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Off to Neverland

Melanie

“If you enter this world knowing you are loved, and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.”
— Michael Jackson

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I’m not a fan girl, but anybody who grew up in the eighties lived through this phenomenon, and today is a sad day, I think.

I remember creating dance routines with neighborhood friends to this album and charging our parents (and anyone else we could con into coughing up the dough) a quarter each to see us perform one late summer afternoon.  I also remember being terrified of the Thriller video, especially at the end when his eyes turn green and creepy.

He certainly defied the norm, to put it mildly, particularly in the last 15 years or so, but life could not have been easy for him, even before that.  I hope he’s at peace now, and I wish his children and family solace in what is sure to be an incredibly difficult and trying time.

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Three Things Thursday #20 (Very Belated Edition)

Melanie

A desire to be in charge of our own lives, a need for control, is born in each of us.  It is essential to our mental health, and our success, that we take control.
— Robert F. Bennett

Wow.  Sorry for such a delay.  I wasn’t home Thursday night until late and I was too tired to post, and then Friday I was busy, and yesterday it was on my list of things to do (along with about 20 other things) and it just got lost in the shuffle.

At any rate, here’s this week’s list:

1. Taking charge of your mental health

2. Those giant 6- or 8-seat strollers day care centers use to take their tiny charges out for walks on nice days

3. Wii – I’m not a video game girl, really, but Wii is a totally different experience.  Aimee was here a couple weekends ago and we played for hours, till we were exhausted.  Yesterday, David and I played the new Grand Slam Tennis, where his Roger Federer beat my Rafael Nadal (at the French Open, no less, which would never happen in real life), and our doubles team of Bjorn Borg and Stefan Edberg lost humiliatingly to the Williams sisters.  So fun!

What are you happy about or grateful for today?

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The Princess Turns 5

Melanie

May you live all the days of your life.
— Johnathan Swift

And she’s as princess-y as ever, let me tell you.  Here she is, decked out in her birthday finery:

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It’s the shoes that kill me.

There was trampoline fun for everyone!

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There was a piñata – princess-themed of course.

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David suggested I appreciated the irony of beating the princess-themed piñata to pieces (I’m anti-princesses).  He wasn’t entirely wrong.

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There was a cook out and cake.  Before I say anything else, let me once again commend Molly on her cake craftiness.  She asked the Princess what kind of cake she wanted, and she made it happen.  That said:

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Hannah Montana?  When did my sweet, innocent, princess-loving niece discover Hannah effing Montana?  God help us.

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When I asked Nate if the Princess wanted anything special for her birthday, he told me that when he asked her, she said “Flip-flops,” so I headed to the flip-flop extravaganza that is Old Navy and picked out two pairs.  I knew which ones she’d love most, and I was right.  Here she is, modeling both her new dress from her other aunt, and her new favorite flip-flops:

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I wish I’d taken video of this – she was sashaying back and forth in the living room like a model, flipping her hair, with her little hand on her hip like that.  I was dying.  She is too grown.  God, I love her.