Sunday Night in Los Angeles

Who were the two cutest girls in all of Los Angeles on Sunday night?

These gals.

CEE LO AT THE GRAMMYS!!

Jill took this picture of Cee Lo as he walked right past our seats.
He was very happy and smiley and shook people's hands and stuff.

Another Jill-taken Cee Lo picture.


This was during Cee Lo's performance with Gwyneth Paltrow and The Muppets!

Happy Birthday Rich!

Today is my brother Rich's birthday.

Here's a story about Rich - he used to dress pretty square, but the older he's gotten, the cooler his clothes have gotten. In this picture, he's wearing a braided leather belt. Remember those? He wore it forever, and when it finally broke he was kind of heartbroken. I've had this picture on my fridge for years, and whenever he's in my kitchen he tenderly touches the image of his dear departed belt and bemoans the loss.

Happy Birthday Rich! See you in a week!

Speaking of this picture, I was supposed to go over to my mom and dad's house today to scan in a bunch of old family photos, so the picture for this post was supposed to be of Rich and me as kids, but no, it had to snow AGAIN. I tried three different ways but couldn't ever get out of the neighborhood because I kept getting stuck. Guess I'll just have to sit around here all day and watch more Friday Night Lights episodes. To paraphrase Coach Taylor, that is not my burden, that is my gift.

Happy Birthday Ben!

Dear Ben,

Hey buzz! This post (and let's face it - this blog in general) is for you! This last picture cracks me up. I have some more (better) ones to scan in as part of the great Scanning Old Family Photos project, will try to do that tomorrow.

Hope you have a great birthday. See you next weekend! Love you pal.

Love,

Sister

Labyrinth

Me: Let's watch a movie. How about Labyrinth?

Jonny: You can't make me watch that black magic-filled scarefest!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday. This is one of my favorite pictures of the two of us, taken on Father's Day last year. Please note that I'm looking at the camera but he is unable to tear his eyes away from the card he's holding.

My brother Rich, who wasn't even there that day, had mailed my dad this A League of Their Own audio card with Tom Hanks saying "There's no crying in baseball!" My dad loved that thing, couldn't get enough of looking at it and listening to it repeatedly all day long. He's a cute little guy.

Happy Birthday Dad! I love you.

Old Trusty

Jonny wants you to know that before he gave me the fancy and futuristic iCraig alarm clock for Christmas, I had been using the same alarm clock since high school. He says he's doing his part to bring me into the 21st century.


I miss the old alarm clock so much. You get attached to something that you sleep a foot away from for two decades in a row. It was old and old-looking and dusty and certain parts of it (the radio) didn't work anymore, but the alarm clock function worked like a champ. It unfailingly woke me up each and every time I asked it to for the past twenty years. I depended on it for a long time and it never let me down.


I hit that snooze button an estimated 35,000 times over the years.

Sadly, now that I have retired the Realistic Chronomatic 244, it sits on the closet shelf alongside my old doll Timmy. I don't think I've ever quoted Madonna before, but "this used to be my playground" just ran through my head.

But it's The Mack!

Jonny just got me this alarm clock for Christmas.

First of all, how hilarious is the brand name iCraig?

Secondly, everytime I look at it and see the word "iCRAIG" I think of Felisha the crackhead in the movie Friday saying "Craig . . . Craaaaaig . . . Let me borrow your VCR right quick."

Skipping is going to be huge in 2011

You know what the world needs more of? Skipping.

Skipping is a fun, carefree, happy-go-lucky kind of activity and shouldn't be just for kids. I'm going to bring it back. Skip with me!

I vividly remember the day my mom taught me how to skip. We were in the process of moving to a new house and I was in her hair while she was trying to get some packing done. She stopped what she was doing, gave me a quick lesson, and then I skipped myself into a frenzy the rest of the afternoon as she packed without interruption.

Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I could skip like the wind blows. (not really) From that day on, if I was going somewhere, I WAS SKIPPING! (also not really) People would watch me skip by and say "That girl sure is a skipping fool!" (nope)

If the whole dummies thing comes to fruition, I'll be so thrilled I'll be skipping all over town.

