The Absence of Solitude

Cardboard Boxes

Watch this video that Design Mom shared of a little boy's fantastic imagination come to life in his own cardboard arcade! It is truly inspiring to see people care so much about it and make this little guy feel so awesome. It is worth the ten minutes!

 

Simon loves boxes too and takes them as soon as the are emptied. He made a house for his stuffed bear, Gochi, the other day and it sleeps next to him every night. Maybe I shouldn't have thrown out the other three boxes he has been toting around for the last week. :)

 

Hillary Texts

Have you seen the Texts from Hillary website? I saw the story about it on the news last week and looked at it over the weekend. Apparently a photographer captured Hillary Clinton looking at her phone and texting while on a trip. So these two guys decided to do a meme site where they posted other photos of people Hillary could be texting and what they would be saying. Hillary (or a staff member) found out about the site and even submitted her own pictures. There are some funny ones and not so funny ones. Here are two of my favorites:

There is one of Tim Geithner texting her about the economy that I thought was also funny...check it out. Just google Texts from Hillary and you can find the site.

From my niece, Marie

I have one more post about Boston that I want to do but don't have time to finish it right now. So instead of leaving up the same post all weekend, I thought I would post a video my niece, Marie, sent me the other night. She said that she couldn't stop laughing and when she saw it, it reminded her of me...not sure how to take that!?! I will say I have never done a home based business so that part is definitely not me!

Happy Weekend!

YouTube Tuesday

Just a few videos today. Enjoy!

I think I have either heard my parents say or I have said all of these things at some point. Have you?

 

 

This is the closest video to the tornadoes a few weeks ago that I have seen. This person is a little crazy for just driving around the parking lot to avoid it. But WOW. It's intense.  (And FYI: There is some swearing in it, especially when he realizes how close he is to the EF4 tornado. I think I might be letting a few choice words fly too if I was that close to this tornado!)

 

 

Did you see the last launch of the space shuttle yesterday? We caught it 30 seconds before liftoff. The kids thought it was awesome! And did you see the pictures a girl took from an airplane? NASA even re-tweeted the pictures after she posted them to her twitter account. This clip shows the pictures as well.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

The Wedding

I am a little late to the party on this one but wanted to post something about the event. So I decided I would just hijack my sister's post. She recapped it well and found great pictures so here is her blog post...

 

 

A Royal Success

How beautiful was Catherine Elizabeth? How sweet was she with her soft voice saying the vows? How grand and historic and majestic was the walk down the aisle in the Abbey?

I swooned.

According to the royal press release, "The bouquet is a shield-shaped wired bouquet of myrtle, lily-of-the-valley, sweet William and hyacinth. The bouquet was designed by Shane Connolly and draws on the traditions of flowers of significance for the Royal Family, the Middleton family and on the Language of Flowers."

What is the flower language of her bouquet?
Sweet William means gallantry, lily-of-the-valley is return of happiness and purity of heart, hyacinth represents constancy, while myrtle is the emblem of marriage and love.

Love it! Strange plastic handle, but you know, whatever. She's a princess and she looked it.

I actually thought her dress would be more like her sister Pippa's, but I love that it was so traditional - a cross between Grace Kelly and Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.

Handsome boys. Silly how much we love them. When they first appeared in their car, I knew I'd be staying up to watch the whole of the coverage instead of just the reveal of the dress. It was so exciting.

(Jenny is on the west coast. I got up at 5:30 am to start watching and I also was just going to watch the processional but couldn't look away.)

The camera angle and march down the aisle was stunning. It couldn't have felt more regal and she handled it so beautifully. I almost cried.

I loved the trees lining the aisle.

Could we not look at these pictures all day?

Curtseying to the queen.

I love that she wore the dress and not the other way around. Completely perfect.

(I found it funny that the fashion editor for British Vogue said the exact same thing in an interview later that day. Jenny is always ahead of the curve :)

How cute is Harry in the carriage with the littles?

Amazing picture. Sweet little grump.

And the guests - look at Posh's heels!! She's pregnant! And the crazy train showed up with Eugenie and Bea's outfits. Whoa!

Also, love this quote from the sermon.

"This is as every wedding should be... in a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and groom as King and Queen of creation."

Also, gorgeous hair, tiny waist, dreamy gown and sweater.

 

Oh, I just couldn't have loved it more. SO happy I decided to get up and watch it. It wouldn't have been the same on replay.

--------------------------------------------

And I am going to add a few more pictures:

 

I loved how they took everyone by surprise when they left the palace in the car.

