Happy belated Easter!

Or, as I've hear it put ... which is blasphemous ... but it still makes me snicker, because I'm just that immature and enjoy the dark humor -- "Zombie Jesus Day."

Don't get me wrong, I love Jesus. And I'm very aware of the sacrifice that He made.
But the idea of Him as a Zombie? It's so ludicrous! How can I help but laugh?

BUT, back to what I WAS going to write about:

1 - Guess what?!? Michael and I have been married for seven whole years! Go us! We've beat, like 95% of everyone in Hollywood! Woo-hoo!!


My, don't I look smug. That's 'cause he's all mine, girls. All mine.

So, we took a little overnight trip without the kiddos. We actually got sleep (what a change!), even if we slept in our van and it got frakkin' COLD during the night. We took some good pictures. We walked on the beach and didn't have to worry about little people in our care trying to throw themselves headlong into the frigid waves.

I did miss them lots, though. I guess I'm just not at all used to not having them around.

2 - We had Easter. And Bucket ate a ton at dinner and ... She didn't puke in the middle of the night! SCORE! And we heard that the kidlets were very well-behaved for their Grandma and Grandpa. Which makes us feel that we're doing SOMETHING right. Even though I spent just about ALL of Easter morning yelling at the kiddos. And screaming at your dear children on the day celebrating the Lord's resurrection? Just doesn't feel right.

The grandfolks (Michael's parents) went home and my mom's up. Which is fun. I like having family around. And, hey! It's my mom's Spring break. The last one she gets (Helloooooo Retirement!). I'm enjoying having her up.

Oh, while we were on our trip, I was taking a picture of a cute little gold frog in a shop window. And some salesgirl obviously had some problem with that. Even though the jewelry shop did NOT have any signs prohibiting pictures at all (I looked!).
She totally ran up to the window and crossed her arms and SHOOK HER HEAD at me like I was some type of pre-adolescent wanna-be criminal. Did I feel chagrined and guilty? Heck, no! I felt like giving her the finger (and not the pinkie one, either) (Not that I would do either of those things). If her business has such a problem with it, put up a stupid sign. Or frost the glass ... which defeats the purpose of enticing people to come in your shops. But really ... if a shop doesn't have a sign telling one NOT to take pictures, isn't it rather all right to take a snapshot of a cute little tchotchke?

Also, isn't is a better idea to attract customers rather than to alienate possible customers?

I could be totally wrong here ... but if you want to know a store where there's a really uppity salesgirl, I'll whisper it in your ear. (Well, I'll type it for you.) I don't know the name of if, but I can tell you that it's the jewelery store near the pet goods store in the historic bay front at Newport. Not too far from the Tavern that writes its name more like "TAV3RN" ... except that the "e/3" is really a backwards capital e ... and it messes with my BRAIN!)

Oh, and I finished Joss' newest book (The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson) and it was most excellent. And I can say that even though I've been waiting for about TWO YEARS to read it. You should totally buy it. And all her other books. And you should read her blog. And also buy all of Shanna Swendson's books in her Enchanted, Inc. series. This way HER publishers will buy her fifth book in the series and that will make me deliriously happy. Because I MUST know more backstory on Owen. And I like the whole series (I've read 1-3, have bought #1, will soon be the proud owner of nos. 2-3, and am eagerly awaiting #4). Oh, and you should totally read Shanna's blog, too.

And Neil Gaiman's blog. And Sarah Beth Durst's blog.
And watch the vlog of John and Hank Green.

And I'm done telling people what they should do.
Unless you're my kids. And then I only WISH I was done telling you what you should do. Because you're two.

Oh, and Bruise got a haircut. It wouldn't have been so short except for the fact that he wouldn't stop MOVING AROUND and trying to dodge the clippers. So it's now ALL one length ... except for one spot above his ear where we trimmed it a little too short. Oops.