally been able to procure a driver's manual for Rebecca. It was a tri-county effort seeing as there were none to be found here in this lovely county, so we had folks scouring for us... now she has to study it and if she does I will take her in a few weeks, after her 15th birthday. Oh my, we're hitting another milestone, there's no turning back now... it will all happen so quickly - drivng, dates, graduation, college... am I ready for this? I guess I don't have choice, huh? Oh well, bring it on, we'll have some fun on the way.