Update Time!

It’s that time again – update time!

Brennan is now out of alternative school – he got out this past Wednesday. He thrived there, and he definitely learned his lesson. We gave him his phone back, which he was thrilled to death about. Hopefully we will never have to deal with a sitch like that ever again.

This past Wednesday was my 34th birthday – I can’t believe I am already in my mid-30s. I feel so old, especially when I see how big Brennan is…and when he constantly reminds me of how uncool I am. Here I am, wearing a Deadmau5 t-shirt, not only because I love Deadmau5, but I also love the Neff brand.

At least Caden thinks I’m cool. He asked, “Mom, do you know how I know you’re my mom? Because you’re wearing a Deadmau5 t-shirt.” (If you don’t know who Deadmau5 is – check out the below pix. He is a popular EDM artist/DJ. EDM stands for “Electronic Dance Music” and is a new genre of music that sounds similar to House and/or Dubstep. If you know who Skrillex is, he is in the same genre.)

As long as my 8-year old thinks I’m cool, I’m good with that. And hey, I got three compliments from random people at the mall when I wore that shirt yesterday! I had originally bought it for Caden because he was going to go as Deadmau5 for Halloween. I had bought him a Deadmau5 hat, the tee, and a bunch of temp tattoos (because Deadmau5 is sleeved out). He fought with me like crazy over the tatts, arguing that he would NOT wear them and would boycott Halloween and claim child abuse if I forced him to wear them. So yeah, he ultimately decided against that costume, even though it would’ve been hella creative. He is now going as Jake from Adventure Time.

I’m now worried that he is going to find that embarrassing and throw a giant tantrum about that, but he chose it, and I’ll be damned if he is going to try and change costumes for the fourth time. He originally wanted to be something from Plants vs. Zombies, but there are absolutely no costumes for any of those characters. So the first costume he chose at Party City was a “Terror Knight” costume. Why? I have no idea. Who knows what runs through my child’s weird mind? Lol…

We then started looking at hats, and he saw a Domokun hat. Again, if you don’t know who Domokun is, allow me to enlighten you – Wikipedia states the following weirdness:

“Domo (どーも くん,Dōmo-kun^?) is the official mascot of Japan‘s public broadcaster NHK, appearing in several 30-second stop-motioninterstitial sketches shown as station identification during shows.

Domo, the main character, is “a strange creature that hatched from an egg”,^[2] with a large, sawtoothed mouth that is locked wide open. Domo’s favorite food is nikujaga, a Japanese meat and potato stew, and he has a strong dislike for apples, because of an unexplained mystery in his DNA. Domo can only communicate by producing a low-pitched noise which sounds somewhat like his own name, but other characters appear to understand him. A Tokyopop press release of the Domo comic book states: “He communicates sotto voce with a verve that only his friends can understand.”^[3] Clint Bickham, the writer of the Domo comic book, said that to him Domo’s expression is “a sort of cheery wonderment. Like when a kid wakes to a room full of presents on Christmas day.” While Domo’s face has variants, to Bickham most of his expressions have “an underlying sense of fascination.”^[4] Domo is known to flatulate repeatedly when nervous or upset.^[2]

Domo lives in an underground cave with Mr. Usaji,^[2][5] known in Japanese-language versions as Usajii (うさじい^?), a portmanteau of the words usagi (うさぎ^?), (rabbit), and jii (じい^?) (old man, grandpa). Mr. Usaji is a wise old rabbit who has lived in a cave for decades, loves to watch television and drink astringent green tea.^[2] Mr. Usaji is not into any “new” materials, and does not own a telephone.^[2][5] In terms of fashion, Mr. Usaji focuses on materials instead of shapes. Mr. Usaji’s favorite food is carrots, and his least favorite food is “something that is meaningless.”^[2]

Also in the cave live two bats, a mother named Maya^[5] (Shinobu (しのぶ^?) in the Japanese version) and her child Mario (Morio (もりお^?) in the Japanese version). Maya suffers from alcoholism; her favorite foods are seasonal while her least favorite food is alcohol. Mario’s favorite food is Japanese-style tomato spaghetti, while his least favorite food is shiitake mushrooms.”

