Royal we

Ever wondered what exactly Bonnie and Queen Elizabeth have in common? Besides that annoyingcharming tendency to refer to themselves in the third person, I mean. Get this--they are both going to the Kentucky Freakin' Derby this May!!!!

Can you believe that? Fred emailed me a few weeks ago and said that one of his friends at work has access to box-seat tickets and would we be interested in going. I immediately emailed back: "Does Osama Bin Laden poop in a cave?" I didn't want to blog about it though until I was 100% certain it was a done deal, because it would just be too demoralizing to have to say, "Never mind. No Derby." But it's a sure thing now!

Next order of business: I need to buy a really cool hat. Gosh, I hope the queen and I don't show up wearing the same hat. Or the same dress, for that matter.

My ongoing quest for total photo organization

I've been going through all of our professional portraits we've had made over the years (Christmas photos, school pictures, etc.) and trying to put them into order. First I went through and made sure that I had at least an 8X10 or 5X7 for each shot, and then I got rid of all the extra wallet sizes. Then I scanned each picture, and now I'm in the process of renaming the files according to date and who is in each picture. I'm trying not to get bogged down at this point with tweaking the images, as the whole point is simply to create an archive that I can use down the road if I should ever have to--heaven forbid!--replace all my pictures.

It has been a lot of fun though going through and seeing how much we have changed over the years. This picture in particular though really cracked me up:



Maybe it just didn't seem quite so white trash 13 years ago in a Walmart in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Mamas, make sure your babies grow up before they become cowboys. Or at least before they handle firearms.

New look for a good cause

Annabelle has been longing to update her look for a while now, but cutting off all that hair can be kind of scary. Hoping it would be easier to feel good about later in the unfortunate event that she hated her new 'do, she chose to donate her hair to Locks of Love. Locks of Love provides hairpieces for children who have lost their own hair for a variety of medical reasons.

Since today was a school holiday, Annabelle and I headed up to Louisville for a girls' day out. We hit all the hot spots--Starbucks, Macy's (huuuuuuge sale), Whole Foods--and then had lunch at our favorite Indian restaurants. Her hair appointment was at 2, and by 1:30, she was feeling more than a little nervous.

When we got to the salon, we took one last photo of her long hair:



Our stylist, Katie, measured 11-inch ponytails on each side of Annabelle's head, braided them, and cut them off:



Annabelle is thrilled with her new look and says she can't believe how much lighter her head feels without all that extra hair:

Always after me Lucky Charms

The kids at Fort Knox High are allowed to break dress code today IF they come dressed to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Meet the world's biggest leprechaun:

A busy weekend and a busier week

Last weekend found the Taylors in 3 different states: Fred and I went to Georgia for Mercer's law school weekend; Annabelle went to the Great Smokey Mountains Institute at Tremont with a group from her school; and Mike stayed home in Kentucky to watch the dog and pretend to be an orphan. Reports were decidedly mixed:

Fred and I had a great time in Georgia! We got to see some old friends, and we ate waaaaay too much. We even got to go see a non-Harry Potter movie, which was lots of fun. It was also terrific to see the flowers blooming and know that spring is slowly inching its way towards us.

I think that the further Annabelle gets from the Tremont trip, the happier she will be that she went in the first place. When we picked her up Sunday night though, she declared that the bus ride was the best part, due largely to the infestation of ladybugs in the girls' dorm room.

Mike was glad we allowed him to stay home in peace to work on his salt-dough map for History (and am I ever glad to have missed that!). He did, however, declare the dog to be "high maintenance."

School is kicking my rear end this week. Things seem to be heating up for the second half of the semester. So mostly I am tunneling into my burrow and working on my class assignments and thus have nothing brilliant or exciting to share with you.

I do, however, wish you a Happy Pi Day and hope like mad that we won't be celebrating as we did last year.

All the pretty little ponies

Saturday night was the annual Gold Rush extravaganza here at Ft. Knox. I wore the pioneer dress my mom made back in the early 1980s, and every time somebody raved about my dress, I simply smiled and said, "It's vintage!"



Once again, I was in charge of the Run for the Gold horse race. I didn't decorate a horse this year, but people are still talking about the "Trojan Horse" I made last year.

I had 12 very dedicated volunteers, and all the horses came out great. Here is a picture that I snapped of a few of them during set up before the event:



This horse, "Derby Does It," was my personal favorite:



Last year we averaged $100 per horse, and this year I had my fingers crossed that we would do at least that well. Instead, our average this year was nearly $200! This really puts the pressure on for next year, but I'm already thinking of some ideas for the next Run for the Gold.