Look at this photograph

Random Favorite Pictures from This Week

# 1- The Sugar cookie hiding in my bed again.

 I have a whole video of this.

 And you're welcome,

 I barely resisted the urge to post it.

#2- My pioneer girls!

 Katy is wearing her mom's dress which she puts on and says "I'm a young lady now" and Elly has her circle braids.

They literally could not be any cuter.

# 3- I made the kids go swimming with me yesterday.

 They each are so funny in the pool.

 Elly's swimming like she's at the Olympic trials,

 Jack is doing tricks in the deep end,

Katy is doggy paddling by the wall, shrieking "puppy power" and James is clinging to the stairs, sure that we are all about to dunk him.

# 4- Danielle took this picture with my dad.

 She says it means that she is his favorite.

I think it means that all of our wardrobe interventions with my dad have failed.

Silk electric blue basketball shorts and a plaid button down shirt?

 THIS is why I need to marry a gay man.

 To straighten my dad out!

Lori Ann

Gotta have faith

Today I...

Went here for a late dinner picnic with Eri. 

Beats eating ramon at my apartment any day!

Erin brought all of the supplies.

 This is a total Lori picnic.

Pizza, Hershey kisses, and martinelli's sparking cider.

 It was magical!

Then; to end our festive night we went and watched my friend Jennie sing some crazy, crazy karaoke.

 And yes, I did get onto the stage and sing George Micheal's "Faith" with Jennie.

 And yes, there may be video.

 But I promise you this..you will never, ever see it!!

I hope your Wednesday was half as festive as mine!!

Lori Ann

I'd never sing of love

Here is something cute.

The Sugar cookie, curled up in a ball, sleeping with Aunt Erin. 

Here is something gross...

The skin on my shoulders.

 It's been over a week since I got burnt.

 And it's still red and peeling.

 Apparently 5 hours of sun isn't good.

Maybe I'm a vampire.

 Except I didn't see my skin sparkling...hmm..

So yeah, 

That's my life right now.

Both uncontrollably cute and completely gross.

I swear I am not writing these posts high.

 Slightly hopped up on caffeine but nothing else. 

They are just disjointed and pointless because they reflect my thought process:)

Lori Ann

Summer came like cinnamon

Sugar's favorite cousins

5 reasons it's been festive having Erin stay with me this summer

5. She keeps my (evil) cat entertained and extremely spoiled

4. She always knows exactly what kind of snack to get me.

She is the only one who completely understands all of my "food fussy" rules.

3. She makes me do stuff for which I initially drag my feet but which I always am glad did.

  Like swimming for hours.

Getting my phone fixed

. Going tubing down the Brandywine River.

 Listening to Justin Beiber.

 Seeing Magic Mike...umm, Snow White. 

2. She makes me dinner.

 It sounds lame but after years of coming home to an empty apartment and trying to think up

something to cook when I am so tired,

it feels like magic when someone else has a plate of spaghetti set out for you. 

1. Erin makes me laugh so hard.

We have this ongoing debate about me being awake too much at night.
 (I wake up once or twice for a drink, etc)

So, I was trying to sneak into the kitchen to get a drink the other night and (of course) it woke Erin up.
 (she has the hearing of a bat!)

 Anyway, later that day she tells me that she didn't think I was getting up for a drink but I was; in fact, doing a "dry run" in my plot to murder her in the middle of the night.

It doesn't sound funny, but it was!!

Who accuses their sister of having a few midnight practice runs before going forward with their sinister murder plot?

The last two summers have been epic.

Last summer I moved up from NC and spent most of the summer having crazy fun with Danielle and the kids.

 This summer, Erin came back east and has been entertaining me. 

I guess that means that next summer is the summer of me and...Junior?

 Yikes.

Lori Ann

It's all right

My three favorite pictures of the first week in July 2012

 I love Pennsylvania sunsets.

 I've seen the sun set over St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and behind the mountains in Idaho and in Colorado, where the stars feel so close you could almost touch them.

 Nothing; in my mind, comes close to comparing to the beauty of a Pennsylvania sunset.

 Elizabeth Mae

. She's in perpetual motion.

Dinner at my parents.

With a delicious centerpiece of their cat, aptly named Sour Kraut.

 Apparently he joins them for dinner every night.

Lori Ann

5

I know, I know, I know....

I completely over load this blog with videos of my nieces and nephews

 .But this one is the best EVER.

 You're Welcome.

 Lori Ann

For amber waves of grain

I like to make resolutions.

 Not really to keep them, but I really do love to make them.

I've resolved to do all of the following
(at some point)

-Not play Settlers of Catan for 4 years
(I think I lasted a week)

 Give up all soda
 (I've lasted about a day on that one)

 Stop reading trashy novels
 (I've been working on this for about..umm...20 years)

So, I am not actually great about achieving my resolutions.

 Today I decided I wanted to change that pattern.

I wanted to make a simple resolution and keep it. 

My resolution is to

 Find Happiness

My life has kind of been idling along  for the last few years; without a lot of direction, and I've been content to just go along with whatever came my way. 

I've never actively looked for happiness.

I've been content with being comfortable

. A lot of times I've counted on others to provide me with happiness or at least something like it. 

But I need to do this for myself.

Because I don't want to be living a life of quiet despair.

 I don't want to get to the end of my life and discover that I have not lived. 

Anyway,

Happy 236th birthday, America- land that I love.

 I'm intensely proud to be an American.

 It's such a blessing.

Lori Ann