The Turdlet That Saved Christmas

A couple of nights before Christmas, my sister-in-law Jill came out of the bathroom demanding to know which one of my brothers had left some poo on the toilet seat.

In true Lamb fashion, everyone hurried in there to check it out. I knew I was the last person to use that bathroom, so I owned up to it immediately. Somehow it was a gross, disgusting find when Jill thought one of the boys had done it, but it became hysterical when we realized that I was the culprit.

We all had a good hearty laugh. I like to think that little turdlet brought our family closer together, just in time for Christmas.



I hope you won't judge me for being an occasionally haphazard wiper.

Happy Birthday Jonny!

Happy Birthday to my favorite youngest brother! Jonny is the baby of our family and sometimes I'm so protective of him it's as if he were my baby.

A few years ago some poor sap made the mistake of mouthing off to Jonny in my presence, causing my "Mama Bear" persona to surface. I immediately intervened and got in the offender's face.

I'm a nice girl, but if you are mean or even think about being mean to one of my brothers, I will step to you and you'd better be ready to throw down because I don't kid around when it comes to protecting the ones I love.

Welcome to Christmas Town

My mom does Christmas in a huge way.

Some of it is kind of creepy.

Some of it is cute.



All of it is Christmasy.

More Christmas Decorations

The kitchen needed a little Christmas cheer, and some construction paper, a few magnets, and these holiday photos of my little brothers and their friend Ryan from a few years ago did the trick.

Seriously, look at how ridiculous these guys are!

Friday Favorite

One of my all-time tried-and-true favorite songs is Never Going Back Again by Fleetwood Mac.

You know how you have some songs that you can listen to after a bad day at work or after any kind of less than ideal situation and they will calm you right down? This is one of mine.

Not only does it always manage to calm me down and somehow right the world, but it also makes me smile when I think of how my brother Jonny likes to sings one of the lines completely wrong. His explanation is that the lyrics to this song can be sang different ways by different people, but "been down to wonton, been down to Tuscon" will never be right, no matter what. It doesn't even make any sense! How does one go down to wonton?

Brotherly Love

Last night as Jonny was following me up the steps to our house, he said "Lar, I don't tell you this often enough, but . . ." and I smiled to myself, wondering what he would say next. I was thinking maybe "I'm glad you're my sister" or "I love you", something thoughtful and loving like that.

Just as I was basking in the warm glow of anticipated brotherly love, he finished his sentence: " . . . sweet tat."

He wasn't being thoughtful at all, he just had a good view of the terrible tattoo on the small of my back and decided to make fun of it for the millionth time.

Ah, brotherly love!

The Pickle Song

The summer I turned five my family went to Estes Park, Colorado for vacation. All six of us (my youngest brother Jonny wasn't born yet, and Ben was a baby so he stayed at home with my grandparents) packed into our station wagon for the cross-country trip. During that drive, I made up a song that I enjoyed the sound of so much that I sang it the entire way there. The only lyric was simple yet satisfying: "Pickles, pickles, I like pickles."

My brothers yelled at me to stop singing, they begged my mom to make me stop singing, but I just had to sing! I didn't like pickles when I was little, still don't like them, but that song was just so hypnotically catchy!

That vacation was great. My parents bought us all down coats. My brothers' coats were brown, mine was green.

We all got these little furry animal hides (rabbit?), and I got this Madame Alexander Little Huggums doll that I picked out myself and promptly named Timmy. Timmy and I were tight for a long time; I slept with him until sophomore year in college. It's creepy to have a doll on your bed as an adult, so now he lives on a shelf in my closet.


He's old and threadbare now, but this is what he would have looked like back in 1978:


I might buy a new Timmy on ebay as a Christmas present to myself, not because I would ever want to replace Timmy himself, but because he deserves a new outfit. As a Christmas present to my parents and my older brothers, I'd like to book some studio time so I can officially record my number one hit, Pickles, Pickles, I Like Pickles.

Fun with Leaves

The Room Switcheroo

Jonny and I decided to switch our living room and office. Now we have a really big living room/office and a cozy family room. I haven't even started to redecorate yet, but I'm excited to get to it! It feels like we have a whole new house!

This is what our living room used to look like.

This is what it looks like now.

This is what our office used to look like.

This is what it looks like now.