1. When I heard him say that he thinks I'm perfect I fell deeper in love with him.

2. Laughter + great friends really is the best medicine.

3. It's late, but who cares. I wanted to get my Friday Fill-In posted and darn it, here it is!

4. I am a mother first, always.

5. My eyes have seen some stuff in my short life.

6. I love strongly.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to hanging out with mommy friends, tomorrow my plans include figuring out a fireworks plan and Sunday, I want to talk myself into cleaning my house!

To participate in Friday Fill-ins click here.

Its not perfect, but its close to what I envisioned. My friend will be coming to pick it up on Tuesday and I hope that she is pleased with both the presentation and the product as a whole. I'll let you know...

Just completed a new version of my Maze blanket for the nursery of a friend's newborn son. Remember the two blankets that I told you I sold before the end of the semester? Well, this is one of them. Blue and chocolate brown. The other will be a pastel green and yellow one for another little boy due in July. And I am still working on Miss J's all pink blanket that she has been hounding me to finish.

Hopefully, one day I will be moving these blankets off my couch for pictures and onto a more appropriate prop, such as a crib, or nice chair. For now, the couch will have to do because I'm not sure how long I will be holding on to this one, and because I plan on packaging it tomorrow and once its wrapped it'll stay that way until its owner unwraps it. I'll will fold it in a signature fold, wrap it in tulle, which is much better than celophane, then tie with an "Its a Boy" ribbon. It looks beautiful in my mind, we'll see how it looks once I start getting creative.

We are still in celebration/remembrance/tribute mode over here.

We gathered ourselves,

Popped some bottles,

Set the channel,

and,

Just felt Michael.

This is one of my favorites from Michael Jackson, along with Scream, Jam, Remember the Time, and the list goes on and on... right over in my bTunes... and that doesn't even cover the scope of what I love about the King of Pop. I remember watching the movie Moonwalker (which people are now trying to cash in on over at Amazon!) over and over throughout my 5th grade year because my teacher was very big on music and performance arts back then. We sat in front of the tv in awe and I remember even borrowing the movie from my teacher because I loved it that much.

I can also remember ordering Michael Jackson magazines and taking out all of the posters and covering my walls with them. And this comes from someone who was born in 1984! That's the beauty of Michael's talent and influence, it transcends time. His music has remained relevant and with each new generation his legacy strengthens.

We love you Michael for sharing your gift of entertainment with us. You will be greatly missed.

Although I remain Twitter resistant, at any given time, I have an abundance of tweet-worthy thoughts dancing around my head in intervals. So, today I'm borrowing T. Allen-Mercado's Not Quite Twitter creation to cyber-think aloud. Feel free to jump on board, T has given us her permission.

- I had my first day of Precalculus today and I sat there staring at the equations as if they were a foreign language. To folks in the humanities and the social sciences, THEY ARE! I haven't taken a math class in 7 years, and while I actually enjoyed Geometry and Algebra and Math Analysis, but a lot has happened since those days, its taking me a minute to get back into arithmatic mode.

- Miss J's dad, other half, sperm donor started inappropriately texting me again. The usual "lets be together/we need to be together/come be with me." I didn't respond, nor did I bother to answer his phone calls this weekend. And then today, he sends me a picture of his brand new baby boy. I guess that would explain why he offered to give me full custody of his daughter in exchange for not having to pay child support. Sooooo, he wants to save his money and put it toward his newest investment?

- Wow, Chris Brown was offered and accepted a plea deal? And was given 5 years probation and no jail time for what he did to Rihanna? Really?

- I'm indecisive about growing my hair out. One minute I wanna keep it short, the next minute I am loving my curls... I'm getting my 4th hair cut on Wednesday. I think I'm gonna go short and sassy for the summer and then break out my curling gel and afro pick come fall.

That's all for now. What's on your mind?

Yes Miss J. I am fully aware that you think its summer and you'd much rather be at the beach, go to Chuck E Cheese's, steer clear of the summer after-school program, have daily play dates, pick out a new bike and ride it daily, take trips to visit family... daily, get out of the house to go ANYWHERE... DAILY! That just ain't reality for you and me. Since I have to be in class at 8 AM five days a week, and three of those days I'll be leaving class at 6pm, that means you'll need to spend your summer days eating well, reading books, and playing with friends at the summer after-school program. I'll trade with you if you want. You can read these chapters in my math book, and try to figure out what the hell x + or - this or that is. Or you can dive right into this social theory. No?

