Jessica.

Six years ago today I lost my aunt Jessica in a terrible tragedy. I miss you Jess, and I love you. I can still hear you in my head when you called me Jillie, and told me that Todd and I were to be married in the year of the Aquarius. My heart aches. Love to you in heaven above and beyond

Brothers From Another Mother.

That's all I have to say.

HAIR.

WELL SHIT. Do you think I'm still high off of Christmas and the subsequent excitement? WELL YOU'RE (partly) WRONG. I am excited about this shit:

This has saved my hair. Remember that post I did about Brocato shampoo? Yeah, whatever! I mean, I'm still going to keep using it, because it's mild, still cleans well and smells delightful, but... Man. I finally figured out what my hair needs.

Can I just tell you? That today? I put my hair in braids? And the ends of each braid did that curly-up thing because it was so full of moisture and so healthy? And the ends of my hair, despite months of drying and very rare straightening, were still so bouncy and fucking fabulous? BECAUSE IT'S TRUE.

This stuff... Oh my God, this stuff is the answer. The ends of my hair now feel like the roots of my hair. WHAT. Yeah. You read that right.

Now, Organix recommends you coat your dry hair root to tip with this stuff, cover it with a plastic cap and then with a hot wet towel. I have a toddler so I read that and after I cried over not having the goddamn time to mince around the house with a plastic bag and hot wet towel wrapped around my head.

So I said screw it, and just applied it to my shampooed, wet but wrung out hair in the shower one evening. It was AMAHZING. I now do it every time I shampoo my hair which may or may not be every other day. It doesn't weigh it down and quite frankly I try not to wash it out completely. Then I apply an Aveda leave in conditioner and if I blow dry my hair I use my Brocato serum. I was doing all that before but this argan oil has made the absolute difference.

They don't know me and this is not an ad or anything, I just LOVE this shit.

Grade: A++, would drive through the Mayan Apocalypse just to buy another jar.

A Winter Road.

We recently spent a riotous weekend up on Mt. Lemmon in a cute cabin right outside of Summerhaven. We got through the sheriff blockade by the skins of our teeth, too, and Dave and Gneiss almost didn't get up later that Friday evening. After 10 minutes of waiting for us to check our stupid cell phones to verify that they were coming to stay for the weekend in the rental, finally the sheriff just rolled his eyes and said "Just go."

It stormed like crazy all of Saturday but Sunday was a glorious sun-soaked winter wonderland. The roads were perfectly cleared but at one point we drove through a cloud (I was slightly hungover and just kept saying "We're in a cloud, Todd. We're in a cloud"), and suddenly the landscape took on a spooky, haunting quality.

Dude, bro, we're in a cloud.

I loved the streams of melting snow running down the windshield.

The sun is trying to burn through.  Some streams of melted snow may or may not look like sperm attempting to reach the egg. I hope I didn't ruin it for you.

A cloud, man.

Love!

She loves me again, you guys! Yesterday I came home for lunch and I was greeted with "MOMMY. Happy birthday, mama!" and I died. Then I found this picture from Sunday night when we ordered Chinese food. 

She loves putting that bucket on her head. I love it too. And remember when I posted about Christmas, and how Todd taught her how to gnaw on a pork chop? That skill apparently has transferred to BBQ ribs. She ate them all. Let's just go ahead and say our little carnivore loves to chomp ("I'm chomping, mama! I'm chomping, dada!").

Soup, but then Alex slapped me.

Yeah, man! That title totally sums up my thoughts this morning when I wondered if I should blog about the amazing soup I made for dinner last night, but then as I leaned over the crib to kiss my daughter goodbye before work, she slapped her little hand against my face, pushing me away from her because she wanted her daddy to open the door and get her out.

Happy birthday mom! You're a bitch and I hate you!

You know, I thought I'd have to wait until at least 13 before getting 100% rejection from my kid. I guess that's my birthday lesson today! Happy birthday mom! You're a fucking idiot for thinking that!

Oh well. At least the soup was good.

Christmas Happened.

I've been chomping at the bit to get our house in the Christmas spirit and yesterday it finally happened. Our plan was to get a tree, FINALLY (she says only ten days into December). Todd's folks dropped in to join us so first, we needed to load up on a delicious breakfast. Can I just say, pork chops and eggs are God's gift? Because damn they are so good. Even Alexandra got in on the fun when dada taught her how to gnaw on a pork chop bone.

Get it girl! You are so your mama's daughter! She really went to town on her food. She ate all of Todd's eggs plus one of the ones we got for her, two strips of bacon, one of Todd's sausages, and half a piece of toast. Oh, then she started clamoring for grandma's pork chop, and then Todd's, and then he was like, dude, just take this, and boom, that photo happened.

Anyways, we went to Home Depot and I am officially a fan of noble firs. Noble fir. That looks like the name of a font or something. But I digress. Noble firs! So beautiful, so regal, and not itchy and stabby like a douglas fir! Amazing. We found a super wet and springy tree that was so heavy and full of water that I could hardly pull it into an upright position, and took it home where we decorated the hell out of it while Alexandra pulled down the cookie ornaments and ate them.

BOOM goes the dynamite! Look at that thing! It's massive and gorgeous, just like me. I had gotten a box of 50 ornaments from Target, plus another little kit with smaller ornaments, and I am glad I did because this tree is so big, we wouldn't have had enough to go around (literally). Oh, and please direct your attention to that utterly badass and beautiful tree skirt THAT I MADE BY MYSELF.

You see how blurry that picture is? It's because I was trembling with excitement over finally getting to display the fruits of my labor from over two months ago. I literally jumped up and down up and down when we brought the tree inside because I was so goddamn excited about that tree skirt.

All that decorating took it out of us, so when the pizzas came, I made some pretty delicious, and pretty pretty, Christmas gimlets.

WHAT

THE

HELL

Yeah, that right there is a masterpiece, a holiday explosion of deliciousness and visual perfection. Ignore the shapeless twist, OKAY? I WAS EXCITED. AND HUNGRY. Focus instead on the jolly red sugar rim, the evergreen glow of the vodka concoction, and the base of red which miraculously didn't muddle up the green but instead settled beautifully on the bottom, like a cat in front of a fire. By the way, Bingley slept with us all last night and NEVER CATERWAULED. Mind blown? Yes. Yes it is.