Here is a pic of Domo:

As you can imagine, Domo costumes are not in popular demand. I tried multiple times to talk him out of it (as did Brennan), but his mind was already made up. I told him I guessed I could dress him in all brown, but no one would know who he was. He responded, “But I would, mom, and that’s all that matters.” Of course, that made me feel bad, and overwhelmed my feeling that if I were to dress him like this that everyone would think that we were poor and couldn’t afford a real costume. So I tried to find brown clothing that would match the hat with no luck whatsoever. I advised him of this, so he then decided that he wanted to be Deadmau5. When that didn’t work out, he settled for Jake from Adventure Time. So let’s cross our fingers that he actually likes this costume.

I have to give it to Brennan; he was pretty creative when coming up with his costume.

He’s also going to spray-paint his hair silver. Oh, and let’s not forget the horrifying road rash that he received yesterday when he was clotheslined by a wire fence when running to his friend’s mother’s car after leaving the skating rink last night…that oughta add a bit of scariness to it.

My little tough guy – he hasn’t even complained about it once, other than to simply say that it hurts.

What else is new? Oh, I got some cool stuff for my birthday. Thanks, Kelsey (Lol…I bought it all for myself with his money)! What an awesome husband he is! I got a Miss Me handbag, a Sakroots wristlet, and a Sakroots wallet with a Sakroots lanyard.

My favorite by far is this, however:

I have been wanting a watch for forever now, especially a Skagen, because they’re my favey. It’s much prettier in person! It’s tiny and fits my tiny wrist perfectly. I used to have a white ceramic Skagen, but I was wearing it when I was arrested two years ago and the police station lost it. I was so sad. Wow, that was a sad story. And memory.

Okay, enough gloating and sad memories. I hate to do it (gloat), but I hardly ever buy or get anything for myself anymore – if I buy stuff, it’s usually for my boys. Kelsey gets lots of cool husband points. This is what poor people feel like when they’ve won the lottery. Lol…

As for  me, things have been going great. I have been helping my sister with her business – MSM Portraits – editing her sesssions in Photoshop. I have learned so much from her. I can usually edit sessions of 20-40 pictures in an hour or so now. She pays me for each image I edit, so it works out for both of us. It destresses her because she gets so incredibly overwhelmed with sessions, and I get some extra cash out of it. Plus, I really enjoy being a part of my sister’s business and knowing that I am making her proud. I also enjoy doing it. Editing in PS is fun – it appeals to my artistic nature. Here are some examples of the pics I edited recently when Mar took pics of me and the boys at Van Zandt Cottage in Fort Worth:

Okay, so my sister edited the first and last ones, but I edited the rest! Aren’t you just so proud of me? I am. I have learned to do all kinds of cool things in PS – liquify (make people skinnier), swap heads…it’s cool stuff.

Check this out:

 

See the difference? The left pic is the edited version. I’ve liquified my waist in order to give the illusion that I have one (those dresses don’t exactly have the capability to be figure-flattering at times).

Here’s another example.

As you can see, I’ve liquified my waist, taken the hair out of my face and blowing around at the top of my head, made my hair darker and more of the same color, removed some things from the picture, lightened our skin, brightened the background, and turned the water from muddy to blue.

I wouldn’t know how to do any of this without my sister’s help. I have to tell you, it is hard working with family. She will tell me to use YouTube tutorials to learn more about how to use PS, but when I do, she disagrees with the way I do it because she’s learned a different way and it’s easier for her, so it must be easier for me. She’s also very blunt, but ironically, doesn’t always fully communicate with me about what she wants. She is very weird about others knowing that I edit for her – the only reason I am updating this blog with this info is because she doesn’t read it. 99% of the time, we get along great, and I really respect what she does. I listen to everything she tells me and am always there for her when she needs me to assist her with sessions. I really enjoy helping her – we joke around and call me the “Unsuccessful Sister”, because one day, Brennan was asking me what I do when I assist Mar, and he said, “Soooo…basically, you’re the unsuccessful sister?” Lol…

Well, friends, that is all that is on my mind for now. Will update more soon. Til then, peace out.