fall is here

{click the play button on my OSU festive bird}:

Oregon State Fight...

it's that time again people...college football's in full swing. watched my osu beavs dominate the first quarter of their game yesterday and then everything just fell apart. :( they were leading ucla at the half 14-6 and then it was all ucla. ended in a brutal way: 40-14. ouch. i was especially cringing during the 4th quarter. mike riley's got some work to do. offense never could get it rollin'...it was awesome to see the *very* orange student section. brought back memories of when i was in the stands with my friends, 1/2 drunk and cheering my ass off in that notorious oregon rain.

hopefully they'll win their next game...looking forward to watching civil war on espn on dec 1st!

oh, and before i forget yet again...was meaning to post this summer that the OSU baseball team won the college world series again this year!!! oregon state became the first team since LSU in 1997 to repeat as college world series champs. the back-2-back champs even got to visit "w" @ the white house!

taylor-ism

last night's conversation after her bath as we were getting dressed:

me: tay, go get your panties & jammies on.
tay: ok mama. {runs into her room}
after putting her towel up and picking her clothes up in the bathroom i walk into her room. i see that she is still naked, distracted from the task at hand by her disney friends on her bed.
me: tay, put your clothes on.
she chooses her new hello kitty panties and says: these are the panties i put on my care bear's head.
me: yes, i know. that was funny! which jammies are you wearing tonight?
tay: i haven't basided yet.
me: what?
tay: i haven't BASIDED yet.
me: {grinning as i realized what she said} oh, you haven't decided yet?!
tay: yeah, mama.
she pulls out her jammie drawer and "basides" on her rock princess pjs.

:)

rite of passage

jonathan and i took taylor to club libby lu last weekend to get her ears pierced. for weeks there had been several conversations between tay and me about this momentous event in a little girl's life. she was so excited about it! she talked about getting fancy earrings, pretty aurora ones. i had to tell her that the first earrings would be plain ones (or so i thought, wait till you read what happened with that) so that her ears could get used to having earrings in them and that we'd have to wait until later to get fancy earrings. so we get there and the girl instructs us to pick the earrings for tay to get pierced with. when low and behold taylor proves she's her mommy's daughter. she picks the most expensive one in the case-$34! can't really blame her because they were very cute. she chose flower ones with birthstones in them (naturally we chose june's). then it's time to have them done! tay gets up in the fancy chair and is so excited. the girl marks where the holes will go. tay's still so excited. then, as my pal lesli advised, i requested that both ears be done at the same time to minimize trauma. the girl calls another person over and they count to 3 and pierce her ears. the 2nd girl encounters problems with the trigger and her's goes in a beat after the first girl's. tay was stunned after the first and then upset after the 2nd. she realized that they hurt and started to cry. after i about shoved the 2nd girl out of the way to get to my baby girl, tay reaches for me and i comfort her in my mama encompassing hug. although she only cries for a few minutes, i am wiping away some pretty big tears. the 1st girl was wonderful. she immediately tries to distract tay from the pain and excitedly asks her if she's seen her earrings and to look in the mirror. tay recovers and looks in the mirror. a smile sweeps over her face. mama breathes a sigh of relief and we are happy again. and have been ever since. on monday when i picked her up from school the first thing tay told me was, "mama, {she sweeps her hair back from her ears} everyone *loved* my earrings." LOL.

*currently rockin' out to: tomorrow people-ziggy marley & the melody makers

just being silly

what is it with my daughter and her fetish with putting bottoms on her head?! :)

*currently rockin' out to: cry-mandy moore

sleeping beauty connection

so if you know tay, you know she's totally obsessed with princess aurora from the disney classic sleeping beauty. she'll watch it several times in a row if you let her, she's that passionate about aurora. so imagine my delight when i come across this picture on the internet that now gives me a certain connection with one of my daughter's favorite things:

yes folks, that's david beckham as prince phillip in the scene where he slays malificent transformed as the dragon. in january, famed photographer annie liebovitz did this photo shoot to promo the campaign disney started, "year of a million dreams". (which was the theme when we visited disney world back in march-taylor emphatically chanted "dreams come true!!!" with the characters at the end of their show)

scarlett johansen and beyonce' knowles were also involved in the campaign. i really loved scarlett's picture...how she looked, the dress and just the way it flowed. anyways, you know i jumped all over sharing this picture with taylor! it was so funny...after i told tay about david's picture she looks a little confused and goes, "but where's princess aurora?" i replied, "you know where she is. where is princess aurora when prince phillip is fighting the dragon?" she points to the castle on the edge of the picture and says, "oh, she's sleeping in the castle. and then he goes to the castle to see her after he fights the dragon." i tell her, "yeah, that's right! isn't that so cool that david beckham is pretending to be prince phillip?" she giggles and agrees, "yeah, mama!"

*currently rockin' out to: hash pipe-weezer

this year's bulletin board

in honor of the movie tay and i just *loved* this summer:

yup, i put away my surf shack roof this year to do something different. still was able to get out my homemade surfboards though...what do you think of the characters? i made them myself. have to say i was pretty pleased at how they came out. i hadn't ever painted like that before (dry brush technique), but kinda figured it out as i went. heard/saw kids get excited when they saw it the first day of school!

*currently rockin' out to: i will survive-cake

hula, texas style

the halau was having this concert to raise money to go to a competition in california. they were pretty good, it was so good to be around hula. live hula and live hawaiian music. i think these guys actually went to merrie monarch.

there was one thing that i noticed that kinda stuck out though. now before i say what bothered me, i know we're not in hawaii and that resources are very limited here and it is very difficult to get the materials and vegetation to adorn the dancers. so that said, i have to admit that i have never seen some of the head adornments this halau used in their performance. i don't profess to be a hula expert, but if you look at the 4th picture (woman surrounded by men), the feathers and tulle (mesh material) on the woman's head was a surprise to me. now i'm not gonna start picking apart these guys' costumes...i was *so* impressed by their passion for the culture of a place they are obviously not living in. we only stayed for the kahiko portion of their concert (tay was getting antsy) and the halau did a really great job of educating the audience about the legend of how the islands were formed, how the art of hula was spread throughout the islands and other stories (war in kawaihae was one of them). i was so happy that taylor had the opportunity to experience this, especially since we live so far away from hawaii!

*currently rockin' out to: telling you now-jessy moss

back from the dead

you know what i noticed i was missing from my posts...my "currently rockin' out to ____" closures. i know you guys probably could give a rip about what i'm listening to as i type away, but i love my music and it's just fun to jot down the song playing at the moment (ooh, i just sounded like david beckham there, with my "at the moment"...tee, hee. ah, i digress...).

i guess you guys can learn a lot about me when you note the song. yes, if you go back to look at the songs that's been posted, you'll find quite the range. :) you know what song's playing now? big me by foo fighters. it's an oldie but goodie. the music video for this song was a take off of the mentos commercials. it always used to crack me up. and, just as quickly as alternative music is on, local boy jack johnson's now singing his curious george song, upside down. so...now that i'm done babbling about my music, y'all ready for the storm of posts i'm about to rain on you?!?! :) (it's a quiet "jonelle day". {smiles} just me and the doggies, chillin.) i told you i'd share pictures from the hula concert and there's been a few things i've been itching to post.