 
Such an awesome picture. William and Kate look so wonderful and to me shows that it doesn't matter who you are and how amazing your photographer is, you are still going to have a hard time getting that many little kids to look at the camera and get a good picture of everyone.

 

 
 
So very regal!

In honor of the Royal Wedding we had little fun too. I will post all about tomorrow.

 

Thanks Jenny for the great blog!!!

YouTube Tuesday

Just popping in for minute this morning. We are on Spring Break here and are trying to squeeze in some fun amid the long list of things we are wanting to accomplish this week. I will be back later this week to share some stories and pictures.

For today, just one video. have you seen this T-Mobile commercial?

 

We are

leading a very exciting lives right now, you know...school, work, household duties, practices, watching 24, and the beginning of some serious spring cleaning. So yesterday's picture was not a cop out as Jenny said, but rather giving you something rather than nothing.

However, I think with spring around the corner and the calendar starting to fill up, I will have more things and pictures to share. But until then how about another round of YouTube clips?

I am sure this was one of the most loved Superbowl commercials but I actually didn't see it until a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

Did you see this video on the news? I can't believe the woman didn't scream!

 

 

This might get you ready for baseball season...

 

Oh, the love a of a dog...

 

 

And one more. This is an inner city school board meeting about budget cuts and specifically about cuts to the fine arts. The floor was opened to the public to give their opinions and a student was first. He didn't speak but rather sang an aria and then said if the cuts were made he wouldn't be able to pursue his dreams.

It's a long video, so he is about 3 minutes in and it lasts for just a couple minutes so tune out after he is done.

Video streaming by Ustream 

Have a great day!

The price of beauty

Lauren had pictures taken for dance on Saturday. She wore her recital costumes and therefore had to have her hair and make-up done as if she was performing. It's serious business complete with a full page instruction sheet on the dos and don'ts of recital attire, hair, and make-up.

I was a little intimidated because honestly, I don't have much a of a beauty regime and hardly wear make-up. I mean, last year when my sister visited, she asked if I had a face cleanser besides Dial soap and I gave her an apricot scrub. She had to point out the difference between exfoliators and cleansers. It's bad, people. I am sure I will pay down the road with some serious wrinkles. Anyway, I didn't even have hairspray or eye-liner. After spending a cool forty bucks on cheap make-up, hairspray, mousse, bobby pins, clips, etc. we were ready to get Lauren all doll-ed up. But it also took me calling my two sisters asking for tips on how to apply make-up. One even referred me to her own blog where she had a picture of how to apple the "doe-eyed" look for the eyeliner.

 This was taken after we got home and she had started to wipe some of it off. 
 
 

I know I have never spent so much time on hair and make-up as I did Saturday morning! It was fun and a bit of learning experience to say the least. I felt a little like a stage mom or someone getting their daughter ready for a pageant; kind of like the show Toddlers & Tiaras or whatever it's called. Which by the way, have you seen the Tom Hanks spoof on that show? Here it is:

 

 

You Tube Tuesday

My sister, Leigh, used to do a YouTube Tuesday feature on her blog. She is a super busy lady right now and I think her blogging is on the back burner, which is totally understandable. So for today, I am taking over the title of YouTube Tuesday. My other sister, Jenny, emailed yesterday asking for good videos we knew of on YouTube for an activity she was particiapting in with friends. I sent her a few ones I have liked lately.

Here is the sampling for my installment of YouTube Tuesday. Enjoy!

 

 

 

(To get one of the jokes you might need to know that Orange is a cellphone service provider in England.)

 

 

 

Do you have any favorites? Share in the comments.

Need a laugh?

Kids today are a bit more precocious when it comes to gadgets and electronics. Simon has recently become a fan of the computer and proficient with the mouse. He has figured out the icons in the favorites list for PBS kids and Nick Jr. So if he can't seem to find the patience for me to help him on the computer he can now do it himself.

This morning was one of those times. I was busy putting away Christmas decorations and he wanted to get on the computer immediately. Except this time instead of opening Internet Explorer he opened a program I didn't even know we had on the computer...LifeCam.

This is what the kids have been doing ALL DAY and they think it's hilarious.

The thing is, I didn't realize they were playing around with the program until this afternoon when Ethan and Simon were arguing over who got to be in front of the web-cam. They had been taking videos and pictures of themselves and were trying to come up with better and better pictures. I have an entire folder of these now.

 

 
 So then Jillian and I got in on the fun...

 

 
Needless to say, we had a fun afternoon laughing at each other. And the best part is that the kids are still not bored with it so they still want to have more time with these funny faces!

 

Happy New Year!!