The invention of summer classes should be blasphemous. And I need my butt kicked for leaving math til the last possible second. Its the equivalent of being a high school senior in a class with all freshmen. What can I say? I'm not alone in doing this. Summer time is usually chalked full of super seniors trying to get those last few units completed. There aren't exactly any rules to finishing college except that you simply finish. I gotta tell you though, my walk was extra heavy as I trekked through the math building looking for room #6. I did NOT wanna go this morning. I too, am having issues with the realization that life is still at full speed when I need it to be on cruise control. Like Miss J, I'd much rather be in bed, veg out, hit the beach, read books that haven't been assigned by an authority figure, and make some money for God sakes.

If I'm lucky, come mid-August I'll be on my way to having completed these things... preferably in that order.

Missing in action, oh yes, I have been. Special thanks to an idle mind and a broken ethernet cable. I got it all rigged up right now just to be able to connect to the net. Rigged up, like wrapped-around-my-laptop-to-create-enough-tension-to-keep-the-cable-from-falling-out-of-the-computer type of rigged up! I can periodically steal borrow my neighbor's wireless connection, but I'm not trying to be posted in front of my living room window, standing on one leg, swaying back and forth, JUST to be able to get a strong signal. Nah... not happening, so here I am, stuck with the ghetto set up until I can either get me a new ethernet cable or invest in a wireless router and go "unplugged" like the majority of folks these days.

Me and technology are kinda at odds right now come to think of it. Miss J separated me from my ipod. Seems while I was napping the other day she wanted to hear some tunes and went a little overboard with the wheel turning and button pushing. Now, my ipod is locked with a security code that I don't have access to, because, we all know that a 6 year old couldn't possibly remember the code she chose to lock her mother's ipod with. Especially after hiding it once the deed was done. I haven't tried it yet, but the failure of holding down the MENU and middle buttons at the same time in an attempt to reset, tells me that I am gonna have to clear everything in order to be able to get back in... at least I hope that will work. I am asking myself if I want a blank ipod or do I want one that I can't listen to anyway? Thank you child of the corn!

1. All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting them to be little angels every second or every day.

2. Show me a good loser and I will show you a person who likes to win only for the benefit of others.

3. Good sex is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs at one time.

4. Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy trying to remodel old structures and trying to clean up all the messiness.

5. I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine holding down a job while being a student and parenting solo.

6. It is impossible to think of any good meal, no matter how plain or elegant, without sensing the aroma of the meal from memory or picturing the ingredients in it.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching movies from my bed, tomorrow my plans include reading and some possible TLC and Sunday, I want to get a good nights rest so I can rise bright and early for my first class of the summer!


To participate in Friday Fill-Ins click here.

I was tagged by a new bloggy friend of mine, Angela, of Mom's Fortress of Solitude. I am suppose to:

1. Go to your photo files... Select the 6th photo folder
2. Select the 6th photo in the folder
3. Post that photo along with the story behind it
4. Then challenge 6 blog friends to do the same

Since I am always posting pictures, you have already seen the 6th photo in the 6th folder AND the 6th photo in the 5th folder AND the 6th photo in the 4th folder!! So, I'm gonna cheat a little and post the 4th photo in the 7th folder...


Just for all of you Cars fanatics out there. My friend's son LOVES the movie Cars. He has everything Cars. His slippers, his chair, his overnight bag just to name a few items in his little collection. So, naturally, his birthday party and cake would be Cars themed. I fell in love with the detail of this cake. I'm a sucker for wowing birthday party guests with "the cake". When Miss J's birthday rolls around I always run right up to Baskin Robbins and put my order in for an ice cream photo cake.



Birthday #2 is missing because we had a Dora the Explorer theme that year and went with a Dora ice cream cake instead. These cakes are great. The only down side is that you have to be on schedule with getting your cake out and put away because too much time out of the freezer and your pretty design might end up being a puddle of colors. Notice the streak down the side of the 1st birthday cake.

My friend's cousin made the Cars cake. And she even made little individual cup cakes for the kids too.



(Note: When I posted this earlier I completely forgot to tag 6 people to join in, so I'll just leave the invitation open to everyone with a love of photography. If you'd like to participate and share your photo then go right ahead. Let me know that you did in the comments and I'll stop by to check it out!)